Phew . It's A Scorcher!

As the famous headlines go.

I don't know about where you lot are but here in the sunny, south central England it's been 31C and a humidity of 72% today. I think I've shrunk in all that water I've sheded.

Please send a drop of rain so I can become Baa sized again *G*

lol, it's been so hot here in durham too, cloudy and humid though, yesterday was a scorcher though, managed not to burn myself this time!

Yes Baa, its been a hot few days here too, so the Commonwealth games are doing well, so glad that Manchester is showing everybody how to do a show, who knows maybe the Olypics next LOL

Ahh so it's not just me dehydrating in England then ;)

Bit cooler today THANK GOODNESS I daren't get any smaller I'd disappear LOL

we got it too. 28C.

today is very humid already with thunder and lightening.

It has been very warm here all the time, this usmmer really has been great. Right now it is +29 C in shade and very warm in sun. No humidity here. Anyway on evening it will always get cooler, about 16-18 C.

we've had a few rumbles of thunder, but no rain as yet today, was going to go to the beach, but i guess that's out now :( still so warm and humid, perfect thunder storm weather.

Yay, I registered 75% humidity among my outdoor tomatoes today.

I'm worried!

If humidity remains at 75% for 48 hours, in warm conditions, that's the infamous Beaumont Point - when blight is almost inevitable on tomatoes and potatoes.

Prudently, I had sprayed my 220 outdoor heirloom tomatoes three days before with Bordeaux solution. (To hades with organic principles - my business is at stake here!)

But last night's fierce thunderstorms washed it off.

I haven't the time to re-spray every day - 220 tomatoes take five hours!

The manufacturers say, just re-spray every three weeks, downpours or not.

Doesn't sound logical, to me. If the spray gets washed off, what's to protect the plant meanwhile?

Anybody have experience of spraying Bordeaux solution on tomatoes, during intermittent downpours?

JOHN

Ugggh... you Europeans, always grumbling...

Here in Tokyo, it's been 36C, 65-90% humidity for the last three (3!!!) days, thanks to those oh-so-amusing typhoon high pressure fronts and their lovely gale-force winds that have all but destroyed my just-flowering lilies....

Hhhhh! Lightweights!

;);););)

PS I think someone in one of the other forums said that global warming was an insidious construct of agenda-driven scientists. I invite her/him to stay here for a fortnight.

Yes, but....

did your tomatoes survive the blight?? :)

JOHN

No.

Tomatoes here die at precisely noon on July 15. There's a law or something... :)

John - don't get me wrong - I wasn't making light of your difficulties. It's heart-breaking, I know.
Here in Tokyo, thanks to the over-use of pesticide, there are few predators here (the mites, dermestids, and cockroaches themselves seem to thrive on poison.) So every July 15, as soon as the official "Rainy Season" is declared over - KABOOM - red and spider mites devour everything even remotely Solanaceae-nic (Tomatoes, chillis, tomatillos, eggplants, etc.) [Oops - Baa's gonna destroy me on my misuse of Latin there...]

Another thing - some of the abovementioned will not set fruit above 30C. Double Bind. FYI, I'm moving to Greenland...
:)

Um, I must fly over at once and write an article for the UK's Living Earth magazine (copies to Friends of the Earth) about the iniquity of pesticides.

Hasn't Japan heard about Integrated Pest Management?

Well, I do need a holiday. Meanwhile, anyone got any good ideas - about tomato blight??! :)

JOHN

Arrggghhhh don't even say potato blight!!! The Blue Congos and I are not prepared at all for such an attack! I should have dug them up by now anyway I 'spose.

Sorry John I've never used a Bordeux solution (what is it?) so I can't help there!

Lophophora

Normally I'd have felt sorry for you suffering that climate but I'm wicked minded when someone says I'm grumbling *G* Your Latin seems fine to me.

No :-(

It's been hot here too - the return of summer after a cool July. However, we have just had a big thunderstorm and the temperature has plummeted. We're back to 20° and rain until Saturday at least, and of course it's Switzerland's national day on Thursday (19° and rain forecast) with barbecues, mountain top bonfires and fireworks .....

This is not global warming - it's global cooling. All I ask is some decent summer weather for a few weeks.

John: believe it or not, during the storm tonight, the rain blew in sideways and wet the leaves of my protected tomatoes. I despair!

John -
"Integrated Pest Management" in the Tokyo Metro Area means cement the rivers, put up huge blacklight bug zappers every 100 meters, and decimate the "rabies-carrying" bat population. I was part of a Japan Bird Society campaign against that, for 4 years bless m'soul, and wot we got was nihil/nought/nothing/nada.

Mitsubishi Bussan provides the zappers and maintenence. (Wink, wink, nudge, nudge....)

Please come here and write nasty articles. The West needs to pressure the East. Yesterday's news had a bit about the millions of SE Asian Stag Beetles illegally imported... oh, don't get me started...

(Best o' luck wit dem taters John :)

Baa - "Latin"? Me???? Magnanimous of you Dear Heart, as usual. But careful - I'm getting used to it...
As fer "grumbling"... I said "europeans". Since when were Hampshire-er-ers "european"?

(My image is of cloaked druids singing some horrid song by Oasis... :)

Grumble grumble... always misunderstood....


And finally - EVERYBODY AROUND THE WORLD - it's hot! (ok, cool in Die Schweitz) So take care, stay in the shade, and drink lots of fluids as you weed. (hehe)

John -
sorry, you asked for help, and I ranted.
These links deal more with prevention than cure, but...

http://www.victorpest.com/articles/tomatoblight.htm
http://ctr.uvm.edu/ctr/gd/gd11.htm
http://www.apsnet.org/media/press/archive/blightips.asp

Baa -
Once again, it looks like I'm Bosun's Mate on the Ship of Fools...

Those hooded-folk are in Wiltshire, not Hampshire - how rude of me.

(Grumble, grumble - why do I always post my misunderstandings?...)

Just put it down to me being a Californian, with little Latin, and less Greek.

Lophophora

LOL It's OK we have druidical personages here too. I suppose dancing naked outdoors in the middle of the night is going to be attractive to some people but I'm told it's a vastly overrated experience!

As it happens I'm not Hampshire born and bred as practically all of my fellow inmates ... err Hampshire dwellers are more than happy to point out at every available opportunity. I just reside here and put up with the ridicule of not being 'one o' them' *G*. Small price to pay for the scenery.

Good luck steering that ship, we get some choppy weather in the Solent ;)

LOL
Many Thanks Baa the Magnanimous...

Actually, if it gives you any "wicked minded" (you said it, not me) pleasure, the temp. hit 36 again today. Over my suffering I'll allow a gloat or two, but Baa - my Habenaria radiatas are wilting!! You're the pro on terrestial orchids - what do I do - sacrifice brightness and blooms for untwisted new leaves and next year's bounty?

Unlimited obeisance (provided I get an answer :)

And PS. Where are you actually from? My best friend, S. Dodd, is from Wales, sort of.. My other best friend is named J. Jones. Guess where he's from...

I was just on the verge of a minor gloat when I felt the shock of finding a droopy orchid! Unlimited obeisance ay? LOL, that'll be the day ;)

I'm certainly no expert but you know what they say about flattery *G*. I suspect you already know the answer to this particular problem. Do you have any way of cooling down the area it's living in? If outside can it be brought indoors (if it's cooler there)?

As to where I hail from ... I'm not ashamed to admit it *G*, I'm from the Black Country. Look all you like on a map of England, you won't find it. It's a collection of towns and villages on the borders of 3 counties in the west heartand of England. A lot of the families there (including mine) are Welsh in origin.

This message was edited Wednesday, Jul 31st 7:09 PM

After I finish Latin and Greek, yet another language to learn ;)
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dave_mellor/slang.htm

Don't tempt me to write in dialect! *G*

I dare you, Baa!! I would like some new ways to complain about this nasty heat. ;-) While we're not as hot as Tokyo (yikes!), 30C is too hot for Denmark. Although come to think of it, the danes use the word "varm" to describe "hot" but it still looks too much like "warm" to me, which doesn't translate into hot. Masters of understatements, these crazy danes. As you can see, my brain has melted! :-)

deblynn -
My sympathies to you and anyone else suffering from this infernal summer... and I know what you mean by "my brain has melted". I was hopeless at work today - couldn't form a single coherent thought until I'd sat under an aircon for 20 minutes rubbing a cold can of Oolong Tea on my forehead.

If you want new ways to complain about this blasted heat, try Japanese:

"Kono atsusa wa DAI-kirai!!!!" ("I HATE this heat...")

I could give you other phrases, but this is a family website... (all the more reason to avoid giving Baa any excuse to start in with dialect...if my Welsh friends are any indication, we'd like to avoid that can o' worms ;););)

Besides, if Baa gets to use dialect, then I have every right to revert to SoCal lingo, which would do absolutely nothing for this forum other than to prove that my brain melted at birth...........

.....philomel might even revoke my "Honorary European" status :o

Today it was 25 in the morning then it started raining and now it is below 17 C I think. :P Deblynn, we have a word for hot - kuuma, warm is lämmin. :D

Evert -
Can I come live with you in Espoo? Please??!

17 C is is a fond but faded memory.... ;)

Sure :) Just checked the thermometer, it's 20 C.... I thought it was colder. They said in the forecats that the daytemps will go down to 18-23 for next few days. :{

Evert -

I've often heard that 18 C is the optimal temperature for the clad human body, but how about your plants?
Do those cool summer temperatures inhibit growth/blooming/etc.?

(I take it for granted you're not raising tropicals outdoors...)

Well, plants an grass like it, they don't dry out and don't have to water so much.. You poor people down there in south.. :} And it usually gets hot here in summer, and there are days when everything is dry. We have a short season, but long days, on June days are very long, in Lapland the sun never sets. Now the day are getting shorter again..

:P

Deblynn!!! Good to see you back *G*

Now, doe be saft and start purrin restrictins on me Lophophora, just cuz ar pulled yer leg a likkle bit *G*. It's lucky the yed mon (me fertha) car ear me, e'd mek may stop spaking like this and gi'me sum roight ommer. Mindyow, 'is idea wuz; cuz arm a wumun ar shud bay owt the're angin up th' weshin for a famly o'15 babbies an awl the rest on um. Uncle Tom Cobbly an' all day noe the arf on it.

Eh lass, tha'll nun gerron wi spekkin laik yon!

(Ahm a Yorkshire wummin missen)

Whut's yooztue Quinies ta'an aboo', geezabrekk gonny???

Win'urmyure

Ha ha ha, Baa! Thanks although I'm not sure I actually understood it. Don't ask for a translation!

Evert, I wish it was 23 here. We had rain today but it only made it more humid. :-(

Lophophora, thanks for the japanese lesson but there's a bit of a problem. If I pronounce any of it wrong, will I insult someone? :-) Maybe I should use it the next time a tourist gets in the way on the bike lane....but I digress. I can't quite remember SoCal lingo now but hey, I grew up in Nebraska where the accent is as flat and boring as the landscape. ;-)
*sigh* I have nothing to revert too (brain is truly fried now).

giiuz a brekk, lad.! Tha'll no gitt onniwhere wi yon attitood!!!

Awright enn, geezascrewtap in wull huvvaperty, gonny??

Win'urmyure

LOL Deblynn give it a try and let us know the results!

Look what's happened, we've got on to Yorks and Glasgie dilects now LOL. Start them northerners off and we'll never stop them.

Baa, gerddi, Wintermoor -

Ehh... yeah. Umm... I'll see to it tomorrow - fishfood for the postman. Um... Tautology in the air ducts; right. Mechanical socks with elephantitis. Uh-huh........................

deblynn -
I'm glad you understood the gravity of the situation. If you make even the slightest mistake in your pronunciation, I'll be forced to disembowel myself in public. Let's miss that party, ok?
As far as SoCal goes - it's nothing like the fireworks display above. All you have to do is act as if you've just been given a double dose of elephant tranquilizer and slur your speech, then add "like" and "man" and "dude" (variation: "dudeski") and "like" and "rally" ("really") and "like" and "no way" and "like" every third word.
It helps to have frontal lobe damage.......

Ha ha Lophophora, like, I remember now, dude. It took me some time to get "like" out of my vocabulary, except where appropriate. We cannot have you disemboweling yourself in public, so I will refrain from attempting japanese, except with american tourists here (just the evil side of me).

I love the scottish, thanks to my buddy, Edna. She's been teaching me from time to time, although Wintermoor I think you cleaned your's up a lot LOL. Or does it just depend where you come from? :-) Yorkshire is easier to read though. This is fun. I miss good humor. Thanks!