Seeing the light

Today’s guest picture comes from our son Tony’s Welsh holiday. He knows that I like a good bridge.

We should have watered the trees at the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve Tree Nursery on Wednesday, but we were away having fun on trains, so we did it today instead. We pedalled up to the nursery on our electric bikes after breakfast and did the job. The trees will all be planted out this year, and meanwhile, they continue to do quite well in their small containers.

I stopped for a rest on the way out and shared a seat with a bumble bee, the liverworts are still thriving on the matting at the nursery, there is a lot of Herb Robert about, and foxgloves are starting to appear in big numbers.

When we got home, I made a small catalogue of roses in the garden . . .

. . . and added a new pink peony, a bee on a lupin, some fine philadelphus blossom, freshly flowering feverfew, and a carpet of tiny lesser trefoils beside the dam . . .

. . . and I put out some food for the jackdaws . . .

. . . but didn’t have much time to watch them as we had to drive off to Dumfries for another hospital visit.

I was going for an assessment for a cataract operation. The drive was good, the appointment was on time, and the results were satisfactory, so I should get an operation in the not too distant future. They put drops in my eyes, and they made the light so bright when we left the hospital that I was lucky that I had Mrs Tootlepedal there to drive me home.

Unfortunately, the hospital visit meant that we missed Tony, Marianne, and the dogs when they called in at Langholm on their way back from their holiday, but they let themselves in, had a cup of tea, and went on their way.

My eyes had recovered enough by the time that we got back to let me add a couple more roses to the catalogue . .

. . . and notice the first day lily of the summer.

I filled the seed feeder and was rewarded by a lot of immediate action from siskins, goldfinches and a greenfinch.

In the evening, our friends Mike and Alison came round, and while Mrs Tootlepedal and Mike caught up on the news, Alison and I played duets for recorder and keyboard. I was pleased to think that if I get my eye operation, I might find reading the small notes a little bit easier. All the same, we enjoyed our playing.

The flying birds of the day are two battling siskins.