GOING GREY?

It is the grey grizzled days of winter 2019, we had a hard frost, the air is still as we linger under a high pressure and my feet are cold despite two pairs of Bamboo socks. 
Having said that it is cold and dry - I have just mowed, yes mowed, some of the lawns to tidy them up as the grass has not yet stopped growing. However down by the hedge the lawn is a quag and needs some serious draining.

In the garden the grey plants become important to give some light to the flowerbeds.

A Euphorbia

Lavender

The pittosporum above a hebe and next to rosemary.

Even the smaller plants like this Snow in Summer on the right give variety to a dark corner and the skimmia, left, is just longing to burst into flower.

The sarcococcus by the back door is in flower and yet it is also bearing its shiny black berries from last year.

Daffodils are through under the magnolia and we definitely have our first snowdrops.

The maple is in full red twig colour and the bay in buds - though this is getting too big and will need a stiff prune - more cuttings - they root easily if just shoved in reasonable soil and left.

 We even have the odd wallflower out and the small shrub on the left was bought by R for almost nowt as a four inch high rooted cutting.

Apart from all that we have the dried heads of the hydrangea in vases in the house and I must cut some of the reedmace by the pond before it goes over - it is already starting to look tatty.

And there you have it, onward into the last year of the two thousand and teens. I shall now go and sit by the log burner and read about the Wars of the Roses. Nowadays prominent people (like football managers) (no names) get sacked, then they would have been hung, drawn, quartered, decapitated - just for starters!

Will Brexit happen?
Will Nellie the E survive the next year as President.
Will we ever get our upsizing finished?
Will I finally give in to a new right knee?

And my New Year's Resolution - to diet and lose weight, get more exercise, leap out of bed in the morning (R goes Ha!), drink decaf, less alcohol and generally be a lot more miserable - if that is possible.