A singsong Sunday

Today’s guest picture comes from my sister Mary. She found a very nice day for a walk in the park earlier this week.

We didn’t have a generally nice day here today, though it did have some sunny moments. The trouble was that when it wasn’t sunny, it tended to rain, sometimes, quite heavily.

It was rather grey after breakfast when we were getting ready to go to sing in the church choir. There were plenty of birds at the feeder though, including a blue tit and a coal tit who both hid round the back of the feeder in a mean way.

The chaffinches were more co-operative.

We decided to risk cycling to church and got there and back again without getting rained on.

There was a good turnout by recent standards at the church choir, and as it was our harvest festival with small children in the congregation, we got both a short service and several enjoyable hymns to sing. We came home in a very good mood.

The weather brightened up and a set of goldfinches paid a visit to the feeder while we drank our coffee.

This shocked a chaffinch and stopped him in his tracks.

Within minutes, the goldfinches were replaced by sparrows . . .

. . . who like yesterday’s cows, made sure that they arrived in artistic formations. I was reminded of porcelain vases.

When I looked again an hour later, the sparrows had gone and a tentative greenfinch was checking out the situation.

With the coast clear, more greenfinches followed . . .

. . . in a never ending stream.

After lunch, I took a walk round the garden to see if the heavy overnight rain had left anything standing. The nicotianas and the salvias are more or less over, and a leaf was pointing the way to autumn . . .

. . . but other flowers were very resilient.

The Japanese anemones are looking a bit part worn . . .

. . . and most of the calendulas are gone now . . .

. . . but there was still a bee on a daisy . . .

. . . and plenty of life in the dahlias.

It is a pity that the sedums have come to their peak a little too late to attract any butterflies this year. Even the bees have deserted them, except for one late forager.

I managed to catch almost the last of the salvias just hanging on.

I did a little composting, and then went back inside just in time to avoid getting wet.

I had given myself a lateral flow test this morning because in the afternoon I was going to the first in-person meeting of the Carlisle Community Choir since the lockdowns began. The test was simple enough and the negative result was very satisfactory, although registering the result was more complicated.

Armed with a note of the result, I set off to the choir and the sun came out to cheer me on as I went.

I had purchased a special was,hable singing mask and it proved to be a good buy as I was able to sing quite naturally with it on. About 45 members turned up, and we were dispersed widely around a large room so the choral part of the singing was rather distant. All the same, our conductor was very pleased to be back in front of real people rather than a Zoom screen, and we were pleased to be back in front of her.

I was a good deal less pleased to get a soaking between opening the car door and getting into the house as it started pelting down just as I got home.

I am happy to get back to a two choir routine for a Sunday, but I will try harder to make sure that I don’t waste the time between choirs as I did today. There is plenty of time for a walk or even a short cycle ride if I get organised. Mrs Tootlepedal is not so keen on singing in a mask in a rather anti social situation so she is not coming to the Carlisle choir at the moment.

Mrs Tootlepedal made courgette fritters to go with our evening meal and that rounded off the day very well.

The flying bird of the day is one of the early chaffinches.