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Post by Cat on Dec 29, 2017 13:41:13 GMT
Happy New Year to you and your family Derek, from myself, Che and our family
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Post by derekbrooks on Dec 29, 2017 17:24:10 GMT
Thanks. Cat .We arrived here about 2.30 . It was snowing at home so we didn't know if we should wait till this afternoon before we set off but we chanced it . Martyn, our son, came here yesterday and is staying in a B and B next door. He is going home tomorrow but we are all going out for a meal at 6.00 in the restaurant where Alex, our eldest grandson works as a chef.
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Post by derekbrooks on Jan 2, 2018 20:11:03 GMT
We arrived home from Wales this evening about 6.30.so it's back to "normal" tomorrow. We had an hour or so on the way home at the R.S.P.B. reserve near Conway.
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Post by derekbrooks on Jan 2, 2018 20:15:35 GMT
A little Egret wading in the lake at Porthmadog yesterday
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Post by derekbrooks on Jan 2, 2018 20:20:23 GMT
A notice about a wildlife garden at Conway R.S.P.B. reserve this afternoon with a robin perched on top. I'm surprised that it sat there while I took its picture.
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Post by derekbrooks on Jan 3, 2018 21:43:36 GMT
I told you last week about the trouble with the heater in my propagator. Today I ordered a new one from Two Wests and Elliott. It has a built in thermostat which the old one hadn't which should save electricity. Four shelf brackets need replacing in my larder greenhouse. I have two so I need two more. I also needed some bolts to fix them to the greenhouse bars so I went to Elite greenhouses and got some .They are special bolts made for the job. I intended getting two more brackets on the way home from the builders merchants near the hut but they were closed . So when I got home I just fixed the two up.
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Post by derekbrooks on Jan 4, 2018 19:28:07 GMT
The Art club started again at Blackleach after two weeks off so I have to stay till 3.00 now after the Health walk in the morning. I called at the builders merchants on the way home for some shelf brackets for my greenhouse, hoping to fix them up when I got home but they hadn't any big enough so I will have to try somewhere else tomorrow. It had been a horrible mostly wet and windy day.
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Post by derekbrooks on Jan 5, 2018 22:39:37 GMT
I went to another builders merchants for two more shelf brackets for my greenhouse and fixed them up when I got home . Both my greenhouses have shelves all round and the brackets which support them corrode after a time and need replacing and I have replaced 4 recently. My new heater for my propagator arrived so I fixed this up in position this afternoon.
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Post by derekbrooks on Jan 6, 2018 19:55:57 GMT
Went on the allotment this morning and finished weeding the onion bed. Didn't know if it would be too wet but it wasn't too bad. Most days at this time of year are either too wet or the ground is frozen. I also removed the dead bedding plants from the containers that I had planted last year near the cabin and put them on the compost. This afternoon we did our walk round Blackleach counting the birds . I don't need to use my propagator for a few weeks yet but I switched on my new heater for a bit and put a maximum and minimum thermometer in so that I could set the thermostat to give the temperature that I want.
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Post by derekbrooks on Jan 7, 2018 19:20:26 GMT
The ground was frozen so it wasn't any use going to the allotment .Been working in the greenhouse this afternoon. I sowed my large exhibition onions and put the box on a small propagator. Then started trimming up the dahlia tubers ready for boxing up . Just cut off all the straggly roots.
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Post by derekbrooks on Jan 8, 2018 23:11:49 GMT
I haven't had much gardening time today but I finished trimming the dahlia tubers. This evening we have been to a social evening of the choir that we are in. Several people gave their "party pieces" and I told them the story of how I won the Garden News Mastermind of Gardening in 1984 , a story which I have told twice before to other groups. I told them that I won it by answering 19 questions in 2 minutes, all correct. This is the highest score anyone has ever got in one round in the history of the competition and nobody has beaten it since. I took the mastermind trophy to show them which was a hand painted loving cup worth £1200.
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Post by derekbrooks on Jan 9, 2018 22:46:43 GMT
I have had no gardening time today . You know that I am having another book published this year about cut flowers. The publisher has sent me a provisional copy of it on email for me to check . I have printed it all out so I will be studying it chapter by chapter in the next few days when I have time then let him know what I think about it. I have already noticed 3 things in the first chapter that need correcting. There is a picture of the dahlia "Garden Friends" in the book.
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Post by derekbrooks on Jan 10, 2018 22:42:25 GMT
I spent the morning washing more pots. Had to go somewhere this afternoon but when I got home I went in the greenhouse and sorted the dahlia tubers out into varieties ready for boxing up.
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Post by derekbrooks on Jan 11, 2018 20:18:36 GMT
Not much time today after the health walk and art club at Blackleach. Just went through the dahlia tubers again making sure the labels were secure and changed some that were difficult to read and washed the boxes ready for boxing them up.
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Post by derekbrooks on Jan 12, 2018 21:12:53 GMT
A full day on the allotment. At this time of year the ground is either too wet or it is frozen but it was O.K. today. I took soil samples of all the beds , 11 samples altogether. Spent the rest of the day forking over and weeding the beds, mostly what was the potato bed last year. This evening I have put the soil samples on saucers and put them on top of a cupboard in the kitchen to dry.
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