An exciting if dull walk

Today’s guest picture comes from Dropscone who has arrived at Orkney.

After the excitements of singing with a choir of fifty yesterday, it was a change to be part of a choir of six in our church service today. Once again though, we did our best. Our organ repairs are nearly completed and Henry, our organist, is enjoying having more scope each week.

It was a dry day so we were able to cycle to and from church, and I had a walk round the garden when we got back. There was another surprise in store today when I found that Crown Princess Margareta has made a welcome return and one of the patio roses is full of flowers again.

The dahlias continue to please, a reader suggested that a pink strawberry might make up for the end of the pink Japanese anemones, and the eryngium has produced a very late attempt at a flower.

Our new air fryer produced a very acceptable cheese toastie for my lunch, and then I went for a walk. I would have liked to go for a bike ride, but a strong and gusty wind with the threat of ‘rain later’ persuaded me that a walk would be a better option.

I had seen reports on Facebook that a favourite walk to the Duchess Bridge, blocked for nearly a year by trees felled by Storm Arwen last November, had been cleared and was now open. I thought that I would check to see if this was true.

The walk was indeed open, not just to the Duchess Bridge . . .

. . . but past the bridge, up the hill and on to the road to Potholm. I didn’t cross the bridge when I came to it, but walked on along the newly cleared path.

A lot of work has been done.

I hope that the panel gives a glimpse of the work. It was exciting to walk up the newly cleared and repaired track.

There was no doubt though, that when I got on to the road to Potholm at the end of the wood . . .

. . . it was a dull day as far as the weather went.

Still, it remained dry for my walk, and though it wasn’t warm, it wasn’t cold either. I pottered contentedly along, enjoying the view across the river . . .

. . . and being ignored by cows too busy . . .

. . . to cast me more than the merest passing glance.

I walked down to the river at Potholm, impressed by the very neat hedges . . .

. . . crossed the bridge, walked up the hill past the farmhouse on the other side of the river and took the track back to Langholm.

Once again I could enjoy a look across the river, this time in the opposite direction . . .

. . . but there has been so much forestry work along the track that it is quite dull for the moment . . .

. . . with not a lot to see but felled trees, tree stumps and bare ground.

Occasional brambles offered a rare splash of colour . . .

. . . and I did notice two unexpected rhododendron flowers beside the track . . .

. . . and a couple of wild flowers when I got to the Lodge.

I was very pleased to have been able to walk past the Duchess Bridge, but the rest of the outing wasn’t the most cheerful walk on a grey day. What I think is a liverwort on a tree provided some interest . . .

. . . but there were no waterside birds of any sort to be seen when I got to the Kilngreen, not even a duck.

I did spot Mr Grumpy crouching beside the river on the other side of the town bridge, and a crow near the suspension bridge completed a very small bird collection for the walk.

Mrs Tootlepedal was just coming out to do some gardening when I got home. I intended to do some compost sieving, but as she was using the wheelbarrow this gave me an excuse to take a picture of a kohlrabi (and some fungus) . . .

. . . and then go inside to listen to a radio programme about a Pakistani jazz orchestra playing Take Five.

It had got so gloomy by the end of the programme that going outside again wasn’t the least attractive, and I was quite easily able to fritter the rest of the day away without doing anything noticeable at all.

There is no flying bird of the day today, just two sparrows, one looking as gloomy as the weather.