Looking a lot like ....

Christmas doesn't normally look like this, so it looked a lot like .... well, Norway actually.  The forecast gales passed us by, but the cold weather arrived as promised, with about 6 inches of snow on Saturday night which brought Gloucestershire pretty much to a standstill on Sunday and Monday.  Unlike our usual wet stuff, this was a heavy thick blanket, sitting densely on the trees and shrubs and pulling them down, and lifting in big solid slabs when shovelled up.  It all looked very wintry, and pretty when the sun came out on Monday and Tuesday, but it limited movement out of the village, especially as it was very cold on Monday night and the roads became very icy.  However, since it isn't Norway, it hasn't lasted long; temperatures slowly started to rise on Tuesday, and rain today (Wednesday) has cleared about half of the snow away; however there's a lot of wet that is going to have to make its way somewhere!

One good thing about the snow - I haven't seen the vegetable garden looking so tidy for a long time ...

A tidy-looking veg plot ...

A thick blanket on the viburnum

The snow had to be knocked off several plants to prevent them from being damaged, including some of those I was praising last time - the hellebore and the little bay plant among them.  Rosa dupontii, which was flattened by the fallen holly branch in the early summer but recovered remarkably well, is prostrate again under a covering of the white stuff.  Worst-hit is the big Viburnum tinus at the side of the house; it has thick clumps of leaves at the ends of long branches, and some of those branches have snapped under the weight of the snow.  It was scheduled for some major surgery in the spring, with those branches about to be cut off anyway, but that will have to be brought forward once I can get out there with the pruning saw.  Nearly all the doubtfully-hardy plants were already in the greenhouse or, in the case of a penstemon and the phygelius, tucked up in a corner; I have my fingers crossed for one pot with another penstemon and osteospermum, which had been looking really rather nice! (although the red chrysanthemum in the pot behind them is now looking very sad after the snow.)  The blue echeveria, which was up against the patio doors so benefitting from some indoor heat, was eventually moved under the bench for protection, but last night, with the temperatures forecast to plummet, I relented and popped it into the greenhouse, snow covering and all, where I think it had better stay for the winter.  We've been trying to keep the birds well fed; apples for the blackbirds, fatballs and seeds for the smaller ones.  A pied wagtail turned up, as did a greenfinch and a few chaffinches, and at one point we had three robins on the patio, eyeing each other rather warily.  The highlight, however, was a brief visit by a redpoll, something I don't think I've ever seen in the garden (and I'm not sure I had seen one anywhere at all).

Penstemon and osteospermum

Ahead of the wind and cold, I managed to get most of the autumn leaves stacked for leaf-mould, and last year's lot was spread over a layer of cardboard on one of the veg beds.  That particular bed has been fallow for a while and has a few big tree roots from the adjacent ash tree, so I'm hoping that the cardboard and leaves will add to the organic matter in there; I plan to put salad crops in it in the spring.

Fatsia japonica

My comments about plants looking good in December made me notice and appreciate a few more plants that I'm apt to take for granted.  Before the snow flattened everything, other good lookers were the hebe (despite the blackened remains of the peony behind), the Fatsia japonica and a pot containing a fern, cyclamen and Carex 'Evergold'.

Hebe

Carex 'Evergold' and friends