A little sun, a lot of rain

Today’s guest picture comes from my sister Mary. She captured this striking picture in Regents Park on her way to play tennis the other day

We got a lie in today thanks to the clocks being set back over night, and it was very welcome.

I watched the birds after breakfast and found that it was a day for goldfinches . . .

. . . some angrier than others.

Then a very chubby greenfinch arrived . . .

. . . which remained unruffled as other birds dashed about in all directions.

I am not sure whether the chubbiness is a sign of poor health or the large amount of my seed that it ate.

We had some sunshine here today but by the time that we had been to church, sung several hymns with extraordinary numbers of verses and then come home and had a cup of coffee, the sun was already on the way out. I nipped out into the garden before the cloud cover came over and took a few flower pictures to celebrate.

This must surely be the phinal phlox of the year . . .

. . . but there are quite a few calendulas still looking very composed.

A close look revealed an array of droplets on the hydrangea . . .

. . . and the imminent ending of the garden year was marked by the last flowers on the Lemon Queen . . .

. . . and the ghost of a long faded flower.

I had thought of a quick walk between choirs but I did so much thinking about it that the time to actually do it slipped away between my fingers, and by the time that I pulled myself together, it was too late. I drove down to the Co-op to do a little shopping instead.

I had another look at the birds after lunch and spotted a dunnock through the window . . .

. . . and there were two robins, or possibly the same robin skipping from the rooftop to the fence, when I went out into the garden. It is not often that you see a robin perched on a rooftop.

The fence was quite busy as further along, a blackbird was perched on it and looking around.

A little later blackbirds appeared on the lawn. The one on the right in the panel below looks as though it might be the same one that was sitting on the fence.

We drove down to Carlisle to our choir, picking up a member from Canonbie on our way and dropping off two other choir members in the north of Carlisle on our way home. We had a substitute conductor today, as our regular conductor was busy elsewhere. She was absolutely excellent so we had a very good practice. It does a choir good, I think, to have a different conductor every now and again, and get a different point of view. It wakes you up.

With the clocks going back, it was dark by the time the practice was over, and to rub in the change, it also pelted with rain as we drove home, with the windscreen wipers needing to be on double speed to get us through the cloudburst. Luckily, the rain stopped as we drove over the bridge into the new town and there was even a star visible as we parked the car.

It looks as though our run of changeable wet and windy weather is going to continue for the next week so more walking and less bicycling will probably ensue. I have lost my enthusiasm for pedalling into driving rain.

The flying bird of the day is a chaffinch