Stormy weather

Another wet week - very wet, with gales on Tuesday and again last night.  There are floods across the south-west; the ground is saturated after the wet summer and there's nowhere for the rain to go. It's not so bad up here in the Cotswolds (though the river in Cirencester is up across the park). This garden is well-drained, being at the top of the village, so we're relatively little affected, and the house is virtually flood-proof for the same reason, but a lot of people are less fortunate.  The only sign of the wet ground in our garden is the mole activity; it's presumably the reason for the mole trying to come up to the house, which is slightly higher and therefore on drier ground.  I've stamped down the mole runs near the house and there has been no further digging, so presumably he has gone back down the garden.

At least I haven't had to fill up the pond this year.

This morning started bright and sunny, and the daylight hours were mostly dry and often bright, so a good opportunity to get out and collect all the fallen twigs for kindling (2 bagfuls).  I also potted up another lot of tulips (half-price bargains from the garden centre): a mix of Pole Position (purple with white edges) and Flaming Flag (white with purple flaming), with the white anthemis on top.  Some of last year's anemones, still in their pots, are pushing up leaves, so I top-dressed them too.

Virtually all of the trees, and the cotoneasters, have dropped their leaves now, though the other shrubs (buddleia etc) are hanging on to most of theirs, even after the gales.  The winter honeysuckle is still in full leaf, though there are few signs of flowers; on the lower branches this could be because the pheasant has eaten them (he was pecking at them one morning) but there are few flowers further up out of his reach.

The green woodpecker was at the apples yesterday morning, and around in the background today; the greater spotted woodpecker was at the peanuts yesterday too.  There has been little activity on the seed container.  I've just opened a new bag of seed, from a new supplier, and I'm wondering if it is bulked out with seeds the birds don't like.  Last weekend two nuthatches were at the seeds, and one of them was throwing seeds out until it found ones it liked (the others couldn't have been too bad because the pheasant was picking them up).  I've bought some sunflower seeds to mix in at the next fill to see if that helps.  There are a number of blackbirds around, visiting the patio especially when I throw out half-rotten apples; there were some skirmishes today when the usual blackbird found an interloper there!  The weather has been milder, though, so they shouldn't be too anxious for food just yet.