Coffee, cake and a quick circle

Today’s guest picture is another from my brother’s current visit to Spain. This is a monument in Madrid. The sculptural group in its centre represents Cybele, a Phrygian earth and fertility deity. What she is doing in Madrid is a mystery.

We had much warmer overnight temperatures today, and it was mild enough for me to consider whether I needed my coat when I walked up to have coffee with Sandy in the morning. I took it just in case.

I looked round the garden before I left, and found a familiar figure perched on the hedge. It is his home from home.

Sandy was in good form, just having had a weekend visit from his two grandsons which he had thoroughly enjoyed. He made the pot of strong coffee, and after we had had a good chat, I walked home with a spring in my step.

While I had been busy drinking and talking, the birds had been busy nibbling at the feeder, and they were still going at full speed when I came back.

Some birds waited patiently in the wings.

Among the visitors, I spotted a ringed siskin.

I dead headed some daffodils in the garden, trimmed a hedge, and then went in to make a gingerbread in the air fryer. After lunch, Mrs Tootlepedal went off to meeting about creating an embroidered artwork to celebrate the community buy out of the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve, while I did some mowing while waiting for the gingerbread.

Because I was using the steam bake function, I had miscalculated how long it would take the gingerbread to cook. When it finally came out, I didn’t have as much time as I had hoped for an afternoon cycle ride. Instead of going for a leisurely spin on my push bike, I ended up going for a quick dash round Canonbie on my electric bike.

There had been enough rain for me to take the washing in before I left, but as I had sensibly put on my wet weather cycling gear, the weather gods made sure that it kept dry for my ride. It was still a grey day though . . .

. . . but there were hopeful sights tucked away as I went round.

I saw early signs of greater stitchwort . . .

. . . and Jack by the hedge . . .

. . . which should soon be lining my cycle routes.

I used my electrical assistance freely any time I approached something that even looked like a hill, and at the same time I pedalled as hard as I could, both uphill and down, with the result that I actually got home quite early, and met Mrs Tootlepedal coming into the house at exactly the same time as I did.

After a test slice of the gingerbread and a cup of tea, we had a Zoom meeting with our son Alistair and his daughter Matilda. Matilda turned ten at the weekend, and she herself had decorated her birthday cake, prepared by her father and mother, in very fine fashion.

Photo courtesy of Alistair

After the Zoom, I went for a walk round the garden. There was nothing new out, but still plenty to please the eye.

While I was out in the garden, I saw that the birds were visiting the feeder even though I was quite close by. Usually they make themselves scarce if we are close, but I had just refilled the feeder, and perhaps that was why they ignored me today. Tulips made a colourful background for goldfinches, siskins and chaffinches.

It is not often that I take pictures of the feeder which are not shot through a window.

It was soon time for our next Zoom, this time with my sisters in England and my brother who joined us from Spain. He was recovering both from an enormous amount of walking yesterday, and viewing a vast number of paintings today. He likes to get full value from his visits.

As we had a surplus of eggs needing to be used up, I made omelettes for our evening meal, and that ended what had been quite a busy day for us both.

The flying birds of the day are a goldfinch and a siskin, seen from the garden.