Month: September 2023

Curry for lunch – 30 September 2023

Posted on by Zogman

We couldn’t decide where to go today, but eventually settled on a curry in Hamilton.

Not the most exotic place to have lunch, but according to the sign, there’s only one Bombay Cottage, so we drove to Hamilton to have a curry for lunch. Scamp had here usual Cauliflower Shimla Bhaji and for a change I had Chicken Tikka rather than my usual Chicken Rogan Josh. I’d have it again. It’s not been a favourite of mine, mainly because the sauce can be really thin and really spicy hot. This one was much milder and I could taste the onions and spices in the sauce. The chicken was as moist as any I’ve had. The only down side was the naan bread which had too much ghee and was a bit bland. Scamp had asked for well done, but either the bloke taking the order wasn’t listening or he forgot. He looked as if he was half asleep.

Fed and watered, because the drinks were very watery, we headed home into a constant drizzle in what was left of the day. Not a great day for photographs, but I did a round of the garden when we got home and the picture of a teasel flower was PoD.

We watched Strictly at night and I felt it really dragged. A few ‘no hopers’ a few trying desperately to impress and the rest were there to get their faces on TV or were brought in to fill in spaces. I’m only watching it to see them dancing in the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool, now that we’ve been there!

That was it for the last day in September. Inktober starts tomorrow and that will mean an extra hour or so’s work for me sketching, scanning and posting my efforts, then answering inane questions from those who can’t read the rules.
“But why do we have to sketch in ink?”
“Because it’s in the rules”
“But why?”
“Because I said so.”
“But why can’t I use a pencil?”
“Because you’d probably injure yourself”
“But why can’t I just use my IPad”
“Because you’re now banned! Next!”
“But why do I have to …”

Sometimes it’s a pain being an admin. Sometimes it’s fun. ????

Tomorrow we may be going to watch the Great Scottish Run. Watching, not competing!

Dining out – 29 September 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was out to FitSteps this morning and instead of sitting on my backside, I chose to hoover (or Dyson) the living room and the hall carpets. Not satisfied with that, I washed down the shower cabinet and cleaned its filter. Then I could settle down to read a chapter of my latest book on my Kindle app.

When Scamp returned we discussed what to do about lunch and therefore what to do about dinner. We finally settled on going to Broadwood Farm which is part of the Stonehouse chain of pub restaurants. It was still windy this morning and there was just the threat of rain so we wrapped up well to make sure Agnes wasn’t on her way back to say a final “Cheerio”. The restaurant was almost empty, while there were a queue of cars waiting at the drive through at McD’s next door. I think I’d rather have the food in Broadwood than anything in McD’s, but it seems that I’m in the minority. We both chose fish ’n’ chips today and while it certainly wasn’t haddock or cod that ended up on my plate, it was well cooked and tasted fine. Scamp had a glass of red and I had a pint of Tennents to wash it down. We sat and talked a while after the meal and I watched the cars on the stop/start roundabout and was thankful for not having to go to work any more.

We walked home via the shops where we got a pizza to stick in the fridge just in case we felt hungry later and a couple of pineapple tarts to enjoy with a cup of coffee back home.

I had considered going for a walk in St Mo’s in the morning, but chose to to do some housework instead, so while Scamp enjoyed her pineapple tart and a coffee, I plodded round St Mo’s. I took a wee awkward Lensbaby Sweet 35 with the A7. It’s called ‘Sweet’ because of a ‘sweet spot’ in the centre of the lens while the rest of the image is intentionally blurred. The 35 refers to the lens length, 35mm. It’s another manual lens with no autofocus, but that’s one of its joys. A difficult lens to get a handle on, but once you understand it, it’s an interesting piece of kit. It got today’s PoD which is a branch of Berberis growing at the side of a path through the houses. It may have been planted by the council before the cost cutting began!

A glass or two of 19 Crimes red wine took the place of the pizza, but it can stay in the freezer until it’s needed.

We’re undecided about where to go tomorrow. It will depend on the weather.

Has she gone already? – 28 September 2023

Posted on by Zogman

We hadn’t even noticed she’d been, Storm Agnes. She must have passed us by.

Neither of us noticed an increase in the wind during the night. Perhaps the weather maps were right for once when they showed the central belt being storm-free last night and early this morning.

Scamp had a list of places to go this morning. First we were driving to the Muirfield Centre to pick up free tickets to a tea dance. Actually a tea dance that last for five hours! That would be a marathon. Can we go home for our dinner half way through and come back after but still get our tea at the tea dance? Just asking!

Next stop was Calders to book a round table for six folk, except they didn’t have a round table that would sit six. Five, yes, but not six. Probably an EEC ruling that’s still in place. While we were there, Scamp bought some bulbs in the garden centre. Not the electrical variety, but the ones you plant in the garden. Hopefully they’ll brighten up the garden.

Last stop was Tesco for the messages. Just the usual, a bottle of wine, a bottle of gin and some odds and ends of food.

After lunch I took the A7 out with a macro lens and got today’s PoD. It’s a spider wrapping up tonight’s dinner. I should really have gone further afield and got a bit of landscape, but the sky was clouding over and there wasn’t really any decent light on the hills, so spiders and webs were all that I managed.

Dinner was Bacon and Borlotti Beans, something I haven’t made for a long while, but it was deemed edible, in fact, quite edible which was good because it’s one of those dishes you have to constantly be in charge off. It would, of course, have been better if I’d been better prepared. Maybe next time!

That was about it for today. No real plans for tomorrow, other than having a drink on Friday night, because I’m not driving to Bridge of Weir the next morning. The teachers are swanning off being teachers on a cruise ship.

Fish Pie – 27 September 2023

Posted on by Zogman

That’s dinner sorted!

Scamp was making Fish Pie for dinner tonight. The fish came out the freezer yesterday and spent the night thawing in the fridge.

With the warnings about the impending arrival of Storm Agnes, I thought it would be a good idea to grab some photos early, so when Scamp said she wanted to post a couple of cards in Condorrat, I thought I’d join her on her mission.

There was only the slightest breeze when we walked over the motorway bridge, bought, wrote and posted the cards. On the walk back, Scamp went left, heading for home and I went right to walk round St Mo’s. There wasn’t much to see. Yesterday’s dragonfly wasn’t to be seen, nor were there any bees or butterflies. I sometimes wonder if insects and birds can sense the arrival of stormy weather. I did get some photos of pretty weeds in St Mo’s and a spiderweb with little water drops clinging to it from last night’s rain, but PoD was going to go to a yellow leaf lying on a bed of seed heads that were just beginning to turn from green to brown.

The making of the fish pie is a secret passed down by word of mouth through the generations of women in the family. Actually Scamp’s sister gave her the recipe, but the making was done while I was out walking round St Mo’s. When I came in the place smelled of cooked fish, in the nicest possible way, but the fish itself was hidden by a tablecloth, lest I catch a glimpse of it.

Lunch was yesterday’s “What’s in the fridge” soup and it had improved overnight as all soups do. Then I got busy turning my rough photographs into finished gems, or at least recognisable objects. While I was doing that, Scamp was assembling the fish pie. I asked her if she needed any help, but was dismissed with “No, it’s fine.” I know my place! The next time I looked, the fish pie was assembled, but again covered with a tablecloth. I didn’t dare peek!

The first slice of the pie was truly delicious, but the second slice was elevated to greatness with a slightly browned top, just like a good shepherd’s pie. Brilliant!

We drove up to “The Legion” for tonight’s class and as I suspected, Kirsty was intent on rubbing the rough edges off the Waltz Nioli. I recognised some of my mistakes and also the rough edges of my own dancing. I actually enjoyed the last track because we danced through our mistakes and finished the entire track. Not perfectly, but we didn’t stop once!

Storm Agnes is due to make landfall about 4am. Hopefully I’ll be in the Land of Nod by that time! No plans for tomorrow.

 

Out for a walk – 26 September 2023

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A walk between the showers.

But first, there was work to be done in the morning. I decided that I’d make some soup for lunch. Not one of Scamp’s ‘Just Soups’, but more a ‘What have we got in the fridge’ soup. What I found was some carrots, a leek, a red pepper, a slice of bacon, a couple of kale leaves and in the cupboard a tub of broth mix. That should be enough to make a pot of soup, with some boiling water and a couple of stock cubes. After chopping the veg and grating one of the carrots, I brought the lot to the boil and then let it simmer for about an hour. It looked like soup and it smelled like soup, so it was soup. That was lunch sorted, and the rain was on. I chose to drive down to the shops to get some bread while the soup was simmering. I drove to the shops because the rain was getting heavier, straight down rain.

The soup made a fairly filling lunch and the rain went off. I was thinking I might chance a walk in St Mo’s, but a quick look over the Campsies told me that although the sun was shining and the streets were drying, it wouldn’t be long before the rain would return … and I was right. However, Scamp and I did get out later in the afternoon for a walk once round the pond at St Mo’s in sunshine. I almost managed to grab a shot of a dragonfly, only one shot before it flew off and that was out of focus. Such a pity. On the way back home I got a few shots of a bloke waking home along the path through the trees and that made PoD. It’s heavily edited, but I quite like the warm light and the streaks of light across the path. The light on the path is real, but the warm light is just pure Lightroom!

The rain didn’t return for a few hours, but when it came it was torrential again. We’re expecting more rain tomorrow and strong winds too when Storm Agnes visits us. I do hope the two who are holidaying in Wales don’t suffer too much from the stormy weather.

Another short practise tonight to rub more rough edges off the waltz and it’s beginning to look like it will actually be danceable soon.

No plans for tomorrow. Just making the most of a wild day, I think.

Soil – 25 September 2023

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We were meeting Isobel for a coffee and a long blether this morning.

We drove up to the town centre and found Isobel halfway through her latte. I imagine it would have been cold by then. She seems to like cold milky coffee. I can think of few things more disgusting than that, although cold milky tea must come close. My Cortado seemed to interest her, but as she said, it hardly even a mouthful. We sat and talked for over an hour and found out that her son had delivered a bag of topsoil for her. Scamp has been looking for topsoil to pack round her roses to give the roots more of a grip in their pots. After interrogating Isobel we discovered that the soil came from Dobbies in Stirling and was reasonably priced. So reasonable that she had decided to get her son to buy another bag for her. Scamp was telling her that she was needing some and we might just go to Stirling to get a bag or two. Then I said to Isobel, “why don’t you come along for the run” and she agreed.

So it was that we drove to Stirling. lifted three bags of topsoil into a trolley, paid and left. Isobel’s quip that “It’s the shortest time I’ve been in a garden centre in my life.” was true. They hadn’t been in that plant paradise for more than fifteen minutes! While they were in looking for the topsoil I had been taking photos of the Wallace Monument and the Ochil Hills through a two meter wire fence. A bit clumsy, but the photos worked. Half a dozen shots in the bag.

We drove home and the wee blue car was struggling on the hills going home. Three full 25litre bags of damp soil and three folk too, plus a heavy camera bag and a zimmer. That was straining its three cylinders to the max, but at least were keeping most thing in threes!

We stopped in the village and used Isobel’s zimmer to transport her bag of soil up the path to her house. Then we drove back home for lunch which today was pizza.

After lunch Scamp got her tools out and started filling the rose pots with the soil. It looked like good quality stuff with maybe more than its fair share of sand mixed with the soil, but it hadn’t been very expensive, so we didn’t mind. I did consider taking a walk in St Mo’s, but when I checked the clock, it was almost dinner time and as it was Monday I was pasta chef today. A sort of cross between Penne Arrabiata and Amatriciana. It tasted fine anyway.

A quick Wednesday Waltz practise tonight and I do believe we are beginning to lick this dance into shape, but whisper it, because I don’t want it to hear!

After a bit of photoshopping and some jiggery pokery I declared one of today’s shots to be the PoD.

We have no plans for tomorrow.

A day to recover – 24 September 2023

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Today was going to be a much more relaxing day than yesterday.

No driving, no dancing and, as it turned out, neither of us went out any further than the garden. I did think about taking a walk over to St Mo’s, but the next time I looked, it was raining. That rain lasted most of the day and eventually dried up in the late afternoon. I did take some photos in the garden, but wasn’t impressed with any of them.

While I was out I found the Venus Fly Trap that struggled in the garden with the dry weather in June. We had managed to coax it back to health, but now as the temperature is dropping it’s coming in to the kitchen, to overwinter. Venus managed to make PoD. I think that was the highlight of the day, although my photo of the Lady of Shalott rose from a couple of days ago was awarded ‘Explore’ on Flickr. I was quite surprised, but happy to accept the accolade.

Dinner tonight was Fish Fingers, Tomatoes and Chips for Scamp and a Venison Burger with Mushrooms and Chips for me. Dessert was Meringue with Ice Cream, Passion Fruit and a dash of Passion Fruit Sauce for extra flavour. Not a bad Sunday dinner.

Tomorrow we’re intending having coffee with Isobel if we don’t get blown away with the wild wind.

A long day – 23 September 2023

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A day that started around 9am and finished around 1am the next day, which means, of course, that this is a catch-up!

We started off at 10.15am heading to Brookfield. We had a quorum, but only just with four couples. Our dancing started off with Tina Tango, the music being Scamp’s favourite ‘Shivers’. Two tracks of that got us moving, then we moved on to Cha-Cha which I admit I struggled with, but eventually came to terms with. I remembered Janes warning to keep my feet just scraping the floor and not make clumpy noises, but I’d entirely forgotten the other nuances of the dance. Information overload was my excuse.

A couple of tracks of Mayfair Quickstep and then we went on to Joy’s Waltz which I almost had before the teachers swanned off for a fortnight ‘working’ on a cruise ship, then another week on holiday. We hadn’t practised it since then and it had dissolved from my memory. I just got angrier and angrier with my inability to remember what went where. Eventually, with Scamp’s patient help it all came back, well, almost all. But I’ll write down the sequences and practise them before the teachers return from their next holiday, ‘cruise work’ in three weeks. Then Joy’s Waltz will be a joy to behold!

Another two sequence dances and we were done for the day. Done dancing at least. After we drove home I intended driving somewhere to get a PoD, but I forgot my phone, so I drove back home and parked the car, then went for a walk in St Mo’s where I found a wee knothole about the size of £2 coin in the wooden boardwalk. A moss had colonised it and from above it looked like a tiny garden in an urban environment, but maybe that’s just me.

By the time I got that processed and posted it was time to get ready to drive to Crawford and Nancy for dinner. It was a good evening and night and dinner was good too. I tried to solve Crawford’s problem with connecting his iPhone to his Microsoft PC but eventually had to give up. I have exactly the same problem trying to get the Macs to connect to my Android phone.

We got home just after midnight after driving through some torrential rain on the M74 and as I said at the start, the day finished around 1am after Scamp had gone to bed and I’d had a wee whisky as a nightcap.

Tomorrow ( ok, today, but ‘tomorrow’ is traditional) we will treat the day as recovery from a full day.

 

Roses, Freezers and Heather – 22 September 2023

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Scamp was off to FitSteps this morning and I was looking for something to do.

The sun streaming in the back window lit up a pair of roses Scamp had put in a vase to keep them from getting battered useless in the wild winds. I thought it would make a good photo and gathered a camera, a lens and a tripod, plus some wee microfibre cloths to make a mat for the vase to sit on and also for a backdrop. I thought I’d get it done in a few minutes, half an hour at the most. An hour and a half later after Scamp returned from her class I was finally working on what was to be the PoD! It’s the fading flowers of the rose Lady of Shalott. I liked the way the sunlight through the window picked up the textures of the roses. Scamp wasn’t impressed, she doesn’t like to see flowers, especially roses in this condition.

We drove up to Calders in the afternoon because Scamp wanted a white heather plant to replace one that didn’t survive the summer drought. I thought at first we’d gone to the wrong place, this seemed to be a Santa’s Grotto with giant Santas, fairy lights and decorations of every shape, size and colour, especially white. The place was mobbed, I’m guessing it was people waiting to be buzzed for lunch or wandering round the grotto after lunch. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the garden centre looking so busy. Christmas may be coming, but we haven’t even had Halloween yet!

We stopped at Tesco on the way home to get some veg to make Veggy Chilli for dinner, but before that there was the matter of a freezer that had almost as much snow in it as Santa’s Grotto! We’re not sure what has happened to it. Scamp reckons SOMEONE had left the door slightly open, but when I was clearing it out and scraping off the frost that had formed, I noticed the seal at the bottom of the door was twisted and wasn’t making proper contact with the frame of the freezer. I think we’ll need to keep an eye on it for a few weeks. Between us we cleared off all the frost and found very little actual ice, which is also suspicious, and it’s freezing away quite happily now.

The veggy chilli wasn’t a great success. Too much water too little chilli and not enough flavour sum it up. First time I’ve used the Magic Pot for a while, so we’ll see if it will be good enough for lunch tomorrow.

Tomorrow we think the dance class is back on, although we haven’t had a confirmation from Stewart yet. We might be going to Larky later.

Dancin’ again! – 21 September 2023

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Today we were going to a tea dance in Glenburn.

It was a lovely bright morning, but cold. Well, I felt it cold anyway. I should have gone for a walk, despite the temperature and shot some photos, but I didn’t, preferring to stay in the warm living room and complete Wordle and Spelling Bee. That meant I’d need to squeeze in a shooting session when we came back from Paisley. Never ideal, but I’ve only myself to blame.

I hadn’t realised just how windy it was until we were on the motorway heading west, and meeting that westerly wind head on. Despite the wind and the intermittent rain we made good time reaching Glenburn before the dance started … for once.

First dance, was a sequence to ‘warm us up’ apparently. I’d expected a waltz, but it was not to be. The waltz was next and I got lost again. Before we left the house I got Scamp to list all the figures we did and I wrote them all out in order. They went clean out of my head. I always think of a waltz as being a slow dance, and it is, but there are a lot of steps in the Waltz Nioli and that means your feet and brain need to be nimble and mine simply aren’t nimble enough. That compounded with a lot of folk on the floor made it difficult for learners like us … or me. We sat with a good crowd at our table and the banter was good. We attempted everything that was flung at us apart from a ballroom Tango and a Tango Serida. We struggled through a Cha-Cha and by the end of that particular one, almost remembered how to do it.

As usual we left early at 3pm to avoid the school rush and almost made it. As usual the Kingston Bridge was a congested car park, but we were on the M74/M73 route and avoided the stop – start – change lanes – change back of the M8. It takes a bit longer in miles on the M74, but at least you are moving at the legal limit most of the time.

Back home I went out for a walk in St Mo’s and got today’s PoD which is a Common Carding Bee on a Scabious flower. We couldn’t decide what to have for dinner and finally chose Fish Fingers, Egg and Fried Potato. Perfect for what was turning out to be a cold day.

Tomorrow we may go looking for a small heather plant to replace one that died during the drought in the early summer.