Settling back down

Today’s guest picture comes from my brother Andrew. He wishes to point out that his local park has adopted a no-mow policy too. As this combines ecological correctness with money saving, I expect that quite a lot of other local councils will be doing this.

We had another very hot day here, but there were definite clouds by the end of the day. This should herald a change in the weather.

It was already quite warm as we cycled to church n the morning. The congregation was a little larger than usual, thanks to some visitors, and there were seven of us in the choir, so it was quite a cheerful occasion.

After church, we had time for a coffee before we got into the car and drove up to Cronksbank where the new tree nursery for the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve is being established. The new trees need regular watering . . .

. . . and while the sprinkler was working, we transplanted another 60 seedlings into a half filled bigger plug tray. I hope to go back with the volunteers twice in the coming week as there is an immense amount of work still to be done. We brought back three more trays for Mrs Tootlepedal to fill with the willow seedlings. She has filled three already so there will be a lot of willows to plant out later on.

It was very hot on the moor . . .

. . . though we did find a little shade to do our work in.

All the same, we were happy to have a rest and do nothing after lunch when we got home.

I did go down to the Co-op on my bike, and on my way back I helped to rescue a man who had fallen over. Luckily Nancy, our Archive Group treasurer, was nearby with her car and she took him home.

Then I went out into the garden to see if I could find any butterflies, but there were none to be seen. This was a bit discouraging as the garden should be full of them on a day like today at this time of year. I wonder if they have been put off by the vast number of sparrows. They are everywhere in the garden.

On the fruit cages . . .

. . . in the rowan tree . . .

. . . and even on the buddleia where the butterflies should be.

Whenever you go out into the garden, great waves of them rise up into the sky.

I took a picture of a starling which stood out among the sparrows.

I waited until the real heat of the day had passed, and then went out for an early evening cycle ride on my electric bike. A cycling friend had told me that the council had resurfaced the Solwaybank road, and I wanted to check if it was fit to ride yet.

It wouldn’t have been much fun on my road bike with its narrow tyres, but the newly gravelled surface was quite tolerable for the small fat tyres of my electric bike. They have resurfaced quite a long section of the road and it should be in good condition now for some time.

Not all the road has ben resurfaced yet though.

I took a few pictures on my way round, including the field of cropped willows which are growing at an amazing rate . . .

. . . an attentive onlooker . . .

. . . and two shots of the turbines at the wind farm, taken ten seconds apart, just to show how slowly the turbines were turning. The ones at the front had only turned about 40 degrees and the one at the back hadn’t moved at all.

In the absence of natural wind, I had to keep my legs turning as fast as I could and make my own cooling breeze. As a result, I got home in good time to enjoy an evening meal of Mrs Tootlepedal’s fish pie.

The house feels very quiet.

The flying bird of the day is one of the army of sparrows.