Month: May 2020

And what of the day then? – 11 May 2020

Posted on by Zogman

It was to be a busy day. Not hardly a minute to spare.

Can’t say much about it though. It’s all under wraps until 13th May when all will become clear.

Spent part of the morning planning out what today’s sketch would be. The prompt was “Illustrate a Recipe”. I did really try out different ideas, but none of them worked and as the day wore on, the chance of it making it to paper were getting slimmer and slimmer. So slim in fact that it became lost and I’m leaving it until tomorrow to finish (i.e. Start).

Tesco delivery arrived early and it looked as if we were back to our old ways of buying the entire shop. I pitied the poor bloke having to transport all those boxes from van to door on his porters trolley.

I left Scamp to deal with the storing of the mountain of stuff. If I’d tried to put things away, she’d only have gone back later and rearranged everything, so instead I walked over to Condorrat and posted a parcel to West Ewell. Sorry Hazy, it’s not for you, but be warned a small package will be dropping through your letterbox soon, maybe even tomorrow. IT HASN’T GOT YOUR NAME ON IT!!

Walked around St Mo’s a couple of times and took today’s PoD which, probably nobody will like and I agree it’s a bit dull, but I like it. I’m not certain the sepia treatment worked, but I’m trying to get out of the straight macro mode and become a bit more creative. It was a cold day. Allegedly it was just into double figures of degrees C, but when you were in that wind it didn’t feel like that at all. That’s wind chill, though. In the sun and sheltered the wind it was pleasantly warm … if you were wearing a thick hoodie over a thick shirt and a tee shirt it was pleasantly warm.

Not a lot more to say about today. Spent most of the evening trying to remove DRM from one of Scamp’s books without success. I’ll try again tomorrow, maybe once I’ve caught up with the sketching.

And that’s the plan for tomorrow. To catch up, then to fix the DRM.

Sub zero – 10 May 2020

Posted on by Zogman

Temperatures predicted to be below zero tonight and it didn’t feel that much warmer today.

We both did a walk around the garden trying to work out what had gone wrong with the acer which is looking very sorry for itself. Scamp thinks its roots have been too wet and that could be part of the problem, but I think it’s been sitting in the sun too long too. It seems to like the shade. Perhaps it’s a combination of the two. It’s now back in the place it’s been for the last year and has had a change of compost, with more drainage so we’ll keep a watching brief on it for the next wee while. Otherwise, things are progressing well. The cold east wind today was making some of the alliums bob about a bit and we may need to give them a bit more support soon. It was one of allium heads that got PoD.

Under Scamp’s careful tutelage I made a steak pie in the afternoon. It turned out a lot better than I thought it would. Different butcher, slightly different method, but the result was the same, just as good as last time. Even better, there’s enough left over for tomorrow’s dinner.

We needed some potatoes for tonight’s dinner, so I volunteered to go out into the cold and get some. Of course I came back with a lot more than potatoes. That’s the trouble with having to queue for your shopping, you want to make sure you get everything you went for and tend to buy things you didn’t have on your list.

Spoke to JIC tonight and heard how his garden is progressing. It sounds great and I’m sure he’s not exaggerating. His garden is huge compared to ours and I know he spends a lot of time keeping it up to scratch. I don’t think I could expend that amount of energy on a garden, but I’m sure Scamp could.

Sketch for today was a pet or an animal. Damselflies are animals according to some learned people. I took them at their word and painted a blue damselfly. I’m not sure if they, or my artwork is to everyone’s taste, but that’s not the point. It’s the act of painting that it’s all about. Doing something.

I’ve closed down the wee greenhouse tonight, just incase the weather fairies have it right with their -1º in the middle of the night. I’ve got some things to do tomorrow, including cleaning up this computer. It’s running very slowly and needs a good clean out. I think the time for a new OS is getting closer too! Oh yes, and we’re hopefully getting a Tesco order delivered tomorrow as well. A busy day beckons.

Catching up – 9 May 2020

Posted on by Zogman

Never quite got round to completing (i.e. starting) yesterday’s sketch, so today I had to pay the price. Two drawings in one day.

It had been a rather hot night again last night, even with our TOG 1 quilt, so morning came rather later than it should have. The sky was grey and the clouds looked heavy. The temperature at 9am was 14ºc which is a nonsense for May.

Yesterday’s topic had been Your Favourite Drawing Tool which is just plain stupid. It’s like asking someone who their favourite child is! I couldn’t pick a favourite drawing tool, so what I did was make a selection of my favourite tools, be they pen, pencil, or eraser, because erasers are tools to. They produce highlights in a pencil sketch if used properly. Got started and with a watercolour wash on a pencil sketch, I had one tick on the To Do list. After coffee I’d start today’s sketch.

After coffee time I had a wander round the garden (like a teddybear) and found that one of the peas I’d planted the other day had disappeared, and was that a shiny, slimy trail I saw? I do believe it was. Time for some retaliation. Not pellets, but wool pellets which slugs don’t like apparently. Maybe slugs don’t knit. Pellet trap laid, I squirted some of Scamp’s patented Garlic Water on the raised bed. As well as wool, allegedly slugs don’t like the smell of garlic. So now we know that slugs are either non-knitting vampires or else leading us a merry dance. Still, I felt better doing something rather than nothing.

In the afternoon I finally got round to that second sketch which wasn’t the most interesting of subjects either. A Wall Clock or Your Alarm Clock. Now I don’t do alarm clocks much now. My phone does a good job of waking me and we don’t have that many wall clocks in the house. I chose the easiest one and drew my old alarm clock. Digital, rudimentary, made from aluminium and plastic with an LCD display. It was an instant winner. Simple pencil sketch sufficed. Two Ticks.

Later in the afternoon I helped Scamp repot her acer which was looking a bit down and started a ‘tattie bag’ with some Jersey Royal potatoes that were sprouting eyes. We kept hoping and waiting for rain, but the promised showers never really appeared. A few drops in the bird bath in the morning, about five drops in the afternoon and then the clouds left us for destination undisclosed. Maybe tomorrow the clouds will open.

There was a dance practise tonight. We danced the full El Carnaval salsa track, nearly five minutes long and very, very fast. After a rest we started on Waltz. Waltz 1 was ok and fine after a couple of false starts. The discussions (arguments) went on for over half an hour before we realised we were both wrong. Finally agreed on a middle way and danced it through a couple of times. Called it a draw and celebrated with a G ’n’ T each.

PoD turned out to be another shot of the American Cowslip called Shooting Star. They are becoming battered by the wind and the flowers may not last much longer.

Nothing much to do tomorrow except maybe a rain dance.
(And just in case you were wondering. You were always my favourite child!)

Big Al takes charge – 8 May 2020

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Bit the bullet and called in some help.

Phoned Wheelcraft this morning and spoke to Big Al. Told him what the problem was and he said to bring the wheel in. Once he’d stripped out the ball bearings and cleaned the grease out he spotted a crack in the hub cup. It’s going to need a new hub and the wheel rebuilt. About £50. It’s a good job I didn’t get the cone off, because I’d never have thought of looking for a crack in the cup. He’s just the same as the last time I was there. Social Distancing? I don’t think he’s been listening to Boris or Nick. Three people working in that pokey wee place. Still, he knows what he’s doing and is the only one I’d trust to repair my wheel, even if it’s going to cost a bit more than I’d expected.

Drove back from Clachan of Campsie in an improving day, although there were a few heavy looking clouds hanging around the Campsie Fells as we drove past them. The rain didn’t come, though and the Juke was driving well. It’s amazing that when you’ve been travelling at walking pace for the last four our five weeks, 40mph seem really fast!

Scamp went out to get some stuff for tonight’s dinner and I walked with her part of the way, then veered off to walk round St Mo’s. I was looking for pine cones, because we’ve found that a cat (?) has been crapping in the her sweet pea box and apparently one of the best preventative measures is to cover the box in pine cones because cats don’t like to walk on them. I suppose they are quite jaggy and would hurt the poor pussy’s feet. Me, I wanted to go for land mines, but Scamp wouldn’t have that as the box is too close to the wall of the house. We’ll see how the pine cones work first.

While I was out I got today’s PoD which is a spider wrapping up a little black fly. I felt sorry for the poor fly, but in another shot you can clearly see the hooked claws on its feet. Possibly a robber fly. There are a lot of them about in the late spring and early summer. Anyway of the two shots I kept out of the 14 I took, this was the best. Not the best of a bad lot, but not far off it.

I made Asparagus with Lemon Spaghetti and Peas for dinner and despite the fact that it was very lemony, I quite enjoyed it.

Tomorrow is Saturday, but that’s just a name now. Don’t have any plans

Wheels within wheels – 7 May 2020

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It’s just a wheel after all, what can be difficult.

I’ll tell you what can be difficult. Finding a spanner that actually fits the locknut on the wheel axle. That’s number 1. Finally solved that one by using a shifting spanner. Next problem was finding a spanner that would fit the inner, possibly cone nut. Not only fit, but also be thin enough to slip into the gap between the locknut and the wheel hub. It was at that point that I gave up on repairing the front wheel of the bike. I could find a spanner that fitted in the slot and seemed to be the right size. Unfortunately the nut is 13mm and the only spanner I had that was thin enough was 14mm. Sometimes you just have to take heed of these warnings and say let’s go and look at how much I’d have to pay to Halfords for a new wheel. The answer was that prices start at £65!! For a piece of Halfords trash? I’d hope not. The fact that it’s also a disk brake wheel would inevitably increase that price. I put back the rubber gaiter and the spindle and went to see if Wheelcraft were still in business. No answer on the phone. Likewise the bike shop in Cumbersheugh village. I’ll try again tomorrow. If the worst comes to the worst, I’ll order a cone spanner from Halfords and use that to strip the wheel down. At least then I’ll know if its ball bearings that’s inside or a cassette.

Halfway through the wheel struggle, I took some time out to help Scamp with manoeuvring the plant pots back into place in the front garden. She did the hard work of cutting and trimming the grass, I cleaned the mower. Gave it a spray with WD40 too to hopefully prevent more grass from sticking to the underneath. I planted the peas that I’d been growing in a plug rack, so now I have one full row of little green heads poking through the soil of the raised bed. Tomorrow I’m intending planting another rack of them. Kale will soon be ready for thinning out. Dug up the last of the black kale I planted last year. Green kale still looks good, so it will get a week or so of growing before it too is removed.

Later in the afternoon I went for a walk down to the shops to get some ingredients for tomorrow’s dinner. On the way home I saw one of those three wheeler Ski Scooters that you wiggle your way along on and wondered how difficult it would be to ride that home. It was a bit rusty, but I could clean it up. Might be worth a try. Then again, I don’t know who was the last person to use it and if they had washed their hands before they were last playing with it. Probably better not. However, if it’s still there tomorrow …

Didn’t have a PoD, so had a look in the garden, but nothing really inspired me. Finally settled on a wizened tulip that was dropping its petals. It took a bit of delicate balancing to get the two final petals to stay put long enough to get the photos taken. Quite happy with the result. Reminded me of a flamenco dancer. Beautiful colours.

No plans for tomorrow. Scamp booked another slot for Click & Collect at Tesco for the 18th which is just a nice time giving a bit of space from next Monday’s delivery. Never used Click & Collect at Tesco. It will be an adventure, and a short run for the Juke. Must keep the wheels turning.

Out early and on the Dewdrop – 6 May 2020

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I’d considered going out yesterday, but realistically it was too cold. Yes, it was warm, hot even in the sun, but the wind was cooling, too cooling. What I did say was that I would go today and I did. The wind had dropped and it was a really enjoyable run, but after only about twelve years, it looks like I need re-grease the front wheel bearings. I’d have thought the bearings would have lasted longer than 12 years 😉 I need to have a serious look at them tomorrow to find out if they can be cleaned and re-greased or if I need to buy a new cassette unit. Still, it was a good run on a warm day and contributed to my daily exercise. Got a PoD too. It turned out to be a Drinker Moth caterpillar (Euthrix potatoria).

Back home after lunch I’d half decided to go out for a walk to get some more photos, but a seat in the sun, joining Scamp at the front door was an even better option so I took that with both hands. Read a few more chapters from my latest book City of Windows. Enjoying it. Saw my first swallows while I was sitting there. It was the screaming sound they make that alerted me. Maybe they were house martins or swifts. I don’t know the difference. Must find out.

When Scamp decided that it was warm enough to take her lounger to the back garden, I finally gave in and took the Oly out for a walk in St Mo’s. It would probably have been better if I’d taken the SD card with me, but luckily there wasn’t much to photograph. Then when I was walking back across the BMX track a damselfly lifted off in front of me. No time to take a photo, even if I’d had an SD card!

By the time I came back empty handed, it was cooling down a bit and we ate our kedgeree inside, but took our tinned peaches in lime jelly outside with us. Coffee outside after that, then out of a clear blue sky a little cloud appeared and obliterated the sun. Then that same cloud grew bigger and didn’t seem to want to leave the sun. That’s when I decided it was getting too cool for comfort. Shades of what’s to come if the weather fairies are to be believed.

That was a good day. The first real run with the Dewdrop this year, my first swallow this year and my first damselfly this year. I’m happy with that.

Just another sunny day – 5 May 2020

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It was one of those unexpectedly good days. Expected it to be overcast and right from the start it was lovely sunshine.

Possibly it was because of that sunshine, but neither of us did very much in the morning. Scamp was reading and I was struggling through today’s Sudoku. Cup of coffee each and a bit of cake. After that we agreed that we needed milk and bread, so off we trotted to the shops. Big queues everywhere except The Food Factory, so that’s where we went. They didn’t have as much as M&S or Aldi, but we weren’t looking for much, so that sufficed for our shopping.

Back home, lunch for me was a panini wrapped round some tinned red salmon and lettuce. Ages and ages since I’ve had salmon of the tinned variety. It has a totally different taste from ‘real’ salmon. Makes you wonder what it’s made from. I doubt if there’s much fish in there. Scamp had tuna with lettuce on a panini and declared it fine. There again, tinned tuna is nothing like fresh tuna. Hardly the same colour and nothing like the taste. What is it really? To finish off lunch we had a piece of banana cake. It was truly delicious. I had two bits and I think Scamp had the same.

I’d a bit more work to do in the back room. I’m thinking about making a light box to photograph my drawings in and I was scrounging around for some cardboard to make it. I think I’ve managed to find enough. May start construction tomorrow after the plans are drawn up. I’ve been watching some folk making them on YouTube and they don’t look too difficult. We’ll see.

Got fed up and decided to take the Big Dog out for a walk in St Mo’s and Scamp decided a walk would do her good, so off we went. Went round the pond twice and that’s where I got the picture of the baby coot looking really straggly and scruffy. Strange how the area around their beak is like orange fur when it will later become the iconic white plate. They were deep in the horsetails and were difficult to spot and even more difficult to get a clear shot of. I shot about 20 frames, but it was the very first one that was the best and that made PoD.

We had a bit of a dance practise tonight and covered some of the sequence dances with Scamp trying to teach me a couple of new ones she’d seen Stewart and Jane doing in their little Lockdown Videos. Really appreciate them taking the time to do them.

Tomorrow I may go cycling, just may. It was warm in the sun today, but the east wind was cold. Tomorrow is to be warmer apparently. We’ll see.

Hot Stuff – 4 May 2020

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Up at 4.30am for a cooling glass of OJ.

It did the trick, but it took me ages to get back to sleep again. It was, in the words of the song “Too … Damn … Hot!” I finally broke surface just before 8.30, but still felt tired. We both agreed that we need to change the duvet cover to our cheapo IKEA low tog one. That was one job added to the to-do list.

Scamp was delighted to hear that while we were struggling with heat, the grass was getting a good soaking from the rain. That meant we didn’t have to water the combined weedkiller, mosskiller, lawn feed into the roots of the front grass again. We didn’t bother to spread any on the back grass, because if all the weeds and moss was killed off, there wouldn’t be much else there, except about a dozen blades of grass.

Last night I’d been on the point of removing myself from Every Day in May on Facebook.  Today I did it. EDiM is a private group for sketchers to share and discuss our interpretation of a daily prompt. It’s a great idea and one I’ve taken to in the past couple of years. Unfortunately, a change in Admins has meant a change in the rules. I’m in agreement with some, but felt the need to complain about some that have been slipped in quietly in the dead of night. Now a member can’t post a drawing/sketch in their own page and then link it to EDiM. The Admin gave a somewhat contorted reasoning for this new rule. I disagreed. Today I received a reply to my criticism which basically explained how to post the pic twice, once to my page and then once to EDiM page. Now I know the difference between condensation and condescension and I hate being talked down to. That is why my response was “Wrong Answer.” Left the message a couple of hours to be read by anyone passing by and then left the group. I know the words “Toys” and “Pram” may be in your mind, but I don’t like to be told how to do something the awkward way when there are already routes in the software to do it much more neatly. Too many leaders in that group now, I believe. Too many rules.

We went for a walk, our daily exercise to St Mo’s. When we were walking there, we both spotted a bunch of daisies sprouting from a crack in the mortar of a wall. They became the PoD. Scallywag Daisies.

Scamp was baking today while I was working in the painting room. She made a Banana Cake which we haven’t tasted yet and also a Fruit Loaf which was very nice, especially spread with butter and with a cup of tea to wash it down. Tomorrow, hopefully we will get to taste the Banana Cake.

That was about it for the day. The rain cleared up halfway through the morning and the sun shone which was probably what enticed us out to St Mo’s. Weather seems set to improve in the next few days, but tales from the weather fairies of “Wintry Showers!!!” at the weekend. I don’t like the sound of that!

May need to go out for milk tomorrow, but just down to the local shops.

Oh, yes, and May The Fourth Be With You.

Painting without a brush – 3 May 2020

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Scary business slashing away at a painting with a knife.

For some unexplained reason, I got up this morning and started cleaning up the back room. Scamp thought I was doing it to provide me with a spare bed in the event that someone was disturbing my sleep by snoring. Unlikely. Or did I mishear her, did she say that I was disturbing someone’s sleep by snoring? More likely. If it was either of those reasons, then the prompt was subliminal, I didn’t generate it knowingly. Luckily around 11am it was time to turn on the coffee machine and I gave up on the pointless exercise to return to reality, and coffee.

It looked like another beautiful day had dawned. It had taken a few hours for the weather to get its ducks in order, but now the sky looked set fair for a few hours. I took some of my plants out of the little greenhouse and set them on the grass to harden off a bit. The garden is beginning to look a lot more active with the sun last week warming up the ground and the rain at the end of the week giving some much needed moisture. I even have a pea pushing its little green head above the soil of the raised bed. One pea of the dozen or so I planted in double rows. Well, perhaps it’s one of many to come. It looks like the peas I planted in the little plug pots are beginning to show signs of growth, even a couple of the ones I held back from last years harvest and carefully dried over the winter have sprouted. The James Grieve apple tree has its first flowers and hopefully the Russet beside it will come to flower this week. My biggest surprise is the return of the American Cowslip “Shooting Star”. I’d thought it was dead and was really pleased to see some green shoots coming from it in April. Today it has three flower stalks and two flowers in bloom. I just checked and it was flowering last year on 2nd May. Just one day behind this year isn’t bad.

After lunch I got started painting. I took a photo out of the painting room window and used that as a prompt. A few heavy clouds and some blue sky over the Campsie Fells. It took about an hour and a half to get the first likeness, and another hour after that to get the details. It was all done with a painting knife or two painting knives to be precise, no brush was used. I finished it (for today) just before Scamp called me down for dinner.

Dinner tonight was Bruschetta with a base of home made bread, then a rub with garlic and topped with little vine tomatoes, basil and olive oil. Lovely starter. Main was sea bass with Jersey Royal potatoes and broccoli, washed down with Rosé D’ Anjou. Pudding was our own stewed rhubarb and custard. Quite delicious because Scamp was cooking and I volunteered to be pot washer.

Spoke to JIC and were updated on all things gardening down south and also how to deal with money grabbing cruise companies like, say P&O who withhold the deposit you’ve paid even when the cruise you booked on isn’t going to sail due to government restrictions. We may try some of his suggestions.

PoD was the apple blossom, but the Shooting Star gave it a run for its money.

With the tree lights shining multicolouredly (if that’s not a word, then it should be), that brings us to the end of another blog. Hope you enjoyed it.

Mobile again on four wheels – 2 May 2020

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Driving again, but still the queues persist.

Tasks for the day:

  • Get some plywood to make painting boards
  • Fix up the sparkly new lights
  • Decide on dinner

Just to get it done, I fixed up the solar cell and then the two of us got the new lights fitted round the tree. It looks a bit untidy, but I think the effect will work when it gets dark. I still believe a rethink may be necessary, but they are unwound and in place for now.

After lunch we drove to B&Q to get the plywood. Saw the length of the queue to get in and drove back home. Got into our parking space again. Battery seems to be charging ok. No plywood, so instead I used a mini roller to put gesso on a couple of boards I’d found. Old Dalerboards that were probably meant for oil painting only, so I don’t know if the acrylic gesso will stick to them. I’m sure I’ll find out tonight or tomorrow.

I took the mandatory trip over to St Mo’s for today’s photo. PoD turned out to be of a spider apparently levitating in front of some whin bushes. I don’t know what happened to the GX 80 I was using, but every shot turned out with the whin flowers looking golden rather than the more acid yellow they really are. Something went wrong somewhere with its colour balance. However, that’s what we have Lightroom for. A little bit of sliding the sliders and all was well again. PoD nearly went to a photo of a girl bunny (not a bunny girl!) wearing sunglasses. I hope whoever lost it, finds it again.

Hearty Miso Ginger Chicken Soup was our dinner tonight and we both agreed it sort of worked, but not quite. Neither of us were all that keen on the miso soup, so we’d probably replace that with chicken stock. The chicken was fine. Cut into thin strips it cooks really quickly. We both liked the Pak Choi, but would reduce the amount of ginger as it seemed to take over. Not a complete rewrite of the recipe which stayed substantially the same, just tweaking. The one thing that worked for us was the bread. A dark mix of three types of flour, so I won’t be able to make that one again!

Well, it took a while for it to get dark enough for the lights to come on round the tree, but they are sparkling brightly now so Scamp’s happy with them.

Nothing planned for tomorrow, although it seems to be a little cooler than today.