Weather Today- in Your Vicinity

[aster]

Hi was 30ºc today.

That is one fine tomato shot Aster, just hours away from being perfectly ripe.
Right now mine are green and not much bigger than gooseberries, I did
start them late though.

I think I have my share of gooseberry-sized tomatoes as well, David. : )

For some reason the tomatoes on the same branch wait for their turns to ripen, so I usually have one flower, one half way to ripening and one fully ripened all at the same time, like the ones in the photo. Either they are very respectful to eachother (!) or the energy of the pot of soil the vine thrives in can only nourish one at a time!

I pick the ripest one and the next day the small green one starts to ripen in no time: conequently, I have at least one nice and tastey tomato every other day... they smell nice too! : ))

Nice big juicy Tomato Yildiz, you sure can grow them, even if it was accidental.
Not long too go now for nicer weather in Istanbul I think, just a few weeks more should do it, hopefully.
Greg

Thanks, Greg. : )

It pretty much did everything on its own actually. All I did was, water it twice every day and spray some water on its leaves...and scare the birds visiting the 'wheat bar' from hurting the yellow fragile flowers that eventually will become tomatoes. : )

Well, no chances of an igloo for this Eskimo in Istanbul. The only ice I see is the ice cubes in my water glass! There's a sweet breeze tonight which helps though...This is great!

Yildiz

The ripe and the young.jpg

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[Birma]

More great tractors and tomatoes - and weather updates

I really admire the dedication to get such an old machine to look as good as it did the day it ran off the production line.

Warming up with sunny intervals in Farnborough
Temp 11°C 52°F (no parkers here - it is summer!)
Wind Westerly 3mph 5km/h
Humidity: 86%
Pressure: 1008mb, rising
Visibility: Good

[Greg Beetham]

11 kaf kaf, as soon as it goes down too 10, that's it for me, game overr, if I lived there I reckon I'd become another iceman, frozen solid, you'd have too push me around on a trolly, you might be able to charge admission...step up, step up, ladies and gents, come and see the frozen aussi, snap frozen in the middle of summer.
Greg

[Birma]

It has warmed up to a balmy 17°C or 63°F - almost too hot for a jacket

[aster]

Weather in Istanbul: We have a nice breeze to sweep the cruel heat away... : ))
34° C | 26° C

Humidity: 52% . Scattered Clouds. High: 34 °C . Wind NNE 21 km/h . Heat Index: 34 °C .

It has warmed up to a balmy 17°C or 63°F - almost too hot for a jacket

Well, it looks like it's almost Hawaiian floral shirts time for you, Birma! : ))

11 kaf kaf, as soon as it goes down too 10, that's it for me, game overr, if I lived there I reckon I'd become another iceman, frozen solid, you'd have too push me around on a trolly, you might be able to charge admission...step up, step up, ladies and gents, come and see the frozen aussi, snap frozen in the middle of summer.
Greg

11 Celcius would mean chestnut barbeque for us here, Greg and that probably is soon to happen in September. The chestnut trees lining some of our streets are looking loaded...

We'll consider your option of becoming a frozen commercial gig and see what our finance department has to say about the profits and feasibility arrangement, Greg. : )) You just may not be that good an investment with the British beer and whisky and rom around. You'd soon warm up after a few drops and sips and we'd all go bankrupt....Alaska, maybe and on an iceberg.... : )

Yildiz

Chestnuts.jpg

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[Greg Beetham]

So that's what Chestnuts look like, I always wondered what the cooking of chestnuts was all about, never had the opportunity too try that custom out, so I don't know what they taste like, are they like another type of nut? or is that just a name.
Speaking about cold, we had an astronomy get together once way out at Woodstock, (it's a small rural place about 40km west of town, a rail siding virtually, but good for astronomy, no city lights). The guy (schoolteacher) who started our club came from the UK originally, a very likable chap and his enthusiasm for astronomy was infectious...infectious enough too get me out there in the middle of winter setting up telescopes, with a westerly bringing the temperature down towards zero by midnight. I had layers of clothes on and a hooded parka and gloves, fleecy thigh length ugg boots etc. and was still cold. And there was Richard F. sitting on a stool at the chart table in a tee shirt, shorts and flipflops....hmmm I'm sure he was freezing, but it was impressive too see someone so impervious to cold.
Greg

Townsville weather: 18.9 | 25.8C, H79%, 11-19km/h, SE-ENE, Overcast.

[David Kilpatrick]

Try roasting those horse chestnuts and you'd have a set of broken teeth (they are inedible). a.k.a. conkers. The chestnuts which are roasted are Spanish chestnuts, which have a finer spiky shell more fibrous in appearance, and two inner halves which are small nuts. Marrons in French.

David

[aster]

Try roasting those horse chestnuts and you'd have a set of broken teeth (they are inedible). a.k.a. conkers. The chestnuts which are roasted are Spanish chestnuts, which have a finer spiky shell more fibrous in appearance, and two inner halves which are small nuts. Marrons in French.

David

David, yes, they are conkers. But that won't stop the people who pick them regularly from the tree all the same, much like they did in the past seasons. They probably use the conkers for other purposes than eating, because it can also be toxic for humans.
We have some really edible chestnut trees on the street forking away from this one. I hope I can get there before their usual enthusiasts to take some photos while still on the trees.

I'll try to get one of those conkers myself, just to see what it looks like and feels like at a closer inspection.

Yildiz

[Birma]

Once the the 'conker' in side the green case is ripe, and relatively fresh from the case, it has beautiful patterns in the shiney brown skin of the nut, sort of similar to varnished walnut veneer. Horse Chestnut trees are a magnet to "small boys" once the conkers are ripe, and I suspect that like me, many "used-to-be small boys" still find it hard to not collect conkers. Now they just tend to sit on a shelf till they shrivel, but there seems to be a genetic need to gather them - the bigger the better . We used to play 'conkers' which involved piercing a conker so that you could thread it on a piece of string (boot laces were best!) and then bash it against your friends' conkers - the surviving conker being the winner. There are many local rules for conkers and indeed for scoring conkers. Some pubs still have conker competitions in the early autumn but children don't seem to play any more.

[aster]

Once the the 'conker' in side the green case is ripe, and relatively fresh from the case, it has beautiful patterns in the shiney brown skin of the nut, sort of similar to varnished walnut veneer. Horse Chestnut trees are a magnet to "small boys" once the conkers are ripe, and I suspect that like me, many "used-to-be small boys" still find it hard to not collect conkers. Now they just tend to sit on a shelf till they shrivel, but there seems to be a genetic need to gather them - the bigger the better . We used to play 'conkers' which involved piercing a conker so that you could thread it on a piece of string (boot laces were best!) and then bash it against your friends' conkers - the surviving conker being the winner. There are many local rules for conkers and indeed for scoring conkers. Some pubs still have conker competitions in the early autumn but children don't seem to play any more.

That's news to me!

So, there are competitions and games attached to the frenzy of picking horse chestnuts...I'm glad it's used in a peaceful way but from the size of those conkers I've seen today, they can be hazardous for little kids also, in a 'battle game' or the like. I think they can be pretty hard and heavy.


Yildiz

[david antony]

SW. Canada. 22ºc. scattered clouds.

My neighbour Tom just arrive back from Ucluelet, on the west coast of Vancouver Island with his catch.


This chest weighed over 300 lb and his other not much less, ice & fish.





Tom will be 80 next May.




One fit guy.

[Greg Beetham]

Nice looking fish, what are they, Salmon? Do you wet a line now and then DA?
Greg

[Birma]

Nice shots DA and congratulations to Tom as well - that big one is a monster!

[david antony]

Thanks Birma, Tom goes over there every year with son
in-law Patrick plus the wife & kids, which ups their quota ;^)
They always do very well.

Yes those are Spring Salmon Greg. I have fished but not
for a quite a while.

[aster]

Your friend Tom is a good fisherman, David. : )

I'm impressed both by the number of variety of fish in your region as well as their sizes. One can serve a whole crowd of cheerful friends a nice dinner with such great fish. : )

What is the tendency with the aftermath of catching these fish? Do you usually keep them refrigerated for a long period of time and bring them out for a special occasion until they all run out?

Very appetizing shots!

Yildiz