Today’s guest picture comes from ex-archivist Ken who has returned to the north east of England where he was able to take this picture of the Millennium Bridge over the Tyne on a lovely day.
Lovely days were in very short supply here which was a disappointment after yesterday’s glorious weather. The hills were covered in cloud and it was one of those days when if it wasn’t raining, it was just about to rain.
I had noticed a traffic cone in our road when I drove home in the dark last night and my neighbour Liz came round to show me what it was all about. The bottom had dropped out of our world….or at least a bit of Wauchope Street.
A hole had appeared in the bridge over the dam.
We had it professionally inspected….
…and later in the morning, two men from the council arrived and put a temporary lid on things.
I had a look under the bridge and I could see that quite a lot of the road is now in the water.
We asked the council men when it might get fixed and there was a good deal of sucking of teeth and mention of tight finances. Liz has been appointed as our official agitator.
This was all very exciting so it was lucky that Dropscone arrived with some soothing treacle scones to have with our coffee.
It was all go today at Wauchope Cottage as on the other side of the house, our neighbour Hector’s fence was going up steadily hour by hour. It looked good when it was finished.
The frogs in the pond kept very calm throughout the various activities.
After coffee and before the fence was finished, I took a look at the bird feeder and found chaffinches trying to sneak onto a perch unobserved by a sitting goldfinch.
I went outside and found myself in a a dry spell so I set off for a cycle ride on the fairly speedy bike. Twenty four seconds after I left the house, it started to rain again and for the rest of my twenty mile tour to Canonbie and back, it rained on and off in a drizzly sort of way.
I stopped once to catch a bare tree on my phone.
Luckily it was quite warm and the wind was very light so the rain wasn’t as much of a nuisance as it might have been and a plate of leek and potato soup soon put me to rights when I got back.
I had a look for new growth in the garden and was excited to see buds on the plum tree…
…but the daffs and crocuses were less exciting.
Throughout the afternoon, I had occasional peeks at the feeder while wondering if it was going to be nice enough to go for a walk.
The feeder action had livened up.
It never seemed bright enough to do more than think about a walk and in the end, I frittered the rest of the afternoon away though I did practise a song for our choir on Sunday and put a dough mix in the breadmaker.
In the evening, Mike and Alison came round and Mike watched the rugby on the telly while Alison and I battled with some sonatas. The muggy weather doesn’t help my breathing and my brain never got out of second gear so I didn’t play at my best.
When we had finished, we joined Mike and watched the end of quite an exciting game between Wales and Ireland.
The breadmaker (with a little help from me) had made the dough and as we played, the dough was rising and while we watched, I heated up the oven and cooked a batch of a dozen rolls which turned out reasonably well. As I am still by myself, Mike and Alison kindly took some of the rolls home with them.
There is a frog of the day….
…and not one but two flying birds.
Just a note for those who got gold stickers for reading all of yesterday’s long post. There will be a test to check.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
I would think that they’d want to fix the hole in the road quickly. Here such a thing usually means 4 or 5 men will stand around watching 1 man do the work, but it does eventually get done.
The new fence does look good. It’ll be interesting to see what Mrs. T does with a blank canvas.
It’s nice to see the tree buds swelling. They say we’ll see 1 degree F. tomorrow night, so spring is on hold once again.
We have the same work practices here but thanks to austerity we can’t run to quite so many supervisors.
I like the fence, and await with bated breath the horticultural wonders that Mrs. Tootlepedal will perform using the its clean lines as a backdrop.
So far she is keeping her plans to herself.
A sink hole appeared close to my home last year, large enough to park a small car in. I probably have more moles per acre on the marsh that most.
I’m still waiting for the toads to arrive.
Thank goodness our hole was a bit more modest.
Thanks for the bare tree taken despite the weather. Good luck with the hole in the road, hope it doesn’t get any bigger while you wait.
As I gifted my gold sticker, I have no fear
I like the “professional bridge inspector” 🙂
He works part time as a cat scarer too.
Sorry about the hole in your road. Hope it gets fixed soon.
Like the photo of the inspection of the hole…could be a caption competition pic! You’ve certainly captured your birds attitude and acrobatic skills. There’ll be an explosion of even more colour soon when those daffs open in front of the fence- I now know more about where your plants are in your garden than in my own! Got to go …I’m revising my Edinburgh facts!
🙂
Looks like exciting times in the garden. And even more exciting times on the bridge!
It gives a whole new meaning to thinking about our visitors dropping in.
Yes, because holes never get smaller.
I am enjoying all the frog photos and the latest in the bare tree series is a winner!
That tree!!!
Glad to hear Dropscone was still standing after the last post, and was able to provide treacle scones. 🙂
Bridges and other important infrastructure are always worries, no matter where one lives. Money always seems to be tight.
I like a good fence to stop the eye.