Last glimpses of Dixter...

 Clematis 'pagoda' hanging in there and so incredibly beautiful...

 The window in the larder-not sure why we don't all have one of these( a larder that is or a leaded window looking in).

Maggie and me on our Sunday walk, following(for the most part) the Sussex border path.

 Everywhere I turn there are more achingly beautiful views...

 

 The beautiful old church we found in Beckley.

 These are the wonderful little step over stiles found all along the footpaths.

The beauty of all this crazy weather... rainbows all the time!

More and more bulbs....

Here is the solar garden before we ripped out all the lovely asters, rudbeckias, cannas and tagetes and planted close to 200 daydream tulips.

 The boss listening to thoughts on the long border from Rachel.

 Orange emperor tulips and forget-me-nots in the high garden

 So when the good weather fails, (and we knew it had to happen), we headed under cover to plant many pots of bulbs for the amazing spring displays.

 Tom and Maggie carefully potting up tulips and double layers of narcissus.

 Not a clear pic but didn't want to leave out any of these peeps that have become so dear. Here's James, Graham, Fergus and Rachel.

 Carefully selecting the perfect pot for specific bulbs...

 Tons of tiny muscari! Must do this for Thorndikes!

 Literally dozens of pots...

 You can't really tell, but these are huge pots. They all over winter in cold frames.

 Crazy weather in these parts... just a short while ago it was raining buckets. Then this...

 and then this,

and then this within a half an hour!

Long lasting color in the garden

 In between raindrops we've had some extraordinary weather- warm and beautifully sunny. The color in the garden is still remarkable and in this late November sun it just glows.

 A lovely Euonymous(don't know which) has delicate spring like blossoms at the end of November!

 There are show-stopping windows of color around almost every corner....

 Yup, the one and only 'honorine jobert' Anemone japonica, heartbreakingly gorgeous, still.

 Oh I love this Salvia convertiflora! Looked so good with the teasel, right until we had to cut it down. We took cuttings though and I'm looking forward to trying this from seed in VT!

 This is Clematis' gravetye beauty', still going strong up the olearia solandri.

This is Penstemon garnet I believe, and giving some last bits of color in the barn garden.

Project in the peacock garden

Fergus was finally done with Symposium and Study Day guests and was free to organize all hands on deck in one busy corner of the Peacock garden.

 Originally designed as assortment of pheasants, fighting cocks, blackbirds but now generally all referred to as all peacocks, surround these large holding beds for a great assortment of perennials. We lifted Asters- thomsonii, cordifolius and calliope, Monarda mohawk, Echinacea rubinwerg, some beautiful Persicaria amplexicaulis'firetail'. We divided these, amended the soil with mushroom compost, bonemeal and some grit(soil is very heavy here), and put back some of the plants(the rest went of to the nursury to be divided further and planted). Then Forget-me-nots and a ton of bulbs are interspersed- Alliums aflatunense and Tulip atilla. Then some large Verbascum 'christo's yellow lightning' were carefully inserted. (I cannot wait to see these pics next spring and summer!) It was an amazing experience to work with almost the whole crew here, including Fergus and Siew Lee (she's second in command). It was the end of a long week. Everyone seemed to be happy to be doing just what they were doing. We were as a group, incredibly productive. There a palpable contented and busy energy in the garden that I tried to take in and store for those quiet solitary times back in my VT gardens.

The nursery

These are two of the many sheep that are on three sides of the house we live in. The nursery is a fascinating place, very busy, with staff constantly on the move. We've been digging up lots of annuals that get cut, potted and are overwintered in cold frames- cool idea- must try this. I'm completely knackered each night, sorry for not adding more. Off to bed, cheers.

We've run off to Hastings!

Friday we left Dixter (in the middle of the day!) to go off to have the best fish and chips in England!(that's what I was told and I must say it was the absolute best I've ever had) Fergus thought that it would be nice for those of us that worked directly with the symposium group to join them on this fun expedition. I certainly enjoyed seeing this amazing old fishing village where Fergus actually lives with his wife and 2 little girls.