Month: January 2022

A busy day – 21 January 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Today we continued with the cooking and baking for tonight’s dinner.

Started early, making the dough for the bread. It was to be a full size loaf, and to save time (and effort), I made it in the mixer. That did most of the work, but the dough still needed more flour to be worked in because it was too wet. Actually I’d have been better making it by hand because you can feel whether the dough is too stiff or too wet and make adjustments as you go. Eventually I was happy with it and left it to prove.

By then it was nearly lunchtime. After that I took some time to get the ingredients organised for the main course. Rice weighed out, onions chopped and likewise cabbage. Scamp already had the fish defrosting.

With the prep done, I went for a walk down to the shops to get some beer for the visitors. I took the camera with me, of course but nothing really caught my eye. My favourite shot, and PoD was of the afternoon light illuminating a hogweed seed head. It wasn’t until I had the shot home and was inspecting it in Lightroom that I noticed the little ladybird tucked neatly in between the branches.

Beer bought, I headed home and helped set up the table. My ‘help’ really only meant I helped pull the table out and lay the table cloth. Then it was time to put the bread in the oven. It had risen well. It was when I was turning it out of the wicker basket on to the baking tray the whole thing deflated. A flat as a pancake loaf is not what I wanted for tonight. In a fit of pique, I bunged it in the bin and started again. If I’d thought about it, I’d have knocked the air out of it completely and set it for another prove. I didn’t stop to think. Too hasty sometimes, that’s me. Anyway, I made a smaller quantity, hand kneaded it this time and set it to prove. That gave me time for a coffee and to make a start on today’s Sudoku.

This time the dough rose much better than last and it went into the oven to bake, it had fallen slightly, but reinflated quickly in the hot oven. It came out fine. I’d just started the main course when the visitors arrived. I left Scamp to do the entertaining while I fried the onions and the rice and veg then added the fish stock and bunged everything into the oven which was just at the right temperature to bake the risotto for 20mins. That gave me a chance to have a beer with Crawford and chat to Nancy. After some time I checked the timer, only to find that I’d set it, but forgotten to start it! I needn’t have worried, my inbuilt clock and Scamp’s hint about “How’s the risotto doing?” saved the day. Basically it all worked fine. Later when Scamp and I discussed the day, we agreed that the combination of a heavy soup and far too much risotto had made the dinner a bit heavy. Her Sticky Toffee pudding and my second loaf had been the stars of the show.

It was early morning before we got to bed after half the dishes had completed their cycle in the dish washer and that’s why this is another catch-up. First one for a while.

Tomorrow we need to be up and out early for the first dance class for a long time.

The Smiddy – 20 January 2022

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Out to lunch today.

Drove over to The Smiddy at Blair Drummond because it was a lovely spring-like January day and because the food is generally good and not too expensive. Great scenery too looking across the carse to the hills in the distance. I’m sure I’ve said all this before, but it bears repeating. The management of diners is improving because, while you still can’t book a table, you do get given a buzzer now when you arrive. This is a good ploy on their part, because it allows you to wander round the shop that is joined on to the cafe. While the cafe food is reasonably priced, the articles on sale in the shop range from expensive to exorbitant. Bottles of beer in the shop are more than twice the price of the same in Tesco. Lady’s masks, very prettily embroidered, are about £13 each. I though £15 was expensive for three reusable ones in Boots. Now I’m recalibrating.

We did have to wait a bit more than the ten minutes we were told when we entered, but we did get a table today! Service was slow. I had a home made beef burger that came with warm (ie, not hot) chips and the usual salad. Scamp had a Mac ’n’ Cheese also with those, just warm, chips. I don’t think they were deep fried chips, more oven baked, but they looked hand cut rather than reconstituted. But service was slow. I was glad that Scamp suggested we have coffee after we’d had our lunch. Coffee arrived without a spoon. It’s little things like that, that make you question whether you will rush back again. Yes, I realise it’s mid week and yes, I realise it was lunchtime, so it was busy, but if you want people to keep coming back you have to be on the ball these days.

I did take a couple of rushed shots while we were there, but the light was gone by then and it was my own fault for not taking them before we went in. Maybe next time, if there is a next time.

Back home after stopping at Lakeland/Sainsburys on the way for the makings of tomorrow’s pudding, I decided there was just enough light to get an hour in St Mo’s to bolster my collection from The Smiddy. It had been freezing during the night and the ponds were still frozen even late into the afternoon. I tested the ice on the wee pond and deemed it strong enough to hold the weight of the Sony with kit lens. It held, just, although there was a skin of water on top of the ice, so I was ready to whip it up and out of harm’s way at the first sound of cracking. As it turned out, the shot didn’t make the cut and PoD is a photo taken standing, with both hands on the camera, of the wee frozen pond.

WiFi disappeared tonight again at almost the same time it did yesterday. This time I phoned to complain and hopefully get an explanation. I got a sort of explanation that it’s an on-going repair. ‘They’ thought they had fixed it yesterday, but then found that the repair had failed today, so ‘they’ were working on it again tonight. I don’t know who the mysterious ‘they’ are and why they are only allowed to work at night. Maybe ‘they’ are nocturnal. Maybe Virgin are employing vampires who can’t work in daylight. That might be the case, because they are bleeding us dry for a service that’s not up to standard. The WiFi came back after a couple of hours, but the member of the Help Team I spoke to said it might happen again tomorrow until they find a solution.

So, I’d better get this posted in case it all goes a bit tricky again! Working tomorrow making dinner for Crawford & Nancy. Soup’s made tonight. Pudding is almost finished, but still lots to do tomorrow.

Coffee with Val – 19 January 2022

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Out for coffee and a blether with Val.

As usual, Val was sitting there waiting for me when I arrived dead on 11am. It had been a beautiful morning with a sky that started off blue overhead and changed to a lovely warm pink over the hills, with the retiring moon sitting above the houses, away to the west. Of course I just had to open the back window to take a photo … or four.

We had coffee and a panettone each and sat discussing the world, food and technology for an hour and a half. The time just seemed to fly past and then Val had to go for a walk to prevent his legs from seizing up and I went to take some photos up on Fannyside. It’s a great place on a good day with views over the local countryside to the south and the chance to watch the cloud shadows over the Campsies to the north. The south view won today and that’s where today’s PoD came from. A herd of curly haired sheep mainly brown, but some black. Possibly a ram in with them, but that was a guess because they were hiding among the Scots Pine trees and some were so hungry they were eating the bark!

Drove home and had lunch then Scamp continued with the work she’d been doing in the morning. Dusting is not my favourite task, but I felt shamed into helping because the sun shining brightly in the front windows seemed to highlight all the dust sitting on any flat surface. I took the big bookcase behind my chair as my target for the day. I tried dusting the top shelf without moving the books, but it was impossible, so I removed all the books and put them in piles on the table. In between the bigger books I found a map and pictures of Venice my dad had brought or sent back from Italy during WW2. I remember him taking the book out of the bureau and showing us the map of the islands and pointing out where his billet was. There it was on the back page, neatly printed with an arrow to show where it was. It’s very fragile now and I might scan the pictures for posterity, but it’s folded up again and back in its place in the bookcase. If I hadn’t been so determined to dust the shelf properly today, I’d never have found it. I thought it was lost for good.

The wifi disappeared again tonight for a couple of hours. It seems that there are a few problems with both TV and broadband signals in the area.

It was cold today, but the bright sun made it feel warmer than it was. Hoping for the same weather tomorrow. We may go out somewhere for lunch.

A bit of woodwork – 18 January 2022

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But first a return to the abysmal B&Q.

I decided I’d have another look for the correct screws for the pedestal I was making to hold the new TiVo box. I found them in the place I’d been looking. I remembered that the staff don’t to bother where they put some of the boxes and bags of screws and applied that logic to finding the right size of screws. They were in a box labeled 4mm x 25mm, but the actual screws were 3.5mm diameter x 30mm. It doesn’t help when the bag containing the corner blocks states that you need number 6 gauge screws and that nomenclature was changed around the late 1990s to the much more sensible metric measurement. B&Q living in the past. I got the screws and drove home.

Before lunch I managed to get all the wood cut to size and had a freshly charge battery in the drill. The hardest bit, apart from decoding B&Q’s filing system, was sawing the wood I’d drawn the elevation and end elevation of the pedestal and added all the required dimensions, so it would be as simple as I could make it before I put saw to wood. After lunch it was just a case of assembling the structure and, for once, it was done with the minimum of swearing!

The completed support passed muster with Scamp and looked reasonable in its place under the TV. It also fulfilled its secondary purpose of disguising the rats maze of cables that run between the modem, the TiVo, the Hive controller and the TV itself. Job done.

After hoovering the back room and putting all the tools away, I put my boots on and took the new Sony to meet the wildlife in St Mo’s. I got a picture of the little orange ladybird, still hibernating. However it was after I lost my Samyang’s lens hood and was retracing my steps to find it (it’s still lost), I noticed the Dragon Tree. It’s a rotten old fallen tree, but doesn’t that look like a dragon’s head? Or do I have to decrease my gin intake? Anyway, it got PoD.

Tonight’s dinner was potatoes and cabbage for Scamp. I usually have mine with the addition of bacon, but tonight I had the remains of my roast lamb shoulder. I think it tasted even better tonight than on Sunday. It’s all gone now!

We watched the first episode of The Tourist, but neither of us was convinced by it. If you can’t relate to the actors, (I think empathise is the word) then it’s a hard ask to keep watching it. I may give it one more chance, or maybe not. Much more entertaining and just downright watchable is Around the World in 80 Days. Just good fun.

Bloke came to encourage us to push probes down our throats and up our noses. He had a good sense of humour, despite having to stand in the bucketing rain. I suppose you need a GSOH for that job.

Well, it looks like the dance classes will be free to start again after the weekend. That is good news. Most of the restrictions have been released, and not before time, say we.

Tomorrow I’m booked for coffee with Val. Scamp is intending to do some more tidying up.

A day at the seaside – 17 January 2022

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What better place to be on a bright and not too cold January day, than on a Scottish beach?

Scamp wanted to go to the seaside today, to the seaside on the east coast. That’s why we packed up the car with photo gear and drove across the country to Aberdour and down a road that led to the Silver Sands.

The Silver Sands are well named, because the smooth greyish sand does sparkle in a silvery way when the sun shines on it, and the sun was shining today. We drove down a narrow road with monumental potholes, unavoidable in places. If you missed one with the left tyre, the right tyre found its neighbour. Luckily it wasn’t a long drive and we got parked easily in an enormous carpark, one of about four as far as we could see. From there we walked down to the beach and those sands. I don’t know if they sweep that beach every morning, but it was perfectly smooth and not a lot of litter showing either.

We walked along the beach in one direction, and then in the opposite direction. We saw one girl wearing tee shirt and shorts paddling almost knee deep in the sea … in January (??) I thought at first she was just a child, but as we got closer to the family group, it became obvious that she was a bit older than that, and possibly crazy. Who in their right mind would go wading into the water at this time of year? Well, the answer came when we walked back in the other direction. Two girls waded out of the water, but they were dressed for it in wet suits and with those fluorescent buoyancy aids wild water swimmers trail behind themselves.

We left them to their exercise and headed for the cafe for a coffee and a bite to eat. Panini for me and a tub of chips for Scamp with two coffees to wash them down. The cafe was remarkably busy given the fact that it was a weekday and mid January, but I suppose it’s only the second decent day we’ve had for a long while. I imagine this place will be mobbed in the summer. We both agreed that we’ll come back and find out.

We drove back and got completely lost following the sat nav that was supposed to be taking us in the direction of Stirling. Instead it was determined to take us via Kincardine, so we eventually agreed to go with it. I thought we might stop for a photo opportunity at Torryburn, but the low sun was shining right in our faces and a low mist was obscuring what scenic view there might have been. We drove home.

Well, we drove home via B&Q to get some fixings to make that pedestal I spoke about. Our B&Q is a bit run down. It’s in a retail park where the only store that anyone goes to is Halfords. All the rest are carpet shops or cheaply made furniture sold at about twice what they’re worth. We are getting a new retail park with a cinema, a bowling alley, a hotel, restaurants and, well, anything you could want. It’ll be ready in early …. That’s the problem. It’s just a pipe dream and I’m not sure what they’re smoking in that pipe, but the story is convincing nobody. So, our B&Q had the corner connectors, but no screws to fit them. A do it yourself store that can’t do anything itself. We drove home.

That was about it for the day. I had a look at the photos I’d taken today and they looked pretty good. The new toy does take very nice photos. A view from Aberdour looking over to Edinburgh got PoD. I think Scamp really enjoyed that walk along the beach today. It certainly seemed to lift her spirits. It was a lovely beach and great views across the estuary to Edinburgh. I think it’s on our list of places to go back to.

Tomorrow looks like a return to dull, cloudy weather with the chance of rain for a while. I’ve got some woodwork to do, so that might keep me busy and we might get out for a walk later. We got a message from the couple who run our dance class to test the water for a return to class soon. Let’s hope things are opening up again. We’ll know more when Nick the Chick gives her proclamation tomorrow.

Walking on Sunshine – 16 January 2022

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No dull skies today, only blue and the big white shiny thing was up in that sky.

I was so glad to see the hill basking in the warm glow of the morning sun when I got up. What a difference a day makes. We just had to go out and enjoy that sunshine. We drove down to Auchinstarry and found a space to park at the quarry. From there we walked along the old mineral line path as far as Twechar. On the way there we stopped to let four cyclists past. Further on we bumped into a wee older man pushing his bike up the hill. He told us it wasn’t a true electric bike, it was an electric assist bike which means that if you stop pedalling, the motor stops too. He seemed to be enjoying the freedom of the bike. I’m not sure I’m ready for that yet, although it’s a long time since I last took the Dewdrop out. By that time we were at the halfway point of the walk. I’d taken a few photos, but not a lot.

We crossed the road and followed the towpath back to Auchinstarry. On the way we passed a few folk out walking in the morning sunshine. A lot more photos were taken and with no wind, the reflections in the water were excellent. Most of the bikes that passed, and there were lots, were serious road bikes or hybrids, but there were a few electric bikes too. We even met the wee man on his assist bike. He seemed to be making good time, far better time than us. Back at Auchinstarry the car park had filled up quite significantly since we left the car. Every space was taken and cars were parked along the edge of the climbing wall of the quarryside too. We went to Kilsyth after that to get some potatoes for dinner and a bottle of gin for me. `

Back home and after lunch I started making some bread. Well, the mixer started making some bread and I just watched it. Then it was time to start reorganising the wires and cables behind the TV. We had discussed this last night and come to the conclusion that we could happily do without the DVD player and, since we now had a much neater TiVo box, we should try to build a pedestal for it that would hide the mass of cables that crowd into the space behind the TV. After photographing the back of the TiVo I disconnected the cables, removed the box and the, now redundant, DVD player. The next thing to do was to decide what cables were staying and what could go. Then it was time to plug everything back into the TiVo using the photo as a reference and hope it worked again. It did. For now the TiVo is sitting on a low stepping stool, but we’ve a plan to make a low pedestal from a piece of pine that has been wasting its time in a cupboard upstairs. The DVD player will go to the skip, maybe as early as tomorrow.

Next task was to get my lamb shoulder ready for the oven. Just for my reference, here is what I did:
Heat the oven to Gas 4.
Pan fry the rolled lamb shoulder
Tuck some rosemary into the meat and secure it under the string
Season with salt and pepper
Put in a roasting tray and cover with tinfoil
Cook for 1 hour
Check, then return to the oven for another hour.
Allow to cool for about 30 mins in a warm place.

This is for a piece of meat 600g approx.

PoD was a shot of a bloke walking his dog along the towpath of the canal.

Lamb was delicious. Scamp’s scallops were a disappointment. Bread looks good, although we haven’t tasted it yet

Spoke to Jamie in the evening and heard all about the extra costs in getting the house the way you want it and how the cost of every repair seems to have three zeros after the first number!

Tomorrow more sun and blue sky predicted. Another walk is on the cards I hope.

I’m getting fed up with dull days – 15 January 2022

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There was little point in going out today, but we went anyway.

It started off a bit dull, then got darker. The lights went on around 2pm, because we kept bumping into things in the dark. It wasn’t quite as bad as that, but near enough. Eventually Scamp got her jacket on and declared that she was going to the shops to get some oranges. I suggested a pizza for dinner tonight and said I’d join her on the orange hunt just in case there were any pizzas in the shops. We ended up with more than oranges and pizzas, but I won’t bore you with the details.

As we do sometimes, we parted company on the way back home, Scamp to go back and unload her bag of goodies and me to walk once round St Mo’s pond. I spoke to the geese and the swans, but they seemed to be having as dull a day as we were. I don’t know if the young swans, too old to be cygnets, can fly yet, but I’m pretty sure that if they could, they’d be off winging their way to somewhere more interesting than St Mo’s pond on a dull, uninspiring day. Or maybe not. Maybe they like dull. If so they will have had their fill of it these last few weeks.

I found very little to inspire me and came home with a handful of disparate shots, none of which were likely to make a PoD. Instead, I watched a couple of interesting videos on YouTube. One on processing with Lightroom by the most boring presenter in the world, that master of the monotone, Mark Galer. A load of good useful information, but I could only watch it for about twenty minutes before my eyelids started to droop. Another one by a more animated presenter whose name escapes me. It was about simplifying the complex menus of the Sony A7iii. You don’t need to know any more, it’s not at all interesting to normal people, just photogs.

Maybe it was because it was the mirror of my gloomy mood or maybe it was because of the underlying and totally accidental composition, but after messing around with one of the shots I took after we’d been to the shops, this one made PoD. This pathway through the trees has produced more than its fair share of photo opportunities for me over many years.

Tomorrow we MUST go somewhere to be out of the house and hopefully out in the fresh air with blue skies and sunshine (the last two are optional, but would be appreciated). Just getting out somewhere will be an improvement on today.

Out for the messages – 14 January 2022

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Rather than just go up the road to Tesco, we drove to Waitrose in Stirling, just for fun.

As we here heading north east to Stirling, the sky got progressively lighter and we hoped that signalled a better day ahead. We wandered round Waitrose and bought half the shop. We could have bought more, but there is only so much we can cram into the blue car’s boot.

With the Waitrose staff wondering why the shelves looked so empty, we went for a walk through Stirling. The Thistle centre looked very unloved with lots of shops still boarded up. We split up Scamp was looking for clothes and I was looking for books and tech. I found neither, but did have a happy half hour looking at things in those two categories. We drove home and unloaded the car. I’m sure I heard the shock absorbers breathing a sigh of relief.

After lunch I parcelled up the calendars and then walked over to Condorrat to send them on their way, and yes, it does have the Where Was It Took page, Hazy. I stopped in at St Mo’s on the way back and grabbed some photos. Didn’t think any of them were good enough, but then I remembered The Alien. It’s a bouncy climbing thing in the Adventure Playground. I’d photographed it just over a year ago, but I though it deserved a go with the new whizzo camera. There result of that though is today’s PoD.

Tonight’s dinner was a Charlie Bigham Veg Lasagne. Really full of flavour and one of our favourite ‘ready meals’.

As far as tomorrow goes, no dancing class yet, but the signs are looking better, so we keep our fingers crossed. Maybe a walk somewhere scenic.

 

A walk in the park with a new toy – 13 January 2022

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Today Alex and I went for a walk in a park.

Drove to Motherwell to pick Alex up, then we drove to Hamilton and parked at the retail park. I’d hoped to get some photos of the mausoleum, but it was still covered in scaffolding, so we found our way to my second choice which was the Keith’s building. It’s a red sandstone five storey building in a state of severe disrepair. From street level it looks like an old boarded up shop, but if you see it from below in Cadzow Glen, it looks completely different. It’s grade A listed, so it can’t be demolished, but it really needs a lot of TLC to bring it back to some semblance of its former glory. We took a few photos of it from the glen, and even risked the dodgy looking stairs that lead to a high level balcony. Then we followed the Cadzow Burn up the glen to a waterfall and took another few photos there. You just can’t stop photogs taking photos of waterfalls.

Time was getting on and I knew there was a time limit for parking at the retail park, so we headed back through the maze of streets behind Cadzow Street and down to the car, stopping to photograph the ‘man with the rope’. Then we drove up to Chatelherault for a coffee and a seat. That’s when I sprung my surprise. I got a new camera yesterday. In case anyone is interested, it’s a Sony A7iii. It replaces the A7ii and is a far more complicated model than its older brother. Lots of bells and whistles, all explained in its 666 page manual. This was its first real outing taking photos instead of being tested. I was impressed. I think Alex was too.

Dropped him off at the house and came home. Lunch had been a scone with butter ’n’ jam, so I was ready for dinner which was a new version of Scamp’s Macaroni and Cheese. Just a few tweaks with the sauce and the bacon made it a totally new dish. I think I like the new version better than the old one. In fact I liked it so much I forgot to put some tomato or brown sauce on it! Maybe next time.

That was about it for today. I believe there are plans for shopping tomorrow.

 

A really dull day again – 12 January 2022

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Missed a coffee date with Isobel, but I’d work to do.

Actually, I’d forgotten about this morning’s coffee date with Isobel, but Scamp hadn’t. I still had work to do on those calendars. I know how Hazy likes the “Where was it took” page and I’d already made the Numbers database which I’d converted to Excel, but couldn’t quite get it to mail merge to a Word document. Then last night I found a brilliant way of doing it online using the Avery.com website. Actually, I had it all completed and was checking it when I realised that I was using LAST YEAR’S Excel file!! Numpty. I did it all again this morning and then Pages wouldn’t let me format it. Grrrr!

Finally, after struggling with it for about an hour, I got it to work using a bit of software that I’ve had for about a year and never really used. It’s called Affinity Publisher and it’s basically a DTP package with far more power than I will ever need. Long story short, it only took a few minutes to get the page formatted … then another hour to line things up and space them out to my satisfaction. It’s done, they’re printed and I was hoping to get the calendars posted tomorrow, but I’m meeting Alex.

He had wanted to go to Glasgow again for more urban exploration, but I thought we might go to get some photos of the Mausoleum in Hamilton. I don’t think he was all that keen, but then Carol (his wife) suggested we go to get the photos in Hamilton and then we head for Chatelherault for a coffee and a blether. That sounded like a plan to me and Alex seemed to agree. Hoping it doesn’t rain tomorrow!

I took the Sony out for a walk in St Mo’s in the afternoon and left it a bit too late. The light was all but gone by the time I went out, but I did get a few things. The best of a bad lot is this little sapling. The trunk of the tree it’s growing out of had split many years ago and one of the two trunks was sawn off. I’m guessing a seed got lodged in a crack in the stump and that’s what produced the sapling. I’m wondering now if the sapling is the same as the main tree which is a Silver Birch. It would be a talking point if it survived and was a totally different tree, like an ash or a beech, both of which are quite prolific in St Mo’s. The Squatter Seedling made PoD.

The big question tonight is: Is Boris dead in the water, or will he survive to bumble again? Answers, as always, on a postcard please.

I’m hoping to go and take some architectural photos tomorrow with the chance of a coffee and a blether later. Scamp is booked for coffee with Annette.