IS THERE A CATERPILLAR IN THE HOUSE?

When I'd pegged out all these socks this morning I wondered if I had an Alice in Wonderland kind of caterpillar tucked away somewhere indoors!

 As you've probably guessed from my quilts I do like bright colours - and the same goes for socks. Some of these are English, most of the plain ones were bought in C& A in Holland. They're generous enough for my big feet, unlike a lot of the English socks.
The clothes prop on the extreme left is holding up next door's fence panel - again...

 

THE GARDEN IN JANUARY

 

Some days ago I walked round the garden looking to see what signs of renewal there were. I found a few including clumps of primroses in flower. The odd looking item on the right hand side of this clump is one of those solar lights and this is the light collecting cell on the top.

 

 

This clump is at the bottom of the garden with dead leaves and what looks like some couch grass, too...

I love catmint and so do local cats. It's just beginning here but it's a bit early for it to start growing.

 

Gillian  brought me a planted planter as one part of my Christmas present - an innovative use of a a brass magazine rack  which has a row of pansies in the nearest compartment and primulas in the back compartment. It makes a bright spot of colour.

My next door neighbour's fence - again. After any particularly strong winds I walk the garden to see what's been done to the plants and/or hard structures. He doesn't and also isn't particularly prompt about repairing or moving the panels. Luckily this is behind the shed in the 'utility' area so there's nothing to ruin. Even so I hope it's not there for too long.

 I asked Gillian to come yesterday, a bright blue, sunny and 'warm' day, just to clear the sunflower husks from the path (she collected a barrow load) and cut the leaves from the hellebores. So far it's just the white/cream/greeny flowers coming through. The purple ones are usually a bit later in the year.

 

I blogged this sheep which lives on the surround of the pond a couple of years ago but it didn't have such a lovely green mossy overcoat at that time. It'll keep it warm when the snow comes....

I took some more photos, too - lilac is just coming into bud, globe thistle is sprouting well, about 12" high, lots of daffs poking through, several inches tall plus clumps of self sown snowdrops showing through. The Comtesse de Bouchard clematis had several tufts of leaves, too, but that's been cut back so all gone for now.

 

 

There are lots of long tailed tits this year and though they are usually in bunches of noisy chatterers it's a case of get them while you can, they don't hang about! Tiny little birds with much longer tails than the other tit family members.

 

I'm having yet another unexplained problem this time with Browsing for photos - where has it gone to??? Will it return lo its own??? Don't be silly!!!

STORM DAMAGE IN THE GARDEN

There's been such strong winds overnight that there's been some damage to other people's property, luckily, though it affects my garden. This first photo, looking down the garden, shows next door's fence panels flopped over. They are a good few years old and the posts were put in concrete rather than Metposts so have rotted through. The lilac tree is just coming into bud, I noticed earlier from upstairs.

This is looking back towards the house and you can see that three panels and several posts will need  replacing.  The shrub in the front with nice, new foliage is my hydrangea. The bushy plant sort of behind it is a delphinium clump already a couple of feet high but bent over at the moment. I'm glad the panels fell that way.

I carried on down the garden checking to see which would go next time there's a strong wind then came to the bottom on my way to the compost heap and found this greenery blocking the way. It's the last (almost) branch left on the willow tree in the house next door-but-one in the other direction.. Thank goodness he decided to have it very well pruned when I had my sycamore cut down in the autumn or there'd have been a lot of damage to two sheds.

Luckily it seems to have missed both of them and not damaged the Christmas tree either, from first glance. Just have to wait now for the neighbours to 'do something'. The tree branch's owner is about 84 so might take some time to organise help to shift it.

It could have been a lot worse, and must be, in other places.