Today’s picture, sent to me by a proud granny, is a picture of yesterday’s great frog hunt.
There was no need to hunt today
After his week away refereeing infant golf prodigies, Dropscone was back for the morning run today. He had done a very hilly run in the strong winds yesterday so I am sure that like me he was grateful for perfect cycling conditions this morning. It was warm, the sun made a fleeting appearance and the wind was non existent so we had no excuse not to go well. We went well….and we had scones and coffee in the approved manner afterwards. It was a good start to the day.
I pottered about the garden after my shower and was distressed to see that one of our only two resident bees was wasting its time on some dicentra flowers…
…when it should have been busy in the vegetable garden. I got out my little brush and rushed about doing what I could among the apples and strawberries.
I noticed a new flower near the road.
The aquilegia which has self seeded and grown through the bench is looking very healthy. There are unauthorised aquilegias popping up all over the garden.
The number of birds visiting the feeder has dropped drastically with the onset of warmer weather with a distressing result. The clumsy eaters are still depositing many sunflower hearts on the ground beneath the feeder but there are no longer enough birds to eat them up and this has lead to an UNSIGHTLY MESS which has disturbed Mrs Tootlepedal’s characteristic equanimity. As a result, I was forbidden to refill the feeder until some serious cleaning up had been done.
A great tit helped out but had to take individual seeds up to a perch to attack them so it wasn’t very useful.
I had volunteered to fill the moorland feeders so while Mrs Tootlepedal cooked a soup for our lunch, I went up and combined filling feeders with a little woodpecker watching. It wasn’t hard to spot a woodpecker as four or five of them chased each other round the feeders.
At times, they were actually physically shoving each other off the feeders though it always happened to quickly for me to catch on camera. I was pleased to see a robin among the woodpeckers as I haven’t seen one in the garden for some time.
I got back just in time to enjoy the soup piping hot from the pan.
Mrs Tootlepedal and her mother went off after lunch to sample the delights of the Gretna Outlet Shopping Village. I restrained myself with difficulty from going with them and spent some useful time finishing off the Flute Band music. I have now finished my current list of tasks and will have to get back to doing the routine work for the Archive Group which I have been neglecting.
I had time before the shoppers returned to check on the garden colour…
… and mow the grass round the greenhouse. I am having to refrain from mowing the two main lawns while the treatment takes effect and the greenhouse grass is a second best but a little lawn care on a sunny day is essential for a man’s inner peace so it had to suffice.
Our nesting blackbirds’ first brood had failed and I was pleased to see the mother back on the nest for a second try.
I have hired another blackbird to help with picking the dead moss from the front lawn. She is a keen worker.
I was sitting in the garden enjoying the warmth of the afternoon sun when I noticed this homing pigeon taking a well earned rest on out roof.
The shoppers returned safely and after a cup of tea, it was time for me to get ready for my flute pupil’s weekly visit. He is making excellent progress at the moment and I hope to put a clip of his playing on the blog next week (if I remember).
After tea, instead of my usual Monday night trios, I had to go to an emergency committee meeting for our choir. Our musical director had arranged for a tenor soloist to be the star of the show but sadly he has been just diagnosed with a serious illness and is unable to sing at the moment. After some discussion about possible alternatives, we decided to cancel the concert. This is a bit disappointing as a lot of work had already gone into its organisation. We are going to send our sympathy to our guest artist. He is hoping to be able to come and see us at a later date.
The flying bird of the day is one of those flighty woodpeckers dashing off to collect more seed.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
Sorry to hear about your soloist, I wish him well.
Great woodpecker shots.
The flowers are beautiful, even the volunteer aquilegia growing through the bench.
They are more welcome than usual after the long cold spell before they arrived.
Loving your comment about the frogs “Kneedeep”! Love all your photos, especially the little robin.
Knee deep is about the depth of the pond so it was an appropriate phrase.
Beautiful frogs you got. Do they croak? And the picture with the timeworn wooden bench and the aquilegia would easily fit into any of those fancy Home & Garden-Magazines.
The don’t croak as a rule but they make a good bit of noise in the mating season.
Your birds seem more expressive than ours, the poor robin looks quite forlorn, the blackbird on the nest, very angry at having been disturbed.
I don’t think the blackbird was angry, just curious about who it was that was peering at her.
My garden is filled with unauthorised flowers, especially aquilegias and nigella. I’ve given up trying to tame them 🙂
Go with the flow.
Too right
Oh, you have a little bridge over your pond! Or by it. The frogs make me smile.
It’s a token bridge over one end of the little pond.
Wonderful garden flowers, such colour.
Tom, is the blackbird eating the dead moss or using it in nest building? Loved your garden color, too!
Actually, it was just pecking for worms. I allowed my imagination a flight of fancy there.
LOL!