The compost bin I made last year out of salvaged joists is also a good sawhorse for cutting more of the timbers. I'm making a couple of work benches to go in the greenhouse. A Robin and a Thrush kept a close watch for titbits as I disturbed the wood pile- grubs, spiders, worms etc.

 

  Reality can be pretty strange sometimes. As I stepped out this morning I heard the pitter patter of splashy raindrops. I saw the slabs on the patio were getting wet. Then I did a double take.

 The big holly tree next door looms overhead. When it rains there is a dry spot under its branches. Now that dry spot was splattered with wet and the exposed area of the patio was dry! I could only conclude that it was raining under the tree but not out of the sky!

 Then my befuddled brain figured out was going on. Moisture had frozen overnight on the glossy holly leaves. As the morning temperature rose above zero the frozen water was dripping down. At that point I realised I could hear a gentle crackling sound from the whole tree which was the leaves thawing out.

 Simple enough when I understood it but for a few moments reality made no sense at all.

 

 I came across these Snowdrop bulbs coming into growth even though I forgot to plant them last autumn. A bulb is a storage organ so already has "food" for the growing season. I potted them up and hopefully they will settle in, flower and begin storing sustenance for the following year.

 NB I have noted before that Snowdrops should be planted when freshly lifted because they do not like to dry out. That is generally true but these are Galanthus elwesii whose natural habitat is the Taurus mountains in Turkey. This species is adapted to drying out in the parched summers there which no doubt explains why they are going strong despite several months in a paper bag.

 

 Do plants think? "The dynamics of plant nutation" is an intriguing piece of research published in the journal Scientific Reports. It posits that climbing beans show intent in seeking out structures to climb rather than merely growing until they happen to come into contact with them.

 I believe that plants are sentient though it seems many botanists disagree. Of course it is not the sentience that humans possess so it's not helpful to drift into the realms of anthropomorphism. None the less the myriad of infinitely subtle ways that plants sense and interact with their surroundings both above and below ground seems to me to be a form of consciousness.  

 

 The thermometer is on zero but it's nice to see some shards of winter sunshine illuminating bare branches. Sleet and snow predicted tomorrow!

 

 

A bit of psychedelia for a grey day- a field near the Pegsdon Hills last summer. 

 

 New Year's Day. Made an enclosure for collecting leaves to produce leafmould (sometimes called leaf mold!). I say "made"- four bamboo canes and some netting. A year is sufficient for a nicely decomposed mulch/soil improver, two years for some lovely crumbly stuff to mix with loam and compost for a potting mix. Who knows what the future holds but at least there will be leafmould.