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Coffee and a walk in the Toon – 5 May 2016

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combo bCoffee at lunch time with Val and Fred P.  Quite enjoyed the cut and thrust of another “frank exchange of views”.  Never one to allow the grass to grow under his feet, Fred held court on a variety of political issues of the day while Val attempted in vain to pour oil on troubled waters.  Me?  I threw in the occasional match to see if the oil would burn.  Topics for discussion today were the cost of upgrading your central heating, In or Out of Europe and the poor selection of guests in Jools Holland’s programme.  Sketches and paintings were critiqued and the world was set to rights.  Thankfully the word ‘ANTISEMITISM’ was not used by any of the participants.

After the scintillating discussion, I headed in to Glasgow to get some masking fluid to try some different watercolour techniques.  While I was in Cass Art, I wandered round their botanical watercolours exhibition and was really, really impressed with the quality and detail in the pictures.  My favourite had to be the sweet peas.  Such delicacy I can only dream of.  Walking back to the car, I grabbed a shot of the elegant security grilles at the Buchanan Galleries carpark.

When I got home, after a great walk round Glasgow bathed in sunshine, Scamp reminded me that we hadn’t voted, so it was off again to do our constitutional duty.  On the way back, we walked over to Condorrat to get a fish suppers for our dinner to celebrate the end of this boring baby kissing round of canvassing.  On the way I spotted the little yellow ball shaped flower and took its photo, along with its resident fly.  I wonder how many flies there are in, say, a cubic meter of bushes.  Probably incalculable, but as we are talking about a finite volume, there must be a finite number.  Multiply that by the number of cubic metres of bushes in Cumbersheugh and you have a very large number.  Now, if all those flies voted for the Greens, would the SNP still get in?  Probably.  A little bit too much politics for this time of an evening.

Our plans for tomorrow were to go to Perth tomorrow (Friday), but they had to be changed at the last minute and we’ll probably go next week.

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ComboToday we had to drop Scamp’s car off at the garage by 8.30am. This meant a much earlier rise than normal, but we managed it and got the car dropped off in time. Even then, almost all the parking spaces were taken, mainly because of poor parking skills by the garage’s clients. Some people are so impressed that they have reverse parked, they don’t seem to notice that they are not actually in a bay or maybe they think that white line is a target and you’re supposed to get a wheel either side of it. The parking was so bad that a couple of the mechanics were gainfully employed parking the cars neatly and so releasing a couple more spaces. Scamp parked very neatly, showing all these dobbers how it should be done. Don’t understand ‘dobbers’? No, it’s not an Australian word, much ruder than that. Google it.

Because we were out early, we had intended having breakfast out, but with the exception of Tesco and Asda, there was nowhere in Cumbersheugh where we could have breakfast. Buckfast, yes, Breakfast, no. And there was no way I was having breakfast in either of the supermarkets with school doggers (Don’t Google it!!) sitting at the next table. So we came back home for a normal breakfast.

Later in the morning the gas salesman phoned to say he was running ahead of schedule and could he come early. No problem, that left us more time in the afternoon. Yesterday we had a sales lady. Today we got a gas engineer. Someone who could answer our questions without spin or waffle. Of course there was still spin, there always will be when people are trying to sell something, but not as much as there could have been. No quote yet, but it should be posted to us tomorrow. We thought that was the end of the quotes, but I bumped into Fred P this morning and he’s going to give me the number for the guy who installed his boiler and a personal recommendation is always the best way to get a good workman. The road goes ever on.

Since we didn’t manage to get breakfast out this morning, we did lunch out instead. We went to Milano and I had a tuna pizza which wasn’t all that great. First failure for Milano. Scamp had a gigantic Chicken Burger. Absolutely enormous. She finished it!

Went for a walk to St Mo’s later in the afternoon and despite an unspoken embargo on ‘Flooers’ as a subject today, the first shots I took were flooers. But you see, they aren’t flooers, they’re blossom, so that’s ok! My photo, my rules. The wireless shutter release on the ’10 is so good for taking ground level shots. No more lying on the ground, picking up mud, twigs and the occasional sheep tick. Jut remember to charge your iPhone and remember to take it with you! That’s how the monochrome shot was taken. The green blobs are fruiting bodies of mosses. I’m not sure what species of moss it is, but it was the safest shot to take today because mosses don’t have flooers. Just fruiting bodies called ‘capsules’. There, you and I have learned something new today!

Coffee with Fred P and Val tomorrow. Three auld guys putting the world to rights.

Flooers – 3 May 2016

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combo bFlooers is a sign that I didn’t find my muse today.

The morning was a bit frantic waiting for the lady to come to give us a quote for a new boiler.  The final figure was a bit more than Scamp or I had anticipated, but we knew it was going to be the most expensive.  We were quite intrigued with the amount that heating technology has advanced in the fifteen odd years since we had our present boiler installed.  Then, smart phones were an inventor’s dream.  Today you can control your boiler remotely from anywhere in the world with a smart phone.  Whether we can do that control, in fact whether we will need to perform that degree of control will depend on the final cost.  Another quote coming tomorrow.

I finished an acrylic painting today.  Not finished to my satisfaction, but like Whistler allegedly said, “I intend to do no more to it.”  I think it’s already about an inch thick in paint in some places.  Later, after dinner, I did a few wee delicate (for me) watercolours, teeny wee things, but I like them.  Something I saw in a gallery in Stirling.

Photographs were hard to come by today, or to be more exact, subjects were.  I’ve watched Scamp’s Forest Flame gaining in colour day by day and now the flowers are out, they’ve almost reached their maximum colour intensity.  The flowers are quite insignificant compared to the bright red of the sprouting leaves.  Dandelions are a favourite of mine.  I like the ragged looking yellow head and when the time comes, I love the dandelion clock with the little ‘ballerinas’.

Early rise tomorrow to take Scamp’s car in for MOT, then more technology overload with another quote for a new boiler.  Oh what fun!

Another wet one – 2 May 2016

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comboToday was similar to yesterday with intermittent rain showers, but today’s showers were heavier and blown along by a stiff westerly wind. That’s the weather report done. Tomorrow looks much the same.

Got fed up sitting in the house and since we needed some shopping, I took the opportunity to go and get some photos – two birds, one stone, you get the idea. Actually two birds were involved in the photos. Two mallards sprang from a pathside puddle on the old railway and walked quite happily along in front of me. I had my camera ready, focus and exposure set, ready for them to fly off, but they just kept waddling along keeping a weather eye on me to make sure I didn’t get too close. When I did speed up, they did too, but they eventually tired of the game and flew off. It was either that or they were deliberately leading me away from their nesting site. That could have been the answer to their strange behaviour. After that the rain came down in torrents and there was nowhere to shelter, so it was just a case of grin and bear it. By the time I got to Dumbreck marshes the rain had passed and the sun was shining on the Campsies. Had a quick scout around to see if any deer would show themselves, but as I was upwind of them, there was little chance of me surprising them. Then the next shower hit and this time I did get a bit of shelter under some pine trees. By then it was time to head back and that’s where I saw the textures on the Broom seed pods. I liked the twisted pods which for some reason remained dry in spite of these showers.

Driving back home I got caught in a long and heavy hail shower. I’m glad I was in the car when that came. Wouldn’t have liked that stuff stinging my face.

Like I said, more of the same forecast for tomorrow. Oh what fun!

A couple of lucky ones – 1 May 2016

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Combo bToday was wet from first thing this morning.  Not heavy rain, but persistent.  We took advantage of this to a certain extent by planting our potatoes in their bags.  At least we didn’t need to water them once they had been planted.  Scamp potted up her sweet peas and they are outside for their first overnight.  She also planted out my rocket which I kept meaning to do, but just never got round to.  Anyway, they are planted now.  It doesn’t matter who did it.

Photographically, there wasn’t very much decent light with grey overcast skies, but I went for a walk along the railway to see what was worth taking.  I liked the little branch with the blossom on it and I did see the fly, but I was impressed with the sharpness and the clarity and the fact that it was a colourful little hoverfly.  The second shot was another lucky with another little fly hanging below the white flower (it’s a common mouse ear by the way – the flower, not the fly).  Not as sharp as the blossom or the hoverfly, but still a decent shot.  Check them out on my Flickr page.  To think I drove about 10 miles and walked about 3 miles in the rain to get these shots.  That’s what a 365 makes you do.

Today’s word was ANTISEMITISM.  It has been bandied about on radio and tv since Ken Livingstone made his ill timed or cleverly calculated remark.  It was while Scamp and I were watching the Andrew Marr program this morning that I thought is there such a thing as SEMITISM or is there only a negative version of the noun?  It seems that everybody seems to have an opinion on this topic and everyone is desperate to have their opinion heard.  It’s probably true that those who speak loudest have the least to say.  I will say no more.

So that was Saturday and that was April. – 30 April 2016

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combo bDidn’t do a lot today.  The furthest we got was Robroyston for coffee and a quick jaunt to Asda.  Later I went for a walk to St Mo’s, but by then the light was getting low so there wasn’t much to see.

Nothing to see here.  Just move along.

And that was April.

At least it was dry today, it’s forecast for rain tomorrow.

Must be the shortest blog post ever!

Friday, Fridges, Coots and a Coy Crow – 29 April 2016

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combo bFriday used to be the beginning of the weekend, especially on a long weekend.  Friday is the only day I regret being retired because you don’t get that TGIF (or TFIF for the atheists).  My dad was right when he told me “you don’t get weekends when you’re retired.”  Not to worry, the rest of the week makes up for Fridays!

Scamp wanted the drain in the fridge unblocked.  It’s a messy, awkward job that means the fridge has to be angled out from the wall so I can clean the drip tray at the back after unblocking the drain hole in the fridge itself, then drag it back in.  Only, this time when I dragged it back, one of the little wheels at the back came unstuck.  The axle had come loose from the wheel and in an attempt to fix it, I tried to drive out the axle using the screwdriver as a drift (<Technospeak> a DRIFT is a bar used to push another into or out of place </Technospeak>).  It didn’t work.  The axle got jammed in part of the chassis of the fridge.  Oh well, I’d just have to forget the wheel and use a packer to sit that corner of the fridge on.  Switched it on and … the light came on, but the compressor didn’t.  Shit!
Left it for about 10 minutes to settle but still no go.  Switched it off and made a cup of coffee while Scamp priced a new fridge.  I imagine I had rattled the compressor too much by hammering the drift.  After the coffee and the shock that the most expensive fridge she found was £9900, I switched on the fridge and Lo and Behold, it sprang into life.  Obviously my analysis of the situation was correct and the refrigerant just needed to stabilise itself.  Phew!

Went for lunch at Cotton House, then had Scamp’s tyres checked at Jim Dickson’s and finally booked her car in for MOT next week.  Lunch and housekeeping dealt with.

Walked over to St Mo’s and took the “Big Dog” AKA Nikon for a change.  The batteries in the Nikons last forever compared to the Olys.  About 750 shots at present with the battery on category 2 out of 4, 1 being New.  Got some shots of mummy coot sitting on a nest with at least one wee red chick in it.  Further on I actually framed my shot to include the round out of focus light.  The rest of the shots were too poor to bother with.

On the way home, I saw a crow having a bath in a puddle.  I thought it would make a good shot, so I brought out my camera.  The crow took one look at me and walked away.  Ok, camera back in bag and walk away.  Took a few steps and watched the same crow walk back to the puddle again with its towel over its shoulder.  It saw me watching again and did an abrupt about turn.  I didn’t want to delay it’s bath time any longer and turned my back on it before its bath water got cold.

Snow Ride – 28 April 2016

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combo bToday after a dodgy night with an upset stomach I was feeling a lot better.  The upset was mainly due to too many Terry’s chocolate orange slices, but I don’t think the couple of mouthfuls of sour beer helped.  Anyway, I made a decent attempt at finishing off the breakfast that was set down to me.  It had snowed during the night and the hills across the loch from the hotel looked as if they had been dusted with icing sugar.  Outside the window as we finished breakfast, it was obvious that the icing sugar was an illusion because big fat flakes of snow were falling on the garden.  Nothing else for it but to get going, and that’s what we did.  Packed the car and headed out past the big garage behind the hotel that held, not a car, but a large model railway layout.  We saw it yesterday and I had hoped to have a word with the designer as he tended to it, but today the door was firmly shut.  Good idea, because I don’t think snow and model railways mix very well.

We drove over the bridge, turned left at the roundabout and then under the same bridge, hoping for some photos of Castle Stalker and maybe Oban.  It wasn’t going to happen.  The snow just kept coming and on a twisty coast side I didn’t get much of a chance to watch the scenery.  Castle Stalker came and went without a photo being taken.  In fact, without us stopping.  The sea was choppy and with the driving snow the view wasn’t what I was looking for.  Maybe another day, a warm day with a nice sunset behind the castle, or at least, no snow.

When we got to Oban we had to navigate its maze-like one way system.  When we eventually got the hang of it, we couldn’t find a place to park which was within walking distance of the main street.  By this time the snow had turned to sleet, so we both agreed to come back another day.  A warm day waiting for the sunset behind the castle and definitely no snow – or sleet.  Am I expecting too much?

Off on the road to Crianlarich which was a logistical nightmare finding the correct route through that one way system again, but we managed it.  Sleet had turned back to snow and it was getting heavier.  I remembered bits of the road through the Pass of Brander and I remember my dad telling me that birds didn’t fly over it because of the number of hawks that nested there.  I was watching the windscreen wipers and noticed that they didn’t have that much work to do as the streamlining of the car eased the snowflakes over the windscreen rather than splatting them on to it.  I even turned the wipers off and it made very little difference.  I think the fact that the snow flakes were light and fluffy meant that they floated better and this helped the effect.  Still it’s an impressive demonstration of the streamlining of modern cars.

Met the main road at Tyndrum and drove down past Crianlarich and stopped for a while just to get a rest from driving.  From there it was a fairly easy run to Lubnaig as the snow was lessening.  Stopped at the parking place at Lubnaig and had coffee and a jam scone each.  That’s where today’s photos came from.

Stopped at Dobbies in Stirling for Scamp to get some pansies to decorate her pots in the garden and that was the end of the run south.  There were blue skies over Cumbernauld when we arrived home, but soon after hail battered down and then the snow started.  Hoping for a better day tomorrow.

Up North – 27 April 2016

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combo bAfter a lazy morning (well, yesterday was a bit frantic, so we are due a lazy morning) we headed off just after midday bound for Ballachulish in Lochaber.

I just had to stop on Rannoch Moor to get one last time lapse. Yes, I know it’s old hat now, but just one more wouldn’t hurt. After 15 minutes I had my 10 seconds of video and 100 frames of high quality RAW files I’ll never use again. Such a waste and such a hammering the camera shutter takes making those 10 seconds of video. The good thing about travelling with two cameras is the ability to wander around taking shots while you’re waiting for the 100 shots to be taken. Saw a wee lizard on the moor. Didn’t realise you got them this far north. Maybe it was on its holidays.

Continued up to Ballachulish and booked in. As it was the end of an Itison deal, the hotel was full, but Scamp had pre-booked and also upgraded to a loch-view room with, as it turned out, a jacuzzi bath! Unfortunately neither of us could be bothered to try it out.

Went for a walk to Bishop’s Bay, a place we’d been the last time we were here, back in October 2015. The scenery and views were just as spectacular as last time. Time for dinner when we got back. Food was good, but our supercilious waiter needs to work a bit on his people skills. Scamp ordered scallops and he assumed she was ordering for both of us! What? Does his mummy order for him when he goes out to a restaurant. I had a burger which was fine and Scamp had a seabass fillet, but I’ve seen bigger sardines. She decided to have pudding and ordered sticky toffee pudding with ice cream. I ordered gin and tonic pannacotta and after leaving, he returned to ask if I wanted ice cream or cream with it. I was a bit bemused as you don’t usually have anything with pannacotta, but settled for the cream. I needn’t have bothered. It came as it was without an accompaniment and also without any semblance of G or T in its flavour.

I’d just remembered that the hotel had a lovely microbrewery IPA and we went through to the bar after our meal to see if it was still available. There was the pump with the River IPA. Unfortunately, there also was Mr Personality, the original dumb waiter.  Scamp had a G&T and I asked for an IPA. The scoosh from the tap signalled that the cask needed changing. “It’ll only take a minute” he said. He was right. It only took him a minute to come back and say “mvbemdm fnsn dm” or something like that. He certainly speaks fluent Mumble. It translates as “I don’t know how to change the cask”.  I asked for a pint of the River Blonde beer instead. I’m still not sure if he used a clean glass or the dirty one from the aborted IPA, but the beer was boggin’. I had two mouthfuls and left it on the table. The last time we were here there certainly was Service With A Smile. This time was different. Maybe we were just unlucky or maybe this is a turn in fortune for the Loch Leven Hotel. Only time will tell.

Hoping to head south via Oban tomorrow. Also hoping for decent weather, much like today’s.

A Busy Tuesday – 26 April 2016

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comboA full dance card today.  Lots of stuff planned and some added later.

Tuesday morning we were getting the central heating boiler serviced, so that meant the cupboard it lives in had to be cleaned out so the gas man could at least see his quarry and with a bit of luck, reach the beast.  Once that was finished, the man arrived and the maintenance was completed.  Our boiler is about 15 years old and is getting to the end of its useful life so we signed up to an appointment to price a new one.  We did well to get the boiler through the winter and had planned to replace it during the summer, so this was a good opportunity to commit to the replacement.

In the afternoon we were getting Smart Meters fitted to replace the gas and electricity meters.  That meant the drinks cabinet, which doubles as an electricity cupboard, had to be cleared out.  I hadn’t realised we had so many bottles of spirits in that cupboard.  I won’t say how many bottle bags we filled, but it was less than six, just less than six!  Each bag holds six bottles.  Mind you, some of them only had a little drop in them, well, that’s what I’m saying anyway.  Scamp wanted milk so I offered to go and get some.  I was just putting on my jacket when my hand brushed the light switch and I got the lightest tingle.  I blamed it on static, but when I deliberately touched one of the retaining screws, it happened again.  Not static then.  Checked it with an electrical screwdriver and the little neon light went on.  Oh, oh.  We need to get someone in to have a look at that.  I checked all the other light fittings and all but one passed.  It looks as if the upstairs/downstairs cable needs to be replaced.  That will definitely need an expert to look at.  I taped off the screw heads with insulating tape and tested again and it is safe for the moment, but it needs attending ASAP.  Add to the list.

The Smart Meter fitter came and fitted the meters, but couldn’t get them to connect to the server in the office, so they need to be checked in the next two weeks.  Add that to the list too.

Scamp had phoned the osteopath in the village to get her shoulder looked at and had an appointment at 6pm, so we had to have an early dinner and then I dropped her off at the surgery then went to get some photos.  Got some decent landscape shots with dramatic rain filled clouds behind. as delivered above.

When I went back to pick up Scamp, I listened to Bryan Burnett’s programme Get It On which has a daily theme.  Scamp and I try to work out the most apt track when we are travelling in to salsa on an evening.  Today’s theme was “Vinyl Records”  I chose Richard Thomson’s “Don’t sit on my Jimmy Shand’s”  Which mentions 78s and “They don’t mend with sticky tape and glue”  I had the time and the opportunity to send in my suggestion, so I did!  I’d just finished when Scamp got in the car.  She was impressed with what the osteopath had said and done and couldn’t stop talking about it.  I was half listening to her and half listening to hear if my suggestion would get a mention.  We’d almost reached the Town Centre when I heard “Zog” from Bryan!  Yes!  I got my mention on the radio.  Unfortunately, Scamp just kept talking, and they didn’t play my suggestion.  Their loss.

One of JIC’s birthday presents was a lump of 99% pure cocoa with instructions for cooking it into a cocoa drink.  This is the one that when wrapped had a label explaining that it wasn’t a suppository!  Today I tried it and it was really rich and smooth.  Not at all what I was expecting, but I won’t say what, exactly, I was expecting!

So, a day of some successes and some failures and some “Work in Progress”