At the end of the day

Today’s picture, sent by her mother,  shows Hannah, my friend Gavin’s granddaughter, with the biggest smile in Newcastle.  She is thinking of the tooth fairy.

It was a very reasonable day for cycling and I had an invitation from Dropscone to go out for a morning run but unfortunately I also had an invitation from the optician to go and try out my new glasses and that was the one that I had to accept.   Mrs Tootlepedal was also getting new glasses so we drove down to Longtown after breakfast.  I was very excited as I hoped that my new cool wrap round varifocal cycling specs would be there but it turned out that it was only the frames that had arrived.  These were fine but I will have to wait another two weeks for the lenses to arrive.

In the meantime, both Mrs Tootlepedal and I walked out with bright new day-to-day glasses, literally so in her case as she has some tasteful sparkly bits on the frames.

When we got back, Mrs Tootlepedal had to prepare the rooms for a B&B guest and I did what I am best at and kept out of the way.  As I want to make the best of the forecast good weather over the next few days, I did a lot more pro relaxing during the day though I did snap a few flowers here and there.

I like the curly organs on this campanula.  It also has added foam from some sort of bug in its heart.

An ornamental clover has added itself to the white flowers that are out.

The warmer weather and the lack of strong wind let the roses shine a bit more than they have been over the past few days.

A Jacobite rose, the second of two bushes in the garden to come into flower.

One of the water lilies in the pond has found a little space for itself.

Notice the little black flies on the rose and the lily.  They get everywhere.

I think that this eryngium can be said to be out at last.

I didn’t neglect the birds.

A siskin in characteristic pose.

A baby jackdaw passing through.

A parent and child of the sparrow family.

We tried opening up my ‘potatoes in a bag’ but the compost seemed very dry and the bag felt very light so we stopped and watered them well and left the grand opening for another day.  Getting the watering right is a problem as once the compost gets dry, it is hard to get it wet again without over watering the whole thing.  The same thing happened last year when we got very good looking stems and leaves but not many potatoes.  This may be the end of my experiments in this field.

After lunch, there was a fine selection of sport to watch as I continued my programme of heavy relaxation – cycling on ITV and tennis on the BBC.  Both provided excellent entertainment today and the Djokovic-Del Potro match had some of the best tennis that I have ever seen.

I did go out into the garden from time to time and mowed the front lawn, sieved a bucket of compost and trimmed another of the box balls. Mrs Tootlepedal was very busy  with weeding, clearing out and putting muck in as well as trimming another of the box balls.  We have done four now but there are many more still to do.

I had a camera in hand of course.

The first pink Martagon lily has arrived

The showy clematis is looking really zingy

A clematis close up

There are enough bees to go round almost every plant.

The tennis seemed to go on forever so I stopped resting and got the speedy(ish) bike out and went for a ride.  It was a lot warmer than it has been and the wind had dropped a lot so I was able to enjoy myself.  The two days of resting had also paid off and I felt well enough to average 15 mph for my 25 mile ride.  It is also probably true to say that my joints and breathing work better in the late afternoon than they do in the early morning.

I took the camera with me and stopped to take two panoramic shots of the road on each side of Callister.  Sadly, the camera has flattened out the hill quite a lot so my climbing looks easier than it was. (I have to admit that they are pretty easy climbs in the first place.)

My route  was well chosen and I was able to scoot down the hill for the last five and a half miles with the light wind behind me at an average of 23 mph which was a very satisfactory way to end a good short pedal.

I took a very unflattering picture of myself on the bridge at Paddockhole.  It shows that the Tootlepedal Diet® has some way to go before achieving its aim of a finely toned body.  I see that my Z-Vêtement jersey can still be purchased but only as a ‘retro’ piece of cycling kit.  It was worn by one of my cycling heroes, Robert Millar which was why I bought this one twenty years ago or so.

I hope my new glasses will make me look a bit cooler.

I didn’t stay out long enough to avoid watching Andy Murray play the last three sets of his Wimbledon semi-final but it turned out to be quite good viewing and we all wish him well in the final.  (I won’t be able to watch that.  I am planning a good long cycle ride instead.)

It was a very pleasant summer day today and all the more welcome after the dreadful weather of last year.

A flying chaffinch obliged.