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A walk in the park – 6 March 2025

Posted on by Zogman

We woke to a misty, almost foggy day.

Jackie was travelling up to Skye on the morning bus. We waved her off as she got in the taxi that would take her to Glasgow on the first leg of the journey. The second leg was a six or seven hour journey on the bus from Glasgow to Portree on Skye where Murdo would be waiting to take her on the last leg to Staffin. A few days later she was intending to do the whole thing again in reverse to return to Cumbersheugh.

With a morning and part of an afternoon to fill, I was pleasantly surprised when Scamp suggested we go over to Kilsyth for a walk in the sunshine that had appeared just as Jackie was getting in the taxi. We drove over to Colzium estate and that’s where I saw a single white crocus flower among the miniature daffodils. Just one, though, but it was shining brightly in the sun. That became PoD. We walked our usual path round what had been the driveway to the “Big House”, and then onward into the trees. This was the first time we’d walked in Colzium and there were a lot of torn up trees courtesy of the storms last month, or was it two? Anyway, a shorter than normal circuit took us to the coffee shop that, conveniently, was just opening. After coffee we walked back to the car and drove home.

Just enough time for a quick spot of lunch and then we had to get a bit better dressed for a meeting with the Co-op funeral office where we had a meeting with a funeral director. Paul, Margaret, Shona, Scamp and I were present at a rather disjointed meeting where it appeared the lady who was dealing with us had to also speak to a constant stream of other customers. Not the most professional way to treat people who are already stressed and upset. However, I was not running this show and had little to do, but on two separate occasions we had a thirty minute hiatus while someone somewhere talked to someone else.

The upshot was that a firm date for the funeral was agreed and all the papers were duly signed by Paul who was the senior member of the family today. We left after about two hours and went for a quick coffee and a discussion with tasks being allocated to willing parties.

Drove home and dropped people off as we went. Finally got home and parked. Dinner was Paella and it was a good one this time. It isn’t always so good.

Tomorrow we’re hoping for a more restful day.

A meeting of minds – 5 March 2025

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We met the interested parties in Tesco for coffee today.

We were discussing the plans for June’s funeral. Margaret phoned Scamp to ask where we were, because they were waiting in Costa. Then Scamp reminded her that she had told us it was to be at Tesco. That maybe ‘put her gas at a peep’ as my mum would have said. Scamp, Jackie and I had been prepared for a fight, but as a result, it never happened.

The group was Ian, Jackie, Margaret, Paul, Scamp, Shona and myself (listed alphabetically for fairness!). Everyone offered suggestions to the group with Paul and Shona as adjudicators.

The upshot of the meeting was that:

  • We had some photos of June to use in a short display
  • Paul wants to do a short ad hoc speech about his mum
  • Jackie would probably write a talk and if she wasn’t comfortable with it, I’d be ready to take over.

We left it at that and have a meeting planned with the funeral directors tomorrow.

We drove over to The Kelpies because Jackie had never seen them in real life. It turned out to be an awful day as far as the weather was concerned. Heavy rain showers driven along on a gusty east wind. However we did get a walk around the mighty beasts and I think that brightened Scamp’s day. The size of the sculptures impressed Jackie. We finished with another cuppa and a scone paid for by Jackie.

Later, at home I was delegated to go to the chip shop for fish suppers. A successful day with some of the pressure removed. Jackie goes back home tomorrow and is intending to return in a couple of days.

PoD was a slightly different view of a Kelpie,

Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow.

Some kind of normal – 4 March 2025

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Today we had shopping to do. A chance to turn the day into something approaching normal.

Afterwards we drove up to Torwood for lunch and a look at what the garden centre had to offer. Scamp got some seed compost and a very dark coloured hellebore. After I’d dropped her off at home, I took the Blue car for a spring clean at the car-wash! It looked so much better after that.

I went for a walk in St Mo’s and found that the frogs were back. Almost all of them were busy making more frogs. Yesterday there were none, but seemingly the message had got out that it was time to procreate. There were vast rafts of frogspawn. I’m sure this will bring crowds of primary school children eager to capture some of the frogspawn to put in jars in their classrooms. Probably there will be a law against capturing frogs eggs, but children know nothing of the legality of such ambushing.

Today’s PoD was inevitably “Frogs”!

We drove in to Glasgow in the middle of rush hour to pick up Jackie who had travelled south from Skye to add weight to the Scottish contingent. We were very glad to have her. It gave Scamp an opportunity to explain in detail the last few days. It also gave the sisters a chance to bond. I hate that ‘bond’ word, but it’s the only one that fits

Tomorrow we are invited to have coffee in Tesco with one of the English side of the family who may try to put her case for what happens next. I’d have thought a better, and less public place could have been chosen, but maybe, just maybe, it was the choice of Paul and Shona.

June – 2 March 2025

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Today we lost a great friend. June Docherty.

  • Normal Sunday morning.
  • Coming down from the trip to Dundee and from a difficult dance class.
  • Standard fried Sunday breakfast.
  • A walk over to and through St Mo’s

Then, about 4pm, a phone call from Shona to say that her mum wasn’t going to be with us for much longer. We drove up to Shona’s house and waited until her best friend came to pick up Ben, then we drove to Monklands where I dropped off Scamp and Shona before I parked the car in a very empty looking car park.

  • Found my way through the corridors and off-shoots of Monklands.
  • Met by Scamp at the door of room 4 with the warning that she wasn’t good
  • All the family that mattered were there.
  • Paul left after we arrived and a nurse brought in a few chairs. Another bad sign.
  • June was tossing and turning, but two nurses brought in some meds, I didn’t catch the name and that calmed her down.
  • A doctor explained what was going on in June’s body and what processes they had tried to bring her back.
  • We waited while Ian talked to June although none of us knew if she heard us.
  • Around 7.30pm two nurses asked us to leave and then told us she had gone.

I find it hard writing this, but hopefully it will explain just how quickly she passed away. Hopefully, too, it will clear things in my head.

RIP June Docherty.

It feels like Spring (White Rabbits x3) – 1 March 2025

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Well, it didn’t feel like Spring when we were driving through a drizzle all the way to Brookfield for today’s dance class.

Thankfully when we came out again, the rain had gone and the sun was attempting to shine.

In between, we had a Midnight Jive to heat us up, because the Brookfield Politburo apparently thought 3ºc was warm enough for anyone!

Sufficiently warmed up, we were into the annoying October Waltz, even though it wasn’t October. I find it the worst waltz I’ve had the misfortune to attempt. It just seems so … “Clunky” is the only word I can use. It just doesn’t seem to flow and I was happier once it had gone back into its box, until the next time one of the teachers says “Oh, we haven’t done the October Waltz for a while.” There’s a reason for that I’d say.

Next was Tango and we struggled with that for a while, but it did get better after we got help from Jane. I think I could manage that one, given some effort on my part. Scamp helped by pulling me in the right direction and whispering the instructions in my ear.

We did Mambo Marina to finish with, but two fairly new dancers were left standing in the corner of the room looking bewildered while the teachers danced with a couple of ladies who knew the dance. That doesn’t seem like a dance class to me. Just a little bit of help would have put them on the right track. We had attempted to help the pair just over a week ago when they came to a Tea Dance we go to, but the teachers really need to TEACH. That’s what they are getting nearly twenty quid for every week!

After that we were allowed to go home. To go home with half a dozen eggs from one of the dance class who seem to be bringing eggs ever week or so. It’s very nice of them, the eggs come from a neighbour of theirs, and being free range, they do taste good.

Drove home through the normal tangle of cars and I chose the slow lane today. I really should have done the M74/M73 route which is longer, but faster overall.

I took a couple of lenses with the A7iii over to St Mo’s in the afternoon, once the sun was shining brightly and got a couple of photos. PoD went to a cloudscape with the setting sun just visible. I came home via Golden Bowl with Chicken Chop Suey and Fried Rice for Scamp and a Special Chow Mein for me. Nice to be walking home in the last of the day’s sun.

I almost forgot to mention, we thought the house was being torn apart in the morning or maybe broken into, but it was just the NLC house clearing mob tearing out everything they could find from the house next door. It seemed that Angela, who lived there after Betty (if you pair remember her) had done a ’moonlight’ without telling anyone. Strange woman. Now we wonder who we’ll get in her place.

Tomorrow we may go for a walk if the weather plays nice.

 

 

On Fannyside Moor – 28 February 2025

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Scamp was out for lunch with her friends and I took the opportunity to drive up to Fannyside Moor.

It was a cold day with a constant breeze stirring up the clouds on the moor and making it feel colder than it looked from a warm car.

I took the ‘big dog’, the A7iii with a couple of lenses. A shorter walk than I’d intended due to that wind feeling as if was cutting right through me, even with the Rab jacket. I think I spent more time watching the clouds scudding across the sky than taking photos. Watched a bloke about my age, on a mountain bike, go flying past me wearing a light jacket and shorts. That was adventurous today. Then another bloke passed me heading the other way, but he was running and dressed for the weather. Most days you see maybe one car on this road, but two folk out enjoying the fresh air was unusual. Then the inevitable car passed too. That made the trio!

Photographed a herd of sheep and a lichen covered fencepost, but PoD went to a long lens shot of the ruin of the old Jawcraig farm. In all, 28 shots taken but only 18 survived the first cull.

I decided I had enough photos to work with and drove home. Scamp arrived about an hour later

Dinner tonight was Penne al’arrabiata with the addition of some bacon.

I think we may be going dancing tomorrow. We’ll probably be the outcasts. The ones who didn’t go to Calpe for almost a week of dancing. Oh well.

Going home – 27 February 2025

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After breakfast we packed what was left to pack in our bags. Most of the packing had been done last night.

We booked our Ember bus and handed in our keys then we were off into the town. I took a few shots on a lovely, but cold day with the blue skies we didn’t get yesterday. We walked along to the bus stop and watched a wee boy dressed in wellies and a waterproof jacket splashing through the fountains lit from below with coloured lights. I don’t suppose he noticed the cold. He was having far too much fun to care. Got the bus and before we knew it we were stopping at the bus stance at Broxden in Perth. Under an hour later we were arriving in Cumbersheugh and had to wait another 20 minutes for the bus home.

Scamp was feeling the cold when we got in and that’s really strange for her, so I walked down to the shops to get potatoes and some fruit. Tonight I made potatoes and cabbage for dinner with some fried bacon for me.

We watched and complained about The Apprentice and I know I wished we had stayed another day in Dundee.

Just over 30 photos taken and PoD was The March of the Penguins.

Some things I’ll remember:

  • Clean, fast Ember bus
  • The view from the 5th floor of the hotel
  • Generous dram of whisky with just water
  • The views of the V&A
  • How ugly the V&A is from certain angles
  • The fast jets practising near Leuchars
  • The food in the Dundee Rep restaurant
  • Helpful, cheerful staff at St Andrews Castle
  • Cheerful staff in the hotel
  • The cold east wind

Tomorrow it’s back to the old regime.

 

St Andrews – 26 February 2025

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A wet day. Cold again with the wind blowing sheets of rain in from the east.

We walked in to the town after a late breakfast and were just in time to catch the number 99 bus from Dundee bus station to St Andrews bus station. It was a short run over to St Andrews that was made longer with the number of roadworks in progress. It’s the same every year. The councils have to spend their money by the end of March and this was almost the end of February, so much spending was evident.

We waked down the main street and you could tell the affluence of the town by the number of expensive shops and the wide streets. There were a few sales offers in evidence that brought some prices down to what I might have been happy to pay, except there were no camera shops as far as I could see.

We found a ruined castle beside the sea and Scamp discovered it was Historic Scotland, so we got in free with our HS cards. The ruin turned out to be St Andrews Castle, strangely enough! It would have been an interesting way to spend an hour if it hadn’t been for the almost constant drizzle. We did get a chance to watch a couple of Eurofighter Typhoons making noisy circuits around the bay, but we were both getting cold, so we found a Costa where we had what must have been the worst coffee in any Costa I’ve been in, and I’ve been in a few. The place was crammed, but not as crammed as one independent coffee shop we passed where William and Kate (whoever they are) had had their first coffee together, allegedly.

We walked back to the bus garage and got another number 99 bus that took us back to Dundee where we had a wander around the inside of V&A and found a complete rebuild of Mrs Cranston’s Tea Room. Apparently the original tea room was taken down piece by numbered piece from the Glasgow shop and rebuilt inside the V&A. Scamp was responsible for finding this online. An amazing construction. Very dark and very low ceilings. In another part of the V&A I found a scale drawing, hand drawn in ink, of part of the rail bridge which still carries trains across the Tay from Dundee to Wormit in Fife. The drawings looked almost exactly the same as drawings I’d done in the 1960s and nothing like the Autocad drawings produced nowadays.

We had a plate each of watered down soup in the V&A and watched the arial ballet performed by computer designed lights that looked like little ballet dancers.

It was a cold walk back to the hotel and we couldn’t decide where to go for food. On the way I went to Braithwaite’s and bought some decaf tea and some coffee beans. Then on our way back Scamp got a message from Shona to ask if everything was ok, because she’d heard about an explosion in Dundee city centre. After a bit of checking we discovered an electrical substation had indeed exploded and demolished a wall. This was in the morning and we knew nothing about it. Nobody was injured, thankfully.

Nearly 60 photos taken today and PoD went to a photo from the top deck of the V&A of somebody walking along the esplanade beside the Tay estuary.

Tomorrow we need to be packed and off home.

Off on our travels – 25 February 2025

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Today we were heading north east.

Travelling fairly light. Just the minimum amount with an A6500 and two lenses: 10-18mm f4 and 18-50mm f2.8 plus a laptop.

Taxi to the Town Centre and then the Ember Bus to Dundee.

First stop was Waterstones for a coffee and a scone each. It’s a bit of a tradition going to this old fashioned book shop. Braithwaite’s was our next destination, but it was closed on Tuesdays, so no coffee beans today. From there we got a bit lost, then found we’d been within 100m of the hotel we were looking for.

After dumping our stuff (Scamp was even lighter loaded than me) we walked down to the V&A, only to find that it too was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, but we had a walk round the building on a cold and windy day, but with a clear blue sky. I took some photos of The Discovery ship framed by the odd angles of the V&A. Then we walked back to the hotel to get ready for dinner tonight at the Dundee Rep restaurant.

Starters:
Scamp – Black pudding bon bon with pea puree, pancetta crisps & salad
Me – Arancini with light rice filling and a dressing I can’t remember, but was lovely.

Mains:
Scamp – Lentil & vegetable cottage pie with broccoli & carrots
Me – Korean pork collar with braised rice & broccoli, topped with spring onion and sesame seeds.

Desserts:
Both of us – Limoncello tiramisu. We both agreed this was disappointing. Not enough lemon flavour and too much heavy cream. Foodies!!

After that we managed to stagger up to the hotel. Scamp had a Rum and Coke and I had a whisky with water.

Went to bed, ready for tomorrow!

Almost 50 photos taken. PoD was a man walking under the V&A.

Tomorrow we are hoping to head east.