Passing on the baton

Today’s guest picture is another from our daughter Annie’s recent walk in Regents Park.  The days are short.

It was an up and down sort of day.  I was down but not out and Mrs Tootlepedal was up and flat out as I had carelessly passed the illness on to here and as I got a bit better, she got a whole lot worse.

At least I was able to put some clothes on and get out as far as our corner shop today and I was in a position to do a little caring too but as a result of all this, we were a fairly miserable household today.

To tell you the truth, Mrs Tootlepedal required more peace and quiet than a bedside trolley service so I had time hanging heavy on my hands as it was raw day outside and a walk didn’t seem the most sensible idea.

This meant that I had a bit more time to look at the birds but sadly, the light had got a lot worse than on the days when I was in bed so although there were quite a few birds about, I wasn’t in a position to get good pictures.  I clicked away though.

The goldfinches were busy with their morning exercise routine.

The robin watched them benignly.

We had several visits from a coal tit but it was too quick for the camera altogether.

And later on a greenfinch appeared, looked round disapprovingly, picked up a seed and flew off again.

Under the circumstances, it was just as well that I had bought some marmalade oranges when I was out at the shop and I spent the afternoon turning them into marmalade.  As marmalade makers will know, this is a lengthy business, especially if you are fine cutting the oranges as I was, so it filled up the unforgiving hours pretty well.

Time will tell how the product turns out.   I wasn’t at my concentrating peak, which isn’t very high at the best of times, so I just hope there won’t be any need for a reboiling. That would be very tedious.

We are keeping our fingers crossed that Mrs Tootlepedal will feel well enough tomorrow to take in a little nourishment and perhaps a cup of tea.  I wouldn’t mind getting my appetite back too.

The only consolation, if it is a consolation, is that half the population of the town seems to have been laid low too recently so we are not alone in this.

Not one but two flying birds of the day.

Once again, I would like to thank everyone for their good wishes and I appreciate that several readers are also suffering from various seasonal ailments so I send them our good wishes.   I have read all the comments from recent days and have caught up on most of the posts too but I haven’t had the energy or brainpower to post replies and comments myself for which I apologise.