“Winter draws on…”

Change the clocks, change the routine change the underwear.

As a young, raw, naive new boy introduced into (Civil Service) office life at age eighteen, when “Dusty” Miller walked in on a dull, dark and rainy November morning and uttered those words, the elderly lady colleagues, who were paid less than men in those days (1964), would chuckle and swoon, and show fake embarrassment much to my confusion.  “Oh! Dusty” they would say, “you’re such a wag”, only later did I work out the alternative spelling of the word describing underwear.  And he would repeat the joke on other days, sometimes twice a day, with a musical hall dramatic pause for effect.  His eyes would twinkle, his mouth would twitch with mounting pleasure of the catch line, and he would repeat it, barely finishing it before a guffaw would drown out the last syllable.

The seasons are changing however, and the Damart catalogue has been scanned for this years must haves – at five in the morning

they are must-haves believe me.  We are now trying to adjust the animals to their new routine, and they take some fooling.  Their diurnal rhythms are finely attuned so that almost down to the last minute they know when food should be coming.  The donkeys are

more patient knowing that we never let them down, the dogs more or less equally so.  The rabbits aren’t so much controlled by the hour, more by the quantity of hay in the baskets, and the chickens, although birds of routine, are less troubled as their is always something to scratch or poke.

The dahlia has now reached the end of its summer life and needs cutting down now that the first frost (-0.4) descended the other morning, and the windscreen was frosted over. 

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The lawns have been cut, the leaves mulched and swept depending on the location, and daffodils are about to be planted for Spring.  Leeks, potatoes, brussels, kale, onions and garlic are lying in store or have been lifted for use in the Winter.

The next year’s garlic and onions are already coming through, and the daffodils are still to plant out for Spring, but for now, winter drawers on.