Walking East Stoke's lanes: November and December 2024

Somehow my last post in this series was the October update in which I bragged about it being ‘almost on schedule’ - well, that didn’t bode so well did it? I’ve also realised that there was little joy for me writing these posts so long after the walks, and so having given in some thought over Christmas and the New Year I thought I’d change that. For my 2025 posts my intention is to post them much earlier in the month on the first (or at times second) Wednesday of each month.

But before I can do that I need to catch up with my 2024 posts, and so that’s what I’ll do now.

In mid-November we woke to snow, not a huge amount thankfully, but enough for me to double down on my hibernation tendencies. MOH though has very few of these, and so he ventured out sharing with me a photo or two of his expedition, which he was probably also daft enough to do on his bike, or at least consider in any case.

MOOR LANE

Either way his pictures did nothing to persuade me outside, and confirmed I should stay snug and warm indoors. A week later though it was a different story and I was pleased to get out for an approaching sunset walk, also along Moor Lane.

FOSSE ROAD

It always strikes me as odd when we have snow before all of the autumn leaves have dropped - but then again our weather seems more crazily mixed up as the days go on so I really shouldn’t be that surprised. But what a different a week makes, hey?

And even though it was way colder than it looked, the glorious light more than made up for that.

We reached our usual ‘turn back’ point of the bridge and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it look quite so picturesque - though I’m sure it has, I’ve just not been there to see or capture it. I also noticed ahead of us on Moor Lane the sheep in the right hand field - while this might not strike you as odd, as obviously that’s where sheep should be, it’s the first time we’d spotted them here.

Heading back and it almost looked as if the hedgerows were aflame with the sun - the picture here only does part of the justice, in real life they were flaming beautiful.

We get some brilliant sunsets here, and often my pictures are from our upstairs windows - but not this time, this one was an out in the open natural beauty capture.

In December I only ventured out on foot once, and that was on Christmas Day. We’d booked lunch at the pub in Elston and our plan was always to walk there and back, whatever the weather. We were lucky as when the day arrived, it was another one with blue skies and also unseasonably warm - much better than our worst case scenario of driving rain.

These pictures are from that walk, heading out around 1pm and heading back much, much fuller a good few hours later!

FOSSE ROAD

LOOKING OVER THE A46

Given that it was peak lunchtime on Christmas Day you wouldn’t expect much traffic, but it was a joy to see the A46 this empty.

We turned onto the path towards Elston, and so the A46 was on our left, but you’d never know it (and especially that day) given our view. I think this photo is one of my favourites so far.

Even though we were heading off for our Christmas lunch I still had a couple of photo stops along the way. I mean, catkins and lichen - I was never going to walk straight past now was I?

And then much later, and much fuller, we headed back along the path complete with bright torch and accompanied part of the way by the Christmas lights which were magical - and the first time we’d seen these as they are definitely off the usual routes through the village.

Thanks for joining me for this update, if you enjoyed this post you may also like to see all of the posts in this series or some previous series where I revisit the same place - there’s my year in Greenwich Park and remember that time when I followed a tree?

If all goes to plan, then January’s update will be here sooner than you know it!

My garden in December

As is the way there’s not a lot of activity in my garden this month, but I do have a few photos to share. The month started with a new addition - another rose - this one also from MOH and for no particular reason either. It’s a lovely rose with gloriously pale petals, and really sweet of him, but where to put it!?

I know that it’s longer term home will be against the brick wall - which is already potentially getting quite full what with the Gertrude Jekyll rose and the homegrown peach tree, but for a shorter term solution I was stumped. It has been temporarily lodging in the trellis enclosure, which has hopefully given it some protection from the worst of the winter weather and when I’ve shaken off this cold (and on a fine day) my plan is to get it into a larger pot. I didn’t rush to pot it on as it seemed happy enough in its current pot, and if MOH hadn’t bought it then it would still most likely be in that pot, but it probably needs something more as soon as I can.

It’s going to look great against the old brick wall in years to come isn’t it?

As I was out in the garden finding the best spot for my latest rose I also spotted some early growth on my tulip pots - the pots are squashed from where I squeezed them into some terracotta pots on the patio with probably too many other pots, but it did the job. Given that we have a lot less demand for pots in this garden, at some point the tulips may be designated their own pot - but clearly not for the upcoming flowering season.

The euphorbias which I brought from our old garden continue to do well, and I’m still loathed to let them loose in the flower beds as I’m pretty sure they’ll go rampant - but this photo has reminded me how good they looked with the tulips last year, so I’m thinking they could be future bed (or pot) fellows.

I’d been keeping an eye on the weather - the wind in particular - and our garden furniture cover, which seems way too large for what we need. After a first blow off failure we’d added some webbed straps to keep things tighter and less like a billowing mushroom. Storm Darragh though was also on the way, and that proved a gust too far.

We’d adjusted the straps earlier in the afternoon as I’d noticed they’d slipped a bit, and all seemed well. That was a false alarm, as when I looked again the whole table and chairs had been lifted and dumped onto the grass. We were very lucky that Darragh dumped them that way and not onto the patio, as I’m not sure the ceramic glass top would have survived if that were the case.

Admitting defeat we hastily moved the furniture into the garage, where it has stayed. I say hastily, but I mean as hastily as MOH could, while I continued to hold onto the still billowing mushroom. Goodness only knows what the neighbours must have thought if they spotted us! But it is safe and in one piece, and now is rearranged more compactly in the garage too - MOH is keen to move it out again, but I’m more in the let’s wait camp.

It was more pleasing to see the signs of new life on the small peach tree - while all the leaves have dropped, you can just about see new buds forming on the ends of its branches. I wonder if we’ll manage to harvest more than two fruits this year, who knows?

One sunny afternoon I spied the most hidden of our mahonias and it’s glorious russet leaves - I’m not sure if the colour change is ahead of the other two because of its position, or for any other reason but I know it’s most welcome.

Taking a closer look around the garden it was good to see the cream hellebore preparing to flower - this was one of the plants that came with the garden, and it’s another one that I’m really happy about. I potted the dark maroon hellebore that we brought with us further along from this one, and hadn’t seen much sign of it, which was ok as they really come into their own in the early months of the year. Looking for that now though, it was good to see a couple of new burgundy stems shooting up through the bark (and weeds!), so it seems happy enough with its new home.

So there’s actually more going on in my garden than I thought, though clearly not as much as the summer months. Next month if I’m lucky I’m hoping to see the snowdrops we planted, and hopefully followed not that long after with flowers on the wallflower planted at the same time. I’m sure there’ll be more too, so I look forward to you joining me again for that update.

My garden in November

This month it seems my photos are mainly of the mahonias on misty days and a snowy garden. Snow in November - albeit towards the end of the month - still seems early, but there was still plenty of autumnal colours around the garden, plus pops of colour from the fuchsias, and like last month there was plenty of yellow too!

The mahonias are quickly becoming a favourite plant of mine, although they are prickly! Many a time I’ve been working in the border only to suddenly realise I’m way closer than I thought to its prickly leaves - and it’s not shy in letting me know! I haven’t pruned these yet at all, and having learnt recently that the more you cut holly the pricklier it becomes, I think it’s something I think I’ll need to look up before I do.

The thing about the holly though is interesting. It’s often pricklier at the height where deers nibble (though not in London obviously) as it grows extra spiky as it believes itself to be under attack, which it sort of is, and even on the same bush the leaves much higher up will be much smoother. Isn’t that amazing?

The buddleia in the outside border is still going strong, and has clearly been enjoying the milder temperatures. There’s many silvery new growth buds on its established branches, and seedlings in the gravel. I noticed a little clump much further away than usual in the gravel just yesterday, and weeding the gravel is our new perennial job!

The fuchsia bushes are providing pops of colour, which is especially welcome on the greyer, more dreary days. These dancing ballerina like flowers never fail to raise a smile, so it’s been good to see them in the garden for a lengthy spell. This bush suffered a little with the snow I mentioned earlier, and some remedial ‘knocking the snow off’ action was required.

It wasn’t just the mahonias bringing yellow to the garden, the winter jasmine has also started to flow this month. It’s a bit wild though, as it doesn’t have any support and is growing freeform. My plan is to get some tensioning wire and train it to grow along the inside of the wall, but I’ve still to work out exactly what I need and which is the best to opt for. I think the answer to both of my questions is to get something, try it out and if it does what I want then great, buy some more and if not, try something else!

At the other end of the garden the little crab apple tree is hanging onto its fruits - just. There haven’t been as many fruits as last year, which given that I gave the tree its first prune isn’t surprising, and so I haven’t picked any to use this year. That’s a second year running, but I”m hopeful that next year it will be as prolific as it was the first year we were here and I’ll be able to use them in the kitchen, and hopefully as decorations.

Ah yes, the snow. It was quite a surprise really, despite it being forecast. Mostly because when we went to bed it was raining/sleeting - and the perceived wisdom that it wouldn’t settle. But it did!

It definitely makes everything look pretty, and I particularly enjoyed seeing the sun shine onto the snow and the shadows it cast onto the wall at the back. It’s true too that the second day of the snow is often the best - you’re over the shock of its arrival, the roads are recovering and the sun comes out.

Thankfully the mahonias didn’t mind the sun either!