Who goes there?

Still cold, still snow (lots).  More fell on Tuesday night and the slight thaw in the afternoons hasn't made much difference. 

While the garden itself isn't very visible under all that white stuff, there has been plenty of opportunity to observe the wildlife.  Also where the wildlife has been, through the tracks left in the snow.  Now, here's a conundrum.  This morning there was a very distinctive track on the lawn - four 'steps' each consisting of three prints.  If I saw that on our skiing holiday, I would be in no doubt that it was a hare.  We have hares round here, and rabbits, but I haven't seen either in the garden for years.  I can't think what else would make that sort of print.  The thing is, there's no sign of where the track started, or where the animal went after reaching the path under the dining room window.  I can't see any other similar prints.  Some of the track seems to follow the same path as a track probably made by next door's cat; if the cat came after the hare, I suppose its prints might have obliterated some of the hare's.  But where did it go afterwards?

Another animal moving around the garden is Mr Mole.  The snow, of course, doesn't bother him at all.  He had created a big molehill down near the summerhouse, and followed it up by another, about ten feet away, which I watched being created.  One minute nothing was there, the next there was a pile of earth heaving up from under the snow, getting bigger by the minute.  Of course, once the snow melts he'll know all about it as the water will have to go somewhere - and I suppose he'll be heading for drier ground up near the house again.

The fieldfare

Birds continue to come for food.  I've been putting out old apples for the blackbird, but yesterday they were discovered by a fieldfare which has been feasting on them, when he's not fending off the blackbird (yesterday) and a mistle thrush (today).  The thrush won every time but doesn't have the confidence to spend long on the patio when I'm in sight, so the fieldfare keeps coming back.   Other visitors include two robins (at least tolerating each other's presence, so presumably paired up for the season), a pied wagtail which I haven't seen here for a couple of years, and a wren.  Plenty of tits also, including a great tit which has enjoyed a bath in a bowl of water I put out, and the marsh tit has a mate who was with him the other day.  The jay, sadly, hasn't been back.

Plantlife is mostly under the snow, including most of my pots, which are surrounded or covered by drifts.  That nearest pot (first picture, taken before the second fall of snow) has a heuchera and one of the 'Sour Grapes' penstemons in it - you can just see the foliage peeping out.  Fortunately there are other penstemon plants in the cold frame!  There is a little more colour indoors - some winter jasmine and hazel catkins, cut before the cold snap.  The catkins continue to develop after cutting, starting as little greyish things and turning into fat, long sausages with yellow pollen.

According to the forecast, there's rain coming in late tomorrow and over the weekend, with warmer temperatures.  But tonight the skies are clear, and the temperatures are to tumble even further.  Keep warm!

Cold sunset

Snow day

Returning from our New Year travels last year, we were met at the gate by our resident pheasant.  This year, returning from the same travels but arriving after dark, we were greeted by a tawny owl hooting nearby.  Welcome to another year in the garden!

Winter has finally set in.  The weather over Christmas and New Year was mostly wet (though the two big days themselves were both pleasant) and mild; since the start of the year it has been drier and gradually turning colder.  Snow forecast for the start of last week didn’t amount to anything much, although remarkably a gritter lorry came through the village on Sunday evening.  Yesterday the snow came in earnest, with a south-easterly blowing it about; outside the back door the flagstones are clear, but alongside the car there was a drift over a foot deep until I dug a path through it, and it’s 4-5 inches deep on the drive.  A stay-at-home day, and I haven’t ventured out today either; mostly only 4x4s are moving through the village.  (No photos; it's grey and cold out there.)

Until the snow covered everything, late winter plants were coming along nicely.  Three snowdrops (G. Atkinsii) in bloom down by the bottom fence, a few winter aconites near the pond and a single cyclamen coum bloom alongside them.  The winter honeysuckle had finally managed to put out a few blossoms, and viburnum ‘Dawn’ and the winter jasmine were also in flower.  Significantly, weed seedlings (now dealt with) were coming through on the drive and under the apple cordons.

The main thing happening alongside the apple cordons, though, is more serious.  When I mentioned the ivy in the wall last time, I hadn’t meant to tempt fate.  But just before Christmas we looked out one day and part of the wall had come down, on top of three of the cordons.  It has been bulging for a few months, but didn’t seem to be in imminent danger of collapse.   That part of the wall actually has little ivy on it, at least on our side, but it’s next to the neighbour’s big ash tree, and I suspect the tree’s movements have undermined it; it also appears to be the favoured place for small neighbours to make illicit crossings in search of misplaced footballs, which won’t have helped.  We managed to dig out the cordons, and stabilise the rubble sufficiently, but it will need rebuilding.  I see that, in the last few days, some more has come down into the neighbours’ garden, so we might get some progress when the weather improves.  It’ll be a difficult job, though; their garden is much lower than ours, and we have the cordons across it, so I’m not sure how we’re going to manage that!

Indoors, a pot of Paperwhite narcissi ‘Ziva’ planted up in early December (a half-price bargain) were in full bloom when we got back, providing lovely scent to help ease the bareness of the house once the Christmas greenery was taken down.  While away, we also acquired another orchid (£5 in Tesco – we like bargains) which is blooming happily, and last year’s £5 Tesco orchid (which bloomed until October) is in bud again.  The tender outdoor plants that are overwintering indoors are doing well too.  The blue succulent is growing away well (too well; I don’t have room for it if it gets much bigger!), and the brugmannsia is sprouting from the bottom.  This plant hasn’t had a very happy life with me; it has turned into a 4ft bare stem with a sad little tuft of leaves on top.  With new growth at the base of the plant, I have the option of cutting it down (and turning the top into a cutting?), which will have the added attraction of making it much easier to accommodate!  The cordyline/phormium is in the cold upstairs bathroom and seems to be making the best of it.

There hadn’t been much remarkable birdlife until this cold spell, other than a treecreeper seen on the big ash tree over Christmas.  Food left out when we went away was untouched; presumably it was too mild for the birds to bother.  Yesterday, in the snow, the usual birds came for food – blackbirds, robin, dunnock, sparrows, tits - but today we had a ‘first’ for our garden when a jay came to feed.  After digging a bit in the snow by the plum tree and investigating a few other corners, it finally plucked up the courage to come to the patio to feed.  Other birds kept to the far end of the garden, including the marsh tit.  What a pity the Big Garden Birdwatch is next weekend and not this!