Keeping my head down

Today’s guest picture comes from my sister Mary. It shows that gloom was well spread across the country today, as she found a grey canal scene when she went for her walk in London.

It wasn’t just grey here when we got up, it was pouring with rain as well. I had to get out my big umbrella when I walked up the hill to have coffee with Sandy. He is recovering from a recent operation on his leg at the moment, and will not able to walk down to have coffee with us for quite a bit. He is managing to remain pretty cheerful under trying circumstances, and he is providing excellent coffee for his visitors.

It was still raining when I got back home and walked round to the corner shop for supplies, but it stopped as I walked home again. The day didn’t get much brighter though, and it was too dark to take any bird pictures at the feeder. This didn’t matter much, as there were hardly any birds there anyway.

Mrs Tootlepedal had been busy wallpapering in the morning, and after lunch, she returned to the task, while I went for a walk.

As I strolled along the road beside the river, I could see the little tunnel through which the water from our dam joins the Esk, after passing a skinyard and a mill on its way.

The skinyard still makes use of the water I believe, but the mill was shut some years ago.

At the Kilngreen, the ducks had taken to the river today and were enjoying some gentle swimming.

I walked along to Whitshiels and took the road up the hill towards the White Yett.

The clouds had lifted off the hills but there was not much of a view available.

As I got higher up the hill, I had another look at the view . . .

. . . and then I wisely decided to stop trying to get a decent landscape on such a dull day, and turned my camera on more lowly things, like an interesting wall with a variety of mosses and lichens. . .

. . . an old bridge . . .

. . . plentiful haws still on a hawthorn tree . . .

. . . witches butter fungus on another hawthorn bush . . .

. . . a good example of winter flowering gorse . . .

. . . and an even more interesting wall.

By the time that I looked up again, I found that I had walked along the hill, down the Kirkwynd and back into the town.

I walked along the High Street and down to the river, but it was too dark to take any more pictures until I crossed the suspension bridge from where I could see the Christmas lights on the town bridge.

When I got home, I found that I had walked three and a half miles in just over an hour, so while I didn’t get much in the way of sunny views, I got a good burst of exercise on a windy afternoon.

Mrs Tootlepedal was still papering when I got in, so I settled down and catalogued the nineteenth and final box of recorder music for our recorder group. The catalogue contains 332 pieces of music, all with scores and parts, so we would have a big task in hand if we wanted to play all of them.

Tomorrow is going to be 1 minute and 2 seconds longer than today, but as it is going to be just as grey, probably wetter, and certainly windier, patient readers will have to wait a while for cheerful pictures from Langholm.

There was no chance of a flying bird today and a black headed gull is kindly acting as a stand in.