Today the garden was shining with frost and deceptively still. It may look as if no animals are here apart from the birds but most of the creatures are hidden.
The grass, cut short at the end of the summer, offers protection for some to overwinter out of sight.  Bumblebees are deep in the soil in the wax lined cells they make in autumn. Butterfly and moth chrysalises wait attached to stalks, adult grasshoppers die but their unhatched eggs survive underground.
The scrub areas and stone piles provide shelter for other invertebrates, beetles, slugs, snails. and spiders. On warmer days worms will come to the surface and pull dead leaves down.
In 2022 we sowed patches of yellow rattle. It parasitises the grass, reducing its vigour to make more room for the wildflowers. It flowered in profusion last summer.  As it is an annual we are hoping it will be setting its seed now. Last summer also produced a record number of pyramidal orchids. The committee is always interested to hear of unusual wildlife sightings or photos to add to our records.
You will see that we have planted two new trees. One is a hybrid Rowan, Sorbus hupehensis, bearing pale pink berries and the other a hybrid Hawthorn Crataegus punctata ‘Ohio’, with showy berries and larger than average leaves. Inevitably, we have been visited by deer so have created some wire shelters for all the new trees. A few more spring bulbs have also gone in.