0 2009-10-31T21:25:32-07:00 false 8.45pm Rain, rain, two 'heavy rain' warnings in 48 hours, we are told that the snow is retreating to 2000m but we can't see whether that is so because the mountains are covered with cloud right down to the vallery bottom. The garden drips and gurgles, the Michaelmas daisies begin to succumb to the gloom, the Autumn crocuses are bright blips of colour but mainly lying flat. The Summer Sun God, Lugh, (and whatever his Welsh equivalent) is dead, it is Hallow E'en, All Hallows, the Day of the Dead, the beginning of the long dark winter as the clocks go back and it becomes dark at 4.00pm. Reading Snelirish's journal, I remembered that I too had seen an Arum leaf in the Shade bed, but had not entered it in my plant list. We used to occasionally see the bright berries in the woods when I was growing up in Wales. I don't remember seeing the flower although I probably did but the stiff finger of berries was very eye-catching. There was a creepy back lane running between the back yards of some older houses and a new estate, well barely more than a narrow path lined with brambles, and Deadly Nightshade vines with its strange purple flowers and dark glistening berries, and another Nightshade with red berries. I got out my Audubon Guide to North American Wild Flowers and they identify Bittersweet Nightshade (Solanum dulcamara) as an introduced plant "sometimes called Deadly Nightshade" and having bright red berries. We knew all about what was edible and what was not as we gleaned blackberries, elder berries, mouth-puckering sloes, nuts and other snacks from the hedgerows. My gang of friends and I must have spent quite a lot of time in the unkempt areas of our suburb and the country was only an hour's walk away, less if one had a bike. Photo: the chrysanthemum which barely manages to flower before it snows, if I can get another Morden chrysanthemum I will take this one out. 2 false 70349 false false false Entry 2009-10-30T17:00:00-07:00 DMY 86041 Public 2009-10-31T21:25:32-07:00 1175 Rainy 5 C