What have you been doing today?

[crystal ball]

CB, how much later than your birthday did you get it?
I'm 66 next Monday so not expecting to get my first one till middle of September.

I was 66 on August 1st, initially it was due on Sept 1st but two weeks worth was deposited on Sept 8th

 

[Mottie]

I was 66 on August 1st, initially it was due on Sept 1st but two weeks worth was deposited on Sept 8th

Did you get the maximum state pension?

 

[Mottie]

Just got back from the dentist. I had a cracked filling. Had about 20 minutes worth of drilling done. No injection though as it was on a tooth that I had previously had root canal work on so no nerve in there. The most painful bit was the bill. £129.95. Ouch!

 

[crystal ball]

Did you get the maximum state pension?

Yes had a few years abroad but also worked enough here not to be affected

 

[crystal ball]

Watching a dining room with a view

 

[Mottie]

Going to have to have the whole tree taken down. There’s virtually nothing of it in our garden now but most of it is hanging over our neighbours. We had another major branch snap off a few years ago when it was laden with apples. TBH, tall apple trees are a pain in the arse - in autumn I’m picking up and chucking away a bucket of apples a day from the lawn. We will probably replace it with something that’s got colour and leaves all year round such as a Eucalyptus. It’s gotten too high anyway - it was tall enough when we moved here in 1990 and we had two of them then. Had one taken down about 20 years ago as it was leaning at an alarming angle. I need to get my ladders out these days just to get some apples from it!

View attachment 275037

We had a company round to advise on this. We would have really preferred to keep it. £140 to trim it up but they said it’s never going to grow on our side of the fence again. £300 to completely remove it and grind the stump. They're coming first thing tomorrow to remove it. 40 years of growth and a couple of hours to get rid of it. A bit sad really.

Any suggestions on what to replace it with? Looking for something that gives colour all year round. We'll probably buy the biggest sapling we can find so something with a good few years growth already.

 

[crystal ball]

Called at wholesaler this morning, was stood behind a young fella who had tatts all over his neck , head & face, later this afternoon picked up some stuff at Morrisons , similar fella at checkout with tatts up his neck & over head, then car parked next to me, driver had similar arrangement sat with engine running eating a takeaway. What's going on?

 

[Justin Passing]

We had a company round to advise on this. We would have really preferred to keep it. £140 to trim it up but they said it’s never going to grow on our side of the fence again. £300 to completely remove it and grind the stump. They're coming first thing tomorrow to remove it. 40 years of growth and a couple of hours to get rid of it. A bit sad really.

Any suggestions on what to replace it with? Looking for something that gives colour all year round. We'll probably buy the biggest sapling we can find so something with a good few years growth already.

Eucalyptus grow very fast - suddenly they're too big. They also take a lot of water from around them.
Cherry tree? Prunus cerrula aka serrulata has an attractive bark all year, shiny coppery/red/brown. One in my road.
Maples are attractive - Acer palmatum desojo - red Japanese maple
Rowan/Mountain Ash?
Mimosa is unusual and interesting. Messy though.
I like rough things like red hawthorn. The have haws and flowers.
Something indigenous would be better for wildllfe, & probably attract more disease! Check your soil, obvs.

 

[Mottie]

Eucalyptus grow very fast - suddenly they're too big. They also take a lot of water from around them.
Cherry tree? Prunus cerrula aka serrulata has an attractive bark all year, shiny coppery/red/brown. One in my road.
Maples are attractive - Acer palmatum desojo - red Japanese maple
Rowan/Mountain Ash?
Mimosa is unusual and interesting. Messy though.
I like rough things like red hawthorn. The have haws and flowers.
Something indigenous would be better for wildllfe, & probably attract more disease! Check your soil, obvs.

Thanks. Yes, definately going to give this some serious thought instead of just going out and plonking any old tree in it’s place.

 

[Mottie]

Watching some bloke shin up our apple tree like a monkey with a chainsaw tied to him and make short work of 40 + years of growth.

They’re grinding the stump now. Blimey, that'd take more than your toenails off if you’re not careful!

 

[Mottie]

Sweating me nuts off doing a bit of watering and harvesting over the plot today. I picked some French beans, runner beans, cucumbers, tomatoes and took a few pears off of my neighbour’s plot (he says I can help myself to those and any apples from his plot). His whole plot is apples, pears and blackcurrants. He has another plot for his veg. Mrs Mottie is blanching the beans now for freezing later. Says she's going to make soup or something out of the toms.

 

[Ihavenojob]

Sweating me nuts off doing a bit of watering and harvesting over the plot today. I picked some French beans, runner beans, cucumbers, tomatoes and took a few pears off of my neighbour’s plot (he says I can help myself to those and any apples from his plot). His whole plot is apples, pears and blackcurrants. He has another plot for his veg. Mrs Mottie is blanching the beans now for freezing later. Says she's going to make soup or something out of the toms.

View attachment 276692

Are those toms ripe, or did you pick them early? I had some one year called apricot something or other , looked like those. My beans got hammered by the birds this year, given up on them now.

 

[Mottie]

Are those toms ripe, or did you pick them early? I had some one year called apricot something or other , looked like those. My beans got hammered by the birds this year, given up on them now.

Nah, the orange ones are called golden something or other. That’s as red as they get!

 

[Mottie]

Just got back from a mercy dash round my mates. He found a baby bird on the ground in front of his garage. He sent a picture and it is obviously a pigeon. As the bird 'expert' of all of us, he asked me as he didn’t know what to do. I checked it over and nothing seemed broken. Anyway, I went round and saw a nest about 15 ft up in his tree so he got his ladders out, rested then on the thinnest of branches and he kindly footed them while I went up, wobbling all the way, and popped it back in its nest. It was the only chick, no others there. Within 5 minutes, it’s parent was back tending to it. I thought it was a wood pigeon but it was in fact one of those collared doves. Good deed for the day - done!

 

[crystal ball]

I was 66 on August 1st, initially it was due on Sept 1st but two weeks worth was deposited on Sept 8th

Typo correction , deposited on August 8th