Dark Months

I know how you feel Louise but I usually find solice in a seed catalogue at this time of year. I've scoured a few already and my Terwins catalogue arrived at the weekend and that's who I usually order most of my veg seeds from so I'll have something to do over the next few evenings!
Lovely pictures, particularly like how you snapped the Saxifraga

Thanks Paul, that picture's one of my favourites !
I can't remember its name but i have 3 clumps of it in my rockery and it starts early and carries on for ages :-)))

Yes, I love Saxifraga. And spreads well to cover large areas in the rockery etc!

I think they have a place in most gardens !

Lovely Hellebore Louise also the Saxifraga which I brought late this year.0)))

Is it still 'in situ' after your grand rockery clear-out Louise? LOL.

Fabulous photos - thanks! I am still able to do things outside - but if the weather stops me - I feel just like you! Crrrrrrrrazy to get outside!!

Yes, I shall browse the catalogues and order my seeds and plugs soon - that's a nice job. Then I shall be ordering a few plants mail-order. That also helps!

Trips to GCs are good, too. They don't stop just because of the winter!

Yes Spritz, they definately stayed-put in the grand clear-out there !
They are invaluable in a rock area, their form and foliage is so lovely, springy and freash coloured and their flowers are just amazing .... a beautiful pink, abundant and last for months :-))))
A really good value for money plant !

Lovely pics hang in there it must be hard with the change in season

I'm sure a lot of us feel a bit like that, Louise. Thank goodness for catalogues and GOY - what would we do with the time otherwise!!! Lovely photos. That silene looks just like a variegated aubretia deltoides.

Ah, a reminder of things to come again, thanks Louise! I tend to pay my houseplants much more attention at this time of year - and I've bought two more today (though one's only a Poinsettia, very seasonal). Pretty soon there won't be enough room to move in here with the indoor garden growing all the time...

Beautiful plants to look forward to Louise. I really like the blue Aqueligia. I don't mind the winter really, but I must admit to feeling relieved after the shortest day has gone.

L lovely reminder of things to come Louise...thank you. I pay more attention to my indoor plants at this time too Bamboo. I notice I have a few orchids throwing out new spikes, which is good news....

Once December 21st is over, Louise, it'll get progressively lighter by 2 minutes a night...and that's 14 minutes a week! Until the clocks go forward in March, of course!

I love that hellebore. I have some gorgeous ones in one of my beds, but no doubles. 'Aquarius' which is purple spotted white is usually the first to flower in January ( I always hope it flowers on my husband's birthday, January 21st - yep, he's an Aquarian! ) followed by the red and black ones, but this double is lovely. It's taken me years to get them estabished but now they seem quite happy and get stronger every year. My foetida, which was lovely, like an exploding pineapple, succumbed tofrost the other year and died. Must try replacing it.

Unlike you lovely people, I detest indoor plants! One of my pet hates at this time of year are all the s@dding pelargoniums, succulents, etc., etc, etc, that my ( Aquarian ) husband brings into the house to over-winter!!!

Louise~ Your pictures are just lovely~ I have that Clementine! I bought it early last summer and it only bloomed a bit so am anxious to see it next season. I feel the same way right about now. After all the hard seasonal gardening work, the shopping, digging, planting, moving, replanting (lol), composting, mulching, etc.- this time of year is rather anti-climatic regarding the garden and outdoors. I look forward to snow being on the ground as that is when I dig out all my really great gardening books and read and make notes, etc. A friend of mine and I went to a local garden center to look around and shop in the gift shop last week. I bought some garden gloves and she bought a book, and then we went outside in the nursery to see what might be left, view the shrubs and trees on the lot and we talked about the pruning we could see they had done to them. Even that little bit helped our addiction!! :) Lisa

i hate the dark nights to louise and cant wait for springtime, lovely pics , like aquiligia in blue and also the lovely clementis ;o))

I also cant stand the dark nights and nights, even worse when i have to have a light on alday, like you roll on end of January.

Just hang on to what BScott's said above here - from 22nd December, 2 minutes more daylight every day.... that's what I do, and it helps me get through, cos I loathe and detest the amount of darkness too.

really bamboo, doesnt sound much but every little bit soon adds up ;o))

One of the few advantages of being 'over the hill' is that time flies. We should never wish our lives away but I can't wait for Spring. I too am an outsider, and spend nearly all my time there. But when the cold North wind duth blow I reluctantly seek refuge indoors. I did all the 'jobs for winter' in October so I'll just have to wait 'till spring to to get stuck-in again. As usual your pics are great. I like the blue Songbird.

I know its only 2 minutes, Sanbaz, but psychologically, it's brilliant - if you watch for it, you can see that two minutes - by the sunset time announced on the radio, and then, within a fortnight, you can actually really see it - it'll be dark ten minutes later, but it's all about being aware and looking for it. And Heron, take your point about wishing our lives away, but now I'm getting much older myself, I am aware that if I died in March, I'd be spitting tin tacks with fury - if I'm gonna die, let it be, at the latest, the end of October. Imagine having to put up with November, December, Jan and Feb and then kicking it, I'd be livid...lol

lol bamboo, yes if i go let it be after i enjoy summer :o)

Hear, hear! My favourite months:

1) May
2) June
3) July
4) August
5) April
6) September
7) October
8) March
9) December
10) February
11) January
12) November

Interesting, Spritz - mine would be March, April, May and June, then September and October and the rest can go hang... including July and August, which are often very hot with high pollution here in London, such that you can't go out anyway without your eyes smarting

Thanks for the super pictures, feeling the same here, just been up the garden to see the damage, wind blowing again, glad I have the side project to concentrate on. this will carry me on fro a few months,
Favourite months must be
April
May
June
March
July
September
August etc

Now I'm curious - they do say that you like best the time of year around when you were born - I'm mid May and April and May are my favourites - what about you, Dottydaisy and Spritz?

Well i'm certainly not true to that thought !!!
I was born in February and that time doesn't appeal to me !
I like the months of April, May and June the most.

I reckon your nuts if you don't like spring best, but I was curious - I have had friends born in September who prefer autumn to any other time of year.

i was born in january but i hate the cold of that month, and always seems a bit flat after xmas.

Okay, must be rubbish then, that theory, Sanbaz, or you'd be leaping about for joy when Janjuary and February came;-)))

I think Flanders & Swann got it right in their 'Song of the Weather'....

" January brings the snow,
Makes your feet and fingers glow.
February's ice and sleet
Freeze the toes right off your feet.
Welcome March with wintry wind
Would thou wert not so unkind!
April brings the sweet spring showers,
On and on for hours and hours.
Farmers fear unkindly May
Frost by night and hail by day.
June just rains and never stops
Thirty days and spoils the crops.
In July the sun is hot.
Is it shining? No, it's not.
August, cold and dank and wet,
Brings more rain than any yet.
Bleak September's mist and mud
Is enough to chill the blood.
Then October adds a gale,
Wind and slush and rain and hail.
Dark November brings the fog
Should not do it to a dog.
Freezing wet December, then
Bloody January again! "

;-)

lol bamboo, maybe im just not a winter person, i like spring and summer thats it for me :o)

Gee thanks, BScott - I'm off to slit me throat...'-))

Hilarious, though...as things with an element of the truth in them usually are!

Wrong for me, born end of October, certainly not my favourite gardening month, husband born November not his favourite either!!!

I'm with Louise on this one. I was born in October.

Bscott, what part of the country did Flanders and Swann come from, or should I say hail, Lol

Wrong for me, too - I was born in August! I am nothing like a Leo, though.

That Flanders and Swann song is wonderful - I'd forgotten that! Thanks, Brenda! :-)))))

Ha ha, Spritz - fleeing rapidly from being a Leo! I've never met a Leo who isn't a Leo;-)))

You have now, Bamboo! I hate orange and don't like being the centre of attention. What else am I meant to do/be like?

I expect you have a gentle rising sign, Spritz, and the Moon's in asparagus;-))

Don't like asparagus. Grrrrrr...... Don't believe in my future in the stars, either, come to that! LOL.

Not sure I do either, Spritz, but I have found that knowing what someone's chart looks like is quite useful in knowing the person better...

Louise, I'm in love with aquilegea clemantine rose it's gorgeous also the other mauve one. I think the only aquilegeas I don't like are the red and yellow ones, don't know why, can't stand them. i've never given much thought to saxifrage either, but yours is very pretty when you really look at it. I don't have a rock garden but it would look nice at the side of a path wouldn't it. Enjoyed the blog, thanks. I am not keen on March when I was born, rubbish theory:-)

Beautiful photos!

Apart from reading gardening mags, why don't you try baking ? After dark, bake bread, it fills your house with gorgeous aromas, or make some mulled wine, or soup? Then when you cuddle up with your magazine the scent of soup or the cinnamon will arouse your senses and chase away winter blues.

I hate the dark nights but love the scents and tastes of Autumn and Winter, maybe have an evening bonfire in the garden, ? or buy a brazier and huddle round with friends/dog ? roast some chestnuts?

Sounds idyllic Cq, I would like to be your neighbour and friend and you could invite me round to share in the fruits of your labour:-) Yes, I'm lazy:-(

A teacher use the zodiac chart to organise his class room on which sign got on with another sign sat them next to one another as his class was distruptive, after reorganising to the star signs he had a peaceful classroom.
Roger Moore will not do anything until he has consulted his horoscope.

I prefere spring but also summer as leo absorbs the sun.

On the zodiac front, Morgana, it is a disappointment when you realise that John Lennon and Yoko Ono consulted their astrologer every single day as to what to do - and he went out and got killed anyway.

I don't mean to convert any one I say whats to be is to be as you avoid a catasrophy you will walk into another. I do know that the planents do have an effect on our lives. The Arabian squares shows that as they have numbers for the planets. usa is in numbers 21 19 1 rearrange these numbers you have 9.11.21, the date the twin towers 0 is not a number so the 21 is 2001. Osama bin Laden his name add s to 9.11. Planet Venus number is 1 to 49, which the lottery is based on. You see where numbers and planets are concern, I have studied them since I was in my early 20s I am now 55. Next year it will all be to do with stragetist speed .