the last rose
It’s been a mild and dry November so far with only a couple of frosts overnight and the last few days sunny and peaking at 18c – 20c.
We have cleared and covered up some beds for winter but others are still productive. So we are still picking beetroot, swede, leeks, fennel, chard, kale and cauliflower, and aside from carrots we haven’t had to buy any veg for weeks.
In the flower garden we have one lonesome rose, borage and the indestructible self seeded calendula still flowering. The hyssop is now gone over but the dead flower heads still have a fantastic structure especially when backlit by the morning sun. The beech hedging is turning a burnished bronze and has grown well this year, as has the mixed berry hedge at the end of the orchard.
looking north
looking south
750 metres 
Your veg. plots are very productive and they look very nice the way you have terraced them. We are not going into single figures for overnight yet and my husband has started to watch his lemon tree he keeps in a pot ready to take it in at the first sign of an overnight frost. Amelia
It has been an amazing Autumn, and your pictures underline it … the potager is enviable and the brave flowers so lovely. I wonder what your thoughts are on winter … people here keep telling me its going to be harsh 😦
Well, last year was very mild ( -7C once) and the year before about average (-12C the lowest it got overnight). The year before that we were not here, but our neighbours regaled us with tales of -18C at midday during February 😦 So we shall see, we have plenty of wood thankfully and a Rayburn and an insert wood burner to keep us warm. So far its been too warm even for the Rayburn and we are just using a paraffin heater first thing and sometimes in the evening. Our living space is all open plan with a high roof – a converted large atelier – so it does take a bit of heating even though the house is well insulated. The tiny old original house we use as Caroline’s jewellery workshop and accomodation for any visitors and that also has a wood burner.
Most interesting … let’s see how it goes 🙂