garden photography: urban spaces

December is the month for Urban floral displays

(Flowers found in Urban spaces – a town square, a flower tub, a hanging basket, a floral clock or any floral display including a public park. And as we are approaching Christmas you could even share with me your town’s Christmas lights)

The Green Man of Norwich Cloisters

This is my last post in the Garden Challenge since next Sunday is Christmas Day. Continuing my journey up the east side of Britain in September, I was delighted to discover this pretty little cathedral herb garden in Norwich. The Benedictine monks grew herbs and used them daily for a variety of purposes; brewing, dyeing cloth, to give flavour to their bland diet and for medicinal use. Herbs would have been strewn on the cathedral floor too during worship to mask the odour of the earth floor and enhance an atmosphere of calm and contemplation.

I wasn’t expecting to see much in the way of colour, but it was lovely to see how the garden was laid out and after the rain everything was nice and fresh.

I loved the pottery signs:

Ladys Mantle

Agrimony

Poppy

Mugwort

Wild Strawberry

Sweet Woodruff

The garden has been recreated with herbs matching as closely as possible those which the monks would have grown. In particular, herbs important to Norwich. There is evidence of a tradition ‘physic’ garden in the variety of medicinal plants.

Two box-hedged ‘knot gardens’ reflect the patterns of the stone tracery of the famous Norwich cathedral roof bosses.

And in keeping with the monks’ tradition of including a space for quiet contemplation there is a small area in the Herb Garden with benches where people can sit and rest.

No sitting for us however, for one thing the benches were wet and we had a riverside walk to complete before the day was over.

Do you have a town park to share? Maybe your town has won an award for its public planting?

If you would like to join in with Garden Photography then please take a look at my Garden Photography Page. No complicated rules🙂

• Create your own post and include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
• Add the tag “GardenChallenge” so everyone can find the posts easily in the WP Reader
• Get your post in by the end of the month. This is the final month of the challenge.
• Please visit the sites in the comments to see what others are posting.

This is my final post for the Garden Challenge, but you still have until the end of the month to post your entry. I hope those of you who have been following have enjoyed the various themes each month and I am especially grateful to every one of you who has joined in. Thank you all for the lovely likes and comments throughout the year. It has been a lot of fun for me and an excuse to feature something a little different on the blog. Only trouble now is thinking about what I am going to do with this blog next year. Any ideas?

Meanwhile I hope you have an enjoyable time, however you choose to celebrate this festive season, and I hope to see you all in the new year.

garden photography: urban spaces

December is the month for Urban floral displays

(Flowers found in Urban spaces – a town square, a flower tub, a hanging basket, a floral clock or any floral display including a public park. And as we are approaching Christmas you could even share with me your town’s Christmas lights)

My second urban space is also from my September trip along the east coast of England – the Abbey Gardens in Bury St Edmunds. The Abbey Gardens were created within the walls of the former medieval monastery and contain a mixture of bedding plants and quiet corners in which to relax.

The park was laid out as a botanic garden in 1831 and opened to the public in 1912. The best time to see it is spring when 40,000 bulbs are opening; we were there in early September when the planting is past its best, but it was still a colourful space.

I’m afraid we got distracted by the abbey ruins and then the cathedral so I don’t have many photos to share. However I did want to show you the lovely bee friendly garden.

The new colourful green feature underneath the mosaic was part of the Bury in Bloom to promote pollination with plants to attract bees and other insects. Creative group “The Crafty Foxes” also installed bees and ladybirds made from recycled cans by local children in the garden. It was part of the “Kids Crafty Can” competition in which children could decorate a can and plant a wild flower in it.

Do you have a town park to share? Maybe your town has won an award for its public planting?

If you would like to join in with Garden Photography then please take a look at my Garden Photography Page. No complicated rules🙂

• Create your own post and include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
• Add the tag “GardenChallenge” so everyone can find the posts easily in the WP Reader
• Get your post in by the end of the month. This is the final month of the challenge.
• Please visit the sites in the comments to see what others are posting.

garden photography: urban spaces

December is the month for Urban floral displays

(Flowers found in Urban spaces – a town square, a flower tub, a hanging basket, a floral clock or any floral display including a public park. And as we are approaching Christmas you could even share with me your town’s Christmas lights)

Colchester’s Castle Park is right in the centre of the town. Dominated by the castle, it provides a wonderful green lung for locals and visitors alike. On a very warm and sunny September morning I enjoyed a stroll through this urban space – so put on your walking shoes and come and join me.

Most impressive are the entrance railings and gates. (Grade II Listed). which are late nineteenth century.

The Gates

The dominating Norman castle.

This bee display in front of the castle is very eye-catching.

Castle Park was opened on 15 October 1892. It is divided into the Upper Park and Lower Park by the Roman Wall that crosses through it east to west. The park spans an area of 11 hectares and is listed Grade II in the English Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Importance.

View of the gates and war memorial

Roses were still in bloom in early September

Autumn Colours

Hot Chocolate

Jenny’s Rose

The site once formed part of the Roman City of Colonia Vitricensis and where a Temple of Claudius stood in honour of the Roman Empire until the city fell to Boudicca in 60/61 AD.

Later, in 1076, the Normans built a castle on top of the Temple remains and it was once used as a prison where those accused of heresy and witchcraft were held.

(In the early part of the 17th century, the prison was used by Mathew Hopkins, Witchfinder General, to interrogate witches – A sign of a true witch was a part of the body where the witch showed no pain (Witches Mark) One of his techniques was prick the witch with a pin all over her body – when the witch did not scream he had found her mark.)

The Normans also built an earth bank which covered the Roman wall and a ditch to enclose the Castle Bailey. This is now a flower garden.

The Ditch

In 1727 Charles Gray, a lawyer, antiquary and Tory Member of Parliament for Colchester, was given the castle and surrounding land as a present from his mother-in-law to form a large garden for his house Hollytrees. He remodelled the earth bank and created a tree-lined walk which leads to the summer-house in the form of a classic temple at one end and a stone arch at the other.

The summer-house

Stone arch

A path leads down to the Mayor’s pathway where the Lucas-Lisle Memorial stands. The obelisk is the first memorial in Castle Park, dedicated to two Royalist Officers, Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle who were shot during the siege of 1648 at the end of the Siege of Colchester. Constructed in 1892 on the site where the men are thought to have been executed.

The Obelisk

North side of the castle

A tranquil spot is the Imola Garden Pond where dozens of large Koi carp give pleasure to many visitors (NB: During the cleaning of the pond in November the fish were removed and transferred to a large container which was vandalised during the night resulting in the death of 45 fish including all of the oldest, rarest and most valuable Koi Carp that had lived in the pond for many years. A youth, who was drunk at the time, was later arrested and charged for the crime)

Imola Garden Pond

Imola Garden Pond

Imola Garden Pond

Imola Garden Pond

Imola Garden Pond

Bandstand

There is also a sensory garden and a dry garden within the park and in the Lower Garden, a model boating pond.

Sensory Garden Bench

Dry Garden

Dry Garden

Dry Garden

Hollytrees House (Grade I Listed Building) was built 1718 and the garden and Castle grounds laid out by Charles Gray c.1729. The garden to south front is enclosed by original eighteenth century railings and the house is now a museum taking in domestic life and childhood in Colchester over the past 300 years.

Hollytrees

Hollytrees

Do you have a town park to share? Maybe your town has won an award for its public planting?

If you would like to join in with Garden Photography then please take a look at my Garden Photography Page. No complicated rules🙂

• Create your own post and title it December: Urban Spaces
• Include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
• Add the tag “GardenChallenge” so everyone can find the posts easily in the WP Reader
• Get your post in by the end of the month. This is the final month of the challenge.
• Please visit the sites in the comments to see what others are posting.

garden photography: big tree country

During November I want to see trees or leaves or anything found in a woodland environment

(this can include individual trees or leaves or woodland/forest views, fungi, wildlife or wildflowers – it can be of an autumnal flavour or anytime in the year, up to you)

I mentioned last week about Perthshire being the country of the BIG trees, so my final post for this month’s theme on trees is about the impressive giant Douglas fir.

The tallest tree in the British Isles is a Douglas fir sited next to the Hermitage in Dunkeld which is 12 miles from Douglas’s birthplace in Scone, Scotland. Douglas was born in 1799 and was one of the greatest plant hunters of the Pacific and NW of North America.

Many of our walks in the area took us through forests of these magnificent trees. Above and below are scenes from the walk to Bruars Falls.

The Douglas Fir (pseudotsuga menziesii) is named after David Douglas who sent the first seed back to Britain in 827. Its botanical name commemorates Archibald Menzies who discovered the tree in North America in 1791.

It can be quite amazing walking amongst giants.

If you would like to join in with Garden Photography then please take a look at my Garden Photography Page. No complicated rules🙂

• Create your own post and title it November: Woodland
• Include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
• Add the tag “GardenChallenge” so everyone can find the posts easily in the WP Reader
• Get your post in by the end of the month, as the new theme comes out on the first Sunday in December.
• Please visit the sites in the comments to see what others are posting.

This is your last week to share any woodland, tree, leaves etc with me as next Sunday we begin the final month of the garden challenge which is:

Urban spaces – a town square, a flower tub, a hanging basket, a floral clock or any floral display including a public park. And as we are approaching Christmas you could even share with me your town’s Christmas lights.

Thank you for all your very generous likes and comments this month, it has been a pleasure sharing with you some of my favourite tree photos and visiting your posts. I look forward to seeing what you have to show me in December.

garden photography: the Birnam Oak

During November I want to see trees or leaves or anything found in a woodland environment

(this can include individual trees or leaves or woodland/forest views, fungi, wildlife or wildflowers – it can be of an autumnal flavour or anytime in the year, up to you)

Recently we visited Perthshire – country of the BIG trees. More of those to come. We stayed near Dunkeld and Birnam, small communities north of Perth and where the nearest amenities to our holiday let were. On our final day, not wanting to drive very far owing to a 7 hour drive the following day, we went for a walk around Birnam which has a Beatrix Potter garden and exhibition and a walk in Birnam woods to the Birnam Oak. Now, you may ask yourself, what is so interesting about this oak tree that it has its own walk?

No, not this one. This is a sycamore. Sycamores are non-native trees and this one is a mere youngster being only 300 years old. Home to 15 species of insects, sycamore produces a very white hardwood which doesn’t taint food so is excellent for chopping boards and rolling pins.

In Scotland it is often known as the Bumming tree on account of the bees who love the nectar produced in spring and the noise of their buzzing and humming.  A more gruesome note is that it was also used as a hanging tree, the Laird leaving the corpse to swing in the wind as a warning to others.

The Birnam Oak is old. A living relic of Birnam Wood a medieval forest that once grew alongside the banks of the River Tay. The wood was immortalised by Shakespeare in his play about Macbeth, King of Scotland. This oak has a massive girth of 7 metres (24 feet) and the first 3 metres (10 feet) are hollow. It is a rich habitat for insects and wildlife.  Although this tree is old it is not from the 11th century – the period Macbeth was set in – but it is one of the last trees of the famous wood which played a part in Shakespeare’s play.

Macbeth, a general in the Scottish army, murders his way to the throne believing he is safe from defeat because of a prophecy made by three witches:

Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care
Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are.
Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be until
Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill
Shall come against him.

The witches prophecy, Act IV, Scene I, Macbeth

Because it is highly unlikely that a forest (Birnam Wood) will walk up the hill to his castle (Dunsinane Hill), Macbeth expresses great relief.

Tradition has it that Shakespeare was inspired to write the tragedy after he visited the area as an actor. Records show that a company of strolling actors were permitted to put on a play in Perth in 1589, but none of their names were listed.

For those of you who are wondering how on earth a wood moves up hill (and who have neither read or seen Macbeth)

Scene IV: In the country near Birnam Wood:

Malcolm, Macduff and their army are ready to invade Macbeth´s castle. Malcolm tells his men to camouflage themselves with branches from the trees in the forest.

“Let every soldier hew him down a bough
And bear’t before him; thereby shall we shadow
The numbers of our host and make discovery
Err in report of us.”

Scene V: A messenger arrives telling Macbeth that Birnam Woods is marching on Dunsinane.

So there you have it. A post combining trees and Shakespeare!

If you would like to join in with Garden Photography then please take a look at my Garden Photography Page. No complicated rules🙂

• Create your own post and title it November: Woodland
• Include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
• Add the tag “GardenChallenge” so everyone can find the posts easily in the WP Reader
• Get your post in by the end of the month, as the new theme comes out on the first Sunday in December.
• Please visit the sites in the comments to see what others are posting.

garden photography: New Forest

During November I want to see trees or leaves or anything found in a woodland environment

(this can include individual trees or leaves or woodland/forest views, fungi, wildlife or wildflowers – it can be of an autumnal flavour or anytime in the year, up to you)

Four years ago I was lucky enough to visit the New Forest for my youngest son’s wedding. As it was the same time as my birthday we decided to book into a B&B for a week to allow us time to explore this beautiful natural area. In 1079 William The Conqueror came to The New Forest and named the area his ‘new hunting forest’ – 1000 years later his ‘Nova Foresta’ is one of the few places in England where the ancient landscape has remained relatively unchanged by modern day society. You will still find a mass of beautiful woodlands and heathlands as well as wildlife, such as ponies, pigs, cattle and deer roaming the land and delightful towns and villages to explore.

Uprooted

Family fun

If you would like to join in with Garden Photography then please take a look at my Garden Photography Page. No complicated rules🙂

• Create your own post and title it November: Woodland
• Include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
• Add the tag “GardenChallenge” so everyone can find the posts easily in the WP Reader
• Get your post in by the end of the month, as the new theme comes out on the first Sunday in December.
• Please visit the sites in the comments to see what others are posting.

garden photography: rowan berries

During November I want to see trees or leaves or anything found in a woodland environment

(this can include individual trees or leaves or woodland/forest views, fungi, wildlife or wildflowers – it can be of an autumnal flavour or anytime in the year, up to you)

During my recent trip up north I was very much taken by all the rowan trees in Scotland full to bursting with juicy red (and sometimes yellow) berries. On my return I did some research and discovered that the more fashionable name for these trees is Sorbus – the Latin name is sorbus aucuparia – or mountain ash, though it has nothing to do with the common ash tree.

If you would like to join in with Garden Photography then please take a look at my Garden Photography Page. No complicated rules🙂

• Create your own post and title it November: Woodland
• Include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
• Add the tag “GardenChallenge” so everyone can find the posts easily in the WP Reader
• Get your post in by the end of the month, as the new theme comes out on the first Sunday in December.
• Please visit the sites in the comments to see what others are posting.

Garden Portrait: Drummond Gardens

OCTOBER is the month to share your favourite gardens.

(This month share with us what is special about your favourite garden. Why do you like it? When is it at its best? And how do we get there. Of course you may wish to share your own garden in which case unless you open it to the public, keep the actual location private. )

Drummond Gardens are Scotland’s most important formal gardens and amongst the finest in Europe. Set below the castle walls and surrounded by woodland, rolling countryside and the Ochil Hills to the east they were laid out in 1630 by John Drummond, 2nd Earl of Perth, but took their present format almost two hundred years later. As you enter the courtyard there is no indication of the grandeur to come.

A tiny room on the right of the arched entrance is the ticket office – no fancy gift shop or tea-room here. And then you move to the garden entrance at the top of the terraces.

The design is the Saltaire, the Saint Andrew’s Cross of Scotland, incorporating within the axis the multi-faceted obelisk sundial, built by John Mylne in 1630. The box hedges within the cross contain the Coats of Arms of the Drummond and Willoughby families.

The sundial shows the time in different countries

A view of the castle from the garden

The garden is designed to be viewed from the terraces as once you are on the ground the layout is difficult to see.  The red and yellow roses represent the Drummond colours.

Of course a formal garden like this must include much statutory. Cute cupids, Greek gods and goddesses, animals…

The garden includes fourteen species of Maples so colour in spring and autumn is guaranteed as well as a beautiful copper beech planted by Queen Victoria in 1842 and dozens of deciduous trees and shrubs.

Acer palmatum ‘Atro purpurea’

Holly

Acer shirasawanum ‘Aureum’

At the rear of the garden behind a wall is the kitchen garden with 21 varieties of apples trained to grow up the walls, fruit beds, vegetable beds, roses, dahlias and a glass house filled with pelargoniums, Achimenes, plumbago and a grape-vine.

And once again I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of colour in a garden this far north and in mid-September.

Herbaceous border

Poppy heads

Nasturtium

Sedum with bees

Helenium

White Ox-eye daisies

Antirrhinum

Drummond Gardens are located at Muthill, nr Crieff, Perthshire, Scotland PH7 4HZ and even if you are not a fan of the formal garden it really is worth a visit to view something so unique in the UK. And if you go to the web site there is a lovely video on the Picture Gallery page which uses a drone to take you soaring above the gardens so you can see it all.

If you would like to join in with Garden Photography then please take a look at my Garden Photography Page. No complicated rules 🙂

• Create your own post and title it October: A Garden Portrait
• Include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
• Add the tag “GardenChallenge” so everyone can find the posts easily in the WP Reader
• Get your post in by the end of the month, as the new theme comes out on the first Sunday in November.
• Please visit the sites in the comments to see what others are posting.

This is the last week for showing me your favourite gardens, next Sunday we begin the penultimate month of the challenge (how quickly the year passes) with Trees, leaves, woods, forests, and fungi – autumnal if you like though any time of year is quite alright by me.

As usual I appreciate everyone who has visited me this month to like and/or comment on my posts and a special thank you to those who linked their favourite gardens to mine so that we could all visit them too. I really enjoy my virtual garden walks.

Garden Portrait: Bolfracks Garden

OCTOBER is the month to share your favourite gardens.

(This month share with us what is special about your favourite garden. Why do you like it? When is it at its best? And how do we get there. Of course you may wish to share your own garden in which case unless you open it to the public, keep the actual location private. )

Continuing northwards we reached Scotland. A few days later with the weather returned to clear and sunny we discovered Bolfracks Garden on the A827 between Loch Tay and Aberfeldy in Perthshire. A short sharp turn uphill brings you to a gravel courtyard in front of a castellated Gothic-styled white house which is private. The gardens are open every day from 1st April until 31st October between 10 – 6 pm admission is £4.50 for adults.

The garden faces north and has a fabulous view over the Tay valley and is built on quite a steep slope. Originally a Stuart property it was later bought by a branch of the Menzies family ( in fact you can see the Menzies castle from the grounds) who owned it through the 18th century and built the farmhouse. The Gothic front was added about 1830 by the Taymouth Castle Estate.

Views over the Tay Valley

The soil is acid with good rainfall so suits rhododendrons and azaleas and camellias and other acid loving plants. There is a collection of old roses, viola, old daffodil varieties, hardy geraniums, sorbus, hydrangea, viburnums and a wide range of herbaceous perennials. And specimen trees.

Rugosa Rosa

Rugosa Rosa

Delphinium

Campanula

Lathyrus vernus

It is probably at its best in spring with all the bulbs, bluebells and woodland planting, the mainly grass pathways were a little slippery from the recent showers, but with care we happily made our way around the garden.

One of the rose rooms

The dark burgundy flower at the top of the rose rooms caught my eye, thinking it to be a climbing rose I was surprised to discover that it is in fact a beautiful double clematis, such a rich colour. And it complements perfectly the soft pink roses and the ruby-red penstemons.

Roses, penstemons and clematis

The top walkway with that beautiful clematis

A Double Clematis

The herbaceous borders contained many pretty flowers including hemerocallis, and even though many were going over their trumpet-shaped blooms added height and colour. Butterflies and bees were attracted to the attractive sedum edging the border. And there are one or two beauties that I didn’t recognise.

Herbaceous border

Sedum

Asters

clematis

Hemerocallis

helianthus

Asters

Japanese Anemones

The gardeners have their work cut out on this site, mowing the sloping lawns takes a lot of stamina and you wouldn’t want to leave any tool at the bottom of the garden when working on the upper slopes.

The woodland garden is entered via  log-edged steps and guarded by a pair of lounging lions. From there you can wander through the Burn garden and in to the Spring garden, not too much to see at this time of year, but the running water of the burn, the little bridges and the turning leaves of the specimen trees and shrubs all create interest.

Prunus serrula / Tibetan Cherry / Paberbark

A delightful garden. It was practically empty on this day except for a single American lady who was enjoying the planting and two gardeners who were hard at work, one of whom I enjoyed a lovely chat with. Hopefully he will see this post.

Bolfracks is a garden I would return to in the spring if it were not so far away. But if you have the opportunity, then I certainly recommend that you do so. You will not regret it.

Source of information: Bolfracks leaflet.

If you would like to join in with Garden Photography then please take a look at my Garden Photography Page. No complicated rules 🙂

• Create your own post and title it October: A Garden Portrait
• Include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
• Add the tag “GardenChallenge” so everyone can find the posts easily in the WP Reader
• Get your post in by the end of the month, as the new theme comes out on the first Sunday in November.
• Please visit the sites in the comments to see what others are posting.

Garden Portrait: a water garden

OCTOBER is the month to share your favourite gardens.

(This month share with us what is special about your favourite garden. Why do you like it? When is it at its best? And how do we get there. Of course you may wish to share your own garden in which case unless you open it to the public, keep the actual location private. )

My next showcase garden is in the north-east of England, in the fabulous county of Northumberland. If you have never been to this part of the UK then you are missing a trick. Combine the beaches and castles along the coast with the sublime countryside and history of Hadrian’s Wall and you will have a wonderful holiday. A place I didn’t manage to visit on my holiday in the north some years ago was Alnwick. Famous for its castle and gardens and as we were going to be driving right past the town on the way to Edinburgh on the A1, it seemed daft not to stop over. So we did. Unfortunately this was when the weather decided to change. From hot and humid days with bright sunshine to dull, grey and misty. And the castle was closed for filming.  Not knowing whether we would return to this part of the country again we took our chances and headed to the garden after spending a couple of hours avoiding the rain by perusing the books in the equally famous Barter Books – a second-hand book store and café in a former railway station. More of that on Travel Words eventually.

On entering the garden you are automatically confronted by the water feature. Cascades lead up to a walled garden and every 15 minutes the fountains erupt. You can see from the background how misty it was, but fortunately for us the light rain stopped after half an hour so the camera could come out. Although it was September we headed for the rose garden, not expecting much, but we were pleasantly surprised.

A beautiful, slightly odd (fox and monkeys?) sculpture sits under a lovely metal arbour covered with climbing roses.

Smarty

Just Joey

Jude the Obscure

Smarty

The Alnwick Rose

Sally Holmes

The roses were covered in rain drops, but most of them held their heads high.

And we came across the beautiful gate that I have used as the header image. Climbing roses complete with thorns and buds and lovely glass irises at the base. Don’t you want one like this? I know I do.

Heading up the cascades, peeling off sideways every now and then to discover other fountains, raindrops and views, we finally reached the Ornamental walled garden.

Again I wasn’t expecting to see much in the way of colour, but I was very mistaken. All the colours of the rainbow – and more – were present. Pinks, purples, reds, oranges, yellows, blues, whites and greens. The garden is laid out formally with a centre block where there is a pond crossed by a rill which leads to two other smaller ponds and fountains. The rest of the garden is laid out in beds, often bordered by Box, with pleached trees, obelisks, pergolas and sculptured slate pots adding height.

Decisions!

Plenty of colour and plenty of benches too. Which was good because it took a long time to explore this part of the garden. Around every corner was a surprise and pops of colour beckoned.

A Fairytale blue door

Helenium

Anemone ‘Prinz Heinrich’

Deep Secret

Frog Prince

Slate sculptured vase

Scabiosa Caucasia ‘Clive Greaves’

Cimicifuga simplex ‘Brunette’

Scabiosa Caucasia ‘Clive Greaves’

Quirky little sculptures from fairy tales are hidden in the planting. But the fairy tale attic was closed.

The Fairy Entrance

Fuchsia’s drip over the pathways

Agapanthus

Echinaceae

Hemerocallis ‘Sammy Russell’

Raindrops on Delphiniums

Geranium phaeum ‘Samabor’ not in flower

And a final look at the Cascades

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If you would like to join in with Garden Photography then please take a look at my Garden Photography Page. No complicated rules 🙂

• Create your own post and title it October: A Garden Portrait
• Include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
• Add the tag “GardenChallenge” so everyone can find the posts easily in the WP Reader
• Get your post in by the end of the month, as the new theme comes out on the first Sunday in November.
• Please visit the sites in the comments to see what others are posting.