Nun better

Today’s guest picture comes from East Wemyss. It is not doctored and I think it might be the most interesting picture that Tony has ever taken. It is not often that you see a rainbow letting off steam.

It had rained heavily here overnight, but we had plenty of sunshine during the day. This would have been even more welcome if had not been accompanied by some very strong and gusty winds which made going outside a bit of a penance. As a result, I spent a lot of the morning indoors doing the crossword, with a bit of archiving and practising both my recorder and singing thrown in too.

I would have spent time watching the birds, but the strong wind kept them away until the afternoon. I did manage a short tour of the garden before lunch and found a few flowers to enjoy.

Scilla

Chionodoxa

Survivalist crocuses

And a yellow trumpeted Jetfire daffodil

The yellow trumpets on the daffodils are interesting. When Mrs Tootlepedal brought one in and put it in a vase, it soon looked like this . . .

. . . which is much more what is should look like. As the day went one, we both thought that the trumpets in the garden were tending to look a bit more colourful too . . .

. . . so we wait to see how they develop as time goes on. Maybe, as we do, they would like a bit more warmth and sunshine for them to be at their best.

Although it was still windy, the birds came back to the feeder in the afternoon. They had to concentrate hard on hitting their marks in the frequent gusts.

Once settled down though, they were able to enjoy the sunshine.

Under the feeder, a blackbird practised its Henry VIII stance.

After lunch, we measured out four areas on the front lawn where we hope to create wild flower beds, and I gave them a good going over with the scarifier. There is an amazing amount of moss on the alleged lawn, and I will have to give the beds at least one more going over.

I then decided to leave the shelter of the garden and brave the wind for a short walk. It was far too windy to enjoy cycling, even on my electric bike.

After the heavy rain during the night, the sunshine and brisk breezes had dried the tracks up pretty well, and I found the going good as I wandered along to the Becks Burn and then came home via Gaskell’s and Easton’s Walks.

There were a few more signs of spring along the way in the form of a lone dandelion and quite a lot of golden saxifrage.

I have passed it many times, but today this tree stump, posing beside the bridge over the Becks Burn, really caught my eye.

I came down to the Auld Stane Brig to find that the sun came out from behind the clouds just as I got on to Gaskell’s Walk. Sheltered from the wind, it was pure pleasure to follow the path through the wood.

I enjoyed the knots and grain in the handrail beside the steep climb at the end of the woods. To be frank, I also enjoyed having a really good excuse to stop several times as I toiled up the slope.

When I came to the fields at the Stubholm, I found a rabbit firmly believing that if it sat still enough, it would be invisible.

I spent time as I went round Easton’s Walk trying to get my bird app on the phone to tell me what I was listening to. Considering the noise made by the wind, I thought that it did well to pick out any birds but as well as the omnipresent robins, it heard a song thrush, several chaffinches, an oyster catcher, jackdaws, siskins and an alarmed wren.

It is always a pleasure to end a walk by going along the path by the river to the park . . .

. . . and I am grateful for the handy fence which is there to catch elderly walkers if they stumble.

When I got to the park, I was able to point my zoom lens at Castle Hill where I met the cattle on yesterday’s adventure. Naturally, since I wasn’t walking there today, the cattle had transmogrified into gentle sheep.

When I got home, I checked to see if there was evidence of frog activity in the pond.

After a light evening meal, Mrs Tootlepedal went off to prepare to take the stage in the Operatic Society’s Centenary Concert, and a little while later, I went off to watch the show. It was a lightly staged concert with solos, ensembles and full chorus numbers reflecting the shows performed by the society over the years. It started with The Mikado, the opera performed in 1923, and ended with a rousing rendition of 500 Miles from Sunshine Over Leith, the most modern show in their repertoire.

The show was well presented and admirably performed by the chorus and the soloists. For me the high spot of the evening was the appearance of the very wonderful Mother Superior surrounded by the chorus of nuns from the Sound of Music, but I may have been slightly biassed about that.

It was raining heavily again as we walked home but luckily I had a large umbrella to hand so we didn’t get wet.

The flying bird of the day is a chaffinch.