Crowd scene

Today’s guest picture from our son Tony shows the East Wemyss dogs enjoying their day in the sun beside the Firth of Forth.

We had a pretty nice day here too, although a chilly wind reminded us that we still have some way to go before jumpers and coats can be light heartedly discarded.

Still, it was a treat to cycle to church in the sunshine and a selection of good hymns and an interesting address on the subject of ‘wheat and wine’ made for a good service.

We are just about at peak daffodil in the garden now and I took this picture of the middle lawn surrounded by them when we got back from church.

Mrs Tootlepedal has a good variety of different daffodils on show and the six below are by no means all that we have.

On the other hand, the lawn itself, although it may not look too bad in the picture above, is in a very poor state, full of both moss and lichen…

…with not a lot of grass about.

I averted my eyes from the lawn and enjoyed the flowers.  The grape hyacinths are getting very blue….

…and one of the perennial wallflowers has produced its first flowers.

Fritillaries have arrived in the back border and may well be candidates for the mirror treatment in the course of time.

Mrs Tootlepedal likes the matching colours of this flower and the shrub behind it…

…and I like the little flowers themselves.

I went for a very short walk to take a picture of our friend Mike’s cherry tree as this may be its last year in his garden and on the way, I admired our neighbour Hector’s flowering currant….

…and having taken the picture of the  cherry (I was late and it is just past its best as far as colour goes)…

…I took this picture of our neighbour Liz’s forsythia.

We are fortunate to be surrounded by so much colour at no expense to ourselves!

On our lawn a jackdaw looked round, doubtless wondering who had taken all the wool mulch away from the flowerbeds.

The other jackdaws have taken it all.

At the feeder, there were plenty of siskins, some waiting for a spare perch…

…and others dropping in as soon as there was an opportunity.

Such was the pressure on the sunflower hearts that occasionally a siskin would try the peanuts.

I was happy to see a brambling, but once again, only one came.

After lunch, we went off to sing with our Carlisle Choir.  We combined the visit with a little shopping where Mrs Tootlepedal acquired a few more plants for the garden while I stocked up on coffee beans and cheese.

At the choir, our proper conductor was back after two weeks off and we had an excellent practice.  I enjoy all the songs that we are singing which helps.

I made a sausage stew when we got home and while it was cooking, I went out for a short walk in some lovely evening light (we have an extra hour on our hands in the evening now).  I noticed a new little blue flower in the back border….

…and then I left the garden and walked past the church….

…and down to the river where I found a gathering of about 30 oyster catchers.

They were lined up along the edge of the Esk and I couldn’t get them all into one shot.

One of them stood out though.

The river was in shadow and it was too late in the evening to get a satisfactory flying bird of the day picture when the birds took off for short hops along the bank…

…but I still quite liked this impressionistic view as a group headed for the suspension bridge.

The sausage stew turned out well and a little gentle telly watching rounded off the day.

A horizontal and streamlined goldfinch with its eye on the prize is the flying bird of the day.