Last gardening of 2010

…unless I prune the roses in the front tomorrow. The snow has gone again, thank goodness, and it’s mild, so I’ve done a bit of tidying in the beds next to the terrace at the back of the house. The penstemons were looking very bedraggled, having been weighed down with six inches of snow twice in the past month. I’ve given them an interim haircut, and hope that’ll let them over-winter slightly more safely than if I’d left them with branches lying along the earth and grass. I’ve pruned a few of the roses as well, and cut down some annuals. It hasn’t been exclusively a story of destruction (though I’m the first to admit that such tends to be my gardening trademark – I like a bit of slash and burn!). I’ve potted up some more cuttings from Jane’s New Guinea busy lizzies, and taken a few more cuttings. With luck and a following breeze, we ought to have over a dozen little plants in the spring: the donor plants are starting to look tired.

I felt a bit better on Christmas morning, so we set off to spend the day with Margaret and John in Hampshire. Part-way round the M25, when I started coughing and sneezing again, it struck me that this wasn’t altogether wise. Still, we had a lovely day with them, eating way too much, as tradition requires. I do hope I haven’t given them my cold.

We were just about ready to eat again three days later, when we had a nice evening with Celia and Andy here. Perhaps bruschette, lamb shanks with 6-root mash, cold pudding, hot pudding and a cheeseboard were a bit on the ambitious side, but again an enjoyable time in great company.

We have been down to the Costa Geriatrica this morning to make a purchase before the tax goes up. The goods should arrive in a week or two’s time, and I’ll tell you all about it then.

Slush, mist and sniffles

Hadn't realised we have quite so much traffic through the garden.

We did the Father Christmas bit yesterday, which involved a murky, slushy drive over to the nearby unitary authority. Soon after we left, my cold really started to blossom, and I hope I haven't passed it on to my sisters-in-law. The driving conditions weren't bad, in fact: as ever, the worst bit is getting out of the drive and down the hill to a somewhat clearer road. Had enough of the snow. It may go now.

...and more snow

We have the beginnings of a thaw today, but not enough to do a proper job, I fear. We slithered out for a few essentials yesterday - wine and a Christmas tree. The roads were not as clear as I'd expected, so we'd to take it a bit easy. As we turned into our road on the way home, we'd to hang around while a chap in a VW Touran got into some interesting angles while trying to find a bit of traction. I'm starting to feel less guilty about having bought a 4wd. It just ambles serenely on in the snow and slush. You can break traction, but you need to be pretty heavy on the throttle to get the wheels spinning. I think it has some electronic idiot-proofing that can be switched off for the Clarksons of this world who think it's clever to send their tyres up in smoke. (Oh, I'm glad I'm an old fart!)

The birds are starting to be a bit more interested in the feeders. There was a magnificent nuthatch at the peanuts yesterday - and an opportunistic blackbird on the ground beneath picking off the spillage.

Hibernate? Emigrate? Vegetate?

A' yon snaw gies me the boak. I suppose it has a certain attractive novelty value for the first moments of sunshine after a fresh fall (of snow, I mean, not of elderly creaking body). We'd a little snow shower last night, but not enough to stop me getting out to the framer's to collect the latest three daubs. There were some alarming looking frozen puddles at the edge of the road, though. Martyn beat me to the 4-wheel drive this morning, and it looks like that was just as well, since he has a 20-mile drive home from the county town this afternoon. I didn't see a temperature higher than -1.5° while I was out just now, and it has been snowing again for the past hour or so. The big wet flakes have now given way to skiers' snow - dry, powdery stuff. Ugh. Good job I stocked up yesterday in anticipation.


I seem to be doing a lot of snarling at the moment - sorry, people! The garden provides little inspiration at the moment, and the indoor plants are struggling a bit. Art class has been cancelled for three weeks, so there won't be any more this year. Still, we had a visit from a wren in the garden a couple of days ago, which gladdened the heart not a little, and the steady flow of Christmas greetings is a delight.

9 December

Interesting times. Students in masks saying they’ll have to deal in drugs to fund their studies. Rentacrowd posters all over the place. Police abused and attacked as agents of a repressive government – and, I fear, living up to the stereotype in some instances. Parts of it are reminiscent of the late Callaghan and early Thatcher years. I guess it’s to be expected when we have a totally un-mandated government at the helm (though ‘at the helm’ is perhaps optimistic). If the BBC were reporting events in Britain over the last few days in some banana republic or other, I think they might be predicting a military coup or, at best, early elections.

Odd to reflect that, in 1968 (annus mirabilis), with my mother teaching and my father on a bank clerk’s pension, I went up with enough of a grant to pay not only for my tuition, but also for my board and lodgings, leaving the parents and me to find books and beer money. And I began work with a small positive balance from savings from supplementary benefit payments! I clearly underestimated what it was costing the parents to feed and house me while I was unemployed, and failed to contribute. If you’re reading this, old ‘uns: sorry! Had we been looking at £9000/yr tuition fees, plus living costs, I would sure as hell not have gone to university, unless I’d learned to flip an awful lot of burgers.

It is cold. It is going to get colder again. There was more powder snow here yesterday. Still, my trip to London yesterday was, by and large, warm and comfortable, and the sun shone on us for a while today. An art class colleague came round at lunch time for soup and Christmas card layout and printing: their computer has gone tits-up, so they are having to make do with cards based on my template. A pleasure to do, though: the artwork is delightful.

Cabin fever

There's a good foot of snow in front of the garage door, so your obedient servant has not ventured out further than the tumble drier since gratefully returning home after Tuesday morning's eventful shopping trip. It snowed non-stop for 72 hours (I think - I have slept at intervals along the way - and the build-up of snow is the worst I have seen in these parts. A few intrepid types are venturing out in their cars (count me as distinctly trepid, thank you), including a dame in a flip top Peugeot who drove past earlier with the roof down to accommodate the Christmas tree. Odd combination: open roof and snow chains.