Today’s guest picture is another from my sister Mary’s recent walk through Regent’s Park. It is good place to walk through.
After a heavy night of rain, I was interested to see what the river would look like so on my way to the producers’ market in the Buccleuch Centre, I went up to check.
I met a chap who has a small weather centre in his garden and he told me that three inches of rain had fallen since Friday morning so it was no surprise to see plenty of water in the Esk. Things drain so quickly here though that the river had already begun to drop by the time I took the picture.
I made some judicious purchases of fish, meat, cheese, local honey and carrots at the market and then went to collect some coffee beans that I had ordered from a shop in the High Street. Yesterday’s visit to Matilda had been fun but strangely tiring so this small amount of activity was more than enough for the morning and I devoted myself to making and drinking coffee, doing the crossword and watching birds on the garden.
I was experimenting with using my macro lens with an extender on it to see if it could get me close enough to take decent pictures but the gloomy day made things hard. The extender gets me closer but stops me being able to use a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the wings.
I tried some perching birds.
When the garden had dried out a bit, I went to see if there were any flowers left.
Just before lunch, I went out again to see of there were any bees about but they had not appeared. One of our sedums is going over….
…and even the hardy clematis is starting to look a bit worse for wear.
I had another look at perching birds and enjoyed a severe looking young greenfinch and a chaffinch either singing its heart out or complaining about the rotten weather.
After lunch, the weather brightened up a lot and Mrs Tootlepedal and I resolved to shake the cobwebs out of our system and go for a little cycle ride. Some grey clouds had just passed and it was sunny as we set out. I stopped to visit my favourite cascade on the Wauchope and it was very different from my last visit a few days ago.
I took great care not to fall in.
Sadly, we had misjudged the weather and more black clouds rolled in from the north west and it started to rain. We thought better of getting thoroughly soaked and turned for home after only a couple of miles. Still, we were pleased to have got out even for a short while and it certainly perked me up a lot.
Annoyingly but inevitably, once we had got home and settled down, the weather soon improved and it turned into a sunny, if slightly chilly, afternoon.
I continued to try to catch flying birds with the macro lens with modest success.
As the sun got lower in the sky, the reds and pinks of the sedum, the nerine and the petunias under the feeders began to glow gently…
…but the bees were not tempted out.
The air in the garden was filled with a host of tiny flying insects and you can see them as little white dots surrounding this perching chaffinch.
It would have been a perfect evening for a flycatcher.
While I relaxed after a tasty plate of fish for my tea, Mrs Tootlepedal went out to sell raffle tickets at the Buccleuch Centre. This was a fund raising effort to provide a new and improved website for the Centre. This is a very worthwhile project as it should result in more tickets being sold outside the town, enabling the Centre to continue to provide us lucky locals with a good range of concerts.
The weather forecast is not looking too good in the near future but as I enjoyed a very good month of cycling in September, a few days of rest will do me no harm at all.
The flying bird of the day is a greenfinch taken in the gloomy morning conditions.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
Seems like you got a good amount of rain, yesterday it was our turn for rain too. We had a few hours of heavy rain and then the sun broke out. This morning was cold! 🙂
It’s time to look out the winter vests.
It rained all day here and I’m hoping that our river looks like yours tomorrow morning. I’ve discovered a new waterfall that I have high hopes for. I can see why the one in your photo is your favorite.
I hope your waterfall repays your visit.
Judging by the FBotD’s expression, she was not open to being snapped by the lurking paparazzi
True but that is the price to pay for coming to my feeders.
Two very grumpy looking greenfinches!
They made me laugh.
So what does your extender look like?
My doddery mind gave it the wrong title. It is a 2x aspherical AF-S teleconverter which fits between the camera body and the macro or zoom lens.
Ah, thanks.
Lovely to see the fuchsia still looking good as was the water gushing over the fall in the Wauchope.
I am beginning to ‘see’ life the way you do and I cannot thank you enough for this new view, even though I don’t quite understand it yet. I appreciate you.
I have been struggling to understand it myself so far but am hoping to work it out soon. I appreciate your interest and hope that I am not damaging your moral fibre too much.
That was a lot of rain you had! I loved the glowing afternoon flowers.
It was a lot of rain but luckily not at the same time as the strong wind.
Still a lot of colours to be seen in the garden, and I liked the glowing sedum. The Esk has certainly filled up.
Well, if you didn’t get much other exercise on this day, your shutter finger sure did, and with great photos!
🙂
Still a good amount of lovely color in your garden despite the autumn season and the weather. That delphinium is really a lovely shot. Loved your grumpy greenfinch, that face!! 😀 Beautiful waterfall, too.
It’s a waterfall I often go back to see.
There is still a lot in flower in your garden. Mine is looking the worse for wear after torrential rain. Our one day of sun and one of rain has turned I to wall to wall rain and flooded streets.
We have avoided the worst of the rain except for one day so far so we have been lucky.