Lilac, simultaneously losing its leaves and coming into flower

Dear Readers, there is a fair bit of weirdness going on in the garden at the moment. First up, my white lilac tree is simultaneously losing its leaves and producing tiny flowers. Goodness only knows what’s persuaded it that this is a good thing to do. I did chop it back a bit a few months ago (it was the wrong time of year, but things were getting a little out of hand) so maybe that’s something to do with it, though the bits that are flowering are not the chopped bits. Is anybody else’s garden having a bit of a turn? Do share! Confusion abounds. 

Teasel with seedlings in situ

Secondly, whoever said that once you’ve had one teasel in your garden you will never be without them was one hundred percent right. And not a single finch has visited them, at least not while I’ve been watching. This year I am sitting on my hands and not madly cutting everything back in the autumn, in the hope that the insects that hibernate in the hollow stems of the hemp agrimony and the teasel and various other plants will stand a better chance of getting through the winter. Let’s see how it goes.

The seedlings germinating in the seedheads are apparently a result of wet conditions (having had four named storms already this year I can see where the dampness would have come from). You can winkle them out and plant them up, but mine need no encouragement. I do rather like them though. They look like the punk hairdos of my youth.

The magpies are still very defensive of their nest site, even though the fledglings are long gone. I suspect they’ll be back in the spring, and in the meantime the poor old squirrels (all four thousand of them (or at least that’s how it sometimes seems)) must be hanging out elsewhere. There was quite the scene this morning when the squirrels and magpies briefly joined forces to shout at a very impressive new cat – it looks like a long-haired fluffy Siamese cat, so I suspect it’s a Birman, a very fine breed. I shall see if I can get a photo if it reappears, but in the meantime here’s an example.

Birman Cat (Photo by Thomas Günther, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons)

And here’s the nest/drey in question.

And finally, the hazel in the hedge has gone berserk this year, having been vigorously cut back last year. Some branches already have catkins, which is nice to see, and the hedge has filled out enough that I can sometimes hear small birds rustling about in it, without being able to see them. Hooray! I shall have to have a trim very, very early in the spring, before the birds start nesting just to tidy it up.

Hazel catkins

So Readers, in the midst of all the leaf fall and general sense of anarchy, what’s going on in your garden? Keep an eye open for autumn migrants, and keep watching the sky for waxwings – there still seem to be quite few in Norfolk and Suffolk. Move south, little birds! There are plenty of berries in East Finchley!