November sky

Fabulous Sunsets this month. There are several photos to follow the progression of colour.

Rainbow over the weather station at 9am Nov. 3rd.

November14th

 

Sunset on November 15th

November 15th

And an even more spectacular sunset on the 26th....

 

The pole that appears in so many sky photos is Angus's anemometer.

Honeybees enjoying the Mahonia.

It was 11C  today and the bees were busy on the Mahonia. It is such a great shrub, evergreen and growing in the complete shade of a hazel and holly.

November garden

 Looking down over the vegetable garden this morning.

 Leeks.

Turnips have done well, Celery is poor but will be good in stock.

Angus, Alfie and Zoe shredding the sweetcorn stalks earlier in the month.

 
Swiss chard. 

View December garden.
View October garden.

Autumn moths

Zoe took a few moth photos.......

There is a moth amongst these lichens on the roof of the bird table.

 Here it is, a Merveille du jour.

In November, A Feathered Thorn.

Angus took this photo In October, It is a Vestal, an immigrant species.

November bee pollen

Angus took these photos 2 days ago with the camera he uses for moth close-ups.

 There is lots of pollen of different shades going into all 4 colonies.

Beeswax candles

Finished candles, I like the bendy ones.

 As soon as the wood-fired range goes on in the autumn the requests come "when can we dip candles?"
All day the beeswax melts on the range and evenings are spent dipping.

 It is a wonderful activity for wet dark days, but the light is not good for photos.

 This year we have 6 colours to add to the beeswax.

View more candle making.

Tivon's Weaving

Tivon was looking for a project to use the wool from his sheep.

 Weaving was the craft of choice.

 Threading the loom.

 

Tivon weaving his sheep's wool. 

Turkeys and hens

Argus is Tivon's Crollwitzer Turkey and he now has 2 girls!

He is one happy fellow!

We doubled up the bee colonies 2 to a hive so we have one spare hive.

Or should that be... one spare turkey perch.

Meanwhile he lives up to his name.
 Argus means watchful guardian.
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 Our White Sussex hen and cockerel. 

They are moulting and he has lost his lovely tail.

He is not looking too bad considering the number of fights he went through before he realised he was never going to beat Argus.

Poached egg plant and other flowers.

The Tibet potatoes have been lifted at last. It is a good crop of excellent potatoes but it is too late to plant a green manure cover crop in the beds that are now empty and bare. So, I have been transplanting some of the many poached egg plants that have self seeded everywhere. It is a little more work than throwing down seeds but I am full of anticipation for next spring when they will flower.

One of the potato beds just filled with little poached egg plant transplants.

This was taken in June, The bees just loved the poached egg plant.

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Some of the flowers in bloom when I went out with the camera yesterday afternoon.......

Hypericum

Mahonia

 

Arbutus Unedo

Feverfew.

Straw flower

Callendula

Climbing rose.

Broccoli flowers

Rosemary

Fushia.

Winter Jasmine.

Borage and crimson clover
(The frost will hit these soon)

Viburnum Bodatmese Dawn.