A cough and a croak

In view of another gloomy day here, I thought that a nice bright guest picture from Bath might cheer things up.  My sister Mary has provided me with one.

I am having more difficulty in throwing off the cold than I expected and in view of another gloomy day outside, I got up for breakfast and then retired back to bed until lunch time.

This was a good plan and I got up refreshed enough to have thoughts of a light lunch and a walk in mind.  The light lunch was achieved but rain interrupted any idea of a walk so I put the camera up at the kitchen window and sulked.

I looked for matching pairs.

Once again traffic was light and the light was poor so even a small but regular supply of flying chaffinches was not very satisfactory.

Mrs Tootlepedal had hoped to do some gardening after spending the morning catching up on business but the rain put her off too so we got in the car and drove to a garden centre.

She had wallflowers and bulbs in mind and after passing through about an acre of Christmas tat, she found some and as we needed a bit of cheering up, she added a few more impulsive purchases too.  The garden should look good in time.

I stocked up on some varied bird food and some fresh vegetables from the fruit and veg store at the entrance to the garden centre.

We went home feeling that we had at least done something good on a dull day.

The clouds were well clamped down on the hills when we got back to Langholm and it was too gloomy for a look round the garden so it was rather annoying when Mrs Tootlepedal spotted  that we had an unusual visitor in the dam.

I rushed into the house to get my camera, certain that the heron would be gone before I got out.  As you can see, I was mistaken and the heron stood patiently while I tried to find a setting that would take a half decent shot in poor conditions.  It even stayed quite still while I tried the flash.

By luck more than good judgement, the camera worked well once.

For those interested it was a hand held shot at f/6.3 and a shutter speed of 1/8th with an ISO of 1600 with the zoom at 120mm   Either my hand was remarkably steady or the Lumix has a very intelligent processor.

I turned some of the  spinach I had just bought into a spinach, egg and cheese sauce bake for my tea and then tottered off to a Langholm Sings choir practice.  Our conductor is still poorly so we had out back up man again but we got through a lot more work and had a good session.  I pity the poor sopranos who were sitting in front of me as I creaked and croaked through the songs but I enjoyed myself.

I may have set my recovery back a bit though.

We are promised some sunshine tomorrow which we should  help but I did get one slightly better flying chaffinch of the day in the lunchtime gloom.