Today’s guest picture comes from my sister Mary. She took a walk along the Thames at Richmond today and was impressed by this riverbank wilding.
We had another grey morning here, but the overnight rain had stopped by the time that we got up. Our church choir friends, Anne and Mike, came round for a garden tour followed by coffee. This was a special event. Mrs Tootlepedal had done some baking and Anne brought a gift of a flower.
Mrs Tootlepedal tells me that the ‘Texas Hot Chilli’ refers to the colour of the Streptocarpus and we don’t eat it. I hope that it develops well, and that it will appear in a post at a later date.
When Anne and Mike left, I checked on the birds (mostly sparrows with the occasional interloper) . . .
. . . and then I had a walk round the garden by myself.
The forecast for the early afternoon had not been too promising, but when the time came, it turned out to be warm and dry and with a light wind. I was able to resist the temptation to watch today’s stage of the Tour as it was pan flat, along very straight roads with no views, and devoid of any excitement until the final few kilometres. Under the circumstances, a bike ride of my own was a better option by far.
I still managed to waste enough time before I set out to prevent me from going for an adventurous ride, and I settled for the familiar 20 mile pedal around my Canonbie circuit.
There is a little patch of common agrimony by a bridge a couple of miles out of town, and looking at my records, I see that this is the week that it usually comes out. It was looking good today.
I haven’t seen it anywhere else on my rides, and it is a mystery to me why it grows on just this one spot. But then there are a lot of things in nature and life that are a mystery to me.
A little further on, I spotted a fine looking orchid . . .
. . . and when I looked at its plain leaves, it made me think that it wasn’t the common Spotted Orchid. It may be a marsh orchid of some sort.
There is only one spot on this ride where I notice marsh woundworts . . .
. . . and they hide themselves behind a lot of other plants in the ditch.
I had one of those rides where I spend more time dreaming then looking about, but even when I looked about, the verges seemed to be mostly full of grass with not many interesting wild flowers to make me stop. I stopped here for a drink as I had got quite warm.
I got home in good time for a garden photograph . . .
. . . and a cup of tea with a slice of bread and jam before our regular Zoom with my sisters (my brother was at a concert today).
They told us that the weather was quite warm down south, and by the time that the Zoom had ended, it had got quite warm in Langholm too. In addition, the sun had come out, so after our evening meal, Mrs Tootlepedal and I drove up on to the moor to look out over the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve.
When we got there, the wind had dropped, the light was mellow, and there was perfect silence all around. It was a delight to enjoy the peaceful prospects.
We had had to slow down before we got to our parking place to allow a goat to cross the road . . .
. . . and I walked back up the road after we parked to have a look at a small group of goats among the heather. They weren’t bothered by me.
The silence was broken by the calls of meadow pipits and one posed for a photograph right in front of the car.
Mrs Tootlepedal enjoyed watching a stonechat which perched on a road sign beside the car while I was stalking the goats. Unfortunately, it had disappeared by the time that I got back. We could hear it calling, but I couldn’t spot where it was.
Rather surprisingly, there were also quite a lot of flies about, perhaps attracted by the goats. They settled on my camera while I was taking photos of the goats, and on the roof of the car when I got back to it.
There was very little traffic on the hill road, and we didn’t have to stop at all on our way back to the town. It was such a lovely evening that we spent a moment in our garden sitting on the bench beside the eryngium . . .
. . . before going in.
The were several young starlings on the power lines at the end of the garden, and two of them are the flying birds of the day.
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“When we got there, the wind had dropped, the light was mellow, and there was perfect silence all around. It was a delight to enjoy the peaceful prospects.” I can picture that in my mind. What a lovely ride with all those views and blooms, and goats. Thank you for another look at the orchids. I have not seen any thing like them in my area.
There have been a lot to see here in the past couple of weeks.
It was nice of the pippit to pose so well. You got a nice shot of it.
I’ve never seen hemp agrimony though I just read that it is sold as an ornamental here. I’m surprised it hasn’t escaped.
Your day sounded very peaceful, and I’m glad you had one.
I meant to say hooray for Dropscone in your last post but I forgot. I’m glad he’s on the mend.
You made me think and I looked at my picture again. It is common agrimony and not hemp agrimony. I don’t know where I got the wrong attribution from. I will change the name on the post.
The starlings look very balletic – quite lovely.
They are very nimble fliers.
Always a treat to see an orchid. And I love how the goats live wild and free.
They are a source of great delight to passers by.
Love the goats! Do they belong to anyone? Your final picture is so full of life and fun.
The goats are wild but they are not native wild animals. They were once domestic animals that have gone feral.
Lovely to be surrounded by perfect silence.
Great picture of the goat crossing the road.
The flies is a great shot
I was surprised to see them on the roof of the car.
Hi Tommy, we had a wonderful day yesterday, blue skies, sun and temperatures of about 28°C. There was a medium wind, so we went for a bike ride in the Netherlands. When we got home, we had our evening meal on our balcony and stayed there till after midnight. At that time we still had 25°C. For today, we will have 33°C and for tomorow thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening.
Enjoy the weekend and may greets. Love your flowers and birds that you show every day !
That sounds like a wonderful day. We heard some thunder today but we didn’t get a thunderstorm.
Lovely to see the wild orchid again, and the garden photo has given me some ideas for spring and summer in our garden. My favourite photo of the day is the goat in the heather…
It is always a pleasure to see the goats roaming the moor.
That’s a luscious photo of your garden. My thanks to the Meadow Pipit for posing so nicely. The young starlings knew they were the flying birds of the day.
They were putting on a turn. 🙂
The bird photos come top today followed swiftly by view of your garden and flowers and those goats, not forgetting those flies. As usual not a minute in your day is wasted!
I do like to make use of good weather.
I love the photo of all the flowers in the flower bed. It sounds like an especially delightful day.