A day of two halves

Today’s guest picture comes from my friend Sharon, world famous as the mother of flute playing Luke, who has been spending a few days in Germany.  She didn’t tell me where she was staying.

We had a grey, gloomy morning and I was very happy to put it to use with some creative lounging about, a little coffee, some computer work and the occasional look out of the window.

A coal tit was a welcome sight.

There were very few sparrows today and we got a good crop of goldfinches instead.  Some of them were not fully developed…

…but were quite capable of unseemly rowdiness….

…but mostly, co-operative behaviour was the order of the day.

After lunch, Mrs Tootlepedal went out to the first Embroiderers’ Guild meeting of the season and I did a little harmless gardening…and looking around.

I dead headed the dahlias…

…and was pleasantly surprised to see a good number of red admiral butterflies on the small buddleia.

The red admirals have taken over from the peacocks as our most frequent butterfly visitors.

The new bench under the kitchen window has proved very attractive to some nasturtiums needing a sit down.

When I checked Mary Jo’s scientific rain gauge this evening, it had registered 4 cm or 1.5 inches which reflected the mixture of sunshine and showers through the week.  The garden has kept its colour and the fruit is being very fruitful.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that the first frost doesn’t come too soon.

The weather looked as though it might not be too bad and it was warm at 15° C so I put my cycling gear on and went for a pedal.  It was quite breezy and with the threat of more rain, I was prepared to skulk about in the valley bottom going up and down to Wauchope Schoolhouse three times.  However, when I got to the schoolhouse for the first time, the sky had brightened up a lot so instead of turning back, I kept on and did the 20 mile Canonbie circuit.

Looking back from the top of the hill, I could see the discouraging black clouds over Whita…

…but ahead of me, all was sunny.

On my trip, I saw two fine toadstools…

…new trees coming out of tubes (landowners have to plant a few deciduous trees when they put in monoculture  coniferous plantations)….

…another outstanding cow…

…and much else which I didn’t photograph.

When I got home, the sun was still out and it looked like too good and evening to waste so while Mrs Tootlepedal did the accounts arising from her meeting (she is the treasurer), I went for a walk.

My intention was to go up the road past Pool Corner…

…walk past Wauchope Graveyard…

…where the trees are winning the long term battle against the stones….

…and then cross the Auld Stane Brig and walk back through the woods along Gaskell’s Walk.  For the second time today, I altered my route plan because it was such a nice evening and turned up the hill before crossing the Auld Stane Brig so that I could look back down on it….

…and then I crossed the Becks Burn instead.

I walked through the wood that was felled earlier this year.

The scene in February

…but already new growth is to be seen on every side…

…and from being an airless, dark and fairly sterile wood, it is now a green and pleasant place for a walk on a sunny September evening.

The Estate have reinstated the path and made sure that the old wooden bridge is still accessible to cross the burn.

I saw a few patches of colour in the verges and in the old wood as I walked along.

Soon after I had crossed the bridge, my camera battery expired so I resorted to my phone for the last picture from my second delightful evening walk on successive days.  We can put up with gloomy mornings if we get evenings like this.

Some of the plums from our tree have been magicked into a plum crumble by Mrs Tootlepedal and we ate that for afters at our evening meal, garnished with custard.  It rounded off a day that ended a lot better than it began.

A different flying bird of the day picture today with a sparrow trying to get a look in among the goldfinches.