Taking it easy

Today’s guest picture comes from our son Tony. He must have taken a bit of that East Wemyss weather with him down to his holiday in Wales.

We certainly didn’t have any of that sunny weather here today. Fortunately, I wasn’t in the mood for any great burst of activity, as I had resolved to have a quiet day after what has seemed a busy couple of weeks. Mind you, busy is a relative term as I have got older. If I have to speak to more than three people in a day, that makes it feel a busy time nowadays.

I managed to live up to my resolve, and did nothing more strenuous than read the papers and make some lentil soup in the morning. There is a lot of reading in the Saturday newspapers.

I did fit in a walk round the garden, but I didn’t do any gardening work while I was out, just exercised my shutter finger. I enjoyed roses . . .

. . . irises . . .

. . . various other garden encounters . . .

. . . and the poppy in the greenhouse along with the no mow lawn.

I didn’t even fill the bird feeder until after lunch. A goldfinch gave me a quizzical as though to ask, “What took you so long?” The feeder sometimes got quite busy, and when it wasn’t, I looked at the front garden roses instead of birds.

The forecast had suggested that it might rain at any time, but especially during the afternoon. As it hadn’t rained in the morning, and it was still dry at two o’clock, I decided that a gentle walk would be in keeping with my gentle day. My plan was to see how far I could get before it started to rain, and then come home. I took my big umbrella with me, just in case.

I walked up Jimmy’s Brae, and past Tom’s charming garden along the track past Holmwood.

On my way to cross the Becks Burn and follow the road down to the Auld Stane Brig, I had a lot to look at. I have put some of the things that caught my eye on the way to the Becks Burn into a gallery.

. . . and a couple more that I saw on each side of the Auld Stane Brig as well.

You can tell that there were a lot of wild roses about.

I went back towards the town along Gaskell’s Walk . . .

. . . and couldn’t stop myself taking pictures of the knots in the wooden handrail up the steep steps. I see many different creatures in the knots, but I liked the ghost wearing a monocle most today.

It was still dry when I got to the Stubholm, so I went down the hill to the Murtholm and strolled along towards Skippers Bridge. I loved the single flowers of the wood avens and the tiny flowers of the lesser stitchwort, along with the meadow vetchling and the bramble flowers which I encountered before I got to Murtholm farmhouse.

I wasn’t quite so keen on the rain. It had started gently, and then got heavier and heavier as I reached the farmhouse gate. It was a bit depressing so I was happy to stop under a convenient tree while the downpour continued, and chat to a friend whom I met coming in the opposite direction. He had broken his ankle in the spring, and was working to get back to full fitness, a slow business as he had damaged tendons and ligaments too. We chatted away, hoping that the heavy rain would ease off, but after ten minutes, it was apparent that the rain was set in, so we went off on our separate ways.

I was grateful that there little wind about so my brolly was able to do a good job. It was raining heavily as I crossed Skippers Bridge . . .

. . . and the roads were running with water. I would have been grateful to the drivers of any of the cars that passed me as I walked along the narrow pavement to Land’s End, if they had slowed down to avoid spraying my legs with water. As none did slow down, I defended myself with my brolly as best as I could.

I was pleased to get onto the calm of the riverside path, where I could enjoy the colourful honeysuckle that screens the sewage works, and the many melancholy thistles which our friend Mike Tinker had told me that I would meet near the Co-op.

The rain stopped as I looked at the thistles, and when I got home, I thought that perhaps I should have extended my walk. It soon started again once I was safely inside, so I had made a good decision to give up after four miles.

Once inside, I didn’t go out again, and I ended the modestly active part of the day by making a fruity bran loaf.

We have had over an inch of rain in the last three days, and it is going to rain again tomorrow, but at least it should be a bit warmer. It will be quite exciting when summer finally arrives.

The flying birds of the day are a siskin and a goldfinch going beak to beak.