Lots of hugs

Today’s guest picture is another from my brother Andrew. He is currently in Spain, where he saw this wonderful Roman aqueduct in Segovia yesterday.

We had a full day here today, with church in the morning, walking round the garden afterwards, and a visit to the ancient oaks in Longwood in the afternoon. The sun didn’t shine, but because the wind was very light, it made the day feel warm and pleasant. It did rain from time to time. In fact it rained quite a lot of the time, but mostly at a rate of one drop a minute, so we were able to ignore it.

The better weather made me lose my head a bit, and I took a ridiculous amount of photographs. I have thrown most of them away, but I am still left with too many for a proper post, so generally I am sticking them in galleries without much comment. Click on a picture if you want a better look at it.

There were just four of us in the church choir today, but we sang an introit. In the course of the service, I read two lessons and the sermon provided by our part time minister so I was kept busy.

The walk round the garden after coffee was very rewarding, both for the tulips . . .

. . . and the other flowers, including our first trillium of the year. The winter heather continues to star, and apple and gooseberry are showing promise. I found an undamaged magnolia flower too.

After lunch, we went up to Longwood to do some tree hugging. Mrs Tootlepedal is helping to record every old oak in the wood, and this was the first time that she has been able to add to her tally for a year, so it was a notable occasion. I noted it.

The tree hugging involves measuring, accurate GPS location, photography and recording details of the tree. The gallery includes the walk to the wood from the car, things we saw on and around the trees, the trees that Mrs Tootlepedal recorded, and the walk back.

There was a lot of birdsong in the woods, and my Merlin bird app told me that among the singers were some willow warblers. We think that we spotted a willow warbler, actually sitting in a willow, as we went back to the car. I was using my pocket camera so that final picture in the gallery above was my best effort.

It was not a quick business, and we spent two hours recording the three oaks. It was a pleasure to be among these trees though, so we didn’t mind at all.

We had driven up to Broomholmshiels to get to the wood, and we didn’t go straight home when we were finished, but took a little diversion to the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve bird hide nearby. They have put a lot of feeders up there, and volunteers are keeping them filled. I was able to spend a happy half hour lurking in the hide while Mrs Tootlepedal sat in the car with binoculars and scanned the horizon for raptors.

There were many small birds about.

. . . and a pheasant, after giving me the cold shoulder . . .

. . . repented . . .

. . . and came up close to get his picture taken. He was joined by his more subdued lady friend.

They have put a small reflection pool in front of the hide, and I had fun trying to take pictures of chaffinches when they weren’t being photobombed by other chaffinches. The reflections would have worked better if it hadn’t been raining! Another visit to the hide is on the cards.

Amidst all this activity, you will be glad to know that I only had a moment to look at our own birds during the day.

As far as eating went, it was a leeky day. I made potato and leek soup for lunch, and Mrs Tootlepedal made savoury rice and leeks for our evening meal. All in all, definitely one of those days entered with gratitude on the credit side of the great ledger of life.

The flying bird of the day is a photobombing chaffinch at the reflection pool.