Catching the moment

Today’s guest picture is another from the camera club visit to Beamish late last month.  Peter took this charming shot.

There was heavy rain overnight but the garden seemed strangely dry when we went out for a look.  Some strong winds had done damage though, and Mrs Tootlepedal had a good deal of propping up and clearing away to do.

I took the opportunity to put a couple of weeks of the newspaper index into the Archive group database and found the first entry regarding a motor car in Langholm that I had come across.  This was 1900 so it must have been an early model.

I went out into the garden to give Mrs Tootlepedal some moral support and the occasional helping hand too.  We picked some peas, beans, turnips and potatoes to make a summer soup and Mrs Tootlepedal spotted this moth among the potatoes.

She found a home for it and just hoped that it isn’t a dangerous potato eating insect.

I had a look around before going in to cook the soup.  It was rather a dull day and the very brisk wind made getting flower pictures a bit tricky so I was pleased to catch not just one poppy in mid sway…

…but another one as well.

I like the different centres that the poppies have just as much as I like the different colours and textures of their petals.

The clematis at the front door is more sheltered and offered less of a problem.  It has come on very well after a slow start and I like its multi coloured petals.

While I was in the garden,  I sat on the bench outside the kitchen window and got a different angle on the bird feeder.

The siskins were keeping a sharp eye out for competition and a sparrow thought better of trying to get some seed.

In general, it was a busy scene.

I went down to the river to see if the rain had put some water into it.  It was far from full but there was a lot more flow than we have had recently…

…and all three arches of the Langholm Bridge had been called into action.

The vegetable soup (with added barley) turned out well, with a nice fresh taste.  It went well with some new bread and a selection of cheeses.

I was so perked up by the soup, that after lunch I decided to brave the wind and go off for a cycle ride.  It was tough going into the teeth of a breeze gusting at over 30 mph so I stuck to doing two laps of the seven miles trip to Wauchope Schoolhouse and back, hiding from the wind in the bottom of the valley.  This gave me the chance to visit the little cascade near the schoolhouse…

…and to stop and check for riverside birds when I went along the Esk on my way through the town.  There was a small collection of oyster catchers…

…one of whom posed nicely for me…

…and a dipper living up to its name.

My legs were quite cheerful so I added a short three mile trip over the bridge and out of the other side of the town after my two laps and ended up with 17 miles more than I had expected to ride when I had read the forecast yesterday.

The seventeen miles were accomplished at a steady pace but they took me up to 270 miles for the month, so although I still can’t walk any distance without upsetting my feet, at least I can keep going on my bike.  Mustn’t grumble.

I  sat down for a cup of tea when I got home and we were joined by Mike Tinker.  Like Mrs Tootlepedal, he had spent quite a bit of time in  his garden repairing the ravages of wind and rain and cutting back excessive growth so we were all pleased to rest a while for refreshment and conversation.

When Mike left, I mowed the two lawns, sieved a bit of compost and had another look round the garden.

I like nasturtiums.

This is the very last of the flowers on the rosa complicata.

Although some of our heavily petalled roses survived the wind and the rain, like this Wren…

….many were looking rather soggy.  Mrs Tootlepedal gets a bit sad when these roses show the effects of our damp climate and ‘ball up’, so she is thinking of planting more of the simple roses, which are perhaps better suited to our garden.

It was brighter now than it had been earlier in the day, but the sun had not quite come out so I had another go at the white astilbe with better results.

Nearby, a yellow potentilla flower winked at me.

It is impossible to miss the rambler roses which are sensational this year.  We hope that some of them will appear in the rose crown at the Common Riding on Friday but if ours are anything to go by, there should be so many about that the crown builders may not need to come to us at all.

Later in the evening, I leaned out up of an upstairs window to greet the sun which had finally appeared, and enjoyed a general look over the garden.  Mrs Tootlepedal has been clipping the hedges.

The flying bird of the day is a sparrow using every limb available to persuade a siskin to give up its seat at the table.

Saluting our organist

Today’s guest picture comes from my sister Susan.  She was having a cup of coffee beside the Paddington Canal basin when she was  greeted by an appropriate bear.

The main business of the morning was the Common Riding church service where a presentation was made to our choirmaster and organist Henry, this year’s cornet.  We had a more than adequate replacement in the choir loft and we sang a selection a popular hymns with great gusto, and threw in a three verse introit and an anthem too.

As the congregation was much larger than usual, it would be fair to say that we made a joyful noise today.

The service started later and took longer than usual, so it took up most of the morning but the late start gave me time to wander about the garden before going to church.

It was a cloudy day and the light gave me a chance to get a good look at our St John’s Wort which is thriving uninvited in a patch in the vegetable garden

Its cheerful berries are almost as good as its bright flowers.

The Queen of Denmark is lasting very well and adds a touch of class to the garden.

Under the groaning plum tree, the first flowers of alstroemeria are poking their heads out.

…and the purple clematis nearby enjoyed a brief burst of sunshine.

The poppy of the day is one of those that look as though they have been made of crushed tissue paper…

…and the white flower behind it is a sort of achillea.

I have tried and failed to get a good picture of our white astilbe but the camera finds the pink one a little more sympathetic.

When we came back from church, the skies were very gloomy but Mrs Tootlepedal got busy tidying up the garden, clearing away many of the flowers that are over.  I made myself useful when I could and made a pot of coffee to keep the gardener going.

The forecast was very gloomy with heavy rain promised in the afternoon, so we didn’t make any plans.  Once again an interesting stage of the Tour de France gave us something to watch while the day got gloomier outside.  In the end though, the rain which poured down on the Open Golf in Northern Ireland, must have passed just to the north of us and it remained dry enough outside for me to have gone cycling.   As my feet were feeling the effects of yesterday’s short walk a bit, I was quite happy to put them up, and I didn’t grieve at the lost opportunity too much (or indeed, at all).

I was half thinking of an evening ride but an occasional light drizzle and the need for a visit to the shop put paid to that and day turned out to be a day of rest, very suitable to a Sunday.

The light was so poor that the most interesting thing I saw when I was looking out of the window at the birds was this phlox, growing in the bed in front of the window.

There were a few birds about…

…but not many.

We are getting regular updates from London and we are very pleased to be told that our new granddaughter Evelyn, is progressing well and all is well with her parents too.

Today’s short post will make up for the excessive length of yesterday’s offering and as tomorrow’s weather seems to have a lot of rain in it, perhaps things will be quiet again.

The nearest that I could get to a flying bird of the day was this collared dove which had been flying shortly before I took its picture.

A ride out

Today’s guest picture comes from Langholm exile Tom in South Africa, who sent me this view taken on his morning walk.

There was a threat of rain in the morning and the promise of sunshine in the afternoon, so Mrs Tootlepedal and I went shopping in Carlisle in the morning.  The rain came and went but we stayed dry as we shopped.  It rained heavily again after we got home and then, as promised, the day  improved and there were some pleasantly sunny moments.

I had time for a quick look round the garden in a dry spell before we went shopping.

The privet is filling the garden with its scent and pulling in the bees in a wholesale way.

I liked this knapweed.  It has a cheery air about it.

I took two shots of poppies and friends.

We got back to Langholm from Carlisle just in time for me to collect a camera and walk up through the town where people were gathering to watch the cornet lead a procession of horsemen  galloping up this steep hill at the start of the Castle Craigs ride out, the last of several rides out which take place in the week before our Common Riding week.  (By tradition, this ride out is a men only affair although other rides out and the Common Riding procession itself are open to all.)

I didn’t stop to watch the riders there but headed on up the Kirk Wynd, past massed ranks of rosebay willowherb…

…and onto the open hillside.

I had time to admire the flowers on the hill…

…before the cornet and his followers appeared below.

They too left the wynd and headed up onto the hill.

Henry, our cornet, is also the church organist and choirmaster so I was pleased that he had a moment to wave at me as he passed.

The cornet is always accompanied by the cornets of the past two years who make up the ‘front row’ and they stopped to let the mounted followers catch up, and had a small refreshment as they waited.

I admired the view until…

…the company was united.

After a short rest, they set off again…

…following a track that would lead them..

…up the hill and past a cairn.

I was impressed by the colour co-ordination among the horses…

The cavalcade made a fine sight as it snaked up the path towards the shoulder of the hill.

The riders were pursued by some foot followers…

…and an unfortunate horseman whose saddle had slipped further down the hill and who was now going up at his own speed.

As the procession disappeared from sight on their way to visit the Castle Craigs on the far side of Whita…

…I headed back down the hill, alarming some sheep…

…and keeping my eye out for interest on the way.

I arrived by a roundabout route at the Kilngreen where black headed gulls were jostling each other in an attempt to be recognised as flying bird of the day.

The riders had got a grand day for their outing.

Not having done much walking on the hills lately, I was ready for a sit down when i got home and once again, a stage of the Tour de France offered the perfect excuse.

When the stage had finished, I picked myself up, shook myself down and went for a 16 miles circular cycle ride.  It was a grand day for cycling as well as horse riding.

When I passed Hollows tower near the end of my ride, I noticed that they have constructed an extensive new balustrade round the top of the tower, presumably  to allow visitors to walk safely there.

In 1972, Neil Armstrong, the astronaut stood there when he visited Langholm.

I got home safely and while I was in energetic mode, I mowed the middle and front lawns, picked some sweet peas and a few raspberries and strawberries and kept an eye out for small tortoiseshell butterflies.

As I was now ready for another sit down, it was very fortunate that Mrs Tootlepedal had prepared a tasty evening meal for me to eat while I sat.

I apologise for the excessive number of pictures but I have tried to keep the text down to a minimum.

This was the black headed gull that won the prize for flying bird of the day.

A grey day cheered up by visitors

Today’s guest picture features one of our visitors today and just goes to prove that we are not the only recent grandparents about.  This is Dropscone taking the grandparenting business with Emily very seriously.  I am afraid that I don’t know who took the picture.

We had a dry but grey morning, rather cooler than it has been, and with the ever present threat of rain and even thunderstorms about.  Like yesterday, if I wanted a dry cycle ride I would have needed to be prompt but unlike yesterday, I was not prompt at all so I didn’t go for a pedal, even though the rain held off for all of the morning and some of the afternoon too.

Luckily, there is always dead heading to be done and the garden to wander around.

The dead heading is keeping a constant flow of poppies on the go…

…and the Sweet Williams are lasting very well.

A new clematis has sprung up along the back fence which is very satisfactory.

I had another go at the fancy clover and got a bit more detail without quite getting it right…

…but the feverfew is easy to catch.  It has done so well that I am thinking of calling it the fevermany.

I had a close look at a three things.

The back of a fern was packed with interest…

….there is more to the black dot in the middle of an argyranthemum than first meets the eye….

…and the salvias have hidden depths too.

The first of the Sunny Reggae dahlias has come out but it is looking as though the slugs have spotted it.  Keen eyed readers will notice the shoe of the photographer at the back of the picture.  Because the dahlia was facing the ‘wrong way’, I had to lean over the top of it and photograph it upside down and then correct the result in the editor later.

We had just gone in for coffee, when Scott, our former minister with his finely tuned coffee radar working well, popped in for a visit.  We were pleased to see him and caught with his news and shared ours with him.

After he left, we went back put into the garden to pick sweet peas and look around.  We have a lot of blackbirds, so doesn’t take a lot of looking to see one in the garden at the moment.

Mrs Tootlepedal went off to a lunch at the Buccleuch Centre with her ex colleagues from the Health Centre and I looked around as the sun made a brief appearance.

The ligularias are attracting bees…

…as are the rambler roses.  They have come out in force over the past few days.

The blackbirds will soon have a fine crop of rowan berries to eat but they will have to wait for a little while before they are ripe.

I went in for a light lunch and then came back out and sieved some compost.  I was still thinking of a bike ride as it hadn’t started raining but I made the mistake of switching on the telly to see how the Tour de France time trial was going and I was still snoozing on the sofa when first Mrs Tootlepedal came back from her lunch and then we were joined by Dropscone.

He had missed coffee in the morning because he had been playing golf.  He had been beaten on the final hole but was remarkably cheerful all the same.  To cheer him up even further, we loaded him down with new potatoes and rhubarb when he left.

After that the sofa called (the time trial was quite exciting to be fair), and apart from picking a few peas, I didn’t go out again.

This did mean that I had some time to watch birds.

Siskins were busy as usual.

There was hardly a dull moment.

A blue tit was more reflective, perhaps wondering whether the siskins would go away and leave some space for other birds.

The blue tit popped up onto the peanuts but before I could record it, a sparrow came and stood in front of the camera.

Later in the afternoon,  a pigeon took a lofty view of life from our new electricity wires.

In the evening, our trio of visits was completed by the arrival of Mike and Alison, and while Mike and Mrs Tootlepedal put the world to rights, Alison and I played music for an hour which was a good way to end the day.

The light was pretty bad by the time that I sat down to watch the birds so this rather fuzzy siskin was the best that I could for a flying bird of the day.

 

Edinburgh rules

Today’s guest picture is another from my Australian correspondent Stephen’s visit to North Queensland.  He found this beautiful butterfly in the butterfly house in Kuranda.

We were going to Edinburgh in the afternoon and the forecast suggested rain in mid morning, so I knew that if I wanted a short cycle ride, I would have to be prompt.  Greatly to my own surprise, I was quite prompt and enjoyed another 14 mile ride taking in both sides of the town.

The wind was in my face again as I cycled up to Callister and I managed 10 mph for the first five miles.  With the wind and slope behind me, I speeded up to an average of 20 mph for the return journey.  For the last four miles, out and back of the north end of the town, I produced a steady 15 mph average.

The mathematically unwary might assume that if you do five miles at 10 mph and five miles at 20 mph and and add another four miles at 15 mph, then your average for the trip should be 15 mph.  Sadly for ageing cyclists, it is not the distance but the time that counts and as I had spent much more time at 10 mph than I had at 20, my final average was only 14 mph.  It is considering stuff like this that keeps me occupied as I pedal.

Still I managed to stop for a picture or two.  The orchids are still out…

…and there is a spot where the yarrow is unusually pink…

…so I am grateful that the verges on the Wauchope road have still not been mowed.

The sun was shining when I set out but by the time that I got to my most northerly point, it had retreated up the valley…

…so I was pleased top get home before the rain started.

In fact, the rain held off for long enough for me to mow the middle and front lawns when I got home which was a bonus and the rain came later in the morning.

Mrs Tootlepedal cooked a sticky toffee pudding to take with us to Edinburgh and then we dug up another potato. The crop of the early potatoes is outstanding this year…

…and we took half of this lot up to Edinburgh with us too.

I had time between the mowing and the potatoes to walk round the garden.

The nasturtiums at the front door are coming along nicely…

…and Mrs Tootlepedal has a purplish bed which is doing well too.

This clematis is lurking around just behind the purple bed.

Day lilies keep coming…

…and the privet is in full swing with the strong smell complemented by the loud buzzing of bees.

I am still trying to get a good picture of this large ornamental clover which has been out for some time but it keeps defeating me.

One day the light will be right.

All round the garden, Iceland poppies can be found.

We had a light lunch and then set off to Lockerbie to catch the train to Edinburgh.  It was almost on time but just late enough to allow me to take a picture of this ivy leafed toadflax which is growing out of the side of the bridge over the railway line at the station.

There is still building going on around the site of Matilda’s new house in Edinburgh and a temporary path has been constructed to take visitors round the edge of the site along a disused railway.  The railway banking is full of wild flowers and I liked this thistle the best.

Matilda had had a hard day dancing so we had a relaxing time and didn’t go to the park.  I taught her to play spillikins with plastic straws and she enjoyed several games with both me and Mrs Tootlepedal.  We played ‘Edinburgh Rules’ which allow quite a lot of leeway to old and young participants alike.  This was lucky as I found that keeping a steady hand is hard work these days.

Matilda, Mrs Tootlepedal and I did some lawn care work on Matilda’s lawn and during the work, a small bolt fell out of the clippers that I was using.  The grass was long and when we settled down to look for it Mrs Tootlepedal commented that it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.  She was right of course but, needless to say, she still found it.

During the afternoon, Alistair, Mrs Tootlepedal and Matilda made fairy cakes and then Alistair cooked us a delicious pasta alla Genovese (which included some of our potatoes) and after we had eaten it and the sticky toffee pudding, it was time for us to go home.

I had no opportunity to catch a flying bird today, so a sleeping bee on a poppy is the flying bird of the day today.

Betrayed by indolence (and the weather forecast)

Today’s fine guest picture comes from my Somerset correspondent Venetia.  She was luckier than us and was able to enjoy the eclipse of the moon last night.  We were clouded over.

Although I had promised myself a bike ride in the morning before forecast rain arrived, I was not at my perkiest when I staggered out of bed this morning, and I allowed myself to be persuaded by the Met Office website that the rain would pass and I would get a cycling opportunity in the early evening instead.

It was all too easy then to waste a lot of time doing the crossword, drinking coffee, making a loaf in the bread maker and wandering aimlessly round the garden.   Though to be fair, I did take aim from time to time.

I couldn’t decide whether this was the poppy of the day…

…or this, so I took them both.

The salvias look better every day.

I like the stachys which are probably the furriest plants in the garden….

..and the calendulas which are the sunniest.

The nectaroscordum is going over in a very dignified way, looking like the ruined turrets on some fairyland castle.

On the vegetable garden fence, Bobbie James is flourishing…

…and the first of the Ooh La La clematis flowers has appeared.

My neighbour Liz passed the front gate and while I chatted to her, a blue tit rested on the wire cage that Mrs Tootlepedal has put up to protect her plants from marauding pigeons…

…while the delphiniums stood up very straight…

…and a bee visited a hosta.

Mrs Tootlepedal and I took the pea fortress off one of her rows of peas and picked a good handful for our lunch, and then I checked out the ligularia which was sticking its many tongues out at me…

…and we went in for lunch with peas, beetroot, lettuce and potatoes from the garden on the menu.

And then it started to rain so I watched the birds.

As soon as I topped up the feeder, siskins started to arrive..

…but there was a good selection of other birds too, including this chaffinch which missed its footing as it flew in…

…and a greenfinch being rather careless with its eating habits.

A blue tit looked down on the feeder from above…

…and another youngster tried out the nuts.

I put a wet afternoon to some use by putting a week of the newspaper index into the Archive Group’s database and practising a song that I am trying to learn for my singing teacher.

Then I gave up any pretence of activity and sat down to watch the last 50km of the Tour de France Stage.  It ended in Toulouse, a city through which Mrs Tootlepedal and I cycled on our way from St Malo to Carcassone about thirteen years ago.

It is surprising how easily a few drops of light rain can persuade you to watch other people cycling rather than actually going out and pedalling yourself when you reach a certain age.

All the same, my plan was to go for a pedal when the rain stopped, but as it didn’t stop, I didn’t go.

Mrs Tootlepedal picked some carrots and I picked some broad beans and we ate them with a second helping of Mrs Tootlepedal’s fish pie for our tea.

The flying bird of the day is a sparrow. A fortuitous setting of the shutter speed shows just how still a bird can keep its head and body even when its wings are flapping like mad.

 

 

Pottering about

Today’s guest picture is another from my brother’s visit to Fountains Abbey.  As well as some impressive ruins, it has a lovely garden.

We had a very nice summer day here today, warm and calm and often sunny.  It might well have been a good day for a pedal but the recent travelling about and some  emotional expense around the arrival of a new granddaughter led me to think that a quiet day at home might be the thing.

Mrs Tootlepedal was busier than me with the business of the proposed community buy out of our local moor giving her a lot to do, but I had a quiet day.  I started with a walk round the garden to see if the dead heading of poppies yesterday had encouraged growth today.

It had, and this was my pick as poppy of the day.

New flowers have appeared including the first phlox (the phirst flox?)…

…and a pollen laden lily.

In the shade behind the greenhouse, a hosta dangled flowers like jewels from a necklace…

…and nearby, the orange hawkweed looked as though it might be reaching the end of the line.

In fact, when Mrs Tootlepedal started some gardening later in the day, the orange hawkweed did indeed meet the end of the line.

Meanwhile, I sat outside the kitchen window on a handy bench and watched the birds.

The siskins were are disagreeable as ever…

…with this one actually taking to the air in mid nibble to make its point to a slightly shattered sparrow.

Another siskin used the old sunflower stalk as a staging post on its way to the seed…

…and I am happy to say that Mrs Tootlepedal has a new one growing nearby for next year.

I was happy to welcome another visitor to the garden when Sandy came for coffee.

He told me that his feet were still stopping him from going for walks but he is hoping that an operation in October will sort his problem out.  I hope so too as I have missed our walks this year.  On the other hand, he has tried out a friend’s electric bicycle and was so taken by the experience that he is thinking of getting one himself.  That would mean that we might substitute cycle outings for walks which would be fun….though he would have to learn to wait for me at the top of every hill of course.

When he left, I joined Mrs Tootlepedal in the garden and did some light work.  This included more dead heading and picking the enormous number of sweet peas that had appeared overnight.

I also kept an eye on a family of young blackbirds which were lurking near the compost bins…

…while trying to catch a swirling flock of swifts circling over head.

Two of our buddleias have come out and I kept an eye on them to see if any butterflies were attracted by their flowers.

Several small tortoiseshells arrived on cue.

The two different plants were both in the butterfly magnet business.

We dug up another of our early potatoes and were very pleased to find that it had produced 17 new potatoes, a very good return  we thought.  We ate several of them, along with some lettuce from the garden for our lunchtime salad.

After lunch, Mrs Tootlepedal went off for a meeting and I didn’t go for a cycle ride.  I thought about it quite a lot, but that was as far as  got.  I did do some compost sieving and greenhouse grass mowing instead but I did quite a lot of sitting down as well.

I admired the roses on the fence…

…and the berries that have appeared on the tropaeolum flowers…

…and I had a cup of tea with Mrs Tootlepedal when she got back from her meeting and then, finally, I got so embarrassed about wasting such a glorious day that I did get my bike out at last and cycled 14 miles.

By this time the wind had got a bit frisky and I did the first five miles up the gentle hill and into the wind at 9 miles an hour and then did the second five miles down the gentle hill and with the wind behind me at 19 miles an hour.  I might have gone a little faster if a lad driving a tractor while talking on his mobile phone hadn’t driven out of a side road in front of me and forced me to a halt.  He gave me a cheery wave though.

My route took me out of the town past some hawkweed rich verges…

…with a lot of bird’s foot trefoil about…

…until I got to the top of the first straight on Callister after five miles…

…where I turned round and cycled back through the town and then went for two miles out of the other side…

It was tempting to go further on such a lovely evening, but the evening meal was waiting

…before heading for home.

Some more of our home grown potatoes went into one of Mrs Tootlepedal’s fine fish pies for our tea.  It was garnished with turnips from the garden and followed by rhubarb and custard for a pudding.

As we also had picked, cooked and eaten some beetroot, it was a good garden-to-mouth day.

The weather looks as though it might be a bit more changeable over the next few days  so I might regret my poor cycling efforts today but it can’t be helped, I just didn’t have the get up and go.

The flying bird of the day is a bee.