Evergreen Week

The first snow of the winter comes swirling down on the Thursday of week 2010/47 and night temperatures dive to minus five. By Friday afternoon the grass is mostly covered, with only the long blades peeping out, and wildlife is looking for winter food. On the Saturday night or Sunday morning we have a visit from a fox.
Back on October 30, we lost the friendly spirit of our garden, a lonely white dwarf rabbit named Chip, which died of either a broken heart or a distemper. Chip, the last of our two rabbits (the other died of a facial abcess and heart failure in the spring), was much wept over and was buried by the boys in a shallow grave.
Four weeks later, smart Mr Fox is hunting for food in the snow and catches the scent of carrion. The dig leaves soil strewn over a band of snow almost two metres across. A hunter neighbour visits and confirms that the tracks in the snow are those of a fox. We can see where the carcass has been dragged across the ground for seven or eight metres. A paper covering has fallen off. The fox has finally managed to grab the meal and carry it. He wobbled a little at first, then managed to walk away in a straight line with it to who knows where.
The low temperatures have made the last foliage droop in the garden and only the evergreens remain strong. We have had an invasion of birds since the snow fell: they are picking off the remaining grapes and the red berries of the Photinia davidiana.

Evergreen Week

Week 2008/47 is that time in the second half of November when winter often arrives in Hamburg with frosts and the first falls of snow. Not always: in some years, mild weather continues into December and an abortive mini-spring happens in vegetation until harder frosts freeze off the buds. Early Monday this week we had a mild early morning frost and snow is forecast for the end of the week. This is the moment when the evergreens come into their own: lively holdouts against the cold. The grass is still mostly green, but looking a little peaky.