Garden Girl Blog

... seems to be what we are getting day after day at the moment.  Well except for yesterday where it poured and poured all day.

I hope that summer arrives soon, we still have our heating on!

Mr and Mrs Hog.

They came from a rescue centre in the west of Scotland. My hope is that they will help with the slugs in the garden, if they choose to come and visit our garden.

We got them home and released them that night.  The first night they snuffled around the garden and we could hear them eating things, in the morning neither of them were in the hedgehog house.  The next night the smaller one came back and snoozed in the house all day, he seems to rather like it and has been back there every day since. It has now turned rather cold, so I think he is very sensible.  I hope it warms up for them soon and that they will enjoy living in this area.

The fox thinks it is Christmas as when I put their food out, he gets a little as well, he has been a very regular visitor to the garden since they arrived!

April has turned into sunshine and showers, the grass is getting greener, the trees have buds which are getting ready to burst and the flowers are opening themselves up to the sunshine.

The first bumble bee got photographed in my garden at the weekend.  I saw a hoverfly but he was in a rush and could not stay for a photo.

The birds are very busy as well at the moment, yesterday the local sparrow hawk flew into the kitchen window; I am not sure who had the bigger shock, the bird or me.  It went and sat on the fence waiting for the stars above its head to clear and then it flew off.  It came again tonight and did a lap of the feeder outside the kitchen window.  It did not catch anything and avoided the window.  The little birds better watch out!

At last spring seems to have arrived in the garden.  The bulbs are in full flower, a bee has been seen and the birds are wing flapping to each other and eating everything I put out.   The deck cleaning is underway and we are looking forward to whatever the summer brings.

Work is still busy and I am now going to be there until the end of September, I am enjoying what I am doing but at times a few more hours in the day might be good.  I do missing having more time to potter in the garden, but you cannot have everything.

I have been working at home today and have watched the birds coming to the feeders.  A wagtail has arrived this afternoon, not a bird I often see in the garden, he must be in need of food.

The woodpecker comes many times a day.  Every week when I do my food shopping, I buy a fat block for the feeder they like to visit at the back of the garden.  Last year they brought their babies to visit late in the summer. Mr and Mrs Woodpecker come to visit during the winter months and we have recently seen them together.  I wonder if they would do so well if they did not have the fat blocks.

The first starling arrived back today, they will now be here until well into the summer.  They are also rather keen on the fat blocks and balls and do very well when given a regular supply.

The starlings and siskins, along with the other garden birds will be demanding constant feeding from now, until they migrate before next winter, they will have their young and bring them to visit the garden before they go.  I do wonder if they would all do so well without the constant supply of food provided in my garden.

Monday, first day of the week and we woke up early to be a blanket of white stuff.  We decided that working form home was the order of the day, so went back to bed for an hour.

My work machine was running slower than normal and so it was easy for me to get distracted by the birds in the garden and a quick walk along the path near our house.  Here are a few photos...

It is really cold now but we will get the car out tomorrow and make our way into town.  All the feeders are full so the birds should be happy in the garden and puss will be tucked up in the house.

I had a busy morning which started with being woken by the puss, then hubs bring me coffee in bed.  I could get used to this... We had a few bits to do this morning and then went off to Edinburgh for a spot of shopping and lunch.

We got some little cupcakes for us to have this evening, and finished the day relaxed at home watching a film and being very lazy.  I think all birthdays should be like this.

We had a lovely sunny weekend the one before last and I thought that maybe we were set up for spring to come early, how wrong I was!

Winter returned to us at the weekend and we woke up to snow on Sunday.  The snow came down off and on all day and there was a good covering on the road and in the garden.

The squirrels and birds were very happy that I had taken the time to fill the feeders the day before.  This little chap sat in this bird feeder for quite a while enjoying the nuts that should have been for the birds.

It looks set to stay cold this week so I will be keeping my feeders topped up.

The puss is very pleased to be back at home, but she is being a bit needy at the moment.  She wants to be picked up and have a cuddle all the time.  I think once the weather starts to warm up she will be off out more and a bit happier, she is rather fed up with winter.

I got out in the garden yesterday and had tidy and clean in the greenhouse.  It has developed a few leaks this winter which will need more attention in the spring.  It is much cleaner and the windows should let in more light now they have been cleaned.  I need to start thinking about what seeds I am going to plant this year and when.

We had a busy month and it seemed to go by in a flash.

I am still working and enjoying what I am doing and am busy, which is always good.  My contract is due to finish at the end of March but it looks like they will renew me until the end of the year.  There was mention of a permie job, but nothing seems to have come of it.

We had a holiday adventure in January.  It started with a drive down south to visit family and to catch up with their news.  We then drove to the French Alps for some skiing at Val Thorens.  The snow was plentiful and the sun shone when the snow stopped falling.  The runs were empty and wide, which suits us as we like to ski at our own pace.  Although it is a purpose built resort it has a nice feeling to it and it has lots of lovely bars and restaurants.

After a few days skiing we moved to Chamonix where we planned to have a day of snow shoeing.  Our day walking in the snow started out very wet and being more a walk in the rain, as we got higher up the mountain the rain turned to snow and we were walking on fresh snow making tracks as we went.  This was far more what I had in mind.

It was then a long drive back through France to catch the ferry home and we were back to work again before we knew it.

The garden is being rather neglected and needs a bit of a tidy up, this is something I hope to start sooner rather than later.

Click to see the photos big.

I have been very bad at coming to blog land, sorry about that.

All is well here, getting sorted for Christmas.  I noticed I missed Secret Santa again .

Anyway, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Looks like I have a few things to cover but they are all related so will cover in one post!

I have been working for almost two months now (how fast does time go!) and I have been paid so thought I would upgrade my camera.  It was not cheap but I really wanted to upgrade, so off I went.  Eager to play with my new toy I took a few photos last weekend and ... was very disappointed with the results. I went back to the shop who checked out the camera and said all was fine and told me to have it a bit longer and see how I got on...so that was the plan.

To give it a good try out we went to the Wetland Trust place at Caerlaverock, where they have lots of different birds. We had a good day and I seemed to get on much better with the camera, I think that I need to get used to it.  Here are a few pics.

Click to make big.  I think I am going to keep the camera.

Work has been busy and they are saying they may extend me until March next year.  I will not know for sure until December but it sounds good.

I have had a cold for a week and really hope that to goes very soon as I am thoroughly fed up with it.   I will try and catch up with blogs over the next week; time seems to have slipped away from me recently.

There has not been much time for messing around in the garden over the last month or so but I did get out for a while last Sunday.  It was a clear crisp day and the birds were taking advantage for the full bird feeders and berries on my tree.

So who would like a berry from my Rowan tree? Mr and Mrs Blackbird... I guess that would be you...

and who would like some of the fat balls I put out? Little blue tit, I see you have been to the fat balls already, now go and wipe your beak.

Little Coat tit, yes it is just over there... go and help yourself.

Now would anyone like to join me in a song?  Hello Mrs Long tailed tit, you sing such a lovely song.

... yes I was talking to you.

Click to make big.

Time has been against me, this working full time is just leaving me no time to do anything else.  My poor garden is feeling the same was as my blog and the greenhouse thinks I have given up on it.

Last weekend we had a last minute get away to Pitlochry to go and see the Enchanted Forest show and do some walking.  We went straight after work and arrived in plenty of time to have some dinner before going to the show.

Saturday was spent walking and looking at the stunning autumn colour with a bit of red squirrel hunting thrown in.  We did not find any.  We came back home on Saturday as hubs had to work on Sunday.

I wrote this on Friday and then never got around to posting it, oh well.  The weekend was busy and just a tiny bit of time in the garden.  Still got a few flowers going but Autumn is here.

I have been back at work for a week and I am shattered! Only another three months to go and I can have a rest again, unless I run out of things to do before that.

Coming in on Monday was a breath of fresh air, I had a desk booked for me and I could get onto the computer system, I was made to feel most welcome and am very impressed with my manager.  The hard work of trying to understand what I was doing then began, I am still not sure I have buttoned that one down but I think I am going in the right direction.

A great deal of time has been spent on catching up with people, most people have stopped me and said 'oh are you on this floor now' not seeming to realise that I left two years ago, cameback this time last year and then left again.  A quick explanation turns into a two year life history but it is nice to catch up.  There are lots of faces that are familiar but quite a few of them seem a little chubbier than the last time I saw them.  This is something I need to note and make sure this does not happen to me!

I am coming into work on the motorbike with hubs which means I don't spend over three hours a day travelling.  So far this has worked well and we have even been able to get out for a bit of cycling in the evening.  I had forgotten how much working eats into personal time!

So far is it going okay but my days and evenings are very full with trying to do everything that I had got into the habit of doing at my leisure.

A year ago I wrote a post saying that I was going back to my old company and that I had been busy sorting out the garden, that I still have bulbs to go in and that I had cleaned the windows.  I am once again going back to my old company as a contractor and have done all those things again.  It did make me smile when I read the old post.

Over the last few days everything has been sorted and I am all set to start on Monday.  I feel rather nervous and have been having very strange dreams.  They have said what they want me to do but it is not something I have done before and I have no idea if I can do it.  More pressing an issue, is if I can do it in the timescale they have given me.  I guess time will tell, I just need to make sure I do not get sacked as that will not look good on my CV!

On a different note, the garden has been busy; we had our first hard frost this morning.  I had filled all the bird feeders yesterday so the birds had lots to eat.  We had a few new birds in the garden over the last few days with the long-tailed tits, a nuthatch and a little wren coming to visit.  Here are a few photos of my garden visitors.

Click to make big.

We have had a few days of blue sky and lovely sunshine but there are signs that the summer has come to an end.  This morning there was a light frost in the garden, the summer bedding will soon be finished.  The trees have a red tinge starting at the top which will work its way down and the berries and seed heads have formed waiting to be carried by the birds or wind to make a new start. It is a time of plenty but will soon give way to the hardship of winter.

Click to make big.

My bike has been serviced and I need to go and pick it up soon, so I will be finding long socks and a warm jacket before heading off.

Every day most of us learn something new and never really think about it.  Yesterday I had a few lessons which I should not forget in a hurry.

First thing in the morning I went for a cycle on my bike, I decided to go up a rather steep hill and then onto a road that is not used by much traffic and see where it would take me.  I started on the hill and found it really hard work, my legs were screaming and I thought my lungs might explode, by half way up it felt like someone was standing on must chest and I was really quite surprised at how unfit I felt, I carried on but at a very slow pace.  At the top I had a good rest and went off to explore the road I had planed on cycling.

The views were lovely and hardly anyone else was around, there were birds in the fields and little flocks flying out of the berry filled trees as I cycled past. It was lovely to see and to be so close to nature.

The lesson was that hard work brings rewards, not easy to remember when you are huffing and puffing struggling up a big hill.

The second thing that happened was that I had a note about the contract for my new job.  It seems the agency I worked for last year put a clause in my contract that means I cannot work for the same company again with a different agency for a year.  I never knew this was in place and am very unhappy.  The original agency and coincidently the new one have done nothing to find me work.  I got the contract myself but an agency has to be used to move things forward.  Since I left the original agency I have been in touch with them but they have not come up with any work for me, now they have this hold over me which means my new contract might fall through.  I need to get their 'permission' to work for the other agency; they do not seem in a hurry to give said permission.

Second lesson - businesses are always in it for themselves, do not be fooled into thinking they have your interests at heart.

I am off now to ring the first agency to try and encourage them to release me from the agreement.   Fingers crossed.

Hubs and I spent a bit of time working in the garden today.

Hubs was busy giving the grass a cut and repairing the public footpath at the side of our house, which got damaged when we had the heavy rain and water running off the hill behind.  I was busy putting a new bed which is going to have bulbs and wild flowers for the bugs and bees.  I had to dig up the grass and dig over the ground; it was hard going and had lots of stones.  I will have to go to the dump tomorrow with the grass and stones.

It looks like it is going to be nice for the next few days so I will try and get on and give the garden a bit of a tidy up.  It will then be a case of waiting for the frosts and then pulling up the old bedding plants.  The photos below are some of the last flowers in the garden, but there is still some colour which is lovely.

My other news is that I had a job interview for a permanent role; it was something I applied for before I went on holiday.  I am not sure how well the interview went as I think I pitched myself a bit too high, it is an admin job and I am sure my answer came across as being much more of a team leader... which of course I was.  I need to work on my interview skills... I will hear early next week.

I also heard from the project manager that I worked for at the end of last year and start of this year.  He has a contract job for me for three months and wants me to start Monday week.  I think the contract job will be good experience but I also think I am going to find it hard work and outside my comfort zone.  Needless to say it does pay better than the admin job, so given the choice I think I will go for the contract.  That does mean if I did get the admin job I am going to have to turn them down.  It would be quite strange if, after being out of work since April I then end up with two jobs offers, we just need to wait and see.  I will be quite happy with one!

The final part of our holiday was to the Forest of Dean, we stayed in a B&B for a few days, this was the view from our front door.

We did some walking in the forest, mainly on the way to getting our dinner and we also went to Slimbridge WWT reserve and to the RSPB Newport reserve.  Lots of birds to be seen at both but I think Slimbride was our favourite.

After that it was back home and back to work for hubs.

Click any photos to make big.