Flat out

Today’s guest picture comes from our granddaughter Matilda. During a zoom meeting this afternoon, she showed us her latest artwork. I liked it, and she kindly allowed me to use it for my post today.

The chief business of the day here was the arrival of Rab, the roofer, and his squad. They came to renew the flat roof over our dormer, and they got to work with a will. The old roof was soon at ground level, while work on the new one began up above.

All being well, the job will be finished tomorrow, and we will be watertight and secure again.

While they worked aloft, down below fellow Langholm Archive Group members Ian and Sandy came round for coffee, and we caught up on what we are all doing. They are both very busy.

When they left, I did a little mowing and a lot of wandering about. As the saying goes, everything in the garden is lovely.

The birds were a bit distracted by all the activity but I did spot two of our most regular visitors, a siskin and a redpoll.

I helped Mrs Tootlepedal with some garden tasks, and took a moment out to circulate the notice for the AGM of the Langholm Initiative, and then it was time for lunch and a goat’s cheese and chutney sandwich.

After lunch, Mrs Tootlepedal set about making a costume for one of Matilda’s forthcoming dances, while I went off for a short walk to test out the replacements for some faulty boots which I had had to return to the shop. I chose a route with some track, some road, some uphill, and some downhill, and the boots proved very comfortable in all circumstances. The walk was good too.

Apart from the copper beeches at the entrance to the park, it is all very green still . . .

. . . with a lot of wild flowers to see on the way (any help with the identification of the final yellow flower would be welcomed). . .

. . . and some good views too when I got up the hill a bit.

I thought of Mrs Tootlepedal as I passed oaks both very young . . .

. . . and quite old.

I got back to find that our friends Mike and Alison had returned safely from a holiday in Wales, and Mike and Mrs Tootlepedal were enjoying a cup of tea in the garden.

I didn’t have much time to join in the conversation, because I had to take off my new boots and get ready for the regular Zoom with Matilda and her father, followed by another with my brother and sisters. We will see my brother Andrew and my sister Mary in person later this week. They are staying in Penrith just across the border for a few days, and will come up to visit the garden while they are here.

Between the zooms, I had another look at the feeder and found a different pair of redpoll and siskin perched there, with the redpoll busy dropping seeds.

We are hoping that the dry weather will last for another day as we are going on a day trip tomorrow, our first for a year we think.

The flying bird of the day is a siskin.

A rude awakening

Today’s guest picture comes from my brother Andrew. He was driving up to spend a few days in Cumbria with my sister Mary when he stopped on his way to enjoy a walk along the canal viaduct over the River Lune in Lancaster.

We had a warm and sunny day here from start to finish, though a few clouds and a rumble of thunder did appear in the late afternoon. Change is on the way, but in the meantime, we are enjoying the best weather we have had for several months.

Chaffinches are scarce in the garden at the moment, so it was good to see one before we went to church this morning.

For one reason or another, we got three sermons in our church service today. It is possible to have too much of a good thing. As a result we had our coffee rather later than usual. but we shared it with Margaret who came round to join us.

After Margaret left, we went out into the garden. I did some mowing, and Mrs Tootlepedal did maintenance to flower and vegetable beds.

When I had finished the mowing, I had a wander about. The sunny days have done wonders for garden growth.

The were some busy bees about. One liked the alliums, while another was fascinated by the newly flowering irises.

Along the dam at the back of the house, the first fuchsia flower is out, and the first of the big red poppies has opened too.

The walnut tree is always the last to come into leaf, but it is now looking very cheerful.

Among all the excitement and the colour, my favourite of the day was this blue aquilegia.

If there is another flower giving a more convincing appearance of four angry blue pigeons in an argument, I don’t know it.

We spent a restful afternoon watching the superhuman cyclists tackle enormous climbs in the Giro stage, and I looked out of the window at the birds when the stage finished. Among the willows in the backlit sunshine, it is sometimes hard to pick out the siskins which are most regular visitors just now.

And a greenfinch wasn’t much easier to spot.

After the professional cyclists had completed their day, Mrs Tootlepedal and I set out for a grand tour of our own, covering fourteen miles round the ‘Barnglieshead triangle’. There was a large sign at the Kerr road end saying that the road to Barnglieshead was closed. We went along it anyway, and luckily found that it was closed beyond the point where we turned off it.

As we went up the hill to the Kerr, I said to Mrs Tootlepedal that I would stop to take a picture of my favourite oak. Which I did.

At which point, Mrs Tootlepedal said, “That’s not an oak,” and pedalled on.

Pictures of this tree have appeared in many posts over the years, and I have always said that it was an oak, so it was a bit of a surprise to hear that it wasn’t an oak. We continued on our ride, hopeful that some looming clouds were going away rather than coming towards us . . .

. . . and found that they were.

We came back past the ‘oak’ tree when we had been round the triangle, and this time we went for a closer inspection.

It turned out that it is definitely not an oak, but most likely a sycamore from the leaves . . .

. . . and what is more, it doesn’t look anything like so good when seen from the other side.

Am I going to back over ten years of posts and change the description as an oak every time it appears? No. Looking through my records, I see that the first time that it appeared in a post in 2012, I cautiously described it as a ‘tree’. I should have stuck to that, as my ignorance of trees is deep and profound. Perhaps the solution would be to go for bicycle rides with Mrs Tootlepedal more often. Then I would learn things properly.

Her sharp eyes came to the fore again as we headed back down the Wauchope road and she spotted a flock of geese among the sheep in a field. They were a bit too far away for my camera so I can’t tell what sort of geese they are.

Maybe things will improve for me if and when I get my cataracts done. I am going for an assessment in a month or two.

The black clouds that appeared again as we inspected the tree . . .

. . . threatened a change in the weather, as did a couple of rumbles of thunder just as we got home, but it has stayed dry.

The flying bird of the day is that greenfinch arriving at the feeder.

Footnote: we recently purchased a new kitchen clock as our old one had died. It was a see through affair whihc proved hard to read against our white wall. The ingenious Mrs Tootlepedal solved the problem with some painted card.

Acting my age

Today’s guest picture comes from my sister Mary. She was visiting Venetia in Somerset today and they went to see two fine gardens.

I got up promptly again this morning, and surprised myself by being ready to go out for a ride on my pushbike by half past nine. The forecast was for good weather all day, with a reasonable light wind, so this seemed like a good moment to try to bicycle as many miles as I have had birthdays. I hope to be able to do this for a few more years, but as the mathematically minded will realise, the task gets harder as time goes by.

I went down to Gretna and into England today, keeping away from hills as far as possible. The camera club theme this month is churches, so I collected a few on my way.

My route took me over the level crossing near the Metal Bridge, where I was not the only cyclist held up by the train, and then down on to the colourful northern by-pass round Carlisle. I left the by-pass bike path, and pedalled across country to Anthorn, on the Wampool Estuary, where I had a rest after covering 40 miles.

I then cycled round the Anthorn peninsular and on to Bowness on Solway. The tide was miles out so there were no sea views. I made do with cow parsley and hawthorn . . .

. . . but I was very much taken with the fact even though the water was so far away, it was also so calm that I could see the reflections of the Scottish shore quite clearly.

It was hard for my pocket camera but I had several goes at capturing this unusual situation.

I stopped in a very pleasant cafe in Bowness for two fruit scones with jam and a pot of tea. The cafe owner provided music for my ears when she uttered the welcome cry of, “I’ll just put the kettle on.” The scones were good and the tea was refreshing, but sadly I was her only customer. She told me that business was very quiet at the moment. That was a pity, and if you like good scones, cakes and a well made pot of tea, I can recommend the Pear Tree Tearoom.

Fortified by the scones and tea, I headed along the Solway shore. This section is very flat in places, usually a bonus, but today I was heading straight into what wind there was, and I found it hard work. I was happy to stop to take a couple of pictures. I was pleased to see the egret, and I like the house in Drumburgh which is the living embodiment of the phrase, ‘an Englishman’s home is his castle’.

There was silaging going on . . .

. . . and guests were coming out of a wedding at Burgh by Sands so there was plenty to keep me interested before I got back to the by-pass and headed north.

I wound my way across country to Longtown, admiring the big daisies near the end of the by-pass and stopping to see if I could get a good picture of the shadows of turbine blades on the road near Todhills. I couldn’t.

From Longtown, I came up the A7, taking the diversion through Canonbie on the way.

I added a couple of miles to my journey just in case I had got my age wrong, and ended up doing just over 84 miles. I had secretly hoped to do this in 7 hours, but I was five minutes late when I got home.

I had time for a quick walk round the garden in the hot sunshine when I got back . . .

. . . and then we sat down to an evening meal of poached salmon cooked by Mrs Tootlepedal, before we walked down the road to the Buccleuch Centre to attend a concert given by the Langholm Town Band on the theme of music from the movies.

They made good creative use of a big screen behind the band to add visual interest to the performance with clips from the films, and they played exceedingly well. The fact that they kept me wide awake for two hours speaks for itself.

I didn’t have an opportunity to get a flying bird of the day so a garden blackbird is standing in.

I append a map of today’s outing.

Getting the point

Today’s guest picture comes from my sister Caroline. It shows part of the botanic garden at Southsea on a lovely day recently.

We had to be up and about quite smartly today, as we had to be in Canonbie before half past nine for our Covid booster injections. We were seen promptly, given the jabs, and sent on our way without any ill effects. This left us with plenty of time in the garden when we got home. Mrs Tootlepedal settled down to serious work in the vegetable department, and I wandered around taking pictures.

An orange geum, a Japanese azalea, some rowan flowers and another euphorbia were all looking good, I thought.

I went in to make coffee and checked on the birds. Siskins and redpolls were to the fore again.

Rab, the roofer, appeared with scaffolding and a team to put it up, and set to work while we had our coffee.

We went back out into the garden while the scaffolding was going up. I mowed the front lawn with such care and attention that the mower’s batteries ran out before I had finished. That sort of thing never happened when I had a push mower.

I had time to look at a few more flowers . . .

. . . before I walked up to the town to meet Sandy at Pelosi’s cafe.

A lady, Elizabeth Phillips, had visited Langholm from Edinburgh in the early 1970s and had taken a lot of pictures of the town and its people. She has recently died, and her nephew has digitised the slides that she left, and he has presented copies of over 200 of them to the Langholm Archive Group. Sandy has started to put them onto our website already. Martin and his wife were on their way from the south to St Andrews today, and stopped off to visit the town and meet Sandy and me on their way.

We are very grateful that they thought of us, because the photographs will be a good addition to our collection. After a good chat, they set off for a walk round the town to explore, with the intention of taking a picture or two from the same places that Elizabeth had taken them 50 years ago. Sandy and I went home.

The scaffolders had finished by the time that I had got back. They will start the repair next week.

After lunch, we went back out into the garden, where Mrs Tootlepedal continued to do useful work and I lent an occasional hand. After a while, she went in to watch the Giro, and I took my new pair of walking shoes out for a test.

There were wild flowers beside the track as I made my way up to Meikleholm Hill . . .

. . . but not much of a view when I got on to the hill, as it was another rather murky day.

There were cattle on the hill, so I had to take a steep route to the summit to avoid them, but it was dry underfoot and my new shoes worked well, so once I had got to the top of Meikleholm Hill (860ft) I continued on to Timpen (1068ft). Because this is sheep country, wild flowers on the hill are very scarce, but I did see a good lot of tormentil which the sheep don’t eat for some reason, and the subdued light made them easier to photograph than usual.

Normally I would be spoiled for views from the top of Timpen, but in spite of it being a warm and calm day, the light was terrible . . .

. . . so I didn’t linger, and headed down from the top to join the road near Craigcleuch.

The road verges were full of wild flowers, including a lot of Pyrenean Valerian, which is spreading round the town. It is a bully and its large leaves shade out the competition and leave it dominant.

I fear for the other wild flowers which I saw today.

I didn’t go all the way home along the road, but took the path through the woods down to the Duchess bridge. The sun had come out by this time, and the path was looking at its best. I saw germander speedwell and yellow pimpernel, along with wild garlic and rhododendrons. A gap made by fallen trees gave me grand view across the river.

The path from the Duchess Bridge to the Scholars’ Field, was lined with a mass of flowers.

My walk was only four miles long, but the combination of open hill and sunlit woodlands made it seem longer as I had so much to look at on my way. A few views would have been nice, but you can’t always have everything that you want.

I was welcomed home by honeysuckle on our roadside hedge.

After a cup of tea, followed by a cheery zoom with my brother and sisters, Mrs Tootlepedal and I went out for a five mile bike ride ’round Potholm’. The sun had gone in again, but it was warm and calm still, so we had a good outing with a view over the valley of the hill that I had just walked over, and a look down the River Esk at Potholm, when we crossed the bridge there.

A late meal of smoked haddock kedgeree rounded off the day.

The flying bird of the day is a sparrow, getting an unfriendly welcome from a siskin.

Footnote: our flat roof over the dormer window was damaged in a gale earlier this year. Rab, who was working re-slating the other side of the roof at the time, nailed it down temporarily, and has now come back to to a permanent repair. We were very lucky that he was there at the time of the original damage.

Mrs Tootlepedal gets my goat

Today’s guest picture comes from reader Michelle. She very kindly sent me this atmospheric picture from her walk by the River Don in Aberdeen yesterday evening.

We had considered an outing to Yorkshire by rail for today, but we postponed the trip until next week because of an uncertain forecast of rain. It was supposed to rain in Langholm too, but we had a dry day, cloudy in the morning, and turning to warm sunshine in the afternoon.

Dropscone came round for coffee. He had just had a telephone consultation regarding a cataract operation before he came. By coincidence, I am going to have one about a possible cataract operation tomorrow. He is going to get an operation, and I hope that they will offer me one as well. After we had chatted, eaten scones and drunk coffee, I found some rhubarb in the garden for him, and he went off thinking of rhubarb crumble.

I stayed out and looked at flowers. New flowers are appearing every day at the moment, thanks to the warmer weather. I saw climbing hydrangea, nectaroscordum, white polemonium, veronica and cornflowers.

There was plenty of temptation to take pictures of old friends too.

I didn’t just wander about aimlessly though. I spent some useful time sieving more of the compost in Bin D as the compost bucket had got rather low. By the time that I had finished, the compost bucket was getting fuller again.

Mrs Tootlepedal had a busy morning at her computer, so after I had come in and had a check on the birds, which were mostly siskins again, but with an occasional touch of variety . . .

. . . I made some soup for lunch.

After lunch, as Mrs Tootlepedal had completed her business, we went out into the garden and did some more compost work.

We have two kitchen compost bins, and after two years of using one of the bins, we thought that it was time to stop adding new stuff, and to shut it up and let it rot. This meant that we had to look at the other bin which has been quietly maturing for two years. It turned out to have quite a bit of useful compost in, and after we had sieved the contents, we had another bin of compost ready to use.

Mrs Tootlepedal likes the kitchen compost because it is both quite rich and weed free. I had to wait before I could add the last batch of sievings to the tub, because there were others who were interested in compost too . . .

. . . but in the end, two years of kitchen waste neatly filled one of our big red tubs.

When we had finished with the compost, we fixed up the blackcurrant and gooseberry fruit cage which had got a bit lopsided. We had also needed to fill up the pond, as the lack of rain recently had left it rather low. When I went to have a look to see if it was full, I was very happy to spot several healthy looking tadpoles swimming about. Obviously the ducks had not quite got all the frogspawn.

Then, needing a rest, we went in and watched the final 25 km of today’s stage of the Giro. It was an exciting stage, and we were very pleased to see Julian Alaphilippe take a hugely well deserved win.

Outside, a jackdaw perched on the fat ball feeder.

By this time, it was a beautiful afternoon, so we got out our electric bicycles and cycled over the hill and on to the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve. We were very pleased to have electrical assistance, as we were cycling into a very brisk north easterly wind, and needed all the help that we could get.

As we came down the hill to the Tarras Lodge bridge, the ever alert Mrs Tootlepedal pointed out a goat. As I had my goat camera with me, we stopped and I took a picture.

She saw a great many more goats on our outing, some apparently eating bluebells, and we stopped several more times.

We cycled up beside the river, enjoying the views and the sunshine, pausing at Arkelton Cottage to enjoy the sound of the water, and stopping when we got to the concrete bridge before Cooms.

We turned and retraced our journey back to Langholm, pushed on by the enthusiastic wind this time.

While we were out, as well as the numerous goats,we saw a stoat run across the road, watched two buzzards pass overhead, and heard the sound of the cuckoo. Mrs Tootlepedal actually saw the cuckoo fly past us, but it was too quick for my camera, and I only recorded a blur.

However, as it is much more rare to see a cuckoo than to hear it, I have put the blur in. You get a prize if you can see it too.

It was a twelve mile ride in the end, and every mile was a treat in the warm sunshine.

The best that I could do for a flying bird of the day, having failed to catch the buzzards or the cuckoo, is a retreating jackdaw from the garden.

A little boring

Today’s guest picture comes from my friend Hilary, a.k.a Dropscone’s niece. She tells me that this is part of the route of her regular evening run into Zurich from where she can catch a train back home again.

We had to be up promptly today, as I had a dentist’s appointment in Annan. Our Langholm surgery closed over a year ago, so it is a 20 mile drive to get a tooth filled now. However, it is an ill wind that blows nobody good, so Mrs Tootlepedal enjoyed a walk round an Annan supermarket while I was being treated. I joined her just in time to pay the bill. How fortunate.

This all took us most of the morning, but there was time for coffee and some mowing and strimming before lunch. Mrs Tootlepedal pointed out a new iris siberica, and I took a picture. A bee had noticed it too.

Another bee was doing a thorough job on a rhododendron.

I had time for a couple of other flower pictures . . .

. . . before going for lunch and a bit of bird watching afterwards.

The blackbird looked rather distraught about all the mess.

Mrs Tootlepedal had a busy afternoon in mind, with a visit to the people who are organising an embroidery celebrating the community land buyout, followed by a visit to the woods to hug some more oak trees.

I took the opportunity to go for a pedal. As I wanted to go a fair distance, and I didn’t have a lot of time in hand, I took my electric bike and sped along as quickly as I could.

Trying to get a move on and spending time looking for interesting to things to photograph are not very compatible, but I spotted and stopped for a few splashes of colour along the way . . .

. . . some elegant white flowers . . .

. . . and some enjoyable views of the roads that I was using, flanked by horse chestnut and cow parsley.

I had the wind behind me for the first fifteen miles, which I covered in exactly an hour, but it was against me for the next fifteen, and I lost interest in stopping for the final fifteen miles which were on very familiar roads, and ploughed on with my head down.

Mrs Tootlepedal got in not long before me, so we had both had quite productive afternoons.

We had a stroll round the garden where a hosta caught my eye . . .

. . . and when we went in, I noticed that someone had been putting bread out for the birds on the grass alongside the dam behind the house. Rooks had noticed too.

As we had missed the live broadcast, we watched a recording of the last kilometres of today’s Giro stage after our evening meal. It was truly terrifying watching a great army of cyclists approach a narrow pinch point in the road ahead at 55 kph, and it was a testament to their skill and nerve that they flowed through it without coming to harm.

The flying bird of the day is a siskin.

Free but at a cost

Today’s guest picture is from my walking friend Mark. It comes from yesterday’s walk, and I think it shows the airy views better than any I used in yesterday’s post. His phone camera works well.

Today was quite a contrast with yesterday. I did have some conversation with a friend, but it was over morning coffee indoors in the kitchen when Sandy paid his weekly visit, and I didn’t walk anywhere, as it rained almost all day.

I got a chance after Sandy left to walk round the garden while the drizzle had paused for a moment. The light wasn’t good, but I tried to capture some fresh colour.

New azaleas and rhododendrons are appearing daily.

The tree peony flowers are more visible this year than they have ever been before. Normally they get hidden by the leaves before I can get a picture of them.

The first yellow potentilla flowers have appeared . . .

. . . while some aquilegias showed their faces while others kept their heads down.

Euphorbias never fail to amuse me . . .

. . . and the white clematis beside the front door impresses . . .

. . . as sweet rocket, alliums and geraniums increase daily.

It wasn’t a day for finding bees or butterflies, so I looked for things that might be eaten later in the year.

Growing veg and fruit is never straightforward, what with pests, blight, late frosts, hungry birds and other troubles, but things look to have made a good start.

Because siskins are very messy eaters and the large flock of chaffinches which have been cleaning up the fallen seed under the feeder have temporarily disappeared, it is getting messy under the feeder. The scavenging was left to a single blue tit and a few redpolls today. The blue tit looked a bit overwhelmed by the task.

Up above, more messy siskins made things worse and a redpoll or two joined in.

A siskin sheltered from the rain in the willows.

Since it wasn’t a day suitable for gardening, walking or cycling, we took the opportunity to drive over to Gretna to take back my new pair of boots which had proved faulty. The shop took them back without any discussion, and arranged to send me a new pan as soon as possible. This was very satisfactory, but as we celebrated by going to nearby shops in the outlet village, the outing cost us more in the end than writing off the faulty boots and buying a new pair on the internet would have done.

Still, I now have a much needed new pair of trousers and a shirt, along with what I hope will be a very comfortable pair of lightweight waterproof walking shoes. Mrs Tootlepedal acquired a jumper.

We spent the afternoon looking at the rain through the window, and watching a good stage of the Giro. Grand tours are just thing to pass a few hours on a wet day. I did manage to put a week of the newspaper index into the Archive Group database and add another scanned parish magazine to the website.

We have been given a splendid collection of photographs of life in Langholm in the 70s, and Sandy is getting busy adding them to the group’s online photo collection. He will have plenty to do to keep him occupied on rainy days.

The rather fuzzy flying bird of the day is a redpoll.

Various pleasures

Today’s guest picture comes from my Somerset correspondent Venetia’s recent trip to Dunster. She liked the Yarn Market there.

I had a fairly full day today. It started with the arrival of my walking friend Mark, who came after breakfast to pick me up for a walk in the hills of the Hermitage valley, accompanied by his faithful dog, Henry. The forecasters had changed their minds wildly over the past few days, but finally they settled for promising us a dry and warm day, and luckily for us, the forecasters had got it right. We had pretty well perfect weather for our circular walk up to the boundary between the Borders and Dumfries and Galloway regions, starting and finishing at Twislehope road end.

Both Mark and I took pictures as we went round, and he has kindly given me some of his. If you see an old man in a red jumper in a frame, Mark took the picture. The others are mine. He supplied the map of the walk which we did in a clockwise direction, starting on a good track to the gate on Hartsgarth Fell, marking the county boundary.

From the gate, we ploughed across rough ground to Scawd Bank, looking left down into the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve as we went, and then looking over the Hermitage valley when we crossed back into the Borders Region on top of Scawd Bank.

Then we followed the Millingwood Fell ridge down back to Twislehope Hope. It was steep at times, and I had a moment when I felt that I might not find it easy to continue with my poor head for heights. However, with Mark’s encouragement and Henry by my side, I held my nerve, peered over the steepest bit, and then could see my way down.

The camera flattens things out, but I have put in a couple of shots to try to give an impression of the slope.

We stopped for a snack at the bottom of the ridge, and then strolled back along the farm track to the road end, passing some wild goats on the way. It was hard to tell who was more surprised, us or them.

Mark is a wizard at finding good walks to do, and this one was ideal for me. A delightful walk along the burn to start, followed by a steady pull uphill with ever changing views to keep up the interest. A change of terrain in the middle, and then a challenging but not ridiculous descent back down with more good views on the way, and a lovely stroll to finish off. For a shortish seven mile walk, it certainly packed a lot in.

Mark came in for a bowl of soup and a cup of tea when we got back in time for a late lunch, and then when he left, I went out into the garden where Mrs Tootlepedal had been busy while we were walking.

There was new life to celebrate . .

. . . and old friends to greet again.

We surprised a siskin at the pond and found a bee on the abundant ajuga.

It wasn’t long before it was time for a Zoom meeting with our son Alistair and our granddaughter Matilda. They were in excellent spirits, and Matilda told us that she is going to take part in no less than 10 numbers in her forthcoming Dance School’s annual show. Her memory must be a lot better than mine.

There was time for a little mowing in the garden and along the dam, and then we were back in for our second Zoom of the day, this time with my brother and sisters. It is very good to keep up with them in this way, which we started during Covid and have kept going ever since, but we are going to see my brother Andrew and sister Mary in the flesh in a couple of weeks. That will be even better.

Then there was just time for a quick evening meal before I went off to the monthly meeting of the Camera Club. We had a good turnout this month, and a very good selection of pictures. The theme was bridges and we got a lot of good ones, with the pick probably being supplied by Mark. It showed a terrifying suspension bridge high in an alpine gorge on a Via Ferrata. It was so dizzying than even looking at the picture made me feel very queasy. However, the high spot of the evening was not a bridge at all, but a dazzling array of pictures of the aurora borealis taken last week by Inigo from the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve team. They were simply sensational and rounded off a really enjoyable day.

The flying birds of the day are four siskins taken in unhelpful light.

Rumbles

Today’s guest picture comes from our friend Mike. He is currently on holiday in sunny Wales, and sent me this shot of the bridge over the River Wye at Builth Wells.

The forecast for our weather here today had been altering every time that I had looked at it, so we expected changeable weather. However, we didn’t get the change until the late evening when some thunder, lightning, and heavy rain signalled the end of our spell of sunny weather. It was almost a sunny day but it was a cloudy day too, as the weather hung about waiting for the change. I found it rather oppressive, and after church in the morning, I did very little apart from wandering about the garden saying, “I feel a bit tired.”

The garden is far from tired.

I did spend a little time trying to take a decent picture of a flying bird, but I was short of patience and got a mixed bag of sitters instead.

Under the circumstances, it was all too easy to sit down and watch a great deal of today’s stage of the Giro. It was not very exciting to say the least until the final few kilometres, and even the commentators were laughing at their own efforts to find something pertinent and original to say. They managed to pass the time painlessly though, as they have had a lot of experience watching hours of cycling with not much happening. Italy looked beautiful.

When the stage ended, I thought that I ought to do something, so while Mrs Tootlepedal went out to do some gardening, I went off for a three bridges walk. Thanks to the warm weather, children and dogs were playing by the waterside so birds were few and far between, though one regular was on its favourite rock.

I proceeded on my way along the Kilngreen slowly enough to be able to spot an orange tip butterfly having a rest from its usual incessant fluttering.

After that, I crossed the Sawmill Brig and walked round the Castleholm looking about as I went. I liked the newly repaired wall, the rowan blossom, the racecourse in waiting, the burgeoning oak, and the azalea peeping out from behind the trees along the Lodge Walks.

And these of course.

When I got to the Duchess Brig, I went round the pheasant hatchery loop before crossing the bridge.

I added ivy leaved toadflax and vetch to my collection of wild flowers as I went along the top of the Scholars’ Field . . .

. . . and finished my walk with a view of the rhododendron in our garden taken from the road.

A joint effort in the kitchen provided us with a meal of cauliflower cheese and mushrooms, followed by rhubarb crumble and custard. Fortified by that, we were able to withstand the shock of the thunder and lightning later on.

My failure to catch a flying bird of the day was a subject of conversation at the feeder late into the evening.

Feeling the heat

Today’s sensational guest picture was sent to us by our son Tony. It shows the northern lights as captured by his partner Marianne’s daughter Tash in East Wemyss last night

We went out late last night ourselves to try to see the lights, but we were unsuccessful, and the best we could come up with was this shot of the almost new moon.

When dawn came, we enjoyed another warm and sunny day here. In fact it got so hot in the middle of the day, that we couldn’t stay out in the garden for too long without getting cooked.

I prudently started the day very slowly, and didn’t get going until it was nearly coffee time. I ventured out into the garden and had a look around. A new geranium has appeared which a bumblebee found as interesting as I did. You will have to agree that one of the pictures is definitely the bees knees.

I walked up to the town to get some milk and rolls and on my way I stopped to enjoy the view down the River Esk . . .

. . . and the activities of martins flitting across the Wauchope Water. You have to have sharp eyes to spot the one in the first picture below.

When I got back, I started on shifting the contents of compost bin B into compost bin C. I took it very gently with lots of stops for rest and a drink of water.

I noticed a lone campion in our mini wild flower meadow on the drying green as I went in for lunch.

I finished the compost job off after lunch, and had another walk round the garden to celebrate.

Two blackbirds kept an eye on me as I went round.

Mrs Tootlepedal had been busy in the garden too, and we needed a moment to cool off before we set off on our electric bicycles to see if the bluebells on the hillside just out of town were ready for viewing yet. They were not quite at their best, but they were still quite a sight, and well worth a visit. I don’t know why the sheep don’t eat the bluebells. They eat almost everything else and the only other flowers on the hill were two tormentils.

We cycled home and had a cup of tea before setting off out of the other side of town to visit the bird hide on the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve. Before we left, I checked our bird feeder and was happy to see a chaffinch.

When we got to the bird hide, we found that there were much the same birds there as there are in our own garden. Then, the sharp eyed Mrs Tootlepedal noticed a willow warbler on a spruce tree. It wasn’t on a willow, but it was certainly warbling. A siskin went for a drink in the reflection pool.

With nothing much happening, we left the hide and walked down the track towards the river, passing a bright yellow broom bush and many promising trees which were planted after the larch wood was felled a few years ago. They should provide good homes for birds in the years to come.

We didn’t get as far as the river as a very steep bank was involved. When we got back to the hide, I stayed for a while in the hope of seeing something interesting, while Mrs Tootlepedal set off to cycle home. I didn’t have to wait long before something interesting appeared, even though it was hiding behind the peanut feeder.

It was a greater spotted woodpecker and it stayed for quite a while while I snapped away.

When it flew off, I got back on my bicycle and followed Mrs Tootlepedal home. I didn’t catch her up, and this was not surprising, as she told me later that she had hit 28 mph going down one of the hills on her way back.

It was nearly time for our evening meal so that concluded our activities for the day.

I didn’t manage to catch a flying bird of the day today, so a redpoll at the bird hide is standing in.