h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just about..

To add to the irony of snow one week and +30 the next . . .


'Firefighters worked through the night to help keep a roaring brush fire from destroying homes in a rural area northeast of Edmonton.
Scorched trees stand near Opal, Alta., about 60 kilometres northeast of Edmonton, on Friday.

Strong winds helped fan the flames of the fire, which has grown to about 3,000 hectares near Opal, about 60 kilometres north of Edmonton.'

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2010/05/17/edmonton-fire-evacuation.html#ixzz0oDFIXxc4

Ewww - that is so bad!

Suns shining in God's County Kernow of course

My coral pink divine hawthorn.

http://bit.ly/ceqdJ8

Wow - stunning colours effers! thanks for sharing. Makes me wish to be there English Springtime is my favourite season.

Glad you like it Lanza. It has a very special place in my heart, because it appeared in my garden as a seedling about 17 years ago..presumably dropped as a berry by a bird..I moved it to its present location. I love that its a strange mixture of the traditional wild white May and the cultivated red variety. A funny mixture of the civilised and wild..a bit like myself

I like individuals - they are the best sort.

I wonder - have you ever tried taking cuttings and growing them? June/July might be good for an attempt.

There's a couple of seedlings that have come up naturally below the tree in the last couple of years. I've moved them to places to act as sort of hedge plants, but I'll make sure I keep cutting them down so they don't actually turn into big trees..or I might be creating a pink hawthorn plantation..it might annoy the neighbours. An oak seedling has also appeared out of nowhere; now I really do need to keep that small I've a lovely Linden tree also growing up the back, seeded by birds. It's quite amazing to me that such things appear in the middle of such an urban area. But it might be because there's a fair few quite wild parks in the area..and a wonderful overgrown Victorian cemetry.

Brambles! In Rosemary Sutcliffe's retelling of the Celtic love story of Tristran and Isult (spellings vary, and these spellings come off the top of my head), Isult's hair is described as "the colour of brambles when the sap rises in them in the springtime". I looked out for that the spring after I first read it. I'd never noticed before how beautiful brambles are when the sap rises in them in the springtime. It's an extraordinary colour.

TRiG.

http://rosemarysutcliff.wordpress.com/2010/05/22/rosemary-sutcliff-on-hair-the-colour-of-and-brambles-in-tristan-and-iseult-sutcliff-discovery-of-the-day/

Tig you've made this thread famous.

Weather update from Alberta:






Frost expected tonight.



This is why I do most of my gardening in relatively movable containers and keep a large tarp handy. And a string of Christmas lights to toss in with the tomatoes under the tarp if the goes on too long.





Did I mention +30 about a week ago?

And snow about a week before that?

And high 20s a week before that?

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/05/23/toronto-body.html

Borrowed from Talisin, there's Toronto's solution to your bizarre weather problem, though I'd have thought apart from the potential downside of lead contamination, a more organic option would have been as plant food.

Hey Trig, I was amazed to see that Charles Keeping illustrated Rosemary Sutcliff's books.

http://rosemarysutcliff.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/charles-keeping-cover-for-rosemary-sutcliffs-dawn-wind/

I met him a few times and his wife, shortly before he died, because he was a long standing friend of a former partner of mine.

I read the Wiki article about him. This fascinated me.

'..and joined the Royal Navy as a wireless operator. He returned to civvy street in 1946 with a profound depression and a belief that a head wound he had sustained had disfigured him on the inside as well as (temporarily) on the outside, and would cause him to turn evil like Dr Jekyll becoming Mr Hyde. He received treatment, was institutionalised for a time, and made a full recovery, but perhaps his sympathetic visual treatments of Frankenstein's monster and Grendel, the monster from Beowulf, owe something to this period of his life.'

From,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Keeping

How did you get to know about her work?

Wow, just saw a sparrow hawk drop down and grab a sparrow from my tangled hedge. Magnificent.

BTW I've had to go back to conventional snail/slug pellets. The new ultra 'natural' stuff was useless.

This is getting tiresome:


Today

Rain. Rain mixed with snow near noon. Rainfall amount 5 to 10 mm. High 7.


Tonight

Rain at times mixed with snow. Rainfall amount 10 mm. Low plus 2.



Sunday

Rain ending in the evening then cloudy. Rain at times mixed with snow in the morning. Rainfall amount 5 to 10 mm. Wind becoming north 20 km/h in the afternoon. High plus 5.


http://www.cbc.ca/edmonton/weather/s0000045.html



for some reason things aren't growing very quickly.

Oh you poor thing..but it's looking better later in the week..same here, in fact by wednesday we'll both the same Don't worry things will catch up.

you can cancel the 'rain mixed with' from the phrase 'rain mixed with snow' -- big fluffy flakes are falling now. I think I'd better trudge back out to cover things up and bring things in.

Sounds like you need some horticultural fleece? It's always the way - you think the weather has improved enough to take everything out, and plant it - then another wave of cold air moves across.

for better weather all round.