A CODE IN DA NODE

Here we go 2017 and R and I are down with streamers - ruddy nodes - runny noses - no the former is best. Went to bed at 9pm!

Still in that couple of weeks after the winter solstice when the mornings go on getting darker.


Sometimes it is lighter at night - when there is a moon.

So the days pass and best gardening I do is make lists in my head, not that there is a lot of room there with the catarrh and so on. So I stay in, catch glimpses of the heron lifting off from the pond and watch the squirrel eat the peanuts in the big feeder.
Jobs include doing the stream from one end to the other, composting all over the place and topping up the chippings on the paths.
I have some of the old pond liner still rolled up by the shed and plan to use it on the vacant veg beds to stop weeds - when I get around to it.
It has stopped raining so I will do a crossword and wait for the old bod to conquer the bug.
We are both infected - R has a cold, I am dying!

I brought back the remote camera from by the pond where I had been trying to get a video of the heron - absolute nothing - back to the wood.

Even when the darkest winter day is here there is pleasure in the shadowy shapes in the garden, the cardoons, stipa gigantea, lilac and cherry twigs festooned with water droplets.

Wednesday and sunny and still, chilly but not too cold. I thought I had found our first snowdrop but it was only a bird dropping on the emergent stem.

And so it is time to take down the decorations, dump the lights that have failed this year, store the rest away in the red suitcase in the attic.

 The tree was good this year until half the lights went out. 
And in this time of dreary weather a flock of long tailed tits have arrived at the feeders all twitchy and fussy - makes me smile.

Now have to go - new home hub has arrived to improve connection with that world outside the garden - I hope.

pm - R is doing some weeding and I have been putting compost on the main veg bed then covering it with the old pond liner to keep light out. It is so cold my toes and fingers went numb - and are now - ow! - recovering.

Rain due tomorrow so I'll post this now.