Month: September 2021

The start of a busy week – 20 September 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Lots of things to do this week. Some interesting, some not so. Today was a Not So.

The lady with the swabs was coming to see us today, in the middle of the afternoon. That’s the worst time to have a visitor, it just breaks up the whole day. However, it’s for a good cause and it doesn’t take very long. It’s just that it’s a bit unpleasant, sticking a swab down your throat and up your nose. As I’ve said before, better in that order than the other way round! It’s part of a Covid survey we’re doing, not, that we have Covid!

The rest of the day fitted round that event like a blanket, but some stuff got done. I went out and took some photos. I went over to St Mo’s with a plan. I took a Gorilla Pod and the Sony 7M2 with the 18mm Samyang lens. That meant I could get fairly close to the subject – mushrooms – and still manage to get some background in focus too. It also meant I didn’t have to break my back carrying the 105mm Sigma lens. The Gorilla Pod was to hold the camera and allow me to use a fairly low ISO speed. As it happened, the shutter speed for most of the shots was between 5 and 6 seconds. The shot here was my favourite of the batch. Processed in Lightroom with my version of one of Mark Galer’s presets. I liked the ethereal effect from the processing.

Tomorrow the weather looks good, so we may go out for a walk.

Rained – 19 September 2021

Posted on by Zogman

It rained all morning, but that didn’t bother us. We weren’t intending going far.

We spoke to Hazel in the morning and gave her updates on who did what and who cooked what when we were down in Little Musgrave. She in turn got us up to date on what the family were doing in Wimbledon and around. She gave me another password manager to experiment with. So now I have two managers looking after two computers and I’m hoping they don’t speak to each other and I can remember the passwords for each and don’t get them mixed up.

Scamp relaxed for most of the day, posting a collection of photos on FB and still found time to do some washing, so we had at least some clean clothes to wear! I spent most of my time stuck in front of the computer I’m writing this on, posting photos in Flickr, which I suppose is my version of FB. I also started writing up some blog posts that I’d condensed into bullet points to get things in (almost) the right order.

Later in the afternoon the rain stopped and I got out for a walk in St Mo’s where I found more interesting mushrooms, or at least fungi. I used to think these tiny little plants were so delicate, but after reading Merlin Sheldrake’s book Entangled Lives, I view them in a far different light. The way he describes it, fungi could mount a takeover bid for the planet and win easily. Scary stuff. Today’s find was a group of Puffball mushrooms which I don’t remember seeing before. PoD went to a group of fungi that appeared like rosettes and looked quite delicate, but remember Merlin’s words!

Dinner tonight was Fennel, Prawns and Haddock. It should have been Cod instead but the Haddock was there anyway and it fitted the bill. We used the first of our own leeks too and they were lovely along with the slow cooked fennel.

Spoke to Jamie and found out more about the air display we missed on Thursday afternoon. It sounded quite spectacular and I was sorry we hadn’t seen it, but needs must when you need to get home in time to grab a parking space!

Tomorrow the lady will come to see us with her probing questions and then we will probe our throats and nose cavities. All for the sake of Science!

 

Dancin’ – 18 September 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Brain fade. A terrible affliction.

We were driving to Bridge of Weir for our Saturday dance lesson. The first one in a fortnight and I wasn’t thinking. Instead of heading down our usual M73, M74, M8, I turned onto the M80 and pointed the car at Glasgow. By the time I realised what I’d done, I couldn’t change it. I expected to meet long queues of traffic when the M80 joined the M8 in Glasgow, but it didn’t happen. Yes, there was a bit of slow traffic, but nothing like what I’d anticipated. It took us just about our usual time. Maybe the roadworks are nearly finished after all.

We started the class with Bellisimo Cha-Cha. Not my favourite, but I can do it. Next the Foxtrot, followed by a Midnight Jive just to clear our heads and allow us time to put on our Waltz Head, because that was next. We did quite well with our stripped down Waltz, but then Jane taught us how to do a Chassis properly. Not the little skipping step we usually do, but the actual theory behind the step. They finished with the Sally Anne Cha-Cha which we didn’t know so we left them to it, but so we didn’t feel left out, the final last dance was a Bossa Nova, which we do know.

Drive back was a bit more congested than normal, but we still made some decent time, although the traffic heading in to Glasgow from the east was much heavier now. I’d love to see an aerial view of that section of the road speeded up to see why the traffic builds up in some places.

Got a couple of photos of fungi deep in St Mo’s woods but PoD went to a shot of a late afternoon dragonfly on the boardwalk

Nothing planned for tomorrow.

Away for the messages – 17 September 2021

Posted on by Zogman

This was nominated a Recovery Day. That’s what we did.

We needed some messages and I wanted to find out how much EE wanted from me for a reasonable amount of data and a Sim-only contract. We agreed to go to The Fort.

Scamp went to M&S and I walked round to the EE shop. Three people serving and only two customers. Waited 15 minutes, but nobody was paying any attention. I gave up and walked out. I might come back another day or I might just go to Tesco instead. The Tesco website tells you how much you get for how much money. The EE website is a maze. It tells you nothing.

Back at the car I met Scamp and we went food shopping in Morrisons then we drove home. After lunch I went for a walk in St Mo’s while Scamp went to see how the garden was growing.

It was a relaxing day, because, even with our alfresco dancing lesson in Cumbria, we’ll still be a bit rusty for the real class tomorrow.

Driving Home – 16 September 2021

Posted on by Zogman

It always comes to this.

In the morning, Jamie and Sim took Vixen for a walk up Cautley Spout. We went to Kirkby Stephen. We took some photos of the church with that great green lawn in front of it. Then we went for the last walk this year, around the cricket pitch and up on to the viewpoint. It was a beautiful morning with a clear blue sky. A decent day to be driving home. We got some stuff at the Coop and went back to the house to pack up and stuff everything in the car.

When Jamie and Sim returned with a boisterous Vixen, we all had lunch together, said our cheerios and drove off, travelling back the way we’d come last Friday. It was a fairly good run north and we were back home and parked in the late afternoon.

PoD was the church at Kirkby Stephen.

It was an early night for us, because I was really tired. So tired I didn’t hear Jamie and Sim’s text to say they were home safe, just before midnight.

Hopefully,tomorrow we’ll, all four of us, wake up in our own beds.

Well Done Colin – 15 September 2021

Posted on by Zogman

We woke to mist, or was it fog. Whatever it was, it was taking a while to clear. While it was clearing, Went out to take some photos of the sheep in the field across the road. I meant to shoot the sheep, but I got photobombed by the Shetland Pony stallion and I thought “Why not?” The resulting image worked for me.

Just after the sheep and photobombing stallion photo shoot, the mist started clearing quite rapidly and we were off to conquer the Nine Standards. The Nine Standards are nine (strangely enough), mostly conical cairns on top of Nine Standards Rigg which is over 620m above sea level. We weren’t climbing all 620m because Jamie was driving up to a parking place below the start of the main climb. Actually we’d walked the first part of it from Kirkby Stephen to the parking place last year.

The climb, or walk, started off well with Vixen leading the way and at a blistering rate. Scamp and I were bringing up the rear and I will admit that I was feeling the strain after about 20mins, even at Jamie’s relaxed pace. After a while we encouraged Jamie to go on ahead and keep Simonne company. Eventually at about two thirds distance I had to tell Scamp to leave me and walk up to meet the other two. I was almost totally exhausted. However, after about fifteen minutes rest sitting on some sheep droppings, watching the clouds form and reform over the distant hills I felt better, hoisted myself to my feet and plodded on up the never ending hill. Two more stops were needed to catch my breath and a couple of phone calls where I lied to Scamp that I was still sitting comfortably where she’d left me. No way was I going to tell her I was heading for the top. I think the others were almost ready to start the descent when I finally reached the cairns. A chocolate energy bar from Jamie and half a bottle of water sitting at one of the cairns gave me enough or a rest to start the walk down, which Jamie had repeatedly told us was much easier than the climb up.

He was right. The descent was much easier than I though it would be and best of all, instead of an ever present hill in front of us, we had a panorama of hills, blue sky and clouds to keep us interested. On the way down we met a group of three Auld Guys on their way up. We spoke a while to them. The lead walker was 76, the next was 86 and the final member was nearly 90. We were instructed to make sure to say “Well done, Colin” when we met him, and that’s what we did. He just laughed and said “Somebody must be broadcasting it!”

After Jamie drove us home we were treated to another, even more spectacular air show with a low flying helicopter another BAE Hawk. I wonder how much that operation cost. No idea where the helicopter came from, but the jet came all the way from Anglesey.

Scamp an I went for another walk along the road later in the afternoon to loosen our legs. Jamie and Simonne were making Parmigiano Chicken tonight.

The PoD wasn’t the cairns, or the view from the top, but the tree. It’s been in and out of Lightroom a few times since it was taken, but I like the look of it now.

Tomorrow is the day we all know must come. We all go home, but today was mighty!

New boots need New socks – 14 September 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Today we headed to Kirkby Stephen to buy a new pair of socks for Scamp’s new boots. Not surprisingly we didn’t go to Mad about Mountains, mainly because we wanted a PAIR of socks, not just one. Also the socks were for walking boots, not for running shoes. We went straight to Eden Outdoors and got two pairs of socks one pair wool and one pair cotton.

Jamie, Simonne and Vixen had left by the time we got back, heading for more hills to climb, so we had the house to ourselves. There is a long paved patio at the back of the house. Just the ideal place to dance on. We managed to get a full run at the Foxtrot and the Waltz. Of course we couldn’t do the fancy spin turns on the paving stones, but the rest of it worked well. Probably the first time we’d managed the full length of the Foxtrot.
So what did you do on your holiday?
Well, we danced the Foxtrot on the patio of the house!

Just at the end of the alfresco dance class a helicopter flew low over and apparently landed not far away, behind the house. Next a BAE Systems Hawk trainer flew over almost as low as the helicopter. It banked sharply and appeared to circle the house. Were they intent on getting a closer view of our Foxtrot? Well, it was an impressive routine, but we came to the conclusion that the helicopter had been carrying soldiers from nearby Warcop base and the jet was there to add a bit of spice to their war-games.

The airshow went on for quite a while, but eventually they all calmed down and JS&V returned from their walk. We went out for another test walk with the new boots and socks. The socks were an improvement on the old ones and made the boots more comfortable. So said Scamp and she should know.

We made quiche for dinner. Instead of a baked pastry base, we used tortillas we’d bought in the morning. Scamp made Quiche Lorraine and I made Jackie’s Smoked Salmon and Broccoli Quiche. Both turned out fine and we’d made enough for all of us with some to spare for tomorrow.

PoD was an old barn we saw on our late afternoon walk. For once I didn’t photograph the jet or the helicopter!

Tomorrow we may go climbing a mountain.

The boot’s on the other foot – 13 September 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp needed better shod and today was the day to look for new boots.

We drove to Kirkby Stephen and went to Mad About Mountains, an outdoor clothing shop which came recommended by Sim. It certainly held a lot of stuff in a small space. Scamp tried on a few boots and liked one of them, although she did think it was a bit tight. With that in mind, she asked for the other boot of the pair to try, and that’s when the trouble started. The bloke who was serving us couldn’t find it, however he told us his boss was due in soon and he would know where the missing boot was. He also recommended two different running shoes. They weren’t boots, but what the hell! He told us to go for a coffee and his boss would have found the rogue boot by the time we came back.

Since MaM had a café at the back of the shop, we went there. Scamp had a latte and I had an americano, but neither of them were coffee. I’m almost certain they had a fair amount of Chicory in them. Almost undrinkable, but we waited a while before we went back, hopefully, to try on a PAIR of boots. Same bloke was waiting at the till doing Facebook updates by the look of things. Eventually he noticed we were there and told us that he hadn’t been able to find the boot. When I asked him if his boss had managed to find what had happened to it, he looked confused and after gathering his brain cells (both of them) together said his boss hadn’t a clue either. He had told us he only worked there two days a week. If his excuses don’t get better soon, that will reduce to zero.

Feeling a bit disappointed and disillusioned we walked along the street where we found a wee walkers shop. Two blokes were sitting outside having a smoke and a natter. One of them said we didn’t need masks because there was nobody in, and to ask him if there was anything he could help with. Scamp told him what she was looking for and long story short, ten minutes later she was walking out with a pair of leather walking boots. Remember the name Mad About Mountains and give it wide berth. Head for Eden Outdoors instead. They sell their boots in pairs!

In the evening we went for a walk, going left after leaving the house, just to try out the new boots. Apparently the boots are fine for space, not cramping Scamp’s dainty toesies, but the collar at the ankle is pressing a bit tight. Not enough to be a problem, just an inconvenience. “They’re fine!” was her comment. Tonight Jamie and Sim were cooking Naked Fish and Carrot Chips, one of their specialities. We were agreed that this was the best version yet.

PoD was a shot of an old tractor Murdo would have been proud of.

Watched the first part of a Silent Witness. It seemed a bit more interesting than the last one we saw.

Tomorrow we may go for a longer walk and try out these new boots.

 

Walking on the railroad – 12 September 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Today we went for a walk along the old railway from Kirkby Stephen to somewhere else.  A place called Nateby, where the railway path stops and a real steam railway takes over.

Parked at the school in Kirkby Stephen and walked through a closed town.  Nothing open. Well, it was Sunday.

We walked along a path we’d taken last year and using muscle memory as our guide, found our way up on to the path of the railway and along two of the three viaducts and on until we found the third viaduct which our path ran parallel to. We should probably have walked under it to complete the trilogy and take a look at the steam railway, but instead we followed the river downstream through two fields. The second field had disinterested sheep in it. They looked, saw us and went back to eating the grass. At the end of the track we found a totally unintelligible  sign written in legalese which seemed to say that we had to go back. We did what I always do in a situation like this. We followed the path and ignored the sign. If you can’t write English in England then don’t write this gibberish. Found our way back to Kirkby Stephen and from there back to the car.

Back at the house we arrived before the other two and grabbed the garage again.

I was chef for the night and I made the worst paella I’ve made in a long time. Really difficult to make a meal to serve 4 when you’re used to making it for 2. It’s not simply a case of doubling the ingredients. Also, trying to use someone else’s cooker didn’t help. Those are excuses, not reasons. As my dad would have said, Covered Lies. I will make something better next time.

Watched more Spitting Image tonight. Some episodes funnier than others.

PoD was a symphony of greens taken on the walk along the old railway.

Scamp may go looking for a pair of boots tomorrow as hers are hurting her feet.

Brough Castle revisited – 11 September 2021

Posted on by Zogman

First day walk about.

We drove into Kirkby Stephen which is the nearest town and parked at the main carpark beside the auction mart. Carpark was really busy, even for a Saturday, but we found a space. The church bells were ringing and we assumed it was a wedding. Lots of well dressed people heading for the church and that’s what initially gave Scamp the inkling that it wasn’t a wedding. They weren’t dressed for a wedding apparently. It turned out it was it was a memorial for a woman called Joan Johnstone who was an important local Councillor.

We walked over Frank’s Bridge. Not a clue who Frank was, then around the cricket pitch looking for the path to take us up to the viewpoint on the hill which sort of overlooks the town. Eventually found that I’d led us the wrong way. How strange! ?. We walked back, but couldn’t find any place to have lunch. Everywhere was full or closed. Presumably so the owners could get to the memorial service. Scamp got ten allium bulbs from the same shop we bought last year’s bulbs from and they turned out so well. With that done we chose to drive to Brough to see if it was open today.

Brough wasn’t nearly as big as Kirkby Stephen. It seemed to comprise of two streets at right angles to each other and a whole host of scarecrows. Lots of the houses had these, sometimes creepy, statues outside. We didn’t stop, but we did find a sign pointing to Brough Castle which we’d visited many years ago. When we stopped there on the way home from a visit down south we had lunch at the tea shop there and today we were happy to see it was still there. There were loads of scarecrows in the surrounding streets too, but not as creepy as the ones in Brough. After coffee and a warm, but not hot, panini each we went for a walk round the castle. The views from it were excellent and all under a blue sky with bubbly clouds too. I took lots of photos and so did Scamp. We walked round the village next and took in the Scarecrow Festival, because that’s what it was.

PoD was a view of Brough Castle with a few sheep and a horse to fill up that empty green space.

Jamie and Simonne were cooking tonight. Beetroot falafels with a green salad – we must try that.

Watched the strange new qualifying for F1 tonight understood it a bit more than last time.  Then we watched a few episodes of Spitting Image which was repeats on Britbox and therefore slightly out of sync with life in 2021, but still funny.

Tomorrow we may go for a longer walk along the viaduct path.