Today’s picture shows Guthrie considering something interesting that he and his walker came across today. They found a set of false teeth on this fence post but in the interests of decency that part of the picture has been censored. Maybe Guthrie was looking for the tooth fairy.
Mrs Tootlepedal was off to work again and I was looking for Dropscone who duly appeared on time and we cycled the 21 miles to Waterbeck and back, the back bit of the journey once again being into the teeth of a brisk easterly wind. The current dry spell has been gratefully received but a less biting wind to go with it would be more than welcome.
We felt that we had been working quite hard by the time we got back but since it was Friday, Dropscone had made some of his tasty treacle scones and we were soon in relaxed mood as we sipped our coffee. Dropscone has cycled over 600 miles on his new winter bike since he got it and is well pleased with his purchase.
After he left, I spent a little time of the phone discussing the relative benefits of Word and PowerPoint for presenting an invitation including a logo and a picture with my stepmother Pat and persuaded her that PowerPoint had a bit more flexibility to do what she wanted. She had never used it before but she soon e-mailed me the results which looked good. She doesn’t have a desk top publishing program and PowerPoint is a basic alternative.
When I had finished phoning and had had a shower, I was able to enjoy a walk in the garden in the sun which had arrived to brighten up the day.
Signs of spring are multiplying.
The snowdrops are really enjoying this spell of fine weather.
And as always there were plenty of little birds flying around.
I finished the last of my leek and potato soup for my lunch and then, while Mrs Tootlepedal waited for some B&B guests to arrive, I set off up the hill in the car to take some photographs. The light was lovely and it was a bit of a pity that I found that I had forgotten to put my camera in the car to take advantage of it. I drove back down the hill and on the way remembered that I had had a text asking me to go and top up the Moorland bird feeders so I collected my camera and went off to fill the feeders.
I hadn’t sat down long to watch the birds after filling the feeders before there was a lot of flapping and a bit of a crash. I looked round to see this sparrowhawk looking like, “What happened?” on a nearby branch.
It seemed to recover quite quickly and flew calmly off through the trees.
I was able to watch some buzzards displaying in spectacular style over the moor but sadly just too far away to get a good shot with the camera. Nothing else caught my eye, apart from a lady pheasant…
…so I packed up and went back up the hill to see if the light was still any good. Judge for yourselves. I was playing with some filters. The top one had a neutral density filter on and the bottom one was taken without it.
I went on over the hill and met Kenny Bell parked in a lay-by. I was just getting out to talk to him when George whizzed by on his expensive racing bike. It’s hard to go anywhere on a nice day without being passed by George on his bike. He is an enthusiast.
Kenny, who is a great wild life enthusiast, was watching a pair of merlins and he kindly let me look through his telescope to see them. Just for the record, I took a couple of pictures but my equipment wasn’t up to the task at all so you will have to take me on trust that they really were two merlins.
I had a 500mm lens, a tripod and a remote shutter release and it still wasn’t any good. I need a hide.
In the evening, Mike and Alison came and Mike and Mrs Tootlepedal enjoyed a glass of vintage cider while Alison and I enjoyed some Daniel, Purcell, Godfrey Finger and Benedetto Marcello of an even greater vintage.
Today’s flying chaffinch is a female for a change.
As they say in Norway, “He’s an awfie fella, thon Geordie! Him, wi’ his wheels tae!” Another fine post Tootle. Mony a feelin’ o’ hame. Slainte! 🙂
Cheers to you too. I am glad you enjoy the posts.
It’s nice to see the flowers, and the shot of the hawk is excellent. I think the filter helped on the landscape shot.
It was hard to say who was more surprised, the bird or me.
I think your stepmom chose wisely. Powerpoint is much more suited to graphics than Word, which is (after all) a word processing program.
I hardly ever use Word being a lover of all things free. Open Office is my program of choice.
Those frogs are a giggle!
They are doing what comes naturally.
I agree, the neutral density filter did improve an already good photo, and the hawk photo is excellent!
Nice try on the merlins, I trust you. Twice in the last month, I’ve seen people using a compact digital camera to take photos of birds by holding the camera to a telescope to get photos of birds in the distance, and it works. I have seen the photos that one of the people shot on their blog, and the photos are better than I can do with my 300 mm lens.
The chap who showed me the birds has an attachment to do this but he doesn’t use it as he finds it too fiddly.
Nice photos. I’d like to see one of the dog wearing the false teeth tho 😀
😀
I liked the result of the filter you used on your landscape.
Great photos here, even without the false teeth!
We try to keep standards up.
A good day for birds of prey. What a great close-up of the sparrowhawk!
Reading your previous post with the fountain of manure and then this one with the false teeth jostled loose a memory about my grandma who was a farmer. How I could have forgotten a story involving teeth and manure is beyond me.
It must be published. I await the full details.