Feeling blue

Today’s guest picture comes from my Somerset correspondent, Venetia. She enjoyed watching this black bird trying to satisfy the large appetites of its youngsters.

We had another in our current run of cool but sunny days here today. It felt a bit cooler than yesterday, because the north easterly wind was a bit stronger, but all the same, no one was complaining. It didn’t rain!

In the morning Mrs Tootlepedal went off to visit her hairdresser, while Dropscone came round to enjoy a cup or two of Brazilian coffee with me. Dropscone was remarkably cheery considering that he is still far from fully active. He has been well enough to walk up to the golf course, but he is not up to swinging a club just yet.

When he left, I had a quick look at the birds and the bee . . .

. . . and when I saw a Spanish bluebell, I was motivated to go and see if our native bluebells, or ‘craties’ as the locals call them, were looking at their best yet. The walk up to the Stubholm was lovely . . .

. . . and the bluebells were looking pretty good. They will be better I think, but I took a lot of pictures anyway.

I came cautiously back by the damaged riverside path . . .

. . . and found wild garlic, wood anemones and bracket fungus along the way, with golden saxifrage and a modest daisy when I got to the park. I counted that as a good value outing.

When I got home, we had some Scotch broth for our lunch, and after that, we went out into the garden.

Mrs Tootlepedal was working on a flower bed and path edge, and I mowed the middle lawn and strimmed the raised vegetable beds.

It seemed like a good afternoon for a cycle ride, but the north easterly wind felt quite strong, so I took my electric bike out to help me get home against the wind. The weather looked a bit threatening as I set off . . .

. . . but it stayed dry and it was often sunny as I went round a 30 mile circle by Gair and Kirkpatrick Fleming. There was a lot to see by the roadside as I went, more wild garlic, a gorse hedge, aubretia in Gair, cowslips on the old A74, and the first red campion of the year.

It was a very clear day and the views across the Solway were good too.

We had seen some impressive roadside dandelions on our drive to the dentist in Annan yesterday, so I chose a route today which crossed the motorway and the old road which now runs beside it, in the hope of seeing some dandelions when I joined the old road.

On the way home from Kirkpatrick Fleming, I couldn’t resists another look at the Korean Pines at Half Morton. There was hardly an inch of pine without a male flower or a cone on it.

I took this picture, which may at first look unremarkable . . .

. . . but the enlargement below shows that the haze on the right is the cloud of pollen that flew off the tree when the branch was disturbed.

With the wind behind me, I had whizzed round the first fifteen miles, looking around and using only a fifth of the battery charge. With the wind against me from Kirpatrick Fleming to home, I kept my head down, got rather cold, and used two fifths of the battery charge to go the same distance. I was really glad that I had not been tempted by the sunshine to discard my warmest cycling clothing. I needed every layer.

It stayed sunny all the way back to Langholm though, and I was welcomed home by Mrs Tootlepedal’s tulips.

After some busy days and an afternoon of cycling and gardening, we were happy to settle for a quiet night in.

The flying bird of the day is that foraging bumble bee visiting the trillium.

Footnote: Sorry about all the pictures. I am addicted.