Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Scenes from a very wet garden

On Saturday it rained and rained and didn't stop until early evening when a watery sun appeared for a short while 

Above and below photos taken from the bedroom window on Saturday morning.

There is still a bit of colour in the garden, but it is looking very Autumnal now.

I did venture out later in the morning to take more photos of the garden at the side of the house.

It was wet and squelchy underfoot.

The pond was overflowing

Puddles all along the paths.  We've had to abandon the work of lifting the pebbles and taking out the weeds.  I'm not sure if that will get finished this year.
The grass is covered with leaves and they  will have to stay there until it is dry enough to rake them up.


Sunday was a brighter day and we took next door's little dog for a walk.  Neither of its owners can do that anymore as one is suffering from multiple sclerosis and the other from motor neurone disease.  We took him as his regular walker was away for the weekend.



Yesterday we woke to bright sunshine which was lovely after a very dismal weekend.  I glanced out of the bedroom window and spotted this pair enjoying the sunshine under the trees in the school's little nature reserve just over the hedge. Paul took the photo as I had just taken the batteries out of my camera to charge them.  It was hard to capture them through the glass and at a distance but they stayed there for ages.


Later that day the last of the dahlia flowers were cut for the house and the tubers taken up and placed in the greenhouse to dry ready for next year.



Late last week we had a visit from the badger.  I took the photo below out of the kitchen window at about 8.45p.m, not a good photo but at least you can see what it is.

I seem to have been taking photos of pumpkins over the last couple of days, I'll share those with you on Thursday.

28 comments:

  1. That yard is beautiful! I love love love your pond!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Ann, the pond needs cleaning out a bit as the leaves drop into it:)

      Delete
  2. You are so lucky to be seeing a badger in your garden, I have never seen one in the wild.
    The garden still looks beautiful even in the rain and the Dahlia's remind me of my Dad, they were his favourite flower, lovely post.
    Briony
    x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Briony. I'd never seen a live badger until this year when they started visiting our garden. I'd only ever seen them at the side of the road or in museums. We only recetly started to grow dahlias and they are lovely and cheerful. By the way, the fox is doing well on the treatment, thank you for the link:)

      Delete
  3. Your garden still looks very pretty. I know how much it rained on Sat. I was out in it, all day long from early morning about 9 am til about 5. We went to the Ohio State Game and it never stopped the whole time we were there. Argh.The Dahlias are gorgeous. Wish I had some in my yard.
    Sandy's Space

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Sandy, one day last week I had to go out and about and got wet through enough to feel chilled so we stayed in on Saturday and just watched it raining:)

      Delete
  4. Your garden really does look lovely still! We have a badger too but the blighter has completely ripped off part of the fence panel to our neighbour's garden and it has cleared all the crops there! Pretty destructive. I love your fox picture. How sad for your neighbours but lovely you were able to help wiht the dog. We put some Dahlias in our garden this year. Do I have to dig them up then??? Slightly confused as to what I have to do with them!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Kezzie - Bagder broke our fence a couple of years ago (just behind the bench in the photo) it also dug out a run under the fence which we have left so it doesn't attack the fence again - it dug up and ate swedes and celeriac from the raised beds. We usually dig up the dahlia tubers before the first frost and store them in a dark dry place and re-plant them the following year. Monty Don on Gardeners World said last week that you could leave them until the flowers and leaves are blackened by the frost and then dig them up as the tubers will still be okay:)

      Delete
  5. Your home reminds me of The Animals Of Farthing Wood. Your so lucky. X

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you shazza, I love having the foxes visit and the badger too as well as the squirrels and birds we are very lucky to have them locally:)

      Delete
  6. Replies
    1. Thank yoi William, he is rather sweet - just a bit yappy as all small dogs can be:)

      Delete
  7. Your garden looks very pleasant despite the rain. We've had a lot of days like that recently, though I'm amazed how the ground has absorbed much of it, with just the odd muddy patch. The water-level in our little river is still below where it ought to be.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you John, the soil in our garden is heavy clay and is usually either too wet or too dry and there are parts of the garden which never fully dry out. What a strange year it has been:)

      Delete
  8. We seem to be sharing your rain at the moment. Always sad when the dahlias finish. Lovely to have such special visitors to your garden. B x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Barbara, I hope all the dahlia tubers will be okay and that we have more lovely flowers next year. I've been watching all the lovely birds in the garden today:)

      Delete
  9. Your garden still looks wonderful even in the rain, look at that green, green grass. The wildlife must love it, great to see the badger too as long as it isn't set to dig up the lawn. 😊

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Karen, so far Mr Badger has dug up and eaten some vegetables but not the grass, I hope it stays that way. We do seem to have plenty of evergreen shrubs in the garden which helps in the winter months when things seem dull and grey:)

      Delete
  10. We're thankful for dry weather after last week's heavy rain as there were garden tasks to complete. We took our time pottering yesterday and brought more tender plants inside. Leaves on the ground have partly been swept up with more to drop and clear. How interesting to see glimpses of wildlife in and around your garden!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Linda, we put all the scented geraniums in the greenhouse for now, if it gets very cold they will have to come into the conservatory luckily they are all in pots. Rain expected again tomorrow but today I'm enjoy the antics of the squirrels and watching the little birds on the feeders:)

      Delete
  11. Your garden looks so lovely even in the rain and I do like your greenhouse :) Thank goodness it is drier now - we went to Herefordshire on Monday and the river at Worcester had flooded for what seemed miles. How wonderful to have a badger visiting the garden - I am so envious :)

    I look forward to the pumpkin photos.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you RR, we inherited the greenhouse when we first came here and it was old then. We painted it green a few years ago and tried to mend some of the windows. I can imagine the flooding in those counties would be quite bad,I'm glad some of the towns now have flood barriers by the river. It is lovely to see Mr Badger, we saw him again last night, but I hope he behaves and doesn't dig up the grass:)

      Delete
  12. What a lovely back yard you have!!!!

    What you call "garden," we call a "back yard." The parts, where we have flowers, or vegetables growing, is the "garden." Love the difference in words, from country to country.

    Rainy-ish here too. But thankfully, in a few nights, it will get cold enough, to (hopefully) get a frost! Flowers and veggies have about "given up," so it's time. Plus, pesky molds and whatever causes sneezing/coughing, will hopefully be killed off. Yessss!!!!!!

    Lovely of you to walk the neighbors' dog. When regular walker is not available. They must be very grateful to you.

    😊 😊 😊 😊

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you RR, I love the little differences in our languages, garden and yard, purse and bag, vest and waistcoat etc. Little dog moves very quickly it is sometimes hard to keep up with him, we never let him off his lead though:)

      Delete
  13. You seem to have a very nice garden & quite a bit larger than some of our family members over there. I spied a "puddle" photo for the hunt (lol). I love dahlias, but haven't got any in here. Cute foxes! Take care.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Susan, both us and next door have larger gardens as there should have been a house in between us but it was never built as there wasn't room for an extra drive at the front. I haven't done the photo hunt for a while, I must catch up with it again:)

      Delete
  14. We had all the rain too on Saturday, what a miserable day it was but it does make a garden look quite bright doesn't it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Pam, yes the garden always looks good after the rain, Saturday was an awful day wasn't it? It looks as if rain is heading our way again this coming weekend:)

      Delete