Last Saturday in November – a Look Back at the Week.

Sunday last gave us one of those all too regular mornings here close to the River Suir, a morning of dense fog when the gigantic bridge, which is so very close to our house, is completely obscured until gradually the tip of the main upright appears in a clearing sky above the bank of fog …

Getting into the Habitat.

This is the second edition of Britain's Habitats, A Field Guide to the Wildlife Habitats of Great Britain and Ireland by Sophie Lake, Durwyn Liley, Robert Still and Andy Swash, another excellent title in the WildGuides series from Princeton University Press which will be a valuable resource for anybody with an interest in our wild …

The Open Gate

The sight of our open front gate today struck me as unusual. I was looking out a bedroom window, keeping an eye on things, as some "things" were expected - an earlier text message had told me a DPD courier was to arrive with a package between 11 and 12; Vista Print had informed me …

A Game of Two Halves…and a lookback at the week.

Waterford, southeast Ireland, 21st November 2020 There were moments during the week, moments which gave hope that the gloom, fog, mist, rain and downpours might desist long enough for us to do some gardening. We managed a walk on Wednesday, a full day in the garden on Thursday, and half a morning on Friday. That …

Mist, Muck and Misery.

These past days have been miserable with dreadful weather and no possibility of gardening. Walter de la Mare's November echoes the feelings of these days very well: November There is wind where the rose was, Cold rain where sweet grass was, And clouds like sheep Stream o'er the steep Grey skies where the lark was. …

Thinking The Plant

This rather odd title - for so it struck me - is proved by the golden thread of the artist's insightful and revealing commentary on her work which runs through the narrative. 21 January, 1997: "I have been in intense and exhausting contemplation with leaves and stems, light and shadow, with changing tone and colour; …

Mid-November Saturday Look-Back.

Saturday, 14th November, Waterford, south-east Ireland. With the exception of a few hours on Friday, this was a non-gardening week. We had days of light rain, others of heavy rain and some torrential downpours. Rainwater ran down through the garden in sheets and the lower end was under water for most of the week. The …

A Wet Day and Ten Pretty Things.

Rainfall today has varied between heavy and torrential with the gutters failing to contain the flow from the roof on several occasions. Gardening is out of the question! What to do on days such as this to pass the time? When the weather is not quite so bad; when rain abates for a few moments, …

The Penny Drops…Eventually!

Yes, I can be slow, slow for things to strike me, for the penny to drop, to eventually come to the realisation of what has been nagging at me for some time. It happens sometimes when I visit a garden. I walk around with that feeling that something is now right, something about the garden …

Enjoying Death!

This seems appropriate again – Facebook threw it up in my daily “Memories”

Paddy Tobin, An Irish Gardener

It is rather odd, rather a contradiction for the gardener who usually devotes all efforts to promoting growth, nurturing good health and fostering the treasures of the garden that, at this time of year, s/he should rejoice in the death processes of those very same plants.

Parrotia persica, Ironwood, has dropped its leaves, a golden yellow with flashes of red.

Autumn is almost a second spring rather than the death knell of the garden, a time of change, a swing in the seasons; nature’s sign that it is not an end, not a death, but simply part of the eternal cycle. It is a time of hope or of nature giving hope, encouraging us to look beyond the coming winter of bareness, cold, misery and … death! No – simply a suspension of life!

Magnolias – M. soulangeana ‘Heaven Scent’ and M. stellata ‘Rosea King’- moving into their autumn…

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