Up for the cup

Today’s guest picture shows a colourful bed in the secret garden in Regents Park. It was taken by my sister Mary, and brings a much needed note of colour into another grey day here.

After a second wet and windy night, we had another windy day but not so wet. This was a relief, and I found that the river had actually gone down when I cycled round to the shop in a dry moment in the morning. Mrs Tootlepedal had gone off to be part of a group being interviewed by our local TV station about the community buy out, so I mooched about the house, occasionally looking out of the window to see what the birds were up to.

A flock of goldfinches were busy eating seeds.

This lead to quite a lot of queuing on the fake buddleia.

A siskin preferred the top of the feeder for its vantage point…

…while another got so fed up waiting that it went off to bang its head against the feeder pole.

Under the feeder, the ground crew tidied things up.

When Mrs Tootlepedal returned, I made some lentil soup for lunch and in an exciting change to normal procedures, I used brown lentils instead of red lentils and didn’t put any carrots in. I like to live dangerously.

The forecast claimed that even if the wind was going to keep blowing, at least it wouldn’t rain at all in the afternoon so I went for a walk. The clouds were firmly stuck on the top of the hills and my leg is still not back to full working order, so I chose a sheltered flat route again. In fact, I went round the walk to Broomholmshiels which I had done a few days ago, but this time in the opposite direction.

Because I started along the river, I had the opportunity to spot a wagtail and was forced to take a picture by a blackbird which rushed to the front of a bush and posed furiously.

As I walked along, two bursts of yellow brightened up the grey day.

When I got to Skippers Bridge, there was a fair bit of water running through it, but nothing to write home about. I think that the strong winds have made it feel as though it was raining harder than it actually was.

I saw the first tulip of spring just before the bridge…

…and a fresh looking fungus on a tree as I walked up to the track through the woods after the bridge.

I was wondering if I might have trouble getting across Jenny Noble’s Gill which runs across the track, but when I came to it…

…it was lively but a good step got me across it.

After a last look at the oak wood…

…I came out into the open and passed the fine gorse bush which was looking even better than when I last passed it.

It was so gloomy that I thought that the outbuildings at Broomholmshiels would look better in black and white than in colour.

Instead of heading straight home when I got to the road back to Langholm, I made a small diversion in search of scarlet elf cups. They certainly added a little colour to my stroll….

…even though something seemed to have been nibbling the edges of the cup.

On my way back, the predominate colour was green. There was a mossy wall on one side of the road…

…and plenty of dog’s mercury on the other side.

I hadn’t realised that the leaves were so toothed before.

I took a last shot of a mossy wall exhibiting the full range of available greens…

…and then got home without taking any other pictures worth saving.

I really hope that the wind drops tomorrow as is forecast and that I can go cycling rather than walking because my knees are complaining about the amount of roads to which I have been subjecting them. They would have been complaining much more though if I had taken them up and down the hills.

The day continued with a cup of tea and a family zoom, followed by a bowl of Mrs Tootlepedal’s spag bol for our evening meal. Although the evenings are longer now thanks to the clocks going forward, you wouldn’t have noticed it because of the miserable weather. We are promised some better weather before overnight frosts return at the weekend.

The flying birds of the day are two rooks that were part of a very noisy mob that circled over the garden in the middle of the morning.