Autumn Colour ~ 2 ~ Red Berries

Red Autumn Berries

Hawthorn Berries

Ripe red Hawthorn berries

Flowering Nutmeg
Lycesteria Formosa
The Blackbirds love these berries and will jump up to snatch them one by one

Cotoneaster berries

Honeysuckle berries

This year we have heard that there is a great crop of berries everywhere
This may be a result of the hard, cold and snowy winter
Others suggest it is a warning of a hard, cold and snowy winter to come!

Chimonanthus Bush, Pod, Seed and Seedling

Chimonanthus Bush

Chimonanthus Bush about 8 years old

Chimonanthus Seed and Pod


Chimonanthus seed pod on plant

I have added the coin for scale as the seeds are quite large
The pod holds about 10 and they really need to suffer a hard winter
or a domestic freezer!

The pod is very dark brown and quite woody:
they hang down and the seeds fall out of the bottom

Chimonanthus Seedling

The dicotyledon (seed leaves) of our Chimonanthus

This rather manky looking seedling has grown from a Chimonanthus seed harvested last autumn
I have previously had a small seedling but I left it in the garden in its pot and one night it got eaten so this one has come into the conservatory
I really hope it sprouts a new shoot soon so I can see the true leaves rather than these cotyledons
The leaves are very tough but look shiny whereas the true leaves are tough but rough

Autumn Colour ~ 1 ~ Blueberry Bush

Autumn Colour

Our Blueberry Bush seems to be the first to show autumn colour and it appeared as soon as the last fruits had ripened.
The leaves are the most beautiful red and remind us of Canadian Maples.

September ~ New Mower

New Lawn Mower

Our new mower, bought this weekend, to replace a very old, noisy one which had started to produce a poor result.
We went shopping for a new one and had been prepared to pay about £100+ to get a good one with strong design.
We'd almost made up our minds when we saw this one on 'Special' and decided to give it a go; at £40 it probably won't last as long as our last one but it will do a turn.
I assembled it this morning and cut the back lawn

Nice neat design; we don't need big and chunky for our modest sized garden

Mower used and green bag filled

Finished cut; our lawn is not very even so we're never going to get a bowling green look but it's a good colour and nice play area.