It is that time of year when it takes till about 11 o’clock for the sun to hit the solar panel for the garden pond pump to start bubbling. Most of the back garden will be mostly in shade until March.

But we do have some lovely pink coneflowers, lovingly grown from the teensiest plug plants that came by post. There’s also some cosmos, grown from seed, which usually have a few insects around them and are a lovely bright splash of colour. We picked up this purpleish wild geranium from a visit to a lovely national trust garden called Lanhydrock and it’s a wonderful souvenir of a very pleasant holiday.

The rudbeckia put in to fill a few gaps are flowering cheerily despite the lack of sun. And the horsey head statue in the horsey border is surrounded by autmnal colour and looking pretty fine.

I’ve been away or busy for the last few weeks, so not much time for blogging or birdsong guessing game development. But I have today got back on track with a few updates. Dawn Chorus Quest has counted 1665 players so far, and when I share it the feedback is generally lovely!

There’s now a level to play set in Ely, where we listen to the waders and see how the landscape changes affect the sounds of the dawn chorus.

Play at https://bird-times.lovable.app/ely

If you’re interested in how the game is made, which data sources are used and technical jiggery is poked, you can read the Dawn Chorus Quest technical log

Or, to see more collections of garden highlights for Six on Saturday, visit Garden Ruminations, where bloggers from around the world share their garden snapshots.

Have a lovey week

Jen xx