A lot more rain and a welcome return

Today’s guest picture was sent to me by our son Tony just to prove that as well as having almost perpetual sunshine, they get milk delivered in bottles in East Wemyss.

We got more rain here, rain overnight and rain in the morning.  I walked round to the shop in the rain and then looked at some birds in the rain.

In spite of the weather there were plenty of birds about…

…and after a while, I put out a second feeder to meet demand.

The rain stopped in the late morning and I went for a walk while Annie and Evie caught up on a little sleep after a restless night.

In the garden, the hellebores are developing slowly…

…but down at the river, the water was fairly rushing along again.

I got blessed by a little sun as I crossed the Sawmill Brig and it made the moss on the wall sparkle cheerily.

When I got to the Lodge, I chose the upper road to Holmhead.  This was just as well as when I looked down, I saw that I might have needed water wings to navigate the lower road.

The snowdrops at Holmhead have stood up to the rain well but like me, they would be a lot better off with a bit of sunshine.

Walking along the muddy path round the pheasant hatchery was a precarious business and I nearly slipped when I stopped to take this picture of tree bark and lichen.

After that, photography took a back seat as the weather closed in rapidly and it began to rain quite heavily.

It didn’t rain all of the time though.  Sometimes it snowed.

After lunch, the weather improved a lot.  Mrs Tootlepedal, Annie and Evie went off to visit a friend and I went off to see a different friend.

Sandy has finally got back from hospital after a visit that was supposed to last only a day or two for an operation but eventually lasted for two weeks as other health matters intervened.

The sun had come out to celebrate his arrival…

…and as you can expect, he was pretty pleased to be back in his own home.

He wasn’t jumping for joy though, as jumping will be off the menu for six weeks until his plaster comes off.

He can get about in the house and he has a team of friends who will visit him so he was far from downhearted.

As I walked home, I passed our neighbour’s flowering currant showing signs of growth.

The birds had eaten a lot of seed during while I had been out.

Although it was too cold to tempt the crocuses to open in spite of the sunshine….

…there was another promising sign of spring to be seen in the pond.

I didn’t see any frogs though.

I went down the road and met Mrs Tootlepedal, Annie and Evie as they left their friend’s house.  Mrs Tootlepedal went home to cook, and Annie and I took Evie for a short walk in the (vain) hope that she might have a nap.

We looked one way to see the sun shining on Timpen…

…and the other way to see first signs of blossom on the riverside trees.

We walked up Mary Street and looked across the river at the Noble Firs on the Castleholm.  Whatever strips the cones has been doing a good job and there is hardly a cone left to be seen.

Annie was very impressed by the amount of polypores on the birch tree beside the road and thought that the fungi made an interesting accompaniment to the amount of man made kit on the electricity pole nearby.

Mrs Tootlepedal’s cooking skills brought us a good meal of brisket of beef for our tea and then we all collapsed into a quiet doze after a busy day.

The flying bird of the day is a double helping of siskin and chaffinch.