Freezing fog here for the last 36 hours, so my scampers round the garden have been largely abandoned in favour of curling up by the fire. But it’s left coatings of ice on seedheads and cobwebs, which is at least pretty.
Author: N W
foxes
I’ve known that there were foxes in the small patch of scrubland behind the house almost since I moved in seven and a half years ago, but this morning is the first time I’ve seen them.
When I opened my bedroom curtains this morning, my attention was drawn by the yipping of an exceedingly amorous couple in next-door’s garden. Lousy photos, at a distance through a steamed-up window (there’s a heavy frost this morning), but very nice to see.
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marmalade
It’s that time of year again.
Last year I made three batches (16 jars) of marmalade, of which I have one jar left. It’s the first time ever I’ve managed to supply myself for a whole year! Hoping for similar success in 2022 …
early spring shrubs
Enthused by posting a pic of very early cherry blossom (my Mum’s neighbour’s tree) on Christmas Day, I remembered the twisted cherry “Kojo-no-mai” that I’d had and loved in London. Full of seasonal self-indulgence, I ordered one on Christmas afternoon. It arrived two days ago, and is now potted up (into a swing-bin base). They’re slow-growing, so that will do for several years, but if I can persuade to keep a fairly columnar habit I think it could eventually go in the front garden.
Despite the very cold and dismally damp weather, the camellia buds are now showing the first flush of pink.
New Year’s Day
For very many years I’ve had a tradition of bringing in twigs of forsythia on New Year’s Day, the flowers on which will open over the next two or three weeks, providing a splash of brightness before the daffodils kick in.
just in time
Delayed by Christmas post, but arrived today – just in time! For some years now, I’ve had a calendar printed with photos I took in the relevant month in the preceding year.
spica splint
Wrestling heavy suitcase, heavy roasting-dishes into/out of Mum’s Aga, and this morning clearing the ashes from the stove and bringing through more heatlogs … I’ve conceded that I’m not really up to anything more and dug out the spica splint!
Hopefully, a few days wrapped up and I’ll be able to use my thumb for typing and suchlike …
Christmas
Merry Christmas all. It’s a dull murky day here at my Mum’s on the edge of the Oxfordshire Cotswolds, but next-door’s ornamental cherry tree is doing its best to provide a glimmer of cheer.
My own little garden is as much as I can manage nowadays,, but this is just one of the many, many, dozen plants that I wish I could somehow find room for!
Later … I remembered the fairly-columnar twisted cherry (Kojo-no-mai) thatI had in London, so in a quiet moment on Christmas afternoon I ordered one! I might manage to get it in the front garden, perhaps in a pot, eventually.
Christmas-ish
Tree is now in and decorated, assorted cards stuck in the postbox, and I’m starting to feel as though I’m getting ready for Christmas (which is never one of my favourite times of year).
now is the turning of the year …
Today is what I stubbornly regard as Midwinter Day (despite attempts by astronomers and others to redefine “winter”). The first signs of the earth reawakening as shoots of the earliest daffodils in the pot by the French window start to push through the debris of last summer’s creeping jenny.
Later, I’ll bring in the Christmas Tree (sadly, it suffered a bit from under-watering last summer) and decorate it with strings of lights and golden baubles to celebrate the returning Sun.
