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A Day in the Toon – 30 January 2024

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Our ‘unofficial’ anniversary.

As planned it was going to be a wander round town and then lunch in Wagamama in West George Street. Before that there were prezzies and a card to give out, but I’d been wearing my prezzy for about a week already, a pair of photographer’s gloves with the tip of the index finger and thumb able to fold back to allow a better grip when focusing and also to ensure that the ‘shutter finger’ actually pressed the shutter! Scamp’s was jewellery, because I know she loves shiny things. She had to wait until today to get her’s!

We got the bus in to Glasgow and just wandered. Mostly window shopping although Scamp did manage to pick up a new dress for a bargain price. I got a paint brush, but not for painting. It’s going to be a sensor cleaner that can be charged up with an air blower and will pick up the tiny little bits of fluff that get caught in the corners of the sensor. It’s much smaller than my big sensor cleaner and will be perfect for what I’m looking for.

As usual, we started out in a Nero with a coffee, then down Buchanan Street along to Cass Art to get the brush then along to Jamaica Street which led us down to the Clyde. Next stop was on the Clyde Walkway for me to photograph the new graffiti that had appeared. This isn’t gang tags although there are some, this is artistic painting on a grand scale. A 10 foot high wall is covered with artwork. Always worth a look. We walked back towards St Enoch because Scamp thought she’d get a holiday bag there. She didn’t. What she did find was a dress shop called Klass which had been recommended by one of the Tea Dance ladies. That’s where the dress came from. We walked back on to Argyle Street and listened to a Rock ’n’ Roll trio called, ‘The Best Bad Influence’, playing in the street. They were good and Scamp put some money in their box.

I was heading for Waterstones to see what books were new. On the way I took some photos of reflections in a big puddle and the best one got PoD. A little bit of jiggery pokery needed, but it looked good when it was finished. From there it was up to West George Street for lunch in Wagamama. Starters were Bang Bang Cauliflower (lovely, but spicy!) and Ebi Katsu (Butterflied prawns coated in panko breadcrumbs and deep fried – delicious). Mains were Prawn Raisukaree (mild curry with prawns and veg with rice) for Scamp and Chicken and Prawn Yaki Soba (noodles with chicken, prawn, egg and peppers) for me. All washed down with a glass of wine each.

We walked up to The Counting House a Wetherspoons pub on George Square. G&T for two, then the X37 back to Condorrat and walked home.

Really a quite excellent day. The rain stayed off and the sun shone. Who could ask for more?

Tomorrow looks windy and wet. No plans for it so far.

Just a dump – 29 January 2024

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No, not Cumbersheugh this time, just a bit of clearing out.

Things that had outlived their usefulness or that no longer worked. They were going on a one way trip to the council skips.

But first there was shopping to be done. A long rambling walk round the aisles of Tesco collecting some things we don’t really need, but a lot of things we can’t do without. A Monday shop is really a necessity shop. No frills, just food shopping, mainly.

With that done it was time for lunch, then a gathering together of all the bags and buckets of stuff referred to earlier. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of things that we can fit into the boot of the blue car. When we got to the council tip, most of it went straight into “General Household” the cover-all description of the miscellaneous detritus that isn’t wholly metal, wood or rubble. I did have one or two items that went into the “Metal” skip and one that would have gone into “Small Electrical” if that skip had been there. Instead it went into “General …”

Now I reckoned I had an hour or so to go and get some photos. I chose the Forth & Clyde canal between Haggs and Allandale as my destination. After a being stopped at a few roadworks (February is the month for councils to ‘get rid’ of their unused money. If they don’t do that, their grant for the next year will be reduced) where unnecessary work was being done quite slowly. Eventually I reached the canal and got a few shots on the A6500 then headed for home.

Dinner tonight was pasta with mushrooms, bacon and chilli flakes in a tomato sauce, plus one special ingredient, Hazy. Finely chopped up greenery from a single stem of spring onion growing in a pot of water on the kitchen window sill! That just finished the sauce off perfectly.

PoD was a shot looking west from one of the locks on the canal with a nice little reflection of the trees.

We have plans for tomorrow. Hopefully they will be revealed in tomorrow’s blog.

Hardly past the door – 28 January 2024

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After a fairly late night last night, today was inevitably less than early rise.

The day didn’t help, either. Dull and dreary with occasional rain showers. That didn’t encourage either of us to get up and go out. Also for my part, there was the fact that Mr Bezos was dropping by some time in the next ten hours to hand me a parcel to be disappeared as quickly as it arrived. In actual fact, Mr Bezos or his representative arrived dripping wet about six hours later, but that didn’t matter. The spell was cast and the parcel promptly disappeared as predicted.

Eating lunch we watched the Sunday morning of Laura Kuensberg ripping into potential prime ministers (by their way of it) and politicians competing for who could tell the biggest whopper and get away with it. None of them managed it and an invited group of 50 of “The Ordinary People” told them all they weren’t fooling anyone, apart from one bloke who said he though Boris had done a great job. There’s always one.

Scamp and I spent most of the afternoon clearing out unwanted or un-needed files from her computer to allow it some breathing space to get stuff done. We were partly successful and after a few bad starts, we achieved what we set out to do. The computer is a bit leaner now, but could really do with being a bit cleaner still.

The wind still blew and the rain drizzled on and I didn’t really see any point in going out. Dinner was chicken pakora which was really chicken bites covered in a spicy hot coating. Not anything like a real pakora, but interesting enough to eat. The main was Thai Green Curry which was an easy cook curry paste with added chicken and coconut milk. But I must admit it was fairly authentic. Pudding was Eve’s Pudding which I’d bought yesterday in M&S and hidden in the fridge, but which Scamp had ferreted out, easily.

We spoke to Jamie later and heard that things are moving on a pace. Walls have still to come down and be rebuilt, but more construction work is being completed on the chimney in the lounge. Good to hear positive news.

PoD was a tabletop shot of wee glass bell jar filled with dried flowers. Scamp got it as part of her Christmas. It’s sitting on top of an upturned jam jar covered with some lovely red velvet which is supported at the back by a beer bottle on the right and a cardboard box on the right. The whole ensemble is lit by two cheap COB lights bought in Home Bargains. ’Oh what a tangled web we weave. When first we practice to deceive’. Or to put it another way, “What the eye doesn’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve after.”!

Tomorrow is an open book at present. Nothing planned and nothing much to do so far. Maybe some light shopping, just to keep us busy.

A day on my tod – 27 January 2024

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Out about 9am (that’s earlier than a ‘normal’ Saturday when we’re going dancing) to drop Scamp off at Ian’s – June’s weekend retreat!

Scamp and June were off to Glasgow Royal Concert Hall to sing the Verdi Requiem with a few other singers. Originally it was expected that there would be about 600 voices. The final total for today was 804!! That’s a lot of noise. I wasn’t involved at all. All I did was drive Scamp to meet June at Ian’s. After that, my work was done and I could rest for the remainder of the day.

As it was, I must have wasted a good half hour of the day attempting to find where they hide the crunchy peanut butter in the Town Centre Tesco. They have the strangest idea of a logical pattern to their shelves, but eventually I did find this addictive breakfast necessity. It’s the closest thing I’ve found to the ‘Pease Brose’ my mum used to make. It was made from ground up dried peas, not peanuts, but strangely the processing was similar.

With the crunchy peanut butter jar in my pocket I could have my breakfast and then struggled with Wordle and gave up on Spelling Bee, then read a bit more of my latest book set in Skye. I kept waiting for the weather to decide what it was going to do, so that I could decide what I was going to do. Eventually I made the decision to drive to The Fort for a couple of things. One is still in abeyance and the other, a white nylon round paintbrush I was hoping to find in Hobbycraft, but there were none of any size in the shop. Lots of white nylon flat brushes, but I’ve already got one of those. I use these nylon brushes to pick dust spots off the sensors of my cameras. If you activate them with a blower brush first the nylon fibres generate a static charge and attract the little dust motes in the camera. The big flat works perfectly for a quick sweep over the sensor, but the small rounds get into the corners. I’m not a tidy or house proud person until it comes to the innards of my cameras! Disappointed I went to see if Waterstones had anything interesting to offer, but even they let me down. I drove home.

I drove home in a different direction than normal, because the light was just right to grab a photo of an old farm that sits on a hill above the motorway and I knew where I could abandon the car for the few minutes it would take. Half a dozen photos later I was heading homeward again. Parked and then took a walk to the shops for a ready meal of Prawn Bhuna for my dinner.

By the time I was coming home, the light was fading but I extended my walk because I’d been sitting for most of the afternoon and needed to stretch my legs. I also wanted to try out my new photographer’s gloves that Scamp had bought me. They worked really well with the little finger cover that you can sneak off so you can accurately press the shutter and not one of the plethora of other buttons on a camera, then you can cover up the finger again so you don’t get frostbite. Brilliant idea. Thanks Scamp.

Just as I was fiddling with the finger guard I registered a movement off to my right as a young buck wandered across the path and off into the woods. Not running just ambling along. I was so entranced with this deer that I didn’t have time to photograph it. Someone once said it’s better to watch something happening in front of you that waste your time trying to photograph it. I agree … sometimes!

Scamp got back just before 10pm still pumped up from being part of such a big choir. I imagine June would be the same. I wished I’d been there to feel the sound of 800 odd voices, but I don’t think I’d have enjoyed the music, so probably best to hear about it once removed.

The picture of the old farm made PoD. I liked the finished article, although it wasn’t quite what I set out to capture.

We have no plans for tomorrow. We’ll see what the weather brings.

 

 

Colzium and Brodens – 26 January 2024

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It was a lovely morning, too good to waste. To make the most of it we went for a walk.

We drove to Colzium Estate just outside Kilsyth. Lots of snowdrops just coming in to flower and lots more to look forward to in a couple of weeks. We walked up the road through the trees and crossed the bridge over the Colzium burn. When we stopped in the middle a robin flew down to see what we were up to. I thought it would fly away immediately, but I took my camera out of its bag anyway and there was this wee robin looking like it was posing for the camera. Scamp said it was asking which was its best side! I took a few shots then realised two things. Firstly it had a damaged claw on on foot and secondly we were in its way, because it was heading for a pile of birdseed that someone had left on the parapet of the bridge. I apologised to it and we left it to have its lunch. One of those shots made PoD.

We walked on, along the steep road that circles the Big House and its gardens. It used to be the entrance drive when the house was in its heyday. At the top we turned right and then took the even steeper path to the left that led us through the woods to the wee bridge over the Colzium Burn just downstream from the Tak ma Doon road. We crossed the bridge and headed down the quite slippery path on the other side of the burn. Scamp started searching through the fallen branches for a suitable stick to give her some support for walking down the path.

Halfway down we found a big fallen tree that turned out to be half a tree, It looked as if the tree had split in two in the past and this one half had been torn from the other one during last week’s storms. You don’t realise just how big trees are until you see one lying down. We get so used to see trees standing above us. We met a woman who said she didn’t know if it was safe to walk in the trees when it was windy. I hadn’t thought of that. You wouldn’t stand much of a chance if a tree fell on you. Scamp was a bit saddened to see the broken tree lying there and I could see how she’d feel that. We walked on down to the bridge again, having done a complete circuit of this part of the estate. The robin that we’d seen the last time we’d passed was still there eating the seeds. It must have been the same one. There can’t be two robins with a damaged claw in the same place, could there? To end the walk we walked past the old curling pond, now a duck pond and from there back to the car.

So, should we drive to The Fort to have lunch at Wagamama or should we dine locally at Brodens? We settled on Brodens. Scamp had breaded fish ’n’ chips with a glass of Malbec and I had steak pie with mash washed down with a pint of Guinness. After that we walked home.

We watched a strange pair of girls selling manufactured diamonds on Dragons Den. If you watch it, you’ll understand what I mean by strange. It’s not really the people who are strange, but their devious dealing.

Scamp has now packed her sandwiches and fruit into separate boxes and is ready to meet June tomorrow and get a taxi to Glasgow to sing the Verdi Requiem with about 600 other singers in the Royal Concert Hall. I’m not going, because she says I wouldn’t like it. Probably right.

Dull and wet but dancin’ inside

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Today was a day for driving to Glenburn and dancing for a couple of hours.

For the second time in a row, we drove to Glenburn, just outside Paisley and danced almost everything the threw at us. We both made a mess of some of it, but there was a quiet confidence to us that wasn’t there before. I don’t know exactly what was happening, but I’ve a curious feeling that I was leading for a while! Usually I rely on Scamp to tell me what comes next, but for some of the dances, I knew what came after what. It’s hard to explain, but there was definitely a difference to our dancing.

The afternoon started with a waltz and that led on to cha-cha and then an interspersing of ballroom or latin with a sequence dance. I’ve complained here in the past about Stewart’s plan to have, let’s call it formal dancing, in the first half and sequence in the second half. I don’t think that works well for everyone, but the mixing he and Jane were doing today seemed to encourage everyone to get on the floor more often. We covered usual trilogy of waltz, cha-cha and quickstep with lots of sequence dances. We even attempted a Gay Gordons as well, but stayed well clear of the Canadian Barn Dance, the music for which seemed never ending. It was good to see that folk were taking to heart Stewart’s recommendation to wear something tartan for Burns Night. He even ‘accidentally’ played Donald Where’s Yer Troosers because he said I liked it! Cheeky get!

The two hours went quickly and then it was time to go home, have a cup of tea and a biscuit before getting ready to drive Scamp up to The Link to get her Shingles jag. That didn’t take long. Probably about 15 minutes maximum, then we were heading home again for Haggis Neeps and Tatties. Standard fare for a Burns Night. I don’t know why we call turnips ‘Neeps’. Burns was born and bred in Ayrshire, but Neeps is a north east coast word. How did it get inveigled into Ayrshire dialect? I blame the Aberdonians. Or better still, I blame Boris who was a bit of a turnip heid!

With the traditional Burns Supper meal and a wee dram to toast it, the excitement for the day was all but over. Today’s PoD was a photo of a bouquet of cut flowers, well, it was a Thursday. The flowers weren’t “arranged tastefully, in a vase” as D.P. Gumby used to demonstrate on Monty Python, but laid down on the kitchen worktop, but the little light that filtered in through the clouds lit them perfectly.

Tomorrow we may drive somewhere for lunch or we may walk somewhere local for it instead. As usual, it depends on the weather.

A day at Kelvingrove – 24 January 2024

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It was another windy night last night. Maybe just marginally less disruptive than Monday into Tuesday, but now Jocelyn has joined Isha and good riddance to both of them.

Today I was meeting Alex in Glasgow and we were going to get the bus to Kelvingrove to take some photos and have some lunch. First I checked in with him to make sure he was good to go after last night’s wind. Of course he was, but it’s always good to check and not just assume all is well in the centre of North Lanarkshire. For once the bus was on time and I was away into Glasgow with Kevin Bridges in my ear, telling me some stories. I’m a fairly slow reader and I suppose I must he a slow listener too. I generally only listen to the Audible track when I’m on the bus by myself. That way I can concentrate on the story.

We met at the bus station and went for a coffee. Allegedly Nero’s dishwasher was broken, so they were using disposable cups. I wouldn’t mind that, but they put their usual amount of coffee into a big paper cup and then topped it up with way too much hot water. I go to Nero to get good strong coffee that tastes of coffee. If I wanted weak watery coffee I could go to Costa.

I struggled through the gallon cup of dirty water and then we headed off to the West End. The posh end of Glasgow, or at least it thinks it is. Noting that the scaffolding and plywood panels were still in place where they’d been for about six months now, we entered this otherwise beautiful building. I was delighted to see that the portrait of Ann Pavlova was back in its rightful place. Such an energetic looking portrait of the dancer.

We went up to the gallery to get some photos of the gigantic pipe organ an some of The Heads. Over 50 different grimacing and laughing heads hanging as an installation by Sophie Cave. One of them became the PoD after a fair bit of work to get it looking the way I wanted.

Lunch was next in the conservatory. We both had the same thing. Scottish Beef Burger on a bun with chips.

Another walk round the main ground floor and then we were off outside because the light on Glasgow Uni tower was really worth a few shots. I just missed a shot of a squirrel running in front of a burger van. Not the source of our burgers, though. I did get a shot of its fluffy tail (the squirrel’s, not the burger’s, you understand) sticking out from under the skirt of the van.

Waited ages for the bus back to the bus station and then we parted our ways and I listened to more of Kevin swearing through more stories.

I’d messaged Scamp on the way home that I wouldn’t need any dinner tonight and instead had a plate of soup. The last plate from the big pot. Watched Landscape Artist and correctly predicted two of the three finalists, but didn’t pick the winner.

A great day with my brother. Had a long discussion with him about the merits and demerits of the new lens, but finally decided to keep it. I was delighted with my 86 photos and only 9 of them rejected. That’s a good percentage. More will fall on the cutting room floor before the week is out, I’m sure.

I think we may go dancing at the tea dance tomorrow if the weather is kind to us.

Coffee with Isobel – 23 January 2024

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We drove up to the town centre today and were entertained by Isobel for an hour and a bit in Costa. I risked an Americano that actually tasted of coffee. I was shocked!

Life is never dull with Isobel. She always has stories to tell and doesn’t care who she insults when she’s telling them. Today’s topics included falling church attendance, losing a church minister, gardening and a useless new cooker. She did give Scamp some instruction on pruning roses and rudbeckia. She was making arrangements to have the wax removed from her ears by going private. I’m beginning to think that I need it done too, because my hearing has been getting worse recently. Anyway, after we’d heard all her gossip and she had heard all of Scamp’s, we gave her a run home because the rain was torrential. She wouldn’t accept any help and toddled off pushing her walker once we’d dropped her off. When we were coming out of Costa

Back home it was tomato soup and toast for lunch from the never emptying soup pot. I did consider going out if the rain stopped, but it didn’t and I stayed in. PoD was a photo of my Window Ledge Garden with its green spike of ’back from the dead’ Spring Onion and a clove of garlic that has white spike and also roots that weren’t there when it went into the water pot a couple of days ago. Both plants are growing in nothing but water. The pot, with its little floating island that holds the plants, was a Christmas present from Hazy. It took me a week or so to find the time to read the instructions and test it out. Amazingly for me, it worked first time. I’m intending growing beetroot and leeks next. Thank you Hazy.

By the time I’d checked in with Alex and discussed tomorrow with him, then processed and posted the PoD, it was time for dinner and for the second time this week it was fish. This time it was Leek and Smoked Fish Risotto. Unfortunately I’d cut the bottom off the leek before I remembered that I could have coaxed it back to useful lift. The resulting risotto was a bit wetter than I’d intended it to be, but we ate almost all of it.

We watched University Challenge later and got the nominal two or three correct answers each. Feeling quite pleased with ourselves. Then we watched The Secret Genius of Modern Life on the history of microwave ovens which sounds a really boring program. But with a thoughtful approach to delivering this information, it was interesting and informative. Infotainment at its best. I commend it to you. Accessible from iPlayer.

I saw that Isobel had a pair of sheepskin mittens in her bag and said, without thinking: “Oh, pawkies!” One of my mum’s words for mittens. Funny how you remember these random words.

The wind is wheechin’ round the house again tonight, and I hope it calms down a bit before tomorrow, because I’ve got a possible appointment for a photo walk with Alex in Glasgow which I don’t want to miss because I called off last week when I wasn’t feeling well. A dry day would be nice, but that may be a wish too far.

 

Willie is gone – 22 January 2024

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But Jocelyn is waiting in the wings.

Well last night was a wild one. I was sure the front window was going to be blown in by one of Windy Willie’s blasts, but it held firm and we survived the onslaught. Having said that, it was a noisy old night and a noisy morning too.

After taking stock of the broken branches that littered the path and after replacing all the bins that had made their big bold bid for freedom I had a quick look round the exterior of the house, but thankfully everything was intact. I suggested to Scamp that we might go for a walk round St Mo’s pond, just for a breath of fresh air and she agreed.

So booted and well wrapped up because the wind was still howling round the houses we did one circuit of the pond. There weren’t any fallen trees and very few branches. For the most part it was a dry walk, but the squally showers made it uncomfortable. I was quite glad I’d agreed on one circuit. Then it was home for lunch.

When we were making lunch Scamp said that Andy, who lives across the back from us was having trouble putting a tarpaulin over his shed. I’m guessing the roofing felt on the shed had come adrift. I walked down to see if he needed any help, but his sons were doing the heavy work and Andy was just overseeing operations, so I left them to it and went back to have my piece ’n’ banana.

Later in the afternoon the winds calmed down and that reduced the amount of squally showers, so I took the opportunity to take the camera out again for another walk. I’d taken half a dozen photos in the morning, but you can never have enough! With a few more photos in the bag I felt I had a better chance of a decent PoD and I think I got one. It’s a view across the pond framed with trees and I quite like it. Even Scamp gave it the thumbs up.

With that done and the processing completed, it was dinner time and tonight’s dinner was to be tomato soup and then Giovanni Rana tortelloni. Easy to make and quite filling.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending meeting Isobel for coffee in the morning Then we need to get ready for Storm Jocelyn which is making landfall around mid-afternoon. You get rid of one storm and another one is waiting to take its place. According to the weather fairies, this might not be as severe as Isha, but they don’t always tell the whole truth! We’ll have to wait and see.

Windy Willie – 21 January 2024

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It sounds very much like Windy Willie is running around the house!

Since about 6pm the wind speed has been rising. According to the BBC the winds will peak at 65mph around about 11pm and then start to reduce gradually until tomorrow evening.

Earlier in the day we had torrential rain blown along on simple gale force winds. I’d decided early on that I wasn’t going to go outside looking for photos. Instead I took a photo of of a tray of tomatoes fresh out of an hour in the oven. They were destined to be made into tomato soup, and that was to be the starter for tonight’s dinner. Actually they looked quite good in the photo and with a bit of delicate adjustment the photo became PoD.

The tomato soup itself was a winner. One bowl tonight as a starter for the main course of Trout Fillets with Baby Potatoes and Marrowfat Peas. I’m not a great ‘fish person’, especially oily fish like salmon, but the trout tasted just like fresh caught trout tastes. I think it may have been rainbow trout rather than sea trout. Scamp is an expert fish cook and she cooked the trout perfectly. Crispy skin that I enjoyed just as much as the fish itself. No pudding tonight, just a cup of coffee each, laced with Kahlúa.

Spoke to Jamie who sounded much more like himself tonight. It seems that they may manage to recoup some of the money they lost on the repairs that are needed to the house. He also seemed a lot more settled at work. He sent us a few photos and videos of the work that has already been done to the roof and it does look a lot more secure than it did a couple of weeks ago. Still a lot to do, but work is progressing.

I really don’t know what the weather will be like tomorrow. Hopefully it will stick to the guidelines and behave itself.