Today”s guest picture comes from our son Tony. Looking through my files I see that I didn’t use this one from his highland holiday earlier in the year. I thought that it should have gone in then so I have put it in now. It shows keen canoeists in Plockton.
We had a pleasant and mostly sunny day and it was filled with interesting things to do. Fortunately they came at a leisurely pace and well spread out.
I started the day with a conversation with a neighbour over the garden fence. As we chatted, blackbirds flew into the rowan tree and munched away on the berries, quite unconcerned about our presence.
After we finished our conversation, I went in and got my other camera out and spent some time recording blackbirds wondering where the berries had gone, checking out the berries that were there…
…and then eating them. It will not be long until they are all gone.
Our neighbour has a rowan with yellow berries and he pointed out that they have not been touched yet. I wonder if the birds just don’t think that they are ripe. Maybe they are not so tasty.
Then it was time for coffee and excellent treacle scones with Dropscone. He has been busy playing golf and visiting his new granddaughter so I hadn’t seen him for some time. It was good to catch up with his news.
When he left, I wandered round the garden doing some dead heading and looking at flowers, both individually…
…and in clumps.
Then, thinking that I had better do something useful while Mrs Tootlepedal was busy at a meeting, I trimmed one of the garden hedges and the hedge along the road.
This should be the last time this year that the hedges need trimming I hope.
On my way back inside, I noticed that a nerine had come out…
…and I watched a sparrow watching a passing insect.
I don’t know if anyone was watching me.
Mrs Tootlepedal came back from her meeting and we had a light lunch.
After lunch, I got my bike out and pedalled quietly round my customary 20 mile Canonbie circuit. Yesterday’s visit to the physiotherapist confirmed previous advice that I shouldn’t cycle up steep hills so I shall continue to pedal along tried and trusted familiar flattish routes. This means that cycling photos will continue to be on the dull side.
I was pleased to finally get a reasonably sharp photo of some clover today. I have been trying and failing all summer so it was only right that the clover should be going over when I finally caught it.
Looking over the Hollows Bridge, there was just the faintest suggestion that leaves are beginning to turn.
Following a previous picture of beech nuts, I took two more shots of beech trees, one on each side of the bridge at the Hollows just to show that almost all our beech trees are heavily laden this year.
I have passed the laughing poodle tree many times this year on my bike rides so I thought that I might record it once again as it always amuses me as I see it.
When I got home, I found Mrs Tootlepedal relaxing after some hard gardening while I had been out.
I had a quick butterfly hunt after I had had a cup of tea and was pleased to find three different kinds on the go, red admiral, painted lady and peacock. I had hoped for a small tortoiseshell as well but had to make up the panel with a plain fly on the sedum.
Crown Princess Margareta has flowered but she has turned her back on her public and I had to wade into the border to get this shot.
I went in and had a shower, and then, while Mrs Tootlepedal was cooking our evening meal, I went out for a short walk. The physiotherapist has said that I should walk as much as I can.
Some dog tooth peltigera lichen appeared on a wall shortly after I set out…
…and my next stop was to look at the bridge over the Becks Burn.
I stopped again at the Auld Stane Brig, the next bridge along, to admire a small garden on the bridge parapet and a lichen jungle on the fence post at the end of the bridge.
I walked back to the town along Gaskells Walk. There were plenty of fine ferns to admire as I walked along. I looked at the front of some…
…and the back of others. This is a buckler fern.
There were fruits as well as ferns.
I finished by walking along the path beside the park wall. I was hoping for more lichen but it hasn’t developed yet or I wasn’t paying enough attention.
I will look again soon.
The day was rounded off by a visit from Mike and Alison and Alison and I played old and new favourites including Telemann, Vivaldi, Marcello and Finger while Mrs Tootlepedal and Mike once again set the world to rights. We may have to check on their methods as things have not improved much as I hoped since they set the world to rights last week.
Among the many blackbirds visiting the ‘birdberry’ tree was this one, who just managed to qualify as the flying bird of the day.
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Lovely to see the peacock. Tell Mrs. Tootlepedal and Mike that we are anxiously waiting for them to set the world to rights.
I will. We all are.
It is hard work. I admire them for keeping at it.
I like your hedges but I have to say that I’m glad I don’t have to trim them anymore. It’s a chore but it’s also satisfying to see a job well done.
Even when the clover is passing it still has that inner light. Maybe even more so.
My favorite of this post is the lichen jungle.
As you know, I like lichen a lot so it is always a bonus when the time of year and the right weather gets them to flourish.
Always delighted to see blackbirds in the rowan tree.
That’s an excellent fly, though I agree a Small Tortoiseshell would have been nice. Painted Ladies and Peacocks, I’ve just been told were number 1 and number 2 in the Butterfly Count this year.
I think that over the whole butterfly season we have had more red admirals than painted ladies.
It’s strange, because we’ve had no peacocks this year but have had several red admirals.
A fine array of butterflies
Your usual excellent range of photographs – and butterflies. That is quite some hedge
It only needed a light trim thank goodness.
The patterns of the ferns are lovely, but oh my, that mossy wall beats it all by a long shot. I have a great fondness for stone walls, and since we have about three in the entire province I am grateful that you share yours!
We have plenty to share. I feel something is lacking in places with no stone walls when I travel.
I like your laughing poodle tree! I always enjoy that mossy wall and your detailed photos of fern and lichen are very good.
Readers are probably in for a lot more fern and lichen pictures as the autumn progresses!
I enjoyed these photos very much, especially the fern with all the sori displayed.
The blackbird in the upper left first panel looks dismayed at finding no berries on that cluster. Or perhaps he has eaten them all, and wondering if he can still manage to fly after such a big meal.
Our nerines have come and gone already.
Looking back at my records, I see that this is round about the usual times for our first nerines to appear. The blackbirds eat the berries very quickly and then fly off to digest them somewhere more sheltered from view.
Our weather has been unusual this year. Many plants are off-kilter in their growing cycles.
How lovely! I’ve never seen our gulls kayaking here! 😉
These were definitely sporting birds.
Cool shot of the sparrow watching the bee. And I’m still loving your bird and berry shots!
Your flat route photos are completely satisfactory. Still I wonder, for your own amusement, if someday an electric bike could zip you up the steep hills and then return to manual pedaling in the flat. I don’t know how they work, though. True confession, I don’t even know how to ride a bike.
I love the bird wondering where the berries have gone, and the bird and insect photo is excellent.
An electric bike will doubtless arrive in the course of time.