General Chat

A tidy house means an empty mind!

Huia...a woman after my own heart LOL

Teresa, if my house is clean and tidy it means somebody is coming to visit and I know. Although the 'tidy' probably applies only to the living quarters, dont dare open the bedrooms doors or you will be buried by an avalanche of 'stuff' that has been thrown in there.

Huia.

ps Worse than squirrels for storing things and then forgetting where they are!

My favourite magnet says 'Boring women have immaculate homes'. My home is far from immaculate, so hopefully I am not boring.

Huia.

Nah....a tidy house is the sign of a last minute rush with the hoover just before hubby comes home lol

another one Daff - "A tidy house is a sign of a wasted life"!!!

Hello Daff.........on the subject of grey squirrels we had a lovely treat yesterday . We had taken our daughter and baby Emily for her first duck feeding in the park........there are a number of grey squirrels to be seen amongst the trees,shrubs in this particular park on a sunny day , so we went in search ( bag of birds peanuts in hand ) .
We came upon the sight of an old chap busy stuffing monkey nuts into a hollow in a tree , we stood back to observe and noticed about four of five squirrels hovering about , along with a group of fat pigeons and a few finches.............it was a magical scene , with the birds / animals almost eating out of his hands.........bless him ......a modern day St.Frances............lol

I'll phone first, Ann, to give you time to put them up, lolol.... xx

My sister bought me a little plaque, Housework won't kill you but why take the chance* another bought me a fridge magnet saying *My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance*

The best one is *if you want the best seat in the house, you'll have to move a cat* lolol

Love

Daff xxx

if ever you're passing and "just call in" Daff which you are more than welcome to do, just because I subscribe to Good Housekeeping means nothing - I have taken the advice a friend gave me - keep three Get Well cards to hand and if someone calls unexpectedly, put them on the mantlepiece and say you've been ill!!

~~~~~~~ to TW.... I love Rhododendrons, too and they seem to do ok in my soil... so I'd better watch them, I have gone for hybrid small ones, to stop them getting too big... fingers crossed!!

Love

Daff xxx

Sorry.... hubby came in as I was typing the last post... so I left it, fed him.... and submitted just now... didn't realise others had come onto the thread in the meantime.... I wasn't ignoring you ,honestly!!

Sharron, you may be right... but the red is much shyer and gentler than his black and grey cousins.... I'll give good pr if ever one came into my garden, lolol ;¬))

Hello Huia, how are you? that is the problem when we move plants from one environment to another... if they like it they can take over completely, to the detriment of everything else in the area, such a shame... the invaders!!

I love Agapanthus, too, Ann... don't have one, not yet, anyway, but the weather is getting brighter, and soon I'll be thinking about gardening!

Janey.... I have rellies with good long-lived genes, as well.... the others just got in the way... here's to us inheriting the long-lived ones, lol

Love

Daff xxx

Huia, there are a lot of rhododendrons in the south too, especially the new forest.

I love the look of them, but again they are invasive.

This Horse Chestnut problem is soooo similar to the dutch elm disease that decamated our Elms in the 70s.

Hiya Ann... I was down that way a couple of days ago... saw your car in the drive, but was on an errand, lol.... we must meet up for coffee again.

I have a vague recollection of red squirrels around Melyn Griffith area when I was a teenager... so they haven't been gone from the area that long.... long enough, though.

Janey, they are quite aggressive, aren't they? One used to wait for my cats to be let out when we first moved back into this house... and then hurl conkers and twigs at them.. it was just so funny, but the poor cat was terrified... we had three then, and two took it in their stride, but the one, normally fearless, was reduced to a trembling heap. No problems now though.... she has gone back to being fearless again, lol Yes, the Victorians have a lot to answer for, don't they?

Jean, I know... every year I find baby Horse Chestnuts growing in the oddest of places, lol.... hanging baskets... compost heap, etc etc, lol

Love

Daff xxx

As for the agapanthus, I used to have them lining our drive, but when my OH found them marching down the road he decided they had to come out, the ones down the drive plus the ones down the road. He was also waging war on the cotoneasters that the birds spread everywhere.

Huia.

Yes, Ann of GG, I can understand Rhodos taking over Scotland. They are a native of the Himalayas so Scotland would be more to their liking than further south.

Huia.

Agapanthus!!! I adore mine - have two large pots of white ones and one pot of blue - they are gorgeous!!

It's rhododendrons they have problems with particularly in Scotland where they have taken over vast swathes of the countryside

When I visited England in '97 I saw one red squirrel. Unfortunately it was a dead on on the road.

Here in NZ we have problems with a lot of the things that were introduced by the settlers way back before my time (i.e. in the 19th Century). Gorse was brought in to form hedges. Now it forms forests. Rabbits breed like ......well, you know what they breed like and a d.... pest they are. Likewise hares. And as for the Aussie possums *@#%@. Some of the garden plants have become pest too. It is no longer permitted for plant shops to sell most varieties of Agapanthus. Cotoneaster is another pest. The list is endless.

Huia.

Until she died (at 95 - good genes!), my grandmother lived in the little house she and my grandfather had bought 40 years earlier.

She had one red tulip by her side walk, up against the house, that bloomed spring after spring.

She'd never planted red tulips. But her neighbour across the street had.

Squirrels enjoy landscaping. ;)

A squirrel is just a rat with good PR.

we had nothing but red squirrels when I was a child - years before I saw a grey one and now there are no reds, but I gather there are some around the UK now

never seen a black one Janey