Bare Trees

Although it was cold today, it was at least dry. There was even a bit of blue sky! We went to the gym this morning and then tried the new Costa on the retail park next to Morrisons - I needed fuel and Morrisons were the cheapest in town today. Nice enough brew, but I still prefer Caffè Nero. Whilst up that end of town, we popped into Aldi for a bit of food shopping.
Arriving home, the temptation was just to spend the afternoon in front of the fire, but we’d said that if the weather was dry, we should try and do at least half an hour in the garden as there is a lot that needs tidying.
So I pruned the top of the tree and swept the deck whilst Mrs C cut back some Peonies that had died in the frost, as well as removing the unknown plant that had managed to climb halfway up the trunk of the tree - it didn’t really produce any flowers and was in danger of getting too big, so out it went.
I have tried to cut the tree back to encourage thicker growth lower down, but will have to wait until next spring now to see if I’ve succeeded.
Forty minutes was quite long enough out in the cold but, if the weather remains dry this week, there is no reason why we can’t do the same each day. Next area to be tackled is the front garden, where some of the shrubs are very overgrown and spilling on to the pavement. Some radical pruning is probably required to get things back under control, but Mrs C will have to oversee that as I tend to get a bit too trigger happy with the electric trimmer if left unsupervised…