Thank you to Rich R for sending us this tranquil scene of what it was like in the Lake District on Sunday just gone. It looks glorious Rich, very relaxing. He was saying it got very windy later and colder weather is forecast sadly. We’ll leave you all with this great snapshot in time!
Another big thanks goes out to Rich R in the Lake District for sending us a pic of what the view was like from his front window earlier today. This picture was taken just after the morning snow stopped and he also told us minus 5 is on the cards for tonight. Brrrr, that’s all you need. Keep warm Rich!
By all accounts Forest Hill is supposedly having a couple of cold nights this week so BBC Weather reckons. Anyway here’s an apt named tune from Hoodish Recordings in Tokyo from an artist called MaL (PART2STYLE) and it’s called Powder Snow Dub and a nice tune it is!
A big cheers goes out to Rich R in the Lake District for sending us a few pictures from his front door this week. And what a view! As Rich told us: “Here’s the view out front this lunchtime. A bit of context here, the distance from one end of the photo to the other is 6 miles. Imagine how many buildings London has in that space!” He ain’t wrong there. We worked out that Forest Hill to Elephant and Castle is 5 miles or so, so that is some width!
Pic below “This is looking south from the doorstep towards Keswick , 2 miles away and in the foreground.” Now there’s a great view from the front door. Cheers for sending the pics in Rich!
Cheers to Rich R in the Lake District for sending us his pic of the Halo moon (“and is that Jupiter to the right?” said in the best Patrck Moore voice) taken at 10.30pm on Saturday night. We were well tucked up in bed at that time knackered after that little bit of work in the garden, the lightweights that we are. Cheers for that Rich, it’s a great photo!
And talking of Patrick Moore here’s possibly one of the best youtube clips ever, apologies as we do roll this out a few times a year as it love it so much. The handwriting part is excellent. “Keep watching the skies” as they say.
Big thanks to Rich R in the Lake District for sending us a photo of Skiddaw (3054 feet) The snow has come a couple of weeks later than usual but it is there now (remember the last post from Rich here). Rich was saying it is quite a labourious walk of 3 hours to get to the peak with not many twists and turns but from the top you can see as far as Scotland across the Solway, The Isle of Man to the South and Northern Ireland to the west. Now that is one view!
And it looks like from the doorstep they get good night skies too. The top night picture has a tinge of the northern lights. Cheers for those Rich.
Big thanks to Rich R in the Lake District for sending us these great pictures. The snow cap peak is Blencathra or as the Victorian Tourists named it, Saddleback. What is strange is that the pic was taken (from his front doorstep) 3 years ago to the very day.
Now fast forward 3 years and look at the weather up there today (pic below), you wouldn’t think it was November. This morning in Forest Hill we picked some ripe cherry tomatoes off a plant in the back. How mad is that? Cheers for the pics Rich!
Last week we received some pictures of local vegetation from our good friend Wlad (US7IGN) in Kyiv, Ukraine spotted while on his daily walk. We sadly haven’t got much knowledge when it comes to foraging but would love to know more about wild plantlife.
As for the picture Wlad sent above, these here are the same flower aren’t they? Those were seen a long while ago in the Welsh countryside (here). As far as we know from a comment posted at the time from our friend Jan, they are Yellow Toadflax. More on the plant here. Thanks for these pics Wlad as they are interesting viewing.
We’ve also just heard from Rich R in the Lake District saying he left the garden for a week and those Fox and Cubs have taken over and are a foot tall. Crazy stuff! Wild plants eh?
Cheers to Rich R for sending a photo his daughter took from the middle of Bassenthwaite Lake. It’s looking towards Skiddaw a mountain (and once volcano) in the Lake District that is 931m/3054 feet high. As Rich tells us “It’s the mountain that dominates the view in our back garden” Wow that is some mountain and if you see that from your back garden that is something else! Excellent Rich and ta to your daughter for taking the photo.
We know the fish are feeding hence near the surface but the barley straw may be working in the pond. It’s been two weeks and we can see a little bit of difference as you could only see the tips of the fishes mouths before. We will keep you posted!
Big thanks to our good friend Wlad (US7IGN) in Kyiv, Ukraine for the excellent picture of one big palm tree in the glasshouse of one of the two botanical gardens there. Wlad was saying his good friend Sergiy UT3UFD (whose banana plant we’ve featured here and here) loves going there and Wlad said the thing that he personally likes when he’s also there are the tall palm trees as they are “Perfect antenna masts” brilliant Wlad! Links to both botanical gardens here and here.
Great to hear from Gerry Hectic who sent a recent pic of his pond. He was saying the water levels have gotten a little low and weeds have seemed to taken over but “I thought I’d just heard a frog croak!” Great stuff on that Gerry!
We also heard from Rich R again from the Lake District who showed us his great garden with breathtaking views at the end of March here. The picture above which locals call fox and cubs are all over his garden. He was saying the flower which is in the family Asteraceae is native to alpine regions of central and southern Europe. There is a theory that they may have been brought over by the romans alongside other plants including some fig trees in the area that are very old now. His garden is next to a roman road and about 15 miles from the west end of Hadrians Wall. Who knows but it’s interesting stuff!
Well it’s the longest day today so happy solstice to one and all and thanks to our mates all over for sending us some great pictures. We are always interested in plant and gardening related pics so do send them over!
Big shout to Rich R for getting in touch with us after a good few years with pictures of his garden in the Lake District. We don’t think you can get a better view than that from a back garden. We all moan about the winter but there’ll be no more moaning if the pic below was the view from your front door.
We get a bit frustrated here with the Ladywell Fields Heron, Lewisham Parakeets and the south London sliced-bread snaffling Fox posse but up there they have proper wildlife to contend with: badgers, deer and rabbits which eat everything veg wise if they were to grow it. So Rich grows wild fruit and strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and a bit of marjoram. The back garden is literally on the side of a mountain, made up of 5 terraces and rises to about 500 ft. How good is that?
It’s a good looking garden Rich and the carpet of bluebells look great and we’re loving it here, more pictures please as the season cracks on!
Weeds up to me knees 
