Totally lacking lustre

Today’s guest picture comes from our son Tony. He spotted a small tortoiseshell butterfly today.

We had a definitely gloomy day here today, with either a hint of rain or the real thing always on hand. As the forecast was for floods and thunderstorms, we got off very lightly with just the occasional shower.

It was still comfortably warm but I was extremely lethargic all day, even though a walk or a cycle ride would have been quite possible.

Whether it was the weather, old age or weakness of intellect I couldn’t tell, but I wasted the whole day and ended up feeling quite grumpy with myself.

I made a few token gestures in the garden by way of dead heading and shredding and I took some pictures too. When I looked at them later, they turned out mostly to be pictures of flowers that I had often taken before, so I hope that patient readers in search of floral novelties will forgive me if I put them in anyway.

Mrs Tootlepedal’s current favourite rose, the Goldfinch.

My favourite of the day, a young Crown Princess Margareta. I think that she is at her best before she comes fully out.

This picture of three Lilian Austin blooms appeared yesterday . . .

. . . and by today they had aged gracefully.

Mrs Tootlepedal has expanded the reach of the Queen of Denmark and she is popping up in several different places now.

I did a little dead heading and some shredding and took more pictures of familiar flowers. There are bright red poppies on every side now, and I was pleased to see a bee in one of them.

We don’t grow strawberries to eat any more, but the ornamental pink strawberries flower all summer long.

There are pinks and musk by the pond . . .

. . . and the yellow dahlia, still the only one out, has lifted its head up a bit . . .

. . . but if it is horticultural bling that you want, then the Sweet Williams are the ones for you.

They really light up the view of the garden from the front gate, even on a grey day.

We had morning coffee with Margaret in our neighbour Liz’s garden, but we had to shift to her sitootery when it started to drizzle. There is a very comfortable chair in there, and I was accused of nodding off to sleep. I had to explain that I was just closing my eyes so that I could concentrate more fully on what was being said.

There was time for another leisurely stroll round the garden after coffee.

Mrs Tootlepedal had already dug up the first very new potatoes of the season . . .

. . . and now we found a couple of decent sized white turnips and a handful of broad beans to go with them.

We ate the potatoes for lunch and had the turnip and beans with our evening meal. In between the two meals, I did nothing except watch a stage of the Tour and occasionally keep an eye through the window on the birds outside in the rain.

Starlings visited the feeder in search of food for their young . . .

. . . and then sparrows got in before the siskins could assemble in numbers.

A wise sparrow got on with eating seed while ignoring a rude siskin shouting at it . . .

. . . and another checked on possible siskin reinforcements arriving.

Sometimes there were just not enough perches for one each.

One feature of the garden at the moment is the large number of blackbirds about. This one represents them all today.

I was still intending to go for a walk when the tour stage finished, but will power was seriously lacking when it came to actually putting my boots on and leaving the house, so I found something to do indoors instead.

I am hoping that I will be a little perkier tomorrow, but the damp weather is set to continue for a day or two so I will have to make a real effort.

The flying bird of the day is a siskn . . .

. . . and the flower of the day is a Butter and Cream iris. They will soon be over.

Footnote: I broke off in the middle of writing this post to watch the last quarter of England’s football match against Ukraine when Mrs Tootlepedal told me that England were leading 3-0. It was very good to see them playing in a composed and thoughtful manner with good skills on display. I hope that they continue to do well. They deserve to. The implications for a rapid spread of the virus among the unvaccinated section of the population sitting in pubs while the team plays at Wembley on Wednesday are a bit alarming though.