Good sense prevails

Both my brother and my eldest sister have been on their travels again and have provided me with many pictures.  Today’s shows a fine sunset in Avoriaz in France where my brother went skiing.

We had yet another fine mid summer day in March today and it was enough to encourage me to say yes when Dropscone rang to ask if I was fit enough for a pedal round the morning run.  We set a target of being eight minutes slower than yesterday and nearly managed it, with the result that I felt a great deal better for the rest of today than I did yesterday and I was able to do Dropscone’s scones justice with our coffee.

After coffee, I went into the garden to have a look around.  There were tadpoles wriggling about in the pond…

…and daffodils simply bursting with colour.

One advantage of a town garden is that we can get the benefit of our neighbours’ plants as well as our own.

These are Florrie's flowers

Mrs Tootlepedal’s own flowers are coming on by the day.  Here are a couple of aubretias just getting going.

A flowering currant is on its way as well.

The birds were pretty scarce once again but we do seem to have a regular pair of greenfinches.

And two goldfinches but since I can’t tell if they are male or female, I don’t know whether they are an item or not.

I sieved another bucket of compost before lunch while Mrs Tootlepedal busied herself with tidying up the plants round our drying green.  (My task took me ten minutes, hers took her two hours.)

We are thinking of this season’s vegetables and since in previous years, a good crop of potatoes numerically has been spoiled by a lot of slug damage, I am going to try growing some in bags this year to see if that produces a good crop and keeps them slug free.  Thus after lunch we set off on a tour of garden centres with a potato bag in mind.

At the first one we visited, we bought an additional bit of composting kit. At the second,  Mrs Tootlepedal bought a perennial wallflower.  At the third, she bought a spirea and there we finally found some nice bags for growing potatoes in so we were both happy as we went home.  I know that it is possible to grow potatoes in an old dustbin or a black plastic bin bag but aesthetic considerations come into it and we thought the bags we bought will look good as well as being practical.

As the afternoon went on, the chaffinches arrived at the feeder outside the dining room window.  If I appeared at the window, they flew away.  We continued this amusing game for a while and then with great cunning, I drew the curtains and poked the camera through the gap in the middle.  This kept both the chaffinches and me happy.

A matched pair practising to be book ends.

The purpose of the visit demonstrated.

It even got busy for a moment or two.

I was interrupted by seeing a blackbird trying to become a chaffinch of the day.

Nice try

In the evening, We went to the new singing group again and enjoyed an excellent sing.  The chap who is taking it has a nice relaxed manner and unlike many people who take choirs, it doesn’t look as though he is going to shout at us.  He has got us singing in parts and considering I haven’t done any singing for thirty years, I am surprised at how well he has got us going.  I hope the group grows and thrives.

There was no substitute for a real chaffinch as chaffinch of the day.  I caught this one as the light began to fade.