Late Year Interest - Alive or Dead

If you gaze out at the garden at this time of year, there doesn't appear to be much happening at all. The days are a bit damp and chilly, there are some leaves on the ground that need raking up but the whole place looks a bit dank and lifeless. Actually, a little wander up the path reveals a whole world of interest and surprises. 

Even things that have died have a fascination of their own, and often a mystery too. For example some of the dead leaves waiting to be raked were not from my garden at all. There was a little cluster of bright red leaves I didn't recognise and they weren't from the neighbouring gardens either.  I don't even know what tree or shrub they came from but they certainly were a gorgeous colour - very cheering. Then there are the bright yellow leaves I picked up in the street coming back from the post box. In their dead state their strange and shapely cut-out shapes are somehow emphasised.                                                       

Another dead thing was the bird skull I found in the kale patch, so light and delicate I hardly dared pick it up. It's the most exquisite piece of sculpture.  I haven't been able to identify the bird but I suspect it is a crow - perhaps from the family that was nesting when the big ash tree was cut down earlier in the year. Anyway, it's been on my mantelpiece among other tiny treasures for about a month now.

Three views of bird skull

                                     

While all these things were dying, some creative creature was busy cutting out patterns along the vein lines of my clary sage, leaving doyley-like holes in its enormous leaves. You couldn't do a better job with a pair of sharp scissors.  I find that a very satisfying example of recycling. 

Clary sage cut-outs

                                         

Other live creatures who are busy at this time of year are the largish brown garden spiders. At first sight they are just round brown objects, but if you look closer you see the star shaped white markings on their backs and their handsome striped legs. This spider weaves a particularly large round web which can catch the low winter sunlight spectacularly leaving one full of admiration for the skill and dedication that created it. 

Garden spider

And her web

Last week the sun was shining while rain was pouring down so I went out to look at the dark dark sky and was rewarded with a truly fine rainbow spreading from a neighbour's scaffolding to the far end of the garden. That definitely seemed not just alive but optimistic too. 

                                     

While I was looking up guide books to spiders on the internet I found Complicated Spiders anti-stress colouring book, illustrated by Antony Briggs, published by Complicated Colouring (2015). These are not spiders you will find in any garden, but an intricate and fascinating imagining of spiders of all shapes, sizes and patterns. I thought this would make a really good present for somebody on lockdown who needed an absorbing project to fill in the hours. (For arachnophobes, there are lots of other books in the series.)