Hardly a quiet moment

Today’s guest picture shows some colourful ducks and ducklings (or perhaps geese, I can’t tell) which my sister Mary met in Regents Park.

It was a day of meteorological contrasts with spells of sunshine mixed with fierce showers with the whole day overlaid with a very brisk and chilly wind.

I managed to find a reasonably dry spell to go up to fill the Moorland feeders.  I was standing in for Sandy who had work commitments.  Even in the chilly wind, the hide was quite warm and I sat there for longer than I intended.  There were plenty of birds to watch although there were no surprises.  I took a few pictures.

Chaffinches and greenfinches share the seed at the high table.

While a blue tit and a great tit hang about together.

I tried to catch birds in more natural poses but they weren’t very helpful.  A blue tit did her best.

When I got home, I found that there was more action there than at the Moorland feeders.  The siskins had arrived in numbers.

A lone chaffinch soon got the order of the boot.

I didn’t have long to look at them though as Mrs Tootlepedal and I went off to visit a garden centre to stock up on bonemeal for the forthcoming season.  We stopped on the way to try to get my pair of computer spectacles fixed by the optician in Longtown.  They were suffering from having had some fool sit on them and it turned out that I had snapped a tiny screw in half in its socket and they weren’t readily repairable.  Thin wire will have to do until a new pair is needed.

The road to Carlisle at Sandysike was surrounded by flooded fields after a heavy night’s rain and as we came up to the bridge over the River Lyne, the flooding had reduced the road to a single lane. We safely negotiated this hazard and had a light lunch at the garden centre before driving home through yet another very heavy shower.

By the time we had got out of the car, the sun had come out again so I got out the slow bike and cycled back down the road to Skippers Bridge to have a look at the river there in the sunshine.

When I got there, the track up to the old railway looked so inviting that I was nearly tempted to go for a walk….

…but good sense and some looming clouds curbed my enthusiasm.  I turned back to the river.

With the next shower coming up fast, the light looked interesting.

I went up to the Town Bridge….

…and got home just in time to avoid getting thoroughly drenched.

When the shower had passed over, it was time to go to visit Mike and Alison for a delicious slice of cake (or two) and some tasty ginger biscuits on the occasion of Mike’s 70th birthday.   He was very cheerful for a man of his age.

We walked home feeling very well refreshed and I sat down to put another week of the newspaper index into the Archive database and this got me completely up to date with the data miners at long last.

In the evening, I went up to the Archive Centre with Sandy but once again a defective wi-fi hotspot prevented us from getting any work done so we gave up and retired to the Eskdale for a pick me up before going home.

The skies cleared and the temperatures dropped as the evening wore on and we are promised frost tomorrow.  Spring will have to wait a bit.

The flying bird of the day is one of the many siskins.

An unexpected break

Today’s guest picture comes from our neighbour Gavin, who is currently in San Francisco.

He tells me, “This is Oracle, the USA entry for the 2015 Americas Cup. It passed our tourist boat today going at full speed with 2 speedboats tailing it and it was almost flying. I have never seen anything without an engine going so fast (except perhaps Tootlepedal on his bike coming down Callister).”

Much to my surprise, I woke to a bright sunny morning with a very gentle wind.  I am not quite sure what happened to the miserable weather we were promised but I was so pleased to see the sunshine that I got up into my cycling clothes and went out for a pedal after breakfast.

There was just a hint of the recent bad weather on the top of a distant hill…

….but my immediate surroundings were very cheerful…

…and even some fluffy low lying clouds didn’t look very threatening.

It was a chilly 3°C when I set out but it was pleasant enough cycling along with the sun on my back.  I took things easily, going twice up to Wauchope School and back and adding two circuits of the New Town.  This gave me a nice round 15 miles for my outing, a new best distance for my knee.

As soon as I got home, I was joined for coffee by Dropscone.  He had only arrived back in Langholm in the early hours of this morning after a marathon drive from the south coast of England so he hadn’t taken advantage of the cycling weather.  This had given him time to produce the finest drop scones to go with our coffee that I have ever tasted.

The sun was still shining when he left so I took a tour round the garden.

There were crocuses in flower on every side

The snowdrops have really enjoyed the weather recently and are looking at their very best.

The birds were back but not in great numbers as there was quite a lot of action from the builders this morning.

Even with plenty of spare space, a siskin can’t resist being rude.

Clouds were gently covering the sky but they didn’t look threatening so, after a quick shower, I went out for a walk to make the most of the unexpected good weather.

I took a familiar route along to the Kilngreen and back round the new path across the Castleholm.  There were old favourites at the Kilngreen….

A ménage a trois in the mallard world.

A passing black headed gull

…but three oyster catchers added a touch of novelty.

They are striking birds.

With no oysters to be caught round Langholm, I gather that they eat worms among other things.

I took a few pictures as I walked along .  As usual some lichen caught me eye.

I was also taken on by this very complex pattern in an exposed tree root by the path.

I had seen a robin or two flitting about but none stopped to have their picture taken until I met this one singing in a tree in Mike Tinker’s garden….

…when I stopped there to chat to Mike.  He has been poorly and was out testing the air.  He kindly showed me round his garden and I enjoyed his contorted hazel.

You can just see the female flower among the catkins if you look closely.

He also had a couple of very pretty hellebores.

When I got home, I found that the builders had cut one of the big stones from our old hearth into a suitable size for the new fireplace.

It is going away with the other side stone and the lintel to get some specialist cleaning from a firm in Appleby.   Our new stove has arrived, the end wall is ready for rendering and the roof will soon be finished so we are getting more excited by the day.

This particular day got steadily greyer (and warmer) as time went on and after a pedal and a walk in the morning, I idled the afternoon away  It was raining lightly by the time that Mike Tinker came round for a cup of tea as part of his rehabilitation.

The rain didn’t discourage a redpoll from paying us a flying visit.

After some delicious home made fish cakes for tea, Mrs Tootlepedal went off to a meeting and I went to our local community choir practice.  There was a good turnout of singers and we worked hard though as far as the tenors went, some more work may will be necessary before we have mastered the pieces.

I could hear oyster catchers calling as I walked home.  They are pretty birds to look at but riverside householders can get very annoyed by their strident cries during the night.

A chaffinch beat the gulls to the position of flying bird of the day.

What a shower

Today’s guest picture is another from Mary Jo in Manitoba.  She was so sympathetic towards Mrs Tootlepedal’s gingerbread problem that she sent me this picture of an absolute disaster in her breadmaker department.  She adds that she couldn’t throw it out out for the birds as it might have killed one if she had hit it.

It was another grey, wet and if anything, even windier day today.  To break the monotony, we had a really heavy hailstorm in the morning…

….and a serious flurry of snow in the afternoon.

Mrs Tootlepedal was not amused to find that the hailstorm co-incided with her shopping trip on her bicycle.  The experience was painful as well as soggy.

The birds were not discouraged though…

…and more and more came during the day…

…from all sides.

I used the absence of cycling or walking opportunities to put another week of the newspaper index into the database before lunch and then made a rather watery soup.

After the afternoon snow flurry, the sun came out and I guessed that there might be half and hour or so before the next shower so I wrapped up well and scurried round Gaskell’s Walk.  There could not have been a greater contrast to the weather of a few minutes earlier.

It was some degrees above freezing and the snow hadn’t settled at all on the streets though there was just a glimpse of a little lying on the higher hills beyond the town.

There was plenty of water running down the Wauchope after the rain and it gurgled away below my path through the wood.

Because of the possibility of another hail or snow shower, I didn’t linger on my way but when it looked as though the sun would see me home, I did stop once or twice to add to my many bridge pictures…

…and my moss collection.

I saw some good looking clumps of daffodils poking their heads up beside a mossy wall…

…and in the sunshine, it felt as though spring was getting really close.

When I got back, I noticed that after a day to check them out, there was at last a demand for stale gingerbread scraps from the jackdaws.

.I did find some daffodils which were well and truly out but they were in jug of water on the kitchen counter as Mrs Tootlepedal had purchased a bunch of stems which the warmth of the house had brought into flower.

I put a second week of the newspaper index into the database later in the day and judging by the forecast, will have plenty of time to out another one in tomorrow.

The end wall has now reached the roof level and all that remains is for the roof to be re-tiled to meet the end wall and we will be sealed up again.

The new window on the ground floor and the roof gap upstairs.

There is a lot of work still to do both for the builders and the joiners with a window frame to put in, floors and the roof to be finished, a fireplace and chimney to be built and all the internal lathe and plaster work to come but we are able now to imagine the work being completed and living in a leak free house.  It is a good feeling.

In the evening, Susan kindly drove me to Carlisle and we enjoyed a good play with our recorder quintet.  We even found some pieces to play which we had never played before. This was an extra treat.

Because of the frequent showers, a flying bird was hard to come by and I only managed to catch one when it was very close to the feeder.

Three shades of grey

I am breaking with my usual practice of having a single guest picture by having two guest pictures today as I thought that they make an interesting contrast.  They were both taken today by a Mary but they are world’s apart. 

The very efficient snow clearing routine in Brandon came from my correspondent Mary Jo in Manitoba and the beautiful sunshine in Regents Park came from my sister Mary in London.  My thanks to them both.

We were somewhere in between the snow and the sunshine here with a miserable wet and windy day that wasn’t much good for anything at all.  It was always grey but sometimes grey without rain and sometimes grey with heavy rain.

My morning was cheered by a visit from Scott, the minister.  We tested some slices of an experimental gingerbread loaf that Mrs Tootlepedal had made and it says a lot for his Christian forbearance that he had a second slice.   Mrs Tootlepedal thought so much of it that I found the remains of it scattered on the lawn for the birds.  The birds thought so much of it that it was still there at the end of the day.  She made a delicious walnut loaf this afternoon.

While I was chatting to Scott, a flash of unusual colour caught my eye (not that I would be rude enough to watch birds out of the window while talking to a guest of course) and I leapt up to record a rare visit to the plum tree of a brambling.

It soon came down to the seed feeder.

I like these colourful winter visitors and I hope to see more.

After Scott left, I walked up to the town to book a visit to the garage for our new second hand car.  I am double checking that there are no secret faults in it though it seems to drive very well.

When I got back, the feeder was playing host to a quartet of siskins.

The good timing of my walk up to the town became apparent two minutes later when the skies opened.

I made the best of this wet weather by putting a week of the newspaper index into the Archive database and then after lunch, I went back up to the town to play trios with Mike and Isabel,  We played a mixture of trios and sonatas with piano and cello accompaniment and found a lot to enjoy though there were moments when we ground to a halt and had to restart.

It was dry when I got home and there was just enough light to have a quick walk round the garden to look for signs of spring.

Things are beginning to look promising.

The prettiest flowers of the day were inside the window and not out in the garden.

I’ll have to clean that window tomorrow.

The weather turned to rain again and I put another week of the newspaper index into the database.   If the rain keeps up, I will soon catch up with the data miners.

In the evening, my flute pupil Luke came, although he should perhaps have stayed at home as he had a cold.  Nevertheless, he worked hard and played very well.

As I had not done anything very active during the day, I got myself dressed up as a real cyclist after our evening meal and spent just under an hour on my bike to nowhere in the garage.  Looking at the forecast, this rather boring exercise may be repeated over the next few days.

We had an exciting day as far as the end wall went with both joiners and builders on the go and it should not be too long before it has reached the roof.

I just managed to catch a chaffinch in a less grey moment as the flying bird of the day.

Trilling and singing

Today’s guest picture is another from my brother’s tour of five Dutch cities in January.  He took some lovely pictures on his trip and this one shows Haarlem in the mist.

It was a very interesting but equally, a very uneventful day today.

The first matter of interest was the arrival of large numbers of birds in the garden.  I had to refill the feeder for the first time for ages.  I counted over thirty birds on the feeders or waiting in the plum tree at one time.  It was a pity that the light wasn’t in the mood to make taking pictures fun but it was still fun watching the action.

A flock of goldfinches accounted for most of the birds but there were several siskins and our resident chaffinches too.

There were peaceful moments among the mayhem on the feeder….

…and in the plum tree.

It was fun while it lasted but a  sparrowhawk passing through a couple of times and then steadily increasing rain soon put paid to bird watching.

Mrs Tootlepedal came back from her church choir and we had time for the briefest of early lunches before it was time to set off to our Carlisle Choir’s singing day.  The reason for the early start was the presence at the practice of three fine singers who gave us some very useful lessons in warm ups and singing technique.  We spent four and half hours singing and it is a tribute to our tutor that my voice was working better at the end of the session than it had been at the start.

Our musical director is determined to get the best possible sound that he can from an open entry choir like ours and the tuneful and stylish blend of the sopranos and altos as they sang their parts of one of our pieces at the very end of the day shows that he is on the right track.

There had been a threat of snow as we drove down to Carlisle in sleety rain with the temperature at 1°C but when we came to drive home, the temperature had shot up to 6° and although some snow had fallen near Langholm, it didn’t give us any trouble.

The forecast for the coming week consists of one Icelandic depression after another sweeping over the country so moments for both cycling and photography will be at a premium.

It had started to rain before I tried to get a flying bird of the day.

Two excursions and a night out

Today’s guest picture comes from my Newcastle correspondent who visited a LEGO exhibition where she saw this magnificent if highly coloured model of St Pancras.  Rather strangely, it was in the  Woodhorn colliery museum.

We started the day off here with a visit to the Moorland Feeders as I am a relief feeder filler for Gavin, the usual volunteer who is swanning around California at present.

It was chilly but bright….

…and I was hoping for a constant stream of interesting small birds.  Mrs Tootlepedal remained in the car and scanned the skies for interesting raptors.  We were both somewhat disappointed.  I saw a great many chaffinches in the middle distance….

…and one great tit close up…

…while the best that Mrs Tootlepedal could do was a buzzard in the far distance.

The trip wasn’t a total write off as we combined it with some shopping and refuelling the Kangoo on the way home.

There were more chaffinches when we got home.  They were lining up at the feeder.

….sometimes mob handed.

We were having a refreshing cup of coffee when Sandy arrived from a walk just in time to have a companionable sip with us.

It turned out later that Mrs Tootlepedal had had an appointment which she missed by going up to the feeders and it has had to be re-arranged.  Forgetting to check the wall diary before going out is one of the perils of old age.

I had a wander round the garden to seek out new buds but once again the only colour was a crocus.

One of the pleasures of a sunny day in the winter in our garden is the pale bark of the walnut tree when it catches the sunlight.

I took a couple of pictures to show the progress on the wall as the workers are having a well deserved rest over the weekend.

The window coming on nicely and a glimpse of the fiddly work required to meld the old with the new.

After lunch, Mrs Tootlepedal did a bit of cycling on her bike to nowhere and then went out to continue preparing the garden for the new season and Sandy and I went off for a short walk.

My ankle tendonitis has been greatly improved by my calf stretching and I was happy to give it a test.  We walked thought the town and then up the hill behind the High Street on a track that I have never used before.  It was well looked after and had a fine wall along it.

As we climbed the hill, we looked back over the town to the hills beyond.

The reason why I had never walked along it before became apparent when the track stopped abruptly after only a few hundred yards.  We went forward by crossing a small field to a gate that led onto the golf course.

Fortunately there were no golfers on the course and we were able to walk along to the clubhouse without getting on anyone’s way.

The short ninth seen from the forward tee with the clubhouse in the background.

We went into the clubhouse where we discovered Dropscone and two other golfers who had just completed their round in the winter competition.  They told us that the fine weather hadn’t been mirrored in their performance.

We left the golfers to their sorrows and walked on down the road to the Kilngreen.  There were the usual gulls in attendance…

…but we were excited to see the first oyster catcher of spring zip by us.

I had heard one crying in the dark last Wednesday on my way to choir but this was the first visible one.

We continued along the new path to the Jubilee Bridge and so home.  It was a walk short on photo opportunities but very pleasant as a winter walk on a sunny day.  Just for the sake of it, I stopped to survey some moss.

Sandy went straight home and I did some pro resting after the walk.  I am happy to say that my ankle stood up to the test of the short walk very well so I will have to make sure that I don’t slack off on the calf stretching.

In the evening, we walked along to the Buccleuch Centre to listen to the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Tommy Smith play a program of the compositions of Billy Strayhorn.

They were on a brief three stop tour.  As the other two venues were The Queen’s Hall,  Edinburgh and the Royal Conservatoire, Glasgow, we felt particularly blessed to have them in our modest small town venue.

The fifteen strong band provided music right up my street.  Their sound was sumptuous and the blend was smooth.  They were able to play with great tenderness and well as with plenty of fire and gave us a very varied programme of pieces with arrangements of Greig and Gershwin mixed in with more typical Ellingtonian numbers.  The playing was crisp and rhythmic throughout and the sound levels and balance could not have been bettered.   And all this only a few hundred yards from home.

The flying bird of the day is one of the obliging gulls.

Mixed day

Today’s guest picture was taken by Venetia on her way home to Somerset.  It shows Paddington at Paddington.

It was a day of mixed weather, emotions and variable activity.  The sun was shining when Sandy rang me up after breakfast and suggested a visit to the Moorland Feeder hide.  It is needless to say that the sun had gone in by the time that we got there.

Even in the shelter of the hide, it was miserably cold and the bird action was greatly limited by the appearance of a sparrowhawk so I took a couple of pictures…

The climbing pheasant was back again.

After some thought she found a position that let her get at the seeds.

The light was very dull and a sitting blue tit was the height of my small bird ambition.,

…and I didn’t stay long, leaving Sandy peering out of the window and hoping for better pickings. (You can see how he got on if you click here or visit his blog.)

Apart from the cold, I had to be home in time to get ready to go to the funeral of one of our neighbours.  The church was well filled for a rather sombre service for a chap who had been the life and soul of the party for all his life.  He was a wonderful singer, actor, reciter, compère and raconteur and will be much missed.

A blackbird welcomed us home after the service.

After lunch, as the sun was shining, I went for a walk round the garden.  The chilly morning had discouraged the frogs and there was only one to be seen and it ducked under the surface as I approached.  The crocuses were easier to see…

…but I could only find one which was out.

The sun stayed out and after a quick shot of a handful of siskins on the feeder…

…I set out for a cycle ride on my slow bike.  Once again, it is needless to say that by the time I had gone three miles into a brisk and very chilly wind, the sun had disappeared and I was peppered by enough stinging rain to make me turn round and go home as quickly as I could.  By the time that I had got home, the sun had come out again.  It was that sort of day.

In spite of the rain stopping, the light wasn’t good enough to take good flying bird pictures…

The birds seemed as cross about this as I was.

There was just enough light for a sitting target.

Still, the sun stayed out long enough to tempt Mrs Tootlepedal out on her bike and we went up to Wauchope Schoolhouse.  In a surprise meteorological move, it didn’t rain and the wind dropped a bit so we had a pleasant pedal.

I stopped on the way home to take a picture across the Wauchope with my phone.

In the evening, We were visited by Mike and Alison and Alison and I played not one but two new sonatas as well as a couple of more familiar pieces.  Among the torrent of notes that ensued there were moments when definite music could be heard.  This happened often enough for us to be happy with our evening’s work.

The wall has made excellent progress and a window is taking shape among an ever growing number of courses of blockwork.  Sadly, because the men were working so hard and so continuously, I wasn’t able to get a good shot that reflected this.  I will try tomorrow.

After yesterday’s sharp flying bird, I have got a rather dull one for today.  Swings and roundabouts.