Archers thread #169: Denise rocks the boat in more than one way! Will Chris find a message in a cider bottle? Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed, and of course we are always delighted to welcome back former or occasional listeners/posters. We don't all agree on all points, although we do mostly try to be civil about it. Most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd have liked to have Harrison's behbe, or other unusual views.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please! We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/4636789-the-archers-spoilers-thread-7-cant-wait-for-702pm-join-us-here, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

For newer listeners, lurkers or those who just have no idea what we're talking about, @DadDadDad has created this useful thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have - BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

Thanks to @LikeTalkingToLassie and @BrightYellowDaffodil for title inspiration. Is this the end for Denise and John? It does seem odd to introduce John now if he's going to disappear. He has a lovely voice.

Over to you!

I grow it in a pot and am reminded to trim it when I brush against it with my bare legs.
I've not tried eating it, but I could, I suppose.
The clippings go in the compost bin.
Nettle Recipes - (totallywilduk.co.uk)

You are all Carol Tregorran and I claim my £5

:) always fancied being stung by nettles was good for me, no idea why

Thyme is a useful plant to have around. Very good for coughs.

Was a bit behind on TA but caught up now - Paul is such a self absorbed little tick. No, mediation with bullies is a terrible idea, they say all the right things then redouble their efforts because they know they’ve got to their victim. And why on earth does no one stand up to the onslaught of Natasha’s endless Dragon’s Den efforts? Just reply to the bloody email, it’s all in writing and she can’t dispute it: “Sorry this is over budget and we’d like to go back to the original quote please.”

I do hope Fallon jumps ship to the other cafe, it’ll be one in the eye for Natasha and the Sausage Botherer’s grand entrepreneurial plans.

At the charging station she will surely be working for someone else? And will probably have less leeway on baking etc?

I have all those things in the garden (lots and lots of nettles). Is it borage leaves that are used?

I imagined it was separate units to let.

I would imagine the leases in the charging station will have been signed ages ago. Probably a Costa!!

I cried every day for two years after I left that house - I so identify with this sentiment. I'm still known to shed the occasional tear for gardens I left behind in London and Berlin especially at times year when I know something I particularly loved (and planted) will be in bloom. Window boxes don't quite cut the mustard - even when they are attached to a Haussmanian building. Might I humbly suggest TottersBlanklyIntoThePhysicGarden for next name change @TottersBlanklyTowardsImaginarySunlight?

I'm sure someone told Fallon the other day that it was still vacant. Unlikely, I know.

I thought whoever it was (Chelsea, perhaps?) said "they" were advertising for a manager. I assumed that the "they" = whoever has taken the lease on it.

<on edit> I was obviously not really paying much attention, a policy I find best when listening to TA.

Maybe it was that.

I've been so on the verge of giving up listening again. It's only you funny, clever people on this thread that keep me going.

Gosh, I think I might start weeping all over again, @LillianGish. Thank you. And I’m sorry you’ve been through it too.

(Every glimpse of an espalier-ed fruit tree on a gardening programme is like a knife to the heart to me. ‘We’ had just spent years preparing for and choosing and ordering and planting and nurturing and Oh look! ing when ‘we’ broke up … I have a suspicion I’m more attached to gardens than to partners.)

Anyway - wonder what sort of topical Olympian reference we’ll get tonight?

The usual pile of nonSeines?

Oh, very good!

I could claim that we grow lots of British native plants, but it would be a lie. We are not gardeners and our very small London garden has a few established shrubs and trees and a lot of invasive stuff seeping through from next door (more jungle than garden these days) and weeds. We do have a pond as well. I hope to be here to the bitter end, but if I did ever leave, I would miss the philadelphus very much. Most of the year it's insignificant but in June and early July it is magnificent.

Maybe the younger characters will comment on all the snoop dog memes and Chelsea will have to explain to Lynda why they have him smoking the torch

I don't think it's at all unlikely that Vince wouldn't know what was in the bullying policy. He's the sort of employer who would have left this to the HR department and signed off on it without reading it, hoping he would never have to use what he viewed as a load of nonsense.

What's wrong with vye-carious? That's how it's pronounced in legal circles, e.g in terms like vicarious liability.

The thing is, Lily does not move in legal circles, and would be exceedingly unlikely to know this. In ordinary civilian life it is pronounced vick-carious.

It's like misused medical terms: it grates.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g I would miss the philadelphus very much. Most of the year it's insignificant but in June and early July it is magnificent.

Ooh! You may just have solved my problem of what to put in a space in the front garden, vacated when I finally succeeded in murdering a plant whose name I thought I had erased from memory but apparently haven't - Japanese Kerria. Ghastly invasive stuff, it fought back, but I got it in the end! Philadelphus would go very nicely indeed there, and there's not a lot of it about locally.

Don’t move in legal circles but use it in everyday conversation and never before heard of it pronounced vik at the start.

I always pronounce it - vi carious

I did notice them saying it and commented at the time, but only because they seemed to be stressing it like it was some kind of special / technical word rather than a general part of vocabulary

I've always known it as vick-arious.

I don’t move in legal circles but have only heard vye-carious! Is there also a geographical divide?

There's a Kerria japonica blight, I think I'm going to lose mine and will be quite sad. otoh, if it just reduces the clumps to a tenth of their present size I'll be delighted. Philadelphus is wonderful but make sure you get a scented one - there are some bred for double flowers etc that are disappointing - Belle Etoile is nice, and has a pretty little smudge of purple at the base of the flowers

www.rhs.org.uk/plants/96574/philadelphus-belle-toile/details