We were pretty close to ecstatic last year at this time when October turned out to be a wonderfully mild, colourful, sunny month, making our trip to the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire a resounding success, taking a chance on our part, going a full month later than we usually do, and than we did, in fact, this fall. On our return we began cleaning up the fall garden, tidying up for spring. And we did it, a job that took quite a while, in the comfort of mild temperatures.

Yesterday in contrast, we finally completed that task, cutting back perennials, composting annuals, emptying the garden pots of dirt. Even for a small property like ours, it's become a gigantic task for us, given our dedication to beds and borders everywhere we can conceive of them giving us pleasure. Only this year the execution of the clean-up has been, week after week a few hours at a time, in the throes of tingling-cold and blustery winds.

Yesterday was no exception. We were grateful to leave much of the windy bluster behind when we entered the ravine for our daily walk with Jackie and Jillie. The cold was enough on its own, to warrant dressing especially against the cold, for augmented by stiff winds, its effect was penetrating. And unlike the days preceding it albeit cold, there was prevailing sun -- but not so, yesterday. Still, a walk along forest trails is a treat to the senses whatever the season or the accompanying weather and we all four make the most of those visual and physical treats we're exposed to.

When we returned, I resolved to finally get around to planting the bulbs we'd bought; alliums, tulips and ranunculus; ten in number, twenty and thirty respectively. The wind was emphatically not sympathetic to my enterprise, but ignoring it, I set about using the handy little earth excavator I've had for aeons, to plant bulbs. It extracts a cylinder of soil quite usefully, at a depth just right for inserting bulbs. It takes a firm hand to use it in releasing the soil, but it performs very well.

And so I planted the alliums as a backdrop to the shorter tulips and finally the very short ranunculus went in front. Mostly they were planted in the new garden bed toward the very front of the lawn, though some tulips and ranunculus went elsewhere in other garden beds. I can harbour hope that local squirrels won't mischievously extract too many of the bulbs as they're wont to do, and that come mid-spring we'll be rewarded with some early colour and texture in the garden.

I had been determined to get the job done yesterday, hauling out the solar lamps -- twenty of them in the process -- for storage as well through the winter months, because although we've already been treated to a few days of random light snow flurries, we knew the following days to come were forecasted complete with snow interspersed with freezing rain. This way the bulbs will have the opportunity to establish themselves before the ground frost penetrates in short order, the moisture that descends in the meanwhile will encourage the growth of roots.