Waiting, watching and rebuilding the shed.
Although the witch hazel flowered on cue, driven as it is by the day length, the flowers that rely on a little warmth for encouragement are showing little sign of enthusiasm. There are no crocuses open yet and even the snowdrops are still tight white buds. The buds on the clematis armandii are swelling, but closed and green. Overall, I think it's been a colder January than last year, though the wall to wall sunshine we've had for the last 48 hours has been lovely.
DB and I repaired next door's shed and re-felted it. Just a bit of tidying around the shed edges to do, some more bits of the old fence and ivy to remove and it will be ready for a new fence, and a layer of fresh gravel on the drive.
It's 4.30, 3degC, no wind at all and the top of the beech is still is sunshine. We meant to do the RSPB bird count, but with all the hammering on the shed we hardly saw any. Never mind. We'll do our own count in a week or two.
A new vista
Thanks to mild dry weather I've made good progress digging out the ivy roots from the fence we took out last weekend. Another couple of days on it should clear it completely. The youngest Trillia excelled (and surprised) herself at sawing most of the fence up.
With the ivy cleared, it's been an opportunity to look at the rest of the garden from a new perspective. One thing is plain - there's much too much grass. The borders are all 5-8ft wide, but there's still so much lawn left that they look mean.
But I am pleased with the way it looks from the step between the drive and the patio. In one direction the view is filled with the purple phormium, witch hazel, miscanthus and winter cherry, all looking sharp and shimmery in the low sun. A soul-warming vista for January.
I'm pleased with this as a winter view....
.... but you can see what I mean about too much lawn from this angle
Winter scent
The signs of spring in the garden are scant, but the conservatory smells wonderful. I cut some flowering sprigs from the hamamellis this morning and also bought a Sarcococca confusa (Christmas box)at the college nursery. The combination of two is heady - almost too much. The vague plan is to plant the box in a pot by the front door. It was light enough at 5pm to take out some peelings for the compost. The itch to get outside and start is getting stronger every day.
Hamamellis mollis
For Den - Hamamellis mollis in full flower. It's about 8ft high and wide, but this tree is at least 20 years old and now grows very slowly. The twigs I cut for scent are enough pruning to keep it the same size.
Gone - and good riddance.
At some point in the less than illustrious past of this garden, a previous owner decided to put up a rough plank fence, cover it with green Netlon and then plant 20 very vigorous ivy plants along its length.
Over time we'd lost about 3ft off the width of the drive, and the fence was losing the fight for survival against the ivy. This weekend we got rid of both. We now have a lovely view of the neighbours' neat garden and they have a less than lovely view of the functional parts of our garden (polytunnel, shade tunnel and garage). Still, their 'woodland' area will get plenty of sun for the next few weeks while we clear the ivy from under their shrubs and mend their shed roof. I'm pleasantly achy, chuffed with the progress we've made and will sleep well tonight once I've washed the ivy dust off my skin.
With thanks to DB for his stunning trailer/tip performance and eldest Trillia for being a star with the loppers.
It really was this bad. The neighbours' shed is behind here somewhere
Half of it down by Saturday night
Daylight...
Yours truly on the newly uncovered shed. DB in a fetching hat taking a break from tip duty.
Damp, cold and mizzly
I got as far as putting my boots on and mooching up the garden, but it was truly horrible - barely scraped above 3C with a cold fog that lingered almost all day. So I cleared the junk room instead (been meaning to do it for 2 years...)
However, we did get the new addition to the weather station installed - a thermometer and humidity sensor for the polytunnel. The big surprise (assuming the thing is accurate) is that the temperature inside the polytunnel is exactly the same as outside overnight, just less humid. I don't heat the polytunnel, but I did think it would be a degree or two warmer. The two new graph lines are on the weather station link on the right hand menu, below. If I'm going to keep tender plants through the winter it looks like I'll have to experiment with better insulation and some cheap heating.
Lots of bird activity though - a pair of mistle thrushes, a small flock of chaffinches and greenfinches, the usual tits, robins and blackbirds and - spotted a few days ago - a nuthatch.
A New Year, a new start
2006 got off to a promising start. We brought in the New Year with friends and fine champagne. Daylight delivered a blue sky, bright winter sunshine and no hangover. While DB cooked a warming veg stew I pootled about outside, making progress on some jobs, but mostly looking and thinking. At how good the soil is now, how much promise the buds hold, how I'm really not going to let brambles shred my ankles this year, how I am going to put my tools away each day, how good it is that so many of the cuttings I took last year have taken and how wonderfully creative that feels. And how it's four o'clock and it's definitely lighter than it was a week ago.
The two pictures below are the hamamellis. Just a shame I can't post scent onto a weblog; the stems smell fabulous. Happy New Year.
