Deflated

Today’s guest picture comes from Mrs Tootlepedal who was visiting the world’s greatest baby in Edinburgh.  Matilda is puzzling out the convoluted constitutional matters that have arisen since the referendum.

It was a breezy morning so I suggested to Dropscone, when he arrived after breakfast, that we should go round the more sheltered traditional morning run rather than expose ourselves to the wind on the top of Callister.  He prefers the traditional circuit anyway so he readily agreed and off we went.   The sheltered route was proving very satisfactory but our hopes of a good time were severely deflated when Dropscone got a puncture just at the point when we were farthest from home.

The downside of the sheltering hedges is of course the possibility of thorns on the road when the hedges are trimmed in the autumn and a thorn was the suspect here.  Dropscone doesn’t carry a spare tube and he didn’t fancy trying my aerosol puncture repair gizmo. On top of that, the MTRS was unavailable as she was on her way to Carlisle to catch a train so we were a bit at a loss.  Fortunately, a helpful man in a van was delivering feed to nearby farms and he also delivered Dropscone and his bike to the main road where Dropscone hitched a lift back to Langholm from the second car that came along.

All’s well that end’s well and we were able to enjoy coffee and treacle scones only half an hour later than scheduled after Dropscone had retrieved his bicycle..  He is now buying some even stronger tyres.

While we were sipping our coffee, I noticed an unusual bird at the peanut feeder.

It was a tree sparrow, a very infrequent visitor to the garden.  A moment later, I noticed another one perched on top of the feeder pole.

I have no idea if this was a male and female pair or a parent and child or perhaps just two sparrow friends on an outing.  They didn’t stay long and left just before Dropscone.

The sparrow was joined by a robin….

…and they made a change from the usual diet of chaffinches.

I took a walk round the garden where the sun was out which was nice but the brisk wind made photographing flowers rather tricky.  I had to look in sheltered places.

The Wren has come out to join the Ginger Syllabub in a late flowering.

Mrs Tootlepedal’s ornamental grass taking its cue from me and going to seed.

A very late delphinium

I had the macro lens with me and the difficulties of using it when things are swaying about is shown by this double take of an insect on a flower.  In the first I got the flower but not the insect and in the second, I got the insect but not the flower.

I love the macro lens.  Who knew that there were so many fascinating creatures in the garden?

I gazed longingly at a fine looking plum, the last of the season which was tantalisingly out of reach on the top of the tree.

In the afternoon, I went to the Tourist Information Point for the final time of the season.  I wasn’t expecting any visitors but I had two.  The first was Sandy who was on his way to do some shopping and which was a pleasure but didn’t really count but the second was a genuine tourist, a fisherman and bird watcher who was happy to help me pass the time by chatting about birds he had seen.

I took the opportunity to pop down to the river and do a little gull watching…

…but there was no sign of Mr Grumpy.

It was such a lovely afternoon that when I had locked up, I went for a little cycle ride up to Mrs Tootlepedal’s manure mine.  On the way, I parked the bike and scrambled down the bank to have a look at my favourite cascade on the Wauchope.  This was what it was like when I looked at it in January.

This was what it was like today.

You can see that it has been a very dry spell.  The low water gave me the chance to look at some very folded rock just below the cascade.

I like these sort of formations as they give me a view of the great forces which have shaped the land that looks so peaceful as I cycle through it.

A few hundred yards further upstream

I stopped at the manure mine, parked the bike again and went for a short walk.  There was some dull fungus to be seen both in the wood and in the field….

…and it has been a good year for fruit of all sorts…

…but the best thing was the wood itself which was very pretty in the evening sunshine.

Even leaving the wood was a visual treat.

On my way home, I stopped to take a close up of a striking green lichen which appears on just one section of wall.

Taken with Pocketcam

When I got home, there was just enough light left to take the obligatory bee of the day picture…

…on the irresistible sedum before it was time to make tea, sort my pictures out for tomorrow’s show and make some semolina to welcome Mrs Tootlepedal home after her day of Matilda visiting.  In fact, she was rather late as her train was held up but the semolina was all the more welcome because of that.

As this was the last tourist information day of the season, I am hoping that I will be able to visit Matilda next week.

One of the Kilngreen black headed gulls is flying bird of the day.  It is not a very sharp picture but I thought it showed very well what a beautiful day it was this afternoon.