Today’s guest picture comes from a boat trip that Dropscone took while on his holiday in Majorca. He saw these interesting rocks.
The forecast drop in temperature came about but it was not quite as dramatic as it might have been. All the same, some light drizzle and clouds made the day seem very gloomy compared with the last two days.
It rained while we singing in the church choir in the morning but by the time that we emerged, it had stopped again and I paid a visit to the dam at the back of our house before going inside. On our side of the new bridge, aubretia is beginning to drip down the concrete…
…and on the other side of the new bridge, our neighbour Liz has a striking clump of marsh marigold.
In the garden, evidence of the morning drizzle was to be seen…
…and so I turned up the flower of a dog’s tooth violet to get a sunnier view of it.
I went in and prepared a beef stew for the slow cooker, checking on the birds outside from time to time.
The siskins seem to have found somewhere more attractive to eat and we are left with mostly goldfinches and chaffinches at the moment…
…who are always ready to exchange a few well chosen words.
Once the stew was started, I took a second walk round the garden.
The hyacinths looked cheerful enough…
…but the tulips were missing the sunshine and stubbornly refused to display their charms.
After lunch, I had time for another quick look round.
There are some weather conditions which seem to make the hellebores lift up their heads. I haven’t quite pinned down what the requirements are but today was one of the days when it happened.
The hellebores have been very good value this year and have been out for ages.
Something has been eating the petals of the daffodil of the day.
We made an early start on the trip to Carlisle for our afternoon choir as we had some shopping in mind.
We visited a bookshop first and then went to a specialist tea and coffee supplier where I bought tea from India, China and Sri Lanka to go with the African teas that I am currently drinking. Two packets of coffee beans from Nicaragua and Brazil also found their way into the shopping bag. Sometimes, we take the wonders of international trade for granted but I reflect on a small part of it every day as I drink tea and coffee. And am grateful.
We concluded the shopping by going to a well known clothing store where I bought a shirt just like that. My ability to make such a bold and swift decision was greatly helped by the fact that my personal shopping adviser was holding my hand and she suggested that a shirt might be a good thing to buy.
The afternoon choir session did not turn out as expected.
We got there to find that our conductor and accompanist, who come down from Glasgow each week, had found that railway maintenance which should have stopped in time for them to get to the practice was still ongoing and they were trapped on the wrong side of it.
In the absence of anyone else, a pianist from the choir stepped forward to act as accompanist and I got the chance to take the choir for a shortened session. As there is nothing more magical than waving your arms about in a casual way and being greeted by the sound of glorious singing, I enjoyed myself thoroughly.
The sun had come out by the time that we finished and the evening was so lovely that we took a longer and more scenic way than usual to drive home.
The stew was good too so the day ended very well.
A collared dove sat in the plum tree.
I checked a weather site for local weather and it said that yesterday’s high was 69.3°F and today’s was 60°F and tomorrow’s will be 51°F. This translates roughly as a drop from 20°C to 10°C so we will back to feeling the chill again. April showers are also likely and I may be a bit pressed to get as many miles in on the slow bike as I would like before the new bike arrives with the new month.
The flying bird of the day is a chaffinch.
A literal footnote: Mary Jo kindly sent me a picture to cheer me up. It shows her husband leaving his mark on lawn in Denmark that is so mossy that it makes mine look not too bad at all.
Apropos your shirt purchase. On an occasion in 1967 or thereabouts when he was performing at the Coach House Jazz Club, Mick Potts of the Gateway Jazz Band reported, “Earlier today I collected some underwear made specially for me by Israel Sieff.”
Evidently a man of great taste.
The daffodil of the day is great, even if something had been chewing on it, the colors are so bold.
I’m sure that your personal shopping advisor chose the correct shirt for you, they never make mistakes.
Fortunately I liked it too.
I bought two shirts this week – they were big and they were cheap, which I find to be two admirable qualities in clothing.
Those grape hyacinths were almost bouncing off the screen – they are very blue.
Two admirable qualities in a shirt.
🙂 That, as Julia points out, is a typical man’s view. It seems other criteria are available.
That why I took my personal shopping adviser with me.
Wise man.
Those are my main criteria for clothing. Also it must be a soothing color: grey, dark green, black, purple, or blue.
As I age I find that I am moving away from soothing colours. My green, grey and blue days are over. Unless they are in a check pattern…
Always a pleasure to walk around your garden!
Always enjoy your flower images with water droplets, these did not disappoint!
I would be happy to have quite a lot of pictures without water droplets all the same.
I am pleased to hear that you enjoy drinking a variety of tea – I collect tea whenever we travel and love it when friends bring me tea from beyond the borders of South Africa.
I drank quite a lot of red bush at one time but have got out of the habit for no particular reason.
AWESOME post and photos as always! Today was rainy here, too, but I went out and took a few photos anyway. The red tulips in front of the foundation were closed like you mentioned yours were. Funny how they do that. 🙂 Thanks for sharing your day!
Well done for taking the choir, did you volunteer or were you nominated?
I might have gently edged myself forward.
Who could be better qualified anyway!
Well done for saving the choir practice and taking charge of the conducting I am sure you did it very well, and did not pick on the tenors.
Was there a fee
Usual rates.
Congratulations to the conductor! And the gardener!
The gardener was working while the conductor was just having fun. 🙂
How exciting being in charge of all those voices…what power! Hellebores are such great ‘doers’ and give pleasure for such a long period…wish there was something similar through the summer! Getting cold here again too!
It is an ego trip, there is no doubt about that. Mrs T provides some grounding though when she remarks that I waved my arms about too much. I thought that that was what conductors were supposed to do.
Love your aubretia. My gramma had it trailing over a big rock.
The aubretia is beautiful, and so are the dog tooth violets and grape hyacinths.
That’s interesting about the hellebores, I hadn’t noticed them doing that.
I think that lawn in Denmark is the spongiest one I’ve ever seen.
Our drying green can run it a close second.
Do you still have daffodils there?
Here, all of them are dried.
Chuckling over Mary Jo’s contribution. I’m convinced it cheered you indeed!
It did.
Silly siskins.
🙂
Glad to hear you had a chance to take the choir. Sounds fun!
It was.