Category: St Mo’s

Bob the Builder – 8 March 2026

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… just for one day!

We had a busy day ahead of us today. We were taking Shona to Monklands to have an ultrasound. After that we were taking her back to her new house to get her bed assembled then have new curtain poles and curtains fitted. Luckily the existing fittings for the curtain poles were still there, so that saved us a fair bit of work. The bed the council had provided was pretty poor and I can see me having to strengthen it in the near future. She’s hoping to get other bits and pieces of snagging finished soon and she’ll be able to move in permanently. As usual I’d only brought some of the tools with me, but by luck we had enough to get all the work done in a couple of hours. We left her smiling from the front door of her her new house.

We drove back home and I went for a walk in St Mo’s partly to get some photos and partly to straighten my back which was aching with stretching up to fit the curtain poles and the curtains, all five of them. Scamp and Shona did all the clever stuff and I did the climbing up the ladders. I knew where I was heading for to get today’s PoD. I’d seen the Flowering Currant bush yesterday and thought it would make a fine photo. However, when I checked the camera, the power was down to 6% which is nowhere near what I was hoping. I took what I could get and walked home. Back home I discovered that the battery I was using was swelling. Never a good sign, so it will need replacing very soon. I don’t think I’ll risk recharging it, just in case.

That was a hard day, hopefully tomorrow will be easier when we go to meet Andrew in Falkirk.

An explanation – 6 March 2026

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I’ve been struggling to add in all the things we did on our spring break and we’ve spoken to both of you individually since we arrived home, so you have a fair idea of what we’ve been doing. With that in mind I thought I’d cut to the chase and take them as read. After all, it was a holiday and we didn’t really do all that much, except drink watered down beer, eat some cold food and go for walks along the coast. So my plan is to start fresh from today and get back to Blogging. Here goes.

Today Scamp was out at her usual time to go to FitSteps class. One of the last FitSteps classes she is likely to attend, because Kirsty is abandoning the classes as the numbers are dropping away and it must be heartbreaking to run a class for only three people. I don’t think Scamp is exactly pleased about it, but she appreciates the predicament Kirsty is in. There are other FitStep classes Scamp could go to, but she likes the Friday morning class, but it’s just not practical. Kirsty is still committed to the Monday evening dance class, so I can’t get out of it that easily 😉, it’s just the Friday morning class that’s disappearing at the end of the month.

After Scamp returned from FitSteps we walked over to Condorrat to post a card to somebody or some people who deserved one, but on the way we had intended dropping in at Broden’s bar for a Friday lunch, only to find that the door had its shutters down as did the pub that it’s connected to. We’d even decided on our lunch which was to be Mac ’n’ Cheese for Scamp and Fish ’n’ Chips for Scamp. Instead we walked home to get a sandwich each. Nice though they were, the just weren’t as good as hot food. The last time we were in Broden’s (probably known to you as The Masonic to you) we discovered that it was under new management. One of Scamp’s Witchy spies had heard that it was closing but we thought it was just a rumour. Hopefully it’s just closed for refurbishment. Fingers crossed.

Scamp was doing some rearranging of her plants in the last few days and I hoped I could avoid work by going for a walk in St Mo’s. I got a few photos of frogs in St Mo’s pond and one of them made PoD. I thought I’d avoided some gardening work, but Scamp dragged me kicking and screaming to the back garden to prune the big Buddleia bush that grows beside the back fence. I have to admit that it looked better for its Short Back and Sides.

We may take a broken lens in to WEX in Glasgow tomorrow to see if it is repairable. It sounds like its had some water ingress that’s causing rust. If it can’t be fixed, it’s going to be more pocket money leaving my pocket.

 

Today was a Benylin day – 19 February 2026

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I woke in the morning about 7am, but rejected it as a bad dream and went back to sleep.

Later in the morning, I got Scamp’s breakfast for her, then went back to bed for a second time. Scamp then suggested I take some Benylin and a couple of paracetamols and just like that, I slept for another two hours. I finally broke surface, had a long hot shower and felt human again.

From there on until now I’ve been living on a diet of Benylin and paracetamol most of the day. I’m due a final dose in about an hour. That’s not to say that I haven’t been doing anything else. I walked down to the shops to get some sweeties for Scamp to thank her for being my nurse maid and because it’s Thursday which my long term readers will understand.

On my way back home I noticed an old barbecue lying beside the path on the way to St Mo’s. I’d seen it lying in the bushes beside the path for months, if not years. It looked like somebody had taken the time to drag it out and left it beside the path. I had a look inside it to see if there was anything photographable there, but immediately rejected the idea. I don’t know what was in there, but it was black and looked like coal. I’m sure there is someone who would welcome one of these devices for their patio. One careful owner (the others kicked it to bits).

Dinner was fish risotto cooked in the oven. A nice, easy dinner you don’t have to do anything with.

Both Scamp and I still have a cough, but we’re feeling a lot better than we were.

My thanks go to George Rieveschl, the man who invented Benylin.

No plans or tomorrow.

Still working on the back room – 16 February 2026

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More tidying was the main topic for today, the back room is better, but it needs a lot more work.

I was just waking up, properly when my phone rang. It was the Health Centre to tell me one of the docs wanted to phone me on Wednesday about my latest bloods results. That’s never going to be a good conversation. No details were given, just that the doc would phone me on Wednesday at 9am. I tried to explain to the lady on the line that I don’t do 9am, but she gave me the rubber ear. So Wednesday it will be. I hope it doesn’t take too long, because I have people to see, places to go on Wednesday.

After that joyous start I looked at some of the puzzles and managed a 4 for Wordle which is pretty good these days. ‘Strands’ was tedious and complicated then I solve the Mini Crossword with almost no trouble. That was about it for the morning.

In the afternoon, Scamp encouraged me to go out for a while. I did, but it was under duress, however the weather was not nearly as cold as I thought it would be and when the sun shone for a short while it was almost like Spring. In fact, that was exactly what if felt like. Some trees are beginning to show the buds on their branches and with a bit of luck there will be flowers on the trees too.

I think my favourite Sony 24 -105mm lens is a goner. It makes screeching noises as soon as I gently press the shutter button. T the 16-35mm lens is beginning to sound the same death knell. I think I may have had the camera bag open during one of those torrential rain showers and some rain has found its way into the internals. Looks like I need to break open my piggy bank.

We went to Kirsty’s class tonight, but I just couldn’t get my head round the spin turns and the fishtails. Scamp did her level best to show me how it worked and once, just once it worked. Must try harder.

Watched another of the pot throwing competition and marvelled at the way these people can manipulate clay and produce flowers from it. I once made a slab pot at college and thought I was great!

PoD was a low view along one of the channels in St Mo’s pond. Lovely reflections from the sky.

Tomorrow we may go to Glasgow for a Special lunch.

Happy Anniversary Hazel and Neil

Hope you had a great day.

 

Dancin’ – 14 February 2026

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Today Scamp cleared the snow and frost from the car and I drove us to Brookfield for a dance class.

It was a cold start, but it was good to be driving under a clear blue sky and we made good time to the village hall. I think the clear sky was a blessing because the snow and low temperatures maybe kept some people from getting out too early. Much easier to just turn over and go back to sleep. But we’re both from hardier stock and weren’t bothered with sub-zero temperatures. We were going dancing.

First dance was House of Bamboo. I used to hate it, but now I just treat it as a bit of fun to get us get us out of our winter clothes. Next was the new waltz that Jane had concocted a couple of weeks ago. There was one turn I couldn’t get the hang of, but after asking Jane if she would dance me through it, she saw what I was doing wrong and that made all the difference. Much more secure with it now. Meanwhile Scamp was dancing with Stewart and picking up more tips on the same dance.

Next was Quickstep which we are working through, but both of us agree that we need more practise at home to keep it fresh in our heads. Fishtails are improving.

Final dance was Rona’s Rumba. Rona was a dancer in our class who passed away two years ago, around about now. She and her husband were great friends with Stewart and Jane.

Our Rumba, like the quickstep and the waltz, needs a fair bit of work to get comfortable with it.

As well as the ballroom dances, there were a lot of sequence dances that the teacher use to give us a break from the difficult stuff. Today they were used liberally!

Drove home via the Clyde Tunnel today because there was a lot of congestion on the M8. The Clyde Tunnel cuts off a fair chunk of driving and is useful for days like today.

I went over to St Mo’s later in the afternoon in my new boots that needed breaking in. They are not really new, they’re about six months old, I just kept forgetting (on purpose, maybe) to put them on, until last week when I found a leak in the left side of the old boots. Maybe their time has come.

Dinner tonight was a disappointing Golden Bowl. Tough Chicken Chop Suey for Scamp and equally tough Chicken Chow Mein for me. Maybe it’s time to give them a rest and look for somewhere else.

We watched the Skeleton Sliders from the Winter Olympics. Scary stuff!

PoD was  couple of dried up flowers from last year. Very fragile looking.

No plans for tomorrow. Snow predicted.

Dancin’ – 7 February 2026

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Out early as usual on a Saturday.

We drove over to Brookfield, a fairly easy drive to light traffic but clouds and occasional rain. What we’ve come to expect these wintry days.

The class started with a quickstep, but not one we already knew. Almost everyone else seemed to be happy with it and although we did bring this fact to the attention of the teachers, we didn’t get much instruction. Luckily I had Scamp to tell me what the teachers were doing and after I’d added in a few steps from Thursday’s Tea Dance, it began to come together, but teachers are there to teach, not to get partners to make up for their shortcomings. I don’t think Stewart believed we’d not done this dance before. For the first time in ages I wasn’t impressed with his teaching.

What I will say in his defence is that he did intersperse some units with a couple of sequence dances, mostly ones we knew. Given that we’d had a tough start to the day, I did actually enjoy most of the class I think Scamp did too.

We drove home with about a million others, all heading in the same direction as us at about 15 mph and in the rain again. It was a stop/start drive, but after half an hour or so the traffic picked up speed and thinned out. No rhyme nor reason to it. I’m sure you’ve all seen this feature of driving in the past. Nobody seems to be able to explain why the roads get snarled up and then just return to normal with nothing to explain it. I wish I could be in a helicopter to watch the changing traffic patterns from above. It would be an interesting thing to investigate.

I chose the M74/M73 again and everything went smoothly back to the house. Lunch was toast and beans. A simple menu that just hit the spot.

Later in the afternoon I went for a walk through St Mo’s and got a few photos, a very few. My favourite and PoD was two magpies discussing world problems in a tree. Magpies, the Darth Vaders of the Avian world.

We’d hoped to have a Chinese dinner, but Golden Bowl in Condorrat was closed until the 13th of the month, so it was Fish ’n’ Chips instead. Lovely fish, but too much chips. We watched the Olympic Snowboarding and Luge while we consumed our dinner, wondering why people put themselves through these dangerous looking games. Good fun to watch, but I can’t see it catching on in Cumbersheugh.

As far as tomorrow goes, we have no plans. Not ever Snowboarding.

Another grey day – 6 February 2026

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It’s becoming monotonous.

I’m really getting fed up with all this rain. Can’t somebody do something about it.

Scamp went out to FitSteps in the morning. While she was out I worked out the last few February I’d missed in the past week. That’s the problem with deciding to do a photo a day. You forget just how much time it takes.

I’d like to say we did lots of things today, but we didn’t. I went out in the early afternoon into the cold east wind that’s been blowing for the last week and a bit. I’d offered to do some shopping while I was out, and picked a photo of a weed of some description sneaking out from a metal cable support. I thought it looked interesting. Then I walked round the back of St Mo’s school and from there down to the shops and back home. It was just as I was reaching the house I realised those two photos would have to be the PoD for today.

Scamp made a curry from the Mowgli book, but wasn’t. Impressed with the finished article, saying there was a funny taste from it. We tracked that ‘funny taste’ down to a tablespoon of English Mustard I’d put in as stated in the instructions. I don’t know how the English can eat this stuff. I can’t even abide the smell of it. I think we’ll use a different recipe in future.

That’s about it for me for today. Hoping for a dry(ish) day tomorrow, just for a change.

Scrubbing the floor – 26 January 2026

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We weren’t down on our knees doing the scrubbing. We’ve got a machine to do that for us now!

In the morning we built up the Vax carpet cleaner. It’s a bit of a beast! With a lot of reading of the instructions we managed to get it built up. Then we added some water and a glug or two of the magic carpet cleaning stuff, plugged it in and started it going. It’ quite noisy and it was soaking the carpet, until we realised we could push it forward quite quickly, but had to withdraw it fairly slowly so the muck in the carpet was sucked into the chamber. In the end we were both impressed with the efficiency of this new technology. So far we only have a small bottle, but I imagine we’ll get a larger bottle before the end of the week. We were impressed by the amount of muck that was sucked into the dirty water container!!

After that we walked down to the shops to get something for lunch and also something for dinner. It was cold and a bit windy, but the weather fairies are warning us that it’s going to get even windier before the end of the week.

I took myself out for a walk in St Mo’s later and got a few photos, but even fairly early in the afternoon, the light was fading quickly. For a change I took the small A6500 with me. I usually use a nylon cord to suspend my cameras when I’m walking. I almost made the mistake of letting the A6500 dangle, but realised just in time that there was no cord on the camera today and caught it before it fell. Eejit!

Once round the pond was enough for me today. If there had been more light and it it hadn’t been quite so cold I’d have gone for a second round, but once was enough today.

We drove over to Kirsty’s class at The Link and completed the third part of the three part Tango routine. It was a bit repetitive in places and the constant turns were causing some of the ladies, Scamp included to become dizzy, so I don’t think the full routine will be danced very often.

PoD was a three holly leaves making a break for freedom from a nearby wooden fence.

I think we may be going shopping tomorrow, but as usual at this time of year, it all depends on the weather

A lazy day for me – 23 January 2026

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Not a lazy day for Scamp, she left for FitSteps while I was still working out what to do today.

I did eventually decide on a walk in St Mo’s. It was a cold morning, a late morning, but before noon, so that counts as morning. Alex had been showing off his hand warmers the other day and I decided to buy a pair from Amazon and a cold day would be a good test.

By the time I’d got myself sorted, Scamp had returned from FitSteps so I allowed myself an hour and a half or thereabouts to grab some photos. The hand warmers didn’t seem to be balanced properly to start with, but later in the walk I realised only one face of the heater works, the other remains relatively cool. I really should read the instructions first, but I never do. I think I was paying too much attention to the hand warmers and didn’t realise the camera lens was set wide open and therefore not at its most creative setting, anyway I did take some blurry photos of Cladonia lichen and a few shots of the hairy looking buds on a gorse bush. The gorse buds got PoD.

On my way home, I got a call from Scamp telling me that her appointment in Dundee had been brought forward. We had expected it to be between four and six weeks before her appointment. Hopefully this will bring good news.

When I got home we walked over to Brodens for lunch. Fish ’n’ Chips with a glass of wine for Scamp, Steak Pie and Chips for me washed down with a pint of Guinness. Apparently the restaurant has been taken over, but the food is just as good as it ever was. Long may it prosper in these changing times.

Back home Scamp was browsing the internet for a short holiday in the next couple of weeks. We have no hard and fast favourites as yet, but we’re hopeful that we’ll find somewhere warm to tide us over until summer.

We’re intending to go to Brookfield tomorrow if the weather is fair.

Another bright clear day – 20 January 2026

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Maybe not quite as good as yesterday, but by midday the clouds were clearing and the sun was getting through. Plus, of course, it wasn’t raining.

Scamp went out first. She was heading for Tesco and I was gathering all my bits and pieces together then headed off not far behind her. I was using the A7c and saw a lone berry on a tree on the way to St Mo’s. Turned the camera on and saw the message “Battery Exhausted”. I was glad I wasn’t far from home and could just walk back and grab my A7iii instead. If I’d been in the depth of the woods and seen that message, I’d have been saying ‘Sweary Words’. Lots of them.

With the cameras swapped over, and with about 80% charge in the A7iii I was good for an hour or so. I wandered round the pond and got a few shots, the first one being the lone berry on the tree! As usual I went half way round the pond then reversed my direction and went the other way. It’s strange that the view one way round the pond is totally different from the other direction. The proof is the PoD which I didn’t see when I was walking anticlockwise, but found it right in front of me when I was walking back, clockwise!

With some shots in the bag and a PoD taken, I walked home and bumped into Scamp unpacking the car. I was settling down to look at the photos when Scamp showed me her new box of ‘Rice Krispies’ which weren’t normal Rice Krispies, but some alien version with twice the amount of sugar. We’re both trying to reduce the amount of sugar we eat and I could see she wasn’t happy with these lumps of sugar. It was still light so I suggested I’d walk over to the shops and buy a proper box for her. Usually Scamp will disagree, as a measure of her annoyance, she gave in and allowed me to go search a Real box of Rice Krispies. She also handed me a winning ThunderBall ticket that’s been stuck on the fridge for far too long. So, off I trotted and redeemed the ThunderBall ticket for three new ones. Then I walked down to the shops and picked up the a box of the Real Rice Crisps. After that, calm returned to the house. We won’t find out if we’ve won a million pounds until tomorrow, but at least breakfast will a quieter affair.

The PoD was what looks like three leaves stuck together by the rain and backlit by the low sun. I liked it. If you prefer a photo of Oak Moss ( that isn’t only on oak trees and isn’t moss at all, look on Flickr).

We watched ‘The Night Manager’ (second series) and I’ll admit I became completely engrossed in it. Can’t wait until next week!

Tomorrow I’m hoping to meet Alex for a photo walk round Glasgow. I think Scamp has a meeting with the other witches.