There being no guest picture to hand today, I am putting in a picture of a guest instead. My Newcastle correspondent dropped in to see how I was doing. This was very nice of her. Sadly, I didn’t have the proper camera set up ready and had to make do with a trembly hand held Pocketcam which does not do her justice.
It was another grey and wet day so my morning walk was a dull circuit of the New Town under my brolly again, although I did liven things up by going round in the opposite direction to my last tour. This was so exciting that I had to sit down for quite some time when I got back in.
Since it was such a miserable day today, it was lucky that Mrs Tootlepedal had chosen to dig up up our Christmas tree from the garden while it was sunny yesterday.
It is sitting in the greenhouse today, getting ready to be brought in on Christmas Eve. Mrs Tootlepedal tells me that it has grown nine inches since it was planted out after Christmas last year. We are hoping that it will last us for many years to come as it has got on so well this year.
There was little chance of a scenic walk or even a scenic drive as the wet and windy weather was covering the whole of our part of the country so the bird feeder offered me the only chance of a photo.
Mostly the feeder was quite quiet on the morning…
….but after lunch there was a sudden inrush of goldfinches.
They poured in from all sides.
And went off as quickly as they had come.
I had just settled down to put a week of the newspaper index into the computer database when the doorbell rang and my Newcastle correspondent appeared. She had been given a moment’s peace while Granny and Grandpa took her two children to see our community pantomime and we were very pleased to catch up with her news. We were then joined by Mike Tinker so the afternoon passed in cheerful conversation indoors in contrast to the grey and miserable weather outside.
After Mike and Fiona had left, I completed the week of the newspaper index and then set out on another walk. I am supposed to do a little more each time I go out but I wasn’t looking forward to a second trudge through the drizzle. Fortunately, the rain relented and I was able to keep the brolly furled and step out in style.
Once again, my mobile phone tracked my footsteps and the sharp eyed will notice that when I came to the river I crossed it…
…and not only that, I crossed it back again. All this added another tenth of a mile to my distance and made me very happy.
An excellent meal prepared by Mrs Tootlepedal rounded off a very satisfactory shortest day of the year and we are now looking forward to spring with keen anticipation.
Another of those fleeting goldfinches is the rather impressionistic flying bird of the day.
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Well done for walking that little bit further, I enjoyed the map charting your progress. The activity on the bird feeder was good to watch too.
Of course your current weather doesn’t help you but you seem to be doing well according to the distances that you walk. Keep up the good work Tom! 🙂
I am trying to get out in spite of the rain. Ice will keep me in if it comes though.
That’s a cute little tree, perfect for a table top.
What program do you use for mapping your walks? I tried one called Map My Walk and I’m not happy with it. It doesn’t do what it claims it does or I’m doing something wrong. Still, it’s free so I guess that I shouldn’t complain.
I have used Map My Walk with a reasonable degree of satisfaction but only on a bicycle where the route automatically followed roads. I used a phone app called Strava for these short walks and it has behaved very well.
My parents used to do what you do and kept their Christmas tree planted in the garden, One year, while their backs were turned the tree shot up in height and the roots burrowed down to Australia and they couldn’t dig it up and didn’t have the heart to get rid of it. It now towers over my mother’s cottage and sucks all the moisture out of the flower bed! I am sure you and Mrs T will manage much better than my parents!
Luckily its home is at the far end of the garden but I don’t think Mrs Tootlepedal would be sentimental enough to leave a monster growing in her garden.
She is obviously a very sensible woman.
Now that the first day of winter has officially arrived, the days will begin getting longer again, so soon there’ll be more light for photography. At the rate that you’re going, you should be in fine form for when that time comes!
I hope to be able to leap up mountain crags.
I have been trying to think of a way of describing how your blog (and you of course) has inspired me in a consistent way but I didn’t want to resort to a cliche. By “inspired me” I don’t mean that I have now written a bestseller, or discovered a so-far undiscovered bird breed (although there is an unfamiliar parrot in the pear tree lately), but one of the many things I have learned from you is to appreciate the minutae of the bigness of every day. I hope this makes sense. Happy Christmas to you both, Mr and Mrs Tootlepedal, with love from Ants, Ming and Juliexxx
We send our greetings to you and Ants and the irrepressible Ming too. I know what you mean about getting joy from the small things in the big picture, especially when the big picture is not all that you would want it to be so I am very happy if I have helped you in any way. I hope for a picture of the strange parrot.
The parrot is proving elusive now but I will get a photo eventually – am determined!
I look forward to it.
I’m most relieved that you crossed the River Esk twice. I imagine that Mrs T was too.
She was mildly impressed.
So do you dig up and replant your tree for each Christmas?
This is only the second year but we hope to go on doing it for some years.
Cool! Never thought of that!
If that tree keeps growing at the same rate it may well be too big to dig up and bring in before too many years. Well done on the walking and river crossing.
It was very small when we bought it.
Great to hear your recuperation keeps going apace! Lol should it be apaces further. Cheers.
Apaces indeed. Thank you for the kind thought.
Wow! That’s a total sight for sore eyes! Great that you use the same tree every year. We don’t see goldfinches here particularly. A real treat.
It is a modest tree but we like it.