More birthday porridge

I was sent today’s guest picture by my neighbour Bruce.  He tells me that it is a parrot plant and he is very impressed by its ability to avoid being killed by his plant care methods.

At Wauchope Cottage there was another birthday to celebrate as Mrs Tootlepedal tried in vain to catch me up.  She was greeted by a plate of the traditional birthday porridge.

In fact she was lavished with gifts as she also received a surprise pair of earrings.

Ideal for a soprano

After a little sit down to get over the excitement, we set off for a birthday ride.  It was very grey but the wind was light and the temperature had crept up to 5° so there was no danger of ice on the roads.

We went round a shortened 14 mile version of the morning run at a pace suitable for two seventy and a bit year olds on a chilly day.  The official photographer recorded the occasion

The birthday girl on a rare flat section….

…before turning a corner and puffing up a hill….

….and two minutes later up another expletive deleted hill.

Our route took us past one of my favourite small hills.

If it was in the south of England, there would be all sorts of druids cavorting around on top of it.  As it is, the Ordnance Survey put a trig point on its summit although it is a mere 154m above sea level.

The countryside is rapidly losing its colour as the cold spell continues but there are compensations.

I think it was Ron Hoover who complained in a post that he couldn’t see the point of photographing trees when their leaves have fallen off but I think there is a beauty in the very definition that it gives to them.

From the tree onwards it was all downhill to home and we were pleased to get there as the dampness in the air made the cold feel a good bit colder.

I had had a moment or two before the pedal to look out of the kitchen window but we are still waiting for our winter visitors to arrive.  In the meantime the goldfinches are continuing to be gratuitously disagreeable even when there are plenty of seats available at the table.

Sometimes the fact that a seat is missing doesn’t deter them.

I don’t know where the missing perch is but I suspect a jackdaw took it.

I read that blackbirds migrate more than people think and certainly the garden has filled up with them recently.

As the weather gets colder and food gets scarcer, I expect to see more sparrows like this one too.

Old age and the onset of some light rain persuaded Mrs Tootlepedal to devote the afternoon to a mixture of sewing and snoozing while I put a lot of hard work into doing absolutely nothing.

I should have gone to Carlisle to play recorders in the evening but a combination of shampooed carpets, illness and unavailability led to a call off so I rounded off the day by doing nothing in the evening too.   I wish that I could learn to lounge around without feeling a bit shifty about it.   I am hoping for a more productive day tomorrow.

It was such a grey day that catching good shots of flying birds was tricky.  It wasn’t that there weren’t any birds flying around…

…because they were lining up.  It was trying to get a good picture that was the problem.

I failed but here it is anyway.