What are you currently watching?

Currently watching the X Files. Never seen them all before, so I'm working my way through the entire series.

Enjoying them so far!

I've just blitzed my way through "wonder man" which is a marvel thing but don't let that put you off.

Oh, I'd forgotten Rekha - yes, she would be good.

Adam Frost's wife has an eating disorder and he and the family got stressed over the huge amount of work on that farmhouse and garden. I'm sure he was gutted at giving it up. You can see how he longs for a huge garden again when he re-visits other gardens like Stowe.

I wasn't aware Adam Frost had any famiy problems?

I wonder if Carol Klein would want the job, she's well into her seventies now. I like Francis Tophil too, but I don't think she has a big enough garden of her own to present from. I think Rekka would be good, I think her garden is big enough and I like her take on vegetable gardening.

I really like Patience, they have portrayed her in a very everyday and realistic way. I haven't gotten around to series 2 yet, but I am excited. 

TheCatWoman said:

Ceanothus

I love this shrub/r tree and wanted one for ages. My landlords do not allow tenants to grow trees but I have an amalanchier. I might look at getting a dark blue ceoanthus for one of my half tubs.

TheCatWoman said:

Geof Hamilton

Ah yes, he died far too young. I found these two sites about him that you might like: 1. 2.

I wonder who'll take over Gardener's World after Monty? I'm getting to like Frances Tophill better but I also like Carol Klein as she is excellent at explaining propagation. I'm not so sure about Adam Frost but because of family problems he might not want the job.

Ceanothus, thatsd the plant I was thinking of, I've got a white as well as a blue one.

I thought Geof Hamilton was a breath of fresh air after Percy Thrower, someone who was way ahead of his time when it came to not using pesticides and artificial fertilisers. People like Percy Thrower made me feel that gardening wasn't something for  being as I was then a young woman, but that it was really for older men.

I'm not sure what I feel about the prarie planting style, I sort of like it and I sort of don't, I'm not a massive fan of grasses and many prarie style plants won't grow in my garden, it's to wet and the strong winds are salt laden. Echinacea's, sunflowers, rudbekias etc just fall over or don't grow. I do grow a lot of perenials, hebe's do really well here as do hydrangeas, roses, heathers, soft fruit and another who's name momentarily escapes me, but usually has blue flowers covered with bee's.

I didn't do many bulbs this season as my shoulder was bad and then it was really wet.

I think it a shame too that council parks depts have suffered the sorts of cuts they have, but there seems to be more gardeners than ever. 

The only thing I didn't like about 'old-style' was the, 'do not walk on the grass' signs everywhere. I liked the formal beds because you could spend hours examining the clever way they made patterns with plants in different seasons, particularly the clocks. I don't think they would plant this way now [in municipal gardens] because they were labour intensive. They must have employed a lot of gardeners - another good thing. Percy Thrower, on Gardener's World, had a lot of formal bedding. Do you remember the old gardening books which had drawn line images of elderly males wielding spades - never women!

These days I like the Piet Oudulf look - grasses mixed with perennials. I have a narrow strip of garden at the back and planted 400 mini bulbs which are just coming up.

Yes. I watched the final episode on playback last night. She trusts the detective and is more social. Also, making her own decisions rather than advice given by the group. That is a good group portrayed though  - I would like a group like that, especially if there was one for older people. I attended one for a short while that was mostly young males. They were friendly but our interests and outlook, naturally, were very different. I hope they make more series of Patience - as well as the autistic content, I like crime drama that is not over violent but relies on clever deduction.

I like watching that. It reminds me of what it was like when I was a child and I prefer drama that is every day rather than some of the more dramatic series that come out.

I just finished Gen V after putting it on hold. I plan on going back to The Boys to help me remember information that I forgot. 

I'm not sure what I'll watch after. I don't get to watch TV much. 

I actually really dislike the formality of those municiple gardens and the Baroque ones in the program, to me it looks to fussy. On the whole they make me nervous, if I went to one I'd be afraid of accidently standing on something I wasn't supposed to and I'd want to make some kind of mess, probably to get it over with so as I could stop being afraid. Do you remember that Victoria Wood sketch from years ago where she said she went into Beneton to unflod a few things? That's how those gardens make me feel.

I think wildlife prefers the less managed and infomral styles of gardening, there are places to hide and rest. There were lots of roses, all different colours, many standard bushes, the tall and clipped ones, it did remind me of the 1970's "Dad" gardens where you had a tall plant, like a standard rose, with lots of little things below it like busy lizzies and lobelia's with bare earth around each plant.

They probably think our gardens are terribly undisciplined and untidy, with plants billowing and flopping about the place and how so many gardens have a limited colour palette, with pale colours seperated from the bright jewel coloured ones.

TheCatWoman said:

it reminds me of municiple gardens from years ago.

I loved those too - flower clocks and beautifullly laid out flower beds in lovely designs. 

That's fascinating, I assumed that formal style of gardening would be more historical everywhere, but of course it would be cultural. I wonder how wildlife fares, where better or worse (more flowers but less wild plants?)

Call the midwife. Both the new series that is out and I'm rewatching old episodes again. Also various documentaries as an when they come out, but call the midwife is the only current fictional TV show I like.

Monty Don's Rhineland Gardens has been good, he travels down the Rhine, visiting gardens whilst talking about the historical significance of the river and the places along it. He starts in Switzerland and moves through Germany and then in the next episode through The Netherlands to the sea.

It's really interesting to see how different cultures garden, what they call a garden and how it's used, the Swiss of Germans are very formal and Baroque with thier gardens, everything is precisely placed, it reminds me of municiple gardens from years ago. The landscape gardening movement seems to have passed them by and there's very little of the loose or sweepingly naturalistic gardens we're more familair with.

Not technically a show, but it almost is really. I am playing Dispatch. For those unaware it's a story-heavy video game where you just watch a very well animated story, somewhat similar to Invincible in artistic style, around 60% of the time with an odd action or dialogue choice here and there and play through a dispatcher gameplay section for like 40% of the time which still has dialogues happening throughout anyway. It is also episodic (8 one hour long episodes). So yeah, not a TV show technically but an animated series nonetheless (kind of). And it is absolutely incredible. Pity I have to work and do like life stuff. Because I would have absolutely obliterated it in one sitting and come back to check out alternative choices play out.

Now Ive watched Series 1 and 2 quite close together,I’ve noticed that Patience seems very different in Series 2 than she was in Series 1, whether this is acting or not,I don’t know but she seems a lot more confident in the second series than the first series.

Has anyone else noticed this?xx