In the mild midwinter ...

The wind is certainly making moan - every few days another gale - but it's not at all frosty, and there's absolutely no prospect at the moment of snow falling on snow.  Plenty of rain falling on sodden ground, though.  Today I tried digging over the ground where the dahlias had been in the hope of getting some tulips planted in there, but it was much too sticky for any planting.  At least we haven't had as much rainfall as the north of England, which is currently flooded.  It is still ridiculously mild; a little fresher today, but not anything like December ought to be. The plants think so too.  The cistus is flowering happily, presumably under the delusion that it's a Mediterranean spring.  Unfortunately the Iris foetidissima behind it has its orange berries on display, and it's not a happy colour combination, but never mind.  The Geum rivale is in flower too as is one of the Welsh poppies, there are still some pinks in bud and flower, hellebores are blooming all over the place and there's a Sweet William even having a go.  The early snowdrops are out, but the Galanthus elwesii is hidden because the geraniums haven't died back, and one of them is trying to flower too.  The daffodils are shooting already, and the little rhubarb plant that I planted earlier in the year has one perky little leaf out.  It's all wrong.  On the plus side, the winter flowering shrubs haven't been knocked back yet and there's a lovely display of winter honeysuckle.

The more opportunistic weeds - herb robert, bittercress - are still growing too, as is the grass.  The lawn is much longer than it ought to be but it's far too wet to cut.  The horses which are currently pastured in the field behind us occasionally come to the fence and look longingly at it.

There's another storm - heavy rain and gales - forecast for Wednesday.  But a little sun tomorrow, which will be welcome in this very depressing December.

The mild weather has meant that there isn't the range of birds turning up that we usually have in winter.  A male bullfinch dropped in the other day but otherwise it's mostly our regulars.