Dancing beak to beak

Today’s picture shows a nice pot of violas which were given to Mrs Tootlepedal as a gesture of gratitude for her work on the costumes for the recent musical.  They have proved a lasting gift.

The day of rest must have done me some good because when Dropscone appeared, I was not only up but also dressed and raring to go.  The forecast had promised wind and rain but we only got the wind and it stayed dry.  Even the wind co-operated, being fairly reasonable when we were heading down into it and only turning angry when it became a cross wind on our way back.  Even then it was mostly behind and across and it gave us three great final miles gently downhill vigorously pushing us along from straight behind.

At this stage, things became confused as Dropscone had brought treacle scones with him and this should only happen on a Friday by tradition.  However, we stayed calm and managed to eat them with our coffee without incident.  They were very tasty.  As he also gave me gift of a bike chain cleaning set, I was a happy bunny.

By the time Dropscone and gone and I had had my shower, a light rain had begun to fall and I gave up any idea of going for walk and subsided into well rehearsed idleness.

Once again, the birds set me a fine example of industriousness which I failed to follow but enjoyed watching.

I didn’t take my first picture until the early afternoon by which time this redpoll had got a bit damp.

This redpoll seemed to be a bit drier.

A goldfinch and a chaffinch exchanged views.

In fact everyone seemed to be going beak to beak.

I was pleased to see that our bramblings haven’t entirely left home yet though most of them seem to have moved on.

And I was equally pleased to to see a blackcap again.

Looking at life, or at least fat balls, from both sides now.

In general, the action was very much as usual…

…so I went away and found other ways of doing nothing much.

Mrs Tootlepedal was busy getting things organised before we go away later this week and in her tidying up she found some old bird seed and scattered it on the lawn.  It drew a crowd…

…both big and small.

She is in a bit of a quandary on the planting out front as she needs to put things that she has started off (potatoes, beans etc) into the garden but frost is forecast while we are away.  If she doesn’t put them in, she will have to find a volunteer to water them while we are off.  Tricky.

I emerged from doing nothing to find two goldfinches playing ‘I’m the king of the castle’ in the plum tree.

It was still raining.

There were goldfinches everywhere.

That one was kicking a siskin while another siskin watched with interest.  It was hoping that they would both fall off and it would get the perch.

Rather too late in the day, the sun came out and I ventured into the garden to see if anything had come out.

A flowering currant has nearly come out

And a lamium has managed it

We are hoping that the tulips will be gloriously out by next week when we get back home again.

The evening was musical.  First my flute pupil Luke arrived and we worked hard at a baroque duet.  He can play it quite well but he finds it hard to have enough stamina to keep going.  Playing the flute requires an enormous amount of puff for a young fellow.   He is  a hard worker though and I expect that we will have it cracked before too long.

After my tea, I took myself off to play trios with Mike and Isabel.  Mike turns out to be able to play the violin as well as the cello so we played pieces by Boismortier and Paisible on flute and violin before playing Loeillet and Telemann on recorder and cello, both with Isabel at the piano.  It’s a lot of fun to listen to great musicians playing great music but it’s just as much fun to play good music as well as you can yourself with friends.

So, another day with a tootle and a pedal.  Life is good. And I made bread.

The flying bird of the day is a siskin.  It s hard to catch them with their wings more or less in focus so this one gets in even though there are distractions.