Another week, another gale - Storm Imogen. This meant two days of ferocious wind and rain. Yet more wood has dropped out of the ash trees, including the Sword of Damocles - a small branch that came down in the big ash tree in a previous gale but jammed in a lower branch and swung there menacingly right above the bottom flower bed. Imogen dislodged it, but fortunately it doesn't seem to have done any damage when it finally fell. I didn't want to be underneath it when it went, though.
Although we've had some fresher weather, and one brief hail shower, it's still mostly very mild for this time of year. The ground is very wet; there was even a big puddle in the field across the road, a rare sight in these parts. Colder nights are forecast for later in the week. More 'Whitewell Purple' crocuses are out, and a few 'Cream Beauty' in one of the pots are well into bud.
The robin has paired up, a little warily; the two of them are regular visitors under the fat ball container. The female blackbird has mastered the art of flying onto the pole and reaching across to the fat, and the coal tit has also cottoned on to the new food source. The sparrow clan are the main beneficiaries, however; there are just so many of them.
One day, for no obvious reason, we had ten woodpigeons poking around at the bottom of the garden. Usually we see four at most, and usually fighting, but that day it was all quite peaceable.
Mr (or Mrs) Mole continues to be very active, throwing up piles of earth where I bedded in the young aquilegia plants last year and among the sweet william.
