Month: November 2021

The lights came on – 30 November 2021

Posted on by Zogman

The sun didn’t want to come out to play today, except for about ten seconds in the morning.

I had a gossip with Fred in the morning. It’s ages since I’ve spoken to him and I had really intended phoning him last week. I really enjoyed his patter. Nothing is sacrosanct with Fred and everything is criticised mercilessly. I spent a good three quarters of an hour being entertained, and we did get round to serious topics too, like painting. Glad to hear that he’s framed his latest extended portrait landscape and hung it in the hall. Had to cut short our conversation when my phone told me it was running low on power, so I said my goodbyes and plugged it into the charger. It might have charged quicker if I’d switched the charger on, but I’m not sure. I did switch it on an hour later when the phone was completely dead for some reason!

I drove up to Tesco to get some stuff for the dinner just after lunch. I’d intended collecting my meds from Boots at the same time, but the queue was about six or seven deep outside the shop, so I decided another day would be better. The queue in Tesco for the Post Office was even longer, and I was glad that we’d decided to send a parcel down to Epsom way by DPD instead. It should be picked up tomorrow for next day delivery, Hazy!

When I got back into the car, the headlights came on automatically. It was that sort of day. Like I said at the start, I missed the ten seconds of good daylight in the late morning. But there is a 365 to be done and it needs a photo, so I drove home, parked the car, took the messages in and then went back out to see what the world had to offer. By ‘world’, I mean St Mo’s. I was heading over there just after 4pm and it was almost dark. It was a photo of an old tree that got PoD. I’ve photographed in bright sun, rain and snow. I just love the shape of the trunk. It looks as if it’s been in the wars and it’s survived the storms earlier in the week, I’m glad to say.

Thankfully there were no problems with the SD card today and although the photos weren’t earth shattering, the PoD completed number 334 of this year’s 365. That makes it photo 3256 since I started burdening myself with a 365, over 9 years ago.

Tomorrow we are hoping to receive one parcel and also for the DPD person to uplift another. We’re just keeping the wheels of industry turning. It looks like a cold, but brighter day. Maybe more than ten seconds of good light.

 

 

Tea Dancin’ – 29 November 2021

Posted on by Zogman

With a judge called Isobel.

It was a dull morning, but most of the afternoon would be inside, so we weren’t all that worried.

Picked up Isobel and drove through some soaking drizzly rain to Falkirk. Got to the church with a few minutes to spare and dropped the two ladies off as near as I could to the path to the church hall. Then I went to park the car. I walked back to the church and that’s when Scamp told me the bag with the shoes was still in the car’s boot. So I had to walk back and pick up the bag. Missed the first two dances as a result. Probably my fault. On the way back I managed to get a few photos of the church.

We were on the floor for more than a few different dances. Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot and Rumba, we stumbled through them all. Starting off badly, but improving as we went. That’s what happens when you’ve not danced for a couple of weeks. We also joined in with most of the sequence dances we know. The guy playing the keyboard kept everything going really well.

Things started to fall apart when we left. I had told Scamp that I’d bring the car up to the church to pick them up. Because Falkirk is a maze of one way streets and the fact that it was dark by then and raining, I struggled to find a way to the entrance into the church carpark and tried to phone Scamp to tell her to meet me back on the street where I’d dropped them off, but the phone kept going to voicemail. Apparently her phone was in the shoe bag which was now in the boot of the car. Not knowing that, I left a message on the phone. I finally found the street that took me to the entrance to the church carpark, but when I got there, No Scamp or Isobel. I assumed she’d got the message and had gone to the street where I’d dropped them off earlier in the day. I left and headed for the street . That’s when my phone rang and Scamp speaking on Isobel’s phone, asking me why I’d driven away! They had been sheltering in an alcove on the dark side of the church and had seen me drive in and then drive off again. All in all, it was a comedy of errors, just not funny. Not at all funny.

Just to put the tin lid on things, there was a problem with the SD card in the camera and none of my photos had been recorded. It would have been good if Sony had thought to put a big “NO CARD” message in the middle the screen, instead of a tiny little note in the top left corner of the screen.

They say that problems come in threes. I think I’ve had my three today.

The Christmas cactus stepped into the gap left but the dodgy SD card and that made PoD.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better than today.

Snow – 28 November 2021

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Today we woke to snow, just as the forecasters predicted … for once.

Yes, a layer of the white stuff coated the paths and the grass this morning. The temperature was 1.1ºc. Above zero, but only just. I was thinking that I might go out and get some snowy scene photos, but then again, there was no real need to rush. The snow would probably be there in an hour or so too. Time to finish the chapter in my book.

I eventually pulled on my boots, got my heavy Bergy jacket and my furry hat. Then, armed with both Sony cameras I went off to the snowy wastes of St Mo’s. I did get PoD with the A7, but most of the photos were macros taken with the A6000. Surprisingly, when I got them processed, I had far more ‘keepers’ than I thought I’d have.

Back home, my next task was to decant some of yesterday’s leaves into the compost bin. The easiest way, and much to Scamp’s dismay, was to bring the garden waste wheelie bin through the house to the back garden. Then shovel the leaves into the bin. The contents of the bin were in far better nick than I’d have expected. There was a lot of good looking, well rotted compost in there and also a fair number of worms eating their way through what was left of some vegetable matter. The already chopped up leaves will give them something new in their diet.

Our own diet today was Tomato and Red Pepper soup followed by Pan Fried Chicken Breast with potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower. It sounds fancy, but I was cooking, so some corners were cut and some license has been taken with the description. The chicken was half the breast from the chicken I cooked yesterday. The broccoli and cauliflower were from an M&S packet and the potatoes were mingin’. Too old and mouldy looking. Still, pudding was an M&S Cherry Steamed Pudding. I could never have made that, but I could bake it in the microwave for 1min 30sec.

Spoke to Jamie and found out the full story of Simonne’s injured hand and the extent of the injuries. She’s back to the hospital tomorrow to get the dressing changed and check that healing is properly in progress. Neither dog seems to have any serious injuries.
Things seem to be moving on the house front too with some work already completed and others in the pipeline.

Today’s PoD is a view along the path to Condorrat with a tweak or two in Lightroom. Doesn’t it make it look cold!

Tomorrow we are intending to take Isobel to the tea dance in Falkirk. It’s a test too, to see if Scamp can manage to dance with the new glasses on. If it works we may attempt a class on Saturday. Temperature now is -1ºc. Below zero, but only just.

Hoovering the grass – 27 November 2021

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Just like hoovering the living room, but better fun.

Last night Storm Arwen dropped a bundle of leaves in the front garden, a big bundle! I think it was the way the wind was swirling round the houses that caused a mini whirlwind which gathered all the leaves then when it ran out of energy it dropped them in the front garden. First task today was to gather them together and dump them in the bin. Luckily, a few years ago I got Scamp a leaf blower for her Christmas. When she cuts the grass, she uses it for blowing all the grass cuttings off the path and into the wooded area across from the house. It came with attachments that turned it from a blower to a ‘sooker’. I used it in ‘sook’ mode this morning to hoover up two black bags worth of leaves from the garden. As well as sucking the leaves up, it also chops them up, so we now have the garden refuse bin full of chopped up leaves. Some of it will go into the compost bin when I’ve time to decant them. It seems a shame to just chuck them out when they could be helping to make compost. With the path now clear and most of the garden holding only a sprinkling of leaves I reassembled the machine back to a blower again and it went to sleep in the cupboard again, dreaming of blowing grass again (not that kind of blowing grass ?) .

After the ferocity of yesterday, today was a welcome relief. Just a quiet, cold Saturday. The furthest we went was a walk to the shops to get a chicken for tonight’s dinner, and, of course some ice cream cones, 99s. The shops were really busy. I don’t think people wanted to go far today because it was just above freezing and there were hints in the forecast that snow wasn’t out of the question, even to lower levels. Luckily none of the white stuff has been seen yet.

We watched an embarrassing special broadcast headed by Boris explaining the new procedures to tackle the latest Covid variant, Omnicron. Neither of us can understand how that man got into the position he is in. When reading from a script he is bearably literate. As soon as he goes off script he just rambles into unfinished sentences. The poor man is totally out of his depth and really should admit it.

PoD was a little Cyclamen battered and bruised from last night’s storm. I photographed it in the back garden this morning when the sun was shining and the temperature was just above zero.

Tomorrow we may go for the messages, just to get out of the house and I might remember to book a Tesco delivery too!

 

Arwen Arrives – 26 November 2021

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A wild lady is Arwen.

Named after the Lady of Rivendell, Arwen is a storm that started battering the east of the UK this afternoon. I’d gone out in the early afternoon before she could swoop over us and it was bitter cold just about 4ºc which with windchill reduced to approximately -267ºc or thereabouts. At least that’s how it felt. However, I did get some photos and my favourite was the one you see above. It’s the pond at St Mo’s with Deone’s butterfly seat in the distance.

One circuit of the pond was enough for me today. The wind was beginning to rise as I was coming home and I was glad I’d my Bergy jacket with its fleece lining to keep out the worst of the weather.

Earlier, in the morning I’d washed the downstairs windows, but that only gave Scamp the opportunity to change the curtains. I did the taking down of the curtains, Scamp did the changeover and then I put the new ones up. Yes, she was right, they did need changing.

Earlier still, we spoke to Hazy and found what was happening down Epsom way. Lots of interesting things going on down there and we now have a singing school teacher in the family!

All that and a phone call from Margie to tell Scamp about her trips to hospital and the swearing from some Larky folk who were in the ward with her. I’d could have told her, that’s not swearing, it’s just the way they talk. The sweary words are just used as punctuation!

Storm Arwen has been making a nuisance of itself for some time now, since about 3pm, and is still roaming around the houses here.  It’s been gathering all the leaves from around the estate and dumping them on our front garden, then clattering them off our front window.  The storm doesn’t seem to be lessening  and it will be here for most of the night and some of tomorrow it seems. I don’t know how much sleep we’ll get, but it will soon be time to find out.

Tomorrow I’m intending cooking a roast chicken for dinner. I’m sure I’ll need some assistance from Scamp, but maybe not too much. I don’t think we’ll be going far until Arwen heads off south.

Glasgow Green – 25 November 2021

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A bright day, but a cold one. You can’t have everything.

We drove down to Glasgow Green today, Scamp’s suggestion. It had been quite a while since we’d been there. These days you have to be very calculating or very lucky to get to walk an unmolested Glasgow Green. It seems that every weekend there is preparation for, or demolition of an ‘Event’. We must just have been lucky, because we didn’t do any research for today’s walk, and the ’green’ part of Glasgow Green was just as it should be, empty of scaffolding or wire fences. Wonderful. The old boathouse was being renovated, but that’s ok, because it’s on the edge of the green and didn’t inconvenience anyone.

We walked a fair bit of the periphery of the park as did quite a few others, but the feeling of space today was cheering. It was a shot from The Green that I got today’s PoD which was the reflection of the chimney and the smoke from the Strathclyde Distillery reflected in the Clyde. Another day with that strange yellowy sky. I’m guessing it’s because the sun isn’t rising very high in the sky and is therefore shining through a thicker layer of dust and smoke than in the summer.

We walked almost as far as the bridge over the Clyde to Richmond Park, but we were both feeling the cold by then and decided a warm car would be a better choice and left Richmond Park for another day. We stopped on the way home to have a coffee in Costa at Robroyston and then stocked up of essentials (which didn’t include a bottle of gin, this time) at Lidl before driving home.

After we’d unloaded the car I changed keys and drove Scamp’s Wee Red Car to Boots at Craigmarloch to get Scamp’s prescription and also to give the wee car a run. I made sure the heat was flowing before I made my way back and got home before the St Mo’s weans came out of school.

I was half way through making Fish Curry for dinner when a strange message appeared on the TV. Something about the program being suspended, then Scamp noticed that the modem was off. I checked the electricity hadn’t tripped, but it hadn’t. Then the modem’s lights came on, but stayed at a flashing green. That’s not a good sign. I couldn’t get through to Virgin on my phone and I feared the worst. Eventually, after an hour, I got the message that there was a problem in our area, both Broadband and TV. Nothing to do but wait. Now I know what cold turkey feels like, even if I was eating hot fish curry. Then everything started up again. The electricity had gone off yesterday, for the whole street. Today it looked like the broadband had been the victim. Now, there is a group of council workies digging holes and doing some ‘repair’ work in the next street. Now call me suspicious, but … !

Tomorrow looks stormy. We look as if we’re on the edge of the ‘amber warning’, but that’s by no means certain. We’ll hang onto our hats and hope for the best.

 

Listening to my own advice – 24 November 2021

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Always a good recommendation, but rarely operated on.

Today Scamp was entertaining Annette to tea at our house in the morning. I waited until she arrived then I went out for a walk in the morning sunshine, just like I’d told myself to do. I took the Sony A7 and drove up to Fannyside Moor where I parked beside the Scots Pines that sound so good with the wind whistling through them. It was a lovely morning and the sun was shining, but the west wind was cold. I knew the wind would be colder and stronger later in the week when it swung to the north. They do say that “The North Wind doth blow and we shall have snow”. It appears that may be true before the weekend, but I get ahead of myself.

Today I was looking for some decent landscapes and Fannyside is great with its view to the south and east. I started out walking in that direction with a bit of shelter from that west wind because of the trees on my right. I couldn’t find very much to photograph until I reached a stand of trees silhouetted against a wild looking sky. That might be PoD, I thought. As I turned to head back up the hill I could hear a motorbike engine behind me. It turned out to be a quad bike. The farmer out to feed his sheep. Soon the sound of the engine was drowned out by the barking of two sheepdogs trying to run me down. A couple of shouts from the farmer brought them to heel and I continued on unharmed.

I didn’t get much else there and drove to Greenfaulds station car park where I left the car and walked along the Luggie Water for a bit. Although it is only November, the snowdrops are pushing their green shoots up under the trees. Some good lighting encouraged me to shoot some more frames and one of those shots almost made PoD. Also saw some good graffiti under the road bridge. Hardly met anyone along the path.

Back home, Annette was just leaving and after saying goodbye, we made instant pizza our lunch. The weather was still bright, so Scamp and I went for a walk over to St Mo’s. Just one circuit of the pond today because it was getting colder than in the middle of the day. Scamp got a surprise delivery of neoprene elasticated specs holders from Mr Amazon today. She says they work well, but seem to put extra stress on the already flimsy legs of the glasses. They survived the trip to St Mo’s.

Dinner tonight was Giant Fish Fingers and Spaghetti (the tinned variety). It’s quick to make and it tastes good. Plus it fulfils the rule of Fish on a Wednesday. That’s been a tradition in our family for years.

Watched the final episode of Shetland tonight. It did answer all the questions, but then started a new story that won’t resolve itself until the new series, NEXT YEAR! What will we watch until then??

In the end, neither of my initial shots made PoD, it was a landscape from Fannyside that won, looking down the road the disappears into the distance. No sign of sheepdogs or quad bikes!

Tomorrow looks cold and windy with the chance of Wintry Showers. Turn the heating up, I say.

Baking – 23 November 2021

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Get Set … Bake!

Tonight was the final of the Great British Bake Off and to celebrate I was making Multigrain Rolls.

I had a few of the Bakedin boxes that I hadn’t had time to start, so today was the day. For what were basically rolls with porridge oats on top it was a complicated recipe. Grated Linseed, Wholemeal flour, Oat bran, Milk and Eggs were some of the ingredients. It really was the stickiest dough I’ve kneaded in a long time, but they did come out looking and tasting like Multigrain Rolls, which made all that faffing about with baking trays and ”Shaping a claw with your hand and rolling a 90g piece of dough in a circular motion” worthwhile. They tasted good too, although I’d have added a bit more salt.  I might apply for next year’s Bakeoff! Aye Right!!

That was the overarching work of the day, but in between the proving and forming and kneading I made some ‘Just Soup’ which looked like it was going to end up being a vegetable stew, but with help from Scamp it turned out ok, just ok. That was dinner today along with Rice ’n’ prunes for dinner, made by Scamp.

Something happened to the NAS drive yesterday and it seems to have blocked itself. I can’t quite figure it out yet, but I do know it’s something to do with the installation of a new version of Lightroom. I’ve tried looking for help from the Synology website, but it’s the most user unfriendly ‘help’ site I’ve ever used. There are almost no simple instructions there for a newbie user like me. Everything seems to be aimed at those with a degree in Computer Science. Maybe I need to look for the Topsy and Tim version of Synology.

I also managed to squeeze in a drive down to Auchinstarry with just enough time to scramble up the steep path to Croy to record a lovely stripe of golden light on the lower slopes of the Campsie Fells. That made PoD which was lucky, because I hadn’t taken any more photos today. To be honest, I couldn’t be bothered taking photos today, there are just too many things going on just now and not enough daylight time to fit things in. I must take my own advice again and get some photos taken earlier in the day.

We made our first foray into private health care and are in the process of getting a referral from our optician for a consultation at The Nuffield. Let’s hope they are more help than the NHS at Hairmyres were.

I think Scamp has booked Annette for tea and a natter tomorrow morning, so that might give me a chance to go and get some photos if the weather is behaving itself.

Frosty – 22 November 2021

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Our first sub-zero morning this winter. Yes, winter, because it feels like autumn has silently slid into that colder season.

The temperature this morning was -0.4ºc. There were no birds bathing this morning because the birdbath was frozen over. When I went out to break the ice I had to use a half brick to get through the top layer of ice. Still there were no takers for a quick splash. Can’t say I blame them.

It might be cold, but it was bright. Really too bright to take photos. I’d intended making some bread, but instead I made one last backup of Mojave on the iMac and then plunged headlong into installing Catalina. I’d rather have stayed with Mojave, but fewer and fewer apps would now run on that older version of the Mac OS. The consolation is that both the MBP and the iMac will now be running the same OS and should play nice with each other. They should, but like two siblings separated by a few years, I’m sure they will fight and throw the occasional hissy fit. The update didn’t take all that long and most things worked as before. My real regret was the loss of Excel. My version runs in 32bit mode and Catalina only supports 64bit, so I am now stuck with the vastly inferior Apple Numbers.

After lunch and when I was getting itchy feet, I took the Sony for a walk in St Mo’s. There wasn’t much to see although I did spook a deer in the woods. I got a photo of what looked like a family group of fungi all cambering over each other to get their foties took. That’s available for perusal on Flickr, but PoD went to a yellow leaf tangled in a tree. I used an updated version of Lightroom to pull it out of the gloaming gloom. Lightroom is becoming more and more sophisticated with each update. More and more useful too.

I think the highest temperature we reached today was about 5ºc. Not great, but above zero at least. We spoke to Jamie in the evening and found that even down south it had been cold today. House preparation seems to be going ahead apace. The electrician has been and said that the wiring is up to scratch but the sockets need to be replaced. Vixen has approved the house in general, but isn’t sure about those stairs.The carpets have been bought a will be laid soon. The removals company has been booked too. Lots of stuff is being sorted as you’d expect with two new, young house owners!

Tomorrow we may go out for a short walk if Scamp is fit enough and I have to pick someone’s brains about cataract surgery outside the NHS. Other than that, no plans.

 

A day at the gee gees – 21 November 2021

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It was a beautiful morning. Too good to sit in the house.

I enticed Scamp out, telling her we’d go for a walk. Well, were going for a walk, but we’d to drive to the Kelpies first. I felt sure they’d bring a smile to her face and they did. Helix Park, where the Kelpies live was busy and with half the car park cordoned off for resurfacing I wondered if we’d get parked, but we were there early enough for that not to be a problem. Paid our £2 for our right to park there all day if we wanted, then we went for that walk I’d promised.

One of the first things we saw apart from the gigantic horses heads was a bloke on a paddle board posing on the water and being photographed. He even did a headstand on the board. Poor bloke was wearing a wetsuit top, a life jacket and a pair of shorts. No leggings and no trainers. The temperature was around 7ºc, he must have been freezing. Luckily he didn’t fall in.

We walked round the massive statues and found new angles to view them from. Lots of other folk were doing the same. Some with their hands out pretending to feed the beasts, others just getting family groups set up to record the visit. We even saw a wedding photog taking the opportunity for an interesting backdrop for an Indian couple. The groom in a dark suit and the bride in the most glorious ivory coloured wedding dress I’ve ever seen. So much heavy brocade, it must have weighed a ton! They had a great day for it.

It was cold, but Scamp wanted to have a coffee outside where the view was better than in the cafe. Yes the view was good and the ‘millionaire’s shortbread’ was good too, but cappuccino really should have coffee in it, somewhere. I think I got hot milk. After a while we headed home. It really was getting a bit cool as the sun disappeared behind a big cloud, but we’d had a walk in the sun and visited the Kelpies again.

Back home and after lunch I declared the photos good enough to exempt me from a walk in the cold wintry air, so I started a backup of the iMac before I upgrade it to Catalina tomorrow, hopefully.

Dinner was Cauliflower Cheese with potatoes for Scamp and Mince ’n’ Tatties for me with a bit of the cauliflower cheese added in. Scamp had made a Bruschetta for a starter and it was very nice indeed. We had our first Tesco delivery of the autumn/winter season. The first since the late spring. It made sense with all that’s going on in the house to get someone to pick it and someone else to deliver it.

We watched the Quatar F1 GP and saw more of the politics rearing its ugly head in the sport. Too many egos in F1 now. But I’m just going over old ground the same old ground I ploughed through yesterday.

I had a great day today and I hope Scamp had a good time too, apart from the coffee. PoD was a backlit Kelpie throwing shapes on the walkway.

No plans for tomorrow. Weather looks not as good as today.