5 Gardening Dairy: Happy gardening and happy snapping ..

[Upsy Daisy]

 

[alp]

Good morning to all and the cold and the rain as well. Please behave as I have still got a lot to do outside.

It rained quite early on, probably 9pm, last night. Need to find the garlic as inspired by @Zenj and @marlingardener. Need to replant the leeks as well. But it's going to rain the whole day, according to the weather report.

Who fancy working outside in this glorious weather!

I don't think I will dig up any tuber or deadhead any dahlias. I will go round and label them and see if I can harvest seeds. My favorite is Polka, Rajman Firecracker, Franz Kafka (unfortunately, no seeds to be had as it had only one lone flower), Crazy Love and the Japanese Tsuki ... nori.. Yes, the dahlias are quite toasted, but only those in a bit shadier area.

I got some 5 buckets from a farm and wish I could give you some @Perki . Freegled items. Now I have found out that Freegle is not free, I have unsubscribed. Every time you get a paper lamp shade or an unwanted polystyrene box, they ask you to donate. Fed up with it so I have unsubscribed. Those buckets are for rain water and sand. Of course, for mixing cement as well.

 

[Zenj]

Morning all rained off and on all night and still raining very dull but 6c at the moment high of 8c ,cut off the Broken branch not surprised it broke 22 apples on it at least the better half made some pies patched the main stem wrapped in cling film and tied it tight see what happens it may heal as all leaves are still alive got half a tree now .

 

[Upsy Daisy]

Morning all

Such a shame about your apple tree @Zenj , I'll keep my fingers crossed for it's outcome.

We've had some rain too during the night but it's suppose to brighten up by 11 this morning then ,if lucky , we should catch the odd glimpse of the sun! Temps seemed to have changed ,now only -2 tonight

Will continue with my planned plant rescue and get them all settled into their winter homes

Have a great day/ night

 

[alp]

Morning all rained off and on all night and still raining very dull but 6c at the moment high of 8c ,cut off the Broken branch not surprised it broke 22 apples on it at least the better half made some pies patched the main stem wrapped in cling film and tied it tight see what happens it may heal as all leaves are still alive got half a tree now .

With the cold, there is a chance that things take longer to die. Ah, good news! So with care, you might get it back. 22 apples, no wonder. I have an apple tree with 4 branches on one side. All the apples appeared on that side and the whole tree sloped like an old man. But the apples have been blemish free. Perhaps, you need to support the tree with with an fan frame. which was what I used to do. I then moved the whole tree in a big plastic tub probably 45L and all the branches were facing west to get the maximum sunshine and heat. I am so happy as I have had about 15 or more apples with the birds laying claim to 3 or 4. Still have 2 on the tree which is about 5 foot tall!

No condensation here either, @Zenj ! Yes, totally miserable and it has been raining the whole night, not that I know as I slept like a log after being on my feet the whole day yesterday.

 

[alp]

How did your Dr's appointment go, @Upsy Daisy ?

 

[Upsy Daisy]

No, they can't do anything more.....thats my lot! He said that what people aren't told before having this type of bone fusion is that in reality they are exchanging one lot of pain for another!!!!! Brilliant news Oh well, I didn't think much could be done but my Dr suggested seeing him to get his opinion.....well now I have it!!!

Thanks for asking @alp

 

[alp]

Wish you had stayed home and saved the fuel. Unless I walk for 3 or 4 hours, my legs seem to be giving me less torment. I followed Dr Axe on youtube for my knees

Have a look here to see which one is relevant please. I'm going to have a viewing soon.

 

[roadrunner]

My little take on the body, for us ageing folks...

Whenever you hear of anyone mention "exercise" we tend to think of exercise for the cardio system; however, after spending a lifetime of being an active person (I'm 54 and have been riding a bike as my primary form of transportation since my early 20's) and I also hike and do a lot of running. I've come to the following conclusion.

The cardio system is the easiest thing to keep healthy (unless you're one of the unfortunate, such as Bob Harper with genetic issues that affect the heart).

The hardest part about staying healthy is maintaining the musculoskeletal system, including connective tissues. I think the biggest mistake people make in this area is thinking that all exercise must be Low Impact. And I blame the fitness industry for putting this in our head in order to sell various types of exercise machines designed around low impact.

Whenever I participate in any activity/sport the limiting factor is almost always the musculoskeletal system, a good example is swimming, which I just started up about a month ago. If it were not for my arms getting tired I could go on and on and on, but my arms just start feeling light weights after so many laps, but my heart and lungs could keep the action up for much, much longer. Same thing when I go running, I get tired because my legs (or sometimes other things like my feet...) are done, but my cardio system is always ready for more.

And you can see this with the professionals, it's their musculoskeletal system that's the toughest to keep healthy, but when they can't race it's almost always an injury to their musculoskeletal system. You don't hear them complaining about cardio injuries.

So my recommendation would be to embrace the impact, impact is part of life. I think one of the best ways to start building up the body is thru weightlifting. Because it addresses every part of the musculoskeletal system and is a starting point for preparing the body for the rigors of life.

Not too long ago I was considering having to stop running, because of a nagging knee pain in my right knee, mostly a result of a childhood injury that nearly ripped off my right knee cap and damaged my patellar tendon.

But after reading and talking to others, I decided to really focus on my musculoskeletal system thru weightlifting. Long story short, what really helped my knee issues was to focus on strengthening my posterior chain, i.e. from my back down to my ankles. One of the best exercises I did for this were deadlifts and squats (squatting as low as possible for full range of motion, i.e. exercising everything).

The reason why this helped is because our quadricep muscles are exercised so much more than our hamstring muscles; this creates a muscle imbalance, which over time can cause serious problems and not every case will be the same and in my case with my pre-existing injury I was really feeling this imbalance.

No more knee problems, actually my knee feels stronger today than when I was 30, which is about the age I started feeling the knee pain and the doc told me I would soon need surgery -- over 20 years later and I'm not planning on any surgery.

We start losing muscle mass at around age 30, that's another reason weightlifting is so very important for maintaining health as we age.

 

[alp]

I might look into squats and I think it's hard for a woman to weightlift unless we go to a gym. Food for thought, @roadrunner ! I'm sure you're a very fit man. For my knees, I just lie my legs flat, tighten them around the knees and relax and do these several times. I also have one celery stick in my meal every evening. I wouldn't dare to use too much brace / support as they say it will cause muscle loss!

First viewing done and then I had a phone call saying that I missed the 2nd one as we were probably at the back whilst the person was at the door. Kitchen was so clean that I didn't want to cook in it. LOL!

Can't wait for tonight to pass as it will be warmer as from tomorrow! Hurrah!

It has been raining until 3.30pm. So please that I have quite a bit of rain.

 

[DirtMechanic]

I might look into squats and I think it's hard for a woman to weightlift unless we go to a gym. Food for thought, @roadrunner ! I'm sure you're a very fit man. For my knees, I just lie my legs flat, tighten them around the knees and relax and do these several times. I also have one celery stick in my meal every evening. I wouldn't dare to use too much brace / support as they say it will cause muscle loss!

First viewing done and then I had a phone call saying that I missed the 2nd one as we were probably at the back whilst the person was at the door. Kitchen was so clean that I didn't want to cook in it. LOL!

Can't wait for tonight to pass as it will be warmer as from tomorrow! Hurrah!

It has been raining until 3.30pm. So please that I have quite a bit of rain.

Like some say, use it or lose it. I can say my Becky has decided to attend a 3 day schedule at a local fitness business and I have appreciated her efforts.

 

[alp]

I would strongly recommend yoga as well. The last thing you want is MacDonna's veins in her hands. Fitness exercises as in aerobic class or yoga are much more gentle on our body. Look at Nicole Scherzinger or even Hilaria Baldwin - lovely figures all thanks to yoga!

@DirtMechanic Perhaps you could join her to work off some of your beer, LOL!

Good morning to a very cold day. The lean to is now covered with underlay, cardboard and rugs and I am sure the temperature has raised the temperature by 3c. But neither of my candles had been working. After numerous attempt the vanilla scented one gave up the ghost. I'm not going to bother as the temperature is now 9c there. Hopefully, I can go out to tidy up the hellebores and one trip to the tip to get rid of stuff. Oh, dear! Forgot to bring in the begonias White, amber, and red glow are all outside in hanging baskets. Poor dears!

 

[alp]

Looks good! Even though it's cold, it's sunny! A welcome change to yesterday's dull dirge!

It's Novem-brrrrr! Three inches of rain to fall this weekend as strong winds rip across Britain and temperatures plunge to at least -6C for the fifth night running with forecasters predicting the end of the month to be even colder

• Met Office has issued warning for up to 3in (80mm) of rain in western Scotland for whole of Saturday
• Tonight is expected to be fifth night in a row temperatures fall to at least -6C (21F) somewhere in UK
• Forecasters say temperatures 'will be close to or above average' for the first half of November
• But second half of the month 'is likely to turn colder with temperatures becoming below average'
  
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[Zenj]

Morning all bright start to the day but very cold and frosty have a good day all.

 

[alp]

Goooood mornng, @Zenj ! At least you have had a nice warm sunny holiday.

Yes, even in East London, we have had hard frost. Thank heavens I took photos of all my flowers before the frost as they are definitely giving up the ghost now.

Can you see the frost on my lean-to roof?

Lean to a bit tidier now

Thank heavens I took in the Amistad cuttings

And salmon Dance cuttings. Crumbs! Have to go out to see the other salvias left fending for themselves in this terrible plunge of temperature and frost. Should have trimmed them and covered them with domes!