Feeling the heat

Today’s guest picture is another from my Somerset correspondent Venetia’s visit to France. She met a good crowd of sheep .

We had a visitor in the morning. A man came to talk to us about installing a new boiler. It was not long after breakfast when he came. It was a very interesting talk, and by the time he had told us all that we needed to know, and had had a good wander about looking at our radiators and measuring everything from room size to water flow, we found that it was lunch time when he left us.

I had taken my phone out into the garden before he arrived and I spotted a bee on a snowberry flower . . .

. . . and I took a picture of a flying sparrow and a starling while he was doing some measuring upstairs . . .

. . . but apart from that, it was a photography free morning.

I looked at the birds after lunch, and found another sparrow and starling. Some goldfinches appeared and clung on to a feeder that was being swayed about by some more strong winds

Then I got out into the garden, and found that it was a lovely day for a while at least. There’d been a shower in the morning, and there was another one soon afterwards, but between them the sun shone.

After the shower had passed over, Mrs Tootlepedal and I cycled up to the tree nursery at Cronksbank on the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve. Now that summer has come, the managers are anxious that the trees in the nursery should be watered from time to time. Although it has rained a bit lately, it hasn’t rained very much at a time, so we thought we would have a look to see if watering was needed.

On our way, we had just reached the bird hide when it started to rain, so Mrs Tootlepedal very sensibly suggested that we should see out the shower in the bird hide, and watch a few birds while we were doing it. They have improved the reflection pool.

It didn’t take long for the little shower to blow over in the brisk wind, and we were soon on our way again. The sight of wild irises in a marshy spot near the river held me up for a moment . . .

. . . but we soon got to the nursery, and decided that the trees probably could do with a little watering. I turned on the tap and Mrs Tootlepedal applied the water. The rowans were looking particularly healthy.

As well as the trees, there was plenty of other interest, and Mrs Tootlepedal pointed out some moss and liverworts, while I spotted some lovely geraniums.

I had a look up the valley when we had finished the watering . . .

. . . pleased that the weather gods had not laughed at us by turning on another rain shower while we were watering.

I stopped on the way back to the bird hide to look down the valley, and then get up close to the wild irises. As I plugged across the rough ground to the irises, I noticed horsetail and a thistle, so I included them in the gallery.

When we got to the bird hide, I stopped to do a little bird watching, but Mrs Tootlepedal headed straight on home, sensibly thinking it was better to keep going while the sun was out (and having a little shopping to do on her way).

I only spent about a quarter of an hour in the hide looking at this view . . .

. . . but there was plenty to keep me entertained while I was there.

It was pretty breezy as this little video shows . . .

. . . but it didn’t blow in any more showers, and I was able to bicycle home in good weather, well sheltered from the worst of the wind.

Two hours paying close attention to what we were being told, followed by a windy cycle ride and bird watching was quite enough to fill up our day, and we settled quietly in when we had both got home.

The flying bird of the day is yet another sparrow.