Notes On November

I like November, it is one of my favourite months. For a start off the colours are so wonderful, better by far than anything we can create with fireworks, although I will admit that the smell of woodsmoke and cordite on a misty evening is one of the most atmospheric and memorable moments of the year. I love the way the leaves crunch underfoot, and that without the covering on the trees nature seems so much more accessible, the rotund little garden birds energetically falling on anything we care to put out, especially this year when fruits and berries are in short supply. The hedgehogs are shuffling around my garden again looking for nooks and crannies in which to hibernate, I knew they were there when Chum failed to be tempted back inside with cries of "biscuit" from the backdoor! I also like the fact that there are plenty of jobs to be getting on with outside, most of them active enough to keep you warm on chilly mornings, but not so pressing that an extra hour under the duvet will make a difference, nature is in no hurry now and she will forgive us gardeners for taking our leisure as the old year slips away. That is where I shall be tomorrow morning, college has been cancelled whilst they organise our new tutor, an unexpected lie in, bliss!

"How silently they tumble down,
And come to rest upon the ground,
To lay a carpet rich and rare,
Beneath the trees without a care,
Content to sleep, their work well done,
Colours gleaming in the sun"
Elsie N Brady

"I'm not coming out until Chum's back inside!"