Wide blue yonder

Today’s picture is from my recorder playing friend Sue’s holiday on a  Greek island.  Looks quite nice there.

It was almost as sunny there as it was in Langholm this morning and I had taken several photos before Dropscone and I set out for the customary pedal.

A frog was already sunbathing.

I like the paradoxically white pinks.  You can see the simple pattern of the developing flower in the bottom left of the picture below and the incredibly complex result of maturity at centre stage.

The blue Himalayan poppy looked happy to be here.

To go with my white birthday peony, Mrs Tootlepedal has been nurturing this gorgeous beast as well.

It is protected from the gales by a shield of plastic bottles.

I stooped snapping when Dropscone arrived and we set off towards Callister.   I felt so perky that I was almost tempted to go past the five mile mark but a nagging twinge in my knee persuaded me to draw on some of my limited stock of good sense and I turned for home as Dropscone pedalled off into the wide blue yonder.

On my way home I stopped to take a picture of a bull guarding his harem….

…and an example of one of the many wild flowers that flank the road.

As well as Dropscone, a collared dove was a visitor today and I took a picture of it in the morning and another of it, or a look alike, in the afternoon.  It likes to see what is going on around it.

It was still sunny after coffee and scones and it gave me the opportunity to capture a flying siskin pretty well.

I had to go to Carlisle for my weekly dose of hydrotherapy and that was the last moment for sunny snapping because by the time that I got back to Langholm, the day had clouded over.  I did some work printing out leaflets for the Tourist Information Point and taking them up to the town and then went home for a cup of tea and a sit down.  I was able to note that the sparrows were keeping up with the siskins in the matter of aggressive footwork.

It had started to rain lightly by this time but it was on and off and in one of the off moments, I went outside.

A honeysuckle is making a large floral arch over the path from the vegetable garden.

A clematis flower is the first of many, I hope, in the back border.

Then it started to rain gently so I went back in and stared out of the window.  There was a lot to see.

A chaffinch on a spirea

A better organised pigeon.

I wasn’t expecting to see a redpoll at this time of year.

It posed in the plum tree for my sister Susan’s benefit.

Two birds in the gentle rain.

A sparrow sheltering in the tree.

A starling wondering wistfully where the sun had gone to.

Mrs Tootlepedal had had a busy day planting the magnolia which she bought yesterday, getting her hair cut and going to work but as soon as she got back she to work in the garden again.  I was so tired watching her that I had to go in and rest.

In the evening, I was driven to Carlisle by Susan to go and play with the recorder group.  We had a really enjoyable night of playing, with every piece that we got out meeting the approval of the group with the possible exception of one called ‘Cuckoo’ by Nicholson.  Sue feels that if you want to hear cuckoos, then you should go and stand in a wood, not listen to recorders making a poor imitation of one.  The rest of us feel that she is being a little picky here.  There were good home made biscuits of a sympathetic texture to round the evening off.

Today’s flying bird is not the best picture of the day but it is the only one of a flying redpoll that I can remember taking for ages so it got in.  It was squawking nineteen to the dozen which is why its beak is blurred.