Moan, moan, moan----get it off your chest or have a chat

[annew]

Warm and sunny here today.

[Lesley Cox]

Mark, is the pear a variety grown for its fruit? If so, the stench will attract pollinators I suppose. Like carrion crows or something similar.

[Lesley Cox]

A warm welcome Julia to the Forum, which I'm sure you know very well, and of course are so well known to Scottish members of SRGC. But we, the other bit, know your name well from numerous mentions of workshops etc at Pitlochry. It's great that you have joined the posters.

[TheOnionMan]

Mark, is the pear a variety grown for its fruit? If so, the stench will attract pollinators I suppose. Like carrion crows or something similar.

No, Callery Pear trees only make rudimentary "pears", just tiny round fleshy things just big enough to envelope the seeds, not pear fruit in the true sense.  The trees do become heavily laden with these squishy little fruits, which birds gobble down late in the season.  So here again, a tree promoted extensively as a "street tree" along roads, avenues, plazas, etc., which fails to consider that the flowers stink to high heaven, and then in late fall to early winter, make a mess under the trees from the mushy falling fruits.

[maggiepie]

About 20 years ago I planted 3 Pyrus calleryana 'Chanticleer'

Yet one little inconvenient fact rarely gets a mention, the flower exude a powerful unbearable stench, like that of carrion on a hot day mixed in with burning rubber   The first year the trees flowered, after detecting a mysterious stench near the road, I assumed it to be a dead animal, so I went and got a shovel to dispose of a yet-to-be-found carcass, but one was not to be found; moving closer to the trees I realized the beautiful snow white trees were to blame!  If I wanted such a offensive stench I would've planted a hedge of Amophophallus   As it is now, I cannot work in the front yard when the trees are in bloom, so overbearing is the reek.

Mark, why didn't you turf the trees after the first year if they stink so much??

[Maggi Young]

Mark, why didn't you turf the trees after the first year if they stink so much??

Ah, Helen... the very question we were all longing to ask! 

[TheOnionMan]

Mark, why didn't you turf the trees after the first year if they stink so much??

What does "turf the trees" mean? 

[maggiepie]

What does "turf the trees" mean? 

Chuck them out , get rid of them

[Maggi Young]

{1.  To spread with turf: turfed the front yard.}
2. Chiefly British Slang To displace or eject.
3. Slang To kill: "These guys can't . . . make sure nobody gets turfed" (Scott Turow)

[maggiepie]

Maggi, I love slang, although I have had to stop using it most of the time as nobody around here understands it. 
It's interesting to note that a lot of words I had thought of as Oz slang turns out to be British.
I have done my best to spread the use of the word 'stickybeak' throughout North America as well as parts of Europe, I think it is my favourite word

[Maggi Young]

Maggi, I love slang, although I have had to stop using it most of the time as nobody around here understands it.  
It's interesting to note that a lot of words I had thought of as Oz slang turns out to be British.
I have done my best to spread the use of the word 'stickybeak' throughout North America as well as parts of Europe, I think it is my favourite word

Aha! You have me there with "stickybeak", Helen... I'll make a guess.....: nosey, impertinently curious?

[mark smyth]

Turf it out can also be used

Stickybeak is 1920's from Australia and NZ, according to my book, for someone who is nosey.

Turf - very interesting - sex in open air, criminals patch, late 1800s for prostitution, turf it - sleep out doors, turf it - keep quiet, turf up - quit a job, turf out - throw out, eject on to grass

[Anthony Darby]

12 members of our school staff stuck in various parts of the world - including our head teacher, who is still in Oz!

[maggiepie]

Aha! You have me there with "stickybeak", Helen... I'll make a guess.....: nosey, impertinently curious?

Yep!
Stickybeak is used more as an affectionate term these days, at least that's how I use it, when someone is really curious about something rather than being a busybody.
My cat is one of the great stickybeaks, she has to know everything that goes on in her domain.


Anthony, I suspect your head teacher isn't trying to jump the queue to get on the first flight home. 

[Gerry Webster]

Maggi, I love slang, although I have had to stop using it most of the time as nobody around here understands it.  
It's interesting to note that a lot of words I had thought of as Oz slang turns out to be British.
I have done my best to spread the use of the word 'stickybeak' throughout North America as well as parts of Europe, I think it is my favourite word

Helen - if you love slang you probably already know  the classic 'A Dictionary of Slang'  by Eric Partridge. If not, I recommend it (though it doesn't require either a dictionary or much imagination to guess what most of the terms refer to). The current version seems to be 'A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English'  by Eric Partridge and Paul Beale.