Musings as November draws to it's close.

Frost. 11th November. Remembrance Sunday. 

Last week the tree surgeon came to prune the apple and maple, and trim the hedges and bushes. He comes once a year. The garden is now ready to sleep. 

Nevertheless in bright cold days, (which have been few and far between lately), I will be out there clearing the last of the leaves and cutting back the dead foliage of the annual plants, which die back into the soil until the return of the spring.           

The maple before pruning.

"The stripped and shapely
Maple grieves
The ghosts of her
Departed leaves."

 John Updike

Foggy morning November 15th

 "So dull and dark are the November days.

The lazy mist high up the evening curled,
And now the morn quite hides in smoke and haze;
The place we occupy seems all the world."-   John Clare, November

The last of the leaves in the mist.
15th November.

"I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape - the loneliness of it,
the dead feeling of winter.  Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show." -   Andrew Wyeth

I don't know if that is what I prefer, although I like autumn colours. And walking through crisp fallen leaves as they crackle and scrunch underfoot.

Here the last two days we have had torrential rain and parts of the UK  have once more been flooded. This time last year we had a water shortage!! 

Unbelievable now.  

The winter of 2011 was extremely dry. 

And I heard  that we may expect snow by the end of the week..........

Well, that remains to be seen.

But there may be a brief return to bright cold days beforehand. 

It now goes dark in the evenings by 4.15pm. 

  Time for tea!