Despite a few frosty nights, with the frost hanging around in the shade all day on a couple of occasions, on the whole the weather has been relatively mild; particularly so this week. Plants are refusing to die back; I'm still waiting for the dahlia stems to blacken. There have been windy spells, and some rain, but sunshine too. a real rollercoaster of weather.
There hasn't been much work done in the garden, other things having intervened. The tulips went into the bottom border yesterday, with last year's leafmould as a mulch; the soil down there needs a lot of improvement. Most of the pots are still to be planted up.
The last apples have been pecked off the cooking apple tree by the blackbirds (up to a dozen of them at a time) and the fieldfare. There's a stash of apples stored in the garage, both for us and to keep the birds going through the winter; I'm putting one or two out at a time in various corners of the garden to keep the blackbirds spread out. There are still several robins about (one was very pleased with my leafmould moving yesterday), lots of sparrows, a few dunnocks and starlings, plenty of woodpigeons (including our lame friend, who hasn't been about much recently but has been seen a couple of times this week) and collared doves and the occasional jackdaw and magpie. A woodpecker (gt spot) comes to the peanut container from time to time, and blue tits and great tits have also been in the bushes and occasionally bathing. A female bullfinch has come to the patio for a bath a couple of times, a wren was checking out the vegetable garden wall yesterday and a nuthatch has been tapping away in the trees. There's usually a pheasant not too far away, and the other day two dozen partridges were wandering about the lawn. Out and about, there are still lots of berries in the hedgerows, attracting the fieldfares and redwings; with the mild weather, the wildlife shouldn't be doing too badly at the moment.
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