Today’s guest picture was sent to me by my brother Andrew. It was taken by his son Dan with a wide angle lens while they were out on a walk together yesterday.

It was a disappointing day today, with two plans biting the dust. My first plan was to go up and have coffee with Sandy, but he had had a very poor night and wasn’t up to receiving visitors.
I stayed at home and had coffee with Margaret and Mrs Tootlepedal instead. This was not a bad substitute, as the conversation was lively and the shortbread, a Christmas gift from Margaret, was excellent.
After coffee, I pedalled round to our corner shop and arrived just after it had closed. The shopkeeper was driving off as I arrived. This was another disappointment, but as the shopkeeper turned his car round, jumped out, and re-opened the shop just for me, it was not a disappointment that lasted.
Although it was a dampish sort of day, it wasn’t actually raining, so when I got home, I finished turning the compost from Bin C into Bin D, and did a little shredding too.
I had look for the birds and found the usual chaffinches and occasional goldfinch were back on the scene.

A pigeon strode across the lawn in search of fallen seed . . .

. . . and I got quite excited by a glimpse of a wren in the plum tree. There were other perching birds too.

My next plan was to go for a cycle ride or a walk after lunch. It was another windy day, and I had more or less decided to go for a walk when it started to rain. It rained so determinedly that I got discouraged and went for a bike ride to nowhere in the garage for an hour. I had my head down and my view can be seen in today’s header picture.
I like to while away the static bicycling time by listening to a jazz record request programme that lasts for an hour. In keeping with the dull day, it had some dull music today, the sort of jazz that is pleasant enough but leaves you wondering whether it is ever going to stop. It was so dull that after listening it for what seemed as though it must be nearly an hour, a check on the time showed me that I had only been pedalling for 35 minutes. I was so downhearted that only a fortunate burst of energy from the Louis Armstrong Hot Five got me through to the finish.
The single flower that I saw all day was in a pot on a shelf in the bathroom when I had my shower after cycling.

The flying bird of the day is a siskin which flew off before I could photograph it on the feeder.

Footnote: because it was such a miserable day, and I had no pictures to show my brother and sisters at our regular Zoom in the evening, I dived into the files and produced a set of cheerful pictures from last year. It was such a cheerful selection that I have taken the liberty of putting it in here without further comment. They have all appeared on the blog before. They go back in order from November to May.














I enjoyed your cheerful pictures on the Zoom today and was delighted to have a second look at them just now. Sorry Sandy was suffering and hope he feels better quickly.
A shopkeeper who re-opened just for me: that would cheer me up no end, and for some time!
And rightly so. There are advantages in living in a very small town.
Those bright and beautiful flowers must have brightened a dull day. I also enjoyed the picture of the wren. Today I learned that Maine has five kinds of wrens, but I don’t recall ever having seen one. Hope Sandy feels better soon.
There are supposed to be a lot of wrens about here but they are very secretive birds so you hear quite a few but don’t see many at all.
I laughed out loud at your description of the dull jazz that never seemed to end. Still, your photos of the garden and the birds were delightful!
There are some pieces of music that don’t seem as though they have an end in sight. I tend to like music that sounds as though it is going somewhere purposefully.
I don’t like music that noodles around.
I hope Sandy is well. He’s been through a lot it seems.
It was good to see the blue poppies again, and the butter and crème irises. They’re all very beautiful.
It was also nice to see sunshine. We haven’t seen any here since last week.
We got a day of sunshine here today so that made us very happy.
The photograph of the flowers in your bathroom is really lovely to see.
It is a very pretty plant. I will try to take a better picture of it on the next grey day. 🙂
I enjoyed revisiting the cheerful photos, send best wishes to Sandy, and smirked at your description of the jazz. Ive experienced that type of jazz before🤣
There is a lot of it about.
As you said on my post, the gloom was widespread
I hope that you got our sunshine today.
We did
Glad the shopkeeper kindly opened up for you.
Your flower selection brightened up the dull weather day.
You have nice shopkeeper 🙂 Don’t know if they would react the same way here 🙂
I enjoyed your flower collection very much !
I have been going to his shop for forty years!
what a beautiful wren.
A wren or wrens flit about the garden quite a lot but they don’t often stop for a photo opportunity.
The pigeon looks well fed, and I love the wrens with their short, perky little tails. The intense color of last years images is a delight on a grey winter day.
Dan’s wide angled rainbow makes a nice image, too.
I often think about getting a wide angled lens but I am too mean.
Great idea to put all those lovely bright photos in from the last months- it did the trick of cheering me up! Good to read that acts of kindness are still around , shortbread is still being enjoyed and Louis Armstrong Hot Five still puts fire in your cycling legs!
Everyone seems to have a retrospective at this time of year.