Today’s picture is another of a really splendid set of Lake District pictures that my brother sent to me after his recent trip. This shows Buttermere village taken from a hill that he was coming down.
My longest excursion of the day was a walk up to the town to visit the exhibition of ‘art inspired by moorland’ at the gallery. It was worth a visit with some interesting ideas.
Otherwise it was a rather quiet day because every time that I thought of get the bike out, it either looked like rain or it actually was raining and after yesterday’s vigorous pedal, I wasn’t feeling that another outing was worth getting wet for.
This left me time to mow the grass round the greenhouse and the drying green between showers. I also spent a good deal of time preparing the entries for the Archive Group’s postcard competition. A member of the group felt that there weren’t enough recent views of the town on sale for visitors so he has put up prizes for some new designs. We have received 51 entries and I needed to organise these for anonymous viewing by our judges. Having had a quick look at the entries, I think that the judges shouldn’t have too much trouble in finding four good winners.
I also had time to pop in and out of the garden with camera in hand.
The Shirley poppies, for which Mrs Tootlepedal claims that she just threw the seed nonchalantly on the ground without any special preparation, have been doing us proud.
They are providing a good contrast to the Icelandic poppies which are still producing flowers after five months of productivity.
The opium poppies are well over but their seed heads are very pretty and the amount of seed that comes out of the convenient apertures in the head is fantastic.
These will get a good scattering themselves in the hope of more colour next year.
The rose and the fuchsia at the top of the front lawn looked pretty in pink in one of the sunny spells.
Behind them the Japanese anemone continues to shine.
There are marigolds in many beds and I am impressed by the great range of yellows that they provide, sometimes within the one flower head..
When it comes to out and out yellow though, the rudbeckia is the winner. …
…though Mrs Tootlepdal is rather grumpy about these as they have arrived to late for her colour scheme and are much taller than the seed packet promised. Different varieties will appear next year.
The final flower to catch my eye was a late blooming day lily.
Mrs Tootlepedal has a little bramble patch round the back of the house and it has produced a small but good looking crop which I have stewed with some raspberries and a bit of apple. I am looking forward to having a taste of the result when I have finished this post.
I watched the birds too. I have cut of a small branch from the plum tree so that I can get a better idea of who is visiting the peanuts.
The chaffinches got very excited when I announced that I was getting ready for the flying bird of the day picture.
I got some less frequent visitors too. Here is a starling and a great tit not seeing eye to eye.
The plum tree is often covered in chaffinches but the camera finds it hard to pick them out among the leaves. It found this one well enough.
Mrs Tootlepedal paid another visit to her manure mine as she needs a good load of muck to dig into the revamped border which she has been clearing. I am hoping for great things next year.
Meantime those cosmos which haven’t so far succumbed to the blight are looking very pretty. This is my favourite colour.
The bees agree with me.
The cooling of the weather recently hasn’t put them off and the garden is still full of bees and hoverflies.
In the evening, my flute pupil Luke arrived for his lesson and showed once again that he has been practising. His parents are making arrangements for him to see a proper flute teacher and if possible, when he goes next, I will see if she will let me go with him as I might learn quite a lot myself.
After tea, the deviser of the postcard competition came round and we got the event organised. This was a matter of some urgency as he is off to Australia via China quite soon.
There was a quite spectacular sky over Whita as the sun went down this evening.
I thought that I should put in another picture from the Benty show just because it has interest beyond photography. (It got a second prize in the B&W class.)
The picture looked more crisp and striking in print than it does on the screen.
I tried to catch the great tit for flying bird of the day but their wing beat is much faster than the chaffinch’s and the light wasn’t good enough for a really fast shutter speed….
…so a chaffinch, taken forty minutes later in the evening took the prize yet again.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
I’m envious that your wife can get her poppies to grow by just throwing out the seeds. I’ve been trying for 3 years to get poppies to grow from seeds and haven’t seen a single poppy yet . . . in my yard. Seems everyone else around me can get them to grow.
We have the same problem with rose hips. All around us are luscious looking hips while our roses resolutely remain unhipped.
I like your brother’s photo-the sky is amazing. Mrs.T knows how to build good soil so I think it’s what she is dropping the seeds on, rather than the act of dropping them that makes the difference. i like the bird in the plum tree and the sunset. I never would have thought of a shot of a bicycle wheel as an entry.
She certainly is always complaining that the soil is not good enough and is trying to improve it.
A prize winning bicycle photo! The very thought is pleasing.
It certainly pleased me to see that it had got a ticket.
You have the birds trained well. I’ve commented on the beautiful flowers before, but it must be wonderful to wake up each day to such beauty so close at hand.
It is. You are quite right.
Splendid B&W picture, a bicycle makes the perfect subject. Loved the walk round the garden and the perching bird was one of your best, a great blog.
Darling little plump chaffinch in a plum tree!
Lovely sunset, beautiful flowers, and another prizewinning picture – that thoughtful chaffinch in the plum tree is a winner.
I quite like the great tit with his madly flapping wings. The flowers are, as ever, lovely 🙂
Thank you.