FROSTS AND FLOWERS

I have had communications indicating that rather than cutting back on my blog I have produced as much if not more of my gibberish.
So I will have to cut back on the gardening to make time for doing the blog!

This morning we awoke to a hard frost and ice on the pond yet there are still flowers in the garden.     

Astrantias

Hollyhock

Rosemary

Anthemis

Campanula 

Fatsia

Osteospermum

and, of course - Roses.

Speaking of roses R is off down the garden to weed the apparatus bed (the spell checker/correcter is driving me bonkers - this should be asparagus. Earlier it changed Fatsia to fats and so on - ?a domino effect (think about it)). I am waiting in for the Aga man to ring as we had a service and now the kitchen is very fumey.

With the cold weather the birds have upped their feeding and numbers in the garden - so I have to replenish supplies more often.

Apart from flowers the leaves that remain have colour like the beech hedge and the liquidambar.

The female greater spotted woodpecker is on the peanuts as I write - a stunning bird, no it has flown - Ah! Chased off by a grey squirrel - it is all happening here this morning. It is cold but overcast and still. We are waiting for something. Oh! I know, the postman.

The nasturtiums are done for, twisted and frosted, but they will have cast enough seed to reappear next year. 
The heron is in the pond but I do not think it will find much to eat yet - better luck probably hunting in the grass.

Pic a bit sub standard but a long long way off when taken - does not show the evil eye.

Weather - Wednesday hard frost, Thursday okay, Friday - the sun is, no it is not, it rains, yes it is sunny, it is hailing, it is . . . Saturday - hard frost. 
No wonder the British talk about the weather - rarely anything very extreme but never the same two days running.

Enough, my hands are frozen - R has turned the heating off to save pennies - soon (in about thirty years) we will be rich and meanwhile miserable. (I know, I know I like my little luxuries (like warmth?) and can spend with the best).

Perhaps I will sneak upstairs and just slide that little switch to the right for an hour.

Question - What do you do when you are not in the garden?
Answer - Well, as that is most of the time - read, eat, watch tv, mess about with computer (mainly photography and bit of feckless writing (like this)), sleep, golf, go out, come in, diet, fail to diet, Mmm! go to gym (less than once a week), moan, feed the birds (hang on - that is in the garden), meet friends, walk limp, shop, take stuff to recycling, spend time with my fantastic wife (apart from that heating thing), drink tea - yes, time for a cuppa again!