Garden Girl Blog

I was out in the garden for several hours today and sorted out lots of my pots and moved things around.  Two pots in front of our garage were quite tall and kept falling over in high wind.  I have replaced them with smaller ones that will not fall over.

I am pleased with everything I got done and the front garden is almost ready for the winter now.  Might just have a few more plants to come out but they still how flower on so I left them for now.

I hope the rains stays off for a while tomorrow so I can start on the back.

I have sweets ready in case kids come round later.  Often the neighbours bring their kids out and they love getting a few sweets, well the kids do not sure how impressed the parents are.  The husband is thinking that if the kids do not come he will be able to dip into the sweets!  We will have to wait and see about that.

All is well hope to get out in the garden today to do some tidying up but need to wait and see if it is going to rain.  At the moment it looks like it could go either way.

Have not had any time to come in here but today is my day off.  Have lots to do but will make some time later come come and visit.

Blue sky today so looks like it is going to be nice.

We are back from our night away.  Further details to follow but all I can say is I hurt.  My body and the motorbike do not go well and I hurt all over.

It is raining and we will be setting off for 100 mile bike ride in a few hours....oh dear.

We are off to Pitlochry tomorrow to go for a Highland Safari and also to go and see the Enchanted Forest show.  We are only away for one night so do not need to pack much.  We had thought that we would have to hire a car to get there, but then someone suggested we could go on the husbands motorbike.  With careful packing we can do it!  I will be trussed up like a turkey in my leathers, which I have not worn for years and hanging on to the husband. I also hope that it stays dry!

It is a solution, the car will be looked at on Monday and I hope they an start work on it next week and we will get our night away at no extra cost.

Here is his bike.

The husband and I have spent several hours this week trying to get the car sorted out.  We did not want to use the 'preferred' body shop because we had something done by them a few years ago and it was the worst job ever.  My car at the time, which they were fixing, had parking sensors and they cut the holes to big and just left it... see here.. other things were also done very badly and they had to re-do the whole job.  So we did not want them to do the work this time.  That means we have to get a quote from the garage we want to use, which is the main dealer where we got the car.  Then we need an assessor to look at the car and agree the quote.  We just knew he was going to want to do this on the one day we cannot do and sure enough, he wants to do it on Monday which we cannot do. We could have put a bet on that happening!

We have found a solution, which reminds me I need to take the car to the garage now.

While out looking for the cats collar on the hill behind the house, I noticed an Ox-eyed daisy out in flower.  It was a plant that had just come up and the flower are looking wonderful.  We do get lots on the hill but all the others are long gone.  Not sure if this one is late or early, but it looked very nice.

Took a photo...

I did not have a red spare collar for the cat and could only find a pink one.  I even went out for a walk to try and find her old one.  I put the pink one on the puss and she just looked at me.  I could see she was thinking... pink is so not my colour, and I have to agree and that I am a cow for having a spare collar in the draw.

She does not look impressed... see for yourself.

She has been resting after the fight this morning but is thinking of going out for another round soon.

Someone keeps posting comments that just say replica handbags and it is a link.  I am a) not going to follow the link and b) am going to delete them.

Mr Replica Handbags, stop posting stupid comments!

Thank you!

Here is a photo of the puss, taken this morning, she had just come back in from her morning wander around her patch.  Can you see what is missing?

She came back without her collar and the bells and name tag that hang from it.  On close inspection it seems she has been in a fight, she has a cut ear and her fur round her neck is all ruffed up and she looks very dishevelled.

She never seems to learn and I am sure she goes out looking for a fight.  After 10 years of life you would think she would know better!

She is looking very pleased with herself for having lost the collar but I think I may have a spare!

You really need to check what you look like in the mirror before you leave home for work... high boots with trousers that swing at the ankles and an unmatching white t-shirt top thing is really not a good look.

I am going to stay pinned to my desk all day and hope that no one will notice.

I have three farms, one cafe and a garden in Facebook, oh and photos on 'owned'.

I am giving up the farms but will keep the cafe and garden for a while longer.

So sad I know but they got me hooked. My french onion soup is ready and I have customers waiting.. I always wanted to own a cafe.

It is raining today, the garden will be happy but the puss not so.

The puss went out after she had eaten, but was soon at the front door asking to come back in.  I opened the door and a rather damp puss padded into the house.  I suggested that she go for a roll in the washing pile to dry off but she just looked at me and rolled on the carpet instead.

When the husband went off to work she went back out the door, she sniffed the air, still very wet so she has decided to stay in for now.

I am off to potter around the house doing some house work.

Life with my new team has been going okay.  I think we are all still getting to know each other and I am just trying to get everything done and get to grips with what the team are doing.  The applications that the team support seem to be a little less high profile than my least team so I find it less stressful in that way.

One of the things I have found most strange is the hours that the chaps work.  They come in at all times and I feel they leave early.  I could not work out what was going on so I asked them to let me know what hours they think they are working.  This has lead to lots of discussions as they feel that so long as the do a 35 hour week they can do it however they fancy.  An example of what they do it come in at 9:30, have 15 minutes for lunch and go at 4:45.   In all my years in work it has always been my understanding that you have an hour for lunch.

They completely disagree with this and have challenged me to find out where it says they have to do that, I have struggled with this and even rang HR.  Sadly HR were not much use and I did not get a answer.  One of the chaps says he has checked his contract and it says he has to do 35 hours that is all.  Today I looked at my old full time contract and yes it does say that it is a 35 hour week but it also says 'your manager will allocate your time' and another contract I have found says it will be agreed between you and your manager.  Phew so I can discuss this with them and come up with a reasonable plan.

This is the blog I should have been writing when I got home.

We had a nice afternoon by the sea going to Cramond first and then Aberlady.  At Aberlady there is a bay and geese come in and stay overnight.  There are lots of other water birds and it is a beautiful place to be at dusk.  The sun was low, everything was either in deep shadow or looked as if the sun was making a spotlight just on the birds.  It was very nice to see.

Click to make photos bigger.

The police have been back in touch because they cannot find the deer.  So we went back to where it happened, it was a few miles up the road, and we looked and cannot see the deer.

The police were also going back for another look.  The chap did say that he has seen really hard hits and the deer has survived.  He said maybe it collapsed because of the shock and then after a lay down was able to go off.  It did have a cut on his hind top leg but it was not having trouble breathing or anything.  I got it off the road as I could not live with the thought of someone else going over it when it was still alive.

Maybe it was able to get up and will be okay.

We hit a deer with the car on the way back from our day out.  I got it our the road it was still alive, but not well, we came home and rang the police and they are going back with a vet to do the nicest thing.

Very sad.

-3 this morning and a heavy frost.

The sky is again clear and blue and lighting up the top of our hill.  The garden is in the shade but the colours are looking great.  The blue tit is busy at the feeders and I am sure others will come later.  Here are a few pics...

The magpies have been around today as well, it looked like they were up to mischief up the hill and one was standing on a very frosty deck banister, not the greatest photo but it does show the frost.

I have been four days at work this week and was in Harrogate yesterday for a meeting, it has been a long week.

This morning I am back in the office, it was still clear and very dark when I got up.  The moon is just a small crescent and the stars were twinkling in the black carpet of the night sky.

The outside thermometer has just one number on it and that is 0.  I opened the door to let the cat out, the path had small diamonds all over it caught in the light streaming out of the front door and the air rushed onto my warm face.  It is cold.

I have not seen a grey squirrel in the garden for quite some time, but this morning that changed.  There was a cheeky one at one of the bird feeders. The robin was also hanging around the garden looking for bits that get dropped.

Seems dry again so going to get the house work done then get out in the garden for a while.

Click to make big.

A clear blue sky means it is sure to be cold.  We are taking the opportunity to get out and do a few outside jobs but are wrapped up really warm.

The garden needs a good tidy up but I am waiting for the last few flowers to finish.  The Rowan tree is looking beautiful in autumn red, the berries that are left are now bright yellow and the contrast of the two is wonderful.

The little birds are coming in good numbers to get some food and are enjoying sunflower seeds.

We went off to bed quite early last night.  I have a bit of a cold and spent the day doing nothing at all and trying not to fall asleep where ever I sat down.

The evening was very relaxing, the husband and I went to sit out on our deck and got a fire going on the chimenea and roasted marshmallows and drank red wine.   We had our dinner a bit late and finished off the bottle of wine.  That really did me in and crawled off to bed quite soon after.

Even after our early night we did not wake up very early.  When we finally did, the husband went off to put the coffee on and I was left in bed.  He soon started shouting that I need to see something in the garden, there walking around looking for food was a fox.  We often put out the old bread for him and that is what he was looking for.  I was able to get my camera out but could not get a good photo through the window, I opened the window but it made a lot of noise and he ran out of the garden.  The fat pigeon and magpies are now eating his bread.  Sorry Mr Fox.

Here is the best photo I got through the window.  Sorry he is a bit out of focus but he does look really healthy.

In honour of this post... and to show Broken Down Angel that she is not the only one with big and hairy, footballer like calves, I measured mine because I always think mine are big as well.

Mine were -

Left 39cm
Right 39.5cm

Mine turn to muscle, the only part of me that does, at first sign of exercise as well.

It has been going okay with my new team.  I am getting lots of emails that I have no idea what to do with and have to trot along to the old team leader and ask him what he thinks, so everything is taking me ages.  The handover is not going very well as he is really keen on his new job and is getting lots of work from that so he does not have much time for me.  I have to grab time with him when I can.

The team all seem quite nice and have been fine with me.  They are all older than me and men, which is a bit different from before as all my last team were younger than me and a mix of girls and boys.  I can tell the new team are trying to get a feel for me and so far other than I have no clue what I am doing we seem to get on well.

Not a bad start I think.

I am now off to bake a lemon drizzle cake for my old team, my new team and my husbands team. I am going to make two and hope there is enough to go round.

It is almost 11am, the sky is clear and very blue.  It is cold out there and there might have been a frost overnight.  The birds are busy at the feeders and flit from one to the other.  The crow, cautious as always, goes after a lump of bread put out, ducking and diving to not been seen, why such a big bird is so cautious I will never know!  All of this is watched over by Mr Moon.  I had no idea what he is doing up at this time of day and will soon disappear behind the big trees but for now he is playing peek-a-boo.

Click to make big

I am not quite ready to go back to bed, but the winter quilt is back on so am looking forward to being all warm and snug tonight.   I was freezing last night.

The wind has gone and it is a beautiful sunny day.  I was in Edinburgh early for breakfast with a friend.  The sun was low and casting a yellow glow on the old buildings, it was wonderful.

It is mad out there today.  I went for a wander round a borders town called Peebles and its of trees and all sorts were flying round.  I kept having to go in shops for protection. The garden is taking a battering and pots have gone flying.  Some of the flowers that were still going are looking very sad now.

Maybe tomorrow I will get out there a bit and start the pre winter tidy up.

Puss has got herself into trouble.  She has been playing with new friends and as already mentioned she has been very smelly, I am not sure if she is playing with them or fighting.  We noticed yesterday she has a large open wound on the side of her face and I think there is one on her chest but she is not letting me look at it.

We cleaned up the one on her face and I think the one on her chest is healing okay so we did not bother to take her to the vet.  I cannot work out if they are bites or cuts, either way she seems to have got in with the wrong crowd.

She does not seem worried about the cuts and as they are all on the front she was not running away but must have been standing fighting.  Silly puss!

I got my day off for once so did the house work and had a man come round to discuss some stuff we want done in the house and outside.   The paving slabs that come up to the front door have started to come apart.  Each winter we have to put salt on them as they get very icy and it is eating into them.  The chap says we will need to get real stone ones, like slate, so that it does not happen again.   Sounds expensive, but something needs doing.

The rest of my day was spent doing house work and making plans in my head for the bathroom and garden.  I am trying not to think at all about work and feel somewhat fed up when I do.  I did dial in and look at my mail, there was lots and had a look at the internal jobs today and saw an admin job.  I am wondering if I should just apply for that and not try and do the 'management' thing.

It is strange, I have been talking to the guy taking over my job and trying to help him settle in and today he has been talking to the team quite a bit.  As yet I have not been able to spend much time with my new team as we agreed I would hand over my old stuff first.  I feel really left out of my old team and not included in my new team but hope that will change next week.  Makes me sad at the moment.

Oh well, off to cook dinner for the husband.

I used to have a different name but someone seems to have changed it in the last few days.  Every time I go into my house all I get is, 'Hello Smelly'.  I think they may be trying to tell me something.

I do have a new aroma which I picked up from my new friends.  They would really like to know who my new friends are and keep asking me if it is a fox or a maybe a stoat, but I am not going to tell.  I like my new friends and if my name is now smelly that is just fine, I just hope they do not try and give me a bath.