Today’s guest picture comes from our son Alistair. He went on a family walk to his local park and met another family also out for a stroll.
We woke up to a perfect summer day today and I went out at quarter to eight to greet the smiling morn.
It was such a nice day that after breakfast, instead of sitting around reading the newspapers and doing the crossword, I got up and went out into the garden to do something useful.
And take pictures too.
Between watering, dead heading and weeding, I looked at poppies . . .
. . . and snapdragons . . .
. . . and dahlias.
Mrs Tootlepedal says that it is probably earwigs that bite the holes in the dahlia petals.
I noted the phirst phlox of the year . . .
. . . and several clematis are in flower including the rather gaudy ‘Ooh La La’.
Mrs Tootlepedal is very pleased with the colour of this blue salvia . . .
. . . and I liked a white verbascum which had self seeded in a border.
Unfortunately, Mrs Tootlepedal wasn’t very happy about its positional sense, and that will be the last picture readers will see of it, as it is now resting in the compost bin.
Fortunately though, another verbascum has escaped the chop.
The roses are enjoying the good weather and I picked out some red roses today.
Dropscone, who had already done an early morning cycle ride, dropped in for coffee bringing scones with him, and we caught up on his news. He had visited his two year old granddaughter too while we were away.
After he went, we both went out shopping and then got back to work in the garden.
I didn’t have any time for more pictures though as I wanted to have an early lunch and go cycling. I had only been out on my bike three times so far this month, so I was getting well behind my monthly schedule.
It was pretty warm, but luckily the sun went behind some clouds for quite a bit of the trip and I didn’t get over hot. There was sufficient breeze to keep me cool enough to enjoy the outing.
On the down side, I actually encountered two of the tractors that are mowing our local road verges in action as I set off up the Wauchope road. They had not been thorough enough to destroy all the wild flowers though, and I spotted a good looking orchid which they had missed.
I took a picture on the top of Callister to show that they had been quite thorough.
I cycled through Waterbeck and Middlebie and when I stopped to take a picture of the view towards the Lake District, I got distracted by wild flowers.
After Middlebie, I plunged down the hill beneath an arch of trees into the village of Ecclefechan.
As you can see from the wide road in the village, this was once on the main Glasgow road and a busy little place. It is very quiet now. It was the birthplace of Thomas Carlyle, the sage of Ecclefechan and I noted his house beside a neatly contained little stream.
The wide verges on the old main road south to Kirkpatrick Fleming held plenty of wild flowers as the verge mowers had only cut the strip beside the road. Among many others, I noted ragwort (with red soldier beetles) and some striking clover.
From Kirkpatrick Fleming, I finally found that the cooling breeze was now behind me, and I was able to make good speed across the country back to Eskdale.
When I came down off the Canonbie by-pass, I spotted quite a few orchids that had escaped the verge mowers attentions, but the most conspicuous wild flower was the meadowsweet which carpeted the banking on both sides of the road.
Not every verge on my route had been cut. There are some that are so out of the way that they have been left alone.
After so little cycling and quite a lot of sitting around on our trip to and from London, my knees were not quite as happy about the pedalling as I was, but I managed to sweet talk them into doing 35 miles, and that at least got me over 100 miles for the month so far.
I got home in time for a cooling shower before the regular sibling Zoom meeting.
I had been able to pick enough raspberries in the morning for us to have some raspberries and cream for afters at our evening meal.
I had filled the bird feeder but there was very little traffic, and the only bird that I photographed all day was this siskin. I will try to catch a flying bird tomorrow.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
I’m glad the mowers missed that orchid. It’s a beauty.
I enjoyed the poppies, snapdragons, and dahlias.
I saw the first phlox here today as well. Summer is passing quickly.
This is the first time that Mrs T has gone for snapdragons and she is pleased with the results.
Glad to see you out and about and treating readers to summer’s flowers and views around Langholm. That first pink poppy with the incoming bee is as dazzling as a searchlight! The structure of those poppy flowers, like cosmos blooms, seems to gather and reflect light quite well. I also enjoyed seeing my favorite orchid again. I have not noted anything quite like it around here.
You may need more marshes. 🙂
I would love more marshes. Even our boggy wooded area dries out in summer.
Lovely post. Here in Massachusetts, my first phlox is just blooming, as well.
Hands across the sea!
I was amused by the phirst phlox and enjoyed the blue of the salvia. Glad you are back on your bike again, happy cycling.
Enjoyed the feast of flowers and the views of Ecclefechan. An amazing amount of meadowsweet lining the road.
Ah. All is right with the world once more
Gosh Mrs T doesn’t mess about, woe betide any flower in the wrong place. I’m so glad some verges and wildflowers escaped the mowers. Also very pleased to see a lovely bee visiting.
We had more bees again today which was a relief after such a scarcity.
🙂
A day of activity again! Love the flowers in the garden and all the wild flowers that the dreaded mower had missed! Ecclefechan looks a pretty town with an interesting history too.
It is well known for its local cake, the Ecclefechan Tart
As a student in the 60’s I worked in an eccles cake factory – I can’t look at an eccles cake now! Hopefully H and S have improved eccles cake production since then!
I like Eccles cakes too.
Wonderful orchid !!
Thank you.
The colors of the rainbow are presented so well here! They certainly look quite happy you’re both back! BTW, I like how you set up the smaller galleries now so we can click on them to enlarge to see the details even better. 🙂
I will keep doing it then.