PRUNING (AND A BEE IN MY BONNET)

The rain as stopped - it is hailing.

I have pruned back the rosemary - a travelling shrub. By that I mean that any branch bent low and touching the soil roots resulting in a spreading bush. Some of the prunings are now in the cutting bed, the rooted bits by one of the paths.

It is frosty and cold, still 5 apples on the tree, roses out. The light through the white birches is splendid (do not look at the scruffy overgrown stream in the foreground.)

I have trimmed back the willow around the compost heaps and dumped the lot on the bonfire - too late to light it now without dismantling it and rebuilding because of wee animals seeking shelter, even hibernating. (Wee! Must be my vague Scots blood.)

With age my eyesight is not what it was so R made this carrot cake to help me see in the dark. (Actually the made it for some church do and I did not get a bite.)

 The Great White Cherry is in fine autumn colour - a good buy - blossom in the spring and this in the autumn.

Even the leaves fallen on the ground are a delight. (Even if I have to remove them from the grass and paths (of course with my new blower).)

The cherry is not the only colour now with the beech hedge good too - and it will keep its leaves through the winter - but needs trimming - overdue.
Time to get out and do it (along with a thousand other jobs). It its not that I am lazy but I am sleeping about 10 hours a day at the moment. Perhaps I am in partial hibernation? Or perhaps I am running away from this mad world? D Trump seems to be back-peddling on his pre election promises, realises reality means he cannot do what he said. But in that case surely the election should be declared void as he got where he is on false pretences? Or is that just politics - a mixture of lies, half truths and power complexes.
If I played bridge I would be wanting to bid a grand slam in No Trumps. 

So to the bee in my bonnet.
We hear continually that the NHS, Police, care services, armed services, prisons etc etc etc are underfunded, that the country borrows trillions. Pardon me but does the not mean that we need to pay a little more tax to resolve this?
Of course this is politically unacceptable, I mean, the party in power might lose the next election.

Back to gardening - these lovely items are damsons and plums that got fungal infections and then dried out on the twigs. I would remove them but they are high up and, as R would say, I would be certain to fall off the ladder.
 

And after the hard frost, gales and rain, I stroll down the garden, watch the cock pheasant scurry into the undergrowth, and find the passion flower is blooming on the fence by the veg beds.
There are still small corners of heaven even though it is November.