My new squirrel feeder

I proudly put up a bird feeder last weekend and watched with delight as birds came to it straight away. The seeds have been going down very quickly and so I really filled it up today. Being a Sunday I had more time to watch today and realised the reason it goes down so quickly is that it is actually a squirrel feeder. They were queuing up to eat the seeds. So I've put a suet pudding out for the birds. I went back to the garden center to get a squirrel proof feeder today but they didn't have any. So the squirrels are doing quite well from my garden - I'm already concerned about the number of bulbs they've eaten. They've dug up most of the crocus pots over the last couple of weeks.

My husband did buy me some lovely new secateurs as a Christmas present though. So now I can neaten up the bushes & shrubs in the garden. The apple tree is what really needs pruning. I have been reading my pruning book but I'm still a bit nervous about what to cut off. I'm going to need the loopers and a step ladder for that though.

On Friday my friend who works for the RHS was in London visiting and so I got to talk plants with him for a while which I enjoyed. I'm hoping he'll come and help when I need to plant up the new flower beds. Plus a promised visit to RHS Wisley.

I ordered some dogwood today plus some more Helleborus Niger/Christmas roses that were on a offer in a magazine. The dogwood is going to go at the back of the back bed. The christmas roses I planted before look really nice at the end of the garden and I'll put the others nearby but in a new clump.

Over Christmas I'm hoping to finish off breaking up the path so that we can make the greenhouse i got for my birthday and put it up. I want to move all the concrete away from where it is sitting so that the soil underneath can start to break up.

These pics all look a bit dark - I hadn't realised how foggy it got whilst I was outside!

Happy Christmas.