Autumn Days

Its been raining lots over the past few days so not much has happened in the garden. I have been reading gardening books, and occasionally venturing out to plant more Spring bulbs.
I love the magic of planting bulbs, untill they all dissapear under the cool soil. They are left to their own devices and by next Febuary and March they will have started to flower.
Bulbs were one of the first floral commodoties to start crossing continents, especially from Asia into Europe. Once they had finished flowering and the leaves had died back the plant retreats into its little home, the Bulb.
They are then easily dug up, and transported great distances. Most of my bulbs have probably come from Holland..
I went to Hampsons today and bought Crocuses in purples, whites, and tiger striped yellows. I bought some double flowering Snowdrop bulbs, some Red Hyacinths to force indoors for Xmas flowers, and three Ivory Coast Lily bulbs.
These are all in the ground now, with the Daffodils and the Aliums. I can walk out into the garden through the winter to look for signs of Spring.
A lot of the bulbs were planted around the greenhouse, where I sit most of the time. This gives me views of both halfs of the garden, and the raised border is visible from the bench.
The photo is of a hardy Calendula flowering away in the right hand raised border, under the fir trees. Its colour is pleasing where other plants are dying back in the Autumn days.