Today’s guest picture shows William and Sara, who are being looked after by their grandparents Mike and Alison, enjoying a visit to Hermitage Castle. It was almost as much fun as frog hunting.
As I spent most of it sitting down, working hard at some serious resting in an effort to chase away the hip pain, I have to little to show for the day.
I did get out into the garden in the morning to admire the show of Shirley poppies in Mrs Tootlepdedal’s new bed…
…and to give the recalcitrant yellow crocosmias a good talking too. They remain stubbornly just on the verge of coming out.
The striking new lily has no such reluctance. I took its picture once in the morning…
…and once later in the afternoon.
I had another garden visit in the middle of the day when I enjoyed the sight of the first blush of red on one of our tomatoes in the greenhouse.
We are very excited.
The hostas have flowered profusely this year,
I usually think that hosta flowers are rather dull but they have been impressive this summer.
In the afternoon, I went down to The Studio, a new space for sports and social activities that has been opened recently in an old mill building. We are hoping to restart the local camera club in the winter months and this place looks as though it will do very well for our meetings. Because my slow bike is still at the bike shop while they service the hub gears, I had to drive down and so I combined the visit with a little shopping. This constituted my entertainment for the day.
When I got back, I admired the fine crop of berries on the Tropaeolum or perennial nasturtium…
…and the lively colour of the orange crocosmia on a grey day.
As she thought that it had got too big, Attila the gardener had chopped one of our box balls down to within a few inches of the ground some time ago and it is very satisfactory to see that it has survived this rough treatment and is growing back well.
I resisted the siren call of the lawns for a mow and went back inside. Then after a sit down, I went off to the health centre to get a routine injection. I managed to walk this short journey without too much difficulty at all so the day of sitting down may have been of some use. I hope so because it is very boring doing nothing.
I did nothing for the rest of the day. I am hoping for a bit more action tomorrow.
A chaffinch flew past on one of the few occasions that I was looking out of the kitchen window and was the best that I could do for flying bird of the day.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
Very nice pictures Tom, take a little break for your hip’s sake and do just light work. I know it’s boring but sometimes you have to give the body a chance to recover completely 🙂
The hedge is one of the best trimmed hedges that I’ve seen. I don’t know much about the perennial nasturtium but the berries are beautiful. I’m going to have to look into it.
The lily is gorgeous. I agree that the first blush of red on the tomatoes is thrilling 🙂
We are hoping that eating them will be even more thrilling.
I agree with what the others have already said, take it easy on your hip, the lily and nasturtium berries are beautiful, and I hope you’re feeling better tomorrow.
I think that the hip is going to be a long drawn out moan.
So sorry that your hip is taking so long to recover,follow Avian’s advice if you can. The colours today of the berries and that crocosmia were splendid. The tomatoes coming on like that must be very exciting.
The Shirley poppies seem to be doing very well. Do hope the hip settles down after your fairly restful (for you) day!
Hopefully the shot will do the trick and you’ll be feeling much more chipper tomorrow! That lily is so gorgeous and the close-up of the stamen (?) is a real piece of art.
Sadly the shot doesn’t relate to the hip so I can’t expect any help from it.
No such luck. I have had them in various other parts of my anatomy over the years with good results.
I am so glad you included another photo of those beautiful berries and so sorry your hip is taking too long to get better. Lounging about and doing nothing is fine when we are well and there is nothing pressing that needs doing but it is so frustrating when there is plenty to do and we daren’t do it.
That is very true.
I’m still waiting for some colour on my tomatoes, can’t wait to start eating them 🙂
We are trying to make sure that they are really ripe before picking them.