Today’s picture is of a cage full of budgies which I passed on my bike ride as I went through Hollows
It was far too cold (1º C) to go pedalling this morning so Dropscone took his ailing gears off to the bike shop and I dawdled around in my dressing gown being a retired person which is nice from time to time, I must say.
I did get dressed in the end and popped out in the beautiful weather to snap this starling….
…and this blue tit.
The goldfinches don’t seem to like the very, very cold mornings but the other birds were out in force.
As it was such a lovely day, Mrs Tootlepedal declared that she was going for a hill walk. We had a slight leak in a radiator so she before she set out, she called the gas repair people to ask for a service visit. They said we could get a visit today between 12 and 5pm so I was prepared to wait in until they came. We had a cup of coffee and before we finished it, a gas engineer rang and said could he come round straight away. We said yes, he came, he fixed the leak and went away, all in half an hour. Three cheers for the British Workman.
After this, Mrs Tootlepedal set off. She was heading up Warbla and along the ridge to the Bloch and then back by the road. This would be a round trip of more than seven miles, some of it over pretty rough and wet ground.
I had my lunch, did a bit of work on the Heritage Booklet and then got on my bike as the temperature had reached 5º by this time. I set off to do the morning run in reverse, hoping to meet Mrs Tootlepedal on her way back down the road.
On the way I took this picture of the new road surface just to prove that even in Dumfries and Galloway, the roads are sometimes repaired.
Shortly after turning up the hill at Wauchope Schoolhouse, I saw a distant figure striding out down the road.
By coincidence, she saw me
On her way home, Mrs Tootlepedal visited an iron age settlement and captured this shot of a heron on a deserted cottage’s chimney pot.
I got round my run just before she finished her walk so I got in the car and gave her lift home for the last half mile. We put the walk on Tracklogs and found out that she had done 7.1 miles with over 250 metres of climbing. I am proud of her.
In the evening, I went to Carlisle with Susan, who has safely returned from Abu Dhabi, to play recorder. All six of us were present and, as usual again, we had a very good session. This week we played six part early music, mostly Italian, and some of which we had never played before. Tomorrow I am visiting the physio to get everything cured. I have great faith in her skills.
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