Garden Girl Blog

There have been lots of birds in the garden looking for food, I think they know that autumn is almost upon us and want to stock up.  My feeders are almost empty so filling them up will be a job for today.  My neighbour has a bush which has lots of berries, the black bird was having a fight with them yesterday but he got plenty to eat.

Some of the plants are now past their best but I still have few new things coming into flower.  My sunflowers have flowered at last and bring a big cheery face to the garden.

I need to get into the greenhouse and get a few seeds and cuttings started off so that I have a new supply of plants for next year.  I noticed yesterday that lots of little pansy plants are growing in a tray I thought had nothing in it; I have no idea how they got there.  I was not going to bother with them anymore as they always get eaten, but it seems they want to be part of my garden.

I mentioned the other day that hubs said I should try harder with my cycling and that I was just coasting along enjoying the ride, when we should be doing it for the exercise.  This got me thinking; do I coast along in other things and enjoy the ride?  I think the answer may be yes.

I was doing step aerobics on the Wii yesterday; normally I just go with the flow and do not find the exercise that hard.  Yesterday I decided to try harder and added a jump into some of the moves and to put my arms higher than normal.  I finished my workout and did feel I had worked harder than normal and was quite pleased with myself.

Today I went out on my bike ride and tried to go without stopping.  I did 10 miles and only stopped twice, once to get a drink and once to catch a few photos at my turning point.

I did try harder and it was a better workout.

This all gets me thinking that maybe I have not been trying that hard to find a job, so when I get back from holiday I am going to try harder in my job hunting.

So far trying harder has been quite rewarding and I do have the feeling that hubs was right, maybe I was just started to coast along a little and not try as hard as I can.

I guess I should try harder to get the upstairs windows clean but maybe that is just procrastination as I really do not want to do them!

Hubs and I went for another bike ride along the railway path near our house first thing this morning, we did about 11 miles.  Hubs has since pointed out to me that I need to try a bit harder as we are doing this for exercise, not just a nice little bike ride... guess that is me told.

Dark skies over the Pentland Hills and dirty legs.

The rest of the day was spent pottering around the house and then having a BBQ this evening.

Now tell me, what would you like to have to eat with your burger?

You could have.... lettuce, broad beans (yes I know they are late) or maybe a yellow courgette...

or maybe some tomatoes or a green courgette with the flower on. I hear it is a delicacy.

Or maybe you would just like to relax and have a nap in the late afternoon sunshine...

I have been trying out a photo a day site and have been enjoying it.  I have now done 71 days on the trot and am going to try and keep going.  Maybe this is why my blog has not had much action... well and that I do not really do very much during the week at the moment.

This week has been a mixture of sunshine and showers and I have been pottering in a garden a bit but mostly lazing on the deck with the puss watching the world go by.   For the first time this year we had some lovely butterflies in the garden.  They were enjoying the scabious flowers, I am thinking that maybe I should try and grow some of these plants from seed to attract more next year.

I have been spending a bit of time looking on the Internet for a job and have put in an application for one I like the look of... I am just waiting to find out if they like the look of me.  After my holiday I will try much harder to find a job as I do not really think I want to spend the winter sitting in the house on my own.

Going off now to make something yummy.

We had a lovely busy weekend.

Saturday morning was spent doing jobs in the garden, but it was nice to get them out of the way early.  After lunch we went off to Cramond to walk across the causeway to Cramond Island. It was very windy by the sea but a lovely walk.

This is the view from the island.

After that we went into Edinburgh for tea and a festival show.  We had dinner in a restaurant called One Square which was by the big screen set up to view the Olympics.  We had a lovely meal, the service was a little slower than we expected and Mo was just about to start in his race as we were finishing.  We should have got off to go and see our show, but decided to hang around and watch Mo.  The square with the TV in was packed as Mo ran a fab race to take a second gold.  We never did make it to our show but stayed and watched the final events enjoying the warm evening and the atmosphere in the square.

Sunday and the sun was out again and we were back on our bikes.  A ride in the Pentland Hills with the promise of no big hills.  How wrong that was! One wrong turn and we were going up and over what seemed to be the biggest hill around, just under 15 miles in all.  Today I hurt in more places than I did last week.

Last night we sat watching the TV with a beer each and enjoyed the closing ceremony, it really was fab!

The weather this week has been lovely, lots of sunshine and puffy white clouds.  From midweek onwards we have been having dinner in the garden, enjoying the last sun of the day. In the photo below I am just waiting for my steak to be cooked on the BBQ.

The flowers, birds and bugs in the garden are all feeling much more alive now the sunshine is out.  The veg is coming along and I have sooo much lettuce and lots of courgettes coming.  We have at long last started to see a few butterflies in the garden but as yet I have not been able to catch a photo of any.

Click to see them big.

Today we have a little more cloud but hubs and I will be in town later to see a fringe show and have dinner out.  Tomorrow we are going cycling, I hope not as far as last time!

Whatever came over us?  We went on our cycle thinking it was about 24 miles and that we could do that.  We set off in sunshine with lunch and snacks packed and looking forward to seeing the sea.

Was a very good route mostly off road and we still felt okay when we got to Musselbrugh.  A puncture for hubs caused us to stop and a change of tube undertaken, sadly the spare tube has a nick in it from the zip in the holder it was in .  Two repairs, a little bit cold and quite a while later and we were back on our way.

We went down to the seafront to have lunch.  There was an open water swimming race just starting so we stayed to watch.

We then set off back home a little tired and a little slower than the way there.

Back home we realised it was quite a bit further than we thought it would be, a slight getting lost detour did not help!  Got a numb bum today.

I had a new friend in the garden today.  A little siskin was going from feeder to feeder and was quite happy for me to be very close.  After several hours I did start to wonder if he was okay, he did look rather like he had been dragged through a hedge backwards.

But he was eating away and sort of seemed okay but not keen on flying.  Just before we had our tea a magpie came after him, he did get away but went to hide in the flower bed where the cat found him.  I rushed out and got him off the cat and he seemed okay ish.  I put him in a box to recover and found a bigger box and got it ready so he could stay the night (in a room away from the cat).  I moved him over and left him to settle down.

Hubs said I should see if he wanted to go and not stay the night, so we took the box outside and found him passed away in the bottom.  Feeling very sad, we think maybe something had a go at him earlier in the day and it was only a matter of time.

We also had a dead magpie in the garden this morning, it did not look like anything had had it but it was a young one.  Very strange.  I am a little concerned as I put out some slug pellets the other day but I have been out collecting any dead slugs and do not think the birds have eaten the pellets.  They do say they are organic ones and safe for wildlife, I hope it is not the pellets.

Last weekend we went off for a drive around Scotland and to go right to the top.  We set off on Friday after hubs had finished work and we spent the night in Tain and set off the next morning to go to John O'Groats.  We had a drive around and then started to make out way back to Inverness.  We spent the Saturday night in Inverness and went to Contrast Brasserie, it was very nice and quite expensive, but we did enjoy it.

The next morning we set off for home we stopped in Aviemore and went for a drive up the mountain.  On the way down we stopped at the potting shed tearoom where they have feeders for the birds and red squirrels, not to mention coffee and wonderful cakes.

Here are a few photos from our weekend.

Click and they might be bigger.

... today rain, lots of rain.

I went to a local garden centre yesterday and they had their plants and seeds reduced, so I had to get a few.  Back home I put the extra few plants out into the garden and looked at the pile of seeds I now have.  The puss was sleeping in the greenhouse but I worked around her and got a few bits sorted out.  I have a lily in the greenhouse that has one very big flower on it.  It has gone slightly past its best now but it still smells wonderful.