BRAMBLINGS AND REDWINGS ARE HERE

. . . and so is approaching winter. A huge flock of redwings zoomed through the garden yesterday and the brambling, a female, was seen at the feeders amongst the chaffinches. Our Cotoneaster “Cornubia” was stripped of its berries by four male blackbirds in three days.

We have had hard frosts for two nights so I have been out digging over the veg beds so the frost can help break up the soil. Have been topdressing some such as asparagus and rhubarb with a leaf mould compost mixture but being careful with the rhubarb not to cover the crowns as rot could set in.

I am waiting for two trees from Weasdale, non thorny hawthorn - that sounds wrong - and still have lilies to move from a pot and replace with daffodils.

The wooden frameworks for the climbing roses are crumbling so I will need to cut some more poles and construct new trellising. There is some good coppiced ash in the back hedge I could use .

Almost time for cutting back the perennials and adding them to the compost heap but not quite - there still flowers here and there.

I have bought a new ladder, one of those that can assume a whole range of shapes. This means I have two ancient and unused ladders - one wooden and the other aluminium, each in two sections. I am trying to think how I could use these in the garden without being silly.

Possibly as a basis for a boardwalk topped with planks, as fencing, as trellis?

We are still eating carrots and what we can salvage from the bolted leeks. The remains of summer lettuce and caterpillar and snail munched brassicas have been consigned to the compost heap.

Some time ago I bought two scarlet Lonicera for R but, as yet, have not planted them. They may be about to over winter in the cold frame when I can finish making the new covers.

There is still warmth in the sun and the other morning the Wendy House was steaming.

Bonfire night, or rather nights, is/are with us and the fireworks are scaring the animals. It is possible, if it will light, that we might have a bonfire later in the week when the grandchildren arrive. Thus I have taken the rotting heap (because of the endless rain) that pretended to be a bonfire and relocated anything of it that might ignite. Hopefully this will cut out the chance of cooked hedgehogs and improve the possibility of a few flames. Last year was a great success.

The rest will be left to rot down and be used somewhere as it is dig and mulch time. Put on the compost and let the worms do their thing.

And planning for next year - more carrots, less brassicas, net the redcurrants, pray for the raspberries, dream of a summer (we never had one this year), get a trailer for the mower so I do not have to barrow mountains of horse muck to the garden, divide montbretia, ditto japanese anemones and be surprised by all the things you have forgotten are growing in the garden.

And it would be great if the Magnolia grandiflora finally flowered.