A second sunny day

Today’s guest picture comes from my Somerset correspondent, Venetia. She turns out to be in Sardinia at the moment, and she sent me this picture of the French Alps, which she crossed on her journey.

We woke up to another sunny day here, and as the morning wasn’t nearly as cold as yesterday, we were able to get out into the garden before coffee time. Mrs Tootlepedal did those things that gardeners do, and I mowed every blade of grass in the garden, and a strip along the dam behind the house.

It is very nice of our neighbour Kenny to provide us with such a good display of daffodils on his side of the dam.

The various bits of mowing took me almost up to lunchtime, but I did have the occasional break to look around. More frogs have appeared in the pond . . .

. . . and the Inspector of Works took a break from his duties to visit the pond for a drink.

Mrs Tootlepedal told me that the inspector kept a very close eye on her work in the afternoon, and he seemed to be trying to have a conversation with her, making many encouraging noises.

Flowers were giving the sunshine a big hello.

After taking a day off to go cycling yesterday, Mrs Tootlepedal was keen to get back to work in the garden after lunch, so I went off for a bicycle ride on my own.

I took my e-bike and headed off to the hills. I started off up the Esk Valley to Bentpath. Eskdale is much narrower than the broad open spaces of Annandale where we were cycling yesterday.

I thought those two little black lambs resting in the foreground of the picture above, deserved the shot of their own.

I passed a bank of celandine that suggested the word ‘bespangled’ to me (but perhaps ‘infested’ if you are a gardener. Celandine is a real pest.)

I had a crosswind on my way up to Eskdalemuir which was often more helpful than not, so I enjoyed myself in spite of the long climb up the Shaw Rig on the way. Sadly, it had clouded over by the time that I crossed the Esk at Eskdalemuir.

It stayed cloudy as battery power helped me over lumpy country and into the breeze on my way to the village of Boreland. Happily, the sun came out just as I got there.

And the sun stayed out for the rest of my trip.

The crosswind having been more helpful than not on my way north, was unsurprisingly more unhelpful than not on my way south to Corrie Common and Paddockhole. This is an even more lumpy piece of country, but the good views to the north gave me an excuse for a pause at the top of a couple of the hills.

The trip back to Langholm from Paddockhole was greatly helped by a following wind, and I felt strong enough to make a diversion to Waterbeck to add enough miles to take me to over forty for the trip.

The sight of Wauchopedale is always welcome on a sunny day . . .

. . . and with the breeze and slope in my favour, I didn’t need any further electrical assistance to get me home.

It was a very pleasant evening, and Mrs Tootlepedal took a cup of tea out to the greenhouse to sit in the warmth when I got back. I wandered about the garden, admiring her work and checking on the flowers.

Mrs Tootlepedal is getting very excited by potential flowers on her new fritillary, and so am I.

It looks as though we will be back to wind and rain tomorrow, so we have done well to make good use of our two sunny days while we had them.

There wasn’t much time for flying birds of the day today, but I got a few fleeting glimpses.

Footnote: I append a clickable map of today’s route. You can see why I took the e-bike. There is hardly a flat bit of road anywhere. You can see Templand, our starting point on yesterday’s ride over to the left of today’s excursion.

Something fishy

Today’s guest picture comes from our son Alistair. Our granddaughter Matilda was dancing in a competition in Helensburgh, and Alistair had time to look around at the view.

We were promised a fine and warm day here today, and we got a fine warm day. It started off just below freezing at 7.30 in the morning, but it had got up to 15°C (60°F) by 11 o’clock, and it kept going until it hit 21°C (70°F) in the mid afternoon.

These warm temperatures were very welcome because we had put our e-bikes on the bike rack on the back of our car and driven 30 miles to a little village called Templand by half past eleven.

Leaving our car in the village hall car park, we set off north along a very quiet road to have lunch in Moffat about 13 miles away.

We were cycling in the broad valley of the river Annan, and we had splendid views of Annandale as we went along.

The roads both up the valley and on our way back were very peaceful, though they were not always very well surfaced.

We arrived at Moffat safely, and decided that a carry-out meal of fish and chips, eaten on a bench in the sunshine in the middle of the town, was just what was needed. It was a very good decision. I finished my meal with a locally made ice cream.

We were watched over by a rook and a ram as we ate our fish and chips . . .

. . . and afterwards, Mrs Tootlepedal made a judicious purchase of seeds from the garden centre in the middle of the town.

We had come up the west side of the Annan on our way to Moffat, crossing the river just before we got to the town, so by way of variety, we went back down the east side to Newton Wamphray, and crossed the river at Millhousebridge, a mile and a bit away from Templand.

As well as excellent views, we saw Beattock Church . . .

. . . and other interesting buildings . . .

. . . including a grand house dating back to approximately 1821, built for the personal physician of Catherine the Great.

I thought that I had found another church at Newton Wamphray . . .

. . . but it turned out to be the village hall.

We rolled back into the car park at Templand after enjoying twenty eight glorious miles, a good lunch, and excellent views. Who could ask for anything more?

This sun continued to shine as we drove home, and I got positively cooked in the car, and had to have a good sit down to recover when we got back. It was warm enough for us to have our cup of tea in the garden, and I had a wander round when I had drunk my tea.

The sunshine had brought on the tulips, encouraged the plum and silver pear blossom, and produced the first trout lily flower of the year.

Sparrows perched in the plum tree and bathed in the dam.

As well as being a most enjoyable ride in its own right, the cycle outing with Mrs Tootlepedal brought my cycling mileage for the year up to 1004 miles, and entirely by coincidence, I have done 502 miles on my pushbike and 502 miles on my e-bike.

After our good lunch at Moffat, a lightly boiled egg was all we needed for our evening meal.

The birds of the day are two starlings who shot up from the holly tree so quickly that I was only just able to catch them.

A friendly blow

Today’s guest picture comes from my brother Andrew. His son Dan wanted to see an exhibition of dinosaurs which had turned up in Derby city centre. He soon made friends there.

We had another freezing night here, but not cold enough to do any damage in the garden. It was pretty calm, and the forecast was good when we got up, so I planned to get out bicycling as soon as I could. In the end it was after 11 o’clock before I reckoned that it was warm enough to be comfortable. I did inquire whether Mrs Tootlepedal would fancy a cycle outing, but after the recent poor weather, she was keen to get to work in the garden, so I left her to it.

It was cloudy when I set off, but sun was promised later in the ride and I put my dark glasses on in an optimistic way. As I went over Callister and down to Eaglesfield, the only brightness was provided by primroses and celandine.

Although there are wildflowers in the verges, the trees are still bare . . .

. . . but there were a few blossoms and sprouting leaves to be seen.

From Eaglesfield, I headed down the old main road to Gretna Green. I tried to get a shot of the blacksmith’s shop there unimpeded by passing traffic or tourists and wedding guests taking selfies . . .

. . . but there was a constant flow of traffic, perhaps because it was a bank holiday, and there was no chance of me standing in the middle of the road to get a good shot. I cropped a shot taken from a distance to show that they really want you to know that this is the world famous blacksmith’s shop and not just any old other blacksmith’s shop.

After a pause for a snack and a drink of water, I cycled south into England, passing a lot of blackthorn blossom beside the motorway as I went down the service road.

I hadn’t fully planned my route, but 25 miles and a moment of repose beside the river Eden at Rockcliffe . . .

. . . made me feel that this was a good time to start heading back towards Langholm.

What was already a good ride, was made even better by the fact that it had turned into a warm and sunny afternoon by this time, and the wind, which had kindly faded away as I cycled into it, now picked up speed and gave me a friendly push on my way home.

I took back roads across country before joining the road from Brampton to Longtown, and I enjoyed this view north past the small wind farm at Longtown.

If you look carefully between the two right hand turbines, you can just see Whita Hill in the distance. (Note that the turbines are showing that the wind will be behind me as I go there.)

The monument was 13 miles away as the crow flies, but I took a more roundabout route, and in a very satisfactory manner added 25 miles to my outward journey, making for a neat 50 mile round trip.

As I had a Zoom meeting with my siblings to come, and I was on very familiar roads, I didn’t take any more pictures on my journey, but I did have a time for a walk round the garden when I got back.

Mrs Tootlepedal had been busy all day, and had only come into the house shortly before I got back

Among other things, she had fitted up one of the frames we made yesterday and covered up a good crop of broad beans which she has been bringing on in the greenhouse, and which she planted out today..

The good weather had encouraged our crocuses round the chimney pot . . .

. . . and elsewhere in the garden, but a bumblebee preferred the fritillaries.

I was able to find an almost untouched magnolia flower to go with a very tiny cardamine. The cardamines are doing so well that Mrs Tootlepedal is planning to spread them about a bit.

A pigeon and a starling posed for photographs . . .

. . . while another pigeon and a rook flew this way and that.

We are promised even better weather, and if all goes well, we will put our e-bikes on the car bike rack and go off for a joint cycling adventure tomorrow.

The flying bird of the day is a starling, picking its spot to land on the holly tree.

Footnote: I append a clickable map of today’s outing for anyone interested. You can see that I wasn’t rushing.

Dave waves goodbye

Today’s guest picture comes from my Somerset correspondent, Venetia. She tells me that The South West Heritage Trust has bought this Morris Minor van for the enjoyment of locals. She used to see Wilf delivering eggs in her road for some years after she moved there in 2011.

When we went to bed last night, we could hear Storm Dave groaning and growling about the house in a ferocious manner, and we wondered what we would see when we woke up in the morning.

Nothing much, was the answer. Dave had growled and prowled for a while and then gone on his way. The garden seemed pretty much undisturbed when we cycled off to sing in the choir at the Easter service in church.

I had a look round when we had had a cup of coffee after the service.

There were several hail showers during the morning, but as you can see from the pictures above there were some sunny intervals too. Dave had left a chilly wind behind him, and it was really too cold to do any gardening.

I spotted a dunnock in our silver pear . . .

Dunnocks are usually quite self-effacing, but spring is in the air and this one was letting us know that he was ready for love.

The vincas along the drive are thriving . . .

. . . and there are tadpoles swimming about in the pond . . .

. . . so Storm Dave was merely a brief interruption in the steady advance of spring.

It has to be said that other places were not quite so lucky, with roads closed and power cuts.

After lunch, instead of going out into the garden, Mrs Tootlepedal and I sat in the warmth of the kitchen and made some frames for netting to protect the vegetable beds from intruders of all sorts.

When we had finished, Mrs Tootlepedal took the frames out to store them in the garden.

It was too cold and windy, and there was too big a chance of more hail showers for me to comfortably contemplate cycling, so once again I picked up my umbrella and went for a walk.

My outing took me along the Esk with more distance and fewer bridges than yesterday, as I strolled along the familiar route to cross the river at Potholm. There were a few faint drops of rain as I started off, but the weather gods took a look at my stout brolly and reckoned that it was a waste of time to rain on me. The drizzle stopped, and the sun came out.

It illuminated the many dandelions growing from the wall beside the road at Holmwood as I left the town . . .

. . . and it lit up the lambs in the Milnholm fields.

As I got near to Potholm, it shone on Golf and Bauchle Hills . . .

. . . and picked out a party of walkers crossing Potholm bridge.

The weather was still smiling happily as I walked back to the town on the other side of the river . . .

. . . and I was just thinking to myself that Storm Dave had left no trace at all of its passing, when I had to come to an abrupt halt.

I was able to scramble through the fallen tree, and this was lucky because the low road was still flooded . . .

. . . but all was well as I came down the Lodge Walks.

I stopped to have a look at the eagle that a wood carver had created some years ago on a fallen tree beside the walks, and I enjoyed mother nature’s artwork next to it too.

In the end, the sunshine came with me all the way round my walk . . .

. . . and perhaps I might have gone bicycling after all. However, I would have had to face the very chilly wind if I had been cycling, and my walk was well sheltered and even pleasantly warm at times, so I thought I had made the right decision.

Mrs Tootlepedal had had a silverside of local venison in the slow cooker since the morning, and it made for a very tasty evening meal to round off the day.

The forecast says that after another chilly night, we may be going to get a few days of warmer weather. This will be very welcome, and should encourage more spring flowers to appear in the garden.

The flying bird of the day is a passing rook.

An indeterminate day

Today’s guest picture comes from our son, Alistair. Our granddaughter Matilda made this Easter brownie today.

It was below freezing when we got up, and the day stayed grey and chilly. In spite of the coming of storm Dave being heavily advertised in the forecast, it was very calm as I walked along to the producers’ market in the Buccleuch Centre after breakfast, and it was still calm when we got out into the garden after coffee to get something done while we could.

It was raining, but so faintly that we had to look up from time to time just to check. I cut back a couple of fuchsias and wandered round taking pictures. I looked at one of the stones that surround the pond.

It was covered with life and I could recognise common moss and tiny lichens, but the other pale green plants were a mystery to me. Some research with Mrs Tootlepedal in the evening when I got the picture onto my computer told us that they might be Rhizomnium punctatum, a sort of moss, but we are not completely sure.

The fritillaries were huddled together for warmth . . .

. . . but both the plum and the silver pear are in blossom mode.

The daffodils have survived cold and wet, so we hope that they can cope with wind too.

A pigeon couldn’t make up its mind what to do and sat on the fence.

I did some shredding and then got discouraged by the light rain, so I went in, leaving Mrs Tootlepedal planting out hostas. She came in eventually as the rain got wetter, and we had lunch.

Mrs Tootlepedal is practising flower painting, and she had bought in a scilla flower to look at. Scillas hang their heads down in the garden, but this one perked up in a most unusual way once it was put in a vase, and it looked me straight in the eye.

The rain fizzled out as the afternoon went on, so I picked up my umbrella and went off for another short walk. In recent days, I have crossed three bridges on one outing, and then four bridges on another, so by way of variety, I crossed all seven in one go today. I couldn’t do it by going over each bridge only once, so I had to cross the Sawmill Brig twice. I made a record of the bridges as I went along. I really do live an interesting life.

I conclude with the two very insignificant bridges over our dam at the start and finish of my walk . . .

. . . to bring the grand total of bridge crossings on a walk of less than three miles up to ten.

It wasn’t a day for views, but I did look about from time to time as I went along, and I spotted script lichen, golden saxigfrage, a game of football, and a camellia hiding behind a fence.

When I was coming back along the road beside the Kilngreen, I got a pleasant surprise. Mrs Tootlepedal and I were among a group of volunteers who planted out some daffodil bulbs earlier this year, not in very good ground and much too late in the season for them to have a good chance of coming up. However, they have defied our expectations, and lots of them have emerged, and one is even in flower.

Coming back through the park, I photographed a decoratively drooping conifer.

I needed some research on this too. I think that it might be an Eastern Hemlock.

The wind was starting to blow a bit more strongly by the time that I got home, and while I am writing this post in the evening, it is fairly whistling round the house. It is due to get stronger still overnight, and one forecaster says that it will be a moderate gale, which seems to me to be a contradiction in terms. However, if all goes to schedule, it should have calmed down again by the morning. We will keep our fingers crossed.

The flying bird of the day is that pigeon sitting on the fence. It finally made up its mind and shot off before I could get a good picture of it.

Waiting for Dave

Today’s guest picture comes from my sister Caroline. Her day was greatly brightened by this lovely flowering currant.

We had hoped that we were going to avoid the worst of storm Dave, but the forecast is now offering us 65mph gusts for several hours over the Easter weekend. Under the circumstances, it would have been good if we could have got out into the garden today, but it rained persistently until the late afternoon. We spent the morning organising our menu of meals for the next fortnight, and then going shopping to get the provisions that were needed. After lunch, I spent several hours waiting for the rain to stop, hoping that I might be able to sneak a bicycle ride in before our regular zoom with my family.

Just to annoy me, the rain kept stopping and then starting a few minutes later. In one of the gaps, I went out into the garden and saw that we had visitors.

I had many opportunities for photographing raindrops, though not on roses. The top two pictures in the panel below are large fritillaries. Mrs Tootlepedal planted six round the chimney pot outside the kitchen window, and one came up ages ago. She thought that the others were probably not going to appear, but finally another one came up today.

I could hear a bumblebee flying around and eventually tracked it down.

A spring milestone was reached today when I was able to take my first plum blossom picture of the year.

At 4pm the wind suddenly wiped the sky almost completely clear of clouds. I picked up a precautionary umbrella and went out for a walk. I chose a five bridges route today, crossing four of the bridges which I had passed but not crossed on my last three bridges walk. You can see that I lead a very interesting life.

The rivers had risen a bit after the rain, and waterside birds were few and far between.

I did spot a wagtail perched on the back of a seat on the Kilngreen

It had turned into a lovely day by this time . . .

. . . and although there were some threatening clouds for a moment . . .

. . . they blew away too, and the sun was soon out again.

I had time to look about as I went along.

It was quite muddy underfoot in places, and I had to watch my step as I came down the track beside the pheasant hatchery.

I walked down the back straight of the racecourse when I got to it. All the rails have been laid out ready for erection now. I think that there is a race meeting at the end of this month.

I said that it was a five bridges walk, but to be strictly accurate, a sixth bridge was involved too. I cross this little bridge over the dam behind our house so often that I sometimes forget that it is there.

The weather has stayed clear, and I was hoping to get another picture of the moon tonight, but sadly it is not going to rise above our hills until well after I have published this post. There were hundreds of jackdaws in the sky when I had a look earlier after sunset. They were making an impressive amount of noise.

The flying bird of the day is a single jackdaw, seen on my visit to the garden in the afternoon.

A pedal and a tootle

Today’s guest picture comes from my brother Andrew in Derby. It is a sign of the times.

Having complained in my post yesterday that I couldn’t see the moon because the sky had clouded over, I had a look just after I had published the post, and as I watched, the clouds cleared away.

I also watched the rocket launch which is sending visitors to float round the moon.

The side effect of the clear night, was a frosty morning, and although we woke up to a beautifully sunny day, I had to wait until almost lunchtime until it was warm enough to go for a pedal. Even then it was still pretty chilly (6°C) and I was wearing many layers.

I had a look round the garden before leaving, and spotted a stout sparrow and a vocal blue tit.

It looks as though some tadpoles in the pond may have survived the recent chilly weather. I will try to get some wriggling pictures.

I headed off up the Wauchope road, and was grateful for the sunshine as I found myself heading into another chilly breeze. It was not by any means a brisk breeze, but it was quite enough for me, and I was going so slowly down the hill on the far side of Callister, then I stopped to take a picture of the bridge at Falford. The great pile of shells on the far side of the bridge is still there.

I turned left when I had crossed the bridge and went through Waterbeck before taking the back road to Middlebie. I added the churches in Waterbeck and Middlebie to my recent church collection.

More flowers are appearing every day and I added a primrose and some budding rhododendrons to the celandines and daisies which are growing in profusion now.

Although it was sunny, the light was rather flat, and when I looked up as I left Waterbeck, the sky was steadily clouding over with contrails.

From Middlebie, I swooped down the hill to the Mein Water and stopped to enjoy a view of the railway viaduct over the river.

I always pause a moment when I get to this viaduct in the hope of seeing a train crossing it. Usually I don’t see one, but today the familiar saying came true: “You wait for ages to see a train, and then two come at the same time.”

They actually passed each other on the viaduct, and I was so flustered by having trains going in opposite directions that I didn’t take a very good set of pictures of them actually going over the viaduct. The two images in the bottom of the panel below, show the backs of the trains going south and north respectively.

These trains run in either direction, and the front and back of them are identical.

I enjoyed some very neat field rolling . . .

. . . just before joining the old Glasgow road down to Kirkpatrick Fleming.

There is a bench beside the road in the middle of Kirkpatrick Fleming Village which offers extensive views across the Solway to the Lake District hills on the English side. It had a tub of very good looking daffodils and muscari beside it to day.

At KPF, I turned left to head back to Langholm, and was very happy to be blown along the road by the helpful breeze after making slow progress for the first half of my ride.

I stopped, as I often do, at the graveyard at Half Morton to look at the Korean pines. They look as though they’re going to have a better time this year than they had last year.

I didn’t stop for any more pictures until the need for a short rest brought me to a halt not far from Langholm.

I parked between a very square bridge under the main road and a handsome looking horse chestnut bud.

When I got back after a three hour outing, I found that Mrs Tootlepedal was still at work in the garden, as she had been when I left.

She told me that she had spent a good bit of the time uprooting the privet tree stump which has the fungus on it. I took a final picture of the fungus, which we will not see again, and added a promising yellow tulip . . .

. . . before going in for a cup of tea and a slice of lemon drizzle cake. We had already had a slice of lemon drizzle with our morning coffee, but we both felt that we had done enough since then to earn the second slice of cake of the day.

After an evening meal provided by Mrs Tootlepedal, I collected my recorders and a good pile of music, and went off to play trios with my friends Sue and Jenny at Sue’s house near Brampton. Our fourth member, Susan was unavailable as she is currently on holiday.

We had an excellent session, playing quite a few pieces that we haven’t played for some time, and one that was entirely new to us. Sue gave us a cup of tea and a biscuit to keep our strength up for the journey home. In an echo of Andrew’s picture at the top of this post, Jenny told us that she had almost been unable to join us because it was hard to find a supermarket that was selling petrol in Carlisle. She got to one just before they closed the pumps for the day.

I put our electric car on charge when I got home, trying not to feel too smug.

The flying bird of the day is a Jackdaw with a friend.

Footnote: it was a Tootlepedal day of threes today as my bike trip ended being 33.33 miles and I played trios in the evening.

A cloudy forecast

Today’s guest picture is another from my friend Ada’s visit to the World War Two themed knitted exhibition at Rheged.

We got up to a lovely sunny day here, and freshly out celandine and dandelions winked at me as I walked up Jimmy’s Brae to have coffee with Sandy.

For one reason or another, I haven’t seen Sandy for a month, so it was an extra pleasure to sample his good coffee and ginger biscuits and catch up with his news.

When I got back home, Mrs Tootlepedal was busy in the garden, and it wasn’t long before I joined her. I took advantage of the fact that everything was reasonably dry for once to indulge in an orgy of mowing and lawn care. I mowed the middle lawn with the battery mower, and when the batteries died, I mowed the vegetable garden, the greenhouse grass, and the drying green with the old hover mower on a wire. Then, with Mrs Tootlepedfal’s help as raker and moss gatherer, I scarified the front lawn.

The front lawn will need scarifying again. There was time for a flower photograph or two before going in for lunch. Tulips are coming out.

Other things are growing too, including a white fritillary which Mrs Tootlepdal claims she didn’t plant.

I love that euphorbia in the left corner above. It was clearly designed by a committee.

Rather oddly, the winter honeysuckle has got a new lease of life, and I was very pleased to see that it had attracted a bumblebee today.

The forecast was absolutely adamant (greater than 95% chance) that it would start raining heavily very soon after lunch, so we resigned ourselves to an afternoon in. In the event, although it clouded over and got a bit cooler, no rain arrived and we were left twiddling our thumbs. Finally, we went out and did some more gardening until it started to rain an hour later than the schedule.

My plan had been to go for a bicycle ride when the rain stopped, but when the rain eased off, impatiently I gave that up and went for a short three bridges walk instead. It was still very cloudy . . .

. . . and it was one of those rather annoying days when it wasn’t actually raining proper raindrops, but there was quite a lot of moisture hanging about in the air for me to bump into.

I was spoilt for choice when it came to bridges, and I passed four which I didn’t cross when I came to them . . .

. . . as opposed to the three which I did cross.

My regular oystercatchers like to stand in exactly the same spot beside the river, so they were easy for me to photograph, but what looked at first like a white plastic bag floating past them turned out to be a goosander, whose constant diving under the water made him much more difficult to catch.

I could see another white lump on the gravel at the meeting of the waters when I crossed the Langholm Bridge, and closer inspection when I got to the Kilngreen showed that it too was a goosander, this time having a snooze.

There was a pair of lesser black backed gull there too, out in the middle of the stream.

The internet tells me that the male should be bigger than the female, but these two look much the same size so perhaps they are just good friends.

I walked on round the Castleholm where the racecourse rails were lying out ready to be put up for the first meeting of the new season . . .

. . . and some signs of spring were to be found.

It wasn’t getting any less damp though, so I didn’t spend too much looking around on my way up to cross the Duchess Bridge before heading home. From the bridge I could see a tree which I thought could best be described as impending.

Needless to say, not too long after I got home, the clouds cleared away, and it turned into a lovely evening.

I hoped that this might let me see the full moon when it came up later on, but it had clouded over again when I looked. Such is life.

The flying bird of the day is a mallard, seen on my damp walk this afternoon.

Visitors and verging on spring

Today’s guest picture comes from my brother Andrew. He met two Egyptian geese on his walk today.

A lot of the morning was spent preparing for the arrival of visitors for lunch, but at one point I looked out the window and saw a man wandering round the garden with a clipboard. He turned out to be from the power grid company, and was checking on where all the wires in our garden go. They are preparing to replace the lines along a neighbouring street and this will affect us.

When I looked round, I saw that our starlings were having a discussion about the matter too.

In the absence of exciting new flowers, I took a picture of lichen on our plum tree . . .

. . . though I did notice that the cowslips are produced more of their tiny blossoms.

Our visitors had been skiing on the continent, and had come back to the UK by car ferry from Amsterdam. They were on their way home to the west of Scotland from Newcastle, and called in to visit us on their way. We had a very enjoyable meal, well supplied with good food and good conversation. They were keen to get home after being away for some time, so apart from a short trip round the garden, they didn’t dilly dally after lunch.

This left me with the opportunity to go for a bicycle ride in conditions that were warmer and much calmer than yesterday. I took my push bike round my familiar Canonbie circuit.

The recent rain has filled up the field ponds.

It was another grey day, so I was pleased to find that there are things to look at in the verges now on days that don’t have good views. I saw celandine, dandelions, wood anemones, and butterbur on my trip today.

The butterbur seems to like poor soil that has been dumped, and there is a large patch of it which appears every year on stony ground just beside the Canonbie bridge.

Even using my electric bike, yesterday’s ride over the hill in strong winds had been quite strenuous, and my legs weren’t very enthusiastic at all today. I was more than happy to stop for a rest and a handful of dates on the bridge over the Esk at Hollows.

I did eventually get home, and found that Mrs Tootlepedal had been busy in the garden, transplanting geraniums. The clerk of works had been supervising her too.

A cup of tea and a piece of lemon drizzle cake restored my energy levels, and I went out into the garden to see if I could catch some more starlings flying upside down. I had no luck with that, and took some hopeful flower pictures before going back in.

The erythroniums liked the weather today, and many flower heads all round the garden appeared as if by magic.

A blackbird perched on the greenhouse and reflected on life.

My final picture of the day, taken through a window, showed a jackdaw checking to see if there was more moss to take out of the front lawn. We have plenty to spare.

The only flying starling that I saw today was the right way up.

Footnote: our visitors are in the process of getting solar panels of their own. They are probably going to use the same firm as we used, and they were very impressed by the neatness of the battery system, and by the fact that even on such a dull day, our panels were generating enough electricity to provide free power for our lighting and cooking.

Regional variations

Today’s guest picture comes from my sister Mary. After collecting all the mail today that the Post Office had failed to redirect back to her home address after her exile, she felt the need for some colourful serenity, and visited Kenwood.

After another morning here where the temperature dipped to near freezing in the garden as we got up, we had a day of mixed weather, with clouds, sunshine, and occasional rain rotating through the day, but with the brisk and mean wind being a permanent feature.

There was no rush to get out into the garden, but once we were fortified with coffee, we faced the chilly breeze and got to work. Mrs Tootlepedal wrestled a rambling rose into shape on a fence, while I cleared moss off a back path. I had a clerk of works supervising my job.

The cold weather has put a crimp on growth in the garden, but there are some plants trying their best . . .

. . . and a fritillary had lifted up its head to see what is going on.

This took us up to lunch, and after we had eaten, I considered my options while sparrows had a ritual dance on the lawn, perhaps trying to keep warm.

It was cold and windy, but there were occasional splashes of sunshine. The forecast suggested that most of the showers might pass us by, so in the end, I plucked up my courage and took my e-bike for a ride up onto the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve.

Needless to say, it started to rain lightly as I got ready to go, but I went anyway. By the time that I was halfway up the hill, it looked as though the rain might have disappeared up the Ewes valley.

However, this was a delusion, and by the time that I got to my first goats . . .

. . . the rain was coming back down the Tarras valley.

As I pedalled up the other side of the valley past another goat . . .

. . . the rain caught up with me. It was at my back but as it got heavier, I did consider turning round and running for home. However, on reflection I realised that this would involve cycling straight into the wind and rain, so I headed on up the hill. Conditions got a little better as I passed the Black Grain . . .

. . . and by the time I got to the boundary between Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders region, it had stopped raining.

Looking behind me, where the weather was coming from, things look quite promising . . .

. . . and although it looked very gloomy on my road ahead . . .

. . . I hoped that if I didn’t cycle too fast in the strong wind, the bad weather would outrun me. This proved to be good thinking, and I had a spell of glorious sunshine as I came down the hill . . .

. . . and into the village of Newcastleton.

I used to go with Sandy to a camera club held in this Village Hall. It looked very cheerful today, and searching on the internet, I found that the church building which fronts the village hall to-day was built by the Free Church of Scotland in 1853. It has been run as village hall by the community since 1956.

This was the highlight of my trip as far as the weather went. It soon clouded over, and I found myself battling with a strong cross and occasionally head wind as I went down the Liddle valley to Canonbie. Ironically, in the same way that it had stopped raining when I had passed from Dumfries and Galloway into the Borders region, now it started raining again as I passed from the Borders region back into Dumfries and Galloway. How I laughed.

I cheered myself up by thinking that the strong wind would blow the shower through quite quickly, and this turned out to be true. I was grateful for any shelter from the wind that I could get in the Esk Valley on my way back up to Langholm from Canonbie. I wasn’t inclined to stop to take any pictures in the wind and the rain, but when the sun came out as I got near to home, I stopped to note that the dog’s mercury has just made an appearance in the hedgerows . . .

. . . and that the old main road gets narrower every year as the verges grow in.

Mrs Tootlepedal had finished gardening and was busy baking when I got home, so I had a walk around the garden while she was busy. It is good to see new buds on the apple, and what flowers there are that are out were enjoying the sunshine.

The winter heather looks ready to last until summer!

We had our regular early evening zoom with my siblings, and they seem to be having much the same weather as we are, with the cold wind calling for hats and gloves when outdoors. We may get a warmer, calmer day tomorrow as a welcome break before we revert to the wet, cold, and windy weather.

Many readers may well have spent anxious hours wondering whether it is possible for starlings to fly upside down. I think that today’s flying birds of the day answer that question definitively.