MATURE MANURE AND OTHER WEATHER

A surprising burst of warmth, but only for today, went out and picked apple mint, wuzzed it in the processor and stuffed it into a jar with pickling vinegar. Thus we will have mint sauce for the winter to go with the lamb - well. I will. R does not like it and son R does not like lamb so it is all for me! The red currant jelly has already been made. Mind you a dollop of the jelly in any gravy is great.

Then, of course, back comes the rain, ten inches (22cm) in September, about a quarter of a years fall. It seems to rain every night, if not every day as well. Ten lilium regale have arrived. I will have to take the old ones out of their container and plant them in the garden before setting up the new pot. They are the best of lilies - white, large and heavily scented.
 

We have birds skulking and feeding - the pheasants will almost eat out of my hand, just stand there waiting for seed - well, I suppose they are a bit like fancy hens really.

Thought's are turning to manure, to bringing it up from down the lane and putting some on the compost heap and forking it in. The rest will have to be set aside to mature - there you have it, the ideal garden mulch - mature manure.

I must walk the garden to see where I can put a new flower bed. Once the upsizing is underway I will have a load of good plants with nowhere to go.

Today it is Wednesday and the light is beginning to fail. We have had 20 cm (4 inches) of rain in the last 17 hours and a gale has blown through. Surprisingly enough I have not been gardening. If this autumn weather carries on I shall dissolve! Looking up at the clouds I can see why in Trumpica this season is called the fall.

There are puddles by the rhubarb full of dead damson leaves, and it is so dark and gloomy. This is the view of the garden from the living room window at midday!

I shall have to get out my boards and wander the streets proclaiming The End of The World - nigh and so on.

This October and at the end of the month is our nice All Saints Night, now usurped by profiteers as Halloween and ruined. So to be prepared - I have done my reluctant bit. There is one good thing about being out of town up a dead end lane in that we do not get trick-a-whatsits.

The garden is still sporting some colour albeit autumnal.

The grasses, miscanthus and stipa, have not flowered this year, just grown and grown,

           

 One plant that has gone bananas is the Fatsia by the oil tank - it is October and it has decided that this might be good time to burst into flower. Mind you the whole weather thing is just crazy, a bit like politics both sides of the Atlantic. Everyone really knows in their heart of heart that mistakes have been made - Brexit and Trump to name but two - but it would be to lose face to admit it. Time for an alien race to arrive and quietly remove everyone with aggressive tendencies? They leaves a world full of poets and women - not bad - I must write something that rhymes.

Now to an admission - my pumpkin is actually a tiny butternut squash, the only on that ripened this year, too sweet to eat! (That rhymes.)