NON GARDENING

 It has been a while and all I have done in the garden is blow leaves around.

We have been away to the south and whilst we were there storm Debi came visiting, flooding most of the local low lying land and cutting off the electricity for a time.

SO wet it is better to stay off the garden, the gardener did not come and now we have a nasty cold so we are very cheerful!

I sleep on my side most of the time and is very annoying to have long ear lobes - they get squashed and twisted at night - this has nothing to do with gardening but I have to talk about something and the rest of the world is a mess.

So before the storm it was about autumn leaf colour -

I know, gather them up, put them in bin bags and make leaf mould but it is raining again and anyway the storm has blown off all the leaves and it is four o'clock and getting dark.

Before we left I set up the trail camera - but forgot to switch it on. However I did get these two videos before that. The badger below is a frequent visitor as are rabbits - but brown and white? There has been some breeding like rabbits going on with a pet animal I think.

The leaves are all off the cercidiphyllum (toffee tree) but I cannot smell the leaves - perhaps need some of that elusive factor called the sun?

Autumn draws to a close too early and the dark days are with us - the house is besieged by ladybirds seeking a place to hibernate - not a bad idea with weather like this -

HUNKERING DOWN

It is a dark and dreary night, something is nasty in the woodshed and SAD looms.

Ladybirds everywhere looking for somewhere to spend the winter - inside and out, on windows and curtains, landing in my hair. So they know something about the coming winter that I do not?

So, let me get rid of the autumn colours first -

There, now that is done, for now. The cherries in fact have only just got going. The best colours used to be the third week in October but now it is into November.

There are still some flowers in the garden, enough for a small vase at least.

The rooks in the trees are restless, not looking forward to the winter though there are a lot of berries this year for other birds. I have not seen any redwings nor fieldfares yet. The crows make a lot of noise at times especially if disturbed by something - this is unlikely to be me in cold damp weather.

So with the cherries turning there is still room for shape and colours in the small shrubs.

And the odd calendula blasts out its  colour.