I have just come in from the garden. The duck pond is completely frozen over. Same goes for all the bunnies water bottles and the outside tap. Winter seems to have arrived suddenly with the rooves and the ground white with frost and ice. My fingers are still frozen. I think its time to dig out those gloves and scarves. On the bright side the sky is clear and blue this morning and the previously muddy lawn is frozen and easier to walk on. Yesterday was wet and windy with hail and snow showers which the ducks seemed to love as it makes it easier for them to dabble and find worms. I had a right game getting them to go to bed last night. The chickens however hate it and were on their perches before I went out to lock their shed.

We used Rob’s week off well and worked hard on both of the plots. All the onion sets are in and there are several beds cleared and dug ready for Spring. We made a gigantic contribution to the comunal compost heap as our bins are all full. The lean to is now empty and we are planning to get plenty of organic matter on the beds to rot down over Winter. There is a lot of mint in there and though we have pulled it up as best we can I think there are still lots of roots that may cause problems. This is a problem that we inherited with the lean to and at first we thought it was good to have a bit if mint in there but it is a very invasive plant and I think may have been the reason that the cucumber Carmen struggled to get going this season. I put the Rhubarb to bed by clearing out all old stalks and covering with a good layer of straw and a chicken wire cover to hold it in place. Next visit I shall have to give the same treatment to the Dahlia bed as we have had a couple of hard frosts this week that I would imagine will have finished them off.

Libbie will be here soon so I will have to stop but at least the typing has thawed my fingers.