Close up and personal

Today’s picture shows the returning Mrs Tootlepedal with the added bonus of daughter Annie in tow.  I am afraid that they did not take the injunction to pose nicely for the blog very seriously.  The large case contains two friends who were travelling cheaply.

Apart from the arrival home in the evening of Mrs Tootlepedal, today was a much better day than yesterday in many ways.  It started with a very nice pedal out to Paddockhole with Dropscone in the morning sunshine.   This was followed by the now traditional Friday treacle scones.  It was bright enough to take some bird pictures.

I have had to put the fortress back on to stop the jackdaws eating me out of house and home.

A punk chaffinch

The birds were enjoying the better weather too.

I was just wondering  how the day could get any better when  Gavin arrived to say that the Co-op had doubled booked the good causes and I wouldn’t be required to sit in the draughty lobby selling raffle tickets for two hours.  I was devastated.

As well as the normal feeders, the birds are getting used to the new feeder with the concealed camera.  I haven’t connected the camera again after the first brief trial as I am still waiting for the birds to feel confident about using it.

I had offered to fill the moorland feeders as Cat was away at a conference so, after a shower, I bought two filled rolls from the corner shop and headed up there, ready for a long session of bird watching.  Sadly by the time I had finished filling the feeders, it had clouded over and a few drops of rain were falling.  I didn’t want to put the camera on a tripod out in the rain so I sat behind the screen for a while with the camera in my hand.  In keeping with the general goodness of the day, a woodpecker turned up on a feeder very near the screen.

It knew I was there and lurked about on the far side of the peanuts.

There were plenty of birds about as usual.

This is why we are selling raffle tickets. They need a lot of feeding.

I couldn’t resist yet another pheasant shot.

I hadn’t been sitting for long before it started to rain in earnest so I packed up and headed home.  By the time I had got back, the weather had brightened up again so I put the camera on the tripod and set it up in the drive.

You can see the receiver on top of the camera

It certainly gave me one or two good clean results.

I will be doing this again if we get another sunny day.

It looked a bit threatening so I brought the camera in and settled down to transcribe a madrigal by Wilbye for the recorder group.  This is a time consuming business  and before I knew it, it was time for a late tea and off to Carlisle to pick up Mrs Tootlepedal and Annie.  I had to clear ice off the car windscreen before I left so I expect we will have a cold morning tomorrow.

Apart from our daughter, there was another bonus in Mrs Tootlepedal’s return in that I got a belated birthday present.

a biscuit to go with tea or coffee, nett weight 6.25g

I am very fond of these, which is lucky….

These should last a week or two.    Happy days.

And of course there is a flying bird  (caught in a sunless moment).