Thread 7 - TalkLair: “In fact it’s an oblate spheroid”

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of previous threads (thread 6).
The new lair of JTT escapees is all cosy and homey; we have truly settled here. Outside, the garden is blooming with spring flowers. Inside, the hearth is glowing, pictures are up on the walls, rugs are down on the floors (and assorted pets curled up on them).

We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

So it's not from a Saturday night punch up?

Before bees swarm they gorge on honey so they're too full to sting as they can't bend their bodies to do so. Unless they've been caught out in the open in a storm for two days and are now very cross, as Mr T once discovered.

Wow, that infection sounds really uncomfortable, I hope you feel much better soon.

Sounds like a horrible infection @MouseMinge, I hope the antibiotics kick in soon.

Morning scallywags. Hope everyone's infections go away in good time and the bees are ok!

It has been incred weather in the NW this week. I can't resist posting a pic of my postage stamp garden, because of the roses beginning to glow.

What a lovely garden, angelico, a little haven.

That’s a lovely garden. And so tidy! It really puts mine to shame! Careful cropping is required to hide the unruliness of mine. I do love roses though so here’s one in a pot next to the bench.

I don't do neat. But the bees and hoverflies are happy, and we've got speckled wood butterflies dancing around. In the autumn it will be full of goldfinches eating the seeds.

Thanks! I go a bit mad with roses. When I was a lad a planted a rose garden in a tiny bit of land by our shed for my mum. I can still remember that I planted Queen Elizabeth, Masquerade and Peace, but not the others.

So when we moved to this tiny new build house with a tiny garden, I just filled it with mostly English Roses from David Austin, a few HTs. The pink one is Gertude Jekyll and it fills the garden with old world rose fragrance.

Lovely roses, lovely June!

These are around our gate, on/in a stone wall, they were here when we moved here 24 years ago and I’ve no idea what they live on, we’ve never fed or watered them. I used to hate the Barbie-pink colour but either they’ve mellowed or I have. They aren’t fragrant, unfortunately, but have been known to flower at Christmas!

Lovely photos, bint and art,

No, I don't usually do neat - our last garden had to space to be wild, with some big trees I planted 30 years ago that were very, very hard to leave behind.

I had to be neat here and have a dog-friendly lawn. There's a wee patio round to the left with a chiminea etc which is wonderful in the evening as the sun goes down. The house is on the cardinal points, east-facing entrance. I dunno if that's good (I know some old hippies etc say so) but it's sort of pleasant to know where north is etc all the time.

We can see an old church a mile east, Liverpool skyline west, welsh mountains south and cumbrian mountains north - on a clear day!

I’ve planted hundreds of alliums over the years and this is the only one that’s survived, in amongst a nice blue sea holly that’s almost ready to flower. Saw the combination at Carol Klein’s garden when it was open to the public some years ago, but neither plant much likes our heavy clay soil.

Incredibly detailed engineering on alliums, I always feel. Nice, mave.

I'm surprised the alliums haven't seeded, Mavis. Where I work, they were planted in one area and, ten years later, are now everywhere.

Lovely roses! This is rose 'Albertine' and Philadelphus 'Belle Etoile' outside the bedroom window. The scent is divine. The rose came from a cutting I took about eight years ago. The tree in the background is a giant magnolia and the one that attracts bee swarms.

Lovely gardens.

I forgot about a small - 6” - yellow-flowered allium that does like where we put them, not in flower yet but a good doer and a long-flowerer.

The yellow alliums here are spreading everywhere. They’re keeping the bees busy at the moment but the campanula is starting to flower and that will be buzzing from morning to night once it really gets going.

We had an Albertine rose in the garden of the house we lived in when I was little and it was gorgeous!

My top choice at the moment is Desdemona because it seems very happy in pots which raises it up to a level that my mum stands a chance of seeing and the whiteness of the flowers makes them a bit more visible. Even so, she can’t see much unfortunately.

Both our front and back gardens have to be moderately tidy, because they are so small. So I can't spare a patch of lawn to go unmoved, for example. But our front garden is quite "wild" and cottagey in the beds. This is our favourite rose, such a strong pink and the most divine almost "spicy" fragrance.

Coming home from work to an empty house is so very hard right now. I open the front door with that little twinge of anticipation at spending a bit of quality Phoebe-and-me-time, and then realise she's gone and it's like being punched in the heart.

Oh Kuc, I'm so, so sorry. That bit is horrible. My mum still gets terrible stabs of missing her last dog, who died 15 months ago, whenever she has toast and marmite, or breadsticks, or bacon, or any of his other favourites. As he was a labrador, there were an awful lot of favourites...

When Cupboard Kitty died, because the larder where she lived was right next to the bathroom, it took MONTHS before I stopped missing her chatty prrrrrrrps whenever I was on the loo.

It's so awful when a beloved little non-human dies. When Toby died I was so miserable it didn't seem possible to be that sad and still be alive, I wept buckets. Hugs, Kuc.

All of the garden photos are glorious! Thank you, lovely people. @MavisMcMinty I love alliums. The house we stayed in for the wedding weekend had loads of them all around their ridiculously gorgeous garden and it made me happy inside.

In feeble, needy news. I got a call today to see my consultant tomorrow about my CT scan results and as it's so soon after the scan (which was on Saturday) I'm quite nervous about it. I'm usually incredibly good at not worrying until I know I have something to worry about but I've not managed that today. So! If you can all think about me at about 9am tomorrow I'd be very grateful. I'm going to bed with a bit of chicklit in a minute so that I'm not overthinking everything. I've done more than enough of that already today.

Fingers crossed, Mousy. xxx

Hope it goes well tomorrow, Mouse.

If I wake up at 4am (quite possible...) I will send you good vibes Mouse.