Month: March 2022

Sun and Snow – 31 March 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Another day to sit inside in the sun and look out on the cold outside.

Just before lunch I got a WhatsApp from Alex to say that Ollie is improving. His infection is reducing and his temperature is being raised. It’s beginning to look more positive. Also, Carol, Alex’s wife is through her knee op and is feeling great, although that may be because of “some good stuff she got, post-op” as Alex put it!

The above brightened up lunch which was omelette for two. Scamp had a mushroom omelette and I had a “What’s in the fridge” omelette. Both very enjoyable. I gave Alex a quick call after lunch and he seems on top of the home situation, and sounded quite up beat.

After lunch we went shopping. Instead of the usual trail round Tesco, today we went to Lidl at Robroyston. Bought a fair amount of stuff, probably more than we need, but it was good to wander round a different set of aisles for a change.

We drove home by the back road for me to try to grab a few landscape shots. We parked by the side of the road and watched as the clouds broke and swept across the Campsie. Scamp once again demonstrated her new-found long vision by telling me there were trees on the top of one of the hills. I must admit that I could see them, but not really clearly. Definitely not as clearly as she could. I did take a few photos, but decided to call it a day when the snow started falling. It didn’t last, but it was a warning that winter isn’t finished with us yet. PoD turned out to be a nine frame panorama of the clouds breaking over Muirhead and Moodiesburn. Sometime the sky is the subject.

Dinner was a veg chilli I’d been smart enough to document in the blog on 31st October 2021. It wasn’t exactly the same and it wasn’t very spicy, but it worked and there’s more in the pot. It might go into a Lock ’n’ Lock tub and fit into the freezer for a surprise dinner, or it might get eaten tomorrow.

I suppose it all depends on what we do tomorrow. We may go in to Glasgow for a wander, but that depends on the weather. Temperature is supposed to go down to -3ºc tonight. Just think, a few days ago I was sitting reading in the garden wearing shorts and tee shirt. That’s Scotland for you!

Sunshine and snow showers – 30 March 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Typical Scottish weather, but only two seasons in one day.

Beautiful sunshine in the morning and it looked great until you went outside, then you did believe what the thermometer said. I don’t think I even ventured out in the morning, preferring to concentrate on the important stuff that had to be done, like the Sudoku and making coffee. Jamie, I’m beginning to agree with you about Perth coffee. I’ve been getting Sumatran beans for years now and know what the coffee should taste like. Now it’s beginning to be a bit flat. Strong enough, but lacking in flavour. It was pointed out when I got a bag of the ‘coffee of the month’ earlier this month. It was Papua New Guinea and would probably be fresher than most of the beans in the shop. It certainly tasted fresher. It had a totally different taste to anything I’ve had recently. I’ll keep some for you if I can resist trying it again! Could it be that some of his sacks of beans have been lying too long? Maybe. I’ve a lot of coffee in the freezer. Once it’s used I’ll try something else. Sometimes you need someone to point out the obvious to you!

After lunch I got a WhatsApp from Alex with some photos of his new grandson, Ollie. He has been having a hard time since he was born on Sunday night, but he’s in the best hospital for neonatal care in the region. I feel sorry for Alex because Carol goes in to hospital tomorrow to have the knee operation she has waited a long time for. That means he will be solo cook and bottle washer for the rest of the family for a few days. Spare him a thought, and while you’re at it, spare a thought for wee Ollie.

Fred phoned me later and we had a good half hour on the phone, talking about nothing much in particular and everything in general. He reminded me that the new Ben Aaronovitch book is coming out next week. I may use some of my book tokens to get that.

Later in the afternoon, Scamp got the Dyson out and that was my cue to get my boots on and go for a walk. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, but I’d seen a wee patch of daisies the other day and they might look good with the Lensbaby. However, it didn’t look as if the weather gods were going to play ball because big black clouds were rolling in. After my second circuit of St Mo’s pond, the sun poked its head out and shone nice and brightly, so I got my shot. The lens produces some strange effects in the areas in front of the mains subject. This one looked almost like a nest for the flowers. It got PoD. Other contenders were a full unopened can of Coke, but I was rushing and didn’t notice that the horizon was tilted and the can was not. I might go back and reshoot some time if I get a chance, although that original can will be long gone by then. A full unopened can of coke? In St Mo’s? No chance!  Ten minutes after I took the photo of the daisies, there was a snow storm!  Luckily it didn’t last and the snow didn’t lie.

A short dance practise tonight of the waltz we’re learning. We can now stumble through the entire routine without too many mistakes. What’s the betting the teachers will change something “… to make it easier …”. It never is easier. They know that. We know that, and worst of all, they know that we know that!

No plans for tomorrow although a trip to the shops may be in order.

 

 

Strathaven – 29 March 2022

Posted on by Zogman

We went to Larky, but Millheugh was shut, locked and bolted.

Scamp was out in the morning to meet Shona for coffee and I was feeling a bit down. The sun had forgotten to get up today and it was grey skies all around. Then I told myself to get up off my backside, put my old boots on and get out into the garden and start by chopping down the kale.

The kale is past its best now and is beginning to shoot. It really needs to be cropped, chopped and frozen if we aren’t to lose it. That was the easy bit. The little leeks were next to go from the raised bed. For some reason they just never took off like they should have done. Maybe they weren’t fed enough, or the compost was exhausted, but it seemed to feed the kale without any problem. Whatever the reason, they were coming out today and going into the soup later. That almost cleared out the bed, but there was a little bunch of aqilegia that I’d sheughed in (dug a hole and shoved it in to be reclaimed later) last year some time. I dug it out, split it into two plants and repotted it.

I spread some of Scamp’s cure-all fertiliser, Fish, Blood and Bone over the bed and started to fork it in. That’s when I discovered that at least one edge board of the raised bet has rotted right through. It will have to be replaced, but I don’t think the rot has stopped there.

It was round about then, Scamp returned with a bag of rolls for lunch. Bacon roll for lunch for me. Roll ’n’ Cheese for Scamp. After lunch we got ready and drove to Larky to donate Scamp’s now redundant reading glasses to the opticians to go to folk who need them. I went to B&M to get some superglue to fix my old Flying Tiger specs. Then we drove down to Millheugh where the big grassy bank beside the Avon Water has been barricaded because of unexplained dangers I get the impression they barricades and signs aren’t all that official. No explanations why you can’t fish there either. That’s Larky for you. It’s a different world, beyond the law.

Since Millheugh was closed and the weather was improving, I thought we might drive to Stonehouse. Got there, but there wasn’t anything interesting to photograph, so we travelled on to Strathaven. Parked in the bit car park on the Park and went for a walk through what used to be a great park, and actually, it’s looking quite good again. Some work being done on sprucing up the flower beds. A brilliant mural on the gable end of the toilets. Obviously aimed at children with bright colours and things to find in the painting. I may post it on Flickr.

I was photographing the trees growing beside the Powmillon Burn when a man, about my age commented on the blossom on a fruit tree we’d just passed. He gave me directions to a place to photograph behind Strathaven Castle. We couldn’t go today, but I said I’d go back on a day with better lighting, and I meant it. Then the strangest thing happened, he told us that he’d been diagnosed with dementia. It’s one of those times when you don’t know what to reply. He said he had had the test but was quite dismissive about it. Neither of us thought he really believed it was true. I was right about his age. He was a year older than me. Also, he went to Larkhall Academy. In those days, children who went to Strathaven Academy would leave school after third year. Only a few came to Larkhall for fourth to sixth year. I would almost certainly have been there when he came to the Academy.

We drove home by a twisted, circuitous route that brought us back via Millheugh, then it was a straight road through Larky to the motorway and home. I made soup as I’d intended with the leeks and some kale with carrots, turnip and some lentils. It was really good. I was impressed, even if it was 7pm before we got to eat it with a roll each.

PoD was a shot of East Church House, now a hotel beside the Powmillon Burn.

Tomorrow we have no plans.

I’m busy doing nothing – 28 March 2022

Posted on by Zogman

That’s how today felt.

Scamp was out to lunch with Nancy today which left me the run of the house.

It was a beautiful day again, possibly the last really warm day for a while, so after I’d changed the battery in the solar powered light ball that hangs on the tree in the garden, I went and sat on the front step and read my new book for a while, until lunch time, in fact. After lunch which was a chicken, mushroom and red pepper omelette, I continued my sunbathing and reading, although I did change to shorts and a tee shirt because it was really quite warm. I got a warning from Scott the taxi driver that I should have sun cream on and thought that was a wise precaution, so I went in search of sun cream. Finally found some, slapped it on and grabbed a beanie hat to complete my rig out. Possibly not the most elegantly dressed gent in the estate, but certainly the most comfortable, because now I’d taken a folding chair out. You can only sit for so long on a step before your bum starts to complain. I know I should have been sanding down the woodwork of the bin shed, but you can’t put a good book down! The book was All That Lives by James Oswald, in case you’re interested.

When Scamp returned I thought I’d give her some space and too the camera and the Lensbaby out to get some photos of the flowering cherry that grows in the depths of St Mo’s woodland. I got a few shots of it and am beginning to come to terms with this strange contraption. It does produce some very arty effects, almost painterly. That’s what produced today’s PoD of the flowering cherry tree.

That was about it for today. My work on the light ball lit up tonight and is now off again. The little Ni Mh battery does a good job and gives two or three hours of light. I’m hoping there will be enough sun tomorrow to charge it up again. Apparently it’s going to get a lot colder in the next few days with a wind from the north and talk of that white fluffy stuff falling from the sky!

One more thing.  I made Pasta Carbonara tonight for dinner, with a difference.  Two kinds of cheese, Pecarino and Parmigiano-Reggiano and NO CREAM!  Instead I tried Val’s recipe with an extra egg yolk instead of cream and it did taste better.  Must try it again some time.

Tomorrow Scamp is out again. This time it’s coffee with Shona. I’ll hope for a morning of sunshine.

 

Mothers Day – 27 March 2022

Posted on by Zogman

After the crowds and rushing about of yesterday we wanted a quieter day today.

A lazy morning, taking some photos in the garden. Completing today’s Sudoku and just generally chilling. That was the tone for today. Scamp spoke to Hazy in the morning, and found that Neil was feeling a lot better and talking about going back to work tomorrow after his Covid scare. Scamp too was in good spirits and seemed to be enjoying the good weather.

After lunch we went out and did a bit of gentle pruning of the Schoolgirl rose that grows up the trellis beside the front door. Last autumn we’d done some drastic pruning and cut it back quite hard. It seems that the brutality of the pruning has encouraged a fair amount of new growth and perhaps we can do even more cutting after the risk of frost is past.

With the work in the garden done, we went for a walk round St Mo’s. Just one circuit. I was going to go for a second round, but the light was fairly flat, even for a bright day and we both walked down to the shops to get milk and sweeties. No gin today. Back home, Scamp made herself a Pimms and I opened a cheap bottle of beer that tasted like a cheap bottle of beer. I don’t think I’ll buy another one of those, but I would definitely have another bottle or two of Wainwright. Cheap beer that tastes like good beer. We sat in the garden and had a wee drink and I took some more photos, but most of them failed the cut because of striping, something to do with the electronic shutter. Too technical for me, but annoying. PoD went to a shot from the morning of some lovely scarlet anemones. Taken with the new toy, the Lensbaby Sweet 50.

With the sun going down, the Pimms drained and the beer finished too, it was dinner time. The main constituent was there remains of yesterday’s chicken with potatoes and cauliflower. Dessert was ice cream with our new raspberry sauce which tastes a lot like the raspberry we used to get at the ice cream van when we were wee.

Later Scamp spoke to Jamie and heard about the problems of travelling to Trinidad and the difficulty of getting Covid tests in the correct time scale. Not for him, but for Sim. Also the joys of cutting an enormous lawn in the new house.

Tomorrow Scamp is booked for lunch with Nancy at The Fort. I think I may go down the Luggie to get some photos, all being well.

Too many folk! – 26 March 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Today we were heading east on the train. We were going to Edinburgh or Embra to give it its proper name.

We were a bit surprised at how many folk were already waiting at Platform 1 for the 10.25am train for the capital. There didn’t seem to be rugby on, nor was there a football clash. We shrugged and got on the train.

In Embra, once we got out of the station at Haymarket, there were a lot of changes since the last time we’d been there. Great glass monoliths had sprung up dwarfing (are you allowed to say that in these terribly PC days) the old sandstone building that looked disapprovingly on their new brash neighbours. We walked up Morrison Street to the Conference Centre then into Ladyfield and on to Conference Square. Canyons, both of them. Narrow paths between towering glass and steel buildings. They look like canyons and feel like canyons when that east wind is blowing, but catch the light nicely when the sun shines, and the sun was shining today. Crossed the road for coffee in Nero, our usual watering hole when we’re visiting the capital.

Refreshed we walked through the Farmers Market after glancing at the Van Gogh exhibition site and feeling glad we hadn’t bought the extortionate tickets to watch stars float across some wildly blown up photos of the artist’s work.

It was while we were walking through the market that I got the first inklings that it was a bit busier than it usually is at this time of year. As we neared the Grassmarket we both agreed that it was indeed a bit crowded. Every stall seemed to have queues of folk two or three rows thick trying to get a look at what is really just tourist tack. No chance of going to Petit Paris today for lunch. Up over West Bow to the Royal Mile and the crowds were still milling around. We walked through the Princes Street Gardens, but there were no seats available and people sitting on the grass everywhere. When we got to Princes Street itself, I think we both made the decision to go home.

We almost had to run to get on the train home and managed to get a seat after walking half way along the train. Each carriage was full. Finally we did get a seat, but once the train reached Haymarket it was standing room only. A most uncomfortable journey in a hot, crowded train. I don’t know why everyone had decided to go to Embra today, but we were both happy to get back to the house.

Scamp sat in the garden for a while enjoying the sunshine, while I tried to fix one of her light globes. I’ve just realised I’ve got it charging in the back bed room. Must switch it off before I go to bed.

We had stopped at Tesco on the way home to get a cooked chicken and a loaf and we had Neil’s Chicken Salad for dinner. Bramley Apple pie for dessert.

I think the next time we feel the need to visit Embra, we’ll go mid-week.

PoD was the view up West Bow.

Tomorrow a bit of basking in the sun, hopefully.

Off to Larky – 25 March 2022

Posted on by Zogman

To see the optician.

Thankfully I didn’t need new glasses, in fact, the optician said that my long vision had improved since my last visit! I have no idea how that happened. Scamp did need new reading glasses, but she’s getting Transition glasses which darken in sunlight. I know they’ve been out for some time, but these new ones darken much quicker than the older ones I had once upon a time. Hers will probably more akin to the ones Zaphod Beeblebrox had that darkened when danger threatened! When we walked back out into the Larky sunshine I needed sunglasses because of the drops the optician put in my eyes. Trust us to both go on the brightest and warmest day of the year so far!

We sat in the car for a while until I deemed it safe for me to drive. To drive to Gouldings on Clydeside for lunch. Being Friday, it could only be Fish ’n’ Chips. For dessert we had an enormous double meringue with four flakes sticking out of it and a strawberry on top. Slightly over the top, but we shared the load of eating it!

After that it was back home for Scamp to try out her new compost scoop tool to help her to plant her new roses. The scoop has been a great success, the gardener reported and it hold a lot of earth. Meanwhile I took the Sony A7iii out for a walk in St Mo’s and PoD was one of a deep pink wild flower. Actually, I took a picture of a flower that looks exactly the same, a week earlier in 2021. That just shows two things:
1. Wild plants follow exact cycles every year.
2. I’m becoming very insular. Photographing in the same locality too often.

That was about it for today. Lovely sunny day again. Tomorrow we may go further afield.

 

Happy Birthday Scamp – 24 March 2022

Posted on by Zogman

A day of celebration, overeating and a bottle of wine into the bargain.

Spoke to Hazy in the morning and after the traditional singing of “Happy Birthday” she told us how Granny’s 90th birthday party turned into a Super Spreader event, with everyone present becoming positive for Covid! Luckily, Hazy hadn’t attended, unluckily for Neil, he had and is suffering today. Hope he feels better soon and Hazy stays negative.

After she had opened her cards and replied to most of the well-wishers on FB, we got changed into slightly dressier clothes and drove over to Falkirk. Actually not quite to Falkirk, just to the outskirts, to The Boardwalk restaurant for lunch. It’s an airy, modern building, part of a chain.It’s part of the same company as Coast, a restaurant we’d been to a month or so ago, near Port Glasgow. The meal that day was superb. While Scamp’s food today was very nice, I was disappointed. Starters was Mixed Tempura which I thought was oily, but Scamp disagreed. She was allowed to, it was her birthday. Mains were Smoked Haddock Gratin for Scamp and it did look impressive and tasted the same I’m told. Mine was Duck Ragu Rigatoni. The sauce was bland, the duck tasteless and the pasta overcooked. There’s not a lot you can say about it after that. Nobody came to ask how the meals were and the service was very slow. However, I’m glad Scamp enjoyed her meal.

After lunch we walked up to the Falkirk Wheel and watched a bus load of people get lifted up on the giant machine. I took some photos, but it was one of the lined up canal boats that got PoD. The centre was working on its winter timetable and was closing down at 4pm, which is fair, I think as there weren’t many folk there.

First stop on the way home was at Torwood for a pot for the new rose, and two bags of compost. I talked Scamp into another new rose which she reluctantly agreed to and also a pretty red anemone. Neither us had seen a red one before! That meant another two pots!

Final stop on the way was at the shops for a Bramley Apple Pie, ice cream and cream to go with it. Back home we had the apple pie as a belated dessert. We had a bottle of wine to wash it down and then watched the final of this year’s Apprentice. I think we were a bit surprised at who won in the end.

Tomorrow we’ve both got appointments with Simpson Opticians in Larky. Hope the sun doesn’t shine too brightly after getting the drops.

Waiting, waiting, waiting – 23 March 2022

Posted on by Zogman

For the postman to arrive. Hopefully bringing a parcel.

It took a while for the postman to arrive with the parcel and two cards. Scamp had already been down to the shops and back, leaving me to wait for the parcel. I did spend my time wisely, going out into the sunshine and photographing the Forsythia bush with my strange new lens. It’s a bit cumbersome and difficult to work with. If I’d put the camera on a tripod and then adjusted things, it would have been better. However, like most things photographic, the instructions that come with it are only a starting point. Mostly you learn by doing.

After lunch we set off for a walk in Drumpellier park. Scamp got to choose the paths this time, because it’s her week. She wanted to try a path to Bishop Loch. The sign pointing out the way seemed to think it was 1.5 miles to the loch. We followed its path until we came to the main road. There was a another signpost there telling us to go left. That was strange, because I was sure Bishop Lock was right. Also, the distance to the loch was now 1.75 miles. We both though the signs were just leading us a merry dance and we went back the way we’d come.

We hadn’t walked far when I got a call from the lady who asks us questions and gives us cotton bud things to stick down our throat and up our nose. Not out in the wilds of Drumpellier park, you realise, but back home. We agreed a time and walked a shortened version of our original route. A route that took us past the ice cream van, where we stopped for a ’99’, or as I said “a 99 with a flake”. Silly bugger. We found a seat by the loch (not Bishop Loch) to sit and watch the world go by as we ate our cones.

On the way back we stopped at The Fort. Scamp went to browse clothes shops and I went looking for a book in Waterstones. I came out with two books and still with a fiver in my book tokens to reduce the price of the next book I fancy. I’d hoped to get a birthday card for Scamp too, but Waterstones didn’t have any and I didn’t want to run the risk of Scamp spotting me going in to a card shop.

Back home, we still had an hour to spare before the Covid Survey lady was due to come, so I grabbed my camera bag and told Scamp I was going over to St Mo’s to get a few more pictures. Instead I walked down to the shops and got a card there. I’d also intended getting a bottle of Bramble Gin, but the queues in Aldi were ridiculous, so I gave up, put the bottle back on the shelf and walked home. Sorry Scamp. IOU a bottle of Bramble Gin. On the walk I did find something to photograph. It made the cut too and is on Flickr. It’s another bunch of seeds from a Silver Birch, lying on the ground. A boy on a bike watched me as if I was mad. Had he never seen a man on his hands and knees photographing a bit of stick lying on the ground? These are exactly the antics that get photogs a bad name!

The lady came and we told her some lies variations on the truth, but mainly truthful. We shoved the stick down our throats and gagged a bit. We stuck it up our nose too, both nostrils. Note! It’s really important that you do the throat first, not the nose. Think about it. There are some things you don’t want to put down your throat!  The last question they ask you is always “Have you been out of the country in the last 28 days?”.  We always look sad at that point, but today the lady did a little dance and said that she was hoping to get out of the country and go to Teneriffe next week.  She looked so excited I forgave her for making us feel worse!  It’s nice to get an interviewer with a sense of humour.  Actually most of them have been fairly happy folk.

Dinner was Easy Fish and Cabbage Risotto. The oven does all the work and nobody will be able to tell that you didn’t spend half an hour feeding hot stock into slowly thickening rice starch.

Hoping to go for lunch in Falkirk tomorrow, then a visit to Torwood Garden Centre.

 

Waiting for a parcel – 22 March 2022

Posted on by Zogman

You wait all morning and then two come at once.

I got an email yesterday to say that a parcel would arrive for me today. It was a new, well, second hand, lens. Not your normal lens. It’s a bendy twisty turn round corners lens called a Lensbaby. It wasn’t too expensive in the camera lens terms. I ordered it last week and it was coming today! Also coming today was a birthday prezzy for Scamp. Scamp was going to the dentist today and I was hoping that her parcel would arrive while she was away. It didn’t happen.

After lunch and before she left for the dentist, the DPD man arrived with both parcels. I might still have got away with it, except as he was photographing it and signing it into his handheld device, he said “These David Austin roses are expensive, but they are good.” I knew then the game was up and brought both parcels into the living room where Scamp was laughing her head off. Well, it just extended the birthday celebrations I suppose. The rose I’d chosen was, thankfully, on her short list. It’s a Lady of Shalott.

After the excitement she came down to reality with a bump when she found out that she’d need a crown on her tooth. When she told how much it would cost, I thought it might be a real crown! Another long wait to get it done too. First appointment she was given was for mid June! Also, our dentist is retiring next week. He was good, well, I liked him anyway. So now we need to hope that the new lady dentist who is his replacement will take us both on as NHS patients and end the misery of me being NHS and Scamp being private.

I was just getting the mower out to cut the front grass when Scamp arrived back with her sorry tale about an expensive piece of porcelain. She told me to leave the grass cutting to her and go out an play with the new toy. I didn’t need told twice. I just laced up my boots and got on with the test.

It really is a weird piece of equipment. The body of the lens is in two parts, held together in a ball and socket joint. The lens itself fits into this contraption. There is no electronic connection to the camera itself an very little assistance to focusing the beast. The image in the viewfinder took a bit of getting used to, but I could see how the thing worked after I’d taken a few experimental shots. First thoughts are that it’s not a lens for everyday photography, but it does things I’ve never seen before from a lens. I’ll keep it for a while at least.

Today’s PoD wasn’t taken with it. That shot camera from a ‘normal’ Samyang 18mm lens. A bit of tweaking in Lightroom revealed the image you see of St Mo’s under a wonderful sky. The weird photos are on Flickr.

Tomorrow we may be going for a walk if the weather holds. If not, then it’s maybe a trip into Glasgow.