Blog

Dancin’ – 12 June 2024

Posted on by Zogman

A lovely day as far as the weather was concerned, but we did very little.

Spoke to Hazy in the morning and heard about Neil’s recent illness which turned out not to be kidney stones, but the docs don’t seem to know exactly what it is. He’s been given another course of stronger antibiotics to see if that improves things. Hazel also filled us in about Penny’s cancerous tumour. It isn’t operable, but Hazy says the cat is eating better and that’s a good thing.

Scamp started working on a pile of ironing and I felt I should do something too, so I measured up the new mirror for our bedroom and managed to get it sitting level at the second attempt, then had to move it just a centimetre or so to get it into the best position in our congested floor space. It’s up now and steady. I do hope it doesn’t go bump in the night, with it being the 13th of June after midnight tonight!

Scamp was heading out tonight to a dance show in Denny High School. The only dancing there would be today, because Kirsty had cancelled tonight’s class due to lack of numbers. Jeanette was meant to pick Scamp up around 6pm, but when it came to 6.30pm and after Scamp had texted her, we decided that I should drive her there. We were just getting to the motorway when Scamp got a message from Jeanette to say that she’d forgotten all about it and would be with us in 20min. But by then we were on the motorway and heading east. We managed to get to the school just before 7pm, she got her ticket at the door and went away, relieved. I drove back home at a bit more sedate speed, enjoying the beginnings of lovely sunset.

I had been out in St Mo’s earlier looking for the evasive damselflies and dragonflies, but there were none to be seen. Lots of bees of various colours and patterns and I took what I could get. Bees, insects, wild flowers, I’m not fussy, well not very fussy. PoD went to a little red fly on top of what I believe is a Sorrel plant. “The pretty little Sorrel with the fly on the top!” Ask your mum if you don’t know what that’s all about. Something to do with Oklahoma, I believe.

Scamp did get a lift home from Jeanette who just made it to Denny in time to see the curtain go up. Glad they all managed to get a seat together.

Tomorrow looks wet. At least we won’t have to water the garden.

 

Out to lunch again! – 11 June 2024

Posted on by Zogman

This time we were going all posh with a lunch in the Citizen in Glasgow.

We got the bus in to Glasgow and were surprised when it took a different route than normal. It turned out that the westbound dual carriageway that leads to the motorway was being dug up and resurfaced. The work will until the end of this week. I’m assuming the eastbound carriageway will get the same treatment next week. Poor bus driver had a dreary long drive through the many traffic lights in to Glasgow.

The Citizen is an old established restaurant in Glasgow. It’s located in the old offices of The Glasgow Citizen Newspaper on St Vincent Place. Scamp had an Itison voucher for lunch for two. We got seated at the back of the restaurant, which is where most of the diners were.

Menus looked good and Scamp ordered Haggis Stack for her starter and Fish and Chips for her main. I had Mackerel Pate for starter and Steak Pie for main. Scamp’s haggis was lovely she said and I can verify that, having a wee fork full to taste. The batter on her fish, though, was a bit oily she said, and the chips appeared to be not twice cooked, but more like four or five times cooked. My starter was fine, although the mackerel pate had a bit too much cream in it, but the steak pie had been in the oven for too long and the meat was dry and hard. We had a cocktail as part of the deal and we both chose the gin version. They certainly weren’t stinting with the alcohol in the cocktail. Maybe a bit sweet, but certainly packing a punch.

All in all, we weren’t all that impressed with The Citizen. Oily batter and a pie that was baked to death are not what you expect to get in such an illustrious restaurant. We’ve had better examples of both food choices in Brodens in Condorrat. Maybe it was because we were on a voucher meal, but that shouldn’t matter. We were still paying customers. I don’t think we’ll be back.

I’d noticed the photos on the wall when we went in, lots of them and I recognised the work as being from Charles Hamilton’s camera. We correspond quite often on Flickr and I remembered that I’d read that he had been asked to produce a set of Glasgow Faces for the restaurant. Good to see that they are still there.

We had a walk around Glasgow. Up Sauchiehall Street to see the renovations being done there. Scamp laughed at a sign that advertised the shops that would be “Coming Soon” to the street. Among them was Watt Brothers which closed about three years ago!

Got the bus back home and thankfully it was just the normal route. Later we watched the second episode of Bake Off: The Professionals. Just as good as the first one.

PoD was a shot I took outside the GOMA of two ladies having a laugh. I don’t think they knew each other, or even spoke each other’s language fluently, but a joke is a joke in everyone’s language.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending to go to see Annette’s granddaughter’s dance show, so she has given her apologies to Kirsty. I was half intending to go to Kirsty’s class by myself, but someone must have warned them and it seems like everyone is giving it a body swerve. Am I really that bad? NO! Don’t answer that question!!

 

Mirror, Mirror, on the wall – 10 June 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Today we went out looking for a new mirror. A full length one.

We have an old mirror that probably came from Scamp’s mum’s house many years ago. It’s still good, but it’s very heavy. She was looking for a slightly smaller one and definitely a lighter one.

We drove over to Falkirk and were disappointed with the selection in the first of the two shops that would sell mirrors. The ones they had were almost all fancy shaped or had really heavy surrounds or frames and that, really was what we wanted to replace. Scamp was disappointed, but what she did see was a couple of lovely rugs, the bigger one almost deserving the name Carpet. I liked them too, especially the big one. Rich, deep colours and a pile to match. Not too pricey either. Photographed them to remember the names and sizes and put them on the back burner for now.

The second shop had more sensible ‘using’ mirrors, and after some soul searching Scamp finally chose a lighter one with ’distressed’ white frame. You know what I mean. Painted white and then it looked as if the painter got fed up sanding it down and just left it. Saying that, it looked good in the bedroom and it fitted the brief. It also fitted the back seat of the car, just fitted! Lunch was calling and we couldn’t decide what to have, but we got some cold meat in the Falkirk Tesco an Lo and Behold, they had rolls. Big chunky Scottish Breakfast Rolls. How did Falkirk manage to get them when Cumbersheugh couldn’t? Questions will be asked in the house!!

Back home, fed and watered, I knew I needed to get a photo taken. I’d watched the rain clouds roll past, dropping their contents as they went, but imagined I could get out and get some photos in between showers. It wasn’t to be. I was halfway over to St Mo’s when the heavens opened. Luckily I found some shelter under a tree and waited the fifteen minutes or so for the cloud to empty and move on. So did I, move on, that is!

PoD went to a wee snail just starting to form its shell. Apparently it’s an Amber Snail. It was sliming its way down a grass stem and I thought it looked perfect for today’s PoD. It was almost beaten to the line by a stem of grass that had collected a fair amount of rainwater from the shower. Its common name is Cat Grass, because cats like to eat it. There, that’s something you probably didn’t know.

Dinner turned out to be a Margherita pizza with some anchovies sprinkled on top to add some flavour. We watched the first episode of Bake Off: The Professionals. It’s amazing what these people can create in a really tight timescale. Always worth watching.

We had watched an interesting Canadian F1 GP in the morning with so many changes of position in the rain, it was hard to keep track. Just good clean fun, most of it.

Tomorrow we are hoping to go out to lunch in Glasgow.

More Food – 9 June 2024

Posted on by Zogman

No, that’s not a hungry mouth you’re looking at! It’s just that Scamp has been doing a grand job of cooking this weekend and it continued today.

Breakfast was just breakfast, but even then Scamp was the one who made it. Two Weetabix with Rasps and Blueberries for me and Bran Flakes and Rasps for Scamp. No milk for either of us.
Just kidding, of course we had milk!

Lunch was Healthy Shakshuka which is basically “What you’ve got in the fridge” with a tin of tomatoes and sweet and smoky paprika with a couple of eggs cooked in the mix. I’d seen the recipes for it many times, but never quite got round to making it. I can assure you I missed a trick there! It was absolutely brilliant. We ate it watching Laura Kuenssberg getting ripped into politicians of various stripes. A fearsome lady is Laura.

We spent most of the afternoon trying to get OneDrive to share a folder between Scamp and me. According to the cartoons on the Mickeysoft site it was simplicity itself, but unfortunately it didn’t work. I thought it might be because one of us was using a PC and the other was using a Mac, but I don’t think that was the root of the problem. I think it’s just that Mickysoft just doesn’t know how to play nice. Eventually we did get it working, but the road to success was a rough one with may potholes and dead ends.

By ’… most of the afternoon …’ I meant a couple of hours, although it felt like more than that. To give me a break from all the tech stuff, I took a walk in the garden and took a few close-up photos of the Foxglove flowers that are in full bloom just now. One of them got PoD. I thought it looked like Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors, or maybe it was Laura Kuenssberg! I also potted up some chilli plants I’ve been growing from the seeds of last year’s or maybe two years ago’s chillies. They’ve been a bit mollycoddled, living in the warmth of the south facing window of the spare room. Tonight they are in the, not so warm, plastic covered greenhouse. I’m sure they’ll be tough enough for it.

While I was pottering and potting, Scamp was cutting away dead flower heads and then pruning back the overgrown vegetation in the back garden. When she was finished it just looked like the plants had been given a really neat haircut. She’s getting good at this sort of thing.

Spoke to Jamie tonight and heard all about their holiday on the coast.  Sounds like a lovely place to relax for a week.  He put us right on how to share folders and told us that the method we were using was almost the same as his at work.  Good to know that we’re on the right track with some things!

For dinner tonight, Scamp took charge again and made a stir-fry. I feel like a ‘kept man’ tonight! I’ve done little or nothing all weekend apart from drive us to and from dancing class yesterday and then moan about it.

Tomorrow we may go out some where and I’m hoping to make dinner. I’m the pasta cook and Monday is Pasta Day!

 

 

Dancin’ – 8 June 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Driving Brookfield in the morning for a dance class.

The class had three couples logged in yesterday. This morning there were seven. A busy class

Mambo Marina to start with and then straight into a quickstep we don’t remember seeing, but apparently it started as a Covid dance-in your-living-room lesson. Neither of us had seen it before, so I assume it was for the more advanced class. Broken into bite sized chunks it was easy, but put together in Quickstep tempo is was difficult. Let’s just say we survived it.

A Mayfair Quickstep which is nothing like a real Quickstep and then we were in to the new shortened version of our Foxtrot routine.

It’s not as fluid or as flowing as the full Foxtrot, but after listening to the teachers, I realised it’s designed to be danced in a busy dance floor, because overall it’s a short routine with shortened units. I understand the reasoning, but I don’t think it works very well. However, that was what we were doing today because most of the participants this morning were going to Perth next week, so this was mainly for them. We weren’t going. My fault, blame me, but one Gala Ball per year is quite sufficient for me and as the June one was screwed up from the start I suggested we wait for the November gala and go to that instead. I felt bad about it afterwards, but for once, I stuck to my guns.

Once we’d got the short foxtrot out of the way, it was nearly time to call it a day. Just one sequence dance left and someone voted for the Square Tango. Unfortunately the person who asked for it couldn’t dance it and so we had to do a walk through first for him. There’s always one, isn’t there. With that very simple dance completed we were free to go.

Drove home through some lengthy roadworks just after entering the dual carriageway after Brookfield. We were lucky, we were only in the roadworks for about a mile. It seemed to stretch behind us for much longer.

My back was aching when we got home. I don’t thing the car seat is at the correct height yet since it went in for its recall. I must get it sorted for longer runs.

I went for a walk in St Mo’s and got a couple of decent photos, but was really cold by the time I got home. It was lovely and warm in the sunshine, but that cold wind just sucked all the heat out of the day. PoD went to a wild Dog Rose growing in a hedge in St Mo’s. I really need to get out of Cumbersheugh to take more photos.

Scamp made Prawn, Chorizo & Courgette Baked Rice for dinner and it was really very nice. After so many lunches this week, it was good to sit down to a home cooked meal.

We have no plans for tomorrow, but I think we might go for a walk somewhere scenic.

Another day, another lunch – 7 June 2024

Posted on by Zogman

This time we were meeting June and Ian at Nonna’s Kitchen in Dullatur Golf Course.

After a wee problem with the lifts, all four of us sat down to lunch. I ordered Lentil Soup with Pancetta Scamp had Mussels, June and Ian had Arancini. A bit of a wait, but all fine, except that mine had a whole pot of pepper in it. A longer wait, about 25 mins this time, brought us Mains which were Pasta Al Forno for June, Ian and me and Pan Fried Seabass Fillet with Asparagus and Red Onion with Pea Puree and Candied Pancetta. The Pasta may have been a mistake because it was pretty tasteless except for the Italian sausage. I ate less than half of mine. My American coffee was lovely, but Scamp said her latte was more. Baby chino than latte. Would I go back? Probably, but with better choices this time. Great views over the golf course if that’s your thing, but with the room less than half full the noise level from folk just chatting was overpowering. Some soft furnishings needed to dampen down the sound. You may remember the location from a wedding party almost ten years ago now, Jamie!

After getting June and Ian safely down to ground level in the lift, we parted company. They were waiting for a taxi and we were driving down to Lidl to get a bottle of Hortus Gin and some strawberries. Then it was back up the road in a surprise torrent of rain.

The rain soon disappeared and I went out for a walk. Took far more photos in St Mo’s than I did all day in Glasgow yesterday! That was mainly caused by having the camera on ‘motorwind’ mode, 25 shots at a time, to try to capture bees on the brambles again. They didn’t make PoD. That went to a family of ducks out for a paddle with mum. Eight mallard ducklings and mother duck. Daddy must have gone A – Hunting!

That was about it for Friday. We’re intending to go dancing tomorrow. Quite a small class, so there won’t be anywhere to hide!

A day in the Town – 6 June 2024

Posted on by Zogman

I met Alex in Glasgow as usual at midday.

After a coffee we agreed that Kelvingrove Art Galleries would be the best place to go as the weather was far from settled. Sunny one minute and raining the next. Just short, sharp showers. We arrived just after 12:30 as the organist was getting things in order for the daily recital. After a few shots inside, Alex suggested we go for lunch.

We got a seat in the conservatory, and both of us settled for sandwiches for lunch. The building was quite crowded today, mainly due to a number of school trips being bussed in, and also a few sightseeing trip buses arriving. I suppose we have to accept that at this time of year. We usually visit in the winter or the early spring when it’s quieter.

We went back to the main building to get some more photos. Lots of opportunities to people-watch. Alex was off looking for new angles on the “Hanging Heids” in one hall, while I was looking for perspective shots down the long corridors. I found a model of an ancient glider hanging above the Spitfire in one of the halls. I had never seen that glider before in all the times I’ve been in the building. PoD went to one of the long corridor shots.

We did consider taking a walk up to Glasgow Uni to get some photos in the cloisters, but something was said or we turned a different way and both of us forgot to go back. Maybe another day. Instead, we got the bus back in to Glasgow, got off at the top of Sauchiehall Street and I manage to coerce Alex into walking to the WEX camera shop where I wanted to take a look at a couple of lenses. Both more expensive than I wanted, but worth a look. Came away without a front runner. One looked quality, but didn’t quite deliver. The other looked a bit cheap but produced better images. Both are on the back burner for now.

Walked down the shambles that is Sauchiehall Street now. Roads being dug up all the way down almost to Buchanan Street. What must visitors think when they see this level of disruption in what was once the second best street in Glasgow, now a building site?

A coffee in Waterstones cafe and then we were on our way to the bus station. We agreed the next photo walk will be in about 2 weeks, all being well. I got an email from Alex later to say he’d taken about 250 photos. I’d taken 55! Of those 55, 19 were test shots with the lenses in WEX. So, in reality, 36 photos taken!!

Scamp and I watched another Rebus episode an I agree with what you both said about it Hazy. That’s not Rebus. His voice isn’t born and bred Edinburgh. He doesn’t have the east coast lilt, and the Siobhan in the books was nothing like the poor wee girl in the series. Maybe she’ll toughen up in later episodes. I do like Cafferty, though!

I think we may be going out for lunch for the second time this week, tomorrow. Out with June and Ian.

 

 

Computers, Bah! – 5 June 2024

Posted on by Zogman

This morning and some of the afternoon was spent wrestling with Outlook and Windows 11. Now I know why Alex rejected Outlook in favour of Yahoo.com.

It was a simple thing to do. Create a set of photos of the garden, reduce their size in Lightroom and link them to some descriptions, but Outlook didn’t seem to know what to do with the fourteen images. The old Window 10 mail app could do it and I’m sure Alex’s Yahoo could do it too, but I couldn’t find a way to get Outlook to download the photos into a folder. Eventually I found a clumsy solution. I did the resizing in Lightroom on my MacBook Pro and then copied the photos onto an SSD. Sneakernetted it (physically took the SSD) to Scamp’s new Windows 11 machine and plugged it in there, then dumped the folder of files into the on-board storage, avoiding OneDrive like the plague that it is. From there Scamp was able to link the text to the photos and send the file to Hazy, where it just worked! Hooray! We did it …eventually. Maybe some clever person can now explain what went wrong with saving fourteen photos that Outlook couldn’t separate, only download them as a fourteen photos chunk. The instructions said to find the down pointing arrow and click on it, but there wasn’t any $%&*@ arrow!!

Ahem. Now for the rest of the news.

We drove to Tesco to get some stuff for tonight’s dinner which was to be Cabbage, Bacon and Potatoes. Sounds boring, tastes great. Drove home, thankfully missing another rain shower. We had a few today. Heavy rain showers blown along on a cold north wind. Flaming June!?

I walked over to St Mo’s to get a few photos and found the bees were busy in a sheltered bit of the park, feeding on nectar from the Bramble flowers and collection pollen to pollenate other flowers in the process. That’s the way the world goes around. That’s where today’s PoD came from.

Dance class tonight was a bit shambolic. Disorganised and stop-start. Neither of us were really sure whether we were doing the units properly or not. I did take a few videos, so maybe they will make things clearer. Perhaps Kirsty was also having a bad day.

I’m booked for a photo walk with Alex tomorrow. Hope the rain stays off long enough for us to get some photos.

Lunch with Shona – 4 June 2024

Posted on by Zogman

We were out to lunch at La Bella with Shona today.

Shona was running a bit late today, which was just as well, really because the roundabout at Broadwood had ground to a halt, simply because one of the lanes was coned off for grass cutting and the ‘Smart’ traffic lights weren’t smart enough to deal with two lanes trying to merge into one. This left us about fifteen minutes late, but Shona was late too, so nobody moaned. Nobody except me, that is!

Food in the restaurant was good. Starters were: Mussels for Scamp, Chicken liver pate for Shona and Arancini for me. Mains: Penne Amatriciana for me Mushroom Risotto for Scamp and Lasagne for Shona. Dessert was Tiramisu for all.
Like I said, food was good but I simply ate too much and am suffering for it now. Only myself to blame.

When we were done, Shona was going to get a new cover for her phone and, as we were already at the town centre, she walked there. We drove home.

The weather was strange today and it was all the fault of the jet stream again, according to the weather fairies. That and a cold front that was bringing in cold, gusty winds from the direction of Greenland. The sun when it shone was warm and comfortable, but then that cold north wind stole all the heat away.

I decided I’d take a risk and went for a walk in St Mo’s, well bundled up with a hoodie and a raincoat, just in case. The rain did come, but didn’t last long, thankfully and I was glad of the hoodie. PoD was a weather related landscape shot across the pond towards the hills in the north with what might be that cold front blowing in.

I think Scamp and I spent most of the evening trying to work out how to extricate a dozen photos from the clutches of Outlook. Wouldn’t it be great if two operating systems would talk to each other, but it will never happen I fear. Maybe tomorrow we’ll come up with a solution.

It’s been a long day and I’m off to bed. We had some rain today and we’re hoping for some more tomorrow, or else the hose will need to come out.

 

Water – 3 June 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Today, for the first time this year, we watered the garden this evening.

Yes, we had splashed some water on the plants before, like when we had planted them out, but this was the first time the front and back gardens had been given a good soak.  For weeks we’ve been told to expect rain and none came.  Now that we’ve taken the bull by the horns and used the watering can on all the plants, it will probably rain tomorrow.  For today, though, it’s been watered.

In the afternoon I gathered a few bags of stuff that either wasn’t working or had been gathering dust and took it all up to the skips to be disposed of.  As always, there was a constant flow of folk bringing similar car loads of garden refuse, electrical equipment and what is generically known as “General Household” to these great big bins and the crushers were there working their magic to reduce what was once a carefully assembled chest of drawers to matchstick.  That must be a satisfying job.  I saw the delight in one woman’s face as she tipped a two layer glass TV stand into one empty General Household skip.  It made a lovely crashing sound as it disappears into thousands of little chips of broken safety glass.

I drove out of the council tip and up to Fannyside.  It was a lovely day until I opened the car door and it almost blew shut again.  Fannyside is quite exposed and the gusty west wind was stronger than I’d anticipated.  I was hoping to see some dragonflies, but not today, not in that wind.  I did see some swallows, though. I stopped to watch them and a Stonechat which I’d heard of but never seen before. Then I listened to a skylark singing as it rose, and there it was, watching me from the the field. A Fox. It just sat there on its haunches, in the long grass, looking at me.  Not fazed at all but the human with the big black tube pointed at it.  When I turned to walk away, it did too.  I had one last look at it, but it didn’t turn back, it just walked into the water weeds that surround a bog in the field. I did get half a dozen or so photos of it.  This is one of the best.  I’d been thinking of buying a longer lens for photographing wildlife and birds. Maybe this was the signal that it might be a good idea.

Back home Scamp was reading in the garden, so I brought a bottle of beer out with me and joined her.  For some reason the weather fairies didn’t like my interruption and clouds began to roll in and the wind became gustier until I was forced to go in to make the dinner.

I think we may be going out to lunch tomorrow with Shona. Her treat this time.