blakeyboy

I’ve ordered the skip for Tuesday. I have the tough rubble sacks. Then, on Wednesday, when I can’t see the front door for Valentine’s cards, I can bag them up, drag them upstairs, and throw the bags out of the bedroom window, straight into the skip. Last year I didn’t think it through, and was stuck in the house for a week. You must know what I’m talking about….:-)

This 1849 would fool me- how can you tell is a wrong 'un?

Any ideas what this refers to? Looks Edwardian in style to me... About 4 inches by 2 1/2 inches. I've drawn a blank....

Interesting drawing- well, maybe interesting to some....

Since the gold used isn't pure, this is surely a eutectic situation, so you are even more correct?

Yes, hurried sloppy mistake. I work with recording studio mixing consoles that are changing hands at £300k plus at the moment, and are full of silver plated brass switch contacts. A $12 can of 'switch cleaner" will do £40k of damage to those contacts. Properly thought through "Switch Lubricant" is another matter.... Try Electrolube EML. It was specced for pro use in the 1970's, and still works, for _minuscule_ layer of protective oil.

I lost count of the times I emailed Torr coins to tell them to stop hanging their coins in photos on Ebay.... Acetone can leave a coin 'too clean', and the atmosphere loves that...the TINIEST amount of a benign oil, olive, EML switch lube, etc etc and I mean the TINIEST bit, keeps things stable. Put a speck on a small clean brush and apply like that - _no_ rubbing!

Oh- just so you know, it's not 'OCD' - it's 'CDO' ..... ....alphabetical order!!!!!

It's time for may favourite:

...so long as you've got your elf...... Merry Xmas everybody!

All right, I've resisted up till now, but I give up......what's a stamp corner? I have thousands of stamps, but no 'stamp corners'. Are they like a Müller Fruit Corner?

Same here. Makes a pleasant change!!

...do you have their name and address? I have some tat to shift...:-)

I don't like to switch it on- wears the batteries down....

What else did you expect to see out of the window? The hanging gardens of Babylon, perhaps.... Well, I'm sorry that Krakatoa isn't erupting at the moment.....

Email the picture to yourself. Before you send, select the file size you want. Done!

Absolutely. _My_ gardening year is over by April/May- I then hand over the reins to my plants and stand well back. October and November are my planning and re-potting months. I re-pot before putting plants away for the winter. One tip I discovered- when re-potting a tall plant with a single stem/trunk, re-pot it off-centre. Then, in a tiny green house, you can turn the pot and it moves the position of the plant to fit in better, or, you can leave the plant where it is, and turn the pot so it's not under your feet! Another trick is you now have a bigger single area of bare compost by the plant's stem, onto which you can stand another plant pot...cram 'em in!! Some plants don't mind going dormant, but some plants from sunny places, like aeoniums and agapanthus don't like a dark winter. Agapanthus flower stems become rare the next year, and aeonium schwarzkopf ( the black form ) goes green!. Aeoniums, also, only grow in the winter, so you don't let them dry out- you know you have it right when they start flowering... Cannas, too, hate being dry for the winter- always keep them slightly moist. Canna 'Shenandoah', the best pink flower you will ever see, likes bright light in storage, and the summer outside, but not too powerful a sun, since it hammers the blooms, BUT of all the cannas, this is the one that needs heat. Lots of it. It's the one canna that's the easiest to lose if it's cold and too wet. If you have room to overwinter plants, and you have a shady garden, but want a tropical show, get a Brazilian Plume Flower. Just hack it back each autumn when you bring it in. The cuttings root really easily, so you will have a good display the next year! The main thing with a lot of plants from hot places, is to check whether, where they are from, like in deserts, there are some frosts, but never when it's wet.......:-) I

Rob, I have no interest in hammered, but that really is stunning. Stunning. I had no idea that hammered strikes could be this good.

The echiums have self-seeded like mad this year, so they are now wrapped up, with heated aluminium rods in the pots, that I switch on if there is going to be a deep frost. Hopefully, next year the bees will be so happy!

The the musa basjoo enjoys it's last sun this season, before the leaves come off, and the straw cage is built, and the stems are protected.

Then I put up the heavy tarp and that's everything in for the winter.

Then I drag under the small potted musa basjoo, and add small pots of ecballium elaterium (skirting cucumber).

Next up is the skinny jacaranda, and Queen Victoria's favourite canna 'Shenandoah'.

Then I add the lemon/lime cross 'La Valette', which is _the_ variety for gins and tonic!

I've just done my 'Before the frosts come' packaway. I have a small covered patio area- I take out the table and chairs and put up my metal winter staging. Then I add the cycad, the agaves, a agapanthus, and a cestrum nocturnum (queen of the night).