Today’s guest picture comes from a Canadian correspondent, Mary Jo. She thinks perhaps their weather is worse than ours by some way and if the evidence of a chokecherry tree blown over is anything to go by, she is quite right.
We were promised some wet weather here today but like so many promises recently, this turned out not be the case and the rain has been postponed until tomorrow. In fact, the day turned out to be pretty good, if rather windy.
It didn’t matter to me in the morning as I was in the Information Hub on the High Street but not giving out information as there were no visitors asking for any. Luckily there is plenty to read in the newspapers at the moment so I put the two hours in without getting bored.
Once I was back home, it seemed like a good idea to do as much work in the garden as we could while it was still fine so I did quite a bit of mowing before lunch and after lunch, Mrs Tootlepedal and I finished the trimming of the box balls round the front lawn.
After all the recent hedge and ball trimming, there was a heap of cut stuff to be dealt with so we got the petrol shredder out and put the whole lot through it in quick time. Most of the result is resting comfortably in compost Bin A now.
Once this task was over, I had time to wander round the garden looking at flowers. They were enjoying the sunshine too.
The Icelandic poppy on the right was looking particularly cheery so perhaps it knew what was going to happen later in the day.
There are a lot of Martagon lilies getting ready to flower and this one was the first in the race.
As well as our large ox-eye daisies, we have a clump of smaller daisies too.
And if you want even smaller but perfectly formed flowers there is a Cotoneaster in the back border which provides just that.
The pushing of the mower and the bending and stretching with the trimmer was more than enough exercise for the day and a short rain shower, just as I might have been considering a walk, confirmed that watching Wimbledon on the telly would be the best thing to do so I did it.
I did find time to look out of the window as well.
Siskins were very busy…
…as were the sparrows.
Other birds took on the role of spectators.
They were small…
Redpoll
…medium….
Blackbird
…and large.
Jackdaw and wood pigeon
The jackdaws were interested in the some peanuts which I had put out on the bench beside the feeders.
In the evening, I inadvertently found a channel that was showing the England vs Iceland football match in the European Championship. I hadn’t meant to watch the game but in the end, I watched enthralled as highly paid players failed to pass the ball to each with any great precision or purpose and when they did get near goal, managed to kick the ball anywhere but in the direction of the net and this let plucky Iceland (pop 330,000) beat England (pop 53,000,000) by two goals to one..
These things happen but at least the footballers can console themselves with the thought that they have managed to get out of Europe a lot more quickly and cleanly and with less fuss than the politicians are going to be able to do.
On an incidental note: since Iceland had beaten the Czech Republic, Turkey, Holland and Latvia in the qualifying rounds, perhaps the result should not have come as quite such a surprise to the expert commentators as it seemed to.
The flower of the day is the Lilian Austin rose, at its most expansive just before the inevitable decline sets in.
And the flying bird of the day is one of the busy siskins.
Wonderful gallery of photos this evening! The England defeat was only to be expected so I didn’t watch though I would have liked to have heard the Icelanders supporting their team again.
The Icelandic vocal support was the most impressive thing about the whole game. Those Vikings knew a thing about terrorising their foes.
My boy tells me the Icelandic manager is a dentist in his day job. Love those box clippings…
I think that we all agree that there is far too much professional football about. They should all have proper jobs.
They did – I found it all quite thrilling! But not the football.
I agree with Clare, a wonderful gallery of photos, especially the bird portraits and the flying siskin of the day!
Your Martagon lilies look like what we call tiger lilies over here. Beautiful color and well-photographed, your pink Martagons. We have a collection of tiger lilies growing in a wine half-barrel, the “Shogun” lily collection from Breck’s. Safe from the jaws and tunneling habits of gophers, they are putting on a good display right now.
If it is any consolation, our politicians on this side of the pond are making things equally as interesting for us all this year. I won’t mind seeing this election year come to an end.
I am glad that you have some way of keeping your flowers out of the way of the animals. It is no consolation at all to find that you have politicians as bad as ours. What is depressing is that it looks quite possible that our leading unprincipled buffoon might become prime minister.
I can’t unravel Boris from Donald, the two have become fused in my mind. It is a most unpleasant sensation.
A correspondent in my newspaper pointed out that people like both of them because they are funny much more than they like them for their views (whatever they may really be).
The last competent politician that I can remember who had a good sense of humour was Harold Wilson.
My husband weighed in on this, and in his opinion, he says “Trust me, The Donald is far worse than Boris.”
He could be right but they are both quite dangerous.
it’s nice to see most of the usual suspects around the feeders again today. I also loved the new flowers, but the winner today was the Lilian Austin rose!
Wasn’t just about a tear ago that Scotland voted whether or not to leave Great Britain? Since that vote was so close, I was surprised to see the Scotland voted overwhelmingly to stay in the EU. Maybe you should split from Britain and join the EU on your own.
The Independence vote wasn’t very close (55-45) but as a lot of people only voted No on the premise that this was the best way to guarantee to stay in Europe, they are feeling a bit short changed now so your suggestion is currently being discussed by the Scottish Parliament.
After our short time away from the blogosphere, your garden has leaped ahead. I am voting for the icelandic poppy photo as their namesake’s win (our) this morning gained me a valuable point in the Homestead pool.
You may get more points as they seem to be very competent if not very inspiring.
I enjoyed reading your post and loved the photograph of that beautiful lily, such a striking colour.
Some lovely pictures – liked the very colourful redpoll.
Yes, the icelandic poppy knew something.
Great photos of our feathered friends! These are indeed dark days for fans of England the football team and the nation.
Having cleverly avoided the heartache of being beaten in a major tournament, we can only send you our sympathy.
😉
Your comments re football and Europe are so accurate. Beautiful lilies, can we have more please?
I hope so as there are many ready to come out all over the garden.
I can’t believe how many beautiful flowers you have in your garden. The Martagon lilies are spectacular and I love the dueling Siskins.
We are just about at peak time for the flower garden and it should last for a while so I hope to have more new flowers to show soon.
I like siskins very much, but I see them only during winter. Now I don’t know where they are hiding.
Here of course 🙂
And here, too. 🙂