A misty pedal

Today’s guest picture is another from my brother Andrew who is staying in London to help my sister Mary for a while. Our other sister Caroline joined them today. Andrew took this picture of Hawley Lock at Camden on a sunny but chilly day in the south.

The temperature crept up a degree or two here this morning and the clouds correspondingly crept downwards so the town was covered in mist when we woke up. It stayed that way and we weren’t tempted to go for an early morning outing. I spent time watching the birds.

Once again, there were a lot of them about but once again, the light was so poor that it was hard to take a decent picture of them. It was all right if I took a long view of things . . .

. . . but if I tried to take a closer look at a flock of siskins arriving, the results tended to be rather blurred birds.

I was pleased to see a greenfinch back on the feeder. They have been very scarce lately.

It was a pity about the poor light as there was more or less continuous action whenever I looked out, with goldfinches, sparrows, siskins, and chaffinches all making many many appearances.

After coffee, there was a move to go shopping. As I thought that Mrs Tootlepedal, Annie and Evie could probably manage that without my help, I went for a bicycle ride.

I was slightly surprised by my keenness. It was only 6°°C and still very misty. I decided that it was definitely a day for my electric bike as I wanted to whizz along as quickly as possible in these conditions. I didn’t commit myself to a route before I found out how misty it was going to be when I got out of town.

I looked back when I got to Wauchope Schoolhouse. The road that I had come along was misty but not dangerously so (you don’t want to get squashed by a quarry lorry). . .

. . . and the road over the hill past the Bloch Farm looked as though it would be much the same . . .

. . . so I headed on over the hill and down to Canonbie, following my usual twenty mile route. I went slowly enough to be able to stop if traffic loomed out of the mist coming in the opposite direction on the single track road.

The cloud did get a bit thicker as I went up the hill past my favourite oak tree . . .

. . . but by the time I was coming down the other side of the hill into Esk valley, the weather had cleared up considerably, and I could see the partially frozen seasonal pond at Tarcoon . . .

. . . and the three trees at Grainstonehead . . .

. . . without having to peer through the mist.

As a reward for getting out on my bike, the three Canonbie cows were standing conveniently near a gate, ready to be photographed.

The flashing light on my helmet caught their eye and they all turned to look at me in a most helpful way.

Apart from today’s header picture, I didn’t stop to take any more photographs on my way home, as it really wasn’t a suitable day for the camera.

I got home just in time for lunch, another helping of Mrs Tootlepedal’s excellent cottage pottage.

The shopping trip had gone so well that there was talk of going out in the car in the afternoon to show Evie some of the hills round Langholm. In the event though, the clouds had not lifted far enough to let anyone have a view of our hills at all, so indoors was the only option. I took the opportunity to make some fairly carefully measured ginger biscuits.

Then I refilled the bird feeder and had another look at the birds. Goldfinches and siskins appreciated the fresh seeds.

Even without the morning mist, the light was no better, so I put my camera away and went off to get some cosmetic treatment at the health centre.

On my way across the river, I confirmed that hills were not available for viewing.

Practising choir songs and playing with Evie took up the rest of the afternoon. Mrs Tootlepedal was in full rustic mode and produced a very good cottage pie for our evening meal. I made a semolina pudding for dessert.

We are keeping our fingers crossed that the promised sun does arrive tomorrow or Evie will think that Langholm is a very dull place.

The flying bird of the day is a siskin.