Season's Greetings

Winter 2

Double glove days.

Thursday 18th December, 2014.

It really is winter now.  We have had our first glimpse of snow . . . not at our level down in the glen but up on the hills.  On Friday we drove into Ramsey and I regretted leaving my camera a home.  North Barrule, towered above the town like a brilliant white but very misshapen Christmas cake.

After returning home we walked up through the plantation and I took some photos.  Only the top of North Barrule is visible from the glen.  The trees in Skyhill plantation obscure the view from higher up so this photo was taken at the lower edge of the trees, just above our top fence.

We hoped for a better view of Snaefell from the top corner but unfortunately it was hidden behind the low clouds.  

While we were watching a gap appeared in the clouds and we thought for a moment that we could see Snaefell.  But then we realised that the hill was too far east and we were actually looking at the summit of Claugh Ouyr.

On the way down I stopped to admire the horses in the field above Ballagarrow.  They were dressed appropriately for the weather.

I have taken very few photos recently.  We haven't been out much and the light is not really suitable for photography in the glen at this time of year.  The hills to the south and east of the glen seem to act a cloud magnets and the clouds block the rather feeble winter sunlight.  We drive out to the tip at Balladoole rather frequently, with load after load of hedge clippings and other garden refuse, and it is usually much brighter out on the northern plain.  We often look back at the glen nestling between North Barrule and Skyhill; under a blanket of cloud or hill fog rather like a remnant of Manannan's cloak, the thick sea mist which was said to shroud the Island and hide it from approaching enemies.

Although we are still waiting for the first frost, the days have been cold.  My fingers went numb when I tried to do some hedge cutting last week wearing only gardening gloves.  So I tried double gloves.  My light polarfleece gloves with Tim's large thorn-proof gardening gloves over the top.  It worked quite well - combined with thermal socks, track suit pants over jeans, a trapper hat and a padded jacket over a couple of layers!  It sounds like overkill but there was an icy wind and cutting a hedge is a fairly static occupation without enough activity to keep one warm.  

We might have "double glove days" but least we don't have to endure the arctic "three dog nights".  It is fortunate because we no longer have any four-legged friends to keep us warm, but it wouldn't have been a good idea even when we had enough dogs.  I doubt whether Schipperkes would make such effective "hot water bottles" as huskies, and our boys were so excitable that trying to get three sleeping together on my bed would have been to invite trouble.  It probably would have ended in a very hectic game . . . or a fight!

I have finished the "easy bit" of the holly/fuchsia hedge in front of the house which is reasonably level.  I cut the fuchsia down to below the level of the holly to get more light down to the holly.  This bit of hedge always looks rather messy because the fuchsia grows faster than the holly.  We don't even benefit much from the fuchsia flowers because our side of the hedge is north facing and the best flowers are on the other side. 

Before

After

The rest of this hedge is plain holly but is more difficult to cut because the ground slopes and working from a ladder is more precarious.  I am going to cut a fair amount off the top to make it easier to reach and will aim to get a straightish slope about six inches above the string.

There has been some bird activity in the garden as well as the usual customers visiting the feeder.  On Saturday I saw two long tailed tits on the peanut feeders.  It is the first time that I have seen them since spring.  They had gone by the time I fetched my camera but I wasn't too disappointed because the light wasn't really good enough.  They should be back.  I don't think they nest in the glen because we don't see them in summer.  But we usually have little parties visiting the feeder in winter when they travel along hedgerows and the edge of woodland in search of food.

I also saw some great tits foraging in the rose bed at the end of the house and it reminded me that they would be looking for nesting sites soon.  Tim put up the nest box on the pole by the hedge and there was an immediate flurry of interest.  The pair of great tits came back to stake their claim and we also saw a dunnock and a robin on the fence having a close look.

Our only recent walk, apart from the one in the plantation to admire the first snow, was up the road through the glen.  It was about ten days ago.  We planned to walk up to the pool at the old quarry but when we reached the gate into "pheasant territory" we saw a warning notice about a shoot.  We continued as far as the old shepherd's house before deciding to cut the walk short and return home.  It was a wise decision because we passed a convoy of vehicles which were arriving just as we reached the road.  

We wondered whether another batch of  panicky birds would be flying down the glen to our garden but the only arrival was one female which crashed into our living room window a couple of days later.  She veered off into our neighbour's garden but returned the next day.  Tim saw her under the bird feeder and chased her away but she came back almost immediately.  I went out to bait the trap, expecting her to fly away, but she watched with interest.  Then she strolled nonchalantly into the cage as soon as I returned to the kitchen.  She wasn't very happy when she found that she couldn't escape . . . and the feathers flew!  But she wasn't injured and walked off happily towards the river when we released her.

Winter

The first week of winter.

Friday 5th December, 2014.

Another month gone and only one left until the end of this year.  The days are getting colder and shorter which cuts down on the hours when gardening is reasonably comfortable but we are still waiting for the first frost. 

November ended on a fairly dry note and the total rainfall for the month (according to my rain gauge) came to 283mm (11.14ins) just a little less than the 297mm (11.69ins)  recorded in October.  

It has been a wet autumn but also a warm one.  Almost every month this year has seen above average temperatures. 

According to the UK Met Office 2014 is likely to be the warmest year on record, unless we have an exceptionally cold December. 

     "For the UK, temperatures so far this year suggest the country is on course for a new record - judged by data stretching back to 1910.

     And there may also be a new high in the longer-running Central England Temperature record - which started in 1659."

But winter is on its way at last.  Today feels distinctly wintry.  Hail, with sleet or snow on the hills, is forecast for later this afternoon so I did some philadelphus pruning after we got back from shopping in Ramsey.  I started work on the fuchsia and holly hedge on the south side of our garden on Wednesday but didn't want to continue with that today because there were sunny spells and it is a job which is best kept for a cloudy day.   The sun is very low in the sky now that there are less than three weeks until the winter solstice and you look straight into the sun when working on that hedge in winter.

I was glad to have an excuse to do some thorn-free gardening after tackling the little hawthorn up by the "waterfall" and then braving the holly.  The holly has spiny leaves but no real thorns like the hawthorn which is truly vicious and does its best to shred me.  Some years ago, I had a very silly idea.  I thought it would be amusing to trim the hawthorn into a traditional Manx shape.  The old cottages sometimes had a "drine" with a flat top outside the door.  They were used for spreading laundry to dry in the sun.  My thorn tree has ended up looking rather like a ridiculous little toadstool.

I am not sure why beech trees lose their leaves by the end of November while the leaves stay on beech hedges for most of winter.  Our rather eccentric hedge down by the road was planted by one of the previous owners and is a combination of holly and beech with some forsythia and a couple of elms.  Reducing the height of this hedge was one of my first projects in spring.  When I started the beech twigs were bare and by the time I finished, in the beginning of May, the hedge was a combination of dark and pale greens.  Now it has dark green and copper stripes.

 

Even though winter is starting, there are still a few late flowers on the shrubs which are supposed to flower in summer.  I found the last blossom on Cornelia, one of the shrub roses . . . 

. . . and there were a handful of weather-beaten flowers on the hypericum, as well as this one which was almost perfect.

There are buds on the Pieris but the flowers won't open until early spring.  I recently heard that Pieris japonica is sometimes called Lily of the Valley shrub . . . an appropriate name although the delicate little flowers are completely upstaged by the gaudy colours of the new leaves.

Most of the leaves are off the cotoneaster horizontalis but there are still berries on this one near the wooden steps up to the top of the garden.  It is growing under overhanging holly and is more verticalis than horizontalis.  There are also berries on the holly above and the skimmia growing on the bank below the cotoneaster.  

Good food for the blackbirds apart from the skimmia berries which look equally appetising but are ignored by all the feathered friends - and even the pheasants.  

By the way, we have had a blissfully pheasant-free garden for the past ten days.  No wallabies either, thank goodness!  We met one of the other local residents during a walk in the plantation and he asked whether we had seen any wallabies in our garden.  I haven't seen any in the glen since coming across one in the plantation near our top fence in spring but he said that they have been spotted in the area again.  We walked up to the usual top corner of the plantation.  It was a dull overcast day but the dead bracken fronds were a lovely copper colour.

There was some bird excitement a week ago when I noticed a treecreeper searching for insects on the trunk of the Manx palm (cordyline).  We seldom see treecreepers in the garden so it was a rare treat.  I grabbed my camera and quickly snapped a couple of shots through the far from pristine window.  This is the best.  Not a great photo but better than I expected.

Another half moon with wispy pink clouds - one day I will get a photo of the full moon.

And finally, the last leaf on the big white flowering cherry.

PS I thought it was the last leaf but when I looked from a different angle I saw two more!