Harvest

Today was a big harvest day at the allotment. There's a real nip in the air and temperatures of two degrees forecast for next week. So we decided to harvest all the allotment tomatoes before they succumb to the cold. They are still very green but abundant and luscious nevertheless. We picked about 3 kilos, …

Big garden no bird watch

Today was the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch day. I've counting the birds in my garden at the end of January for over twenty years and have found that the birds vary enormously from one year to the next. One of the variables has been the change in garden. My old garden attracted the usual …

Christmas at the allotment

Family commitments caused me to fall a little behind with the advent calendar but here are the last three photos. On the 22nd of December I spotted this Wintersweet's tiny flowers in the sunshine. This shrub has only every flowered once, last year, when it produced one flower. This year it seems to have finally …

Advent Calendar Days 15-20

Today I've been at home in daylight and even done some gardening.  I forgot to take any photos in the garden  but here's a wee update on the wild and wonderful Advent Calendar this week. On Saturday the 15th, snow and hail and all sorts of wintriness was forecast. I spent the day delivering mince …

Advent calendar update

It's been a bit of a long week but keeping my eyes open for snatches of winter joy has helped me get through. So here's an update: Day 8 - I was walking along the street, not feeling very festive, when I heard workmen singing Christmas carols as they worked. This prompted me to photograph …

Autumn tidying

Today was a garden day, it seemed like the first in months. The garden has been doing its best producing wonderful fruit and vegetables, especially plums, apples and tomatoes but, what with the allotment, and the musicians, various other family and work things, a wee trip to Norway and the small matter of the cracked bone …

Hedging my bets

The privet hedge at the front of the house has been having a growth spurt. I gave it a ritual hack back this afternoon but I had to stop when a nervous sparrow flitted in and out several times. It seems to have a nest in there so I stopped cutting, refilled the bird bath …

Pigeon 1: Broccoli 0

  Remember that lovely new raised bed that I made a couple of weeks ago? Well I put it in place round last year's broccoli patch, in the process, removing the netting that was keeping the pigeons off. The broccoli has been coming back to life in the last couple of weeks, so I was …

Autumn joys

I've been away at the weekend, visiting my mother.  We went to the wildlife reserve at Caerlaverock, in search of migrating geese.  The geese migrate to Svalbard in the summer and come back to Scotland in the winter.  We were a little too early, though I did see my first skein of geese in the …

More than pots on the patio

Following on from my post on pots of flowers in my mother's garden, here are some results from my trip to the garden centre: But just in case you thought my mother's garden was all patio and pots, she also has a humungous apple tree, just coming into blossom now: with promise of lots to …