WHAT AUTUMN

 First there was no autumn, than there was, then there was storm Ashley and the leaves are gone all too soon. 

Sun is out today - a turnip for the books. Mind you the turnips are all too big old and woody now.

Just have to eat the cavolo nero.

A few pre storm pics of autumn leaves - 

And some of the Bramleys. Missed the apple day so put some away in the shed for the winter individually wrapped in newspaper.

Here are a couple more pics - hydrangea and rue -

And the birds have been feeding on windfall fruit especially the magpies and jays so here is a confrontation - see who wins, both tough corvids.

Not all autumn colour is so bright and more subtle tones can be found.

On the other hand the Virginia creeper, alas now without leaves, was spectacular.

And so to gardening and, yes, I tried to light the bonfire again - tried, it flared and then went out.

So the sun has gone down and so have I, winter beckons and it is becoming all to much for this old codger. So R will rally her troops - employ someone - to have a go. I wait and see.

Having just found out that my Great Great Grandfather abandoned his family and went to Utah, became a Mormon and had two more wives I shall end with a portrait I have found on the web - Robert Hogg.

I wish my plants grew as profusely as his beard.

OPINIONS

 

Cut that tree down, trim that hedge, organise more and pop goes the wild garden (or is wild garden and excuse for doing nowt much?)

And autumn approaches - hips on the roses, some small and some more luxurious. 

Some flowers are flourishing late in the year but we are still waiting for the Michaelmas daisies.

The sedum line the paving by the house, the blue clematis released to flower by the removal of the bay tree.

But someone is right as I cannot do it all any longer, brain is fading, body shot at, and someone else is fed up doing all the weeding, seeing the ravages of slug snail, mouse, pigeon and - well you get the idea.

We have lit our first wood burner of the year end as the weather cools. Plants have arrived - tulips from Sarah Raven and some ranunculi and hollyhocks from Farmer Gracey.

They need to be planted.

Down in the veg beds are moribund redcurrants  (they only feed the birds anyway), asparagus going brown and wispy, and one cannot eat the holes in the Cavolo Nero. 

The gardener sweeps around with his strimmer but wet grass does not mow easily.

Algae is back on the pond, the Tutsan is berried up ready to seed all over the place and the ash trees behind the bottom shed have the plague (and are just next door).

So on we go, and on and on and on . . . . . 

PATTERN NOT COLOUR

  A garden is mostly green and within this there are shapes and patterns, not just topiary but in the leaves themselves. So out I went with my camera and took monochrome images as below.

The garden is full of shapes and sizes, shades and hidden corners if we just look, not just at the swathe of dahlias and carpet of geraniums but into the diverse world of undergrowth - bark texture and colour, even the soil itself.

Having said that I am not averse to a splash of calendula, the blue of the agapanthus nor even the white of  plastic heron turned egret.

THERMOSTAT UP AGAIN?

Not for long. It is August and struggling to 13C!

The Hydrangea Annabelle is heavy with rain and bent to the ground, the agapanthus are going over, we do have the odd flower on the big magnolia but the old Rosa rubrifolia has been blown sideways.

One thing about the Hydrangea is it does make a good toupee.

Yellow daisies come and go - the helianthemum on the right is just coming out.

Down at the pond R has coerced the gardener into the waders and he has cleared out a lot of the plants in the water, leaving them on the side so the bugs etc can climb back in.

He has also trimmed part of the lower garden though I have to say that despite all efforts the wild flower meadow is more of a bog with yellow pea in it. Where has all the yellow rattle gone?

Still the gunnera flourishes and we have our dragonflies patrolling their flight paths. This, I think, is a Migrant Hawker.

No video this week - left the camera by the pond and the wind blew a bladed of grass black and forth across. There were 546 short videos of the grass moving.

I have trimmed the beech hedge and pulled some of the creeping thistle from the manure heap. One thing that spreads all over the place is the Tutsan.

A very good spreader though is the marjoram. And useful in the kitchen too. The insects love it.  

And for some reason known only to itself the rhododendron has begun to flower again.

What should I end with - how about an evening pint of cider by the sea.