Out to lunch

Today’s guest picture comes from a call in to Lincoln made by my brother Andrew on his way home from visiting us.

I was a bit tired today for one reason or another, so I was happy to have a trickier than usual bank holiday prize crossword to help me fritter away the morning very peacefully. The weather should have been nice enough to tempt me outside, but I was able to resist.

Mrs Tootlepedal was busy though, and I finally got organised enough to join her on a cycle ride over the Langholm Moor to Newcastleton, with the purpose of having lunch there before coming home again.

It was a grand day for a cycle ride, sunny but not too hot, and with good views up the Ewes valley as we climbed up the hill to the moor.

Everything is greening up, and it was a real treat to cycle across the hills to Newcastleton.

We had a good lunch of egg and chips in the Olive Tree cafe, which was very busy with a group of motor cyclists and a covey of Porsche drivers as well as us.

Mrs Tootlepedal remarked on the cheerful hawthorns beside the road as we cycled back up on to the hill, and bird’s foot trefoil caught my eye, the first of the season that I have seen.

It is not so easy to stop to take pictures when you are cycling with someone else, and we had to stop quite a lot for traffic anyway, so we didn’t stop for pictures again until we found the goats grazing peacefully beside the road near the Tarras bridge.

We voted the twenty mile trip well worth the effort when we got home. Electric bikes make a ride like this, with 2400ft of ascent in it, a real pleasure for mature cyclists. The sunny weather and the good meal helped a lot of course.

After a moment to recover, a bit of time watching the end of today’s Giro stage, and a check on the birds . . .

. . . we went out into the garden. I got busy with the mower, and Mrs Tootlepedal tidied edges up with the strimmer.

I went along the dam at the back of the house and enjoyed the big red poppies and the fuchsia.

When I had put the mower away, I had a wander round the garden.

I was very happy to see that some yellow rattle is thriving in the drying green mini meadow. It keeps the grass in check and lets other wild flowers see the light.

I did some archive work and then went out for another look around. Starlings were having variable success in landing on the power cables and a blackbird was taking food to the nest.

At the bird feeder, a redpoll was showing how they got their name.

The flying bird of the day is one of the many larks who serenaded us as we pedalled along this afternoon.