New bird

Today’s picture shows a Bonnie Langholm hanging basket.  It will develop more flowers as time goes by.

I decided to let Dropscone pedal on his own today from a combination of business to do and joints to rest.  While he was out pedalling, I went up to fill up the feeders at the Moorland Feeding Station.  I had learned my lesson and was fully covered up and anointed against the midgies so I had time to lurk to see if anything interesting turned up.

This did.

It was very blurry through my camera eyepiece.

I thought that it might be some kind of pigeon as it was quite a large bird.  I had a closer look when it settled on one of the feeder towers.

Still not entirely helpful but not a pigeon.

Definitely not a pigeon but what was it?

I had thought that it might be a green woodpecker when I first saw it but it definitely wasn’t one of these which popped up while I was looking at the new bird.

It was very busy flying to and from the feeder as though it might be feeding a young one.  Here it is coming back.

I took one final shot and when I got back home I showed it to Mrs Tootlepedal and she identified it immediately as a jay, a bird I can’t remember ever having seen before.

A very pretty bird which I hope I get to see again.

On my way back through the town, I took the town hall keys back and checked the photo exhibition to see how many pictures had fallen down during the night (only one).

I admired the hanging baskets which Mrs Tootlepedal and her group had put up on Friday.  Here are two on the side of the Town Hall which houses our exhibition.

After I had got home, Dropscone arrived soon afterwards and we enjoyed coffee with the scones which he had kindly carried round the morning run on his back.

We are being visited by one or possibly two families of starlings just now and I am pleased to feed them as their numbers have gone down a lot because of the two hard winters we have had recently.  I had to use the rather conventional picture below…

…because I couldn’t use this one, as the very tip of the beak is just out of frame.

It’s a pity because it would have made a fine picture.

The fluffy young one appeared later in the day.

When Dropscone had left to go about his avocations, I wandered round the sunlit garden.

Confusingly, these simple roses are called Rosa Gallica Complicata

The first moss rose of the year

I like the curly pistils on this campanula

I have a picture of a frog peeping out from under a lily in the exhibition and there was another one at it today.

I went back inside and was rather baffled to see this bedraggled looking object under the feeder.

I think it may be a coal tit.

The siskins were as actively aggressive as ever.

This one just mistimed its kick. It’s probably an English one. (Football joke)

Then it was time to go the the hospital.  To make the outing more fun, we went to a garden centre to have lunch and mooch about first.  After stopping for me to buy bird food on the way, Mrs Tootlepedal bought a plant or two and I acquired some lawn top dressing and then we popped across the road and Mrs Tootlepedal bought some embroidery thread from a quilting shop so that made for a good outing all round.

The visit to the hospital to see the consultant’s nurse  was very quick (I was in and out before my official appointment time had even arrived) and I was pronounced ‘fair to middling’.  I am seeing the consultant himself next week and after that, I should have a better view of when I can get back on the bike.  Meanwhile, swimming is recommended.

While I was in the hospital, Mrs Tootlepedal made a quick dash to a fabric shop where I picked her up sooner than she would have liked.  The journey back out of Carlisle from the Eden bridge along the Scotland Road was very smooth and almost uniquely, we sailed through every one of the many traffic lights without having to stop.

The day had been very sunny throughout and this sweet William was positively glowing with pleasure.

Another flower with fun pistils

I have been trying to catch one of the pigeons in the garden in flight and I finally managed it this evening.  The result is decidedly disjointed.

Designed by committee like a camel perhaps. It seems amazing that it can make any progress at all.

It did get further away though without looking any more comfortable…

…and finally settled with dignity in the walnut tree.

A greenfinch glowed gently while taking in the rays.

The day was rounded off by a visit from my flute pupil Luke who gave me a rousing rendition of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which pleased me greatly.

Today’s flying object is a siskin, showing that they can have elegance as well as ferocity.