Hope and disappointment

Today’s guest picture sent from Edinburgh shows Matilda in an elated state, having found something to good to watch on the telly at last.

After a chilly night, we enjoyed a sunny day for once.  I couldn’t make the best of it though, as I had to go to Carlisle again to try to get my mobile phone re-fixed.

I went with Mrs Tootlepedal and the outing served as a small celebration for our 47th wedding anniversary.  I paused on my way from the car park to the phone shop to enjoy a little Carlisle architecture.

You can see that it was a beautiful day but it was still pretty chilly if you stepped into a shadow.

The visit to the phone shop went like a dream.  The phone was inspected, tinkered with and returned to me in working order at no cost.
An hour later on the way it was a nightmare.  The phone had frozen again.  The shop is going to get a new screen and fit it and if that doesn’t work, they are going to suck their teeth, shake their heads and say, “It’s the phone.  You’ve bust it.” I shall be sad.

We rounded off our visit to the big city with a coffee and a toastie in a new coffee house on the city walls.

On our way home, we stopped at a builder’s yard who also deal in solid fuel stoves.  We weren’t sure if it was open on a Saturday afternoon but an old gentleman came out of a side door and we asked him if he was open.

“Could be, ” he said and took us in and showed his range of stoves.  He wasn’t really open at all and did it out of kindness.

Our next stop was at the bike shop in Longtown to check on the speedy bike.  It should be well fettled up by the time that I am ready to start riding it again, which will be in three to four weeks I hope.  I shall use the slow bike first.

We had one more stop on our way back to Langholm when we paid a visit to the Moorland bird feeders at Broomholmshiels.  There, a team of dedicated volunteers are putting up a substantial hide so that elderly bird watchers can rest in comfort while watching the woodpeckers and co.

It was chilly work in an unforgiving wind.

They had had a hard morning digging post holes into frozen ground filled with old masonry but had made good progress.

I took a bird’s eye view too.

The section that they are working on is one third of the finished hide.  It will be welcomed by bird watchers.

When we got home, I decided to shake the car stiffness out of my legs with a short walk.  The light was fading so it was not ideal for Pocketcam, especially as most of the walk was tree lined.

In spite of the lack of rain recently, there has been no drying weather and things are pretty moist.

Fungus on a mossy tree stump

Something had been enjoying a meal on the fungus.

I walked along the riverside path which we feared was going to be closed because of frequent small mud slides.  The council have cleared the most recent though and it was very passable.

A dead branch beside the track as I left the river and climbed up the hill was well covered with fungus…

…in varying colours.

From the top of the banking, I could look out over the town and enjoy the views.  A bit of warmth yesterday had got rid of every vestige of snow.

I didn’t hang about for too long as it was chilly and my knee was feeling that it had been stretched enough but I couldn’t go past the Park wall without one shot of nature as an artist.

I have seen many duller pictures than that in an art gallery.

I gave my phone a few more hopeful pokes when I got back but it remain stubbornly unresponsive.

Although I hadn’t been able to wander around taking pictures when the day was at its best, I had been able to catch a bird or two at the feeder before we left for Carlisle in the morning.

The better weather had brought the flying chaffinches

This one looked a bit agonised as it approached the feeder.

And I was very pleased to see a lesser redpoll again.

You can see how it got its name.

The redpolls really like niger seeds which are very small.  They find the sunflower hearts a bit of a mouthful.

Still, there is always a good gang of chaffinches, blackbirds and dunnocks tidying up under the feeder.

I am coming up to eight weeks since my knee operation and in general it is now pain free, unless I walk a bit too far.  Considering just how sore it was to start with, this is remarkable and very welcome.  I still have a lot of work to do on bending and straightening it but in normal use, I don’t have to think about it at all.  Now if I could just fix my back…..

The flying bird of the day is a very aerodynamic goldfinch.