sime42

Must have been a bad year for it this year, brown rot. We had it in apples, pears, damsons and even medlars.

Or maybe a little piece of paper carefully folded up with some white powder inside.

This has been my motto for the last few years as well; dependable, high yield, low effort fruit and veg. Plus a couple of "cash crops" like strawberries, blueberries and garlic, (though garlic is very low effort anyway). I normally can't resist one or two novelty fruit or veg as well. I grew these little pumpkins for the first time this year, "Sweet Dumpling". Small but perfectly formed! Really good to eat. We had one last night. Firmer and more creamy than a butternut squash.

Good work there. What a behemoth of a hedge! How were your shoulders feeling after that? Long reach work like that always used to bugger mine after a few days.

How do you sharpen your drill bits?

Glad to see Erbauer getting a mention. Well worth considering in my opinion. I've had various of their tools over the years, cordless and corded. They've all been great, very hardworking and long lasting. Can't fault them for the price, real value for money. The last couple of years I've decided to upgrade to Makita tools, got a couple of drill and impact drivers now. Not at all sure that I'm getting the same value for money as Erbauer though.

Those first couple on the left must have been a bit whippy, like climbing a noodle.

Ok. I think I see the point you're making, and I agree. Most of our most pressing problems stem from seeking to be the master of nature. The lion poo was from a zoo a few miles up the road, and it's not natural to keep six cats in a terrace house!

Nope, you didn't dream it. It was a thing a few years back. Didn't work in my experience though. I've got a friend who is a zoo keeper. She used to work with the lions so brought me a bag of it once. It stank, (as you'd expect), but didn't seem to put off their nasty little cousins from destroying my garden.

Nah, doesn't work, tried that. And chilli flakes. Carpet gripper along the top of the fence does work though.

You're a little unfair to Ash, if you don't mind me saying so. It is great firewood, no doubt about that, but it also has other uses. It's very good for making tool handles, due to its strength and slight flex, second only to hickory I think. As it's relatively light for its strength, and takes to steam bending well, it was extensively used in coach building and similar applications in the past.

I used to make Birch Sap wine. Following fond memories of going out into the woods with my Grandad armed with a brace and bit and a demijohn. It's nice but I feel that most of the flavour comes from the oranges and lemons that are part of the recipe. Birch sap itself has virtually no taste in my experience, just a subtle sweetness.

Distel or VT.

Astounding idea. You ought to phone old Priti right now to suggest it.

How are you going to find all the illegal immigrants? It'd be easier and make more sense to deport all the Muppets currently in government and all the lifestyle benefit leeches.

Brexit paves the way for gene-edited crops WWW.BBC.CO.UK Ministers will relax regulation of gene-edited crops to allow their commercial growing in England.

You're right;- I've just got lots of projects in WIP status.

No unfinished projects is truly something to be proud of. Similarly, I'll have a good go at most anything myself around the house and garden. I don't like to pay someone else to do anything I might be able to do. However, my list of unfinished projects is long and varied!

Expensive way to run a car though. [emoji50]

Strategic national infrastructure such as tranpsort and energy requires some goverment planning & investment, or market inducements. Why no decent facilities for truckers built into the road system if that is a problem? Is more rail freight not a viable alternative? Truckstop has being closed down by gov as they said site was needed for a custom check... https://arbtalk.co.uk/assets/set_resources_21/6554b6be8c0d829a8bf63ae0c82cf121_link.png' alt='6554b6be8c0d829a8bf63ae0c82cf121_link.png'> HMRC back in for Holyhead truck stop with workers told jobs going for a second time - Business Live WWW.BUSINESS-LIVE.CO.UK UK Government had struggled to find an alternative site while Brexit has badly impacted trade at Roadking Similar issue with lack of decent charging network for electric cars, as left to the market.... Or new builds not being made 3 phase like in other EU countries for charging cars, or regs for decently insulated new houses to future proof for energy price increases being very lax. Instead just carry on with fitting new gas boilers....& rely of market forces to fix all problems More rail freight would be a very good idea, it'd kill several birds with one stone. Probably not at all viable these days though as the infrastructure is just not there. If only £98billion could be spent on improving it ................

Doesn't look 200 years old does it? They must be very slow growing.

Hard to believe that this guy is screwing us all over the least..........

Exactly. The worrying thing is that a lot of people don't seem to see this, and actually that he acts in their interests. There must be some kind of weird mass delusion thing going on. Having a near to nonexistent opposition party obviously doesn't help matters.

Petrol driver shortage: Visa scheme planned to ease problems WWW.BBC.CO.UK The move follows reports of a number of petrol stations shutting due to a lack of tanker drivers.

That'll look the business once you've painted it black. In theory there should now be less heat going out into the room that you've got the stove in. I wonder if you'll notice the difference.