Yellow

No photos (or walks) on this grey, rainy day, but I have dug into the archives to bring you some evening canola-field shots from a couple of weeks ago.

 Here, they call it oilseed rape, and farmers in the Borders grow a lot of it.

Quite cheery, isn't it?

A Bank Holiday Outing

The small boy proposed a hearty breakfast at the garden centre café, and everyone was game except for his older brother, who needed to stay home and study for a physics exam.  I tossed the wee one's wellies into the car, and after breakfast and an extended browse (because garden centers in these parts have everything*), we headed to the nearby beach.

 There were the usual treasures.

I sat here and watched the waves for a while.

It was a gorgeous spring day.


*The chefs found a cookbook and some cookie cutters they couldn't live without, and a(n unsuccessful) case was made for purchasing a hamster.

Dampish

The clouds flung it down bucket-style all morning and into the afternoon, but by about three o'clock the rain had tapered to sprinkles and I was ready for a walk.

I drove a short distance to the bridge that connects Ladykirk in Scotland to Norham in England, and hoofed it along the Tweed (yes, I'm awfully fond of that river) on the Scottish side.

It's one of my favorite paths, in large part because I get to commune with sheep.

And their lambs. 

(Does that ever get old??)

~

Speaking of walking...I spent a good portion of the rainy morning glued to The Bimbler, a gorgeous and addictive photo blog about leisurely walks in southwestern England (mostly).  After reading it, I'm pretty sure I need a hammock, a tent stove (okay, and a tent), and a shiny tea kettle fueled via a compartment that holds twigs.  Thanks for the tip, Toni!

New Resident

It's not unusual for turtles of various kinds and sizes to migrate their way down our lane or across our farm each spring.

Seeing a giant snapping turtle like this one slowly wend its way toward a new home is always one of the highlights of spring for us.

This year, though, this particular turtle decided it might like to take up residence in our water garden! I love to hover nearby, watching it slowly swim around, occasionally coming up for air as in the photo above. I fear that my too-frequent visits will eventually prompt it to move on to less nosy waters, but in the meantime, I am going to sneak a peek at it as often as I can!

Winter Calls for Comfort Food

While I was in Berwick this afternoon, trying not to freeze to death or blow off of the city walls and into the sea (and then retreating into a café with my walking buddy for an Earl Grey warm-up), the junior and senior master chef were feverishly concocting.  I'm not sure what these gooey chocolate parcels were, but I can tell you that my personal custom pizza with cauliflower crust and caramelized onion topping was moreish in the extreme.

A Very Good May Day

St. Louis Zoo

Earlier this week I took the train to St. Louis for a fun getaway. The first day I went to the St. Louis Zoo. It was the only day I took my camera along, but I made up for it by taking 517 photos. After looking through them, though, I noticed that they either looked a little blurry, as though they were taken through thick panes of filthy glass – which most of them were – or they could accompany a treatise on why zoos are the most depressing places on earth, which hadn't been my intention at all.

So, here are the most innocuous photos of the bunch. And maybe I'll put a few more on my Flickr page in case anyone wants to see the rest…

The walk to the zoo; taken in front of the St. Louis Art Museum.

You can't go wrong with penguins.

Ditto.

You can always have fun swimming.

Comical expression!

And a cheetah for Lynn!