Tootlepedal's Blog

Extending my horizon (a little)

Today’s guest picture of sweet peas comes from my sister Caroline.

It is a good thing to have sweet peas as a guest picture as the first business of the day when we got out into the garden here, was the removal of our sweet pea plants to the compost bin. Their time had come.

Mrs Tootlepedal did the demolition work and I did the composting. When she had finished, she got on her bike and went up to the town to buy a new set of garden shears. The blades on our old set had got so warped over the years, that they hardly cut at all. I had attempted to improve things by hitting them with a lump hammer but only made things worse. A new set was badly needed.

When she got back, we gave them a try on the small box balls at the front of the front lawn. It was wonderful to have some shears that actually cut things.

All the front lawn box balls are now clipped.

While Mrs Tootlepedal was up in the town, I did some dead heading and looked around. The mustard, buckwheat and phacelia that Mrs Tootlepedal has planted as green manure under the walnut tree is making a pretty mini meadow . . .

. . . and there were a good number of butterflies about today. In fact almost wherever you looked, you could see one or two.

There were other insects about too and at moments you could truly say that the garden was buzzing.

Sometimes I wonder if it is time well spent as I go round yet again endlessly deadheading cosmos, dahlias, and poppies, but then I lift my head up . . .

. . . and realise that it is.

The poppies have been particularly rewarding this summer.

I was hoping to catch birds eating the rowan berries. Although the berries at the top of the tree are almost gone, there are plenty left further down . . .

. . . but they weren’t tempting any berry fanciers today.

After Mrs Tootlepedal had returned with the shears and we had given them a go, we spotted a moth fluttering around behind the verbena. It stayed about long enough for me to go and get my moth camera, but it stubbornly hid behind the plants to stop me getting a good picture of it. I think that it is a Silver Y moth.

Mrs Tootlepedal was very impressed by the size of a passing bumble bee.

After lunch, we watched the end of today’s stage of the Women’s Tour of Britain, which provided excellent entertainment again, and then I went for a walk.

With another 20° of flex added to my leg splint this week, I was able to walk pretty normally, although the splint itself is a bit of an encumbrance. As a result, I thought that I would go the extra mile today, and went past Skippers Bridge when I got to it, and walked on along the road beside the river.

It had been cloudy when I set out, but as I went along it turned into a lovely late summer day.

I took an arty picture of the gate, before heading back.

I didn’t get too adventurous and attempt the path to the town through Longwood, but merely turned and went back to Skippers Bridge along the road.

I had come down along the Murtholm Track, so I went back to the town on the other side of the river. Not far from the bridge, I met my friend Mark who was out walking his dogs. He was the one who had come to help me when I was injured and who had called the mountain rescue. We stopped to chat, and he gave me some very useful advice regarding the amount of exercise that I should or should not be taking.

I saw a few things of interest on my walk . . .

. . . and added a little extra distance by passing the suspension bridge, going over the town bridge, and making a tour of the new town before coming home.

A walk round the garden brought my distance for the afternoon up to exactly four miles. I was very satisfied with that.

Mrs Tootlepedal had been out in the garden while I was walking, but we both sat down inside to watch some of the opening stage of the Vuelta. It was a short time trial in Monte Carlo, and at one time an Englishman, a Welshman, and a Scotsman were in the first three places. Sadly, but it seems almost inevitably, Tadej Pogačar turned up at the last minute and spoiled the party by winning the stage by a fraction of a second.

In between trying the new shears, looking for bees and butterflies, going for a walk, and watching the cycling, I completely forgot about flying birds. I will end this post with a very fine poppy instead.

Relaxing

Today’s guest picture comes from our daughter Annie. Recently, she was on holiday at Saunton Sands in Devon on a good day for watching kite surfers.

We had a good day here today, although there was the merest hint of rain at one time in the afternoon.

After breakfast, Mrs Tootlepedal went off to a meeting of the Langholm Initiative, and I was left on my own for the morning. It was sunny for a good part of the day . . .

. . . and I spent most of it, wandering very slowly round the garden, doing a little bit of gardening and quite a lot of nothing at all.

I found time for drinking a cup of coffee, doing some Archive Group work, and having lunch with Mrs Tootlepedal, but mostly I looked at flowers . . .

. . . stalked butterflies . . .

. . . other insects . . .

. . . and birds.

I did think of going for a walk in the afternoon, but the hint of rain gave me an excuse to watch the final kilometres of two excellent bike races on the telly instead.

When they had finished, I went out for another look around . . .

. . . and then came in for our regular Zoom with my siblings.

I am trying to balance taking enough exercise to ‘keep me going’ with not ‘doing too much’ and harming my tendon repair. I thought that a day of rest today would fit quite well into that programme, so that concluded my not very active day.

The flying birds of the day are some passing pigeons, taking their daily exercise

Is the end in sight?

Today’s guest picture comes from my Somerset correspondent Venetia. She saw this roofless church, which is now a war memorial, in Bristol, where she was attending an immersive exhibition on the Titanic. Her camera managed to include a single bird twice in the same picture.

We had another day here when the forecast offered us the prospect of more showers than actually arrived. Fortunately Dennis did arrive on schedule for coffee, bringing scones and an unknown object which he had found at home. On inspection and assembly, it turned out to be an ingeniously constructed travelling iron.

He went off with some runner beans, Mrs Tootlepedal went off on business, and I went out into the garden.

There was a good deal of dead heading to be done as usual at this time of year, but there was time for a look around too.

Poppies and roses came in pairs.

There were bees and butterflies (one rather tattered).

A new rose has come out, but it needed me to hold its head up before I could take a picture.

The new nasturtiums continue to delight both me and visiting bumblebees.

Collarette dahlias are enjoying the weather . . .

. . . and incipient flowers on the sedum signal that autumn is on its way.

Mrs Tootlepedal reckons that August 20th is the beginning of the end as far as the garden goes.

I ended with a few random shots of favourites and went in to do some work on the newspaper index for the Archive Group.

After lunch, I had started to mow the greenhouse grass when one of the forecast showers appeared, so a bit of cycling on the telly took up some time instead.

It stopped raining, and we went back out into the garden where I finished the mowing.

Mrs Tootlepedal is creating a log pile for the encouragement of diversity, and we did a good bit of work on that. We were sitting having a rest when I spotted a painted lady.

After a pause for refreshment, I went out for a short three bridges walk while any forecast showers politely passed the town by.

Thanks to the recent rain, there was definitely a little more water in the rivers than there has been lately . . .

. . . and my phone did its best to pick out a gull and a wagtail at the Kilngreen.

The removal of the racecourse continues.

I looked over our hedge when I got home. As the phlox phades away, the yellows of the helianthus, sunflowers and Lemon Queen in the background catch the eye.

Birds were in short supply today, so a carder bee is the flying object to end the post,

Footnote: the title of the post alludes to a notification which arrived today of an appointment at the very beginning of September to see the surgeon who sewed me back together. With luck, this will mean the end of my leg splint and the start of a more normal life. I dare to hope that driving and cycling may be included. Toes crossed.

Hedging and trimming

Today’s guest picture is another from my Manitoba correspondent Mary Jo. She tells me that this fine example of street art is one of about 20 examples that can be found in the small town (approx. 1700 people) of Shaunavon, SK.

After some gentle overnight rain, we woke up to another day of occasional sunshine and occasional showers. Once again I had a gentle start to the day, and after coffee, I walked round to the butcher’s, while Mrs Tootlepedal cycled up to the town to visit an exhibition, and then go on to the Co-op.

The exhibition was interesting, and Mrs Tootlepedal was able to research the ownership of our house back to its earliest days, so it was some time before she returned. In the meantime, I trimmed the second large box ball at the end of the front lawn. Mrs Tootlepedal has already done the two smaller ones in the rear, so we have a full set now.

Then I had time for a wander, some dead heading and a few photographs.

As you can see, we have got one last tiger lily to come. They have done very well, not least because the flowers stay in such good shape for a long time after they’ve come out.

It started to rain after lunch so we sat down to watch the end of today’s stage of the women’s Tour of Britain, which was taking place about 50 miles to the south west of us. It was raining heavily off and on there too.

The rain had stopped by the time the stage had finished, and we went back out into the garden where I trimmed the ‘wavy’ hedge at the end of the drive

Mrs Tootlepedal would like to take credit for the way that the dahlias mirror the wave of the hedge . . .

. . . but it was serendipity.

Our visiting gardener had been in while we were watching the cycling, and she had trimmed the very much rougher hedge beside the drying green, and she had done a very neat job indeed.

After a while, Mrs Tootlepedal went off on her electric bike to visit the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve where one of the cottages is being restored to modern energy efficient standards. The architect involved was giving a talk on the restoration of old rural buildings. I would like to have gone with her, but cycling is not on my menu for the time being.

After watching some starlings having a go at the rowan berries, which are obviously getting a bit riper . . .

. . . I went for a walk instead.

A sun came out as I walked. I was hoping to walk round the pheasant hatchery, but the path beside the river can be tricky at the best of times, and the recent rain made me think that it would be safer to stick to the roads on the far side. I went up to Holmhead by the low road, and came back by the upper road and the Lodge Walks.

I had time and enough energy to walk across the racecourse . . .

. . . which they have started to dismantle, and take the new path round the bottom of the Castleholm before crossing the Sawmill Brig. Although there were some threatening clouds on the horizon . . .

. . . I got home in the sunshine.

I noticed that the top berries on the rowan tree have almost all disappeared.

Mrs Tootlepedal found the architect’s talk at Cronksbank very interesting, and she finally got home just before it started to rain again.

She made a delicious tofu and lentil noodle stir fry for our evening meal. This is a dish that I would have looked at in horror not so many years ago, but I thoroughly enjoyed it today. Times change and, in the end, so do I.

The flying bird of the day is a bee.

Stepping out

Today’s guest picture comes from my camera club friend Simon. He was down at the river in Canonbie last night when he took this shot. He tells me that it reminds him of E.T.

After some overnight rain, we got up to a grey but warm morning. After an energetic day yesterday, I didn’t rush into action, and only got out into the garden after coffee. Droplets on a leaf provided a photo opportunity.

I was quite busy when I got out, as there is a lot of deadheading required at the moment. Mrs Tootlepedal pruned back one of our espalier apples which hasn’t produced fruit this year, and I helped out by shredding the prunings and adding them to the compost bin.

Mrs Tootlepedal is going to get our visiting gardener to cut back the hedge between the drying green and the dam, so I took the opportunity to pick a few brambles in the hedge before they got swept away. I was distracted by more droplets.

Apart from a few whites, there were no butterflies about, but there were plenty of other insects to look at . . .

. . . along with a sensational new lily . . .

. . . and some striking colour.

Annoyingly, there was enough very gentle rain to persuade Mrs Tootlepedal to get the washing in, and even more annoyingly, it stopped shortly after she had done so.

All this took us up to lunch. After lunch, Mrs Tootlepedal went off with a friend to do some judging of gardens for a local show. With no cycling to watch, and with the sun coming out, I mowed the front and middle lawns, and clipped one of the larger box balls at the end of the front lawn.

The sun brought the butterflies out . . .

. . . and encouraged more flower visits from others.

Looking around, I realized how prolific one of our sunflowers is. I counted twenty flowers on it (and there may be more).

I was hoping to catch a flying bird when a shifty jackdaw creeping about on the neighbour’s shed caught my eye.

I think that the rowan berries are still not ripe, because it only took the one.

Mrs Tootlepedal got back from her garden judging, and we had a cup of tea. Then, as it was still warm and dry, although the sun had gone in, I went for a walk down to Skipper’s Bridge and back. This was the same walk as I had done the other day. I am rather limited in my route choice at the moment, but to make my life more exciting, I went round it in the opposite direction.

Just to show that I had been out, I took a picture of the bridge as I approached it, some loosestrife beside the track on the other side, and the new view up the river that has been opened up by felling some trees beside the riverside path.

I enjoyed an excellent meal of poached salmon with potatoes and courgettes from the garden prepared by Mrs Tootlepedal when I got back.

I never did catch a flying bird and our two lawn pigeons are standing in to end this post.

Stepping Up

Today’s guest picture comes from my Manitoba correspondent Mary Jo. Thanks to an excellent watering system and some good gardening, she has grown a wonderful crop of carrots and parsnips this year.

It was a cool and cloudy day today here with rain in the forecast, but it stayed dry in the morning, and I was able to walk up the hill to have coffee with Sandy.

This was not a major expedition, being only a quarter of a mile in distance, but it did include 100 feet of ascent. This was basically about 95 more feet than I have attempted recently, and I was very happy to sit on the bench at the top of Jimmy’s Brae and admire the view with some satisfaction.

I even took a couple of wildflower pictures to celebrate.

I was rewarded for my efforts with some very good coffee and conversation with Sandy when I got to his house. Oddly perhaps, going back down the hill was more of a challenge than climbing up had been, and I sensibly took a roundabout route with more gentle gradients to get home.

Mrs Tootlepedal was busy in the garden when I got back, and I joined her. I started by doing some shredding as she had been clearing off plants, and then I turned my mind to compost.

As it looked likely to rain a bit for the next few days, I thought that this would be a good day to turn the contents of the overflowing bin A into bin B. The compost had been well chopped up by and large, and it was easy to shift. It took me less time than I expected to have the job completed.

When I had finished, Mrs Tootlepedal and I repaired one of the modular wooden bin sections, and it is now back on Bin A waiting for new material to arrive.

Thanks to the recent good weather, the compost had got pretty warm and Mrs Tootlepedal was pleased as this should have killed off quite a few bad things in the mixture.

I took a break and several pictures when I had finished. Honey bees had come to join our usual bumblebees, and I was spoiled for choice as far as colourful flowers went.

The Michaelmas daises get better every day . . .

. . . and I thought that I ought to take a picture or two of the phlox before it goes over. I got phlox with dahlias and calendulas, and phlox with gardener (who was trimming hedges).

I noticed that quite by chance, the dahlias at the end of the drive seem to be echoing the shape of the hedge behind them.

They were very popular with the bees as were the Japanese anemones too.

It is interesting (to me at any rate) to notice that the bees don’t approach the anemones with the same abandon as when they swim round the poppies.

Then it was time for lunch. I had expected to be confined indoors by rain in the afternoon, but it stayed dry, and we got out into the garden again.

With no sun, it wasn’t a day for coloured butterflies, but there were plenty of whites about, and they were in an amorous mood.

We didn’t stay out long, and I took a few random pictures and noted more bees about before we back in.

Mrs Tootlepedal went off for a well-earned siesta, and I caught up with some work on the computer. I broke off to entertain Mike Tinker to a cup of tea when he called round for a chat, and sent him off with some runner beans.

While Mike was here, I noticed an evil jackdaw pecking at our plums while what looked like a hopeful child waited on the lawn.

I went back to my computer, but broke off again when Nancy from the Archive Group called round to discuss the future of the group. Age is catching up with us, and we are contemplating ceasing to add to the archive, although the material that we have produced so far will remain available on the internet.

After that, it started to rain fairly steadily, and the active part of the day was over.

I didn’t catch a flying bird today, but I couldn’t miss the flying white butterflies, and one of them, pursuing a mate, is the flying object of the day.

Keeping cool

Today’s guest picture comes from my sister Mary. She is surprised to find roses growing happily in her little garden in spite of weeks of drought.

After the excitement of yesterday’s walk, I felt it sensible not to do too much today. I was greatly helped by a day of cool, grey weather, and a church service in the middle of the morning which took up a lot of time.

It had rained a little before we got up, but it was dry when we went to church, and we were able to get out into the garden for a bit before lunch when we got back.

Dead heading, shredding and sieving compost were on my task list. And taking a few pictures too.

The garden is full of sunflowers, some in huge quantities on tall stems . . .

. . . and others more modest and lonely with just a passing bee for a friend.

The roses are battling on . . .

. . . and the poppies are still in full flow (thanks to steady dead heading).

I like the way that the little bumblebees approach the poppies, lying on their side and paddling round the centres.

The small dahlias at the end of the drive are producing more flowers every day, and with a lot of buds still to open, they should be giving us good value for some time to come.

We have had visits from a few carder bees lately, or perhaps the same carder bee getting around the garden a lot, and I saw one again today.

After a late lunch, we got back out into the garden, and I finished my tasks. Mrs Tootlepdedal was very busy getting the big flower bed beside the middle lawn organised, with next year already in mind. She also found time to dig up the last of our potato crop.

We needed a sit down indoors after all this activity, but we did get out again for a short walk before our evening meal.

Before we set off, I noticed a pair of jackdaws on a neighbour’s roof. Jackdaws often mate for life and we very frequently see them in pairs like this.

It was only a two bridges outing, up to the Duchess Bridge . . .

. . . and back along the racecourse to the Jubilee Bridge. It was a grey day, but calm and dry . . .

. . . until just before we got home, when it started to rain very lightly.

We had a quick look round the garden when we got back. Mrs Tootlepedal pointed out phacelia growing among her green manure . . .

. . . and I picked out a marigold to end this post on a bright note.

A rather fuzzy jackdaw, hurrying to join its mate, is the flying bird of the day.

Slip ons

Today’s guest picture comes from my sister Mary. She likes to find an example of the urban jungle on her London walks.

We had another dry day here, warm without being hot, sometimes cloudy and sometimes sunny.

As a result, we spent quite a lot of time in the garden in the morning. I mowed the greenhouse grass and the vegetable garden paths, sieved some compost for Mrs Tootlepedal to use when she transplanted eryngiums later in the day, did some shredding, tended the compost bin, picked some runner beans, and wandered about aimlessly.

Well not quite aimlessly, as I pointed my camera at several things in passing.

Butterflies were the target several times.

Cosmos and lilies caught my eye too.

As did agapanthus.

The nasturtiums are increasingly the victims of the cabbage white caterpillars . . .

. . . but not all have succumbed yet.

Mrs Tootlepedal sometimes takes the caterpillars off the nasturtium leaves and puts them on the lawn in the hope that birds will eat them. Unfortunately, some research showed her that these particular caterpillars are experts in making themselves unpleasant to eat, and the birds mostly leave them alone.

As well as butterflies, there were bees about, not in great numbers but enough to be heard if you sat down for a rest.

The chief business of the afternoon for me was a walk down to Skippers Bridge on one side of the river, and then back to the town on the other. With the new increased amount of flex on my leg splint, this turned out to be much easier than I expected, and I really enjoyed myself on this longer than usual outing. It may be tempting fate to say so, but I am feeling more stable these days, and I didn’t need to use my walking poles at all.

I did get a good view of the mast on top of Warbla . . .

. . . where I lay for an hour waiting to be rescued after my fall at the end of June, and that reminded me not to get overconfident in any way. I wonder if I will ever feel like walking up there again.

On the subject of the fall, I got a bit of a revelation today. I have been walking around in slip on shoes since my operation as they are easy to put on, but I thought that for the first time today, as I was going for a longer stroll, I would put on the proper walking shoes that I was wearing when I fell. Just walking about in the kitchen however made me realise that they seemed to be very slippery, and when I checked, I found that the soles were indeed very worn. It is not so surprising then that I slipped when I was wearing them on the rough ground. The shoes are now in our bin.

Having changed to a pair of older trainers with good soles, I felt very secure on my outing.

I noticed snowberries and brambles on my walk, and ate a bramble but not a snowberry.

Having walked down both sides of the river recently without getting as far as Skippers Bridge before turning for home, it was a great treat today to be able to do the full circuit and enjoy the view from the bridge . . .

. . . and the lichen on the bridge parapet.

I have been very short of lichen in my life recently.

After some refreshment and watching the end of an exciting stage of the Czech Tour on the telly, we went back out and did some more gardening. Mrs Tootlepedal transplanted the eryngiums and I dead headed the rambler rose.

I noted that some small yellow dahlias have joined the big yellow dahlias in the front beds.

Mrs Tootlepedal cooked a very tasty spicy lentil and sweet potato dhal for our evening meal, and we rounded off the day by watching the European Athletic Championships.

In terms of injured knee recovery, it was a very good day.

The flying bird of the day was a high flying gull over the garden.

Farewell to our visitors

Today’s guest picture comes from my sister Caroline. She met these Chinese lanterns in her local pâtisserie’s garden.

We woke up to a misty morning and a tiny drop of rain here. This was a bit ironic because the hot sunshine had made the tent, which we had put up when our visitors came, impossible to use, and now the rain made it impossible to take down.

However, the rain turned to sunshine, our visitors departed, and I took down the tent and mowed the lawn while Mrs Tootlepedal drove them to Carlisle.

Mrs Tootlepedal had lunch with Annie and Evie in Carlisle, and then dropped them off at the station. Their train was on time, and they sent us a message later on to say that they had got home safely.

While Mrs Tootlepedal was away, I spent most of the time in the garden, mowing lawns, dead heading, and taking pictures.

I spotted a caterpillar on a calendula. It had left a trail of caterpillar poo behind it, a customary tactic of these creatures to make themselves unpleasant to would be predators.

The caterpillars have eaten a lot of our nasturtiums, but I managed to find one bunch that were relatively untouched.

I couldn’t resist the allure of a pair of pink poppies, and a bee couldn’t resist the delightful repast offered by the sneezeweed, the equal of any display on a pâtisserie counter.

As the Michaelmas daisies arrive, the phlox is going over . . .

. . . and in spite of the continuing presence of some lovely flowers . . .

. . . the garden is probably past its glorious summer peak. The phlox has been phantastic once again.

There were plenty of butterflies about . . .

. . . and the starlings were back checking on the rowan berries.

The berries didn’t pass the taste test though, and the starlings soon moved on.

Mrs Tootlepedal got back from Carlisle, and we packed the tent away for another year.

After our evening meal, I went for a short three bridges walk . . .

. . . before coming back in time to watch the athletics from the European Championships. The highlight of the evening for me was a sensational men’s high jump competition.

Mrs Tootlepedal noticed that we still have swifts flying above the garden, and one of them is the flying bird of the day.

A tootle and a wander

Today’s guest picture comes from my Somerset correspondent Venetia. She visited Stourhead today.

WP has unkindly eaten the post that I have just laboriously written and I haven’t got the energy to write it all again. Instead of starting all over again, I will summarise and then stick the pictures in.

Lovely day, visitors had a good time in the park for several hours, visited by both Mrs Tootlepedal and me. We did gardening, Annie and I played recorder duets, Mrs Tootlepedal and I went for an evening walk. Aches and pains a lot better.