Today’s guest picture comes from our neighbour Gavin who is on a visit to some Scottish islands. He looked over the water to see the Paps of Jura. In my distant youth I ran in a fell race that went right over the tops of those hills. It was very hard work.
It was an all singing (but no dancing) day today and it set the pattern for Sundays for the next few months with the Langholm Parish Church Choir in the morning and the Carlisle Community Choir in the afternoon. It was just a pity that it was also fine and pretty calm so from a cycling point of view, it was a wasted day.
Still, it was good to cycle the few hundred yards to church in bright sunlight. We said farewell to Scott our minister. It was his last service before leaving to take up a post in Glasgow and he will be missed.
There was no choir practice so we had enough time to do a bit of gardening after the service and while Mrs Tootlepedal toiled, I did dead heading and some shredding….and looked about.
The chilly mornings lately have stopped the grass growing so I had time to spare to stare.
The garden was alive with butterflies with both buddleias pulling their weight…
…and many other plants offering attractions too. Oddly, the sedum hasn’t pulled a single butterfly or bee in yet…
…although it looks quite inviting to me.
The Michaelmas daisies were literally covered with bees.
Some flowers had found the chilly morning too much for them but a lot survived more or less well.
And the star of them all was a dahlia.
I went in and made some potato soup for my lunch and watched the birds while it cooked.
Daddy sparrow supervised the children on the mixed seed feeder…
..and Blue and Great Tits took sunflower hearts off to peck at in the plum tree.
Chaffinches leapt from the sunflower behind the feeder onto spare perches in the shade…
…while a little later on, a goldfinch enjoyed sunbathing.
A jackdaw gave me a sideays look.
We had to go early to the choir to help give out and take in music at the start of the session. Our new conductor was very impressed by the efficiency of the system. This term, we have all been given lanyards with our names on. This is to help members to remember who they are.
Our new conductor made an excellent start. She is full of pep, knows her singing, has a great sense of humour and is very encouraging so all should go well.
We were able to buy a DVD recording of our last concert with Andrew, our old conductor and I put it on our DVD player when we got back with a great deal of trepidation. I had two areas of concern. One was the fact that I was standing in the front row near the conductor so I hoped that the video wouldn’t show me making faces or scratching my nose. This turned out all right and both Mrs Tootlepedal and I appeared fully committed and singing cheerfully whenever the camera rested on us.
The other concern was what the choir was going to sound like. This turned out well too as we sounded well prepared and pretty musical so the DVD will be a good memento of the very enjoyable years under Andrew’s direction.
Mrs Tootlepedal had made the slow cooked stew in the morning and it turned out very well. With the addition of some home grown potatoes and marrow, it rounded a very satisfactory day off well.
The flying bird of the day came out of the shade of the sunflower.
Oh my word – the things we do in our youth!
I would love to be able to them still…..ah well.
I used to be able to get up hills quickly too but not hills like those. They look high and steep.
Those are great shots of the butterflies and bees, but of course my favorite has to be that dahlia. It’s a beautiful thing.
I didn’t say that I got up them quickly. I was never near the front in a hill race but I enjoyed them all the same.
I’ve never raced up a hill.
I wouldn’t call most of my efforts ‘racing’. They were more like ‘staggering’.
You don’t mention your throat so I hope it stood up to all that singing. loved the picture of the mother bird with her two children.
Not too bad.
Where can we get a copy of that DVD?
I’ll bring one down.
I also liked the bird and babies photo…good parenting across the species 🙂
Isn’t it strange to see yourself on video! A relief it looked and sounded good.
It is not a very pleasant experience so it was a relief to find that I wasn’t doing something embarrassing.
I, too, liked the photo of the bird and babies. Great that the video came out so well. As for going over those “hills” in your younger years…Wowsah! Hats off.
It was a very slow experience. Apart from the amount of climb, the going under foot was treacherous.
I am sure of that! Wowsah!
love your guest photo. have kayaked up there lots of times and cycled too
It is a fabulous part of the country.
Goodness those are some high hills! Love the flower photos especially that pretty dahlia. Lots of butterflies today in my garden as it’s warmed up..none on the sedum – all on the fallen apples- very bizarre! Photographers don’t usually like their photos being taken – much worse though when it’s a video. Relief for you that it all came out well.
It is curious that your sedum is not in demand as well as ours. I haven’t seen a butterfly on our fallen apples. I will have to check on that.
All of your images of the flowers are a cut above today, I don’t know how you were able to choose the dahlia over the others.
I also don’t know how you were able to run up and down those hills, even when younger. I’d have been plodding my way over them racing with snails even in my youth.
That sounds like my method.
Those look like impressive mountains for fell racing. In my own distant youth, there was a hill near my home that was a mile all the way to the top. That hill was on my practice runs.
That is an lovely jackdaw portrait and FBOTD. Your gardens still have plenty of color, too.
They were some of the toughest I encountered in my brief career as a slow athlete.
I’m thinking a lanyard with my name to help remember who I am might come in handy! I enjoyed the bird shots today, particularly the parent overseeing the youngsters. You do have quite a bit of happy birds visiting it seems. I finally hung up a hummingbird feeder yesterday and had our first customer this morning. Perhaps, if I ever get the trip photos posted, I’ll have some of the resident hummingbird to show off.
We have a regular all the year round supply of birds with some specialist winter visitors still to come.