A quiet day

Today’s guest picture comes from our daughter Annie. She took our granddaughter Evie to Battersea Park for an alfresco breakfast this morning. Although they didn’t go boating, she tells me that they still had fun in two play parks.

After a fair bit of rain overnight, we woke to another day of variable weather here today. It was generally quite windy, and there were occasional showers. I thought it advisable to take my umbrella with me when I walked up the the little producers’ market in the High Street after breakfast.

There had been enough rain to get the river level up a little . . .

. . . but there was no need for anyone to be thinking of building an ark.

I bought the necessities of life at the market, soap, honey, fish and beer, and then walked home again without having to unfurl my brolly.

After coffee with Margaret, Mrs Tootlepedal wasn’t quite so lucky when she went up to do some conventional shopping. She got caught in a short, sharp shower on her way home.

Then the sun came out, and I was able to find two sunny siskins at the feeder . . .

. . . and a sunny Goldfinch rose in the garden.

The Martagon lilies are going from strength to strength . . .

. . . and true to their name, new day lilies are coming out every day.

There was a fair bit of buzzing in the garden . . .

. . . but it was hard to get a good photograph of the insects as the flowers were waving about so much in the brisk wind.

After lunch, the sun had gone in, and the siskins had lost their place at the feeder thanks to an incursion of sparrows . . .

. . . and the siskins were reduced to flying about in a hopeful manner.

The sparrows came under attack themselves shortly afterwards . . .

. . . but a greenfinch held no fears for them, and it was soon seen off.

I did vaguely think of going for a walk in the afternoon, but it was very windy and there was a stage of the Tour de France to watch, so I was easily tempted to abandon the walk and leave others to take exercise to entertain me.

They were pedalling through Denmark, and it was interesting to see new countryside as I had no mental picture of what Denmark looks like. The part that they cycled though today turned out to be very picturesque. The stage was interesting too.

When it finished, I went out and mowed both lawns and the greenhouse and vegetable garden grass as well.

I took a few flower pictures when I had finished. New flowers were to be found.

An iris, just opening out . . .

. . . flowers on a hosta . . .

. . . and a cultivated knapweed.

The campanulas are producing great numbers of flowers . . .

. . . as are the lamiums . . .

. . . and Bobbie James is soon going to rival the Goldfinch for quantity of blossoms.

At the market in the morning, I had bought a fillet of witch sole, a fish that I had never heard of before, and I gently pan fried it for my evening meal. It turned out to be very tasty, and went down well with new potatoes and spinach from the garden. Mrs Tootlepedal had hot smoked salmon with new potatoes and the first courgettes from the garden, so we were both well fed.

The unsettled weather looks likely to continue for a while, so I hope that I am better at resisting the siren song of the Tour de France tomorrow than I was today.

The flying bird of the day is a siskin, heading for the feeder, even though it already has a seed in its beak.