First frost

Shirley · Post: # 33021Post **Shirley** » Sat Sep 09, 2006 3:47 pm

baldowrie wrote:Shirley must have just been one of those nights were certain areas stay light later

Yeah... I guess so... funny how that happens isn't it. We've got lots of hills around too, not sure whether that makes a difference.

Millymollymandy · Mon Sep 11, 2006 5:43 am

We had an extraordinarily bright moon the other night too! I haven't noticed any moonlight in ages, so that came as some surprise.

Anyone got autumn colours yet? Here the soil is drying up horribly again but all the leaves started turning orange/yellow about the last few days of August, so now it looks very odd as the grass has gone brown and crispy again but leaves are dropping at a rate of knots (I think it is partly stress rather than autumn).

baldowrie · Post: # 33105Post **baldowrie** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:51 am

Shirley I have been up here nearly 6 years and I still have not used the oddities of the light in Scotland.

no autumn colours here just yet

Stonehead · Post: # 33106Post **Stonehead** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 7:21 am

baldowrie wrote:Shirley I have been up here nearly 6 years and I still have not used the oddities of the light in Scotland.

no autumn colours here just yet

We have a few tinges of yellow, mainly on the oaks, but that's it.

Our cucumbers and courgettes, which have produced nothing this year after a profusion last year, have finally decided to get their act together and are flowering at last. Probably too late, but it's interesting given they were planted out in the same week as last year.

What's more worrying is that despite some rain over the past month or so, the tattie picking has revealed the ground is bone dry below the top two inches (which are slightly damp). In some places, lifting the tatties has meant working in dust clouds.

Not good.

Shirley · Post: # 33112Post **Shirley** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:12 am

Stonehead wrote: What's more worrying is that despite some rain over the past month or so, the tattie picking has revealed the ground is bone dry below the top two inches (which are slightly damp). In some places, lifting the tatties has meant working in dust clouds.

Not good.

Not good at all - my 12 year old was asking me why we still had to be careful with our water usage... our well is still not at a particularly good level.... I'll be talking about it to the man that is coming to fit our filter... HOPEFULLY this week... so fed up of using bottled water for drinking.

baldowrie · Post: # 33114Post **baldowrie** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:21 am

Yer it does get you down after while doesn't, I did it for a year so I know where your coming from

Ground here is like dust too, which makes me going over with the tiller easier but dusty.

isn't it funny how your cucumbers and courgettes are not fairing well and yet down south they are saying they are over run with them and they are supposed to have much less rain than use, which I think is more media hype than fact.

we need a cold winter as we are getting over run with rats here, even living in my stone wall and under my oil tank

Stonehead · Post: # 33120Post **Stonehead** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 9:25 am

baldowrie wrote:we need a cold winter as we are getting over run with rats here, even living in my stone wall and under my oil tank

Don't mention rats. Ours thrive on the baits, so I'm shooting them and get a couple a week. Every time I block a run, they make a new one. Grrr.

baldowrie · Mon Sep 11, 2006 10:15 am

these are black rats..not like your monsters