Exultation

Today’s guest picture shows a Vulcan bomber, a relic of the cold war, flying over the Ayr air show.  It was taken by Bruce who kindly sent it to me.  We used to see these flying over our heads when we were very young, a visible manifestation of the possible end of the world.

It was a beautiful day again today with the added advantage of being reasonably cool.  I don’t take well to hot weather so getting sunny days at this time of year is perfect for me.

While Mrs Tootlepedal went off to sing with the church choir, I took my time in getting ready for a pedal.  I pumped up my tyres and added a little lubricant to the chain and finally admitted that I had no more excuses and set off for a gentle spin up the Wauchope road.

In spite of having had two days to recover, my legs were still feeling the effects of Thursday’s long ride and it took me quite some to get going properly but once into the swing of things I went along quite well.  I stopped to admire two roadside trees near Dunnabie.

A sign of encroaching autumn

Still green but with a slight hint of brown here and there.

Owing to my late start, I didn’t have a lot of time in hand so I did a twenty mile out and back, turning at Grange Quarry.

The transport of the enormous amount of rock quarried here is responsible for many of the bumps in our local roads.

I stopped again on the way home to admire a feast in a hedgerow on Callister.

It has been a sensational year for blackberries.  I sampled a few to give me energy for the final miles.

Sandy told me later in the day that he had taken advantage of the good weather to get out an do his longest ever cycle ride, a brisk 22 miles round the morning run the wrong way.  He was naturally very pleased.  I see by checking his on-line account that Dropscone was also out, though much earlier than me, so the roads were fairly fizzing with elderly cyclists today.

Once home, I had time for a coffee, a shower, a poppy of the day picture…

…a chase round the garden after a pair of butterflies which were reluctant to pose for me…

A peacock butterfly

And a red admiral butterfly

…before it was time to jump in the car and head south to Carlisle.

We were going to our Carlisle community  choir’s first practice of the new season and they had asked for us to go early so that we could have all the new music sorted out before the official starting time.  The members responded well to the request and we were able to start bang on time.

Our excellent musical director is back again for the new session and he set to work with a will.  He is going to try to get us to sing Exultate Justi in Domino by Ludovico Grossi da Viadana which will be quite a challenge for us as many of our members don’t read music well if at all and it is quite a complicated piece.  Home practice will be required.

By the time we got home, the light was beginning to fade and it was possible to take a picture of the splendid bed at the end of the drive without the pale colours of the nicotiana making the camera blink.

All of these flowers have been raised from seed by the gardener and are a tribute to her hard work.

I did have time during a busy day to peer put of the kitchen window as I passed through.  There was plenty of action to see.

A chaffinch gives a polite welcome to a friend

Ganging up

As a result I have a flying chaffinch of the day to round off the post.

Final Note: On a very sad note, we learned today that our old friend and fellow archivist Jean had passed away peacefully in our local hospital.  We will miss her a lot. 

Jean having a cup of tea with Mrs Tootlepedal in the garden earlier this year