Today's guest picture comes from Gunta in Oregon, who kindly responded to a hinted need, and shows that they have some seriously destructive forestry practices there too....but on a bigger scale than ours. The impressive photo was taken by Eric with a drone.
After yesterday's brilliant sunshine, we got wall to wall cloud today, with the morning offering persistent rain. Under the circumstances I took things very gently. Dropscone remarked in our recent phone conversation that he hadn't needed to read my posts during the past six months as they have always been the same; crossword, coffee, visit to the shop, look round the garden, lunch and then some exercise. I fear that he may have truth on his side but this morning was different; crossword, coffee, visit to the shop BUT no look round the garden. How about that for an exciting life!
I did watch the birds though and saw both blue tit and coal tit visiting the feeder several times during the morning.
A sparrow and a green finch took contrasting views of the day.
And a dunnock posed so politely that I took two pictures of it.
It looked up...
.and it looked down.
With great precision, the weather forecast said that it might stop raining at one o'clock and it did stop raining at one o'clock. I wasn't entirely convinced by this, so I put on wellies, overtrousers and my big coat before I went out for a walk.
I tried to inject a little brightness into a dull day by taking a couple of flower pictures before I left...
and then set off to see how far I could walk before it started to rain again.
I went along the track to the bridge across the Becks Burn, passing a selection of cattle on my way
.and checking to see of any of the tubes which were stuck in the ground when the wood beside the burn was felled were being productive. They do work....
but there are quite a few still to show any great growth inside them.
I crossed the burn, looked back down the stream....
.and walked back down to the road, keeping an eye out for small treats in the absence of much in the way of sunlit views.
did take in a familiar view of the Auld Stane Brig, with its backing of trees just hinting at autumnal colours....
.but mostly I kept my eyes down.
It hadn't started to rain by the time that I got to the Wauchope road, so I crossed the Auld Stane Brig and walked up the path on the lower slopes of Warbla where the local population looked at me with suspicion.
It is quite hard work walking up hill with wellies and waterproof trousers on but I made it up to the track and was happy to pause for a moment when I got there to admire a tree on a wall.
where I was glad to have my waterproofs on as I brushed through dripping undergrowth which was encroaching on the path.
There is no shortage of mosses here and they make tiny forests beside the track.
I noticed that I was not the only one clad in rainwear...
but by this time, I had got so warm in mine that I had had to unbutton my jacket to stop cooking myself.
I saw a few wild flowers on my walk...
.and a single really ripe looking sloe which the gin drinker picking sloes last time I passed this way had obviously missed.
The only bit of semi-cheerful colour came at the end of the walk when I passed a rose hip at the Stubholm and some Himalayan balsam beside the park.
Decidedly damp
by tootlepedal
Today's guest picture comes from Gunta in Oregon, who kindly responded to a hinted need, and shows that they have some seriously destructive forestry practices there too....but on a bigger scale than ours. The impressive photo was taken by Eric with a drone.
After yesterday's brilliant sunshine, we got wall to wall cloud today, with the morning offering persistent rain. Under the circumstances I took things very gently. Dropscone remarked in our recent phone conversation that he hadn't needed to read my posts during the past six months as they have always been the same; crossword, coffee, visit to the shop, look round the garden, lunch and then some exercise. I fear that he may have truth on his side but this morning was different; crossword, coffee, visit to the shop BUT no look round the garden. How about that for an exciting life!
I did watch the birds though and saw both blue tit and coal tit visiting the feeder several times during the morning.
A sparrow and a green finch took contrasting views of the day.
And a dunnock posed so politely that I took two pictures of it.
It looked up...
...and it looked down.
With great precision, the weather forecast said that it might stop raining at one o'clock and it did stop raining at one o'clock. I wasn't entirely convinced by this, so I put on wellies, overtrousers and my big coat before I went out for a walk.
I tried to inject a little brightness into a dull day by taking a couple of flower pictures before I left...
...and then set off to see how far I could walk before it started to rain again.
I went along the track to the bridge across the Becks Burn, passing a selection of cattle on my way....
...and checking to see of any of the tubes which were stuck in the ground when the wood beside the burn was felled were being productive. They do work....
...but there are quite a few still to show any great growth inside them.
I crossed the burn, looked back down the stream.....
...and walked back down to the road, keeping an eye out for small treats in the absence of much in the way of sunlit views.
I did take in a familiar view of the Auld Stane Brig, with its backing of trees just hinting at autumnal colours....
...but mostly I kept my eyes down.
It hadn't started to rain by the time that I got to the Wauchope road, so I crossed the Auld Stane Brig and walked up the path on the lower slopes of Warbla where the local population looked at me with suspicion.
It is quite hard work walking up hill with wellies and waterproof trousers on but I made it up to the track and was happy to pause for a moment when I got there to admire a tree on a wall.
It still hadn't started to rain, so I took a diversion through the Kernigal wood on my way home...
...where I was glad to have my waterproofs on as I brushed through dripping undergrowth which was encroaching on the path.
There is no shortage of mosses here and they make tiny forests beside the track....
I noticed that I was not the only one clad in rainwear...
...but by this time, I had got so warm in mine that I had had to unbutton my jacket to stop cooking myself.
I saw a few wild flowers on my walk...
...and a single really ripe looking sloe which the gin drinker picking sloes last time I passed this way had obviously missed.
The only bit of semi-cheerful colour came at the end of the walk when I passed a rose hip at the Stubholm and some Himalayan balsam beside the park.
My walk had only been three miles but in my heavy clothing it had felt longer and I was happy to flop down on the sofa and join Mrs Tootlepedal in watching an interesting programme on some Holbein drawings of women when I got in.
I was pleased to have got in without being rained on and even more pleased when it started raining soon afterwards.
After a reviving cup of tea, I went on to the computer and put most of a week of the newspaper index into the Langholm Archive Group's database.
I couldn't quite get the whole week in because the time came round for the regular sibling Zoom meeting before I was finished. The highlight of the meeting was a lovely selection of shots of St Paul's cathedral, inside and out, and parts of the almost deserted City of London nearby which had been taken by my sister Mary.
I made a mushroom, sweet pepper and tomato risotto for our evening meal and ended the day, as I always do, by writing a post.
No flying bird today as the light was too poor to tempt me to waste a lot of time waiting for one to hover for long enough to make a decent shot. I have put in a shouting siskin at an innocent chaffinch instead. Why it was shouting is a mystery. There was no competition for a perch on the feeder, but siskins seem to like a shout.
