A short walk and a surprise

Today’s guest picture comes from my sister Caroline. She found plenty of flowers and a bit of peace and quiet in this well sheltered municipal garden beside the sea in Southsea.

We had a miserable day here, grey, windy and rainy. I managed to nip up to the local producers market in the High Street before the rain started in earnest. Luckily there are some indoor spots, so not all the stall holders got the worst of the weather. I bought some fish, two individual steak pies and an enormous sourdough loaf, and then scuttled home before the rain started.

Mrs Tootlepedal went off with some of her ex work colleagues for a birthday lunch for one of them at a Greek restaurant in Carlisle, leaving me sitting quietly and contemplating the rain. I sampled the sourdough bread and then, as I thought that the day needed a bit of cheering up, I made some spicy lentil soup for my lunch.

After lunch I spent some useful time at my computer cataloguing more of the recorder music mountain, adding to the Archive Group’s newspaper index database, and practising some choir music. I would have watched the birds but for some reason, perhaps the very gusty wind and rain had something to do with it, no birds came to the feeder today.

Finally, just before the sun went down, the rain stopped, and I popped out for a three bridges walk.

There was even a touch of blue sky behind the leafless tree in front of the church . . .

. . . but the sun never quite escaped from the clouds.

I looked out for Mr Grumpy when I got to the Kilngreen, but found a different bird there when I looked around. A cormorant was on the gravel at the Meeting of the Waters . . .

. . . keeping an eye out for things on land and on the river.

As I watched, it jumped into the water and did a little swimming and diving.

This was a rare sighting for me, When I checked, I found that the last cormorant I had seen in Langholm was in October 2019.

There was a big gathering of ducks on the bank of the Ewes Water . . .

. . . and as usual, a white duck was the most noticeable among them.

Further along the Kilngreen. I could see the spot where the turf has been removed in preparation for tomorrow’s bonfire.

It should be quite a big bonfire by the look of it. The forecast for tomorrow evening is not too bad at the moment, so I hope to come down and see the flames and gasp at the firework display.

I crossed the Sawmill Brig and walked up the Lodge Walks. The colour is fading in the trees across the Castleholm . . .

. . . and there were more leaves on the road than on the trees as I strode along the Walk.

I wasn’t dilly dallying because in the brisk wind, it was decidedly chilly, and the light was fading fast.

I crossed the Duchess Bridge, and took the even more leaf covered path back to the town.

The leaves had quite a variety of colour when I looked down at them.

The sun had sunk by the time that I got home . . .

. . . and looking over the hedge from the road into our garden, I could see that we are in our ‘winter green’ stage now.

I will soon be sweeping walnut tree leaves off the lawn.

Mrs Tootlepedal had returned from her outing by the time that I got home. They had had a very enjoyable time with good company and excellent food.

We enjoyed the fish that I had bought in the morning at the meal that we ate in the evening. Then we sat down to watch Strictly Come Dancing. The standard is quite high as this year, for once, the Great British Public has not voted to keep bad dancers in the competition just to annoy people like me who think that the better dancers should survive.

There is no flying bird today, as there were no birds at the feeder, so the flying bird of the day is swimming.