Category: St Mo’s

Christmas – 25 December 2025

Posted on by Zogman

A chance to catch up with friends and family.

It was just the two of us this year, but with Jamie and Hazy setting things up we had a three way connection over WhatsApp. One pair in Trinidad, one pair in London and one pair in Scotland. We had a good half hour or so chatting away to each other, then it was time to say goodbyes and sign out. Isn’t technology wonderful when it works.

It was still dry at home, so we went for a fairly long walk round Broadwood Loch, but Scamp didn’t have boots with her, so it was the shorter walk rather than the longer version she would have preferred. I got a few photos, but not very many. It wasn’t really cold out, but not very welcoming either with a damp feeling in the air. We passed a few folk out walking and exchanged the usual “Merry Christmas” greetings.

Back home, lunch was Scrambled Eggs on Toast with Smoked Salmon. A posh lunch for a special day. Later in the afternoon and while the chicken was roasting in the oven, I took two cameras out for a walk in St Mo’s. Why two cameras? I have no idea. I looked in my bag and there were two cameras there and it seemed a shame not to take both.

I got a few photos, but the light was poor. Then as I was walking round the pond the sun shone for a few minutes and I got the shot I was hoping for with the light just touching the tops of the reeds. One in the bag and a keeper to boot!. The rest of the walk was less productive because by that time the sun had sunk below the treelike and darkness wouldn’t be far away.

By the time I got back to the house, cooking was in full swing. I’d completely forgotten that I was to bake bread today and the chicken was still in the oven, so regretfully I left the loaf until tomorrow.

The chicken when it came out from its tinfoil cover smelled exactly like a chicken should, but had to wait another half hour before Scamp would deem it safe to eat.

So, Starter was fresh Prawn Cocktail followed by Breast of Chicken for Scamp and a portion of breast for me with a Drumstick as well. Both were served with Potatoes, Brussel Sprouts and Buttered Carrots. Dessert was a lovely trifle.

We watched a silly little Sewing Bee spin off. Nothing worth watching. Then the final, final of Strictly which I didn’t watch because I was working on today’s PoD. Any excuse to avoid the nonsense.

No plans for tomorrow. Maybe another walk if the weather holds, but nothing grand. Boxing Day is another day for relaxation.

Relaxing Day – 24 December 2025

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A much more relaxing day after yesterday’s busy, busy.

Blue skies and sunshine greeted us this morning. Up fairly early, but didn’t go out until the sun had warmed the garden a bit.

Just about lunch time we went for a walk to the shops to get some things for Scamp to make a trifle, plus odds and ends we’d forgotten. M&S was really quite busy, but they’s put some thought into laying out their aisles a bit more sensibly, allowing more people to get to the checkouts, except this was Cumbersheugh and too many people looked at the people manning the empty tills and looked away again. What’s the use of having a cleverly planned set of aisles when the shoppers are too stupid to use them. They just follow the person like cattle.
Rant over.

We walked back up to the house and I went for a walk in St Mo’s. The bright sun was really too low to get decent lighting, but I did find one or two shots worth taking. PoD went to a thorny wild rose stem.

Not long after I’d returned, Scamp was complaining that she didn’t have the tinned fruit she thought she had, so I volunteered to go get some from the wee local shop. I even found they sold ready made and measured do it yourself trifle kits, so I got one of them as well as a tin of mixed fruit. I took a camera with me, but didn’t take anything with it.

Dinner was Fish Risotto and for dessert we had the remaining Pastéis de Nata, one each. These ones were Bramley Apple flavour. Expensive, but delicious.

We watched another Christmas Mastermind and then the 1946 It’s a Wonderful Life. I’d never seen it before and neither had Scamp. Absolutely brilliant.

Still a few things to do tonight, but I’m running late and need to get to bed before Santa does his rounds. Hope you all have a great Christmas and look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow, all being well.

Shopping and Fruit Flies – 22 December 2025

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Out this morning for a bit of shopping. At least, shopping for Scamp.

I dropped Scamp off at Tesco and headed for somewhere that would be redacted if I’d posted it here, so must remain a secret. Unfortunately I didn’t find what I was looking for, so drove back, picked up Scamp with the ‘messages’ and we drove home for lunch.

Thankfully we got parked fairly easily. The parking in our street is a bit hit or miss at times. Today was one of those strange days when there were lots of spaces when we left, but only one when we returned from Tesco. Parked the car and left it there for the rest of the day.

After lunch which was roasted cheese on white bread, with dried basil sprinkled over the melting cheese(try it sometime. Cinnamon sprinkles work too). I went for a walk over to St Mo’s. It’s a strange looking pond now that the water level has dropped by about 75mm. Also, the pond weed is much thicker than it should be at this time of the year.

Today’s walk took me over behind St Mo’s school (all the kids are on holiday) then out into the woods where I found today’s PoD which is Amber Jelly Fungus on some winter trees. Odd looking fungi whose colour does look like amber. I also got a couple of nice cloud photos that I must plumb into Photoshop to be a home made cloudscape background.

Dinner was Sea Bream with Potatoes and although the fish was quite small and thin, was delicious. Scamp wasn’t so complimentary.

We’ve been pestered by tiny little fruit flies in the house. We can’t find out where they are coming from, but I’ve found a way of getting rid of them. Scamp has been experimenting with little jars of Apple Cider Vinegar with a drop of washing up liquid to reduce the surface tension. The top of the jar is covered with cling film with holes punched in the top. The flies are attracted by the smell of the cider vinegar and crawl down through the holes then fall into the liquid and drown due to the reduced surface tension. It works, but takes quite a lot of time.

I’ve chosen to use my battery powered tennis bat You may remember Jaime having one in Trinidad. It makes a lovely crack as it despatches the flies. Other than that, we didn’t do much today.

Tomorrow I may get the bus in to Glasgow to get the final prezzy that I’d hoped to get today.

The Winter Solstice – 21 December 2025

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The sun will shine twice as bright tomorrow.

Nobody was moving outside today. No cars seemed to move, including our’s, for the entire day. Even Laura Kuenssberg took the day off. Just a lazy Sunday.

I went for a walk in St Mo’s during the afternoon, but didn’t find much. I chopped up some soft apples and left them for the birds. I eventually settled on a photo of some thorns and seed heads on a gorse bush to be PoD and prepare us for the beginning of lighter and longer days to come. I was only out for about an hour and a half. I suppose I could have stayed until 3.03pm to complete the worship of the coming of the longer days, but I was feeling the cold and to be honest a warm house was more enticing than a Solstice.

Annette came to visit not long after I arrived back. A surprise visit that delighted Scamp. Not wishing to get in the way, I took myself upstairs to read a couple of articles about the new camera and its complicated adjustment system. Eventually I decided it wasn’t worth the effort and set everything back to the way it was. One day I’ll work it out. Annette had been on a flight to Miami, but wasn’t really impressed with it,

It was Charlie Bigham’s Roasted Veg Lasagne for dinner tonight and it was well worth waiting the 40 minutes cooking time for it to be ready to eat. Mince pies and custard for dessert was ok, just ok, although Scamp thought it was lovely.

We watched the Royal Variety Performance which was an hour and a bit of my life I won’t get back again. Camera work was awful as were most of the acts. The exception was a Japanese dance group, Airfootworks. Fantastic!

Tomorrow Scamp needs to pick up her meds and I may go for a drive later.

 

A long lie in – 19 December 2025

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Maybe too long a lie in this morning. 9am had come and gone before we woke up properly. Must be the time of the year.

Yes, getting up at 8.30am feels like the middle of the night, and by 3.30pm it feels like it’s evening. So, effectively we have less than six hours of daylight at this time of year and that is without adding in the light loss from cloudy skies and rain. I can’t wait for Sunday 21st December, the Winter Solstice, after which the days get lighter and longer. At least they do in Scotland, anyway.

Eventually we dragged ourselves out to do some shopping. Nothing elaborate, just a drive up the road to Tesco to buy a few essentials and a lot of non-essentials, but ones that we’re hoping will brighten our Christmas season.

Parking is becoming a problem in our estate. None of the houses have off road parking and today it took an hour or so to get parked near the house. One of the problems is a neighbour who has a big mobile home. Badly named, because it’s only mobile for about three weeks a year. The rest of the time it just rusts away, blocking off about three spaces instead of one. Others are even more careless, parking where they like and taking up three space instead of two. Some folk don’t think. Anyway, I did finally manage to get parked.

Right, that’s most of the moaning done. After shopping, the sun came out and I went for a walk in St Mo’s. Just a walk round the pond, then on to the path behind St Mo’s School, then back by a circuitous route back home. I managed to get a couple of photos that I liked. One was off Cleavers which we would call Sticky Willies. Little balls of seeds that have hooked claws that catch on to animals and humans and that’s what spreads the seeds. The winner, and PoD was an old piece of farming mechanism that was probably used to dig out potatoes, but which is now a collection of iron and steel for kids to play on.

We watched the Portrait Artist of the Year final, where the winner of all the heats gets to paint a famous person. The winner in question was Chloe Barns who after a few changes, finally produced a painting of Professor Hannah Fry. That won her a £10,000 prize. In the last couple of years the overall winners have not been stellar in my opinion, nor in others I have spoken to.

Tomorrow we may have a wander round Glasgow as today’s walk was a washout. Hoping for better weather tomorrow.

Shopping and doing things

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We needed milk and came home with a trolley full of other stuff. However, we did get the milk!

I’d been meaning to get more coffee from Henry’s Coffee Company for about a month, but it wasn’t until I pulled the last bag out of the freezer that I realised I NEEDED more coffee. So I sat down in the morning and wrote out the order then emailed it to Henry.

With that done, we drove over to Tesco and, like I said, we bought a fair amount of stuff, but most of it was needed anyway and it was stored away when we got home. Another box ticked.

I’d been meaning to wash my Rab jacket. I was wearing it the day I caught the tick and hated the idea of the wee beasties living in my jacket. Also, the once bright, shiny jacket was now looking a bit dowdy and dull, so I took the bull by the horns and scrubbed out the washing machine detergent tray and rinsed it out then rebuilt the washing machine. How can a machine made to clean clothes get so manky?
I emptied the pocket and Scamp emptied her jacket then both went into the washing machine with a cup full of the fancy washing liquid that would wash both jackets and reproof them at the same time.

Thirty minutes later the wash was complete. Scamp hung hers up in the bathroom and I put my dripping jacket into the washing machine with two spiky white balls that are meant to massage the feathers in the jacket and help to break up any lumps of down in it. The recommended overall time was 5 – 6 hours. I did about five and every hour or so I took the jacket out and worked on the feather balls that had appeared. After about five hours, most of the lumps had broken up and the jacket was puffed up. I’m not saying it’s totally dry yet, but it feel about right. Time will tell.

Last task for the day was to put up a long string of lights on the tall fence in the back garden. Another of Scamp’s good ideas are these lights that turn on for six hours and off for eighteen hours.They do look good. I’m glad we got them.

PoD was a shot looking from the boardwalk in St Mo’s back towards the setting sun. I missed the best of the light, but I liked the effect of the clouds.

Tomorrow, Scamp is intending going for lunch with Shona and I’m hoping to meet Alex in Glasgow for a walk.

Hunting Beasties – 12 December 2025

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We went as far as the shops today. Only a 15minute walk. Better than nothing.

We were looking for batteries for a couple of garden lights. Plenty of the wrong type of batteries, but none of the ones we wanted. I suppose we could have driven up to the town centre, but to be honest, neither of us could be bothered. I may go in to Glasgow today or tomorrow on a battery hunt, but it depends on the weather.

Actually, today was quite a clear day. Plenty of blue skies and light clouds, but cold. I went out later to see if there was anything worth photographing. I don’t know why I went for a walk in the woods, clambering over fallen trees everywhere. Halfway through my walk I found an old friend. It’s an Orange Sixteen Spot Ladybird (Halyzia sedecimguttata) to give it its posh Sunday name. Just about the length of the nail on my ring finger and tucked into a crevice in a tree. Apparently they don’t feed on aphids like most ladybirds, but on mildew on trees like oak, sycamore and ash. It’s amazing what you find out when you go walking through the woods. That was my PoD.

While I was out, I bumped into a man walking his dog. I’ve spoken to him in passing many times, just saying ‘Hello’, or a comment on the weather. Today he stopped and said he was intrigued by me walking round St Mo’s pond with a camera. I told him about my plan to take a photo every day and just laughed. He is a bit older than me, but strangely enough, he and his family had moved into Cumbersheugh not long before we did. Like us, he complained about the way the estate has gone down hill these days. I think I’ve bumped into him most weeks for about ten years and this is the first time we’ve said more than ‘Hello’ to each other. It’s good to talk, sometimes.

Scamp and I did go over to the shops which were crowded with loads of folk, all doing their best to get stuff, any stuff from the shelves, because the shops wouldn’t be open on Christmas Day! What will we do if the shops are shut? We’ll all starve!! We did get some cheap tinned anchovies in Lidl, though, so the walk was not in vain.

Scamp’s now got Jamie’s wee tree draped in coloured lights. In the afternoon they look quite good, but at night the shine really brightly. A few other bits and pieces are adorning the inside of the house too. It is beginning to look like Christmas.

No great plans for tomorrow. The Dyson has been put on the back burner for now, so we’ll see what the sales bring, if anything worthwhile. We may go to the last evening dance of the year later tomorrow.

Wild and Windy – 9 December 2025

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Today began with a trip to Tesco.

Just a shopping expedition for the basics, fruit, veg, cereals. All the usual stuff that we need to stock up on, and one of the reasons we need a car. Imagine having to carry, drag, haul a trolley full of shopping the couple of miles to the house without a car, any car. Life would be impossible without one, but for my mum it was just a way of life. Granted, we didn’t live far from our local Co-op, but we didn’t have a car, so carrying stuff was the norm.

Anyway, we do have a car and it was loaded with all the aforementioned ‘stuff’ then between us, Scamp and I carried it from the car to the house. We had just closed the front door when there was an almighty downpour. I had been going out for a walk, but decided it would be better to give it a chance to calm down a bit first.

After lunch I did get to go for that walk over to St Mo’s because according to the weather reports it was going to be windy later. Not a particularly cold day, but a breezy one. I was glad I did go, because I spooked at least three deer. One adult and two juveniles. These were the first deer I’d seen in St Mo’s for months. I was beginning to think they had fallen foul the local nutters, but, although I didn’t manage to get a photo of the deer, I did see them so they are doing well.

PoD turned out to be a slightly edited version of a shot looking along the boardwalk in St Mo’s that shows just how high the water from last night’s rain had been. Further round the pond the water was pouring through the outfall, but the path was still flooded too deep even for my trusty boots, so I did what I usually do and walked back around the pond and then home. By about 4pm Storm Bram was ramping up and even now at just about 9.30pm it’s still rambling around us, but maybe not just as fiercely.

Scamp and I managed to put the new curtains up this afternoon and they do look very good. I think we’re both pleased with them. They should keep the living room much cosier in these windy days. I say Scamp and I, but she was determined to climb up on the tv table and do all the fancy hooking and I was left to hold her hand when she wanted down.

We’re hoping to get out somewhere tomorrow if the wind calms down a bit more.

Another sleepy wakening – 7 December 2025

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After yesterday’s late rising, I had hoped today would have been better, but it wasn’t.

I really need to go to bed earlier. Granted, yesterday was busy and the day before, but I really need to get to bed the same day I wake up, starting today.

Today wasn’t nearly as busy as yesterday. Neither of us went very far. Scamp made her usual trio of small Christmas cakes and baked them, filling the room with that lovely scent you only get from baked fruit, spices, alcohol and dough. Scamp has it carefully measured, both the dough and the baking time/temperature.

While she was baking I was out walking with the A7iii and did find a couple of decent shots of desiccated plant stems and seeds. I almost got a shot of a cormorant in the pond, but didn’t quite catch it before is swam away. I’m always amazed at the distance these birds can swim underwater. St Mo’s pond is quit murky looking and it’s a wonder they can see where they are going.

Dinner was minestrone soup followed by Giovani Rana ravioli. After that it was time to watch the final f1 race of the year with a trio of drivers vying for first place. I won’t say who won, but it was a strange race with a lot to tactics in play.

We watched another episode of Strictly and we were both surprised at the pair who left the competition. Now it’s all down to four.

Spoke to Jamie and heard about all the plans that are now coming together for the month ahead.

We’re hoping to go in to Glasgow tomorrow if the weather is conducive.

Slept in – 6 December 2025

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Well, we both sort of slept in this morning, but managed the day quite well after that.

Saturday mornings can be a bit of a problem. We have to be up early, have breakfast, and be out to face the drive to the dance class in one synchronised movement, or so it seems. Today the synchro was broken and we were still yawning, but fed, when we headed west on the M8. Thankfully we weren’t the last to arrive.

I wasn’t looking forward to today’s class. I just knew it was going to be filled with more Samba nonsense … but it wasn’t! Instead it was a mixture of dance styles we’d seen before or danced before, but had forgotten. I can’t quite remember the format, but there was a form of Argentine Tango that Scamp said she’d seen, a Christmas Pudding dance, performed to “I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas”, a couple of sequence dances that we danced without breaking the sequence and, of course, a waltz or two. I thoroughly enjoyed the morning’s education and exercise, and was doubly delighted by the missing Samba!

We drove home on the M8/M73 route to avoid the Kingston Bridge. When we got home I went out almost right away to get some photos for the blog, only to find that Flickr had crashed and wasn’t showing any record of my existence. Try as I might with a lot of huffing and puffing I couldn’t get it to recognise me. Then I checked with ‘Downdetector.co.uk’ and discovered that the Flickr website was indeed down. The next move was to read a few lines of instructions suggesting I should delete the a couple of caches and that was the answer. Flickr knew me again. I think it must have had a heavy night the night before and was just recovering. Anyway, Scamp phoned for a taxi, because we were going to an early Christmas dinner.

A week or so ago, one of the guys in the Monday dance class had suggested we book a table in Dullatur golf club and have a late lunch there as it might be the last class this year.

It turned out to be a great afternoon. Scamp and I had Arancini as a starter then she had Fish ’n’ Chips and I had Lasagna. She didn’t like the arancini and didn’t eat much of hers. Mine was ok, but only just ok. A couple of drinks and a chance to catch up with a lot of folk we either dance with or have recently danced with. We got a lift home with Kirsty.

Today’s PoD is a reflection of some rushes in the flooded pond.

Tomorrow we are hoping to relax!