General zooming

Today’s guest picture comes from my brother Andrew. He was staying with my sister Mary last week when he spotted this visitor to her frosty garden.

It was a few degrees above freezing here today without getting particularly warm, but it was dry and almost sunny when Sandy came down for coffee. Both he and Mrs Tootlepedal are being sensible about what they eat at the moment, so I had to eat a couple of the excellent chocolate biscuits which I had purchased from Lidl yesterday all on my own. I bore this with fortitude.

I filled the feeder, but there weren’t many birds interested in sunflower hearts today. I spotted a shady sparrow after coffee . . .

. . . but things were very quiet. After a while, I realised that going cycling would be a better use of my time than not watching birds, so I put on many layers of clothing, ate a banana, and went off on my electric bike. Although the temperature was about 5° or 6°C, there was a noticeable north westerly wind blowing and I was glad of my many layers.

Because I had electric assistance, I chose a route with a hilly start and went through Paddockhole with this fine conifer beside the road just past the bridge . . .

. . . and then turned left at Bankshill and headed uphill for what should usually be a glorious view when you look back. However today the light was not very helpful at all, and although it was almost sunny and the hill was still quite steep, the view was very flat.

Going down the other side was not much better, with only a glint of the Solway to be seen . . .

. . . and even the little reservoir above the village of Middlebie didn’t have its usual charm in the hazy conditions . . .

. . . so I put my head down, zoomed down the hill paying attention to any poor bits of road surface and kept pedalling until I came to Middlebie itself, where I found the lichen covered church looking rather charming today.

I stopped to take a picture of the viaduct over the Mein Water at the bottom of the hill . . .

. . . and a waited a few minutes in the hope of catching a train crossing the arches. I did hear a humming noise and got quite hopeful, but I decided that it was probably just the noise of traffic on the motorway a mile away and set off on my bike again. You can imagine my mortification when a train zoomed past me two minutes later, going far too quickly for me to get my camera out.

I did try one more view, looking back to the flat topped hill at Burnswark . . .

I did take one more view when I looked back towards the flat topped hill at Burnswark which I had cycled past as I came down the hill . . .

. . . but the light had not improved. I was on rather dull larger roads by this time so I put my camera away and only got it out once more to show what happens to the Korean pine cones at Half Morton over the winter. Birds or squirrels have been busy.

I was getting a little chilly by this time in spite of my many layers, so I kept going until I got home after 37 thoroughly enjoyable miles. I had done the distance on the strength of one banana and a couple of dates and I was more than ready for a very late lunch when I got in.

I finished the day off with two Zoom meetings, the first with our son Alistair and his daughter Matilda. Matilda played her recorder so well that we accused her of secretly practising, an accusation which she indignantly denied. She then played one of her more recent pieces from memory, impressing both her father and me. Neither of us would have been able to do that when we were eight years old. Her dancing lessons are obviously useful in more ways than one.

The second zoom was with my brother and sisters and Mrs Tootlepedal as we met to discuss the arrangements for our sister Susan’s funeral. There is a lot to think about.

Due to the lack of birds at the feeder, there is no flying bird of the day today. A sunny chaffinch is standing in.

For those interested, I have put the map of today’s route below. You can see that the start was quite lumpy but the ending was mostly smooth. You can click on it for further details of the ride if you have time to waste. The wind started from the north west but moved round to the west as the ride went on, which was generally quite helpful.