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A wild day – 13 May 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Feeling a lot better today.

Yesterday’s paracetamol, Vitamin C and, of course, the hot toddy must have done its work because today was a different day. Different day outside too with gale force winds for a while.

We were booked for lunch at The Cotton House and arrived to an almost full car park. Partly caused by a builders lorry taking up about four spaces. I managed to squeeze the wee blue car into a narrow space, and we were good. Starter for Scamp was Spring Rolls. Just for a change, I had Salt and Pepper Spring Rolls. Not something I’ve seen on a menu before, but if you get a chance to try them, move on to the next item. Loads of fried chopped onions and fried chopped chilli with some horrible brown breadcrumbs, also fried, on top. All of this was covering the spring rolls. I ate the spring rolls and gave up on the rest. Main for Scamp was the long time standard in this Cantonese restaurant was Chicken Chow Mein with noodles. I had Cantonese Sweet and Sour Chicken with fried rice. Both were delicious, in fact, Scamp was finished before me for once. I’m usually the glutton, not that I’m saying Scamp is a glutton. Oh no, not me! We didn’t have a dessert or even tea or coffee. We just paid the bill and left, feeling full. I took their little tub of jelly beans. It’s the only restaurant I know of that gives you a tub of jelly beans with the bill.

Back home there was a card waiting for me. A birthday card from my brother. I sent him a message to say thanks, and that because it was a little late, it was a surprise. He wrote back to say that he’d posted it first class on the 6th of April. Five weeks to travel 20 miles. That’s even slower than an X3!

Scamp was singing with Cumbersheugh Choir tonight and was leaving around 5.30pm. I was actually thinking of going to the concert, but Scamp said it wouldn’t be all that interesting. She’s very honest about these things, so I took her at her word and stayed. Didn’t do much with my free time. Browsed the photos in Flickr and posted today’s PoD which was the first of the American cowslips to flower, Shooting Stars is their name and that’s exactly what they look like.  It was taken in a lull between showers and gales when there was relative calm in the garden.  Scamp’s new rhododendron, Nancy Evans came a close second. Both are on Flickr.

Apparently the concert was well attended and it sounded a lot better than Scamp had feared, but she still insisted that I wouldn’t have liked the way that the pieces were sung.

Tomorrow we’re intending to go dancing in the morning, but the rest of the day is ours to do with as we wish.

 

A bit of a wasted day – 12 May 2022

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Both of us lay in bed reading this morning after yesterday’s busy day.

Finally we did get up because Scamp wanted to go to Tesco to use up two of her Covid vouchers. One voucher was being spent on our ‘essentials’ like wine, gin and food. The other was going on real essentials that were going into the Food Bank box. Both vouchers were spent and a little more besides.

While she was out I was just mooching around the house with little to do and no real incentive to go out. I tried reading for a while, then managed to complete yesterday’s Sudoku (today’s is sitting beside me, unfinished as yet). It was one of those days that somehow didn’t encourage you get up and go and do something, anything! Eventually lunch solved that problem. I made myself an omelette and Scamp had a piece ’n’ cheese with spicy beetroot.

After lunch and having spraying myself with bug repellant I went for a walk in St Mo’s with one camera and one lens. It’s something Alex and I have been discussing and it does make you think about what you’re using and what you’re photographing. My lens of choice was the Lensbaby Sweet 35. I was hoping against hope that I’d find something interesting to photograph. That something turned out to be a Salmonberry flower. It became PoD. A little further along the path I found a couple of black flies making more black flies. It was a case of crawl on your knees and get as close as the little 35mm lens will allow. Actually it turned out ok. The only problem is that it was black flies on a black tarmac, so colour choices went out the window. You can see it on Flickr.

By the time I came home I was feeling a bit rough and decided to post the photos and write the blog early, then go to bed. That’s still what I intend to do. I’ve dosed myself up with Vitamin C and I’m going to have a ‘hot toddy’ tonight and go to bed after this is posted. It’s nothing serious, just a summer cold.

I made dinner tonight and it was a very nice Prawn & Pea Risotto. The risotto paddle really does work Hazy, as I’m sure you knew it would.

We watched the first episode of this year’s Glow Up. Absolute nonsense. Very clever nonsense, but you begin to wonder after a while if these people are real! If you haven’t watched it before, get it on iPlayer and have a good laugh.

That’s about it for today. Hoping to feel a lot better tomorrow. A long walk in the fresh air somewhere might help.

Back and Forth – 11 May 2022

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After yesterday’s strange behaviour of the Blue car, I was hoping for some resolution, or at least an explanation.

Before that could happen, there was some coffee to be drunk and some stories to be told. Before even that, Scamp was out to get her hair cut. With that done successfully, we headed hesitantly to the Costa in the Town Centre. Nothing untoward happened and the blue car behaved very well.

I met Val and we had Flat Whites and a cake each. He was telling me he’d had a fall and showed me the bruises to prove it. He has been renovating a 1946 radio. Val loves a challenge and this was certainly that. Of course, something of that age doesn’t have transistors inside, it runs on valves. Glass valves with all sorts of coils and things inside them and a multitude of pins protruding from the base. I told him I remember my dad taking the valves out of our old radio and cleaning all those fine pins with emery paper, dusting them off and carefully putting them back in place. It was a wonderful thing when he could tune into radio stations in faraway places and hear folk talking in foreign languages. Nowadays we just take without thinking that you can see and hear what’s happening all over the globe, instantly on TV or on your phone even. I admire Val’s ability to rebuild these old devices.  I showed him the photos in a photobook Scamp and I had had printed of our long weekend in Old Newton.  Jamie and Simonne, he was very impressed with the house and garden, as was Isobel when she saw the book.

I had a word with Isobel who was with Sheila in a different part of Costa’s. She looks so much younger now that she doesn’t need glasses after her cataract surgery. A very independent woman she delighted in telling me that she manages to put her drops in by herself.

I drove Val home because he’s feeling a bit stiff after his fall and also because he’s lost a bit of his confidence. Then I went and filled up the blue car before picking up Scamp and Isobel then took the lady with the new all seeing eye back to the Village.

Drove to Stirling, ready for a fight, as Scamp described it. The young bloke on the desk listened to my story and started telling me they didn’t have any free appointments today, then when I said I needed the car for next week he relented and managed to get me a slot at 4pm today. I thanked him and we drove home, had a bit of lunch before hoovering up all the sticky tree buds that always appear at this time of year. When I thought the car was looking at least a bit tidier than it had been I drove to Stirling again. Dropped off the keys and sat down to read my Kindle which I’d been bright enough to bring with me. Just over an hour later the young bloke came over and showed me the printout from the computer the blue car had been connected to. He agreed that there half a dozen different failures the test had thrown up. The mechanic had cleared all the fails and re-tested the car and it came up clean, so it was safe to drive. I thanked him for getting me the slot and for dealing with it so promptly, and I was on my way back home, through the rush hour traffic. I’d hate to have to drive through that every day. Fish and chips for dinner. Just what I needed after a stressful day.

The weather today was wild! Gusty wind blowing in heavy rain showers and then blowing them away again to let the sun shine though. PoD was a shot taken in the garden. It’s an azalea that lives in a sheltered corner of the garden and is flowering beautifully just now.

Tomorrow we are hoping for a more relaxing day, although it looks like rain for at least some of it.

Sensible Shoes – 10 May 2022

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We were going in to Glasgow today to get me a pair of sensible shoes. They would make a change from the black Ghillie brogues I have just now. The brogues themselves are actually quite comfortable, but the long laces criss-crossing the knee length kilt socks are awkward things to tie and uncomfortable after a while. I thought I’d try a pair of brown brogues instead. The first shop I tried had a pair that seemed to be what I was looking for. Foolishly I didn’t try them on, but went looking to see if there was anything else in a similar style.

There were loads of shoes in a similar style, but none that caught my eye. One pair looked the part, but when I tried them on, there was something just not right about them. Scamp noticed the creases in the leather that showed that they have been tried at home and returned as not suitable. They weren’t suitable for me either. There were brogues in dark brown, tan and even yellow. Brogues made from leather with tartan patches, some with tweed patches. Some were definitely meant for tramping the peat bogs of Wester Ross, weighing in at about a hundredweight each and others so thin you could spit peas through them. M&S had a great selection in every size under the sun … except mine. Eventually, after a coffee and a croissant in Nero I made my decision to go back to the first shop and try on that pair. They fitted perfectly. The looked like I wanted them to look. They were solid without being too clumpy. I bought them. The assistant wanted to put them in a machine that would spray them with some undisclosed liquid that would make them waterproof, stain-resistant, crease resistant and self ironing. She seemed quite disappointed when I said I’d polish them myself with shoe polish.

We drove home after Scamp had picked some cosmetics to make her look even more beautiful than she already is, if that’s possible. On the way to the car I grabbed a couple of photos from the JL bridge. One of them became PoD after some gentle toning and tweaking in Lightroom.

Lunch was a piece ’n’ banana. Fresh bread and a banana. The only thing that would make it better was a sprinkling of sugar, but I decided to forego that pleasure. Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. I took a walk over St Mo’s later, but there wasn’t much to see although I did get one decent photo which is on Flickr.

Scamp was off to choir tonight, so I was going to be a salsa helper all by myself. The class was much the same as last week. We went over the same moves as last week and then Jamie added in Damé then, just for the hell of it, Damé Dos. It’s about a level 3 move, but the folk all enjoyed it. Really, it could have been carnage, but it didn’t. Great fun.

When I got home and pressed the button to stop the engine, all the lights in the car went out and it wouldn’t start again. The car wouldn’t lock and the boot wouldn’t open. Inside my car’s key fob there is a hidden key. I used it to lock, then unlock the car. Then I started it as normal, well nearly normal. It appears that the trip mileage had been reset and also the mpg was reset. The second time this has happened in the last couple of weeks. I’m taking it to the garage tomorrow.

Tomorrow, apart from a trip to Stirling we’re both hoping to go for coffee. Me with Val and Scamp with Isobel.

Rain – 9 May 2022

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It was one of those days that started wet and just got wetter.

We needed the rain for the garden. We’ve had a few weeks of what can only be called Drought recently. Last week that finally ended when the rain blew in from the west. However now we’ve had enough rain. The buckets are full and the garden is pleasantly refreshed. Even the grass and the woodlands are bursting with fresh green, which is a great sight to see. But you can have too much of a good thing. We need the rain to taper off a bit to let that other natural source of growth stimulation, Sunshine, start doing some good work. Let the sun shine in and let the rain go somewhere else where it will be appreciated.

Lunch was another version of Crimpet™ Thins. Scamp had cheese and beetroot. I had ham, cheese and beetroot. But while Scamp made hers the traditional way, in the toaster, I gave mine a 20 second zap in the microwave first. That gave enough heat to melt the cheese in the bread. More experimentation needed.

Because of that, and the unlikelihood of getting anywhere to take some photos today, I started doing a bit of sketching and painting. I’d really meant to make a start on EDiM (Every Day in May) on Flickr. The main site for it is on Facebook, but after a bit of a bust up with the woman who runs it there, I only post to the Flickr group. However this May is going to be very busy for us and it’s unlikely I’ll be able to complete the 31 daily sketches that are required. So with that in mind, I thought I’d do a couple of quick sketches just to show willing. They didn’t turn out very well, but it was fun trying.

While I was engrossed in my paint splashes, Scamp was doing the opposite, she was cleaning and tidying the bathroom. Like she says, it needed done and today was, if not the best day to do it, at least a better use of a dull, wet day. I know I should have helped out, but it’s a small bath room, too small for two people to work in without really getting in each other’s way. I left her to it and made dinner. Monday dinner is almost always Italian in flavour. Today it was Red Pasta. The pasta in the cupboard (today it was mixed) with a tomato based ragu containing shallots and red peppers chopped fine. It was deemed ok! Foodies! We love to discuss and critique everything we eat.

Eventually I gave in and grabbed a camera and ventured into the garden to get some photos of the rhododendron bush that’s nearly flowering … in the rain. That’s what gets photogs a bad name.

Tomorrow we may go looking for a pair of brogues for me. No mention of another dress for Scamp. That doesn’t mean something won’t catch her eye, but I never said that.

Gardening – 8 May 2022

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Scamp wanted to get the grass cut before the rains came. I wanted to plant some seeds.

Before that, Scamp started off de-icing the freezer. It’s a thankless task, so we split the job between us. Scamp started with a scraper tool and bowls of hot water to start the thaw and I took over with an assortment of kitchen tools plus knives and scrapers from my art supplies. Between us we got the job done fairly quickly.

Lunch was next and after that we started on the gardening. After a lot of huffing and puffing, we did manage to get both of these tasks completed, although I must admit that Scamp’s was by far the more energy sapping of the two. She cut the front grass, strimmed the edges and used her mighty blower to get rid of the loose cuttings. I attempted to dig into the skim of soil that covers a pile of rubble at the end of the garden and planted a row of Ammi majus, the cow parsley look-alike next to the old buddleia just to see if it would grow in such poor soil. Then I planted some Ambassador peas in a tray in the greenhouse and also a line of four of the same peas in the raised bed.

As I was working round the raised bed I saw a little daisy flower sitting in the shade with its flower head in the sun. That seemed like a good subject for the new Lensbaby Sweet 35 optic. It turned out so good, it made PoD.

While Scamp rested her back, I walked mine over to St Mo’s and got a few more with the Sweet 35. It seems a bit more extreme than the Sweet 50. The distortion is much more pronounced, which was the reason I bought it in the first place.

I was having the Lamb Flank Parcel I’d bought yesterday, for my dinner and Scamp was having a chicken pastie. Both with potatoes and carrots. Her’s seemed fine, but my lamb was fatty and probably undercooked. An hour and a half roasting in the oven at Gas 5 is nowhere nearly enough. Just a note to self for when I get round to cooking the other one that’s now in the much cleaner freezer. The other note to self is not to buy Salt & Chilli Wings from Tesco. Took far longer than the stated time and didn’t look anything like wings. Not a good impulse buy. Scamp had made a fruit salad for dessert with apples, oranges and pineapple, plus a tablespoon of Cointreau. Again, not nearly enough Cointreau, but a refreshing end to the meal.

Spoke to Jamie for a while over a very dodgy WiFi connection. Good to see them getting a bit of ‘me time’, or is that ‘us time’? Doing a bit of walking in the Lake District. Heard about plans for the future.

That was about it, except about fifteen minutes ago a tiny little tick appeared on my wrist, just crawling out from under my watch strap. It was quickly despatched before it could get stuck into my heavily medicated blood. First one I’ve seen for ages. On the subject of ‘first one I’ve seen for ages’, yesterday I saw my first swallow this year. They do say that one swallow doesn’t make a summer, but I saw three. Does that make a summer then?

Maybe going looking for a pair of good sturdy brogues tomorrow as an alternative to kilt shoes. Dark brown for preference, although my fashion guru says that won’t go with the rest of the outfit.

Dancin’, Drivin’ and Helensburgh – 7 May 2022

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That was the day in three words. Sorry about the last sweary word, Jamie!

Drove to Brookfield today and found that instead of the quickstep we’d been practising, we were dancing a Foxtrot, a Tango Serida, a <spit> Cha-Cha, a ‘Baby’ Waltz and as many sequence dances as they could cram in. I actually enjoyed the Foxtrot. Quite an elegant dance. The tango serida was just a bit of meaningless fluff. Instantly forgettable. The cha-cha I almost managed and the ‘baby’ waltz is just a waltz we’ve been messing about with for weeks now. Could be useful for dances if nobody knows what it should REALLY look like! Thankfully there weren’t too many sequence dances to fit in as time was tight. All in all, not as bad as it could have been.

<Warning DON’T read this Jamie>
It had been a 20mph drag getting through the roadworks on the M8 this morning and I’d no intention of facing them again on the way back, so I suggested we go for a drive to Helensburgh. When we got there, OH NO! The carpark was gone. The big carpark with a million space and no charge for parking was gone. In its place was a steel and glass featureless lump. Apparently it is a Leisure Centre. A Leisure Centre in Helensburgh is a bit pointless. Most of the inhabitants are well over 80 and the rest are sailors who work at the naval base a few miles up the estuary and who have their own free (I guess) leisure centre at the base. Finally found a place to park, and had to pay! For the first time in Helensburgh, we had to pay! What is the world coming to. Even worse, the pizza shop was closed. We walked along the esplanade and I took a few photos of wee dinghies sailing and trying to race in an almost complete calm. Had a coffee and a panini each in a busy little Costa off the main road. Scamp found another clothes shop and bought a dress. Further on she found a matching fascinator that didn’t look like a black widow spider! My purchases of the day were a few slices of black pudding, two lamb and sausage meat patties and two Italian sausages that smelled strongly of garlic. We drove back home with out touching the roadworks on the M8.
<OK Jamie. It’s safe to come back>

That was about it for the day. A photo of the wee dinghies trying to race became PoD. Dinner was Chicken Pasta in a Tomato Ragu. More a Monday dinner than a Saturday, but it filled a wee space.

Tomorrow I must go out and take some meaningful photos. I just feel I’m treading water these days and need to get out and take photos of things that interest me. Also I really need to do something about my phone. It’s beginning to fail in quite a few ways. Any suggestions or recommendations would be welcome.

Out on the town – 6 May 2022

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Meeting my brother for a walk around Glasgow.

This time we were heading for Glasgow Cathedral to see what difference there was between it and Paisley Abbey. Both of them are really big, grand buildings. I’d imagine that the cathedral is bigger than the abbey and I thought it would be grander, but the stonework was quite dark by comparison with Paisley. Balancing that was the total amount of rooms and the different areas, including the basement rooms. Of the two, I preferred the Paisley Abbey. However, a shot of the Cathedral made PoD.

We tried to find somewhere near the cathedral to get a cup of coffee, but the clumsily named St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art was closed as was a cafe on the other side of the nearby Glasgow Royal Infirmary, so we walked back to Glasgow City, in the rain.

We finally settled on a roll each and a bottle of juice from Greggs and ate our lunch in George Square, surrounded by pigeons keen to remove any crumbs. They also scoffed bits of chicken that Alex dropped. I tried to explain to them that was cannibalism, but my protestations fell on deaf pigeon ears. I must admit it was good to sit and eat our lunch in the open air and in the sunshine, even with the pigeons.

We took a walk down Queen Street to get some photos at the GOMA. Then we walked down to Cafe Nero in St Enoch’s and finally had that coffee. I had a flapjack, but I think my brother maybe later regretted his Raspberry and White Chocolate Chouxnut. I do hope you were ready for your dinner Alex.

We walked around St Enoch’s taking a few shots in the late afternoon light before heading for the bus station and home. A good day. It was the first test for the ‘new toy’, the Tenba camera bag. It performed well with a fairly full set of camera gear. Heavy, but not uncomfortably so. Still to test the new Lensbaby Sweet 35 optic. Maybe tomorrow. Also I got a shot of Alex’s new 85mm f1.8 lens. It may go on the shopping list.

Tomorrow we’ll probably be doing a bit of dancing in Bridge of Weir, but the rest of the day is our own.

A busy day – 5 May 2022

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Things getting delivered, things to be collected, people to see and hair to be cut, but not in that order.

A message in the morning to say that my camera bag was at WEX in Glasgow and ready to collect. That’s exactly when it should have been ready. One of the good things about dealing with WEX is that you can have your items delivered from Norwich to their Glasgow shop in a couple of days, free and usually on time. I had a little Lensbaby lens on order too, but it was to come to the house by the despicable Parcel Force. Due to be delivered tomorrow, but realistically by Monday. That’s why I was surprised when I checked their delivery page to find it too was to arrive today. Unfortunately it was to arrive between 2.30 and 3.30 when I should have been visiting Margie with Scamp. The last thing on today’s list was a haircut ready for a couple of weddings that are in the offing. Would I manage to fit them all into my day? Read on and find out!

Drove in to Glasgow in the morning, before I’d even had my coffee. Parked at Buchanan Galleries, right in the middle of town and walked to the barbers and was out of there half an hour later. Fifteen minutes for the bloke in front of me and fifteen minutes for me. Only one barber in today. Much tidier cut than I can manage, even with some help from Scamp. Walked up Bath Street to find the new WEX shop. I started at about number 10 and the shop was at number 240! So it was going to take a bit of time. Finally climbed the hill and down the other side was the WEX sign on a shiny new shopfront. Picked up the bag and told the blokes behind the till the story of the last bag with its extra item for the ‘Babe’. It gave them a laugh and they immediately guessed the unnamed retailer was Amazon.

Walked back up the hill and down the other side, stopping to take a shot looking down Bucky Street from the Concert Hall to St Enoch’s at the bottom. PoD was in the bag.

Drove out of the car park listening to Alan Cumming reading Baggage. I pressed the phone button on the steering wheel to tell Scamp I was on the way home. Selected Scamp from the list and the screen went blank. Remember I was still driving. Tried to play Alan again, but nothing happened, although the screen had returned to normal. Tried the phone again. This time it rang before the same thing happened again. Gave up and listened to Jazz FM.

I got in just in time to say “Hello” and “Cheerio” as Scamp left to visit Margie. About an hour later, a knock at the door signalled the delivery of my LensBaby lens. Unpacked it from its battered box and made sure it was the right one, then left to visit Margie.

Margie was on good form. Telling us about the problems of riding a Stannah Stairlift and getting it to stop in the correct place.  We discussed sketching and painting and “fishtails”.  Margie danced a lot when she was younger and understood lots of the techniques she and Scamp were discussing.

Soon it was time for us to go, but there were lots of stories to listen to.  Best one was about the family searching for an electrician who she was sure was called Shakespeare, only to find he was called Macbeth.  Close, but no cigar.

I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening trying to get an old Huawei phone to work.  In the end I gave up and might have to consider replacing my ailing Samsung.

A quick waltz and quickstep practise tonight brought some of it back, but not a lot.

Tomorrow, Alex and I are hoping to go and visit Glasgow Cathedral.

Photo Album – 4 May 2022

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Photo albums were so much easier in the olden days.

Today we spent a bit of the morning and half of the afternoon making up a photo book of our recent trip down south. In the olden days, you took your film to the chemist who developed and printed it and handed it back to you in a neat little cardboard folder. Then you bought a photo album and a packet of Lick and Stick corners and used them to hold the photos in place. Usually this meant that the next day when you opened the album the photos all fell out. Either that or the pages had become stuck together by the Lick and Stick corners and then you tore the page when frustration took over.

Now you simply have to upload all your photos to an online company, decide what format of book you want and how many photos you want to add, then the hard work of arranging them is done automatically. The problems come when you want to move things around. No longer do you simply unclip them, replace them with another photo and then find a new place to put the old one. Now you have to consider the size and shape of every photo and sometimes the AI automatic formatter gets it a bit wrong and portrait shots get chopped into landscape and vice versa. It all seems to take a lot longer than the happy smiley company video shows it. That’s why it took us about three hours, with a break for lunch, to get things the way we wanted them. The book is to show off a new house to the folks up in Skye, because books are so much easier to look at than a tablet, aren’t they? Hopefully it will be printed and in their hands in no time.

After that collaboration, we split up. Scamp went to the shops to get stuff for tonight’s dinner and I headed over to Condorrat to post an envelope. Of course I took my camera with me and caught a fly with its beady little glass eye and that became PoD. Just an ordinary fly, because I haven’t seen any damselflies yet and very few hover flies.

It was a cold wind today, but if you found shelter, the sun was warm.

Oh yes, and May the Fourth have been with you today!

Tomorrow we’re booked to go and see Margie. Also hoping my new camera bag will arrive at WEX in Glasgow without a birthday card for a stranger in it this time!