Two and a half now

Today’s guest picture comes from our son Alistair who got more than he bargained for in his cauliflower. I know that you are supposed to eat up your greens but this was a step too far.

We had a day here with nothing to complain about as far as the weather went. It was warm and sunny but not too hot, and it came with its own cooling breeze.

Mrs Tootlepedal was out in the garden early. She was dealing with a large clump of irises which have outgrown their situation and needed attention. She tackled the problem with great enthusiasm and a pickaxe. I kept well out of the way.

We had a pleasant garden coffee morning with Ken, Liz and Margaret. On their way out of the garden, the visiting party stopped to admire the very cheerful show of dahlias and calendulas in the bed beside the drive.

The sunshine showed them at their best, I thought.

Then Mrs Tootlepedal went back to her pickaxe and I looked for butterflies.

For some mysterious reason there are hardly any coloured butterflies in the garden at the moment although it is alive with white ones. We had a promising day not long ago when there was a good turnout but since then, I have been lucky to see one or two. I hope that this is only a temporary blip as a lot of good buddleia flowers are going to go to waste otherwise.

In the absence of butterflies, I looked for flowers and found that Lilian Austin rose has had a new lease of life.

A helicopter flew low over head while I was enjoying a (very) colourful corner…

…and checking on the latest zinnia to come out…

…and my neighbour Liz came over to say that her daughter thought that the helicopter had landed somewhere near.

I got out my shopping bike and went to investigate. Helicopter landing areas are few and far between so I thought that the rugby club might be a good spot to look. And there it was.

It brought a touch of excitement to the club…

…which hasn’t seen a match for months and currently has little prospect of resuming competitive action.

I cycled home again and had another look round the garden with my dead heading shears in one hand and my camera in the other.

I spotted another lovely flower on the Lilian Austin rose…

…and picked the only flower on the sweet peas. The sweet peas have not enjoyed the weather this year, nor the many attacks from sparrows. This is a pity as the few flowers are very beautiful when they do appear.

After lunch, I looked at the bird feeder…

…and found a siskin on the top perch looking at me reproachfully as I had forgotten to fill it. I duly went and filled it, and then set off for a cycle ride.

I only wanted to do twenty miles and since I had cycled down to Canonbie yesterday, I decided to go round the new wind farm again today to see if there had been any progress. The site will have fifteen turbines when it is completed so they have some way to go still.

I was whisked along for the first ten miles of my trip today by a lively wind and got to Gair averaging well over 13 miles an hour. I stopped to admire the wild flower rich verge there with great burnet, vetch and meadow vetchling cheek by jowl…

…before girding my loins and heading back into the wind to pass the wind farm and get home again. Like our drive yesterday, it was a slow business. Unlike our drive, it took a lot of energy.

I was happy to stop before the windfarm to admire the excellent growth of grass which a farmer had cut…

…and to wonder why that old tree had been left standing.

When I got to the windfarm, I could see that a new tower was being erected…

…making a grand total of two and a half turbines so far.

I can see that this is going to provide me with hours of fun.

I was even more happy when I got into the tree lined section of the road after the windfarm….

…and got a little shelter from the headwind.

I found a handy beech tree to lean my bike against…

…and took a moment to add another bridge to my collection.

Coming out of the trees, there was no avoiding the breeze so I put my head down and pedalled steadily, stopping only for a final breather and a look at my favourite tree…

…before getting home for a much needed cup of tea.

Mrs Tootlepedal had been shredding irises when I arrived.

I had another look at the birds to see if they were grateful for the extra seed in the feeder but there were no birds to be seen.

I went and had a shower, and when I came back a rather scruffy dunnock was the only bird in sight…

…until some siskins came along mob handed.

After a light evening meal, I had intended to go for a walk but when I went out, the lawns cried out to me for mowing so pathetically that I listened and mowed them both. Then I edged them, and trimmed one of the box hedges, and then I went in and ate stewed rhubarb and cream to round my day off.

Traffic at the feeder was very light again today so finding a flying bird of the day was hard, and this was the best that I could do.

Footnote: I read in a bog last night that hostas are part of the lily family and looking at a white flowered hosta and the lilies that came out yesterday, I can see that I should have realised that before.