A day out

Today’s guest picture is another from Hilary, A.K.A. Dropscone’s niece. She has left the lights of Zurich behind her to go for a bike ride in Glen Rose, Texas, where she came across some delightful beebalm. We had another early start to a day here, as we had to be in Carlisle before half past

Her favourite things

Today’s guest picture comes from my sister Caroline. It features a very cheerful looking camellia. After yesterday’s hint of spring, the weather took a turn for the worse with temperatures of -2°C overnight, and steady rain and a brisk wind when we woke up in the morning. At least it had warmed up before breakfast,

Visiting

There is no header picture and no guest picture today as I am in a Dumfries hotel where I am staying for a few days while I visit Mrs Tootlepedal who is in the hospital here recovering from an operation. All has gone well and she is in good spirits. We are both very relieved. We ran

A long day out

Today’s guest picture comes from my brother Andrew. He found a cheerful scene on a gloomy day in Derby recently . We had a fine and sunny day here today, quite cold though both in the morning and evening. However, it was nothing like this day last year, when I see that the temperature was -12°C

Flat out

After a light breakfast, Mrs Tootlepedal and I walked past the muffled glass house of the Botanic Garden in Edinburgh . . . . . . to a neighbouring hospital, where Mrs Tootlepedal dropped me off while she went to have coffee with our son Tony. He is working in the middle of the city

A capital outing

We woke to a sunny but very chilly day in Langholm. We couldn’t stay though as Edinburgh called, so waving goodbye to our birds . . . . . . we walked up to the bus stop where the post box embelllishers have surpassed themselves. The bus delivered us to the station in Carlisle .

A very quiet day indeed

After an early breakfast, Mrs Tootlepedal and I strolled along the elegant roads beside the Botanical Gardens to the hospital where I was having another check. There I stayed very peacefully for seven hours, mostly in an almost empty ward until I was picked up by our son Alistair and our granddaughter Matilda. When we

Getting about after the deluge

Although it remained very grey, at least it had stopped raining. We caught a bus up to Princes Street and went to see an old friend in the National Gallery … … among a lot of other good paintings. We rounded off our visit with an excellent lunch in the art gallery cafe with a

A no picture post

It rained all day and as a result we did nothing worth recording, except that Mrs T had avocado and smoked salmon on toast for her lunch. We hope for a more exciting day tomorrow.

We got to Edinburgh

A quick post from my phone today. We are away from home. We took the bus to Carlisle and caught a train from there to Edinburgh. A helpful booking clerk sold us tickets to somewhere further away than Edinburgh but which cost us half as much as a ticket to where we actually wanted to