So, we have come full circle around the sun once more. I'd wish you all a happy new year, but I wouldn't want to chance it. When you're the only one in your house who hasn't come down with Covid-19, there's a certain amount of optimism that starts to feel either excessively naive or like I'm simply tempting fate.
But what the hell - behind every cynic is merely a disappointed optimist, or so the saying goes - and I'm nothing if not an optimist to the point of annoying the living hell out of everyone around me as a result.
Anyways, I had a nice break from work and from doing all that much in the garden over new year. There were the usual tidy-up type jobs to do (stay on top of the weeds, tidying up the dead things, try to remove some of the leaves from the pond, that sort of thing) but we've had a bunch of high winds so there were a few fence-panel repairs to sort out here and there as well. Mostly, though, it was chasing down the empty flower-pots that had rampaged through the garden in the winds and refilling the bird feeder. Our friendly robin made an appearance, so that was nice - we hadn't seen him in a while. I also unwittingly fished out some dragonfly nymphs out of the pond, so there's at least a few of them likely to emerge next year.
Other than that, I removed an errant weigleia from the back of the garden and opened up a bit more at the back as a result, which I promptly planted out some of Nanna's orchard (specifically the rowan and hawthorn that were in a bucket together) while there was still enough heat in the ground to make it worthwhile. There were a few other climbers (mostly clematis) that needed to go out, so I did that at the same time. I still have a golden hop and a wisteria that need to go somewhere, but the ground might be a bit to cold to put those in now - and besides I don't really know where I'm going to put them yet.
I also gave my dad a hand rebuilding one of his sheds that had rotted away a bit at the back. He now has what I refer to as a frankenshed that's a couple of feet less deep that it used to be due to the amount we also had to remove from the floor in the process. It's also given me a notion to build something for myself at the back of the garden - a combined storage and bar/grill area of some sort. Definitely something to think about in the long term. Still, it was a fun way to spend some time with my dad, and it gave me something to do while my wife and younger daughter were having to isolate after catching the dreaded covid. Thankfully, they're both fine and didn't kill one another, so that's good.
Outside that, I'm starting to think about what I might want to do in the garden. I'm still playing catch-up with what's happened before on here so I won't go into much detail, but I've got some plans involved tensioned wire, uprights, and solar LED lights that I need to get around to when time and money permits, and Nanna will be reclaiming some of her pots at some point so there'll be a little more space to play with once again. The main thing, though, will be to stay on top of things and to figure out what's come back and what will need replanting, and to decide on whether I'm going to see if I can get a bunch of wood chippings from somewhere to mulch all of the beds. I've also got a front garden that really needs to have some time spent on it so that it can be made pretty - I've attemped to make it into a wildflower area multiple times with seeds, but it never quite gets going. It might need some more drastic action to make that happy, so we'll see where that gets to.
Otherwise, though, it's a case of waiting and watching to see what starts to wake up - early spring bulbs might start showing soon, and things like witch hazel and so on will start showing flowers any day now.
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