A quiet but busy day

Today’s guest picture was sent to me by our son Tony. It shows that not only does the sun shine frequently in East Wemyss but crops grow well there too.

The sun wasn’t shining here today and nothing much is still growing. Still, it was reasonably warm and it didn’t rain during the day, so we weren’t complaining.

Not that Mrs Tootlepedal had any time to go out in the morning, as she had a lengthy on-line meeting with other members of the buy-out group while they consider the mountain of work to be done now that the money has been raised to buy the land. It is daunting but so was the fundraising and I have no doubt that they will rise to the challenges ahead.

I practised being as quiet as a church mouse while she was busy and only made one outing and that was just as far as the garden.

Things are winding down. The winter jasmine is doing well but the last clematis is fading, the blackbirds are steadily eating the cotoneaster berries, and the fuchsia flower are almost all to be found on the ground.

The outstanding flower lives in the vegetable garden. The purple sprouting broccoli looks indestructible.

The birds had taken the hint from me and were very quiet too. There were some birds on the walnut tree but they didn’t come down into the garden.

A lone goldfinch looked round warily as if wondering where everyone else was.

When we were speaking to a neighbour on the street later in the day, he complained that he had bought a new feeder but no birds were coming to it all, and he hadn’t had to refill his feeder in two weeks. Maybe there is still plenty of food to be had in the countryside and there is no need for garden feeding at the moment.

I made some leek and potato soup for lunch and after lunch, we went for a walk.

Mrs Tootlepedal had received a very charming gift of several packets of chocolates from a supporter of the buy out who had been shown round the moor by the group and wished to give something to congratulate them on the successful outcome. I went with Mrs Tootlepedal when she delivered the gifts to her fellow members.

Fortunately the members involved live in a neat direct line from our house down to Skippers bridge so we walked down the river and back again.

When we visited Mairi, we found that she leaves her apples on the tree for the benefit of the birds…

…and she is lucky because this variety clings to the branches for a long time.

We passed my favourite lichen on a fence rail on our way…

…and we considered what a strange thing it sit that the same continuous rail should have two such different lichens within yards of each other….and none at all a few yards further on.

As the autumn leaves fall, a passer-by gets a better view of Skippers bridge as they approach it from the north…

…and a better view of the river itself as he walks back.

I kept an eye out for fungus and saw this crop on a tree stump…

…as we took the riverside path home.

We passed a tightly clustered melancholy thistle…

…and a generously expansive umbellifer…

…before we walked under one of the last trees with leaves still on outside the Co-op…

…and then some of the last leaves still on slender stems beside the Dye House.

Mrs Tootlepedal liked this colourful set.

Looking across the river, we could see a small tree bucking the general trend.

Since there was quite a lot of conversation on our way, the walk took us nearly up until the light had gone, and it was time for for a cup of tea and a slice of toast and raspberry jam when we arrived back.

Mrs Tootlepedal still had more work to do, and I minded my own business quietly until it was time for the regular sibling Zoom. My eldest sister had had a cataract operation in the morning so it was good to see her safely home after her hospital visit and in a very cheerful mood too.

They are offering us a hint of sun tomorrow morning before some rainy days to come. I hope that they are right because our recent gloomy weather makes the already short days seem even shorter…and there are still about six weeks to go to the shortest day.

Between the poor light and the bird scarcity, I didn’t make a good job of the flying bird of the day so I have put in two bad jobs instead. Sometimes you just have to take what you can get.

It was a pity that the blue tit was heading for the back perch not the one that you can see. A few inches makes all the difference to the focus as I have the aperture as wide as possible to catch the movement in poor light.