Garden Diary – It’s Christmas & we’re past the shortest day!

What’s not to be happy about. Christmas festivities and we’ve celebrated the winter solstice. 

I think none of us can wait to get to the other side of the shortest day, we feel we are heading, albeit slowly, once more back towards the long, warm, days of summer.

Having said that, I do like the seasons, I’m quite sure that we wouldn’t appreciate the longer days if we didn’t have the short cold ones. And after all our British climate does produce some truly beautiful gardens.

On those dullest of days, I like to spend time looking back at the colourful photos of the summer garden, making plans and generally trying to remind myself of what the garden looks like at its best.

Luckily we’ve continued to have many bright, deep blue, skied days in between, when I’ve nipped into the garden, mainly to trek off down to the compost heap at the very end of our long garden, who’s silly idea was that!

But also checking on the greenhouse and the few winter crops growing. That pink kale is so beautiful, it’s worth growing as an ornamental.

I also spied with pleasure the reliable and hardy snowdrops, now well and truly through the ground and hopefully on target to be flowering before the end of January. Watch this space.

Inside, I have the house plants to tend to including the slowest growing plant I’ve ever cone across. In all fairness I was told this on gardeners world when they did a feature on ‘Living stones’ or Lithops.

They look so bizarre and I can’t really resist an unusual plant, so after the programme finished I ordered the seed. That was three or four years ago and we haven’t exactly sprinted away. 

I’m glad I started them though, they are quite fascinating. 

And so to Christmas week. With no sign of snow on the way, I delved into my snowy photo archives to try and create a bit of festive feeling, and the first one I came across was a cat in the snow. 

Our Siamese cat was the biggest heat seeker we’ve ever known. We built him an outdoor hut with a double glazed glass unit, just in case he was caught out in the rain when we were at work. 

The main time he actually used it was in mid summer, when we regularly had to open the door to make sure he was still alive and not (literally) roasted. 

When indoors he would sit on the window sill draped over the edge catching all the heat from the radiator below. But whenever it snowed he’d be straight out into it, shaking his back legs as he went!

I love snow too and I’d be out there right behind him with my camera. Everywhere just looks so beautiful with all imperfections hidden away.

I love it when you wake up and both the brightness of the bedroom and the absolute silence means, it’s snowed. It’s the only time that I jump out of bed forgetting all my aches and pains, to whip open the blind. 

I hope the snow helps to make you feel festive and I do hope you’ve all had a lovely Christmas doing what makes you happy. 

I’ll catch you all in the new year.

Monday 15th December 2025

‘Gabriel oak’ from July 🌿💕🌿🌸🌿On another dark rainy, December day ☔️☔️☔️

#magentamonday #roses #bloomscrolling 

Tuesday 16th December 2025

November 2021

#thicktrunktuesday #tuesdayblue sky #trees #northwales

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Super blue sky today, an antidote to yesterday 🌿💙🌿

Kale ‘Candy floss’ looking more beautiful as it grows, tastes pretty good too 😋😁 #growyourown #homegrown

Wednesday 17th December 2025

Snowdrops on the way 🌿🤗🤍🤗🤍🤗🌿

Let the gardening’s cycle start again!

#snowdrop #gardening #mygarden 

Thursday 18th December 2025

Does anyone else grow living stones? Or Lithops to give them their proper name. 

I grew this from seed around 3 or 4 years ago after seeing them on gardeners world. They said they were slow growing, well you ain’t kidding!!! Around 8mm across now 🥱 Patience my dear… #lithops

Friday 19th December 2025

Which flower are you most looking forward to seeing again next year?

For me it’s this Peony ‘Karl Rosenfield’, a new purchase last year & my first in the garden 🌿💕💕💕💕💕🌿🐝🐝

#flowersonfriday #pinkfriday #pinkflowers #peony 

Saturday 20th December 2025

With just a few days before Christmas & no sign of snow, I’ve delved into my snowy archives to get us into the mood 🎄🧑‍🎄🎅

Snowy photos up to Christmas Day ❄️☃️❄️

Starting with our Siamese back in 2006 😻

#Caturday #snow #CatsOfTwitter

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With just a few days before Christmas & no sign of snow, I’ve delved into my snowy archives to get us into the mood 🎄🧑‍🎄🎅 You could share yours too #SnowBeforeChristmas

Snowy photos up to Christmas Day ❄️☃️❄️

Sunday 21st December 2025

Happy winter solstice ❄️🪾❄️ Isn’t nature amazing!

#Solstice #wintersolstice #WINTER 

Longer days from now on 😊

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With just a few days before Christmas & no sign of snow, I’ve delved into my snowy archives to get us in the mood ❄️🎄🧑‍🎄🎅 

You could share yours too #SnowBeforeChristmas

Snowy photos up to Christmas Day ❄️☃️❄️

Monday 22nd December 2025

Snowy photos up to Christmas Day ❄️☃️❄️

Just 3 days now & no sign of snow, here’s some snowy cyclamen that didn’t enjoy last year’s snow. Amazingly they are flowering again this year, very resilient! 🌿💕❄️💕☃️🌿

You could share your snowy photos too #SnowBeforeChristmas

#magentamonday 

Tuesday 23rd December 2025

A Christmassy #ThickTrunkTuesday 2 days before the big day 🌳❄️ Hope everyone’s feeling organised #snowbeforechristmas

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Snowy photos up to Christmas Day ❄️☃️❄️

Just 2 days to go now & still no sign of snow 🙁

From my archives, I give you a snowy red cabbage from last year🌿🥬❄️☃️🌿

You could share your snowy photos too #SnowBeforeChristmas 

Wednesday 24th December 2025

Happy Christmas Eve from North Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🎄🐑

One more sleep until Christmas & with still no sign of snow, here are some hardy Welsh sheep in the beautiful North Wales countryside a couple of years ago ❄️☃️🎄

#SnowBeforeChristmas #ChristmasEve #christmas 

Thursday 25th December 2025

Happy Christmas everyone 🎅🧑‍🎄🎄🎁

Christmas can be as sad as it is happy, evoking memories of those we’ve loved & lost. But I wish you the best day possible & I hope it involves some yummy things to eat! 😋

Catch you in a few days 🪴

#ChristmasDay #Christmas 

Happy Christmas to you all.