Today’s guest picture comes from Dropscone who has been officiating at a junior golf tournament. The question is whether the hare is in the water hazard or not.
As far as getting up early is going, I am on a roll and once again, seeing sun pouring in at the windows when I opened my eyes, I managed to stagger out of bed and arrive at the nuthatch nest before breakfast.
The parents were busy.
Though quite happy to stop for the occasional pose.
The wood pigeon was still sitting on a nest on a neighbouring branch and her mate was still bringing her twigs.
I pedalled home by way of the Kilngreen and I was just thinking that I hadn’t seen a dipper there this year when, lo and behold, I saw one.
I hadn’t seen any ducklings either and lo and behold….
…I saw three.
Neither the ducklings not the dipper were in the best spot for a photograph but you can’t have everything.
This male mallard was more obliging.
Quite apart from the birds, it was a beautiful morning to be out and about…
…and I had taken enough pictures by the time that I sat down to my porridge to fill a whole blog.
My back was still reminding me that it was in a tender state but a further application of the magic thumb of Mrs Tootlepedal freed things up enough to let me out to sieve a little compost and wander round the garden looking at things.
The garden, particularly the vegetable part of it, is full of families of sparrows eating as many of Mrs Tootlepedal’s young plants as they can get their beaks on.
She is not so unequivocally fond of small birds as I am for some reason.
After a lunch of bread and locally grown tomatoes, Mrs Tootlepedal got ready to drive the car off to Lockerbie to catch the train to visit Matilda in Edinburgh. Her bag was packed, the car was full of fuel, she was all prepared……and then the car wouldn’t start. A warning light for an open door had been on for so long that the battery had run down. The annoying things is that the door is not open and we can’t do anything to persuade the car’s computer that it is, in fact, shut.
Still, we had to call the garage and they came round and took the car away, not so much a Kangoo as a Kantgo.
I took the opportunity to catch a bee at work on an allium…
…and mow the middle lawn and then Mrs Tootlepedal and I went for a short cycle ride. It was a perfect day for a pedal.
And the fact that the road was lined with bluebells in places didn’t hurt at all.
It is fairly unusual to see bluebells on an exposed hillside like this as they are more often found in woodland or on the sites of old woods.
I was just coming out of the house after putting the bikes away when an unfamiliar bird shape caught my eye. It was a coal tit, a bird I haven’t seen on the garden for a good while.
Later on the garage brought the car back with a recharged battery but without being able to fix the faulty sensor so we can’t lock it at the moment which is an inconvenience. This is going to cost money I fear.
In the evening, I went off with Susan to play with our recorder group in Carlisle and once again we had a very good evening of playing, rounded off by an excellent selection of biscuits to go with our post-playing cup of tea.
I had three goes at a flying bird of the day but the nuthatch was too nippy for me…
…the ducks were too high for me…
…so I had to fall back on an ever reliable black headed gull to fill the position.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
The beauties of nature stand in stark contrast to the endless problems of car ownership 😉
We have been very lucky in the reliability of our cars over the years with one exception so we shouldn’t complain.
I didn’t know the bluebells bloomed for so long. They’re beautiful things that I’d love to have here.
We’ve thought a lot alike on the iris and daisy photos, as you’ll see this Saturday.
I can’t blame Mrs. T. for being lass than happy with the birds. I wouldn’t want them eating my vegetable seedlings either. Odd that I’ve never heard of them doing that here.
Peas, lettuces, sweet peas, beetroots….all damaged.
That’s too bad!
A splendid day and beautiful photos in spite of car troubles. Seems that there should be some quick and easy way to reset the car’s computer.
The nuthatch family looks like they are doing well.
The trouble is in the lock rather than the main computer (we think).
Seemingly small car troubles can be such a pain. We once spent $1200 to get the windshield wipers working again in our previous car. (The entire dash and steering wheel etc had to be disassembled to do it.)
Anyway…. Alas for Mrs T’s tiny veg plants!
We are not going to have to go quite so far as that if the proffered solution actually works.
Super collection of birds today. Here’s to a simple (read cheap) resolution for the car.
Just getting to the car to lock again would be a result for us.
Very sorry about the car, stupid computer letting you down like that. Your photographs were inspired today, impossible to pick a favourite.
Faulty car electrics are so frustrating – I hope the cure isn’t as expensive as you fear. The nuthatches are are very attractive and the macro shots of the flowers are beautiful.
I have had a quote and it was hefty but not as bad as it might have been.
Good!
Impressed by your early morning start.
Sorry about the car.
The macro shots of flowers give a whole new meaning to “A look at life in the borders.” As for the car . . . oh how I hate electrical problems. Diagnosing them calls for a midnight infusion of eye of newt and tincture of bat poured over deadly mushrooms. Don’t ask how I know this.
This was the other one. The car problem has been overcome by the judicious application of cash. 🙂
I would say “Like” and let it go but perhaps “Commiseration” would be a better option!
It was the only way.
Sorry, somehow I missed this one. I hope that the car troubles don’t end up being serious. And, I loved all the flower photos, of course. It was nice to see a wider variety of birds as well.
The car trouble should be easily sorted by the application of healing pound notes.
It is a bee.
Thank you.
Wonderful seeing those bee’s eye views!
🙂