With Christmas and the shortest day of the year just over the horizon, any work in the garden is best done early before the light goes. At this time of year daylight is certainly at a premium and starts to fade around mid afternoon.
On mid December mornings with a hard frost on the ground, it takes some motivation to even get outside. Still, with the heat off so to speak, any gardening jobs that do remain can now be tackled at a more leisurely pace. My leaf clearing has gone well, especially using a piece of technology I hadn't used before.
The vacuum leaf clearer was purchased some years ago, but I never really got the knack of how to use it properly until now. Light it isn't, needing to be hitched over one's shoulder by way of a sturdy strap. Still, once I'd got the balance right I eventually stopped the inclination to fall over with the weight of the thing. The big test was using this contraption on the gravelled areas in the front garden. Would it suck up half the gravel I wondered?
Whilst being quite cumbersome to use, it made a reasonable job of lifting most of the leaf and other debris lying on and embedded in the gravel. I think I can finally give this thing the thumbs up, but to use this device to its full effect properly the leaves have to be quite dry. It's quite useless on soggy or damp material.
Sophie my cat, whilst not even raising her head when the house vacuum cleaner is in action, dislikes the leaf clearer. She seems to think it some sort of fierce hissing beast on her territory. She stands a safe distance away, watching its every move, retreating fast when it approaches near her.
The winters here seem to get wetter each year. Rain and gales have been the order for some weeks, with of course their annoying tendency to blow other people's piles of leaves into my garden. This last week it has dried up considerably and now the first hard frosts of the winter are upon us. This has brought out the garden birds whose feverish activity during the few hours of daylight is a delight to watch.
It's quite amazing what can suddenly appear from nowhere. My morning shave has now become a long drawn out process as I spy yet another new visitor to the garden amongst the tree tops. It can all be over in a few seconds. One morning a Great-Spotted Woodpecker appeared very briefly and then just as briefly flew off. It's all about being in the right place at the right time I guess.
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