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Rosie Whinray's avatar

Kev says that the reward-for-labour-decreasing-exponentially thing is sometimes called the 80/20 rule: 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort.

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Rosie Whinray's avatar

See also: the law of diminishing returns.

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Hera's avatar

Cloaca are sometimes called primitive openings because they perform all functions I think.

There are many potatoes in my garden left from the former owners' gardening. I wanted to encourage them but stirring up the soil caused the (temporary guest) chickens to take interest achieving the opposite result. The drawing softens the potatoes making them more beautiful than the photos in egg cartons.

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Claudia's avatar

I read your posts from my home not too far from Brighton, England. So may I say welcome to the UK 🇬🇧 I hope you enjoy your visit. England was home until my parents took us to Saskatoon Canada and then California and then Long Island NY. It was such a joy to finally return home after 11 years to settle in England. It seemed such a gentle reliable safe place in comparison, and perhaps above all predictable. Which seems to me to be about what feels familiar. Although all that travel I hope has made me open minded and forgiving. How wonderful to mother a Hoya, they smell divine.

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Rosie Whinray's avatar

Kev is from Steyning, close to Brighton...

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Leon S's avatar

Aye! Brighton was my home for a few years, loved it. I miss riding around all those little villages. Enjoy London!

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Wendy Varley's avatar

Fascinating read (and photos), as always.

Hope you enjoy London, Rosie. It's pretty murky in the UK this morning (where I am, at least).

I like the idea of your reverse roster. I'll try that when family visit this Christmas!

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Frances O'Roark Dowell's avatar

Reading this, I've gotten the closest I've been to understanding how grafting works. Thanks for that.

That nest is one of the prettiest things I've ever seen.

Also didn't know the thing about birds. So educational, this post!

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Rosie Whinray's avatar

Kev says there are several different ways to graft- he can think of four for apples alone! This is the first time he's tried this technique (approach grafting) which involves grafting two live plants (an upward slice meeting a downward slice, as can be seen in the photo); clipping them together with a grafting clip; then cutting the rootstock top back to one leaf. A week or ten days later you stake the plant to prevent it snapping at the join, and cut the scion stem away below the graft.

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Frances O'Roark Dowell's avatar

I have no grafting needs at the moment, but this has got me thinking--not only what I might experiment with in the future, but also about all the great metaphors that come to mind here. "Scion stem" alone is enough to write a book about.

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Rosie Whinray's avatar

I find technical terms very evocative. I love how there are specific languages for a given branch of knowledge... Arcane terminology that is often very old

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Caroline Ross's avatar

How long are you in Blighty?

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Rosie Whinray's avatar

One month.

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Lidija P Nagulov's avatar

Love your earth eggs. Looking forward to London adventures. It’s a strange city.

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