Month: February 2021

Testing the new toy – 18 February 2021

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Before we got to that, there was the subject of some shearing to be done.

It didn’t take all that long to reduce my overgrown locks to a mess pile on the painting room floor.  I managed most of it myself, but had to rely on Scamp to do the tidying up at the back.  I remember one of my colleagues at work saying that his grandfather stood in front of a mirror with scissors in one hand and a small mirror in the other and cut his own hair.  His acceptance of this skill always bemused me.  He said, “Of course he was a blacksmith, so he was used to it.”  Used to what, I always asked myself.  Are all hairdressers failed blacksmiths or are all blacksmiths failed hairdressers?  Answers, as usual, on a postcard.  Anyway after the hair had been cut to my and Scamp’s satisfaction and the hair hoovered up, I started today’s Sudoku feeling much lighter.

It was a bit of a dull day.  Not really encouraging us to go out for our daily walk.  In fact it wasn’t until late in the afternoon that I took the new macro lens for a walk in St Mo’s.  I found yesterday’s orange ladybird hiding in a crevice in a tree and that made PoD.  Walked to the shops and bought some stuff for tonight’s dinner which was a rehash of Tuesday’s chilli.  Tonight’s was better, but not as hot as a chilli should be, despite the addition of more chilli paste.

Today’s prompt was “carrots”.  Being a generous person, I gave them three carrots.  Subjects for painting should always be in odd numbered batches.  Don’t know why, but odd numbers of items are always more interesting than even numbered ones.  I eventually moved away from the sketch book and painted on cheap Flying Tiger 300gsm watercolour block.  I was happy with the 3 carrots.

Tomorrow is Friday and we’ve no plans.  Hopefully not as dull a day as today.

Sunshine for our anniversary – 17 February 2021

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Forty eight years ago we tied the knot and the knot is still tight forty eight years later.

I actually got a message from Parcel Force to give me a one hour time slot for the delivery of my new lens. It wasn’t an anniversary present. Nothing to do with anniversary. Pure coincidence this time. The time slot was for 11.45 – 12.45. Right in the middle of what looked like a good day, but of course they got the time wrong. About 10.15 there was a knock at the door and there was a parcel on the doorstep with a Parcel Force man retreating.

After opening up the big box and extracting quite a heavy piece of metal and glass, taking a few photos, just to make sure it worked, we planned the rest of the day. We had dinner to buy at Tesco and meds to collect at the next door chemist, then we might go for a spin out in a world that had colour, not simply white.

It was when we left Tesco I thought we might go to Motherwell, the Capital city of North Lanarkshire and find Baron’s Haugh which is a nature reserve and parkland where my brother was taken loads of great photos.
So … we were heading for a nature reserve with plenty of opportunities for nature and macro photography and I remembered, just as we were driving down the slip road to the motorway, that I’d left my brand new macro lens at home, because when we left we’d intended to tootle round Cumbersheugh for half an hour and there would be limited photo opportunities there that I hadn’t already made use of. Numpty.

The reason for Baron’s Haugh in particular was because of a FB post from one of the salsa beginners from last year, berating me for being less than complimentary about Motherwell in general. She waxed lyrical about Baron’s Haugh and we though we should give it a try sometime. We got there after only one wrong turn (sat nav hadn’t a clue for once) and had a half hour walk past one of the bird watching areas in the sunshine although the wind was cold. We were standing on a crossroads of paths and I was checking exactly where we were with the OS map on my phone when a deer ran past, then another and another. In total, four deer ran past, less than 50m away. Motherwell is certainly a lot more rural than I remember it. We walked back to the car, but didn’t see any more wild animals and drove home, agreeing to go back again, better prepared for the conditions. Isn’t it strange that it took a Polish girl about the same age as our daughter to tell us about this parkland, almost on our doorstep.  Thank you Mirka!

Dinner tonight was individual fish pies from Tesco. Sounds a bit downmarket for an anniversary dinner, but they were rather posh fish pies in little thin wooden baskets and were baked in the oven. Washed down with a very nice bottle of white and followed by Eve’s Pudding from M&S. The only thing we made (Scamp made) was bruschetta as a starter and it too was intensely tasty.

We listened to Album II by Loudon Wainwright III (Me and my friend the Cat!) and reminisced for the second time recently. A great day.

PoD was a fence post covered in ivy from our Motherwell walk.

I used coloured pencils for today’s prompt of “Violin”. Not quite what I was intending it to look like. A bit clumsy but a change from paints and graphite or ink sketches. It’s OK, that’s all I’ll say.

The other day I almost cut my hair. “… It was getting kind of long. Could have said it was in my way, but I didn’t and I wonder why …” Tomorrow I may do that thing.

As you will have guessed this is another catch up. Hopefully the last for a while.

Talking to Andrew – 16 February 2021

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Meeting this morning with the man who talks in $ and £ and € and …

Despite the fact that I understand very little of what he’s talking about, I thoroughly enjoy these meetings. Although he probably knows that don’t understand how these things work, he never talks down to me and explains it all so clearly at the same time. That’s a skill. The bottom line is that we’ll be able to eat for another week.

After the Zoom meeting Scamp went off in the wee red car to do some shopping in Tesco and I started to refill my paintbox which was running low on a few colours. I really should use the new paintbox I got after the first lockdown, but I like the old one and am using up some of my tube paints refilling the half pans in it. I had just finished refilling a half pan of Paynes Grey which is usually a bluish grey, when I discovered the tube was burst and I’d a neutral grey over my fingers. Not only was I covered in paint, but it was the wrong type of paint. I had to wash it out of the pan and hope there will be enough of the original blue-grey paint left. I was just finishing cleaning the sink when Scamp returned, but without some of the things I’d asked for. That’s the trouble with Tesco these days, or at least our Tesco, their stocks of certain things seem to disappear and take a long while to be replenished.

After lunch I went for a walk down to the shops to see if they had the sun dried tomatoes Tesco didn’t have. Thankfully they did have and I got some sour cream to go with the veg chilli I was making for dinner. Walked round St Mo’s on the way back and got today’s PoD there. It’s an orange ladybird, scientific name: Halyzia sedecimguttata. If it’s trying to get to the top of that ash tree it has a fair bit of climbing to do.

Chilli turned out a bit mild.  Even Scamp commented on its lack of spiciness.  I didn’t want to tell her it had half a chilli in it!  That’s usually enough.  Maybe next time I’ll put the seeds in too.

I have to admit I struggled with today’s prompt “Pancakes. I could find no way to make a decent fist of the drawing of a pancake. Then I looked at my plate which was a lot stickier and buttery than this, and there was the answer staring me in the face!  Painted with Derwent watercolours. First time I’ve used them seriously, but not impressed. Colours seem muddier, less transparent than W&N.

Happy Anniversary to Hazy & Neil D. Hope you had a great day.

Tomorrow we don’t have any plans at present.

 

 

Almost gone and a snow chicken – 15 February 2021

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The snow is almost gone and a snow chicken has appeared.

We went for a walk to the shops today for milk, fruit and veg. Scamp went to M&S and I went to Iceland. Between us we got the milk and most of the fruit and veg. Of course I bought much more than Scamp. That’s my big failing, but I can also, occasionally come up trumps with some strange purchase that turn out to be useful. Today, that wasn’t the case, but the now partly empty, box of Neapolitan ice cream is in the freezer.

After lunch I went for a walk in St Mo’s. The snow there was taking longer to disappear probably because it had been compressed by hundreds of feet. I had a fair few shots of coots and moorhens on the part frozen St Mo’s pond, but they fell into a support role when I saw the Snow Chicken. Snow chickens are very rare, only seen after a heavy snow fall is rapidly thawing. They are rumoured to migrate to colder climates under cover of night. Two women seemed amused at this man staggering around a block of snow beside the BMX track at St Mo’s, occasionally crouching almost on all fours. As I walked away, they smiled at me and I smiled back. How can you explain a thing like a Snow Chicken. It will be gone tomorrow, winging its way over the mountains to return to its native Norway.

I had a quick chat with Hazy later but she had to cut the call short to sort out a cat fight! Never a dull moment in Hazy’s house 🙂

The Snow Chicken got PoD and today’s EDiF prompt was Cycle. My drawing for that was an ink sketch of my Kona Dewdrop. I finally posted yesterday’s post for the prompt Venice below.

Tomorrow we have a webinar booked with our friend in Falkirk in the morning. After that our day is our own.

The day that the rains came – 14 February 2021

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At last the snow was retreating.

We’d had a long day yesterday. Today was a day for catching up with stuff and not doing much more than that. What I did do was post yesterday’s Robin painting and catch up with yesterday’s blog. I also baked some bread, practised the rumba we learned over the last two weeks, learned a new waltz routine and baked a loaf.

The catch up of blog and painting were done in the morning and the early afternoon. The bread was made in the early afternoon, but didn’t even see the oven until about 8pm, just after the dance class where we learned the new waltz routine which looked quite complicated at first until I realised that it was made up of bits and pieces we’d picked up in Michael’s and Kirsty’s classes, then it was just a case of fitting them together as seamlessly as possible. We also went over the rumba routine we learned last week and got rid of some of the rough edges.

Spoke to JIC in the evening and discussed finance with him and also Vixen’s sore eye. I swear that dog is the most accident prone canine I’ve ever heard of. For such a big, strong, absolutely fearless animal, she’s had more than her fair share of bumps and scrapes.

That was about it apart from one of us standing at the window every half hour reporting on the disappearing snow. The only problem is that it’s disappearing too slowly for some folk!

Tomorrow we may go shopping on foot. I might take a more interesting photo than today’s PoD which was some moss growing on our Magnolia Stellata. That and also get today’s “Venice” prompt finished and tomorrow’s “Cycle” completed too. If I get half of those thing completed, I’ll be a happier bunny.

V Day – 13 February 2021

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Vaccination day for me today. It’s a long wait until 4.40pm!

I just couldn’t settle today. Bobby Flavell, our neighbour, and I had agreed to travel up to the vaccination centre on the bus. What paranoia that created. Travelling in the closed confines of a bus! With other people on board! Would we survive? Bobby couldn’t get his car out to drive there and I couldn’t be sure of getting mine back into a parking space when we returned. Besides which, so many DPD, Argos and other delivery vans bombing up our snow covered street meant there had been a couple of bumps and a lot of near misses. The bus seemed the sensible option.

As it happened, it was the driver, Bobby and I on the bus. It didn’t even have to stop all the way to the Muirfield. We even got dropped off almost right at the door, meaning we were there about half an hour early.

We waited in the first queue to have our basic details taken then a quick temperature check and we were into the second queue.
Next stop was the verification of our letter, confirmation of our details and formal agreement to have the vaccine.
The next station was where things almost went pear shaped. Here we had to list any medication we were on and any allergies we had. I explained that I have had a severe allergic reaction to certain shellfish. This seemed to raise a flag because some vaccines use shellfish extract as a transmission agent. I’m not sure if that was the exact description or not, I just had this vision of all the planning, re-planning  and checking out we’d gone through to get here and then being told, “Sorry mate. This one will kill you, not cure you”. However, all was well. I was getting the Astra-Zeneca vaccine which doesn’t use shellfish.
On to the table with those bright red syringes in their box. The actual vaccination was a bit of an anti-climax. The only problem was that with the allergy problem I’d to sit for 15 minutes to make sure everything was ok, while Bobby was off scot free. However, like a good neighbour he waited for me in the anteroom and we caught the bus home. Done!

Today’s PoD celebrated the occasion with my Mini-Me, Zog, taking my place and the nurse ready with what looks like a very big syringe! I’d planned it in the afternoon and it took all of five minutes to set up and take.

Dancing in the evening with a Valentine’s Zoom Dance. Great fun as usual, and maybe more so because we can actually participate in a few more dances, although the waltz and quickstep are taking second place to the more compact sequence dances as space is limited in our living room. Still good fun.

No time to do a sketch or painting, but that was to be expected on such a busy day. As you will realise, this is another catch-up blog post.

Hopefully on Sunday I will clear my feet and I’ll be able to start on Monday with a clean sheet.

We had more snow on Saturday, only a light covering and the temperature is starting to rise. Sunday might see the beginning of a much needed thaw. May go out to get the essentials for dinner, that’s all.

We went for a spin – 12 February 2021

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Yesterday we dug the car out and today we were taking it for a quick run to find the way into the Vaccination Centre.

The place was called The Muirfield Centre and before that it was Muirfield Primary school. Confusingly it’s still called The Muirfield Centre, but it’s a completely new building in a slightly different position. The access road we used to know no longer leads to it. However the new road (are you still with me) was easy to locate as there were signs pointing out the way. Found it. Car park was mobbed of course, but we weren’t waiting, we were just driving back home again today.

Parking back at the house was a bit dodgy and after a bit of wheel spin we dug the car a track through the ice to allow it to reverse into our space. All well.

After lunch we went for a walk round Broadwood Loch. We wore the YakTrax and were glad we did. Bits of the path were covered in a couple of centimetres of solid ice. Most of the water of the loch was thawed although there was a skin of ice in places. For once, all the geese, ducks and swans had moved en masse away from the car park and the free food, to the other side of the loch to gossip, paddle in the water and slide on the ice. It made an interesting photo, but PoD turned out to be a couple of folk waking under the trees across the loch from us.

After dinner, Scamp wasn’t feeling too well and ended up being sick. We think it might have been the mayonnaise in her tuna and baked potato that caused it. She went to bed early with Nurse Zog making sure she was comfortable every fifteen minutes or so.

I did, however manage to slap some paint on one of my sketch books to produce a reply to the prompt of “Meadow”. We don’t really have meadows in Scotland. We have fields, but not meadows.

We have been promised more snow tomorrow with the prospect of rain on Sunday. Thank goodness. When did we last wish for rain?

As you will have gathered, this is a catch up blog post and I can assure my readers that Scamp is fit and well and happily tidying things up today.

 

Snow management – 11 February 2021

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Another day removing the snow from the paths and from the cars.

Scamp started the effort by brushing the snow from the roof of her car. Then while I got rid of the rest of the snow on mine and ran the engine for a while to get rid of the condensation that gathers on all the glass surfaces, Scamp started to get rid of the snow that had accumulated on the path in to our house and the next door neighbour’s. Most of it was wind blown snow, but a small amount was fresh snow. When she was finished and the car was dry inside, I used up almost all of our remaining white salt to make sure the path stayed clear of snow and hopefully of ice.

After lunch we went for a walk down to the shops, more for the exercise than for any great shopping expedition. I think we bought more food for the birds than for ourselves. The plan was for Scamp to walk back with the bags and I would go for a walk in St Mo’s. I changed it slightly to walk up the path behind St Mo’s school and along a path that I’ve walked many times, but today I was wearing wellies and I could just wade through the areas that I usually have to avoid because they’re too deep for my leaky boots. It was like a whole new landscape with hardly any landmarks because everything was covered in a white duvet of snow.

Went for a walk in St Mo’s and followed some deer tracks for a while, but never saw the maker of the tracks. The tracks looked fresh, but either they were hiding somewhere or were just over the next hill, or the next one again. PoD was a whin bush covered in a shiny ice crown. Shot into the sun it really sparkled. Everything else I took was just a cliché snow picture.

By the time I was coming home it was chilling down again and the temperature when I got to the house was -0.5ºc and it felt about a degree below that. We had bought some fat balls for the birds, so I put three of them on a tray in the back garden. An hour later they were all gone. I suspect it may have been a big black crow or a magpie that was the culprit. Even a flock of starlings wouldn’t devour three fat balls that quickly.

Yesterday’s sketch, posted today was the beach at Pigeon Point in Tobago. If you’re going to draw and paint a beach, make it a peach of a beach. Pigeon Point fits the bill.

Today’s sketch is a strange one. The prompt was ‘Draw’. What I drew was my right hand holding a graphite stick. If my right hand was the model, then my left hand was the one that drew the sketch. It’s harder than you think drawing with your left hand. Even knowing exactly where you want the lines to go, doesn’t mean that your muscle control will ensure it goes where you intended. A worthwhile exercise.

Tomorrow I might manage to get my car out for a drive. Today I got it to move, but not far. Scamp may have to wait until the mountain that’s in front of her’s has melted away a bit before she is mobile again. Other than that, it’s wait and see what the weather brings us.

Walking in the white stuff – 10 February 2021

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The snow was still there in the morning, but thankfully there was no new covering.

Before we could get on with the day there was a funeral to attend.  A virtual funeral for one of Scamp’s oldest Gems members, Netta.  She had died over a week ago and today we sat for half an hour and remembered her as we watched the ceremony.  She was an old lady, but a real ‘gem’.

I wanted to clear most of the snow off the car to allow today’s sunshine to help melt the rest.  It was a good idea that partly worked.  Some of the snow melted, the side that faced the sun was the most successful, but hopefully more will follow tomorrow as we are to have another cold, but sunny day.  There must have been about 200mm of snow on the roof of the car, also on the bins and all the plant pots.  I was thankful I’d bought a pair of good wellies going cheap in a sale many years ago.  Not the most comfortable footwear, but at least you don’t have to worry about wet socks.

When the postman came he brought Scamp a Blue Envelope.  She now has a date for her first vaccination.

After lunch, Scamp declared that she was off to the shops to get tonight’s dinner which was going to be Cod with Bacon, Peas and Lentils.  I was going out for a walk in the snow wearing my new best friends, my green wellies.  I walked over St Mo’s and I think I followed  the tarmac path, although it was difficult to find at times.  Walked through the woods marveling at the difference 200mm of snow can make to a landscape.  PoD became the snow ball on the cow parsley seedhead.  The snow looked solid, but it was almost translucent and as light as a feather.

Dinner was changed from Cod with Bacon etc to Chicken Soup followed by Fish Finger sandwiches.  Very satisfying and still sticking to the Fish on  a  Wednesday theme.  No painting or drawing yet.  One is done, but I’m not happy with it, so a new or rearranged one will hopefully appear tomorrow.

Tonight the temperature is dropping down below -5ºc.  It’s going to be cold tomorrow.

Snow, snow, snow – 9 February 2021

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Usually I’m complaining about rain. Today is was snow.

It was snowing when we woke. There was no sign of the footpath at the front of the garden. Just a flat even surface of snow from the house out to the start of the trees on the far side of the path. One set of footprints where some unlucky soul had plodded his weary way to find his car in the whiteout. We went back to bed, thankful that today we’d nowhere to go and nothing to do.

When we’d had our morning coffee and were wondering it the snow would go off today, we made the decision to clear the path to the main footpath. With two of us working at it, it didn’t take too long. Then I remembered we had a bag of salt that I ‘obtained’ from the janitor at the school. Scamp showed me where it lived at the back of the overcrowded bin shed. After some swearing I brought the bag out and spread some salt over our efforts to hopefully preserve some of the clearing we’d done. It seemed to work.

After lunch I assembled my long lens on the Sony and grabbed some shots of the blue tits and robins in the garden. I felt sorry for the wee ground feeding birds in the back garden, so we found an old plastic tray and filled it with birdseed, leaving it in the back garden. It was soon cleared, so we refilled it and that lasted for a couple of hours and provided today’s PoD. It was taken on my old Tamron 300mm lens that never really worked properly on the D7000. It certainly works on the Sony. Then a heavy shower of snow covered the seed tray and by that time the light was going. Unfortunately the snow showed no signs of giving up.

Dinner tonight was Spaghetti a la Anything in the Fridge. It worked quite well, but could have been better. The Sticky Toffee Pudding however was excellent again.

We had a quick reprise of the rumba routine tonight and watched a few of our old salsa moves. Old being the operative word as some of those videos go back to 2010!

Sketch tonight was “Walk”. I’d already decided I wasn’t going out in that snow which was now nearly up to the top of my wellies. No, today’s sketch was purely out of my imagination aided and abetted with some images from Google Images. I looks reasonable and will do the job.

Tomorrow looks cold, with temperatures not likely to go into the positive numbers at all. We may stay in.