A slab in time

I needed a cheerful guest picture on a gloomy day in Langholm, so thank goodness for our son Tony and the eternal sunshine of East Wemyss yesterday.

That fact that we have passed the spring equinox and should be headed for the sunny uplands was of no interest to the weather gods who provided a miserable, damp, windy and cold day here. It was dry enough before coffee to let Mrs Tootlepedal go for a short walk which involved bringing a small bucket of horse poo back for the garden. I managed to cycle round to the shop and then do some preparatory work on the next slab before I had my coffee.

Then it rained for the rest of the morning. I couldn’t think of anything useful to do so I didn’t do anything at all except occasionally go and see what was happening at the bird feeder.

Not a lot to begin with with just a lone chaffinch in place…

…but there was a 100% increase in traffic not long afterwards…

…followed by a bit of variety.

I spent some time trying to find a chaffinch…

…flying slow enough for the camera to fully focus on it in the poor conditions…

…but failed.

I might have done better if potential flying birds of the day had not been put off by abusive siskins.

There were sporadic moments of activity but nothing to set the heart racing.

With a strong wind blowing from the left, it was not surprising that most birds approached the feeder from the right.

The high spot of the day so far came with a bowl of Mrs Tootlepedal’s freshly made curried parsnip soup for lunch.

It was still raining after lunch but it stopped for just long enough to let us get out and finish laying the second of the uphill slabs in the drive.

With four to go, the end really is in sight now.

Although there was a faint drizzle still on the go, I rang up Sandy and arranged to go for a walk with him. We met at the top of Jimmy’s Brae and walked along the track towards the Becks Burn.

It was not a day for photographs but Sandy spotted a cheerful willow just off the track and I took the shot that appears in today’s header picture.

As I know that regular readers are unhappy without fungus or lichen fun, I took a shot of a fallen branch.

I recently had a picture of small green and yellow plant in a post and a reader asked me what it was. I had forgotten its name but I saw some more today…

…and I am pretty sure that it is golden saxifrage. I will try to get a better picture of it on a better day.

My plan was to leave Sandy to walk home alone and extend my walk by a few miles, but by the time that we had got to the end of the track, it was raining so persistently that I turned round and came back with him.

The sight of a foal above the houses at Holmwood brought a little joy to the outing.

It remained a miserable day when I got home, and even though it might have stopped raining later on, it was still so gloomy outside that I didn’t bother to go out to check.

Even the flying bird of the day had got to the state where banging its head against the feeder pole looked like a good option.