WHEN IT RAINS

It rains jam pots from the toolshed.

Making Damson and Rhubarb with Ginger Jam.
Then suddenly it is sunny, frosty at night, warm in the day. Out into the garden, veg beds tidied, rhubarb and asparagus beds weeded and growth cut back (yet to be compost dressed).

R continues to prepare the garden for winter.
Bramleys distributed to friends and we are now out of storage space.
Noticed our fox has a limp - sore left back leg. The rabbits, wasps, and pheasants are eating the windfall apples.
I am moving some of the slate clippings down the garden and top dressing the paths.

One of the squirrels has found the bird tray outside the kitchen and sits there brazening munching whilst I watch.

One place we like to go in autumn (or any time)(because we can get in for free as we are members of the RHS) are the gardens at  Holker Hall. 

The colours are so good at the moment like this cercidiphyllum though, I have to admit, I could not smell the toffee scent given off by the fallen leaves. Nor can I do that with our trees.

And the sorbus on the left was laden with berries, the leaf litter exhibiting all sorts of interesting fungi.

At home the Cosmos flower on and the asters have finally got going.





There is even colour in the lily pads as they die and sink to the bottom of the pond.

Overall we are progressing towards winter in a steady fashion, lots to do and not always the desire to do it. 
Sometimes a little mutter of words when I find that in the dry summer the moles have dug a run down the stream bed so the water disappears - have not yet found where it is coming up.

I give up on the seasons - just looked out of my window - it is the end of October and the ornamental quince is flowering! Can we be so lucky as to skip the winter and move directly to spring, do not pass Christmas, do not collect £200 - well you get the gist.

Mind you I have just seen the tips of daffodils poking through the compost under the Magnolia stellata!

THE AUTUMN LEAVES

Drift past my window .... well you know what I mean.

Cosmos continue to flower, the moorhen is back at the pond as is the heron, and I have racked up 56 Bramley Apples wrapped in pages from the I newspaper. 
They are now in the shed in old photographic developing trays. 
Last year we had apples until April. Damaged apples are left to the wasps.

Just when all seems westerlies and rain mum nature sends us Wednesday, 23C and the lawns are mown before the new storm, allium seedlings out and Martagon lily seeds sown. And another huge trug of Bramleys collected.
Started to shift slate clippings myself as unable to find a gardener. The I fell over - the usual backward roll, and when I stood I realised my glasses had come off. Now there was a problem as I could not see where they had gone. So help from old pair of glasses and R and we still could not find them, not in the black currants, in the horseradish nor on the lawn. Finally saw them under the mower under the seat. No idea how they flew there.

So - autumn colours -

Acer

Cherry

Toffee tree

Spirea

Azalea

Etc

Etc

Sumac

Euonymus

Even strawberry leaves and rain on the alchemilla are attractive.

Ash

 Crataegus Orientalis berries

Bramley Apples,

Birch

 And finally the colourless beauty of Honesty seeds. 

GLOBAL WHATEVERING?

Plants that flower in July are flowering now amongst the beginning of the autumn colour. It can only be due to the early hot summer and drought postponing flowering. Is global whatevering having an effect?

The eucryphia is finally out as is the potentilla - I have seen this out elsewhere too.

As for autumn colour the Acer sango kaku and the euonymus are an eyeful. (Is the Greek language responsible for so many plants having Latin names beginning with eu? Or is this a subtle ploy by the European Union to infiltrate British gardening?)

Wonderful weeds? After the Thornapple, now removed to the weed heap in the far garden, I have been pulling up Ragweed. I suppose it must have come from the bird seed but was several yards away and anyway we only have sunflower seed, never and peanuts not mixed seed.
We have enough with bindweed and gout weed (ground elder)(thank the Romans for that one), couch grass and horsetails.

We have, at last, roses in flower in the new bed. The orange one was given to us by I and L.

Now my pal Mr. Pheas is becoming more tame and, if he sees me topping up the bird feeders, he comes running and stands a couple of yards away in hopeful anticipation.

 On the other hand - "What shall we do for lunch dear? Let's pop down to the garden shed and see if we can chew through the wires of the peanut feeder."

Now to something a bit disturbing - no not Trump, Putin or even Boris - The black bootlaces of Honey Fungus are alive and well in the garden. The toadstools have appeared along a fifteen foot length of hedge under the sallow, around the bottom of the eucalyptus and around one of the lovely white birches.

Now, I know they are edible but I am not very tempted. All we can do is wait and hope the trees are strong enough to withstand the fungus.

Finally autumn is with us. mellow stuff and fruitfulness - and colour so here is a taster for the next blog when I will try and get some more photos of the autumn colours before they get blown away.

IRISH MIST

For some time now all the Bushnell camera has caught are squirrels, rabbits and cats plus the odd bird.

But now a glimpse of a badger then - 

Reynard is hunting in the garden.

So we went to Ireland gathering ideas for the garden - on the way we stopped off at Castle Kennedy for a coffee and a walk in its splendid walled garden and herbaceous borders. Then we walked down to the big pond/lake that needs a bit of dredging.

The red hot pokers (knifofia) were indeed splendid, ours flower in June not September. 

One place we visited was Glenveagh Castle in the wilds of the Donegal Mountains, surrounded by coach loads of Americans.

At the back of the castle was a walled garden with interesting plants. R said take a picture of that, and that, so I did.

In Falcarragh we went to Cluain na dTor Nursery & Gardens, a fascinating place with this display in front of mirror glass. 

Also R was taken by the idea of grasses grown in the lawn instead of the flower beds as we have now.

We have had this one in the garden but it dies. I think it is Anne Folkard. The anapthalis is another she chose which we have had in previous gardens. Obviously some shopping to come. There were a couple of interesting ideas though - Growing marigolds with red cabbage and vegetable with cosmos. as shown here. Companion planting is something we must try.

One thing at Glenveagh that appealed was the lily pond by the lough - it used to be a heated swimming pool - okay but the thought of midges would be a worry.

And then it was good to get home and mow and weed and pick up fallen twigs and cut the banking and find we had yet more marrows on the courgettes and feed the birds and wonder what has happened this years to the seasons with things flowering two months late because of the drought or, in the case of the sweet peas, yet again not flowering at all.