Garden Girl Blog

I mentioned today that we have siskins in the garden,  it seems that not many people get these little birds in their gardens.  I counted about 12 at one time today along with almost as meny chaffs and other asorted birds, they are getting through loads of sunflower seed.

Here are a few photos of the little fellas, well one of them is a girl.

It is rather wet today, it is not raining as such, it is more like the clouds have fallen out of the sky causing a damp mist to be blown around.  Yuck!

The birds in the garden have been wet for most of the day.  A siskin flew into the window earlier all I heard was a soggy splat, it was okay and flew off.  The starlings have been in the garden today, it is the first time this year.  The blue tits have given up on the nest box in our garden.  I think puss was putting them off with her paw in the box fishing expedition. If it was not her then it was the sparrow hawk who has been hanging around the garden.

I hope the weather gets a bit better as I wanted to get a bit done in the garden before we go on holiday, maybe tomorrow...

I have been super busy both at home and at work.  My mother and step-father came for a visit last weekend, as well as finishing my EMA I was busy entertaining and looking after them.   We had a nice time but I will say more about that another time.

So that leaves work, which has been busy.  The project manager was under a great deal of pressure to make sure the project ends this month, which translated into him being very keen for me to get everything done! We had implementations planned every day last week to get it all done but the main ones were Wednesday night and Thursday morning, early.... very early, who needs sleep? I was rushing around trying to wrap everything up and make sure we really were ready to go and by Wednesday evening I was frazzled.  I tried to get an early night but things kept popping into my head about the implementation later than night so I was texting the chap doing the work.  I also had to be up at 3:30am to be at work for 4:30am so was thinking about that and not sleeping.

Thursday came and after not much sleep I was at my desk by 4:30 ready for the final task of the project.  By 7am we were done, it was done, everything had worked and the project was finished.  I had a few bits to finish up but Thursday was my last day.  I went for a drink after work with some of the guys I had been working with and spent most of Friday in bed with a mixture of a hangover (after only two glasses of wine!*?*!) and being very tired. It was a nice lazy day and Thursday had been a good finish for me.  I felt that I very much finished on a high.

I am not sure if they will ever be able to have me back, it seems there are political things going on about contractors which means they might  have me back.  I am sure they know that some parts of their project would not have been delivered if I had not been there... so maybe they will change their mind.

For now I am having a holiday, it is very much due!.  A six week contact in September to write some documents turned into seven and a half months of being so much more than a document writer.  However, I did enjoy it but want a holiday now.

So that is me back to being a housewife / student / voluntary worker / gardener.... at last for now.

Work is busy, two days to go and trying to get the final stuff done, talk about take it to the wire!

EMA is done, fingers crossed I get a good mark but passing will be okay as well.

Looking forward to some time off from work next week, I am ready for a holiday.

Must dash lots to do, back soon.

A week has passed since the chap came to fix the lawn, as mentioned here, does it look any better, not sure it does.  He did say it will take time.  Oh well at least I got my washing out on the line.

We also went out for dinner, walked to the restaurant which was 2.5 miles and 2.5 miles back.  My legs are now very tired but I should sleep well tonight.

Today I decided to make some cinnamon buns today.  The recipe said they take a long time to rise so i started as soon as I was dressed.  They did take a long time but were well worth it.  I made two batches like this...

I gave one to my neighbour and hubs and I made a start on the other ones. They are very nice and I will be making them again.

I have finished the first draft of my EMA and will print it off and make some updates.  I hope to get it finished and sent in before next weekend.

I never know what to get my mother-in-law for a present and often end up getting a book I can put in the post.  A few times I have sent her flowers, rather than send from a shop I found these guys and she has said the flowers are lovely.

I got her some for mother's day and an email from the company suggested I follow them on Facebook.  I went off to find them on Facebook and noticed that they had a fan of the week thing going.  Anyone who posts on their page can be made 'fan of the week' and that person gets a free bunch of flowers. They had about 1000 followers so I thought within a few years I should be getting some flowers.  I posted a note about MIL's flowers and a few other things during my first week of 'liking' their site and did not think any more of it.  A few days later I was going to see what I could reply to and noticed I had been made 'fan of the week'.  I was quite happy and looking forward to my flowers arriving.

They were lovely and here are a few photos.  I wonder if you can be fan of the week twice......

It is all getting a bit busy at work, the project is due to end in two weeks and we still have a number of fixes and two other parts bits to deliver.  I am supper busy trying to organise it all and ensure everything is tested, checked and planned.  The next two weeks are going to fly by.

This weekend I will work on my EMA and hopefully finish the questions and start on a review, hubs has lots of work planned but we will try and get out for a walk.  I have a few seeds that need to be sorted out in the greenhouse and it would be good to get some more in.

Busy, busy, busy.

I received a tax refund a few weeks ago and decided to buy myself a new lens for my camera.  I went for a macro lens which arrived today.  I had a very quick play with it when I got in from work and here are some of the results, not bad for a first go.

Click to make a bit bigger

... well ours is not but next doors is!  A chap came at the weekend to put little holes in the ground to help the grass thicken up.  He also put something down to increase the PH and someone else to feed the grass, both have probably been washed away by all the rain.

The chap told me it is all about balance, light, water, air and a good PH help the grass grow green and strong.  It is a long term plan but soon our grass will be greener and lush... and I am sure his bill will be arriving any day.

Please feel free to watch the grass grow... photo a week for a while to see if it gets better.

... a no. I am a bit fed up but they gave me some really good feedback.

I did well in the competency based part and showed that I was at the right level or above on some.  The problem was they had someone who had more relevant experience and they also said I had not done much investigation into what the department does, which is true.  This also meant that I might have done better if I had known more about the job.  They are right, I was not that sure what the department did or what some aspects of the job would have been.  So I could not disagree.

I will learn from it and do better next time.  It is funny as the competency based part is normally the hardest to get right so I am pleased that they said my examples and style were good.

I finish my job at the end of this month, so will do something about looking after a bit of a break.

It has occurred to me that maybe Scotland wants devolution from England so that in years to come, when England has run out of water, Scotland can sell exceptionally overpriced water to England and make a fortune.  It has been raining.... sorry chucking it down... on and off all day.

We went out for some dinner and the sky looked rather ominous as we drove home, hail was battering the car before long.

Hubs and I have had a rather lazy weekend overall, I am still going with my EMA but progress is slow.  We have been very good in what we have eaten and after tea tonight, between the showers, we went for a quick walk.  We saw five dog poo bags, full of poo, hanging from trees.  Why would anyone do that?  Someone must have put them in the bag and chucked them in the air for them to be up in the tree.   I really do not understand why anyone would do that.  Why bother putting it in the bag if you are not going to put it in the bin.  There are quite a few who are not bothering and it is disgusting, but at least the slugs and bugs make a meal of it.   People are just so lazy at times.

Okay, rant over, back to my OU work.

The chocolates are eaten so maybe the diet should start today.

We had a text from hubs sister asking if we would like to meet at the pub for lunch tomorrow, I sent a reply back saying, yes, if they were coming to Scotland.  I never heard back.  Somehow, I do not think we will be seeing the family this Easter.   We do not see that much of the family, it costs quite a bit to get down so we do not go that often.  We tried a few things to keep in touch with them such as a family blog but no one was interested.  I used to ring them, but often felt like I was disturbing them so gave up in the end.  Sadly now we do not hear from most of them that often and only see them once or twice a year at family get togethers. I feel I should try and do something about keeping in touch more, but they seem so busy with their own lives it is easy to give up.

Anyway, back to the diet, we need to eat a bit better, and by that I mean that I need to buy and cook better food, less bread and pasta and ready meals.  I have got very lazy in my cooking since I have been working again.  I need to do something about it.

I have spent the last two days doing the end of module assessment for my open uni course.  I have three questions to do.  I did okay yesterday and finished question one.  Today I had to decide which of the next three questions I was going to anwer, I had a good think about it and picked one.  Early this evening I started writing up my answer.  I have been doing it for hours and have almost finished.

I have just now realised that for today's question I have forgot to read the guidance notes and I have gone in the wrong direction with the answer.  I am going to have to rework it to ensure I pull it back to the answer they want.  I am angry with myself.  Yesterday I sat and marked all the relevant points in the guidance notes for the first question, today I just forgot all about it.

What a wally!  Kick...

Work has been busy, the project is running out of time and we still have lots to do.  Last week several key people were off sick or on holiday so things did not progress much at all.   The project has to finish at the end of April so the project manager is starting to get a bit concerned and he is getting pressure from above because things are not quite done.  I do feel a bit sorry for him and I am trying to help but we need others to do things so there is not that much I can do.

Other news at work was I had an interview, it was a competency based interview which I find quite hard, they ask questions like 'tell me about a time when... etc' and you have to reply saying I did this, I did that and demonstrate that you did the things documented as being relevant for the competency.  I did some preparation for it but maybe could have done more.  I will hear next week if I got the job, it is full time in an area of Edinburgh that is not that easy to get too from our house.  If I get the job, I would need to come up with a solution to get there.

It is nice to have a few days away from work; it is going to be really busy for the next three weeks trying to get everything finished.

Last weekend we went away up North for a few days.  We had planned to go on my birthday but never got around to it, until last weekend.

We went to Pitlochry for one night and stayed in the lovely Torrdarach House B&B, if you are ever in Pitlochry go and stay, it was fab and they have Red Squirrels playing in their garden.  We went on to Inverness the next day to visit Brodie Castle; I wanted to see the daffodils.  We were home the day after as the puss had been left home alone with the neighbour coming in to feed her.

The weather in Pitlochry was lovely, warm and the sun was out, we had our dinner and then went for a walk along the river and up to the hydro-electric dam.  The flying beasts were out, but lucky for us not biting, however the bats were out and got very close but they were not interested in us, they wanted the bugs that were around.

The next day we drove on towards Inverness, stopping at Brodie Castle to see the daffs and have a walk.  The daffs were in full bloom and looked fab. They had a lovely woodland walk with lots of silver birch trees; they looked stunning with the sun on them and the blue sky in the background.

We then went off for a wander along to the start of the Caledonian canal, it was a little colder by then but still nice with some sunshine.

We had a very nice weekend away and wandered home over the mountains on Sunday.  Puss was very glad to see us back.

I could wait no longer and persuaded hubs that we should open our Easter eggs.  I sat with my cup of coffee and savoured the chocolate.  Hubs went off to hide his egg from himself so he would have some for tomorrow and maybe Sunday.  I hid mine next to me, within arm's reach and right where I could see it. Needless to say I have sat and eaten the lot and now feel a little unwell. I am resisting the small bag of mini eggs from the inside of the egg and hope the unwell feeling will pass soon.

I am busy making a start on my EMA for my OU course today, I am happy with what I have done so far but should be back to it.