Today’s guest picture is another blast of sunshine from the past. This time it is a pleasant valley scene from one of my brother Andrew’s Derbyshire walks in early October.
After a rather restless night, I got up to a sunny morning and a much improved interior economy and after a quiet morning, I was back to normal by lunchtime and able to eat without any ill effects.
I didn’t take any risks though and did nothing more energetic than have a walk round the garden where Mrs Tootlepedal was hard at work.
The berberis was positively glowing….
…and the special Grandma was having a final fling.
The display of rose hips is easily the best that I can remember and many roses that don’t usually have any are covered with them after the good summer.
There is no denying that we are well on the way to winter though.
It is good to have blackbirds back in the garden as they have been pretty scarce since July.
I didn’t stay out long and when the sun went in so did I, and I was soon back in the kitchen looking out of the window.
It was an extremely quiet day for birds.
I haven’t been able to work out why the feeder can be mobbed one day and deserted the next.
Even the sight of plenty of available perches didn’t discourage some uncouth pushing and shoving.
After lunch, I tested my constitution and my leg by going for a short walk over three bridges.
As I came to the river, I could see glowing trees in a garden on the hillside opposite…
…and golden willows below me on the river bank.
Wherever I looked on my walk, there always seemed to be a defiant patch of colour among the leafless branches.
I was impressed by the careful relaying of turfs on the site of the big bonfire on Sunday.
After I crossed my second bridge, I met a fellow camera club member walking his dog and spent my time chatting rather than snapping and it was only when we went our separate ways that I took the camera out again to record a little more late colour.
I crossed my third bridge and made my way quietly home…
…only pausing for a wild flower on the edge of the Scholars’ Field.
My leg is working but still sore and there is no chance of getting on my bike for a while yet but my constitution was unruffled by the walk so I was happy.
When I got back, Mrs Tootlepedal was busy watching a YouTube video on sharpening woodwork tools so I realised that she had left the garden and gone back to rocking horse restoration. I settled down to put a couple more weeks of the newspaper index into the Archive Group database. My lack of cycling may be regrettable but it has let me catch up (a bit) on the backlog of data.
My friend Susan wasn’t available to come to our monthly recorder group meeting today so I had to drive myself to Carlisle. The effort was very worthwhile as we had an excellent evening of music. One of other members was unwell so we were a quartet tonight and this made for a change with some different music to play.
Having been 150 miles ahead of my mileage schedule at the beginning of October. I am now 200 miles behind and with no hope of catching up, I am officially abandoning any targets for the year and will take any miles that I can squeeze in as a bonus.
Once again there are two flying birds of the day, this time goldfinches, one with wings in…
…and one with wings out.
Variety is the spice of life.
