Category: insects

Quandry – 19 April 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Quandary: “a state of not being able to decide what to do about a situation in which you are involved”

We were in a quandary today. Should we go out for lunch or go for a walk. Eventually we came up with the elegant solution to do both, but not at the same time. But first Scamp went out to her Fitsteps class and I set about excising some useless parts of my 512GB SSD. It wasn’t a surgical gloves and a scalpel type of excision, just a heart in the mouth, digital one.

One of the nice things about third party software is that it allows you to search the hidden parts of a Mac that Apple don’t like you poking your nose into. The software I was using was Daisy Disk. A clever little program that shows you where all your junk is stored in your computer. It was only recently I discovered that you can search deeper in to the all the Ones and Zeros that hold Apple’s secrets. To do that you have to make a request to Apple, through Daisy Disk. Then you are given a code that will open up restricted areas on the drive. This isn’t the Dark Web, just a little bit of poking around where we shouldn’t be. The problem was that my 512GB SSD was almost full, because it had 150GB of Apple backups stuffed away in a corner, but with a bit of careful digging around, I could get rid of it and free up an additional 30% of space. That space was being used to produce a backup of the operating system that I didn’t know about until recently and didn’t need, as I do my own backups ever week. Apple, like Mickysoft are devious.

When Scamp came home, I had performed the surgery and the drive was looking healthy again. I’d suggested we go to Hamilton for a curry, but neither of us could be bothered driving there, so instead, at Scamp’s suggestion we went to Mango in Haggs. It’s an Indian and Italian restaurant where you can mix and match your starters and main courses between the two culinary areas. As it was, we both stuck to Indian today:

Vegetable Pakora and Vegetable Boona with Rice for Scamp
Chicken Pakora and Chicken Rogan Josh with Rice for me.
We had a plain Naan to share.

Most of the food was fine, but Scamp reckoned that her pakora was made with plain flour, not Garam Flour. And we both agreed that the naan bread tasted more like a flatbread. Foodies!

Instead of driving home, we took a wee single track road that led us down to the Forth & Clyde canal. Where we walked west towards Auchinstarry, but turned when we were at the first lock on the canal and walked back to the car. Lots to see today. A big bunch of yellow Celandine growing in the crotch of a tree and more on the ground. Some white Wood Anemone close by. I also saw and photographed a Dark-Edged Bee-Fly which I’ve never seen before in Scotland. Another sign of Global Warming perhaps? None of these got PoD. That went to a bunch of dandelions growing from the cobbles at the canal lock.

We drove home on a beautiful spring day with sunshine and blue skies, but with a cold wind from the east. I just knew that Scamp would be desperate to get back to get her grass cut. The first cut of the year. My job was to lift the heavy plant pots out of the way so she could strim behind them and then to replace the strimmer cord when it broke, before replacing the pots again.

Not a bad day. I really enjoyed the walk, but I think I’d go back to Hamilton rather than Mango next time, if only for the naan bread!

Tomorrow we may take the bus somewhere interesting.

 

Old friends – 14 January 2024

Posted on by Zogman

It was a cold start to a colder day.

Ice and frost welcomed us to the start of another winter day. Nobody seemed to want to go out and that included us. However, after lunch I did put my boots on and walked over to St Mo’s. Not surprisingly there wasn’t much change from yesterday, so I went for a walk in the woods and that’s where I found two old friends. Two sixteen spot ladybirds, each neatly tucked into two different crevices in a tree. I’m sure they hatch in the late summer or early autumn and hibernate through the winter months. Always the same variety with orange wing casing and white spots. Totally different from the ‘normal’ ladybirds we usually see with red wing cases and black spots. Usually I find them in groups of two or three, huddled together, but todays ones were each in their own little hollow. Maybe they weren’t talking to each other.

Two trees away I found a green shield bug. That’s a rare occurrence in winter. As far as I can tell, they hibernate in grasses and leaf litter during winter months, but this one was half way up a tree.

I walked back after that, happy that I’d managed to get something other than trees and reflections in the pond for a potential PoD. Then I found when I opened the computer that my reflection photo from a couple of days ago had been awarded “Explore” which is the Flickr equivalent of ‘going viral’. Suddenly the whole Flickr world wants to ‘like’ your photo and some folk comment on your photo. It’s kind of embarrassing, because it’s usually a run of the mill photo that gets the accolade. I have no idea who chooses the photo to get the award and I have no idea what formula they use. I just accept it and say thank you!

Dinner tonight was a rather strange M&S packet of DIY Fajitas. We heated up the chicken and veg packet in the microwave then did the same to the packet of tortillas spread the tortillas with the supplied tomato salsa and sour cream then put a layer of the chicken and veg mix on top before rolling them up. The kit made four fajitas, two each and although a bit messy and awkward to eat, they tasted ok, a bit spicy, but nothing too hot. Would we try them again? Maybe not. Not really very substantial and messy to make, although that might be down to my lack of fajita making skill.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard about the problems commuting to work while fields on either side are temporary ponds and how they are having to contend with the cold winds from the east while their roof is being replaced. I don’t envy them.

PoD was the green shield bug. Two images merged in a program called Affinity Photo. It’s what photogs call a Focus Stack. Too complicated to describe here and too boring for non-photogs.

We had a flurry of snow in the late afternoon and if it returns tomorrow, that might change our plans for driving to Larky to get Scamp’s glasses fixed.

Oh what a beautiful morning – 11 October 2023

Posted on by Zogman

And the makings of a beautiful day.

Scamp was out in the morning to have coffee with June. While she was out I found a subject for today’s Inktober prompt – “Wander”. I started work on it right away, drawing on a Seagate A4 sketchbook. I usually draw ideas to begin with in a cheap sketchbook, but have been caught out many times by working up a good sketch in them, then when I put a watercolour wash on them the paper soaks up the water, buckles and the sketch becomes a disaster area. Now I’ve learned to draw on decent quality paper that will hold the watercolour without falling apart. Yes, the paper is more expensive, but it saves a lot of swearing!

Lunch, when Scamp came in was, soup. Quite delicious soup. Then with the sun still shining I walked over to St Mo’s and found myself surrounded by dragonflies. Yesterday’s unseasonably warm weather coupled with today’s sunshine must have released a hatch of the insects. Mainly they were Common Darters with a few Black Darters too. I grabbed a few shots with the 85mm lens which performed really well, even if it didn’t allow me to get as close as a macro lens would. I also found a big clump of mushrooms that had appeared overnight. Again I think it was the weather than had encouraged them to sprout. This time it was the combination of warm weather and lots of rain, two things fungi thrive on. The mushrooms got PoD.

Back home Scamp was talking to her sister in Skye on the phone, but I didn’t hear much of the conversation because I was trying to scan in today’s sketch and post process the photos from the afternoon. We were going out to Kirsty’s dance class tonight, so I knew I had to get everything done as early as possible.

A photo of a tree beside the Luggie got ‘Explore’ on Flickr. I was quite impressed. It was almost OOC (Out Of Camera, meaning it had minimal processing). Second one in about a month!

Dinner tonight was a rather excellent fish ’n’ chips with beetroot. Not the best beetroot, but the fish made up for it. A lovely slice of cod!

There were only two couples for class tonight, but it was very useful. Plenty of room for dancing and also lots of tips from Kirsty about the little dance nuances I frequently forget. Lessons learned. She even got the chance to give us a quick and very short Quickstep routine to work on. Next week it’s Tango. Must remember a rose to hold in my clenched teeth!

Came home and opened the fridge door and the internal light went off. Oh No! Has the fridge been listening to us discussing replacing it? However, it was just the bulb that had blown. We’ll have to go out and source one tomorrow.

No other plans tomorrow. We’ll see what transpires.

 

Lunch – 2 October 2023

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We were heading for Calders today to meet up with June & Ian and Crawford & Nancy for lunch.

It was a good day. I think everyone enjoyed it. Just a catch-up with some decent food. We’d been to Crawford and Nancy’s for dinner a fortnight ago, but June and Ian hadn’t met them for quite a while. Lots to talk about by everyone and lots of jokes and laughs. Like I said, a good day that everybody seemed to enjoy.

When we all broke up, Scamp and I went for a wander round the plants in the garden centre and she bought some violas and a cyclamen to fill up one of her now empty pots. Those pots don’t stay empty for long because Scamp usually has something in mind for them.

While she was doing that I filled a bucket of hot soapy water and gave the car the wash I’d been promising it for the last week and more. It really did need it and it looked so much better afterwards. That left me with just enough daylight time to get some photos in St Mo’s. “Spiders” was the topic for today in Inktober and that’s what I found all along the path round the pond. Spiders of every shape and size, from the size of a pin head to ones as long as my pinkie. However, they didn’t make PoD. That went to a wide angle shot of a bunch of wild geraniums growing in the wilderness area near the pond. The big blue flowers really brightened my walk.

Back home it was time to work on today’s sketch and it was a solitary spider that was my model from one of my own photos. I don’t think I’ve really done it justice, but it’s better than yesterday’s “Dream” in my opinion!

We had a quick practise of the Waltz Nioli and it worked quite well. Still a few rough edges to work on, but most of it is there now. Hopefully we’ll have another practise tomorrow.

We had a look in Which tonight hoping to get some hints on what to look for in a new fridge and a freezer, or maybe a fridge-freezer combined. Just a bit of preplanning since the freezer is not looking in good health just now. Prices are a lot higher than I expected, but I suppose everything is going up in price these days.

No real plans for tomorrow. The weather looks decent without being brilliant, but we’ll wait and see what we get.

The Black Dragon – 12 September 2023

Posted on by Zogman

After yesterday’s adventures in Glasgow, today was quite relaxed.

Quite relaxed, that is until the dishwasher started acting up again with the water problems we had last week. I phoned the dishwasher repair man and got a call back from his partner to say he could come out to have a look at the machine tomorrow morning. That was better than I’d expected and I quickly agreed.

Scamp and I signed an agreement with Andrew, the man from Falkirk and she went out to post it while I hoovered the living room. That took us up to lunch which was bread and cheese.

After lunch I restarted work on Inktober 2023. The prompts for which are now available online. Nothing greatly exciting this time, and some vague ones, but I’ll try to get by with some lateral thinking.

More washing was hung out to dry in a quite warm gentle breeze. The temperature when I was making breakfast in the morning was 10.1ºc, but the afternoon sun had lifted that a fair bit, but nowhere near last week’s heights.

I took the A7 out with the heavy 105mm macro lens to see if there were any interesting insects about. I did manage to capture a Black Darter dragonfly which was a bit skittish to begin with, but settled down on an old tree branch that had been stripped of its bark. That gave it the chance to heat up in the sun and thereby producing a source of heat for the dragonfly to soak up. One shot of the black darter became PoD. It’s an enlarged image, something that ON1 2023 does very well. I liked the way the insect’s distorted shadow draped over the old tree branch. I don’t know if you can see, but the forewing nearest the camera has a big chunk ripped out of it, possibly the result of a fight.

Another short practise to try to hammer the new Wednesday Waltz into my head.  The more of these short sessions the better.  Too much just seems to prevent it from sticking.

That was about it for a normal Tuesday. Now we’ll need to wait and see how much the dishwasher repair is going to cost us.

A morning at the races – 3 September 2023

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This morning we headed off to see the start of the annual 10K race just half a mile away from the house.

Unfortunately (1) when we got to the football stadium where the race was to set off from, we were just in time to see the runners, in the distance, leaving the stadium. I’d intended getting some sharp, slow shutter shots of the runners with the blurred out faces of the audience behind. Unfortunately (2), there was no audience. Not one person standing applauding as the runners sped past. Maybe because there was virtually no publicity and no map of the route. The best I could find was one of a Strava map from 2018. Now, I’m sure that if it was a Motherwell 10k we would have been overloaded with information and maps galore. There wasn’t even a countdown in the stadium. Maybe the bloke whose tannoy the council usually borrow couldn’t make it today. Disappointed and disillusion. It’s time Cumbersheugh shucked off NLC and became a notion in its own right. We stayed to watch the first men and the first women finishers running past.  I also say Scott Meenagh the double amputee who went to Cumby High run past.

We walked home and had badly made, scrambled egg and smoked salmon. I made it. After that, and after Laura Kuenssberg getting stuck into a Tory, we walked down to the shops to get the basic ingredients for tonight’s dinner which was to be Chicken and Orzo One Pot thing. It was also, almost a disaster. Should have been Skin on, Bone in chicken thighs and we got the Skinned and Boned variety. The orzo went claggy and although it was one pot, there was a lot of decanting and recanting (if that’s a word) of the various ingredients. The chicken was fine, as was everything else. We may try again, but use rice instead of orzo.

I’d gone out in the afternoon while Scamp was gardening. I was looking for something that would generate some photographic interest in me.

Spoke to Jamie tonight and learned that his and Simonne’s car insurance had gone up by as much as ours. That, in a strange was made me feel a bit better, but not a great deal.

I’d walked half way round the pond at St Mo’s when I sat down on an old wooden bench and found a Female Common Darter sitting beside me. It allowed me only three shots before it took off. Lots of male common darter about this year, but few females. Don’t know why. Later in my walk, I found a male darter on the boardalk. Always be wary when a dragonfly stands up, especially if it lifts its wings. It’s getting ready to flee, like the male common darter in today’s photo did. It was PoD.

Tomorrow I must write to Alex and find out where we’re going on Wednesday if he’s still free. Other than that, no plans.

 

 

Last Dance Class – 2 September 2023

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… for two weeks!

Drove to Brookfield for the last dance class for two weeks, well, the last Ballroom Basics dance class because the teachers are off on holiday. However, Scamp has managed to inveigle us into another dance class in Cumbersheugh to make up our dancing time. It won’t be the same dances and Kirsty’s style will be slightly different, but the language will be the same and a change is as good as a rest. Best of all, it’s just up the road, literally. No miles and miles of roadworks to navigate through!

But today we did have to navigate the 50mph then the 40mph and back to the 50mph and then back to the 40mph before we were suddenly allowed to do a heady 70mph then 60 mph then back to 70mph again all on the same stretch of motorway. It’s confusing.

Dancing today began with Tina Tango danced to Shivers and then a never-ending extended version of Sweet Dreams (are made of this) by Eurythmics (10:23 mins), thankfully cut short by Stewart. After that we went straight into the new Cha-Cha with the Cross Basic which I think I have now conquered. I even managed to get the ‘drunken sailor’ right a few times! A couple of Blue Angel Rumbas finished off the first set.

Feeling quite pleased with myself I expected the next set would be Joy’s Waltz, which we had both practised and were happy with. But surprise, surprise, it wasn’t. It was the Quickstep which we hadn’t practised. However, after bit of one to one with Stewart, and encouragement from Scamp, it fell into place. Another section of this difficult dance done. Just to make sure we were all exhausted, we finished with one track of the Midnight Jive which is non-stop kicks, spins and cross steps.
It felt great to walk out into the sunshine after all those mind bending dances. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to practise them on Thursday at the tea dance.

Back home I re-read an email from Churchill insurance to make sure they really wanted THAT MUCH! for a year’s car insurance. No way was I paying that. That was before I logged in to Money Supermarket and found out that Churchill’s was actually a sort of middle ground insurance estimate. Scamp checked Saga and Esure just to be sure and they were coming up with close to the same numbers. Maybe Churchill aren’t so far away from the mark after all.

Scamp was desperate to get the grass cut, both front and back and I thought I might go out and take some photos later in the afternoon. So that’s what we did.The grass does look a lot better cut short and I did manage to get one photo I was pleased with, so we both achieved our stated goal. I phoned Scamp from St Mo’s to ask what she wanted for dinner. Fish ’n’ Chips from the chip shop in Condorrat was the answer. That suited me too, so I set off for that place. The phone call was also a test for the new connection. EE is now gone and has been replaced by Tesco Mobile. Double the data for less than I was paying for EE, plus the price is frozen for the 24 months of the contract. Best of all, the phone works better with the O2 masts that Tesco use than with EE’s. At least for now, anyway.

PoD was a male Common Darter dragonfly sitting on the boardwalk of St Mo’s. Lovely warm light from the late afternoon sun.

Tomorrow I think we’ll go out somewhere for a walk.

 

Not going far – 29 August 2023

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I had enough exercise yesterday. I didn’t want any more today.

Scamp was out early to get her nails ‘done’ again, then she was meeting Shona for coffee. I was asked if I wanted to join them, but I decided they would get on better without me!

Instead I stayed home and read for a while and looked through the photos that had arrived in Flickr overnight. The window cleaner arrived and I spent a wee while blethering to him. Basically, I did nothing, or as close to nothing as I felt I could get away with.

After Scamp arrived home with her new lilac nails we had lunch and then I went for a walk in St Mo’s. It was one of those days with gusty winds blowing the rain clouds around, creating what the weather fairies delight in calling ‘scattered showers’. PoD went to a rather demonic looking photo of what looks like a pair of horns behind a bush. It’s actually a macro of an earwig’s rear end! There are over 1000 species of earwigs in the world and only 4 are native to the UK.

The competitor for PoD was a shot of a Peacock butterfly with its wings locked together to keep a sudden rain shower out of their delicate upper surface. As soon as the rain stopped the wings folded out and it sat there taking in the warmth from the sun that had appeared after the cloud cleared.

Dinner tonight was an experiment. Pasta Carbonara with mushrooms, shallots and finely sliced bacon. It seemed to go down well and will be worth trying another time.

A short dance practise in the evening  just to make sure the Joy’s Waltz and the new short(ish) cha-cha are firmly in my head.

Tomorrow is an early rise. Scamp and the rest of the witches are off to Pitlochry on the bus for the day. I’m driving them to the Town Centre to catch the bus which leaves at 8.45am! I hope they have a great day. No singing on the bus, though!

Brambling on a Dewdrop – 28 August 2023

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I dusted off the Kona Dewdrop today and took it out for a spin.

I’d forgotten just how steep some of the hills are around here. Probably they aren’t so steep, but they felt it today. It’s been almost a year since I’ve had the Dewdrop out and it shows. I really need to get more exercise. Simply walking isn’t enough. Cycling not only works on the legs, but also on the arms, as I found out today. I think it’s coming to crunch time. If I’m going to keep the bike, it’s got to be something more than an ornament in the spare room.

A bit of light shopping in the morning put some more money into Tesco’s coffers and also put some veg and stuff into the fridge. Pizza for lunch and then it was time to decide if I was going to use the bike to get me down to the path where the big fat brambles (Blackberries to some, but always Brambles north of the border) are to be found. There’s no real place to park a car there, but a bike can go almost anywhere and doesn’t seem to mind if you leave it in a hedge row for an hour. The first thing I noticed was that my balance needs some work. It’s easy when you’re going fast, but when you’re travelling slowly the gyroscope effect of the rotating wheels isn’t there and that’s when the wobbles set in.

The first place I looked had only a few big fat berries. I took some anyway, but made sure the ones I picked were far enough away from the fairly busy road, so had less change of being contaminated with exhaust fumes. The main path I was looking for was much further away from the road and it was there I was fairly sure I’d find some decent fruit, which I did, but not as many as there were last year. After an hour or so’s picking I had collected enough to have made it worth my while.

While I was out I spotted a fly on a reed stem and after a few misses, managed one good clean shot of it. When I checked the magnified view on the screen I thought it was a Robber Fly. Quite a nasty piece of work. After checking when I got home, Google agreed with me.

The road home was fairly easy, downhill and with a tail wind for most of the way. The cyclist’s delight. That’s when I felt the ache in my arms. Maybe the seat is too high or the bars need to be raised, but I don’t remember changing anything since last year. Maybe I just need more practise.

For dinner we had arancini made with the leftover risotto from last night’s dinner. Little balls of risotto dunked in to flour, then egg, then coated in breadcrumbs. It’s one of those occasions when you really need three hands and preferably four! Scamp did the forming of the balls and the dusting with flour while I took over from there coating the balls in egg wash and then coating them in breadcrumbs. They were left for a while before being deep fried in oil, then left in the warm oven to let the heat percolate right through. They were absolutely delicious, eaten with tomato sauce.

Spoke to Jamie and were shocked at the cost of getting their roof repaired. I think he knew it was going to be expensive, but was hoping for a little less. We’ll probably take the pair of them out to lunch when they come up to visit in the autumn.

Scamp is out with Shona tomorrow after she (Scamp) gets her nails done. I’m hoping to have a more relaxing day than today. Oh yes, and 670g of brambles are now in the freezer!

 

Dancin’ Saturday – 26 August 2023

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Driving through the roadworks. Roadworks that will last until the end of September!

We drove over to Brookfield for a reasonably successful dance class, and ignoring the roadworks, it was a pleasant enough drive. Two new members, two girls. One just likes to dance and the other one wore a Fit Steps tee shirt and thought she could do it all. Oh dear, wrong thing to say.

While Jane and Stewart took them aside and explained what we were doing in class, we practised our Joy’s Waltz. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a great improvement on last week. We did actually manage once through the entire routine without a mistake, well, almost without a mistake. Then it went to pieces again as it often, but not always, does! I am improving and when I get things like the Outside Spin right, I can feel that I’m getting it right.

A couple of easy sequence dances to ease the new starts in to this strange old fashioned way of dancing, where everyone does the same moves at the same time. After that we hurtled in to the new Cha-Cha with the terrifying Cross Basic. I don’t know if it is really basic, but it certainly has the ability to make us both cross. For once, Stewart agreed with me about who was moving clockwise and who wasn’t. I’m glad someone agrees with me sometimes. By the end of that part of the lesson, things were making much more sense.

Another sequence dance and then a chance to practise the Quickstep. If there is a great stumbling block in our dances it’s the Quickstep. It really is well named. The steps come at you so quickly it’s almost impossible sometimes to stop and find out where you are in the routine.

All things considered, it was a worthwhile class where we learned a few things and got a chance to practise lots more things in a big dance hall.

We took the M8 – M74 – M73 – M80 route home and stopped at Tesco on the way to pick up lunch. We’d already decided tonight’s dinner was coming from Golden Bowl.

Rain showers all afternoon, but I braved them to take a walk in St Mo’s where PoD was a ladybird hiding under a knapweed flower.

Watched the qualifying for the Dutch GP. Interesting but not as enthralling as the World Athletics Championships, especially the pole vault where the Swedish vaulter Mondo Duplantis cleared an incredible 6.1m.

Tomorrow Scamp is heading to Glasgow for a perfume making class. Thankfully I wasn’t invited!