A mostly sedentary day

Today’s guest picture comes from my nephew Dan, who is visiting Italy. It shows the ceiling of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo. There must be a lot of work for Bergamo physios treating tourists with a crick in the neck.

We had a warm, often sunny, and always quite calm day here today. I celebrated by spending many hours sitting down. I started by sitting down for a coffee with Sandy. As his walking has not got better, we intend to go out for a drive or two in the summer months. He remains remarkably cheerful.

We had a walk round the garden before he left, and inspired by that, I got out my camera and had a short walk round by myself.

It was good to see the bees getting stuck in. The one on the yellow archangel may be a carder bee.

Mrs Tootlepedal had gone off after breakfast to record some reminiscences of the community buyout with two other ladies who were involved in that great enterprise, and as she was still out, I roused myself enough to mow the middle lawn, leaving a bit in the middle at the far end for no mow May.

Then I had an early lunch and watched the birds. Redpolls and an anguished chaffinch were to the fore today.

Almost as soon as Mrs Tootlepedal had returned, I got out on my push bike to take advantage of the good weather.

With the temperature at 15°C (60°F) and the wind at 4 or 5 mph for the most part, it was a perfect day for a pedal.

With bridges on my mind, I went across to Hoddom and Brydekirk to catch bridges across the Annan Water, and took in a few others on my way.

I was spoiled for choice when it came to wild flowers. The roads were lined with them.

There wasn’t a moment today when I wasn’t enjoying myself, though a couple of obstructions did make me slow down. New telephone poles were being installed and potholes were being filled so I was happy to see the men at work, and they let me squeeze past.

After photographing the Hoddom bridge, I took a short diversion through the grounds of Hoddom Castle and was mightily impressed buy the rhododendron bushes just before I got to the castle itself.

Even when I wasn’t looking at flowers, bridges or castles, the roads themselves were very easy on the eye today so my journey was never dull.

I managed my route so that I had covered almost exactly 50 miles by the time that I got home. I adopted a policy of going along at a gentle speed throughout, and this greatly helped to make the trip easily the most relaxed and enjoyable of the year so far. Lets hope that there are many more days like this before autumn comes on the scene.

The 50 miles brought my push bike cycling miles up to almost equal with my electric bike miles for the year so far, so that was an added satisfaction.

Mrs Tootlepedal had been very busy in the garden with weeding, planting, and cutting back while I was out, and although she had done a lot, there was still some shredding left over for tomorrow.

She cooked a delicious dish of leeks and savoury rice for our evening meal, and we had a final walk round the garden in the evening sunshine after it.

All is good.

The flying bird of the day is a chaffinch.

I append a clickable map of today’s route for those interested.