Caught out

Today’s guest picture comes from our son Tony who saw this impressive looking boat sailing under the Forth Bridges when he was dropping his partner Marianne off at her work this morning.

We had another day of brisk winds and variable weather here. When the sun was out, which it was from time to time, it was a pleasant day. When it rained, it was less fun.

Annie, Evie and I took a tour round the town after breakfast while we visited the chemist and the corner shop and found the High Street unusually busy. People politely made way for the pushchair so we managed our trip without incident.

We had an enjoyable coffee morning with our neighbour Margaret in the garden. We were quite surprised to find butterflies whizzing over our heads and when I looked around, there were many butterflies to be found on the various buddleias. Red admirals were the first to arrive…

…but small tortoiseshells and peacocks were not far behind.

After coffee, I walked round the garden with Annie and Evie, checking on the roses…

…which were looking good we thought.

A veronica is having a second go at flowering.

When Annie and Evie went in, I got out the secateurs and did some dead heading in the hope of keeping poppies and dahlias flowering. There were plenty of dead heads to dead head.

After lunch, I had a look at the birds and found that the feeder was busy…

…and competition was keen.

Traffic soon slackened off though and when I looked later on, only a wide eyed collared dove was to be seen.

I looked out at the strong wind and the possibility of rain and settled down to watch the Tour de France. I was rewarded for my idleness by a most exciting stage and only stood up again when it had finished.

I had an hour to spare before the sibling Zoom meeting and as the sun was shining, I thought that I would go for a short walk.

The morning butterfly shots had been taken on the ‘morning buddleia’ against our neighbour Hector’s fence, so I thought that I should look at the ‘afternoon buddleia’ against our neighbour Irving’s fence before I set out. This was a good idea.

And while I was looking, I saw a white butterfly on the verbena too.

The sun was shining when I got down to the river beside the suspension bridge and I saw both a grey wagtail…

…and a pied wagtail…

…on the stones beside the river.

The sun had gone in by the time that I had crossed the town and sawmill bridges and the leaves on the horse chestnut on the Castleholm, always one of the first trees to get autumn colour, were duller than they would have been a few minutes earlier.

Since several of the trees lining the Lodge Walks were cut down, it has been difficult to get a good picture of the walks as the contrast between the shade provided by the old trees and the light coming through the gaps confuses my camera…

…but a gap does let me have a good view of one of the old trees.

The sky was getting progessively darker as I walked along so I didn’t spend much time looking for interesting things, recording only some of the last of the rosebay willowherb flowers and a leaf that had been thoroughly attacked by something.

As I crossed the Duchess Bridge…

…rain was beginning to fall and by the time that I got to the Scholars’ Field, it was sweeping across the face of Whita….

…and on to my head. I sheltered under a tree while the heaviest rain fell and then scuttled home as quickly as I could.

I hardly need to add that the sun came out shortly after I got home and there was even a faint rainbow to be seen among the departing raindrops.

The weather gods do like their little jokes.

The sibling Zoom was interesting as two of my sisters shared old family photos that brought back memories and my brother showed us some good pictures of his walk today.

Our evening meal ended with strawberries and cream and that made up for getting caught in the rain.

The flying bird is two siskins. I couldn’t chose between them.

Footnote: The morning buddleia gets the sun in the morning and the afternoon buddleia gets the sun in the afternoon…but you realised that for yourselves of course.