Today’s guest picture is a rather poetic shot of Grasmere in the Lake District taken by my sister Mary on a visit last week.
We didn’t have any lack of light here at all today as the sun shone from dawn until dusk. We seem to have got the best of the weather across the nation in recent days which makes a change from the usual situation and we are very happy about this.
I might have gone cycling in the morning but there were other things to be done, lawns to be mowed, Sandy to be entertained for coffee (Dropscone is on holiday), strawberries to be picked and most of all, wandering about the garden enjoying the sunshine.
For the first time this year, the garden really was bee loud.
The Astrantias were a very popular bee destination.
The darker astrantias didn’t do so well and they only had a single bee.
But elsewhere, there were bees, bees, bees.
Other flowers were bee free for the moment.
New roses are out…
…and the tropaeolum looks more brilliant by the day.
While I was mowing, I looked round the garden for some colourful corners. They were not hard to find.
I can’t convey the wonderful aromas that are wafting around though.
We broke off to go and cast our votes in the in/out European referendum and as I write this, we are still waiting for the first results to come in. In the event of a ‘Brexit’ vote, I gather that teams of highly trained Conservatives are going to gather at Dover, armed with long poles and physically push us further away from France.
When we got back home, I found that I wasn’t the only one enjoying the sunshine in the garden.
After lunch, Mrs Tootlepedal went off to Edinburgh to visit Matilda and I caught up on a little business before going out into the glorious sunshine to pick some strawberries and look closely at more flowers.
The temperature was just about perfect for lazing around but I thought that a little bicycling might create enough breeze to keep me cool so I got the fairly speedy bike out and did an unambitious twenty mile Tour de Canonbie. There was a brisk wind blowing so I was too busy pedalling on the way out and going too speedily on the way back to stop to take any pictures.
In the evening, Susan kindly drove me to Carlisle where we enjoyed a cheerful session of recorder playing. We played some of the works of the composer Valerius Otto, who was born on 25th July 1579 in Leipzig, for the first time and found it an ‘interesting’ experience.
The flower of the day was the astrantia…
…and the bee of the day was on the hydrangea…
…and the flying bird of the day was a chaffinch.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
Lovely to see you have so many bees up there.
You certainly seem to have found a way around the macro issue with the Lumix. I find that if I focus on the back of my hand and push the shutter button down halfway before moving the lens to the subject, I can get around the issues I’m having. But I can’t do better than the macros in this post.
The Astrantias are very beautiful flowers.
That’s a very clever tip with the Lumix. I will try that. I took the garden macros with my Nikon DSLR lens.
Wonderful post! Your weather is glorious; so much nicer than last year’s. I’m glad to see all the bees have arrived at last and what lovely flowers…!
The weather is hardly believable at all but we are putting up with it.
As one does!
I like your new blog theme, the photos have a great contrast in a white background. Nice pictures too! 🙂
I haven’t changed the theme HJ.
For some reason your blog came with white background. Maybe did not upload correctly. Sorry!
If you look at it directly from the reader it comes with a white background so maybe that was what happened.
I turn my back for just a moment and what happens? Brexit. Not that I have anything to say about it at all. After all, look at what’s going on Over Here. (No, don’t. It will spoil your breakfast.) As I write this, the pundits are all over the place explaining what is going to happen Over There (after all, we don’t even know that yet, do we) and what the consequences will be (yes, well, we’ll see). Honestly, these are tumultuous times. As are all times. I have decided to take heart from the numerous bees who have appeared in a friend’s garden. If there are enough bees in enough gardens, we will all eat. Bless the bees. Bless the chaffinches. Bless the beauty of Grasmere. And bless you and Mrs. T.
Thank you for your kind thoughts, Gerry. To further depress our spirits, Scotland was visited by a Mr Trump from America today.
So I understand. He seemed . . . unclear on the concept. I am going to go to Stone Circle tonight to listen to good poets and good songwriters and ease my mind. There will be some of Robbie Burns. There will be some of Mary Oliver. Maybe we will even see the Northern Lights. Back later.
I will be green with envy if you see the Northern Lights.
Glad to see your bees are back and busy. Hopefully making the most of things until we can start using EU banned pesticides again 😉
Very true. It would be nice to think that one benefit of the decision might be that we escape the TTIP agreement but I am not holding my breath.
From your remarks, I assume that you were for staying in the EU, in which case, you won’t be happy from the news reports that I read.
However, to make up for the loss of the tax base, the EU has bestowed “personage” on robots, so now robots will be required to pay their fair share of taxes like any other worker.
All of your images are exceptional today, the only ones that stand out are the astrantias, only because I have fallen in love with their appearance.
It is hard not to like an astrantia. As far as the robots go, perhaps if they put one in charge of Google, they would pay some taxes too which would be good.
The astrantias are exceptional – glad the bees are buzzing about again..
Glad about the bees, the flowers in your garden seen through your lens are stunning. As for the referendum I spit on it.
I shall have to ignore politics and cultivate my garden.
Do both please.
I will.
A veritable bee haven. Depressed, embarrassed and angry at the news today.
That about sums it up.
So happy to see all the bees!
We are relieved as it was getting a bit worrying.
Yes, I agree re worrying. It’s so sad. Too many poisons, electrical signals, etc.
Stunning photography:
Thank you for taking the time to comment.
Love the colours and the bees in the garden. Very enjoyable.
Thank you.