Today’s picture, taken by my sister Mary on a Thameside walk, captured a smart naval vessel at anchor. It is there to protect us from the bankers. It’s not working though.
Today was a contrast to yesterday in many ways. The weather was dull and windy, my day was uneventful and I hardly left the house. I did leave it to to get a Sunday paper. The paper was dull too.
Mrs Tootlepedal went off to sing in the church choir and I spend a nervous hour mounting two pictures for a competition. It is not particularly difficult work but you can’t afford to make a single mistake because if you do, you have to start again from the beginning and the mounting board is not cheap and it all takes time. I have chosen two recent misty pictures which have appeared in the blog more for the sake of taking part than in the hope of winning as it is an open competition and standards of sharpness and composition will be very high.
In between times, I peered out of the kitchen widow. No swans or geese were in evidence but there were a lot of bramblings today instead.
They arrived from all sides at once. The goldfinch in the middle looks quite nervous.
The chaffinch looks unconcerned
Chaffinches and goldfinches were about as well but there were very few siskins and greenfinches today.
A goldfinch waiting in the stacking area as a chaffinch comes into land.
A female chaffinch seems astonished to find a male pushing in. We are not so surprised.
Mrs Tootlepedal found a little time between church and appliqué to do a bit of gardening. She is very happy at the moment as she has found a new manure mountain which is rich in well rotted cow muck and she went off with some buckets to make a preliminary collection.
Better than gold.
I ventured out into the garden to see if the snowdrops were coming on.
They were.
I spent the afternoon preparing rehearsal disks for the choir. Very seasonally inappropriately, the musical director has chosen Autumn Leaves for us to sing and the arrangement is quite elaborate so home practice will be necessary.
My younger son rang up and advised me to watch the second half of a rugby match on TV and I enjoyed the sight of Italy beating France as the Italians haven’t had much to cheer themselves up with recently. I shall be pleasantly surprised if Scotland don’t finish bottom of the table this year.
A chaffinch watched over the bird feeder for me while I was busy.
It was an unremarkable but not wasted day in the end and I was glad of a rest as my legs are feeling that a bit too much walking and pedalling has been going on recently.
A brambling made flying bird of the day.
Mrs. T must go through a pile of that stuff!
It obviously makes for a lovely garden.
What lovely pictures.
We have very few small birds about at the moment despite the feeders being full. It’s quite worrying. Our robin and the little wren are present, thank goodness, and I saw a couple of sparrows yesterday. We did have a couple of Tits (couldn’t see what species though as too fleeting and too far away) at the feeders last week but haven’t seen them since. The collared doves appear to be nesting though and the blackbirds are back in the nest in our coal shed.
Would feel happier if I could see a few more of the smaller birds though. Good luck with your competition entries.
We have no shortage of small birds and we are by no mean the only people feeding birds in the town. Everybody’s at it. Collared doves are regular visitors ot our walnut tree and there are several blackbirds about too. Thank you for visiting the blog and your kind remark.
It’s only the first week of February and you already have flowers in bloom. I’m so jealous, and that reminds me, I have never paid homage to the gardening talents of you and Mrs. Tootlepedal. Your gardens are beautiful!
The garden praise should be solely directed to Mrs T. Any work that I do is under strict supervision.
We are still waiting for the first flush of colourful spring bulbs and that looks like being a week or three away.
I’ll second that-one of the nicest gardens I’ve seen-and i’ve seen a few. I think the manicured lawn is an excellent finishing touch.
It’s nice to meet someone who appreciates a neat lawn.
It doesn’t matter how nice the garden is if the lawn sees no real care and is full of weeds. A well tended lawn is very important to the overall beauty of the garden, I think.
Good luck with your competition entries. You are clever doing all that work for the choir. I liked the snowdrops.
I hope your choir rehearsal discs are appreciated after all your hard work.
Very impressed with the snowdrops.
My sympathies on Scotland v. England. I don’t suppose you can slip across the border and switch allegiances?
Go Canada!
So many snowdrops. It’ll be a while before we see anything of the sort.