Home again

Today’s picture shows Mrs Tootlepedal’s mother having a little walk with her great grandson, Owen.

There was work to be done today with no time for cycling.  I went up to the Archive Centre to complete the printing out job for my correspondent which I had begun yesterday.  Also at the Centre was Nancy, one of the team of data miners who produce the data for the website.  Here she is in front of one of our microfiche readers.

I posted off the pages and went back home to do a batch of shredding which I had promised to do while Mrs Tootlepedal was away.

It was not a huge pile

I took a photo of a goldfinch because I liked the rather ghostly reflection behind it.  It looks like a male goldfinch to me by the way.

My next task was to water the gerbera.  I have managed not to kill it in Mrs Tootlepedal’s absence and I am very proud.

I also took a picture to record the ongoing work on the roof in her absence.

I can’t make any sense of it myself but the builders and the architect seem happy so I hope it is all right.

Then I made a welcome home loaf of bread and had my lunch.  After lunch it was my plan to kill two birds with one stone (inappropriate image of the year) and see a woodpecker on my way to pick up Mrs Tootlepedal.  I went up to the feeding station but it was blowing a gale and birds were rather scarce. especially woodpeckers.

There were some rather indistinct flocks of little birds battling against the wind (possibly chaffinches)

A blue and a great tit anchor themselves to a swinging feeder

Two greenfinches, a chaffinch and a tree sparrow

A female pheasant picking up fallen seeds

I waited forty minutes for a woodpecker in vain but then I had to go on to Carlisle.  I got there in time to do a bit of shopping and took this shot of Carlisle’s iconic old mill chimney, known as Dixon’s Lum, outside Lidl.

Mrs Tootlepedal was on time to the minute and I was more than pleased to see her as she bustled off the train.

She is the blur on the right (art photography!)

My flute pupil Luke came in the evening and once more showed what could be achieved by diligent practice.

After tea, I was just getting ready to sink into post prandial torpor when a phone call reminded me that I had promised to go to the AGM of the Langholm Initiative so I trotted off to the Buccleuch Centre to do my bit.  It was not the most exciting hour I have ever spent but I give great credit to the hard work put in  by the directors and staff of the Initiative in their efforts to benefit the town.

It’s grand to have Mrs Tootlepedal home and she has already started to clear up some of the terrible mess that I have let the house sink into during her absence.  She made me a nice cup of hot chocolate too.

As an aside, I notice that Sandy has produced a new edition for his blog.