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?

AUTUMN COLOUR

 Autumn is definitely with us. The trees are turning, the fieldfares and redwings are back from Scandinavia,  it is half term and the Lake District is full of holiday makers in the rain.

Whirling seed everywhere, the big sycamore has never produced so many offspring. I get out the blower and clear the drive. Next day it is carpeted again.

And the colours change with the cooler, damper, darker weather.

With R having cleared away the old willow herb we can suddenly see our old fig again. I had almost forgotten about it.

The leaf litter, this is mainly beech (we have a hedge but no trees) shines in the sun. (When we get any).

Else where there is leaf colour, yellows and greys, shrubs that keep their leaves. especially on the banking in front of the house.

But not all is leaves - I dug up some potatoes - R had found them sprouting in the veg cupboard so I put them in. A few slug nibbles etc but they are edible. I am trying to remember what they were when they were bought - perhaps Maris Piper? And yes, you can see a grubby turnip in there too.

I am still deadheading the cosmos and dahlias and have harvested the last of the pears. Even with the long basket thingy I cannot reach the top of the tree. Climbing a ladder will be very vetoed. I tend to fall - always have done. The first time I broke my arm I slipped in a cowpat.

The sweet peas are gone and I have cut them down but there enough flowers for small vases.

The hydrangeas are now changing, the Annabelle gone brown and needing deadheading, the other going pink and okay for now. This is a time for disease and fungi to erupt - we have shaggy parasols by the main path and the azalea leaves have their autumn colour masked by mildew.

So we march on towards November. A tawny owl hoots from the wood, a pheasant squawks arrogantly and rabbits just keep quiet - you never know who might be about. Then the heron lifts from the pond and in a few huge flaps is gone over the hedge.

FALL FALLS

 I went out this morning and a whirl of sycamore seeds were blown from our notable tree. Now I know where the idea of a helicopter came from, nothing to do with dragonflies. The wings whirl around the central seed just like a blade.

We are just back from Herefordshire and my jaw is aching from motorway driving. They had grown a plethora of gourds.

At home R has been cutting back the white rosebay and I have mown the lawns - hopefully for the last time. Whilst we were away there was some heavy rain and the bottom garden has returned to its usual boggy state.

Leaves are falling but there is still some interest in the garden with rosehips and the bark of our cherries. The leaves on the big magnolia catch the sun and look especially good now.

Autumn does have its compensations though with the startling leaf colours it can bring.

Sometimes I look at our tall eucalyptus and think did we plant that about fourteen years ago as a small sapling?

Still flowers like the dahlias and cosmos coming as long as I deadhead. We have not yet had a hard frost if any so they carry on. Then I look out of my window and think I must cut that ivy in the old ash tree. It has the Rambling Rector rose up it too - surely more than enough. And plants that were written off have recovered especially the clematis armandii on the shed that had wilt and the rhododendron off which all the leaves fell earlier this year - now sprouting profusely.

I look up at the photo of the eucalyptus and it illustrates how the garden has almost become a wood. Here is a picture of the garden from not long after we arrived - 

Changed a bit?

So now it is time to batten down hatches, tidy the garden (especially the compost heap I am told). Perhaps time to ring the gardener?