Today’s guest picture comes from Dropscone who is holidaying with his daughter Susan in the extreme north of the Scottish mainland. It shows the Muckle Stacks which are just off the coast about 3 miles to the east of John o’ Groats.
He seems to be having good weather up there but we had a very gloomy day in Langholm and with the temperature about 10°C lower than Marseille, it had a definite end of the season air about it.
There were birds to cheer the day up though.
It was not raining after breakfast but it was my day for duty in the Information Hub in the Market Place so cycling was off the menu. I had a visitor or two to help, posters to laminate and friends who dropped in to talk so the two hours passed quickly enough but it was raining by the time that I came out.
I found a relatively dry moment to look at a soggy poppy or two…
…but after a light lunch, I spent some time doing useful things indoors like checking up on the hosting for the Archive Group websites and suchlike. Anything that requires passwords is always a slow business as I have to try to remember where they are stored and then try to remembered the password to the store where the passwords are stored.
I also put a week of the newspaper index into the Archive Group database so I made good use of a gloomy day.
I had time to do a little sparrow watching. They were mostly very busy…
…though some chose to be spectators.
This may have been wise, for an unwary bird approaching the feeder got a thoroughly dusty welcome.
In the evening my flute pupil Luke came and we made some more progress which was satisfying.
I have added more pictures from my camera to the account of our day in Aix-en-Provence during the third day of our holiday in France and those interested can find the expanded post here.
The flower shot of the day is the nerines under the feeder. They are really flourishing at the moment…
…and the flying bird is a sparrow.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
Nice pictures! 🙂
🙂
Even soggy the poppies look good.
They held their heads up well in discouraging circumstances.
Lovely soggy poppies! Thank-you for the links to your expanded posts – I am enjoying them thoroughly.
It was an excellent place for a short break. We wished that it could have been longer.
Your holiday doesn’t seem to have affected your ability to get great photos in any type of weather, no matter whether it’s birds or flowers!
Thank you. A little of the Marseille light would be helpful though.
I can fully identify with passwords and passwords to remember the passwords…the definitive timeuser
They are needed but they are a pain.
Very much enjoyed your expanded post on our visit to Aix.
Aix-en-Provence looks very beautiful. The chapel-turned-gallery is very impressive, even without the paintings on the walls!
I agree about the chapel. They had created a space that it was a pleasure to be in regardless of the contents.
Beautiful nerines – love the colour and your poppies have been wonderful- long may they keep flowering to prolong the summer.
We are still dead heading and hope for another week at least.
Nerines are beautiful, lovely pink.
I love the names of places in Scotland. My father’s people were of Scots-Irish descent, and colonized the Appalachian mountain region over here. The naming system appears to have continued. One of my favorites is “Hell-fer-Sartin” (Hell for Certain), a creek flowing into the Middle Fork of the Kentucky River. A book has even been written about the region.
Your flowers still look lovely, even rain-drenched.
My favourite is the local farm called All-for-nought