Natural highs and lows

In the immediate aftermath of Storm Amy, I took a few photos of the large purple-flowered geraniums in the rockery. Despite being on the sheltered side of the house for the 24+ hours of 80mph gusts, they had been buffeted by the preliminary south-easterlies before the wind went around to the west for the rest of the performance. I think the vegetation was then caught in a pincer movement as the gusts swirled left and right around the property. I did manage to find one petal which had avoided being swept away to line the kerbs of Stavanger in Norway.   Yesterday, with the winds still gusting in the forties, I took a few more photos to document the garden during this briefest of Autumns. Interestingly, many plants which had been almost completely wind burnt, had the odd flower which appeared totally unscathed. On our southern boundary with a neighbour, the Rowan tree was devoid of leaves and berries, so the winter thrushes are going to be disappointed. Indeed, whilst wandering around...

It's mid afternoon, a haar is rolling in and the skies are darkening as a November morning's gloriously sunny weather succumbs to its inevitable fate. I am frantically trying to avoid social media and all sports outlets in an attempt to not see the score of the Scotland v New Zealand rugby match, because when Megan returns home from work, we can watch the game together. For better or worse. And, yes, you did read that correctly, earlier it was the most perfect Autumnal morning, so much so, in fact, that I happily engaged in a spot of housework. I know! Much to the cats' disgust, the place was vacuumed from end to end, followed by the 'hooverings' being deposited in the compost heap. Two loads went through the washing machine, first the contents of the laundry basket and then a big throw from the sofa. Once all this was hung out to dry, I cleaned the bird feeders, refilled one of them and hung that out too, together with some apples for the Waxwings Blackbirds. Pred...