November days here have been rather dreary. Two spells in hospital, one involving an operation have meant I am unable to get out much. I can't even take the dog for a walk, so everything that is going on in the Park has to be relayed to me by a rather tired husband!
When I came back from hospital the first time I was astounded by our Chinese Rowan Tree! In the week I had been away all the leaves had turned bright orangey red and the berries were scarlet. It stood out like a beacon and was absolutely amazing. The photograph doesn't really do it justice, but its hard to show the depth of colour.
After a bit the leaves fell off, but the berries are still there - its looking rather Christmassy now! The birds are gradually getting interested, I think it will have to get a good deal colder before the blackbirds descend and strip the tree. Meanwhile, I enjoy looking at the berries!
And just to remind us that Spring will come again, this is a picture of some of the tulips I planted in pots last year. They were very bright and cheerful, and I saved the bulbs and have planted them again this year. They probably won't be as good, but a bit of brightness is what we need at all times!
Everything now is geared towards Christmas - all the ads on TV, in papers and magazines and in the shops encourage us to gorge ourselves on chocolates and loads of sweet things. Recipes for ways of cooking turkey and ideas for other things fill the magazines. At first I felt quite hungry but now I don't want to see another picture of a huge turkey, brown and steaming, leering at me from the page. Mr.G and I will be by ourselves this Christmas, so we can enjoy it as we wish!
To my followers - I don't deserve you, but thank you for hanging in there!
I feel very guilty at not having posted here for so long - I am surprised if anyone still reads my blog! I have no real excuse, except that life, in all its rather tricky ways, has got in the way!
The above photograph was taken in the summer, when the early morning sun slanted in the garden in a rather attractive way. Now alas, the early sun, if there is any, is from the other corner of the garden, and the sun stays low all day! There are a lot of tallish trees on our right hand side, which belong the the garden next door, which give shade most of the day now, so we don't get much sun. The house belongs to a very old lady, who, I suspect has no idea what the garden is like now. Oh well, maybe if her son comes over from Australia again, we can prevail upon him to trim the hedge/trees a bit!
Our holiday seems a long way away now. We occasionally think about booking another cruise, but we would like to go to the eastern Mediterranean this time, and that means flying to somewhere, like Venice, first. I've no objection to Venice, but the hassle of flying, or rather, actually getting on the the plane, rather puts me off. So we have decided, more or less, to wait until much nearer the time, see how we are healthwise, and then get a last minute, cheaper, holiday.
Otherwise our family stays as it was. We still have the dog, who is as ever fixated on food, my daughter is moving house later this year, and our great granddaughter is now at proper school, being a "Rising 5". It just doesn't seem possible that time has gone so quickly!
