Slow going

Today’s guest picture comes from my sister Mary who had a day out in Paris today. She walked along the Seine

I had quite a full day today here without doing anything in a rush. It had got down to very near freezing overnight, so Mrs Tootlepedal was out checking the garden while I was still doing the crossword and entering more of the newspaper index into the Archive Group database. When I had finished that, I did two lots of shopping at different ends of the town, and then said good morning to Margaret who was chatting with Mrs Tootlepedal over coffee.

I had two cheese and tomato rolls for a very early lunch and then had a quick tour round the garden where there was surprisingly little evidence of the low overnight temperature. There was even a bee, some berries and a butterfly.

Then I went out for a cycle ride as my miles for the month are rather behind schedule. I took my road bike to balance up my road and electric mileage. I would have been happier on the e-bike as there was a gusty wind and my legs were very short of stuffing when it came to going into the wind or uphill.

Thanks to my early start, I still hoped to do a decent distance, but having taken an age to do the first three miles uphill and into the wind, I turned off at Wauchope Schoolhouse and went tamely round my familiar Canonbie circuit. I liked this arrangement of birds on the wires at the Bloch.

There were no interesting cows to talk to, and few if any visible wild flowers in the verges so I just kept my head down and pedalled rather slowly on until I got through Canonbie village. There I stopped for some early signs of autumn colour.

I see that some experts are predicting as good year for autumn colour in Scotland but I worry that the very dry weather will make trees go brown rather than yellow and gold. We will have to wait and see.

There was a double flash of really good colour just before I joined the main road at the end of the bike path. It has definitely been a good year for hips and berries.

After taking an unusually long time to do the twenty miles, I got home to find that Mrs Tootlepedal was hard at work in the garden. After a slice of freshly baked bread with marmalade, I joined in with some dead heading and a little lawn mowing. I looked around while I was out there.

On my way to the compost bins, I was struck once again by the deep colour of the crimson clover in Mrs Tootlepedal’s cover crop . . .

. . . and among the many bright crimson clover flowers, I spotted a solitary clover of a more subdued hue.

Back among the flower beds, there was plenty to please the eye.

We went in for a cup of tea (and in my case, another slice of bread and marmalade). I had a look at the bird feeder and saw a greenfinch tucking in to the seed.

I thought I needed a bit of a walk after my disappointingly short bicycle ride, so I went off for a three bridges stroll in the hope of seeing some interesting waterside birds.

Although it was a fine day at this point . . .

. . . interesting waterside birds were conspicuous by their absence, and I was left with only the very neatly mowed greensward of the Kilngreen to photograph.

After crossing the Sawmill Brig, I had the choice of going onto the Castleholm to take the new path . . .

. . . or going up the Lodge Walks . . .

. . . which looked inviting.

However, I could see some dark clouds looming up, so I chose going round the Castleholm to the Jubilee bridge rather than anything more extensive. I looked about as I went. There was spleenwort on a wall, what looked uncommonly like a dandelion, and uneaten and eaten cones on the Noble Fir.

At various times in my walk, I saw a spider’s web on the Jubilee Bridge. an ex dandelion, a disputatious crow in a tree, and the merest hint of a rainbow over the monument.

The rainbow suggested that it might be going to rain on me, and I thought that I was in for a good soaking when it suddenly started to rain quite hard. Then, just as suddenly, it stopped and I got home quite dry.

Here are a few more things that interested me as I went along. The black spots on the leaf turn out to be Rhytisma acerinum, a plant pathogen that commonly affects sycamores and maples in late summer and autumn, causing tar spot. It doesn’t do the trees any harm.

As I looked over the hedge and into our garden on my return, I noticed that the viburnum under the walnut tree is full of flowers.

As soon as I got into the garden, the sun came out again, and I could see a collared dove pretending to be a starling.

The forecast for tomorrow is less windy, so I might be able to get a longer ride in if my legs are prepared to co-operate.

A second helping of Mrs Tootlepedal’s slow cooked beef stew rounded the day off.

The flying bird of the day is probably a goldfinch.