Farewell, beloved friend

As November takes a hold, I think it’s highly likely this is my last vase of Sweet Peas…

Until next year…

These flowers are wonderful, but few and far between…

Plenty of these small, traditional coloured ones

Their perfume is wonderful

I already have some seedlings growing ready for an early show next year…

Honest Scrap

Julie over at My English Country Garden gave me this Honest Scrap award a few days ago…

As with most awards there’s always a catch…

A. You must brag about the award.
B. You must link back to the person who gave the award to you
C. You must share 10 honest things about yourself
D. You must give the award to 7 more bloggers who inspire you

And as promised I will participate, however it is unlikely I shall nominate anyone else, but please, if anyone wishes to have a go themselves then please do!

A. Bragging about anything is not my forte, however the fact I'm advertising it on my blog surely counts as bragging about something??

B. As I already said, Julie over at My English Country Garden nominated me for this award, please go check out her own Honesty Scrap entry...

C. Ok, ten honest things about me… Mmmmm I may struggle to find anything interesting…

1. I buy far too many plants, I spend far too much on the garden and know it… Yet each year I just can’t resist the temptation.

2. I am one of those strange ambidextrous people… It always comes in handy when decorating and such because I can use both hands, and when I was at uni I used to find it helpful to use my left hand and exercise the other side of my brain to come up with more ideas :) was this cheating??
It runs in my family, my mum and brother are also ambi’s…
We’re special! :)

3. I am probably not as old as you may assume.

4. But I am not at all happy about getting yet another year closer to 30.

5. I own Gerbils, I used to have lots of them but currently only have three sisters and two Jirds – a larger relative of a Gerbil, around the size of a rat.

Skye - Gerbil

Jird

6. I’m an old romantic at heart, I think many women are to be honest. Only I’m perhaps a little too sensitive… Hmmm. I easily cry at things, someone’s voice only has to quiver or their eyes prick with tears and I’m off.
Although I don’t generally cry due to my own emotions, it’s usually something/one setting me off. Just don’t try to ask me about something close to my heart, because I’m likely to break down…
I had an interesting conversation with my team leader at work… ha ha, I ended up blubbing… Not at all embarrassing…

7. I have a strange surname, and almost everyone I meet loves to tell me so. As a child I always dreamed of marrying someone with a ‘normal’ name like Smith or Walker so I could rid myself of it…
And then I ended up with Pete… Who is Portuguese! Argh, I can’t win! People always tell me to keep the surname because it’s interesting, that may be so, however I’m not interested in whether it ‘stands out’!
Considering it’s so unusual, it can actually be found in the doomsday book of 1066 (how amazing would it be if I could actually trace my family back that far??!)
It’s also always fun trying to fit my name on a line, at 18 letters, it’s not always easy, and that’s not even taking into account that I have THREE middle names, oh yes, that’s 3! Is there any wonder I drop the middles?? Liz is far easier to manage.
Just to tease those who have yet not fallen asleep, my initials are; EJEBA.

8. For my first few months of life I was actually called Daisy. Luckily my dad saw sense and decided it was too ‘flowery’.
You think??! (at least my parents did something right!)

9. I love my macro lens. I admit, I’m an addict. Is that wrong? Some people love smoking, caffeine, computers, and then there’s me with my trusty macro lens.

10. I have been best friends with my best friend for 23 years. That’s amazing considering we became friends when we were around 4.
We pretty much grew up together, many many evenings were spent as teenagers in his bedroom and vice versa. We’re both scorpios and born only 19 days apart... I consider his mum to be my second mum, bless her. I hear it's a Scorpio trait to be fiercely loyal to their friends, and I think that it most certainly true in this case.

D. As I said above, I will not be nominating anyone for this as there are far too many people to choose from, but please feel free to play with it yourself and please let me know if you do!

And just because it's impossible for me not to post a photo...

Here's a photo taken of me yesterday :D

5th November - Bonfire Night

To begin with I love fireworks. Yes I understand they’re not exactly the most environmentally friendly thing but I love lights and I love sparkly things so I’m afraid fireworks combine both of those aspects.
I love the smell, and the dull thud as the big rockets shoot up always get me excited knowing what’s about to happen.

I also realise many animals, children and adults hate them, I can understand why. No I do not and will not ever hold my own fireworks party, I think they should only be used in public displays and not the back garden.

But anyway enough of that… this year I was unable to attend Sheffield’s After Dark fireworks display (it’s a massive display with the fireworks set to music, attracts around 20,000 people)…The first time in probably 5+ years I haven’t been, and probably the first year of my life that I haven’t been to a display at all – much sadness :( The short story is I was stood up.

However, there is a local display in a sports club not far from here, and the view from our front are fantastic, so I just had to get my camera ready…

Rather shaky... But I like it anyway :)

And building to the crescendo...

Is it November already?

The weather certainly changed overnight... We went from warm, almost summery weather to grey skies and angry rain...
It cleared up very nicely around lunchtime with sun/blue skies however it’s still blowing a gale out there…

My first and hopefully only casualty is one of my ‘cosmos trees' :(

Looking more closely the stem had snapped… and guess what was at the base! A SLUG!!!! All that and it is eventually killed by a slug....

On Saturday I managed to get the last of the bulbs planted, it’s going to be a sea of spring bulbs next year!
Considering we’ve had a fair amount of rain recently, I was still chiselling away at the soil to plant the bulbs! I guess that shows just how dry the ground has been…

There are no photos for today, the garden hasn’t really changed since last week, other than a few less leaves on the shrubs/trees… Instead here are some Heron photos from my visit to RSPB Old Moor that I never posted...

How is it possible that we are now into November????! Where has the past year gone?

Wordless Wednesday Dreaded Hydrangeas

Where did October go?

It's been rather warm recently up here, there's been little need for the heating to be turned on - as in, I haven't had it on!

I've also noticed far too many Ladybirds, and it would seem I'm not the only one as a colleague at work apparently had a swarm of them on one of her walls over the weekend…

The bulbs have been planted… Well the ones I intended on planting have been, I now have a load left over that I had been waiting for my mum to decide on which she wanted. So that's another 100-150 to plant! Argh. I may have to give some away to colleagues, I just can't see myself planting them all… But they're Alliums and Crocus, I can't give them away as I love them too much!

I think I know what I'll be doing this weekend… (as well as sowing some seeds kindly donated by Cheryl :) )

What are everyone's thoughts on the Christmas tv adverts?

The Argos one… It's driving me insane…

I.must.listen.to.stop.the.cavalry.

no…not…yet…

I wonder how much longer I can hold out for? I usually aim to only listen to songs once we're into December…

Some of many Ladybirds hanging around this weekend…

And the 'almost' fantastic shot! If only I'd been a split second faster…

The sweet peas are loving the recent wet weather…

And even the Raspberry has new flowers!

Hoverflies, Bees and Flies are out in force taking in the October sun

Pretty Cyclamen brighten up otherwise dark areas.

The Cosmos took quite a beating in the rain and wind of Saturday morning, but there are many buds still to come.

I even discovered we have a white one!

The large cherry next door looks wonderful and overnight the wind blew off almost all the leaves! Phil bagged them up for me for leaf mulch… Again, so kind :)

The Aster's days are numbered…

My rose shrub, "roseraie de l'hay" is losing its leaves (not only to Autumn, it would seem!)

And something has had a nibble at the Pyracantha berries.

The American Wistera has lost most of its leaves... I can't wait for its flowers next year...

Aubrieta has grown a lot since I planted them as babies…

As too have the Foxgloves. Both have crept up on me, I didn't realise they'd grown so much.

Cotoneaster berries ready for harsher weather.

And the baby Maple is looking lovely… Just imagine once it's larger…

Coreopsis is cheerful as always.

And... Just how long is this Strawberry going to produce fruit for???

Ladybird... But which type?

This little Lady was out and about, I can't decide whether it's an eyed ladybird, Harlequin or hybrid of our British native Eyed ladybird and a Harlequin...

Silver Y Moth

I found this moth a few weeks ago… It actually took me a while to realise it was there!

Certainly an impressive moth when you get close to it!