Dry run

Today’s guest picture is another from my brother’s Spanish jaunt and shows the very impressive public library in Gijon.  They obviously take libraries seriously there.

We had another rainy day today but by way of a change after yesterday’s drizzle, today we had several sharp showers with breaks in between, and even an occasional ray of sunshine.

I had to go to the health centre for a blood test before breakfast and unfortunately this outing coincided with probably the sharpest shower of the day.  Luckily I am well supplied with large brollies from my golfing days so I managed to get there and back without getting too wet and enjoyed a late breakfast when I got home.

When the rain stopped I went out to see the flowers.  Crown Princess Margareta looked a bit depressed by the rain and who can blame her.

A passer by yesterday gave it as his opinion that the time for garden tidying was upon us, but there are still a lot of flowers on the go.  After coffee, I went out for another look and they lit up the gloom this morning.

Both in colour and in white.

But all the same, I spent quite a lot of time indoors looking out to see whether it was still raining.  There was a lot to see through the kitchen window.

There was a rare visit from a chaffinch to the plum trip.

I thought that we might have a one legged robin in the garden…

…but when it hopped off the kerb onto the the drive, it showed it was bipedal…

…and took a bow beside one of our many puddles…

…before hopping up onto a chair, posing prettily and…

…then flying off…

…leaving me to watch a little drama playing out on the window itself.

Fortunately, as time was hanging a little heavily on my hands, the kind people at the BBC have organised a pop up digital radio station for four days, devoted to celebrating the life and works of the Beatles.  To those readers either too old, too young or too deaf to appreciate what a treat this is, I can only say that your life has a hole in it.  The station is going to be on air until Sunday but I am listening to BBC Sounds on my computer while I am writing the blog and Dave Grohl is playing a well chosen selection of Beatles songs to distract me.

I manged to turn the radio off after lunch and take advantage of a break in the rain to go for a pedal.  It was warm but breezy and I had to keep my nose to the wheel as I went up the road but the sound of geese honking made me look up, and I not only got a glimpse of some blue sky but the skein of geese as well.  The sharp eyed may be able to see them against the cloud.

Bringing my eyes back to earth, the way ahead looked a bit more problematic as far as the weather went.

But I pressed on and was serenaded by crows as I went up to Cleuchfoot.

The sun came out for a moment as I crossed the Glencorf Burn…

…but it started to rain again a few minutes later.  I turned at Cleuchfoot and headed home, wondering if I was going to get a soaking again.

Luck was with me today though and it had stopped raining by the time that I got back to Langholm so I turned and did another tour to Cleuchfoot.

There was plenty of water running off the hill…

…and in places the road was really wet so I took things cautiously again.

I added a little diversion on at the end of my second lap and this brought the distance up to almost 20 miles.  That little diversion also brought my monthly total up to 400 miles so I was pleased to have gone the extra mile.

I had a last walk round the garden when I got back and noticed one of the transplanted fuchsias hiding behind these dahlias.  It is trying to come out but it is so late that I doubt that it is going to make it before winter comes.

In spite of the weather, there are still bees doing their thing.

Then it seemed a good idea to go back inside and enjoy more of the Beatles feast on the radio.

It looks as though it is going to rain a lot tomorrow so I may well listen to more Beatles.

There is more than one flying bird of the day today.