Ophelia wrote:
I always start cucurbits off in pots and, if I start early and summer
is late. they can end up being quite big (and in biggish pots),
I start my Phaseolus beans in paper pots, too.
So, it was nothing to do with transplanting into bigger pots then? Hmm I
know I was late sowing ... I might try again next year. When is the best
time to sow the seeds?

I normally sow mine starting end of March, indoors, then some more in
April. And probably some more in May. And if any failed, then maybe
a couple more in June.

wrote in message
...
Ophelia wrote:
I always start cucurbits off in pots and, if I start early and summer
is late. they can end up being quite big (and in biggish pots),
I start my Phaseolus beans in paper pots, too.
So, it was nothing to do with transplanting into bigger pots then? Hmm I
know I was late sowing ... I might try again next year. When is the best
time to sow the seeds?

I normally sow mine starting end of March, indoors, then some more in
April. And probably some more in May. And if any failed, then maybe
a couple more in June.

Thanks very much, Vicky. I'll put that on my calendar I am hoping to be
at home much more next year so will probably have better luck, weather
permitting. We are meant to be going away today but most of the roads we
need to use are blocked.

--
--

http://www.shop.helpforheroes.org.uk/

"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 25 Sep 2012 09:58:03 +0100, "Ophelia"
wrote:



wrote in message
...
Ophelia wrote:
I always start cucurbits off in pots and, if I start early and summer
is late. they can end up being quite big (and in biggish pots),
I start my Phaseolus beans in paper pots, too.
So, it was nothing to do with transplanting into bigger pots then? Hmm
I
know I was late sowing ... I might try again next year. When is the
best
time to sow the seeds?

I normally sow mine starting end of March, indoors, then some more in
April. And probably some more in May. And if any failed, then maybe
a couple more in June.

Thanks very much, Vicky. I'll put that on my calendar I am hoping to
be
at home much more next year so will probably have better luck, weather
permitting. We are meant to be going away today but most of the roads we
need to use are blocked.

We had just about the worst North Sea crossing we have ever had on
Sunday night. It was like being in a tumbler drier. I was so glad that
I wasn't one of those on a day trip to Amsterdam or Rotterdam who had
the pleasure of looking forward to the return trip in even worse
weather.

I can imagine Are you home? If so, look at the UK weather!

Not sure what gardeners can do in this, except sit down with a nice warm
drink and plan next year. Is there still much work to be done for this
year?

Fences and trees are blowing down up here.
--
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http://www.shop.helpforheroes.org.uk/

Martin wrote:
Yes, with the central heating turned on.

I'm refusing to turn the central heating on until November. I am so
far up to a cardigan and closing the big curtains at night.

Martin wrote:
Our central heating is controlled by a thermostat, which knows when it
is cold.

So is ours, but I switch it OFF during the summer. :-)
18' in summer is nice, 18' in winter is a bit chilly, if I'm sat around.

wrote in news:acdjvaFs91aU4
@mid.individual.net:

Martin wrote:
Our central heating is controlled by a thermostat, which knows when it
is cold.

So is ours, but I switch it OFF during the summer. :-)
18' in summer is nice, 18' in winter is a bit chilly, if I'm sat around.



Thermal underwear is my choice instead of turning on the centeral heating
when it gets a bit chilly. Just do it, it is amazing how warm things get
when you have 2 similar minds. I hear.

Baz

Martin wrote:
We had just about the worst North Sea crossing we have ever had on
Sunday night. It was like being in a tumbler drier. I was so glad that
I wasn't one of those on a day trip to Amsterdam or Rotterdam who had
the pleasure of looking forward to the return trip in even worse
weather.

Nick was sailing on the south coast this weekend. Meant to be a trip
to France, but the weather was off. He sent me a text message on Saturday
morning saying "Why do I do this??"

"Martin" wrote in message
...
On 25 Sep 2012 11:38:10 GMT, wrote:

Martin wrote:
We had just about the worst North Sea crossing we have ever had on
Sunday night. It was like being in a tumbler drier. I was so glad that
I wasn't one of those on a day trip to Amsterdam or Rotterdam who had
the pleasure of looking forward to the return trip in even worse
weather.

Nick was sailing on the south coast this weekend. Meant to be a trip
to France, but the weather was off. He sent me a text message on Saturday
morning saying "Why do I do this??"

I bet you have asked that question many times :-)
--

Martin


I was involved with the yachting fraternity at the time of the 1979 Fastnet
Boat Race and we had two boats in the race. I saw them when they came back
:-(

I have asked that question since and now stick to proper cruising.

Mike


--

....................................

I'm an Angel, honest ! The horns are there just to keep the halo straight.

....................................

Martin wrote:
Nick was sailing on the south coast this weekend. Meant to be a trip
to France, but the weather was off. He sent me a text message on Saturday
morning saying "Why do I do this??"
I bet you have asked that question many times :-)

I haven't asked why /I/ do it often, as I don't do it often. And I don't
think Nick has been sailing since we were in the Carribean over a year ago
now! So no, probably not.

But he's doing Gibraltar to Malta next week (takes up to 2 weeks, weather
depending).

"Martin" wrote in message
...
On 25 Sep 2012 11:49:05 GMT, wrote:

Martin wrote:
Nick was sailing on the south coast this weekend. Meant to be a trip
to France, but the weather was off. He sent me a text message on
Saturday
morning saying "Why do I do this??"
I bet you have asked that question many times :-)

I haven't asked why /I/ do it often, as I don't do it often. And I don't
think Nick has been sailing since we were in the Carribean over a year ago
now! So no, probably not.

But he's doing Gibraltar to Malta next week (takes up to 2 weeks, weather

and Israel/Iran WWIII depending.

depending).
--

Martin


delete WWIII there won't be one in the next 50 years at least.

Mike


--

....................................

I'm an Angel, honest ! The horns are there just to keep the halo straight.

....................................

Martin wrote:
and Israel/Iran WWIII depending.

That would be typical Nick luck scale catastrophe ...

"Martin" wrote in message
...

The noise of waves hitting the ferry on Sunday night was deafening.
Once I thought we had collided with something. We had a cabin right at
the front. The bunks at the very front are along the length of the
boat, so more comfortable when it is rough. There wasn't much pitching
or rolling, just a lot of slamming into waves ands being slammed by
waves. Every part of the boat was shuddering. A couple of times there
was the feeling and the noise you get in a sailing boat when the boat
falls off a wave. I kept visualising that video of the cruise ship off
New Zealand in a storm without stabilisers and hoped the engines
wouldn't fail. It was already rough before we got out of the Humber.
Despite the weather we arrived on time. At least we didn't have to zig
zag up and down in the North Sea for 30 hours because it was unsafe to
enter the Europort. In the days when the ferry was only 4,000 tonnes,
this happened to friends several times. The approach to the Europort
is cluttered by a lot of anchored empty tankers and bulk carriers. The
Dutch cleared the seabed where the ships are anchored in August. they
dredged up more than 3 kilometres of anchor chain and lots of old
anchors.

I've only ever once been seasick on a ferry and it was just Dover to Calais
run many years ago.

Was it the Hull-Rotterdam run you were on? I've never found any problems
like that with that ferry. It sounds horrendous
--
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http://www.shop.helpforheroes.org.uk/

"Martin" wrote in message
...

Yes it was the Hull Rotterdam ferry.

In the 1980s we had a crossing just after Xmas in a severe gale, when
there something was wrong with the engine and we drifted across the
Humber just after we departed from Hull. They got the engine going but
then announced we could only do a third of the normal speed and that
we would be very late arriving ... implicit "if at all".

Good grief

By the time
we reached the mouth of the Humber the problem was solved. At that
point they told the passengers that the waves were 26' high. One
advantage of travelling at night is that you can't see how scary it is
out there. The disadvantage is that I imagine it being worse. I
travelled on a day boat from Hoek to the Harwich a few weeks after the
Zeebrugge disaster in the most enormous gale. It took two tugs and a
replaced tow rope just to get the boat undocked. At sea it was really
horrific. Small coasters that we passed were almost submerging. We
arrived 7 hours late.

That would really put me off for life
--
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http://www.shop.helpforheroes.org.uk/

On 27/09/2012 12:52, Martin wrote:

The Cruel Sea was on TV recently. It contains old newsreel film of an
aircraft carrier in an Arctic convoy in a storm. An aircraft carrier
buries the front of the deck in a wave. In fact the film was taken in
an Atlantic convoy.

Possibly the same film clip is here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwjrf0gZjIE

Otherwise known as "shipping it green".
--
Phil Cook

On 27/09/2012 11:52, Martin wrote:

In the 1980s we had a crossing just after Xmas in a severe gale,...
...I
travelled on a day boat from Hoek to the Harwich a few weeks after the
Zeebrugge disaster in the most enormous gale. It took two tugs and a
replaced tow rope just to get the boat undocked. At sea it was really
horrific. Small coasters that we passed were almost submerging. We
arrived 7 hours late.

I once travelled from Esbjerg to Newcastle in a severe gale. It took
three tugs to get the ship off the dock and I woke at least once in the
night by coming into sudden contact with the bunk above. Then when we
got off the ship the land felt like it was moving!
--
Phil Cook