Putting my foot down

Today’s guest picture shows Lincoln Cathedral, seen from the Castle walls.  It was taken by my sister Mary on a recent visit.

We woke to heavy rain and strong winds but as Mrs Tootlepedal and my sister Susan went off to church and I spent the time inside sorting out the framing of my pictures for the exhibition, we didn’t much mind the weather.  The forecast correctly predicted that the skies would clear by eleven and it soon turned into a reasonable if breezy day.

During this period, I dialled the number for the customer services for my phone supplier with some trepidation, a good book and an easy chair to hand and was stunned to get the whole problem sorted out in a few minutes.  Perhaps firms have finally learned that annoying their customers is not good business.  I even got £10 taken of my next bill.

As well as my sister, we were visited by my older son Tony and his partner Marianne,  who stopped off on their way back to Edinburgh from a weekend in the Lake District.  The hotel that they stayed in allows guests to bring one dog and they had taken one of their three dogs with  them.  Tara was very excited when she came into the house but calmed down when I promised to take her photograph.

She sat well for the portrait.

Tony is always looking to be helpful.  Last time he visited, he plastered a wall and today he got a ladder out and cleared a leaking and blocked gutter along the back of the house for us in no time.  What with getting computer advice from one and home improvement from the other, we are very well off for useful sons

They didn’t stay for lunch as Tony had work to see to when they got back home.

With all this excitement, I didn’t pick up a camera until the early afternoon and didn’t even have time for a leisurely garden tour.  I took one picture of the new peony, which had survived the overnight rain well…..

….and had a couple of quick looks out of the kitchen window….

The feeder was busy as ever….

…mostly with sparrows

…before I went off to the church fête with Susan and Mrs Tootlepedal.

There was plenty of music at the fête, as both the town’s brass band….…and the pipe band….

….were playing, though not at the same time.

As you can see, the fête was blessed with fine weather and after having spent a little money, I left Mrs Tootlepedal and Susan to walk home and took myself off along the path by the river with Pocketcam in hand.

This path has been subject to a number of small landslides over the past few years and I was interested to see a lot of new planting….

…on the unstable bank above the path.  I peered into some of the tubes to see what plants they held but was none the wiser.  I imagine it will be shrubs with good root systems to help hold the bank together.

I was still looking at the right hand side of the path, where there were interesting little plants like this….

..and this….

…when to my great surprise I found myself sitting at path level with one leg doubled up beneath me.  I was mystified for a moment as to how this unexpected state of affairs had come about and, more importantly, where my other leg was but all became plain when I noticed that my un-doubled up leg was sticking straight down into a large hole on the left hand side of the path which I had failed to notice.

Two things were good about this.  One was that my new knee was on the straight leg and the hole was so deep that my foot was hanging in fresh air and my knee had not got banged at all.  The other was that my doubled up  leg had gone straight down and not twisted  and rather to my surprise, I was able to get up and walk rather gingerly onwards.

I learned in my hill running days that if you can keep going after a fall, you can often walk off minor sprains and strains so I continued round Easton’s Walk, trying not to limp.

I paid a little more attention to the path than to the wild flowers beside it on this part of my walk but I didn’t meet any more large holes.  I did see some pretty roses in the hedge.

I was wondering whether it would be a good idea to extend my walk to aid recovery when a look across a field made up my mind for me….

…and I headed for home.

I took a picture of a plant growing out of the park wall as I went past.  It has an unusually high stem to flower ratio.  The flowers are so few and so small that you can hardly see them at all.

Along the way,  I noticed that my thumb was a bit sore and when I checked Pocketcam, I found that the viewing screen had been cracked and realised that I must have hit the ground with the camera in my hand when I fell.  The crack doesn’t seem to have affected the camera’s working parts and I am keeping my fingers crossed (with some light groaning) that the accident won’t have any long term bad effects on Pocketcam…..or my thumb.

A sore ankle, thumb and hip are lingering mementoes of my lack of concentration and we will have to see what tomorrow brings in the way of aches and pains but I am walking about quite freely and was able to make omelettes for our tea without any trouble so I am hoping for the best.

An excursion to Hadrian’s Wall with Susan  is planned for tomorrow and I will try not to fall over while we are there.

The flying bird of the day is a goldfinch.