sime42
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Everything posted by sime42
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[emoji23][emoji23] [emoji23] Not really, when you consider what the global priorities are right now.
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Man announces he will quit drinking by 2050
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On the theme of bottom up, small scale personal changes. There's been an awful lot of noise recently about everyone having to phase out gas boilers and move to cleaner alternatives. Fair enough. However, I wish people would be encouraged to turn down the thermostat on their CH a degree or two, in the first instance. I don't know why it's not talked about more, it's hardly ever suggested. If it is it's often turned into a joke about wearing an extra wooly jumper or something. You often see people come out of their house in only shorts and t-shirts, even in the depths of winter. That doesn't seem right to me. Wearing more cloths in winter is not really a hardship.
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I think this is the crux of the matter; Consumption. And worse still Over Consumption. Amazon, and similar outfits, are major facilitators and encouragers of this.
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I don't think it makes much difference, flowering or fruiting type cherry trees. They're very similar really just a question of taste! All Prunus are susceptible apparently. It would be interesting to get an idea of the actual risk. I've no idea how likely or not it is that you would get silver leaf if you pruned at the wrong time. Surely if there were no other infected trees nearby then it should be ok. Unless the fungus has other host plant species. You're meant to disinfect all tools before you start as well to prevent cross contamination .........
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According to what I've read and heard the fungal spores that cause silver leaf spread in damp, humid air. Hence why it's not good to do it over winter. Better done between May and September, preferably during a hot dry spell. I get what you mean about the extended summer but in this instance it might actually be the worst time to do it! Damp and unseasonably warm. I'd leave it until next year.
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Done! I made about 8 jars of chutney a month or so ago. Had a few outdoor plants and it got to the stage where there was a rook of green tomatoes going bad or attacked by slugs before they went red. It's great with cheese in a sandwich. I made a load of marrow pickle last week as well. Using a couple of monster courgettes from a glut in the summer.
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Yep, does seem very late for tomatoes. We've still got some slowly ripening. They're sweet and taste good but the skins are very tough, too tough really.
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I think it might all be a case of swings and roundabouts. Things like poplar, willow, Leylandi etc all burn rapidly so could be construed as not good firewood, but on the plus side they all grow rapidly and dry rapidly. All that said I'd rather have a nice solid stack of oak or ash, but beggars can't be choosers! Since I don't have to grow it, and have time and space to season it as required. It's a bit of an arse to have to keep reloading the fire with quick burning stuff, but that's mainly what I've been cutting down these last couple of years.
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Beauties. Are they as sweet as they look?
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Nah, too tasty! Golden Delicious must be my least favourite apple, so little flavour.
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Cheers gents. Some good suggestions here. I'm still favouring the first one, the Pitmaston Pineapple, as the strongest contender. All others are not the right size, colour or shape. (I agree Stere; I'm looking at a roundish conical verging on oblong). I think the Mrs has already pre-ordered a PP for early next year anyway, so that's the decision pretty much made! This little IDing exercise has piqued my interest in heritage apple varieties. I'll try to make it along to an Apple Day somewhere next year.
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Another great name! There really are some fantastic names amoungst old apple varieties. It doesn't look like what I'm after though, a bit too big and there was no red in mine. Thanks anyway.
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Nice, thanks. Good suggestion, that's a strong contender certainly. Visually it seems spot on. Taste wise though not such a good match; we didn't detect any hints of pineapple. Though these things are obviously subjective and also some descriptions of PP say the pineapple flavour is a fallacy anyway. I salute your Googling prowess!
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Are any of you out there knowledgeable on obscure or old apple varieties? We scrumpted some at the weekend that turned out to be absolutely delicious. I want to grow my own so hoping to procure a tree or some scions to graft with. Only problem being that I've no idea of the name I'm looking for!They've got a very definite vanilla flavour, strange but nice. They're small and yellow so quite unusual. I've looked through a couple of apple databases but not found it yet. Any ideas please? Or recommendations for websites to check? Thanks. Simon
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With a decent strong handle so you can chuck it up on your shoulder..
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Not work but some nice colours .............
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Yep, some beautiful autumn colours around at the moment. We went to visit a lovely garden and arboretum yesterday: some of the acers were stunning.
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Short of weedkillering or physically digging it out I'm not sure how you could kill off a laurel hedge. It'll always come back no matter how hard it's cut. Any gaps left after trimming will rapidly refill, in months normally. Though the only caveat is light. If the area is in deep shade it may not refill properly.
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Good point, I forgot that vital detail. It's 4 inch diameter. I also found a cherry stone and an acorn by the nest so that suggests a blackbird.
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It'll be that or insects in the not too distant future I reckon.
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Anyone have any idea who this belonged to? I found it on top of one of our wood piles, just under the corrugated plastic roof. It's beautifully constructed. I guess robin or blackbird.
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Interesting little job yesterday; a small tree but severely restricted access. Not just one but two greenhouses right up against the trunk! On two sides. The closest was less than four inches away so couldn't even fit the bar in there for the back cut. I've been trimming/maintaining the tree for the guy for years so I'm glad to finally put it out of its misery and get shot of it.
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Biometric scaling- elaborate?
sime42 replied to Tony Croft aka hamadryad's topic in Training & education
I'll second the request for an idiot's guide please! Fractals are pretty fascinating in themselves so I'd be interested to hear about them in the context of tree biology and structure. I was thinking only yesterday that the patterns on cyclamen leaves are reminiscent of the Mandelbrot Set. -
Cheers Steve. I'll have to make sure I'm wearing my reading glasses when I have a go!
