lucky you to have so much fruit to pick. All but 2 apples on my little braeburn disappearred before I got there - I think the squirrel had them!

Some memories of a very special hen. https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/06/65/yrpnkebB_t.jpg https://thumbs3.imgbox.com/54/5a/jzdQ2Ik8_t.JPG https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/5d/95/TSqYizv1_t.jpg I have lots of photos of Gib from hatching onwards, but stuck in Photobox. I downloaded all pics from there (took hours...

Thankyou Spreckly, I do miss Poppy, she was the one always underfoot when I did gardening & sneaking indoors when the back door was open. More sad news. I brought Giblet indoors last night as she didnt look well. She is dying, this time for real. she's in my arms where she loves to be- fading, my he...

Dear old Poppy has left us. She became very poorly last week & lost use of her legs. I think she had a tumour. She was pts on Friday. She was 9 1/2 years old, ex battery trans-hen with the most beautiful plumage. She didnt quite get to grow a full cockerel tail but her spurs were bigger than Bills. ...

Unfortunately LL, this year the green house plants were the first to go. My cucumbers in there got blight early on & last year the tomatoes in the greenhouse went but not the outdoor ones. I blame the cheap compost I used, toadstools popping up in all the pots. I actually chose varieties of tomatoes...

What a difference a day makes! last week I went to water tomatoe corner & found them in a bad way. It had happened so fast that I guessed my elderly neighbour had used weed killer on his side of the fence. However, its gradually spreading along all the plants so I suppose it must be blight. I've pic...

If you get stuck try a fish & pond centre, they will sometimes take them for rehoming. There is also a facebook group for fish rehoming.

Bob the shepherd/farm boy! sounds like you fit right in there.

Perhaps you could try growing something in pots Spreckly. There are several miniture varieties of veg now. I found a "bargain seeds" place on ebay & grew some French beans & tomatoes in pots by the back door this year.

looong time past, the veggies have done their thing. This year I planted the seeds in a recommended(but more expensive) compost, everything came up well :-D . I had cayenne, banana & sweet peppers, of which I potted as many as I could in large pots in the greenhouse - using cheap compost from the lo...

I hope she can catch it. A couple of years ago we had an escaped cockerel living the same way at the bottom of the field behind us, we'd hear him crowing every morning but couldnt find him. One day he stopped crowing & was never heard from again

Mosquitos are another matter, I've not heard anything positive about them yet so they still get squished! Mosquitoes are food for flying insects and birds, while the larvae in water are food for umpteen aquatic species (including dragonfly larvae and fish to name just a couple who benefit) I know t...

I used to feel like that Mo, but I've learned more about wasps & they are actually important as pollinaters & pest controllers. Mosquitos are another matter, I've not heard anything positive about them yet so they still get squished!

if you can keep out of their way for a while they will abandon the nest in Aug/sept. Until then they are just feeding the grubs & the grubs give them syrup, once the grubs are gone they start to starve, hence the invasion of our drinks & jam! My theory is that if you then leave something sugary at t...

Ha, ants are great opportunists. I reckon if humans disappeared ants would soon take over all our stuff! Actually I found lots of ants in the bottom of my wheelbarrow when I'd emptied it the other day, I wheeled them back to the same spot so they could find their way home.