Month: September 2024

The end of September – 30 September 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Well, this shouldn’t take too long.

In the morning I drove down to the Village to see if Jim Dickson’s garage was open to get a booking for a couple of tyres. Because this is September Weekend, a Scottish holiday I wasn’t really expecting it to be open and it wasn’t. The garage was shuttered and shut.

I was just reaching the garage when my phone jingled into life. It was Hazy testing a WhatsApp multi-person call, the multi-persons being Scamp and me. I was confused at first, then I realised what was going on and told Hazy I’d catch up with her when I got home. I caught the tail end of the call when I got home. Incredible house prices down south. The asking price for the house next door to Hazy and Neil is £700,000 for a three bedroom bungalow! Crazy money.

I went out later, once the call was finished, to put some air in the tyres because they were a bit low. Hopefully I’ll get to speak to Jim tomorrow to get the front tyres replaced.

Later in the afternoon I put on my new wet weather jacket, because the rain was coming and going, and got a few photos over in St Mo’s. Spiders were the topic today, and one of them got PoD.

I believe that’s about all I can say about today. Hoping the weather fairies have got it right with their predictions of a few dry days to take us up to the weekend.

If I remember to switch it on, Inktober 2024 will light up the Interweb at midnight.

The Bunny – 29 September 2024

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A lazy day. At least, for me it was. Scamp was dividing plants in the garden.

Scamp was dividing a Candelabra Primula. One mature plant made an extra three plants. The original plant went back into the hole it came from and the three divisions went around it. Hopefully all four will survive the winter. I’m pretty sure she did some pruning as well. She just loves pruning plants to make them nice and tidy.

After the gardening, it was lunch time and of course we watched Laura Kuenssberg interrogating two Conservative hopefuls for the top job. Why anyone would want a job where apparently everyone hates you, I’ll never know. An easy life and a lazy Sunday is more my expectation these days. In fact, why restrict it to Sundays? Let’s make it any day with a “Y” in it. There, that’s something to strive for.

Next for me was a walk in St Mo’s for a few photos. Not a lot going on over the road today. A few shots of a dark red dragonfly and another couple of a pigeon surveying the pond, but the PoD went to a bunch of Michaelmas Daisies. I thought it was fitting that these flowers should find their way into Flickr on the 29th of September, the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel.

Spoke to Jamie later and found that he’s having to deal with problems at work that he hadn’t expected. Life isn’t easy sometimes. I felt really sorry for him. On a brighter note, it seems he’s going to have a new back door some time soon. One that fits the frame this time.

I was standing at the window this morning looking at nothing when I noticed a movement on the path. It was a rabbit, munching away at the weeds on the far side of the path. I pointed it out to Scamp who thought it might be a pet rabbit that had escaped from its owners. It certainly didn’t look as skittish as wild rabbits usually are and seemed quite happy to have found some new free food. We watched it on and off for about half an hour before it disappeared. Must keep an eye out for it in the next few days.

I’m intending going down to the village tomorrow to price four new tyres for the blue car.

Strictly! – 28 September 2024

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We’re sitting watching a recording of tonight’s Strictly, but this morning we did our own Strictly!

We drove to Brookfield in the morning with me in my usual Saturday morning grumpy “I don’t want to go” mood. The nearer we got to the dance class, the lighter my mood got. Don’t know why. I don’t ask the questions, and I don’t try to answer them. I just go with what my inner ‘Black Monkey’ says.

So today’s dance lesson started with Blue Angel Rumba which was a quite simple and fairly easy sequence dance. Then everything changed and the first dance they wanted us to do was the Viennese Waltz. Lots of turning and lots of simple change of place, but all done in a very strict tempo. Most of it worked for us without thinking, because we were working to carefully choreographed moves. Thankfully we didn’t have to do too many spins, because Scamp didn’t have her sticky out multi-layered petticoat on and I’d forgotten my evening dress and tails. Other than that it was a success.

Next dance was Paso La Paz. Lots of stamping of feet and pretending to hold a beachball between us as we strutted round the floor. We did toe taps and matador stances waving our imaginary capes in front of us. Apparently the foot stamps and the toe taps are to clean the blood and sand from our shoes while we are in the bullring and after the bull has been despatched! Who knew? Neither of these were the Foxtrot or the Four Seasons Waltz we’d been expecting. Interesting though!

A couple of tracks of the Midnight Jive brought us back down to earth again and then it was time to head home again. Actually a really interesting and thought provoking couple of dances. I won’t criticise Strictly again. Well, actually I will, but I’ll be a bit more sympathetic with the poor folk having to learn these dances that look so easy, but are not.

I took the A7 our for a walk later with the Tamron lens for company. There wasn’t much to see but it rained while I was out and I got a chance to see the raindrops beading and dripping from my new rain jacket. PoD turned out to be a robin singing its little heart out from the top of a Hawthorn bush. Quite impressed with the quality.

I came home via the chip shop with a Special Fish Supper (two fish in breadcrumbs and chips). After that we watched the ‘other’ strictly. Not nearly as good or as difficult as our morning dances!

No plans for tomorrow. I wonder if Scamp would notice if I cut a rose, and gripping it securely in my teeth while I stamped my feet, stood with my head back and one arm across my chest and the other behind my back in classic Matador’s stance, as I made breakfast tomorrow morning?

A day in the Toon – 27 September 2024

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In the sunshine!

Scamp was out this morning to her FitSteps class. When she came back we drove down to the station and got the train to Glasgow.

This was September Weekend, a Glasgow holiday on the last weekend in September and we expected the station to be mobbed, but it was the Alloa train that came in first and they don’t celebrate the Sept Weekend, so the train was half empty. A nice easy run into Glasgow.

Had coffee first in Nero where the Learner Barista got the orders mixed up and Scamp got the two shot latte and I got the single shot americano. She’ll learn, but hopefully fast before she gets her ‘jotters’.

We were going looking for a pair of leather gloves for Scamp. She had lost her good pair of purple gloves a few months ago and now that the weather was getting colder, she needed a new pair. First stop was JL. They had loads of them at loads of different prices, but no purple ones, or none she liked anyway. She did seem stuck between a light brown pair and a grey pair. Not sure, we walked down through the city centre to M&S in Argyle Street.

On the way there we noted all the differences that had occurred in the four or five years since Covid. Buildings where there used to be car parks. Shops that had changed their names in those intervening years. The city seems to be in a constant state of flux. We did find leather gloves in M&S, but they just didn’t look as comfortable or as well made as the ones in JL. I could tell by the look on her face that these were not the gloves she wanted.

We left, deciding to go back to JL. On the way we took a detour through the fun fair that had sprung up in two days since Alex and I had wandered round it. I got the shot I should have taken on Wednesday of the inside of the entrance to the St Enoch’s subway, shot on the ideal lens this time. I was pleased with that.

We walked back up Buchanan Street looking for somewhere for lunch. We tried to get in to an interesting place called Mowgli, but we’d have to wait for about two and a half hours to get a table. It wasn’t that interesting, but we may go back to it again. Instead we chose All Bar One. Scamp had, surprise – surprise, Fish ’n’ Chips and I had Chicken Pad Thai. Service was slow, but the food, when it came was good and Scamp’s fish was massive.

Left there and walked up to JL where Scamp chose the light brown gloves which looked really nice on her. On the way we’d picked up a birthday card for Ian, June’s friend. We wrote it and Scamp went to post it while I browsed the bargains in JL, of which there were few.

Got through the ticket gate just in time to catch a train going to Alloa via Croy. Alloa folk seem strange. There were plenty of seats, but they seemed happier cluttering up the doorway. Maybe they don’t get out much.

Drove home and had a decent cup of coffee, Scamp of course, having white tea. Dumped the photos and posted three of them on Flickr. The best in my opinion was another view of the subway station at St Enoch.

Tomorrow I think we may be dancing. It looks like we do have a quorum, but only just enough folk.

A good day in The Toon.

Dancin’ – 26 September 2024

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Another cold day. We seem to have skipped autumn and gone straight to winter!

A quick lunch and then we were driving over to Glenburn for today’s Tea Dance. Such a difference between Glenburn and Brookside. Last week Brookside had no heating of any sort. Today, the heating was on in Glenburn and had been for some time to make sure we were comfortable.

The usual programme of music and dances. I do find it’s a bit repetitive, but I also know that it’s that same repetition that embeds the moves in my brain. The waltz we started with was the Four Seasons and we do know it quite well, so after a few missteps I remembered most of it. Then the Cha-Cha and the Jive. That seems to be the fallback trilogy with occasional Quickstep, although that was missing today and a Foxtrot which we intended to try Kirsty’s steps, but either she or we had missed something, because it simply didn’t flow as it should have done.

After the tea break, Stewart tried to teach the Butterfly Jive to us all. I can remember the first part of it, but after that it just gets too complicate too quickly for my poor feet to catch up. After two rounds of the Butterfly, Stewart walked back to his desk, saying “That was Fun!”. I heard nobody agreeing with him, in fact there seemed to silence across the hall. I used to think the most hateful dance was he Cha-Cha. All that nonsense about starting on the second beat was simply nonsense to me, but now I’ve come to terms with the dance. Maybe in a couple of years I’ll also come to terms with the Butterfly Jive DV. Perhaps not. I don’t know if I was extra crabbit today, but everything seemed to put my teeth on edge. Maybe it was the weather, which had started out wet, but by the time we were leaving, the sun was coming out.

Back home, that sun that was coming out, was hiding again, but I managed a walk down to Broadwood Loch and got some late afternoon photos of swans. I also spotted and photographed some Bitter Nightshade. I often wondered what those bright little berries on the boardwalk and why the birds didn’t eat them. It appears that some birds can eat the berries without injury, but most avoid them. The berries are also poisonous to humans. A photo of one of the swans preening got PoD.

No real plans for tomorrow. Scamp is hoping to go to FitSteps in the morning.

 

Stravaigin’ – 25 September 2024

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“Wandering with no particular intent.” That’s what Alex and I were doing today, on a cold morning when the temperature was about 3ºc at 8am.

We met at the bus station and went for a coffee as usual and neither of us had a plan for the day. Sometimes that is good, sometimes not so good. It all depends on your frame of mind, I think. Scamp had driven me to the station and I just had enough time to buy my ticket before the train arrived.

Alex and I agreed we’d walk down to St Enoch’s to get some photos. Alex wanted to get a shot of the pigeons on the Teacher’s building. The building used to belong to the Teacher’s whisky company, but it’s changed hands many times since then. Today it seemed as if it was changing again, because a giant cherrypicker was parked outside it with the usual red and white barriers around what was going to be a building site. Alex was disappointed, to put it mildly.

I too was disappointed, because the photo I wanted was covered with half erected fun fair attractions. A Christmas fun fair already? It’s still September! Anyway, it didn’t look as if my photo was going to work either. That didn’t stop me taking a few photos and just blurring out the background with a wide open aperture on the lens.

From St Enoch’s is only a hop and a step and a jump to the Clyde Walkway where the graffiti artists show off their skills. Today we were really lucky because one of the artists was there insitu working on his latest piece, apparently entitled “I think I’ll go eat worms” (Don’t try this at home children). Watching him work made you think it was easy, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t. I counted at least 20 spray cans in a mix of colours, so, not only difficult to master, but also fairly expensive too.

From there we wandered along to St Andrew’s Church because Alex seems fascinated by it. Me, not so much. When I’d eventually prised him away from the buildings we walked up to George Square to have lunch, which was a roll with spicy chicken and a bottle of juice each. We usually have a pizza, but as we’re both on a diet of sorts, the lighter lunch seemed sensible.

By the time we’d finished, I was almost ready to head for home, because tonight was dance class, so we walked up to the bus station just in time for both of us to catch our buses home.

Dinner for Scamp and I was yesterday’s veggie chilli which was a wee bit hotter tonight. Then it was time to “put on our dancing shoes and dance away our blues”. It was a reprise of last week’s class since some folk hadn’t been at that class, and others were struggling with the moves. Actually, on reflection tonight, Scamp and I agreed that the floor is just too small for a Foxtrot which requires a fair amount of space. It also requires learners who don’t just stop dead on the dance floor and have a wee discussion as one pair did fairly often.

PoD today was a view looking out from the inside of the subway at St Enoch’s. Sometimes you have to think outside the box and sometimes you just have to look outside …

Tomorrow is probably a Tea Dance, and maybe a chance to dispose of some old junk.

Shopping in the rain – 24 September 2024

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We haven’t had very much rain for weeks, but when Scamp risked shopping wearing a hoodie but no raincoat or brolly, it was a day too far.

We’d been to Tesco in the afternoon. I was wearing my famous blue raincoat, not my new rainproof jacket, but Scamp had decided it wasn’t going to rain and it didn’t … At least, not until we were coming out of the shop with a trolley full of groceries. Then the rain started and unfortunately Scamp got wet.

It was really just a shower, but a lengthy one and quite heavy for a while. I used that time to wax my boots, something I’d been intending to do for about a month or more. When the rain dragged itself away to annoy someone else, I put on my new green jacket and my freshly waxed boots and went for a walk in St Mo’s. I didn’t get much, although the light was really bright and clear. Then when I was halfway round I took one photo of a low hanging Hazel branch and saw the “No Room To Save” message. The SD card was full. That was when I realised my spare SD cards were in my other camera bag, back at the house. Oops. Time to go home.

On the way home I was walking on a path between trees and the low afternoon light was gorgeous, so I just had to stop and admire it and to remember I had my phone with me and the phone could save in RAW format. That saved the day and gave me today’s PoD. Always remember, the best camera in the world is the one in your pocket!

I must make a note to self: Buy more SD cards. Just a couple to keep one in each of my camera bags.

Dinner was a mix and match Chilli Non Carne made from a recipe I got from a bloke I met at a retreat years and years ago. It’s scribbled down in a scrapbook with limited details, but it works every time. Thank you, whoever you are.

Hazy: We watched the first episode of The Great British Bakeoff. Just the usual mix of serious bakers, no hopers and loonies.

Hoping to meet Alex tomorrow for a photo walk, probably in Glasgow.

Driving – 23 September 2024

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Today we were going to the optician.

Scamp was due her annual checkup and we were driving to Larky.

We were just about to merge on to the M74 motorway when the red tail lights came on ahead of us and both lanes came to a standstill. We’d left with plenty of time, but when the traffic started to flow again it was at a snail’s pace. Scamp phoned ahead to the optician to warn them that she might be late. It did look as if we might have to cancel, but then the traffic started moving a bit faster and eventually we could see that there were blue and red lights ahead, so we knew traffic was being controlled by the police and although slow, it was moving. As it turned out, only one of our lanes was affected, the overtaking lane was closed, but the accident was on the northbound lane, not our southbound. I didn’t get a chance to see what was going on, but Scamp said she saw one four wheel drive SUV on the north bound lane, pointed the wrong way. I’m guessing that would be the end of someone’s trip for today. Thankfully not us.

A quick call to the optician to say that we were on the road again and would probably only be five minutes late, cleared things up with the optician. I dropped Scamp off at the Cross in Larky and continued straight on down to Millheugh.

Millheugh used to be a village in its own right, but has now been swallowed up by Larky. It also used to have a salmon river with legal and illegal salmon fishing. These days, it has a salmon ladder to allow fish to swim past the dam that Larky folk call ‘The Boards’, but I’ve yet to see any salmon in the Avon Water swimming upstream. It’s a nice story though!

I wasn’t there to catch salmon, those days are long past for me. I was there to get some photos and with the autumn colours in the trees I managed that. Unfortunately, the sky was a featureless white. Not that it mattered to me, I knew I could put a bit of life into it back at the computer.

From Millheugh I drove up the old back road to Stonehouse, but the light was poor and I knew I’d be struggling to get a decent shot of the old Avon bridge, so I carried on over to Canderside and then on to Larky. That was when Scamp called to say she was finished at the opticians and would meet me at the supermarket. From there we drove to Brookside Garden centre for a quick lunch of Roll ’n’ Egg for Scamp and Roll ’n’ Flat Sausage for me. Both washed down with a cup of coffee.

Drove home without any hitches and the weather stayed the same all day. White sky and drizzle. Such a change from last Monday’s visit to the Kelpies.

PoD was a view of Millheugh with a decent looking sky added.

No plans for tomorrow yet.

A lazy day – 22 September 2024

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We’d agreed on a lazy day today.

No dinner parties. No evening dances. Just a lazy day, perhaps with a walk if the weather was agreeable. That’s almost exactly what we did.

After catching up with yesterday’s blog we settled on doing as little as possible today. The weather was dry, but cold. The wind especially was bitter cold at times. However, I did take myself off with a nice heavy jacket and a camera to grab some photos. Scamp gave me a large polythene bag, just in case I came upon more brambles that we could freeze. That was useful, because I was sure I’d find some of the black fruit. Came home with a PoD, 220g of brambles and purple hands from the juice of the fruit.

PoD turned out to be a photo of a bloke walking his dog down a local lane. I’ve always liked that view through the trees to the mysterious opening at the end of the path. The autumn colours helped too, even if they are totally fictitious … as is the man. I blame AI!

Came home to a table set for dinner, thankfully just for the two of us. Dinner was a steak (Medium rare) for me and a salmon fillet for Scamp. Both with veg and potatoes. The remains of Friday’s Tiramisu for dessert.

We watched a recording of the Singapore F1 GP and later spoke to Jamie. Just catching up on what’s happening down south. More stories about the diabolical deeds of British Telecom. Not the best communication company in the UK by all accounts. Thankfully we are now rid of them for good.

Tomorrow we are hoping to go to Larky. Scamp has an appointment for an eye test and I need a new pair of reading glasses. I might take a camera with me!

The party’s over – 21 September 2024

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Last night’s dinner party, that is.

The first stage of clearing up was to switch on the dishwasher and leave it to do its work for an hour or so, while we disassembled the bit oval table and turned it back into a circular one. Then all the cups, plates, bowls and cutlery had to the put in the proper places again. That took most of the morning.

The next part of the clearing up was getting the cases up into the loft. That cleared a bit of space in the spare rooms. Not a lot of space, I grant you, but every little helps.

While Scamp was watching Gardener’s World, I went for a walk in St Mo’s and got a few photos. Not as many as I’d hoped, but it was a really dull day. What I did find was a lot of bushes loaded with big brambles. Much bigger than what we usually get. Probably due to the amount of rain we had at the start of August, coupled with the warmer weather we had at the end of the month. I may go out tomorrow to see if I can get some more.

By the time I came back, it was time for an early dinner before we got ready to drive to Brookfield for the monthly dance. Traffic was heavier than usual when we drove west, but we still arrived just ahead of time and easily got a table. Although, apparently that table was earmarked for those and such as those. Jane was warning everyone who came near that we had to leave two seats for Les and Sandra who are friends of the teachers. We don’t fit into that category. I know my place.

The dance followed the usual format with a couple of ballroom dances interspersed with a couple of sequence dances. It’s all pretty formulaic as most dance evenings are, I suppose. They are also nights when you get to talk to people you haven’t met in ages. We danced a fair bit, but were glad when the Last Waltz was announced, at least I was glad, because my feet were sore by that time. One good thing I did was to bring a can of zero alcohol, Brewdog Elvis Juice. One of the better low alcohol brews. Scamp was also testing a new idea, ‘Wine in a Tin’. Her’s was not alcohol free, but was a can of 19 Crimes red wine. Very neat and easy to carry.

We left as about half of the room was dancing the last waltz and the rest were tidying up and leaving. Another good night at Brookfield and a lazy drive home with very little traffic on the road at just after 11pm.

We watched the qualifying for the Singapore GP with its usual thrills and spills. Surprised to see Verstappen on the front of the grid again.

The PoD was a branch of red hawthorn berries.

Tomorrow we’ve voted for a lazy day after two busy ones.