The relationship with my garden in December cools with the weather to one of mutual mistrust and even disdain. Often only loyalty to memories of seasons past and hope in what is to come keep the relationship ticking over. If any of the shards of autumn still cling at its outset, they are all discarded by the end. The days are absurdly short with the sun sinking down exactly in line with the wooden greenhouse on 21 December so that - if it is not too cloudy-it lights up with an orange flare as though with chilly flames. Areas that are sun-filled from April to October get no light at all and if I do not set out to take the dogs for their walk by 3.30pm, I will almost certainly come home in the dark.
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Tales from Titchmarsh
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