Digging in

Today’s guest picture comes from my sister Caroline. She had to cut back a cherry tree, but it has rebounded well, and it is now trying to set a world record for the most blossoms on a single branch.

It was -2°C at six o’clock this morning, but by nine o’clock the temperature had climbed to nearly 8°, and the garden didn’t seem to have taken much hurt at all.

In the morning, Mrs Tootlepedal went off to have coffee with her ex-work colleagues, and I started my day with a walk round the garden, where I was pleased to find a decorative tulip and an undamaged magnolia flower.

I put my camera down, picked up my garden fork, and got to work clearing some well established grass from a small bed in front of two of the espalier apples. Mrs Tootlepedal had begun the task yesterday, but there was still plenty to do. It was hard work, and I required several sit downs and a coffee break, but by the time that Mrs Tootlepedal returned from her coffee, the bed was cleared.

We dug some compost out of the bottom of a plastic compost bin, and made enough room to get rid of the cleared grass into the top of it. The bin was full of the sort of intractable material that it is hard to know how to deal with, so it was very pleasing to find that at least some of it had rotted down well enough to be usable for a potato bed. It had taken at least a couple of years though.

I had noticed some early Solomon’s Seal against a fence when I went in for my coffee break . . .

. . . and I took a moment to look at the birds when I had finished my cup. The usual suspects were about.

The goldfinch on the left didn’t have long to sit quietly on the perch. A moment later it was given a good kicking by a chaffinch.

A little later, the birds then on the feeder seemed very happy to see a female chaffinch heading off . . .

. . . but things didn’t stay quiet for long.

On the fatball feeder, a jackdaw practised its hard stare.

After lunch, Mrs Tootlepedal went back to gardening, while I got my push bike out to go for a ride round my familiar Canonbie circuit.

It felt decidedly cool with a north easterly wind blowing, and matters weren’t helped at all when it started to hail quite hard after I had gone three miles. The hail was beginning to lie on the road, and I wondered if I might have to give up and go home. I persevered though, and as soon as I turned left at Wauchope Schoolhouse and headed up the hill, I got out of the hail and could stop and look back as it disappeared over the hills behind me.

The rest of my journey was dry, and I even got a little sunshine at one . . .

. . . or two points.

It was another day with plentiful dandelions beside the road . . .

. . . and a positive sea of them in the field which I had noticed on a previous ride.

Although there are more signs of spring on every ride, like these Jack-by-the-Hedge near Canonbie . . .

. . . there are still plenty of trees waiting to put out their leaves.

When I got home, I found that Mrs Tootlepedal had made use of the newly cleared bed to plant out the last of the Sweet Williams that she and our granddaughter Evie had started off earlier in the year. They are looking very healthy.

I took a picture of some cowslips which had mostly survived the morning frost. . .

. . . and went in for a cup of tea and a slice of gingerbread.

I had time for a shower and a shave before our regular Zoom with my brother and sisters.

In the evening, our friends Mike and Alison came round, and Alison provided the accompaniment to make it possible for me to have a tootle to end the day. The music and conversation rounded of a productive sort of day.

The flying bird of the day is a chaffinch.