Jim's Journal

[sweetpea]

Seeing as so many of you do a write up of your gardening days I thought I would start on a diary of sorts myself.
Just hope I can make it interesting enough as I do not have the wide variety of plants that so many here have in their gardens.
let's see then, what have I done today so far apart from doing my back in?
First off my daughter received a 'Kit' for growing some grass indoors for her cat. it consisted of a small plastic tray with a bag of mixed compost and grass seed. She thought she was going to get a tray of growing grass
Anyway I spread it out and watered it and placed in the g'house.
Later I took three cuttings from a hydrangea and put them in the new garden cold frame so we shall see what happens there.
Carried on clearing the area near where the old Laburnum died and after a bit of a struggle managed to get another unwanted shrub excavated and into the trailer ready for another trip to the tip.
Maureen prepared the runner beans I pulled yesterday and will get eaten tonight. Not that I am particularly partial to them but no runner beans = divorce in this house
Will be harvesting some more seeds from the bedding dahlias for sowing next year. Also found some sweetpea seeds that I had forgotten about so they will be sown in October along with some seeds of his seedlings that scrumpy sent me and I never got round to sowing.
The piece of ground that I am clearing looks in good condition so hopefully shouldn't need too much cultivations to make it fit for dahlias. Just as well as it is me who isn't too fit
Speaking of which I got informed that my old oppo from the marines was in hospital with a serious infection caught from working in his garden plus pneumonia. We old squaddies all seem to have the same failing, we think we are infallible and can do anything but we are not and just because we were young and fit once doesn't mean we still can do the same things. Yet we refuse to be beaten.
Got loads of tiny foxglove seedlings coming up like mustard & cress so I might transplant a few elsewhere.
tried identifying some butterflies and bees today but got hopelessly confused. Might try and get some pics so I can check with the good book at leisure.
Well that is enough for day one. Hoping the sky is clear to do a bit of comet hunting tonight.

[Moonlight]

I read the title line of your thread and cheered "Yay!!!!!!!"

Guess I better crack on and read your update...

[Moonlight]

Aug 20, 2014 17:17:34 GMT sweetpea said:

Seeing as so many of you do a write up of your gardening days I thought I would start on a diary of sorts myself.
Just hope I can make it interesting enough as I do not have the wide variety of plants that so many here have in their gardens.
let's see then, what have I done today so far apart from doing my back in?
First off my daughter received a 'Kit' for growing some grass indoors for her cat. it consisted of a small plastic tray with a bag of mixed compost and grass seed. She thought she was going to get a tray of growing grass
Anyway I spread it out and watered it and placed in the g'house.
Later I took three cuttings from a hydrangea and put them in the new garden cold frame so we shall see what happens there.
Carried on clearing the area near where the old Laburnum died and after a bit of a struggle managed to get another unwanted shrub excavated and into the trailer ready for another trip to the tip.
Maureen prepared the runner beans I pulled yesterday and will get eaten tonight. Not that I am particularly partial to them but no runner beans = divorce in this house
Will be harvesting some more seeds from the bedding dahlias for sowing next year. Also found some sweetpea seeds that I had forgotten about so they will be sown in October along with some seeds of his seedlings that scrumpy sent me and I never got round to sowing.
The piece of ground that I am clearing looks in good condition so hopefully shouldn't need too much cultivations to make it fit for dahlias. Just as well as it is me who isn't too fit
Speaking of which I got informed that my old oppo from the marines was in hospital with a serious infection caught from working in his garden plus pneumonia. We old squaddies all seem to have the same failing, we think we are infallible and can do anything but we are not and just because we were young and fit once doesn't mean we still can do the same things. Yet we refuse to be beaten.
Got loads of tiny foxglove seedlings coming up like mustard & cress so I might transplant a few elsewhere.
tried identifying some butterflies and bees today but got hopelessly confused. Might try and get some pics so I can check with the good book at leisure.
Well that is enough for day one. Hoping the sky is clear to do a bit of comet hunting tonight.

Hope you post some photos up, girls will be especially interested in the bee ones.. They are (supposed to be) identifying bumble bees that visit our lavender bush... That bumble has a white bottom stripe etc. but actually writing and keeping tally of what they have seen - they aren't very good at at all.

Do you take lots of photos when you are star gazing? Be very interested to actually see what could be spotted if I knew what I was supposed to be looking at.

p.s. I didn't know cats needed grass... do they play bowls or golf?

[sweetpea]

Aug 20, 2014 18:24:34 GMT Moonlight said:

Do you take lots of photos when you are star gazing? Be very interested to actually see what could be spotted if I knew what I was supposed to be looking at.

p.s. I didn't know cats needed grass... do they play bowls or golf?

[/font]


[/quote]
Lawn tennis actually
I used to take many astrophotos but when I meved home I or rather they lost all my slides so now have to start all over again. As I don't have a DSLR camera I am back to using film. Last night it looked great the sky filled with stars so I duly loaded a film into the camera and went back out to mount it on the tripod and the clouds rolled in
I use a digital camera for daytime stuff like plants and animals etc. It is a bridge camera so not really much good for long exposure work such as stars.
I will try and manage some insect life but I am not David Attenborough
If you want to know the stars a good place to start is to download a planetarium program called Stellarium. It as a freebie and will show you the sky at any time of day or night. Also you can zoom in on any feature and get close ups.
eg Jupiter, zoom in and you will see the Galilean moons as well as the planet in all its glory.
It doesn't take a lot of learning to use so quite simple really.
if you have access to a pair of binoculars it will open up the sky like you have never seen and the moon will be amazing compared to just naked eye.
Sometimes I wonder when I find time to sleep.

[sweetpea]

This is a screenshot of Jupiter via Stellarium so you can see what I mean:

[Rosie]

Well done James, that's was good reading!! I love looking at the stars, and I always feel calm after looking at the moon, blimy I'm an aging hippie eh? My sister Margy sometimes goes up to Keilder forest for stargazing,she bought herself a really posh telescope, she just loves it

[sweetpea]

Keilder Forest has a great reputation as a dark sky site. Just a tad too far for me rosie.
I believe red squirrels there too.

[sweetpea]

Just been out for a quick look at the sky and it seems promising so as soon as Maureen has been out and got the rest of the cats in I will be out there for a little while depending on how chilly it gets.
Cold never used to bother me coming from Scotland and all but ever since that stroke I tend to feel it more than normal. So, when I go out especially in midwinter I resemble Eskimo Nell
Johnny Kidd and the Pirates' Shakin' all over comes to mind
The forecast bodes well for tomorrow so hopefully get the camera out on the nature trail.
ps I had a couple of runner beans with my S & K pie tonight, she reckoned they must have slipped off the serving spoon
pps The reason Maureen has to fetch the cats in is that Millie terrorises the kittens who are now a few days past their first birthday and they won't come in if she is around. luckily she is asleep here in the office.
ppps i mentioned my mate earlier who was hospitalised. Well he is home now after 3 weeks. He cut his hand on a rusty bit of metal in the garden so all of you be warned that these things can have serious consequenses.
I had to laugh though as when he woke up in hospital he thought he had gone under the bar (died) as he saw three other covered up bodies in the neighbouring beds but they turned out to be three elderly patients asleep under their blankets.
He did get told that had it not been for his fitness over the years he would have not made it. 73 yrs old and still thinks he's a sprog.

[Cherry]

This will be a good gardening blog Sweetpea. I think the garden and astronomy have improved your health.

[sweetpea]

Aug 21, 2014 5:28:08 GMT Cherry said:

This will be a good gardening blog Sweetpea. I think the garden and astronomy have improved your health.

Thank you Cherry wish I could say the same for my computer.

[Rosie]

It's a bit far for me too sweetpea. We do get dark skies here, we are kind of protected from the lights of Dufftown by hills behind us. the whole sky just seems to open up, going across the Cabrach at night is fabulous too

[sweetpea]

Not a great deal today.
First was one of the larger fish had died and we don't know the cause so have ordered more Bacterad which seems to do a good job of keeping disease at bay in the pond.
Had to dig quite a large hole to bury it. We inter all our fish cats or indeed any pet and sometimes the occasional pigeon too as I think it is the right thing to do.
Wonder if I will end up out there too
Took the camera out and it started raining plus the batteries have died also.
Suddenly remembered the bucket with tools and gloves in it were out in the open so got a bit damp nipping down to get them under cover.
Other than all that it was just the usual watering in the g'house.
ps just changed the batteries in the camera and now it seems to have gone awry. Press the button it turns on then immediately turns off again. I have no idea what is happening but I can't take pics with it as it is.

[sweetpea]

Got some fresh duracells today and camera seems to be ok now.
Thought I would try and give a wider picture ov my property so you can better visualise it. Will put in a few pics when I get the chance.
This is the view from front gate leading to parking area and garden:

A couple of troughs with begonia semperflorens on the shady side:

and this hardy fuchsia is on the right as you come in:

View down the garden from just above the fishpond

and looking back up the other way:

[sweetpea]

Fuchsia 'Display' not very good as been rather neglected but will be propogating later;

[Moonlight]

Your garden is lovely - sigh. Really beautiful. You must absolutely love it.