Today’s guest picture comes from Mary Jo. She escaped just in time from the Manitoba snow storm and arrived in London to find that it was raining a lot instead. In the end the rain stopped for long enough for her to visit Kew Gardens where she encountered these splendidly prickly plants.
After our short spell of better weather, the weather gods had decided to bring us back down to earth today and it was raining heavily when we got up. Mrs Tootlepedal bravely cycled off in the rain on business after breakfast while I did the sensible thing and stayed at home and arranged to have coffee with Sandy and Dropscone.
Dropscone brought his usual supply of good scones and we sconed, sipped and chatted away as the rain fell.
Mrs Tootlepedal came back from the town and we squeezed another cup from the pot for her.
After coffee, I had time to do the crossword and start a tarte tatin off before we had lunch, After lunch, the rain finally eased off and I was able to get out into the garden.
There were birds posing for me all over the place.
The rather scruffy male blackbird is looking better…
…even though the female doesn’t think much of him yet.
The sparrows often have a bath in the dam behind the house and then, like this one, flit up up onto the lilac to have a flutter and a shoogle to get dry again.
A bird skulked in the shadows on the fence…
…before flying up into the rowan tree to reveal that it was a dunnock or hedge sparrow. It is obviously a bit slow in learning the difference between a fence, a tree and a hedge.
As you can see, the sun had come out by this time, so I took a quick look at some clematis…
…and a fuchsia which is coming out ridiculously late for the first time this year, together with a dahlia which is hanging on very well after looking as though it was well past it.
Then, as it was too good a day to miss by now, I got my bike out and checked to see how my legs were feeling after two busy days.
It turned out that they were feeling fine and they carried me round my customary twenty mile Canonbie circuit slowly but without complaining.
There is a spot along the way where the grass always turns golden brown at this time of year.
I didn’t stop for many pictures as this is a well documented ride already but I needed a breather after 15 miles so I took a look up stream from the Hollows Bridge…
…and a bit later on was much struck by the golden colour of some bracken on the old A7
The sun is getting low in the sky all day now and the trees on the far bank were casting interesting shadows on the old distillery building as I crossed Skippers Bridge.
When I got home, I turned out the tarte tatin and while Mrs Tootlepedal made a pot of tea, I cut a couple of slices of the tarte to go with it. I added some ice cream to my slice and in my view, it would be hard to find a better after-ride refreshment.
I was so refreshed indeed that after I had had a shower, I went out for a short walk. I was motivated partly by the tarte, partly by the lovely evening light and mostly by the fact that my physio has told me to walk more.
It is not long until the clocks go back so evening walks at this time of day will disappear for some months so I was pleased to able to enjoy such a beautiful light today.
The shadows were falling fast but I had time to enjoy some gentle autumn colour on my way. The pictures speak for themselves, I think.
By the time that I had crossed two bridges and was approaching the third, the sun was ready to sink behind the hill and the shadows were lengthening…
…until the monument was in the sun but most of the New Town was in the shade.
I swept a lot of walnut leaves off the front lawn when I got home.
We had courgette fritters for tea and then I went to sing with the Langholm choir. Because of some illness going round, we had a select turnout, but we had a most enjoyable sing all the same.
As the sun went down on my walk in the afternoon, it began to feel a little chilly and I was wondering if we would have a frost tonight. However, it was still quite warm when I walked home from the choir and when I looked at our thermometer a moment ago, it said that it is 9 degrees C. The forecast claims that it won’t get lower than 5 degrees overnight. We have been very lucky to have kept our flowers for so long and it looks as thought they may still be there tomorrow.
No flying bird of the day today but I was happy to see a starling back perching on the holly tree again.
Loved the excellent pictures you took on your walk, as you say, the light is just beautiful.
Mary Jo’s cacti look like children’s cartoon characters about to set off on an adventure. Who is leader is very clear.
I thought that they might make suitable seats for certain politicians.
Shoogle: what a wonderful word! The sound is a perfect match for its meaning. I must remember to use it!
You can’t go wrong with it.
I hope the flowers are still there tomorrow.
I’m glad you have such good color this year. They say ours is better than it has been in years but I think that’s a bit optimistic.
My favorite photo this time is the lone tree in the field of golden grass. It should be a prize winner at the next show.
I’ll bear that in mind, thank you.
Gorgeous photos, wish I was in Scotland instead of stuck in my office behind a computer.
Don’t delay, book a holiday.
The tarte-ice cream combo sounds perfect. No wonder it filled you with joy de vivre!
It is a lip smacking dish.
Great pictures, can’t remember seeing a car in your post pictures before? Is the old distillery occupied these days? Cheers
The old distillery was a garage for many years and is now used as two houses.
Glad the sun came out for your walk, lovely pictures.
Your autumn colours are stunning now. The scruffy blackbird certainly has something to emulate in the last wonderful shot.
It is getting less scruffy by the day.
Thanks for shoogle (no, WP, not shingle) – I had to look it up. I also liked the distillery building picture
It’s a good word. Uncertain things, like the current Brexit plan, can be described as hanging on a shoogly peg.
🙂
Also 🙂
I’m glad to read you were able to get in a good ride. Your pictures are wonderful. We’ve been in a drought since early spring and all is dry, brown here.
You almost always have me looking up something, new to me, and food related. Today it was the Tart Tatin! Seems there is a lot of the traditional apple recipe out there. However, there were also pears, figs, apricots, bananas, blood oranges, onions, shallots, tomatoes and one with corn. I am guessing that the onions and other vegetables were of the savory variety? But the one that surprised me was the apple Tart Tatin recipe that hadn’t bothered to caramelize the apples before baking. Isn’t the caramelization integral to the taste and texture? 🙂
I would think that it has to be caramelized to be a true tarte tatin. We saw some very exotic savoury ones being cooked on a TV programme (Bake Off) last night but it didn’t persuade us not to use apples.
The golden brown grass is especially beautiful.
I always like to cycle past it.
I bet it makes a lovely sound when the wind blows.
Such a proud upstanding starling looking forward to winter and ‘proper’ autumn colours now showing on the trees. Lovely photo of the dunnock.
Dunnocks are unassuming but handsome birds.
I enjoyed all the photos, and the dunnock photo is an exceptionally nice portrait.
Coffee and scones sound like a perfectly sensible way to spend a rainy morning. I am glad the sun emerged for some good biking and walking. That is beautiful angled light. Not so here today. A few brief appearances of the sun, soon overtaken by clouds and heavy rain. I am overdue for collecting the pile of alpaca manure at the neighbor’s place.
What could be more exciting than collecting alpaca manure? Don’t delay a moment longer. 🙂
The wind has come up and is starting to dry things out. 🙂
I couldn’t agree more. I’d be all over that! Our ubiquitous evergreens and alders don’t give us the beautiful fall color displays that you get, Mr T.
Photos of your evening walk in the golden hour are beautiful.
It is a favourite time of day at this time of year.