Birthday treat

Today’s picture shows once again that I only have to state something with confidence to be promptly proved wrong. Having said yesterday that the goldfinches don’t seem to like the cold mornings, today they were out in force early on with the temperature well below zero.

 

There was also a brief visit from a lone waxwing. It was gone before I had a chance to get a better view of it.

 

Bird on a wire

 

 

 

 

While it was disappearing, this obliging blue tit did a little posing in the style of Leonard Cohen.

 

 

 

 

 

Greenfinches were about in bigger numbers than before and here is one with a sparrow in a staring contest…

 

..and two together

 

..and one with its mouth full.

 

This was just a preamble to the real business of the day which was a birthday treat for Mrs Tootlepedal. This started well when the present I had ordered was actually delivered on her birthday. Then, as she likes nothing better than a day out, we loaded the car with things that we had decided to throw away after the great carpet shake up and visited the municipal dump at Annan. This was a real treat. To add to the pleasure of the day, we then headed down the motorway to Carlisle for a little shopping. We had a light lunch in the M&S cafe and then went our separate ways. I bought some coffee and some cheese and looked at posh cameras without buying them while Mrs Tootlepedal made purchases in M&S. We met up in Waterstones where we made inroads into two generous book tokens provided for our birthdays by Mrs Tootlepedal’s generous mother.

Then I went back, by way of the M&S wine counter, to the car which was parked in the shadow of that notable Carlisle landmark, Dixon’s Lum and waited while Mrs Tootlepedal explored the world of fashionable scarves.

 

 

While I was waiting, I admired this last trace of autumn colour where the trees are well protected by the railway viaduct.

 

 

 

I set the camera to look back through the viaduct arch towards the town so that I could catch Mrs Tootlepedal returning, laden with shopping. Unfortunately, when she did return, I got over-excited and made a mess of the picture so you will just have to imagine it.

We then went to a large fabric shop where she examined and priced up fabric for a draught curtain to go behind the front door. This completed the shopping and we headed for home.

Once there, I cooked some curried eggs for tea using my daughter’s new book of recipes which she had given me for my birthday and we rounded off the day with a visit to a concert by the Town and Junior Brass bands in the Buccleuch Centre. It was really excellent. The junior band is amazing and a great credit to their trainer and conductor, David Calvert.

Mrs Tootlepedal declared that it had been a wonderful birthday with an outing, some top shopping, a tea cooked by someone else and a concert. I was pretty pleased myself with coffee beans, cheese and wine… and because I won a prize in the raffle at the concert. Let it never be said that I am always miserable.