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Out in the morning and in the afternoon and then again later – 19 August 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Out in the morning to get my blood results. The good news is that I am no longer described as Diabetic. The bad news is that it was only by one point on the scale. I hoped it would be a better result, but I’ll take it and keep eating a healthier diet without sugar. Still, another possible step forward is there removal of Bendroflumethiazide from my daily diet of pills. It’s not a long term removal yet, I’ve another meeting with the Sister next week to check if that reduction is working for me.

Back home I had time for a sandwich. A piece ’n’ tinned salmon to be precise before I was off again to another health centre, this one in Muirhead to get an injection to prevent a virus called Respiratory Syncytial Virus, (RSV to its friends) from getting its hooks into me. Half an hour out of my day seemed a worthwhile offering for a better winter.

Since I was in the wilds of Muirhead, I drove home by the long road with a chance of some photos looking over to the Campsies. Not much to see today, though. Just half a dozen horses in a field on one side of the road and a farmer’s field of just-cut hay or silage on the other. I chose the second option, because I’m not that keen on horses and at least the landscape doesn’t walk away when you’re trying to photograph it.

We had been for ‘messages’ in between Nurse 1 and Nurse 2 and had stopped for petrol on the way home, but the petrol pump didn’t recognise my card, so I had to use my backup one, the one I made myself from an old bus pass and a bit of wire. That’s ok in an emergency, but I really needed to get the proper card fixed.

So when I got home from Nurse 2, I had a shopping list dictated to me and off I went again up to Tesco and the Bank. I tried the faulty card in their machine and it spat it out too, so the nice lady in the bank gave it the once over before telling me I needed a new one. Probably it will get to me some time this year. Until then I can just use the old bus pass with the bit of wire.

I got the ‘messages’ in Tesco and tonight I chopped them up, boiled them with some other stuff we had lying around and made something that didn’t taste too bad and hopefully will make a dinner for our visitors tomorrow.

The PoD was the photo of the landscape. A bit cobbled together, but not so much that you’d notice. Not my best work.

Various plans for tomorrow. Which one we choose is, as usual weather dependent.

Oh yes. I’ve been told to say that I was only joking about making a card from an old bus pass and a bit of wire. It was a pass from school I used!

Another stay at home day – 18 August 2024

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Dull and a bit cool for August. Nothing to make us want to go out.

Didn’t even want to take any photos today, although later in the day I did take the camera for a walk in the garden.

I’d promised I’d wash the downstairs back windows and that’s what I did. A bucket of warm soapy water and a combination sponge scrubber and squeegee made short work of the windows. A quick wipe down with a polishing glove and the job was done. As promised!

While I was busy cleaning windows, Scamp was potting up some geraniums into bigger pots.

Eventually I got round to taking some photos and at Scamp’s suggestion, it was the miniature sunflowers time to shine. They have slightly smaller ‘faces’ than normal sunflowers, but very short stems. Barely 250mm overall height. Their big cousin is still growing in the same raised bed and is not far short of 2m at present. Another ‘carder bee’ appeared to have a closer look at the sunflower!

We couldn’t decide what to have for dinner tonight and it eventually turned out to be Tempura Prawns with Ayrshire Potatoes and Peas. An odd mix and the prawns weren’t anything to write home about, but the potatoes were lovely.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard about his birthday fish ’n’ chips with Simonne at the seaside. We also discussed the problems of removing ourselves from the clutches of BT.

Tomorrow I’m expecting to see the nurse in the morning then a vaccination to look forward to in the afternoon. Getting my money’s worth from the NHS!

No Dancin’ today – 17 August 2024

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Usually on a Saturday we drive to Brookfield for dance class, but today after some discussion, Scamp decided she didn’t want to go today because her course of treatment for her cystitis isn’t complete yet. I agreed with her decision.

It turned out to be a dull day. Not a lot of sunshine, in fact hardly any, but no real rain showers either. Just a dull, Scottish Saturday. The furthest we went was a drive to ‘The Shops’ to get some messages and something for tomorrow’s dinner. We usually walk there, but were going to be carrying back two message bags of stuff and I made the decision not to do that, but drive instead. After all, that’s what we bought the car for!

I went out for a walk in the late afternoon. Just one circuit of the pond at St Mo’s and it was actually quite pleasant at that time. The PoD was a Moss Carder Bee, a fluffy, gingery bumble bee that sometimes has brown and orange stripes. They get the ‘carder’ name from their habit of combing material together (carding) to create a covering for the cells in their nesting place containing the larvae. There you go! You learned something today … and so did I!

I didn’t come straight home, but walked over to Condorrat to get a small fish supper with two pickled onions for Scamp and a Special (bigger fish coated in breadcrumbs and deep fried) fish supper for myself. I was shocked at the price I had to pay, but it was worth it for such lovely fish.

Nothing worth watching on TV, now that the Turkish Detective is finished, so if anyone has any suggestions of what to watch on iPlayer, please let us know.

Finished my latest book ‘Down Cemetery Road’ by Mick Herron this morning 4/5 on Goodreads. Definitely recommended to all. Now I’m prowling round Amazon looking for something else on Kindle.

No real plans for tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Jamie – 16 August 2024

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Good to see you took the sensible approach and worked from home today, Jamie.

We’d talked about going to Edinburgh, but I wasn’t in a rush, so told Scamp she should go to her FitSteps class first. While she was there I messed around the house and had a long hot shower to ease my back which is still giving me grief some days. Scamp returned early from the class, and she didn’t look well. She knew herself that she had a little infection and phoned the surgery. After the usual questions they said the nurse would give her a call later in the morning. Good as her word, the nurse called back and asked a few more questions and said she’d leave a prescription at the desk in the health centre. About half an hour later I drove to the health centre, picked up the prescription and had it filled at the chemist next door.

That was us home for the day. No big deal, because we can go to Edinburgh next week some time, all being well. We may even have to forego tomorrow’s dance class too. You have to be sensible about these things.

Lunch for both of us was tea and toast. Neither of us was all that hungry. The afternoon dragged a bit, mainly due to the weather which was looking rainy without actually raining. Plus there was a cold wind blowing. Scamp was looking better and more relaxed too, so I took myself upstairs to do a bit of painting with some watercolour markers Fred had recommended. I wasn’t really impressed with the quality. The markers themselves had very coarse brushes and the ‘pencil’ end of the double ended markers was a bit soft. Just cheap markers, pretending to be something better. However that made me set up an easel and start painting with real watercolour. Just a wee landscape that will probably never see the light of day, but it kept me amused and out of Scamp’s hair for an hour or so.

I also got the PoD. Two roses in the garden had had their petals blown away in last week’s gales, leaving their stamens and pistils exposed, but in bright colours. The title of the PoD is Naked Roses! That should generate a few views!!

Alex sent me a message late in the afternoon to say that the Environmental Health people had visited and sprayed some white powder over the wasp nest and sealed off the room they are in. They were told not to open that room until the experts in their “Ghostbusters Uniforms” returned in a week’s time. I’m sure he will obey those instructions. I told him that I think the white powder the bloke was spraying might have been ‘Oofle Dust’. It always seemed to make things disappear for Sooty!

That rain never came today, but the wind was strong and the temperature was dropping away rapidly. Almost, as the weather forecast man said, as if it’s already autumn. Do you think there’s a way to get our money back for the summer we never had? Answers on a post card, please.

Tomorrow we will wait to see how the invalid is before making any judgement on what to do with the day.

 

What a day! – 15 August 2024

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It was raining, heavily when I left the house about 10.30 this morning.

First I got a message from Alex to say he had a wee problem. He had a found a wasp’s nest in the loft and the wasps were coming in to the bedroom. He had been stung quite and was going to phone ‘the experts’. I suggested he contact Environmental Health and let them fix the problem and he agreed. He was apologising that he wouldn’t be able to meet me for a photo walk today! That would be the least of his problems.

I was taking the blue car in to Macklin Motors in Glasgow were it was booked for an MOT. I was driving down the M80 with headlights and wipers on full, the rain was so heavy. I dropped the car off at the garage just around 11am and was told it would be ready around 4pm. Not wanting to hang around for five hours, I walked back to the bus station. By the time I got there I was soaked from head to toe. Luckily I got an X37 almost right away. In the bus, I took off my, no longer waterproof, jacket which, although soaking had protected me from the worst of the rain. Purely by luck the bus took an alternative route to avoid massive roadworks in Condorrat and Mollinsburn which have been going on for almost a year, and by a quirk of fate dropped me within easy walking distance of the house.

Back home the rain had lessened and I could change into dry clothes. Scamp wasn’t far behind me and after lunch we settled down to wait for a message from the garage to say whether the blue car had passed or was needing money spent on it. That phone call never came, so around 3.30pm I took one bus to the town centre and another from there to Glasgow, saving a good half hour from the X3’s journey time.

By now the rain was gone and it was all blue skies and white clouds. So still not having heard from the garage I wandered down Buchanan Street and took a few photos of the entrance to the subway. A great subject for humans and reflections. I got a PoD which is the view looking down Buchanan Street, with the the reflections of people and buildings in and by the glass and marble entrance to the subway station.

Then I made my way up the hill to Macklin Motors, only to be told it would be nearer 5pm before the tester was finished, so I took my seat along with a couple of others in the same predicament. More than an hour and two games of Sudoku later, I got the call. The car passed but the advisory note told me they thought it needed 3 new tyres and would I like to arrange a day to have them fitted? I said I’d hold off on that for now. If it took them six hours to do a two hour MOT, how long would it take to fit three tyres?

But the joys of motoring weren’t over yet. It took me about twenty minutes to clear Glasgow and get on to the M8/M80 and the road home. How can people drive in Glasgow at rush hour? It’s absolute madness.

Finally got home and parked and found that Scamp had made Carrot & Lentil Curry with Pitta Bread. Absolutely the best food for such a stressful day! She is a gem!

I got a message from Alex tonight to say that Environmental Health are coming to visit him tomorrow. He said he’s been stung between fifteen and twenty times, but managed to kill two wasps!! He sent a picture of his swollen hand that you don’t want to see, believe me!

Tomorrow we may take the car out for a spin.

That was a hot one – 14 August 2024

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We’d intended getting the train to Edinburgh today, but waking late put the skids under that plan.

Instead of Edinburgh, we went shopping in Tesco. I’d a pile of books to give to Fred, because I often meet him in Tesco, but today, when I was prepared, Fred wasn’t there. Still, we did get a few things we needed and I got a Ginsters, half of which would provide my lunch.

After lunch Scamp was pruning bits off the big rowan tree at the back of the garden. She was complaining that the branches were hanging down over the pedestrian path. Then she mentioned that a bush that separates our next door neighbour from us was also becoming a bit of a nuisance and should be trimmed. I said I’d do that one and used a block of Imperial Leather soap to lubricate my old trusty panel saw and had the offending trunks and branches cut down in no time. Then we stripped the branches from the big trunks and heavier branches and piled them into one of our expanding nylon bins before chopping up the trunks and heavy branches. I volunteered to take them over to the council skips and empty the bin there. This must be pruning time, because the enormous skips were full of tree branches.

One of the reasons I volunteered was to give me a chance to get some landscape photos up at Fannyside Moor, and that’s where I headed once the chopped up tree and bush branches had been disposed of. It really was a lovely day. Blue skies and fluffy clouds with just enough of a gentle breeze to keep me cool. I did get a few landscapes and also some macro shots too, although I didn’t have a true macro lens with me.

After I came home I wasn’t feeling too good. Too much sun without a hat to provide some shade and probably not enough water as well. Scamp is always telling me I don’t drink enough water and she’s probably right. A rest outside, reading WITH a hat on let the worst of it disappear.

Scamp was making a fish curry for dinner using a Spice Tailor mix or one of its offshoots and while it wasn’t all that spicy, it had good flavour and the fish was delicious in it.

Last night we watched the first Mastermind of the new season and tonight we watched the first University Challenge. Both great standbys and so much better than Eastenders or River City. One is depressing and the other is just a packet of fairytales.

PoD turned out to be thistles entangled in barbed wire with a nice sky.

Tomorrow I’m intending taking the car in to Glasgow for its MOT, meeting Alex and hopefully bringing the car back home tomorrow night. That’s the outline plan anyway.

 

Birlin’ round Stirling – 13 August 2024

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Scamp wanted to go to Stirling today, but couldn’t remember why!

Spoke to Hazy in the morning and found out about Neil forgetting his passport for travelling to Cologne and having to get his dad to drive with it to the airport. Silly boy!

We didn’t get as far as Cologne, we drove through the rain to Stirling and managed to find a parking space in the Waitrose carpark. Others weren’t so lucky. We walked in to Stirling proper because Scamp thought I need a new shirt. M&S was a disappointment in the Mens department. Very few shirts, in fact, very few of anything. Slaters on the other hand is unassuming from the outside. When you go in you’re met with a steep stair taking you up to the shop. Suits, shirts, shoes, jackets and jumpers all for men! No women’s department. Refreshing!

We stopped for coffee and a bite to eat in Caffe Nero before we went back to Slaters. I did get a shirt I liked. I haven’t tried it for size yet, but even if it doesn’t fit, I know I can exchange it for a better fitting one in any of their shops.

Then it was back to Waitrose for The Messages and as usual we came home with a lot more than we intended, but really, we expected that, it’s what usually happens. The drive home was again through the rain showers and the gathering wind.  Then when we got to Cumbersheugh the rain dried up, but not for long.  Soon the rain was hitting the window again  However, I managed to time a walk round St Mo’s well for a change and had a walk, got some photos and was back home in the dry. It’s not often I manage that.

PoD was a drone fly taking off from a Knapweed flower. Just a ‘lucky’ capture.

That was about all the excitement we could manage today. Better weather is promised by the weather fairies for tomorrow. If it appears we may go out somewhere.

 

Cutting the connection – 12 August 2024

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Heavy rain and hail during the night, but thankfully no thunderstorms.

I was off to the doc’s for a diabetic blood check. That took me out of the house and got me moving. The nurse who took my bloods said she hadn’t heard any thunder either but she’d heard on the radio that the afternoon was to a lot brighter than the morning. She must have known something I didn’t because when I was walking in to the surgery the clouds were gathering, but when I left it was to blue skies and white clouds. Things were looking up.

After lunch we did our usual Wordle and Spelling Bee and then Scamp was checking our bank balance and found that BT were taking more than usual for our BT account. After a few checks and some simple arithmetic we discovered that we were paying for at least one service we didn’t need. Long story short, we phoned BT and were shuffled from one department to another with a ten minute wait each time. Eventually when one department warned us that it was a 40 minute wait I’d had enough we gave them the nominal 10 minutes and hung up. Enough was enough. I think we’ll be cutting ties with BT. We only use the landline for talking to two or three folk and those two or three use mobiles anyway. Also with the impending change to the new digital network, landlines will soon be dead anyway. Bye bye BT.

I eventually got chucked out of the house about an hour later so that Scamp would have peace and quiet to do the ironing. I walked over to St Mo’s and got a few shots of dragonflies basking in the summer sunshine – Yes, the nurse had been right. The sun did come out and stayed out. I walked down to the shops with the knowledge that I had at least one photo in the bag.

Came home with some fruit and veg because it was my turn to make the dinner, pasta with tomato sauce. It turned out looking a bit of a mess, too many ingredients, but I’d got some chorizo in M&S and I slowly fried it in a separate pan and added it to my portion of the dinner. Still not delicious, but very nice.

The PoD was a male Common Darter demonstrating a yoga pose. I think it was downward-facing dog.

Tomorrow we may be going shopping somewhere.

 

Gardening – 11 August 2024

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Actually it was Scamp who was doing most of the gardening on this beautiful sunny day.

I think my contribution could be better described as “pottering”.

While Scamp was cutting the front grass and moving all the pots around herself because she knows exactly where they go and in which direction they face, while I’ll just plonk them in a spot with the same shape as the shape of the pot base. Unfortunately that doesn’t work with circular pots which have two axes of symmetry. I’ve given up offering to help, because I know it will be refused.

Anyway, while the cutting was going on, I was in the back garden photographing butterflies on the Buddleia bush. The bush has been flowering for about a month now and not one butterfly has ventured near it. Today, after I’d cut away a lot of the flowers that were going to seed, not one, but two butterflies were climbing over each other to get to this nectar rich plant. A Small Tortoiseshell butterfly got PoD.

Earlier I was spraying the big splat of seagull diarrhoea that had been dropped from height on the passenger side of the car’s windscreen. A few of scooshes of screen wash and it started to melt away quite nicely, but it left unsightly white streaks all down the bonnet. The easiest thing to do was to wash the car, and that’s what I did, the old fashioned way with buckets of water lots of detergent and a sponge. Buffed it dryish with those green mitts and left it to dry completely in the sunshine.

Back to gardening again and I emptied out our final potato bag and collected 650g of Charlotte potatoes. Scamp’s and my favourite variety. Since I had the garden table set up and the big black plastic tray, I potted up five wee chilli seedlings that were looking a bit poorly after being planted some time in the spring. I blamed the compost Tesco sold us to plant them in. It looked more like floor sweepings than compost. Anyway, they’re in better stuff now. Good compost mixed with sharp sand and Perlite for drainage. Hope they enjoy the view from the bedroom window.

Spoke to Jamie tonight and heard about Simonne’s visit to the Olympics while Jamie worked from home and did some gardening. Good to hear that the green beans are growing and the cobs of corn are ripening hope the squirrels give them a chance this year.

Tomorrow I’m intending donating a thimbleful of blood for my three monthly checkup. Thunder showers are forecast for most of tomorrow.

Windy day and Driving – 10 August 2024

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It was a bit of an uninspiring day. Gusty winds again and the threat of showers that never came.

I just couldn’t get out of the bit today. Nothing physically wrong, I just could not shift myself from the sofa. Maybe it was the thought of driving in to an evening dance at Brookfield that failed to inspire me or maybe it was a hangover from yesterday. I still had the sore back, and I think that is caused by carrying a heavy camera bag. Maybe I should listen to my body more!

Eventually we did the same as yesterday and walked down to the shops to get dinner. I had decided to have a venison steak that had been languishing in the freezer since May, but I had no appetite. Then Scamp suggested something simple like a baked potato and that worked for me. It was a heavy bag I was carrying back from the shops and was reluctant to hand it over to Scamp, so we both walked home, with me carrying a bag with two bottles of no-alcohol (and no-taste) beer and a heavy camera bag (then I wonder why I’ve got a sore back!).

When I got home I just turned around and walked halfway round St Mo’s, then back again, about half an hour it total, but happier now that I had a couple of fairly decent shots in the bag. PoD went to a Common Drone Fly, or so said Mr Google and friends, lunching on some cow parsley flowers. By the time I got back we just had enough time to have a baked potato each and then we had to get ready for the evening’s entertainment.

We were driving the Brookfield, but as we were driving out of the estate I saw the big splat of seagull diarrhoea on the passenger side of the windscreen. A couple of scooshes of screen wash told us it was stuck firm and there was no point in damaging the wiper blades on it. A job for tomorrow. On the M80 first it was a police car with blue lights on travelling in the same direction as us, next a 40mph speed restriction flashed up on the overhead gantry then about two miles later the next message was “Pedestrians”. Never a good thing on a motorway. However for the rest of the drive in to Glasgow there was no sign of police vehicles or pedestrians. We carried on regardless. Of course everyone had obeyed the 40mph sign 😉

The rest of the journey was just normal Saturday evening busy. Until we came to the Irvine turnoff, our turnoff. Then ahead was two lanes of red lights for as far as we could see. For the next five miles it was first gear and stop, first gear and stop. Then the blockage seemed to clear and we drove the rest of the way unhindered. We later discovered there had been a two car crash somewhere ahead of us and we were the lucky ones who joined the queue when it was at least moving, if slowly.

The dance itself was really great fun, mainly because we were at the same table as Barry & Cath plus Cath’s sister and Niahmat & Audrey and another couple we’d met at a dance weekend in Perth. The table was a bit congested, but the jokes and laughter lifted the evening. We danced a few ballroom dances and, I think, all but one of the sequence dances. For once, the night really flew in, although as we neared the Last Dance there was a bit of a lull sometimes. As if the energy had gone out of the night.

I almost always enjoy driving home at night from a Brookfield dance. Absolutely no need to drop out of 5th gear, even across the Kingston Bridge. We parked and I had a wee dram while Scamp, unusually had a decaf coffee before bed. Something in the dancing put my back right again and something about the night put me on the right road.

Tomorrow I might was the car, or the windscreen at the very least.