Winter

It can be a tough time of year in the garden. Too little time (especially as we keep the Christmas blog going), too much rain (our garden goes decidedly squidgy with its clay soil), and worthy but dull tasks like tidying up, sweeping up leaves, cutting old plants back, and thinking about big tasks like levelling the ground and laying paths. Oh, and fruit trees too - but they can wait until January I reckon.

Then there's keeping all the feeders filled in the garden as the visiting wildlife (I'm looking at you in particular, squirrels) become ever more ravenous. It's good to see such a variety of birds in the garden - and it's worth checking how much seed, suet-y things and other birdfeed you've got, to have enough to keep you (and them) going through the winter.

The weather did something alarming to the purple sprouting broccoli on Tuesday as December began with the first really frosty day:



You expect some wilting, but the poor thing did seem a little surprised by the drop in temperature. It was a relief to see no apparent ill effects the next day:



Nothing to worry about there, then. Looking forward to that being ready early on in the spring.

Right, now to make a list of all those things that need doing, to fit them round everything else.