Life must be filled up

It was freezing cold this morning and dark when the gardener came to tidy the hedges and cut down some shrubs which were annoying me. Now the view from every window has changed for the better. I like to have the garden tucked up tidily for the winter. I feel the same about the countryside beyond the garden, loving to see neat hedges, empty fields and the bare silhouettes of trees. Like the face of a woman with good bone structure, the trees get more beautiful with age. The pots of summer bedding have been emptied, scrubbed and put away and all the flower beds mulched with my own compost (hard work).

Looking at the picture frame of winter jasmine which has suddenly appeared around the dining room window, the gardener remarked, ‘You forget it the rest of the year’. So true; nothing to look at in summer, overshadowed by the clematis and honeysuckle on the same trellis then, just as the days grow dark and short, it bursts forth in starry sprays. It’s pouring with rain this afternoon so the picture above is one taken two years ago.

Gardeners always have something to look forward to. There will be snowdrops and hellebores and the daffodils potted up in September are showing little snouts already. Depressed because autumn is turning into winter? Not at all!