A fulfilling day in a way

Today’s guest picture is another from my brother who has been roaming the country.  He found it pleasantly warm in the sunshine at Scarborough.

I felt a lot better today, though not quite out of the woods yet, so naturally enough the weather took a turn for the worse.

It started out not too badly but as I was in the Welcome to Langholm office, it was no good to me.  The complete lack of visitors did mean that I could finish the last week of the newspaper index that I had left to do and I typed it into the database in peace and quiet.

By the time that I came to walk home, a light drizzle had started and it hung about for the rest of the day, easing off just enough to raise my hopes before starting again.

It was a rotten, cold, grey day that was no good for anything, not even for staring out of the kitchen window.

A small group of starlings turned up but they went away again before I got a chance to get them in focus…

…but at least they reminded us that a visit to Gretna to see a murmuration should be on our list of things to do soon.

There was quite a lot of traffic at the feeder…

…but not much chance to freeze the action satisfactorily.

Every now and again it lightened up a bit and I enjoyed these two goldfinches homing in the sunflower seed…

…though the sitting tenants weren’t quite so amused.

Mrs Tootlepedal saw a lone brambling while I was out in the morning but although I had a good look when I got back, I didn’t see it come back.

I settled for a blue tit and a greenfinch in the plum tree….

…and a dunnock down below….

…before going off to catch up on business.

I had to sort out a minor problem with my mobile phone account on the company’s website and found myself tempted into taking up an offer to “chat online with one of our operatives”.  It turned out much better than I expected and the problem was resolved promptly and efficiently.  Wonders will never cease.

I did think about going for a walk but it just seemed to get gloomier and gloomier and in the end, the only exercise I took was walking back up to the High Street to retrieve my computer glasses from the tourist office where I had left them.  I picked up a couple more weeks of the data miners’ work from the Archive Centre while I was there.

In the evening my flute pupil Luke came.  I had suggested last week that he might like to practise some light tonguing of rapid triplets and he told me that he had done exactly that.

What was even more satisfactory was the fact that not only had he practised but he had actually got better too.  I spent quite a lot of time practising things when I was young without getting any better so I am pleased that I have been able to  teach Luke how to practise.  In my experience this is one of the things that many teachers overlook.  My teachers certainly did.

Mrs Tootlepedal was inspired by a recipe in the weekend papers to cheer up the gloomy day with a rum, raisin and apple suet pudding and this made for a very fulfilling end to the day.  Very full filling indeed.

I am hoping the improvement in my cold is continued tomorrow and that we get a little more light to look at the birds.

Meanwhile, the best that I could do today was a very poor effort in the rain.