Step one

Today’s guest picture, sent to me by my neighbour Liz, who has just been on holiday in Spain, shows a handsome monument carved from an eucalyptus tree that she saw there.  The ladder gives a clue as to its height.

I had time for breakfast and not much else before setting off to Dumfries Infirmary for the purpose of undergoing a pre knee operation check there.

I left myself with enough time to enable me to drive by back roads and stop off at the little Caerlaverock nature reserve by the banks of the Nith estuary on my way.  Although it was a sunny day, the upper slopes of Criffel were wreathed in cloud on the other side of the estuary.

I walked through an ancient wood on a well made new path….

Stopping every now and again to take pictures….

…of fungi….

….and more fungi

….and lichen….

…and some of the gorse which seems to be in flower all over the place at the moment.

I was headed for a little bird hide on the edge of the salt marshes but when I got there, an elderly couple, chatting cheerily away as they came along a path in the opposite direction, had cleared all the bird life away.  I didn’t have time to sit around and wait for peace to return so I looked across at Criffel again…

The clouds were thickening up as I walked along.

…and walked back through the woods….

…admiring the catkins as I went along….

…until I got back to the car and drove off to the hospital.

The pre knee op assessment went well.  I proved to be able to breathe, have a pulse, some blood and a regular heartbeat and to be able to remember my name and address.  We checked that they had the right leg (the left leg in this case) in their notes and I was sent on my way with a merry wave.  It was very reassuring to see how seriously they were taking the whole thing.

I am going back again tomorrow to see the occupational and physiotherapists at their joint school and to learn how to look after my new knee when I get it.   I hope that I might be able to find out when the operation is going to be while I am there.

In order to make the best of having to drive eighty miles for the visit, I stopped off at Gretna on my way home.  It was raining gently when I arrived but by the time that I had parked the car, it had stopped and turned into a pleasant evening.

My object was to see the celebrated starling murmuration but I was a bit early and had to admire a fine pylon instead.

The starlings like pylons too.

They were soon up in the air from trees where they were lurking…

…and flowing to and fro in characteristic fashion.

Other groups joined them from time to time and soon the sky was full of birds

It wasn’t one of the best displays that I have seen and numbers are still fairly low compared with a few years ago so there weren’t many opportunities to catch the spectacular waves that make them such a lure for amateur photographers.

I was getting a bit chilly so I cut my losses and headed for home before they went down to roost for the night.

Mrs Tootlepedal still hasn’t completely got over her cold but she was well enough and kind hearted enough to make a splendid corned beef hash for my tea.  Fortified by this, I went off to a choir practice for Langholm Sings, our local community choir.  The practice was better organised than usual and we had a useful time rehearsing pieces for two forthcoming concerts.

It is in the lap of the gods as to whether I will be available to sing any of the songs I am currently practising with both the Langholm and Carlisle choirs as it will depend on the date of my knee operation and my ability to recover from it in time.

In spite of the hundreds of starlings, the flying bird of the day is a traditional chaffinch shot before I left in the morning.

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