SO SNOW, NOW NO SNOW

It is snowing, no it is not, yes it is, no it is raining, the sun is shining, it is hailing . . .
Well the snow fell and then melted giving us floods which tried to wash away the track to the house.
And it its cold with a brisk wind but enough of the weather - yes definitely enough.






We have a new woodshed courtesy of Dawid who has done all sorts of jobs about the place (and I do not have to do them.)






We have frogspawn, the signs on the way into town to beware of toads crossing are up and we met an Ent at Lowick on a walk.









The ducks are resting on the shed roof and Mr Pheasant is prowling the lawns - no sign of his other half.



The Gardeners wife has had her baby but no sign of him yet. My youngest son has moved house and I attacked a holly tree he did not want. At this year we have a plethora of birthdays so happy birthday everyone.




You have had pics of all sorts of flowers so here are some lesser celandines. The mahonia and flowering currant are already out and the buds on the cherries are fattening up. The spring is here earlier again, I can only assume that good old awful climate change is responsible.

It could be possible that Corvid-19, China's latest export, will get the blogger one day but hopes that it will wipe out the human race and save the planet seem unlikely. (It might cancel the Olympic Games - R is in hope, or even football - even bigger hope.)

Daffs are sprouting everywhere - even unexpected places like this box ball in a post - I had forgotten they were there.
Last year the temperature was in the twenties, now just a biting north west wind.



The rhubarb is coming on nicely -

Nearly four o'clock and time to make R a cup of tea, and light the fire. 
Must get some more logs now I have a nearly empty shed (then have the joy of stacking them).

I suppose an absent Prime Minister is better than one always in one's face?
It seems a sad comment on US politics that the Democrats are struggling to find a good contender for the Presidency. 

I have a snuffly nose. I wonder if I could get myself quarantined in a nice 5 star hotel for a fortnight?

SUN AT LAST, THEN FOG

More muck and compost distribution, pruned the osiers that are tied together, raked weed from the pond (and cracked the handle of the rake), removed the planks edging one of the raspberry rows in preparation for digging up the plants, weeded the chives.
The grass in the lower garden is absolutely waterlogged and sodden - should keep well off it.
All the division and replanting of snowdrops is now showing how successful it is with swathes in the wood and some of the flower beds.

Many January blogs seem to have been a bit depressing - lines of poetry like - 
'Night comes down like a coffin lid,
Enshrouding me in darkness . . '
come to mind. I mean, come on lad get a bit cheerier - so 

Sunday - and dawn and sunshine, if very cold and frosty, I went into the garden and after I came in could not get warm again, even standing by the Aga.
By there afternoon the incoming tide in Morecambe Bay had brought fog almost to the bottom of the garden. R and I walked up the back field and saw a hare.

The old ash I can see from my study window is festooned in ivy and a habitat in itself. 

In amongst the ivy there grows a Rambling Rector rose reaching twenty feet or more up the branches. I wonder how many bird nests there are and will the tree survive the ash dieback plaguing the country.

The younger trees further up the garden are as tall if not taller and strong and straight limbed. This old tree is more gnarled with twisting branches and dead wood which can fall in high winds.






This is the view up the garden from my window -

I noticed that I had not pruned one of the hydrangeas yet and then, when I processed the image I saw that the liquidambar has still got all its leaves, the red ones poking out of the top of the hydrangea here. Usually there autumn leaf fall has come and gone - it must be a sign of how mild it has been.

And it has been mild, frost gone quickly.

And the pheasants peck about under the feeders hoping the tits will drop something.

High pressure over the country so dry, cold and a bit cloudy - Monday - put in the 5 loganberry plants bought yesterday in Greenodd at Potato Day after clearing away old raspberries and digging in lots of well rotted manure.
More tidying of perennials and so on.
Paused mid dig to listen to a pair of tawny owls hooting - in the daytime.
Veg beds nearly done, just the cutting bed to sort out - have several rosemary bushes and a privet to go - somewhere?

Changed my mind - have tidied and tied in the remaining raspberries that were for the chop. Will give them loads of compost and manure and liquid seaweed feed. They have one more year.

Thursday and instead of golf I load the raspberry bed with manure and compost. Then I tidy up the main redcurrants.
Weather has been very foggy for a couple of days but this evening a weak sun broke through.

I find it hard to believe D Trump is not a fictional character - impossible to create! Terry Jones gone at 77 to be with Brian, so we will not get a new comedy, Life of Donald - actually we have it all the time. 

Perhaps the Coronavirusis is Mother Nature's answer to the human plague? 

Any volunteers to nip to the White House and cough and sneeze?

Or even Downing Street?

No, I would not wish that on anyone. . . . . . . . would I.?

BLOWN AND WASHED AWAY

If it ain't raining it is pouring. Brendan (only the Irish could name a storm Brendan (though Trump might name it Daniels?)) has blown through and more low pressure systems to follow. It will soon be a time for picking up fallen twigs and branches. In the garden the many fieldfares, redwings and thrushes have not eaten the holly berries. With the mild weather there must be enough other food around. Oh! And I have not mentioned the blackbirds - now when I drive the lanes they scatter from under my wheels. They, I suppose, find the edges under the hedges (note the rhyme)  full of snails and slugs and stuff.

I go out to top up the bird feeders and am startled by a raucous blackbird. Then I see why. Sitting on a buddleia stump, eight feet away and watching me is a sparrow hawk. We stare at each other, then I make the mistake of saying, "Hello." The hawk shrugs and lazily launches itself across the lawns.

The snowdrops come on apace and outside the back door there is the familiar winter scent of the sarcococcus, its small creamy flowers put out a strong aroma. The bush is roughly clipped into a round shape to appeal to R's liking for topiary and order in things.

The mowers have gone for their service. 

Not much on the Bushnell video camera apart from pheasants - R saw 3 cock and three hen birds by pond - looks like we are becoming a breeding colony? Two videos worth keeping but not showing - a wren and a blue tit by the outflow from the pond.

 So here are two images of weeded and almost completely mulched veg beds. On the left the odd object is a rhubarb forcing pot to keep the plant in the dark. The thing on the top is a substitute lid as I never had the original. 

There are still a few sprouts to pick.

And still falls the rain. (I do pick the occasional line from someone else - tho this one from Edith Sitwell had a more sinister connotation.) I am getting bored, even the golf course is shut because of the waterlogged ground.

Despite the dark and gloomy weather there are highlights here and there like this shrub (R bought it for 50p I think) and the flowers to come on the skimmia - this is a male.

 And boy does it rain - hence a really cheerful poem (Hmm?)

NOTHING BUT THE RAIN

There is nothing but the rain

whipped on the window.

Droplets scour grey trails,

panes are cloud tinted, cold.

Outside winter trees quiver 

in the quickening gale, wait. 

A clock chimes the quarter,

denotes more sad minutes gone,

leaves a long echo in the hall.

Soon night will absorb the day,

light will fade. And tomorrow?

Much the same they say

giving names to each new storm

as if that will tame the way

it insinuates nails into my life.

I look into the dark and

there is nothing but the rain.

There is nothing but the rain

sluicing the gutters and drains.

I go out, face the wind,

wince as the icy beads

beat against my skin, sting.

And I bend my weary back,

acknowledge the power

that thrashes the coppice twigs,

scatters debris into the fields.

There is no shelter on the fell

above the roaring wood,

sea spray flays my cheeks, 

leaks through my open lips.

There is no room for thought,

no future, past, just now.

I am desolate, empty,

There is nothing but the rain.

Well, now that has cheered everyone up at least the days are getting longer.

AFTER THE BALL IS OVER

An early morning, early autumnal view from the window in our new extension.

If I move a plant and do not know what to do with it it gets put in the weedy jungle on the banking below the veg beds. One example is this Acanthus - one of the prickliest things I know - vicious. Anyway it seems to enjoy being there along with some Tansy and pink Japanese anemones, a pink sidalcea and cast off day lilies. The background is a discarded willow that has been mutilated by tying the branches together - albeit in a rather haphazard way. We used to have a willow tunnel but that got removed when it got too big. In the spring there are still two lines of daffodils where it used to grow. Other willows now form a barrier between the garden and the back field in the very top corner of the garden. The box hedge by the main shed has been trimmed.  However, in attempting to take of a shrivelled leaf from the courgette rather than cutting it off, I pulled the whole plant out of the ground and it is now on the compost heap 😧.

As you may have gathered I am home from the dreaded hospital and on crutches. Enough of my trials and tribulations - just the endless exercises to come and remembering not to kneel down. Steve Austin has nothing on me! For those who cannot remember who he is or was too young - use the internet. Op did not cost 6 million dollars though - good old NHS - hands off Mr Trump.

Down in the veg beds the marigolds are doing well and I am letting them run to seed so I can collect it and sow in the spring. They brighten up a dark corner and are surprisingly hardy. I have raised the canopy on a couple of trees including this on the right and the liquidambar.

Talking trees the white birches are wonderful with their peeling bark. Apparently some people will wash the trunks - a bit much for me.

One small plant that gives good ground cover is the Creeping Jenny. Not many of its yellow flowers showing now but you can see how it got its name.

An update on our ash trees - I have had info from an expert and there is little to be done except, if they are dying and liable to fall on the house, have them cut down. Someone is going to make a lot of money from this. Perhaps I should buy a chain saw and climbing harness - I mean, knee done I might be able to do anything - can one climb trees with crutches?

So finally what is this orange fungus - it is not growing on my knee. I think we shall have to wait and see.  It does not look like any of the images on the web but might be in its infancy - can a fungus be in its infancy? Dunno. Orange peel fungus sprung to mind but . . . 

Finally, finally a bow to memory loss - in the rosa rugosa hedge I can see out of my window is a shrub covered in red berries. I am sure I did not put it there - did I? This is one of the tall shrubby cotoneasters, not horizontalis.

And now for something completely different - as a man delighted that he only has two knees, albeit metal. It will be interesting to see if, after being left for a couple of months, how much work it will take to recover the garden. I mean trees and shrubs are little problem - it is more mowing and scything and weeding, let alone planting 450 bulbs!!

A SCRUFFY TIME OF YEAR

Clearing up, clearing away, digging up the last of the carrots well infested with carrot root fly, and the builder is here. Leaves everywhere - got out the blower, blew them to one side and the wind blew them all back again - give up! So bagged up some to rot down to leaf mould. Then dug up the parsnips and made soup for the freezer, if there is room. If not will have to have it for lunch for a whole week.

Last apples in a trug outside the kitchen door - these are my daughter's.

 As are these crab apples. Our crab apple tree had a very poor crop this year. You can make jelly with them if you do not mind the after effects (a moving experience) but better tasting then rowanberry jelly. (Which you eat with venison.) (First catch you deer.)

We are getting into  the "Aren't the ornamental grasses attractive in the frost" season. The teasels are ok but R is not into grasses. Anyway the step gigantic has not "flowered" this year so . . .

So the quince flowers more and more- all topsy-turvy. 

 I have moved the bird feeders from outside my window as the builders will be there. Now I have only three outside the kitchen, all squirrel proof - the grey tree rats have gone but one feeder full only lasts about three hours before the tits have emptied it. The pheasants still wander about hoping in vain for dropped seed.

Down by the veg beds, just a few parsnips, some chard and the purple sprouting broccoli left compost has been spread and the bottomless pots with the copper slug tape on are slotted on a post.

Damson suckers pulled out to tidy things up (more will come). 

The sweet peas are now six feet high up the poles on which they were trained but not a flower. Should I dig them up and give up or see if we have a very mild winter. There seems to be no harm in leaving them for now.

The nights are closing in, 5 weeks or so to the shortest day and Christmas to get through - not a fan of all this stuff - like Halloween which is just and excuse for companies to sell tons of tat   and make a tidy profit. Commercialism!! It is almost as bad as Grandfather's day - why not second cousin twice removed Day? How long before we, in this country, are celebrating Trump Day? In the past the US elections got a short mention on the radio, now it is endless.   

To finish, builders here, paving up, autumns last blast over who here are a load of colourful autumn images -

Beech

Birch

 Leaves and bark of the red currant

 Cotoneaster

 Cherry

And finally finally I have dug out the streams, removed the dead leaves and walking up the back field I saw these berries in the hedge - not planted by me but a wild introduction - Berberis vulgaris - not common here in the wild.