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Tick tock, tick tock

Time waits for no man/woman and nor do the plants! The season is marching swiftly on and I have been a tad amiss in recording the flowers of my garden recently. Late this afternoon I thought I’d rectify this with some of the plants that caught my eye….

Coneflower, nasturtium, Ivy flower bud.

It seems forever since I’ve wandered around the garden with camera in hand searching out flowers. I missed Bloom Day last month and had seriously considered posting an update at the end of the month but that came and went too!

Perennial wallflower, lavender & achillea, ornamental grass.

Sedum Rose carpet catching the late evening sun at my front door where a basket at my shady back door is further behind in seasonal growth.

Cosmos, Japanese anemones.

Tiny heuchera flowers and compact astilbe plumes, sedum flower head and pink heuchera leaves.

Catching glimpses of birds at this time of year can be tricky where there are lots of shrubs. However, a new bird feeder with peanuts hanging on a higher tree branch appears to be bringing in more blue, great and coal tits. They are much easier to spot darting around from feeder to feeder too.

It also seems forever since I’ve last done a Sunday morning bird count… and it has been! Trouble is I can’t see all the birds from my window just now. It’s been ages since I’ve stood outside trying to get bird photos too… I must rectify that soon before it gets much colder.

Cotoneaster berries soon will disappear after blackbirds have finished the rowan tree ones, clematis (must find label), pieris blossom buds.

Tick tock, tick tock and the clock is running towards hibernation for our hedgehog friends too. As it’s getting noticeably cooler in the evenings I opened up our hedgehog house earlier this evening and added a little more hay after checking through the camera that no hog was inside.


Catching glimpses of hogs inside this house hasn’t been happening either. I don’t watch every night but as the mealworms from outside the house have not been eaten for a number of days. I’d guess our original hog hasn’t been visiting. That is a pity.

Tonight I did notice that the mealworms have finally gone so either another hog has finally found them or birds have. I’m hoping the new layer of hay might attract another hog to stay a while if it wanders in. I added some new dried mealworms along the inside corridor and really hoped that I’d be able to share some action as I wrote this posting but alas no joy tonight.


Tick tock, tick tock and the school year is marching on here in Scotland too with the first term completed already. The schools are off in our area (but not all areas of Scotland) for two weeks now. This is a big school year for my daughter as she will sit her Highers next May… so some study will be on the agenda over the hols!

A few days out are also on the cards too and this morning we had a very pleasant early Sunday morning drive up to SNH Wildlife Reserve Loch of the Lowes, The car park was quiet as we arrived not long after it opened and we had one of the hides to ourselves where we enjoyed this wonderfully tranquil setting with a coffee/hot choc to keep us warm!

Mm… tick tock, tick tock…. it’s getting a tad late now to be sitting here. Let’s just say I’ve put the clock back a little! I suspect I’m not the only blogger to do this either. Night night and wishing you a very happy Monday 😀

All photos above were taken on October 4th 2009.

19 thoughts on “Tick tock, tick tock

  1. Hi Shirl, Oooooh you have been slacking haven’t you? 😉

    Only joking!

    It’s easy to get carried away with other things, such as just sitting and watching… Especially now it’s definitely getting chilly – this morning is freeeeeeezing! I think I need to get my scarf and thicker coat out, no frost though so it shows just how ‘soft’ I’ve become 🙂 Last night I was outside at 11pm cutting off all the almost ripe tomatoes through fear of frost… Came back in with two bursting pockets full of them!

    Wonderful photos, I love the sedum! Mine has finished now, but I hope to propagate it next year for a nice ‘carpet’ and I’ll try to get some for my hanging basket too… I wonder how easy they are to grow from seed? Hmmm.

    I love the Clematis, I did wonder whether it was Princess Diana that you had… But since that’s the only pink bell Clematis I know… ha ha, not much help, I know!

    An update thread of your garden would be lovely, you know I love to nose around other people’s gardens…

  2. A lovely post Shirl with lots of lovely photos, the Cosmos and Japanese Anemones are so pretty and your Sedums in baskets are so attractive! Of course I loved the Great Tit photo 😉

    Oh yes! I have often put the clock back lest I be considered completely mad!

    I do hope you and your family are all well and happy.

    I have left another late (this is becoming a habit I'm afraid!) comment on your previous post. Have a good week 🙂

  3. You still have a beautiful selection of flowers. I must remember to get some sedums. I had a look in my local Wyevale but many of the plant areas were completely empty. I wonder how much longer it will stay open.
    Time is definitely ticking on. I had to switch a light on at 7am today. It must be even darker further north.

  4. Nice pictures. The Sedum looks good in a hanging basket. I might give that a go – I'm sadly remiss in the basket watering department. They shouldn't mind it a little on the dry side.

  5. Hi Shirl,

    Great posting here, great to see an update on the plant life of your garden. You still have so much colour in your garden at this time of year.

    The weather has been so poor here over the last couple of days, I wonder what its been like near you.

    Last weekend we were able to move our camera nestbox to the end of our garden. Hoping to see some roosters at some point. Do you have anything roosting in your camera nestbox at the moment?

  6. Hi there Liz – LOL… oh yes… the problem is I’ve not been watching either! Yep… it’s definitely the other things like stuff with my daughters that have been carrying me along!!

    Oh dear… surprised to hear it is glove wearing weather with you. It can be fresh here in the mornings but believe it or not most days I’m still wearing sandals. Mm… you say soft… you also say you spent time in Edinburgh as a child. Am I reading through the lines that you are Scots born?

    Thanks, I enjoyed taking the pics. I see you’ve entered one of your pics into a blog competition too. Good luck with that, blog comps are fun especially if it is one that you enjoy being part of 😀

    Now… I meant to take some sedum cuttings of this plant myself but (once again) the time went tick tock, tick tock! However this plant is so very easy to propagate from a cutting. I know this as I have one little plant myself now 😀

    Earlier this year, when it was warm for a spell, I added a top dressing of extra grit to keep in the moisture (I seldom water these baskets) and by accident I broke a stem away. It had just a couple of leaves on it. There was a pot below with lettuce in it and I pushed the stem into the soil as first aid and intended coming back to it to put it in a pot of its own to see if it would take.

    Tick tock, tick tock…. I forgot about it! Now the pot is empty of lettuce but guess what… this little stem has lots of new leaves. I must pot it up and over winter it in my greenhouse! Now that was easy 😮

    Yes, I love that clematis too… it could be Diana but I’ve not filed this label to know for sure. It’s probably in my shed and I really must find it to get an idea of how to prune it. It looks brilliant with the berries. A garden update thread is an interesting one… thanks… I’ll ponder on that 😀

    Sorry, we haven’t been back to you with menu help… OH been v. busy and we’ve had stuff on with the girls at the weekend. Are you still wanting to add this feature?

  7. Hi there Jan – Thanks… for a second comment too! Glad you enjoyed the pics 😀

    LOL… I was specifically thinking of you when I added that line and wondered if anyone else would put their hands up to it too 😉

    Thanks… we are all fine at the moment although I never like to tempt fate. I’m sure you’ll have an idea what I mean. Thanks for you mail, sorry I’ve been slow to reply. Will do soon 😀

  8. Hi again John – Thank-you, the sedums in my baskets have given great value for money. I’ve had them a few years now and as my neighbours now take down their summer bedding ones they have yet to get their autumn colour. I over winter them in my greenhouse.

    Sorry to hear that your local garden centre is not as it was.

    We’ve had a few beautiful bright mornings recently and fingers crossed after the red sky tonight that we’ll get a good day tomorrow! Yes, I suspect it is darker with us up here definitely on rainy days.

    Just quickly browsed past your recent postings (will return tomorrow) and I see you’ve been experimenting with sound for your videos. Gosh… you are inventive with technology!

    I do now wonder how you store all your pieces of electronics in your shed. Mm… perhaps you’re like my Dad with his plumbing fixings and store everything in drawers… and in his case an old filing cabinet 😮

  9. Welcome Sharon – not only here but into the blogging world too! Thanks for your comment… I hoped the great tit would have been spotted 🙂

    I really want to get time outside with my camera or inside at my window to get more bird photos as that is how my blog started.

    You’ve some great pics on your blog and I see you have foxes regularly visiting and now you’ve seen a badger too! My… you must have a garden for wildlife 😀

  10. Hi again Denise – Thank-you, oh yes I would recommend that particular one for baskets.

    It is the variety ‘rose carpet’ and after an extra dressing of fine grit this year when we had a warm spell I have only watered it a few times all year… this suits me too as I am also remiss in the basket watering dept. You can see by the photos it is quite happy dry in full sun and in partial shade 😀

  11. Hi there Joe – thanks, perhaps after what Liz said in her comment I may consider a more regular thread for updates. Yes, there are splashes of colour around the garden just now and lots of interest with foliage/colours changing.

    Sorry to hear the weather has been poor with you. On the whole its been okay up here, a little windy over the weekend but the sun has got out to play!

    It was nice today and we had a lovely red sky this evening so fingers crossed it’ll be nice to get out in the garden at some point… I need to get back to border clearing for my new pond 😀

    Great to hear you’ve got your nestbox moved as I knew it was something you had been considering. So far we’ve no roosters in ours… perhaps we should keep an eye out for the other one (without camera) to see what’s happening there. Maybe we could consider a move too to see if we’ll get success in it next year.

  12. Such a lot still in bloom in your garden, Shirl…:)

    Love the Cosmos, Sedum and clematis 🙂

    Do you think Hedgie off to hibernate already ?

  13. The Sedum and the pic above it (sedum maybe ?)plus the heuchera really caught my eye.
    Noticing more birds here.In the Spring I understand because of their nesting and winter because I feed them but now I'm not sure what they're doing.

  14. Hi again WG, Layanee, Patsi and Happy 🙂

    WG – yes, we do have a few flowers and I have really enjoyed these bargain cosmos bought almost past there best at a garden centre. I love saving plants like these. The sedums and clematis have added great interest to an otherwise foliage garden at the moment. Ah… the heggies… don’t know what they are up to at the moment but at a guess it isn’t cold enough yet for hibernation. Last year I saw many visits during November. Food isn’t being eaten at the moment so hope they are okay 🙂

    Layanee – Thank-you… yes a agree completely especially when you are parents of teenagers. Mm… perhaps the simpler life would be too dull. Lets’ go for a happy balance 😀

    Patsi – Yep… I’ve loved the sedums too and that heuchera was moved earlier this year as it caught my eye when I spotted at a garden centre last year. Previously it was further back in a border and now it is just outside my front door and I enjoy it every day! Ah… I suspect you’ll be noticing birds checking out roosting locations for cold winter nights ahead and to see if you have any likely sources for food for then too. They could be moving in 😀

    Happy – Thank-you, it really is I agree. Yesterday morning I got out for a short while with my video camera to capture some shots in the garden. I’ll post it soon. These videos are always wonderful records of the garden in the darker months of January/February especially. The garden is definitely in a different gear now 😀

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