I left it quite late this year to gather the fallen leaves, until the garden seemed to be entirely glowing golden brown. It seemed a shame to turn it all back to green then, except for the fact that the weather was forecast to get wetter. Gathering soggy leaves is no fun at all.
Mooching about in piles of crisp crunchy leaves is much more enjoyable, especially because I like to mow them for leaf mould. Mown leaves turn to leaf mould much more quickly than whole leaves and mowing dry leaves also helps me to give damp grass a final mow before the winter. The garden faces north west, so it tends towards wet and spongy at the best of times. By late October, it is almost never dry.
So raking and gathering were done just in time. Rain turned to big fluffy snowflakes not many days after and the wind turned from mild to biting cold. It depends where you are in the world of course. The weather in the Midlands of England is rarely severe, so we get a bit excited whenever the thermometer reads anything below zero degrees Celsius.
Not quite as excited as this frog-themed bird feeder though. He’s perpetually open-mouthed at everything.
According to the Met Office, the first day of winter is always 1 December, ending on 28th February (or 29th in leap years) although if you follow the astronomical calendar, winter starts on Saturday 21st December this year. It changes every year due to the tilt of the earth’s axis, which is no doubt why the Met Office prefers to divide seasons by actual months. That’s as may be but it certainly felt like winter this week and the ponds were frosted and frozen solid, as if to prove it.
Typically, my mind was so taken up with my day-job and other projects, and the joy of a snow-covered garden, that I forgot to take any photographs.
So I went out this morning with my phone ready and… the snow and frost had gone, replaced by wet everywhere. The ponds had thawed. But appearances were deceptive and a sheet of hard ice lurked just beneath the surface on all three. I just couldn’t quite capture the state of things for you, until I decided to let my boots do the talking.
For more information from the Met Office, here’s the link https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/
FROG BLOG 