Mistletoe and brambles

A dank and murky weekend, when not actually wet.  Not a good couple of days for gardening (and anyway there were more urgent things to do indoors).  One key job had to be done, however.  I had acquired half-a-dozen mistletoe berries, and February is the time to 'sow' them.  The obvious place would have been the big apple tree, but mistletoe takes a good couple of years before there's anything to see, and there would have been a risk that I would have pruned off the relevant branches in the meantime.  So it was out with the stepladder, down to the bottom of the garden, and up into the hawthorn that overhangs the summerhouse.  A messy job - but it'll be interesting to see if any of them germinate!

While I was out there, and it wasn't actually raining at the time, I hacked at some of the brambles that have self-sown among the bigger shrubs.  It's a good time of year to see what's what in there, while most plants are leafless.  There were a few long arching branches that were tip-rooting in the undergrowth, so I was able to rip them out.  With any luck I'll be able to get some weedkiller on the stumps once they start sprouting in spring.  The robin was very pleased with my disturbing the ground; he sat and sang to me just overhead.

Still the same late winter flowers - snowdrops, aconites, cyclamen and the winter shrubs - but signs of spring if you look closely.  The osmanthus is showing buds, for example.

Since then, we've had a couple of cold nights, with a little snow - prettily outlining all the twigs.  Fortunately clear roads, so no travel problems.  Still murky and rather dank.

The birds have been a little more enthusiastic about food put out for them, though those appearing on the patio are still the usual suspects.  Over the weekend we had upwards of 50 crows sitting in the tops of the big trees around us, just below the cloud level - quite a sight - and the little party of 15 partridge trot in and out some evenings.