Six on Saturday – Pears and Pancake Mix

Manchester United 1 Crystal Palace 2. It took us thirty years to beat them at Old Trafford last year, and then we go and repeat the feat again. Repeat defeat!

26th September 2020.

Reading time: 5 minutes + 1 minute spent looking closely at photographs. That’s Six on Saturday.

I’ve been saying it for several weeks. It’s Autumn, and now it’s officially Autumn. The past few weeks have been very dry and warm, so the garden is looking great. The cold nights and dininished light are adding the expected colour changes everywhere. The diminished light and cold nights are not bedfellows, as nights are generally completely dark. For the sake of Autumnal clarity: The diminished daylight hours combined with the cold nights are turning my garden to Autumn gold.

When I’m not gardening I’m playing with my phone or cycling. This week I skipped the midweek cycle, but spent a few cúpla euro to buy a gimmicky little camera app that applies filters to photographs. The hands are not mine and neither is the phone. They belong to someone else who got paid a nominal stipend to allow distribution. I think they are not gardening hands. This is a photo of a photo of my Six this week. Read along with me in reverse alphabetical order:

1. Strawberries

My strawberries had been in pots and window boxes this year, but I’ve been driven demented as mo mheabhair watering and feeding them. I seldom seemed to get it right, so I purchased four hanging baskets and loaded each one with twelve plants. I have one basket left over for something else.

Competition: How many plants altogether? If each plant produces one hundred fruits and the birds get 10% how many bowls of twenty will I have? Ceist eile: What might I put in the remaining basket? I’m reminded of a classic conundrum…

Classic!

2. Pear Tree

Hiding among the two fuchsias is my new pear tree, which is actually two pear trees, and a close look at the second photograph grianghraf clearly shows where the second one has been grafted on to the main plant. The first is Williams and the other one is Buerre Hardy. Perhaps it’s the other way round? This will grow to 3m wide, so I will need to consider very carefully where to plant it.

Which is which?
Pear Williams & Buerre Hardy

3. Onions

During the week I got stuck in, and completed the job of getting the onion sets into the ground. They are protected by netting and surplus shopping baskets. Don’t ask!

4. Feverfew

This little guy is flowering again. Feverfew, sometimes known as Bachelor’s Buttons, is a great little addition to the garden and I’m happy to see it seeding itself in nooks and crannies among the patio slabs. Along with the little flowers, I love the lime-green foliage. This was featured among my very first Six on Saturday articles in early July.

Bachelor’s Buttons

5. Begonia

My begonia-love is changing, as is the case with true love. There are still six in the garden, constantly being moved around for visual variety, a few are being dried out in the glasshouse and finally, a few have been added to the compost heap. I never thought this would happen. Love does not normally discard, yet I’m adapting… Some of the trailing begonias do not suit my garden. They are best viewed from a height of 10 cm, and I’d need to be a miniature Yorkie to really appreciate them. Could I use the leftover hanging basket? In any case, recently I have been influenced by many SOSers who have espoused the virtue of dumping unwanted varieties rather than keeping them simply because they have been purchased with hard-earned cash. My previously-loved Begonias are now in the process of returning to the garden next year via the compost heap. The hanging basket is still available.

6. Acer

A beautiful plant in summer, this comes into the limelight from now until the end of October. The diminishing daylight hours and cold nights are in no way connected to limelight. I wonder where did the word originate?

Acer limelight

SOS – Only One Garden Here

  • Royalty cheque for $200 arrived from Fashion Artist. It’s a decent stipend, and we feel happy to authorise our wide distribution. Top tips indeed.
  • On Paddy’s recommendation (Paddy, An Irish Gardener) we visited Kilmacurragh Botanic Gardens in Wicklow. It’s a wonderful place, and I’ll be back. Beidh mé ar ais.
  • Sam Bennett was on the brink of finishing the TDF in the Green Jersey last week, and on Sunday last he  sprinted to a double victory in Paris. Chapeau Sam!
  • Manchester United 1 Crystal Palace 2. It took us thirty years to beat them at Old Trafford last year, and then we go and repeat the feat again last Saturday. Repeat defeat!
  • Separate Yoga and Chiropractor sessions have me bouncing 360.
  • I enjoyed a nostalgiac photographic back-look to this week in 2015 when we visited our daughter in Thirsk, Yorkshire. I double-jobbed by cycling the Moors including Sutton Bank and Rosedale Chimney. In reality, I escorted the bike on foot for much of the latter.

That’s my lot for this week, a cháirde. I’ll be back with more an Satharn seo chugainn. In the meantime, please visit Mr. Propagator’s garden blog where you can find many more Six on Saturday offerings from around the world, together with details of how to participate if that’s your thing. I’ll be spending some time today reading articles by so many others. I hope you have a great week wherever you are. Slán go fóill.

Pádraig.

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Author: Páraig

Minding my mind, one thought at a time.

33 thoughts on “Six on Saturday – Pears and Pancake Mix”

  2. And, there I was expecting some delicious recipe to use with the pears in the garden which are, by the way, as hard as rocks. I’m glad you liked Kilmacurragh but know that Mount Usher will be even better – autumn colour is a feature there.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. I like these conundrums… We also have them in French just as crunchy ! In a language or the other it’s also a pleasure to read them.
    Good luck with the pear tree : you will enjoy very pretty and tasty fruit because it looks healthy. Just a few years to wait..

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Ah, les rebus francais! (please correct me as necessary). I came upon this on an anxiety-based Instagram account to highlight the enormous burden of troublesome thoughts. In fact it is funny also and suited my purpose today!
      Wait a few years for pears? Pas de problem. Planting a garden is an expression of hope for the future.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I’msure that you’ll enjoy the pears from the summer of 2022. We’ll make a (virtual )meeting at that time!?
        The “rebus” are small games that use drawings and you have to guess a word or a sentence thanks to these drawings.
        Here, they are rather jokes or riddles. A very classic in French of course: ” Si un navire a, à son bord, 26 moutons et 10 chèvres, quel est l’âge du capitaine du navire ?”
        PS ; I didn’t know the word “conundrum”

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Ah, je comprend, Tuigim. 🇮🇪 Condrum is “a seemingly unanswerable question or problem, frequently applied to heady dilemmas involving ethics, sociology, or economics, the word is sometimes so loosely applied to anything enigmatic as to be synonymous with puzzle or mystery.”

          Liked by 1 person

  5. I grew salad leaves in hanging baskets this year – not even the most adverturous slug or snail got at them. I’ll have to take a trip over if there is a surplus of wire shopping baskets for the taking!

    Liked by 1 person

  7. I have missed your posts the last few months and I always enjoy them so much! I had a stroke on Memorial day, but I’m good! We are bikers too and were rooting for Sam and was unnerved a few days over the head butt by Sagen! Those Slovinian lads, the one I call Prozac (ha ha) and Pogotcha the other (my spelling to remember it) were very good…….. almost too good, if you know what I mean. I will look at your previous posts to catch up. Your “Classic” sign has been my year exactly!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I’m happy to hear that you’re good. That must have been a traumatic few months, a chara. Are you back on the bike?
      Sam is based 20 miles from me when he’s back in Ireland & I’ll hope to meet him during the off-season if restrictions allow.

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      1. No, my balance is still not where it should be. I previously walked 5 miles everyday and after my stroke I could barely tolerate the heat and humidity! And walking. But, now with the cooler weather (in the 70’s) I am working back to my previous levels of activity! Hubby still bikes everyday without me! He has his routine……….Oh, how neat to meet Sam! We have experience one Tour de France and it was awesome, but they go by really fast!

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  8. I’m with you, toss out what you don’t enjoy. If a plant doesn’t make you happy, why keep it? I tossed a bunch of what I called “uglies” last year, including a lot of nice blooming perennials. I have fallen for the “everyone should have mums in Autumn” lie more than once. I hate florist mums! So, I throw them out after seeing them for a few days, irritated by them!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I’m a recent convert to this state of affairs. Ife got strong favourites and strong dislikes. Anything in the middle was safe, but not any more. Indded I too have no interest in mums, and now any under-performing begonia gets the chop. Uglies! Very apt…

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  9. Good luck with your pear tree – I hope it produces loads of juicy fruit for you.

    I no longer hold onto a plant that I don’t like (and I’ve had many of them). My husband thinks it’s a ‘waste of a good healthy plant – though in reality, he can’t tell the difference between a healthy or unhealthy plant, so in my garden…they just disappear.

    That’s a bonnie Acer you have there.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you, Catherine.
      I’m moving quickly to having what Lisa calls an Uglies list. The Acer will surely never be downgraded that much. Long time since I’ve seen bonnie used. I’m reminded of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Some teacher in a past life sold him well to me! 😀

      Liked by 1 person

  10. I’ve not come across family pear trees that I can remember. I keep adding to my family apple, Bramley will go on in January. I was looking threateningly at my Victoria Plum today, maybe a pear instead. I looked up limelight, now I know where it came from. Interesting.

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