Melancholy thistles

The weather has been glorious today with wall to wall sunshine, so I decided to go for a walk from Alston. It is a route that Geoff has devised for the Autumn Walking Festival and I did not know part of it.

I managed well despite the heat and I revelled in the display of wild flowers. Some are finished and some hay fields have been cut already too, but I was in time to see plenty of variety. 

I often say on Blipfoto that this or that flower is a favourite of mine. I was thinking about this today. Favourite is really a superlative word and means that I prefer whatever I describe to all others of the same kind. Can I have several favourite flowers?

Well, melancholy thistle is up there as one of the best. Today I saw more together than I have ever seen. I think I blip them nearly every year too, but usually a solitary flower. They were used to treat melancholia, hence the name.

I came through a very scruffy farmyard with vocal geese, but over the stile and I was on the golf course. That was a surprise. Then the path went into someone's garden. The border collie came racing over with his tail doing circles behind him.  As I asked him to show me the path, I realised that a man was sitting in a chair reading in the sunshine. He told me that the public footpath doubles as a garden and he was happy to chat. (Wish I'd photographed him now.)

Arth and Aggie need some analgesia but are bearing up well.

RANT
This wonderful walk was marred by the angry sounds of trail bikes and motor bikes as they criss-crossed the tracks in the South Tyne Valley. What a racket!  It worsened  throughout the afternoon. Have they not heard of silencers??  (Was one of them you, robindown?? Hope not.)