I once took a picture of the same view from one of our windows every month for a year and I liked seeing the changes which in the flesh meld into each other. So I did it again with one of my favourite views outside.

Here’s now (ish – right now it’s pouring down). Next door had just lit their fire, hence the smoke. The Leymus arenarius in the foreground has gone beige. No-one notices, of course, that part of our house is still white and most of it black. (paint a chimney, anyone?) And yes, that is moss dripping off the small shelter on the back of the garage on the left.

January (above). I wouldn’t be prepared to swear that this was taken this year – but I knew you’d want a snowy one.

And here’s a February one, with a touch of snow. I never quite work out whether we get good snow and frost cover on our roof because we keep the house so cold or because our insulation is so amazing. But that melted patch I know is Charles heating his little nest.

March, and the Leymus is coming back now, having been cut down and most of it left in situ for mulch. If it all gets left it smothers the new growth so some judicious removal has to take place. generally accompanied by a dispute about whether I will be allowed to use it on the adjoining bed.

Look at the horrific box blight on the box ball in the bottom right. Our major problem at the moment. You will hear more one day. In the meantime there is a glimpse of a magnolia in flower above there, to cheer us up.

April and we see a stray fern spoiling the look of the new growth of the Leymus. The Osmanthus delavayi hedge just across the path from the Leymus is in flower and smells wonderful. We cut it when the flowers go over and it then repeats the trick the following year. In the distance the Euphorbia griffithii ‘Fireglow’  is starting its long season.

That fern is still there (to this day, I suspect) but so is the Euphorbia. See neatly cut hedge…

Here comes June and the wonderful white flowering of the Cornus kousa chinensis  beyond the house, and to the right of it Viburnum plicatum ‘Mariesii’ which despite Alan Titchmarsh’s praise on the link has gone badly backwards here, due, I suspect to disease. Good to see the valerian (Valeriana officinalis ) – one of my favourite plants.

And then July:

The Cornus more visible in this picture. And then (below) August and the elegant white willowherb Chamaenerion angustifolium ‘Album’

and the deplorable common pink one, which I love too. (see this piece in the Telegraph.)

By September it (willowherb) has gone to seed. And I love it still.

Then comes October and autumn colour.

and more of it in our last month – November:

Nice trip?