Don't be alarmed - you don't have to be a Vegan to play. All are welcome.

I'm 70 years old today and finally reached my three score years and ten. I was born by Caesarean section and was a large baby so my biggest thoughts are for my poor Mother 70 years ago today. My brother and sister were also born Caesarian and in those days it wasn't a cut below the bikini line but a large incision right  up the middle.She had to live with that for the rest of her life.
It's a starnge feeling knowing you have hit what was once deemed to be a persons life expectancy and still have most of your, marbles,eyesight and reasonable health?

Here's to the next ?????? years!

Does anyone make their own cheese? 
I've just found, in the back of the cupboard "The Big Cheese making Kit" (Best before January 2014  ). https://www.bigcheesemakingkit.com/shop/...cotta-kit/
Its a kit for making Mozzarella & Ricotta, Most of the kit will be OK (butter muslin & thermometer) but I think the vegetarian rennet tablets may be past their best. Don't know what the shelf life of Citric Acid is but the Sea salt is probably usable. That's all there is in the box - apart from instructions.
The recipes need 8 pints of whole milk. 
So I'm curious to know whether any of you make cheese and whether the effort is worthwhile - before I splash out on some rennet and milk!

Today I acquired a "Foodsaver V3840" and 7 rolls of Vacuum sealing plastic stuff. - all FREE of course. 
I'm hoping that some of you use a Vacuum sealer and can give me some hints on what to use it for. At the moment, all I can think of is dehydrated veg/fruit. Wondering whether fresh green beans and sliced courgettes would be better "vacuumed" before freezing as I'm not a fan of frozen beans & courgettes. 

All advice welcome. 

I live quite frugally and my annual gas & electricity costs are just over £!000.

What galls me is that my standing charges and VAT acccount for over 40% of my annual bill at over £400 and however frugal I try to be there is nothing I can do about them.

So basically I am paying British Gas over £400 per annum for me to read my own meters and for them to then bill me. No wonder their fat cats are coining it in with multi million pound profits for basically sitting on there arses!

Rant over!

I've been told that the land behind my house (and the neighbours) was planted with apple trees as part of the WW2 War effort. Unfortunately, most of these trees have died/fallen over and survive only as stumps. One of the trees is still alive and fruiting - not bad for an 80+ year old tree that receives no TLC whatsoever. 

This thread is not about that tree however - its about a stump that has a substantial side shoot. I thought this was a sucker off the root stock and have ignored it. This week, for the first time, it has flowered! In fact, these are the first apple flowers to open this year. 

All the trees that were here in 1980 were very tall,  so there doesn't seem to have been any attempt to graft them onto dwarfing rootstocks. 
Might they have been grafted for another reason? 

Needless to say that I shall be leaving it to see what happens. I like surprises. 

I bought this cheaply YS (£3.00) from Morries a while ago and the label says its a holly tree?

The leaves are black and it isn't as spiky as the hollies I see in the woods. I thought the colouration may have been because it was a young plant? but young hollies in the woods are green and spiky!
I love its colouration as it is so hopefully it won't grow into a boring green holly!

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A few years ago I planted tulips in a heavy stoneware pot. It was on top of an old tree stump, which, inevitably rotted. The pot ended up on the ground, upside down. It was too heavy for me to turn over so, being lazy, I left it where it fell. 
This year, the tulips have pushed themselves out of the drainage holes in the bottom of the pot - and are about to flower! They have changed direction completely in their search for the light. How clever is that?

Bright ideas needed please.
As you know, I don't have chickens now so their old run is looking for other uses. 
Its fenced on all sides but there is no roof. 
The sides are higher at the door end (about 7') but only a couple of feet high at the far end. The roof was removed so that I could stand up in it. Putting netting over it would not work.
Its in the shade most of the day but I may be able to  lower some of the nearby shrubs to give a bit more light. 
The floor has been lined with chicken wire to stop rats so its not suitable for root crops. 
The floor has been divided into two halves - the upper half (door end) had gravel on it and this is mixed with the soil now.
The other half has plenty of well manured  soil/compost over the wire. 

How would you use this space? I have some ideas but thought I'd see what you could suggest as two heads or twenty heads are better than one.

Can't tell your Seedlings from your Weedlings? 
Useful information from Real Seeds https://realseeds.co.uk/seedlinggallery.html