Veg Plotting

Decorating your garden for Christmas isn't a new idea, but I've found a new variation in the form of giant baubles dangling on trees in various locations. The pictured ones are from Tetbury on Boxing Day last year after we'd gone for a walk at Westonbirt Arboretum with friends. They and the crisp winter's day added a real sparkle to my mood; I also have tree seat envy. Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year, wherever you may be :)

Christmas wreaths are increasingly common feature on front doors in my corner of the world, and to make your own is a popular workshop ( here's my attempt from a couple of years ago  - I made something similar on Saturday). I think this simple arrangement of Aucuba japonica and red Cornus stems tied together with ribbon is an equally effective seasonal welcome. It's an easy idea to source and copy using festive looking greenery and stems foraged from your own garden or nearby. The doorway hails from Holt and it isn't the first time this delightful Wiltshire village has featured in my Unusual Gardens strand. I found an equally beguiling Statue nearby in 2014.

Holiday postcards are sometimes received after the sender comes home, and so it is with my virtual one from Hampshire. My immediate return was taken up with # mygardenrightnow *, but I didn't want to ignore last week's much needed break. We rented a cottage in Milford on Sea and fulfilled my dream of living in a place where there are marvellous walks to be had simply by stepping out of the door. The sea looms large in this dream, just like it does in the above view of The Needles . This scene is from the only duff day we had weatherwise, and shows scenery can still look good even on a grey day. The rest of the week was bracing and sunny, not bad for the end of November. I relished the coastal scenery and the quite different wildlife on view to that of home. Milford borders the National Nature Reserve at Keyhaven and there were plenty of wading birds to spot, plus egrets and huge numbers of overwintering Brent geese. This was combined with an energy sapping** but welcom...

The great thing about memes like #mygardenrightnow is they let us pause and have a proper look at the garden. I've been on holiday this week and I thought the recent cold snap would mean a wintery drabness on my return. Yesterday's inspection showed the garden's having none of it. There's still plenty to see, plus a few surprises. Autumn hasn't quite finished here at VP Gardens , which means there are flashes of colour and some floral delights everywhere I look. True, they're on a smaller scale than previous editions of #mygardenrightnow, but the current season means they're especially welcome. Those fat hellebore buds shown bottom right in the collage also show promise of winter delights to come. We've only just got home, so I'll have to leave the festive part of this edition of #mygardenrightnow to other contributors. I'll focus on the hope part instead... ...I was delighted with the efforts of  Clematis urophylla 'Winter Be...

For the first day of the winter months, here's a poem* which acknowledges how spectacular the sky can be at this time of the year. This was the scene from my bedroom window early one morning last week. I was struck by how much the sun moves around the sky according to the season. For us it currently rises straight ahead, rather than at summer's extreme left of the picture. * = you can read the whole poem called  Winter-time   here .