Today’s guest picture was sent to me by my friend Bruce. On one of his walks with his dog, he noticed that the receptacle provided for the convenience of dog walkers has acquired a ‘genius loci’.
I woke up to a sunny morning and toyed with the idea of getting up into cycling clothes and rocketing off into the wide blue yonder. A number of factors were weighed in the balance, the brisk wind, the chilly temperature, business to be done and the state of my knee but in the end they were all trumped by utter idleness and I started the day at a quiet tempo which I maintained with grace throughout the day.
After breakfast I checked on the tadpole development situation.
It is, as they say, ongoing. It looks as though have survived some very chilly mornings.
To help Mrs Tootlepedal with her decorating, I put an undercoat on the skirting boards for the upstairs room. This is low grade work suitable for an amateur like me.
When Mrs Tootlepedal went off for a church choir practice, I combined doing my business in the town with a slow bicycle tour to Wauchope School and back for the grand total of seven miles. The business was nicely varied and included placing a small ad in the local paper for the next camera club meeting, buying and delivering a fan heater for the Archive Centre and paying my garage bill. As this was all within a hundred yards, it didn’t extend my cycle distance significantly.
The rest of the tour to Wauchope School was hard work in the wind and I was glad that I had not attempted anything more ambitious. I stopped to record the first wild roadside primrose of the year…
…and then idled back home with the wind behind me twice as fast as I had gone out but still didn’t get my average speed above 10mph.
When I got home, I had a walk round the garden to look for new shoots…
…and found some but had to put in one established flower to make up the numbers..
There were plenty of birds about today, brought in no doubt by the change from dry to wet weather.
The fat ball had other admirers. A jackdaw perched near by, checking out the options….
…before descending to the chimney…..
…and finally arriving at the ball and adopting a position very reminiscent of the late, great Jim Baxter tormenting the World Cup winners in 1967..
After lunch, a quick check on the forecast showed the possibility of heavy rain soon, so I nipped out for a walk round Gaskells. As usual, I was waylaid by lichen.
…and moss too…
…but I got back before the rain started.
The fat ball was still drawing in customers.
It was lashing down when Owen arrived to plaster the downstairs room…
…a task which he completed in short order. The sharp eyed may notice a patch of yellow on the lintel above the stove. The lintel is from the old fireplace and is full of soot. Mrs Tootlepedal is using a home made poultice based on bicarbonate of soda to draw the soot out with some success.
In the evening, my flute pupil Luke came. He will not get the results of his grade examination for some weeks yet but both he and his accompanist felt that he had played well enough to pass so I am keeping my fingers crossed for him. We have put the exam music to the side and have started on a Telemann trio sonata and some snappy fiddle dance tunes.
After tea, I went off to play trios with Isabel and Mike. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we played all the repeats that we came across except one. Often we are quite pleased just to have got to the end of a piece once.
There are weather warnings out for heavy rain and gales overnight and tomorrow. I hope we don’t find our nice new chimney blown into the gutter when we wake up.
The flying bird of the day is a traditional chaffinch.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
Nice and sharp photos! 🙂
Thank you HJ.
Hopefully the Archive Centre’s new fan heater will help steady its internet connection.
That would be nice.
I like the grape hyacinth. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed one in that stage of development.
Nice to see the fruiting dog lichen too. I still haven’t seen one fruiting here.
That particular one seems to thrive on its wall.
I enjoyed the Jackdaw sequence!
Some people don’t care for jackdaws but they are handsome birds.
They are troublesome birds I know, as we have them and rooks in our garden, but they are handsome, as you say.
Nice colourful images, Tom.
Thank you Mike.
Heavy rain and gales have crossed the Channel and arrived here this night. Hope your end wall will stand up this first test. It’s looking fine in this new crisp plaster. That I’m admiring your other photos as well goes without saying.
No leaks so far. We are cautiously jubilant.
A feast of good photographs, I particularly enjoyed the primrose and the chaffinch with a toehold on the perch, very clever.
That wall is looking super. Mrs T has taken on quite a project but the results will be well worth it.
She is a handy person with a paint brush.
Well done Mrs T with clever soot withdrawal measures.
Two nicely contrasted fatball/bird pictures.
I loved the primrose too. Takes me back to the pretty spring gardens when I lived in the UK.
There is no doubt that a home is never complete without ‘Bicarb’, I use it for all manner of things. However, Mrs Tootlepedal has to win the prize for the most imaginative use of it. I must add it to my list.
Should you have a sooty lintel, it is just the stuff.
Flowers, tadpoles, birds and lichen. What more could one want from a day? 🙂 Beautiful collection again!
A bit of warmth?
Ah yes, a bit of warmth would certainly improve your walk! 🙂
A bit of warmth improves almost everything.
I was interrupted this morning as I began to catch up on your posts and have just come home from work so I will catch up now. I have to say I am completely perplexed by the whole poultice/soot situation!
Mrs Tootlepdal’s home made poultice drew the residues of soot out of the old chimney lintel in a very satisfactory way.
Getting out is good even if only for a short while. I’m glad the tadpoles are surviving, although I’m so behind with my reading they’re probably frogs by now. I shall endeavour to catch up today.
🙂