The Bluestocking women's Pub- spring is sprunging and MN's name generator can do one!

[lcakethereforeIam]

Welcome to the Bluestocking women's pub. Men are directed to the Staunch Ally just down the road. Otherwise all are welcome. Pull up a chair, give your order to the Wait Gerbil or the Gerbil behind the bar.

Don't forget to name change if you wish to.

I think a thin scatter of compost to keep birds off, and no eggshells, for fear of attracting rats,

I’ve not tried that sort of mix myself so I’m not sure.

Thank you, @DeanElderberry and @ErrolTheDragon.

I’ll do the compost cover in a couple of troughs as there is enough seed for one square metre. Then I’ll see if they grow.
😀

Thank you, but Golightly Goswift was first noticed in Gillian's Gym by @Boiledbeetle I can't take the credit.

I was given a packet of wildflower seeds at Pensthorp in Norfolk. A reward for completing some trail or other. Turned out they were mostly some sort of mouse ear or chickweed. Fortunately I only scattered them round the base of a potted rose, but several years later they still come up.

Oh no stiff gin needed
I've been deleted
Didnt think I'd said anything that bad

And Gosie was also someone else's creation when she first went to the south of France. She's thriving, actually.

The notes on my packet tell me that there is no grass and listed them. If there is something nasty in there, it will be contained in the troughs.

Oh no! Do you want support on a particular thread?

The gerbils have invented a new bottle shape just for you. One of them is shredding the thread for you.

There's been another deletion on the same thread. I think there's someone on their on a bit of a reporting spree.

Thank you Myrtle
It was the thing that never happens.
I'll have to sit in the naughty corner with my drink 😳

Yes cake - I can hazard a guess who 😠

I have just massacred 5 thistles.

I do like a good, large thistle - they can look quite handsome - but I'm having to be realistic. If I'd left them, I'd have finished up with thoooooosands o' the buggers up the back.

I mean, The Thistles Among the Foxgloves sounds like it might be a good pipe tune, but I don't think that my back would manage the strain of all the future weeding required.

The biggest one had quite a root system. I'm not sure that I got it all, but at least it should be a bit weaker. If I have to, I'll attack it with a spray of something. I'm told that vinegar works?

I saw my first bumble bee of the year about an hour ago. On its own. Maybe a Queen that's overwintered?

I'm leaving the two dandelion flowers that I saw at the moment. As soon as they're on the turn, I'll decapitate them.

I have also reattached my willowing trellising yet again and have done a bit of Hawthorn hedge weaving. I'm convince that it's adults taking shortcuts that have done the damage - I first became aware of that particular problem during lockdown: both dog walkers and workers. [I'm looking at you Kingdom Firewood. I saw what you did when you were working on a neighbour's hedge at the top of the hill. Tried to breenge. your way through my garden and then massacred the common hedge instead so that you could chuck the branches over instead of carrying them around.]

I was the one who waved Gosie off to the south of France. I'm delighted that she's having a good time. When she phoned this morning I could hear Bonnie Tyler belting out 'Lost in France' in the background. I told her about the thread move and she said fine, keep her posted.

She was expecting to arrive at Indiffernce later today. Apparently it's very laid back there and nobody cares what you do.

DH is poorly, but manfully went out to do some food shopping and then went to bed with his phone for a sensible mix of rest and useful tasks like booking a car service. This left me free to garden - repotted some lilies, planted out some foxglove seedlings but mostly hacking a badly overgrown dogwood.

The brown bin which was emptied yesterday is full and the lawn has large amount of dogwood on it. Usually I manage to stuff a remarkable amount of dogwood stems into an apparently full bin but I think this is going to require a trip or two to the recycling centre.

I've had a productive day. Only because it's easier to get rid of shit when my sister is right there giving me a look that says "Seriously? You want to keep THAT?"

The shed is lighter by 245 items, and her car is now full of stuff to go to the tip!

Got to love springtime!

Good man! He didn't follow you round the garden wearing a dressing gown of doom and did the right thing and stayed out of your way.

It's obviously the weather for doing the gardening!

Maud has been gardening today as well.

My brown bin is very full and was supposed to have been emptied two days ago. Even though I phoned up the council before the close of play on collection day to point out that it hadn't been, it's still there. I very much doubt they'll collect it tomorrow. Possible rocket up council arse Monday pm - I'll give them the morning to sort it out.

I wouldn't mind so much but I pay a sodding surcharge for the privilege of having to remind them about every 3 months that yes, that is a brown bin that they've driven past. Again.

I would have gardened, but instead drove over to a friend's, had a cup of tea and a very large and delicious home-made cookie in the garden, and then carted away the manure she was giving me. The car smelled a bit when I got home, but at least none of it spilled. By the time I returned, B&B were quite clear that it was walkies time.

Much tractoring going on in the countryside again today. I passed a fork-lift affair that had been seconded to tractor work, and was towing a trailer loaded with bags of fertiliser.

I saw my first butterfly two days ago, the dandelions and daisies are coming out, and the pigeons are still shagging themselves senseless.

I don't think I've got 245 items in my shed.
What were you doing, counting out the old seeds 1 by 1?

Or is yours one of those sheds were everything gets shoved that might come in useful and can withstand the damp? Old footballs, busted buckets, lidless Tupperware etc?

I could have increased the number, but honestly couldn't be arsed counting the remaining bags in two open bags of 100 bags! They just went straight in a bag of stuff my sister could use. So today's was literally single items that have been sitting around for so long I'd forgotten they were in there.

some of today's stuff: Old paint tins, old washing up bowls, shower attachments, 20 Over the door hooks, cat litter tray the cat hated, some window blinds, a very old roll of lining paper, some buckets with broken handles, 8 random old pillowcases... The list goes on!

The sheds are ace, and very waterproof, but they hold a lot of crap that just gets shoved in until when I open the door it all starts to fall out.

I can now actually stand in one of them!!

I realised today that I am now officially Old. I decided to get some exercise by playing Just Dance, picked an easy song, started bopping away then got a bit enthusiastic and heard/felt something twang at the top of my leg. I managed to finish the song but then had to hobble to Lidl for some first aid wine. It's still sore now, 4 hours later. My plan of learning the dance to Rasputin by next week looks like it will have to be postponed.

This is the first year I've really done anything in this garden as I was concentrating on the house last year. I've taken out several overgrown shrubs (with some help for the bigger ones), but I seem to have spent much of the last week digging out old roots that had just been left from previous plants long removed, including something that looked and felt a bit like an expanse of old coir matting. Probably from some kind of conifer hedge, but it was so thick and matted that I could not have planted anything else in that soil unless it came out. It fought back, but I prevailed in the end!

I've also been plagued by self-seeded weeds coming up through an area of gravel and I've now discovered why - the gravel was put down with no membrane underneath, so of course the weeds will grow through it! I've sprinkled some rock salt on it and watered it in, which should sterilise the soil underneath and deter the weeds until I have that area re-laid.

But reading WAW's post, I realised how relatively easy my small urban garden is to manage. I certainly don't have to contend with re-layering hedging or giant thistles. This is the thing with the Bluestocking. We all have such different lives and experiences, from our ages and personal circumstances to living in cities or towns, coast or deep countryside; different interests and hobbies, likes and dislikes but we still have as much in common as that which divides us. Such a rich tapestry of lives.

I have also learned a new word today

breenge - a violent or clumsy rush, a dash, a plunge.

@Boiledbeetle while randomly scrolling through the Lego website looking for my next set, I spotted these!

OK. Confession time. I don't do gardening, I do sitting in my garden. I do not see the daily changes as I leave before sunrise and return after sunset but there has been a massive change since last weekend. The hedges are thick with green and the Blackthorn and wild cherry are blossoming like mad. The fruit trees are covered with sticky buds but no flowers or leaves. The snowdrops and crocuses have finished; the daffodils are past their best but the hyacinths are still putting on a brave show.

It was lovely and warm in the kitchen garden this afternoon. The rabbits are happily cropping the lawn. The stoats have re-established the path from the stoatery to the rabbits and I saw a weasel move her young to the other end of the brick wall.

ETA I have never seen so many primroses and cowslips all over everywhere. Have they suddenly become weeds?

I’ve got a slight but definite watch strap tan line on my arm.

@JanesLittleGirl I'd love to have primroses and cowslips as weeds.

I lost my cowslips more than 10 yrs ago, when we had some work done. Keep replanting and this year I have three plants in bloom.

The primroses round the front have done well this year - two or three cultured primroses and two large clumps of Scotch primroses - I planted one a few years ago and finally was able to split the clump a couple of years ago.

My yellow primroses seem to have spread this year and I’ve got some fancy tall primulas which have also come back nicely on the front rockery.