Another day, another pedal, another tootle

Today’s guest picture is another of my brother’s pictures of Hardwick Hall.  It puts everything into perspective as they say.

Today’s weather had good points and bad points about it and they were both caused by the same thing.  It was raining when we woke and it had obviously been raining all night….

The daffodils hung their heads and cried.

…but the effect of the rain was that the persistent haze of the past few days had been washed away.   This wasn’t much help in the morning because it kept on raining but the afternoon was ideal for a cycle ride with the retired Mrs Tootlepedal.

Before that though, there was work to be done.

First there was the crossword to solve and then a fixture list for the forthcoming season had to be HTML formatted and sent up to Dropscone’s Borders Golf Association website.  This required unearthing a password which had died with my old file transfer program a few weeks ago.  Unlike many computer problems, this one turned out to be quite simple as the hosting company has an easily accessible and useful website.  Hooray.

Once the fixture list was done, I put a Gilbert and Sullivan song into my music program so that a fellow Langholm choir member could come round and practise a solo he is doing in our forthcoming concert.  He came round and he practised it.  It sounded good.

That took up the morning.

Somehow there was a moment to watch a siskin squabble too…

…and take a look at some flowers in the garden.

A promise of colour to come.

An unidentified little white flower outside the the kitchen window

Once again Mrs Tootlepedal, now that she has retired and has time on her hands, was keen on a short pedal after lunch so we went off to visit the new bridge at Westwater.  The rain had cleared the skies and the wind had dropped so we had a very nice outing physically and visually.

The wet roads and dramatic skies made for good viewing.

From the same spot but looking in the opposite direction.

The view from the bridge

On the way home

We met a cyclist on the way who said he had seen some lizards on a wall.  We stopped and looked but could find no lizards.  We saw a willow…

…and some colourful lichen….

…and had to be content with that.

When we got home, Mrs Tootlepedal did some gardening and I cycled another six miles just to keep to my daily schedule.  I stopped to admire Pool Corner as I went.

It was a real treat to cycle in light winds but it was only a temporary delight as the wind is forecast to get up again tomorrow.

I had another look at the garden flowers when I got back.

A cowslip which has come to join the primulas.

A viola which Mrs Tootlepedal has transplanted so that she can see it from the kitchen window.

We have been instructed in the newspapers today  by those who know better than us to eat more fruit and veg so I made myself a large plate of roasted vegetables for my tea.   To tell you the truth, I was going to make it anyway whatever anyone told me.

Then it was time to drive to Carlisle with Susan to play with our recorder group.  We had all six players in Jenny’s front room tonight and made a goodly noise as a result.

The flying bird of the day was a reliable chaffinch.