Tried and tested

Today’s guest picture comes from Dropscone. It shows his golfing partner Tom enjoying the delights of the winter game beside a large and icy puddle. I think that it may be possible to have too much fun sometimes.

We woke up to another dry and frosty morning. When I went out into the garden, I could hardly see some smaller leafs for the large amount of frost on them.

The car window had an ice jungle on it…

…with some pretty ferns…

…when you looked closer.

My brother says that this is a model of how the universe is developing.

The powers that be are anxious to get as many people in Langholm tested for Covid as possible following an outbreak in the town, and they have organised several days of testing on the Kilngreen to make this possible. I thought that it might be hard to get a testing slot, but Mrs Tootlepedal went on line after breakfast and found plenty of of slots available, so she booked us in for after lunch.

It was very chilly outside and cycling indoors did not appeal for some curious reason, so I passed the morning away with preparing bread for the bread machine, preparing a lamb stew for the slow cooker and making some lentil and SLA soup for our lunch. (SLA = stuff lying about.)

In between times, I went back out into the garden to take a picture with my phone of ice on a piece of chicken wire in the vegetable garden…

…and I kept an eye on the birds. The usual chaffinches were flying about…

…and a couple, showed that it is not always easy to make a perfect landing on a perch.

The peanut butter feeder was in demand again, with birds returning often.

The robin and blue tit were well fluffed up against the chill.

I saw two unusual things as well as the birds. The first was a fly crawling slowly up the outside of the window…

…and the other was a tiny mouse which the alert Mrs Tootlepedal noticed while it was picking up seed from the tray under the feeder.

We were rather nervous about going to the Covid testing but everything went very smoothly. We were directed to park neatly when we got there and sat in our car the whole time so there were no contact problems. We were given a home testing kit each and went through the uncomfortable swabbing process, put the sample back in its bag, dropped the bag off from the car window and drove home. We had to go online again to register that we had been tested, but the whole system worked very well.

All this took time, but there was enough left for a quick walk so I set off down to the river in the hope of a dipper but only saw a beautiful view…

…with ice dangling over the water showing how cold it still was.

On the opposite bank of the river to the testers at the Kilngreen, a row of uninterested gulls had an interloper among them.

I was interested in some straightforward walking without having to worry about ice or tussocks, so I walked up to Whitshiels and then took the road up the hill to the White Yett. It was almost totally ice free, though I had to watch my step a couple of times, so I was able to stride out as briskly as age and the gradient would let me.

As I started the ascent of the hill, I did stop to note that today I was under a cloud, and the sun was over there…

..but it still provided an excellent view to keep me happy as I went along.

I got to the top safely and went over the cattle grid at the col to have a look over the Langholm Moor. It looked cold and wintery today…

…but the view down the Tarras valley was kinder.

And indeed, the sun came out for me as I walked back down the hill, lighting up a couple of curious sheep…

…and providing another blue background for a second moon shot.

The late afternoon skies have been very clear lately.

The blue skies didn’t last however, and when I looked across the valley, I could see what looked suspiciously like a snow storm brewing…

…and I was a bit worried when a few wintery flakes fell on my glasses. It did provide a dramatic backdrop for my favourite trees though …

…and fortunately, it disappeared as suddenly as it had come, and left me enjoying pink clouds up the valley as I went down the hill..

…and a nice sunset when I got home.

I got back in time to have a cup of tea with Mrs Tootlepedal before the regular Zoom meeting with my brother and sisters.

Mrs Tootlepedal and I got an invitation this morning to go and get vaccinated next Monday which we will take up with enthusiasm. Should that go to plan, only my brother, who the youngest of us all, will be unvaccinated.

The lamb stew turned out well (it is hard to make a bad stew in a slow cooker) and as it was followed by peaches and ice cream, I felt that the day had been satisfactory.

The flying bird of the day is a chaffinch. I have added a goldfinch for interest today.

Footnote: There has been a certain sameness, to say the least, about recent bog posts but it is not entirely my fault. The thermometer managed to stagger up to nearly 4°C this afternoon but the forecast says it will not even get that far tomorrow and may come with added rain. We could all do with some genuine warmth. Even though we have had quite a bit of sunshine, it feels as though we have been frozen every night since Christmas. Thanks to the pandemic restrictions, we aren’t allowed to go anywhere interesting or see anyone interesting. Certainly we have done little gardening or cycling in January. But the days are getting longer and there are green shoots in the flower beds, so we haven’t given up hope of better things to come. One day, patient readers may come across something interesting in a post. Fingers crossed.