WINTER DRAWS ON, IT IS DICK FEST TIME

3 mm of frost have attacked the Nook and I am off to check if the sweet peas have survived let alone nasturtiums - the latter notoriously affected by cold - and turned into slimy yuk!

However we still have roses like this Emma Hamilton - mm! looking at the photo I should have dead headed this one. (This is a plant from David Austin Roses and blowsy, and heavily scented.)

Yet more leaves removed from paths, weeds dealt with and some areas about 1 metre round prepared on the banking for moving shrubs - I know it is a bit late but once the frost has gone it should be okay if I am careful.

Leaves are everywhere - these are rosemary cuttings interspersed with self sown foxglove seedlings (and some weeds)
The leaves are off the nearby beech hedge and need to be removed.








Gary, Monday pm to see pond and multiple drainage channels, to expound further ideas with regard to stoney beaches and steps and stuff. I have saved the unused pond liners - both underlay and butyl - as these may be of use when putting in the drains. Placing the underlay over the drain will stop loose soil etc getting in and blocking the pipe.

I have just rubbed my forehead and I am bleeding. in fact I am full of holes! Whilst R was clearing the bed by the shed I was pruning the damsons and they have SPINES!!! - And now I have spines and holes and scratches. Used the tractor and trailer to cart the prunings down the garden and they all fell off under the plum tree which is very low - so I pruned that too. All the stuff is now on the bonfire or the COMPOST (mentioned it again L) heap.

I selected some areas, about a metre in diameter, on the banking below the house to where I can move shrubs blocking R's view if the pond from the bedroom.

I am listening to Eva Cassidy singing Songbird, have just listened to some Nick Drake, most relaxing.

My sister-in-law K has had her poems published - you can see it at -
http://www.indigodreamsbookshop.com/#/kerry-darbishire/4586916905
Brilliant stuff - worth every penny - well it might cost a bit more than that.

Now have David Gray's Birds of the High Arctic on my Itunes.

Oh! Yes, Gary did not come - postponed until Thursday but that is fine - nothing will change dramatically before then. (I hope.)

Here is a bird feeder drying on the Aga range, mentioned about hygiene and bird death before.

The paperwhites are
tied around a stake as they have flopped -so much for Christmas bulbs

 And then there are more coming - daft bulbs - they have been in the cool and dark and should not be bursting forth like this. I have forgotten quite what I stuffed in here but it looks like everything. It seems there is not much room for compost!

Signing off for now - sister and cousin on way for tea. (Have just made some of Mrs Tyson's shortbread from my mothers recipe book - that is three things I can cook now!)

It is recycling time again - plastics and cardboard to the tip. We seem to have a drawer full of plastic bags. In Scotland now you have to pay 5 pence for a bag in a shop. I wonder, could we sell our bags there for 4 pence?

Gary has been - as charming as ever (I know he sometimes reads the blog so . . ) - and plans are afoot for drains and stones and possibly steps and extraction of hedges.

So this will probably be the last longblog of November, and yes, I have a cuppa tea beside me in this dark dank weather.

Saturday is the Ulverston Dickensian Festival (known locally as the Dick Fest) when tens of thousands descend on a small town stuffed with street stalls - crafts, food, people dressed up, street entertainers, a helter-skelter, small fair things, roasting chestnuts and mulled wine - you name it.
We will walk in and back as parking is impossible, anyway it is not good to drive after a few mulled wines.

All welcome.