Dismal Days.

‘ The melancholy days are come , the saddest of the year , Of wailing wind and nude woods and meadows brown and sear . ’William Cullen Bryant .

I have had a blogging breakage of late , I have not been aside or inauspicious , but I dislike this prison term of the twelvemonth in the garden , where all is soggy and glowering and dank . We have had frost to blacken the dahlias , endless rain and three tempest , Abigail , Barney and Clodagh . We now give them names as they do in the States . This makes them sound rather cosy , as if they were loveable , but naughty children bemuse scene . In fact they roar attack the house , sing constantly down the chimney and wreaking havoc with the fencing and the climb rosiness . Not much keeps me in the household , but incessant wind and days that do n’t get the right way light do . On a late place , Flightytold us that this November has been the slow for 60 year .

Friends of wildlife parting seedheads for the hoot and lowly creatures to savor in wintertime . We all hope that these seedheads will be transformed into thing of peach when they are rimed with hoarfrost - Robert Lee Frost . This actually happens here , about once every three eld , for one day . Meanwhile they look dismal and neglected .

Paphiopedalum

My tree diagram Dahlia which had escaped from the glasshouse and was Icarus - like soaring skywards , has been burnt and shriveled by rime , rather than the Lord’s Day .

But yesterday was gay and I decide to depend for thing to be cheerful about . at heart , I always have loads ofPhalaeonopsisorchids in bloom , ( seven at the moment and four in bud . ) They are cheap as chips , they bloom for weeks and after a short rest , off they go again . They last for years . But more exciting , is the fat bud on my slipper orchidaceous plant , Paphiopedelum .

Paphiopedalum

Paphiopedalum

Talking about bud , they are swelling , plump and pink , on the lovelyDaphne bholua‘Jacqueline Postill , ’ onPrunus x subhirtella‘Autumnalis rosea ’ and the one and only Japanese Apricot , Prunus mume‘Beni - chidori . ’

Meconopsis cambrica

TheAbutilon megapotamicumgrowing against the wall is still flower away , despite the weather , with her chicken petticoats showing flirtatiously from under her reddened skirts .

Abutilon megapotamicum

By the kitchen door , the hardy CinerariaPericallis senetti , which I bought three years ago , is flower yet again in its flowerpot , and has been doing so for week . I never expected it to be frost audacious , last so long and give so much pleasure .

Pericallis senetti

Helleborus

In the winter garden , slugs have nibbledHelleborus nigerand they are not looking as pristine as they should . Still I am glad to see them .

Helleborus niger

Those lovely little harbingers of spring ; primroses are out .

Primula veris

I showed you my autumn- unfolding snowdropGalanthus‘Barnes ’ last calendar month . It is still going strong . Every year somebody write to the newspapers , very excitedly to say that they have go through snowdrops in bloom in November or December . Last week there was another of these letters in The Guardian marvelling about the topsy - turvy seasons . Some snowdrops bloom in November and ‘ Barnes ’ is one of them . I think the stave and reader of a metrocentric newpaper like The Guardian , ca n’t be expect to know this . Anyway , here it is still looking gorgeous .

Paphiopedalum

Paphiopedalum

Galanthus ‘ Barnes ’

If you want a snowdrop in flower for Christmas Day , the aptly list ‘ Three Ships ’ is the one to go for . In fact it is already flowering . The first flower got attacked by slugs and so it is search a bit tattered .

Galanthus‘Three ship ’

Daphne bhloua ‘Jacqueline Postill’

I have saved my most exciting efflorescence until the last . Narcissus minor‘Cedric Morris ’ is unremarkably in efflorescence for Christmas . This year the first flowers of this diminutive treasure have opened early . If that ’s not a flock to rejoice a gardener ’s heart , I do n’t hump what is .

Narcissus minor ‘ Cedric Morris ’

Recently , Allison atFrogend DwellerBlog did a beautiful post about silhouettes . She is right , of class , admiring the silhouette of the defenseless branches and buds is one of the joys of winter .

Prunus subhirtella ‘Autumnalis rosea’

Betula

Even on a dismal , foggy 24-hour interval there are beauty to be seen in the garden such as this wanderer ’s WWW wrap round theCryptomeria japonicalike a filigree shawl .

Cryptomeria japonica

Prunus mume ‘Beni-chidori

When we really do get a sunny day at this clip of the year , the sunsets are stunning . This was the view from my windowpane yesterday afternoon . So there we are , this is not a Bloom Day post , it is a ‘ reason to be upbeat when the Weather isAwful and the Garden is a Soggy Mess’post .

A Quaker give me a Camellia sinensis textile which I have hang in the kitchen . It is a quotation from Cicero , who knew a thing or two .

I would add together hot water , sanitization and toilet paper , but Cicero could n’t be expected to know about such modern day essential . Apart from that he is quite proper . And I am very lucky , I do have a large garden and a bombastic depository library . I have everything I need .

So now I ’ m go to see what you have all been drop a line about whilst I have been feeling fed up , because it is so dismal and I haven ’ t terminate planting my tulips or done thing like neaten up the garden and air out the lawn . You ’ d retrieve the lawn had had enough tune ; after all it experience outside and it has been very breezy .

79 Responses toDismal Days.

give thanks you for the morning humour , a expectant way to part my day ! I concord that this time of year is fairly cutting but you ’ve shown a lot of beautiful garden blessings for which we can be thankful . How many more days until spring ?

Well , that cheered up my daytime , lovely to see all the flowers you have in bloom . I prove to tidy some of the straggly and tatty herbaceous foliage here yesterday ( making sure to go forth plenty for the wildlife ) and I too have not yet planted all my tulip bulbs !

I ’m happy you come out in your garden to take a closer look about . There is almost always dish to be encounter – it ’s our outlooks , not nature , that needs adjusting . Southern California does n’t have many of the gray , soggy sidereal day you quetch of – and when they do occur , we joy because rain has become such a precious commodity – but I do experience some of the same desolation during late summertime when it ’s still hot enough to electrocute an bollock , as the locution goes , there has n’t been a dip of rain in months , and the garden withers even when we hurl caution and water regulations away and turn on the hosepipe . Our winter days here are shorter too , if not as short as yours , but we throng so much activity into the faint - occupy hour that we ’re happy to steer inwardly when wickedness falls . I ’d tell apart you to throng your bags and head to California now but we ’re pitiful here at the moment for reasons that have nothing to do with the weather condition or sidereal day length so a sojourn during happy time is recommended .

Gosh , I do n’t think I would be glowering with all those bloom still going on ! I have nothing outside , after the temps dipped down to -12C/9F one night of late . Now we ’re back up to mild temps , but for us in December , that means high in the 4C/40F to 10C/50F range . Everything ’s torpid until March . Love your sundown photo and the Pericallis .

How lovely ! I struggle with depression but thankfully mine is more circumstantial and not seasonal . Please take good maintenance of yourself and you’re able to get Vitamin viosterol once a hebdomad from your doctor , or you’re able to purchase it at your local pharmacy . check that you talk with the doctor or pharmacist beforehand to check that you get the proper dosage . Warm greeting from Montreal , Canada .

I be intimate exactly how you feel Chloris , as I too have had a breakout by from blogging , in the main because there seems so little to celebrate in the garden at this drab fourth dimension of year . There is a point when the winter pourboire , and get to be full of Bob Hope for natural spring , but we are not there yet . Time to enjoy the slothful pleasure of ‘ indoors ’ I think !

Now it ’s the bit of Desmond to have a stroppy tantrum tonight 😦 Still not prospicient to go to that shortest daylight Chloris and there ’s light on the horizon . I do n’t mind cold but its dull , wet and windy that gets me down and we ’ve had a wad of that of late . Still there ’s still much in your garden both in and out to institute pleasure to your ticker . That little narcissus is a gem .

You have so many brave little peak , in no time at all it will be spring once more . December is the only break we have from the garden , as there are so many other jobs to be tackled . Our weather is very gray at the moment , the gale have brought most of the leaves down early on , which is a blessing as the sun , when it shine , comes through the huge deciduous trees once more .

Books and a garden are my two must wealthy person as well . I saw your comment on Flighty ’s spot about sitting and reading in front of the flack and I ’m excited about being capable to do the same in my own little cottage next yr . Hearing about you tending your acre on your own also makes me reckon I ’ll be able to cope with a third of an acre , a full assignation and my tiny patch here without losing the plot ! Lovely uplifting post Chloris , give thanks you .

I am a bit late and catching up….but here it has been grey and fuddled but ardent for winter….and now a few surprisal blooms take place as well . I like a morsel of snow in wintertime here but we have not even had an inch … just a dusting . Strange time of year !