Today’s guest picture comes from my sister Mary who was on my brother Andrew’s birthday trip at the end of last month. This is the Severn at Worcester.
We had a beautifully sunny morning here. There was still a bit of snow around and as I had to go up to the Moorland Feeders to act as a fill-in feeder filler, I was a bit worried about icy roads and parked the car and walked the last section.
I needn’t have worried as the road was pretty clear…
….but with views like this….
…it was a pleasure to be on foot anyway.
The bright sunlight brought warmth to a zero degree morning and shone through the window when I sat in the hide after filling the feeders…
…but it was no help at all for taking photos so I snatched a shot of a blue tit…
…and headed home.
It was easier to watch birds there and I was pleased to see the return of a brambling. It conveniently perched in front of a male chaffinch in the plum tree so that readers can get an idea of the similarity and the difference between the two.
Then it politely moved on for an individual portrait.
I spent some time taking badly lit pictures of flying chaffinches…
…and finally found a chaffinch and (the same?) brambling who were kind enough to find a little sunshine for me.
The dam bridge repairers had got their pump going and had installed a pipe to take water over the works.
They have set up a little coffer dam on the upstream side of the ex-bridge and when there is enough water behind it, the pump leaps into action and sends it over the road and on its way.
After lunch, the sun disobligingly went in but Mrs Tootlepedal and I still went out.
We chose a three and a half mile route through the town, up Hallpath past a very mossy wall indeed…
….(where I could happily spend time poking about on another walk) and then along the path above Skippers Bridge….
…through the oak woods….
….then down through the birch woods…
…past all sorts of exciting things….
Hair ice and liverwort
…until we got back onto the road beside the Esk.
We passed a gate which has a very ornamental stone surround but no wall at either side of it. It must have been a meaningful gate at one time as we noticed that it has a benchmark engraved into its surround.
I took the inevitable picture….
…and then we crossed the bridge and walked home along the Murtholm track, which is well supplied with catkins.
Then we took Easton’s walk, which had a small but elegant icicle patch…
…and finally, we went through the park and got home.
After a cup of tea, we settled down for a quiet time.
When the working party had gone home for the evening, I nipped out to check on the progress on the bridge.
Bridge? What bridge?
In the evening, Mrs Tootlepedal went off to the Buccleuch Centre for a screening of Tosca and I went to the Day Centre for the first meeting of the year of Langholm Sings, our community choir.
Another tenor has joined the choir so I took the opportunity to sneak off and join the basses. I had a good time, particularly because I was sitting next to my cello playing friend Mike. He is an excellent fellow to sit beside as he is very musical and sings well. I could relax and follow his lead.
On the minor injuries front, I can report good progress. My face has healed up enough to let me have a shave today. This was very welcome.
Through the good graces of Photoshop, I managed to find a bit of colour on one of the chaffinches from this morning and he is the flying bird of the day.
As you can see, the lawn is still covered with snow.
