So November is running heedlessly on without its coat, whooping at its own warmth and recklessly encouraging bulbs to start shooting beneath the earth. I spent one morning this week rearranging a flower bed and had to dig up daffodil bulbs underground.Their shoots were long and they will soon be above ground early.This time last year we had snow and I am wondering when this crazy warmth will end and we will get our first real frost. Some flowers are still hanging around looking a little ragged and munched, rebellious in their summer dresses.
Earlier in the week there was a thick mist hanging over our part of the moor. One of those days when its not even raining but the mist lands on everything, soaking quietly.
Walking home with my sparkly dog I had that eerie feeling that noone else was around, my wellies sounded loud on the lane and the oak trees holding onto the leaves stood silently in the greyness. My walk home is the time I feel most connected with the land around me. After a mornings gardening I am tired, I can walk without any other agenda than getting home at some point. I have time to watch the smallest changes in the hedgerows. At the moment, after flailing, they look like they have had an over zelous haircut.Yow.
The pregnant cows switch their tails as they lay in the muddy field, only one bothering to stand and eat.Their uneven winter coats cover their swollen bellies. The occasional flutter and whir of a wood pigeon out of the mist. A couple of crazy, barky dogs send me on my way. Homeward.
Later, in the car, we were listening on the radio to Tim Minchin's song," White Wine in the Sun", you can listen here. We got home before the song was finished, so sat in the car and listened to the end of it.Tim Minchin makes me laugh a lot but this is more of a love song. Daisy turned around to hold my hand, she finds any emotional stuff hard to bear and is touched particularly by sentiment in music, (she once asked me to turn off Billie Holiday as it was too much).We listened in the dark. On the walk to our gate she carried on holding our hands and said "Daddy that's like me, I'm your blue eyed girl because I have blue eyes". Ashley agreed that he thinks of her when listening to it. At that moment we are all together......Thinking of how it will be when she is grown up and we are older.We are at a point of change, a quantum leaps into the next stage of our lives. She will start a new school soon, within walking distance, new friends to make and back in her own community. I am glad.
This month is seed falling month in the Celtic calendar, I like this name. Often in November as the leaves are nearly gone, I yearn for life, growth and I resist the dying vegetable garden and receding energy. I was born in Spring so I think this is where my joy lies. I can deal with Autumn in the sunshine but find the flat grey mornings hard.Today was, happily for me, a beautiful day, blue skies, whispy clouds.
Gentle, low sun shining through the leaves, setting their red, gold and green aglow.
The garden was hiding many things of small beauty, alive, fruiting, seeding, changing.
It reminds me of spider eggs nestled in a sac.
The ivy is flowering, one of the few to start flowering now. Next time you see one, look this close, they are crazy flowers.
Shocking pink fruit from Spindle trees hang and burst open, revealing bright orange seeds.
Nature's current colour clash.
A confused Rhododendron is starting to flower, just two flowers as lookouts. Too early! Go back to sleep. So here we are...... Autumn bumping into Spring, falling and leaping, changing times.x
