Today’s guest picture comes from our son Alistair, and shows his daughter Matilda in the nice new dress which her Granny has made for her.
No prizes for guessing the theme of the performance.
We had much better weather today which was very welcome, but it turned out that I had lost a filling from my sore tooth so I had a quiet morning entertaining Dropscone to coffee while Mrs Tootlepedal went to off to Hawick on business. Our local duke is selling the Langholm moor and there is interest in a community buy out for at least some of the land and Mrs Tootlepedal was meeting an expert in community land matters.
Dropscone had brought treacle scones so I was happy to stay at home and eat them (carefully). Following his golf buggy accident, it turns out that Dropscone has broken three ribs so he was taking things quietly too and trying not to laugh too much.
Before he came, I had walked round the garden to see what was going on and I couldn’t ignore Mrs Tootlepedal’s Sweet Williams which are strategically placed all round the place.
They are all pretty peppy but this is the peppiest.
The bees are still very busy on the chives which must provide an endless stock of pollen for them.
Away from the flower garden, I was interested to see the first flowers on the potatoes…
…and some promising looking beans.
After Dropscone left, with a little rhubarb to speed him on his way, I settled down for a rest and the crossword, keeping my free hand on the remote lead for the camera on its tripod at the window.
Siskins were about, eating messily and scattering good seed on the ground.
Sometimes they waited in the wings…
…and sometimes they got impatient…
…but the sparrows paid them no heed.
Mrs Tootlepedal got back safely from Hawick, full of good advice, and I made some soup for lunch.
After lunch, I sieved the last of the compost from Bin C and put the residue into Bin D. Then, as I was in full composting mode, I turned the contents of Bin A ,which was full, into Bin B, which was empty. The opposite is now the case…
…although a morsel of green waste found its way into Bin A later on.
When I was finished, I had a look around and found the the sunnier day had opened out an anemone which had been shut up against the rain and cold for the last few days.
A bee was trying to cheer up a melancholy thistle.
A Rodgersia has come out in the back border.
And the roses were appreciating the dry, warmer weather as much as we were.
Men are coming to replace our aged and decrepit electricity pole next week so I helped Mrs Tootlepedal move a rose which had been growing up the stay wire for the pole. We stuck a temporary pole in the flower bed, untied the stem from the stay and bent it back and tied it to the new pole.
We hope that there will be a new stay to tie it back onto when the pole work is finished.
The red peonies are almost over but the white and pink ones are still refusing to show themselves, perhaps as baffled by the odd weather as we are, but there are signs of hope.
I had a last check on the lupins and found another busy bee there…
…and then went off to the dentist.
My usual dentist doesn’t work on a Friday so I was seen by the other dentist in our surgery, a very nice lady whom I had not met before. I had been able to get an emergency appointment and I was hoping that she would give me a temporary filling for my tooth until I could see my regular man.
Things didn’t quite turn out like that though. She peered at my tooth and whistled gently in a concerned sort of way, and then suggested that I might like her to extract it. She had such a kindly manner that I agreed and before I knew it, I was a tooth short. Modern dentistry means that tooth extraction is a painless and relatively swift affair but even modern dentistry can’t stop your face hurting as the anaesthetic wears off so I spent the next few hours being very quiet.
Things are still a bit sore as I write this in the evening but I am hoping that all will be well by tomorrow morning and I will be able to get out on my fully serviced bike for a ride.
The flying bird of the day is a sparrow, rushing to get into the frame on time. It nearly made it.
Sorry about the tooth. Extractions are odd. As you say, they are relatively painless. Despite that I felt as though I’d been assaulted and was quite sorry for myself. Thank you for the photo of Matilda in her dress. It is, as expected, beautifully crafted and equally well modelled. I am puzzled, though, about how Matilda turned 14 so soon! Yikes.
It is a puzzle to us all. I an still feeling a bit sorry for myself as far as my mouth goes.
Matilda is growing up so fast. She was only a baby when I started following your blog, which seems like a few months back. She looks delightful in that pretty dress. (I get in first.)
Ah. I see I didn’t.
Bad luck.
I am surprised how quickly time passes these days.
Poor Dropscone, I’ve been in the same boat. There’s no easy way out of broken ribs.
Matilda’s new dress looks like it might be good to spin in but I don’t know plays or musicals well enough to know which one would make her spin.
I hope the tooth stops throbbing. I’ve been there too.
I too have broken a few ribs in my time so I was very sympathetic.
The dark-leaved sweet william is one of your best photos to my mind.
They are punchy little flowers.
Sorry about the tooth, thanks for the picture of Matilda showing off her new dress. The rushing sparrow is well named.
What a lovely picture of Matilda in her new dress.
Splendid colour; well captured bees; sorry about the tooth; as for “waiting in the wings”!!
You have to take these chances when they come.
My favourite is the busy bee in the lupins – a beautiful photograph.
As I like bees and lupins this was doubly fun for me.
Can’t tell you how happy I am to have gotten rid of the second set of teeth for ten years now. No toothache ever as me and my teeth have taken to sleep separately.
A good cause Mrs. T is following there. I hold fingers crossed for sucess.
I too have separate teeth sleeping quietly in a glass overnight but I have a few left and it is one of these that has let me down.
Oh, that Matilda is so very cute in her pretty dress. Sorry about the tooth. Increasingly, my mouth has many gaps between teeth, and I expect the day will come when, like Zyriacus, I have a second set of teeth. And, yes, good luck to Mrs. Tootlepedal and her group.
I am nearly with Zyriacus but still have one or two originals left.
Lovely to see the photo of the dress and the grand daughter- both delightful. Love the lupin and the bee photo!
As I like both bees and lupins this was a double delight for me.
Matilda’s dress is delightful. Still hoping the tooth situation quits being a bother.
Must be a very cute Dorothy?
I almost turned some compost today but did not as another project called to me. So I live vicariously through your most satisfactory compost photo.
Can there be anything more important than compost? Surely not.
Mrs. T did a fantastic job with Matilda’s costume! Sorry to hear about the tooth loss, Tom. I can sympathize with that as I’m still in the process of waiting for the completion of an implant that began back in November. They make it sound so easy in the tv commercials.
It is like car advertisements, there is never another car on the road in them.
Matilda is so cute