COUNTRY LIFE
THE worse the weather the more native plants and some native wild creatures seem to flourish. November was a month of gale and rain ; but seldom have flowers so prospered beyond their season. Apples have been in blossom ; the lawn is well studded with daisies ; both climbing and bedding roses continue to supply bowls of good blooms, and a polyanthus hedge is a wall of flowers ; in October the winter-flowering viburnum fragrans began to open its blossoms, which are now nearly over ; in spite of earlier frosts that most tender of garden plants, the nasturtium (golden gleam), continues to blossom ; a meadow is diapered, as the French say, with yarrow. How more than green are the wheat fields! In celebration of such a floral festival the spring-like songs of native birds— lark as well as thrush and robin—mingle with the chuckle of winter immigrants, which are finding carnal as well as vegetable food. Were ever the tribe of worms—and indeed moles—more active at the beginning of December? There are tales of swallows and warblers that have refused to migrate. What a pity that we find it too difficult to join in this general rejoicing!
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