Today’s guest picture comes from Mike and Alison’s recent trip to New Zealand to visit their son and his family. Knowing that I like a bridge, Alison showed me this picture to prove that they have bridges in New Zealand too.
I am pleased to have a little sunshine in the guest picture because there wasn’t a hint of sunshine here today. It was grey, very windy (45 mph gusts) and often very rainy too.
The birds weren’t keen to fly in to the feeder but our resident dunnocks pottered about on the ground in the shelter of the hedge behind the feeder…
…and a lone goldfinch appeared.
When I was taking the picture of the goldfinch, I realised that it had stopped raining for a while at least, so I put on every waterproof I could find just in case and went out for a short walk to stretch my legs.
There was a fair bit of water going down the river but that didn’t put off a dipper from doing a little dipping…
…and two crows found rocks to stand on as the water rushed by.
I crossed the Town bridge and went on to the Kilngreen where there were a few gulls about. The wind was so strong that when they tried to fly into it, they went slowly enough for even my pocket camera with the zoom well zoomed to catch them in the air.
I couldn’t do much about the light though so the results are far from perfect. I took the pictures just to show how strong the wind was.
Looking at the Meeting of the Waters where the Ewes coming from the right joins the Esk, it was easy to see where it had been raining the hardest.
The Sawmill Brig was getting its feet wet today.
And I got my feet a bit wet as I puddled along the path round the bottom of the Castleholm.
Sheep were astonished at the sheer beauty of my rainy day get up (woolly hat with cap underneath, scarf, big coat, waterproof trousers and a grumpy expression).
But it was quite warm and it wasn’t raining so after admiring some artistic lichen on a gate…
…and some more on the gatepost..
…I decided not to cross the Jubilee Bridge…
…but to walk a little further up river and cross the Duchess Bridge.
I was just admiring a fern garden on a tree and thinking how much rain is needed to get a result like that….
…when it started to rain very heavily.
I was grateful for my ample clothing and for the shelter from the wind that walking along the river bank provided, but the last few hundred yards of my walk through the town got me and my gear thoroughly soaked. The wind was so strong at one point that my legs were going forwards but my body was going backwards.
I got home safely though and enjoyed cold beef and fried bubble and squeak for lunch.
After lunch, the weather settled down to being constantly beastly so I settled down to putting a week of the newspaper index into the Archive Database.
I then tidied up the front room a bit for the most important gathering of the year, The Langholm Archive Group Annual General Meeting. (Drum roll and fanfare.)
Eight members were present and we congratulated ourselves on having extended the newspaper index from 1848 to 1901 and past the death of Queen Victoria and the end of the South African war. The photographic collection has increased too, thanks to the work of Sandy and as we get a continuous trickle of inquiries and many remarks about the usefulness and interest of the website, we decided to keep our work going for yet another year.
Thanks go to all the volunteers who make it happen.
In spite of its great importance, the meeting was over in twenty five minutes and I was soon able to sit down to an evening meal of baked potatoes followed by baked apples, a warming treat on a miserable day.
I couldn’t get a flying bird in the garden so the flying bird of the day is one of gulls at the Kilngreen battling into the wind.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
Glad to read that the work of your archive group is so appreciated. I liked the surprised sheep and the flying gull in particular.
It’s been the darkest grey day of the year here today, along with bluster to rival that of you-know-who, and rain making walking in the streets impossible.
The bluster was as bad as that? That’s pretty bad.
Yup,
Even on a miserable day you manage to pack a lot in.
We had much the same weather here. A warm rain that melted most of the snow.
I like the fern covered tree. We never see that here no matter how much rain we get.
One of the lichens on the gatepost looks blue, and that’s an uncommon color for a lichen.
That may be a colour error on my part as they are more silver grey than blue.
Cameras can do that in low light.
I enjoyed seeing the lichen and the ferns on the tree. What a horrible day it’s been!
All over the country as far as I can see.
I enjoyed your description of the sheep and their views of your ensemble! Lousy weather here as well, although of the cold nature instead of wet. Windchills of -42, but the expert seers promise highs of -7 by next week, so we just have to hold on for a few more days.
-7 eh? Break out the bikini!
The sheep expressions and your commentary brought a smile. 🙂
I had to look up fried bubble and squeak . I think I was intrigued by this once before but had forgotten what it was.
The Langholm archivists have been working hard.
It’s a good way of making leftovers a bit more attractive.
I very much wish I had ancestors from your neck of the woods as your archive work is fantastic! Hooray for continuing with it. I think the sheep were more humbled in the face of such a fashionista 🤣
Sheep always look a bit snooty in my opinion. I suspect that they think that we have gone astray somehow. There are lots of people from Langholm in NZ.
Sadly none I’m connected to; The archive work you and your group are doing is so fantastic for folk half a world away trying to piece together their genealogical jigsaw 😊
Thank you.
Many congratulations to all the Archive group volunteers.
We had similar battles with the elements. You found a good haul of pics, nevertheless
The wind did a good job of slowing the gulls down.
That is quite a phenomenon
The weather woes seem to be everywhere but you made the most of it by gearing up and getting out. Great photos of the lichen and ferns and love to know what those sheep are saying!
They had much worse weather to the north of us so we shouldn’t complain…but we do. 🙂
My grandmother’s neighbor when I was little was English. I was fascinated with all her British terms and I well remember her making bubble and squeak. That’s probably the original of my Anglophilia.