Today’s guest picture comes from my brother’s current visit to the Lake District. He walked to the top of Blencathra on Tuesday and found himself in quite crowd.
We had another dry and occasionally sunny day today but the rude wind had returned so I was not unhappy to have plenty to do that didn’t involve cycling.
In the morning I went to a meeting of volunteers at the Welcome to Langholm office where we heard an interesting and well presented talk by a man from Strathclyde University about a website that is trying to better organise visitors from abroad who are interested in their family heritage. The idea is that they should inform us of their interests and desires before they arrive and we should inform them of our capabilities to meet their wishes before they have spent money coming to see something that perhaps is no longer there or meet people who cannot help them. It sounded like a good scheme.
I walked round the garden when I got home while Mrs Tootlepedal planted out the tulips that she had bought at Alnwick yesterday. She dug up some of this while preparing the ground…
….and wonders if some knowledgeable gardening reader could help her in identifying it. She fears it might be some sort of honey fungus.
I looked at the established tulips.
It was a degree or two warmer today and the tulips were looking good.
I saw an unexpected flash of yellow in a red tulip…
…which revealed itself as a sport as the morning went on.
The cowslippy things are loving the conditions.
…and the dicentra is doing well too.
I was pleased with that picture of the dicentra but even more pleased with the next one that I took.
Bees are always welcome in the garden.
It was a good day for seeing welcome things.

I went in to have lunch and was given a couple of hard stares by a blackbird and a chaffinch.
I don’t know what I had done to offend them.
The main business of the day was a trip to Edinburgh to visit Matilda and help her celebrate her third birthday. In honour of that momentous occasion, I am putting in three pictures of her taken today. One was taken by her mother in the morning on Portobello beach…
…and one by her father at the same venue.
…and I took the third as Mrs Tootlepedal and Matilda enjoyed the handsome butterfly wings that had been our birthday present to her.
Time simply flew as we played, sang and danced the afternoon away, though I will pass over the fact that the birthday girl wiped me out when we played Pelmanism. I have mastered dancing while sitting comfortably in a chair.
After tea with cake and candles, it was time for us to go home and once again the view from the top deck of the bus was very pleasant.

The flying bird of the day is a chaffinch winning the race to get to the feeder.
Matilda says hello and goodbye for today.
Time goes by so quickly. It seems like just yesterday that Matilda was a tiny little girl. Now she’s a beautiful young lady.
Three years have slipped by quickly.
Matilda makes a beautiful butterfly, and a happy birthday to her.
Bootstrap fungus is what it looks like Mrs. T. is holding, but it normally grows just under the bark of trees. The long dark brown or black root like structures called rhizomorphs, are caused by the honey mushroom (Armillaria mellea.) I’m not sure how they would have gotten into the soil but it seems like anything is possible in nature.
I would happily ride on top of a bus if I could see view like that one. It looks like a postcard.
Mrs T thinks it might have spread through the soil on its journey from one tree to another. Is it harmful to flowers?
No, I doubt it will harm anything but trees.
Ooooh what a lovely bumblebee! It looks like Matilda had a grand birthday, belated birthday wishes to her 🙂
She has a big party this weekend with her friends so the fun is unending.
🙂
Happy belated birthday to Matilda, she is growing up fast. Loved all the tulip pictures, such beautiful colours.
What splendid birthday pictures.
Tulips and a Matilda birthday–a lovely combination.
I thought so too.
Happy birthday to Matilda! Lovely photos of her and of Mrs T too! I was amused by the hard stare from the birds.
They had some grudge in mind.
A lovely birthday gift for a pretty birthday girl. Love the brightly coloured tulips and the bee on the dicentra photos but the look on the faces of the blackbird and chaffinch are great..they obviously wanted to come with you to get a piece of birthday cake.
That could have been it.
Love the bumblebee and frog photos, Tootlepedal!
I was very happy to see both of them in the garden.
Matilda is really growing up!
She is and it is a treat to be able to watch her as she grows.
Adorable pictures of Matilda!
🙂
Thank you for cheering me up – great bunch of photos again.
Matilda would cheer anyone up.
Three years have passed already? Those butterfly wings look beautiful on her. Matilda is growing up! It won’t be long now before readers will see her on her first bike.
I enjoyed your spring flowers, frogs, bees and birds.
Here is a reference to the honey mushroom.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armillaria
Thank you for the reference.
Happy belated birthday to darling Matilda!
I’ve read about honey fungus in the U.K. And it sounds scary.
It is not good stuff to have.