Today’s guest picture comes from my brother Andrew. One of his sons took him on a walk to visit this church at Bredon on the Hill yesterday.
I found another inch and a half of rain in our rain gauge when I got up and had a look today. Not content with that, it rained as hard as it could during the morning, especially while I was outside.
After breakfast, I had to walk down to the Langholm Initiative office on newsletter business, and it was lucky I had a large golf umbrella to protect me from a very heavy shower. When I came back across the suspension bridge, I could see by looking at the two tone river that there had been more rain up the Wauchope valley than up the Esk valley.
We had coffee with our neighbours Liz, Ken and Margaret, and then I ventured out once again.
It was raining even harder as I went round to the corner shop. I hadn’t brought my phone with me because of the very wet conditions, so I can’t show you a picture of the water bubbling up from the drain covers in the middle of the road as I went along Elizabeth St. This picture of the bird feeder, taken from the shelter of the house when I got home, will have to do.
The rain did ease off while I made some potato soup for lunch, and there were better conditions at the bird feeder . . .
. . . and I was delighted to see a little wren popping about on the fake tree.
I was not so happy to see that the sparrowhawk had come back for his lunch on our lawn again.
I know that birds of prey have to eat like every other bird, but it is rather sad when it is our small birds that are taken. If the hawk comes again tomorrow, I will take down the feeder for a day or two so it doesn’t make a habit of visiting our garden.
After lunch, we decided to go for a walk to stretch our legs in the hope that the next shower would take its time before arriving. I had a quick look round the garden before we left and was pleased to see the Lilian Austin rose having another burst of life, along with handsome dahlias and the striking lily . . .
. . . but my current favourites are the wonderful tall Michaelmas daisies.
It may have stopped raining, but there was no shortage of water on our walk. (Click on an image for the fuller picture.)
The caul at Pool Coirner 
Looking down over the caul 
Water bouncing back off the Auld Stane Brig 
A flood on the road just past the bridge 
The cause of the flood 
Looking back towards the bridge
I visited my favourite cascade at Bessie Bell’s. I didn’t like to get too close to the action.
Having looked at the swirling river above the cascade . . .
. . . Mrs Tootlepedal turned for home, but I kept going.
Looking back, it might have seemed like a peaceful, sunny day . . .
. . . but water was running off the hillsides all along the road and there was a brisk wind.
I wandered up the road, enjoying the sights and sounds as I went.
There were small things to enjoy as well.
I was hoping to find some hazelnuts to pick, as Mrs Tootlepedal is very fond of hazelnuts, but I only saw a few, and most of them were too high for me to reach. There were a lot of very ripe blackberries, and I did pick one or two of those to eat as a refreshment from time to time.
I walked up as far as the little cascade below Wauchope Schoolhouse . . .
. . . and then I too turned for home.
There was more to see on the way back.
The weather was kind and it stayed dry for the whole six miles, quite often with some welcome sunshine too.
I got home in time for a cup of tea and a slice of toast before our regular Zoom with my brother and sisters. It started to rain shortly after I got in, so our walk was well timed.
We are due to have another wet and windy day tomorrow so I will have to start thinking about the bike to nowhere if this unfriendly cycling weather keeps going. It might get better towards the end of the week so I am keeping my fingers crossed.
The flying bird of the day is a sparrow, trying to find a free perch on the feeder in the morning rain.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
Phew! Water, water everywhere. Those Michaelmas daisies are glorious!
I agree about the daisies, especially as they come so late in the year when everything else is fading away.
While I am envious of your rain, it will always look more beautiful in your photographs. We are cloudy with little to no rain this week. But maybe these things are cyclic…I think I have forgotten last year we had flooding. I’m sorry the Sparrowhawk has decided to hang out in your yard, even though your photograph is striking.
There is nothing wrong with a bit of rain as long as it knows when to stop. Unfortunately it didn’t know when to stop today and I had a dull day inside.
I’m sorry – I can relate to dull days indoors, even when it’s not raining…
Your two-tone river – now that’s REALLY some rain gauge!
It certainly told us where it had been raining and where it hadn’t been raining.
You did have a lot of rain, well done for going out to record the results. We are forecast similar tomorrow, I think I may stay indoors.
We got continuous rain today and I prudently stayed indoors.
You found some great landscape shots despite the wet weather.
The rivers are looking a little scary though. They look a lot like ours did all summer.
The flowers are still looking beautiful, especially that daisy.
Although the daisy is so tall that it tends to lean over a lot, the gardener is very pleased with it.
It’s a beauty!
I enjoyed all the photos from your day. The tall Michaelmas daisy is quite pretty, and your hazelnut male catkins are at about the same stage as ours here. You have had far more rain though. The water looks quite wild, and busy creeping up the riverbanks. I hope you do not experience serious flooding now.
The rivers are dealing very well with the amount of rain that we have had.
As you can imagine, I enjoy seeing drops of rain and swollen rivers which have been denied us for far too long.
I wish that I could send some of the surplus rain to you.
Dramatic changes to the rivers. Gardeners at least will be happy. Enough is probably enough now.
We had a day of continuous rain today so we are definitely feeling that we have had enough for the moment.
What a lot of water all at once – interesting picture of the two rivers meeting, and I particularly liked the shot of the little cascade.
Your pictures taken after the heavy rain are stunning, well captured.
Great idea to take away the bird feeder for some days, I hope it will help.
We didn’t get a visit from the hawk today so I have left the feeder up.
The galleries working well today. I like the cascade close up
I am glad that the galleries are working.
Beautiful shot of the hawk, Tom. I know it’s sad to see them make a kill but they are such awesome birds to watch.
It is amazingly quick on the turn when it flies through the garden.
I like walking and cycling in the rain but not all the time. I haven’t seen a sparrow hawk for quite some time, but very surprisingly while driving down the old road I spotted a peregrine falcon perched on a telephone post. It was just a passing glimpse, if I’d been on my Pioneer I would have stopped and attempted to take a picture. No doubt with my normal results! “This bird had flown.” Cheers.
I haver quite a library of ‘This bird has flown’ pictures, mainly buzzards when cycling.
The two toned river is very interesting, and later on I love the photo of the gleaming amber cascade of water.