A special day

Today’s guest picture comes from my camera club friend Simon. He is on holiday in the Highlands and sent me this bridge to add to my collection. It is the Jubilee Bridge crossing the marsh on the way to to Port Appin in Argyllshire.

It was raining overnight here and it was raining when we woke up. It was still raining when our neighbours Liz, Ken and Margaret came round for a celebratory morning coffee on the occasion of Mrs Tootlepedal’s eightieth birthday. Although we had been to London as part of her birthday celebrations, it wasn’t until we had got home that the actual day arrived today.

The birds had obviously been missing the feeder while we had been away because they were back in force this morning and the feeder was soon nearly empty. There were lots of birds but very little light to help me take their pictures.

Anything moving created a problem.

I went out and refilled the feeder before coffee but by lunch time, it was well down again, with the perches filled and more birds waiting in the wings.

Talking of wings, some birds just weren’t co-operative at all.

But there were usually plenty around.

Over lunch, we arranged an early evening outing and this left me time for a quick walk. It was raining quite heavily when I set out, but luckily for me it soon eased off and I had a remarkably pleasant walk for what had been a very damp day.

Young beech trees retain their leaves when old ones have shed theirs so there is often a bit of colour left beside a path.

The path itself was suffering from an identity crisis in places. Was it a stream, a pond or a track?

Oddly enough, in spite of the rain and the puddles, the real streams are still running very low and I didn’t need much of a leap to get across Jenny Noble’s Gill when I came to it.

The very dry spring and summer must mean that the ground is still soaking up the current rainfall. Indeed, although the path was wet, the mud was never very deep and I got along it pretty well, although I had to withstand a stiff challenge from a sheep at Broomholmshiels.

On my way out of the wood, I checked to see if the striking black fungus was still growing on a fallen tree . . .

. . . and decided that it was not a day for landscape photography.

There was a glimmer of brightness to the south though . . .

. . . which gave me hope that it might not be raining in Carlisle when we got there for our outing later on.

The peltigera lichen on the Broomholm wall was over, but other lichens were available . . .

. . . and it is always awash with moss.

I took a picture of Skippers Bridge to show how calm the river is . . .

. . . before scuttling home to be ready for the outing, pausing only to collect some more lichen and fungi pictures on the way.

It did stop raining by the time that we got to Carlisle and we were able to stroll along from the free public car park to the cinema where we were going to watch the film of Matilda The Musical as the final part of Mrs Tootlepedal’s birthday treat.

We quite enjoyed the film which was very well acted, but found it a bit boring at times with an uneven tone. All the same, the seats were very comfortable and it was a night out which has been a pretty rare thing for us over the past couple of years until very recently, so we drove home cheerfully.

The flying bird of the day is a chaffinch.

Footnote: My e-bike has got a puncture which is very annoying. I blame the hedge cutters. I will have to take it to Longtown next week to get the puncture repaired because taking off the back wheel which carries the motor is beyond me.