Today’s guest picture comes from my sister Mary who found a heron in Regents Park which has taken to the law. Well, at least it is sitting on the bench.
In contrast to the yesterday’s gloom, today dawned bight and sunny and the day was made even sunnier when Dropscone arrived with treacle scones for morning coffee. We were joined briefly by Sandy who came to pick up some parish magazines for processing for the Archive Group website. We arranged to go for a walk after lunch and he went off leaving Dropscone and me to finish the scones and coffee.
We managed.
Easily.
After Dropscone left, Mrs Tootlepedal went off to to have lunch with friends at the Buccleuch centre.
I watched birds…
…and was rather baffled by this chaffinch which looked at first sight as though it had been pumping iron and was auditioning for a super hero role.
I walked round the garden in the sunshine and enjoyed the snowdrops….
…and the magnolia by the front gate.
In a vain effort to improve my brain power, I had sardines for lunch and then went off to pick up Sandy. We started our outing by visiting the Moorland Feeders by car but although the light was good, interesting birds were scarce.
There were a lot of great, blue and coal tits about…
Great tits and blue tits share the peanuts with a chaffinch.
…and a single pheasant who did some world class strutting.
It turned out to be rather chilly sitting in the hide in spite of the sunshine so we didn’t stay long.
Our thoughts turned to snowdrops and we drove down to the Lodge Walks, stopping at the Kilngreen where I failed to take a picture of a flying seagull as they all stuck obstinately to their fence posts.
We left the car and walked through sun dappled woods….
…until we got to the snowdrops. They were worth the walk.
They are still not fully out so another visit may be in order (if we get another fine day next week).
We walked up through the snowdrops and strolled back to the car by the top path. This used to run through woods but there has been more felling recently…
…and only a few trees have been left standing.
There are soon going to be more though….
…as we passed many bags of new trees waiting to be put into the ground.
The top track offers a terrific view of Whita on a fine afternoon…
…as well as a walk through a delicate tree tunnel…
….and a look at the town through the trees.
On our way back down to the car, we passed a splendid mossy wall but my plan to take yet more mossy pictures was sidetracked by an outstanding lichen…
…and a pair of ferns on the wall.
Asplenium scolopendrium, the harts tongue fern and Polypodium vulgare, the common polypody
In spite of the brilliant sunshine, it was exceedingly cold on our walk because the wind was very unforgiving so we were pleased to get back in the car and go to our respective homes.
If you are interested, you can see Sandy’s take on what we saw here.
By this time, the crossword and a cup of tea was all the excitement that I needed, though I did go out with Mrs Tootlepedal to see what all the banging and sawing had been about at the dam bridge.
It was totally shuttered….
…and Mrs Tootlepedal tells me that the men are going to pour concrete tomorrow.
While we were looking at the works with our neighbour Kenny, something glinting on the exposed bed of the dam caught Mrs Tootlepedal’s eye and Kenny kindly fished it out. It turned out to be a 1928 penny….
…which may well have been lying in the dam for anything up to 90 years.
The channel through the bridge looks rather narrow but the builders say that it is exactly the same size as the previous one.
My Friday night orchestra is visiting her son and his family so there was no traditional evening tootle today and we had a quiet night in.
The flying bird if the day is a chaffinch.
I enjoyed the play on words, the snowdrops and the tree tunnel particularly today. Glad you had sun, it does cheer a person up.
Groan at your opening puns. Beautiful snowdrops, and what a good excuse to go and see them again.
Sorry about the puns. I just can’t help it.
We had no sunshine today so your sunny snowdrops have been a tonic!
Your weather doesn’t seem to have been any better than ours lately.
What a day! A lucky Penny. Oh, those snowdrops.
They are impressive.
Snowdrops: spectacular. Tree tunnel: magical. The bodybuilder bird gave me a chortle. That coin would have totally made the day for any one of the Detectorists (wonderful telly show that I think your blog readers this side of the pond would adore).
Mrs T loves The Detectorists. The penny find was right up her street.
Our walks are never dull.
Very true.
Your closeups of snowdrops are much better than mine. I only know of one small group of five or six plants so I’d love to see the woods full of them that you visited.
I don’t recognize the lichen but it reminds me of a dog lichen. I didn’t know that polypody ferns grew there. You’ll have to turn a leaf over and see the colorful sori.
That’s a great shot of the tunnel through the trees.
The lichen is peltigera though you don’t usually see it in a clump like that. I did have a look at the back of the fern leaves but there was nothing showing.
Those snowdrops are magnificent. Mine seem to have given up on the idea of flowering.
Ours came a week early and have stood up to snow and frost very well.
I don’t know which photos I enjoyed more, the snowdrops or the sun bathed hills from during your walk, they both would be welcome sights here!
The tunnel of trees was an exceptional image as well, my attempts at such a photo never turn out they way that I’d like.
I have had practice on that tunnel and it has appeared on the blog before at a different time of year.
Magnificent sun-dappled woods and snowdrops.
Snowdrops and the tree tunnel…winners!
🙂
The tunnel through the trees looks like a painting I would love to own. Superhero bird’s name should be Arnold. Glad to see you could enjoy some sunlight so we could enjoy some lovely photos.
The sunlight was very welcome.
Find a penny pick it up all the day you’ll have good luck…this was certainly true for you with your wonderful photos of beautiful snowdrops in a sunlight wood and a wonderful tree tunnel.
It was a good walk for a chilly day and the penny find delighted Mrs Tootlepedal who likes hoards.
I am very tickled by the heron on the bench! The expression “has taken to the law” is new to me – something akin to “is breaking the law”??? I like the idea of the penny being discovered after hiding for 90 years.
Taking to the law means adopting it as a profession as in the phrase, he took to the law in early life.
The field of snowdrops is lovely, and your single snowdrop from Mrs T’s garden is gorgeous, love the drop of moisture hanging. The treasure of the day, Mrs T’s find of the coin, how cool!!
She was spiritually richer for the find even if it wasn’t very valuable.
I’ve been following the bridge works with great interest and the penny was a nice find.
Mrs T was delighted by it.
That’s a really alarming chaffinch. The pheasant is great too. In fact all the photos are good – I’m jealous. Am I allowed to say the heron is a brilliant photo too?
Of course.
Giving me hopes of spring as we enter today with -2 windchills. Lovely tree tunnel and oh sigh the field of snow drops.
We are thinking of spring but it keeps snowing!
The masses of snowdrops are beautiful, as well as the sun dappled woods and tree tunnel. The birds are always a pleasure. The body building chaffinch was a good shot!
All quite amazing, from the snowdrops to the lichen to the tree tunnel and the superhero chaffinch. The tree tunnel looks like an impressionist painting.