Today’s guest picture from my brother Andrew shows what was on the other side of the lake at Locko Park.
It was zero degrees when we got up and -1 when I came to write this post. In between it crept up to +1 in the middle of the day. I didn’t go cycling.
I thought that the chill might bring in more birds and there were a few chaffinches about..
..but not many.
For one reason or another, we had a very lazy morning with a late coffee. Then I made a pot of vegetable soup for lunch and I ate a lunch of soup, bread and cheese. Then, since the sun was shining, I thought that I ought to go for a short walk just to stretch my legs after yesterday’s hilly effort.
It was almost windless and the pool at Pool Corner was a reflection of that state of affairs.
The contrast between the cheerful sun shining through moss on a tree branch…
..and a frozen fence post beside the road to the Auld Stane Brig was very marked.
As a result, I thought that it might be just the sort of day to find hair ice if I knew where to look.
I didn’t find much but there were a couple of really good examples.
I could see the cattle that I had avoided yesterday enjoying the sunshine on Meikleholm Hill across the valley…
…but on the whole, it was too chilly to spend a lot of time looking round so I took a picture of some dilapidated fungus on a tree and headed home.
The reason for the short walk was to make time for a shopping visit to Carlisle to buy supplies to fill up the serious date and prune gap in our storage cupboard. Mrs Tootlepedal took the opportunity to acquire some crochet hooks as she is going to learn to crochet this winter.
I took a couple of pictures of chaffinches before we set off to Carlisle and I got my camera setting badly wrong and wasted this rare opportunity to get a respectable flying bird of the day…
…but I quite liked the pointillist effect that I got by accident.
The sun was still shining when we arrived back in Langholm so before we went home, we drove up to the White Yett to see if we could see anything interesting. The light was pretty mellow as we looked up the Ewes Valley on our way up the hill….
…and it was absolutely gorgeous when we got to the top and looked over the moor towards Tinnis Hill.
We dropped down into the Tarras valley in the hope of seeing some of the wild goats but saw none. Our reward was to see the sun sinking behind the monument as we drove back home…
…well satisfied with our little excursion in spite of the absence of birds.
Although the setting sun made it feel like evening, it was only mid afternoon when we got in and we sat down to a nice cup of tea and a slice or two of sourdough bread which had fallen into our shopping bag while we were out.
Sandy has been hard at work and I put a couple of 1967 Langholm Parish Church magazines, which he has scanned and formatted, into the Archive Group website. I note that 448 people attended the communion services in November 1967 and yet the minister was still inclined to complain about poor church attendance from time to time.
It looks as though we are in for a pretty cool spell of weather in the coming days but with little or no rain about, a good deal more walking than cycling may well occur.
I did manage to get the camera more or less correct on one occasion this morning so there is a flying bird of the day.
Beautiful hair ice, and other photos from your walk. It is cold and clear here, too.
I can put up with the cold if it is clear.
Those frost photos are enchanting!
So Mrs Tootlepedal is to extend her talents even further! I look forward to seeing photos in due course.
Doubtless there will be some.
Hair ice…Amazing photography.
It is interesting stuff.
It’s always interesting to see the hair ice, which I’ve never seen, and the views of and from the hills are always beautiful.
And so is the sunset. What a colorful sky!
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mrs. T. winning blue ribbons for her crocheting before too long.
I don’t think that she is aiming for championship quality just yet, more something to pass the long winter evenings.
I love the photos of the hair ice. I should go shopping tomorrow to see if some sourdough bread falls into my bag. It would go very nicely with the cheese that I already have.
It is hard to stop sourdough loaves jumping out at you. 🙂
My favorite is the view of Ewes Valley, though Tinnis Hill takes a close second. That hair ice is pretty remarkable. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any over here. Do you know what conditions it requires? Come to think of it, I wouldn’t mind some sourdough bread falling into my bag…
You need a specific fungus and just the right balance between freezing and thawing.
In other words, I can’t just plant it here? 😉
No. I can recommend this article for a full discussion of the subject. http://my.ilstu.edu/~jrcarter/ice/hair/
Actually, I thought I was being funny with my response, but I very much want to learn more, so thank you very much for the link! I do appreciate it.
I am sorry for being too serious. 🙂
Thanks, Mr T; I did not know that the spectacular hair ice was fungus related.
Nobody did until quite recently.
What a lovely looking and sounding day
A generally good start to 2019.
Lovely sunny views in the late afternoon.
Loved the flying bird and thanks for finding those examples of hair ice.
Excellent flying birds, and stunning landscapes
The light was wonderful on the hill.
Last January I was walking in the Botanic Garden and saw some hair ice that I had just seen on one of your posts and amazed everyone by knowing what it was! Hopefully, we’ll see it again this year so I can ‘show off’ again! The landscape photos are beautiful.
The hair ice seems to appear in the same place each year here. I hope that you see it again but you need quite specific temperature conditions for it to be at its best.
We are walking in the Botanic Gardens next Friday so I’ll keep my eyes open..thanks again!
for some reason your photos aren’t coming up for me to see. It was freezing over this side too but I did get a short ride in. Will see what tomorrow brings as I don’t like cycling when its icy.
I am sorry about the pictures. They seemed to work for others. I am very reluctant to fall off again in icy conditions so I am being ultra cautious.
The views from the top of White Yett were incredible! I also liked the hair ice and frost on the log photos as well.
A bit of sunshine makes everything look good.