Merry Christmas Fallon.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FALLON!

I'm going to have to stop talking about you on here now LOL!

Lots of love from Dad, Tippy, Tommy & Scampi XXX

Spare A Thought.

Hello Everyone, I hope you're all okay and looking forward to the Christmas break and we must spare a thought for those who don't get a break over Christmas, the fact that they don't get a break is a measure of their importance and this is something that needs to be recognised by all us lesser souls.

We have Jo and David coming over in a minute for Christmas Eve supper so that will be nice as we also have my parents here too so I'd better get off back and join in the fun.

Happy Christmas to you all,

Bob.

Hyacinths At The Ready.

Low Temp: -1

Shady High: 2C
Direct Sun High: 1C
Weather Today: Another bitterly cold grey day.

I managed to get a bowl of Hyacinth in flower in time for Christmas and the family coming to stay so I took them over to the big house for them yesterday ready for their arrival.

Anyway everyone else is in bed so I will be heading off that way myself now, take care and have a good weekend.
Bob.

Tough Guys.

Low Temp: 2C
Shady High: 6C
Direct Sun High: 12C
Weather Today: As you can see from above today has been much warmer than of late due mainly to teh sun putting in an appearance for the first time in a week.

Todays picture from our Scotland Holiday was taken at Dalmally, we called in here to take a look in the gift shop and church, the gift shop was open but unfortunately the church was close.

I couldn't help notice in the garden how well the Geraniums have stood up to the cold weather we've been having. I've always considered them to be tender plants but is seems that isn't so as the ones in the picture are no less that 20 feet away from a thermometer that took a reading the other day of minus 6C and these aren't the only ones to survive. I have small group that survived all last winter planted out in the border and are still going well to this day.

Stolen Purse.

Low Temp: -6C
Shady High: 3C
Direct Sun High: 3C
Weather Today: Another dull, cold day

I hope you all had a good weekend. I enjoyed my time off although we had a bit of an upset on Saturday evening when Fallon called from town to say that someone had stolen her purse so had no money for a taxi home. Unfortunately they also got her cash cards and driving licence along with a few other things. When Vicki got there some police were across the road so she went over to them to tell them but they weren't really interested telling her to go to the police station, no doubt they had more important things to do.

Today has just been another one of those tidy up days for me. I had to go to the farm for another gas cylinder so I also picked up some more hay for the sheep as I don't want to be running round for hay during my holidays. I wasn't really looking forward to going as the tractor wa playing up last time I went but after a bit of a cough and splutter it didn't go to badly. I will need to get it looked at after Christmas though as I need it to be running properly for when the grass starts growing again.

Fallen Angel.

Low Temp: -4C

Shady High: 1C

Direct Sun High: 0C

Weather: As you will see from the above its been another cold raw day and the interesting thing to note is that the direct sun registered lower than the shady high, I think that must be because the censer for the shady high is a bit more sheltered but for sure it shows there hasn’t been a glimmer of sun all day.

Jeanette asked about the deer in last nights post. As with all the pictures at the start of the posts the picture was taken during our holiday in Scotland, at the moment these were taken during our visit to Loch Tulla.

Today I’ve been doing a few odd jobs at home. Someone from the church broke an angel so I’ve been sticking the pieces back together again, I’ve not done to bad a job and feel just about ready to tackle Humpty Dumpty any time soon.

Partly repaired, the body having

just been glued to the plinth.

Almost done, just the tip of one feather to add.

I also put up a curtain rail in the bedroom as Vicki has made some new curtains to go with the new wall paper, I will take a picture when she has the curtains up.

That’s about it for today, its been a quiet day.
Bob.

Tractor Problems.

Low Temp: -3C
Shady High: 1C
Direct Sun: 2C

Weather: A bitterly cold day when it was hard to keep warm even when digging

I had hoped to get the border that I’ve been working on finished today but I didn’t quite make it, to some extent because of the cold but also this morning I had to go to the farm to get some hay for the sheep which wouldn’t have been such a bit job if the tractor had gone ok. There was some dirt in one of the fuel cans I use and its got in to the tractor, this was a while ago now but I think it must have clogged up the filters. Its about due for a service anyway so I will see if my boss will let me get them out to it.

Yesterday my sister Judith and niece Suzanne when to New York for a week, I messaged her this afternoon and it seems they had a bit of snow there yesterday.

Yesterday I had to take the Christmas trees to the church. The estate provides two trees and I get the job of taking them round and erecting the bigger of the two which was a ten footer, the smaller one was around four foot.

My mum phoned today wanting to know if we needed them to bring anything in the food line with them for Christmas. They are coming to stay with us over Christmas so that will be nice.

Also yesterday the former lady presented me with a Christmas card and six bottles of wine as a Christmas present which was very good of them.

The Answer.

Low Temp: -1C

Shady High: 4C

Sunnyshine High: 4C

Weather: A cold day, no sun to make any difference to the the cold.

Thank you all those that took a guess what Tippy was looking at, I guess I am a bit of a tease but it was a bit of fun wasn't it. I forgot to mention last night that there was a cheque for a £1000 waiting to be posted to the first person who commented with the right answer. Looks like I'm going to have a Merry Christmas now doens't it cos I get to keep it all to myself - Yippee! Anyway enough stupidity for one day, here is what Tippy was looking at - 'The Misunderstood Dog.

I was only joking about the prize money by the way.

Y'all have a great day,

Bob.

What's Tippy Spotted?

Who can guess what Tippy has spotted? Tune in tomorrow if you want to find out.

Low Temp: -3C
Shady High: 8C
Sunnyshine High: 12C
Weather: A bright sunny day after a cold frosty start to the day.

Yesterday and today I've been tidying up and forking over the shrub border that backs on to the veg garden. There were a few shrubs that needed bringing under control before I could do the forking so I got those seen to and burnt up.

We have some of Vicki's friends from Church here today, they are wall papering the bedroom for us, I think it's been a bigger job than they first thought. I must confess to having no DIY skills whatsoever which is why reinforcements are needed.

Digital Flower Pictures made a comment on yesterdays posting about scotland. I know he lives a long way of but its well worth the journey and the people are really wonderful friendly people.
Well Jeanette I only managed a shandy at the meal because I was driving my parents and Vicki home. Vicki offered to drive but I thought as she doesn't like driving in the dark also she had been at work all day I would do the driving. Thats my feeling about back stabbers too, I would rather spend my time with my family. Its a shame really as I would like to support the community but thats something which is a two way thing.

Bob.

Decorating For Christmas.

Low Temp: 3C

Shady High: 8C

Sunnyshine High: 10C

Weather: Dry and bright, turned cold at nightfall.

Good day to you all, did you have a good weekend. The little get together went well on Saturday night, in all ten members of the family turned up, it’s a pub in Bakewell that we go to often so we were assured of a good meal, also the landlord of the pub is very good and always makes you feel welcome.

On Saturday morning misunderstood Tommy and I managed to get the Christmas tree up ready for when Vicki had time to decorate it, this she did yesterday after going to church and she is still at it now. She has finished the tree and is doing other bit and bobs around the place now. I will take some more pics when she has it all finished.

Look at him! Anyone would think he did it all by himself.

Sunday, here it only has the lights on so far.

I’m going to finish now and go and give Vicki a hand to bring some of the empty boxes back in to the store room until after Christmas. By the way the Scotland picture is still from the Loch Tulla area, this one being taken from Victoria Bridge which some of you will remember from the West Highland way.

Bob.

Wishing You.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUZANNE

Today it is the birthday of my niece Suzanne. I’m not going to tell you how old she is or make a speech or anything like that. I’m just going to show you some pics of her because I think they will say more than I can in words.

Suzanne at 7 months old.

Suzanne at my sisters wedding.
Suzanne at her own wedding last year.

When Vicki gets home tonight we are going to Derbyshire to join the rest of the family for a meal which should be real good fun. I will tell you more about that tomorrow.

Bob.

Hyacinths

Low Temp: 8C
Shady High: 14C
Sunnyshine High: 16C
Weather: Mild for the time of the time of year, breezy with some showers.

My first job of the day is to check on the sheep of which there are 47, these are just across the road from the gardens so its quite a pleasant job to start off the day. I then usually take a walk around the gardens before opening up the potting shed and then checking around the greenhouses. There isn't usually much to do in the greenhouses at this time of year, not in the way of watering anyway. If there is any potting to be done I usually try and save it for a wet day or in the late afternoon when it's going dark. This morning was a bit different in that after checking on the sheep I then had to take the Christmas tree to the house and erect it in the main hall.

Kimmie asked where I grow my Chrysanthemums. They will grow outside with no problem, mine spent all some outside in pots and I then brought them in when they started to flower, mostly they went in to the conservatory but they would be just as happy to be planted out in the flower border. If you live in a particularly cold area though it would be best to lift and store any that you value then either take cuttings or replant next spring.

Tonight I'm going to show you my Hyacinths that I'm forcing on for Christmas time. I bought nine bulbs, three each of pink, white and blue. I've brought them on at fortnightly intervals so hopefully this will give a flowering period of six weeks. They have been in the cold store with the fruit since September, they start off in individual pots and then when it's time to bring them out I pot them up in to the bowls that they will go in to the house in. In this first picture you can see the stage in which they come out of the cold store.

From the cold store they are put in the cold conservatory for a couple of weeks by this time they will have come on to this stage.

Now this is the time to bring them on in some heat so from here they are moved to the heated greenhouse and this extra heat will bring them on nicely as you will see from this picture.

Y'all take care now and I will see you again tomorrow.
Bob.

Christmas Tree Info.

Low Temp: 2C
Shady High: 12C
Sunnyshine High: 12C

Weather: As you can see from the above temp readings its been a pretty dull day again today although not really cold except for first thing this morning.

Digital Flower Pictures mentioned about Christmas trees today in particular asking what sort of trees we have here in the UK. I would think that the most common one is the Norwegian Spruce although there are several others that have become popular over the past few years the 'Frazier Fir' being one of these along with 'Blue Spruce'. Whatever sort you decide to get just remember for a while at least its a live plant and should be treated as such so don't forget the water. Of course the easiest way out of all this watering and needle dropping malarkey is to buy an artificial one. Some say they are fool proof, others have said that you can't tell the difference, and from what I've seen of some people at Christmas, I think they could probably be right. Anything is fool proof and and looks much the same as anything else when the fool has drunk half a bottle of Whiskey. Anyway for those of us who tend to stick with the odd glass of Sherry or can of Fosters I have included a couple of links below to help you choose your real live for now Christmas tree.

Bob

http://www.woodsfarm.co.uk/treeinfo.asp?cat=types

http://www.woodsfarm.co.uk/treeinfo.asp?cat=selection

The Christmas Trees Have Arrived.

Low Temp: 2C
Shady High: 8C
Sunnyshine High: 12C

Weather: Some sun this morning but turned out to be a pretty miserable afternoon with some heavy showers.

Yesterday we had a very enjoyable visit from Vicki's sister Julie and her husband and daughter Phil and Nikki. Nikki is expecting a baby in January so everyone is very excited about that. They arrived a bit later than expected due to a hold up on the M1. When they arrived we headed straight out for some lunch in a pub, it was a carvery and very nice it was too. We haven't been to that place before but I think we will go again some time in the future. So we all had a good day really.
Today at work I finished off forking over the long Dahlia border that I started last Friday, I just about got it finished for lunch time and a good thing too as it was throwing it down with rain afterwards. I didn't manage to cut the old canes from the main crop Raspberries and I cut down the Herbaceous border but didn't manage to get it cleared up, I will try and get that done in the morning.
The three Christmas trees arrived this morning, one for the hall and two for the church, I have to put the one up in the hall on Wednesday morning with the help of the cleaning ladies.

All the best,
Bob.

Bob's Bloomer Of The Week (Chrysanthemum).

Hi everyone, Some of you will probably remember that before I deleted the previous version of my blog that I was trying to show the top bloomer in the gardens that particular week. I haven’t done this feature since then so I thought that this week I would start again, and so here it is my plant for this week which is the Chrysanthemum. The ones you see in the pictures have been flowering inside and out for several months. They will of course grow outside in the border and give a bit of welcome colour to the back end of the year but her ladyship doesn’t like them so I grew them in pots in the potting shed yard and then brought them in to the conservatory as they came in to flower and as you will see some are still flowering to this day, all the pics were taken last week.

For those interested in checking them out below are a few Chrysanthemum links.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysanthemum
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plants/plantprofile_chrysanthemum.shtml
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/i.payne/index.html

I don't know the names of the first two, I got this as a cutting from someones garden.

This is one of my favourites, Vicki got it as a small pot plant last year, I will be sure to take more cuttings of this one in January. I have the names to the next too but I can't rememeber them off hand but I will check tomorrow and add them later.

Bob.

The Second Planter.

Low Temp: 3C

Shady High: 9C

Sunnyshine High: 12C

Weather: Dry and breezy with some sunny spells.

Today me and misunderstood Tommy went to the garden centre to buy some plants to plant up the other container by our front door. As you will see I've gone for a more cool blue feel for this one. I quite like it although I would rather the Lonicera (back left) showed it's varigation a bit more, it does actually show up better in real life than the picture. There was probably something better at the garden centre that I could have used but you couldn't get round for all the Christmas trees. The had them all down the walk ways leaning against the staging so to see the plants you had to move the trees out of the way, it wasn't very good at all unless you were just going to buy a Christmas tree. Anwyay it's done now and I don't think it's too bad.

Here you can see the superviser inspecting my handy work, I'm not sure if he's very impressed or not do you? I guess it was okay as he didn't cock his leg up at it so thats something anyway.
Jim has been kind enough to add me to his blogroll so thanks for that Jim and thanks also to anyone else who has been so kind. I am really pleased to read that Mrs Jim is also enjoying reading what I write - it makes a huge difference knowing that people enjoy what I write, especially since I had to delete all my other stuff.

Also Matron asked about the greenhouses at work, I haven't answered you because I intend to do a posting about them this next week.

Well I'd better go now, I hope you're all having a good weekend - not many more now until Christmas!

Bob.