The garden latest

The sky is clear bright blue. It’s cold out, though not as bad as yesterday. Then the world was white with frost.

The garden is once more on our mind. On Monday we interviewed a potential gardener to give us a hand in keeping on top of the weeds. Al, our old gardener, has now retired.

We liked the new woman. She seemed observant & full of energy. She clearly knows her plants, which is encouraging. A neighbour, Steve, said he would send someone he knows around for the job. This person hasn’t arrived yet, despite a couple of weeks going by. We’ve decided if he doesn’t arrive by the end of the week, we’re offering the job to Di.

Yesterday I had a further stroll in the garden with Linda, our home help, pointing out some of the things Di had noticed – the buds on the clematis, the bluebells that weren’t meant to be, the daffodils shooting up in the wild patch. At one point Linda tapped the soil in the raised beds. A dull echo resounded, like hollow wood. The ground is frozen solid. I tapped again today. Still frozen.

This morning as I peeled the potatoes, I noticed some tits & sparrows in the holm oak hedge-to-be. They’ve finally found the fat balls & were flitting to & fro. The seed feeders are also hanging near this hedge-to-be. I wonder if the smaller birds have finally decided they should risk the dive, that there is sufficient shelter for them in the evergreen oaks. It should be okay as they are no further away than an old hedge they’ve replace.  I hope so as the nesting box they usually use is also there. I’ll be glad to see these small birds flitting around.

Of course it may be a case of the need for food is so desperate in this frozen world they feel any risk is worth taking.