Month: March 2024

Dancin’ – 21 March 2024

Posted on by Zogman

After a lazy morning we were pitched into another day of dancing.

Drove to Glenburn for today’s tea dance. Horrible day, rained all the way there, but we got to sit at a great table and the weather was forgotten. I missed the first two dances, both waltzes because I had something in my shoe or in my sock. It took me two dance tracks to fix it, I wasn’t avoiding the dance … honest. I knew I’d have another opportunity to dance the waltz after tea or find something else in my shoe if necessary.

Next was foxtrot which I staggered through with Scamp’s helpful comments like “Where are you going?” ringing in my ears. On a positive note, we danced an almost perfect Ballroom Rumba and Ria Bachata.

Good to sit and talk to folk the same or similar age as us and hear their plans for the year. Also good to see the floor full for most of the dances.  Even better, was for me to win a chocolate egg in the Easter raffle!  Thank you Stewart & Jane!

Drove home through more, even heavier rain on the M74 and kept the wheels turning. We’d never have managed that on the Kingston Bridge which is just a slowly moving carpark until about 8pm on any day of the working week.

Dinner, after some discussion was Chicken Thighs with Leeks and Peas. Brilliant recipe where the oven does all the work. Lovely crunchy skin on the chicken and the crisped up leeks are great too.

Speaking about Leeks, today’s PoD  was another experiment. I cut off the bottom 20mm of a leek and set it to float in a container of water. That was a few weeks ago. Now it has grown and been tidied up a bit and I’m hoping to plant it in a pot in the greenhouse and see if I can grow a leek from a leek! I have Hazy to thank for the inspiration.

Tomorrow, the plan is to drive to some B&Q that actually has paint to sell of the exact colour we’re looking for for the next stage in Project Spring Clean the House!

Stirling in the rain – 20 March 2024

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Met Alex today to go for a wander through Stirling.

Picked Alex up at the train station and we drove through the rain to Stirling and parked at the multi-storey carpark in the town. Alex had had a haircut in the morning. Number 2 on top and a Number 1/2 on the back. Very brave when it’s only the middle of March, but who am I to say. Then he left his hat in the car. Not so clever, so first stop was M&S for a cheap bunnet. Then it was coffee time in Nero and plans were laid.

We walked up King Street in the rain and then on to Baker Street and Broad Street with its canons still guarding the road to the castle. On the way we found a flowering cherry tree that had dropped some of its flower on the metal metal seating in a park, and that’s where today’s PoD came from.

We got as far as Mar’s Wark, a townhouse from the 1500s and decided the rain was on for the day and started to head back down the hill. About halfway down the rain lessened and by the time we were down in the shopping precinct, it had stopped. Too late to go back and anyway, plans had been altered to give us a place to go for lunch.

We drove out along the St Andrews road to Coffee Bothy and had lunch. I knew, when I saw the amount of mayonnaise on my Cajun Chicken sandwich that I was going to suffer for it later, and I did. I didn’t even enjoy the food today which is really strange.

We drove back through much lighter traffic than I thought we’d have, and manage to get Alex back in time for his 4:37 train home. We agreed that we hadn’t seen the best of Stirling today and vowed to come back on a DRY day. It was really annoying driving back into the makings of a good sunset, after such a disappointing day, weather-wise.

Later Scamp and I drove up to the British Legion for our midweek dance class. Only two of us tonight, which meant there was nowhere to hide. It wasn’t my best dance class. I made countless mistakes, despite Kirsty and Scamp trying their hardest to ease me in to it. It just wasn’t working for me.

Hoping to go to a tea dance tomorrow. You can’t say I’m not a glutton for punishment!

Admiring my handiwork – 19 March 2024

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Surprisingly, no aches and pains, no pulled muscles either from yesterday’s tentative return to home decorating.

In fact, we drove up to the local B&Q to see if they had the paint we’re intending to use in the front bedroom. They didn’t have it in stock. It wasn’t a great surprise, they never have what you need in this store. Scamp agreed and said that you don’t see crowds of people shopping for anything in this store. It’s usually joiners and builders we see in this B&Q. I’m guessing they get a good trade discount, paid for through the full price the general public have to fork out. I’m amazed it’s still in business.

So, it was in and out again as quick as possible today and then on to Tesco for the weekly shop. No problem with the general public there. Tuesdays are usually busy and the shelves are usually full. We avoid Mondays when the bakery department seem to take the day off en masse.

Back home and after lunch I had a quick discussion with my brother on WhatsApp about where we’d go this week. I put up a good case for Stirling which has architecture and the occasional grand church which he likes and what can be gorgeous view along the carse to the Lomond hills which suits me.

With that settled I went out for a walk in St Mo’s, but I could just have returned home after a five minutes walk because I found today’s PoD not a hundred metres from our front door. Just a wee daisy that had made its home in a crack in the pavement next to an inspection plug for the wireless cable. A shot in the bag is always a great thing.

Wandered round St Mo’s anyway since the photowalk is not just about taking photos, but also about keeping moving, getting some exercise and increasing my daily step count.

When I got home, I was just going through today’s 17 photos when Scamp started cheering. I thought we’d won the lottery before I remembered we had just torn up Saturday’s failed chance to become a millionaire. No, it was the early arrival of Laura & (Big)Ross’s baby girl and John & Marion’s first grandchild. Three weeks early. Good luck to them all.

Dinner tonight was Paella a family favourite that I hadn’t made for months, and it showed. A bit soggy, but apart from that it was fine. It filled a space as we say.

Tomorrow Alex and I are off to terrorise Stirling. Scamp has nothing planned apart from cleaning and ironing.

Painting – 18 March 2024

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Yes more painting, but no sketching first. Straight into the painting.

Not watercolour this time, nor oils. This was plain old fashioned decorating and the mess that follows. Scamp was out in the morning having coffee with Isobel, so that gave me about two hours to get the painting done. That was my secret plan. We’d discussed the possibility of painting our bedroom, but thought it would be better to start with the hall. The hall is a fairly small area to paint, but with a few hard to reach places tucked away in corners, so it had its challenges. It only took about an hour to get most of it done, then another half hour to get the ‘tricky’ bits finished. By that time, Scamp had returned and between us we got the kitchen tidied, but not before I took a couple of photos just to record the work. One of them became PoD. The walls in the hall have now dried and look better for their fresh coat of paint. The colour, just in case you feel inspired, was Apricot White.

I don’t know if it was something I ate, or the smell of the paint lingering in the house, but I felt a bit sick in the afternoon. I suppose I should have gone for a walk to clear my head, but instead I had a long hot shower because I knew I’d be aching tomorrow and the hot water might just stave off the worst of it.

While I was showering, Scamp was out in the raised bed, chopping down the remaining kale stalks that had gone to seed. Now we have to decide if we’re going to have a raised bed again or if it’s worth the bother. I’m not sure if it is worth making a new one, or even buying a purpose made one. For all I put into it, it’s a fair expense and maybe the space could be better utilised. The old one certainly won’t last another year. It’s about 10 years old and rotting away. We’ll have to discuss the possibilities and make a decision soon.

No plans for tomorrow for either of us, whether secret or not.

Just another Sunday – 17 March 2024

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A dull day with some rain and some sun. If you hit it right, it was good and if not you got wet. I, for once hit it right.

Scamp was desperate to get stuff cleared out in the garden. She cut down the Hydrangea because there were new shoots starting to appear at ground level and she wanted to encourage the growth. Next on the chopping list was the Penstemon which got a quick haircut because it was getting untidy and needed the crop.

I was more adventurous and went for a walk through the woods down by the main road and found some cherry blossom on the trees. I thought I was going too early, but it turned out I was almost too late as the petals from the flowers were covering the ground. I did get some photos, but I was kicking myself that I hadn’t taken the LensBaby 35 because the distortion it produces works well with blossom. Maybe tomorrow. Startled two deer on my walk too, but they saw me long before I saw them. PoD turned out to be a Larch Pineapple with a raindrop right on top!

Spoke to Jamie later in the day and heard about the progress on the house. It seems to be going well, despite the best efforts of English Heritage. Good to hear that the roof is now on and it’s mainly the internal plastering that need finishing.

No real plans for tomorrow. Well, I have a secret plan and Scamp is out for coffee with Isobel.

 

 

Foxtrotting – 16 March 2024

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We drove over to Brookfield hoping for a new start in the ballroom dance class, but were pleasantly surprised by the appearance of an old friend or two.

The dance that was chosen to get us on our feet and started was Mambo Marina. A very old favourite that we learned a long, long while ago. It was buried deep in my memory and the first dance was a bit of a struggle, but after the second track most of the wrinkles were ironed out and it flowed like it should … almost.

Next was the Foxtrot, the old foxtrot we’d learned yonks ago. At first, like the MM it was a bit of a blur, but gradually with help from Scamp the figures fitted together and even the Continuous Hover Cross which was my nemesis in dances gone by was recovered from muscle memory and we went through with hardly a mistake by track three or five!

The Mayfair Quickstep was next. Two tracks to dust off the cobwebs of this well known and oft dance sequence and we were almost two thirds of the way through the class. Jive was next on the agenda and it was a refresher course on figures we’d already dances and which were fairly fresh in our memories as they were similar to some of the jive routines from many years ago.

To finish off, we were invited to dance any Waltz. We started on the Spring Waltz, but fumbled our way through it before we changed to Kirsty’s Waltz Nioli. It’s shorter and simpler and we did manage to finish it and then restart it again.

That was it for the ballroom class. Drove back home feeling that we’d accomplished something today.

After lunch I went for a walk in St Mo’s and just as I left the house, the rain started. I was concentrating on getting some photos of the Larch Pineapples I saw the other day. I found them and although the light was a bit low, so was the wind and that allowed me to get some sharper photos. One of them made PoD.

Dinner came courtesy of Golden Bowl and it was delicious. Lovely and fresh for both of us. Mine being a Special Chow Mein and Scamp’s was her usual Chicken Chop Suey and Fried Rice. Amazingly it was still light and about 5.15 when I went to collect the food.

That was about it for today apart from trying to send some photos to Alex and them bouncing back to me. Similar to my previous Google problem, but not the same. I’ll worry about it tomorrow … or the next day.

No plans for tomorrow apart from worrying about things that cannot be fixed.

A day of two halves – 15 March 2024

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Rain in the morning and a bit of sunshine in the afternoon

The morning had light rain to start with but soon that turned to heavy persistent rain. Scamp was out to go to FitSteps, only to return half an hour later because nobody appeared. No teacher, now FitSteppers, nobody. We can only surmise that Kirsty, the teacher, had a hospital appointment to check her wrist was setting well. I’d just started reading the last few chapters in my latest book “To The Dogs” by Louise Welsh, but now it was put to the side.

Lunch was the remaining half of yesterday’s Ginsters pasty, baked in the microwave. That sounds awful, but with a combination of microwaving at ‘warm’ setting and convection heating at 220º is part microwaves, part bakes the pasty. An hour after lunch the rain stopped, but it was still cloudy. Half an hour after that, the sun shone. I’d been processing some of my favourite holiday photos to pass on Alex, but I knew the sensible thing to do was to put my boots and get out while the going was good.

The frogs that had been so busy making babies a couple of days ago seemed to have left en masse. I did find a small group at the far corner of one of the small ponds, but the biggest contingent had gone. I probably missed the big love-in when we were on holiday. It didn’t matter, because I did get some shots during the week, so I didn’t miss it all.

Instead of walking round the pond, I went looking for frogs in some of the tiny wee ponds in the woods, but didn’t find any, nor did I find any frogspawn. What I did find was a couple of sixteen spot orange ladybirds (Halyzia sedecimguttata). They were still hibernating, one tucked under some moss high in a birch tree and the other in a crevice from a broken branch in another birch. I hadn’t seen any earlier in the year, so maybe the recent warmer weather had tempted them out and then the colder weather had sent them back under cover. One of the ladybirds got PoD.

Dinner tonight was an old fashioned home made stir-fry made by Scamp with what we had in the fridge. It was really good. I’d forgotten how good Scamp’s stir-fries were.

Tomorrow we’ll probably be driving to Brookfield for a dance class. No confirmation that the class is on yet, but we’re hopeful.

 

Out to lunch for some, but not for all – 14 March 2024

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Scamp was out to lunch with her pal today. I had stuff to do at home.

I drove Scamp up to the town centre and then came home via Tesco for my own lunch and to pick up some meds that had arrived in Boots while we were sunning ourselves in foreign climes. Then it was back to working out what we did, when and what new sights we’d seen since the last time we were in Fuerteventura. Actually not a lot had changed overall, but of course there were new developments as there always are when you haven’t visited a place for four or five years.

It has been a dull wet day with no real chance to grab much in the way of photos. What I did do was wrap the 24-105mm lens in clingfilm to keep it fairly dry while still being able to access the focusing controls as I took some photos of the changes that were happening in the plants in the garden. Because it was so dull, the ISO was quite high and that meant more digital noise than I had been used to in the last week, but with help from Lightroom and ON1 Photo Raw I think I’ve minimised it. POD turned out to be new buds on the old James Grieve apple tree. It really needs another stake to shoulder the increasing weight in its boughs. Something else to add to the ‘To-Do list.

Watched the unveiling of the winning painting from this year’s Landscape Artist of the Year and was impressed with the way the artist dealt with the landscape of Orkney, but didn’t think she rendered the clouds in a meaningful way. They looked too heavy and almost abstract. Also, for something that was intended to emphasise the importance of low carbon energy, the wind turbines looked like an afterthought.
It’s true that you can’t please all the people all of the time!

Scamp and I agree that this is the first day when we’ve felt ‘normal’. It’s strange that a relaxing holiday takes so much out of you!

Starting to get back to normal – 13 March 2024

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Whatever ‘Normal’ is.

Task for today was to purchase a new SSL which as you probably know is the bit of code that turns HTTP into HTTPS. I remember the mess I got into trying to install it. This time, all I needed to do was hand over a few quid to someone at my hosting company and they installed the software for me. I’d been dreading going through all that rigmarole again and according to my receipt, it’s solid until 2025.

The next thing to do was to put fingers to keyboard to flesh out the notes I’d made during last week about where we went and what we did. That took up most of the morning and half of the afternoon. It’s still a work in progress, but there has been progress in the work, if that makes sense. If it does, it will be a first.

As the afternoon wore on and the sun was shining, I thought it would be a good idea to put the boots on and go for a walk in St Mo’s. It was indeed a good idea because the frog influx had started in earnest and two of the ponds were full of them and their jelly frog spawn. That gave me a potential PoD. Further on in my walk I found some Alder catkins glowing in the sunshine and they just beat the frogs to the first place and PoD.

Dinner tonight was ‘red Pasta’ or Pasta with a Tomato Sauce. I used some strange round pasta I found in a cupboard and it took a long time to soften, but it was voted a success by Scamp. I wasn’t so sure.

First night dancing at Kirsty’s class for almost two months since her tumble just after Christmas. Tonight it was Foxtrot and when I settled in to it, most of the figures that made up the dance were fairly well known to me. It was just a case of fitting them together like a jigsaw. Of course, as with all jigsaws, there were pieces missing. Hopefully I’ll find them by next week.

Weather looks really wet tomorrow. That might be a good thing because it will let me get on with fleshing out the remainder of last week’s blog posts.

Scamp is out to lunch tomorrow and I have work to do.

Trying to get back to normal – 12 March 2024

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It’s the little things you notice after you get home, like the fact that there’s nobody to take away your dirty dishes, and the lack of a table length of fresh fruit for you to pick your way through.

Today was about shopping and coming to terms with single digit temperatures.

We’ve all probably been on a foreign holiday and had to come back to reality. It’s not a pleasant prospect, so I won’t labour it. However, at least you get to sleep in your own bed again.

Today’s PoD was a couple of daffodils in the garden to welcome us home.

Tomorrow we start getting back to ‘normal’ if we can find it.