Surprise cows

Today’s guest picture comes from our friend Bruce He was in North Berwick on the east coast today as the sun set.

There was no sign of sun here today, and we woke to grey and wet weather. I spent some of the morning walking up to the town under my umbrella to do some shopping. Then I spent more of the morning walking up to the town under my umbrella to do more shopping for things that I had forgotten. This time I took my camera.

In between the two trips, I filled the feeder and stood back as the mad rush started.

Half the seed had gone in an hour.

A dove kept an eye on the proceedings.

It was a thoroughly miserable day, but it brightened up a bit when Mrs Tootlepedal inserted a new downlighter in the kitchen ceiling (the thing that I had forgotten on my first shopping trip). I couldn’t get an exact match for the old bulb, but this turned out to be a good as the new fitting is a bit brighter than the old one. This will enable us to read the papers over breakfast without straining our eyes. Like those rather irritating advertisements say, old eyes do need brighter lights.

After lunch, the rain kept falling, but I decided to put on my waterproof coat and trousers and go for a walk anyway. For some absurd reason, I chose a route that would take me up onto a ridge where I would be exposed to the worst of the weather. This so disconcerted the weather gods that they got distracted and turned the rain off as I went along the Baggra, past the High Mill Brig and up into the wood on the lower slopes of Castle Hill.

It was definitely damp under foot, but the view was much better than I had expected when I stopped to record hazel catkins and pixie cup lichens beside the track at the end of the trees.

I left the track, contoured round the hill and took the path up to the summit of Castle Hill, and then I walked along the ridge towards Potholm Hill.

I had encountered a friend when I was walking round Potholm a day or two ago who had walked along this ridge before we met. He told me that there were no cattle on the hill, so it came as a bit of a surprise to see cattle peering over the tussocks at me. I dropped off the ridge a bit, and walked round below them. They were unbothered by my presence, and grazed peacefully as I went by. I waited until I was well past them before I looked back with the camera well zoomed out.

It is a great ridge to walk along with good views even on a grey day.

Esk valley to my left

A handy wall to keep me going in the right direction

Looking back along the ridge

Ewes valley to my right

The Ewart Racing training establishment. A farmer has been muck spreading on the field in the foreground.

I love this view of the main road north running alongside the Ewes Water. This is the road I follow when I cycle to Mosspaul.

There were no more cattle to negotiate, but I did hit another problem when my bootlace snapped and I had to stop for a repair. Luckily I was able to sit down on a broken wall which offered me not only a dry seat, but a library of lichens within a yard of where I was sitting.

As I came off the hill and down to the track back to Langholm, the light began to fade and a gentle drizzle started, so I kept my camera out of the wet except to take one picture to show the road home.

It was a great walk, even on a grey day, with a good selection of paths, tracks and open hillside. I hadn’t walked this particular combination before, and I was pleased to find that I had covered seven miles by the time that I got back into the garden. Once again, I was powered by oatmeal biscuits.

Mrs Tootlepedal had told me that the forsythia in the garden had come out, so I took a look before I went in.

The day was rounded off with the regular Zoom with my brother and sisters. As Mrs Tootlepedal is still recovering from her bad cold, my two older sisters have both got Covid, and my brother had just got soaked on his afternoon walk, it wasn’t the cheeriest Zoom that we have ever had, but no one is seriously ill, so we count our blessings.

The mince made a third appearance for our evening meal, this time in the form of a mild curry.

I started this post with Bruce’s picture of the sunset on the east coast, but we had a surprise sunset here in the west too, so I will finish the post with that.

The flying bird of the day is an excited siskin.