It seems only yesterday that we were sweltering through one of the hottest summers ever! At least that’s what it felt like.

The lawn felt it, the flowers felt, the trees felt it - all our plans of planting a beautiful English Box hedge around the front gard, with roses and foxgloves and lashings of bright annuals, went on hold. Extra water restrictions loomed and the heat was relentless.

Even the dust on The Sampson’s lovely white coat had to remain there. Hosing it off was ‘verboten’.

So the gardens became a plant-free mulch zone - black mulch providing the contrast to the colour scheme, rather than simply being the final touch to a flourshing colourful summer pallette.

Fast track to August and all is forgiven.

Isn’t it amazing how some cold weather and snow can effectively erase the pain of the long hot summer… in a heartbeat!! And doesn’t she look swell - with her winter cover on. There is something endlessly magical about that white blanket - as it falls… as it settles… as it rests. Not for my mother where she grew ujp in the Canadian prairies, where they had only 90 days between killing frost and killing frost. Where snow was measured in ‘feet’ not centimetres - where salt on roads and shovelling snow was an everyday part of more than half the year. Probably a lot different now!

We shall continue to revel in the magic that a cool winter can bring to Orange.

The long hot summer seems so far away.