Soooo wintry!

My garden suddenly looks soooooo wintry! And it's still busy and noisy - the roof painters are painting on, while the hedge trimmer has been trundling up and down the hedges, blades whirring.

 Welcome to Henworld!
Three New Chooks

I walked the dogs, then I'm sorry to say I escaped off to chamber music and lunch with my friend. Called into the Charity Shop on the way home, bought three delightful chooks for Henworld and a cane chair with cushions to put in Lilli-Puss's room.

 The orange Miscanthus grass is so beautiful.
Winter Garden

I have declined to do an interview with the local newspaper about the amazing rehoming of Lilli-Puss (missing for six years). She's obviously not been living rough, and her last 'owner' may now be out searching for 'their' lost grey cat. The SPCA wants to publicise the benefits of micro-chipping. Fair enough.

The re-integration of Lilli-Puss...

 Doing well.
Lilli-Puss - 14 Years Old

In reality, her coming back home after so long creates a few difficulties - new cats and dogs she's never met, the need to keep her indoors for ages, and so on. Not quite the 'aw gosh how wonderful' warm fuzzies that the newspaper reporter would want to hear.

Might as well make a start, I thought. Meet one of the dogs. So I shut the doors, opened up the hallway, and invited Pebbles to come on down. Lilli wasn't the slightest bit concerned. Poor Pebbles took one look, jumped straight up into the air, scampered back down the hallway, and curled up into a frightened little dog ball. Well, that didn't go according to plan.

Oh joy. The hedge trimmer, the most smiley of men, has finished - the hedges look beautiful. And beneath them is the most awful mess. He's done a great job, and now it's my job to clean everything up. I can see at least four weeks' work. And then it will be time to prune the roses and trim all the Gunnera leaves and stalks. The joys of winter gardening. Humph.

 In the orchard.
Hedge Trimmer

Not that I'm in a bad mood about winter, or anything like that. Consider it a very mild 'humph'!

 The back lawn and the bonfire waiting.
Winter Garden