Smile of the day - What is yours?

[Chris_SVS]

You might have just picked the best weekend so far this year! Meant to be nice and warm Saturday. I'll be out all day, can't wait! :cool:
It's looking that way :D

[keith_d]

While I was filling up my bike a really noisy Honda Jazz drove past. On the back the owner had stuck a "Type R" badge from a Civic.

I had to smile because I couldn't think of a less likely car to be given the "Type R" treatment. The Jazz is taking over from the Nissan Micra as the pensioner's preferred vehicle.

[Adam Ef]

I think the kids are buying up all the Micras and putting aftermarket exhaust on them around here.

[garynortheast]

Just finished for the day on the veg plot and came down to sit on the back yard with a mug of tea. Spent a sublimely peaceful 15 minutes listening to the birds and watching a big beautiful bumble bee working it's way round the honesty and cowslips in these tubs.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/40703252713_834338931b_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/251NNXc)
Backyard tubs (https://flic.kr/p/251NNXc) by garynortheast (https://www.flickr.com/photos/67411872@N03/)

[Adam Ef]

On hold on the phone to Drift about my dead camera and their hold music is....
.
.
.
Queen "Another One Bites The Dust"


---- you couldn't make it up! Do you think they know something about why so many are failing?

[maviczap]

Email from Scottish Power saying my monthly DD is going down in June!

[Sir Trev]

Fixed the lawn scarifier with a new bearing for a fiver instead of replacing the whole thing for well over £300. We have a Unipart Service Centre on site but they don't carry any parts at all as all their suppliers deliver within 30 minutes - worth a try though. Their bearing supplier however can walk round with their order in five mites as that's how long it took me to walk down to the edge of our site to Oxford Bearings. All back together now and spinning freely. Nice.

[Luckypants]

My smile was yesterday, but has kept on my face since then. Finally tidied the garage to the point the bike was accessible. She's been on an Optimate so thought I'd give here a try. BRUMM! First time, barely any starter churning! :cool:

Not bad for having been stood for 3 years.

Just about to order a new set of fork seals.

[admin]

My smile was yesterday, but has kept on my face since then. Finally tidied the garage to the point the bike was accessible. She's been on an Optimate so thought I'd give here a try. BRUMM! First time, barely any starter churning! :cool:

Not bad for having been stood for 3 years.

Just about to order a new set of fork seals.Three years! I guess you've been busy elsewhere.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[maviczap]

My smile was yesterday, but has kept on my face since then. Finally tidied the garage to the point the bike was accessible. She's been on an Optimate so thought I'd give here a try. BRUMM! First time, barely any starter churning! :cool:

Not bad for having been stood for 3 years.

Just about to order a new set of fork seals.

Unlike mine, which is sulking and is an SV325. Started ok on one cylinder, and picks up on 2 at higher revs, but definitely not running on 2 all the time. Its the front as the exhaust is not getting hot as it should be.

[Luckypants]

Three years! I guess you've been busy elsewhere

Moved house so the bike went into the storage container and was occasionally used the year it lived in there. We finished building the garage three years ago so moved all the stuff out of the storage container and into there. That was the last time the bike moved....

[punyXpress]

3 years is nowt!
From a pal on another ( 2 stroke scooter ) forum:
" Last running in ‘63, this old girl has just oscillated... it has taken me many hours to sort... but hey when they chortle back and forward, the world seems a better place😀 "
The second day from getting it home he was riding it.

[Chris_SVS]

Back to Scotland on 9/6.. Stenaline have a deal on for 150 bikes, £10 return with breakfast thrown in..

[punyXpress]

? Thrown up if it's choppy ? ;)

[Chris_SVS]

? Thrown up if it's choppy ? ;)
Won't be on the boat :p

[BoltonSte]

Any bad roads Chris? I'm doing the NC500 there over the BH weekend, would be good to know if any surfaces are carp and re-plan the route.


Bet it's raining after you had such good weather.


Ste

[Chris_SVS]

Any bad roads Chris? I'm doing the NC500 there over the BH weekend, would be good to know if any surfaces are carp and re-plan the route.


Bet it's raining after you had such good weather.


Ste
Generally no bad roads but bad patches on some of them. I'd say tricky would be a better word, especially the singletrack stuff, some of the bends are unsighted but drop off sharp too kind of thing. Certainly kept me honest for much of it :)

[Sir Trev]

We have escaped the evil clutches of Sky. When they wrote to me and said they were upping my subscription by yet another £2 per month I realised it had crept up to more than £400 per year without me really noticing. At 8 this morning the planner locked me out of what we had left unwatched and I could no longer do live-pause or search.

One trip to John Lewis later I now have a Freesat plus box that has pretty much all the channels we normally watch and has most of the same features. Should have done it years ago!

If anyone would like a fully working Sky+HD box let me know before it goes on e-Bay later this weekend.

[DarrenSV650S]

I tempted to do the same. I'm paying 52 and when you look on their website they have the newer boxes for less per month! It's so insulting

I watch more youtube and downloaded series than I watch sky now anyway. It's just nice having it

[SV650rules]

We have escaped the evil clutches of Sky. When they wrote to me and said they were upping my subscription by yet another £2 per month I realised it had crept up to more than £400 per year without me really noticing. At 8 this morning the planner locked me out of what we had left unwatched and I could no longer do live-pause or search.

One trip to John Lewis later I now have a Freesat plus box that has pretty much all the channels we normally watch and has most of the same features. Should have done it years ago!

If anyone would like a fully working Sky+HD box let me know before it goes on e-Bay later this weekend.

We kicked virgin cable into touch last September and went plusnet ( 77Mb download and 16 Mb upload over copper ) and got freesat box with twin tuner so can record two channels at once, tv already has freesat input as well as freeview terrestrial aerial socket so we are all set...can watch and record either freeview or free sat - and WSB and BSB highlights are on ITV4 and catchup tv. You can link Humax box to internet via WiFi or cable and get iPlayer and ITV hub etc. Happy days.

And the irony is if you have ditched Sky you can use their dish for freesat....

[Chris_SVS]

Had a mock Advanced test today, would have passed with a F1rst :cool:

Ecstatic :D now booked for the real thing.

[admin]

Had a mock Advanced test today, would have passed with a F1rst :cool:

Ecstatic :D now booked for the real thing.Well done that man.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Chris_SVS]

Well done that man.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
I'm very happy tonight :D 4 sessions ago after my first observed ride I was in a right strop with it all and nearly gave up.

Now, since my group is fledgeling with only 2 observers - I've decided to upskill and teach other riders :smt038 That's down the road a bit, need to get my own pass first :)

[garynortheast]

Good man Chris, that's excellent!

[Bibio]

finally getting rid of the caravan in the back garden after 14 years all in preparation for the 7m x 4.5m extension.

[andrewsmith]

finally getting rid of the caravan in the back garden after 14 years all in preparation for the 7m x 4.5m extension.Please say you did this
https://youtu.be/gilnoPWkAlQ

Sent from my ANE-LX1 using Tapatalk

[BanannaMan]

Happy Belated Birthday!!
Hope it was a good one!

[BoltonSte]

A belated "Back from the NC500" left last Friday and covered 1368 miles door to door in a group of 15, got back at 8pm on Monday.


We had a bit of sun, rain, mist, snow, ice warnings, dry roads. Sheep, Horses, Deer, Other bikes, vans filtering towards us, three dropped bikes (u-turns) and lots of fun.


It was 10 years since I did it last and it was far too long.


Ste

[maviczap]

Woke up at 05:45 turned over, next thing it's 06:41 usually I can't get back to sleep like this.

[TamSV]

Wandered round the local wee Spar shop and they're doing a Whisky tasting. Half a dozen single malts available. Great chat from the girls in there - "You like that one? Well it's on special. 36 quid and you get two free glasses."


Brilliant. They deserve to do well. Had the shop a couple of years and working really hard at it. The miserable git that used to own the place would barely lift his head.

[daktulos]

10 degrees and sunny, a glorious day for a commute ... filtered past my wife on the M1, who later drew along side me to wave. It's days like these I really don't mind going to work.

[garynortheast]

Discovering that my lack of a clutch and it's ejection of hydraulic fluid was not down to a failed slave cylinder, which on the Zafira necessitates removal of the clutch and gearbox for access. It was a connection that had not been properly remade the last time someone worked on the clutch, and needed no more than a clean up and reclipping into place. An hour instead of a whole day.

[admin]

Discovering that my lack of a clutch and it's ejection of hydraulic fluid was not down to a failed slave cylinder, which on the Zafira necessitates removal of the clutch and gearbox for access. It was a connection that had not been properly remade the last time someone worked on the clutch, and needed no more than a clean up and reclipping into place. An hour instead of a whole day.It's a lovely feeling when that happens

Sent from my Moto G (5) using Tapatalk

[garynortheast]

It's a lovely feeling when that happens

Sent from my Moto G (5) using Tapatalk

A HUGE sense of relief!!

[Adam Ef]

Writing up the service history for my SV so it makes sense, rather than being a pile of receipts and MOT certificates. I'd forgotten half the work I've done on it in the last few years. Possibly more time than I've spent riding it!


Although this year I have gone over estimated mileage I stated for insurance already with a few months left to go. Phoned insurance (Bennetts) to check and see how much to up the mileage. They added the bar conversion too and noted I'm now an IAM member (they can do that even if you haven't qualified yet), and I didn't get stung half as badly as I though I would. Cost to add those updates and double annual mileage to 6,000 was £40.50. Considering £35 of that is probably an admin fee I was quite pleased.

[Chris_SVS]

My wetsuit still fitting me after 3~ years of not wearing it

[timwilky]

Schadenfreude.

Enough said!

[punyXpress]

Is that meant to be in the " Any German Speakers " thread? ;)

[timwilky]

No, simply not an English words that says :-

Overdue, about time, now you know what it feels like, boot on the other foot. Don't come crying to me.

Work related, so all I can say.
En retard, il était temps, maintenant tu sais ce que ça fait, botte sur l'autre pied. Ne venez pas pleurer pour moi.

[punyXpress]

- * Argentina * - ?

[timwilky]

En Francais!

I smile because the grim reaper of jobs that has wiped out the UK Power industry and relocated thousands of highly skilled jobs to France is now swinging his scythe in France.

I have had tears on my face in the past when I have been instructed to make 70% redundancies, knowing who has just bought a new house, whose wife is pregnant etc. Feeling like a right **** having to tap people of the shoulder and tell them to go to the boardroom, at the same time telling those who are staying to cut all their colleagues IT access.

So Schadenfreude, France has been untouchable until now.

[punyXpress]

Apologies, Tim, for making light of such a $hitty $ubject.

[Chris_SVS]

Yesterday really. Big Yamaha went through it's first MOT (a different system here) which wasn't actually due until 26th. Too close to Wales weekend if it happened to fail

[Adam Ef]

Couple of test rides today. First was a Triumph Tiger 800 that I actually went out to test. There were certain things I liked, mainly the comfort, but lots I didn't... the woolly feeling to everything and felt like no more power than my SV and delivered in all the wrong places too. Nothing low down.
Was a bit dissapointed, but then chatting to the sales guy and ended up testing a MT09 Tracer, which I didn't expect to do. And wow! I came back with a huge smile on my face!


Both made me realise though how good a bike the SV is, especially for the money. I expected mine to feel a bit underwhelming riding home after testing the Tracer, but I've got it so well set up how I want it now that it still felt great. I have planted a seed of an idea about getting a Tracer in my mind though. Uh oh.

[Chris_SVS]

You're welcome to take a spin on mine

[Adam Ef]

You're welcome to take a spin on mine


I've got a plan to book a test ride on one every day until I can afford one. :p


It was so much fun! Proper character with grit and rasp to the engine and sounded good with the stock exhaust too. Everything in the right place comfortable but still had an edge to the response, feel and handling. I was surprised quite how impressed I was with it. Just the right amount of engine braking and smooth but with bite.


--- They offered a pretty impressive trade in value for my SV if I wanted too. Comparable to a private sale but with the convenience of riding to collect. Oh dear... so tempting. Got a feeling it's all slightly out of budget though. And I do love my SV.

[daktulos]

Wry smile of the day ... one of the hip armours of my relatively new jeans has been digging into me for a while. I finally got around to seeing if I could reposition it ... and discovered the instruction booklets for the jeans and armour were tucked in there, too.

So, that's 42 pages less protection on my right hip, but hopefully a more comfortable ride.

[Chris_SVS]

I've got a plan to book a test ride on one every day until I can afford one. :p


It was so much fun! Proper character with grit and rasp to the engine and sounded good with the stock exhaust too. Everything in the right place comfortable but still had an edge to the response, feel and handling. I was surprised quite how impressed I was with it. Just the right amount of engine braking and smooth but with bite.


--- They offered a pretty impressive trade in value for my SV if I wanted too. Comparable to a private sale but with the convenience of riding to collect. Oh dear... so tempting. Got a feeling it's all slightly out of budget though. And I do love my SV.
:smt054:smt054

yNkJy5w-3jc

sbj0pi-qZk4

[Sir Trev]

Baby Great Spotted Woodpeckers on my bird feeders. Or rather one of the adults is, hoiking out suet pellets and passing them to the fluffy bundle clinging precariously to the old fence post I use to hang the feeders from. Won't be long before the fluffy bundles are chasing all the other birds away so they can have the feeders all to themselves, even when that sparrow wants to used the mixed seed feeder next to the suet balls that the GSW never touches they still get chased off.... For now they are so cute and pathetic looking.

[Littlepeahead]

Ever had it when you turn up to a cheese and wine event to find they've had so many people drop out they have to cancel it, but then bring you all the cheese and wine they'd bought in anyway, and say it's free and then tell you when they run the next one you can have a free ticket for turning up tonight.

6 of us, enough cheese for 20, we ate all of it.

Biologically I am now 84% cheese, 14% wine and the rest is my eyebrows.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

[admin]

Ever had it when you turn up to a cheese and wine event to find they've had so many people drop out they have to cancel it, but then bring you all the cheese and wine they'd bought in anyway, and say it's free and then tell you when they run the next one you can have a free ticket for turning up tonight.

6 of us, enough cheese for 20, we ate all of it.

Biologically I am now 84% cheese, 14% wine and the rest is my eyebrows.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk[emoji16], i hope they had crackers too.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[garynortheast]

Biologically I am now 84% cheese, 14% wine and the rest is my eyebrows.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

:smt046

[Chris_SVS]

Absolutely over the moon! :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

https://i.imgur.com/NyC3HyQh.jpg

[admin]

Absolutely over the moon! :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

https://i.imgur.com/NyC3HyQh.jpgWell done!

Sent from my Moto G (5) using Tapatalk

[maviczap]

Well done

[Chris_SVS]

Cheers dudes

[Sir Trev]

Nice.

[Adam Ef]

Brilliant! Well done Chris!

[garynortheast]

Superb, well done Chris!

[Chris_SVS]

:lol::lol::lol:

[maviczap]

Stepped on the scales yesterday, and despite not actively trying to lose weight I'm now 69kg. Which helps me when cycling up blooming great mountains, which is only a month away.

[Luckypants]

How can you weigh so little when you are 3-4 inches taller than me??? No fair!

[maviczap]

Genetics Mike :-)

[Adam Ef]

How can you weigh so little ..

... cycling up blooming great mountains...




:p

[Luckypants]

He weighed less than me when I did that regularly. He's just a git. :D

[maviczap]

He weighed less than me when I did that regularly. He's just a git. :D

Love you big time Mike :p

[chris8886]

Out of office on and bag packed for a weekend away in Madrid for an old school friends stag do, I'm so looking forward to some nice weather!

[Bibio]

on the MW yesterday and seeing a bloke with a builders bum on a bike in the pizzing rain and i mean i was hammering down with rain.. he must have been soaked. made me PMSL... :-)

[TamSV]

Knackered...

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190615/a8f7db8ddba447892cce924362fb6456.jpg

[shiftin_gear98]

Nice one Tam.

[garynortheast]

Strewth! Well done Tam! Get yerself onto the running thread.

[shiftin_gear98]

Type this into ebay.

Kawasaki Z1000 Z1 Z900 Classic Vintage Rare Collectors Mobility Scooter, One Off

Hahahahaha

Or now I'm not on my phone - here's the link.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kawasaki-Z1000-Z1-Z900-Classic-Vintage-Rare-Collectors-Mobility-Scooter-One-Off/133082077300?hash=item1efc4f5874:g:cDgAAOSw3SFdAT6 J

[Adam Ef]

that ....... is ......... amazing!

[timwilky]

Yippee, I can get BT fibre...

You are connected to cabinet 13. Your line length (from the exchange) is approximately 4795 meters.

"Superfast" VDSL (Fibre to the cabinet) up to 15Mb/s
VDSL uses the phone line copper pair to connect to a modem in the street cabinet and then typically glass fibre to connect back to the exchange and on to us. As this uses less copper wire it provides faster download speeds than ADSL, but costs a little more. For your location, forecast download sync speed is 7.1-15Mb/s and forecast upload sync speed is 0.6-1.2Mb/s.

ADSL broadband up to 2.4Mb/s
ADSL uses the phone line copper pair to connect to a modem at the telephone exchange. For your location the forecast download sync speed is 0.6-2.4Mb/s.

Why do they keep talking about copper? they have aluminium coming to my house!

FFS my 3G is faster than that! Seriously in this day and age. Gotta smile

[daktulos]

Yippee, I can get BT fibre...

You are connected to cabinet 13. Your line length (from the exchange) is approximately 4795 meters.


5km! I'm amazed you get anything at all!

[BoltonSte]

My GOTD is now void! someone has found the bag and told our group (had my liveried vest in it) so I now don't need to spend £££ on radios etc.

[punyXpress]

RESULT!
Well done!

[ophic]

Yippee, I can get BT fibre...

You are connected to cabinet 13. Your line length (from the exchange) is approximately 4795 meters.

"Superfast" VDSL (Fibre to the cabinet) up to 15Mb/s
VDSL uses the phone line copper pair to connect to a modem in the street cabinet and then typically glass fibre to connect back to the exchange and on to us. As this uses less copper wire it provides faster download speeds than ADSL, but costs a little more. For your location, forecast download sync speed is 7.1-15Mb/s and forecast upload sync speed is 0.6-1.2Mb/s.

ADSL broadband up to 2.4Mb/s
ADSL uses the phone line copper pair to connect to a modem at the telephone exchange. For your location the forecast download sync speed is 0.6-2.4Mb/s.

Why do they keep talking about copper? they have aluminium coming to my house!

FFS my 3G is faster than that! Seriously in this day and age. Gotta smile
Tried to wire up some plug socket networking to the router the other day, as I got some free adapters from Virgin.

Got 5Mb/sec through these. Turned them off and discovered the wifi gives me 200+Mb/sec, 2 floors above the router.

Lobbed them out the window.

[shiftin_gear98]

Hopefully into next doors garden, or you'll only have to go and pick them up at some point.

[Adam Ef]

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48096855913_d9cc955890_c.jpg

[Chris_SVS]

Such excite, same colour :D

[maviczap]

Nice colour!

[Adam Ef]

Mav... is your SV fixed ??

[Adam Ef]

Such excite, same colour :D


A colour I actually really like on a Yamaha ... shocker!

[admin]

Very nice.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[maviczap]

Mav... is your SV fixed ??

Yes it is. Front carb was completely bunged up, glad I left to the garage to fix

[Adam Ef]

Good news!


I don't mind fixing things, but not keen on working out what needs fixing when it's a mystery.

[garynortheast]

Yes it is. Front carb was completely bunged up, glad I left to the garage to fix

Brilliant news! We'll look forward to seeing you at the BPW in just over a week!

[shiftin_gear98]

I asked a 32 year old male colleague to drill a hole in a plastic container this morning. He came up to me and said it's not working. I asked him if he was using it properly. He said yes he was squeezing the button. A quick look and it was blatantly obvious that the drill was running backwards.

I'm 42, I used drills at school and at home helping out when I was younger. My kids have always "helped" assembling Ikea furniture and there has always been a willing helper when any job arises. My 4 year old helped me build my shed a few months ago drilling pilot holes etc (obviously my hand was on the drill too).
But she learnt about altering it to screw in and out. I couldn't get rid of her!

How can you get to 32 years old and never have used a drill before. It beggars belief.
Made me smile though.

Nice bike Adam.

[garynortheast]

Good looking bike Adam. You"ll not be wanting it to rain next weekend then!

[Chris_SVS]

BPW is a week away!

[garynortheast]

BPW is a week away!

:smt041:smt041:smt041

[Adam Ef]

Good looking bike Adam. You"ll not be wanting it to rain next weekend then!


No rain please.. more for my confidence with a new bike rather than wanting to keep it clean. Hopefully the ride up there will help me get more in tune with it. Riding it makes me realise how used to the SV I had become.

[Chris_SVS]

How are you finding the clutch lever? Even the 700 Tracer had really horrible throw to the point where I couldn't use it smoothly. Think I now use position 2/6 on my adjustable levers, have a quickshifter too so use the clutch a lot less over a ride.

[Adam Ef]

How are you finding the clutch lever? Even the 700 Tracer had really horrible throw to the point where I couldn't use it smoothly. Think I now use position 2/6 on my adjustable levers, have a quickshifter too so use the clutch a lot less over a ride.


Terrible at first. Tried to adjust it out so it grabs about 2 cm out from the bar. Not ideal. Think some adjustable levers will be on the list of mods.

[garynortheast]

A couple of SotDs, both about similar things.

First the indescribable pleasure of standing quietly for 10 or 15 minutes and watching the bees working away on my front garden. I brought it back to where it should be this year by hoiking out the bloomin' pampas grass that had self set and was going for world domination, and then pruning the perennials (roses, hydrangeas, cotoneastor) and finally by densely sowing wildflower seeds in the empty spaces. It's now a fabulous looking area of flowers and the bees are loving it (and so am I!).

Secondly, walking 500yds up the lane. The second half of the walk is what makes me smile. I'll explain.

When I first moved to this village around 23 years ago the top half of the lane had verges with quite a lot of wild flowers in them, but over the years the bracken got in and starved the native wild flowers of the light they needed to thrive.

About eight years ago I started a little experiment and began pulling all the bracken out of a short stretch of one verge to see what would happen. The result the following spring was impressive so ever since then I have pulled all the bracken out of the whole length of the verge. Initially it was a lot of work but now, although the bracken does still show up, there is very little of it, and as soon as I see it, it comes out.

The results are spectacular and encouraged me three years ago to start doing the same thing to the opposite verge, which has responded similarly. This spring these two verges have been truly quite stunning to see. I've never seen them look so good and it really has made the effort so worth it. Huge smile.

[dirtydog]

I asked a 32 year old male colleague to drill a hole in a plastic container this morning. He came up to me and said it's not working. I asked him if he was using it properly. He said yes he was squeezing the button. A quick look and it was blatantly obvious that the drill was running backwards.

I'm 42, I used drills at school and at home helping out when I was younger. My kids have always "helped" assembling Ikea furniture and there has always been a willing helper when any job arises. My 4 year old helped me build my shed a few months ago drilling pilot holes etc (obviously my hand was on the drill too).
But she learnt about altering it to screw in and out. I couldn't get rid of her!

How can you get to 32 years old and never have used a drill before. It beggars belief.
Made me smile though.

Nice bike Adam.


You'd be surprised by how many people can't do the simplest of diy tasks, I've had a job where I've had to replace a bolt on a bathroom door also changing a couple of light bulbs

[admin]

A couple of SotDs, both about similar things.



First the indescribable pleasure of standing quietly for 10 or 15 minutes and watching the bees working away on my front garden. I brought it back to where it should be this year by hoiking out the bloomin' pampas grass that had self set and was going for world domination, and then pruning the perennials (roses, hydrangeas, cotoneastor) and finally by densely sowing wildflower seeds in the empty spaces. It's now a fabulous looking area of flowers and the bees are loving it (and so am I!).



Secondly, walking 500yds up the lane. The second half of the walk is what makes me smile. I'll explain.



When I first moved to this village around 23 years ago the top half of the lane had verges with quite a lot of wild flowers in them, but over the years the bracken got in and starved the native wild flowers of the light they needed to thrive.



About eight years ago I started a little experiment and began pulling all the bracken out of a short stretch of one verge to see what would happen. The result the following spring was impressive so ever since then I have pulled all the bracken out of the whole length of the verge. Initially it was a lot of work but now, although the bracken does still show up, there is very little of it, and as soon as I see it, it comes out.



The results are spectacular and encouraged me three years ago to start doing the same thing to the opposite verge, which has responded similarly. This spring these two verges have been truly quite stunning to see. I've never seen them look so good and it really has made the effort so worth it. Huge smile.I can equate to that. I'm tempted to sow some wild flowers at the end of my garden.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Seeker]

I'm tempted to sow some wild flowers at the end of my garden.

I did this and it's left me totally baffled:
The first year I got poppies, lots and lots of poppies (bees loved it).
Next year, no poppies - mostly cow parsley with a few oxeye.
This year mostly oxeye with white campion and a few poppies which I'd transplanted from the front garden. Bees are indifferent to oxeye but houseflies seem to like it (oh great! just what I needed). I also got 3 buttercups.

Last year I collected thousands of poppy seeds and liberally scattered them in another part of the garden and didn't get a single poppy. I did get an antirrhinum in another area. My foxglove is currently 4 feet tall with no sign of any flowers; I'm beginning to suspect it's a triffid.

I'm not what you could call an accomplished gardener. I read that if you plant daisies they'll be out of control in 3 years so I think I've checked that box.
My final comments about poppies - I started off with the plain red poppy - like the Remembrance Day variety, without any intervention I started getting pink ones, then purple and now I've got some that look like crinkled crepe paper. I think my house may be situated on nuclear waste.

[admin]

I did this and it's left me totally baffled:
The first year I got poppies, lots and lots of poppies (bees loved it).
Next year, no poppies - mostly cow parsley with a few oxeye.
This year mostly oxeye with white campion and a few poppies which I'd transplanted from the front garden. Bees are indifferent to oxeye but houseflies seem to like it (oh great! just what I needed). I also got 3 buttercups.

Last year I collected thousands of poppy seeds and liberally scattered them in another part of the garden and didn't get a single poppy. I did get an antirrhinum in another area. My foxglove is currently 4 feet tall with no sign of any flowers; I'm beginning to suspect it's a triffid.

I'm not what you could call an accomplished gardener. I read that if you plant daisies they'll be out of control in 3 years so I think I've checked that box.
My final comments about poppies - I started off with the plain red poppy - like the Remembrance Day variety, without any intervention I started getting pink ones, then purple and now I've got some that look like crinkled crepe paper. I think my house may be situated on nuclear waste.Maybe I'll rethink that plan.

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