16 December 2014
After my Tuesday shopping trip and a little rest while I drank a warming cup of coffee, I decided to go out and see how my poor neglected garden was doing. At a glance, apart from the bright yellow flowers on the mahonia, it looked rather barren. The tall spikes of starry seed heads on the garlic chives added to the sense of desolation and I wondered if there’d be anything at all to see.
Once I began to poke about there were pretty surprises in unexpected corners. Hiding in the shadow of the mahonia a tiny clump of feverfew made me smile. The sunray petals were still specked with the morning mist. These were planted in the spring and I’d given up on ever seeing them flower. Now, when the garden seems bare and forlorn, they’re brightening up the place a little. Perhaps there is a lesson there for me in perseverance.
Amongst the ivy covering the arch near the bottom of the garden a few strands of golden heart ivy seem determined to add a little cheer with the vivid yellow splashed in the centre of each leaf. Not quite as colourful, but interesting all the same, some nigella pods seem to have got so wet the seeds inside have begun to sprout. I’ve never seen that before and I can’t help wondering what will become of the poor little seedlings?
In the front garden golden quinces adorn the leafless branches of the chaenomeles, and one lone flower seems to have forgotten it’s winter. Probably I should have picked the quinces and made some jam but it’s been one of those years so they can stay and provide some colour instead. Close by the White heather is in flower, another pretty little surprise.
Another unexpected splash of colour came in the form of iris flowers, hidden in a shady corner under the window. I’m more used to seeing them in early spring but I guess the weather has them fooled. The petals look to me as if they’ve been carefully painted with a fine brush.
The mahonia flowers were no surprise at all. The yellow petals looked as if they’d been dusted with sugar with all the misty drops clinging to them. While I was trying to capture the look a very unexpected bee buzzed past and began to work away collecting pollen. Bees in December, whatever next?
Berries are a bit of a feature in the garden right now. The cotoneaster seems more berry than leafy and I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many berries on my holly. The birds in my garden certainly won’t be short of a tasty treat this winter. The varieagated holly has no berries but more than makes up for this by the brightness of its leaves, marbled with greens, creams and yellows to brighten the front wall.
My little tour of the winter garden concluded with a look at the last leaves clinging to the cotinus. The bright autumn colours may be all but gone but the pinks and browns of those last leaves, dripping with water, gave me one last smile before I went back into my warm house.
When you really look, even in a desolate winter garden, it’s amazing the surprises you find.
Either you’ve changed your theme or WordPress is going wacky. Watch out for those garlic chive seeds. Every one is a plant and they’ll take over your garden so quickly you’ll wonder what happened. They wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t all but impossible to pull up.
The garlic chives are in a tub so hopefully well contained. Great in the kitchen though.
My theme has changed but not because I wanted to. I updated tonight to the new WordPress 4.1 version and right away the blog was broken again. Sadly WordPress are no help when things go wrong, there’s no way to contact them. Luckily I host my domain through LCN and the people there are wonderful. The problem was the new version didn’t work with the 2014 theme I was using and it brought the whole blog down. You can imagine where my mind was going about then! The LCN people were able to get in and disable the theme so currently I have added the new 2015 one but haven’t had time to make any adjustments so far. Top marks to LCN but a big fat zero for WordPress. There will be a post all about it later for sure.
I am no gardener so just enjoyed all the colours that you found. My favourites were the iris pictures, so beautiful.
My mother planted the irises many, many years ago and every year they bring a smile to my face. Usually this is in spring though so maybe they’ll be back again then too 🙂
What lovely shots. It looks a lot like spring!
It feels like it mostly. I keep waiting for winter to arrive, it will probably happen around March 🙂
Nice to have so much colour left in darkest December.
It’s surprising how much is still flowering
What an amazing amount of colour in your garden for this time of year! Love your close ups, you take wonderful photos Marie. We had a butterfly in our house a couple of days ago..and my geraniums are still flourishing. It’s not natural!! I’m signing off later today for a while so just wanted to wish you a very Happy Christmas and New Year…looking forward to catching up in 2015 🙂
Happy Christmas to you too. It is a very strange winter. I saw roses and blossom on a tree today on my way to work. Bizarre. Hope you have a lovely Festive Season.
It is bizarre. I hope we get a ‘proper’ winter this year. Thanks so much Marie,take care and see you soon 🙂
Your photographs are really stunning–what a great eye for flowers and plants and skies, and all else around you.
Thank you. I take great joy in the little things in life and hope I bring a little joy with my ramblings 🙂