Two walks, three rides and a puzzle

Today’s guest picture is a lovely study of a heron in the pond at Myatt’s Fields in London.  It was taken by our daughter Annie.

We had another fine and sunny day, both here and when I got to Edinburgh.  It was a bit too chilly for cycling in the morning so I went for a quick walk round three bridges while Mrs Tootlepedal went off to an interesting meeting which lasted all day.

You wouldn’t know that we have just had two weeks of storms.

An oyster catcher had taken over the fence post duty from the gulls.

I did see a grey wagtail at the Kilngreen but it was too quick for me and got away.  I had to make do with a tree on the Castleholm which stood quietly and echoed the hill behind it quite neatly.

It was a lovely day for a walk (as long as you were well wrapped up as the wind was bitter).

I just had time for a coffee and a slice of toast after my walk and then it was time to drive to Lockerbie to catch the train to Edinburgh.  It was nearly on time.

There are some fine views to had as the train goes through the hills on its way to Edinburgh.

When I got Edinburgh, I got off the train at Haymarket instead of going to Waverley as usual.  I had a couple of hours to spare before Matilda got out of school so I walked from the station to the start of the Union Canal, stopping for a snack on the way.

The area round the canal basin has been ‘poshed up’ a lot…

 

…but some more traditional buildings can be seen further along the towpath.

This was my favourite spot on the whole walk.  It was hard to believe that I was still in the centre of a city.

There were bridges to admire along the way, both metal…

 

…and stone…

…and mechanical.  This is a lifting bridge near the canal basin.

The towpath was sometimes wide…

…and sometimes narrow…

..but mostly busy.  Cyclists do not seem to have discovered the purpose of bicycle bells so it was nervous work from time to time.

I liked this rather desperate attempt to make a dull building more interesting by adding a portico and a palm tree.  It didn’t convince.

I took many, many pictures and I hope to visit again in the not too distant future and show you some more of this pleasant place.

On my way to the canal and back, I passed along this splendid crescent.  I lived in Edinburgh for five years but never went this way before.  It is called Gardner’s Crescent..

…and it has a garden called Gardner’s Crescent Garden but the planting is not very interesting to say the least.

I got back to Haymarket and enjoyed a ride on the tram to the other end of Princes Street.

This was a great treat for me even though I had to buy a ticket because my bus pass doesn’t work on the tram.  Perhaps this was why there was no shortage of empty seats.

I arrived at Matilda’s in time to welcome her back from her school day.  She was in good form and told me that she had been learning the ‘banana hold’ at the judo club.   We had a good time and after some energetic action with a hula hoop, we settled down to do a quiet jigsaw puzzle.

Alistair not only cooked a tasty lentil dahl for our tea but sorted out the coding problems on my Langholm Archive website.   This is just the sort of son you want when computer problems loom and you are peckish after a good walk.

The train home was late but not by much and although I had to scrape ice off the car, the drive home went without any hiccups.

Mrs Tootlepedal reported that her meeting, which was to do with community land purchase in general not the Langholm buy out in particular, had been thoroughly worthwhile, so we had both had a good day.

I walked just under 20,000 steps according to my phone.  It tends to exaggerate a bit but it was still a good day of exercise.

The flying birds of the day were seen at the canal basin and were strangely immobile even when I said “Boo!” to them.

Sunshine (and a chilly wind)

Today’s guest picture comes from Dropscone who is on holiday on the Northumberland coast.  He saw a boat temporarily going nowhere.

I should have mentioned in yesterday’s post that since it was Shrove Tuesday, Mrs Tootlepedal made some delicious pancakes for our tea which we ate with lemon and castor sugar.  They disappeared so quickly that I didn’t have time to take a picture of them.  This was why I forgot to mention them.  I have got so used to taking pictures these days that if I haven’t got a picture, then it probably didn’t happen.

What definitely did happen today was that the sun shone.  All day.  It was accompanied by a very chilly and quite strong wind but we didn’t care.

I started my active day off by walking up to Sandy’s for a cup of coffee and a chat. The route took me up the hill to Holmwood and I could look back over the sunlit town, take in a touch of spring…

…wonder why such a fine house as Holmwood House is still derelict and admire an eye popping burst of yellow crocuses on Jimmy’s Brae.

Sandy was remarkably cheerful for a man confined to barracks for several weeks.  As he has a supply of ginger biscuits, I will certainly be back.

When I got home, there was no time to rest as Mrs Tootlepedal had agreed to a walk and chosen the Langholm Moor as the way to go.  We drove up the hill, and when we parked the car at the White Yett, we could see snowy hills across the Esk, the pylon helicopter parked at its base, (it was probably too windy for it too fly), and my favourite sunlit view up the Ewes Valley.

I took a closer look at the snow capped hills.

It was a good day to be up and about.

We crossed over the col between the Esk and the Little Tarras Valley and saw more snowy hills at the top of Tarras.

Our walk was a simple one, down this road for a bit…

…and then back up it again.

I enjoyed the winter colours…

…and Mrs Tootlepedal scanned the skies for a sight of a hen harrier.  She was very happy when she spotted one through her binoculars, and even though it was far too far away to photograph, I could see it with the naked eye as it ranged across the moor looking for food.

On our way back up the road, we were struck by some very green moss beside the road.

It was Polytrichum Communale (I think) and it was positively glowing in the sunshine.  You can see it in the centre of the panel below.  Nearby, we saw a clump which had been pushed over.  You can see it on the left in the panel below and it shows just how long the stems of this moss are.  Somehow I don’t expect moss to have stems that long.  My moss book says that they can be 40 cm long.

On the right of the moss panel, you can see some of the sphagnum moss which we expect to find all over our moorland.

When we got home, it was time for lunch and hot soup and bread and cheese was just what was required after experiencing the chilly wind on our way back to the car.

After lunch, I thought about cycling but carelessly managed to think about the very chilly wind too so I watched the birds for a bit.

I was happy to see a blue tit on the feeder…

…and I had a good time watching birds enjoying the sunshine.  I especially liked the blackbird sunbathing on the hedge.  Mrs Tootlepedal’s fake tree continues to be popular.

There was plenty of action but my conscience got the better of me..

…and I left the birds to it and got changed for cycling.

I went out into to the garden and wasted a bit more time being distracted by crocuses…

…which were enjoying the sunshine too.

This is what a hellebore would look like if I was lying on the ground looking up at it…

…but as I am too old and stout to creep under a hellebore, the shot above was taken by sticking my hand under the flower with a camera in it and hoping for the best.

I finally managed to get out on my bike. It was theoretically about five or six degrees celsius but the wind chill factor brought that down to zero or one degree and I made slow progress up the hill against the twenty mile a hour breeze.

It looked as though my sunny day might come to end as I went up Callister but the brisk wind at least had the merit of blowing these clouds away before they could rain on me.

To add a couple of miles to my trip, I took a diversion up the Cleuchfoot road, both on my way up and my way back.  It is a gentle little valley with the Logan Water running down the middle of it.

I found my tree of the day there.

I managed a slow but enjoyable twenty miles and this took me over 100 miles for the month.

Once again, I didn’t have much time to rest when I got home becuase I had arranged with Mrs Tootlepedal to combine some recycling at Longtown with a view of the starling murmuration there.  This was very time dependent and we got to Longtown to find the starlings in full flow over the High Street.

And i mean in full flow.  You had to be very careful when you looked up not to get an unwanted present in the eye.

There were times when the sky was full of starlings…

..making pretty patterns.

There were at least two separate flocks and I kept hoping that I would be able to record some of the twisting patterns which are characteristic of these murmurations but either I was too close or the starlings were not in the mood

The starlings are right over the centre of the town and the locals are probably quite fed up with having to wash their cars all the time and look carefully where they are stepping.

As it grew darker, the birds got lower in the sky…

and soon they were diving down into the trees where they will spend the night.

It is quite a sight.  One moment the sky is alive with thousands of birds, and the next, they have all disappeared completely with a sudden whoosh.

I will have to wash the car tomorrow but it was worth it.

The flying bird of the day is a chaffinch.

Going full circle

Today’s guest picture comes from my brother Andrew.  He took his son Nick on a ten mile walk up as many hills as he could find.  Nick is going on a Nepal trek soon and needed some practice.  Here is Nick on Ecton Hill at 1211ft.

My morning walk to the (corner) shop once again took me along the river.  The weather had improved enough for the oyster catcher to get its head in the air.

The weather forecast was a lottery today and trying to find out what was going to happen depended entirely on when you looked at it, as it changed every hour or so.  This made planning a dry cycle ride tricky.  It was supposed to rain at eleven and be sunnier in the afternoon, but it didn’t rain at  eleven and the sun came out at twelve and lit up the siskins.

Sunshine is always welcome but does pose shadow problems for me.

There was plenty of action but not enough to call for two feeders, so I took one back in and washed it thoroughly.

The sunshine was a great motivator though, and I had a very early lunch and went off on my bike to add a few miles to my meagre monthly total.   February has been a rotten month for my cycling as it started with dizzy spells which kept me off the bike and just as I recovered from them, the rain and gales started and didn’t stop for two weeks.

It was a novel experience to be cycling in the sunshine.

I wanted to record that it was a  colourful day compared with yesterday’s monochrome ride so I took a picture of a tree.  Because it was not raining or snowing, I was able to look at the result on the camera and much to my surprise, I found that it wasn’t colourful at all.

Behind my back and without my permission, the camera had gone into monochrome mode and that explained the extreme lack of colour in yesterday’s landscapes.  I apologise for misleading readers but I would say in my defence that it was a pretty monochrome day and curiously, my photo editor still insists that the picture above is in RGB colour so the camera must be withholding secrets even from Photoshop.  I like the monochrome tree anyway.

Still, I moved the dial on the camera back to its proper setting and took a picture of some more trees.

The sunshine became rather variable as I pedalled round my customary Canonbie circuit..

…but it was shining when I got to Hollows Bridge and found that there was still a fair amount of water flowing down the Esk.

On the other side of the bridge, a fragile tree looked as though it might plunge into the river at any time.

The roads were generally quite dry but there were still puddles about and shortly after I had passed this one…,

…I was forced to stop at a traffic light.  This had been put up to cope with yet another roadside landslip.

I could see trees at dangerous angles…

…and as the road is close to the bank of the river here,  trees had been pulled out of the soil as the bank collapsed.  The road was just intact but barriers were encouraging the traffic to keep away from the affected side of the road.

The wood on the other side of the road has recently been felled and these trees are not so sheltered from the blast as they were.  I don’t know how long these unaffected trees will last…

…or the ones that perch in a lonely fashion on the steep bank on the other side of the road.

During the second half of my ride, it had started to rain once or twice but I scowled so furiously at the clouds that the rain apologised and went away.  I was enjoying myself so much that when I got back to Langholm, I was thinking if adding some extra miles but this time it started to rain seriously, with a bit of snow thrown in for good measure, so I took the hint and went straight home.

Mrs Tootlepedal was working in the garden and the rain was so local that it had hardly stopped her at all.   I had a look round the garden myself.

..and felt that the flower of the day was the single blossom on the winter honeysuckle.

The sun came out again as I went in.

Mrs Tootlepedal told me that the helicopter which is taking materials to the pylon on the golf course was back in the air again, so I went upstairs to have a look to see if I could see it.

It was very busy zipping to and fro.  They must have been pleased to be able to get back to work after the strong winds of the past two weeks.

As I watched, the rain started again so I shut the window after I had taken this final shot of the helicopter, like young Oliver, going back for more.

I was thinking of going for a late walk but the weather seemed too unreliable so I settled down to try to improve the security of the Langholm Archive Group website, a necessity these days when browsers may stop people viewing insecure sites.  This is above my pay grade but I ploughed on and succeeded with two of the three parts of the site but made the third part so bad that my browser had a fit when I tried to view it.

Fortunately, the web hosting company was able to provide a solution when I retailed my woes to them.

Unfortunately, the security certification process has upset the formatting of the sites and I have had to ask for help again.  This sort of thing makes my head hurt.  They have kindly replied but the suggested solution may need me to seek yet more help.

In the meantime, I did find a sunny flying chaffinch of the day. Hooray.

An invasion of colour on a grey day

Today’s guest picture comes from Mary Jo on her visit to Australia.  She found that King Parrots are very partial to an offer of a snack.

We had a bit of a contrast to Mary Jo’s sunny Queensland weather here, as the hills were covered in mist and the ground was white with sleety slush when we woke up.

Even the colours on the redpoll…

…and goldfinch seemed subdued.

It was raining in a persistent and mean minded way (when it wasn’t sleeting, that is) and going outside was not an attractive option.

So I stayed in and watched the birds.

Until I got bored and walked round to the shop to get milk.  I was protected from the worst of the wind and rain by a large umbrella.

After the delight of yesterday’s sunshine, it was not a colourful day….

…but the route to the shop takes me along the waterside so there is always the chance of seeing something interesting.  Today it was a pair of oyster catchers keeping as snug as they could in the horrible conditions.

Perhaps their posture is an example of keeping a weather eye open.

I took the milk home and then took myself off to visit Sandy, who is still housebound.

He was very cheerful and entertained me to coffee and excellent ginger cake.  On my way home, I stopped to look over the town to see if the prospects for the day had improved at all.

They hadn’t.

When I got back, I put the bread maker to work and made some soup for lunch and while it was cooking, I had another look at the birds.  There was no shortage of customers for seeds…

…and the redpolls got into some keen competition for perches.

The winner returned to the perch, although it didn’t look very happy about it…

…while the loser sat on a pole and pretended that it didn’t care.

Down below, a dunnock merged into the background.

The wind dropped and after lunch, it stopped raining for long enough for me to put on my cycling gear.  Then, of course,  it started again.  I wasn’t going to take my gear off though, after all the bother of putting on what seemed like several hundred layers of warm clothing so I got my bike out and went off with hope in my heart and rain on my cycling glasses.

I was worried that the morning sleet might still be lying on the road in slushy patches but it was well above freezing and the rain had done its work so the road was clear.  It was running with water in many places and I was very glad to have a stout pair of waterproof socks to keep my feet warm and dry.

I had an unusual experience when a lorry coming the other way met me at one of these puddly spots.  As it approached me, and absolutely on purpose, it slowed down and passed me without splashing me.  I was so shocked that I nearly fell off my bike.

After three and a half miles when I got to Wauchope Schoolhouse and began to feel the wind in my face as I left the shelter of the valley, I considered the way ahead…

…and went back to Langholm.

A bull in the field opposite was not impressed by my lack of get up and go.

I took this picture on the way back and despite what you may think, it is a full colour shot.

When I put it into my photo editor in the evening, I changed it into greyscale mode. It summed up the day when as far as I could see, nothing changed in the picture at all.  Truly a grey day.

I got back to Langholm and since the rain had stopped, I went round the town and pedalled back up to Wauchope Schoolhouse again. In the end, I squeezed sixteen miles out of a miserable afternoon but as it was my first cycle ride for two weeks, I was grateful to get any miles in at all.  And I felt a lot better for the exercise.

I put my bike away and went in to watch the birds again.  I had put a second feeder out in the morning as there seemed to be quite a lot of birds about, and both feeders were getting well used before I left with a selection of goldfinches, siskins and redpolls in action.

By the time that I got back, a lot of the seed had disappeared.  The redpolls and goldfinches had disappeared too and the siskins had taken over completely.

They were everywhere, under the feeders, on top of the feeders…

…all over the walnut tree…

…and on the feeders themselves.

I counted over a hundred of them in the garden.  I just wish that the light had been better so that I could have done them justice.  As it was, the rain started again and I went off to have a shower, leaving the skins to it.

When I came downstairs, I found that Mike Tinker had dropped in for a cup of tea so I joined him and Mrs Tootlepedal for a chat and some serious biscuit consumption.

When Mike left, it was time for my flute playing friend Luke to come round for our weekly burst of duets.  He told me that is going for a job interview tomorrow so I wished him luck.  I would employ him as he is a very sound lad.

The active day ended with a plate of Mrs Tootlepedal’s fish pie, always a good way to end a day.

Looking at the forecast, there seems to be no end to our run of cold, wet weather for the next week with only a very occasional glimpse of sunshine promised, so I am more pleased than ever to have sneaked a few miles in today.

The flying bird of the day is a chaffinch who arrived before the siskin invasion.

Goodbye

Today’s guest picture is another from camera club member Simon.  He took a walk along the old railway line to Longtown and managed to find himself under three bridges at the same time, the main road, the old railway and a footbridge.

The weather, which likes to have its little joke, decided that a day when there was no time for  walk and when Evie was due to go home would be just the day to put on a show of sunshine after a week of more or less continuous rain.

Now I like a joke as much as the next man, but even I thought that this was going a bit far and allowed a smidgeon of bitterness to enter my soul.

Leaving Mrs Tootlepedal and Annie to combine Evie care with talking to the project leader about the proposed community land purchase, I went to church where a diminished choir and a service with few hymns made for a thin singing experience.

As we were preparing for Annie and Evie’s departure after lunch and I had to some shopping, there wasn’t even a lot of time to look at birds when I got back.

Still, it was good to see them perching in the sun.

When I went out into the garden for a moment, I turned my eyes to the hills and wished that I had had time to climb.

In the garden, there were still no frogs to be seen but the first of the miniature daffodils has come out…

…the chives are looking promising…

…and the rhubarb is developing.

I used to think that hellebores were a bit dull but in recent years, I have changed my mind.

Back inside, there was another moment to watch the birds.  The sunshine hadn’t improved their manners at all…

…but at least one chaffinch made it safely to the feeder and enjoyed a seed.

After lunch, I had a quick look to see if the sun had brought the crocuses out…

…and then it was time to pack Annie, Evie, the pushchair and an enormous case in to the car and pray that the Zoe would behave and take us to Carlisle.

The Zoe behaved impeccably and we arrived at the station in plenty of time and found that the train was more or less on time.  These days the railway experience wouldn’t be the same without some excitement, so a train from another railway company got stuck at the platform at which our train was due to arrive.  With a couple of minutes to go, there was a rush of pushchair, case and passengers over the footbridge to catch the down train from the up platform.  All was well  though and we got Annie, Evie, the case and the pushchair onto the train and it pulled out on time as we shed a tear and waved goodbye.

It really was a lovely day in Carlisle as they left…

…but we ignored the lovely day and headed indoors to our Carlisle Community Choir practice.  Fortunately, it was a very good session and the tenors recovered some of their self esteem after last week’s travails.

And even better, it was still light as we drove home so we were able to watch a pretty spectacular starling murmuration over our heads as we went back through Longtown.  If we get a decent day, we will try to go down to see the starlings with camera in hand next week.  There seemed to be a lot more birds than when we watched them a month ago.

The house seems very quiet.

The flying bird of the day is a choice between this rather impressionistic study of a goldfinch…

…and this neater but duller shot.

Take your pick.

I have time on my hands tomorrow: the forecast is for sleet and snow.  Ha ha.

Relatively speaking

Today’s guest picture comes from my Somerset correspondent, Venetia.  She visited the Hillbrush factory which has a factory shop which sells brushes but not, as far as I can see, hills.

We had a day of mixed weather and doubtful intentions.

The weather in the morning was frequently wet…

…and frequently dry…

…but always very windy.

It had been our intention to go to Edinburgh to meet our son Tony and his partner Marianne and her children Tash and Dylan, followed by a visit to allow Evie to meet Matilda and her parents.  The unreliability of the weather and the railway system coupled with a slight illness on the part of Matilda made us consider and reconsider these plans several times.

While we were deliberating, I watched the birds and there were plenty to watch today.

A siskin sandwich…

…a warm welcome on a cold day….

…and a quick pause in a dry moment to see if there was more frogspawn in the pond.  There was.  The frogs have been very quiet about it as I haven’t heard them croaking at all.

Wallflowers are coming out,

And the daffs have stayed upright in all weathers.

The improved weather didn’t improve the birds’ behaviour.

A redpoll, in its spring plumage, stood above the fray…

..but popped down for a snack when the chance offered.

In the end, our daughter Annie made the sensible suggestion that we should catch the train to Edinburgh from Carlisle and not Lockerbie or Tweedbank. This gave us the prospect of a safer drive, two railway companies to chose from in the event of delay or cancellation and more trains to come home on earlier if Matilda was not up to a visit.

We took her advice and it was good.  The drive to Carlisle went without a problem, with no sign of flooding on the road, although there was a lot of flooding by the river in Carlisle.  The train was on time, with plenty of seats and a very cheerful and helpful set of staff members….and Matilda had recovered from a brief spell of high temperature.

We arrived on time and enjoyed a good meal with Tony, Marianne, Tash and Dylan.

Tash and Dylan…

…had not met Evie before and were pleased to make her acquaintance.  We were pleased to catch up with them and hear their news.   They are both working hard in satisfactory and satisfying jobs and that is something to be warmly welcomed these days.

After lunch, we did a little shopping for baby clothes for Evie in a well known store, braving some very nasty sleety and windy weather for a few minutes on the way.

Fortunately the weather had eased by the time that we came out of the shop and we walked down to Matilda’s, pushing Evie in her push chair.  Matilda was waiting at the door to welcome us and when we had settled down, she carefully built a large tower to entertain Evie..

…. and then equally carefully helped Evie knock it all down again.

Alistair told us that Matilda had been looking forward to the visit a lot and had asked him  at twelve o’clock,  “When is Evie arriving.”  He had told her, “In four hours.”  At quarter past twelve, she asked him, “When is Evie arriving.”  This set a bit of a pattern.

Matilda was in great form and really enjoyed meeting Evie.  She kindly showed us the latest dance and gymnastic routines she has learned and we left reluctantly to catch our train home.  The weather let us walk back to the station in the dry, although the biting wind made our progress as difficult as it could.

All the same, we got to the station in plenty of time, found our train, were greeted by more cheerful and helpful staff members and arrived back in Carlisle, dead on time.

We got into our car in the station car park, congratulating ourselves on the smooth running of the day, switched on the power and were greeted by a notice saying in big red letters:  “STOP, electric motor failed.”  And indeed the car would not move an inch.  To cut a long story short though, having contacted our rescue service and summoned assistance, I tried the engine again some time later and it worked perfectly.  Rescue service and assistance were recontacted, and we drove ourselves home without a problem….except for a slight sense of stress.

It was still a very good day out though.

The flying bird of the day is a siskin.  It is not a great picture but I put it in to show that wherever a siskin is, there is almost always a flying piece of seed as well.  They are the world’s messiest eaters.

Footnote:  While Matilda is an old hand on social media, Evie does not yet have an internet presence so readers much just imagine a fine looking seven month old infant with a winning smile and impeccable manners.

 

I’m going to need an ark if this goes on

Today’s guest picture comes from Mary Jo from Manitoba.  She is not in Manitoba at the moment, having left her -15 degree temperatures there for the roasting air of Queensland, Australia where she met these Boer cross doeling goats.

It was so gloomy here, after another night of wind and rain, that we had to have the light on in the morning and that made looking at birds through the window a bit tricky.

When I did get a sight of them, I could see that it was still raining and the wind was blowing hard enough to making staying on the feeder quite a task.

The birds came and went in busy patches and disappeared to other feeders for long spells.

Just like the school playground, there is always one person with no mates.

Others could only stand and stare.

I put on my coat and boots and walked along to the shop and back, and then, after coffee, I put them on again and walked along to the Buccleuch Centre where there was a well timed public display regarding the proposed flood defences for Langholm.

As usual with these affairs, everyone in the town knows exactly what should or not be done and the only people with no clue are the experts.  I had a very nice conversation with one of the experts, an Irish lady who seemed to know quite a lot, and learned a bit myself.  The proposed protection mostly consists of high mounds and walls which may protect the town from flooding but will certainly make the riverside less attractive so no one will be able to get everything they want.  The experts have a bold scheme to divert the course of the Wauchope so it will join the Esk on the other side of the church.   I would need quite a lot of persuading before I thought that this was a good way to spend money but I am open to persuasion.

When I came out of the meeting, I went to check on the river behind the hall just to see if the exhibition was in danger of being flooded itself.

There was a bit to go before that happened.

I went home and had lunch with Mrs Tootlepedal, Annie and Evie.  The rain and wind were still going full steam ahead and for some curious reason none of the ladies wanted to join me in a walk, so like that lonely siskin, I went out by myself.

I was well wrapped up and it was reasonably warm so it wasn’t too bad.  The rain wasn’t very heavy but the strong wind made even light rain feel serious so I kept my head down and didn’t take too many pictures.

Most of my pictures featured water since there was a lot of it about.

The Becks Burn goes under the road.

The Auld Stane Brig straddles the Wauchope Water.

The roads were running with water coming off fields and out of woods.

I didn’t take the opportunity to sit on this bench in the rain and contemplate the churchyard over the water.  I felt the day was grey enough already.

I was standing on a new bridge at the end of Gaskell’s walk, taking a picture of this little cascade…

…when I noticed some movement and saw the the bank was slipping into the water as I was watching.

I thought it prudent not to linger on the bridge too long and walked along the track to the Murtholm.  The river Esk was rising.

I got to Skippers Bridge and was impressed by this waterfall running down onto the road.

I was intending to go down to the water’s edge to take a picture of the foaming current swirling through the arches…

…but a look at the situation made me decide to walk back to the other side of the bridge and take my picture from the safety of the main road.

As I walked back to the town, I reflected that there were probably some snowdrops down there.

If the flood prevention scheme goes ahead, this path will be widened and have a 2m barrier between it and the river.  It will be safe but the river view will be limited.

The river was full but not flooding when I got back to the suspension bridge.  There would be barriers along both sides of the river here.

We had more of Mrs Tootlepedal’s tasty brisket of beef for our tea and then after Evie had retired for the night, Mike and Alison came round for their customary Friday night visit.   It showed how miserable the weather was that they used their car to cover the 200 or so yards to our door and still got wet before they got into the house.

Alison and I enjoyed some good music making and when she and Mike had left, I walked down to the river to see if it was still rising.  The rain had stopped after a full day and the river was no higher than it had been at five o’clock.  The Esk is working overtime carrying all our rain away.

I emptied Mary Jo’s scientific rain gauge today.  It had collected five inches of rain during the week.  Some places got that amount of rain in a day last weekend so it is no wonder that there has been heavy flooding.  Once again, we have been wet but lucky,

The flying bird of the day is a siskin.