WINTER, PLANKS AND INERTIA

Now we have had the first hard frost we seem to breathe a sigh of relief - autumn is over and winter is here. (This is despite the eucryphia, Rambling Rector roses and the Bramley apple still sporting green leaves.)

The bed by the back door is cleared and mucked and I have started weeding the Bay bed by the shed where the old compost heaps used to be. It is November but under a thin layer of topsoil daffodil bulbs have started to push up shoots! I covered them up quickly. I think that I will plant this with ranunculus when I have finished to give a bright show in a darker corner.
The back bed has a magnolia stellata that has not yet lost its leaves. I hope the blossom will be better next spring than this year - it was poor - ? cold or wet.

We are under an area of high pressure so the garden is cold but calm - just enough breeze to make the chimes ring quietly. R has collected a few golden syrup tins and I am wondering if they could be converted into something musical (well clangy) in the wood.

The reed mace in the top pond are just fluffing up before releasing their airborne seed. The brown heads are so soft when stroked. I like their sculptural quality.

I have been asked about the life of scaffolding planks. The ones I edged out veg beds with were discards from a scaffolding firm and VERY cheap. The ones in contact with the soil have now rotted  - six years. Those higher up are still ok (ish) but looking the worse for wear. If you really want something to last then it is stone, concrete, plastic (Mmmm!) or metal. I have noticed that the horses in the field next to us have got new railings and, whereas the uprights are wooden fence posts, the horizontals are plastic. Could they be used? Would they be strong enough?
The photo shows the asparagus bed in the distance and the bed that is half rhubarb nearer with some of this year's wallflower seedlings to be used as cut flowers for the house. Both are well manured.

The beech hedges are well coloured and the copper beech now looks the same as the common beech.

I would like to plant more trees but perhaps it would be wise to wait. The ones we have, when they are more grown, will make it feel a bit like we are living in a plantation.

I find it hard to believe that we are only four weeks from Christmas Day, the Winter Equinox or whatever. The bad side is that the afternoons are now very short, the good that it will be not too long before the new snowdrops will be up and give us a lift.

Down by the Wendy House the Fatsia is loving its position and thriving - flowers, fruit, the lot. Perhaps it love the sound of a tapped keyboard.

Anyone got some stamina for sale, or even loan? Gardening seems to have become a series of short strenuous bursts rather then an all day job - or no bursts at all.