November began in the same vein as the end of October – dull, still and mild. Not conducive to photography, but excellent conditions for catching up with autumnal clearing around the garden – leaf clearance and cutting back being the main goals, before masses of bulb nose shoots begin to emerge – which in fact by early November, they already are.

It wasn’t until November 7th, (the above 2 images) that the tiniest hint of sunlight or blue sky emerged to the South, gradually spreading through the morning to make a wonderful autumnal day, with enough of a gentle breeze to even allow me to burn 2 bonfires of piled brash, which have been sitting in fields for nearly 18 months – such has the been the extent of the lack of extended dry spells in recent times.

Although many of the mature trees have already lost their leaves in what’s been a fairly ordinary season for autumnal leaf colour, we still have enough shrubs and small trees which colour up much later, and so extend garden fireworks well into November.

Even longer if one takes into account the effects of shed leaves lying on the ground – which we allow in all parts of the garden, merely using the lawnmower to clear them from paths and yards and spreading the chopped leaves back onto any borders which don’t benefit from direct leaf fall.

The month progressed in similarly benign mode, with some more lovely sunrises, and occasional sunsets, no more frosts, and plenty of colour in late flowers and leaves.

Some special unique observational vignettes too – from a uniquely lit small cloud at dawn, to honey bees collecting propolis from the sticky buds of Sorbus sargentiana on a warm day around the middle of the month, to a family of long-tailed tits pretending to be leaves on Betula ‘Silver Shadow’, and a Nuthatch trying, unsuccessfully, to ram a hazelnut into hole on the bog old oak, as I sat waiting to see how the sunset developed over the yew ‘windows/viaduct’.

There were still lots of tree leaves left to fall as we passed November 17th, awaiting either more frosts, or strong winds to bring them all down. On balance a really special month, for what is often the most disappointing of the year here. Enlivened even more by a VERY early daffodil, opening on Armistice Day, November 11th. This is so early I wonder whether it’s an aberrant Rjinveld’s Early Sensation, or possibly a seedling form flowering for the first time. Our previous record was in 2023, when we had one open of Christmas Eve. And a melancholic, though beautiful image of a dying bumblebee, resting up, as they often seem to, inside a late Geranium flower.

Two more sharp frosts did indeed arrive on the 19th to minus 4 degrees C, which lasted for 3 days with icy winds form the North and a build up of hail as well as snow flurries. Everywhere the ground became treacherous.

Remembering that I’d left the glazed terracotta bird bath outside, I nipped out 2 hours after dark to find ice had already formed. Brought it into the kitchen and finding that the ice melted quite quickly, had an idea: freed the disc and took it outside again propping it up in a slat on the wooden table top. These pictures and this short video were the result. Please note that the LED torch light produced a strobe effect for a few seconds early on, but it’s worth getting past this for the wonderful piano music, ‘apparently’ played by the mysterious ‘Pandora Selfridge’.

 

However, once again we enjoyed some gorgeous sunshine, and colours in foliage which is still hanging on as our latest trees – a few Cornus, and Zelkova may still be left with leaves heading into December.

This year, for the first time, I’ve opted to start levelling molehills as and when they appear, to save a massive job later in the spring. Sind we now have mole activity in all our 6 fields, it’s a good form of exercise, which having gradually caught up on the mole’s early autumn work, means around an hour of exercise, every couple of days – typically they’ll generate around 20 new mole hills every couple of days per field. I must try to estimate from this what the mole population actually is.

We finally said goodbye to our tup, and several of our older ewes, the day before the cold arrived. So have whittled our flock back down to 16, which we feel comfortable with as we get creakier.

The month played out with a named storm ‘Bert’ arriving and dumping 103 mm of rain over 36 hours – one of the most concentrated events we’ve ever recorded here.

However we had still more wonderful sunrises and colour leading up to the month’s end which made for a much better than usual early winter month, with another couple of frosty mornings.

More snowdrops made it out in this milder weather on the last day of the month – ‘Colossus’, ‘Bess’. Fieldgate Prelude’ and ‘Mrs. Macnamara’, above.

The month ended on a mild, grey and wet note, with a rainfall total of 209.81 mm. Yet a total of 12 dry days, and 4 night frosts, although a poor PV reading for the month of 81.78 KWH, (compare light levels with the best November for dry days – 2016, below) reflecting how many dry but overcast days fell at the beginning of the month.. Given the generally gloomy and wet weather for much of 2024, I was sufficiently impressed by the charms of this particular November to scribble and post a poem titled ‘November!’, on the last day of the month.

The Met Office data for November is interesting, highlighting how different the weather was in the first and second halves. And rather ominously saying that the last time as much snow fell in November was in 2010 – which turned out to be the coldest winter in over a century!

2014: 191.6mm rain, 11 dry days, 1 day of frost, PV – 115 KWH

2015: 353.5 mm rain, 2 dry days, PV – 73.43 KWH

2016: 81.7 mm rain,16 dry days, 2 hard frosts, PV – 129.49 KWH

2017: 212.6 mm rain, 3 dry days, No frosts,  PV – 98.98 KWH

2018: 252.2 mm rain, 11 dry days, PV – 111.44 KWH

2019: 248.6 mm rain, 6 dry days (some snow), PV – 98.02 KWH

2020: 200.4 mm rain, 7 dry days, PV – 102.48 KWH

2021: 69.7mm rain, 10 dry days, PV – 103 KWH

2022: 294.5 mm rain, 4 dry days, PV – 84.12 KWH

2023: 227.9 mm rain, 4 dry days, 3 days frost to minus 7, PV – 102.84 KWH

2024: 209.81 mm, 12 dry days, 4 days frost to minus 4, PV – 81.78 KWH