Today’s picture from my brother Andrew’s recent visit to Singapore shows that they have an ‘Eye’ there. They seem to have sprung up everywhere.
We don’t have an eye in Langholn, just one or two swings in the play park but we do have sunshine at the moment and we are very grateful for it.
Once again the early sunshine brought a sharp frost with it and the temperature had only struggled up to 3° by lunchtime. Mrs Tootlepedal went off to work again to cover for a sick colleague and I am hoping that her earnings will be able to keep me in the style to which I have become accustomed. As it was too cold for cycling and I wanted to appear useful, I got out the ironing board and did my best with a couple of shirts and two pairs of trousers. I have long been of the view that if the people who designed clothes had to iron them themselves, in general clothes would less stylish but a lot easier to care for.
As the sun was not high enough to take useful shots through the kitchen window, I went off to put another week of the newspaper index onto the database and only after that did I sit down for a coffee and the crossword. After I had finished the coffee (but not the crossword) I retired upstairs to look out of a higher window.
I have waited a long time to catch a chaffinch flying off the plum tree and today I got two birds with one shot.
The chaffinches were flying in all directions in a very busy way.
And they weren’t standing on ceremony either. They were standing on each other.
I did a little more work and then took a turn round the garden before Mrs Tootlepedal returned for her lunch. I got two close ups.
Mrs Tootlepedal was working a full day today so after lunch, I got out the fairly speedy bike and set off to do the twenty eight miles which would bring my total for the month up to 400 miles. I did consider a hilly route but wisely settled for a second run round the relatively undemanding circuit which I had done with Dropscone on Monday. This time I took sandycam with me and stopped once or twice to take in the scenery.
It was spraying a fountain of muck which would have brought a tear to Mrs Tootlepedal’s eye.
The wind once again was behind me for the first fourteen miles and across and against for the second half of the trip but it was quite tolerable except that it made that part of the journey rather chilly in spite of the sunshine.
I made a second stop to catch a couple of decorative donkeys at Glenzier.
Once I had gone through Canonbie, I found myself on the banks of the Esk exactly opposite to the spot where Sandy and I took some photos yesterday.
I parked the bike on the Byreburn Bridge….
…and hummed a few bars of ‘I have looked at life from both sides now’ before pedalling on.
I had hoped to get to a spot at Irvine House, which I have photographed before, while the sun was still shining on it but the low winter sun beat me to it and had moved up the hill before I got there.
I looked the other way to catch some sunshine.
Behind the house on the hill you can see the first serious clouds that we have seen for a couple of days. At least they promise us a slightly warmer morning tomorrow.
I got home safely and had time to walk round the garden while the sun was still shining. I found another close up.
I think that this colour is my favourite among the crocuses.
No sooner had Mrs Tootlepedal returned from work and had her tea than she had to go out again for a rehearsal for the Sound of Music so we hardly spoke today. I too went out with Sandy and Jean to do some work at the Archive Centre. Sandy was in a very jovial mood because one of his photos had been highly commended in the competition at Selkirk. Considering that there were entries from six clubs, to come in the top five was a feather in his cap and he was tickled by it. I had not troubled the judges. Sandy has some very nice pictures from our jaunt yesterday on his blog. There are several pictures there which I wished that I had taken myself. As always, I live and learn.
Our visit to the Archive centre was made very unsatisfactory by a misbehaving computer which meant that we worked at a snail’s pace and it was fortunate that the Douglas had a very drinkable beer on tap to soothe our rage.
The flying bird of the day is a standard chaffinch flying in one direction.