Today’s guest picture comes from our neighbour Liz who encountered this large snail when out on her morning walk. She got away safely though.
The forecast offered a still, dry and cool morning, followed by an afternoon of light rain. A sensible fellow would have been off on his bike while the going was good. I spent the morning doing the things that I have done every morning during the lockdown so ingrained is the habit now. I spent most of the afternoon looking through the window at pouring rain and wishing that I hadn’t been so foolish.
Still, I did have a pleasant garden wander, and I mowed the front lawn before coffee time so it wasn’t a wasted day entirely.
The opium poppies are doing very well and attracting a good class of bees.
There were rarely less than two bees guddling about among the stamens, and sometimes more.
Other poppies were available…
…but not so popular.
We have two sorts of phine phlox in phlower now. This sort…
…and that sort.
Although it was badly set back by the late frost, one of our Philadelphus has still got some pretty flowers to show….
…and the hydrangea has also produced a few potential flowers to my surprise.
As far as purple goes, the melancholy thistles are fading….
…and are being overtaken by new knapweed.
Our neighbour Irving looked over the fence and asked for the name of the mock orange, which is flowering extravagantly. Mrs Tootlepedal presented him with a couple of branches of the flowers to take in for his wife, and I loaded him up with rhubarb as we have got a surplus at the moment.
Then I wandered again.
Alstroemeria are doing well…
…and the astrantia is amazing.
When I look at the detail of each flower head or ‘pincushion’, I just wonder at the extraordinary process of evolution.
Of course plant breeders have been hard at work too, giving nature a helping hand and producing results like the Crown Princess Margareta.
As you can see, from this calendula…
….there was plenty of moisture about, but it stayed dry for our garden coffee meeting and we had a good chat, filled with cheerful reminiscences of cycling crashes from Liz and me.
Liz and Margaret didn’t escape without helping to reduce the rhubarb mountain. It is good if things aren’t wasted.
There wasn’t much time after coffee before the rain started and we didn’t get much more gardening done before we went in for an early lunch.
After lunch, I filled the feeder and watched the birds. The rain didn’t put them off….
…though the goldfinch at the bottom left does look bedraggled to say the least.
Then, while Mrs Tootlepedal did useful things, I spent quite a lot of time mooching about the house complaining that I should have gone bicycling in the morning .
Finally, I got so fed up with my own moaning that I put on my waterproof trousers and jacket and went for a walk in the rain. I took an umbrella too and because of the light winds, the rain was coming straight down so I managed to stay extremely dry. I even got my camera out under the shelter of the brolly to record a goosander swimming in the Esk. I was on the bridge at the time so the goosander was quite far away and it was only after a while that I noticed some faint marks in the water behind it.
On closer inspection, the marks turned out to be nine mini goosanders swimming along behind mother….
…who shepherded her brood to the rocks and got them all safely onto dry land.
I walked on without seeing anything else, apart from the ducks on the Kilngreen in today’s header picture, which was interesting enough to make me get my camera out until I came to the Duchess Bridge.
Like the castle which appeared in a recent post, the bridge is suffering from a little neglect and has so many plants growing on it that it might be classed as a Garden Bridge.
As I walked home, I could see that the recent rain had put a ripple in the river.
When I got home, I had time for another look at the bird feeder. I saw a blue tit giving a siskin a nasty turn, a most unusual sight…
…before making a cup of tea and hosting the daily sibling Zoom meeting.
Mrs Tootlepedal made a fine evening meal of lamb chops and vegetables, all roasted together in the oven, and that helped us to get over the miserable weather of the afternoon. The forecast is a bit better for tomorrow but with the temperature set to be about 13°C, it is not going to feel very much like summer.
The flying bird of the day is a siskin in the afternoon rain. They are our most frequent visitors to the feeder at the moment.
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Some great flower close ups today,especially the poppy and it’s pollinators.
The Rose comes a close second.
I actually quite like the weed growth on the bridge,it seems to give a sense of fitting the surroundings.
Tomorrow looks a decent day for a cycle ride.
I been suffering from strange leg cramps recently,and for no obvious reason either,so haven’t cycled for ten days.
I’m going for a spin tomorrow though,come what may..maybe 😊
I hope that you get your spin and that your legs behave.
Some days you simply have to mooch a bit 😊
OK, I’ll say it: the phine phlox are phabulous. As are the goosanders’ hairdos – they look like they should be leaning against a car and smoking a filterless cigarette!
I know exactly what you mean.
I’ve never seen a mock orange blossom (Philadelphus) with blue in it like that one.
That’s a great shot of the opium poppy. I think we’d get arrested if we had it here, but I’m not sure.
The goosanders seem to be a very prolific group.
They do have large families and manage to keep them safe unlike the mallards. The opium poppies don’t come to anything exciting in our climate.
I enjoyed all the photos from your day, especially the gaggle of goosanders. That calendula is such an intense orange-gold! The variety of flower colors in summer makes quite a show.
You are right about the colour. We don’t get spectacular autumns so we need one cheerful season.
Wonderful baby bird pics today. It’s nothing like summer here, although I am glad to not have to water.
I can never get over the variety and colour of the flowers in your garden, such a treat. Loved the water birds too.
Worth going out for your views of the goosanders. Glad you managed to keep dry.
Some phine phloral photographic closeups and swimming goosanders.
Would Quercus approve of all this linguistic nonsense.
Definitely
Those poppies are spectacular! And the bridge looks as though it is leading to a magical kingdom.
The general greenery is adding a fairy tale touch to our countryside at the moment.
A land of enchantment! Sounds like my kind of place.
The vegetation is very rich this year.
I loved the goosander pix and the garden bridge!
Thank you.
just been reading that there will be a 5 miles restriction in your area – they actually mentioned Langholm by name,
Fame at last.
yes when I saw the names I thought, i know where that is thanks to cycling
The benefits of getting about on your bike. 🙂
Love to see the bees going mad in the poppies, although I had to look up “guddling about.”
It’s what boys did to catch trout.
Famous at last, though we would be more happy to be less in the news.
You had me going with all the phlowers and then the Goosanders put me away. I admire your tenacity venturing to walk in the rain, with the camera! Thank you for that. And for the idea that somewhere it is cool and raining.
The rain was coming straight down so the camera was well protected. I am glad that I brought a little cool to your life!
I learned a new word today: “guddling”. I may have to work at using it at an appropriate moment. The mini-goosanders were a treat.
I frequently guddle about in drawers to find socks.
Perhaps I may need to work on my guddling technique. I bet Eric will be impressed.
Do I know that feeling, ” I should have just got on my bike!” I certainly do. Still the habit persists, “shall I risk it?”, wavering to make the right positive decision, and actually pedal off. Weather forecasts have a lot to answer for. That cohort of young goosanders know how to obey orders, and appear to be doing very well under the instruction of their babysitter. Fantastic shot, you managing to get all nine in the same picture. Cheers.
I love goosanders but I saw a comment saying they were pests on Facebook. From a fisherman of course.