Have never heard it called pentaque. Learned to play in Italy and several friends play bocce ball here.

I didn't think oyster shell was the same as garden lime - but hubs thought it might be. Thanks for the clarification. I think I've got a soil test kit out in the shed.

Today I trimmed up all the dead and funky leaves on the potted iris in preparation for the move down into the permanent new garden bed. Happy! I'm still confused about using lime as a treatment
for leaf spot, however.
Also noticed 3 new seedling crosses coming up - and we've got a couple more days of sunshine predicted. Cold mornings, however. Dh said it got down to 27 the other night. We're
burning a lot of wood in the wood stove.

It rained very lightly here today.
Jan, glad your seedlings are doing well.

no gardening for me...we're in savannah and i'm freezing! it's 37 deg. and when we left san diego, it was in the mid-sixty's.

my neighbor s watering my citruses, fuchsias, and cordyline fructicosas. i asked her to ignore my irises in pots and in the ground because it showere before we left. i think the moisture should hold them for two weeks unless we get temps form the low to mid 80's.

looking forward to higher temps in georgia, tomorrow! playing golf in the morning and hoping that the wind doesn't blow too hard.

I never heard of petanque, so I had to look it up.

From Google:

"The difference is right there: traditional bocce is more of a bowling game, whereas petanque is more of a tossing game, like horseshoes. Bocce players take steps before throwing, petanque players stand still. Bocce balls are usually rolled palm up, petanque balls tossed palm down, so they get backspin upon release."

No petanque or bocce ball here - but Little Cuddles did some giant rat throwing earlier and I got to bag it and throw it in the bin. It made it into the bin in my first attempt too! Does that count?

Yuck!

Thanks Rob. We definitely play bocce.

Lilli-glad it wasn't mine to dispose of!

Well, I can't really say I enjoy a good game of rat throwing - as opposed to the dog, but I much prefer finding the rat dead on the lawn to alive (with a family) in my potting shed!

Thank you, William!

My Oscar caught a baby rat today. He likes to just hit them and chase them for an hour or so, but I think it's cruel so I rescued this one.


We have just got the weather forecast for Christmas. It will be the first heat wave this summer and Christmas day will be 35 celcius (95 fahrenheit). There are major roadworks, major sporting events and travel times through the city are going to take an hour longer. It won't be fun to be stuck in traffic in the heat.

I am no fan of rats, but poor baby rat!

I have spent Christmas in Spain and in Fiji and found it a bit strange with the good weather, leaves on the trees and eating outside, when you're used to it being dark and cold. But given the chance, I would definitely do it again!

It is still a bit above freezing here and cloudy with a little fog thrown in. Fortunately, I have a lot of preparation for the holidays to see to, so I will not have time to go outside and get wet and cold today!

34°F & a light dusting of snow this morning. That is all the grocery shopping until after Christmas.

We planted 9 of the 40 in the deck in planters. I was surprised how even those in 5 gal pots
were root-bound. It's a beautiful day here and the soil was in good shape to be dug.

The 5 gallon potted irises were a pain to plant for me in Sept-Oct. The ground was too dry and hard and my tiller didn't go deep enough. The ground right now is perfect, so I don't blame you for doing some planting in December. I may make another bed and do some more planting too....either after Christmas, or in early February.

We had a beautiful sunny day yesterday. I spent the day visiting friends and taking them some home made goodies to enjoy. Today we are expecting more snow, but warmer temps. Christmas day is still predicted to have freezing rain. Guess I'm not going to be traveling then.

Sounds so good to hear about you who are able to garden this time of year. I can't even see the tops of the leaves of the irises in the snow right now.

At least you have proper Christmas weather, Tom!

Visiting my parents for X-mas, so I went through their irises and removed old, dead leaves. Even away from home, I can find things to do in the iris garden!

I think that's great Lilli!
Your parents are probably only too happy to have you help and you got out into the fresh air for a while. Better than sitting around with the cookie jar in close range

Our dog needs a lot of exercise, so I tend to get plenty of fresh air, but I have been doing the cookie jar thing too today!