Time, flies

It has been a good (if that’s the right word) year for flying insects.  The fly-catching birds – house martins and the like – seem to have had good pickings over the fields, and others besides us have noted that there have been a lot of wasps in late summer and, as autumn drew on, harlequin ladybirds trying to get into houses.  Since October we’ve had large numbers of houseflies appearing daily at the dining room windows (indoors) and we can’t work out where they’re coming from.  We usually have a good number coming into the upstairs rooms from the loft, but if anything there seem to be fewer upstairs this year; it’s definitely a downstairs problem.  They’re coming in for warmth and then trying to get outside into the light.  We did see a cloud of flies one day around one of the chimney stacks, so they might be getting in that way, but I haven’t seen them coming into the dining room from that direction.  Another definite possibility is that they’re squeezing in round the edges of the windows, which don’t fit all that well in places, but again I haven’t seen much sign of that.  They just seem to appear as if from nowhere, by the dozen.  Perhaps they’re creeping in round the skirting boards and making a dash for the windows when they see I’m not looking?  I’ve given up opening the windows and trying to shoo them out; it’s time for more drastic action.  I’ve been picking them up with the hand-held vacuum and emptying it outside, preferably as far away from the house as possible to discourage them from finding their way back.  It probably gives them a headache, but I’m not in a mood to be too particular.

The weather has been up and down over the past few weeks, with some frosty nights, some heavy rain, strong winds in the last few days, and occasional mild spells.  A couple of weeks ago we had a dusting of snow, which I’m pretty sure wasn’t forecast; it started to lie lightly but disappeared within a couple of hours.  Fortunately I had just bubblewrapped the greenhouse and dusted down the heater, which has been set low, just to keep the temperature above freezing.

Not forecast!

After a few more days away, there’s still a lot to be done around the garden.  I still haven’t managed to sweep up all the fallen leaves, and not all the tulips are planted yet.  There are still some dahlias and other half-hardies in the pots, and they need to be dug out before the tulips can go in.  Today I pulled up the borage, which I had left because I’d seen a couple of late bumblebees checking out the remains of the flowers for sustenance; the flowers are well past now and the bees ought to be tucked up until the warmer weather.  The phlox stems have been cut down to half-height, leaving some cover for overwintering insects but removing the unsightly dead tops which were spoiling the look of the Viburnum davidii right alongside; it’s a pleasantly shapely shrub, particularly at this time of year when shape and texture in the garden are all-important, and the phlox stems were doing nothing for its appearance.

Winter jasmine

The leaves have now fallen, except for the buddleia and Lonicera purpusii which are always slow to drop, but there are still some berries around.  A pair of mistle thrushes are enjoying the berries on the Sorbus ‘Joseph Rock’ and defending them noisily against all incomers (ie the fieldfares); the redwings have made considerable inroads into the holly berries (but some stems have been cut for Christmas and are in a bucket of water in the summerhouse).  There are still several big apples on the cooking-apple tree, looking like outsize Christmas decorations, and the birds are enjoying them; a green woodpecker was there the other day.  The winter-flowering shrubs are getting into their stride, and the winter jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum) provided a good vaseful which has lasted for over two weeks now; it was originally paired with some stems of autumn leaves which have now fallen, but the flowers make a good display by themselves.