Category: St Mo’s

A cold day – 30 November 2025

Posted on by Zogman

I don’t think the car turned a wheel today.

We were eating out of the freezer today. I found a couple of Lamb Neck Fillets in the freezer and a couple of sausages. Scamp dug deep and found some Trout fillets. Both needed defrosting, but the sausages were the important ones, because they would be needed first. Lunch for me was sausages, egg and half a Tattie Scone (potato scone for those of you who are not Scottish). Scamp had the other half of the tattie scone with an egg for her lunch. Sausage wasn’t the best I’ve had, but it filled a space. Meanwhile, Scamp was watching Laura Kuenssberg trampling roughshod over anyone who dared to cross verbal swords with her.

In the afternoon I went for a walk in St Mo’s and found some Common Haircap Moss (Polytrichum commune) deep in the woods. The seedpods look like little trumpets. That made PoD. By the time I was coming home just after 3pm it was getting dark, but I had at least one decent photo in the bag.

Dinner was the meat for me and the fish for Scamp then we made plans as we often do on a Sunday evening. Finding places we’d both like to visit either before Christmas or soon after. We have a list of possibles now. All we need is the weather to go with them.

We watched the second last F1 GP of the year and it was a disappointing affair. The sort of race that failed to bring any excitement to such a prestigious event.

Spoke to Jamie and Scamp gave him a fuller description of her problems with the new meds and Jamie for his part explained how these pills work. We all agreed that she had made the right decision. Jamie also complained about the cost of absolutely everything in London. I well remember thinking I might need an extra mortgage to pay for a pint of beer and a glass of red wine in London.

Tomorrow, Scamp is meeting a friend for lunch. I’ve got some tidying to do on the computer. End of the month stuff.

A disturbed night for Scamp – 27 November 2025

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When Scamp woke this morning she told me about the wild night she had last night. It seemed to be caused by strange dreams, presumably brought on by the new meds the consultant gave her. Once she woke completely, she was fine, but it was a strange morning. But all was not lost, because I managed to sell some of the meds outside the ‘Masonic’ in Condorrat Main Street for a few quid each and we have just less than a hundred of the little pills! Just joking!!
Scamp phoned the consultant’s office to be told that she was on holiday this week, but the secretary she spoke to said she would pass the message on when the consultant returned next week.

We were up fairly early in the morning with quite a few things needing done:

  1. Drove to Boots for more (normal) meds.
  2. Tesco for milk, and wrapping paper I can’t divulge why we needed wrapping paper.
  3. Drove over to the Town Centre and wandered down the ramps that took us down into the bowels of what used to be Phase 4. It’s now just Argos and not much more. We were buying a replacement one-cup water boiler. The one we have has now developed Alzheimer’s, poor thing and can’t remember if it’s switched the hot water off or not and fills a second cup just in case.
  4. Drove from the Town Centre to M&S for lunch stuff and jam doughnuts for me.
  5. Finally we drove home and decanted all the stuff we’d bought.

After lunch I walked over to St Mo’s. It was dark and gloomy there by 3pm. It was wet and windy. Strong winds and heavy showers. A typical dreich Scottish day. I came home with a view across St Mo’s pond that ended up heavily processed, but reasonable looking PoD.

The final annoyance was discovering that the Virgin Media box wasn’t working. It’s not the modem it’s definitely the box. I’ve spent the last couple of hours ‘talking’ to the bots that are rapidly becoming the worst invention this century. You can’t even swear at them!

Tomorrow Scamp is intending meeting Isobel for coffee and a blether. I’m hoping to get this Virgin debacle sorted out and then make some soup.

Out of sorts – 24 November 2025

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It was Scamp who was a bit out of sorts today.

She phoned the doc’s and after a bit of a wait, got a prescription which I went to collect for her. That seems to have put her mind at rest for a while. Scamp is rarely ill, I’m usually the one with the aches and pains in this house.

We spoke to Hazy in the morning and she and I discussed a problem I was having with Spotify. It’s still not entirely fixed, but since  I hardly use Spotify on the iMac, I’m not all that bothered. Hazy and I discussed books and for once I got to recommend a book to her! Most of the talk was between the ladies, but we heard about a visit to India by the extended family.

After lunch I read a bit more from The Fathers and as the light was beginning to fade, I took the A7c out for a walk in St Mo’s. There wasn’t much doing today, although while I was walking in the woods, I spooked a Woodcock in the trees. Unusual because it’s largely a wading bird. Maybe I mixed up my species.

PoD went to a few Yellow Rattle seedheads that survived the high winds from a month or so ago and the ice from a couple of days ago. The dried, seed heads of the yellow-rattle plant (Rhinanthus minor).
When the seeds are dry and mature, they rattle inside the inflated, papery calyx, which gives the plant its common name. By feeding off the coarse grasses, it eventually allows more delicate, traditional species to push their way through.

I was glad to get back to the house after my walk, because my feet were cold and I do believe they were a wee bit wet too. A cup of coffee warmed me up and then it was time to start the dinner. Pasta with tomatoes, some thinly sliced bacon and a couple of frozen spinach cubes. It seemed to go down well with a miniature ice cream lolly to finish it off.

The forecast is for warmer, wetter weather for the next few days. It’s a pity we can’t split it and only use the warmer part. Then we could store up the wet weather for when we need it for the gardens.

I don’t believe we have anything planned for tomorrow.

A dull, wet day – 23 November 2025

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The weather started out wet and just continued in that vein for most of the day.

We didn’t do all that much. The weather wasn’t going to improve and Scamp wasn’t feeling well ( I blame it on yesterday’s Samba lesson ), so we stayed in and read for most of the morning. Scamp had a spot of lunch, but I didn’t even bother with that, which is strange for a Sunday.

In the afternoon I took a camera out for a walk in St Mo’s. It actually stayed dry for most of the time I was out, but on my way home from one circuit of the pond, the rain did come on, but it was a half hearted attempt at a shower. PoD was the remains of a cow parsley plant, now almost bare with only a few seeds and a wet leaf to break the monotony. Yesterday’s Buckfast bottles had disappeared from the ice, as had the M&S trolley.

Dinner tonight was a roast chicken which definitely lifted my spirits a bit. We watched a cobbled together episode of Strictly, but there was nothing there worth watching

In what might have been an attempt at forcing some interest from the Las Vegas F1 GP, both McLarens were disqualified because of car structure infringements. It just sounded fishy, the two front runners for the championship, both getting disqualified. Maybe I’m just too suspicious, but was that an attempt at livening things up?

Spoke to Jamie in the evening and heard of banana trees being swathed in layers of wadding to protect them from the winter weather until spring.

No plans for tomorrow. Hope Scamp is be feeling better.

Dancin’ – 22 November 2025

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Heading to Paisley for a dance class at 9:45am.

We drove through the thick Cumbersheugh fog, heading to Brookfield, but before we reached Glasgow the sky had cleared and the sun shone from a bright, blue sky. Welcome to Scotland.

It was a fairly easy run to Brookfield. No dramas today and no great holdups. Everything just running to plan. We reached the dance class with time to spare.

First dance was my much hated House of Bamboo, written by a Bampot, I think. When we’d disposed of that piece of excrement, we went on to the Foxtrot we’d been learning for weeks and I struggled to get all the bits in the right places.

At this time of year, the Christmas Waltz is a standard. After Christmas it changes its name to the Spring Waltz, then later it becomes the Summer Waltz and so on. Today we were in Christmas Waltz territory.

Then we started a run through of the Mayfair Quickstep set to new words that were quite funny, but I think they would begin to grate after a few weeks.

The next offering was a Samba. I thought we’d seen the back of this ‘dance’ a year or so ago, but it had returned with some new steps in it. I just couldn’t get the hang of it. Kirsty tried to teach it a couple of years ago, but thankfully it was dropped from the curriculum before it caused an injury!

I was on the point of walking out when the tempo changed to a Cha-Cha and I could manage that.

Finally we did one track of the Queen of Hearts Rumba, and after that we were allowed to go home.

The roads towards town were very busy, probably to do with the Christmas rush that’s just beginning, but I tried one of the back roads I’d used in the past that took us under the Clyde and out through the town in a lot better time than any other route. I reckon we were just lucky.

I took my A7iii out for a walk in St Mo’s and PoD was a Buckfast bottle lying on the sheet ice that’s covered the pond for these last few days. Thankfully the ice is melting now, but it’s still a lot thicker than it looks.

No plans for tomorrow yet, but I’m sure something will fill the space.

Freezing – 19 November 2025

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Yesterday was wet. Today it was freezing with temperatures around -1ºc in the morning.

However, we were safely tucked up in bed by then. When I did eventually get up to make the breakfast for us, the temperature had risen to -0.4ºc. Positively tropical. Not tropical for us to get out of bed, though. When I took a proper look out the back bedroom, there was a covering of snow on the Meikle Bin and also a scraping of snow on the Campsie Fells too, but the sky was blue with just a few clouds.

We didn’t venture far in the morning, although I did take out a pair of secateurs and gave the Alec’s Red rose a gentle trim, just to remove the old flower buds. That will probably be the last cut for this year.

I went for a walk in the afternoon, well wrapped up, of course. Alex is still holding on to my Sony A7iii and the 25-105mm lens, so just for a laugh I took the A7c and a very old 28-70mm kit lens I got with the Sony A7ii a long number of years ago. I must have a look through the records to see just how old it would be. At the time I thought it was the bees knees, but now I see all its faults beginning to show. It’s not the best lens in the world, but it is better than nothing at all. PoD was a photo of a dozen Canada Geese walking from their feeding ground in St Mo’s park to the relative safety of St Mo’s pond where fewer predators threaten them. I’m guessing they were overwintering from their summer habitat in Alaska to our milder winters in the uk.

By the time I was walking home, my ears was getting chilled, but by adjusting my trusty St Andrews ‘Buff’ I kept them from getting frostbite.

While I was out, Scamp was making a rhubarb pie with some of the rhubarb Jamie’s had brought up with then the last time they were up in Scotland for a wedding. The rhubarb was really quite sharp and although it had some stem ginger in its mix, I felt it could have done with some more sugar. Pastry was up to Scamp’s usual excellence. Home made fish ’n’ chips for dinner, followed by rhubarb pie with home grown rhubarb. Excellent.

We watched another episode of Shetland and the plot thickens even more. Can’t wait for the next instalment.

Hoping to get to Glenburn tomorrow for a Tea Dance. However, it depends on the weather. Ice and snow forecast. Temperature just now at 11.15pm is – 0.9ºc.

Another bright, but cold day – 16 November 2025

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The temperature when we woke this morning was 0.4ºc. At least it was still positive!

We both struggled with Wordle, but survived to tell the tale. Other puzzles were not as successful. It must have been the cold temperature that was doing it.

We didn’t actually do much and we certainly didn’t go far. The temperature did rise a bit in the afternoon, but not enough to entice us out, there was even some ice in the bird bath in the back garden. First time this season.

In the afternoon I managed a walk around St Mo’s to get some photos. The cloudscape was very nice, but by 4pm the sun was heading towards the horizon and the colours were changing. My favourite photo was another of the reflection shots I’ve become attached to. This time it was taken with the Sony 10-18mm lens. It’s really an APS-C lens, but it works magnificently on the full frame camera. It became PoD and was a shot looking across the flooded pond to a beautiful skyscape.

One circuit of St Mo’s pond was sufficient for me today, not because it was cold, although it still was, but because I was cooking a stubby short rib for my dinner. Scamp was having salmon. Her’s was cooked in about ten minutes while mine took three hours. Both were deemed lovely, but my short rib was a bit tough. It might have been left in the freezer just too long. I must go back to Muirhead to get another one, soon, and not keep it so long in the freezer this time.

We spoke to Jamie and heard about his plans for the next couple of months. It must be great to be going to warm places while we shiver, even if it’s not for the happiest or reasons. We also heard that he has a leak in roof somewhere. It’s in a place that wasn’t updated in his previous work. Thankfully he says it doesn’t look too serious.

Scamp and Shona are booked for on a one-day trip up north tomorrow. I hope the weather is kind to them. I might be taking some stuff to the skips.

Today was to be a lazy day – 15 November 2025

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We accomplished that task.

We’d half agreed that today would be a relaxing day after the comings and goings of yesterday. I thought we might go out for a while in the afternoon, but it just sort of drifted away. It was good to look out at the blue sky and the fluffy clouds, but the cold temperature didn’t encourage us to go out and experience it, so we stayed home and watched from the safety of the house. No point in going out into the cold and ending up with frostbite. Granted there was very little chance of catching frostbite, but was it worth the risk?

In the end we stayed at home. The cases had to be put up into the loft until it was time to take them down for our proposed visit to Calpe next year. Yesterday, Scamp had done a fair bit of tidying up and today was my turn. Shoes had to be put away and old trainers had to be disposed of. Two large boxes were taking up space in the small bedroom and they needed to be taken to the council dump. I shelved that idea until I knew exactly how many boxes were going. Anything to put off the decision. It looks as if I will need to do some work on the boxes in the coming days, but not today. Instead, I went for a walk in St Mo’s.

Two days of constant rain had flooded the pond up to but not quite over the path, but careful stepping was needed to avoid wet feet.  It’s been a long time since the pond has flooded.

It was indeed cold, only about 7ºc with a gentle breeze. I walked round the park and got a few photos. One that I liked was a low view through the reed and rushes and it became PoD. I walked down past the back of St Mo’s school to see if the flag irises that grow there were producing seeds, but I’m sure now that none will be fruiting this year. Maybe they are biennials and only produce seeds every second year. Either that or the strong winds we had earlier in the year damaged the plants. Whatever the cause, there were no seed pods to be seen. I walked back to the house and realised just how cold it was outside. You sometimes don’t realise until you are in a warm place.

Watched Strictly in the evening and weren’t all that impressed with the efforts of the dancers. Too many tears from the professionals and the competitors.

Tomorrow if the weather warms up in time, we may go for a walk somewhere interesting.

 

Walking in the woods – 9 November 2025

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The day started with heavy rain showers, then the sun shone.

I didn’t believe the weather forecast, but after lunch the sun shone.
I didn’t think it would last, but it did. That’s me. Always the glass half empty.

I laced up my boots and went for a walk, deep into the woods. I hadn’t been in the deep woods for ages, but with the leaves falling continuously these days, there was more light than normal through the trees. I walked for a while, longer than I’d anticipated and by the time I was thinking it would be a good idea to head for home, the good light was gone. Then I found today’s PoD. I’ve no idea what variety of fungi this one belongs to, but I liked the shape and colour so I snapped a few shots of it. If I get a chance in the next few days I’ll go back in and try for some better shots.

I also found a dead drone in the middle of the woods. I meant to photograph its details. Such a simple thing to do with a phone. If I get back to photograph the fungi, hopefully I’ll find the drone at the same time.

Other than that, it was a fairly usual Sunday. Late to rise and wasted most of the day. I really need to get up and out earlier. People post such wonderful photos taken out walking the dog in the morning, or just after sunset. Mayne I should get a dog! (Only kidding, Scamp!)

Spoke to Jamie in the evening and heard about his and Simonne’s week. It seemed like their week had been much like ours, with nothing much to report.

I bought a new pair of boots a month or so ago and haven’t worn them yet.  Yesterday’s walk gave me reason to question if one of my old  boots is leaking. Today’s walk confirmed it. It looks like I’m going to need to get the new boots out of their box and break them in gently.

So far, we have an unbooked day tomorrow. We may go out somewhere.

Dancin’ – 8 November 2025

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We were dancing again at Brookfield.

Thankfully the heating was on today. Not to warm us up, though, it was to heat up the discussion room for the bowlers who were having their AGM or some other get together. We just benefitted from their excess heat.

First dance was the inevitable House of Bamboo. Thankfully we only did one round of it. Personally I don’t see the fascination of this old song, originally by Andy Williams in 1958. Heavens! that was almost as old as me! With that put back in its box for another couple of weeks, our first ‘real’ dance was The Christmas Waltz, also know by its other names, The Spring Waltz, The Summer Waltz, etc. It took a while, but it did eventually work its way into my little grey cells, and by about an hour it was almost there. It is actually quite a comfortable dance.

Next was a couple of sequence dances to give us a break from Christmas dances before we plunged into the Foxtrot we’ve been learning for a while. We were completing it today, by adding the final section. It, too, is starting to gel in my head. Mainly because we really like the foxtrot and feel comfortable dancing it.

A couple of sequence dances finished off today’s class and we were allowed to leave. No dance class next Saturday, because the autumn class is in The Salutation in Perth and we’re not going. Too much other stuff going on.

Back home and after solving the puzzles, I chose to go for a walk in St Mo’s. The light was quite good, but nothing exceptional. However, I did get a PoD which is a Crane Fly hanging on to a reed in the wilderness area behind St Mo’s school. Some work was done on it and I’m happy with the result.

Chicken Cacciatore for dinner tonight then we watched Strictly which is becoming a bore. Some of the dances and dancers are quite good, but most are professional dancers. As the days drag on the real professionals will become installed as the ones to beat and the remainder, the amateurs will fall by the wayside. It’s becoming very formulaic.

No plans for tomorrow.