Month: March 2019

Minimal driving day – 11 March 2019

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It was agreed that we wouldn’t be driving far today.

In fact we did very little today. Spoke to Hazy for a while and compared blue skies. Discussed gardens and Christmas plans, yes, Christmas plans already!

Started a wee bit of painting from Skye and in the style of one of the paintings I’d seen in the “Biscuit Tin”. Never quite got it finished because, as you’ve probably guessed today was the day for writing up the blog posts and posting the photos on Flickr. Put a pair of headphones on to drown out Gems and just got on with it. Maybe tomorrow I’ll get round to finishing the painting and restarting the Apple Gallery.

Also grabbed a shot of one of Scamp’s sweet pea plants which is just forming its first ‘real’ leaves and that became PoD. That’s the result of being too lazy to go out. Tomorrow I must gee myself.

Salsa tonight was good fun as usual. Six thirty class has now moved on to level 2 and are Improvers. They were doing Enchufé tonight. In the advance class at 7.30 the ‘new’ old move was Swish along with the others we’d been doing last week.

That’s about it. Tomorrow we’re going for the ‘messages’. Wild weather forecast.

Sleet, snow, hail and rain – 10 March 2019

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Set off around 9.30 for the long drive back home. It wasn’t looking like it would be a pleasant drive and it lived up to that estimate. Driving down through Skye was ok with the snow keeping mostly to the mountains and higher hills. I managed to grab a shot of the Old Man of Storr just emerging from a blizzard. That became the PoD.

Carried on down to the biscuit tin also know as Eilean Donan castle at Dornie and stopped there for a coffee and a scone each. Suitably refreshed and after I’d had a quick look at some of the paintings for sale in the shop, we got on our way again. The weather worsened quite a bit and when we passed Loch Cluanie it was down to minimal visibility and the snow was beginning to lie on the road. I expected worse would be to come when we made the turn off to climb up to the Glen Garry viewpoint because the road is very exposed. I needn’t have worried because the snow clouds didn’t break and we had a fairly easy run over to Invergarry. From there it was on and off sleet and rain all the way down to Fort Billy where we stopped for lunch.

Refuelled at Fort Billy (oh how I wish the Juke had a proper petrol tank) and set off for Glencoe. Glencoe itself was fine, but when we got up onto Rannoch Moor the snow started again in earnest and we joined a conga line of cars battling down the road. The snow and sleet stayed with us all way down to Crianlarich and eventually faded out, leaving us free to drive down to Stirling and the welcome wide lanes of the M9. We had had a blue van following us all the way from Fort Billy. He/she seemed in no hurry to pass us and we kept a steady pace all the way. Just before they turned off the M9 heading for Embra they flashed their headlights and I gave them a wave. Hope they got home safe.

The rest of the journey was thankfully boring and pedestrian compared with the highlands. Enjoyed the time with Jac & Murdo, but it was good to be home.

Tomorrow? Gems and Salsa that’s about it.

A much brighter day – 9 March 2019

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Ah, this was more like it. Today we’d drive round the top.

Bright sunshine with just the prospect of a few showers too to keep us honest. Drove down the drive and turned left. Found this interesting PoD at Duntulm. Taken with a wide angle lens it almost looks like a panorama. The light was kind to us me for once and showed up the textures nicely. It also shows the remoteness of the landscape. I was looking for a new road to travel, but couldn’t find one that looked interesting, so we just continued to Uig, but when we got there the weather closed in again and we didn’t stop. We just continued on our way round to Portree.

We’d seen Portree yesterday and I doubted that there was much more to hold our interest, so after getting some fuel we drove down to Slighachan then on to the Fairy Pools on the Glenbrittle road. Unfortunately the brand new carpark looked full and at £5 flat fee was a bit expensive for what it was. We turned and drove back to Portree where we had lunch in Aros. For once I had a decent toast there. Bacon and Mushroom. I must remember that if we’re ever there again. Usually everything is slathered in heavy, oily cheese but this was just what the description said. Coffee was great too – it always is. Scamp wasn’t so impressed with her Tuna melt which seemed to be more melt than tuna. Such a pity after mine being so good.

Drove back to Staffin and went for another dancing practise. This time we filmed it to see how we looked when we were dancing. Learned a lot, especially that our posture isn’t as good as we thought. Also we must remember to look forward or to the side, not at our feet. We even entertained Jackie and Mairi with our waltz steps. They were kind enough not to laugh!

Scamp went back with Jackie and I drove down to the slip to get some moody sea shots. Couldn’t quite manage to find the right subjects. Saw this woman laying out what looked like a rolled up canvas on the ground behind the boat sheds and holding it down with rocks. Later I found out she is the Dutch landowner. At least that’s what Jackie and Murdo think after hearing my description of her. Finally got some shots from the ‘beach’ and I might, just might have seen the famous dinosaur’s footprints.

Home for dinner and to prepare for tomorrow’s journey back down the road.

A Grey Day – 8 March 2019

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A good day for dancing the greys away.

It was too dull a day for taking the Juke round the top end, so we just drove through the rain down to Portree, the big city. We headed for Jan’s Vans. A real find in Portree. Jan’s Vans is really just a big hardware store. Nothing fancy, but everything from a needle to an anchor. I’ve never actually seen any anchors in there, but I’m sure if you looked long enough you’d find one. We really were there for lunch, because it’s decent grub. Certainly not anything fancy, just good food. After lunch we went for a look round the shop part of the establishment and found lots of interesting and cheap stuff. Laces for my dancing shoes, memory foam insoles for the same. Bottle brushes that Scamp had been searching for everywhere. We passed on the ride-on mower for £2400 because it would be difficult to get it home. I suppose we could have ridden it, but it wouldn’t have been a comfortable journey.

We had a look in Skye Batiks to see if they’d any nice shirts. They did have, but not at a nice price. £50 for a short sleeved shirt is a bit expensive for me. A quick trip to the newsagent’s and that was it for Portree. We headed back up the road through the rain showers. Scamp had arranged with her sister that we could book the hall in her outdoor centre for an hour or so of dance practise. It was indeed a good idea and we got some useful dancing practise in and I grabbed PoD which was taken from one of the windows onto the wild Skye landscape.

Back home and after dinner we had a fair bit of excitement when the chimney in the house caught fire and the fire brigade had to called. As it’s a volunteer group the men had to be assembled and driven up to the house in their brand new fire engine. It didn’t take much more than fifteen minutes and the fire was out by the time they arrived, but it was quite a worrying time. The guys were really efficient and put everyone’s mind at rest when they checked the chimney and the wall with their heat sensitive camera. Later we managed to settle down with a G&T for some and a dram for others to calm us down. It will be talk of the township tomorrow.

Tomorrow we’re hoping for better weather and less excitement.

Taking the road north – 7 March 2019

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Up and out by 10am. It was going to be a long day.

Topped up the Juke’s tank and pointed the nose at the M80 heading north. Passed Stirling, Calander and on past Loch Lubnaig through some beautiful sunshine and some heavy showers. Didn’t stop until Crianlarich for a ‘comfort break’ then back on the road to Rannoch Moor to grab some photos. Some things I can resist, but the mountains surrounding Rannoch Moor, especially when they’ve had a dusting of snow? No, that’s an impossibility. I just had to take the shot. I’ve taken it many, many times in all sorts of weather conditions, but it never looks exactly like I saw it in my mind’s eye.

Next stop was Morrison’s at Fort William (Fort Billy as we used to call it) for lunch and more fuel for the Juke. That was the easy part past. Next was a long slog up past Spean Bridge and then when we were past Invergarry we were on the road to Skye that took us past Eileen Donan castle the cover of so many biscuit tins and over the bridge to Skye proper. Finally reaching Jackie & Murdo’s croft just after 4pm.

Passed some beautiful countryside on those 240 odd miles, but I only took the half a dozen photos at Rannoch. Wish now we’d taken a little more time and grabbed some more images.

I suppose I should have gone out for a walk down by the slip, but I was tired and a glass of wine and a wee dram put paid to any ideas of more driving tonight.

Tomorrow, maybe a wee tour of the north end of the island.

A better dancing day – 6 March 2019

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At least for me.

The day started with Scamp visiting Tesco and me attempting an apple portrait in pastel. That didn’t work, so I tried again in watercolour. That wasn’t much better, so I left it, hoping to complete it after we came back from Blackfriars.

Drove in to Glasgow through torrential rain and then when we walked out of the multi-storey carpark, the sun came out. In the jive class, for most of the time I was doing well. Certainly a good deal better than last week, but that wouldn’t be difficult. Today it was Scamp who was making a few mistakes. A most unusual situation for her. In quickstep we both made bloomers, but I think I made the most. As usual, our first dance was great. We even managed to complete the fishtails without tripping over one another and then it all went to pieces. Waltz was just one disaster after another. Yes, in retrospect Jive was the highlight of the ballroom day.

Came home and planted the chestnuts that I’d gathered up in the autumn. Planted them in some papier mache egg boxes and put them in the little greenhouse. Hopefully they’ll sprout and I’ll be able to plant them out in their little biodegradable pots in St Mo’s. Back where most of them came from. While I was in the garden I grabbed today’s PoD. It’s one of a host of crocuses that have taken over one of Scamps containers. Yes, I’ve changed my mind. Croci sounds too arty farty. I think Crocuses is more down to earth.

I attempted to repair this morning’s apple portrait, but it just wasn’t working so I left it and went to tend to my beef olives which were to be my dinner with some potatoes. Scamp was having ‘Rats’ with potatoes instead. My olives were really tasty, but Scamp complained that her Rats were too salty. That’s when I remembered that I’d completely forgotten to salt my beef olives. Still, it didn’t seem to spoil the taste at all.

Salsa at night was fun and furious in the first class and dull in the second. I think this was mainly because the second class was so small and the participants were not all that bright, apart from Scamp and myself of course! Anyway, the class is closing soon and I think most of them are going to merge into the 6.30 class.

While we were watching ‘Shetland’ tonight I picked up an apple and started to eat it. Scamp asked me if I had sketched it first and when I said I’d started a drawing upstairs in the morning she looked very disapproving, so I grabbed a sketch book and drew the offending article. Tried painting it too, but the warm room lighting made colour evaluation too difficult, so I gave that up. The sketch got Scamp’s approval and I got to eat the remainder of the apple.

Tomorrow up early for a change.

Out to Lunch again – 5 March 2019

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Today as I expected we were going to look for more flowers and have lunch too. Both these things are becoming habit forming.

In the morning I broke my rule and painted a bunch of grapes instead of an apple. I hope that won’t cause any great rift in the space-time continuum. When I came downstairs Scamp broke the bad news that there was no Glasgow flight for any of the cruise holidays we had on our short list. Not to worry, I’m sure something will turn up.

Scamp wanted to go out to Torwood Garden Centre to get more flowers for some spring colour. I suggested that on the way back we could go to The Boathouse, the new improved Boathouse which seems to have changed its name to Hebo House. Look on Flickr to find out what I’m talking about. She even offered to drive us there, which made it an offer I couldn’t refuse.

Drove to Torwood, loaded more plants of a flowering persuasion into the car and drove to Hebo House. It’s a much more welcoming place than the one that was there before. It was all style and no substance as I recall. As usual when testing a place we had our standard lunch. No starters, Fish ’n’ Chips for Scamp and a burger (no mayo) for me. I hate mayo on a burger. It just makes the whole thing slippery and difficult to hold, not to mention the mess it makes on my jerseys. Both meals passed muster, although the mushy peas with Scamps F ’n’ C were inedible and the coffee was poor. We’ll go back all being well. When we were going in I noticed a photogenic tree on the far bank of the canal and was going to take a quick snap, then decided I’d get one on the way out. When we were leaving, it was bucketing with rain, but I stuck to my guns and grabbed two quick shots. One of them later became PoD after a fair bit of work.

Back home I made some beef olives, froze two of them and the rest go in the fridge for tomorrow’s dinner. I was just finishing when Scamp shouted that she’d found a cruise with a Glasgow departure. Superb! We booked it on the spot. We shall sail the seas again. Not for quite a while yet, but that gives us something to look forward to. Not only that, we’ve got a balcony cabin!! I can’t wait, but I’ll just have to. The booking this year was a joint effort with both of us looking and poring over web pages for hours.

Went back upstairs and painted a poor effort of a couple of apples and some grapes. It covers the remit, so the space-time continuum should be ok, but it wasn’t a great painting.

Tomorrow we are intending to go dancing in the afternoon and at night. We’ll see how it pans out. We also need to get some practise done in the morning.

Going our separate ways – 4 March 2019

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I took the chance to slip the leash today, for a little while.

Scamp had the second gig of the year at Stepps and, as she didn’t need a roadie so I set off early to visit a new camera shop in Glasgow. The satnav lady knew where it was and got me there without a problem. They didn’t have the tripod I was looking for, but I didn’t really think they would have. It’s rather a niche model and I’ve read conflicting reports about it. I just wanted to have a look at it first hand before I parted with a hundred smackeroonies. The bloke in the shop couldn’t have been less interested:

“Do you have a Benbo Trekker tripod?”
”No. You have to order them from the website.”
“It’s just that I’d rather see it to make sure it will do what I want before I commit myself to buying it.”
”Yeah.”

Obviously not going for salesman of the month then?

Drove back in the general direction of Home using the satnav again. Because of the one-way system return was not the reverse of going, in this case, but the satnav lady knew this too. Once I was on the M8 heading roughly east I switched the satnav lady off and let her go back to sleep. Drove past Home and onward to Stirling where I turned off and took the back road up and over the Tak Ma Doon road, stopping near Loch Coulter to grab some shots to make a panorama later and also a grab shot of the straight road that looks as if it goes all the way to the Ochil Hills. The panorama became PoD. From there it was a lovely run in the springlike sunshine all the way home. Piece ’n’ flat sausage for my lunch and then after I’d dumped the images on the computer, I started today’s apple picture. It looks reasonable and hopefully you’ll be able to check my progress (or regress) soon on the website when I post the first seven. It’s an enjoyable task the painting and drawing of the apples, or at least it has been so far. May even branch out into ink or acrylic later. For just now it’s basically pencil and watercolour.

When Scamp came home I made a delicious tuna pasta. I say ‘delicious’, because we both agreed it was. Don’t know what I did differently this time, but I think it may have been some posh tomato concentrate. Must look for more of it the next time we’re buying Tesco.

Energetic beginners class in STUC and an advanced class where I couldn’t put a foot right. Every move a disaster. Even worse, I knew most of the moves. Just couldn’t get the moves into my head right. I think I just need to think less and go with the flow some times. Must practise Agamemnon this week to get rid of the rough edges. Still lots of laughs.

Tomorrow we have a free day. I think we may be going plant hunting again, although the weather looks rough. We’ll wait and see.

Angry old man – 3 March 2019

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Scamp wanted some messages. Didn’t know it would turn into WW3.

The messages were bought and loaded into the Juke. Was reversing out of the space when I noticed in my parking camera display that somebody else across the road was doing the same. Braked and started to drive back into my space, only just not fast enough for the other driver and his bumper gave mine a little kiss. Drove in to the space properly and got out to have a look. That’s when the other driver shouted “Did you just reverse into me?” I just laughed and said, “No you reversed into me, I was trying to get out of your way.” I looked at the damage and it was almost invisible on the Juke and nothing at all on his. Then he went absolutely ballistic! Shouting and bawling that he had started reversing first and I was an <expletives deleted> idiot. All the while walking backwards to get back into his car. Mr Angry indeed. I was a bit worried that he’d turn green, burst out of his shirt and start throwing the cars about, but he didn’t. He just got back in and I allowed him to be first and to reverse out. I did give him a warning blast on the Juke Horn as he as getting near. He was very careful after that. I bet he would have fun parking at Cumbersheugh Theatre!

After that excitement, we had lunch. That curry last night had given me heartburn during the night and I was careful not to have too much fatty stuff today. No black pudding, no bacon. Just sausages and an egg. Very restrained. After that I went for a walk in St Mo’s and got today’s PoD which is a couple of gorse flowers. Definite signs of spring are appearing although the weather fairies are predicting possible snow showers this week.

We decided we’d try out Shannon’s new Sunday Social venue which is the Record Factory at the bottom of Byres Road. I was a bit concerned about parking in the West End as it is usually expensive, even on a Sunday after 6pm whereas in the centre of town it is free. I needn’t have worried. All the parking spaces, and there were lots of them, were free on a Sunday. We actually got there early and found a seat no problem. It was a fairly large dance floor, but only half of it was wooden, the other half was tiled concrete. Once the music started the floor filled up quite quickly and time flew by. We left about 8pm because we still hadn’t had dinner. Quite impressed with the new venue. Let’s hope it becomes a regular twice monthly event. It felt like the old venues we’ve had for Sunday Socials and there were lots of folk we hadn’t seen in years.

Tomorrow Scamp has a Gems gig, but doesn’t need a roadie, so I may go for a run in to Glasgow to look at a tripod.

Apprentice Drivers – 2 March 2019

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Scamp was out this afternoon with Isobel and June (a girls afternoon out) at Cumbersheugh Theatre to see Sister Act. I volunteered to be driver. I’ve tried to park at the theatre many times before and know just how stupid people are. Today the stupid ones stayed at home it was the apprentice stupids who were out driving. As if it wasn’t bad enough having to manoeuvre around a bus, an actual bus in this tiny excuse for a carpark, there were holes with a crowd of potholers complete with ropes and crash helmets waiting to investigate them. As if this wasn’t bad enough, one woman decided it would be good to go round the one way system the wrong way. When she was eventually discouraged from this suicidal move, the bus driver decided it was time to get back out, so we had to wait while he drove down the single track road avoiding more potholes and drivers coming the opposite way. Actually, the bus was a godsend because it cleared a path for the rest of us to get out of this disaster waiting to happen.

I just went home and painted a couple of apples, read a few pages in my latest book and browsed the InterWeb for holidays somewhere warm and dry without potholes. All too soon it was time to pick the ladies up. Thankfully Scamp suggested I wait five or ten minutes for the majority of the dodgem drivers to get out before I made my bid. Before I left the house I ordered a curry from Bombay Dreams, intending to pick it up when we were on our way home after dropping off the others.

Bombay Dreams usually produces lovely food. Today was an exception. The curries were ready and waiting for us when we arrived, but were cooling considerably sitting next to the front door. Naan bread was dead by the time we got to it and although the pakora tasted fresh, the curries were disappointing. It was maybe just a bad day or a new chef, but you’re only as good as your last meal in this game.

PoD was cut flowers. Not the most inspiring photo I’ve ever taken, but it was ok.

We watched Zootropolis to brighten our evening. It was a film Scamp had recorded at Christmas and was head and shoulders away from the junk that was being offered on a Saturday night by any of the terrestrial channels.

Hoping to go dancing to a new venue tomorrow.