In my garden: What a difference a day makes

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?

In a snowy Hofgarten

It's just over a year ago that I shared my first visit to Munich's Hofgarten here on the blog, despite our visit having taken place some six months earlier. It's a lovely central space and one that's well used by visitors and locals alike. So when the coach dropped me off just around the corner from the Hofgarten on my recent visit to Munich, I knew that my first stop would be to see how it looked in winter, and how it dealt with the snow.

As I arrived at the arched entrance I was half expecting to see the cheery guy who'd been there before, but no such luck. There were though fabulous blue skies, blue enough to rival any summer's day. The temperatures were something else entirely, and that's in the negative, I had my big woolly scarf though to keep me warm.

The view down the avenue of trees was breathtaking. It was good without the snow, but somehow better with it. And yes, this is still me writing this, the snow-detesting me. But look, and I'm sure you'll see what I mean.  

I looked over to my left and the central pavilion glistened in the snow and sunlight. I remembered how its inside was clad partly in shells and hoped to get better pictures than on my first visit.  

But first, I'd spotted some swaying on the branch of a tree. And yes, that's a snow topped bird table.  

It's great isn't it, and hopefully its visitors and/or inhabitants welcomed the greenery as well as the food supply.  Onto the central pavilion. I think with the clear blue skies, and the snow it was even more stunning than on my first visit.

On my tentative walk along the path I stopped to capture snow resting on the top of the hedge, and like the picture of the frost on my fence, I was amazed at how much detail my iPhone picked up.

Sadly the pavilion was chained off so I wasn't able to improve on my existing pictures. I learnt that leaning in and around to get a picture didn't work and after a couple of attempts I gave up and decided to head towards the strange dome shape in the distance. As I approached I remembered that under the cover was probably a fountain, and sure enough when I got closer it was obvious that the cover was made from wood. And covered with snow. Looking back at my photos confirmed they were fountains, and that gave me an idea for a future post comparing a summer and winter shots. I wonder how many of the same shots I've got...

What I liked about the garden in the winter was the starkness of it. The snow definitely gave a blank canvas and the lack of greenery on the hedges and trees gave a clear idea of the garden's structure. And the importance of that too.

By now I'd covered half of the garden and it was getting chilly, so with the shops calling my name I headed back towards that central avenue and back towards the centre of Munich, but not without first stopping to admire the ironwork.

You really didn't expect anything else did you?

* While this post isn't in collaboration with Viking or Stihl, it was only possible because of the UK press trip arranged by them. 

Trees. And snow. And being blown away by the prettiness.

Finally, I've found a way to enjoy snow. Yes, from a coach whizzing past snow-laden trees! Perhaps not the usual way, but this year I was almost disappointed when the promised deluge (or 1cm) only materialised as 1mm. 

But on my recent trip to Germany and Austria with Stihl I got snow. And lots of it. After conquering my initial snow and shoe fear, and realising that some countries can operate in snow, and from the coach window I made my peace - or some of it at least - with snow.

I mean when it makes trees as pretty as this, it can't be a bad thing can it?

As you can tell, all of these pictures are from the coach window as we sped down the autobahn from Munich to Kufstein, or back again. It's meant there's some window reflections in my photos, which is a shame, but it's also meant I have some photos of some very pretty trees, so I'm thankful for that. I mean, imagine if they'd all turned out to be blurry. Imagine how disappointing that would be. 

Every time I thought I'd captured enough beautiful trees and returned my iPhone to my bag, I'd spot another that I deemed to be even more beautiful. And that's how I ended up with as many tree shots as almost anything else I took in those few days... 

Truly beautiful aren't they? Beautiful in a way I've not noticed our trees to be in the snow here. Next time it snows, maybe I'll notice and be able to compare. 

* While this post isn't in collaboration with Viking or Stihl, it was only possible because of the UK press trip arranged by them.