@selzero@hesgen If Linux does become truly easy to install then it becomes an option for people who actually need to keep that Windows 10 pc running because they don’t have another.
Maybe they don’t have the time to spend hours learning what to do, tweaking things or backing out of a poorly-explained or under-tested install.
Includes a group who need the only computer to be working again for them today, with little anxiety that they’re going to break it (remember: they can’t afford another)
Also absolutely irrelevant if you want people to install Linux on existing machines.
Now possibly home installation of Linux can never be made simple enough to be widely usable, and so you are limited to people who can and will take the trouble.
This a rhetorical question— I’m mostly posting this because I often can’t remember the answer, and because my virtual allotment fence adjoins many friends in North America to whom hardiness zones are a very handy and helpful tool.
Short answer: Oxfordshire, England is 8ish or 9 ish (depending who you ask).
But it gets a bit more complicated than that. …[edit…making the system useful only fora rough comparison with 🇬🇧 conditions; great caution thereafter ]
People have either done the same procedure for the UK or other European countries, and looked at a run of minimum temperatures. Or they’ve looked at which plants grow in which USDA zone and constructed a map that way.
It is often difficult to know what someone has done, or how big a difference the different approaches would make.
Here is one example. I don’t know of anything wrong with it and neither do I assert it is the oracle we must all view as correct:
“The USDA scale was developed in the 1960s for North America but it is now widely used in other countries around the world. It’s based on minimum average temperatures in a range of zones [measured over several years in the 1960s] …These range from 1 (very hardy) to 13 (least hardy), with each divided into two 5°F subzones ‘a’ and ‘b’. This USDA system has been applied to the UK and Europe and gardeners here can use the mapped zones as a general guide.” https://www.gardensillustrated.com/plants/plant-hardiness-ratings-explained
Real Seeds Company have a fun thing for next gardening season (🇬🇧):
“Magic Mix of Cauliflowers…
We’ve mixed together seed of several different cauliflowers covering a range of colours - purple, greens, cream, white and even romanesco. Sow in spring for autumn harvest.
Colourful lucky dip. Note that although they are all spring sowing for summer/autumn harvest they will mature at different times, however this extends the harvest season to avoid a glut.”
@Fragglemuppet Not that I’ve noticed from the few I’ve tried.
And any differences could be due to the variety. I don’t know about cauliflowers in particular but it may well be that the pigments don’t have much flavour themselves.
Nor do I think there’s much difference re cooking.
So mostly it’s for the aesthetics & the fun of it.
@Fragglemuppet Aesthetics isn’t only the colours: romanesco cauliflowers have fractal arrays of pointy (but not spiky) turrets. So fun for senses other than just sight.
i planted 150 saffron bulbs today and then went down a rabbit hole on protecting the corms from rodents.
supposedly, there's a lily native to central asia, iraq, iran and turkey called Fritillaria imperialis that has a scent that repels them. they're also pretty. i'm going to give it a go and plant some. garlic too... and lavender.
@michael@plants@richrollgardener Yes, that’s it. For bigger bulbs, do remove the wire of it looks like it might get in the way (that’s what I do with troughs of tulips)
Week 2 of Cubs tonight was a rollercoaster. And full of dynamic readjustments.
We had the Grand Howl outside, because why not in this weather?
I lead my 1st ever Whole Section activity, a version of Banding Together which explores animals being harmed by litter & has a short game with an elastic band.
We then did a Code Of Conduct.
A 5 second (not really, but it was super short & in a restricted floor space) Sleeping Lions as next activity was set up.
@hischeekiness So: sounds like it went pretty well on the whole! 💚💚💚
It is a big deal to run such activities until you get used to it — you really feel those YPs in the room.
And dynamic adjustment is the right thing to do, though hard. Not easy to think on one’s feet.
It’s much more usual for inexperienced leaders to plough on with an activity as planned, when that’s the wrong thing to do for the YP, for safety, or for the Leader.
Planning next year's garden. I've realised this first proper year that growing enough vegetables isn't feasible in the space. As I'll still have to get a vegbox anyway, it's not the best use of land, time, or money. But that frees up space to focus on other things. I love wandering through the garden and touching things, smelling things, picking and eating straight from the plant. So I'm going to work on creating all year round sensory pleasures rather than aiming to fully feed us. #gardening
@wormerama I think you’re wise to switch to the plan you’ll enjoy more. For myself, I’d hate to make the garden an allotment a Place Of Maximal Food Production if that was at the cost of not enjoying it.
I really enjoy growing vegetables to eat, but I’m glad that I can buy them too!
“Three acres and a cow” was what a family needed for self-sufficiency (according to a British reform movement of about 100 years ago). So that’s a lot of land! 💚
Looking towards next season, I need some recommendations for seed supplier. I used to buy mine at Wilko's, but they're closing, so where would you recommend I switch to?
On a walk a while back I collected some thistle down for a Beaver Scout activity. Then we did a bit of shopping as we came back, including some chilled goods.
Still finding thistle seeds in the fridge: they stuck avidly to the chilled wet things.
The thistledown is for a Beaver Scout fire lighting activity. Someone recommended it to me as something that (probably speculatively) prehistoric travellers might have had in their firefighting kit.
I thought we’d double up the badge work by trying to light a few things with the striker: thistledown, tumble dryer fluff or cotton wool should work: will show its hard to light a big stick.
Annoyed that the writing with permanent marker on the label is NOT permanent.
Now I have no idea what the bulbs in the different sections are.
Just another example of how crap the 21st century is. Sure the permanent markers we used to have were probably full of toxic chemicals that would rot your liver if you sniffled a lot of them.
Just to stop people from getting high on sniffing marker pens I have to put up with not knowing which tulips I have.
@leighms I’ve been trying “alitags” — aluminium tags that you write on with pencil. The writing can be erased with a pencil eraser, but becomes permanent over time. (My guess is that the pencil marks become part of an oxide layer and so hard to remove, though sandpaper ought to do it).
We’re finding the tags very reusable. When finally they’re too bent out of shape or whatever, they’ll be easily recycled.
The only fly in the ointment is they’re not cheap.
Some Middle-earth dwarves drive around in a fast cart, and have various escapades outwitting corrupt and stupid officials. One of them wears very short shorts. It’s …
Not to surprising, given the wet summer we’ve had in Southern England but the Amish paste tomatoes have got a bit of blight. Cut away the infected bits & I’m hopeful we’ll be able to ripen the fruits we’ve got anyway.
The skykomish in the same row (but not shown in the photo) is doing better. Skykomish are blight resistant.