Disappearing Tommy.

Looking to Kenmore at the eastern end of Loch Tay.All readings are taken from a sheltered location in our garden and cover a 24 hour period starting at 6pm.

Low Temp: -4.9C

High Temp: 0.6C

Rainfall: 0.0mm

Strongest Gust of wind:1.0 mph.

Weather Today: Cold and foggy, the temp never getting above minus 1C all day.

At around 9 in the evening Vicki likes to take the dogs out just for a little walk around the back of the courtyard area. Last night being no exception. They just happened to be leaving as I was about to go check on the greenhouse heating so I hung back a while as I knew Tommy would only want to come with me if he saw me. Anyway all went well, they were nowhere to be seen as I went across the green to the garden. I check the greenhouse which was okay and as I was leaving I heard this noise behind me. It startled me because there was no reason for anyone to be there but as I quickly swung round to see who it was I was surprised to see Misunderstood Tommy standing there. Somehow he knew I had left the house and gone over to the garden and he had abandoned Vicki to come looking for me. We fininshed checking round and returned home. Well he might be the misunderstood dog but I'm sure he had no misunderstanding what Vicki thought of his disappearing act! I thought maybe he got sight of me going across to the greenhouse but apparently not as Vicki said they were way around the back of the sheds when he suddenly disappeared. He just loves his gardening does Tommy.

What you say is so right Kimmie. The most frustrating thing for me ever is if for whatever reason I can't to a job properly. You should always try your best and then look at how to improve upon it. I always remember when I was learning to be a gardener there was this old guy would often say that, 'if a job isn't worth doing well it isn't worth doing at all' and thats the way I always feel.

A BLAST FROM THE PAST.

Wednesday 19th February 1992.

Dave came for lunch and have his hair cut. There is trouble with the water as work, it seems the pump has broken. I've been doing one of his lordships none gardening jobs today - cutting Ivy from the trees in the spinny. its only just over three weeks ago that his lordship said the spinny was no concern of mine when I was cutting the brambles from the side of the drive, now he has me doing forestry work in it.

Vicki painted the window seat in the sitting room today.

The snow from yesterday has gone.

I played with Fallon on the computer after dinner, we played the motor racing game. All was fine until we didn't win the race, then she became very upset. She hates to lose.

When I met Vicki she was a hairdresser and had her own mobile hairdressing business so it was she who cut Daves hair and not me!

All the best,

Bob.

The Loch Tay Monster.

Tippy rounding up the Loch Tay monster!All readings are taken from a sheltered location in our garden and cover a 24 hour period starting at 6pm.

Low Temp: -5.1C

High Temp: 9.9C

Rainfall: 0.0mm

Strongest Gust of wind: 0.7 mph.

Weather Today: Warm in the sun but very cold out of it. A very hard frost last night.

This picture was taken this morning when me and Tom were on our morning walk, it was nice and sunny with everything covered in silver frost.

Today I had to go to the garden centre to fetch something for work so whilst I was there I got a couple of cheap pots for myself. I think I already told you that rather than pick up the left overs from the garden at work I would try and grow my own veg in containers at home as I don't have a big enough garden to be able to have a plot just for veg. So here is one of my new pots planted up with Spring Cabbage and a few primulas.
In this pot there are three Cauliflowers and somemore Primulas. I'm wondering if I'm over doing it by putting three plants in one pot. Its all trial and error at the moment so we will have to learn and modify if need be.
My hand is getting much better now, in fact its progressing so well that I may even show Vicki later. I daren't show her before or she may have whisked me off to the hospital - she's like that LOL! By the way Jeanette, you can't beat a few germs now and again, it helps keep the immune system tuned up!

Thanks for your advice about the anti virus software Jim . I've always had 'Norton Internet Security' on my computer but on Saturday I changed this to 'Norton 360' which as you say Jim gives you the chance to hook up three computers too it. I managed to put mine and Fallon's computer on to it but something happened when I was putting Vicki's on and now there is an error when I try to install it. I tried to download it again but it said that it was already downloaded but I don't think it is, not properly anyway as I can't find it anywhere on the computer. Anyway what I've done for now is to put her on what was left of my 'Internet Security'. There is another 10 months to run on it so she may was well use it up. Thanks for the advice anyway.


The Scotland picture tonight is of Tommy and Tippy taking a dip in Loch Tay.


A BLAST FROM THE PAST.

Tuesday 18th February 1992.
His lordships cat has flees in its ears. When his lordship was told of this he instructed me to take it to the vets. He said that Dave couldn't do it as he has enough to do already, I suppose he thinks I haven't! I was livid. I'm busting a gut trying to get this place presentable and all the thanks I get are insults like that. In the end Dave did take the cat. Vicki has had a terrible headache all day.

I guess looking back taking the cat to the vets was no big deal and he probably wasn't taking any kind of a dig at the amount of work I had to do. The thing is though this sort of thing was happening day after day one way or another and it all just gets too much in the end.


Y'all take care now,
Bob.

Not Fit To Turn A Dog Out.

ObanAll readings are taken from a sheltered location in our garden and cover a 24 hour period starting at 6pm.
Low Temp: 6.5C

High Temp: 11.3C
Rainfall: 12.0mm
Strongest Gust of wind: 4.1 metres per second.

Weather Today: Very wet this morning, brightened up in the afternoon before coming on to rain again in the evening.

Hello everyone. This morning was one of those mornings when you knew as soon as you woke what the weather was like even without having to look out of the window. There had been a lot of rain in the night and it was still to wet to turn a dog out when I awoke so I had an extra few minutes in bed and then took Tommy to work with me later on in the morning. Tippy doesn’t usually come with us in a morning since she has been ill and she doesn’t seem at all upset at being left behind. If she fully recovers and shows an interest in coming with us when the weather picks up a bit I will start to take her again.

Because of the weather I didn’t do much outdoors this morning, I needed some things from the garden centre, mainly potting compost and I also picked up a tub of bone meal although I won’t be putting that on for a few more weeks but I like to have some in stock so its there when I want it. This afternoon I did some shrub pruning in one of the shrub borders, I got all the cutting down done before the rain came on again so now all I have to do is dispose of the rubbish and dig over the border when the weather picks up a bit. Just to finish off the day I potted and boxed up some of my Dahlia tubers that I want to take cuttings from. I wouldn’t start them in to growth just yet if it wasn’t for the need to get some cuttings to increase the stock.

Vicki did a post to her blog with her new laptop yesterday so I’m sure she would be pleased for some of you to pop on over to her flower shop and take a look at her handy work. The link to her blog is http://vicks-floral.blogspot.com/ I will have to put a link in my sidebar sometime, I used to have one and didn’t realise it had disappeared somewhere along the way.
I will be going now, I hope you’re all well and I will see you again soon.
Bob.

Vine Weevil.

Another picture from Oban.

All readings are taken from a sheltered location.

Low Temp: 7C
High Temp: 14C

Rain In Past 24 Hours: 0.6mm

Strongest Gust of wind in 24 hours: 4.8 metres per second.
Weather Today: Breezy with some light rain, quite mild this afternoon.

Hi everyone, how are you all today?

Tonight I’m going to show you an ugly little blighter that I found by accident lurking in one of my plants. Some of you may already have seen him for yourself on your own plants, others may have had plants with roots that look like those in the picture and wondered what the heck happened here.

Can you see the Vine Weevil, the white grub at the end of the dibber? There were several more in the compost this plant came out of. As you will see they've just about eaten all the roots of this plant and it will be lucky to survive, for more info click the link http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0600/vineweevil.asp

Well I’ll tell you what it was, its the darn Vine Weevil that happened here. If your plant has got to this stage as in the picture and is of little value to you then you would probably be better off just destroying it. If you’re like me though and hate to throw plants away then you must get rid of the compost the plant came out of and don’t just replanting in fresh compost because first you have to make sure there are no more Vine Weevil hiding in what’s left of the roots, you can be more or less sure that there are. With this plant it wasn’t hard to remove the rest of the compost. Usually I remove as much as I can and then wash the rest off with water making sure to remove every last bit of compost as they can hide in the smallest bit. Once this is done and you’re sure its clear of any more pests you can re-pot the plant in a new pot with fresh compost. With this particular plant I removed some of the bottom leaves and re-potted it deeper than it should have been as I think there is a chance it might put out new roots from the stems, only time will tell. As a plant its not really worth a lot but its got flower buds on so I felt it worth giving it a chance.

Bob.

Thanks Lois.

Hello everyone, As some of you will have noticed I have another award, this time from Lois . I really appreciate the thought. Apparently I now have to think of seven weird things about myself that I feel able to own up too. I’ve given the matter quite a bit of thought and came up with some answers which I then scrapped because I couldn’t figure out what weird was? That might sound weird but you see what’s weird to one person might seem perfectly normal to others. Like for instance, to a couch potato spending vacation time walking around the country in the name of pleasure would seem very weird yet to other like minded souls its perfectly normal. So my dilemma was do I list the things that I think others might think of me as being weird for or do I list the things that I consider myself weird for doing? In the end I decided that I never do anything weird so have listed some things I do that others might consider to be weird. First thing on the list is the fact that I never intentionally watch or listen to any sort of news broadcast, I have my reasons but won’t trouble you with them. I know some people consider me weird for refusing to miss live coverage of a Grand Prix. Another weird thing along the same lines is to sit up all night watching the Bathurst 1000 from Australia. As I’ve already said, some people would consider me weird for spending two weeks of my vacation time walking hundreds of miles in the name of pleasure. I’ve never done drugs, been to a night club had an affair or smoked a cigarette, that’s got to be weird - hasn’t it? I could go on but I’d better stop before someone decides I need to be certified or you get bored, or worse still scared and never visit me again, cos that would be a shame.

On The Mend.

Hello everyone, I would like to thank all those who missed me. Initially I didn’t bother to post on here as I thought you would all have plenty to do over Christmas without coming here to read what I had to say, especially as I didn’t have much to say for myself anyway. Also between Christmas and New Year I acquired a cold which was not especially bad until New Years Eve when it developed in to something much worse. We’d agreed to go to a party back home to let in the New Year and had it not been for Vicki being able to drive I wouldn’t have been coming home that night as every part of me ached, even my eye balls and I was rigid with cold so I spent the rest of last week either in bed or in the armchair in front of the fire in a fuzzy haze both freezing and sweating all at the same time. I find sitting around for days on end pretty boring even if I don't feel like doing anything, thankfully Jenny bought me the new Lewis Hamilton book for Christmas which is very good if like me you're in to F1, so I read that and watched TV most of the time. I went outside for the first time on Monday morning when I tried to do some work. I am getting stronger everyday but still have a bad chest and tire easily so I’m on light duties at work, if I feel myself getting drained I come home and rest a while. The people I work for have not pressured me to return to work or anything and I could probably have had more time off had I wanted. The trouble is when you sit around and do nothing you start to wonder if you really are ill or whether you just got lazy. Anyway hopefully I will slowly improve now. I think Vicki will be sort of pleased when that happens then she can have the TV back to herself on a night.

I bought Vicki her very own laptop computer for Christmas which she is very pleased with. She plans to do some posts to her blog in the near future when she’s learnt how to get the hang of it. She hasn’t really done that much with a computer so is busy learning at the moment. Also with me being ill I’ve neither felt like showing her or had the patience as I have to confess to not being very tolerant when ill, especially when it’s the flu. Really I hate it, I’d rather someone came up to me and give me a good kick on the leg than cough in my face and give me the flu.

My previous post will probably have sounded a bit cryptic so I will just explain that it relates to the Christmas present I got for Fallon. Who by the way was very poorly with the flu all over Christmas so that was a shame for her. Anyway she's had her own computer for a while now but was not online with it so as a Christmas present I got us all online by way of a wireless router and so I did the previous post you see on my blog and then got the page up on her computer so that when she walked in to her room there was the page and the surprise of being connected to the net. She was very pleased even though she was feeling quite poorly.

We had a very frightening moment on Sunday evening when Tippy started staggering around the house and falling over on the floor followed by being sick several times. First chance we got on Monday morning we took her to the vet expecting to hear the worse - you know how it is. Thankfully it turned out to be nothing worse than a sort of ear infection which is affecting her balance. The vet says she will get over it in time and it is something that older dogs can be prone too. I doubt she will ever get better though as she is now being pampered more than a royal Corgi and seems to be enjoying it way too much to ever want to get better!!

Best Wishes,
Bob.

Merry Christmas Fallon.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FALLON!

I'm going to have to stop talking about you on here now LOL!

Lots of love from Dad, Tippy, Tommy & Scampi XXX

Spare A Thought.

Hello Everyone, I hope you're all okay and looking forward to the Christmas break and we must spare a thought for those who don't get a break over Christmas, the fact that they don't get a break is a measure of their importance and this is something that needs to be recognised by all us lesser souls.

We have Jo and David coming over in a minute for Christmas Eve supper so that will be nice as we also have my parents here too so I'd better get off back and join in the fun.

Happy Christmas to you all,

Bob.

Tough Guys.

Low Temp: 2C
Shady High: 6C
Direct Sun High: 12C
Weather Today: As you can see from above today has been much warmer than of late due mainly to teh sun putting in an appearance for the first time in a week.

Todays picture from our Scotland Holiday was taken at Dalmally, we called in here to take a look in the gift shop and church, the gift shop was open but unfortunately the church was close.

I couldn't help notice in the garden how well the Geraniums have stood up to the cold weather we've been having. I've always considered them to be tender plants but is seems that isn't so as the ones in the picture are no less that 20 feet away from a thermometer that took a reading the other day of minus 6C and these aren't the only ones to survive. I have small group that survived all last winter planted out in the border and are still going well to this day.

Stolen Purse.

Low Temp: -6C
Shady High: 3C
Direct Sun High: 3C
Weather Today: Another dull, cold day

I hope you all had a good weekend. I enjoyed my time off although we had a bit of an upset on Saturday evening when Fallon called from town to say that someone had stolen her purse so had no money for a taxi home. Unfortunately they also got her cash cards and driving licence along with a few other things. When Vicki got there some police were across the road so she went over to them to tell them but they weren't really interested telling her to go to the police station, no doubt they had more important things to do.

Today has just been another one of those tidy up days for me. I had to go to the farm for another gas cylinder so I also picked up some more hay for the sheep as I don't want to be running round for hay during my holidays. I wasn't really looking forward to going as the tractor wa playing up last time I went but after a bit of a cough and splutter it didn't go to badly. I will need to get it looked at after Christmas though as I need it to be running properly for when the grass starts growing again.