Leaves with everything

Today the weather is much more like "normal" November weather, with strong winds and torrents of rain - although it is still very mild. Between rain-showers I took a little trip round my garden with the camera in hand. What I saw was mostly leaves. Wet leaves.

Libertia (with Maple leaves)

Hellebores (with Dogwood leaves)

Scraping away some of the leaves on top of those Hellebores, I find that many of the plants are putting up flower-stems now. I think it will soon be time to trim off most of their foliage to make room for the new growth. I'm not doing today though!

New shoots coming up on a Hellebore plant

There are still a few little splashes of colour, but it's mostly a definite case of "faded glory":

Geranium - a very "past it" bloom

My dead-heading regime hasn't kept pace with this one!

Soggy Coreopsis!

There is a little colour on some of the Hydrangea flowers still.

Still a little colour on some of the Hydrangea flowers

But most of them have faded from bright pink to a muted grey-green colour.

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Whereas the Blueberries have gone the opposite way. Leaves that were plain green during the Summer are now an eye-catching scarlet.

Blueberry

This tiny Calendula is probably the last of its kind for this year, but it certainly stands out in the gloom!

At one point this morning I had to go out and rescue my Olive tree, which had been blown over by the wind, despite being in a big (and heavy) pot. I also weighted-down my mini-greenhouses with some spare bricks to stop them blowing away. I'm mighty glad I staked all my Brassica plants the other day, otherwise they would probably have been flattened by now!

Back to the armchair gardening now...