We’ve finally worked out what one of the trees in our front garden is.
It’s a Magnolia Tree!
Posts Tagged ‘garden’
Mystery Tree in the front garden.
Sunday, April 1st, 2007Leaking tank (again)
Saturday, February 24th, 2007My partner went into the garage aka fish house this morning to do the washing (the garage also shares the washing machine and tumble dryer), and found water all over the floor. I thought I was getting a lie in bed today, so up early at 8.30am. It appears the seal had failed again on the base of the tank. The tanks contains approx 170l of water, no fish were harmed because although 8″ of water had been lost from the tank, once the pressure had dropped it was leaking slowly. I had two “cold spares” in the garden, so they were quickly cleaned and test-filled, whilst I caught all the fish, emptied the tank, keeping the water, and using the external filter to heat and filter the water whilst the fish were in 80l containers.
By 2pm the fish were back in a new tank, sited and filtered.
and then…..
this tank started to leak, the seals on the base of this tank had also failed. I tried to fix with silicon sealer, but it’s very difficult to fix a leaking tank when wet!
It’s still leaking, I’ve got a cat little tray under the tanks, whilst I asses my options. I have another “cold spare” but it’s just the time, I’ve got available to swap again.
October 2006 Update
Tuesday, October 17th, 2006The foggy Autumn weather is upon us, we’ve been in the house almost two months, I’ve been busy plumbing in the washing machine and tumble dryer in the garage (burnt out two pneumatic SDS hammer drills!), cutting the lawn – that’s a job with an electric lawn mover, cutting the hedge (still not finished that job with my new Hedgers!, I’ll take a picture of them, thanks to Christopher at Groundscaper for the recommendation), boarding out one of the attics, discovering we had BATS, visit from the BAT Squad, to authorise works in the attic, planting bulbs in the garden, you get the general idea, been a little too busy to take pictures and update the blog.
After a recommendation, I got another roofing company to visit and inspect the roof and chimney stack – and their professional opinion – unless it leaks leave well alone – oh and take some pictures, and compare them in six months time, after the winter so here they are
Front view of The House including the Yellow Peril! (is that racist?) If you look carefully, the house was extended 30 years ago, so part of the roof is only 30 years old (above the garage and bedroom). This roof is felt-lined, different tiles have been used to “join” the roofs together. So there is a “ridge” at the join. The other roof is original, and is not felt lined, “daylight” can be seen in the attic space, it’s very draughty and dirty, where the grain has blown in off the fields, and is full of cobwebs, the Bats are only in the new part of the loft, as they hate draughts and spiders cobwebs.
Front elevation view of roof and chimney stack. Some bulging is evident in the stack, this could be caused by the iron-stays used to secure the pots, these have corroded, and have started to expand, causing the brickwork to bulge. The rear of the stack is worse, as this receives most of the weather. The stack my need rebuilding in the future, after consulation with my neighbour.
Front elevation view of roof and chimney stack.
Front elevation view of chimney stack
Front elevation view of chimney stack
Front elevation view of chimney stack
Front elevation view of roof
Rear view of The House
Rear elevation view of chimney stack
Rear elevation view of chimney stack
Rear elevation view of chimney stack
Rear elevation view of chimney stack
Rear elevation view of roof
Andy goes scrumping!
Saturday, August 19th, 2006Scrumping – The act of stealing apples from a cider orchard. (The word comes from Scrumpy cider).
I’ve been eating plums from the plum tree in the garden, I noticed after this afternoons heavy down-pour, that apples and plums were falling off the trees this eve, so tested a few on the tree! Very Nice, I think they are Victoria Plums.
The ceilings downstairs in the lounge and dining rooms are now finished, the skirting boards and window sills are complete and we are now cleaning the house as we move-in later this month.
I’ve been removing the carpet, underlay and carpet grippers on the landing and bathroom, carpet grippers are nasty and one bit me on the finger! Why there’s carpet in the bathroom, nasty!
I’ll take the camera, on my next visit and take some more pictures of the bedrooms upstairs and the kitchen, and must take some pictures of the consumer unit for my Sparky Friend!
End of First Day
Wednesday, July 12th, 2006All the plaster has been removed in the areas that require a lateral and vertical dpc.
lateral and vertical dpc installed. The dpc installed is a newer type being used in the last five years, which is a gell base, which is injected into the mortar, rather drilling into bricks and pressurising and pumping in.
partial rendering for tanking under stairs. This is required because the garage floor is higher than the lounge floor.
partial rendering for tanking in the bay window. This is required because the garden is higher than the lounge floor.
A very productive first day.
New House
Tuesday, July 11th, 2006We finally completed on our new house today and I collected the keys at 1.30pm, and at 2.00pm met the Damp Surveyor.
This is it!
I think I might need a sit on lawn mower! I’ve also found a plum, pear, apple tree and a christmas tree in the garden!
and a petrol hedge trimmer!
Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside – Not!
Friday, October 21st, 2005I wouldn’t normally visit a Seaside resort, I hate all the Kiss Me Quick hats, and red dummy candies.
Today I visited the sleepy town of Porthcawl in the rain, where the shops still close for lunch between 1.00pm – 2.00pm. I thought shops closing for lunch breaks were a thing of the past. So here’s a tip, try and visit before or after lunch, or you’ll have to kill time, like I did for an hour, eating chips, drinking diet-coke, on the “prom”.
Aqua Tech was the reason for my visit; And if there’s any reason for me to upgrade to Tropical Marine this tropical fish shop is the reason. A fantastic collection of well stocked and cared for Tropical Marine fish. Established since 1973! The shop owner is very friendly, which I think is missed from many large aquatic stores today.
On returning, I also visited the Parrot Cichlids again at Wyevale Garden Centre, Pyle. But decided against the purchase of man-made, genetically altered Cichlids.
White Spot in Tropical Fish Shops
Thursday, October 20th, 2005Whilst visting family in South Wales, I’ve been out and about browsing the local Tropical Fish shops.
I spotted an excellent pair of Parrot Cichlids at Wyevale Garden Centre, Pyle. If Parrot Cichlids breed successfully and had a commericial value, I would have been very tempted to purchase, still tempted, a very unusual colouration, similiar to Jeff Raps “Calico” Convict Cichlids. Possibly been cross-breed with Convict Cichlids. Umm, purchasing man-made, genetically modified designer fish, I’ll have to consider this purchase very carefully.
I was also very impressed with the Fish display at Petsathome, Bridgend Retail Park. The large tropica plants are execellent value for money, and I also saw some young RED Angelfish, these fish did not just have a red blush, but overall pigment was red in colour, this could possibly due to red pigment enhancers feed in food, it could be genetic, I would have to purchase some and grow on to be sure. 5.99 GBP each.
To end on a controversial note, I also visited Maidenhead Aquatics at Pontarddulais Garden Centre, Swansea. This tropical fish has just been voted Top Tropical Fish Shop in Wales 2005, and 9th UK Retailer 2005 by readers of Practical Fishkeeping.
After reading this, I thought it must be worth a visit. I was put off purcahsing any livestock because several tanks that contained Clown Loaches in the Tropical section, were covered in White Spot.
I purchased two packs of “Diskusin” to make it worth the effort of travelling there.
Would you purchase fish from tanks with white spot? Answers on a postcard please, to the usual address.If this is the best, I’d hate to visit the worst!
Disclaimer: There could be good reason that several tanks had white spot outbreaks, and it could be under control with chemical or ultra-violet treatment, the infected fish may not be for sale.
Found an L190 on the A1
Saturday, October 1st, 2005Okay, I’ve bent the truth a little here, a friend travelling south from Newcastle met me on the A1/A59 at Junc 47, so I could collect a L190 Royal Pleco/Parnaque L190 Panaque nigrolineatus, extremely nice fish, currently in quarantine. Do other people conduct similiar activities?
Whilst as I was only a few miles from Tropica, Knaresborough, I thought I would drop in and have a browse. Tropica have a fantastic planted Dennerle display tank, just inside the door. Well worth a visit if your travelling up the A1, only a few miles from Junc 47 A1 (and this garden centre has a cafe!) From 5th October 2005, they will also be stocking Tropical Marines. I purchased four aquatic plant potting kits.
On returning to York, made a quick visit to Maidenhead Aquatics to purchase some bogwood, I only wanted small pieces, so browsed around in the box to collect the broken pieces, good value for a tenner (10GBP), I don’t think the staff were too amused, as most of the larger pieces are at least 5 kilos, at 5.50 GBP per kilo, that’s a few quid. I just wanted a few small pieces to add to various tanks, for the L’s and plecos to graze on. This wood is definately bogwood, it’s not been sandblasted like Mopani wood. I also checked out the young Angelfish, but didn’t part with any, because I didn’t think they were in good condition, very poor condition, tatty and torn finnage.
Waste Water
Tuesday, September 27th, 2005I’ve got 50l of Potassium Permanganate solution at a concentration of 10mg/l that I’ve been using to disinfectant my aquatic plants to remove snails and snail eggs, all waste water from the fish house, is disposed of onto the garden. Not wanting to empty 5ol of mild disinfectant onto the garden, I thought it would be prudent to ask Yorkshire Water, if this could be safely disposed of down the drain. It is possible that this could destroy the good bacteria at the local treatment works. After discussions with Yorkshire Water they advised that I should dispose of it, at a rate of 1l a day down the toilet! So it could take quite a while to dispose of this waste water. Remember this if you are making up quantities to disinfect plants, it may have been easier with hindsight to use a Proprietary “snail off” killer. I’ll make new enquires with Yorkshire Water, if I filter the solution through carbon, if I can then dispose of down the drain. Yorkshire Water were converned that I would kill off the bacteria at the local treatment works and were surprised that you can.
![[Valid RSS]](http://andysworld.org.uk/images/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed")