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Wet – 5 August 2024

Posted on by Zogman

It seems like only the other day we were pleading for rain so we wouldn’t have to water the garden. Today we got our wish.

It started off dull with the clouds sliding down over the Campsie Fells. It had rained all night and we said “Thank you” for some rain at last. Today we were looking for the tap to turn it off again. I think it was the lack of light that was getting us down more.

We drove to Tesco for the normal Monday shop and I bumped into Fred. Haven’t seen him for ages and that’s probably because he hasn’t been out much. He did have a wee prezzy for me, a pack of acrylic paint pens. The colours are a bit lurid, but they might be interesting to mess around with. I think we’ll try to arrange a coffee for Fred, Val and I with maybe the chance of coercing Colin to join us. If nothing else it would be a chance to do a book exchange.

Shopping done, we drove home, still in the rain and packed all the stuff away, then had lunch. I had a sandwich with cold meat that had been in the fridge. Later I wasn’t feeling well and I’m thinking that cold meat might have been the culprit. It’s now in the bin.

I did get out for a while in the back garden, when Scamp was risking the rain to prune her newly transplanted Candelabra Primulas. I was more interested in the Japanese Anemones and sheltered under the rowan tree and got a few shots of them. One of the shots got PoD.

On Saturday we had walked in the sunshine past the Mausoleum in Hamilton and through the underpass below the M74. The photo of the underpass with some silhouetted figures got Explore this morning. That was a nice surprise, I wasn’t expecting it. I was hoping my photo of the Dent sheep would Explore, but interest in it has fizzled out.

Scamp was determined to Dyson the living room today and I helped out, moving stuff around and doing a bit of dusting round the window sills … inside, of course. After that I felt a bit dodgy and almost fell asleep on the sofa, so I took myself up to bed for an hour. I think that helped, but what helped more was Scamp making an excellent vegetable omelette for dinner. Such a pity, her’s wasn’t a patch on the one she made me!

Watched a bit of the indoor cycling at the Olympics and it was passably interesting. I think I might have an early night tonight. Just finished The Long Drop by Denise Mina. Based on a true story about Peter Manuel a serial killer back in 1958. I remember walking to school and everyone saying that Manuel had been hanged and being shocked. It wasn’t the best book I’ve read, but parts of it were very well written. 3/5 on Goodreads.

No plans yet for tomorrow, but the weather looks hopeful.

Chiffchaff – 4 August 2024

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That’s what I saw this morning, although it might have been a Willow Warbler.

It was when I had filled up the birdbath in the garden that I noticed some small birds using it for their morning shower. Sparrows, Dunnocks and this other smaller pale yellow bird with a dark streak of feathers across its eye. I knew I’d seen it last year about this time and was certain it was a Willow Warbler. I grabbed the first camera I saw and put the Tamron lens on it. By the time I got back to the kitchen window it had disappeared, but the other birds were still there, having a great time splashing in the water. I took a few shots of them, but kept one eye open for the new bird. It appeared working its way along the rail of the fence and behind the Rowan tree. I’m not usually the most patient person, but I waited until I had a clear view of it and then rattled off four or five shots, one of which became PoD. One in the bag before lunch! That’s not bad going.

After lunch I processed the pictures and indeed I had a fairly clear view of the new bird. It was clear enough and that meant I didn’t have to go for a walk today, which was good because it wasn’t the most inspiring day with a featureless white sky and no sign of the sun shining through. Instead I started cooking today’s dinner which was diced steak that had been lingering in the freezer for quite some time. Just for a change I made it in the Instant Pot using a version of a recipe I’d found online. After a dodgy start where the meat had to be eased off the bottom of the pot, I set it to ‘Slow Cooker’ mode. I set for two hours, with half a bottle of beer to give it something to absorb while it was cooking.

Meanwhile, Scamp was in the garden chopping up a yellow Candelabra Primula into three separate pieces and then potted the pieces up into three separate pots because it was definitely restricted in the original one. After that she walked down to the shops to get some things for tonight’s dinner.

As the afternoon progressed, it seemed to get darker and the clouds got heavier, but the rain held off until much later.

The Instant Pot chimed to tell me that it was finished cooking and I set it to ‘Keep Warm’, which it did until dinner time. The stew was served with potatoes and was very good indeed. Scamp’s dinner was Ratatouille with potatoes. Dessert was Tiramisu which was delightful. Not long after that the rain arrived, which is good, because we don’t need to water the garden!!

Spoke to Jamie and he seems to have his week planned out with a day’s holiday and two days working from home. Good to hear that his garden is doing well, even if his tomato plants seem to have picked up blight from somewhere.

It’s still raining here and tomorrow looks wet too. The bird has been ID’d by a birder on Flickr as a Chiffchaff. Thanks for that Andrew.

Great naan and average curry – 3 August 2024

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Today was forecast with rain, but the weather was warm and dry for most of the day. After discussion we decided on a trip to Hamilton, to Bombay Cottage for a curry.

We got seated right away and although I had very little to look at in the conservatory, Scamp had a great view of some wedding guests being piped in to the Town House which used to be the Town Hall. It seemed to be a grand event with a piper and colourful bridesmaids, and of course a beautiful bride. Thankfully I was facing the wrong way and missed the show. What a shame. However I did see the lady photographer with her two cameras slung at hip height. I’m not sure I agreed with her handling of the cameras, in fact I’ve rarely seen any professional photog shooting one handed with her shooting list held in the other hand. I wonder how they turned out, and how many hours poring over Photoshop made them worth seeing.

Food was good, but not great, the naan was a bit underdone, but that was more our fault for not specifying ‘well done naan’. It’s saving grace was that it was there in one naan shaped piece and not the chopped up atrocity that ’s sometimes served. My Rogan Josh was a bit mild for my liking and Scamp’s Shimla Bhaji was similarly lacking in heat. All in all, ‘could do better’, but it was saved by the Ice Cream with Raspberry and ‘Scooshy Cream’. A house speciality. I just knew we wouldn’t need anything else to eat after we got home … and I was right.

It was still a lovely day, so we parked at Hamilton Palace Retail Park and walked down so I could take some photos of the Hamilton Mausoleum. Originally the burial place of the Dukes of Hamilton, but subsidence in the 1960s and 1970s mean they were re-interred in a cemetery in Hamilton. It is still an impressive building.

We extended the walk by taking in the underpass that goes under the M74 and allows access to Strathclyde Park, locally known as Straffie. On the way I managed a few shots of folk walking through the blacked out underpass into the light on the other side. Out of Hamilton and into Motherwell, or maybe into another world. It wasn’t clear!!! One of those shots got PoD

Once we were safely through the Stargate without entering another dimension, we walked back again, retracing our steps before driving home.

There was washing to be hung up and it did get a gentle blow for the wind for an hour or so, but then the weather looked like it was taking a turn for the worse, so we brought them in again. Just in time to miss the rain that had been promised by the weather fairies.

Watched two more episodes of the Turkish Detective and that about wrapped up tonight’s exciting viewing.

Tomorrow we may go out for a walk if the weather holds.

Getting things done – 2 August 2024

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Scamp was out to FitSteps and I was hoping for a lazy morning … but.

I got strange emails from someone, possibly robot generated which said I had to sign in with my password. No indication who or what was requesting it. So I typed in my password … ‘course I didn’t. Do you really think my head buttons up the back? (That was a rhetorical question). I deleted it and it came back, again and again and again. Each time I deleted it, it returned.

I gave up and when Scamp returned, I drove up to the doc’s to book my diabetic blood test. I had already tried to phone the health centre, but I got a terrible line each time I tried to speak to Gort’s sisters who man Kenilworth. I finally got to speak to a human face to face after driving to the health centre and she gave me my little sample bottle and a note with my date to donate some blood and also a date to speak to the nurse.

When I got home we drove in to Glasgow to book the car in for MOT. I had had enough of phone conversations for one day. Got the MOT booked then we went for lunch in JL.

Later, while Scamp went looking for a new bag ANOTHER ONE, I wandered round Buchanan Street taking candid photos of folk, any folk who would stand still for long enough for me to press the shutter. Then we met up again and drove home.

The messages I’d got in the morning just wouldn’t go away and Scamp was getting similar messages from Mickysoft. I began to smell a conspiracy. Were there really Reds under the Beds?

I left it for a while and made dinner which was paella and a really good one for a change. The fact that it was washed down with a very nice red wine only improved dinner even more.

I got an WhatsApp from Alex to say that their car was booked in at Edinburgh for the flight to Jersey and then I realised that we had forgotten to book ours in at Glasgow for that same destination. Oops! While I booked the car in, Scamp booked the Holiday Inn. Rather than get up at stupid o’clock it would be so much more civilised to walk across to the check in. Thank you Alex.

Those messages that started this morning just wouldn’t go away. Then I realised they were only appearing on my phone, and not on any of my Gmail addresses. That narrowed things down. The clincher was the dates they started appearing. Those three things gave me the solution which was to simplicity itself to repair. Thankfully it worked.

That was about it for a fun-packed day which ended better than it started. PoD was a photo of a bloke sitting on a bollard gazing in bemusement at the crowds rushing past on Buchanan Street. Some editing was necessary.

Tomorrow looks like it will be wet, just as this evening was.

White Rabbits (x3) – 1 August 2024

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The first day of August and it had been raining during the night.

We haven’t had much rain during the second half of July, so it was a relief to see raindrops on roses this morning. It meant we didn’t need to water the garden today, but the clouds were the textureless milky white that we see so often.

While I was making breakfast this morning I spotted a wee pale yellow bird in the garden picking off the aphids from some of the plants. I managed five photos of it before it flew off and it looks like it was a Willow Warbler, but I’m not sure. I think one or two of them visited the garden about this time last year. Must check.

Scamp was off in the morning to meet Isobel for coffee. I stayed home to filter out the rejected photos and once I was sure I had ONLY the rejections, delete them permanently. Next task was to save the remaining July photos to an external drive for safe keeping. Then pack up those July photos and move them to a storage folder on the computer, before building a new folder for the incoming August lot! Actually it sounds a lot but it’s fairly easily done as long as you stick to the routine.

After lunch and when Scamp returned, she got down on her kneeling stool and finished off the weeding in between the bricks that edge the front grass. I grabbed the A7 and the new Tamron lens and went for a walk round St Mo’s then extended my walk to go to M&S for Thursday Things – flowers was the request today. We had been going to have paella for dinner, but instead Scamp opted for Fish Fingers, Egg and Spaghetti. Much easier and quicker. Maybe paella tomorrow.

It was another warm, bright day after the milky white clouds had been chased away, but it doesn’t look set to last. Rain is on the way according to the weather fairies. Well, the gardens need it.

PoD was a very bright red Common Darter dragonfly taken in St Mo’s.

Scamp has FitSteps booked in for tomorrow morning and I’m trying to work out why the A7 doesn’t do the latest tricks that the A6500 can do. They are almost the same vintage and actually the A7 has significantly more bells and whistle that the A6500. I’m sure it’s a switch somewhere that’s set and shouldn’t be, but which one?

Chatelherault – 31 July 2024

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Today I drove over to Motherwell to pick up my brother and we drove to Chatelherault.

Chatelherault was the shooting lodge of the Duke of Hamilton in past times. Today it’s mainly used for corporate events and weddings. We were going to neither.

After a coffee we walked down to the Duke’s Bridge which takes you over the Avon Water 80ft (25m) below. From there we walked on to the Cadzow Oaks, a group of trees which date back to the 1400s, growing in earthworks that are reckoned to have been there since the 12th century. The whole area is really beautiful and worth a walk if you are ever in the area. If you imagine Tolkien’s Ents, that’s what the Cadzow Oaks bring to mind.

After soaking up some of the history of the area we retraced our steps past the now crumbling Cadzow Castle with little remaining of its former glory. Then we recrossed the bridge and had lunch in the cafe which was almost empty for a change. A few photos of the views round the ‘Big House’ and it was time to get back.

I dropped Alex off at his house and drove home. It was a hot day and I had the air-con on full, but when I stopped at lights just off the motorway, I turned the air-con off and the engine stopped too with a message telling me I’d saved 0.2kg of carbon! It hasn’t done that for well over a year!! Maybe the long drive up from Dent last weekend has recharged its tiny battery.

Dinner was a lovely Chicken Milanese made by Scamp, then we were off to dance class where it showed that we hadn’t done any practise for about two weeks. We really must get some practise in before next week or we’ll get chucked out.

PoD today was a little heart padlock hanging from the handrail of the Duke’s Bridge and a test to see if the camera was performing the autofocusing and it appears to have passed the test. Next thing to do is to try to get its big brother to do so too.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending to go for coffee with Isobel and I’m hoping to do some backing up and preparation for the first photos of August.

Editing blogs – 30 July 2024

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Scamp was out this morning to have a blether and a coffee with her sister.

I stayed at home to edit and publish a week’s blog posts. They were shorter than normal posts, but I still had to go through the rigmarole of writing it in Day One (that’s what I’m doing now). Then logging in to my webspace and dumping the text in the correct place, before I sourced the photo that went with the text and posted it in the right place. After that I’d only another seven or eight to do. It gets a bit tedious, but it’s not all doom and gloom. I can look back a year and see what I was talking about then. I can search the blog for bits and pieces of my life that I’ve forgotten about. Occasionally I do feel I should just chuck it in, but as Scamp keeps reminding me, I’d regret it. But there should be an easier way to synchronise the writing with the posting.

I had just finished the last posting when Scamp returned from her extended blether with June. Both of them had lots to say and stories to tell, and you know what gossips, sisters are.

After lunch we drove to The Fort for Scamp to return a pair of sandals that looked good, felt good but not really good enough to splash the cash on. Luckily she’d only worn them inside.

Later in the afternoon I took the A7 with a macro lens and the Tamron zoom for a walk in St Mo’s. The Tamron got a bit of use, but the handy wee 50mm macro won the day, capturing not only the PoD of a snail snuggled into the leaves of an unknown plant, but also a closeup of a wee black fly that Google Images could not agree on the name for.

I watered the garden and the bloke next door’s too. We take turn about at watering the front gardens. Everything looked and felt dry. Such a strange thing about Scotland. Scamp may water the back garden tomorrow.

I’m hoping to meet my brother tomorrow and then we’ll drive over to Chatelherault for a walk and a blether.

 

Getting things done – 29 July 2024

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Another bright morning and the grass, front and back was needing cut. My job was moving the flower pots, about ten of them, out onto the path while Scamp did the actual cutting, then moving them back again. I helped with cleaning the mower once the difficult stuff was done, but Scamp has her own method for this and it’s not a good idea to try to do it any other way.

Lunch was next, and it was so memorable, I haven’t a clue what it was! Oh yes, it was a piece ’n’ ham that came all the way from Sedbergh.

I walked over to St Mo’s again in the hope that there would be some activity round the ponds, but there was none and I came home almost empty handed, although I did find a wee purple vetch flower willing to pose for me and it became PoD.

I actually spent most of the afternoon writing up a week’s blog posts ready for posting tomorrow. It was a bit of a slog, but it’s almost done now.

An early bed because my two weeks long struggle with The Ministry of Time is over. I finished it tonight. An interesting concept, but too much padding. I’m not sure I’d recommend it to anyone.

Tomorrow Scamp is meeting June for coffee and a blether and I’m intending to post the blog.

Back in the old routine – 28 July 2024

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This morning we did the Tesco run. After lunch I went for a walk in St Mo’s and it felt like we’d never been away. PoD was a damselfly with a bit of sparkle in its wings.

Dinner was Bacon, Cabbage and Potatoes. One of those fallback meals which remind you that you’re home.

Spoke to Jamie later in the day and found we didn’t have much to say. Everything was alright at their end an it was the same at our end. Just like it says at the top of this blog.

Back in the old routine.

Driving Home – 27 July 2024

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An early rise on our last day in Dent. Strange whine coming, it seemed, from somewhere in the roof. Decided I wouldn’t get back to sleep, so washed, dressed and had breakfast. From then it was loading bag after bag into the Blue car and then, Tetris style, packing things in where they would fit.

Drove toward Sedbergh and from there up, up and up over the hills through driving rain and eventually on to the M6 going north. Turned off again at Tebay for petrol. I almost had to take out a bank loan for that petrol. £1.68 for a litre of fuel is extortion and I needed quite a lot of those litres.

Back on the road we had some of the worst downpours I’ve been in. Almost everyone was down to 50mph on a 70mph road for a few miles before we cleared it. From there it was just an easy morning drive north. We drove through another downpour just before we turned off at Annandale services for a coffee, something to eat and a rest. I took the wrong turning from the services and was heading south again! My excuse is that I didn’t want to go home, I wanted the peace and quiet of Dent! The downside of the five mile detour to turn north again was that we had to pass that slow moving downpour twice more. Once coming off the M6 southbound and once going back north again. Eejit! From there it was easy. Just cruising at 68mph all the way to the M73 and home about 12.30pm. Emptied the car and started putting things away and being amazed at how high the grass had grown in a week.

Watched the qualifying for the Belgian GP but with very little interest in the race, because my head was still in Dent. The same thing happened three years ago when we returned from Valleyview, also in Cumbria. Maybe it’s Cumbria itself that has hooks in me!

PoD was some Honesty seedheads backlit, showing off the seeds.

Hoping for a restful day tomorrow. Hope the rest of the group are feeling better after a night’s sleep.