No guest picture today I am afraid as no one has sent me one. Instead, here is an eye popping colour combination of peony and azalea.
The weather turned out to be a lot better than the forecast and we had a fine sunny day with warm temperatures and a gentle wind. It would have been ideal for cycling if I could have overcome my feeling that it was going to rain soon and actually gone out pedalling. As it was. I managed to find little things to do all day which kept me off the bike.
I had a bit of business to catch up on after breakfast and then the joys of mowing grass and turning compost took over. These day, each of these harmless activities is accompanied by a good deal of sitting down and recovering afterwards which I enjoy almost as much as the activity. By the afternoon, I had got the message that my body simply wasn’t interested in cycling today so I gave up pretending that I was just about to go out and spent any spare time wandering about the garden with camera in hand.
It was insect day. This little fellow got so excited by the Icelandic poppy that it fell over and lay on its back waggling its legs in the air. Not something that you often see.
The bees where everywhere during the day.
I thought that the broad bean flowers were so pretty that they deserved a picture to themselves.
A pale geranium was one of the few bee free flowers of the day.
It was a very nice day to be pottering about the garden and Mrs Tootlepedal made the most of it by being active in potting and planting and tidying and all those other things she has to do to keep the garden looking good.
The best time to look at a mown lawn is in the evening.
I gave the middle lawn a little boost and I will give this one some help too as it is looking rather paler than it should be. Another few warm days will help as well.
My flute pupil Luke came in the evening and gladdened my heart by playing very well as we got to grips with a well known bourée by Handel.
After tea, we had a real treat. We had had a phone call earlier on the day from a lady Sandy and I had met while out on a walk at the Hollows recently. I must have mentioned in passing while talking to her that Mrs Tootlepedal has a simple metal detector which she uses in our garden for fun. She told us that a friend of her son had dropped his wedding ring while helping with the lambing on their farm and they wondered if Mrs Tootlepedal could come and run the detector over the floor of the lambing shed to see if the ring was there.
Mrs Tootlepedal agreed with alacrity and I was very keen to come to as Craig had offered to let me look over his working water mill while Mrs Tootlepedal searched for gold.
When we got there, Mrs Tootlepedal set to work….
…while I went down to the mill.
The mill is used for cleaning and grading grain rather than milling flour. Unfortunately for me the water wheel is undershot and inside the building and as a result, it is very hard to get a good picture of the wheel at work. I took some pictures of the wheel at rest.
The present wheel is twenty years old and should last for another twenty years at least. There is a grand collection of gears, belts and miscellaneous machinery to look at in the mill.
Outside you can see the sluice that controls the flow into the wheelhouse, a grand commemorative plaque for the restored wheel and caul and yet another belt driven device.
The mill is set in a lovely spot…
I went back up to the lambing shed to see how Mrs Tootlepedal was getting on. I wasn’t the only interested spectator.
Sadly, although Mrs Tootlepedal’s machine gave some hopeful buzzes, none of them turned out to be a lost wedding ring.
Craig is very proud of the history of the mill where his family have been tenants since the nineteenth century but also has an eye to the future and has installed some solar PV cells on the roof of one of his large sheds and is working on adding some modern water powered machinery to his arsenal as well.
We had a very interesting time talking to him and will hope to visit again.
The non flying flower of the day is an anemone, hand painted by nature.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
Great bee photos you’ve go there!
Correction: Great bee photos you’ve GOT there!
They tend to hover nicely for the camera. I like them.
You do nice lawn work Tom! 🙂
It pays to have a good quality push mower.
That anemone is one of the most beautiful cultivated flowers I’ve seen in a while. Mrs. T sure knows how to pick them.
It isn’t often you get to see a working water mill these days. It must have been an interesting visit.
I’m happy to see all the bees. I hope they have plenty of offspring.
I thought that the anemone is wonderful and I am glad that you liked it too.
Some excellent bee shots and the garden looks lovely!
We happy to be playing host to a lot of bees this year after a poor year for them last year.
Along with the great flower and bee photos, I loved the tour of the old mill! They sure don’t make equipment like that any longer.
There used to be a mill at every turn round here but this is the only one still working.
All those bees and flowers were both interesting and beautiful to look at, what colours nature gets up to . Thoroughly enjoyed your tour round the mill, what splendid work that young man is doing.
Great mill shots,
You are very kind but I had hoped to be able to see more of the wheel at once.
A very interesting post, Tom. The images are excellent, too.
Thank you, Mike.
Such beautiful peonies and azaleas. Lovely mill photos too.
We are in a colourful time in the garden just now.
I loved the blue geranium – one of my favourite flowers. I love mills too. We visit them whenever we get the opportunity. This was a virtual visit I was pleased to take part in.
I hope to go back when the wheel is turning.
Beautiful geranium colour. Glad you had an opportunity to see the mill.
Fascinating photos of the mill and gears; enjoyed reading about it as well. Glad to read the owner’s solar plan. Smart! Of course, I thoroughly enjoyed the bees, and colorful garden. Too bad about the ring. Mrs T should come along the beach here with her metal detector- I’ll bet she’d strike it rich! ~SueBee
She dreams of antiquities rather than wealth. She would love to find a Roman coin.
The mill was interesting and good to know it’s still being used when many are just for decoration these days. What a shame the wedding ring didn’t turn up though.
Mrs Tootlepedal’s metal detector is of the ‘hobby’ variety and perhaps a more expensive piece of kit was needed. They are not entirely sure where the ring was dropped though so perhaps she would have found it if it was there.
Glad to see so many bees in your garden – we hear a lot here in the U.S. about the bees dying off, endangering pollination. That mill looks very interesting! The anemone is gorgeous!
There is a similar crisis here with the honey bees which have suffered severe colony collapse.