Today’s picture is of a rainbow over Henry Street
It was a day of sunshine and showers and the rainbow came in the early evening in the course of a really savage shower while behind it the sun was shining on Whita Hill.
Luckily for me, the showers didn’t interrupt my outdoor activities. These started with an early ride round the morning route. Because we were both going to play golf at lunchtime, Dropscone called for a gentle pedal and for once we managed to pedal gently in spite of a really stiff breeze. The one stage where we cracked was coming down the last three miles with the wind behind us. You can’t miss an opportunity like that.
While we were having our coffee, I noticed this strangely coloured bird on the feeder. It looks like a sparrow but it doesn’t have sparrow markings at all. Perhaps it is a young bird. Maybe a reader of the blog can help me with identification.
It rained after we had finished cycling but it had stopped by the time I went to play golf. I was playing with Arthur in the Wednesday competition and we both found the going tough in the very strong wind that was blowing. Arthur played the first nine well and the second nine badly while I played the first nine badly and the second nine well. We both putted very badly throughout or we might have a decent score. All that I can say is that I went round in under 100 but not by much. We are hoping for calmer conditions next week.
As soon as we finished our round, it started raining and soon it was raining heavily. This seemed to get the birds excitied.
Mrs Tootlepedal had been working in the morning and had gone off to do a little shopping while I played golf. I was expecting to find her at home when I got back, because it was far too windy to go cycling but she wasn’t there, nor was her bicycle. She had left a note to say that she was going to see how far she could go but as the rain was pouring down and the wind was as strong as ever, I wasn’t surprised when she came back quite soon but I was impressed that she had gone out at all.
An hour later, it had stopped raining and the garden looked inviting. We are still waiting for the next wave of flowers to come into bloom so I took pictures of well established plants. I am trying to keep a record of what is out when in the garden as the year goes on.
While Mrs Tootlepedal slaved in the greenhouse, I went in and put a week of the E&L into the database and caught up with my e-mails. There was another fantastically heavy rain shower and Mrs Tootlepedal came in to cook her tea. While she was doing this, the sun came out but was immediately followed by a second heavy shower. This produced the rainbow which you can see at the top of the page. It was a brilliant affair and you could see all of the seven colours of the rainbow very clearly. I rushed upstairs with the camera but, as usual, by the time I had got organised, the most brilliant light had faded slightly. The camera doesn’t do justice to just how striking it was….
…but it does give you some idea.
After all this excitement, I settled down and put a second week of the E&L into the database.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
nice rainbow – if you look carefully you can see it’s a double rainbow (just above is another very dull copy) – not an entirley common thing to actually be able to see with the naked eye.
It was much clearer in real life. I shall have to up my rainbow photographing skills.
Splendid rainbow pictures even if not as good as the real thing. Mrs Tottlepedal’s flower garden is a wonder to behold. Sorry the golf didn’t go as well as you might have hoped.
Very colourful rainbow photographs – any pots of gold on the golf course?
That’ll be the day.
I’m going for a juvenile sparrow, too…
looks like a rather bedragled juvenile sparrow to me.. you can just see remains of yellow gape at side of the bill. there is alot of white on the wing, but this could be feathers out of place beacause of rain.. or maybe just the light.. about the right time for a juv sparrow to be around.
Thank you.