frogesque

Thanks for all the continued interest. I'm not yet convinced it's a cape gooseberry or chinese lantern. The flower colour is wrong (yellow with a brown centre) and the leaf and stem doesn't look right either. I have however been looking at various tomatilo speciea (they are all solanacea and the family is huge) so I think we are on the right track. We'll get this nailed down yet!

Yep weather's poor here too, some holes in the cloud though - I'll have a quick run out of town just to see if it's worth travelling further.

Ok, I managed some more photos on Monday in full sunlight. There were 7 flowers on at the time, from 1.5" across to this fully open beauty at 2.5". This is the full plant: Not sure if this is a flower bud or an unripe fruit body - they look very similar. Maturing fruit body: With the papery calyx pushed back showing the berry inside: Leaf: Topside: Underside: Finally the stems which are squarish and like polished ebony, the plant is totally hairless. I would like to grow some of these next year but I'm fairly certain it belongs to Solanaceae (as is potato, tomato, chinese lantern and deadly nightshade!) and I really need to know if it's poisonous. There is something about this plant that just screams 'look but don't touch'. The flowers have a very slight but pleasant odour and hoverflys just love it.

See Photography Possibly have a couple more later but I deperately need some sleep now

I'm just in having been for a walk along the beach this evening and there was very active aurora visible after sunset until I left. I can't see if its still going due to lousy light pollution near the house (Really, does 1 small car park need 10 street lights?) I'll be off out again soon - watch this space, or better still watch the sky!

Just to follow up, check out the spaceweather.com gallery for October 21/22 - 2001 Scroll down the page and you will see photos taken from L'Escarene, near Nice, France and Hortoneda, Lerida, Spain

How far south do want the Empire to extend? A seriously good X class flare (10 or above) pointed directly at Earth and arriving during UK darkness with no moonlight may produce visible aurora from the Channel Islands. A class X20 might be visible from Southern France. To see one much further south than the Midlands you do need good veiwing of a northern horizon, no light pollution and crystal clear skies. The Kp 9 line (which is only a guide) runs roughly from North of the Wash to South Wales. Kp 10 would include the tip of Cornwall and Northern France, possibly Paris. One imprtant point to bear in mind, the Auroral Oval is affected by the Earth's magnetic field and therefore has a relationship with your Magnetic North location, not Geographic North (although for the UK there isn't a lot of difference) As a guide, faint aurora have been seen from Mexico City in the past but this is a rare event.

Sorry you couldn't get a view :huh: The pic is rubbish although I really didn't expect to get anything at all. They stood still just long enough to get some detail in that shot. Really strange lights, proper beam-me-up-alien-ghostbuster stuff twirling and dancing patches shooting across the sky then regrouping before setting off again. Probably the most dynamic show I've seen apart from a full corona some time ago that kept blinking on and off with the rest of the sky lit up like a Christmas tree.

Yep, Spiraea japonica sounds like the culprit. As Breezy Brum has said - you just have to be ruthless with it. It's not enough just to get the roots out though, you have to be alert for self sown seedlings. Keep ripping anything out that remotely looks like it. Turning and improving the soil will help. It will get those seeds germinating and the seedlings will be easier to pull without breaking them off. Also it will give any other plants a head start and they will compete better. Unfortunatlely, if you want to grow anything else getting rid of Spirea is largely a backbreaking exercise. Domestic weedkillers strong enough to kill it will affect your soil and the woody stems render Weedol and the like ineffective.

Hmm... Not much to look at and doesn't do justice to what could see.

There is a very dynamic bright aurora been going for the last hour or so here. Unfortunately there is a veil of cloud but it's strong enough to be shining through. Anyone with a clear sky is in for a real treat tonight! I've tried some photos but I think the cloud and the fast moving dancing lights will be too much for anything other than a fuzzy smudge.

798 is on its second turn round the sun so its been long lived. I caught just a faint trace last night up in Perthshire but it honestly wasn't worth the effort. If you didn't know it was aurora you wouldn't have noticed it. Daytime events are all part of the frustration I'm afraid. The night wasn't a total loss, some nice, very fast delta Aurigid meteors were visible.

Interesting replies so far, thanks. Snowbear: I'm leaning toward a Cape Gooseberry hybrid at the moment Some pictures here. The plant certainly looks similar although the yellow flower is the wrong colour.

I had several of these turn up in some seed trays (my own unsterilised compost) and howked most of them out as weeds but one I kept because I was curious about the small, very dark purple spots on the leaves. It is now in a deep 130mm (5") pot and is about 1m tall. (3ft) with a stem about 20mm (3/4") dia. that has the same dark purple spots and tinge to it as the flower buds. It seems tollerant of full or part sun but likes plenty of water. The flowers (about 35mm across) are short lived, 2 days at most but there has been a succesion since June and it's still going strong. Seed pods are enclosed in 5 papery sepals which are retained after the flower drops. Seed capsuals are rounded and about the size of a smallish grape. I'm reluctant to detach any before they are ripe which I don't think they are yet. I'm assuming its an annual. Its been growing quite happily outside. I've searched through my RHS Encyclopedia with no luck so far. Ok folks - so what is it?

Another week or so before 798 will be directly Earth facing so let's hope it holds out!

Much joy on the safe arrival of the little one Mrs. M.

Agree, they are blanched plants and probably tree suckers. Whatever, they will be in about the foundations and your friend doesn't want them there. Looks as if there are a few other problems as well. Plants will not grow without a source of moisture and drainage/leaky roofing needs to be corrected. Sodium chlorate weed killer inside and out side the wall should kill off the growth but you need to find the cause of the problem or in a few years it could return or even worse dry rot could start getting into new timber if its a renovation project.

I looked out a few times last night / this morning but no sign of activity from the house. I'd had a couple of beers so couldn't drive but there was definitely nothing major. It was a crystal clear night too with no moon - ain't that the way of it!

I do photography for pleasure and I don't mind sharing samples with friends but if anyone ripped my material, (which I normally post on the web at lower resolution), then I would be less than pleased. This is not getting at posters who probably act in all innocence but I would ask everyone to ONLY post their own material and observe other folks' copyright. Professional photographers make their living from their work, Breach of Copyright is a serious issue and can easily land you in court. Ripping is the same as cheating for an exam or lying about qualifications. The ability to cut'n'paste does not make you an artist or a dedicated technician. PLEASE DON'T DO IT!

Like shuggee it's a blanket outside tonight, very humid with ground fog, not worth driving to try and out run it

Page refresh is less than 1 sec. here. Telewest Blueyonder BB 1 Meg.

weather.com Looks pretty evil.

Does the slight weakening and Katrina's huge size mean more rainfall inland? With a high tide, storm surge and up to 15 inches of rain backed up how bad will the flooding aftermath be?

Yep, there might just possibly have been the faintest smudge of green fog about 11.30pm but it wasn't worth photographing. I headed out further north and ended up somewhere in the middle of nowhere between Perth and Callander off the A85. Superb sky, gibbous moon with Mars hanging underneath to the east, Milky Way above you could nearly touch and a great clear view to the north with no light pollution but absolutely zilch on the aurora front by 1.00am. A couple of rogue meteors zipped across, the wind died and all I could hear was a distant dog barking and some owls hooting. The absence of noise, especially traffic, was very healing and I have another location earmarked for any really special occasions so I don't regret venturing out. I also had a close encounter with a fox who seemed suprisingly unconcerned and a forestry ranger who was a bit concerned I might have been poaching 'till I told him what I was doing.

Sadly this turned out to be a non event for us. By the time it got dark no activity was visible. Pity because I had some lovely clear skys.