FEBRUARY IN NOVEMBER?

We have the first signs of spring! Yes, I know it is November but the snowdrops are sprouting. 

And it seems so dark and gloomy most of the time, rain rain rain, the garden is a quagmire, sodden grass. At least I have the canna lilies in under cover.

And, Hey-la-day-la the moorhen's back. Well R has seen it by the pond.

There are still autumn colours in the garden -

In the second of these pictures, on the left is the liquidambar tree on which the colour goes from deep red on the outside to yet green further in through a range of shades.

One thing we do get up here on our hill is big skies - if you look west. Sometimes the clouds seem to take shapes like this on of a monkey head.

I can sit in my seat in the kitchen and stare up out of the window imagining all sorts in the clouds.

This weekend in Ulverston we have a Dickensian Festival with the streets lined with stalls and people dressed up in Victorian clothing. They often get tens of thousands here over the two days. Locally it is known as the Dickfest. We will probably walk in tomorrow as the weather forecast is a bit better.

And, no, I have not been following the football - a load of millionaires kicking the modern version of a pig's bladder and some acting like they have been shot after a rap on the ankle. You would think it would hurt more the way they roll around. Glad I am not a ref. Despite that all the best to England but they will not win it.

Enough, I have to answer the late November question, "What do you want for Christmas?" Of course most of the answers are such as Health, happiness, peace for all etc which no one can give so it will probably be socks again.

Back to the view over Morecambe Bay -

Sometimes the light can be stunning.

Cup of tea?

WARM WET NOVEMBER

Warmest night on record in Edinburgh but who has any faith in self interested politicians doing anything meaningful in Egypt?

We still have autumn leaf colour though the euonymus and acers are done.

I remember that the best colours used to be in the third week of October. Now it is the second week in November and no sign of a frost yet. But we have had so much rain the lawns are spongy and sodden.

There are some flowers still going - a rose and a dahlia here (thanks J for the latter). I keep deadheading the cosmos but it is now a losing battle.

So for some autumn leaves - liquidambar

 

cherry

Guelder Rose

Cercidiphyllium

But even after all the leaves have fallen there is interest - this is the tangle of ivy stems on a fallen ash - the weight of the ivy may well have contributed to the demise of the tree.

It is important through the winter to appreciate shrubs with continuing colour like the rosemary and pittosporum, other greys and variegations.

Today is Tuesday and last night and this morning it RAINED!! Water ran down the roads in torrents, not helped by the fact all the drains are blocked - we need a lengthsman.

There are so many World cups going on at the moment in sport - rugby, cricket and football - that I have been desperately recording on the tv box. They always go into overkill with their schedules. Why the BBC cannot just give the redundant Channel BBC4 over to sport and get rid of the endless repeats of old programmes I do not know. Then at least there would be an alternative (though probably some ancient comedy).

I have a new camera - only a Nikon D3500 - I know now out of date but does the job, well, I thought it would until I tried to convert the RAW images and my ancient computer did not want to. So now I need a new iMac (and a decent iPhone).

I did go in the garden and cut back old perennials - using the hedge trimmer worked a treat yet it is quite heavy. And I still have to cart the stuff to the compost heap.

Wait, a bit of sunshine but still raining - nip out and a rainbow over the back field.

In the garden it is time to collect up the cherry leaves - again!

R wants a cuppa.

A DAMP SQUIB

A wet coming we have of it. 

Will it ever stop raining?

But there are things in the hedgerows yet - Old Man's Beard, Clematis vitalba, and elderberries that the birds have not yet eaten though the redwings and fieldfares are back.

We have colour in the garden, if the sun shines which is rarely at the moment - liquidambar, sedum spectabile and rosehips.

 

Yet the wind is stripping the trees, one last leaf or two here on a sycamore in the back hedge. The hogweed seeds still cling to the dried stems on the lower banking, we had expected the gardener to come and trim this but no sign despite a reminder so look for another? And the fleabane still flowers.

As usual the fatsia is coming into bud at the wrong end of the year. Why it does this I do not know but it does. I should be out in the garden but it is so wet that I would damage the lawn. I checked the paving but it is not slippery at the moment. Still bulbs to plant and tender plants to pot up and bring in. I heard George Monbiot on the radio describing how some of his internet posts had been taken down. I have absolutely no faith that the powers that be will do anything but tinker with global warming. This is so sad for our children and grandchildren etc but whether it is a capitalist economy or a dictatorship self interest rules.

Covid has failed the earth - it should have got rid of three quarters of us, at least.

I have had a radical idea to cut the workload in then garden - do nothing for 20 years and document its return to the wild. The only snag is that I will be 96 by the end of the project, or more likely scattered as ashes up in the wood.

At the moment I feel a bit like the rhubarb so watch this space.

 We watch the clouds build up across the bay in the brief bright spells but mostly it is overcast, wet and dreary. And dark - how do we get through the winter?