Enhancing The Display

 

Graham and Ali  spent the first few hours yesterday working on the Broadwalk border, weeding it and cutting down the Hellebore foliage. The removing of the old foliage will allow the newly emerging flowers to be seen, enhancing their wonderful display when all the flowers are open, as well as preventing the smothering of the snowdrops when they push through the soil. Today, having also started to mulch the Broadwalk yesterday, they were joined by Ady, Callum and a volunteer gardener to completed the task.

Pruning Begins

 

The pruning of the climbers began today starting with those on the top terrace. Last year the team managed to get an early start on the large amount of pruning around the college grounds, see blog entry 'Getting A Head Start' 16th December 2011 and this year the pruning has started even earlier. First to be pruned, the Campsis, a deciduous, woody stemmed climber whose sideshoots were cut back to two or three buds.

Christmas Is Coming

 

The Christmas trees that Simon chose from Waterperry Gardens arrived this morning, one of which was for display in the Pump Quad. Following the removal of the Olive tree which had got pot bound, there was now an empty pot fit for a Christmas tree. When the tree was unwrapped, the team received lots of positive comments, a beautiful tree and so many people surprised to see a Christmas tree in the Pump Quad, hopefully the first year of many.

A Surprise Early Visit

This morning there was a surprising sight on the lake, the Goosanders! Not expected until next February they have arrived 3 months early, 2 males and three females. Last year they arrived one month early, they usually fly in between the 16th to 18th February, see blog entry 'Goosanders Are Back 2012' 18th February 2012. Has the unseasonal weather altered bird migration? What are they telling us, are we in for a cold or warm winter? only time will tell.
An very informative blog, for those of you interested in birds and their migration, have a look at the BTO Bird Migration Blog.

All The Leaves Are Down

 

After giving up chasing leaves around the college grounds yesterday, the swirling 30mph winds made it impossible to catch them, the team resumed their battle today only to find that, overnight, the wind had blown the leaves into large piles ready to pick up. Mother Nature must have had so much fun yesterday watching the team raking up the leaves only to see them blown all over the grounds before they could be picked up, so much fun that she decided to pile them up for easy collection today! The leaves are all down by the end of November this year, all that's left is to spend the next few weeks mowing and raking them up.  

Snowdrops In Autumn Leaves

 

First mentioned in the blog back in 2009, see blog entry 'Snowdrops' 23rd October, these lovely autumn flowering snowdrops, Galanthus reginae olgae, are found under a tree on the Nuffield Lawn. Nestled in amongst the autumn leaf fall they remind us of what is to come in three months time, a wonderful display of snowdrops marking the end of winter and the beginning of spring. On comparing the dates of the two posts, this year they are in flower a month later than 2009.   

Nine Dozen Bottles

 

The first half of this years 'Worcester College Apple and Pear Juice'  has arrived from Waterperry Gardens, nine dozen bottles all needing to be labelled. Ali spent a few hours this morning placing two labels on each bottle and they are now ready to be sold, the other half will arrive soon also needing to be labelled. Due to the decreased yield from our fruit trees this year, a poor summer and the lack of flower pollination by insects, the pressing of fruit only produced 200 bottles compared to the previous few years, they will sell out fast.