Sunny Sunday

I spent the first half and hour this morning after getting up at my usual time putting all the clocks back an hour. Normally I do this when I go to bed the night before. I just couldn't be bothered last night. I've decided we've too many clocks in this house! So now British winter time begins. I don't like the dark nights. Roll on spring.

After yesterdays miserable rainy day today was a pleasant surprise. Cold, but sunny with beautiful clear blue skies. We decided to do the last purge on the garden to wrap it up for winter.

This elegant grey eucalyptus tree was a 25th wedding anniversary present to us from Dave's work colleagues. We're now approaching our 45th anniversary! It was a small slender sapling when we planted it. Each year we slash it down by half and despite its drastic pruning it has grown into a magnificent tree. Each year as we get older it gets more difficult to prune. Its always a two man job for us. We have garden loppers and a long handled tree pruner but Dave still has to get out the step ladder out to get all the top branches.

The poor tree always looks sad after we've finished scalping it but it soon recovers in the spring and shoots skywards with vengeance. I think that sadly it will soon have to be removed completely as it's out growing it's allotted space. The roots of this tree can be a problem if its allowed to grow with out checking the yearly growth. It's a great tree though for flower arranging and I'll be sad to see it go.

These pretty pink miniature roses and all my golden fuchsia bushes are still flowering madly giving some welcome colour. They'll keep going until the first bad frost puts and end to the flowers. Then I'll have to nip out and quickly prune the bushes back by half for the winter.