Today’s guest picture is another from Venetia’s Namibian adventure. She came across one of their famous two headed giraffes and sent me this shot. It may have more legs than the usual giraffe too.
Our sunny weather came to an end today and we had grey skies and rather chillier temperatures but it remained dry so we didn’t have much to complain about at at all.
After breakfast, I noticed a red poll on our feeder…
…and I also noted that not all the birds who come to our garden visit the feeder. Some just lurk about on trees and bushes like this blackbird and these starlings.
I had to act as fill-in feeder filler for Sandy who was visiting his grandchildren and Mrs Tootlepedal came up to the Moorland Project bird hide with me to help. We filled the feeders and then, while she scanned the hillside opposite the bird hide for signs of raptors (in vain), I sat in the hide and hoped for woodpeckers (also in vain).
There were a lot of great tits about…
…and colourful pheasants as usual…
…but mostly there were chaffinches in large numbers.
We didn’t stay there long as the light wasn’t very good and it was chilly but instead of going straight home, we parked the car not far away and walked down towards the River Tarras to see how the repairs to the road were going.
In December 2105, the road suffered from a landslip in a big storm…
…and the council has just got round to repairing it three and a bit years later.
It is a big job, requiring endless visits from quarry lorries…
…and they are of course damaging the surfaces of many of the roads over which they travel on the way to the site.
In the picture above, the compression of distance caused by the camera lens doesn’t show that the old road stops where the brown surface ends and they have cut away the banking below by a huge amount.
You can see the line of the old road on the right of the picture below and it gives some idea of the scale of the work needed for the repair.
How they are going to join the road back up to its original course defies my imagination. I shall be interested to follow the work as it progresses.
While we were walking along the road to and from the works, we saw a great many hazel catkins and I said to Mrs Tootlepedal that there might be hazel flowers too if we looked closely.
We looked closely.
They were were hard to see but once we got our eye in, we could see dozens of them.
As we left the work site, the keen eyed Mrs Tootlepedal spotted another blotch of red and thought that it was discarded orange peel. A second look showed that it was a scarlet elf cap (Sarcoscypha coccinea), a fungus that likes damp spots and leaf litter.
Further up the road, she stopped to look at a tree and I pointed out that if she looked down at her feet she would see another twenty elf cups all around.
She was impressed.
What with the excitement of seeing the road works, the elf cups and the hazel flowers, we forgot about the absence of raptors and woodpeckers and arrived home in time for coffee in a very cheerful mood.
The frogs had left the pond so I looked around for flowers. Some hellebores keep their heads up in a helpful way….
…but others call for crouching.
Fresh primroses are blooming.
Once we got inside and started on our coffee, I was able to enjoy some busy scenes at the feeder.
A siskin took a moment to survey the scene from the top of the feeder pole…
…while down below, it was all action in siskin world.
It was good to see a dozen siskins at the feeder today, the most we have seen this year.
I made some soup for lunch while Mrs Tootlepedal considered the business of making a patchwork rug for the rocking horse. She has time to do this because the crochet blanket has now been finished.
It has provided a very welcome distraction during the long winter nights.
Then it was time to go to Edinburgh and see Matilda. We had our usual enjoyable time and another good evening meal before catching the train home. Matilda told us that she would like to come and visit us for a change so I hope that this can be arranged in the not too distant future.
The flying bird of the day is a chaffinch who posed more carefully than any of the siskins.
The elf cups were a good find and it’s great to see the hazel flowers. I wish they were all in my yard so I could get a close look.
The road repairs are confusing as you say. Maybe they will re-direct the road. 3 years waiting has even our road crews beat.
The hellebores and primroses are beautiful and so is Mrs. T.s blanket. I wondered what she’d do on the edges.
She was wondering whether the extra work on the edges would be necessary but now that she has done it, she is glad.
Love the little scarlet elf cups, awesome find! The primrose is gorgeous, they bring back memories of the many I had 15+ years ago. Tell Mrs T her blanket is beautiful, and looks similar to one of the many that my mom crocheted me. 🙂
I will.
I would love to find an elf cup! I must remember to go and look to see if we have any hazel flowers yet. I liked the photo of the siskin on the feeder pole and admire the cosy blanket Mrs T has made,
There are hazel flowers all around here now. I second your enjoyment of the siskin and the blanket.
Good to see the finished blanket, a work of art no less. Loved all those pictures of Spring in your garden, so colourful.
Congratulations on the colourful blanket.
Those road works look very challenging.
Elf cups are new to me. Thanks for the intro
They look so like discarded orange peel that they are easy to miss.
Those elf cups are so pretty and vivid. Three years is a very long time to wait for a major road repair. Hope Matilda comes to see you soon.
The elf cups are fun. I hoped to see more today but there were none about where I was.
Good to see the finished blanket- it’s brilliant and a proper heirloom. Pheasants are so colourful and under appreciated really- they must have the brightest patterned feathers in the UK (? ) .
I think you may be right about both things.
Hazelnut flowers are beautiful, even though they are tiny. The snow is starting to melt here. I should take a walk through the grove out back and look for our own hazelnut blooms.
Mrs. T has done a fine job on the blanket. Her energy that goes into all her projects is an inspiration.
I hope you can find the hazel flowers.
Well done, Mrs. T! The blanket looks spectacular! I was interested to read about the road repairs, Tom. It does seem as though the cure is causing more problems than the original complaint.
I am awaiting developments with interest.
Perhaps you could give some directions to the council workers on the road. I’m sure they would be grateful for the input.
The blanket is looking good.
The blanket turned out beautifully.
We’ve had big trucks with huge rocks going through our small town to repair an ocean jetty. It’s been noisy and some say it has caused vibrational damage to some old buildings.