A cold start

Today’s guest picture is another from Paul’s visit to the Lake District. He was looking down on the aptly named Little Town from Catbells when he saw this view.

The forecast was for a bright, chilly, and calm morning and the forecast was right. As I had a choir rehearsal in the afternoon, I thought that I should take advantage of the weather to go for an early bike ride and I set out soon after breakfast. With the temperature according to our thermometer at a rather chilly 6 degrees C, this required several layers of clothing, warm gloves and thick socks to be applied before setting off.

I pottered round my Canonbie circuit, stopping to record the lovely day as I climbed out of Wauchopedale…

…and enjoying the clear view over the Solway towards the Lake District Hills when I got to the top of my little climb.

The pottering was not entirely by choice as thanks to the early start and the chilly day, my legs took their time about joining in the trip enthusiastically. However, the sun got higher and the day got a bit warmer and I thoroughly enjoyed my excursion.

I liked this tree silhouetted against the sky….

…and it always a pleasure to see the Canonbie cows. They haven’t been near enough to photograph for some time.

Mrs Tootlepedal and Annie had been impressed by the scale of work on the new Canonbie sewage works when they passed them on a recent walk, so I thought I ought to give readers a taste of the works as I passed the the two sites today.

Evie had visited our local shop while I was out so we both had had fun.

I got back in perfect time to have a quick look round the garden before having coffee in the garden with Evie, Annie, Mrs Tootlepedal and our neighbour Margaret.

There was a lone butterfly on the buddleia….

…and a bee on a cornflower. It had obviously been a busy bee looking at its pollen sacs.

I thought that the orange crocosmia was looking very colourful in the sun…

…and I saw that both of the variegated dogwoods had flowers in bloom.

My dahlia of the day was this one…

…and I had time to snap a selection of roses and white flowers before making the coffee.

After coffee, I made some soup for lunch and then I made the fatal mistake of turning on the live coverage of the Tour de France. Today’s stage would have been worth watching just for the scenery let alone some very exciting bike racing.

I tore myself away for long enough to check on the birds where a chaffinch showed just how tiny the siskins are by comparison…

…and a siskin showed that they may be small but they are not going to be intimidated by anyone.

I had to take another break from the Tour to take part in the virtual choir rehearsal. It was most enjoyable and useful. Evie joined in for a moment to a general chorus of aahs from the choir members. Our director Ellen says that the compiling of our virtual performance is coming along well and should be ready in a week or two. It ought to be possible for me to share a link to it if I consider it suitable for viewers of a nervous disposition.

After the choir, I had another look at the birds.

Siskins were arguing as they are wont to do…

…and a greenfinch was wisely approaching a siskin from behind this time.

There was plenty of coming and going…

…and I liked the plumage on this sparrow even though it turned its back on me.

We record the Tour coverage so that we can skip through the many advertising breaks at high speed and we were able to pause the final stages of the day’s excitement while Mrs Tootlepedal cooked our evening meal and we ate it.

I had time to go out into the garden again while the cooking was going on.

Annie and Evie came too and Evie enjoyed the doddering dillies a lot. I liked the clover and the mint too.

There were no butterflies to be seen so a bee on a daisy came in handy.

We dug up more potatoes…

…and some of them appeared in double quick time as roast potatoes with some delicious roast lamb at tea time.

I made some semolina for afters and then we settled down to watch a nail biting finish to today’s stage on the Tour.

It was another quiet lockdown day but looking back on it, it seemed to have been quite busy. Hosting a one year old toddler is a full time occupation.

The flying bird of the day is a sparrow at full stretch.