Today’s guest picture comes from my flute pupil Luke’s mother Sharon. She has been on Orkney where she visited the chapel built by Italian POWs on the shell of a Nissen hut.
We had a better day today but to make up for the lack of rain, the temperature had dropped a bit and it was still windy.
The cooler weather had not discouraged butterflies and there were several red admirals about…
…and the occasional peacock too.
I noticed that one of Mrs Tootlepedal’s runner beans, planted among the flowers along the vegetable garden fence is producing a good crop.
The effort of riding the borrowed bike into a strong wind a couple of days ago had given me a sore knee, a very common complaint when you ride a bike with a slightly different riding position to your normal steed. The rest yesterday had improved things a lot so I took the opportunity of the dry weather to test my knee with a short ride on my own bike.
Apart from having to battle with a brisk wind again, things went very well, and I managed 10 miles without any knee trouble at all.
I stopped to admire a fungus beside the road, and if you wonder what was admirable about it….
…it was the size that attracted my attention.
When I got home, I looked longingly at some ripe plums on a very top branch on the plum tree, well out or reach. The birds will have to enjoy them.
I mowed the front lawn and got a good lot of grass off it.
It has been a good year for grass but the cosmos, which came out just as the weather turned very wet, have generally not enjoyed themselves at all.
The various clematis have had a good year…
…and crocosmia and poppies are lasting well.
After lunch, we went to Edinburgh to visit Matilda, and as well as the usual games, we introduced her to the delights of Clock Patience. She impressed us by being able to say all the clock face numbers in Gaelic.
We had a lot of fun and the usual excellent meal and came home tired but content.
The flying bird of the day is a bee flitting about among the nicotiana.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
For absolute precision, what is your shoe size please?
Size 10….just about a foot. 🙂
That would be handy for measuring, here.
How lucky you are to be able to hop on a train and go up or down to see your grandchildren!
It does need twenty miles of driving before we can hop but the roads are quiet so it is not too bad.
Bi-lingual Matilda! She is such a clever girl! The clematis photo is gorgeous.
She is going to a Gaelic school as her parents think knowing a second language can only be a good thing.
They are right, of course.
Goodness me, it is a long time since I played clock patience. I am impressed by Matilda’s language skills.
That’s a big mushroom!
I thought so myself.
Glad your knee trouble did not persist.
The birds will be grateful for those plums
I hope so.
That is some fungus! And, yes, wonderful that a train ride will take you to your grandchildren.
I enjoy train travel, even if it is often a bit late.
Me, too, even if it isn’t as easy for me as it is for you. Hoping that the trains will come back!
Nicotiana? Anything to do with nicotine? I’m afraid I am no gardener.
I don’t know. I’m no gardener either. 🙂
It’s called “flowering tobacco”. That all I’ve got for knowledge without a google.
Hope you are keeping up with the Gaelic! Good to see the butterflies are still around. Those plums look delicious- I’d get a ladder out!
The branches are so criss-crossed that it is hard to get a ladder up to the top of the tree, let alone find someone to climb up it.
That is a sizeable mushroom. There is one here called a king bolete that can get into that size range.
Children grow up so fast. I am glad you are able to make time to see Matlida.
She is a busy girl so it is a bit the other way round.
My Grandma taught me how to play clock patience when I was a child. It was always the one that I had the most difficulty in getting out on.
We played a lot when we were young and hardly ever got it out.