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Post by Northy on Nov 24, 2016 11:30:45 GMT
Yes, it could have been a green woodpecker, they are mainly ground eating, ants, insects etc. Cheers, northwich - I never knew about the ground feeding. If so, I'm pleased - although I hear woodpeckers in the woods round and about frequently, I think that is the first time I have seen a green woodpecker out in the open, so to speak. I saw one on the grass by our office in Reading, on thames valley park and got a photo of it, they are known as the flying ant eaters. My eldest lad works for the rspb and sent a picture at the weekend from a feeding station, great spotted on the feeder and a green on the grass
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Post by murphthesurf on Nov 24, 2016 12:20:20 GMT
A question for all you twitchers on here. During my run this morning, I disturbed a bird that flew up away from a drystone wall in front of me. I only caught sight of the back, but size-wise it was perhaps between a blackbird and a pigeon. The back was a similar colour to a greenfinch, and it flew up into an ash tree where I lost sight of it. I've looked in me books, and the only thing that comes close was maybe a green woodpecker, but I didn't notice the red head and would it have been resting on a drystone wall? Or do I need to go to Specsavers? About ten years ago Bridgemere Garden World used to have regular Saturday morning talks by a marvellous local ornithologist called David Tideswell - he was wonderfully knowledgeable and an incredibly entertaining speaker with a great sense of humour which he also managed to weave into his fascinating talks to make them even more interesting. I'm sure that one of the talks very briefly mentioned woodpeckers - they were never the actual single subject of any of his talks as were, for instance, Robins or Blue Tits, so I guess the mention of them must probably have been in connection with the various ways in which different birds feed (hence all their different 'styles' of beak, etc.) - and I'm sure there was a mention that male woodpeckers of one variety have a red cap, whilst the females do not. Here's a pic of David: www.derbyshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/events/2015/04/14/birds-spring-and-summer
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Post by murphthesurf on Nov 24, 2016 12:22:40 GMT
Cheers, northwich - I never knew about the ground feeding. If so, I'm pleased - although I hear woodpeckers in the woods round and about frequently, I think that is the first time I have seen a green woodpecker out in the open, so to speak. I saw one on the grass by our office in Reading, on thames valley park and got a photo of it, they are known as the flying ant eaters. My eldest lad works for the rspb and sent a picture at the weekend from a feeding station, great spotted on the feeder and a green on the grass I get the Great Spotteds on the hanging peanut feeders in my garden - the most I've ever seen at the same time is three. Always a thrill to see them.
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Post by potterinleeds on Nov 24, 2016 12:34:11 GMT
A question for all you twitchers on here. During my run this morning, I disturbed a bird that flew up away from a drystone wall in front of me. I only caught sight of the back, but size-wise it was perhaps between a blackbird and a pigeon. The back was a similar colour to a greenfinch, and it flew up into an ash tree where I lost sight of it. I've looked in me books, and the only thing that comes close was maybe a green woodpecker, but I didn't notice the red head and would it have been resting on a drystone wall? Or do I need to go to Specsavers? About ten years ago Bridgemere Garden World used to have regular Saturday morning talks by a marvellous local ornithologist called David Tideswell - he was wonderfully knowledgeable and an incredibly entertaining speaker with a great sense of humour which he also managed to weave into his fascinating talks to make them even more interesting. I'm sure that one of the talks very briefly mentioned woodpeckers - they were never the actual single subject of any of his talks as were, for instance, Robins or Blue Tits, so I guess the mention of them must probably have been in connection with the various ways in which different birds feed (hence all their different 'styles' of beak, etc.) - and I'm sure there was a mention that male woodpeckers of one variety have a red cap, whilst the females do not. Here's a pic of David: www.derbyshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/events/2015/04/14/birds-spring-and-summer
Cheers for that, murph.
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Post by murphthesurf on Nov 24, 2016 16:45:53 GMT
About ten years ago Bridgemere Garden World used to have regular Saturday morning talks by a marvellous local ornithologist called David Tideswell - he was wonderfully knowledgeable and an incredibly entertaining speaker with a great sense of humour which he also managed to weave into his fascinating talks to make them even more interesting. I'm sure that one of the talks very briefly mentioned woodpeckers - they were never the actual single subject of any of his talks as were, for instance, Robins or Blue Tits, so I guess the mention of them must probably have been in connection with the various ways in which different birds feed (hence all their different 'styles' of beak, etc.) - and I'm sure there was a mention that male woodpeckers of one variety have a red cap, whilst the females do not. Here's a pic of David: www.derbyshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/events/2015/04/14/birds-spring-and-summer
Cheers for that, murph. You're very welcome, Potter! If I can ever find out where/when David might be giving another talk I'll post it on 'ere...... they're enormously enjoyable. You spend half the time enthralled at his knowledge and the other half laughing at his wisecracks - he's hilarious! I'm pretty sure his talks at Bridgemere stopped abruptly when the garden centre was sold by John Ravenscroft and bought by the Wyevale Chain (I think it was) of garden centres (and rapidly went downhill.....)
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Post by murphthesurf on Nov 24, 2016 17:10:15 GMT
Aha! Murph speaks the truth! (**Breathes on her fingernails and polishes them on her lapel**)I typed the first reply above about woodies quickly this morning before having to go out…. now I'm back I've had a chance to check in one of our bird books, 'RSPB Birds of Britain and Europe', on page 233 of which it gives loads of info on the Great Spotted Woodpecker, including: 'Male - Red patch on back of head. Female - no red on nape.' (See, David, I WAS listening!) Here's the book: www.amazon.co.uk/RSPB-Birds-Britain-Europe-DK/dp/1405362022/ref=sr_1_29?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1480006426&sr=1-29&keywords=birds+of+britainThe Amazon page has one of those 'look inside' options - if you scroll through and our above woodie doesn't happen to appear, press the 'surprise me' option - I did this a couple of times and then the third time I did it, it actually bought up page 233! RESULT!
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Post by potterinleeds on Nov 25, 2016 20:01:29 GMT
You're very welcome, Potter! If I can ever find out where/when David might be giving another talk I'll post it on 'ere...... they're enormously enjoyable. You spend half the time enthralled at his knowledge and the other half laughing at his wisecracks - he's hilarious! I'm pretty sure his talks at Bridgemere stopped abruptly when the garden centre was sold by John Ravenscroft and bought by the Wyevale Chain (I think it was) of garden centres (and rapidly went downhill.....) Blimey, I haven't been there in years, although I think my old ma and pa still go sometimes. I've always been a big sci-fi fan, and I remember as a kid nagging them to take me there because they had one of the triffids from the BBC's version of the 'Day of the Triffids' on display amongst the insect-eating plants. It was ace!
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Post by cheeesfreeex on Nov 25, 2016 20:29:20 GMT
You're very welcome, Potter! If I can ever find out where/when David might be giving another talk I'll post it on 'ere...... they're enormously enjoyable. You spend half the time enthralled at his knowledge and the other half laughing at his wisecracks - he's hilarious! I'm pretty sure his talks at Bridgemere stopped abruptly when the garden centre was sold by John Ravenscroft and bought by the Wyevale Chain (I think it was) of garden centres (and rapidly went downhill.....) Blimey, I haven't been there in years, although I think my old ma and pa still go sometimes. I've always been a big sci-fi fan, and I remember as a kid nagging them to take me there because they had one of the triffids from the BBC's version of the 'Day of the Triffids' on display amongst the insect-eating plants. It was ace! Big fan of carnivorous plants. Had several Pitcher plants, sundews and Venus flytraps over the years. Bought a few sundews for around the pond, they've 'migrated' and come across them seeded around the place. There was an interesting display at Jodrell Bank recently, put the idea into me head about having another blast at an indoor variety {lost the others in house moves etc.} For the moment content with one of our commonest indigenous insect digesters, the mighty Teasel in the garden. stock image, not my photo.
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Post by potterinleeds on Nov 26, 2016 17:58:56 GMT
Blimey, I haven't been there in years, although I think my old ma and pa still go sometimes. I've always been a big sci-fi fan, and I remember as a kid nagging them to take me there because they had one of the triffids from the BBC's version of the 'Day of the Triffids' on display amongst the insect-eating plants. It was ace! Big fan of carnivorous plants. Had several Pitcher plants, sundews and Venus flytraps over the years. Bought a few sundews for around the pond, they've 'migrated' and come across them seeded around the place. There was an interesting display at Jodrell Bank recently, put the idea into me head about having another blast at an indoor variety {lost the others in house moves etc.} For the moment content with one of our commonest indigenous insect digesters, the mighty Teasel in the garden. I've got teasels too - I love them. I've been lucky enough to see wild sundews up on the watershed in Wensleydale this year - bleak, black peat moorland, pools of stagnant water, a very isolated ruined lead smelting mill, and on the way, dots of red here and there; on closer examination, they were the thick, stubby leaved, native variety. I've got a couple of hanging pitcher plants that I put outside in the summer, and this year they seemed to catch dozens of wasps in particular. Kept those big long leaved sundews myself before, but never had much luck with Venus Fly Traps, cheesefreex. I was at Kew Gardens earlier on this year, and the Titan Arum flower spike was just swelling up to its most obscene. They had a cage around it to stop thieving old ladies getting cuttings etc and as I was there, a school party filed around in front of me. I heard two of the kids talking at the back, one asking 'Why has it got a cage around it?' and the other answering, quite earnestly, 'Because it eats people'. You can see why it might give that impression. I 've got books with 19th century travellers' tales about man-eating plants in Madagascar, but unfortunately, I don't think it can be true. Good tall story though.
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Post by cheeesfreeex on Nov 26, 2016 19:17:00 GMT
Big fan of carnivorous plants. Had several Pitcher plants, sundews and Venus flytraps over the years. Bought a few sundews for around the pond, they've 'migrated' and come across them seeded around the place. There was an interesting display at Jodrell Bank recently, put the idea into me head about having another blast at an indoor variety {lost the others in house moves etc.} For the moment content with one of our commonest indigenous insect digesters, the mighty Teasel in the garden. I've got teasels too - I love them. I've been lucky enough to see wild sundews up on the watershed in Wensleydale this year - bleak, black peat moorland, pools of stagnant water, a very isolated ruined lead smelting mill, and on the way, dots of red here and there; on closer examination, they were the thick, stubby leaved, native variety. I've got a couple of hanging pitcher plants that I put outside in the summer, and this year they seemed to catch dozens of wasps in particular. Kept those big long leaved sundews myself before, but never had much luck with Venus Fly Traps, cheesefreex. I was at Kew Gardens earlier on this year, and the Titan Arum flower spike was just swelling up to its most obscene. They had a cage around it to stop thieving old ladies getting cuttings etc and as I was there, a school party filed around in front of me. I heard two of the kids talking at the back, one asking 'Why has it got a cage around it?' and the other answering, quite earnestly, 'Because it eats people'. You can see why it might give that impression. I 've got books with 19th century travellers' tales about man-eating plants in Madagascar, but unfortunately, I don't think it can be true. Good tall story though. Them plant hunters and so on were fascinating chaps. As far as man eating plants go. Well, there were huge insects about when there was a different oxygen content in the air, was there similarly huge flora, and carnivorous species. Some may have overlapped with ape and man on the evolutionary journey. Probably just apocryphal. Posted this before, you don't need carnivorous plants when you've got a fungi. Fascinating mind manipulation.
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Post by Skankmonkey on Nov 26, 2016 19:22:33 GMT
That cordyceps is gruesome stuff.
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Post by Skankmonkey on Nov 26, 2016 19:29:08 GMT
Funghi is one area of foraging I'm not entirely confident with. It's crossed my mind to go on one of these recognition field trips next year. Anyone with experience/recommendations?
When I was a kid you had to get across the field early on to beat th'owd pit men to the mushrooms. :-)
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Post by potterinleeds on Nov 26, 2016 20:02:38 GMT
Funghi is one area of foraging I'm not entirely confident with. It's crossed my mind to go on one of these recognition field trips next year. Anyone with experience/recommendations? When I was a kid you had to get across the field early on to beat th'owd pit men to the mushrooms. :-) It's definitely not a subject for the unwary. I've been out with people up here with a lifetime's experience of foraging fungi / mushrooms, and quite often even they have been in doubt as to whether something is safe or not (so left it alone) - the differences between nutritious / lethal seemed almost vanishingly small to me, even when pointed out in detail. Like you though, it's something that I'd like to do more often - there are some delicious examples about
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Post by Skankmonkey on Nov 26, 2016 20:12:40 GMT
Funghi is one area of foraging I'm not entirely confident with. It's crossed my mind to go on one of these recognition field trips next year. Anyone with experience/recommendations? When I was a kid you had to get across the field early on to beat th'owd pit men to the mushrooms. :-) It's definitely not a subject for the unwary. I've been out with people up here with a lifetime's experience of foraging fungi / mushrooms, and quite often even they have been in doubt as to whether something is safe or not (so left it alone) - the differences between nutritious / lethal seemed almost vanishingly small to me, even when pointed out in detail. Like you though, it's something that I'd like to do more often - there are some delicious examples about Yep. I can pick out the more obvious edible ones like puffballs, blewits(yuk!), ceps and that but I'm not confident much beyond that - even with the assistance of the excellent Mushrooms Pro app!
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Post by Northy on Nov 26, 2016 20:22:52 GMT
stunning day today, cold frosty and foggy, very atmospheric, nice walk along the canal and river into town to see penguins, reindeer, xmas market and light switch on day only problem was that there was too many screaming kids about
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Post by cheeesfreeex on Nov 26, 2016 20:55:16 GMT
It's definitely not a subject for the unwary. I've been out with people up here with a lifetime's experience of foraging fungi / mushrooms, and quite often even they have been in doubt as to whether something is safe or not (so left it alone) - the differences between nutritious / lethal seemed almost vanishingly small to me, even when pointed out in detail. Like you though, it's something that I'd like to do more often - there are some delicious examples about Yep. I can pick out the more obvious edible ones like puffballs, blewits(yuk!), ceps and that but I'm not confident much beyond that - even with the assistance of the excellent Mushrooms Pro app! Puffball, v. obvious field mushrooms, and Jew's Ear only on my list. I choose to leave alone because I'm bound to get an Avenging Angel or some False Summat full of Coprin that'll liquidize me liver as soon as I take a glug of booze. Life's too short and in my opinion the benefits to the palate of truffles and most of the unusual mushrooms ain't worth any risk. You can buy 'em, jars of them pickled in Aldi. I'm against it. Leave them be.
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Post by Skankmonkey on Nov 26, 2016 21:23:08 GMT
Yep. I can pick out the more obvious edible ones like puffballs, blewits(yuk!), ceps and that but I'm not confident much beyond that - even with the assistance of the excellent Mushrooms Pro app! Puffball, v. obvious field mushrooms, and Jew's Ear only on my list. I choose to leave alone because I'm bound to get an Avenging Angel or some False Summat full of Coprin that'll liquidize me liver as soon as I take a glug of booze. Life's too short and in my opinion the benefits to the palate of truffles and most of the unusual mushrooms ain't worth any risk. You can buy 'em, jars of them pickled in Aldi. I'm against it. Leave them be. Those Aldi jars of Italian wild mushrooms are DEFINITELY the work of satan. I took one away with us one time and made us all puking ill. Terrible, terrible stuff.
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Post by chuffedstokie on Nov 26, 2016 21:36:46 GMT
Puffball, v. obvious field mushrooms, and Jew's Ear only on my list. I choose to leave alone because I'm bound to get an Avenging Angel or some False Summat full of Coprin that'll liquidize me liver as soon as I take a glug of booze. Life's too short and in my opinion the benefits to the palate of truffles and most of the unusual mushrooms ain't worth any risk. You can buy 'em, jars of them pickled in Aldi. I'm against it. Leave them be. Those Aldi jars of Italian wild mushrooms are DEFINITELY the work of satan. I took one away with us one time and made us all puking ill. Terrible, terrible stuff. Thanks for the warning. I've often wondered. I wonder if they still do that thing in France whereby you take your collection of wild pickings to the local pharmacy to have the guy check everything over. For a small commission of course.
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Post by cheeesfreeex on Nov 26, 2016 21:44:20 GMT
Puffball, v. obvious field mushrooms, and Jew's Ear only on my list. I choose to leave alone because I'm bound to get an Avenging Angel or some False Summat full of Coprin that'll liquidize me liver as soon as I take a glug of booze. Life's too short and in my opinion the benefits to the palate of truffles and most of the unusual mushrooms ain't worth any risk. You can buy 'em, jars of them pickled in Aldi. I'm against it. Leave them be. Those Aldi jars of Italian wild mushrooms are DEFINITELY the work of satan. I took one away with us one time and made us all puking ill. Terrible, terrible stuff. Serves you right. I tried the Chinese variety, and I've had packs of dried uns for rehydrating. All terrible, d'rather have fruits of the sea. Seaweed is the future, and fried ants and nutritous fly patties.. Worth thinking about, got mozzied again yesterday. Top of me Snack Chart.
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Post by Skankmonkey on Nov 26, 2016 22:12:50 GMT
Those Aldi jars of Italian wild mushrooms are DEFINITELY the work of satan. I took one away with us one time and made us all puking ill. Terrible, terrible stuff. Thanks for the warning. I've often wondered. I wonder if they still do that thing in France whereby you take your collection of wild pickings to the local pharmacy to have the guy check everything over. For a small commission of course. Yes, according to my brother, they still check them over for you. Handy. :-)
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Post by Skankmonkey on Nov 26, 2016 22:22:12 GMT
I've got teasels too - I love them. I've been lucky enough to see wild sundews up on the watershed in Wensleydale this year - bleak, black peat moorland, pools of stagnant water, a very isolated ruined lead smelting mill, and on the way, dots of red here and there; on closer examination, they were the thick, stubby leaved, native variety. I've got a couple of hanging pitcher plants that I put outside in the summer, and this year they seemed to catch dozens of wasps in particular. Kept those big long leaved sundews myself before, but never had much luck with Venus Fly Traps, cheesefreex. I was at Kew Gardens earlier on this year, and the Titan Arum flower spike was just swelling up to its most obscene. They had a cage around it to stop thieving old ladies getting cuttings etc and as I was there, a school party filed around in front of me. I heard two of the kids talking at the back, one asking 'Why has it got a cage around it?' and the other answering, quite earnestly, 'Because it eats people'. You can see why it might give that impression. I 've got books with 19th century travellers' tales about man-eating plants in Madagascar, but unfortunately, I don't think it can be true. Good tall story though. Them plant hunters and so on were fascinating chaps. As far as man eating plants go. Well, there were huge insects about when there was a different oxygen content in the air, was there similarly huge flora, and carnivorous species. Some may have overlapped with ape and man on the evolutionary journey. Probably just apocryphal. Posted this before, you don't need carnivorous plants when you've got a fungi. Fascinating mind manipulation. There is an asian caterpillar fungus probably of the same family as this called yartsa gunbu. It infects moths and the caterpillars burrow underground to provide sustenance for the fungus fruiting body. They dry it and sell it in Kathmandu as Tibetan Viagra!
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Post by felonious on Nov 26, 2016 23:43:13 GMT
stunning day today, cold frosty and foggy, very atmospheric, nice walk along the canal and river into town to see penguins, reindeer, xmas market and light switch on day only problem was that there was too many screaming kids about I was out running on the canal just after eight this morning. On the subject of kids respect to the father out at that time of the morning in freezing conditions with his two young sons on their bikes. The very opposite of screaming kids.
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Post by Skankmonkey on Nov 27, 2016 0:25:41 GMT
Yartsa Gunbu
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Post by cheeesfreeex on Nov 27, 2016 0:55:18 GMT
Yartsa Gunbu You wish.
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Post by murphthesurf on Nov 27, 2016 10:01:50 GMT
Blimey, I haven't been there in years, although I think my old ma and pa still go sometimes. I've always been a big sci-fi fan, and I remember as a kid nagging them to take me there because they had one of the triffids from the BBC's version of the 'Day of the Triffids' on display amongst the insect-eating plants. It was ace! Big fan of carnivorous plants. Had several Pitcher plants, sundews and Venus flytraps over the years. Bought a few sundews for around the pond, they've 'migrated' and come across them seeded around the place. There was an interesting display at Jodrell Bank recently, put the idea into me head about having another blast at an indoor variety {lost the others in house moves etc.} For the moment content with one of our commonest indigenous insect digesters, the mighty Teasel in the garden. stock image, not my photo. I'm sure that --- if you cut down & clear away dead plants in your garden at the end of the year --- you should leave teasels as they are because their seedheads are invaluable for birds to feed on…..
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Post by felonious on Nov 27, 2016 15:32:59 GMT
This morning I spotted no other than our resident canine hating poster Northwichstokie stroking a dog, a handsome black Lab. Rubbing my eyes I looked again, checking to see if he was having some sort of breakdown or under the influence of drugs, then my eyes wandered up the lead to see the reason for this transformation, a fine female specimen
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Papst
Lads'n'Dads
Posts: 58
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Post by Papst on Nov 27, 2016 16:10:05 GMT
Had to laugh today. Went up to Mum and Dad's for lunch and Dad was in a right sulk. Apparently my mum had been out in the garden this morning with the secateurs and hacked all the young branches and buds of Dad's prize Rhodedendron. It looked like Venus de Milo. World War III. I kid you not.
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Post by murphthesurf on Nov 27, 2016 16:43:21 GMT
Right, here we are: this is the only thing I can come up with so far for one of David's future talks - handy that you can attend one or two of their meetings without having to join….. Their www says: 'Visitors and new members are always welcome. You may attend as a visitor for two meetings to see if you like us before joining. SPS meets at the Women’s Institute Hall in Solihull – on the north side of the Warwick Road, beside the United Reformed Church.' Solihull Photographic Society
January 2017 10th – Speaker David Tideswell “All about Robins” solihullphotographicsociety.co.uk/about-us/our-programme-for-2014-15/I'll keep trying to see if I can find one of David's talks at a more local venue - we'll no doubt have to wait until at least next Spring now, though.
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Post by Northy on Nov 27, 2016 17:42:45 GMT
This morning I spotted no other than our resident canine hating poster Northwichstokie stroking a dog, a handsome black Lab. Rubbing my eyes I looked again, checking to see if he was having some sort of breakdown or under the influence of drugs, then my eyes wandered up the lead to see the reason for this transformation, a fine female specimen she paid for the dog to run as well
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Post by potterinleeds on Nov 30, 2016 18:48:11 GMT
Have any of you on here with more 'esoteric' interests ever tried to grow Mandrake plants? I've found a few places that sell the seeds - I hasten to add it's not for medicinal usage, as I know it can be very dangerous, more that I just like growing unusual stuff. I fancied seeing if I could get some to grow the huge roots that resemble people when pulled up, hence leading to the various myths surrounding it.
Also, any tips for Cardoons? I just can't get mine to grow the really huge leaves that I covet when I see specimens in country house gardens. They are in good, deep soil, plenty of sun and I stop them flowering, but to no avail - the leaves are big, but not spectacular.
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