Today’s guest picture comes from an outing near Derby undertaken by my brother Andrew. He went visit the Abbey at Darley Abbey and found that all that remains of it is a public house called “The Abbey”
If yesterday was a dull and gloomy day, today was a duller and gloomier day. It was warm for the time of year though and that made the drizzle that came and went even more annoying.
I got up early (for me) and made a venison stew for the slow cooker before we went off to sing in the church choir. The choir was rather short of numbers and with several unison hymns and no anthem, it made for a gentle reintroduction to singing for me.
When we got back, the rain stopped for a while and we got busy in the garden.
I took a picture or two but everything was far too wet and the day was far too dark for anything to photograph well.
The first gardening task was to pick a up a large number of windfalls from one of the espalier apples. I should have thinned them out earlier and they are overcrowded so a lot of them had fallen off in unison. I gave some to one neighbour and then went across to wish our neighbour Liz a happy birthday and ask if she would like some apples too.
She came across to fetch some and while she was there, she gave us a helping hand in the next task which was the removal of our ancient blackcurrant bush. Mrs Tootlepedal is going to remodel that end of the vegetable garden.
Liz likes nothing better than to give an axe a hefty swing so with her on the axe and Mrs Tootlepedal on the pick, we soon got it shifted. I worked the spade and did some heaving.
At that stage, it started to rain quite heavily so we left the garden.
We sorted out our potatoes for storage and Mrs Tootlepedal did some work on the new garage doors prior to them being painted. Fortunately the cycling Tour of Britain has started and this gave us a perfect excuse to watch the telly and ignore the weather.
I did occasionally look out of the window at the birds and was pleased to see some interest in the big sunflower head.
The sparrows were as boisterous as ever…
..with regrettable outbreaks of sparrow stamping.
A jackdaw took a very dim view of this behaviour.
Whenever the drizzle took a rest, I kept looking out into the garden to see if it was dry enough for a walk but by the time I had thought about going out, it had generally started to rain again.
I did spot a brooding presence in our rowan tree.
I made some alleged ciabatta in the bread machine (we have yet to try it out) and that was about the most exciting thing of the day.
After we had eaten venison stew for our tea, we went off to a church choir practice. Our organist and choirmaster is trialling some Sunday evening practices to see how that suits choir members. Once again it was only a small turnout but the practice was both useful and enjoyable.
The forecast is looking a bit gloomy so I may have to sort out my wet weather cycling gear if I want to get some September miles in.
The flying bird of the day is not one of my best.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
I thought the two flower pictures you posted were very good especially the one with raindrops on it.
I know how you feel, there’s rain in the forecast for us everyday over the next week. After the dry spell of earlier this summer, I have to wonder why the rain has to come all at once, and I’ll bet that you’re wondering the same thing yourself after your dry summer.
Exactly my thoughts.
Your rowan tree photo looks positively spooky! Hope the sun comes out again soon…it’s pouring down here, too but I’m guessing somewhere in between us it’s glorious 🙂
Wales was very sunny yesterday but a bit wet today.
😁
That sunflower is amazing. I hope the birds enjoy the first crop.
After a month of 2 or 3 rainy days per week we’re now back to the heat and humidity. I hope you’ll see some sunshine again soon.
It appears on the forecast a few days ahead but disappears but the time that we get there. At them moment it is like ‘jam tomorrow’.
With Mrs. T. at the helm, I would imagine “a bit of remodelling” will result in great change! It’s amazing how plants regenerate – just as your sunflower produced a new head, some basil plants that I cut off to hang are now producing new leaves on what little remains of the stalks.
Our box hedges and balls seem to recover from the sever mauling that Mrs T gives them from time to time.
That is some neighbor you have! Wonderful photo of the jackdaw. Hope the rain ends soon.
That’s the trouble with our rain. It is welcome when it comes but it doesn’t know when to stop.
It is like that in Maine sometimes. Usually in June, but in the past few years, it has been drier.
I liked the disapproving jackdaw. Good that you are back in singing voice again.
We are just getting started singing again too. But out rehearsals will always be in the middle of the week with a warm-up rehearsal before the first service. You still manage to do more with a cloudy day than I would even try. The water droplets on the flowers are magical. And the Jackdaw does appear to be scowling.
Your choir methods sound very sensible. We squeeze in what we can.
At least the rain allowed you scope for pictures of flowers with raindrops.
True….every cloud etc etc.
Despite it being a rainy grey day, you found some beautiful content for your lovely post. I enjoyed the glimpse into your day! 😊