snowmash's cybergarden

[ThisIsANiceCage]

We filled up your thread, snowmash! So here's another one.

Neither weather nor circumstance seems to be cooperating at the moment, so I thought we could do with a virtual garden to sit out in.

shodatin has started work already:
"we don't lose anything to the frost here, and nobody thieves our daffs and precious bay trees. Most days will be sunny I think, but sometimes we have rain at night, particularly when we've done some planting..."

And I think it needs a summer house with a chiminea or the like to sit round after dark and toast our tootsies.

Hi all sorry been a bit absent - have jsut been catching up.

snowmash hun I'm not surprised you are not going home yet - you are just not ready x

Escorted trips are a step forward though so hold on to that if you can.

Hi to everyone else x

Good to see you, madmouse

I thought you wouldn't have to type it out at all, shodatin- I asked DH to check it for me (I know) & he assured me the click - onable bit was embedded in the link.

Can you tell I need to creep along to a basic computer course...one of the things I still find too daunting just yet, a room full of people who are quick on the uptake with practical things! Tomorrow I'll try again to find a decent online tutorial . Awful to be so under- educated, but I'm trying to find ways round it as there are things I've been burning to do for years.

The link recommends planting in tiers of flowering plants for maximum hummingbird delight - sounds too ambitious for our cybergarden as would push out other flowerbeds and design ideas. Maybe we could squeeze in these tiers in a corner around one of the decorative features? Create a little slope , leading up to, say, a picturesque yet subtle C 18th wall . Fuschias, impatiens, bleeding heart ( love that), columbine, salvia & larkspur are some of the recommended ones - any faves?

Having a visitor over today so will leave you in peace but good day to all & thinking of you snowmash

Hey there.

Big mug of with standby gin or whatever gets you through today, showmash. Been thinking of you since I woke.

Hi Hob, You're probably right about the link, but I think I'm even less au fait with this cyber-stuff than you are, and I had some daft idea that links were blue so did not try clicking to get there direct (please don't tell your dp about coloured links ) I can't actually do them myself...
I know hummingbirds are not native to N.Yorks, so I was expecting them to feed on tropical flowers, and my only preference would be to have their favourites close to the summer-house, so we could see them while seated, something climbing perhaps, which would miraculously survive the winter in this perfect garden.
Hope you enjoy your visitor and don't do too much.

Great to see you, madmouse. Come and have lunch among the spectacular beds hob is planning. At the moment they are just well-turned earth with little optimistic specks of green, below the gorgeous, warm brick wall. But they're going to be amazing come high summer!

I've now managed to check the info about thrushes, BTW, and I was wrong about how long they spend at ground level: apparently they tend to nest low and hop about in low bushes before they're fully fledged, but after that they're no more vulnerable than other ground feeders.
www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/s/songthrush/nesting.aspx

And here's hob's great link made clickable: birding.about.com/od/attractingbirds/a/hummingbirdflowers.htm.

(That's just
http://birding.about.com/od/attractingbirds/a/hummingbirdflowers.htm
without the spaces between brackets and link.)

Just sneaking in whilst my visitor is occupied to see if snowmash feels up to dropping in for that emergency gin TIANC has ready for her. Sorry you're not up to that yet.

Selfish thanks to TIANC AND shodatin for your loveliness and very inspiring garden ideas and making my link clickable and responding to my strop about computer skills. Very moved by your urging me not to do too much- how did you guess! So happy about chances of young thrushes making it after all - wow, thanks again
Thinking of all

Thinking about you snowmash - hope all is well after consultant's visit. Please let us know you're OK.

Sorry if it's been very distressing , snowmash. Hope you can manage some soup or something .

< spectacularly trite and unhelpful > but as shodatin says, please let us know you're OK .

That's me being unhelpful obviously, not shodatin

The trite bit is me , too... wow, the post I'm trying to correct reads completely wrong

Thinking of you, snowmash.

Thank you, TIANC! < slur slurp >

not slur!! slurrppp

snowmash?
Guess you don't want to discuss today's events, but I do wish you'd let us help.
Am off to bed very soon, so will wish you goodnight, and to everyone else.

Sleep well, shodatin.

Still sitting by the stove in the summerhouse, snowmash, in case you pop by. ((hugs))

Glad today was good, Pixie.

Hi pixie, have a peaceful night. shodatin & TIANC too, and hope you've had a reasonable day, madmouse. Good idea to have been tucked up by the stove in case snowmash felt like coming in, TIANC

snowmash, ((( hugs ))) here too. So sorry if it is impossible at the moment to feel real hope for the future. It will improve...I'm not sure you feel able to talk fully with any staff member about the things you're most worried about because obviously they're obliged to report back if they have concerns for you..

It must be incredibly hard for you to be able to believe in ways forward when those you're trying to trust keep saying your concerns are the product of your illness, & so will leave you as you regain your health. You seem an analytical person who particularly tries to solve situations rather than hope for the best- so how do the staff suggest you try to cope with your worries whilst you wait to feel better? Waiting / distraction / techniques to help you keep positive ? I hope they are counselling you through your concerns? Can we help in any way?

Sorry, too many things for you to think about when you need to rest your mind.( I 've thought hard about posting such a long post, but have done so in the end just in case you can take something from it at all- hope you don't mind ). Hope tomorrow is better x

Morning, all. It's been quite a warm & sultry night round here ( south ) and yesterday evening actually smelt of summer after a few drops of rain. Saw my first butterfly of the year yesterday, too, and the first bumblebees reemerged a couple of weeks ago. Anyone else seen a butterfly yet?

Hope today is a better day than you might expect, snowmash.

Morning all. Hope everyone got some decent rest.

No rl butterflies here yet, hob, but I did disturb a caterpillar last week, so getting there!

Excellent, TIANC
(As soon as I'd written that smug post about balmy weather a blanket of freezing fog settled over my house).

Morning all. Yes, we have the freezing fog here too, and it seems a long time until the butterflies appear. Amazing to see a live caterpillar TIANC, it seems much too early for this area but at least I'm confident they will eventually turn up, however cold and unwelcoming the world is at present. (Rather a long ramble, meant to say something about trusting in the future, sunshine after winter misery, better days to come etc but not very good at this - hope you know what I mean snowmash, and you can believe things will get better in time)

The weather's very allegorical at the mo, isn't it?

snowmash, do pop in. We miss you.