A pedal, a toddle, tea and a cake and two tootles

Today’s guest picture is a south coast sunset, seen by my sister Mary from St Leonard’s-on-Sea.

Once again, I managed to get up reasonably promptly and get out on my bicycle in good time.  I was due to do my stint in the Welcome to Langholm office at eleven o’clock so I only had time for my habitual twenty miles to Canonbie and back.

On this occasion, Mrs Tootlepedal was up early too so I got some sustaining porridge and this resulted in an increase of a mile an hour in my average speed compared with yesterday.  If any porridge oat sellers would like to make something of this, I am open to offers.

When I got to the tourist office, it was already open and soon there was a press call in action as two of the other volunteers had qualified for certificates in hospitality and our local newspaper was there to record this auspicious event.

This was the highlight of the morning and tourists were notably lacking for me to exercise my hospitality skills on for the rest of the time.

The weather gods were in teasing mood so I had done my morning bike ride in mist, the sun had come out when I went into the office and it then went back in again just as I came out.  How I laughed.

The sun came out again after lunch and I watched the birds for a moment….

Goldfinches approaching the feeder doing the breaststroke

Greenfinches using the butterfly stroke.

As it looked promising, Mrs Tootlepedal and I decided to take the car down to the Hollows and then walk the mile along the old road to Canonbie, have tea in the Church cafe there and then walk back along the other side of the river.

The weather gods were still having fun though and the sun disappeared as we drove down and we had to walk under misty clouds.  There was almost no wind though and with the temperature just under 50F, it was still a lovely day for an autumn walk.

Going to the cafe:

The Byreburn bridge

The Esk from the bridge

There were hundreds of acorns beside the road at the bridge

And a feast of fungus a little further on

A sheep had her scary clown Halloween mask on

Looking back up river

It was hard not to stop all the time…

…but we finally got to the church

To our surprise, the little cafe at the church was nearly full but there was just room for us to sit down and enjoy a pot of tea and a slice of fruit cake between us.  The cafe is run by volunteers for the benefit of the village and considering that there were twenty people chatting and taking refreshment while we were in, it must be considered to be doing a grand job.

We crossed the river by the Canonbie Bridge and then walked up a path behind the old post office to join the top road back to the Hollows.  It had got a little misty by this time.

Going back from the cafe:

Looking down over the old Riverside Inn with Canonbie School in the background behind the trees

Looking over the village

Byreburn House on the far bank of the river

A fine crop of apples

Looking across at our outward route which had been among these trees which line the river

Coming down to the cottage before Hollows Bridge

And the view from the bridge

In spite of the low water, the Archimedes screw was working well.

At three miles, this was  a perfect length for a gentle stroll with many stops for photo ops and in spite of the lack of sun (we could see hints of blue sky nearer Langholm when we got back to the car!), it was a hundred per cent enjoyable.

I didn’t have long when we got back before it was time to cook my tea and welcome my flute pupil Luke back from holiday.  He was a bit rusty due to lack of practice but we had a good play nevertheless.

Then there was just time to eat the tea (feta and potato bake, much more successful than yesterday’s efforts) before I packed up my flute and headed off to play trios with Mike and Isabel.  We had another go at our Mozart trio and I am quite sure that after a week’s practice, the composer would easily have recognised his work today.  It is good to play a work that really stretches us.

My twenty miles this morning took my cycling miles for the month up to 450 which is very satisfactory.  I have got about 360 miles to go to reach my 4000 mile target for the year so I am just hoping that the frost, snow and ice will kindly keep away until I have done them.

The flower of the day is a very surprising and welcome late burst by the Special Grandma rose…

…and the flying bird of the day is one of the goldfinches.