Today’s guest picture is a further report from Tony’s Highland holiday. He has been to the Isle of Skye.
A lot of my posts recently seem to have been done late at night and in rather a rush, not helped by my computer behaving in a grumpy manner and frequently holding things up. This one is no exception so I apologise for any dodgy photos and grammatical infelicities. I am tired.
A couple of readers have asked for more general garden shots. I leaned out of upstairs windows this morning and had a look about.
The front lawn has had a dose of my moss eating treatment so it looks a bit patchy but the beds round it are quite colourful at the moment.
I couldn’t get a view of the whole of the middle lawn because the plum tree gets in the way but the grass is better on it and I like the combination of shrubs and flowers in the right hand bed.
This is a view from one lawn to the other across the pond.
General views are all very well but who could pass roses and peonies like these without taking a picture?
And even in their passing, the peonies are full of interest.
Our neighbour Liz brought her great nephew into the garden to walk over the pond bridge and I was able to point out a frog basking in the sunshine to him as he crossed.
In return, he told me that he had seen fish swimming in the dam, so I went out to have a look. He was right.
I had time to mow the middle lawn before we set off in the Zoe for an outing.
The chief business of the day was our customary trip to Edinburgh, but instead of going to Lockerbie as usual, we went to Tweedbank to catch a train on the Borders Railway. One of the reasons for the change of route was that it let us visit the lost property office of the Border Bus Company in Galashiels on the way. Some careless fellow had left his cap on the bus to Carlisle when we went to London recently and it had been returned to Galashiels where I picked it up today. The cap fitted so I wore it.
The route up to Edinburgh from Tweedbank is delightful on a sunny day, and it was certainly very sunny today. Although the farmers weren’t making hay as the sun shone, they were certainly cutting a lot of silage.
We did a little shopping when we got to Edinburgh, and then we sat on the top deck of a bus as we went down to see Matilda. We were in the front seats and got a good view of a bit of Edinburgh of the past…
…and a bit of Edinburgh to come.
As it was such a lovely day, Matilda was keen to visit the park again. The road to the park is called Butterfly Way so it was good to see an actual butterfly on the way to the park.
The park was busy and Mrs Tootlepedal and Matilda had to take avoiding action when a cyclist came towards them.
Not everyone was busy though, and we saw this duck having a snooze in the middle of the loch.
We arrived safely at the little pier at the end of the Loch and were able to see water birds of all sorts.
And we noticed that coots have very big feet….
….as do moorhens.
Mallard’s feet are more in keeping with the size of their bodies.
Mrs Tootlepedal tells me that the coots and moorhens need big feet not just for swimming but to support themselves when they are wading over mud and marsh.
Matilda had a lot of fun on the adventurous climbing frame, the roundabout and a swing, and then was given some bread by a kind lady to feed the birds. She found that gulls are very rude and greedy birds.
A magpie turned up after all the food was gone and looked a bit put out.
After plenty of fun all round, we returned home and played a couple of games of Go Fish. I won’t tell you who won because it will just make Mrs Tootlepedal and Matilda big headed. I didn’t cry though.
After another delicious meal cooked for us by Alistair and Clare, it was time to head for home on a very comfortable and punctual train. The days are so long now and the weather was so good today, that it was still light when we arrived back at ten o’clock.
There was no time for a flying bird today. A picture of Matilda having a standing up straight competition with a lamppost takes its place.
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The gardens look beautiful as always. I’ve always liked the idea of garden rooms.
It looks like both Matilda and the city are growing quickly.
I’m glad you had another beautiful sunny summer day. It’s getting hot here with temps expected to reach 90 degrees F. tomorrow.
The garden in general view looks better when you are in it than it does in photographs I think. It is not an out and out flower garden and it is the combination of flower colours with the surrounding foliage which makes it such a peaceful and relaxing place to be in my opinion
That makes sense.
Matilda is getting tall. She’s very pretty. 🙂
Thank you HJ.
Lovely to see Matilda! Also lovely to see folk in shirtsleeves. Our days are very short and exceeding brisk at the moment.
This has been a spell of few genuine summer days and very welcome. We don’t like to think of winter!
Loved that frog and glad you got your cap back.
Entertaining as ever. I think the occasional panoramic shot puts the close-ups in perspective. Good ones from your window. I can’t lean out of mine – they are, I think, Everest and can’t be opened fully. Excellent waterfowl pics
Ours were put in by a local joiner and work well when shouting into the garden is required.
Thanks for sharing the garden views. You do have a busy life.
My business only takes up a small portion of each day. There is a lot of sitting around too.
Wonderful picture of Matilda! She’s giving that lamppost some stiff competition ;).
She is going to dance classes which help with posture.
Looks like she’s a natural! A mighty girl!
Lovely general views of garden and lovely picture of Matilda.
The wide view of the garden looks really lovely and it’s good to see the individual flowers that make up the whole! Looks like a great deal of building going on in Edinburgh- hope it doesn’t spoil the ‘old’ part.
The cranes are hard at working building a replacement for an unloved an ugly modern insertion into the city but there is no guarantee that the new building will be any less ugly. We shall see.
The perfect stand-in for the flying bird of the day!
🙂
The Isle of Skye was one place my mother really wanted to visit. Sadly, she never got the opportunity to go. She passed away 12 years ago.
It looks like a beautiful summer day in Scotland. Thank you for posting the basking frog. 🙂
It was my most favourite place that I ever visited. I’m not all that well traveled, but still. It is been in my mind with lovely memories quite often since I was there…..over forty years ago.
I loved the garden overviews, as always.