Recent content by GreyCat

Accommodation prices have gone daft all over the place. If I wasn't WFH so much these days, I would get another van and convert it and use for client work overnights as I did in the past, these days i can usually do long day trips or lodge the Sunday or Monday night when prices are a lot lower...

Had a good Easter weekend in the garden. Finally got the 3 quince trees out of their pots and into a large raised bed which is in the shelter of the new polytunnels- they are deliberately arranged in a way which both minimises them shading each other and which creates a sheltered area. Then I...

Interesting. She clearly has a back garden that is larger than many as she has managed to get a polytunnel in. I had one of those little tunnels when I had a (half-plot) allotment. Couldn't have got it in the back garden of the previous place. A small greenhouse would have been OK there...

Yeah around us we have a few pheasants that have escaped the shoot over on the other hill, they happily live in the scrubby woodland edge amongst the brambles. They seem to be quite keen on the willow groves too. (It's soggy and a bit acidic around here). There's a group of a male and about 4...

I wonder though. In the "traditional" woodland *pasture* would most of the oaks/other trees not have been pollarded (with a selected few left for the bigger house beams and suchlike)? GC

I heard the first one on Tuesday this week. I don't have lilac but my quince have thewir leaves and flower buds. It does feel like it's been a cold and slow spring this year, although daffs were roughly on usual schedule, the leaves are slow coming on the trees. GC

Don't forget the other non-food items. We use the Ecover range as we have private drainage. Back in November, I took advantage of the Black Friday deals on Amazon to stock up on 5L containers of all the usual things (washing up liquid, laundry liquid, hand soap etc) at 35% to 50% off. They are...

The situation with aviation fuel seems most challenging. Uk imports most, but does refine quite a bit of petrol and diesel although not as much as it used to. Thing is, refineries are set up for a particular type of oil, so North Sea light crude is no use as feedstock for a refinery set up for...

@fleetwalker : you might want to look up "Fandabi Dozi" on You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/@FandabiDozi He has done quite a lot about the Great Kilt: GC

I am a fan of the M&S "flex fit" tencel underthings. No hard edges to dig in, comfortable, wash well and last well. GC

@TeeDee: , @Toddy : I would suspect that Son 1 knows that a feed plugged into a house in a power cut can back-feed the powerline and hence electrocute a power line worker. Clearly, the plug-in system only works when there is a meter that can somehow mitigate the risk of power feeding from the...

Yesterday I moved my 2 Morello cherries out from the overwintering greenhouse into a raised bed in one of the new polytunnels. Whilst they will grow outdoors, it's just too wet for them to be happy there. The grapevine and kiwi fruit were moved into their tunnels, made up some raised beds today...

Just as likely to have been someone high on drugs or had one too many... or even showing off to mates and losing control. A Suzuki Swift is a fairly typical "young lads" first car after all, and I suspect that any half-competent would-be terrorist would choose something a bit bigger and a higher...

@Toddy : yeah, the Numpty factor is critical. Typically, a Numpty will do themselves more damage with something like a longbow, but a more "point and press" type device is within capability. @Herman30 : you clearly missed the bit about being designed purely to cause harm :p . A crossbow is...

Update on The Polytunnel Saga..... Well, I received the 2 tunnels (each 6 metres by 3 metres) OK, and stacked the parts undercover. Read the instructions, watched the videos, checked the parts all there. Then I began..... (1) No way on this planet could I get the ground anchors in. Too many...