Category: #EDiM

Dancing, Dancing, Dancing – 20 May 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Dancing lesson in the morning, practice session if you’re up to it in the afternoon and the gala ball in the evening.

Breakfast first and, of course, we had too much of a good thing. The breakfasts are very good in this place. Self service and a bit like a works canteen, but the actual food is good, especially the fruit. After that a short rest and we were in to the practise session with a surprise in store.

Jane announced a change to the joyless Joy’s Waltz. She had rejigged it and replaced the Overturned Spin Turn with a Half Natural and an Open Impetus which probably means the same to you as it does to me. The main thing is the replacement is much more doable than the previous overcomplicated manoeuvre. I won’t say I was overjoyed, but I was relieved because:

a) She had been listening and watching us all dancing and saw the problem.
And
b) She had found something that looked similar but was danceable by all.

Later she (Jane) may try to fit in the OST again, but if not, we have a substitute.

There were a group who’d come down from Aberdeen to join us in Perth and they demonstrated their Strictly Fun Dance. It did look like so many of the sequence dances we do, but it did look much more fun than most. We might learn it.

Lesson over we had the rest of the day to ourselves. First things first, Scamp wanted to return the dress she’d bought yesterday. Next we were looking for lunch. We looked at the menu of a posh(ish) French café, called Briezh. We looked, but decided it was a bit expensive for what we were looking for. Instead we went round the corner to a Wetherspoons and had Fish ’n’ Chips with a Gin ’n’ Tonic for Scamp and an American burger with a pint of Broadside for the price of a main course in Briezh.
Next was a visit to an art exhibition we’d seen yesterday. Some lovely paintings, in fact, I was tempted to buy one but chose not to. Some pretentious dire efforts too. Beautiful building which doubled as a church and a community hub. In the exhibition we bumped into a couple of the dancers who seemed to have invaded Perth. It turned out they came from Airdrie and gave us a fair bit of information about tea dances and such around Lanarkshire and beyond.

I bought some coffee and tea from the Bean Shop and we walked around a much more prestigious and even more pretentious gallery outside Perth museum before we dumped the coffee in the boot of the car and then walked along the railway bridge that crosses the Tay then walked down the opposite side of the river and back to the hotel.

Dinner tonight was at our table in the ballroom and was much better fare than yesterday’s. Two of the couples at our table were from East Lothian and I recognised the East Coast accents. It turned out that they were from Pencaitland which was just a mile from Ormiston where my Aunt Sarah and Uncle Bob lived and also where we went for our summer holidays every year when I was wee. The other couple were Barry and Cath who we know well from Salsa and tea dances. Lots of good natured banter with them.

The usual professional dancers were giving two demonstrations tonight and then mixed with the rest of us answering questions and just mixing with people. No airs and graces from them.

We danced with the Aberdonians and learned a bit of the Strictly Fun Dance. We might manage to get the finer points of it later, but it’s unlikely we’ll get to dance it with Stewart & Jane. The teachers seem to have an unwritten law about ‘poaching’ each other’s dances.

We finished the night with the Last Waltz finally waltzing off the floor just about five minutes to midnight while others finished the night with It’s Later Than You Think!

PoD today was a couple of wee models we saw today. They’re based on a poem by William Soutar the Scottish poet. I just think they brighten up the south bank of the River Tay.

Today’s Prompt asked for a Garden Tool. This is a garden trowel made with a mild steel blade and a rolled steel handle the two parts are riveted together. It’s used to teach pupils a variety of metalworking skills. These tools last for years if they are looked after, and even if they aren’t.

Tomorrow it’s usually a sad wee dance class in the morning. Only half the dancers are there, the sensible ones having left early.

A Busy Morning – 19 May 2023

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Bags to pack, Cards to post, Sketches to do and Photos to take

Strangely for me, all the above were achieved in a morning!

This afternoon we drove up to Perth to the old dilapidated Salutation Hotel which started taking paying guests in the year 1699 and is still taking guests to this day. Inside it’s an overheated maze with a wheezy old lift that struggles to carry folk up to the third floor and that’s where we were going. We had a corner room, not open, airy outside corner room, but a tight oddly shaped internal corner with a view into a compactor where the day’s rubbish and all sorts was compressed in a skip. Delightful. I won’t mention the shower which wasn’t so much a shower as a warm drizzle. There, I said I wasn’t going to mention it, but I did. I will not speak of it again.

We had plenty of time for a walk round Perth which was looking at its best today. An almost totally calm and still River Tay gave perfect reflections and one of them became PoD. We walked through the park beside the river on a beautiful spring day. On the way back Scamp went browsing in M&S and found what might have been a new dress, only to discover when we returned to the room that it was the wrong size and would need to go back tomorrow.

Dinner tonight was served in the breakfast room. Last November it had been a slightly shambolic buffet in the ballroom. Today’s was a better arrangement and the food was ok, just ok. Dancing started around 7.30pm and continued until midnight, but we had had enough by 11.30. One of the good things about having the dance in an old hotel is that the walls and floor seem to be a lot thicker and sound deadening than in newer establishments. In our room there was not a whisper coming from Stewart’s sound system, or maybe we were just so tired by then that we didn’t notice.

The prompt today asked for Sports Equipment.
I’m not really a sporting person these days. Maybe a couple of days cycling a year but nothing more energetic. There was a time I liked a game of badminton, but that was many years ago. I almost reached the point of the owner of this racket, but not quite.

More dancing, much more dancing planned for tomorrow night, plus the dreaded Joy’s Waltz with its Overturned Spin Turn.

Stay home lunch – 18 May 2023

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What is going on here? We had to make our own lunch today after three days of eating out, we’d almost forgotten how to make lunch!

Luckily we remembered in time. Scamp remembered how to make a speciality omelette whose content must remain a secret. I had Brie, Apple and Honey on Brown Bread. I don’t mind disclosing the ingredients because it’s the way I cut the brie and the way I slice the apple and of course the way I manage to make the ordinary honey become runny honey that make mine special.

After lunch we drove down to Calders to get some flowers to fill a planter that will sit on a corner of the front lawn. She chose some Violas, some Nemesia and a little trio of plants in a pot. The planter is now full and we’d like some rain soon to augment the watering she did after planting everything out. But it was the buds on our Golden Torch rhododendron bush in the back garden that made PoD.

Not only did we have to make our own lunch, but we also had to make our own dinner tonight. It was ‘Easy Fish Risotto’ the one you make in the oven then add Creme Fraiche to lighten it I made. Then we watched Jim Moir painting gannets, a program I’d recorded from Sky Arts. Fred Parker had told me about it and it was actually very good. Painting tips and of course guest artists who got a little bit of air time. Overall, it was worth watching, as is Clive Myrie’s Italian Road Trip on iPlayer. Fifteen episodes of beautiful Italian scenery and away from the tourist traps. Recommended.

The prompt today asked for A Hat or A Cap. I settled on the old wide brimmed hat I wear on holiday when the sun is hot. It’s not the most elegant hat, but it does its job well shielding me from the sun and folds up quite neatly to go into a case. Roll on the time when I need to use it again!

Tomorrow Scamp is intending doing her FitBit thing and I think I’ll make an early start on the prompt for tomorrow. Oh yes, and post a card to Murdo who will be 80 on Saturday!

A day in Japan – 17 May 2023

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Scamp was out early this morning to get her hair cut.

When she came back I was just finishing hanging out the washing. It was a lovely morning again and we discussing where to go when Scamp said she fancied going to the Japanese Garden near Dollar. I tidied up the things I was messing about with on the computer and off we went.

Scamp had bought the tickets online before we left, so we knew we’d get in, but we had to squeeze into one of the last three spaces in the overflow carpark. Then it was just a case of picking up a map and walking round the pond. We’d been before back in October last year and had seen the place in its autumn colours. We were hoping to see it in its spring regalia, but we were disappointed. A few of the azaleas were flowering in bright yellows and one or two rhododendrons were also flowering but everything else was green. It seems like it’s not just us who are running about a month late this year.

On the map we’d been given there was a mysterious number that would apparently unlock a gate. We looked where we thought the gate should be, but it wasn’t there. Finally we found it at the other end of the garden. There was a keypad on the gatepost and when we punched in the mysterious number the gate opened to allow us into the woodland walk. For the most part the walk was through woods, as you’d expect, but we could see a children’s adventure playground at the top of a hill, but ignored it and walked on. That’s where we found the ‘village’.

The noticeboard explained that last year’s storm ‘Arwen’ had felled or damaged a lot of the trees in the garden but that even the damage led to new beginnings. It was scamp who say the first tree stump with a heavy rope wrapped around the top and a variety of mosses and little trees growing in it. Then she saw the houses. Taller stumps topped off with roofs and with windows and doors added. Loads of these tree houses making something new from Arwen’s destruction a nice bit of creative thinking.

We wanted to have a coffee and a bite to eat, but the cafe was understaffed and there was a half hour wait before they’d be taking orders, so we left.

Scamp suggested we go to The Bothy for lunch instead. It was a great idea, but everyone of the townships we drove through had 20mph signs on entry. Why? There was no-one on the streets? We reached the cafe and after a bit of a wait we did get lunch with a cafetière of good coffee for me and peppermint tea for Scamp. Happy, we drove home.

Neither of us fancied dinner tonight and just to finish off the day I washed the car. I know it will be covered in seagull crap tomorrow, but I washed it today.

PoD was a view through one bridge to another in the Japanese Garden.

The prompt for today was A Pencil Case. This is my go-everywhere pencil case. Unfortunately, today it has no pencil in it, but the prompt only asked for the case! So I fulfilled the brief. The case does contain a pencil sharpener just in the unlikely event that a pencil jumps into the case and needs sharpening. This is the slimmed down version of the real pencil case which holds so many odds and ends that I have difficulty zipping it up.

No plans for tomorrow. It all depends on the weather.

Another day, another lunch – 16 May 2023

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This lunch was with Crawford & Nancy.

We were booked at The Cotton House for midday. The secret with Cotton House is to get there early. We were the first to arrive with about ten minutes to spare. C&N coasted in about five minutes later. Food in Cotton House is always good, and it didn’t let us down today. Chicken Satay, and Spring Rolls for the girls and Chicken Noodle soup for the guys. Mains were Lemon Chicken and Chicken Chow Mein for the girls and the guys sticking together again with Sweet & Sour Chicken with Fried Rice. Ice cream for all as a dessert. Then coffee for three and a Chinese tea for me. We took all of the available two hours as did a few other diners and discussed cruises and family and C&N’s grandson’s up and coming skydive! A good catch up. This going out to lunch could catch on, you know!

The morning had been beautiful sunshine but with a cold wind and quite a strong wind too, it was nice to look out at, but not so much fun to be out in. That’s my excuse for not taking any photos in the morning. By the time we got home after our extended lunch, the big heavy clouds had rolled in and the sun had disappeared, but at least the wind had died down. I still couldn’t gee myself to go out and take some photos, so it was flowers in the garden that were the subjects for today, specifically another pink Aquilegia. A bit more careful framing this time. That became PoD.

Today’s prompt was Something Sticky and what could be more sticky than honey. Well, as some of the artists in EDiM have shown, there are many more things that are sticky and some of them I don’t want to think about. I’ll stick (no pun intended) with honey. Lovely sticky golden honey.

Scamp is off getting her hair cut tomorrow morning and that is as much as we have planned.

Out to lunch – 15 May 2023

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We got the text just after 9am. Ben went to school!

That meant we were on track to take Ben’s mum, Shona to lunch. Picked her up just before midday and drove by the backroads to The Stables because it was such a lovely day. Shona was adamant that this was her treat. In fact this was her contribution to our Golden Wedding anniversary. When she told us that, how could we refuse. Scamp and Shona had a Fish Finger Sandwich each. Big chunks of fish in batter in a panini, with a cup of chips each. I had the meat eater’s version which was a slice of fillet steak cooked rare and also served on a panini and also with a cup of chips. Both lunch meals were delicious.

After lunch we went for a walk along the towpath of the Forth & Clyde canal which runs past the front of the restaurant. We walked for about a mile in the general direction of Glasgow before we turned back. Loads to see today. Butterflies all along the path, Peacock, Orange Tip and Cabbage Whites, mainly. Bluebells growing under the trees and a big Aquilegia growing wild in the hedgerow. Loads of people out on bikes making the most of an unexpectedly good day. There was even a canal boat chugging sedately heading for Glasgow, probably. It was the Yarrow Seagull and it got PoD with Scamp and Shona getting in on the photo too.

We dropped Shona off at her house and we drove home via Tesco. Back home, Scamp swithered, whether to cut the front grass or not. Eventually she decide she would and I was enlisted to lift the flower pots out of the way of the mower and replace them when she was finished.

Some of the roses needed a last trim before the flower buds appear and that was my job. I also pruned the Forsythia now that the flowers had gone over and before the leaves come fully out. My final job was to tie back the pink fluffy plant in the back garden. I can never remember its name. I know there are two of them, slightly different from each other but both are planted beside each other. The one I was working with today is really tall and although I’m sure it can stand up for itself, a bamboo stake and a couple of fairly loose cable ties wouldn’t do any harm to give it a little more support in today’s gusty breeze.

Today’s prompt asked for “Artwork you love”. Scamp and I both love the massive Kelpies. The 30m (100ft) high artwork was created by Scottish sculptor Andy Scott. They stand in Helix Park in Falkirk at the eastern end of the Forth & Clyde canal. They are made from steel and each one weighs over 300 tonnes. They were modelled on real Clydesdale horses Duke and Baron.

We’d ordered a pair of slipper shoes for Scamp at a fair discount last Friday. They were supposed to be delivered today, but the postcode was wrong. A mix up at the ordering stage. My fault for not checking properly. However when we got home the parcel was there waiting for us. One of the benefits of having the same postman all the time is that they get to know the names and addresses and don’t rely too much on postcodes.  And while I’m on the subject of shoes.  A big thank you to Scamp for sneakily getting my favourite black and white dance shoes soled and heeled for me.  I’ve been meaning to do it myself, I even bought Evostick glue to do it, but just never got round to doing it.  Sometimes you have to get the expert to do it properly, so thank you again, Scamp.

Tomorrow, unbelievably we’re hoping to go out for lunch again with Crawford & Nancy.

 

Was that summer? – 13 May 2023

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A quite beautiful day of sunshine.

We drove to Brookside in the morning through the 40mph zone that wasn’t quite as bad as last week, although some folk were mistaking 40mph with 20mph, it seemed. We got to the class just in time. Just four couples including a decidedly pregnant Jasmine who, with her partner made light work of just about everything.

Started off with a couple of Mayfair Quickstep tracks to warm us up. The hall had a curtained off section today for some undisclosed reason, so we were dancing on what was virtually a square. After that, and after an explanation for those who hadn’t been there last week, the teachers launched into Joy’s Waltz. I thought we’d found a sneaky shortcut to get us through the Overturned Spin Turn, but was quickly shot down in flames by Jane who explained that although it did speed up the OST, it meant that when we came out of it we’d find our feet were tangled. Back to the drawing board then! I still can’t get the hang of the OST and I think I’ll resort to Scamp’s suggestion that we just fake that step and concentrate on getting the rest working.

Next we did the Sweetheart Cha-Cha with a few new adaptations just to make it more difficult, I think. Most of that went quite smoothly, even the new steps that they’d squeezed in. Thankfully Jasmine had filmed the new improved Sweetheart Cha-Cha and posted it to the group tonight.

Final dance steps were the Jive with American Spins, Alternative Stop & Go and Cha-Cha Walks. These words mean very little to me and will be forgotten by the time I finish the blog!

One last wee sequence dance, Rumba One to finish and that was us released to face the traffic going home. Overall, it was a good class, although the lady that Scamp has named Mrs Posh was being a bit of a know-all.

The drive home was easier than I expected, possibly because everyone was going to the seaside today to make the most of the sunshine. We just drove home and after lunch we worked in the garden. Scamp was chopping up a dying azalea and I was concentrating on potting up my sunflower seedlings and the wee rosemary bush we bought about a month ago.

I’d just finished doing my gardening and was putting the compost away when I felt a familiar sting on the back of my leg. I’d picked up a tick somewhere, possibly yesterday. First this year. Let’s hope it’s the last.

Dinner was a roast chicken and salad with a bottle of Prosecco to brighten it up even more.

PoD went to a purple aquilegia flower in the front garden.

Today’s prompt was An Elephant.
We don’t get many elephants roaming the hills in Scotland, and the only ones I’d photographed were either made from cast iron or paintings on billboards. However, Mr Google kindly supplied me with a model that fitted neatly on my A5 page.

I think the sky is clouding over as I write this and we’re expecting rain tomorrow. Let’s hope today wasn’t Summer! The weather will determine what we do tomorrow.

On a Boat – 10 May 2023

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Or maybe it was a ship, I’m not sure.

Waited half an hour for a bus that didn’t come. Apparently the previous one hadn’t come either. Thankfully Scamp gave me a lift to the train station and I got in to Glasgow almost on time to meet Alex. Today we were heading for the Riverside Museum out in the west end, but first coffee and a quick catch-up.

According to the First Bus app, we could catch the 100 bus at George Square and it would take us right to the museum. It didn’t, because it didn’t come either. We walked back to the bus station and got the 77 which did arrive on time and a helpful driver told us were to get off and also the quickest way to get from Partick to the museum. We followed his directions and found the strange looking museum building. Inside was disappointing. Racks of cars reaching up about five storeys with no chance to see inside them and not even a viewing gallery to get a better view. Also, everything was dusty and just manky looking. Interesting building, but not very practical. Thankfully the window wall that faces the Clyde made a brilliant mirror and we used it to our advantage. That’s where the PoD came from. The great cloud and its reflection looked like a gigantic bird. Even the red crane in the background looked good.

We walked round the big sailing ship, The Glenlee, that’s permanently moored next to the museum and is free to enter. I couldn’t imagine sailing on a three masted ship like that. Equally scary was reading the captain’s log. Written in 1919, it was testament to the abilities and courage of the sailors of the time.

As we left the museum, I thought “I won’t come back until they find a better way to display the contents.” Too much crammed in to a small space. There were two high points. Lunch, which was great and that window wall. Almost everything else need spruced up and some of the items removed to storage.

We walked back to Dumbarton Road and got the bus back to the bus station. Said cheerio and went to catch our buses home. Good company, some good photos taken and the lunch was worth paying for. The final problem was that the bus I was waiting for disappeared from the display with no explanation. Three different buses from three different companies and none of them arrived! As Alex’s wife said, “You could walk from the City Centre to Partick”. We could have and probably should have!

Today’s prompt asked for Cutlery.
A knife a fork and a spoon, what could be difficult in that? Metal, that’s the answer, shiny metal objects are incredibly difficult to draw. Knives aren’t too bad, but forks and especially spoons are the very devil to render. There is a whole book waiting to be written on rendering shiny metal objects, but it can be summed up in one word.
DON’T!

Tomorrow we may go dancing!

The gardens needed it – 8 May 2023

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Today was wet. It went from drizzle to full on downpour, but it was wet all day!

We weren’t going far today anyway. I might have gone in to Glasgow to get myself a new suit, a dark suit, both my other suits are light grey and a dark one would be a change. Also, only one of my suits actually fits me, the other one fits like a sugar bag. Not a good look. Anyway, that decision was taken away from me with one look at the weather. The furthest we were going today was Tesco.

Just a normal Monday shopping trip. Nothing exciting unless you class short dated tomatoes, carrots and onions as exciting. Three bags full it was today, all bundled into the boot and drove home.

What we did do was give our plants a bit of a soaking in the rainwater. My two chilli plants seemed to come to no harm in it and Scamp’s Cerinthe seedlings seemed to grow even taller after being in the downpours.

After lunch I gave in, put on my boots and my walking trousers and went out looking for a photo that would become PoD. It was really wet wherever I went and after about half an hour I was sure I could feel that squidgy sensation that you only get when you’ve got a leaky boot. But I was out in the middle of the park when it made itself known and I still hadn’t got that magic PoD. Then it appeared. It was a water droplet hanging from a larch needle. I took my time and eventually shot half a dozen frames of it. One of which I deemed sharp enough to become the PoD for today. Then, and only then, I squidged my way home. The sock on my right foot told the tale. There was a leak and it looks like there is a crack in the tread of my boot and that’s where the water is getting in. It might be a cut, not a crack, but the result is the same. I wouldn’t think it’s repairable, although someone on YouTube will know different, I’m sure. I might need to shell out for a new pair of boots now.

Today’s EDiM asked for An Ant. I originally thought of drawing a couple of Leaf Cutter Ants, but couldn’t find a clear enough photo to draw them from. I finally settled for a Flying Ant. There were a lot of these scary looking beasties flying around last year, I seem to remember. Apparently there is an actual Flying Ant Day. In the UK it seems to be around the 17th July. It all depends on the temperature and windspeed. There, I bet you didn’t know that!

Tomorrow we’re booked for lunch with Shona. Not sure yet where we’ll be going. Like the Flying Ants, it depends on the weather!

Driving the 40mph motorway – 6 May 2023

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That motorway is the M8. No sooner is one set of repairs finished than another set are announced. It seems that we drive more miles at 40mph than we drive at 70mph. PITA.

Yes, we were off to Brookfield this morning for the first dance class after a three week lie up. I thought the Charnwood Cha-Cha would be the end of me. It’s not good to spring things like that on us without warning, or access to a defibrillator. The only thing I can say is WOW, that was hard work. Thankfully we knew all of the steps and I had a rough idea of the order they should be danced in.

Next was a new one, a waltz this time and we both think we were guinea pigs here to see how quickly we’d pick it up. Not that easy was my answer. Thankfully we both filmed it so we could watch it at home and work out what was being described in the walk-through. The Charnwood was a workout for the body. Joy’s Waltz (named for a friend of Jane’s who died in January) was a workout for the brain. Eventually we got the hang of the first three sequences and after watching the videos this afternoon we’ve got an even better idea of the bits we’ve never done before.

The final workout was another quite fast one, a Jive routine this time. It had a few routines we have picked up along the way in the last few years from different teachers, so it wasn’t totally alien to us, and not so fast that we were too exhausted to fit in the final sequence dance of the hour and a half, a Mayfair Quickstep. Just a fairly easy dance to ease us down to drive through the 40mph zones again on the other side of the road.

Back home we had lunch and watched the pageantry unfold in London. I took myself off for most of it as I’d a sketch to complete for EDiM. I was doodling a sketch on a bit of backing paper and the picture came to me. It was a highland cow, but there was too much rubbish on the paper and I knew I’d need to redraw it, so I left the rough there and went to get a photo for today. As I was walking over towards Condorrat, I noticed a snail tucked into a corner of a fence and knew that was the PoD. Of the three photos I took, the one you see here is my favourite. I also got a shot of the inside of a dandelion puff ball. It’s like the highland cow in that it’s not the finished article, but it’s worth another try, possibly in an inside setting with a camera on a tripod. We’ll see.

When I got home, Scamp was whizzing through the recording of the actual Coronation. It is one mighty big and complex piece of organisation. How they worked out how to get all those people into the cathedral and how they covered the lawn of the palace with the thousands of army, navy, airforce personnel from almost every country was astounding. I wasn’t really all that interested in it, I was waiting for Zadok The Priest to be sung. When it was, it was a little disappointing. Scamp said it was too fast and I thought it was lacking in power. Had we been conducting, heads would have rolled.

Dinner was from Golden Bowl. Scamp had her usual Chicken Chop Suey with Fried Rice. I had a treat that I knew I’d suffer for later and had Sweet and Sour Pork Balls and Fried Rice. I did suffer for it, but it was worth it. Pure decadence.

I redrew the Highland Cow and it does look better than the original. I’m happy with it and Scamp laughed out loud when she saw it. That was enough of a stamp of approval for me.

We have no plans as yet for tomorrow and there have been no street parties in and around Cumbersheugh, I’m glad to say, so not many sore heads tomorrow morning. Well no more than usual!