Today’s guest picture comes from my sister Mary. She took it though a bus window as she passed Trafalgar Square this week. It is very obvious that central London has not returned to anything like the usual pre-covid crowds of tourists.

In spite of a rather gloomy forecast yesterday, today turned out to be mostly fine, with not a hint of rain until the late afternoon.
It was still quite chilly when we got up, so I put my usual delaying tactics into place before going out for an unexpected cycle ride. The crossword, coffee with our neighbours Margaret and Liz, and washing the bird feeder all filled in the time until midday.
It was a comfortable 8°C when I finally got going, and the wind was so light as not to be either a hindrance or much of a help. I only needed eight miles to get up to my 4000 mile total for the year, so I settled for a gentle 20 mile loop round the Solwaybank wind farm to take me there.
The needles are coming off the larches, but there were still plenty left on the trees as I headed up and over Callister.
As I passed the field of coppiced willows near Conhess, I was impressed by their growth. The individual plants are well above six foot tall now. That is quick growing when you think what they looked like in March this year.
The turbines at Solwaybank were not turning today, but they have been placed in a breezy spot as this tree shows.

It was a clear day, and from the top of the hill beside the windfarm, I could look across country to see Tinnis Hill in the distance. I had cycled past it yesterday. Beside my feet, a lone buttercup bloomed.
The great joy of this route, is the tree lined section of road when you have passed the wind farm. I was just in time today to catch the last of the autumn tunnels.
Feeling that these two tunnels would be hard to beat, I didn’t take any more pictures until I was happily back in our own garden after completing 4012 cycling miles for the year so far.
I had a search for flowers in the garden before I went in, and managed to round up six rather scruffy specimens, with some berries and box ball thrown in to make up the panels.
Mrs Tootlepedal had been busy gardening while I was out pedalling. She has been digging over the front beds and removing as many of the large stones which infest the ground as she could.
I had a slice of bread and bramble jelly for a light lunch, and then went off for a walk with Mrs Tootlepedal. She wanted to look at some of the very young spruces growing on the moor, so we drove up to the White Yett and walked along the track to the Castle Craigs.
If you like cairns, this is the walk for you.
The MacDiarmid cairn at the start of our walk . . . . . .and the Castle Craigs cairn and bench at the far end of it. The first Common Riding cairn on the way . . . . . . and the second . . . . . . which seemed to have moss squeezed out from under its top stone.
We found some varied lichen . . .
. . . and fungus and striking vegetation too. We couldn’t work out what the fresh looking green plant was.
It had got rather gloomy by this time and there was a threat of rain. The moor was looking at its brownest . . .
. . . so we didn’t linger long. Mrs Tootlepedal rtested out the bench beside the Castle Craigs cairn for a minute or two, and then we walked back to the car. This was a good policy because there was a hint of drizzle on the car windscreen as we drove home.
I took a picture of a fungus in the garden a day or two ago. Mrs Tootlepedal had told me where to find it, but when she looked at my picture, she said it was not the one that she had seen. We went to investigate and found that there were indeed two crops of fungus at the same bin.

It was a double fungus fest.
When we went in, I cooked a tarte tatin. Later in the evening, I couldn’t find my mobile phone although we looked everywhere. It was a complete mystery as I had definitely used it after we had come back from our walk, Finally, the astute Mrs Tootlepedal diagnosed the situation correctly, and found missing phone hiding in the pocket of my tarte tatin apron.
Although I had washed and filled the feeder in the morning, it hadn’t attracted many customers at all, even when we were out. Some birds had obviously visited, as the seed had gone down a little . . .

. . . but they had not come at a moment when I was looking out of the window.
As a result, the flying bird of the day is also the only bird that I saw all day. The quality of the image is not good, but beggars can’t be choosers and it is a flying dunnock. A flying dunnock doesn’t appear on the blog very often! (The last one was two years ago.)

Mary’s picture is a real surprise. I really like the moss pouring out from under the stone and the lichen shots.
The tunnel views were beautiful Great fall colors.
The top right lichen in the panel looks like reindeer lichen. The unknown plant reminds me of sedum, also called stonecrop.
The windblown tree was a nice find. It shows what wind can do.
That tree shows why they put the windfarm next to it.
Sedum is a good suggestion for that plant. Mrs T remains slightly unconvinced but I will try to get a better sample to look at.
The leaves look succulent like sedum but the stem is a bit long and lanky.
I enjoyed all these photos, especially the autumn tunnels today. I would love to step into those photos and go walking down those roads.
The coppiced willows are of interest. What do they use them for?
I think that are bundled up and used for fuel in a wood burning power station.
You’ve cycled the equivalent of most of the way across Canada – and the year isn’t over yet. That must have taken a lot of bananas and honey sandwiches. 🙂
Mary’s photo shows the kind of London I’d love to be in right now – free of the much maligned tourists . . . like me!
From a selfish point of view, many people must be enjoying the quieter life in the cities at the moment. It is hard for business though.
I too have enjoyed the autumnal tunnels as well as the lichen today.
We are well provided with fungus and lichen at present.
The beautiful tunnel photos are my favourites today. Congratulations on cycling 4012 miles so far this year. The green plant looks like sedum to me , too.
That is a good suggestion. I will try to have another look and get a better picture.
If only tunnel vision would always look like this….
Beautiful coloured.
I am enjoying it while I can . . . winter is coming.
Loved the colours of those forest tunnels, congratulations on your cycle mileage for the year and glad to read that you located your phone.
What’s the largest number of miles you’ve cycled in a year? We often have to resort to ringing lost phones.
I tried that with my phone but as it was in silent mode, it didn’t help a lot!
I didn’t do a lot of cycling until I retired and then I wasted a of time playing golf badly. I think that my best year will have been 2011 when I was a youthful 69 and did 6681 miles in the year. I was hoping to improve on that in 2012 but I got an attack of rheumatic arthritis which slowed me down. After that from whihc I recovered, a subsequent knee replacement set me back a lot. I have been getting my distances up a bit, but old age is creeping up on me so I don’t think that I will ever see 5000 miles in a year again.
Impressed but can imagine it does get harder each year. Here’s to your body holding strong.
I hope it will. I would be a bit distressed to be sitting around at home a lot.
My favourite views, in a post full of favourites, are the views along the autumn tunnels- just beautiful. Love the panels showing the cairns and the moors- very Heathcliffe!
It was quite bleak up there by the afternoon in contrast to the pleasant conditions on my cycle ride.
I rather like your brown moor, especially the photo with the rocks. And the header is lovely.
The moor retains its interest in all seasons in my opinion.
‘Double fungus fest’ truly busted a laugh out of me lol. Your autumn tunnels are so pretty, I love tree tunnels!
They give cycling extra pleasure.
Great achievement reaching your 4K landmark,well done sir 🚴🏼♀️🚴🏼♀️🚴🏼♀️
Thank you. 4200 for the year is now my target.
Tree tunnels are, most definitely, my favourite type of tunnel.
We have reached the end of the tree tunnel season now.
Your tunnel shots are simply marvelous. Rather dreamy and inviting I must say. It’s good to see all the fungus and other strange growths appearing in your neighborhood. 😏
We have had a lot of fungus but nothing as curious as the one you featured in your last post.
Been just the opposite here. Hardly any fungus (mushrooms?) to speak of, but that Birds Nest one surely made up for it. Glad you enjoyed the link. I sure did. Who knew there was such a thing??? 🤔
Not me.
Congratulations on your mileage!
Thank you. It hasn’t been a bad year for cycling at all.