Today’s guest picture, from our daughter-in-law Clare, provided the only ray of sunshine we saw all day. You can see what made Matilda so happy tomorrow.
It was a foul day here as far as the weather went, the authorities having decided that one sunny day at a time was more than enough for us.
I sneaked out in the rain whenever it wasn’t too bad and I will insert a soggy flower from time to time in this post.
Luckily I had plenty to do so time didn’t weight too heavily on my hands.
In the morning, I went up to the Welcome to Langholm office and settled down to put a week or two of the newspaper index into the Archive Group database. I couldn’t get as much work done as I hoped because I was frequently interrupted by the need to welcome people seeking information. I suppose that I shouldn’t complain about that.
One of the visitors was looking for a book of graveyard inscriptions and she remarked in passing how useful the Archive Group website had been in her family history research. I pointed to the computer and told her that I was adding to the site at this very moment and she was suitably impressed though not quite so impressed as to offer us a voluntary donation for our funds.
Another visitor was a descendant of a chemist in the town and I pointed out to him that both the chemist and his shop could be found on our picture archive page.
It stopped raining very politely for long enough for me to walk home after my stint was over. It started again quite soon afterwards.
In the afternoon, Mrs Tootlepedal went off to buy some flowers to fill in a few gaps in the beds that her recent tidying up activity had created and I set about a mixture of practising songs for our Carlisle choir and printing out photographs for the forthcoming Canonbie Flower Show.
My main concern while printing out the pictures was to try to get the printed results to look a bit brighter than the printer wants them to look. This takes a bit of learning and the results were variable though the frog in the box ball came out well.
Mike Tinker came round for a cup of tea and a biscuit and we were just finishing when Mrs Tootlepedal returned from her shopping trip. I was amazed to find that she had actually bought three plants as she usually looks for a long time and then decides that things are not quite what she wanted or they are a bit too expensive or the whole matter needs more thought. A sound way of going on but one which I find a bit testing on my patience.
She explained her purchasing activity by claiming that she was haunted by the sound of my voice behind her saying, “For goodness sake, buy something.” So she did.
The evening was filled with music as first my flute pupil Luke came and then I went off to play trios with Mike and Isabel. It was the first time that we had played for a month and there was a certain amount of rust evident but as always, it was a very enjoyable evening.
The rain is pouring down again as I write this. I have ordered an ark just in case.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
Nice to see Matilda looking so cheery. Sorry about the mean lady and congratulations on that stunning close up of the fuchsia. Is it going into the show?
Matilda does look quite pleased about something! The flowers are beautiful, even covered in raindrops. 🙂
We have had some clouds, but just a misting rain, nothing more. Enough to scent the air with petrichor, a welcome scent of approaching autumn and the return of the rains.
It’s the disappearing summer that concerns us.
Mrs T’s explanation for the purchase of her three plants made me laugh out loud! I am looking forward to finding out why Matilda looks so pleased and is that autumn colour I can see on your last photo?!
There is a lot if unwelcome autumn colour about. Where is summer?
You may well ask!
The flowers are beautiful even when wet.
Your Virginia creeper is wearing its fall colors before ours this year. I think it did that last year too.
I’m guessing Matilda is happy about food, like ice cream.
Maybe….
Matilda is so beautiful and looks happy. 🙂
Love the fuchsia…beautiful!
What a bright, pretty face! Can’t wait to learn what made her so happy. Oh, the rain you’ve had! Has it stunted the vegetables?
Some have done well and other not so much.
I’m looking forward to seeing photos of your ark when it arrives! The flowers do look beautiful even in the rain, and I can just imagine the conversations you and Mrs. T have while she’s shopping for plants. I think that it’s about the same whenever a man and woman go shopping together, men are buyers, women are shoppers, as if every purchase is a matter of life or death.
The prints I’ve been making since I purchased a printer tend towards the dark side also. Since I use Lightroom, I make a proof copy, and adjust the brightness of the copy to achieve the correct brightness of the prints.
I am experimenting with that.
I do like photos with raindrops on them and we’ve seen quite a few this year! Pleased your frog photo came out well- it was special. Being nosy – did you find out what plants Mrs T bought?
Short selenium, short Japanese anemone pink, rudbeckia goldstar
Thank you for the names…just found them! Shorter plants sound an excellent idea….I’ll enjoy looking them out at the next nursery visit.
Mrs T bought a rudbeckia which claimed to be a short sort but it turned out to be very tall. This one should be short she hopes.
Lovely picture of Matilda.
Very sorry about all that rain. Hope the pictures for the Canonbie Flower Show do well.
I find I have better luck printing my own photos. Some of the local places’ machines tend to want to autocorrect! Have fun with your rain. BTW Matilda looks so much older! Cute.
I have never used a shop machine so I can’t say what the standard is like here.
Your summer = our winter.
As you know, I have nooooo problem buying plants, and books, but all other sorts of shopping Allan takes care of!
That is good of him.
Matilda is looking good, and so are the flowers in the rain.
🙂