Survivors!

Okay, who was it that commented that  "Survivors" was on utube?
I have since spent many hours watching the first then the second and now I'm on the third series ! For goodness sake, I don't have time for this new obsession. The tomatoes are still growing and ripening, The barrowfulls of apples are needing processing, there are onions to be strung and I'm rushing through it all to grab an hour on the computer to watch another episode.
 I am so enjoying the 1970s clothes  - which are all remarkably clean, sparkling white and ironed, not bad considering they are making their own soap with mutton fat and wood ash!  There are also taps working in a farm that has no running water, and a few other bloopers. HOWEVER, It's great!, just as I remembered it. I particularly like the music that accompanies the opening titles and then the closing credits and NOTHING IN  BETWEEN! yes really! I can hear people being upset without the help of mournful cellos and running without a jingly form of William Tell and pastoral music as the camera spans the countryside. Those were the days. Why do we need music to accompany everything, as a sort of clue to those who hadn't realised what was happening?
There are some very posh people and some more posh people who have attempted to master un-posh accents, but the message is remarkably modern and relevant.
 The program was first aired between 1975 and 78 I believe. It was then re-done fairly recently, but the new version did not hold my interest and was very DRAMATIC (totally unnecessary)

 So that is my excuse for being too busy to blog... I have been watching an old TV series !
Back soon with a more sensible post.

 A very warm Derbyshire welcome to Gilly Ann Travis and Michelle Brownshill  on Bloglovin and Wintersend Warbler and Jackie Philips on the Follower bar.
love Gillxx

An Horticultural Post

Hello All,
Back from fishing, with 40lb of fish fillets safely in the freezer.

Some time ago I noticed a seedling growing among the spinach. It looked familiar, but I couldn't quite recall what it was. After a week or two I recognisd it as a Thorn Apple (also known as Devil's Trumpet) and decided to let it grow to show to the grandchildren, as though it is not rare it is quite uncommon around these parts. As they say, like Ttopsy, it grew and grew into this monster plant. The last one that grew here was not nearly so big, as you can see this is as tall as the sunflowers next to it. The white "dashes" that you can see open into large white trumpets towards evening. If you know the greenhouse plant Brugmansia  or Angels Trumpet, it has similar flowers, though I don't think it is the same family as I think that Thorn Apple is of the potato/tomato family.

Here is a close up of the seed, clarifying why it is commonly called a thorn apple. This plant is covered in these seed cases.

All parts of the Thorn Apple are poisonous, so I now have to, reluctantly because it is a beautiful plant, and with care (and rubber gloves) dig up the plant and bag it ready for the tip.
I have just looked up the latin name for this plant it is Datura Stramonim.

While with the tomato family, here is a tomato I grew from some seed which came with my last order from Marshalls Seeds. It is new bush variety called Montello. I don't know how to copy the picture from the catalogue, but it doesn't look like my plant which instead of bushing and bunching has long branches with fruits about two inches apart. This pic show the top two branches, there are more underneath looking exactly the same. Mmmm what happened there I wonder? Did anyone else grow this?

                                                                                                                                                                   A few years ago I lost one of the Victoria plum trees to who-knows-what. I bought a new one and planted it at the opposite end of the orchard. This year it flowered for the first time, the grand total of plums being eight BLACK plums! Four of those fruits are on the left, next to plums from our other Victoria. The fruits are a good size, I should have put a 50p next to them to show how big, I would say 2 to 2.5 inches. Clearly it is not a Victoria. Does anyone know what plum it is?

This last pic is of some lovely plump walnuts. I knew the squirrel would get them first and                  determined to pick them even if they were green when we got back from or fishing week (we got back yesterday) Too late!! they are all gone, apart from a few on the floor that are covered in bite marks. Did I tell you I hate squirrels?!

I reckon that is enough for now
Back Soon
Gillx

"A bit of holiday fun"!

 
I had a different post to this planned in my mind but Sue in Suffolk posted pictures of she and her sister in matching dresses, which jogged me to post this one.

Here are my girls on holiday in Wales 39/40 years ago.

 The jumpers were knitted in wool that was very cheap, so I bought pounds of the stuff. I remember it was in this dark blue, dark green. dark brown and white. The girls had sweaters and cardies David had a couple of tank tops (well, it WAS the 70s) and I had a jumper and a poncho.
The girls  never complained about  those sweaters so I always assumed they liked them. Fast forward 30 years and the granddaughter says "How come we never got sweaters with our initials on them "? "Because we try not to embarrass you" was her mother's reply!
Three weeks ago we had our rare family holiday in the Wales and an idea began to form.. No I don't have time to knit a couple of sweaters, but thought it would be good to reenact the girl's photo. The memory is that it was taken at Manorbier castle, which was perfect as our cottage was in Manorbier.
ED found some tea shirts of a similar blue on the internet and already had a lot of white felt from some project or other. She and YD cut out the shapes and YD machined them on.
When we got to the castle for "The Shoot" we couldn't find the spot the first photo was taken from. On inquiring it seems that it was taken at Pembroke castle !!
Never ones to let the truth get in the way of a good story we carried on hence 'ta da!...

 Like all our plans when the girls and I get together, this plan had developed into" a bit more fun" (depending on your sense of fun/the ridiculous) So those grandchildren need not feel left out ..

And while we were on a roll and with  two family members dragged kicking and screaming (well actually they just grumbled a little) to join in our"bit of fun" and Memory Making I give you the Von Trapp/Osmands from Derbyshire!

Remiss of us not to make one for Sammie, but those friends of ours who decided this was a difficult game of human Scrabble have used him as a blank (an "s" would have been no help)
 Well, there you have it folk don't get any dafter than us lot when we are together and have inmbibed a few ciders.
Back soon with my planned post
Love from (getting) sunny Cornwall
Gillx

Off Again!

Hi Folks
This week has been manic. We have gardens full of produce ready for processing, lots of visitors and much to do for the Civic Society and getting ready for another week away! Today we set off for a weeks sea fishing in Cornwall. It's a rubbish time to do such a thing with all that stuff ready in the garden but the date was not our choice. Hey Ho
I'm taking my laptop with me and should have quite a bit of time to myself when I can catch up on blogs and  post a couple myself.
As usual I am staying at my friend's in Callington and we are fishing from Looe. Anybody near there for a coffee?
Off to make the packed lunch and then off!
Back soon
Gillx