Clouded vision

Today’s guest picture comes from our son Alistair. He spotted a beautiful rose planted by site managers to improve the amenity of his local area.

We actually had some rain last night. Hooray. But as it only amounted to 2cm, and it had dried up before we got up, it didn’t help a great deal. Still, it was better than nothing.

Mrs Tootlepedal had a busy morning. She went off to help a gang of volunteers dust and spruce up the church as it emerges from lockdown. I stayed at home and after a leisurely breakfast and read through the papers, I was on hand to have coffee with our neighbours Margaret and Liz in the garden.

The rain had done nothing to dampen the delights of the dahlias, lupin, roses and poppies.

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And it hadn’t discouraged the bees either. There were more bees about in the garden today than ever.

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In the bottom of the gallery above you can see a bee literally falling out of a snapdragon and melancholy thistle with two bees on it at the same time. (As usual, if you click on a picture in a gallery, you get a fuller view.)

Mrs Tootlepedal has been tidying up the planting round the chimney pot and I thought that it looked very neat today.

Although the temperature had dropped 10°C from its peak last week, it was still pleasantly warm as we sat and chatted over coffee.

After coffee, Mrs Tootlepedal returned from her church cleaning and I did some dead heading.

At lunchtime, I checked on the birds and found a chaffinch among the usual siskins . . .

. . . but traffic is still very light at the feeder.

After lunch, I had another look round the garden and found that dahlias and poppies seemed to be looking intently for something.

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Mrs Tootlepedal went back to the church to add some outside weeding and strimming to the morning’s internal dusting and sweeping.

I listened to another episode of the radio drama that I had followed yesterday, and then went for a walk.

The weather forecast showed rain to the north of us and more rain to the south, but fine weather over Langholm. The cloudscapes from my stroll showed the forecast to be pretty accurate.

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Some of the clouds did look a bit threatening at times, but they all passed me by to one side or the other. It was warm when the sun came out, and I was glad of the shade provided by the Kernigal wood.

Apart from the views, there was plenty to look at as I went along the Becks track, over the Auld Stane Brig, up onto Warbla and then home by way of Skippers Bridge and the Murtholm.

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I saw the silverweed beside Skippers Bridge, and I was interested to see that it sends out runners like a strawberry. No wonder it spreads so freely along the edges of the roads.

There is a lot of rosebay willowherb about . . .

. . . and I thought that one or two other things seen on my walk deserved special attention.

A tree on Warbla.

Hundreds of hand reared pheasants newly put out in anticipation of the arrival of people wanting to shoot them in the autumn.

Some sensational nasturtiums displayed on a flower covered bicycle at Skippers Bridge. A bee photobombed me as I was taking the picture.

A promising crop of hazelnuts on the Murtholm.

Grasses catching the sun as I neared home.

The church looking particularly neat and tidy.

And finally, a warm welcome home from the phlox beside the phront door.

It was only four miles in length, but the walk was another demonstration of what a varied experience Langholm offers the ageing walker within easy reach of his home.

I had time for a cup of tea and a slice of toast and honey before the regular Zoom meeting with Mrs Tootlepedal and my siblings. After the meeting, we ate more vegetables from the garden with our evening meal and I had a last check on the birds.

A greenfinch turned up among the siskins.

There doesn’t seem to be much chance of serious rain here in the coming days in spite of thunderstorms appearing all over the rest of the country, so it looks as though we will be back to getting out the watering cans again tomorrow.

The flying bird of the day is a siskin trying to sneak past the greenfinch unobserved.