Today’s guest picture comes from my Somerset correspondent, Venetia and shows a striking scarlet tiger moth which visited her garden recently.
Just lately it has been obligingly raining lightly during the night and stopping during the day. This was the pattern again today and we had another grey but dry day until a little sunshine broke out in the evening. It was briskly windy though and not really a day for cycling. This was lucky as I had plenty to do.
I started off by putting a week of the newspaper index into the database. I have once again let quite a backlog build up and I need to take my duties seriously. When I was finished, I went for stroll round the garden. There was evidence of the overnight rain…
…but it was dry enough to walk round and enjoy the flowers. There are some nice bits of colour near the pond.
As well as colour, we have black and white.
I just had time to shoot a couple of sitting pairs of visitors…
…before setting off to Hawick in the car with Mrs Tootlepedal. The chief purpose of the trip was to take some small trophies from last autumn’s flower show photo competitions up to be engraved but we made the journey more fun with a pub lunch and some judicious shopping while we were there.
There can’t be many do-it-yourself retail sheds with better views from the car park than the one in Hawick.
The weather was better in Hawick than it was in Langholm and it was still grey and dull when we got home. I settled down and put another week of the newspaper into the database while Mrs Tootlepedal did mysterious things in the greenhouse and garden.
It was four o’clock by the time that I had finished but the weather looked fair enough to allow us to go for a walk so we put on suitable footwear and set off to visit the Target Burn.
This walk is described on the Langholm Walks website as being on road, tracks and open hill. (Boots advised). We cut a corner on the return part of the walk so it was a bit less than the four miles advertised but it is still a strenuous walk in places.
The Target Burn is so called because its little valley housed the targets that were used by the local rifle volunteers for their shooting competitions in times gone by. The remains of the targets are still to be seen but the burn itself was running very low today as we crossed it.
The walk is well signposted and the tracks through the woods are in good condition so it wasn’t long before we found ourselves on the open hill with a stiff climb in front of us.
A quad bike had left a trail for us to follow and it meant that the walk over the rough pasture was easier than it might have been.
It is still a slog up the last section to the road though.
You have to admire the skills of the dry stone dykers who built the amazing straight wall which we followed on this section of the walk.
When we hit the road, we should have turned uphill and gone up the track to the monument but instead, we turned downhill and walked along the track to the top of the golf course before coming down the Kirk Wynd into the town.
The rather dull light and my camera did not get on at all well so I don’t have much of a record of the things we saw on our way down but here are a few.
There was a good splash of colour near the second green on the golf course.
We took the walk at a very sensible pace and were able to enjoy both the rough and smooth parts of it equally as a result. It wasn’t the most exciting photographic outing but it was a very varied stroll and the company was excellent so I had no complaints at all. A little sun would have been welcome but it might have made it harder work as the temperature was perfect for walking as it was and the brisk wind kept any midgies well away..
By the time we got home, we were ready for our tea and a relaxing sit down.
As Mrs Tootlepedal remarked, any day with two outings in it must be entered on the credit side of the great ledger of life.
The flying bird of the day is a streamlined goldfinch not using any surplus energy at all.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
What a fantastic walk to have so close to you. The hawthorn is putting on quite a show; and what a neat picture the emerging bracken makes!
The hawthorn is fabulous. I hope that the berries are the same later in the year.
Your musk flowers have almost the same shape as our Allegheny monkey flower (Mimulus ringens) but they’re purple.
I like the bracken shoots. I’ve never noticed them doing that before.
The landscape is as stunning on this walk as it usually is. You live in a very beautiful place.
I am not aware of seeing the bracken coming up like that either but Mrs Tootlepedal always tells me that I have only just learned to look and all these things have always been there.
That’s a goldfinch torpedo…isn’t it?
Looks like it HJ.
I planted some Star of Bethlehem in our back yard. I will have to work at keeping it contained.
It’s a very beautiful flower in my view.
What a wonderful walk. Your flowers, wild and tamed, are splendid too.
My physio gave me some exercises that have worked wonders on my ankle so if we can get some decent weather, I hope to do some more adventurous walks soon.
Enjoyed following you on your walk without having to do the exercise myself, how lazy!
What a lovely walk. Once again I enjoyed the wildflowers especially the Hawthorn. It looks like snow. The garden photos are lovely too. The Candelabra Primula is very unusual. I’ve never seen flowers in that set-up before. Excellent flying bird!
I like the wingless wonders. They are a present from the camera because you never see them like that in real life.
Two excellent outings, with fine array of pictures to record your travels.
Musk! So that’s the lovely flower I have by the side of my pond! Mimulus luteus, I now find on looking it up, also known as the Yellow monkey flower, Yellow musk, or Monkey musk. But a rose by any other name…
I haven’t smelled it but it looks good.
It doesn’t seem to matter where you go, or how you get there, you always bring back impressive photos to make our days a little brighter!
I enjoy snapping away as I go.
More beautiful flowers from your garden and the wingless goldfinch is great! I love the photo of the Star of Bethlehem and the Crosswort.
I love Mrs Tootlepedal’s remark at the end!
🙂
What a lovely walk, even if your camera didn’t like it.
You can’t have everything.