Weeding the Web

Tree Following: relaxing into winter

There's a certain resemblance to a bog-brush (or five) about the lilac at the moment. The shoots have lost some of their middle leaves, so there's bunch at the bottom and a few at the top.

The rest are continuing to brown.

A spider has found one a useful anchoring point:

And there's a pleasing hint of life awaiting the spring:

How will it fare next year, I wonder?

To follow more trees around the world this month, visit Loose and Leafy.

Christmas cards for gardeners (just add money)

Just arrived are the winners of the children's competition to design Christmas cards for the National Garden Gift Voucher scheme. It attracted a lot of attention, with massive 10,000 entries so it must have been quite a task going through them. Here are the winners:

The designs came from 9-year-old Sofia (Catford area) and 10-year-old Emily (St James and St John CofE Primary, Buckingham) respectively.

Of course, if you want someone to enjoy one of them, you'll have to buy a voucher to put in it.

But no gardener is going to object to that.