Today’s guest picture shows a swan anxiously supervising her brood. She is anxious no doubt because, as my sister Mary tells me, the cygnets are swimming in the dogs’ bathing pond on Parliament Hill Fields.
A dull and rainy morning here was brightened by the appearance of Sandy on a flying visit, followed by Dropscone bringing some quality scones for coffee time. After coffee, I had to pay a visit to the Health Centre for a routine matter and by the time that I got back, the weather began to look a little brighter.
I took a couple of pictures in the gloomiest part of the morning for illustrative purposes only. The first shows one of our infrequent greenfinch visitors…
…and the second shows a robin who will probably not appear on a Christmas card.
The starlings show tenacity when it comes to getting food from inconvenient feeders.
Over lunchtime, I was able to watch a selection of visitors to the covered feeder.
The better weather let me walk round the garden. The poppies had not recovered from the rain….
…but the salvia shrugs it off. The dahlias only need a short spell of warmth to bring out a good display.
Two pink flowers have come to cheer us up.
After lunch, the weather seemed to be set fair for a while, in spite of the weather forecast assuring us that there was heavy rain in the area so Mrs Tootlepedal and I took our courage and two umbrellas in our hands and set out to walk down the Esk to Skippers Bridge and back along the far bank.
Mrs Tootlepedal was acting as chief fungus spotter and she did a good job, seeing one crop on the way out and another on the way back.
I kept an eye out for berries.
The recent rain followed by warmer temperatures has perked up the brambles quite a bit.
Mostly though, I was looking for scenes that showed the river off to advantage.
As we walked along the path back towards the town, we passed two foreign invaders.
The Russian vine is vigorous but controllable and is used here to help to disguise our sewage works, The Japanese Knotweed is very vigorous and totally uncontrollable and is spreading along the river bank in spite of some efforts to keep it down. You can see it in the river view above. It upsets Mrs Tootlepedal to see its uncontrolled spread.
We timed our walk to perfection as it started to rain just as we got back to the house. The rain didn’t last long though and by the time that we went to sing in our Langholm choir after tea, it was a beautiful evening.
Our choir practice was busy and hard work, as our new conductor doesn’t believe in easing us into a piece but charges in at full tilt, leaving us to follow behind as best we may. Still, it’s fun even if we sing a lot of wrong notes. I needed a nice cup of tea and a snack to recover when I got home.
A traditional chaffinch is flying bird of the day.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
The pink dahlias are gorgeous, and so are the river views!
It was good to get out on a grey day.
Mrs T is right to be worried about that Japanese Knotweed! You have caught the robin in the act of being very bad-tempered. I like the first river photo very much.
In the spring I always think the river is at its best but I always change my mind when autumn comes…..until next spring of course.
Of course! 😀
The views along the river were splendid, especially the one of the distillery!
There’s some of the Japanese knotweed growing in one of nature preserve that I visit, they have been trying to kill it for years, but it not only comes back, it spreads further. I can see why Mrs. T would be upset to see it close to her garden.
It’s on the other side of the river from us so it is not a direct threat to our garden. It will destroy the bank though if they can’t deal with it.
Lovely to see your feisty little robin.
🙂 Not a typical robin shot.
The berries look wonderful, and I like the rantin’ Robin; sometimes you just need to speak your mind 🙂
That is very true.
We have lot of exotic vines and shrubs here that are often a struggle to control in our national parks and waterways. Lantana is one of them as well as boxthorn. It upsets me also to see our prolific they are.
Thank you for the interesting fungi again. I always appreciate them. I wondered about the honeysuckle berries. Are they edible? I may have asked you before but my memory is not as good these days.
The river shots are glorious and it’s always a pleasure to see your birds.
I have no idea about the honeysuckle berries. They look rather dangerous to me so I am not going to try them to see.
Your photo of the Esk from Skippers Bridge was another to really please the eye.
Thank you for your kind words.
Splendid rantin’ robin picture and lovely view of the Esk from Skippers Bridge
I love the guest picture of the swans! And your feeders were as busy as the choir conductor…full throttle!
The birds are full time entertainers.
The bird photos are hilarious!
They are a constant treat.