As well as seeing beautiful river scenes, Bruce has also met St Aidan of Lindisfarne on his Northumberland break, and his statue is the guest picture of the day.
There was an infernal racket in the garden this morning and anyone who extols the calming and peaceful nature of bird song has obviously not heard young starlings asking to be fed.
It was raucous.
And sometimes the parents looked fed up with the demands for food.
Young starlings grow quickly but they don’t develop the patterned feathers of the adult so it was easy to tell that this was a youngster waiting for a grown up to appear…
…which it did in short order, carrying a beakful of worms…
…which were gratefully received.
I took a look at the burgeoning clematis flowers along the garage…
…and went off to help Mrs Tootlepedal distribute the wood chips that we collected yesterday on to the vegetable garden paths.
We laid down an impermeable lining and then added the chippings. The result looked quite satisfactory.
There are more chips to be collected and more paths to be covered so it is ongoing work.
Beside the back fence, a small wild area added colour….
…while further along, a transplanted clematis has flowered to Mrs Tootlepedal’s delight.
I had a wander round, passing my favourite astantias…
…and noting the first flowers on the wiegela…
…before stopping to check on the azalea which has been badly affected by lack of rain.
The recent wet weather has encouraged it to open some of its buds after all and…
…as it is due to keep raining for some days, all may not be lost.
The waxy leaves of lupins and hostas held the evidence.
The clematis by the front door is beginning to look a bit bedraggled so I took a picture of it while it is still looking stunning.
Mrs Tootlepedal is easing the frost bitten but recovering fuchsia out of the greenhouse day be day..
…and I hope to see it in position in the garden soon.
When I had finished wandering, I set about doing a little more shifting and sieving of the compost in Bin C. The sieved bits are looking good.
It was reasonably warm in the garden and there were threats of rain but it kept dry for the morning and only started to rain in earnest as we left to drive to Lockerbie to catch the train to Edinburgh.
The train was even later than usual but as one disgruntled passenger pointed out as we arrived at Waverley Station 28 minutes late, this was two minutes too early for us to be able to claim part of the fare back. Ah well. And it was pouring with rain when we got out of the station so it was not our finest travelling day.
Matilda was in excellent form when we arrived. Mrs Tootlepedal was particularly welcomed as she is making a dress for Matilda to wear at a school performance and had brought her measuring tape with her to get the size right. After the measuring had been done, we played Go Fish and Beggar My Neighbour with Matilda and all I can say is that I didn’t catch many fish and I was utterly beggared by both Matilda and Mrs Tootlepedal. I have always had characteristically bad luck at cards.
The journey home was delayed too and it was still raining as we drove home so it was good to get back to a warm, dry house.
The flying bird of the day is one of the starlings returning to our neighbour’s holly tree where they are roosting.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
I throw some of my pink pellets directly on the ground. I definitely know what the sound of young starlings clamouring for food sounds like! There is one parent (mother I presume) trying to feed three or four of them at a time. All she’s doing is picking up bits of pellet and popping them in the mouths of the youngster. I’m not sure whether the latter are being thick or lazy.
They are just children and will take what they can get without lifting a finger if they can get away with it.
Sorry about the trains and the card games! Loved that recovering fuchsia and the chip covered paths, very elegant.
The vegetable garden looks inviting and easy to work in, which is how all vegetable gardens should look, in my opinion.
The azalea looks like our native azalea (Rhododendron prinophyllum.) Ours is very fragrant and the blossoms hairy on their reverse.
You’ve got fantastic clematis over every door, it seems. They’re beautiful.
The back door clematis has been good value for years. The front door one, although it has wonderful flowers, will never attain the same glory.
The aim is to get the veg garden to be as manageable as possible.
The clematis along the garage is glorious! Though they are noisy and boisterous, I can’t help liking starlings.
I like starlings too. They are very lively birds.
VERY GOOD!
Thank you.
Chips are looking good. Sorry about the train delay and rain, but the garden no doubt enjoyed the latter.
We once bought a chipper. Gave it up as a bad ideas as our wood is Ash which when dry is hard as nails. Your paths are wonderful.
The chips come from a pile left by the road maintenance men when they had chipped small trees and bushes by the main road.
I do like the starling photo story. I bet the train driver gets a bonus for that saved 2 minutes
Not from the passengers!
🙂
The paths look good in the vegetable patch and all the netting looks set to keep birds at bay. Hope the slugs stay away too. Not so many starlings around now as there used to be so I’m beginning to like them!
The gardens are looking better than ever with the addition of the wood chips to the paths, and the flowers are looking good too despite how dry it’s been there! I hope that Mrs. T allows for how fast Matilda is growing.
It is needed in a few weeks so we are hoping that the measurements will still be OK but you make a good point.
Love the Starling series, lots of hungry juvenile birds everywhere!
It is a busy time of year.
That is some fine looking sifted compost.
We are pleased with it.