Today’s guest picture is another in the series from our son Tony’s highland holiday. The party visited Loch Maree today. They have had some very good weather during their stay.
We didn’t have very good weather here at all. It was grey all day.
In contrast to yesterday’s bustle, I had a very quiet time today. Drospcone came round for coffee in the morning, and in a sign that his shoulder is improving, he was able to come by bicycle for the first time since his accident. He told me that he has been able to swing a golf club very gently too.
When he left, I went shopping at the Co-op with Mrs Tootlepedal. I was very happy to find that they had restocked their shelves and treacle was available for purchase. I will have another go at gingerbread in the air fryer.
I had filled the bird feeder in the morning and when I looked after lunch, the seed had gone down a lot and the feeder was very busy.
This led to a good deal of shouting. A greenfinch shouted at a sparrow . . .
. . . a siskin shouted at a goldfinch . . .
. . . and two goldfinches shouted at each other.
There was a constant swirl of birds around the feeder.
I stopped watching the birds and started to watch a very interesting stage of the Tour de France, an ever present temptation on a gloomy day. In fact, I was quite happy to idle the time away as it wasn’t a very appetising afternoon for cycling and I planned to go for a walk later on.
When the stage finished, I walked round the garden, tidying up the material left from Mrs Tootlepedal’s gardening efforts yesterday. I took a few pictures as I went round. There was plenty of colour, and even for a brief moment, a hint of sunshine.
The phlox is coming out all over the garden and there should be some fine shows in a week or so.
The shuttlecock ferns have opened up well.
I like the rich colour of this clematis.
This little secondary shoot is the very last of the lupins. The blue lupin has been very good this year, having been in flower since the last week in May
The snowberry is covered in tiny flowers and should have a good show of berries in due course.
In contrast, the Jester and Epicure espalier apples have not done well, but the Charles Ross has got some fruit and there are signs of ripening.
More flowers have appeared on the lentil forest. I am beginning to hope that we will get enough lentils to make a bowl of soup. A man has to have dreams.
Just I got ready to go for a walk, it started to drizzle gently. I went back in and looked at the birds. The flurry of activity had subsided and there was some posing going on.
I had refilled the feeder and two sparrows were grateful.
I always like to see a different bird on each perch so I was pleased to see a goldfinch, a siskin, a greenfinch and a chaffinch all on the feeder at the same time.
A moment later and it was all change, with a sparrow replacing the chaffinch and a shift round by the goldfinch and siskin.
The drizzle didn’t come to much but the forecast was very definite about more rain being on its way, so Mrs Tootlepedal kindly cut my hair, and then I let the rest of the day subside gently without me doing anything to disturb it.
It is raining steadily as I finish this post, but at least it is going to be warmer tomorrow which will be welcome.
The flying bird of the day is a goldfinch.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
Congratulations on resisting phunny phlox comments.
There has got to be a phirst time for everything.
😆
I’m sure you must get a lot of entertainment watching all your birds around the bird-feeder. They are always very busy!
The clematis is lovely, I would love to successfully grown it, but no luck so far. However, the Lupins are very rewarding, they flower longer in our garden that most other flowers.
We have had mixed results with clematis as some varieties have done well and others have been inclined to get wilt. We were very sad that our big white variety succumbed to the winter frost.
Yes, we get frost too, the clematis did not thrive.
At least you got good photos on home ground
Thank you.
Some great bird activity captured! Glad you got your treacle!
I am looking forward to another go at the gingerbread.
Sounds delicious!
I hope so. Practice makes perfect they say.
Good luck with the next batch of gingerbread.
Never a dull moment on the bird feeder.
It loos like the sun was shining out of that calendula rather than on it.
It seems too early for phlox, like it’s crashing the party, but it’s beautiful just the same.
Too bad about the poor crop of apples. We’re still seeing how damaging that late freeze we had was.
Yes, the phlox is not coming out wholeheartedly just yet and the white ones came out very early this year. It has been hard for the flowers to work out what season it is, I think.
I know how they feel!
I wonder: Does good weather follow Tony wherever he goes? Do you think he has some magical power over the weather? 😉
A very good question. He has been lucky this week as our weather has not been up to much at all.
Holiday photos from your son are like a travel brochure – makes me want to visit all those beautiful places. Love the photos of the different birds on the perches- wonder how many different combinations you’ll see. Something to do and watch when it’s raining and when the Tour is having a break! The Tour, the Ashes and Wimbledon we’ll all be worn out watching too much TV!
I find tennis painfully slow to watch so I very rarely sit down for that and the cricket seems to be on a channel that we don’t have so I rely on Mrs T’s subscription to watch the Tour and that is quite enough excitement for me.
I’m trying to imagine what the birds were shouting at each other, but perhaps it’s best that we don’t know.
The Tour has been very animated so far; yesterday’s stage (6) was a corker. It’s nice to see the organizers shake things up with mountain stages early on, though the sprinters are probably not too thrilled about it.
As always, your garden photos are beautiful. How much space does it take to grow a soup-bowl’s worth of lentils?
Time will tell. Our patch is about a metre long.
I am glad to hear Dropscone is recovering and is able to gently swing a golf club again.
I enjoyed your selections from the day. The flower photos are particularly beautiful. That calendula is bursting with color. They must seem like small suns beaming from the garden. Our apples look to be about the same stage as your photo there. The trees are loaded this year.
I am glad to hear that. I think the our apple flowers missed the pollinators this year because they flowered quite well but haven’t got much fruit on them.
The birds are fantastic,
Thank you.