Early bright morning

I am ending November on my blog with a photo I took this morning, just before the sun was getting up – and just before I was getting back to bed again. I have had a 48 hour migraine coming and going and my body clock is thoroughly confused again, I try to sleep as much as I can when I have migraines like that, it’s the only thing to do.

Pink November garden

It was 15 degrees Celsius and a nice and warm day in my garden yesterday, I was out doing a bit of gardening and took the photos for this month’s Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day. Being middle of November and less than 6 weeks till Christmas, I can’t help thinking of those freezing cold and wet days we had in May and June – 15 degrees and a bit of sunshine would have been welcome back then! When I started looking at the photos I had taken yesterday evening I realised that all of them were pink – pink flowers on all the photos! I had not really noticed that when I walked around photographing, but getting them all up on my computer screen, I had my theme for today’s post :-)

Winter is looming

Living here in London, it’s not easy to say when winter actually starts. I grew up in Norway and I was 35 when I moved to London, up until then winter was defined by snow on the ground – around 5 months per year, usually from mid October to mid March, although it could snow as late as May. Here in London it rarely snows, some winters not at all, and if it snows it only lays for a few days and that’s it – according to my old definition, winter would come and go in less than a week....

A flower for Halloween

It’s cold and windy outside, I have just spent 2 hours in the garden clearing up leaves and putting some of my plants to bed for the winter and it was good to get inside again to get warm. In my garden ‘putting plants to bed for the winter’ just means moving pots from the beds up to the nursery area where I can keep an eye on them and water them if necessary – nothing gets lifted or wrapped up in my garden over the winter. My garden has taken on a distinctly wintery look, but thanks to all the evergreen plants I have there are still a lot of greenery. And I do have a lot of plants in flower still. My dahlias are still in flower and I thought I just had to post a photo of my Dahlia ‘Striped Vulcan’ on this Halloween day, what an appropriate colour!

My October garden

Autumn has arrived in London, it is either cold, crisp sunny days or hammering down with rain. The nights are chilly and my garden has started to die down here and there. I can’t really believe it’s only 2 ½ month left of 2012 – we waited so long for the spring that never really arrived, then we waited forever for the summer too and now it’s all over. Well, nothing is really over in my garden, I have plants in flower every month of the year, but the winter is going to feel very long after a spring and summer like we have had this year.

I’m in Fuchsia heaven!

You can have fuchsias in flower from early summer until first frost, depending on which type you have and things like temperature and sun level. They don’t like too much sun and heat and will flower nicely in deep shade, although later than with some level of sun. This year has been a strange one for us all here in UK, with a cold and wet spring and most of the summer. My fuchsias didn’t start to flower until August and haven’t really taken off until the last couple of weeks!

Out with the old, in with...

I have been off the grid for a while, had a bit of a computer disaster when my laptop decided to break down. I have managed to get online again by using borrowed equipment but I will have to bite the bullet and buy myself a new laptop again. This will be my third laptop, the one that just broke down only lasted 3 years and 4 months and even had to be repaired after 18 months. My son, who works in IT retail assures me that 3 years and a bit is a decent life for a mid range laptop that runs 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, but I think it is a short life. I suppose it is the same as with all electrical appliances today, not really made to last. Can you remember when fridges and washing machines were expected to last at least 25 years? Oh, I guess I sound old now, but I can remember those days, and it’s not that long ago. These days, a washing machine would never last 25 years! And I am not asking for 25 years from my next laptop either, it would be a piece of museum exhibit by then – but a few more years than 3... would that be such a big ask? I have already chosen my next laptop, it is a Sony Vaio, haven’t had that before, it cost more than my previous one and hopefully it will last a bit longer, time will show...

September in my garden

What a strange month September has been so far. It started with a careful promise of better weather, then a week of Indian summer and now we have a definite autumnal feel with chilly evenings. I am still not doing much work in my garden after my hip dislocation a month ago and it really shows. I keep up with the watering, that’s it really. My new garden helper hasn’t been back yet after her first visit, she was meant to come again this week but had to cancel and now I don’t know when next visit will be. I have a very long list of garden chores ready for next time she comes :-)