Winter in Norfolk

Since the last update (June 2022), we had a really hot summer in the UK. Temperatures peaked at around 41C (106F) breaking all the UK records, and after almost two months of no rainfall. We had really bad fires, especially in our village on the hottest day of the year. See this BBC article – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-64118239 – and the mention/video of our village. Around 20 homes were lost after a field fire spread towards the village centre around a half mile from us.

We are so pleased we had built in a watering system for the garden, and that we’d used drought-tolerant plants. Time will tell if we’ve lost any plants. If the drought and summer heat didn’t get some, then the current temperatures of around -5c to -10c may have taken its toll.

We thought you’d like to see some photos of the garden during the winter as a change from the sunny summer photos. The grasses look amazing in the winter sun. Now we’re getting to the time when Graham is sowing seeds and replanting in the greenhouse, if it warms up soon. And, as soon as it does, we’ll be out in the garden to cut down the grasses and other plants ready for the coming of Spring.

We organised our final (we hope!) garden ‘construction’ – of a water feature. It took a while to find what we wanted, and even longer to get someone to dig out and alter the brick paving to accommodate it. We just about got it working when we had to partially dismantle it due to the freezing temperatures lasting a week at a time. So, we’ll hold on showing the final water feature until things warm up and the next blog update!

Happy New Year to all our friends