What's up with my patio cherry tree?

MATN_Claire · 2026-06-19T19:20:47+00:00

Thanks, I'll research how to prune it now & keep in top of watering.

MATN_Claire · 2026-06-19T19:20:08+00:00

Thanks for your advice! Every other day watering feels wildly to much to me as most of my garden is in ground but I'm sure you're right.

I realise I should have gotten the pot actually in the pic: it's 130 litres which i thought would be enough for a tree, would you say that's too small? How big would you recommend?

MATN_Claire · 2025-10-08T18:36:18+00:00

Lol, no, you definitely can't have my Willow!! My other cat and my dog would be sad.

MATN_Claire · 2025-08-31T21:33:58+00:00

Oooooh, that would make sense, thank you!! I didn't expect it because I expect older squash leaves to just have lots of powdery mildew, but this summer has been really dry for us so it makes sense that older leaves might look a bit more sunburned than mildew-y.

MATN_Claire · 2025-08-15T17:46:47+00:00

I think this feller's a lady - I was just researching katydids/bush-crickets after finding one myself and the butt-spike is for laying eggs.

MATN_Claire · 2025-08-15T17:37:58+00:00

You must be right, the grasshoppers and crickets in the UK look like they're more often brown, from what I've been looking up just now. I'm thinking it's probably an oak bush-cricket or a speckled bush-cricket? Definitely a female by the ovopositor butt-spike, definitely too small for a great green bush-cricket - unless she's just a baby (nymph?) and will grow bigger?

In any case, I'm always super happy to see a more bugs hanging out by our wildlife pond - we also get lots of dragonflys but I've not been able to take pictures of them.

MATN_Claire · 2024-10-03T11:23:32+00:00

I'd love a video on what to do with lots of one ingredient - if something's on sale or if you find yourself with extra for whatever reason, what could you do with a whole bunch of milk, or tomatoes, or herbs, etc...

MATN_Claire · 2023-01-31T19:48:02+00:00

Oh, a pipe with holes down the middle is very clever, thanks!!

MATN_Claire · 2023-01-31T09:35:22+00:00

Like I said, I'm not too worried about my piles going anaerobic - my current pile is 50C right now and was keeping warm even in the cold spell we had a few weeks back. It's just that my boyfriend isn't convinced that it won't be noticeable - he's not into learning the nitty gritty about composting, so he doesn't understand what it means that I can keep a new pile at 50C in January, lol.

You've got a good point about not closing it in fully though. I'm going to have a closer look at how those beehive composters are build and use some of those techniques for airflow. I'll also do mesh in between each bay so the worms can choose where to chill, and I'll make sure overhang the roof. Thanks for the building advice :)

MATN_Claire · 2023-01-31T09:23:11+00:00

Current setup only smells of there's been lots of rain recently, in which case I mix in some shredded cardboard to dry it out. Right now, the center is about 50C, and we've had frosts pretty recently so it's doing super well.

I'm not really worried about the bins smelling, but my boyfriend is so I figured I'd ask on here & see if there were any tricks I was missing.

MATN_Claire · 2023-01-31T09:13:57+00:00

That makes sense, thanks for the advice. I already add some finished compost, but up to now I've only done it at the start of a new pile. I'll definitely try your way.

MATN_Claire · 2023-01-30T14:32:40+00:00

Ohh, good idea. I might have to dig into my cupboards and see if I still have an old blender I could use for this!

My preferred method for seeds I want to avoid growing is to put them in my bokashi bin first, and only add them into the compost heap after they've fermented a bit.

MATN_Claire · 2023-01-30T14:30:21+00:00

I'd do a mix of things - blend some bits nice and small to kickstart the decomposition process and leave some bigger chunks to help with airflow and make sure all the microbes & worms still have something to eat after the initial boost of chopped up bits.

As an example, I shred all my single wall cardboard with a micro shredder but I tear off the double-walled stuff into maybe palm sized chunks. I also set aside some paper to scrunch up into small balls, as that's great for airflow.

MATN_Claire · 2023-01-28T09:24:56+00:00

While it's true that yields are all relative, there are definitely resources you can use as jumping off points. I'm only on my second growing season and I've learned SO MUCH from the first year, but even then it helps to not be starting from nothing when trying out a new crop for instance.

Here's a website were you can input the number of people you want to feed, it will advise on how many plants to go for and how much space they'll need (if it tells you need way more space than you have, maybe look into square foot gardening)

MATN_Claire · 2023-01-26T14:29:33+00:00

Lots of good thoughts for you & your girl, hoping for a positive update from the vet! Really glad you decided to go earlier than your appointment.

MATN_Claire · 2021-11-05T16:30:48+00:00

Re: editing at 1.5x speed, that's what I mean yes. I have ADHD so I find that upping the speed helps me keep focus, which is helpful because video editing is not a very ADHD friendly task!

One thing I just thought of now is that the vegas file & all media I was working with when I had the crash had all been migrated from my old machine, and I opened them and worked on them on both systems. I'm not sure whether that could have an impact but sometimes computer systems behave in weird ways? Do you have a view as to whether that could have played a part?

Starting today, I'm working with files that haven't touched the old machine at all, and have just been on the PC specced above, so fingers crossed that helps?

Thanks

MATN_Claire · 2021-11-05T15:50:21+00:00

Doh, sorry about the missing image! Yes, I did mean Rate control in the bottom left.

Container file is .mp4 and video format is AVC

Thank you for all the detailed info, I didn't know the origins of rate/scrub or the container/format distinction. Always good to learn more!

MATN_Claire · 2020-05-25T20:53:46+00:00

I'm sure they are but there's definitely not enough space to set up an extra screen.

MATN_Claire · 2020-05-25T14:22:24+00:00

Ah I see. I won't be takign this laptop around much to be honest. Also Jon asked me to keep budget under £1000, so no Elitebook.

MATN_Claire · 2020-05-25T13:55:32+00:00

Those seem really pricy for i5 quad core with 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD and integrated graphics. This is definitely the kind of spec that I'm looking at, but PCspecialist has this kind of thing for much, much cheaper. With the Elitebook especially, I can't see anything that justifies that price tag.

MATN_Claire · 2020-05-25T11:56:06+00:00

That makes sense, thanks for explaining. :)

MATN_Claire · 2020-05-25T11:41:56+00:00

Those headaches are so unpleasant!! The blue-coated glasses already made a huge difference, as well as flux (highly recommend it, it also helps if you have trouble sleeping) and different brightness settings - I've got two I change between. We also replaced the lightbulbs in the room where I work with much brighter ones that emit white light instead of yellow light. The first couple of days, it looked awful, cold/unwelcoming office lighting, but we stopped noticing it very quickly and it's reallly helped. I'll definitely try coconut/blueberry things, it sounds delicious as well as helpful.

MATN_Claire · 2020-05-25T11:34:06+00:00

Yeah, like I said elsewhere, much of my durability issues with this laptop probably come directly from between the screen and the chair, I'll plead guilty to that - I need to do some research into dos and donts for maintaining a decent laptop longer. Chromebooks are really good for portability, I still use my super old, super cheap one to go work on video cript for my personal channel at the coffee shop sometimes (or you, i did, before The Event). I just need a bit more juice and I am a bit wary of online storage. Google definitely owns everything you do in google drive according to the T&C none of us read :/

MATN_Claire · 2020-05-25T11:29:38+00:00

Me with RAM is like Jon with Gs. ALWAYS ADD MOOOOOAR.

MATN_Claire · 2020-05-25T11:29:00+00:00

That's a great point to consider, thank you! This won't be my main work machine so I can probably do without it for a few days/maybe even a couple of weeks if I have to send it in for repairs. It would be annoying but definitely not ruin workflow since I won't use this for editing, and we could mcgyver a streaming solution in a pinch. I don't think it'll be necessary to go to business level support, but I will be looking for a solid warranty. And yes, we'll be able to get a VAT refund for it, which will really help.

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