Remembering a recipe

Today’s guest picture comes from Dropscone. He found this fine toadstool on the golf course while he was playing recently.

The brisker winds forecast for today did not make an appearance, and it was cool, grey but calm and dry when I went for a walk round the garden in the morning.

I looked for plants that have not appeared in recent posts, and found quite a few.

Mrs Tootlepedal’s mini orange hawkweed meadow has come up with some late flowers.

The thornless blackberry on the fence has produced a few bonus berries in its first year, but they are ripening rather slowly and even the black ones are not very sweet. We hope for better things as it matures next year.

In the back bed in the vegetable garden, some vandal has been attacking our autumn colour . . .

. . . but the dogwood with white berries next to it, is in prime condition.

In the same bed a ‘volunteer’ verbascum is standing up straight.

When I walked from the vegetable garden into the middle garden, I passed under fresh set of honeysuckle flowers.

On my way to the front garden, I passed a the red potentilla which has had a second flush of flowers . . .

. . . and a lonely Welsh poppy.

There was more yellow in the shape of a crocosmia when I got to the front garden, almost the last one of this year’s show . . .

. . . and the deep red of a Sweet William in the front bed almost challenged my camera.

I didn’t hear or see any bees until I got to the sedum outside the back door, but when I did see one, it was big.

After coffee, we went down to Canonbie for the second day in a row. This was a sad occasion though, as we were going to the funeral of the husband of an old friend, the father of one of our son Alastair’s close friends at primary school.

Archie, who had been the factor for the Duke of Buccleuch in our area, was a widely known figure and the funeral was well attended. The service was well conducted and very touching. Mrs Tootlepedal was feeling the effects of her double vaccination yesterday so we didn’t stay for the reception afterwards, but headed home for a late lunch.

As it was still fairly calm after lunch, I went for a short cycle ride. I had intended it to be a bit longer but just when I got within touching distance of England, it started to rain. Since the cars coming towards me had their headlights on, it seemed sensible to stay in Scotland and take a shorter route home. Some very light drizzle encouraged me to press on up the road and not stop for pictures.

I had noted a bit of colour on my way down the main road before the rain came . . .

. . . and I was hoping for some good tree shots. However, my revised route took me mainly through open country after that, but it did finally bring a glimpse of blue sky.

This was reassuring. I had been passed by a former teaching colleague who stopped his car for a chat. As it was right at the top of a steep hill, I was more than happy to take a moment to talk to him.

After that, I slowed down a bit and looked around . . .

. . . and, as usual, animals looked back at me.

The sun didn’t actually shine on me, but the view were I was . . .

. . . was a lot better than the massed clouds over where I would have been if I had stuck to my original plan

There were often little patches of sunlight ahead or to the side . . .

. . . but they had always gone before I got there.

All the same, I got home dry and in time for a cup of tea with Mrs Tootlepedal and Mike Tinker who was visiting. He reported that his boots had almost dried out after our very wet walk last Saturday.

We checked on the fuligo septica slime mold before he left . . .

. . . and we found that although the original patch had diminished a lot, a new and yellower patch had formed a few feet away. We await further developments with interest.

In the evening, I made a tarte tatin. As I hadn’t made one for about a year, this was a re-learning experience, and the result could have been better. However, it was no trouble to eat, and as I have puff pastry in hand I will have another go soon, and hope to have learned from experience.

In the course of quite a busy day, I didn’t have time to look at the birds, let alone take any pictures of them, so there is no flying bird of the day at all today. A pair of cheery lilies is standing in.