FIRST BLOG OF 2023

First blog of the year, so all the best to everyone for 2023, not much gardening going on, so wet best to stay off it, new spring in lawn by hanky tree (Davidia), pools on paths, cold (but not like USA and Canada) just wet, dark, grey, 3.5C and dismal.

How I love this time of year! Hey nonny no.

Last blog or so mentioned planting Christmas tree in garden. Our previous owner Tom did this and now they are a bit big for the living room. Our tree is a fake spruce from the attic decorated beautifully by our granddaughter.

Actually sometimes we can actually see the sun but mostly it is like today at the moment.

Though, looking at the two images, sunny and wet, there is not a lot of difference.

One of the trees blown down by storm Arwen was sawn off. I have counted the rings and there are 38 so the ash tree started growing in about 1984. It is interesting how the core of the tree has resisted the fungal invasion since this time last year.

The birds like leaves on Winterwood sing hopeful songs on dismal days etc etc except not much bird song but a buzzard mewing. If it rains any more I will have to get boots with webbed feet or something, waterproofed as well.

Last blog talked of greys - now to browns - elephant grass, miscanthus, cardoon, sedum and beech hedge.

But there are things to lift the spirits. The buds are fat on the camellias, and we have daffodils through the compost and also snowdrops.

Then there are the yellow leaves shrubs to brighten a gloomy day.

So as darkness creeps up the branches and a lazy heron flaps off from the far garden I nurse my mug of tea, both hands clasped to it to warm them as my mother did and dream that one day this winter will be done.

WHAT A GREY DAY

And I do not just mean the weather (when it is not raining). 

At this time of year, I am writing this on Wednesday 21st the shortest day, there is little colour in the garden so plants with grey foliage become so important.

Well, that is enough of that then. We have had frost though this has been washed away -

So we end a year with everyone in the country seemingly unhappy with their lot - yes you can blame Covid and poor management at government level - and do not forget BREXIT! Dogma and self interest is making everything a mess. Pay the NHS workers more - 1p on income tax would do it?

Enough again - throughout this misery I see a small leaf encrusted in morning frost and see that there is hope (I hope).

Or I come upon  something in the garden I forgotten - this stone I carried down from Goats Water near Coniston many years ago and I have just seen it in the undergrowth.

It was on the ground near Charmer's Grave - look it up, Wainwright mentions the dog's burial site.

And IF I get up early (ha ha) our view southeast over Morecambe Bay can be spectacular -

LOCATION x 3

And if you have a real Christmas tree are you going to shred it, burn it or plant it - beware with the latter they can get a bit tall like the ones behind my shed now sixty feet tall. So they will not fit in the living room.

COLDER AND COLDER

 Just have to brass it out I suppose, sitting here with a gilet and a fleece on. (Oh! And a shirt, socks and - well you know.)

Have to remember to feed the birds. There is a clear part of the pond and some running water in the stream. This morning looked out of the window and we had two herons by the pond. This afternoon we had our plastic heron and a white egret!

When the sun does come out it gives little warmth but does brighten up the world. 

Even the frozen veg beds have a sort of geometric appeal - perhaps? There is not much gardening going on and we have just heard that we are being taken off the special offer electricity rate we have had for two years - our electricity costs are doubling.. Time to light the wood burner.

The sun does give backlighting now it is low in the sky - not long to the shortest day.

The fatsia, as usual is covered in flowers but the sedums need tidying up - very dead.

So now I will give you a few photos taken from outside the kitchen doors and if you are reading this in Australia you can chortle away in your comfort. 

So I meet my neighbour walking her dog and wonder what sort of nerve endings the dog has in its paws. It trots along on the frozen ground without a care in the world. Birds' feet too must be numb.

There is supposed to be the Gemini meteorite shower tomorrow night but pessimist me expects it will be cloudy, not that I will get out of my warm bed to look.

R has bought a new hot-water bottle which makes me wonder what ever happened to chilblains? Mmm, should not have asked that, will get a deluge of replies.

I am trying to read a book on Black Holes by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw but the maths is beyond me. Still has some interesting concepts all of which are not really relevant to my electricity bill.

SPACETIME

I sit, time runs down our stream.

We have met before, will again,

but that stream will be another,

with other water, different sound,

and, anyway, one future day

all that I am will dissipate,

cross an event horizon,

sink into the flow of a dark hole.

I assume my subatomic particles

will still exist, my quarks and muons,

neutrinos, protons, neutrons

but I am probably wrong.

And when all the black holes

have fused, become unstable,

will there be a new big bang, 

new universe, another me?

BELOW 0C

 I should have kept my mouth shut about the mild damp November we have had - it did not last and now hard frost and ice on then pond. We have winter sunrises, hungry cold birds and it is time for hibernation - myself included - but no chance.

Having moaned it is clear and sharp and beautiful out there, just cold.

But there are surprises - a flower on the philadelphus, hips on the dog rose in the wood, some leaves still not fallen and the glory of the beech hedge.

Then there is yet the glory of the liquidambar - American sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua), also known as American storax, hazel pine, bilsted, redgum, satin-walnut, star-leaved gum, alligatorwood, or simply sweetgum,

There is ice in the bird bath and on the pond. And it must be chilly in the little skate house my late brother in law Roy made for us. Fortunately my lady gardener has been at work tidying the flower beds.

Elsewhere it is good to see the sun again if with a finger numbing cold.

So, now I am listening to The Byrds singing My Back Pages and about to look up how to get tea stains out of a carpet - taking R up a mug of tea when fell going up the stairs. I apologised but I think she was more worries about the stain than if I was hurt.