Sunday 1 November 2009

Is it November already?

The weather certainly changed overnight... We went from warm, almost summery weather to grey skies and angry rain...
It cleared up very nicely around lunchtime with sun/blue skies however it’s still blowing a gale out there…

My first and hopefully only casualty is one of my ‘cosmos trees' :(

Looking more closely the stem had snapped… and guess what was at the base! A SLUG!!!! All that and it is eventually killed by a slug....

On Saturday I managed to get the last of the bulbs planted, it’s going to be a sea of spring bulbs next year!
Considering we’ve had a fair amount of rain recently, I was still chiselling away at the soil to plant the bulbs! I guess that shows just how dry the ground has been…

There are no photos for today, the garden hasn’t really changed since last week, other than a few less leaves on the shrubs/trees… Instead here are some Heron photos from my visit to RSPB Old Moor that I never posted...






How is it possible that we are now into November????! Where has the past year gone?

14 comments:

Anna said...

Same weather here where one of my beanpoles at the allotment has collapsed. At least the beans are done beaning. Great photos of the heron.

Shirley said...

Hi there Liz, sorry to hear the fate of your cosmos :-(

The rain stayed with us all day, the winds haven't hit yet. It's been breezy but I guess there's much more to come.

Good to hear you saw blue skies. Yep... November already!! Nice heron shots :-D

Tatyana@MySecretGarden said...

I love herons! I used to watch them a lot when we lived in Missouri at the lake. Very nice pictures! And yes, Gwirrel, it's November. Is it?????!!!!

Town Mouse said...

Great photos! Yes, it's a pain to plant bulbs into the semi-dry ground. I'll wait another week or two and hope for the best....

Nutty Gnome said...

Hi Liz. A quick check shows that just about everything has survived yesterday's vile weather - good job I cleared the veg garden last week or the winds would have scattered suff the the 4 corners of Derbyshire!
slugs! .....I hate slugs!
I'm still working on my bulb planting :( - you put me to shame!

Cheryl said...

Hi Liz....we had bucket loads of rain....and it is certainly needed.

I love herons in flight....they look quite pre-historic don't they?
I had to smile re cosmos tree.....I have them to and if you remember wasps were removing the outer layer of the stems on mine.
They are still standing even with the strong winds of yesterday......
You need a hedgehog!! It won't be long before they are a designer pet I am sure!!!

Liz said...

Hi Anna, my french beans are still going, but because I have a freezer drawer full of them I've stopped collecting them any more.... :)

Liz said...

Hi Shirl, I still have a few more cosmos flowering, so not all is lost... Just *had* to be the big daddy that went though... typical!

The weather at the moment is so unpredictable, I have thursday and friday off this week and hope to get a couple of jobs done... But we'll have to see.

Liz said...

Hi Tatyana, Herons are lovely elegant birds - Huge too!!!!

Sadly just as this one was getting very close to the hide, a group of people thought it would be a fun idea to get up and leave, making as much noise as possible and scaring it off!

Liz said...

Hi TM, indeed, not much fun to plant in dry soil at all! Eventually I gave up and made do with my little dent... The bulbs will have to be happy with it! :D

Liz said...

Hi Liz!

Normally with slugs I put up with them, they go for a little holiday in the bin and then eventually get collected... But this one... This horror that killed my cosmos... Well, it didn't last long!

I hope you get your bulbs planted soon, mind you with the warm weather we've been having they may well be ok for another week or so!

Liz said...

Hi Cheryl, glad to hear your Cosmos managed to stay alive... A few of mine were almost horizontal, so I was adding in extra stakes to keep them from snapping when I noticed this was was actually snapped and being held up by the stake... baaaaaaah. I haven't yet had the heart to remove it. Poor thing, killed in its prime... :D

lol@Hedgehogs, have you heard of people keeping them before? I've known a few people keeping African Pygmy Hedgehogs... Cute, but really not such a good pet, messy animals...
But more seriously, yes I do need Hedgehogs, I think they have difficulty around here because there's so many steps to climb up and such to get to the gardens. Maybe I should make a little Heggie ramp? :)

VW said...

Just found your blog - I love the layout and your pretty heron pictures. Looking good!

ShySongbird said...

I'm commenting at a ridiculous time again Liz, all behind as usual!

We have had a lot of wild weather here too! I thought I was the only one who sometimes sends slugs and snails on a nice little holiday in the bin! I did laugh when I saw you do the same, the trouble is though, I have visions of coming back as a snail in another life and being trapped in a bin!

I love the Heron photos, as you might expect!

Yes! Where on earth has the year gone? I have never known one go so quickly, I may as well have left the Christmas decorations up ;)