Nothing doing

Today’s picture is a postcard sized embroidery on the theme of Guam which Mrs Tootlepedal has sewn as part of the Embroiderers’ Guild contribution to next year’s London Olympics.

The weather continues in a miserable vein here.  It wasn’t too bad in the morning but as it was icy, I decided to wait until the thermometer crept up before going cycling.  Needless to say that as the thermometer went up, the rain came down.  It was that cold, persistent, sleety sort of rain which really discourages you so for yet another day, I mooched round the house doing nothing much. This is becoming a habit but everyone in the town is feeling the weather a bit as it seems as though we have only had a scrap of sunshine here and there since the beginning of August.  This may be a pardonable exaggeration but it is not far out.

In spite of repeated visits by the sparrowhawk over recent days, the birds were back in the garden today in force.  At one time, I was able to count well over 50 chaffinches on the ground under feeders and visiting the flat feeder.

There was a feeling of slight hysteria as though this might be the last day of free food.  The light wasn’t good so the pictures are not of the best quality but I have put them in just to try and capture the mood of feeder frenzy.

The greenfinches looked unflustered by this chaffinch

The goldfinches were highly flappable

The chaffinches more so

 

There was a good selection of birds about

A goldfinch just hanging on under pressure

 

This was a typical moment of bird whirl

There were quieter moments here and there.  I saw this blue tit early in the day before the bedlam had got going.

In spite of the fact that I know from the bird ringing that blue tits are little savages, I still think they look particularly neat and sweet on a feeder.

This brambling looks well. It was one of a pair of visitors.

From looking at bird sites, I think that this is a male but Dr Barlow will put me right if she reads this post.

Two chaffinches out for a drink

The drinking bowl had blown away in the recent strong winds but luckily it hadn’t gone too far and was undamaged.  We have a pond in the garden and running water in the dam at the back of the house so there are plenty of drinking spots for the birds and the bowl isn’t used very much.

There were several greenfinches around today.

The flat feeder was visited by a rook but it didn’t stop long enough to fill its crop and soon flew off.

I took all these pictures before the rain started in earnest and by the early afternoon, it was too dark even for my clever camera to get a decent picture.  Mrs Tootlepedal was so fed up that she went out and bought herself a pair of very reasonably priced trousers at Gretna.  She told me that she was not the only one choosing retail therapy and the whole place was absolutely hotching with bargain hunters.

In the evening, we were visited by Mike and Alison and Alison and I battered our way through three pieces on treble recorder and electric harpsichord (Andrew Parcham, William Topham and Anon).   I think the experience could best be characterised as punk baroque as both of us were a little short of our best.

After playing, the combined wit and wisdom of the conversation of the four of us left the world with many of its problems thoroughly sorted out…or so the couple of glasses of fizzy wine which we had drunk told us.

Here’s to another glimpse of the sun soon. Cheers. (I am raising a small glass of port which I was given by some kind person for my Christmas.)