snowmash's cybergarden - spring edition

[madmouse]

hello

Hi all just crashing in - hope everyone is ok.

Been on a week long camping trip which was great fun for mousling and us too.

Have heard from snowmash who's doing as ok as possible.

Been out all day with friend and now exhausted, but had to say a big thank-you to TIANC for bowl of cherries, a lovely thought (and I was too mean to buy any while out). Will be back when recovered.

Evening all , sorry for absence but slowed down by warmer temperature after enjyoble weekend. Great to hear you all had a great trip , madmouse and I bet mousling had all sorts of new and exciting experiences . Glad that snowmash is getting on reasonably well , and lots of love from us all to her as ever.

Thank you so much for your precious cherries , TIANC - they taste just divine . How magnificent that your new tree produced fruit this first year , excellent .

Oh sorry shodatin , I didn't reply to your very kind offer of creeping campanula , which I do not intend to put you to the trouble of posting , thank you so much ,though . There is a fine purple creeping campanula here but it's low to the ground
and not the same as the type pictured on websites as a c c ... intriguing . I too am trying to read up on bees - we're almost ready to don our beekeepers' suits !

It's just this season my lovely neighbour has some raised beds spare - I can't plan really long-term as never know when we might have to move home , but atm am so excited to have space to grow veg in good quantities ( pests permitting ) and trying some flower varieties too ... simple things which don't require proper digging . Sadly can't think of keeping chickens as this field is fox central but I so wish you could keep a couple !

My little corn cobs are indeed very tasselly , TIANC! I didn' realise the cobs grow on the body of the plant rather than the top[hblush]

I hope you're not suffering again in this warm weather , shodatin and that snowmash and TIANC & kizzie have restful coolness as needed .

Glad you had day out with your friend , shodatin, and hope you recover soon . Sorry I didn't see your most recent post till now as it didn't show up on Firefox. Another one here too mean to buy spendy cherries < glad TIANC's bowl of same is very deep >

Peaceful night all ...lemon balm to late night people

Update from snowmash

She's been out of hospital for nearly two weeks now and is doing as well as can be expected, taking small steps forward. She says hi and will probably at some point be back on the boards

:)

Thank you, madmouse you've made my day.

snowmash, we'll try not to kill you in the rush! Rather glad you're out, hope you're making it safely through each day...

Many thanks for news madmouse, wonderful!
Back soon when laptop fixed. Best wishes all.

Fabulous news, thank you , madmouse . < skype - style dancing emoticons >

Hope your laptop difficulties get fixed , shodatin

to celebrate

Ah thats such great news. Thanks for the update madmouse (have just left a little message on your thread too)

Oh hob what a beautiful link! That was incredible!

(snowmash be warned, it's fireworks and gets quite flash-y sometime after 2:30 mins.)

Plenty of cherries to go round!

And more still on the tree. Despite a blackbird picking at some of wormy ones we dropped, and casting a canny eye up at the netting. One of the days we'll find we've got by-catch, as the fishermen call it...

Hope everyone has had a reasonable day. shodatin sorry you're still getting laptop grief.

Definitely bedtime here. Wishing everyone a peaceful night and refreshing rest.

.
Thank you so much , TIANC! < faints at potential of " by - catch " >
Hope everyone's well today and particularly that shodatin isn't going through laptop hell .

Thank you for thoughtful -and very tactful - warning to snowmash , TIANC. Sorry - I wondered whether to warn those with issues with flickering / flashing lights , but decided not to as it was well - captioned and had a long lead - into the fireworks , with a long distance view at first . Am still feeling very fireworksy about snowmash's leaving hospital and will inflict further links on you , if I may.

My PC crashed when mn disabled Threads I'm On for maintenance around 1 pm and am only just back online , so I hope that didn't happen to others .

Ooh, not just me then? Haven't completely crashed, but had to back out of MN for a while. Hope you're running smoothly now, hob.

Sorry your gardening is curtailed by possible house-moving, btw. And despite this it sounds like you have an amazing amount planted. Very impressive indeed.

I'm so embarrassed how little I know about corn, given it's a veg patch or smallholding essential for large chunks of my family (staple diet in southern Africa). So, the cobs don't grow at the top then? That does explain a lot...

Almost as shocking as the first time I saw pineapples growing. Huh?! And there was me singing "Jonah sitting 'neath the pineapple tree" from that school musical.

shodatin, hope your computer problems are nearly fixed, and your garden is recovering well from the weather extremes.

madmouse, know you're working through a lot at the moment. Warm thoughts for you here, as always. The same to snowmash, kizzie and butterpie. Hope you're staying afloat each day - albeit with frantic bailing sometimes.

Sleep well all, and here's to good tomorrows all round.

I thought they grew on trees too, TIANC (and I come from a country where they are grown ... is there no end to my foolishness ) Aren't the plants in your picture adorable
< puts on thick gloves to pet pineapples >

Do your relatives in Africa keep a veg patch themselves or simply enjoy admiring / sampling the crops of their friends ? Have you been able to visit them out there ? ( sorry , too nosy ) I long to travel there one day .

Thank you for making a fuss of my garden , as ever ! Yes , the landlady may sell at any time but we've had several years here , surprisingly , with a small garden but planted with wildly tall trees , huge hedges and bordered by woods and allotments - one of the nicest spots on earth & the ground is amazingly fertile as it must be old woodland .

Hope you're well and that shodatin isn't too distressed if her laptop problems are keeping her offline - her friends here are fretting here in case she's unwell or something , but if so hopefully she'll have told one of her nearby friends & be being looked after .

Hope you're adjusting to life back "outside" , snowmash , and that madmouse , kizzie and butterpie are doing well and able to take regular breaks to relax in the cybergarden with us on this glorious day

< puts out jugs of homemade lemonade and elderflower water >

Hi again - realised I didn't reply to you TIANC re: computer problems ...yes , mine crashed just as I was saving everything in Notepad , grrrrr & it seemed to be caused by TIO being closed down at that time . Hope you haven't had any lasting trouble , either .
Brilliant work btw on that thread about disablity hate ... very heartening too to see others who've had enough of the car spaces "debate".

< fretting about shodatin .... hands round cold flannels and luxury icecreams >

Hello again, and apologies for not using laptop, but I didn't dare until a friend got here to check - it kept announcing the disc was full and I kept anticipating closedown, knowing so little about these things. Have really missed being in touch too, but computer friend only got here today.
It's undiagnosed as yet, but am assured it's ok to email, and will just "go a bit funny" when it gets worse, so have tried contacting another "expert" friend for ideas/help. Luckily I don't watch films or do clever stuff with photos on here.

It was lovely news about snowmash, and a relief that she's no longer in hospital, but I guess it's a bit difficult getting back into routine at home, and just hope the help arranged is really helpful.

I think it's interesting that you have family in South Africa too, TIANC but am certain mine are not involved in gardening, only on the food side, and my sister is also a widow, having two grown-up children and based in Cape Town now.
I haven't been there, mainly because of the political situation years ago when I would have been well enough to travel, but am pleased that sister has been able to do something useful while living there.

Great joy to see you back , shodatin ... hmmm , that sounds like my PC problems with lack of memory , but ours is ancient and creaking from downloads , so I'm not sure what the problem might be with your laptop , but hope they won't turn out to be serious .

Hope you've not been suffering too much from the heat today . Why am I not surprised to hear that your sister has been doing useful things out there [hsmile]

Hope we've all had a chance to stop by the cybergarden for a sitdown by the pond today - incredible sunshine here , and the dragonflies from TIANC's pond are very active

Hmmmm, thought I'd posted just after you did , shodatin , to say hello but obviously needed to re - click " post " < puts brain in fridge >

Am really pleased to be back and tapping away with friends again, and hope your laptop problems get sorted too hob. At least the warnings have stopped here, so am not worrying now although Skype's still out.

Your garden sounds lovely, and your neighbour too. I didn't know anything at all about exotic fruits or corn but gardeners teach each other, as well as being generous with plants, seedlings etc.

We were buying cheap envelopes at The Works earlier this week, and found packets of seeds on sale at four for a pound, normally about £2 each, so got a few of the expensive ones to share. Food prices are still rising round here, but
have been surprised at stuff in sales.
I do hope everyone's as well as can be expected, especially snowmash.

It's about my bedtime again, so will wish everyone a goodnight. with healing sleep. Glad snowmash is back in own bed and at the right temperature - it must be such a relief. Night all; it's good to be back here too.

Lemonade and elderflower water?

Aaah, that's better. Could have done with that yesterday, as went into town. Bit battered today, but got lots done so very pleased. Blooming cold today, mind you.

Y'are slightly bonkers about pet pineapples tho, hob. Have you thought that a hedgehog might be more rewarding...?

My African mob? Well, that side of the family live all over southern Africa, including many born and bred Capetonians, shodatin. The white part has been there more than 100 years; the black part almost forever of course; and the Cape Malay part - who knows! I have indeed been lucky enough to visit over the years and also to work in the region.

I've also been lucky enough to take the train from the Cape to Vic Falls, back when that was covered by ordinary services and not just luxury tourist trains. And you'd be pulled by a steam engine, and peek from your bunk in the morning to see buffalo looming through the dawn mist, then a few seconds later patrolling rangers - and hope (b) didn't walk up the backside of (a) all unknowing. (Buffalo = Grumpy Buggers)

So yes, the Zimbabweans in particular have veg patches wherever they can - and did even before the food shortages. And my clever, clever green-fingered sis has a smallholding where she's also growing luxury crops like herbs and garlic. Or will be once she's got wire to keep the friggin' free range cattle out.

Anyway, that's my narcissistic ramblings for the day. Hope everyone else has had a good one too.

shodatin it's a relief to find you back online, and I do hope your computer friend can sort things out properly.

Greetings to madmouse and snowmash and kizzie and butterpie, and anyone drifting through.

Hi TIANC, and thankyou for the amazing details about family in South Africa, and your own visits. That is indeed "proper" gardening, and all best wishes to your sister for the new crops (feeling like complete amateur here). Let's hope local wild-life dislikes garlic and leaves bulbs alone (and the rest of course, but that does seem like an ideal cash crop). Shame about endless droughts.

My db has a central city flat with tiny garden, and his main crop seems to be lavender, no-one else in family has any interest, sadly.

Hi everyone and hope we're all enjoying a refreshing light summer rainshower . Apologies for being sluglike but am very slowed down by warm temperatures .
Much excitement here at shodatin's and TIANC 's families' experiences of Africa , and greatest enjoyment of the awe inspiring images conjured up by TIANC with her description of the incredible train travels. ( I kept" oooh"ing and "aaah"ing aloud ). at buffaloes = grumpy buggers "

shodatin , what a wrench for you to have your sister permanently far away , despite your generous pleasure in her productiveness out there . I'm so glad modern communications give you more chance to chat with her - is your Skype stil out of use atm ?

Oh my , growing veg is perilous enough without cattle coming over for a snack from your plot -your poor sister . Am so impressed that you acually worked out there , too - you must have brought so much of your experiences back here . I can't imagine how you must be feeling about the current food shortages < lost for words >.
Erm , may I ask you ... have the outlooks on life of people you met in places where you worked had a lasting influence ? I ask because am struck by how different some common aspects of British people's outlook is to that of many other nationalities }( Please don't worry about replying yet , as that other thread is so fast moving you won't have time - I 'm hardly even keeping up with reading it )

Wish your DB could have room to grow a few more plants in pots, shodatin - I saw a fenced - off space of about 1 m x 1m turned into a calming trellissy space , in a gardening magazine , but perhaps DB is constrained by landlord issues / difficulties of resources ,upkeep etc . Hope his printer troubles are resolved.

Hope that , as shodatin said the other day , snowmash is finding the help arranged for her now she's out of hospital is suitable and genuinely rather than stressful .
Sorry for essay

Hi hob and thanks for your nice comments. Best thing about my sister is that we've only been friends for the last 5/6 years, being born complete opposites, and I was recently impressed to find out that the charity she's involved with was actually her own idea.
It's a bit sad that although DS and DB like being in gardens, both have lost interest over the years. Still, same happened to me and my interest's recently renewed, so maybe same thing will happen for them.
I can presently receive Skype but cut-outs are really annoying (ditto their help system). Sorry to hear others have had computer problems too - am lost without help and reassurance, and still waiting for Helper No. 3.