Marty

Greetings, young Albert!

They all showed up for me.

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Thought I'd share this with you before I head to bed... Albert actually took us to the 45,000 replies mark. (I think this post will be reply 45,005) [EDIT: I suppose the next number of note will be the ascending 45,678-th reply....]

Bedtime for me. Goodnight, all!

This almost sounds similar to what happened with my granddad around 50 years back. He was in his mid eighties at the time and his eyesight was failing due to cataracts on his lenses. At the time they would normally just remove the lenses, to allow the light to pass to the retina again, and then provide different spectacles for close (reading) and distant vision. With my grandfather, they fitted plastic lenses inside the eyeballs which allowed him to focus on distant objects, and then he used reading glasses for reading books (one of the things he loved, but had been unable to do for years due to the cataracts). About ten years later my mam needed cataract operations, and she was a bit upset when the surgeon told her she couldn't have plastic lenses inserted because she was only in her early sixties. Apparently the plastic that was being used to make the lenses at the time would slowly deteriorate, and only had a life expectancy of around ten years. The only reason they had been used for her father (my granddad) was due to his advanced age. Maybe they've improved the plastic technology in the meantime..? My mam and granddad lived in England. The operations were done free under the NHS. There was a waiting list of several years, however, and had they been able to afford to go private, they could have got them done much more quickly. I haven't a clue what it might have cost, though.

It does. And I almost feel guilty about spending ten minutes or so several times a day picking them off the leaves of the brassica plants (cabbages, kale and swedes) and dropping them as far away as possible from them. That means they'll possibly starve to death, as they will probably have no host plant to feed on. I could just kill them but (a) I just don't like killing things, and (b) there's a possibility they may provide food for birds, hedgehogs, or other predators when left in the grass. What I certainly have no intention of doing is spraying insecticides of any sort on the brassicas to kill the caterpillars. The most important reason for not doing that is that the chemicals would kill all insect species, many of which are beneficial (even the butterflies and/or moths the caterpillars themselves will eventually turn into are pollinators). Also, I don't want to be eating crops from my garden that have been sprayed with chemicals. And I certainly don't trust any claims the manufacturers may make about them being natural, short lasting, or non-toxic.

Hey, Gary!

It's after midnight, here. So I'm going to head to bed. Have to be up early in the morning to get ready for a 3 hour Zoom session. Have fun, everyone!

I think it's more a case of the climate in this part of Ireland not being suitable for growing tomatoes outdoors, Albert...

Hi, Albert. Hope all's well with you. My few tomato plants, although they produced loads of flowers, didn't yield a single fruit this year. I'll only grow them next year if I have some sort of greenhouse to grow them in.

Hi, everyone! Hope you're all having (or had) a great Friday. Apologies for my silence the past day or two. Just had a busy couple of days. Anyway, I'm nearly half way through my challenge to post a new black and white photo every week for 52 weeks. Here's week 25: I've called this one Caterpillar Damage to Swede Leaves. (And I received a notification that Val mentioned me in a post as I was preparing this post. She was probably reminding me it is Friday...)

Hi, clo! Sounds like a productive use of your time. Had a good, if somewhat busy, day here myself.

Hi, young Albert!

Sounds like a draw to me...

Tut, tut, clo! You, of all people, should know that @Drew Espinosa doesn't like to have his vertically challenged status mentioned in public...

Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/migratory-birds-die-new-mexico-wildlife-experts-why/

Probably not what you'd want, Val...

A belated "Hi" back at you, Page.

Oops! Mea culpa! I should have spotted that. In that case, kudos to @spikey582 for the review.