The Fairweather Gardener - November

I hardly went out into the garden in October, except to note that the bird-feeders are constantly empty within 48 hours of being filled, it's the starlings wot does it! I have a bird table and hang the feeders under our large pergola, because otherwise the gulls would eat everything they could get at, including the small birds who I'm trying to encourage. Not seen a huge variety of species in the garden so far, wood pigeon, sparrow, wren, starling, dunnock, robin, blue tit, great tit, coal tit, crow, goldfinch and a poor garden warbler that the cat brought in. I miss the garden we had before, it backed onto woodland and I counted over 40 species there, not counting the peacock because he was strolling up the road, I didn't seen him from or in the garden!

I did go-a-gardening today, sunshine was nice after all that rain and all the weeds were wet so pulled up easily. I put most of them in the compost bin, which is heaving with red brandling worms as well as woodlice, snails and big leopard slugs. However the couch grass has gone into the big bag of leaves for the tip.

Said leaves are mostly from the neighbour's tall sycamore, one branch of this is trying to take the roof off my garage, must finds a man with a ladder and a big saw. I've collected several bags of leaves to make leaf-mould but am worried that I've collected all the seeds up with them, will I just have bag's full of saplings? Then I'd feel guilty that I wasn't growing them on as trees, the planet needs trees but my small garden can't accommodate a thousand sycamores.

Another recent job was to sweep the patio and clear the path of leaves and growing things. I won't call them weeds, they include campanula, moss, dandelion, foxglove, geranium and oxalis. All are welcome in the right place, but I do need to keep the path clear for my mum who arrives in a wheelchair these days. I allowed one foxglove to stay overhanging , I love them and it's taken up residence right by the low wall where the path widens out so shouldn't be a problem.

What's flowering? Geraniums, chrysanthemum, hydrangea, kalanchoe, winter jasmine, cyclamen, not as much as at this time last year, that long hot summer kept things going well into winter. I've moved some to the geraniums indoors and must remember to do the same with the kalanchoes tomorrow. On the plus side, in my small conservatory my Christmas cactus has just begun to flower and one of my jade plants has produced tiny, aromatic, white flowers.

St Leonards' Writers

We meet weekly in a side chapel and each time I

attend, I sit facing this stained glass window.

I'm delighted to be a member of St. Leonard's Writers' group, which I definitely had to join early in 2017 as, not only are they a great bunch of talented people, but also I discovered that the group meets weekly in St. Ethelburga's Church, which is about 30 metres from my front door. It would've been positively rude to ignore them! I could have joined the group a year earlier but didn't know they were here, their website was then a bit neglected and uncommunicative. It's now been renewed and updated.

St Ethelburga's was built in the twentieth century, 1929, though in a traditional style, with a beautiful roof in a tithe barn form. They lend space for a number of local group activities.

I've been in other writer's groups, when I lived in West Yorkshire and always found them hugely encouraging and supportive. St Leonards Writers is no exception. Friendly, supportive people, lots of laughs, plenty of great writing and useful, constructive criticism. Also coffee and biscuits. Can writers cope without coffee..?

I've become a committee member - most people seem to be on the committee automatically unless they opt out.  I'm also the group's librarian so have taken charge of donated books which group members can borrow, as well as previous unsold anthologies and archive materials.

We're in the process of collating a new anthology, the group's fifth but the first that I've been involved with. It will have short stories and poems by group members.

We are also preparing a new, more accessible and lively website. The site is now live, though still under construction. The link probably won't work yet, so copy and paste to find it -
 http://stleonardswriters.com/