Exciting times

Today’s guest picture appeared when I was looking through the archives and I found this one, which I think comes from Venetia.  It was too good not to put in, so here it is.

We had a day with a lot of sun and no rain which in itself would have made it a very good day by recent standards but lots of good things happened as well.

After breakfast, Mrs Tootlepedal went off to a meeting and I stepped out into the garden to enjoy the sunshine.

Everything had a smile on its face.

In the vegetable garden peas are flowering and beetroots are beeting…

…while among the flowers, the bees were busy again in the foxgloves and roses were beaming with delight.

Along the back of the house, the dam is lined with potentilla and musk, punctuated by the occasional bright poppy.

I went back in and I was just about to settle down to do the crossword when I noticed a mini digger by the back door…

…and in no time at all a large lorry with three new electricity poles was parked in the drive.

It turned out that although we were told that the power company was coming to switch wires from our old decrepit poles to new ones tomorrow, the actual poles were to be put in place today.

It was done remarkably quickly.  The first pole was swung off the lorry, manoeuvred under the wires and dropped into a hole dug by a second mini digger.  Considering that it is nine metres high and weighs 210 kg, things went very smoothly.

The second pole is in the middle of the vegetable garden and this required a very long arm to drop it in behind the fence…

…and a good nudge from the mini digger to get it into place.

Mrs Tootlepedal’s mustard got a bit crushed in the process but the men made a very neat job of it.

The new poles have got two very decorative plates set into the wood to let the world know all about them

If all goes well, the power lines will be transferred from the old poles to the new ones tomorrow and the old poles will be cut down and disappear as if by magic.

The birds kept their distance while the work was going on but they soon returned once the lorry and diggers had gone.

After lunch, I spread the chips which we collected yesterday onto a path in the vegetable garden and now the whole of the top end is looking well cared for.

Mrs Tootlepedal was very busy with a new project all day and I gave her a bit of help in working out how to get her new tablet to speak to my printer and then I set out to test the state of my rested feet by going for a walk.

After the miserable weather on my bike ride yesterday had prevented me from getting a view, I headed for the hills today with scenery in mind.

There were wild flowers about…

…but it was hills that I was after. I had an early view of them which I took in case the clouds covered the sun before I got higher…

…and I had another look when I was half way up the hill…

A ‘click on the pic’ will show the bigger picture

…and yet another when I was near the top just in case…

…but the sun kindly stayed out for my whole walk and I got a splendid view from the top of Warbla.

It was well worth the effort of the short climb.

As there was a very stiff wind blowing on the summit, I didn’t linger but made my way back down to the town.

I found Mike Tinker in the garden talking to Mrs Tootlepedal when I got home and we had a cup of tea and a biscuit.  He was impressed by our new poles.

Then my flute pupil Luke came and we had a really excellent lesson.  I have learned a lot from my singing teacher, and as much of what she tells me applies to flute playing too, I have been able to pass useful advice on to Luke and he has listened and acted on it.

I had time for a quick walk round the garden after tea, and I enjoyed the sight of a siskin sitting on one of the wires which will be moved to a new pole tomorrow.

Then the members of our recorder group arrived for our monthly meeting and as Roy, our librarian, had produced a good set of music, we had an enjoyable time.  Sadly, Roy is not well enough to play at the moment, but he is still looking after us well in his choice of pieces to play.

Dropscone’s daughter, Susan is one of our players and as I had met her and her father when they were passing our house on a walk yesterday, I was pleased to discover that Dropscone had got round the walk safely without falling over and breaking any more ribs.

I don’t want to tempt fate, but my feet are still feeling well rested in spite of today’s walk.  Fingers are firmly crossed that they still feel alright tomorrow.

The flying bird of the day is a passing crow.

A start

Today’s guest picture comes from my ex-work colleague Ada.  She is in Tours and in spite of seeing a goat and a pink elephant in the street, she assures me that she hardly touched a drop.

The day started with some promise as far as the weather went.  There was sunshine as we cycled to church to sing in the choir but by the time that we got home, the sunshine had become fitful and every time that Mrs Tootlepedal hung the washing out, it started to drizzle.

The peonies were happy about what sun there was and made steady progress.

After church, we had coffee and I spent a little time watching the birds get through the seed on the feeder at a great rate.  I had filled the feeder before going to church and it was already down to halfway.

I enjoyed seeing a goldfinch and a siskin looking intently in the wrong direction  when it came to impending threats.

This siskin knew where to direct its attention.

Having seen tow fellow siskins on the top shelf, I reckon this approaching siskin was weighing up its chances of shifting the goldfinch instead.

With the perches so busy, there was quite a lot of waiting for hungry birds, either on the feeder pole…

…or on the sunflower stalk that Mrs Tootlepedal has thoughtfully provided near the feeder.

I went back out into the garden and checked on the fruit and veg.  Mrs Tootlepedal has put down a generous amount of straw for the strawberries and we are just waiting for some better ripening weather now.   The potatoes are producing more flowers every day.

Among the flowers, this Sweet William stopped me in my tracks…

…and I made a respectful bow as I passed the Queen of Denmark.

Bees were to be seen on many flowers but I was taken by the flying skills that this one showed in reversing out of a foxglove.

The educated yellow onion is a tricky flower to photograph and this is the best that I have managed so far.

I like cornflowers…

…and it was evident today that bees like them too.

There is still only one flower on the purple clematis.  Mrs Tootlepedal thinks that it is very early so perhaps this flower mistook the chilly weather for autumn and came out early by accident while the other flwoers knew better.

A feverfew has started to produce flowers and it will soon have more than a few by the look of it.

Next to the drive, a small forest of orange hawkweed is developing nicely…

…and the climbing hydrangea is producing a positive galaxy of flowers.

I put my camera down and mowed the middle lawn and after a quick check on the birds…

…. Mrs Tootlepedal and I drove up the road to collect another load of wood chips for the vegetable garden paths.  We didn’t spread them out though because when we got home, it was well past lunch time….and it was raining.

After lunch, the sun came out and I put my cycling gear on and it immediately started to rain again.  I passed some time relaxing in front of the telly until I noticed that the sun had come out again, so I got my bicycle out and set off to do a few miles.

I hadn’t gone much more than half a mile before it started to rain again, but fortunately, I had a rain jacket with me so I put it on and pressed ahead. It continued to rain for an hour by which time I had done thirteen miles and got a bit fed up so I stopped.  I had hoped to take some pictures of sunlit hills while I was out but not only was there no sunlit but there were very few hills to be seen.

I stopped to take this single picture on my way home just to show all the hills that I couldn’t see behind that bank of cloud ahead..

Fortunately Mrs Tootlepedal was cooking a very tasty meal of roast chicken with stuffing, roast potatoes with carrots and Brussels sprouts for our evening meal so I was soon warmed up and cheerful.

There is often a sliver lining to a cloud and the enforced rest of the past two days means that my feet don’t hurt at the moment.  Always look on the bright side of life…..de dum…de dum…etc

The flying bird of the day is a sparrow, frozen in time.

 

 

Down in the mouth

Today’s guest picture comes from Mary Jo from Manitoba.  Her Christmas cactus responded to a programme of benign neglect indoors over the winter by bursting into flower when it was put outside for the summer.

Perhaps unsurprisingly my hopes of waking up with no pain after yesterday’s tooth extraction were not realised and far from cycling around in a free and easy way, I spent the day rather quietly at home.  This was disappointing as it is the weekend of the Muckletoon Adventure Festival in Langholm and the town is full of mountain bikers and runners dashing up and down our hill.  I would have liked to have been out and about taking pictures.

As it was, I was confined to the garden but some reasonable weather meant that there were things of interest even there.

The bees buzzed around again and this one was visiting the perennial wallflower.

Roses showed their faces and I liked this combination of rosa complicata and philadelphus in a corner of the garden.

Almost all the azaleas flowers are gone but one or two remain and they have been joined by honeysuckle, pinks and orange hawkweed (with both fox and cubs).

In the vegetable garden there is now a sea of mustard.

It is in a bed which is likely to get a bit of a thumping when the new electricity pole is put in next week so Mrs Tootlepedal has just let it grow, which it has done with great enthusiasm (or keenness).

The warmer weather has made us very excited by the peonies which definitely look as though they are going to flower properly.

I mowed the front lawn and gave it a good feed of buck-u-uppo which it badly needs.  The long spell of cool weather has not encouraged the rather sparse grass to grow much so I am pinning my hopes on a spell of warmer weather which we are promised.

After this brief burst of exercise, I retired indoors and spent most of the rest of the day resting and looking out of the window.

The birds did their best to keep me entertained.

Goldfinches looked sideways…

,..and sparrows look downwards.

A sparrow tried to out stare an incoming siskin…

…while a siskin resorted to shouting when it was threatened.

Goldfinches demonstrated aerial combat skills…

…while a siskin relied on the old fashioned method of putting the boot in when approached by a goldfinch.

A siskin threatened a redpoll as some light rain started later on in the afternoon…

…but the redpoll was more than equal to the challenge and munched away placidly when it had seen the siskin off.

The rain got heavier but did nothing to cool tempers down.

…and a brisk traffic to and from the feeder continued all afternoon.

The rain stopped and a blackbird posed for me on the feeder pole.

I had another walk round the garden and was very pleased to see that the ‘butter and sugar’ iris had come out while I had been sitting inside.

The geums have quite enjoyed the cool weather and although it is a little faded round the edges, the deep colour of this one was outstanding.

I had a close look at the argyranthemums in the chimney pot…

…and went back inside.

All this means that after a very promising start to the cycling month when I did 100 miles in the first week of June, I have only managed 10 miles since.  Some settled weather is required if I am to improve matters but it looks as though that might be in short supply.

If I can’t get out for a walk or a bike ride, I will have to start thinking of going for a drive to get some scenic views to add a bit of variety to the daily posts (and our lives).

The flying bird of the day is a goldfinch cruising through the raindrops.

Note:  I will need to do something about the reflections in the window when I am looking at the re-positioned feeder.  The view of the birds is good but the streaky lines down some of the pictures is not satisfactory.

Short in the tooth

Today’s guest picture comes from our son Alistair, and shows his daughter Matilda in the nice new dress which her Granny has made for her.

No prizes for guessing the theme of the performance.

We had much better weather today which was very welcome, but it turned out that I had lost a filling from my sore tooth so I had a quiet morning entertaining Dropscone to coffee while Mrs Tootlepedal went to off to Hawick on business.  Our local duke is selling the Langholm moor and there is interest in a community buy out for at least some of the land and Mrs Tootlepedal was meeting an expert in community land matters.

Dropscone had brought treacle scones so I was happy to stay at home and eat them (carefully).  Following his golf buggy accident, it turns out that Dropscone has broken three ribs so he was taking things quietly too and trying not to laugh too much.

Before he came, I had walked round the garden to see what was going on and I couldn’t ignore Mrs Tootlepedal’s Sweet Williams which are strategically placed all round the place.

They are all pretty peppy but this is the peppiest.

The bees are still very busy on the chives which must provide an endless stock of pollen for them.

Away from the flower garden, I was interested to see the first flowers on the potatoes…

…and some promising looking beans.

After Dropscone left, with a little rhubarb to speed him on his way,  I settled down for a rest and the crossword, keeping my free hand on the remote lead for the camera on its tripod at the window.

Siskins were about, eating messily and scattering good seed on the ground.

Sometimes they waited in the wings…

…and sometimes they got impatient…

…but the sparrows paid them no heed.

Mrs Tootlepedal got back safely from Hawick, full of good advice, and I made some soup for lunch.

After lunch, I sieved the last of the compost from Bin C and put the residue into Bin D.  Then, as I was in full composting mode, I turned the contents of Bin A ,which was full, into Bin B, which was empty.  The opposite is now the case…

…although a morsel of green waste found its way into Bin A later on.

When I was finished, I had a look around and found the the sunnier day had opened out an anemone which had been shut up against the rain and cold for the last few days.

A bee was trying to cheer up a melancholy thistle.

A Rodgersia has come out in the back border.

And the roses were appreciating the dry, warmer weather as much as we were.

Men are coming to replace our aged and decrepit electricity pole next week so I helped Mrs Tootlepedal move a rose which had been growing up the stay wire for the pole.  We stuck a temporary pole in the flower bed, untied the stem from the stay and bent it back and tied it to the new pole.

We hope that there will be a new stay to tie it back onto when the pole work is finished.

The red peonies are almost over but the white and pink ones are still refusing to show themselves, perhaps as baffled by the odd weather as we are, but there are signs of hope.

I had a last check on the lupins and found another busy bee there…

…and then went off to the dentist.

My usual dentist doesn’t work on a Friday so I was seen by the other dentist in our surgery, a very nice lady whom I had not met before.  I had been able to get an emergency appointment and I was hoping that she would give me a temporary filling for my tooth until I could see my regular man.

Things didn’t quite turn out like that though.  She peered at my tooth and whistled gently in a concerned sort of way, and then suggested that I might like her to extract it.   She had such a kindly manner that I agreed and before I knew it, I was a tooth short.  Modern dentistry means that tooth extraction is a painless and relatively swift affair but even modern dentistry can’t stop your face hurting as the anaesthetic wears off so I spent the next few hours being very quiet.

Things are still a bit sore as I write this in the evening but I am hoping that all will be well by tomorrow morning and I will be able to get out on my fully serviced bike for a ride.

The flying bird of the day is a sparrow, rushing to get into the frame on time.  It nearly made it.

Not the cheeriest of days

Today’s guest picture comes from Venetia.  Before she went to Wells with my sister, she was hobnobbing with reindeer in the Highlands.

We had a cold and wet morning today, more suitable for March than June but it closely matched my mood as I woke up with toothache.  The rain kept going all morning but the toothache eased off so I took a pain killer, bought some mouthwash and hoped for the best.

As I had referred to a spirea with pretty leaves and dull flowers in a previous post, I thought that I ought to show it off.

It probably looks at its best with a few raindrops on it.

We do have irises in the garden which don’t have petals outlined in silver and I thought that they should get a look in too.

However, it was not a day for wandering about like Basil Fotherington-Thomas, saying, “Hello flowers, hello sky,” so I went back indoors and watched the birds from the comfort of the sitting room.

There were a lot to watch today, perhaps because the wind had dropped and I was pleased to see a completely mixed bunch of sparrow, goldfinch, siskin and redpoll at the same time…

Though a goldfinch didn’t seem so happy to see a siskin as I was.

It  was a day when a bird was almost always looming up out of the drizzle..

They might expect to get a rousing welcome when they arrived…

…and there was a stiff competition for seats at the table.

One  of the sparrows tried to put a hex on the other birds.

Having carefully checked that the trains were running, we went off to Lockerbie after lunch to catch the Edinburgh train.

It was twenty minutes late.

We were not surprised.  We would be deeply surprised if it ever arrived on time.

Mrs Tootlepedal has made Matilda a dress to wear in a dancing competition she brought it up for Matilda to try on today.  It fitted well and Matilda was very pleased with it.

Matilda was in good form and she and her mother beat me all ends up at Go Fish and Beggar my Neighbour again.  But as her father cooked us an excellent evening meal, I was not too downhearted.

The train home was on time as it almost always is.  We have not discovered why going north is so much harder for the railway company than going south.

In the absence of any sunny pictures, I have put in no less than three flying birds of the day.

They are like buses…

…you wait for ages and then they all come at once…

…and it was just a pity that it was on such a poor day for taking pictures.

Doddering

Today’s guest picture comes from my sister Mary.  She visited Wells with her friend, my Somerset corespondent Venetia, and took this reflective portrait of the cathedral from the bishop’s garden.

We had a colder, windier day than yesterday, but as it was drier than forecast and the sun even came out briefly once or twice, we were grateful at a time when elsewhere in the country, torrential rain was making life hard.

I started the day by going to collect my bike from the bike shop where it had been serviced.  Because it has a gear box rather then a derailleur, it had had an oil change instead of a new cassette after just under four thousand miles.  The oil change was cheaper than a new cassette and chain but it still made my eyes water.  I will have to learn how to do it myself.

When I got home, I did a little shredding, put the results in compost bin A and then sieved more of compost bin C and put the bits that didn’t go through the sieve into compost bin D.  I lead a deep and exciting life.

Then I compounded the excitement by wandering about with a camera in hand.

The orange hawkweed is also known as ‘fox and cubs’ and this foxy flower looked as though it was brooding its cubs.

We have spireas that have showy leaves and dull flowers and we have spireas with dull leaves and showy flowers, very showy flowers.

Although we have had plenty of bees, I haven’t seen a great many smaller insects so I was pleased to see this one on a doronicum.

The tropaeolum flowers on the yew were lining up in attacking formation.

Apart from the rosa moyesii, which is in full flower, the other roses are still mainly work in progress. Like almost everything else in the garden, they could do with a bit of warmth.

The chives were still attracting various bees…

…and I managed to get a wing as well as two bees knees in today’s shot.

By the front door, one clematis keeps fading while the other keeps flourishing.

It is hard to say which is prettier though.

By this time, lunch was calling and after lunch, I settled down for a while to watch the birds.

It was still very windy and this siskin was keeping firmly plunked down on the perch.

An anxious sparrow checked to see if there was a vacancy.

I did think of going for a ‘bicycle walk’ just to get out of the house, but the weather was so unforgiving, cold and very windy, that I stayed in and caught up on some of the hymns for next Sunday’s service.

After a couple of hours, I went out to check the weather and noticed that Mrs Tootlepedal has a fine crop of doddering dillies growing in the bed at the end of the drive.  This grass has the Sunday name of Briza Media and it is also known as Common Quaking Grass and in the wind today, these doddering and quaking grasses were certainly living up to their name.  I had to pinch a head off one stem and take it inside to get it to stop quaking long enough for me to take a picture.

The first candelabra primula flowers have appeared beside the pond.  I hope that they do well in spite of the weather, as they are among my favourite flowers…

…though of course, this is my absolute favourite.

The day hadn’t got any better so I went back in and watched the birds again.

The squad of goldfinches was back….

…though a siskin managed to sneak in at one point…

…and occasionally there were more goldfinches than perches.

A greenfinch had no difficulty in persuading a goldfinch to offer it a seat at the table…

…and when they had all gone off, a redpoll appeared and wasted my valuable seed.

My view of redpolls as charming little birds has been somewhat dented by seeing a redpoll nest live on the Springwatch programme on the telly.  It was the most disgustingly untidy nest that you could ever see.

Mrs Tootlepedal made a delicious one pot penne, tomato and cream cheese dish for our tea.  As the rain taps on our windows as I write this, we are just hoping that the weather will let us get to Edinburgh tomorrow.  A tree had fallen on the line today but it has been cleared, so all is well at the moment.

As a bonus for another ‘stay at home’ post, there is not one but two flying sparrows of the day.

In the strong winds, birds had to approach the feeder with care.

Static

Today’s guest picture comes from our son Tony who went to the Kirkcaldy Highland Games on a very wet day last weekend.  For reasons which are not entirely clear to me, the games are held on the beach.   These cyclists must have been working very hard.

After yesterday’s calm and sunny weather, we retreated into chilly, windy and grey conditions today.  As I wasn’t feeling at my perkiest, I was content not to to try to go out on the slow bike and settled happily for coffee with Sandy instead.

Before he arrived, I had a look round the garden.  The chives had several somnolent bees lying motionless on them.

Mrs Tootlepedal wondered if they were drunk.  They weren’t paralysed because they had moved when I checked later.

I am very taken with the new irises and find it hard not to take another picture if I walk past them.

Sometimes, I walk past them on purpose.

The first of the pinks has appeared…

…and the astrantias are going from strength to strength.

I went out of the garden and walked along the dam at the back of the house.  As I went along I saw a flourishing potentilla and a clover trailing down the concrete side of the dam…

…a lovely lily which our neighbour Kenny has planted on his side of the dam and one of the few flowers on the old fashioned fuchsia at the back gate.

When Sandy came we shared foot woes as his feet are in an even worse state than mine.

After he left, I took some time to watch the birds while I did the crossword.  We had a bit of variety with siskins and a greenfinch…

…and a  sparrow had a go at a chaffinch for daring to share the feeder.

I was rather surprised to look up from a tricky clue at one point and see a full house of goldfinches.

I finished the crossword and went back out into the garden where I did some shredding of hedge clippings and some more sieving of compost.  Then I went in and made some lentil and bacon soup for lunch.  I have taken to using as much turmeric as possible in my soups because it is is supposed to be beneficial for arthritis sufferers but I am still waiting for the miracle cure.  Still, the soup tasted good so I am not complaining.

After lunch, I mowed the front lawn to clear the remaining moss after yesterday’s scarification and felt a bit depressed when I looked at the result.  The grass will need feeding but what is really needed is a spell of warm weather to get it growing.

While I was out, I had another look round.  More educated onions are out…

…and I had a close look at my favourite lupin.  When you stick your nose in it, it seems to be lit from within.

One of the stalks had been snapped off by wind or rain (or both) near the top and this gave me a chance to take an unusual angle on the flowers.

In spite of the brisk wind, there were plenty of bees about.

Some plants, like a couple of our azaleas and one of the rhododendrons did not take well to the combination of cool and dry weather after an early short hot spell and produced buds but no flowers.  Now we are worried that even after some rain, the pale peonies look as though they might be going the same way.  They have looked like this for weeks…

…and don’t seem to have any intention of bursting into flower.

I made the mistake of going in and sitting down i a comfortable chair for a moment, and mysteriously I fell asleep  and wasted two hours of my life.

I hadn’t got anything better to do and it gave my sore feet a rest so I expect it was a good scheme after all.

I roused myself and went out for a last look round the garden.  Another of the new irises has popped up and it called to me.

There were still slow moving bees on the chives so I took the opportunity of capturing one of the bees knees.  I thought that it was very good.

Not all our lupins are brightly coloured.

As I was going back in, I noticed a rather odd looking foxglove. For some reason, It has put out a large misshapen flower on the very top of its stalk and to my eyes, it looks rather like one of the Chinese dragons that you see at festival times.

I got back in and made a dish of baked spinach and eggs with a cheese sauce for our tea.  Mrs Tootlepedal only had time for a mouthful or two before she went out to act as a front-of-house person at the Buccleuch Centre and as she is not back yet, I can only hope that she enjoyed the show.  The show is a screening of Romeo and Juliet by the Royal Ballet.  I didn’t tell her, but it turns out badly in the end so I hope that she is not upset.

I just managed to catch a flying bird of the day as a siskin navigated round the feeder pole.