It's alive!

Unaccountably, one of our three honeysuckles gave up in mid-season. All it's leaves turned brown and shrivelled, behaving as if autumn had come when it was actually weeks away. I was so alarmed, I even spent some time reassuring myself that we had not severed its roots when we had a trench dug nearby by a mechanical digger (definitely not). I concluded it must have contracted something and died

Today is the first time for a while I have looked at it closely. Nope, not dead! As we head into winter - indeed we have had at least three frosts already - it has decided this is a good moment to break bud and grow new leaves. Maybe some of you experts will tell me this is normal. I don't remember it being leafless in summer for so many weeks in previous years. I don't understand why a plant would do that - missing out on all that life-giving photosynthesis, only to risk new leaves in the dark, cold depth of winter. Perhaps this variety is not a native of northern latitudes and subbornly sticks to the patterns of its origins

Post two vaccines, I'm not feeling so perky myself: head a little dizzy and thoughts a bit confused. Perhaps everything will be clearer in the morning