Today’s guest picture shows the West Mill at Darley Abbey Mills in Derby. My brother Andrew passed it on his walk today, and a good deal of noise indicated that it was being used as a wedding venue.

We had a generally dry day, with only one short shower to disturb the gardeners. Both Sandy and Margaret came for coffee so we had a sociable morning. When they left, we went round to the Buccleuch Centre to cast our votes in our local council elections.
I did some shopping and Mrs Tootlepedal went off to do a it of business at the Langholm Initiative.
After lunch, I had a quick look at the siskins . . .


. . . and then we got busy in the garden. The pesky peckers . . .

. . . had been hard at work again earlier in the morning, so Mrs Tootlepedal and I cleared al the uprooted moss off what was left of the lawn. There was a wheelbarrow load.
Then I cut the edges of the middle lawn, dead headed daffodils and tulips, sieved a little compost and took some pictures.






While Mrs Tootlepedal took a break from gardening to clean some windows, I mowed the front lawn and found quite a lot of grass growing among the vast areas of moss. I am going to keep mowing the front lawn, but we are going to leave about half of the middle lawn uncut for at least another month.
My road bike is at the bike shop in Longtown, and among other things, it is getting new handlebars. I had phoned to see how it was getting on, and foubnd that the mechanic didn’t want to fit the handlebars without me checking to see if they were what I wanted. Under the circumstances a visit was required, so I got out the electric bike and cycled down to the shop. Because I had powerful assistance, I took the hilliest route down to Longtown, crossing the Liddle Water at Penton . . .

. . . where I came across a Pyrenean Valerian beside the handsome bridge.

The trip to the bike shop and back across country went well, with pleasantly green views to be had and wild flowers to spot in the verges.




The projected handlebars looked to be what was required for greater control of steering and brakes together with a more upright riding position to protect my back a bit. I hope to get my road bike back soon.
Meanwhile, the folding electric bike performed very satisfactorily, getting me round 31 miles and up and down a lot of hills with no trouble at all. I only used the power assist when it was needed to make life a little easier going up slopes or into the wind, and as a result I had well over half the battery charge still to be used by the time that I got home. A longer ride could be undertaken with confidence, which is good to know.
The sun had come out by this time, and I watched a calm siskin and fierce redpolls at the feeder in the sunshine . . .



. . . while the wrecking crew reappeared on the middle lawn.

You would think that there was nothing left to peck by now.
The flying bird of the day is a redpoll sneaking past the feeder pole.

Footnote: Today’s East Wemyss gallery shows some of the buildings that we saw, and many of the ingenious planters created by the volunteer group that looks after the area.







