Winding down today

Today’s guest picture comes from East Wemyss, the sunshine capital of the world, where our son Tony was out and about early enough to catch the sunrise yesterday.

We had another fine day here today, but the northerly wind was a bit stronger so naturally, it felt a bit cooler. Between the wind, slightly tired legs, and natural indolence, I settled for a quiet day.

I read the papers at length after breakfast and only roused myself when it was time to walk up to Sandy’s and have a cup of his excellent Colombian coffee.

I had a quick look round the garden before I set off. We haven’t had much warm weather lately but we also haven’t much in the way of cold nights so some flowers are quite happily having a second go at flowering. These feverfew daisies are an example.

And the dahlias are really looking at their best.

Looking over the hedge as I walked up the road past the garden, I could see that the weigela is also showing passers by some nice flowers.

Sandy recently went out for a 21 mile cycle ride with no ill effect on his foot so he was in a cheerful mood. He wrote a post on his blog about it too. We had a good chat.

When I got home, I found Mrs Tootlepedal and our neighbour Margaret having their coffee in the garden, well sheltered from the breeze.

After the coffee morning had broken up, I got out the mower and took a lot of grass off the middle lawn. It had been left for over a week since I put the fertiliser and moss eating mixture on. I don’t whether the moss has been eaten at all, but the fertiliser has done good work on the grass and the lawn is looking very good for this time of year.

Then I had time to walk round the garden stalking butterflies and bees….

…and admiring the courgettes and chard in the vegetable garden.

Mrs Tootlepedal dug up the last of our potatoes and I picked four small beetroots from a late sowing and took them inside.

The vegetable garden has done well this year, providing us with potatoes, onions, turnips, swedes, spinach, chard, courgettes, runner, broad and field beans, many beetroots, radishes, lettuce, chillies, a few peas and some small carrots. There are still a lot of runner beans, chard and courgettes to come and we have only just started on the leeks. We don’t grow enough to feed ourselves throughout the year by any means but it is still good to have a selection of home grown veg through the summer and early autumn.

Having put the beetroots on to cook, I came out into the garden with my macro lens on the big camera and had a closer look at butterfly…

…and what I think is a hoverfly..

I then visited a honeysuckle….

…and the Special Grandma rose which is another plant having a second go at flowering…

…before going in for lunch.

I was going to watch a bit of the time trial from the Tour de France and then go out for a good walk but the stage proved so unexpectedly interesting that I watched it all, pausing only to check on the birds during an advertisement break or two.

After the stage finished with a result which I don’t think that anyone had predicted, I did get out for a short walk as the shadows lengthened.

It was still a fine day, and above the suspension bridge…

…a mallard enjoyed a little basking on a rock in the river.

I stopped for a while to talk to Grace, a fellow camera club member who had just come back from a wildlife holiday in the north of Scotland, and then walked over the Sawmill Brig…

…whichwas looking a bit autumnal I thought.

I went up the hill and walked along the Baggra track which was still looking very green…

…and which was lined with plenty of interesting things to look at as I went along.

At the end of the track, two trees caught my eye. The first one looks a little odd but it is growing half way down a banking at the edge of the field, and I was only seeing the top part of it.

The second one was on the top of the banking just before I dropped down to follow the main road back into the town.

Beside the main road, I spotted a rather neglected old milestone and a bunch of grass that was mimicking it.

I finished my walk by re-crossing the Sawmill Brig and walking round the Castleholm, where I saw a little outbreak of autumn colour in an otherwise green leafed tree.

I got back in perfect time for tea, the third appearance of the lamb stew, this time with potatoes, chard and courgettes.

I hope to find time to get on my bike for a short ride tomorrow as the forecast is still good and good days should not be wasted at this time of year.

The flying bird of the day is a goldfinch.