Category: St Mo’s

It rained – 1 October 2025

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Nearly all day!

I think it’s still raining. Maybe it will tire itself out soon, but after listening to the weather forecast after dinner, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. We’ll just have to wait and see. High winds forecast for the weekend.

Scamp was out in the morning getting her nails done – professionally. I sometimes do a bit of nail painting for her, but I can’t claim to be as neat and tidy as those who do this sort of thing for a living.

I kept myself busy clearing up the back bedroom and finding places to put all the stuff. After lunch I began collecting things that I’d need in the coming weeks, finding things that I really didn’t need and remembering things that I should have added to my list weeks ago. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow or the next day, or the …

I managed to do a backup of the September photos using Microsoft NTFS for Tuxera. A bit slower than the more expensive versions, but the fast iMac balances it out. As I’ve probably mentioned before, Apple software can read an NTFS formatted disk/SD card, but can’t save to that same format. With NTFS for Tuxera it can. Fiddly to start with, but after a bit of tweaking it worked.

Late in the afternoon I grew tired of organisation and went for a walk in St Mo’s. I took the A7c and a 16-35mm f4 lens. I tried and failed to get those low down to the ground shots that the folk on Facebook seem to be able to create. I think I just need some practise. What I did get was a decent shot of a snail sheltering under the seed head of a cow parsley plant. That became my PoD.

Dinner was potato, cabbage and egg for Scamp and if you substitute bacon for the egg you get what I had.

Tomorrow I believe we may be going to a Tea Dance.

Another lazy Sunday – 28 September 2025

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We didn’t do very much today. More tidying up than anything else.

Over lunch, (always a late lunch on a Sunday) we watched Keir Starmer squirm under Laura Kuenssberg’s gaze with his usual rabbit in the headlights look and James Cleverly talk for half an hour or so without actually saying anything. And these are our leaders or would-be leaders? Oh yes, and Greta Thunberg. Thankfully we couldn’t hear her due to sound problems … or something.

I did some reorganisation in my room, hoping to find something useful there. Eventually discovered the sheet of paper I was looking for and taped it to the bedroom door.

Later in the afternoon I went for a walk in St Mo’s. There wasn’t much to write home about, so I won’t, except, as I was heading home a tree cast some beautiful shadows towards me across the grass. That became PoD.

While I was off galavanting with my camera, Scamp was busy making dinner in the house. Beef olives with potatoes for me and a lentil stew for Scamp. However the star of the dinner was an Eve’s Pudding Scamp made with our own apples. Absolutely delicious.

Spoke to Jamie in the evening and heard more about their Welsh adventures. Out walking every day after worrying that the rain that came on day 1 would last all week. No need to worry the landscape photos they sent were lovely.

Tomorrow we may go in to Glasgow for some shopping.

Out with the dragons – 25 September 2025

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Scamp was hoping to meet an old friend today. She also wanted to get a present for a newborn baby. I wanted to get my hair cut. I had to collect some meds. If there was time left I wanted to go for a walk in the warm sunshine. Those were our tasks for today.

Scamp was first to go out in the morning. She found almost exactly what she set out to get and was back with enough time to wrap up the parcel and have a coffee before going out again.

This time I was driving and I dropped her off at Calders Garden Centre, then drove up to the town centre to park. Walked over to an almost empty barbers an was back out again, a tenner lighter and with shorter and tidier hairs. We were doing well so far.

Next up was Boots for the meds and Tesco for the shopping. Since both shops are next to one another and I had a written shopping list, it was an easy trip.

Back home for lunch and to put the messages away and another hour and a half was gone, before Scamp phoned to say she was ready to come home. I drove back to Calders and picked her up and surprisingly she didn’t have a flower pot or new flowers to plant!

That was our driving done for the day. I did manage a walk with a camera in the late afternoon and PoD came from that. I think it’s a male Common Darter. It’s sitting on an old fence post soaking up some of the afternoon sun. There were actually a few dragons on the wing today. Probably due to that warm sun.

I made dinner which was an M&S stir fry. Once it was finished, I started making the pannacotta for tomorrow’s dessert. Same pannacotta I’d made for our visitors earlier in the month. It’s in the fridge chilling now. Tomorrow is going to be busy with John & Marion hopefully arriving around 1pm for lunch. Lots of stuff to do, lots of hoovering and lots of prep for dinner. It will be fine … hopefully!

Sunshine Sunday – 21 September 2025

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A lovely morning with lovely sunshine pouring in the window while we had our usual fried breakfast (that’s really lunch) while we watched Laura Kuenssberg tearing strips of another political hopeful. She really is my hero. “Feart fae Nuthin’” as we say in Scotland.

Once that was past we settled down to read a book, play Angry Birds, read the BBC’s version of the news and avoid doing anything like work. With that said, Scamp and I did dig up our last potato bag which provided us with a lot more ‘tatties’ than we’d anticipated. Strangely, some of the strange blue skinned potatoes had some wee potatoes dangling from them. Possibly something to do with the hot weather and drought in late spring and early summer and the weeks long rain that followed as summer turned into autumn. Poor wee potatoes didn’t know what was happening and neither did we. Anyway, the larger ones were collected and became part of our Sunday dinner.

Scamp wasn’t at her best today. She’s had a sore throat for the past few days and now has a really painful sounding cough too. Hopefully, a couple of days of not doing much will get her back on her feet again. She made an apple pie for out dinner dessert, then complained bitterly that it wasn’t very good. I begged to differ, but was shot down in flames. I still say the sharp apples in the pie were perfect. Hopefully she won’t read this.

Later in the afternoon I went for a short walk around St Mo’s with two different lenses on the camera. Neither was completely successful, but they produced some pretty Bokeh, so I should be pleased. PoD went to a tree with multicoloured leaves. I have no idea what tree it was, but I think that autumn is coming in fast.

We watched a strange Azerbaijan GP. Not as bad as yesterday’s practice with cars crashing all around the circuit. This time it was stars who were making a mess of things. What is wrong with the teams this year?

No dance tomorrow. Apparently Kirsty is working at home all week.

Dancin’ – 20 September 2025

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A much smaller class than we are used to.

Only three couples plus one solo dancer without a partner. She danced with Stewart.

I was a bit apprehensive about today. I’d heard all sorts of warnings about half-hour waits and queues of traffic due to extensive roadwork on the M8. As usual they were magnified out of all proportion. Yes there were roadworks, but only for a few miles. Nothing we hadn’t seen before.
Yes, there were road restrictions, but nobody had to wait in a queue. Just the powers that be trying to terrify us.

As a result of the poor attendance, the lesson was reduced from 90 minutes to 60 minutes. The class started with Tina Tango to Ed Sheeran’s ‘Shivers’. Then we went in to a quickstep, the Cameron Quickstep which we’d learned months, if not, years ago. With the help of Scamp and Muscle Memory, I managed to get round the hall fairly easily, if not elegantly. I do hope they repeat the lesson next week, because, with a bit more help from Scamp I’m sure I could master this one.

Stewart asked for suggestions of sequence dances that we’d like to go over in the second half hour. Queen of Hearts rumba was favourite for a reprise and after that the New Vogue Waltz finished of the main lessons. However, Stewart wanted to finish with House of Bamboo which I stumble through, but am beginning to remember bits of, just not in the correct order.

With that we were free to go. Again I expected more carnage on the drive home, but it was actually quite clear with everyone behaving themselves. I wish all the dance classes were as enjoyable as today’s.

Back home I should have been going out for a walk, but instead I got stuck in the puzzles again. They are quite addictive. Later in the afternoon I did manage a walk round St Mo’s and today’s PoD came from that walk. Just a bunch of Hawthorn berries hanging from a branch after a rain shower. I really must get out of the rut and walk further afield in these shortening days. Maybe tomorrow.

Dinner tonight was Fish & Chips x 2. Nice and easy and nobody needs to cook.

Tomorrow, maybe that walk.

A dull day – 19 September 2025

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Not the best day this month. Cloudy and dull.

Scamp was out in the morning to FitSteps. I stayed home and read for a while, then when Scamp returned we solved the usual puzzles. Sometimes the prompts cause more consternation than good. Maybe it’s because they are generally aimed at puzzlers are aimed at Trumpland.

Scamp suggested we have Bacon & Borlotti Beans, a recipe we got from Jamie and Simonne and always a great fallback if you can’t think of what to have for dinner. We needed a courgette to go with the beans, and as I hadn’t wandered past the door today, I volunteered to go and source some, along with cheese which we didn’t need for the meal, but we DID need for tomorrow’s lunch. When I walked out, there was a fairly large bank of cloud that I guessed was full of water, so I increased my speed a bit.

I was testing a new combo on the new toy. I was using a fairly old and hardly used Sony 16-35mm f4 lens. Like I said, quite old and with a ‘slow’ aperture. It performed really well with the A7c, so I’ll try to give it a bit more of a challenge in the next few days.

I wanted a photo of the wild geraniums that grow along the path at St Mo’s and got a few photos with those threatening clouds as the backdrop. That got PoD. Spoke to Susan Greenshields in passing, she was complaining as usual, but other than that, she didn’t say much, obviously not in the best mood today.

I walked over the back road to the Shops and found the groceries Scamp wanted. Before I left the house I’d chopped down some of the kale from what’s left of the raised bed because Scamp needed it for the dinner. I also planted some Red Kale in a pot in the garden. Hopefully it will grow well in some fresh compost and give us more kale to use in the kitchen.

I actually remembered what Scamp wanted from the shops, which is a miracle, especially because I’ve got so many things on my mind this weather.

Basically that was it for the day. Scamp made the dinner and it was really good. The kale was a lot fresher than it looked and it added that extra crunch to the meal.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to go to Brookfield for a dance class, but as there have been warnings for weeks that work is being done on the M8 and it’s likely to continue until May at least, I’m not looking forward to the drive.

Dancin’ – 18 September 2025

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Out to Glenburn for a Tea Dance, the first in ages.

I struggled with the Sony A7c’s internal workings, attempting to make sense of the new system for allocating the twelve items I use most often. I finally got what I wanted and it does work quite logically so I’ll stick to it for a while until I’ve filled in all twelve boxes. That and the inevitable Wordle took up most of my morning. I think it took up almost all of Scamp’s time too. After a quick shower it was time to get ready for today’s dance, and I was looking forward to it for a change.

A fairly busy drive over to Glenburn and we were almost late comers. Thankfully there were a few stragglers arriving later than us, so we didn’t get a telling off or even worse Stewart’s well worn comment “You can’t just Waltz in here at any time, you know.” It really should have a “Boom Boom!” at the end.

The afternoon started with a waltz, as usual. Also, as usual, I made a bit of a mess of the first track. However, by the time we’d completed the second track, Waltz Nioli was again firmly in my repertoire. The next track was a Cha-Cha I think. It’s hard to keep a record of what we did in what order, but if it wasn’t the Cha-Cha, it was a Quickstep. All the right dances, but not necessarily in the correct order. Again, as usual, Stewart inserted a few sequence dances to encourage some folk on to the floor. We didn’t really need the encouragement, we were there to dance and would dance almost anything.

Tea time came quite quickly and Scamp was annoyed that the two other blokes at our table didn’t include me in their conversation. I wasn’t really bothered, they were just arseholes anyway. See, Hazy I can swear in the blog too!

The formula for the second half of the dance hasn’t changed in the past year or so, it’s always a very few Ballroom and Latin dances linked with a collection of Sequence dances. I used to call Sequence “Dancing for the Dead”, but now I realise the repetition in these dances actually keeps them fresh in your memory, especially the complicated sequences. It’s quite a clever way to memorise them.

I was keeping a watchful eye on the clock because we like to get away early most weeks, to avoid the school kids. We were a bit later today and the road was almost clear all the way to Cumbersheugh by the M8/M74/M73.

Back home I walked over to St Mo’s to try to get some low camera shots with the new toy, but the light was beginning to fade as the big black clouds rolled in. I did manage a few and the best of a bad lot was the low viewpoint shot of some fallen leaves on The Path. It’s always good for fallen leaves later in the autumn. It just filled a space today.

Dinner was a baked potato and prawns with Marie Rose Sauce (ie tomato ketchup mixed with mayonnaise).

For the first time in ages I thoroughly enjoyed the dancin’ today. We must do it again some time. Scamp is intending to go to FitSteps tomorrow and I’m sure I’ll find something to fill my time.

Now that’s a better day – 15 September 2025

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Not brilliant, but with enough sunshine to make it worthwhile going out with a camera.

We were up and out fairly early today, early for us anyway. Scamp wanted a lift to Tesco and after dropping her off, I drove over to Condorrat to the dentist. Half an hour later I walked out of the surgery with my broken tooth fixed. It still doesn’t feel like my own tooth, but I’m getting used to it. Just as I got to the car, I got the message from Scamp to say she was waiting for me in the Tesco cafe. I found an empty ‘Drop Off’ slot, where we loaded the car and drove back home. An efficient way to get ‘The Messages’.

Later in the day, while Scamp was deadheading some of the flowers, I went for a walk in St Mo’s, a shorter version of my usual walk, mainly because we were expecting to go to Kirsty’s dance class, but as it turned out, the class had dwindled. One of the men had pulled a muscle in his back, one couple were on an extended weekend holiday and another part time teacher was sunning herself in foreign climes. We decided that only four of us didn’t really make a quorum, so Kirsty agreed to cancel tonight.

That gave me enough time to process the photos I’d taken in St Mo’s. Not a bad haul and the PoD went to a bunch of Antirrhinums poking their bright pink heads out of a break in a fence, like a trio of runaways. It made me smile and it’s now on Flickr.

We may go on a trip to Glasgow, tomorrow. Looking for the elusive trainers. Maybe a walk up to WEX to see what they have to offer too.

No excuses – 14 September 2025

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Today we didn’t do very much. I’ve no excuses for this, it was just the way the day turned out.

It was a normal Sunday. Watched Laura Kuenssberg tearing strips of poor undefended MPs and other politicians. It was fun for a while watching them squirm, but you knew they were lying because their lips were moving. That took all the fun out of it.

After lunch I went for a walk over to St Mo’s. There wasn’t very much over there to photograph, but I did get out for a walk which was good … until the rain came on. As usual, the rain waited until I was at the furthest point from home, then it started. I didn’t mind, because I had my big orange Rab jacket on and it’s fairly waterproof and the rain was fairly light for most of the walk home.

PoD was an old favourite of mine, the view down the avenue of trees that takes you down past St Mo’s school. A bloke with an umbrella was kind enough to walk into view just as I was crossing his past. I waited a few minutes and got my Photo of the Day and he never felt a thing.

Dinner was a rump steak for me and potatoes with ratatouille for Scamp. Rice and prunes was the dessert.

Spoke to Jamie later in the evening and heard that he and Simonne are considering going away for a week some time soon, not sure when yet. This time Vixen gets to go with them which should please her.

Thanks for the hint Hazy. I’ll tell you how I got on with it once I work my way through it.

Dentist tomorrow to get a broken cap on one of my teeth fixed. Oh what fun!

More shopping – 11 September 2025

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Yesterday was window shopping and a touch of ‘real’ shopping.

Today was back to reality shopping in Tesco. Scamp had made a fairly large shopping list and we just worked through it, managing to find most things, but with the usual few missing items.

We’d intended to have lunch, but I’d a bit of stomach cramp so we postponed it. Then Scamp’s pal, Annette, arrived. Now I’m not being sexist here, but two women discussing things can lead to “Three’s a crowd” so I took my stomach cramp upstairs and read for a while. After Annette went home I did trust my stomach with a couple of slices of toast and a cup of tea. That seemed to settle things down. I’m blaming a pot of Kefir yogurt for the problem. The last time I had some, it had exactly the same effect. I’ll be more circumspect in future.

The weather today has been hit and miss. Sometimes the sun shines for an hour or more and sometimes it only lasts for a short while before the driving wind sprays everyone with showers. I caught a couple of those showers today. I also missed one by sheltering under the trees when I was out for my constitutional over St Mo’s then on across the football park and back home. Sometimes I extend the walk to include the path to the shops, but I was keeping a weather eye (literally) on those big black clouds that were rolling in from the north-west.

I went out with a different camera/lens combination today. A Lensbaby Sweet 35 lens for closeups and a Tamron 70-180mm zoom. Both on the A7iii. The Lensbaby gives dreamlike effects and the Tamron is an almost ideal short telephoto. Both worked very well, but the Tamron won the day with another shot of a Bird’s-foot Trefoil behind a chain link fence. This one has a much better background than the original. PoD sorted!

We couldn’t decide what to have for dinner, but in the end Scamp had an omelette and I had a fry-up. For me it was a bit of a test to see if my stomach was back to normal and it seems as if it is … touch wood.

We watched another boring episode of Masterchef. Thankfully it’s coming to an end soon. Good riddance I say!

Tomorrow is a cooking and maybe a baking day. Crawford & Nancy are coming to dinner. Whoever is free will probably be making the starter (possibly soup), Scamp is intending doing the main course and I’m booked for the dessert. We’ll see how it goes.