A tree is for life not just for Christmas!

I can't quite believe it is the 2nd of December. I have not written a post for such a long time for a few reasons, the main reason being my laptop died and I have only just got it fixed. It's actually been quite nice being unplugged from the internet world for a while. But the internet is back, and so is Winter...

It's been so cold here in Brighton the last few days. We have had heavy frosts and I have been busy feeding the birds in the garden. I now have a blackbird and robin that wait patiently every morning for their breakfast. I try to feed them everyday and I now have starlings, bluetits, coaltits, bullfinches, warblers, greenfinches and siskins all stopping by for a tasty meal most days. There is also a very secretive and shy little wren that hops about on the patio early in the morning but so far I have not seen it take any food I have put out and he or she seems very happy investigating the cracks for insects.

My least favourite is the starlings but only because they descend on the garden in a huge noisy gang making a right racket and scare away the little ones. Aside from that they are very comical to watch and listen to, and the colours of their feathers in the sunlight is lovely to admire.

The robin is my favourite. I even wave to him in the morning when I open the curtains just to let him know I'm going to have a cup of tea before putting his breakfast out.

I made sure I moved all the tender plants into the greenhouses a few weeks back and the geraniums are still flowering away quite happily. I was given two Banana plants and they seem ok in the greenhouse but I am wondering if I should perhaps fleece them too as it is so cold.

I have coriander growing on the kitchen windowsill although I'm not sure they are going to get much bigger so I might just stick what I have in a curry and make space for the lemon scented geranium cuttings I took earlier.

We never buy a Christmas tree, I am a bit of a hippie and like to think that a tree is for life not just for Christmas but I do gather branches and paint them and cover them in glitter then stick them in a big vase to hang decorations from.

I am finding it quite hard to get into the festive mood and have not even made my Christmas cards yet so really must get a move on.

The garden is looking rather bare and brown but it's still lovely to wander out with a cup of tea and admire the frost on the plants. I have left all the Fennel and Teasel and they look superb with morning frost sparkling on their skeletons in the morning.

I need to get out into the front garden and give it a bit of a tidy up. I want to plant some tulips out there and might ask the other half for a trip to the garden centre for my birthday next weekend to get some. I know I'll end up buying white as I love white flowers but I might add some deep purple or bright orange too. I really should use more colour. I seem to stick with green white and pale yellow in my borders.

My list of things to do next year is grow more vegetables, scented plants and herbs.

Right, I'm off to have a nice hot bath and dream of long summer days.

This is must! I am always forgetting where I planted bulbs so placing some chicken wire over them means you'll be less likely to damage them when digging. Plus it stops the squirrels from digging them up too.