Still a November post even though it's December now....

I seem to be getting into the habit of posting photos that are about two weeks old, but I'd rather post them than not at all. All these pictures were taken around the 20th November, but now it's looking a lot more bare in the garden. Friday and Saturday were reasonably mild and I saw a Comma butterfly on Friday, but I haven't been outside as much as I usually would for obvious reasons. Now it's turning cold and having had a mild autumn and only really got around to putting away summer clothes like shorts a few weeks ago, I haven't actually even got out any winter ones; just wearing long sleeved T-shirts and fleeces - so it may be time to get out the woolly jumpers and long johns! I think it'll be goodbye to the last of the annual flowers this week and then I can start composting nasturtiums and the like, although I suspect the jungle of weeds/plants that is now the veg patch will not get much done to it this winter. But that's just how things go and there's no point worrying about it.   

The two ornamental cherries by my lake don't hold their leaves very long
but the spindly one in the foreground (Prunus subhirtella) already has
some blossom, which is normal for it at this time of year,
although the main blossom season is spring, of course.

Looking across the lake at the poplars and alders
(and a couple of ducks).

The big old cherry tree's leaves turned a lovely bright yellow for about a week.

For a brief period my Dogwood 'Midwinter Fire', which has amazing
orange stems in winter, also had fabulous orange leaves.

The foreground is my green Smokebush which looks lovely in autumn
and the good old Liquidambar in the background on the left.

This is Smokebush 'Grace', which has more colourful leaves in autumn than the
very similar 'Royal Purple'. This is the shrub I planted on Smokey's grave.

Liquidambar leaves looking colourful amongst the more dull fallen leaves.

Intentional Camera Movement photo of my Liquidambar - I think
people either love or hate this kind of image but I think it's great fun trying!

A fungi of some kind and a droplet reflecting the oak leaf
(if you can open it full size and are looking on a reasonable sized screen, that is).

Second wave of fungi appearing in the bark chippings in the veg patch paths - but this time
I have no idea what are the spiky things which appeared before the little 'shrooms.

French or Papillon Lavender - now this plant was a total surprise as it just appeared
growing beside a small Perovskia which I transplanted last year -
even more surprising that it is still flowering right now on 1st December!

And now some cat pictures..... looking at the field from the veg patch.

Harry the ginger has finally grown into his feet - he always had the most enormous paws!

I was calling them trying to get them to look at the camera -
Hallie did but Harry's obviously seen something more interesting.

Meanwhile Bertie was having a bit of a half snooze and wasn't in the mood to look at me either.
Cats!

I've now had 2.5 weeks of chemo and radiotherapy with another 3 weeks to go. I'm feeling quite up and down which I guess is to be expected, so when you see a blog post from me you know I am feeling OK enough to get my photos sorted and posted! The most annoying thing last week was going to the hospital on Friday for the last 'zap' of the week at 6pm, hanging around for half an hour wondering what was going on, only to find out that the radiotherapy machine had broken down. I've actually felt reasonably well 3 out of the last 4 days, so cross fingers for more 'good' days...... and getting out with my camera! :-)