Tuesday 23rd January 2024 - Bottle Garden, Another Storm and 2023 Photographs

My online purchases of succulent plants, plus cacti and succulent potting compost arrived earlier than indicated, when I placed the order.  The tall glass container I wanted to use to make a ‘bottle garden’ is now planted up and looking good – see photo below.  I do like to have plants and flowers indoors, especially at this time of the year when they help brighten those dreary days. We currently have two hyacinths in bloom, purchased from the Garden Centre, and a vase of cut daffodils which are all perfuming our lounge.

 On the weather front the cold, which resulted in me having numb fingers on return from our morning walks, has been replaced with, temperatures almost touching double figures centigrade, yet another storm and some rain.  This time it was the turn of Storm Isha to blow across the country.  Here, in North Norfolk and with Overstrand tucked down below Northrepps, we had a battering but nothing more that we have experienced in the recent storms.  Storms seem to be becoming expected, as part of the weather pattern, and far more frequent than in the past.  As for us, we lost the cowling on top to our chimney and our garden bench blew over.  This morning, I was able to finish tidying the front garden and managed a couple of other jobs I didn’t think I would get done, as well as having a catch-up chat with a fellow villager; all before the rain set in.  Engrossed in the front garden, I completely forgot to prune our apple tree. No immediate rush to trim the growth at the top, this can wait for another day.    

I have just finished editing 2023’s photographs.  By editing, I don’t mean tweaking colours etc. but deciding which ones to keep and those to delete.  It all takes time and after I have done the basics, I title each photo before copying onto an SD card and external hard drive.  I took rather a lot of photos of our garden last year, particularly of the borders I have been rehashing, to show how they are progressing.  I have put all the garden photos in a sub folder, divided by the months.  It should be interesting, this time next year, to make comparisons.