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Journal for January 2006
Last year I thought I had solved the problem of winter colour. How wrong I was. When I returned from Ireland on the 4th of this month, I walked unhappily round the garden. The denser hebes that had flowered purple above dark glossy foliage throughout last winter had succumbed most obviously to last month's bitter frost . The tops looked completely dead, although bottom stems showed a little green and might come again this spring, The larger hebes fared a little better but the flowers, normally pink shading to white had turned brown before opening. The tips of the golden choisya had shrivelled.
The pond had iced over. The ball I had floated on top was missing. I found it at the bottom of the garden a few minutes later. Was the culprit a fox or a cat.
Some plants tried their best to cheer me. Garrya Elliptica's catkins were all the more welcome for not rushing to meet a Christmas deadline. The primroses showed pale yellow and the species cyclamen thrust straight stems of tiny purple flowers beneath the spruce that had regained the foliage it dropped two years ago.
In the back garden the daphne flaunted its pink blossom and fragrance over the graves of brasher plants that had overshadowed it before the frosts. Daffodil foliage and the occasional bud poked above ground but I doubted that January gold would live up to its name this year.
During the next ten dark, cold and damp days that followed I tried to ignore the garden, apart from a quick daily dash to pick sprouts or leeks for supper. On one of those day, when I had had the light on indoors all day, glancing through the window just as dusk was falling, I noticed a crimson glow. I ran outside and saw that a pinhole in the cloud cover, just above the horizon, had allowed through a beam from the setting sun to light up the birch tree near the greenhouse. I rushed in and got my camera.
When the ice unfroze one foggy day, Chris and I hauled out 20 very large and very dead frogs. The fish though seemed quite happy. I can't understand the frogs in the pond. They have plenty of climb -out spots and the water is clear but they keep dying. Yet when I emptied a tall bucket filled with dark brown water abd decaying leaves that stank to high heaven I out flopped five very live frogs.
On the 18 th, the weather turned fine and I discovered snowdrops in flower in both side borders. The weather break did not last long and then we returned to gloom and ice which only gradually gave way to a day of icy sunshine.
To add a little colour to the view from the conservatory I moved some some rather garish iellow primulas from the bottom of the garden to the bed bordering the lawn in front od the patio. Despite the biting cold they don;t seem to have resented the move.