Keep me away from garden centres...

Since there’s now little point even attempting to post a Sunday safari I need to find something else to post about…

It’s difficult working because I don’t see daylight hours when at home, I can’t even comment on which birds are visiting my garden because I have absolutely no idea!

Saturday I had a trip to Dobbies with my mum and nan to check out the Christmas decorations and I wanted to pick up some seeds… Yes, that was the plan. Honest it was. It didn’t quite work out that way though sadly… I bought new Christmas decorations, as I’ve had the same colours for the past few years now… This unfortunately bumped up the cost immensely, so what should’ve been a £5 visit, turned into £60!
Ok so there were some very cheap ready made pots that I also bought, but they were only £5 and £7, so hardly much! (worth it just for the wooden pot and nice ceramic glazed pot) But I do have some nice pots by the front door now, one with herbs (Chive, sage, marjoram and thyme and the other with an assortment.

Deary me, it’s a dangerous place.

I also got a selection of 6 Hebes for £5, a pink Jasmine for the princely sum of £1!!!! Oh and an adorable tiny orchid destined for my desk at work – it may never make it though!! ;)

The seeds I bought were Harebells, field Scabious and Peas.

The weather today has been generally shocking, it did eventually clear up long enough for me to plant the Hebes I bought in some pots, pot up the Hellebores that finally arrived too and take a couple of quick snaps of things which caught my eye. Curse my procrastination and assumption that today’s weather would also be fine…

3 Hebes planted together just for the winter, I plan on putting them in the front garden next spring.

Single Hebe… I liked this one best… Only joking!

As I was working around the decking I noticed bulbs were coming up, and began to notice just how many were! Far too many, and even Tulips!

I think these might be snowdrops??

Iris – lots are coming up around the garden…

Tulip showing its head, far too early.

Because so many were coming up in the pots I decided to check the ground too, assuming there’s no chance they’re also coming up in the ground…

Well, I think you can guess I was wrong!

Some other random shots…

Tomatoes haven’t yet been cleared, I did attempt it today but my fingers were like blocks of ice, I couldn’t actually feel them anymore.

I ought to have picked them…

Sweetpeas are still here…

This Campanula has put in a second flush, a very welcome flush too!

Roses are still flowering, in future I won’t dead head at all!

A white Scabious, I didn’t know I had any, this must’ve only just opened!

Do midges ever die??!!!

Now I'm counting the days to the solstice, then I can breathe a sigh of relief knowing it'll be getting lighter...

Next Saturday is the beginning of the run in for Christmas, I'm off to Southwell for the annual WI carol service, I may attempt photos if the weather is nice. Then on Sunday I should be getting the Christmas tree...

I'm fully booked until Christmas now, and really must find my hair appointment card, I have no idea when I'm due!

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?