Marty

Wet! Otherwise good, thanks for asking. How's Albertsville?

Greetings, young Albert!

Another rainy day here in the northwest of Ireland.

Step away from the studying for a while. Take a walk. Listen to some of your favourite music. Read a book (or one of Gary's creations). Just do something for yourself now and then. One of my professors when I was at uni used to tell us to do absolutely no studying at all the night before an exam. He said that if we didn't know what we needed to by that time, we never would.

As well as apple pies, my mum used to bake apples in the oven. She would remove the core from a whole apple, make a mixture of raisins, brown sugar, cinnamon and water, which she would put into the centre of each of the apples, and bake them on a baking tray with maybe half an inch of water in it. They were absolutely scrumptious!

Part of the reason to grow them on semi-dwarfing rootstocks is to make the picking of them easier.

I do intend to get a pear tree eventually. Just not yet done the research to decide what variety would be best for where I live.

Fig trees don't really grow well outside in Ireland or Britain, certainly not in the more northern parts, although they can be grown in glasshouses and polytunnels. But I do remember seeing them growing on and beside the walls of the old steel mills lining the River Don in Sheffield when I was at university there back in the 1960s. Water from the river was apparently used to cool the hot molten steel, before being returned to the river. This produced a much warmer micro-climate for the figs to survive. Now the steel industry has basically ended, I reckon the fig trees are no longer there...

I'm not 100% sure, but I think you may call them baking apples your side of the Pond...

Greetings, young Albert! I have a plum tree and a cooking apple tree ready for planting from the large pots they are in. It won't be done today, as it's a wet and windy one. I also have two smaller apple trees in pots, one cooker (different variety) and one eater. I am not intending planting those two in the ground until at least the coming autumn/winter, as they were only grafted onto their rootstocks last year. All the apple trees are on MM106 rootstocks, which is a semi-dwarfing stock and will grow up to 3 to 4 metres high (10 to 15 feet). I didn't want to buy ones on dwarfing rootstocks (M26), as they don't produce a very vigorous root system, and would likely suffer from wind damage in my climate. The plum tree is on a St. Julien A rootstock, which grows to around 3.5 to 4 meters in height (11 to 15 feet).

Hopefully it will be a warm and dry day for you next year, ma fée.

We can expect the last frost up until 3rd June here. So I can't plant any tender plants in the ground outside before then. I've some vegetable and flower seeding in pots and trays that I have to bring in every evening. I'm also planning to plant my seed potatoes next weekend. They'll take 3 weeks or so for the sprouts to get above ground, so will be safe from any late frosts.

Well, I sleep naked... And I may have dreamed about gardening... Can't be sure, though, as any dreams I had were not lucid ones. So did you?

Greetings, young Albert! Just in the house for a snack. Finally got my first row of (maincrop) pea seeds sown.

In Dreams Roy Orbison

Good morning all.

Sleep tight, Albert.

How's things in Albertsville these days? You and Steve doing okay?

Greetings, young Albert!

I had several. But, same as you, it's seldom I do remember what my dreams have been about.

I'm away to bed. Good night, all.

Sweet dreams, bro.

Greetings, young Albert.

I thank you, Parker. The kind words you have spoken mean so much to me.