Today’s picture is of myself caught by Dropscone.
I rudely got up to snap a brambling-chaffinch combo while I was in the middle of entertaining Dropscone and Arthur to coffee and cake and Dropscone, who had his camera with him, took this shot. On his way over, he had taken a few shots to show how frozen Langholm is and I think they give a very good picture of just how chilly it has been.
- The park bridge over the Wauchope
The day was intended to start with a ride on the bike to nowhere in the garage but, once again, the outlet from the B&B bath was frozen so exercise took the form of running up and down ladders with kettles of boiling water. We got it freed in the end. Meanwhile out B&B guest was struggling with a car that was not going anyway either. Finally the AA came and took it away.
All of this was very entertaining and Arthur and Dennis’ arrival added to the fun. We polished of the remains of the committee cake with our coffee and then Arthur and I finished our recording for the mill machinery section of the DVD.
As you can see from out picture of the day, there were some birds about in the rather dim light of a misty morning.
In the afternoon, Mrs Tootlepedal went off to work while I put a week of the E&L into the database and spent half an hour on the bike to nowhere listening to delightful early music on recorders.
After a traditional tea of mince and tatties, I went with Sandy to the Archive Centre where we did good work. Exhausted by our labours, we sought shelter in a nearby hostelry, where by coincidence we met Dropscone’s egg eating daughter Susan. The draught beer was not connected on our arrival and, as the barmaid Karen, pointed out, you would think they would know we were coming since it was Thursday. However, everything was soon sorted out and we enjoyed our Deuchars knowing that it was as fresh as could be.
Sandy told me that the road to Carlisle, where he works, has been fantastically beautiful during the cold weather as the frozen fog in the mornings has covered every branch with a thick coat of gleaming white.
The hot news of the day is that the temperature has finally crept over zero and is 0.2º as write this. We are looking out our bathing costumes.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
Nice wintery photos from Dropscone. Excellent bird pictures too.