I’m getting fruit on some of my pepper plants already!
This one is “Zitava”, which I believe is often used to make paprika. I’m going to have to have a go at that if I get enough fruit.
And this is “Hungarian Black”. Sounds like it should be something recreational and consciousness-expanding (perhaps it is?), but is not that different from a Jalapeno. The black colour is not an indication that the fruit is fully ripe however. At full ripeness they are the most amazing glassy red.
We’re close, but don’t quite have tomatoes ready in the polytunnel yet, so we’re still unhappily having to buy them. Whilst assembling my lunch I came across this pair of Siamese tomatoes.
Or are we supposed to call them “conjoined tomatoes” these days?
Never seen that in commercially-produced tomatoes before.
Yes, I’ve been putting this off for a few days. Not entirely sure why, really. Possibly because I’ve not actually done any welding for a few years now and I’m a bit out of practice.
So, I wheeled out the MIG, found some scrap to play with, checked my mask was still working and got my head back into it.
I posted at the time that the support bracket (that controls the height) for the cutting deck on the ride-on mower was in more pieces than the manufacturer intended.
After getting my eye in as much as I could be bothered, I set the pieces up in a vice, tacked them together and then welded the broken arm back onto the rest of the bracket.
No, you’re not having a closer photo than that. It’s not exactly welding I’m proud of 😀 I think it will do the job though. And whilst I remember, I’m sure you’ll see plenty of Asians doing it on YouTube, but welding in shorts and rubber clogs: it’s not big and it’s not clever.
Refitting the bracket was a bit of a pig because there wasn’t so much clearance for tools when the bracket was fixed and I ended up having to re-fit a couple of R-clips by touch. Then I noticed that the deck wasn’t level so I adjusted that, too. A first trial run around the veggie plot (so I can walk out there without ticks jumping on my legs) looks quite positive.
“Two-hour delays as M5 closes due to risk of falling electricity cables”
This is in Somerset, where it seems the weekly, or even bi-weekly, closure of the M5 has achieved the status of a traditional event over the last two or three years. Even when there’s no accident it has to happen 😀
“French energy giant to give schools millions in euros for cooling systems”
EDF, in this case. But I wonder if it’s as generous a gift as it seems, given that the recipients may well be buying more power to run the cooling systems? And there was a headline the other day that EDF had to take some of its nuclear generation plant offline because the water they were extracting for cooling was too warm.
“Caution urged as London pavements hit 57C”.
At that point you surely have to see if you can fry an egg or two?
Adding to the issues that I’m dealing with at present in terms of how the medication I’m taking is messing up my body, today was the hottest UK June day on record, measured less than twenty miles from my home (36.7°C). On top of that it has been very humid. I have achieved almost nothing, not helped by a significant lack of sleep last night.
Fortunately tomorrow is supposed to be about 10°C cooler. We’ll see.
If this sort of thing keeps happening then I might have to discuss moving somewhere cooler. Greece, perhaps?
Coverage in the media, etc. etc. You’d think they could actually get someone to proof-read their listings then, wouldn’t you?
This is what the Met Office promised us for tonight.
I was sooo looking forward to it; a decent size thunderstorm and rain to water the garden too.
But no. I saw a couple of lightning strikes, one of which was really quite impressive in all fairness, and there’s been a minimal amount of rain. The latter is quite frustrating given that I didn’t water anything outside in the veggie plot this evening on the basis that if they’re forecasting rain for seven or eight hours you’d like to think that a worthwhile amount would fall.
They came at me mob-handed when I went to water the polytunnel this evening. All told I killed fourteen of them. I perhaps shouldn’t have slapped the one that landed in the middle of the front of my shorts quite so hard though 😀
Anyhow, that brings the current score to 48-3 in my favour. I reckon I stand more chance than Scotland of getting through to the next stage…
