Lounging around

Today’s picture is from my sister Mary’s recent holiday in Wales.  She was on the mountain railway.

It was another forecast defying day, slightly warmer than of late and with several periods of fine sunny weather.  Dropscone was off on family business and I took the opportunity to have a day of rest.  I managed this really well.

I spent some time playing with my new lens.

A goldfinch looking remarkably like the ones I took with my old lens.

My new remote control doesn’t seem to work very well.  I am going to get a new battery for it and see if that does the trick.  If it doesn’t, I shall sulk and hope that I learn a lesson about not buying cheap knockoffs instead of the real thing.

The garden looked very nice in the sunshine and all our visitors remark on the tulips which are really vibrant.

A tulip - the inside story.

There are complaints that tulips are rather short of their true height this year because of the odd early weather and that is certainly true for some of the ones in our garden though not all.

As well as frogs, we have king cups in the pond and they are just beginning to flower.

A burst of blossom on a viburnum in the back border.

This is the first (of many, we hope) clematis flower of the year.

In the morning, I went to visit Bruce, who had one of those intractable computer software problems when you do four things, all more or less identical, and three work and the fourth doesn’t.   We spent some time examining the situation before I agreed that it was indeed an intractable problem.  He emailed me shortly after I had got home to tell me that he had solved it.  It’s always a pleasure to be able to help your fellow man.

After lunch I got the new lens out again and took a shot of a sitting duck, so as to speak…

A greenfinch in a green tree

…and then I had another go at trying to catch a flying bird with it.  It has potential if I can unlock it.

A dramatic but rather patchy shot.

Mrs Tootlepedal told me that I ought to take more pictures where the birds are looking at the camera.

It looks very promising to me so I am going to stick at it.

Here a couple taken shortly afterwards with the old lens for comparison.

Neater but not so immediate.

Closely stacked chaffinches

In the afternoon, I went to see Arthur, who also had a problem with his computer or to be more precise, he had a problem with himself while using his computer.

As I walked over the suspension bridge, I stopped to look south at the poplars in the Buccleuch Park.

The gap where they felled several trees is rather sad.

Arthur’s problem was within my area of competence and didn’t take long to resolve.  He is not helped by having come to computing at an advanced age and not having great eyesight for a small screen.

On my way home, I stopped on the suspension bridge again and looked north this time where my eye was caught by an unusual grey blob on the Elizabeth Street banking.

Closer inspection revealed that it was the heron in among the old daffs and the ladies’ smocks.

I was going to have words about eating frogs but it flew away.

I was left staring at the flowers on the bank of the river.

When I got home, Mrs Tootlepedal was busy in the vegetable garden.  She has planted out some broad beans, the first vegetables of the year.  Not wishing to disturb her, I took the new lens out and sat on a seat looking back at the bird feeder.

Another attempt at a flying bird. It makes a change to have a different background.

And another.

During the day, I looked through my back catalogue of bird pictures and started to choose a few shots for a small exhibition which Sandy and I are organising with some friends.  It is very hard to pick just ten pictures or so out of hundreds.  I also have to consider how they will look in print as opposed to on the screen.  I have never exhibited a photo before so I am on a learning curve here and I shall lean heavily on Sandy’s advice, as he is an old hand at this.

We welcomed a couple to the B and B who have visited us before and who are two thirds of the way through a long journey from the south of England to the Scottish Highlands.  It’s a long drive and I would have thought nothing about doing it in years gone by but now I sit in admiration of their staying power as they are even older than us and I would certainly find it a struggle.

In the evening, Mike and Alison came and Alison and I had a really good time playing music.  As always, there were the occasional rough patches but once we had both established what key we were playing in, the results were surprisingly harmonious.

While we talked after playing, Mrs Tootlepedal sat quietly beside us working away steadily at her quilting.

There's a lot of work in hand quilting.

She is still sewing as I write this.

Today’s chaffinch is a passing goldfinch taken with the old lens.