The EU RR is on it's Way!

Thanks to everyone for joining in, the package is now winging it's way to Philomel in France.

I'll be using this thread to keep track of the package so for further updates, please look in here, any questions please ask here too :)

Oooh I'll have to keep a specially careful eye on my post box then! Letters don't drop onto the doormat here. We have a box by the gate which I frequently forget to check!

Thanks Baa, can't wait to see the goodies inside and I've earmarked seeds to go in it before it goes on its way to Maggi :)

Have just collected the RR packet from my post box, thanks for the careful packing and labelling Baa!
Now an enjoyable morning of looking up the plants I don't know, choosing and replacing lies before me :)
I was thrilled to see a great selection of veggie seeds, but I'm not letting any more of the 'cat out of the bag' than that LOL
Will report here when the packet continues its journey...................

OOH, come on Hilary, I can hardly wait to get my hands on the robin! I'm glad there's veg. in there....any herbs? Oh, and I love fragrant plants...(hint,hint!) . Seriously now, you take your time and enjoy it, then send it on its way to the Basque country...
Maggi xxxx

Just popping by to say I'm not ignoring people, I will be getting around to asnwering everything.

Thanks Philomel! You get post on a Sunday? I'm glad the veggie seeds caught your attention, there are some really interesting varieties more freely available these days aren't there.

Sorgina I did put some herbs in there but nothing terribly exciting from me :(

Sorry to have 'dropped off the face of the earth'!
My SIL suddenly decided that he could put in a new kitchen for me! (not complaining!!!) but Ikea is 2 hours away, so that took up all monday - and I've been back there today. Tuesday was spent rejigging the design to allow for wonky walls etc etc.

I was out all saturday (hunting tiles and a dishwasher) Baa, so collected my post sunday morning - no, no delivery here on a sunday ;)

I've just finished doing all my seed swaps and will post the package on to you in the morning Maggi :oD Apologies for keeping you (and everyone else) waiting

I've taken out:
Perennial - Papaver burseri
Shrub/tree - Kiggelaria africana
Herb - Good King Henry
Veg - Carrot, Broad Bean, French Bean, Turnip, Melon, Red Onion, organic Brocolli

Put in:
2 annuals as extras (Morning Glory and Love in the Mist) and some seeds into the lucky dip :)
Perennial - Althea rugosa
Shrub - Caryopteris clandonensis
Herb - Giant Italian Parsley
Veg - Dwarf early pea, Red cut and come again lettuce, Cos lettuce, Dwarf French bean, pointed cabbage, organic Lamb's lettuce (Valerianella), cucumber (for gherkins or large)

Sending my good wishes to all with the package
Hilary (philomel)

Thanks for letting us know :)

If I had a choice between new kitchen and seed exchange I know I'd be chosing the kitchen too LOL.

Good choices for taking and replacing, are you creating a potager?

I'm getting excited here! Enjoy your new kitchen Hilary.
Maggi xxxx

I'm getting excited here! Enjoy your new kitchen Hilary.
Maggi xxxx
PS. I guess you've been to Bordeau Ikea then?

Yes Baa, I've always liked growing veggies and am embarking on a potager. Have ordered a rotovator to get me started - cutting through the existing turf - but am going to do as much as possible by no dig, mulching methods (horse poo readily available + straw)
The soil is mainly very heavy clay, with, bizarrely, strips of sand.
The conditions are very different here to in the UK. The winters go down every bit as cold or colder, but they are less drawn out and the summer sun can be scorching (scorchio for any Fast Show fans :)
I had some red-flowered broad beans, but didn't manage to save any seed, so I was so pleased to see them in the packet Baa - and all your other great seeds!

I went to the Ikea near Toulouse this time, though they are roughly the same distance away from us Maggi.
Am off out in a minute to visit an organic gardening friend :) We are after late ripening persimmon trees. Mine are ripe now, but she says there are types here which don't ripen until december, so I'd like one of those too.

So this time next year we hope to be seeing your beautiful potager! I've had some bad years with the Crimson Flowered Broad Bean too, the year before last I could only save 1 seed so had to ask for some more, fortunately they've been doing better recently.

We had a hoar frost last night and it's hanging around even now in the shady bits, all of the ducks and hens have come right down the garden and ae sitting not far from the back door enjoying the sun.

I managed to eat all the Crimson Flowered Broad Beans this year without saving any seeds, but have quite a few from last year which I didn't plant.

It has been bitterly cold here all day, the frost hasn't even melted in the bottom garden. The hens are at the back of the house which gets more sun at this time of the year, and they have an old kitchen table which they go under if it is raining, or sit on to sunbathe when the ground is cold. They also have a movable ark with rain and wind protection to go under/in in the day time and a large hut with more next boxes and fox proof bob-hole and doors for night time. Spoilt or what?

Talking about Ikea, a friend of ours spent all day there and came back with a Billy book case - as he couldn't pronounce any of the others! I think he was joking.

I have a Billy bookcase from when I was in England :)

I posted the parcel this morning - so watch out for your postman Maggi. It's La Poste here, with yellow vans, what do you have in Spain?

No frost here today, though a bit damp. We had at least one frost so far but not very hard. Most of the trees still have their leaves and are unbelievably beautiful colours!!! Lots of red and purple liquidamber here, and yellow planes. Acers in all colours etc etc.
Whereas I used to think of hallowe'en as the time when the last leaves fall in England, here it seems to be a month later :) Autumn goes on for ever.

My hens are sitting around looking a little damp. I only get one egg a day at the moment, but hopefully they will come back into lay when the days start to lengthen. Last year my young ones started to lay on January the first, so am hoping this year's 4 won't leave it any longer. Two of them are copper black Marans, so I'm looking forward to their first dark brown eggs......

Am now going to put my feet up and have a cuppa with a couple of new books on potagers and garden design (in french ;) LOL

Wow, thanks Hilary. Here it's "El Correos" and a postwoman on a battered old yellow scooter. It takes that ancient machine at least a week to travel the 1/2 kilometre from the PO to our farmhouse, so I won't start holding my breath yet!
No frosts here yet, but it's got very damp and chilly. I still have quite a few autumn roses out, but they are looking nearly as bedraggled as the hens after several days of non-stop rain. My hens, who are getting on a bit, have almost stopped laying altogether. Husband and son are making noises about it being hot chicken soup weather, but I can't bear to think about it. Each hen has a name and her own personality.... As you can see, I'd never make a farmer!
Maggi xxxx

LOL Maggi, poor hens ;o)
I had to take 3 of my cockerels (why do you always get more cockerels from a hatch when it's hens you want?) to a friend yesterday as the crowing might upset people staying here - don't want to risk it. Am now just left with 2 Brahma cockerels and a Speckled Sussex that hasn't quite made up its mind. I'm hoping its a hen as 2 were definitely cockerels.
So now I have 3 hybrid layers, one hybrid meat bird (pet) all bought at the local market as 3 week olds last year. From my incubator -
2 copper black Marans, 1 partridge Brahma blue marked (very sweet and pretty) and the ? Specled Sussex. Just 3 or possibly 4 hens out of 12 chicks successfully hatched :( Oh well, try again next spring....

What are yours Baa and Maggi?
BTW frosty this morning but bright blue sky

Bbbbrrrr. bloomin cold here this morning...frosts outside today, but brilliant blue skies, makes you feel like going up the lottie and digging it all over.....LOL...Just joking.
Our plot borders a large wall ,from the houses that edge the plot, and it seems that a sewerage pipe has broken, so they have to take diggers on our plot to find the fault and repair it.
Don't want to go up there till they've finished and gone.hope they mind our trees, though I suspect that probably being blokes, they won't even see them!!...They were only planted last spring.

We went to Ikea too last week to choose a kitchen Philomel, I think the whole of the South West was there too doing the same, there were people queued everywhere, took us 3 hours trying to plan it, then getting someone to advise and print out a list of componants.I thought going in the week it would be quiet, how wrong. Hubby then decided that we'd go away and think about it!!!!....mind you, my head was done in by then, so maybe not the best time to make decisions...
Is your kitchen in yet then? I suspect that it might take a while to persuede my hubby that we desperately need it.It's only been in for 27 years!!!...

Looking forewards to the seeds arriving, like prezzies coming through the post, guess thats why I like E-bay....

Maggi ,they wouldn't really put the chickens in a pot would they? Don't think I'd make much of a farmer either, all my daughters are veggie, and it wouldn't take much for me to be one either.I'd love to keep a few chukkies, though where I'd put them I don't know. And when things go wrong we get so upset.One of our cats had astroke at the start of the week, and it was horrible, the girls were in tears when the vet said that if she didn't improve by the end of the week it would be kinder to put her down.But thankfully she's improving a bit now.

Managed to get some of my plants inside yesterday, the bananas etc, the rest had to go in the lee of the house wall, hopefully they'll be o.k.
Maybe this is a taste of things to come this winter? they say that we're going to have a cold one.But I'm not going to dig up plants from the garden, they'll have to take their chances.

Sorgina and Sueone

You would be surprised at the number of farmers who wouldn't make a farmer then LOL.

Philomel

We've only got the 2 hens left at the moment, we have a Calder Ranger (sometimes known as a Columbian Blacktail) and a White Star, both are commercial hybrids. The White Star stopped laying early this year but was giving two large, white shelled eggs a day for about a full year, maybe just over so she has paid for her keep. The Calder Ranger lays smaller brown eggs and pretty much when she feels like it but often enough.

Sueone

I can't remember an approaching winter that the Met office didn't say that it would be a cold winter LOL. Last year they predicted a serious one too, trouble is they will be right one day (and it could be this one) but we may have stopped listening by then!

It's always hottest this, wettest that, I wonder if we will have a non record breaking year at some point ;)

LOL The little boy who cried "Wolf!"

We have our first proper (white and hoary) frost this morning. Bbrrrrrrr!! Blue skies though ;)

I do hope your trees are safe Sue and good wishes for your cat continuing to recover. Bon courage with your kitchen! One of the best things re Ikea is that you can take things back. As we didn't know half of the problems before we started this has proved a blessing. The down side is that the nearest is about 2 hours away - and with the French roads that's solid travelling, not sitting in a traffic jam (she says smuggly LOL)
They gave me the wrong tap, so I had to dash out at the end of the day yesterday to find one locally (minimum half an hour *grin*). Still, we're getting there :) i suppose it's about a third in at the moment - but I have a working dishwasher YIIPPEEEEEEEEEE!!

Your chooks sound great Baa. I had to really laugh this morning and wished I had a video camera. The youngsters had never seen or felt FROST before!! The copper blacks looked at it very warily and tested it with their toes before venturing out and the little fluffy Brahma came out of the house, felt the frost and then jumped straight up in the air squawking and making a real flap. Too funny! Don't know what they'll do if it snows....

My hens are just the locally available hybrid layers, sort of orangey - red and quite pretty. One of them is much smaller and paler than the others - they thought I was mad in the local farm co-op when I picked her out especially! They would never sell the runts if it wasn't for the resident crazy Englishwoman! Her name is Pipsqueak and she is the fastest and meanest of all the hens. The biggest and darkest ,(Ruby), is at the bottom of the pecking order, so it obviously has nothing to do with size...
And yes, the boys of the household seem to be quite serious about eating these characters now they have stopped laying! Don't worry though- they wouldn't dare without my permission, and that they will never get!
Maggi xxxx

Hi Maggi. My hybrids are cuckoo - sort of spotty - and quite large. I think they are the ones sold for battery houses here. Love the sound of yours. Pipsqueak must be a character :)
Glad to hear they will end their days with dignity.

Hello ladies, I have enjoyed your chat about hens; I must say it is impossible for me to exploit an animal that I own in any way - I know it is ridiculous, especially as I love meat dishes, but from the moment I establish eye contact with my animal I just can't use it to eat, or take its eggs or whatever. So, I manage now a dog and a cat - completely spoiled and totally lazy, both of them. I think cats - in a country house like mine - are not domestic animals - a long series of stories justify this. Well, she comes every evening, asks for food, offers her fur for cuddling, eats, sleeps in front of the keyboard - totally selfish - just on my two hands while trying to type, then disappears into the night for another 24 hours. And the dog is the landlady of the house - a better "boss" than her real landlady. Well, I am happy with them - oh, and 2 canaries in a cage. They never sing, unless separated - I don't dare to separate them just to make the male sing.

By the way, where is the round robin ???

Dimitri

Dimitri, it's on it's way to me but it hasn't arrived yet. It will probably enjoy a few days of rest in the local PO before our postwoman decides she has accumulated enough mail for us to make her journey worthwhile - mail only arrives here in batches once every few days. After all, we are at least half a kilometre from the PO; can't expect the poor woman to make that journey on her old scooter everyday!! I will post here when I get it, and when I send it out to you. If we're lucky, perhaps it will arrive "avrio". Problem is, avrio never comes...
Maggi xxxx

Philomel

Your hens must have had a shock, I'd have loved to have seen that LOL. Beetle went to his 'pond' for a drink and a swim Thursday morning, only to find it iced over, he pecked the surface a couple of times in increasing annoyance and then started to chunter at the ice before staring up at me in an accusatory manner.

Sorgina

Your menfolk like tough chicken meat? ;) It's often the smallest that rules the flock isn't it.

Dimitri

We kept chickens in the back yard when I was a little girl, some weekends my uncle Fred would visit and kill a cockerel for Sunday dinner and we ate the eggs too. We didn't have hens for a long time but when I started working and had the chance to take eggs home, it took me an age to get used to eating eggs of animals I personally knew. I was most upset when my bosses had some of the lambs I'd hand raised, slaughtered and asked if I wanted half of one, I'd spent such a lot of effort and cajoling trying to keep them alive ........... my mother took the butchered carcass but I still wouldn't eat it. Silly really because I know they were looked after really well and had a happy life, well, up until that moment anyway, actually just writing this has upset me a little, that's the trouble though isn't it when we have such close ties to our animals.

What a wonderful life your animals have! Birds form such close bonds with their mates don't they. Your cat really has the good life, all the comforts of home and a chance to satisfy her natural feline wanderlust, preferably after something small and squeaky I imagine. Dogs are so good at training us to do as they please but are a forgiving master or mistress, a small price to pay for such good companionship.

Baa, I'm going to throw a spanner in the works here...I'm off for a few days as from Monday .till Friday..I didn't even put two and two together and think about it arriving at my place while I was away....

I'm so sorry, would it be better if I'm put back on the bottom of the list ?

I can't think that I didn't twig about it until last night lying in bed...trying to think if I had anything arriving next week (Christmas shopping wise)

Maybe the post between countries will slow it down enough that it won't matter , and I'll be back in time anyway, but just incase you want to arrange an alterative now.

I'm so so sorry for messing you about.

No worries Sueone, if Patbarr gets it earlier than that I'll ask her to send it onto Mike_G first. Thanks for letting us know :)

Thinking about it, perhaps I should have split it into two and sent the package in opposite directions like we did last time

It's finally arrived!!!! I guess the PO HAD been hording it because It arrived along with several letters, loads of seeds from Weezingreens in Alaska and a box of goodies from DrDon in California; it feels like Xmas here! I'm going to be busy looking things up on Plantfile for a while... Such a lot of goodies in here from Baa and Philomel - how will I ever choose?? I promise I'll try and make my choice quickly though, then I can get this in the post to Greece before the weekend - ie. tommorow.....EEEK! If only I didn't have to work for the next two days....
Maggi xxxx

do not hurry Sorgina, there is plenty of time until we need to put the seeds for germination.

I would like to ask the others waiting, if anyone is interested in seeds of carob, opuntia, wild olive tree, styrax or flaming acacia
There are plenty here - I only need to pick some from the ground, so let me know.

Dimitri

Great to know that the seeds have arrived Maggi :)
They only took a week to go the 3 hour journey LOL;)
It doesn't look as if you're in any danger of being away by the time the seeds get to you Sue!

Yes, the opposite directions idea is a good one Baa. I was thinking perhaps we could send it the other way once it arrived back in the UK, but that wouldn't work. .......

They sound interesting Dimitri - particulartly the styrax. Which acacia is that? We have A. dealbata here.

Yes, it would probably have been quicker if we had walked and met halfway! I'm still looking up a lot of seeds on plantfiles or google, so it won't be flying today. At the moment I have about half the contents of the envelope put aside as possible keepers,(seed greed, lol), so I shall have to get myself in hand and put most of them back before sending it on...
Maggi xxxx

Hi philomel, there are several acacias available; now, you got me workingQ I am rushing to the plant files to see what pic fits the ones I have got.

Styrax, although strange, seems to be a small tree coming from California !!! In the early days that I had joined DG, I wrote a thread asking for advice re. my soil. A fellow answered me, and if he was not a professional, there aren't any on this planet. To thank him, I offered to send him seeds of styrax officinalis, which was listed as a wild plant in Crete. The fellow was from California, and I was surprised to hear that it grows wild there too; later on I read that most probably it was brought back to Crete with immigrants returning home after a long working life in the US !!!. Well, it grows upto 3 - 4 meters, has a very interesting hard wood with knotty stems that are soft and trainable the first year, and fills with bright white flowers in the Spring. And people here do not pay any attention to it because it is free, requires no watering and no fertilizer!!!

More news tomorrow - forgive me, I am VERY sleepy.
Dimitri

LOL you sound as if you have the same problems that I had Maggi. Seed greed - very funny - you've hit the nail on the head :)

Thanks for all the information Dimitri. It's so interesting how plants come to travel around the world. It sounds as if styrax is one that hasn't harmed its new locality.... Are the flowers scented?
Hope you've had a good sleep ;)

Well, I finally managed to control my seed greed and limit myself to 8 packets : the red lettuce, lamb's lettuce caryopteris and nigella from Philomel, and the Clematis forsteri,digitalis, aquilegia and Viola sororia from Baa. I'm now looking for 8 worthy replacements, and will also include some extra herb seeds, as I have plenty. Must hurry if I want to catch the Saturday post, so I'd better get off here!
Maggi xxxx

Whew! Just got to the PO before it closed!
I have added: Herbs ; Dill "Mammoth", Capers, Salvia officinalis, Sweet basil and Dwarf Greek Basil.
Perennials; Potentilla "Gibson's Scarlet", Aquilegia vulgaris single white and yellow hybrid, Viola hybrid.
Annuals; Zinnia "Pacific Giants", Sunflowers,mixed.
Vegetables; Spicy salad leaf mix, Swiss Chard "Lucullus".
Shrub; Hibiscus sinosyriacus crimson and purple flowers.
I hope you all enjoy this as much as I did and find something you like; there's loads of good stuff in there.
Maggi xxxx

Those sound great choices and replacements Maggi :)

Presumably, it should be coming this way - I can hardly wait;

Philomel, styrax flowers have a faint lovely aroma and are such a nice thing in May !!! Here is a picture, although the ample light does it no justice - it is the tree/shrub on the left. The seeds are spherical and have a VERY hard skin; I am sure they will benefit if you soak them or even file them a little to get moisture inside. I would say start them now, although they may not show until March - and protect from frost. If you certainly want some and you can't catch the robin, send me a d-mail with your address and I will send you the seeds.

I will try to put whatever seeds I can find 3 - 4 times each, so anyone interested can have a go, and perhaps it would be worth considering sendind the round robin over for a second round?

............. waiting ....

Dimitri


This message was edited Nov 27, 2005 2:38 AM

Thanks for the photo Dimitri. They look and sound great.
Sorry not to have replied earlier. My grand daughter's(12) and my mother's (95) birthdays both happened at the weekend, so I was a little busy :)
The RR has already passed this way so I will dmail you, thanks very much for the offer. Is there anything you would like? (apart from blackthorn as I don't have access to any seed for that now LOL)
I have quite a few veggie seeds. oh and species salvias which might like your climate?

Hope the RR reaches you soon
Hilary

Excellent choices Sorgina, thanks!

I can send the RR round again in the early spring if everyone wants to do that. I was going to list up all the left over seeds and send them out to all who want them on a first come first serve basis at the end of the Robin. I'm happy with either.

I vote for the RR going around as soon as it arrives back to you, if it ends up with seeds other than it had when it started - unless there is no interest from others, in which case of course the postage to move a box round and round the EU is more than buying seeds on the market.

Well, seeds are hopes - they include the beauty of life. But it takes a lot of work to manage the actual plants, to bring the hopes into reality.

........... waiting ...................


Dimitri

I second that Dimitri. I'd love to see the RR again. (NO limit to my seed greed, lol).
Maggi xxxx

I'd vote for Round Robin - Round 2 too (?)

Promise I'll return more than a battered, travel-weary envelope to Baa - I have a few things to put in. (Is there a world record for the longest-running European Round Robin, and can seeds get dizzy?)

Mike