A quiet day at home

Today’s guest picture comes from our son Tony. We read an article recently which told us to be more respectful of flies as they are very useful pollinators, so I have put his picture of a tenthredo lividae sawfly here out of respect.

We had a reasonably warm but very grey day here. In spite of a lugubrious forecast, it didn’t actually rain until the late afternoon, and I was able to cycle up to the town after breakfast to visit the new producers’ market in comfort. It was a small affair, but I purchased good local honey and fresh fish so I was quite happy. I don’t know whether it will last, but I hope that it does.

I followed that up with a visit to the Co-op by car as there was too much to carry back on my bike.

For various reasons, I wasn’t able to get out for a walk or cycle ride today, so I had a quiet day at home with time to watch the birds. Fortunately, there were quite a lot of birds to watch today.

I started with sparrows . . .

. . . who were very active.

Then we got a surprise visit from a starling who perched on the fake tree . . .

. . . looked about both ways . . .

. . . and magically turned into two starlings on the hedge.

When the starlings moved on, a greenfinch arrived and got so cross that it lost its lunch.

Having had a quiet morning, I had a quiet afternoon while Matilda went off for a walk with her parents. I had work to do on preparing a newsletter for the Langholm Initiative, and that kept me occupied for some time, but I did have a moment to walk round the garden.

A charming new dahlia had come out . . .

. . . and in spite of the gloomy conditions, there were quite a few insects to be seen. The inulas were attracting visitors. I think that this one is not a bee but a drone fly pretending to be a bee . . .

. . . while this is definitely a fly . . .

There was a variety of bees too . . .

. . . with a couple of carder bees trying out a lupin . . .

. . . and a white tailed bumblebee in the jaws of a salvia.

The hostas along the back path are enjoying the weather more than I am . . .

. . . and the sunflowers were doing their best to make up for the cloudy day.

The family walkers got back in perfect time to avoid getting rained on, and I had to brave the rain later on when I went out to get a turnip or two from the vegetable garden to go with some excellent fish for our evening meal.

The quiet morning and afternoon wound down gently into a quiet evening, though I did spot a ringed siskin on the feeder pole as the light faded.

The gloomy weather is set to continue, so patient readers hoping for something more cheerful in my post tomorrow may well be disappointed.

In the meantime, the flying bird of the day is a sparrow trying to rise above it all.