THE SHORTEST DAY

 The winter equinox - which makes me think of all the "druids" at Stonehenge in midsummer - on the wrong day as recent thought suggests they would have been celebrating mid winter with the end of the old year and the beginning of the new.

So it is a time of  weather inversion and mist in the fields and the bay. This shifts with the tides and rises as the day warms so that we may be clear first thing but then spend some time wrapped in fog.

But not all greyness is shroud like - plants with grey foliage wait for the sun to back light their leaves.

Back lighting when the sun is low gives the garden a different  atmosphere, whether being old hydrangea flowers or through the trees (those that were not blown down).

And despite frosts which lend new meaning to shape and tone there is both plant survival - the parsley - and the signs of a new year in daffodils breaking the surface, as are the snowdrops.

So the tree disaster from the storm will take some time to resolve - her are a few more photos. You can see from the cross section of the sawn trunk the amount of ivy that was weighing the tree down. Ivy, great  as a wildlife habitat but. . 

I cannot leave you with that though so here are the colours of the liquidambar and a view of the garden when the sun is actually shining.

No matter your creed or culture I wish you a very enjoyable midwinter and New Year - whenever the latter begins - the 22nd of December, First of January - the Gregorian New Year is the one we all celebrate on the night of December 31st and continuing into New Year's Day. ... 

Then there is the Lunar New Year. ... 
Hindu New Year. ... 
Kha b' Nisan. ... 
Nowruz- Persian New Year. ... 
Songkran. ... 
Al Hijri – Islamic New Year. ... 
Rosh Hashanah.
Whatever, I hope the next one is better for everyone.

TIME TO HIBERNATE

How I wish for hibernation.

Every time I walk the garden in this dark cold winter weather I find another shrub flattened, more branches down. We had some snow and rooks gathered by the cattle grid looking for food. The collective nouns for rooks are interesting - building, parliament, clamour and storytelling. I like the last best.

The snow flattened the monster geranium by the kitchen door. I call it that because it looks like a giant octopus. However come the thaw it perked up and its arms are more erect now. All around it are the tops of snowdrops exploring life above ground.

Not much flowering now - just the odd rose.

It is interesting to note that several of the fallen trees and shrubs are those with ivy making them top heavy. The big tree had this as did an elder. The trouble with elder is that the branches are brittle. I am not able to sit on the seat in the top garden as a leaning willow now obstructs me.

And we have had rain - snow goes, rain comes filling the stream and bursting forth unexpectedly in new springs.

This does not deter the heron who has returned to forage for amphibians in the pond - frogs, newts, toads.

R went off to a wreath making do with friends so we now have a Christmas wreath. I am a bit of an old misery re Christmas - do not mind it but the palaver over it, starting in October is a bit much, and if I hear Brenda Lee singing Rocking Around the Christmas Tree again . . !

S the gardener is coming and I think he has no idea what lies in wait. Not just dealing with fallen trees and shrubs but the Rambling Rector rose over the flowering currant has been blown onto its side, the trellis by the shed is collapsed and the climbing rose, clematis montana and Lonicera halliana will have to be hard cut back before reconstruction.

And it is Monday.

And tomorrow storm Barra arrives.

And it is Tuesday, rain lashed the windows and loud the wind howls, loud the wind roars but no thunderclaps rend the air at least. So I plan but do not do. Feed birds, get in logs, wash the kitchen floor. A burst of sunlight, then it is gone.e lawn - sigh! Now the trees will have shed a new load of sticks onto the lawn. As yet we do not have dead trees like this one and if we had it would be flat on the ground, but with the ash dieback it can only be a matter of time. Next door has called in a tree surgeon to look at the great big sycamore as they are afraid it might fall on the horses' stables and they might want to cut the top off it. Sacrilege! It is a notable tree registered with the Woodland Trust and anyway I do not think it would reach that far should it fall - and it has withstood the recent storms.

In the USA the fires have been threatening the giant redwood groves, 

it would be another disaster if they were to go.

JUST VISITING

Somewhere around four thousand years ago

the Great Bonsai was born of flame:

a seed fell two hundred feet onto charred earth

and germinated.

As time turned, the tree grew - massive, magnificent, 

though not the tallest. Man came, felled other timber 

but the huge trunks shattered when they dropped,

became useless.

Then, John from Dunbar spoke fire for the sequoia,

saved those pillars that held the high Sierra sky,

stopped that blue cathedral roof from falling,

being desecrated.

And now we can stand, heads back,

and stare up at its many immense limbs,

and gaze into the forest canopy at its crown

and wonder.

And I am here, and I am gone,

seventy or more rings of the Great Bonsai

if I am lucky, of no roots, born of a different fire,

just visiting.

STORM AND SNOW

The storm clouds were gathering for a few days then gusts of over 80 mph and bye bye to two of our mature trees.

Before the storm we were trundling along liking the colour of autumn ferns, planning the new veg beds where we still have parsley and kale, the odd carrot (mostly very odd), parsnip and broccoli.

The pond has been strimmed and I noticed hips on the climbing rose above the shed. Plans were going ahead to revitalise part of the bed by the back wall and the weather forecasts were for some windy weather to affect north east Britain.

Then we had a night of noise, wind roaring through the trees, benches turned over and pots capsized.  The trellis over covered area to the left of the big shed has collapsed, the barrow blown over. Well, things could be worse I thought - and it was.

We have two mature ash trees down, one over the far wall and one bringing a mature limb off another tree.

This has left a gap at the top of the wood and decisions to be made. Do we remove all the timber or, perhaps leave some of the fallen trees as a wild life habitat (or is that just plain lazy?) 

So there we were on Sunday, still windy and cold, trees blocking roads - both bigger ways out of our village were blocked and yesterday we had to scrape our way down a narrow lane to escape.

Now it has started to snow after a hard frost last night and a frozen pond, a few hardy euphorbias are trying to lend some cold colour to the garden. The cosmos and nasturtiums, petunias and nicotianas are dead.

So November is almost no more and winter has come, clearing up to be done.

Woodburner lit, a burst of sun, the bird feeders filled so out with the camera. It is interesting to watch the different ways birds feed. Pheasants, dunnock, some chaffinches on the ground hoping for falling seed, then the tits and some finches dash in, grab a seed then fly to a safe bush to eat. The goldfinches just sit there stuffing themselves. Have not seen the bully boys today - green and bullfinches.

Two cock pheasants face off on the banking and suddenly there are a pair of stoats running across the far lawn.

And there is evidence in the snow of other visitors, left rabbit, right pheasant.

There were also some deer tracks up the back field.

FIRST FROST

We still have some flowers in the garden but not many, it means I have to search a bit.

Of course the fatsia is now heading for full bloom as it is nearly December - cannot quite work that out.

And there is leaf colour but mainly on the ground and the paths. The cherry colours are glorious but the sycamore the usual drab brownish grey.

 We are plagued by ivy as a ground weed - yes up trees but under them too, in flower beds and tangled in the plants there. 

Just noticed the viburnum in flower by the veg beds and also discovered some strange fruit like clustered rabbit droppings. And we have fungi like this pale yellow one, I think it is a wax cap.

Elsewhere azalea, hazel and beech still coloured, so is the royal fern.

Outside my study window is pot corner - bulbs and lilies waiting for the spring.

Four weeks to the shortest day and we have had some sunshine. The view from the kitchen doors is special in the late afternoon as light begins to fade.

LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION.

Oh, forgot to tell you the small black fruit are, of course, privet.

Sun is setting on a cold dry day.