Author Topic: Tales from the Lock-Down  (Read 77933 times)

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Tales from the Lock-Down
« Reply #50 on: 26 March, 2020, 10:22:23 am »
Bloody hell! At these prices, we've just bunged about £10000's worth in the garden waste bin!

This is the stuff:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303456666997

It's classed as an invasive species apparently, under the Wildlife & Countryside Act and it's an offence to plant it out in the wild.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

ian

Re: Tales from the Lock-Down
« Reply #51 on: 26 March, 2020, 10:51:02 am »
I'm pretty sure wild garlic is native to the UK and Europe. I expect the WCA says you can't just go out and harvest it en masse from the local woods (nicking some is fine, I'm sure). Just make sure you're picking the right thing, there are two very poisonous look-a-likes that grow side-by-side with wild garlic.

Re: Tales from the Lock-Down
« Reply #52 on: 26 March, 2020, 11:07:31 am »
Our re-homed pre-loved executive chair is fine for an hour or so. For me to use all day wfh, not so much.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Mrs Pingu

  • Who ate all the pies? Me
    • Twitter
Re: Tales from the Lock-Down
« Reply #53 on: 26 March, 2020, 11:07:57 am »
That bell shaped flower is not what I believe to be wild garlic
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

Re: Tales from the Lock-Down
« Reply #54 on: 26 March, 2020, 11:12:16 am »
That bell shaped flower is not what I believe to be wild garlic

Indeed, it isn't.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

ian

Re: Tales from the Lock-Down
« Reply #55 on: 26 March, 2020, 11:17:01 am »
I didn't look at the link, but no it isn't. Wild garlic is Allium ursinum (named because the bears eat it). While part of the same family, it's not that closely related to cultivated garlic (it's closer to a chive and you can eat the leaves and stems, makes a nice pesto).

SoreTween

  • Most of me survived the Pennine Bridleway.
Re: Tales from the Lock-Down
« Reply #56 on: 26 March, 2020, 11:29:02 am »
I've been trying to get wild garlic to grow in our garden since we moved here 7 years ago.  Damn stuff will not take.  There's loads of it around the forest in verges so it can't be our soil at fault.  I've been a good boy and bought it all from garden centres and must have spent £50 on it without so much as a solitary cheese & wild garlic sandwich to show for it.

In other news our Who Gives a Crap order just turned up.  I'd say handy timing except we've still got 1/3 of the December batch.  Mrs Tween is online now adjusting the frequency, this is only our 2nd batch.
2023 targets: Survive. Maybe.
There is only one infinite resource in this universe; human stupidity.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Tales from the Lock-Down
« Reply #57 on: 26 March, 2020, 11:35:57 am »
I didn't look at the link, but no it isn't. Wild garlic is Allium ursinum (named because the bears eat it). While part of the same family, it's not that closely related to cultivated garlic (it's closer to a chive and you can eat the leaves and stems, makes a nice pesto).

Amaryllis family, sez Wiki, so if you sport with Amaryllis in the shade don't let the missus sniff you.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: Tales from the Lock-Down
« Reply #58 on: 26 March, 2020, 12:08:14 pm »
I've been trying to get wild garlic to grow in our garden since we moved here 7 years ago.  Damn stuff will not take.  There's loads of it around the forest in verges so it can't be our soil at fault.  I've been a good boy and bought it all from garden centres and must have spent £50 on it without so much as a solitary cheese & wild garlic sandwich to show for it.

In other news our Who Gives a Crap order just turned up.  I'd say handy timing except we've still got 1/3 of the December batch.  Mrs Tween is online now adjusting the frequency, this is only our 2nd batch.

Just lift a few bulbs from the wild, it’ll spread no problem! 
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: Tales from the Lock-Down
« Reply #59 on: 26 March, 2020, 12:24:20 pm »
I didn't look at the link, but no it isn't. Wild garlic is Allium ursinum (named because the bears eat it). While part of the same family, it's not that closely related to cultivated garlic (it's closer to a chive and you can eat the leaves and stems, makes a nice pesto).

Amaryllis family, sez Wiki, so if you sport with Amaryllis in the shade don't let the missus sniff you.

There's a song about going there, by Tony Christie?
It is simpler than it looks.

ian

Re: Tales from the Lock-Down
« Reply #60 on: 26 March, 2020, 12:35:38 pm »
Needs shade and a mildly acidic soil, other than that, it's not very choosy.

Alliums were Liliaceae, they got shifted to the Amaryllidaceae. Lilies are a bit of a mushy taxonomic family, anything that looked vaguely lily-like got shoved in there.

In the further tales of random facts that fall out of my head, alliums have some of the largest reported divergences in the size of their genomes which gives rise to the 'onion test' paradox regarding 'junk DNA' – why very similar species have massively divergent genome sizes.

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: Tales from the Lock-Down
« Reply #61 on: 26 March, 2020, 12:48:42 pm »
It doesn't need shade, and grows in pretty much anything by my experience. I had some in the veg beds, in full sun and it went bonkers. So much so that I dug it up and put it in a pot where it has gone bonkers.  I now have it in both a bed and a pot.

It's the Jerusalem Artichoke of the allium world
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Tales from the Lock-Down
« Reply #62 on: 26 March, 2020, 01:46:49 pm »
I've just had a cheese & invasive weed omelette. Delicious!
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Mrs Pingu

  • Who ate all the pies? Me
    • Twitter
Re: Tales from the Lock-Down
« Reply #63 on: 26 March, 2020, 04:51:20 pm »
Huh, I'd read that it preferred to grow under trees as well.
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

andytheflyer

  • Andytheex-flyer.....
Re: Tales from the Lock-Down
« Reply #64 on: 26 March, 2020, 06:05:23 pm »
He's finally flipped.....  It's even got to Big Clive......  (if you don't know BC, then this might be a bit of a shock - you have been warned).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7dzQFk81rU

ian

Re: Tales from the Lock-Down
« Reply #65 on: 26 March, 2020, 07:15:40 pm »
Huh, I'd read that it preferred to grow under trees as well.

Normally grows in similar places as the bluebells. I suppose it just might normally get outcompeted by other plants in bright sunlight, most plants struggle in the shade of a forest floor so it might have the edge.

Mrs Pingu

  • Who ate all the pies? Me
    • Twitter
Re: Tales from the Lock-Down
« Reply #66 on: 26 March, 2020, 07:29:07 pm »
I might have a sneaky eye out for some on tomorrow's permitted exercise.
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

Re: Tales from the Lock-Down
« Reply #67 on: 26 March, 2020, 07:38:49 pm »
I have had 2 people help us out with food. organised a food package from a local  charity and the other has bought a  bag of food which must have cost £30/£40 and would not take money for it   :o .
I'm truly overwhelmed with their generosity  :D


the slower you go the more you see

Re: Tales from the Lock-Downa
« Reply #68 on: 26 March, 2020, 08:06:31 pm »
I had my first juggling lesson this morning and later worked out a possible idea for a sculpture.



fuzzy

Re: Tales from the Lock-Down
« Reply #69 on: 27 March, 2020, 12:11:45 am »
Lock Down? What bloody lock down. I'm working my arse off at the moment keeping the cycling public going.....

sam

Re: Tales from the Lock-Down
« Reply #70 on: 27 March, 2020, 02:01:37 am »
I’ve been getting updates from my sister in Ohio, one of the more proactive states. They have a nice gym in a house about three times the size of ours, with two huge dogs. They’ll be getting a lot of exercise.

My wife and I are very fortunate in that it’s nearly impossible to feel locked down where we live.



She’s got glaucoma, with a trip to Moorfields Eye Hospital scheduled in May.

(click to show/hide)

We’re having the same worries as so many about food. Ocado is impossible, and the supermarkets around here are, in one’s perhaps not-so-fevered imagination, poorly stocked plague pits. So I'm starting to lose a bit of weight (we've been making ourselves homebodies for a few weeks now), even while my hair is once again saved from the chop.


Just about to get on the road: everything old is new again

I may be missing a haircut, especially on rides as it gets warmer, but I didn’t miss the MOT for our trusty Toyota, even as I felt a bit like Howard Hughes in my prep work.

Unsurprisingly, the Velosolo Club (blog currently being updated across another road) is swelling in its ranks.


Last call

Yesterday evening the rich folks across the valley observed the 8 o’clock applause by setting off fireworks.

sam

Re: Tales from the Lock-Down
« Reply #71 on: 27 March, 2020, 05:12:34 am »
…and just back from a walk. 3-5 hits a sweet spot for me.


Me too

I’d ride, but that’s probably not such a great idea at night with the roads around here reduced to the state they’re in.

The bunny was waiting. He wanted his daily serving of crack cocaine rabbit chow. What he sees in that stuff, beats me.


5 grams? #You’reJokingRight?

But then, I like plain oats, served cold.


Did you say oats? Where have you been hiding them?

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: Tales from the Lock-Down
« Reply #72 on: 27 March, 2020, 07:15:03 am »
wild garlic in my omlette this morning

I think the veg patch is going to become higher profile this year
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Re: Tales from the Lock-Down
« Reply #73 on: 27 March, 2020, 10:45:09 am »
Well, went out for the weekly shop, this time to the M&S food store in the local town. Car park 1/3 full (this is one of three town car parks. Got there at 9, just after the NHS hour. No queue to get in. Shelves pretty well stocked, only limit seemed to be on milk (2 bottles). Plenty of booze, fresh veg, meat, etc.  Chatting to a lady in the checkout queue, she'd just dropped her daughter off at the local Tesco, where they were turning people away from the queue to get in!.  Sooooo glad I decided to not go.   Then to the farm shop. No purple sprouting sadly, but everything else seemed to be available.  A successful hours outing, including a quick blast up and down the bypass to get the car thoroughly warm albeit not enough for the stop-start to kick in.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Re: Tales from the Lock-Down
« Reply #74 on: 27 March, 2020, 11:46:55 am »
I went to the local Waitrose yesterday around 2. Queue of around 15 people to get in the door, all massively over-estimating 2m. As you got closer to the door, there were plant pots spaced at 2m intervals, which everyone was ignoring!
Once inside, everyone was keeping well away from everyone else (except the staff, who would walk right past you!). The shelves were pretty good, though the freezer section was missing gluten free stuff. There was a limit of 3 of any item.