A Green and Pleasant Glen Monday 24th November, 2014 There isn't much colour in the garden at this time of year apart from various shades of green and brown. Most of the leaves have fallen as we approach the end of November but at least the grass remains green throughout winter and we do have some evergreen trees and shrubs. One exception this week is cotoneaster horizontalis. It is a modest little shrub, easy to overlook, but it comes into its own at this time of year when it stands out briefly against the green background . . . with its scarlet berries and little round bright red leaves. There was an old shrub in the garden which we cut down because sections kept dying back and it didn't look very decorative. But we still have more plants than we need because the birds have dropped seed all over the garden. I have a good view from the kitchen of this one on the wild flower bank. Soon the leaves will drop and the blackbirds will eat the berries and all that will remain will be the herringbone patterns of twiggy branches.
Another colourful exception, which is with us all year, is the morning sky. At this time of year the sun rises late enough for us to be up and about in time to admire the occasional lovely sunrise colours. Most mornings recently have been heavily overcast but this morning at about 07-30 the sky was almost clear with just high clouds over North Barrule which were lit up by the rising sun and looked lovely through the bare branches of the big beech near the house. I didn't fiddle with this photo on the computer but I did use the camera's "sunset" setting which tends to dramatise the colours.
A few days earlier I took this less dramatic photo of the equally beautiful sky over Ramsey to the north of the glen.
The third (less welcome) colourful exception, which I also mentioned in the last post, was the invasion of male pheasants. Six have been removed from the garden so far this autumn and transported our version of Botany Bay, the old Australian penal colony, near the Sulby River. I hope they don't find their way back. The weather is always a good topic when there nothing much of interest to photograph or report. It appears that our monsoon season is over. The second half of November has been drier (or perhaps "less wet" is a better description) than the first two weeks. If the five day forecast is correct we should only get between 7.5mm and 27mm of rain before the weekend. The frost which was forecast for Sunday and Monday mornings did not materialise although there has been very heavy dew and we even had some intermittent sunshine and one brilliantly sunny blue sky day with hardly a cloud in sight! Our "I can't believe it's November!" day - which we enjoyed yesterday.
There may not be much to report now but it won't be long before I am spoiled for choice. In the glen, the first signs of spring appear before autumn has gasped its last breath. We don't have to wait until April to breed snowdrops and daffodils in the dead land. . . . the green shoots are already pushing through the earth with the promise of the first flowers to follow in a few short weeks. By April the spring bulbs will all be over and we will be looking forward to the cherry blossom.
It never rains but it pours Tuesday 11th November, 2014 The local newspaper website lived up to expectations and informed us that "Last month was the second wettest October on record". "Total rainfall measured at the Met Office’s base at Ronaldsway was 210mm. It compares to the October average of 102mm. Only October 2002 recorded more with 228.6mm." This is substantially lower than the readings on my rain gauge which came to a total of just under 300mm for October but Ronaldsway is near Castletown on the south east coast of the Island and . . . "The driest parts of the island are in the extreme south and over the northern plain, whilst the wettest are the hilly interior and Snaefell." The met office often gives a choice of rainfall forecasts. For instance on Thursday they expect "Rainfall (mm): 5-12 risk 20+, especially upland areas" Years ago a map showing the variations in annual rainfall across the Island was displayed at the Royal Agricultural Show. It must have been compiled from records kept by Manx farmers. I remember Glen Mooar, between St John's and Rhenass, having the highest rainfall. At the other extreme, Andreas, a village on the northern plain, has the reputation of being the driest and sunniest spot on the Island. November appears to be trying to beat October for the "wettest month of the year crown" this year. We have already had 206mm in the first 11 days. Maybe we should follow Noah's example. It really is ark-building weather. The heaviest downpour fell last Thursday. During the night we had 70mm and on Friday morning water was pouring through the hedge at the bottom of our garden and running down the road, threatening to flood a cottage across the road. This has happened before. There is a ditch in our neighbour's garden which takes surface water running down from the plantation after heavy rain. Sometimes leaves and gravel are washed down and clog the entrance to a pipe which should take the water down to the river. Instead it spills over into our garden. Last year our neighbour and the people who live across the road were all away when it happened and I climbed through the holly hedge and dug out the debris from the ditch - not a very pleasant task. This year everyone was at home and they managed to sort out sandbags to divert the worst of the water until our neighbour's gardener arrived and got the water flowing through the pipe again.
The entrance to the pipe at the bottom of our ditch doesn't clog because we have a couple of barriers to catch the leaves further upstream and I try to keep the ditch as clear of leaves as possible but leaves had been blown into the ditch overnight and clogged the barriers. I had to pick buckets of wet leaves out of the cold water. But the good news was that the power of the water had washed all the leaves down to the barriers so the rest of the ditch was clear. I walked up to the plantation to check the stream down to our neighbour's garden. A few years ago it got blocked with sticks and brambles and the water took a left turn and cascaded down our bank behind the summerhouse. I built up the bank and reinforced it with some stones to prevent that happening again and we keep an eye on it to make sure that it doesn't get blocked.
Our waterfall was looking more impressive than usual. In summer there are only a few drops of water dripping over the stones but here is a comparison between the flow on November 2 (left) and November 7 (right) the morning after the deluge.
After taking photos in the garden, I walked down to the bridge over the Auldyn River. The water level had probably dropped a bit by then because it rises and falls very fast but it still looked impressive .
Today has been another wet day. No prolonged downpours but consistent rain and heavy cloud. Not even a glimmer of sunlight, rather like living in a twilight zone. I took a few photos out of the window of the only colour on offer. The leaves on the white flowering cherry are turning colour.
Unfortunately they are also falling - just after I cleared the earlier leaves and beech pods from the front lawn.
Another less than welcome sight . . . pheasants in the garden. I chased at least seven out of the back garden later this evening.
I have had a passionate hatred of pheasants ever since one scratched up and ate all my crocus and fritillary bulbs. They have been a problem ever since a syndicate started pheasant shoots further up the glen. They have been releasing the birds in huge numbers every autumn. I have found that the only solution is to trap the ones that settle here and relocate them far enough from our garden so that they don't return. It is time consuming but is the least cruel option. I have a lot of trees and shrubs which produce berries. I like to have them to attract the blackbirds and thrushes and other small birds but they do have the unwanted side effect of enticing pheasants into the garden. Here is one of the welcome birds, a well-camouflaged thrush enjoying the cordyline berries.
Is October monsoon season on the Island? Saturday 1st November and Sunday 2nd November, 2014. We had 11.69 inches (297mm) of rain during October - according to my little rain gauge which may not be accurate. I don't know how this ranks in the record book yet - but there should be an overview of the month's weather on the local newspaper website next week. According to World Weather Online, October is usually the wettest month of the year in Ramsey and during the period 2000 to 2012 an average of 119.7mm fell. So last month more than made up for our dry September. The sun was shining on Saturday morning and I went outside with my camera to record this unusual event. I was going to take one photo of the back garden but ended up taking forty-nine. This is the one that I intended taking . . . of the south west corner of the back garden with the edge of the plantation in the background. The sycamores and hawthorns have lost all their leaves but the larches behind the summerhouse still have a few golden needles.
We have a mixture of old male and female holly trees on the bank below the forestry fence. It looks as though there will be plenty of berries this winter but the blackbirds will probably eat most of them before Christmas.
Turning towards the north west, I could see the top branches of the oaks in the plantation behind the row of hollies. The oaks still have some leaves which will blow down into our ditch and join the philadelphus and viburnum leaves which haven't fallen yet. I anticipate at least a couple more sessions of leaf clearing.
I still have sad moments thinking about our beautiful big silver birch which blew down in a winter gale years ago. But I have a replacement. At the north end of the path behind the house is a young birch. It came up from seed and Tim moved it to this good sunny position near the ditch a few years ago.
Toadstools seem to like growing under birches. We used to have red fly agaric toadstools under the big birch but they disappeared when the tree died. The little birch is hosting a crop of small copper coloured toadstools for the first time this year.
Upstream from the birch is a tiny waterfall that we constructed to stop the water from washing away the soil when it splashes down the bank.
And below the waterfall the ditch is already filling up with leaves from the viburnum. I am not sure what type of viburnum it is as it was already in the garden when we moved here. It has white flowers which look rather like the v. trilobum or v. opulus.
I walked across to the back garden to take a zoom photo of a sprig of flowers on the Cécile Brunner rose which sprawls over the summerhouse. The warmer weather must have suited it because it has been producing a flower or two ever since summer. It is the first time that it has continued to flower after the main flush.
Then I saw a blackbird eating berries on the hawthorn. The bright background made the bird appear like a silhouette . . .
. . . but a bit of adjustment on the computer brought out the details.
Then I headed down to the front garden. On the way I passed the nerine which I planted in the rose terrace. They have managed to survive in spite of the wet and windy conditions.
At the back of the bed is an unidentified rose which has lived in the garden for longer than we have. It had to be moved when the new garage was built and the drive was widened. It doesn't flower prolifically but we enjoy the occasional dark orange bloom.
The front lawn is littered with beech pods again. Most of the leaves blow away but the soft spikes on the little pods are almost like velcro and they cling to the grass. I shouldn't complain so much. It could be worse. At least the pods are light. I have been reading a gardening blog by a proper gardener in Cheshire. He has a horse chestnut in his garden and says that he has thought of wearing a hard hat when he works under the tree in autumn. A direct hit from a conker can be quite painful.
This is a view of the front garden that I usually photograph in spring when the wisteria and clematis are flowering or in summer when the poppies are at their best. I am surprised that the creepers are still covered with leaves. I am sure that more have fallen by the beginning of November in previous years. The flowering cherries still have most of their leaves too - so falling leaves will be with us for a few more weeks.
The usual advice is to prune mophead hydrangeas in spring because they are not as hardy as the lacecaps and the old flowers provide a bit of protection from frost. But most of my mopheads are in shady positions and tend to flop. Unless the weight of the flowers is removed the stems become distorted - so I prune them before winter. The only exception is this one in front of the house. It gets more sun . . . and provides a good perch for the robin.
I am gradually working my way through the autumn tasks. The wildflower bank near the summerhouse has been trimmed, the buddleias have been pruned and the lacecap hydrangeas by the garage were pruned this week. They are looking rather scrawny.
Across the drive, near the turning circle, is another viburnum - one that I bought - a winter flowering Viburnum bodnantense.
It is supposed to flower throughout winter. These early flowers look a bit sad but they have a pleasant fragrance.
After my tour of the garden, I returned to the house. From the chair by my computer, I have a good view of the Cordyline australis (Manx palm) near the big beech tree. The huge bunches of white flowers have been followed by little white berries which are attracting almost as many birds as the peanut feeders behind the kitchen. I have seen robins, blackbirds, thrushes, chaffinches and various tits enjoying the berries. I was getting frustrated because I hadn't managed to get a photograph of any of them. Every time I emerged from the front door with a camera they disappeared like magic. Finally, after hanging out of the window for about ten minutes, I managed to get a quick snap of an obliging robin.
I am still checking the back window for another glimpse of a male blackcap. I saw one yesterday in the little apple tree. I thought at first that it must be a great tit but it didn't look right so I fetched the binoculars. It was definitely a blackcap and it was feasting on an apple. It is the first time that I have seen one in the garden so late in the year. They usually only visit us in summer when the raspberries are ripe. I was too late to get a photograph of the bird. It left while I was fetching my camera - so I just took a photo of his lunch instead!
And finally, after all the sunrise photos, here is one taken at sunset on Sunday evening. It must have been spectacular watching the sun set from Peel and Kirk Michael on the west coast this evening. We face east so we only get the reflected light from the clouds to the west of the Island. I went up to the top of the garden to get a better view. The colours were already fading but the half moon was rising over North Barrule.
