With worsening weather forecast and expecting to have little free time on Sunday, there was only one thing for it and that was to briefly get out into the garden on Saturday in an attempt to get it as winter-ready as we could, in about thirty minutes flat. Our main priority was covering the pizza oven and the logs, as with frosts and worse on the way we didn't want to risk it cracking, and well damp logs are no good to anyone are they?
The tarpaulin's arrived a couple of weeks ago and the two smaller ones, measuring 2m x 3m were earmarked for the back garden. To give the pizza oven some added protection and old fleecy throw that we used on an old sofa was repurposed as a middle layer in the tarpaulin sandwich. Tied on and weighted down with bricks, our work was almost complete.
The log store was artfully draped with a folded tarpaulin and secured with random bricks, blocks and slabs. In fact these are less random than they would be before the skip, when MOH encouraged me to throw the very random assortment of garden weights into it. But of course, he was the first one to say, have we got any stones to weigh this down... I did, oh so well, not to say we did have, before the skip...
I think he's starting to realise the benefits of having some garden detritus! So with our tarpaulins secured much more quickly than we expected, as I was out in the garden then I thought I'd have a poke around.
I moved the trugs into an already full greenhouse - and even from this picture I think it's clear I'm a fan of colour, don't you?!
I told you it was full, didn't I?
I spotted some chillies though and clambered through to harvest them. Definitely worth it, but will these be the last of the year?
Elsewhere in the garden there was some true winter colour, and I spotted our first hellebores, shy as they are.
The primroses, although a bit nibbled, continue to flower. I'm expecting them to be flowering a while yet and it's great to spot their cheery colours as you walk down the garden.
Heading back to the house I spotted a lone fuschia in one of the larger bushes it's been climbing up, it's only a small flower, but it really stood out.
The fatsia is looking as glorious as ever, at this time of year, and I think it's providing a good food source for the birds in the garden.
There's still plenty of leaves to collect, and one of our concrete hares has an almost slightly guilty look, don't you think?
I thought it'd be useful to check out my favourite corner, and I think it'll be fun to collect a series of photos with me standing in the same place. Mostly these photos have been in flip flops, but not today. Socks and wellies all the way, and I didn't even know what was coming the following day, at that point.
And yes, the very next day we woke up to a dusting of snow, or quite a lot for London - and there was no way I was going outside for a similar shot, so you'll just have to use your imagination for that one!
But, what a difference a day makes, hey?
