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Meeting Erin – 7 May 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Today we were going to meet John and Marion’s new granddaughter, Erin.

In the morning I did a bit of more mundane work and ordered a replacement bus pass after the last one failed to connect on the bus.  It’s supposed to arrive within 14 days.

Scamp was really excited about it and I must admit I was looking forward to see the new baby too.

When we got to Hamilton, the star hadn’t arrived, so we sat and talked to John and Marion about how their lives were going to change over the next year. They seemed perfectly happy to be stand-in parents. I expect we would be the same.

We had lunch while we waited. It was home made Veg Lasagne and it was lovely. I must get Scamp to coax the recipe out of Marion. I din’t used to like veg lasagne, but now I prefer it to the meat version. Dessert was Apricot Trifle and it was very, very good, with crushed amaretti biscuits on top.

Just as we were finishing, Laura arrived with Erin. I’d forgotten quite how small, new babies are. I’d also forgotten about the little details like tiny little nails on her fingers and how bright blue her eyes were. I tend to forget these things after forty odd years. Scamp was obviously desperate to hold Erin and as soon as she had her cradled in her arms, she went straight into ‘Mother Mode’. The room was totally silent too, everybody’s eyes on that baby. Not long after that, the spell was broken when she started to cry. Laura did the thing every parent does and put her knuckle into Erin’s mouth and said “Yes, she’s needing fed.” Even I remembered that feeling of a baby’s gums trying to suckle your finger. So off mum and baby went to feed her and change her nappy.

We sat and talked with the new grandparents while this was happening and heard about their plans for holiday this year. Aruba sounds very exotic and it’s just a bit north of Trinidad. They are meeting up with friends there but it’s a long flight.

Erin was much more relaxed with a full belly and a clean nappy and John was having a great conversation before it was time to mother and baby to drive home. It was a great experience, but I’m glad we could hand her back when it was time to go. Did I have a chance to hold her? No, not me. I’m of the the Kevin Bridges group. More “How you doing mate?” than Goo Goo. I’d be terrified I’d drop her or something similar.

Soon after Laura and Erin left, we did too. Back home I changed into walking clothes and went for a walk in St Mo’s which is where today’s PoD came from, a pink Bluebell. Is that an oxymoron? On the way back home I stopped at the chip shop in Condorrat for a small fish supper that would be our supper. Very nice it was too.

Today’s prompt was for a pencil sharpener. This is my pencil sharpener. It’s a Swann Morton scalpel holding a Swann Morton No 11 blade. I used to use a standard sharpener with a built-in tub to hold the shavings, but the scalpel allows me to shave a much longer and narrower point on the pencil which doesn’t need sharpening quite as much as a standard rotary sharpener.
The only problem with the scalpel is that changing blades is difficult. I use a fine pair of pliers to twist the blade out and carefully twist a new blade into place. Oh yes, and remember that these are surgical quality steel blades. They are liable to cut more than pencils if you’re not careful!!

Tomorrow we may go for coffee with Isobel. It all depends on when a coffee delivery arrives for me.

A day in the Toon – 6 May 2024

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After a lazy start, Scamp wanted to get a present for John & Marion’s daughter’s new baby.

We drove in to Glasgow, first time I’ve done that for months and parked in Buchanan Galleries carpark. I expected it to be busier than it was on a bank holiday Monday with the kids off school.

We wandered round JL first and there were lots of “Ooh!s” and “Ah’s” from both of us, but ultimately there was nothing we could really settle on. Lots of pretty girly baby things, but as Scamp, pragmatic as ever, said; “It doesn’t matter how much you pay for it, they’ll be sick on an expensive dress just as quickly as on a cheaper one.” That’s true, I thought.

Next stop was Next and that’s where we did get something pretty, something practical and something clever. I bought the clever one, of course. Just a pair of tiny socks with a frill down the ankle. With the purchases made and Scamp happy with them, we just went for a wander down Bucky Street. Scamp was buying fancy chocolates for the baby’s mum and dad and for her grandparents too when I sloped off to see what I could photograph in Princes Square. Buchanan Galleries have a strict No Photography policy and rule with a rod of iron. Princes Square are much more relaxed about it. If you start becoming a pest with the customers, I’m sure they’d have something to say about it, but generally they don’t bother you if you don’t bother them. That’s where I got today’s PoD. Just a bloke on his phone with an interesting logo behind.

Next stop for me was Cass Art where I wanted to buy a set of Winsor & Newton watercolour tube paint. It’s expensive, but I’m certain its better than Cass Art’s own brand. I also got a collapsible water pot nice and cheap. Lunch was calling by then and we went to Nero which was just across the road for a coffee and a croissant.

Jamie had recommended a fairly new Kevin Bridges book The Black Dog, so, since we were in town and a Waterstones was just along the road, I nipped in and bought it. On our way back to the car, Scamp wanted something in Rituals and I wandered over the road to the Apple shop, but all the iPads were in lock down mode. You used to be able to play with them, but not today. Then I was dragged away and we headed for the car and after a trip to Tiso to look at waterproof jackets because I discovered a new rip in mine. I think I can patch it, but there will soon be more patches that jacket on my old blue SprayWay.

Today’s prompt was for A Quirky Animal.
My Quirky Animal is the much maligned Haggis. The only three legged animal in the world, it has two long legs on one side of its body and one short leg on the other side. This allows the creature to run round mountains in an anti-clockwise direction.
They are very fast runners and difficult to catch. The best way to capture one is by using two beaters, one to chase it anti-clockwise round the mountain.
Once the chase has begun, the second beater should run round in the opposite direction and confront the animal. This will cause it to panic and try to run in the opposite direction, but because its short leg is now on the downhill side of the mountain, it will tumble and fall into the beater’s net.
Haggis are now designated a protected species and can only be hunted on the 30th and 31st of February.

Hoping to go to John & Marion’s for lunch tomorrow and of course, Scamp will be hoping the new baby will make an appearance.

Just another Sunday – 5 May 2024

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The luxury of a late rise after breakfast in bed and half an hour’s reading.

Almost every day last week was an early rise. Today was Sunday and that meant a lazy start to the week with the prospect of a F1 GP race, except, this race was in Miami and that meant different rules. Instead of being spread over two days, the Miami race was spread over three days. A bit of a pain in the backside, but we watched it anyway. Fairly exciting, but nothing stupendous.

After that boring start I went looking for a replacement bulb for the cooker oven. B&Q, as you’d expect didn’t have one, but they never do. If you want timber decking you’ll probably get it there. If you want a replacement tap, they won’t have it. If you want a certain colour of paint, you can rest assured it won’t be in the five or six shades they stock and they won’t have bulbs for ovens. It’s just part of the unwritten rules of B&Q. The assistant did direct me to Screwfix just down the road though.

Screwfix now no longer stock oven bulbs, I’m told, but thankfully across the road was Toolstation and they did have the exact bulb I was looking for and it only cost £2.50. I’m sure that if B&Q had it in stock, it would be in a blister pack of 50.

That done I detoured round the back of the industrial estate and parked in the blocked off road over the weak bridge. That gave me the opportunity to get some photos looking over the Antonine Wall and the remains of the actual wall. One of them made PoD. Drove back home via Tesco for a host of things we needed and I was just in time for lunch.

After lunch I got a garlic bulb and an onion and set them up as a still life for today’s prompt of Garlic or an Onion. It seemed a bit mean to only sketch one vegetable, so, being a generous person I give them both to critique. While I was painting, Scamp was busy in the kitchen making an Apple and Blackcurrant Pie. It looked good, as did her little throw-away Sliced AppleTart she’d made from the left over pastry.

Dinner was Cauliflower and Paneer Curry which was excellent, I thought and it was followed by the aforementioned Apple and Blackcurrant Pie and a piece of the the sliced apple tart. Lovely light pastry and little bits of blackcurrant to brighten the apples in the pie. She is a marvellous cook!

Spoke to Jamie and heard how life is beginning to return to normality after the months and months of uproar and noise of the restoration. Hope Simonne had a great birthday and that Vixen calms down again after all the commotion the restoration caused. Thanks, Jamie for the suggestion of the Kevin Bridges book. It’s on my ‘to-read’ list.

No plans for tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll get some planting done. Oh yes, and the first potatoes are poking their green heads out of the potato pot!

Dancin’ – 4 May 2024

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This morning we drove over to Brookfield for today’s dance class. The first class in about a month for various reasons.

I wasn’t really looking forward to today’s class. All those long lie ins on Saturday mornings were over today. Back to the grind stone. Actually it wasn’t all that bad, in fact I have to say I really enjoyed it.

First dance was the White City Waltz. Scamp said we knew it and I took her word. The demo that Stewart & Jane did reminded me of it, but after the first bit I was lost again. I think that maybe Kirsty goes too slowly at times, but S&J sometimes go to quickly for my wee brain to catch up. However, after two or three tracks we were dancing it like we’d always know it.

Next was the new Rumba routine. Again it looked insurmountable until you broke it down and found we knew most of the moves from previous dances and, although it took longer, it did eventually all go together.

The third and last dance was a Cha-Cha and the same as the Rumba, we managed to put all the moves in at the right time. We both made mistakes, but in the end we were dancing it fairly competently.

Drove home and after lunch we didn’t do very much. Scamp wasn’t feeling great and thinks she might have hay fever. She’s been taking Sudafed but it isn’t helping much. Later in the afternoon I went for a walk in St Mo’s and got a couple of decent photos. The PoD went to a branch of May blossom. I was intending to bring back dinner for both of us, Chicken Chop Suey and a portion of Fried Rice each. However when I phoned the Golden Bowl I was told their card machine wasn’t working and it would have to be cash. I’d only £12 in cash and that wouldn’t cover it, so I walked home, got the money and went over to Condorrat to pick up the food. I’ve now heard of a few places only dealing in cash transactions. Maybe they don’t want to pay the overheads the banks charge for the machine transactions or maybe there’s another reason. The food was good, just not as good as I remembered it to be. Next time I’ll return to my usual of Special Chow Mein.

Today’s prompt was “May the Fourth be with you” (4th of May) or a bee or a fly. I tried sketching a Lego Stormie minifig and I tried a honey bee. I tried a hover fly, but finally I settled on the flying assassin of ponds. The Dragonfly. They are such beautiful flyer. So skilful in the air, but such ferocious killers of other insects. I love them and I wait impatiently for the first ones to hatch every year. This is my sketch of a Common Darter (male).

Tomorrow we may go for a walk if Scamp is well enough.

 

Another fairly early shout – 3 May 2024

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Today I was driving Scamp to her FitSteps class in Cumbersheugh and then I was off to Larky to get a second eye pressure test. I got there early and went for a walk down one side of the Main Street and then up the other side. Lots had changed. A big flash Indian restaurant had appeared next to the Coop where the bank had been (probably many years ago – I don’t go to Larky much now). Lots of shops boarded up or the shutters locked down. New houses on Academy Street. Too many changes to keep a note of. It’s a different place now.

I decided to wait in the optician’s in the hope that I’d get taken early, and for once that was what happened. The optician did a series of tests of increasing accuracy and came up with the possible solution that my right eye could have Ocular Hypertension. I would need to discuss it with a consultant at the eye hospital in East Kilbride, and if it is confirmed, it would be repaired with a laser op during an out patient’s appointment. It’s a fairly lengthy wait of 18-24 months for the consultation and it’s still in the early stages. He emphasised that it may not he that at all. It could be my sugar levels are raised as I’m described as pre-diabetic and my sugar levels rise and fall regularly, depending on how many chocolate Easter eggs I eat. So the optician has booked me for a meeting with the vampire in the health centre later this month. Oh what fun.

I drove home by a slightly different route, because the slip road to the motorway from Larkhall was closed to allow the creation of two new roundabouts. Instead I drove up to Canderside Toll and on the way found a new big Lidl. Went in and got a loaf, a mini pizza and a bag or rolls, because Tesco are not selling Scottish rolls any more! They’ve even taken out the ovens!! Cost saving, we presume. Anyway, Lidl to the rescue, and they do sell Scottish rolls. On the way back to the car I got a call from Scamp to ask me where I was. I told and she said she was just going out to the dentist. Oops, I’d forgotten all about her appointment to get her new silver tooth fitted! I apologised and felt bad all the way home.

Back home, we had our lunch and then I drove up to the town centre to get a much needed haircut. It felt so good to have got rid of that awful mop. When I got back, Scamp was chopping down the rose at the back door. I helped and we think it looks a lot neater now.

Dinner was a pizza from a new company in Condorrat. We had a 12” pizza with anchovies, capers and black olives. It took 10 minutes from ordering to delivery. That was amazing. The pizza itself wasn’t, at least I didn’t like it. Hardly any mozzarella and loads of cheddar cheese. A bit dodgy I thought, but Scamp was ok with it.

PoD turned out to be a photo of a pot of sunflower seedlings.

Today’s prompt asked for a bud or a bloom. This is not a flower yet, it is a bud from a Rhododendron (Nancy Evans). The red petals soften to warm pinks and golds as the flower opens to full bloom.
We almost lost it last year when we were on a fortnight cruise and there was a drought at home. “A drought in Scotland?”, I hear you say. Indeed our climate is definitely changing. Thankfully the first three months of this year replenished the water supply … and more.

Tomorrow the dance teachers are at Brookfield and we’re hoping to be there too, before they saunter off on another cruise.

Dancin’ – 2 May 2024

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Another fun-filled day at Glenburn.

Actually it was quite a good day. Beautiful weather. If it hadn’t been for the cold wind, you would have believed it was summer.

In the morning I was still puzzling over that cryptic message on the iMac. I then did what I should have done in the first place and copied the first line of the message and pasted it in Google. There were a mass of complaints about exactly the same message as I had. It seemed that the problem is most prevalent on Mojave and later operating systems, including mine, Monterey. Most of the replies gave the usual ‘helpful suggestions’ like “Just do a restart, that will fix it” or “Use Disk Utility”. Neither of these work, but then I found a suggestion to dig into the Library module and search for “/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports“ then find and delete “Sleep Wake Failure” in the Diagnostic Reports. That sounded like a solution, but we were going dancing and Scamp was getting ready to leave, so I put the idea on the back burner until we got back.

At Glenburn we were sitting at the same table as Barry and Cath, who are a laugh. We think Barry was a polis before he retired and he now does executive tours of Scotland, mainly for Americans coming off cruise ships, or flying up from London to ‘do Scotland’. He tells some wonderful stories and I think most of them are true.

We danced a bit of everything today and excelled at none. Not really surprising, considering that we’ve had about four weeks without teachers in the last two months. We did eventually manage to almost complete the Waltz Nioli, but it was a struggle. We quickstepped round the hall without bumping in to anyone, but again, it wasn’t great to watch. Our greatest success was the Tango we were learning in Kirsty’s class. We actually finished the routine and it was so good to dance on a real floor with room to move, instead of on a postage stamp.
There might be a dance class on Saturday, but we think the teachers are off again for another fortnight in the sun after that, “Working”, they call it!

On the way home, Scamp wanted to pick up her dance shoes that the woman in Fitness Fashions was repairing for her. We were late getting away from Glenburn, but we did manage to get to Rutherglen before the shop closed and picked up the shoes. Another tick in another box.

I went out for a quick walk when we got home, but before that I searched out that Sleep Wake Failure script and dumped it in the bin, then emptied the bin. It worked! Twice now I’ve started the iMac and there was no warning message. Success!
I brought back about a dozen photos from the walk and the PoD turned out to be a bunch of Cowslip flowers that had been thrown into the pond at St Mo’s. I’m guessing it was some children who did it. I thought it made an interesting photo.

Dinner tonight was Fish Fingers, Egg and Spaghetti. You just can’t go wrong with that!

The first two sketches are done and posted for EDiM. First one, Lighthouse is a bit ropey, but the second, Chicken, is quite acceptable. More practise needed.

 

Tomorrow, Scamp is hoping to go to FitSteps in the morning and I’m intending going back to Larky to get my second eye pressure test.

 

Mayday – 1 May 2024

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I was off into Glasgow to meet Alex, Scamp was staying home to clean the house.

Before she started the cleaning, Spring Cleaning I suppose, Scamp gave me a lift to the station where I caught the train to Glasgow. I’d a big, heavy bag of books with me that I was eager to hand over to someone in the Oxfam shop, if only to release the tension from my arm. As I knew there would be more books to come, I signed up for a Gift Aid card. I can’t remember the last time I used a Gift Aid sticker, but it cost me nothing and Oxfam get some extra money.

With that done and my arm returning to its normal length, I went to meet Alex in the bus station. I walked the length of the concourse but didn’t see him, so I parked myself on a seat and read my book for 15mins. Then I went for a walk along the line of seats again and there was Alex. We had been sitting within meters of each other and hadn’t noticed. We adjourned to Nero for a coffee and a catch-up.

Alex just wanted a walk around Glasgow and I was happy to go along with that. We walked through George Square and I suggested we go to Paesano for lunch. So we did. Two pizzas and a can of juice each (I was driving later) and we were back in the sunshine.

We walked down Miller Street and along Argyle Street, then on to the Clyde Walkway, photographed some interesting graffiti and then were lured into photographing the St Andrew’s chapel again. We do it every time we’re in Glasgow, I think. Trying to find a new angle or a new reflection of the church in the mirror glass of the adjoining building.

We walked back through St Enoch’s Square and into Cass Art in Queen Street because I needed a new sketch book to record the Every Day in May (EDiM) challenge. From there back to the bus station via a different Nero.

I’d just missed an X3 bus, but noticed an X36 was just opening its doors for weary travellers. That’s when I found that my Travelcard wouldn’t read. The driver was ok about it, mainly because it was obviously a kosher card and you can just see my face among the scratches on it. Tomorrow I must phone up to get it replaced.

Later, once Scamp had told me about her day and I had told her about mine, we got ready and went out to Kirsty’s dance class where we were going to “polish the Tango” as Scamp put it. I’m not sure I actually achieved any polishing, but when we came away I felt much more confident about it. Scamp wasn’t so sure I was doing everything correctly, so we had a quick refresher of the last part of the dance. I’m sure we’ll have another ‘refresher’ tomorrow, all being well.

My computer the iMac is not well. We had a power outage the other day and since then the Mac has delivered a message every time I’ve started it, to the effect that I had “Shut it down because of a problem”. Today I found the source of that ‘problem’. There are five errors in the data section of SSD and they cannot be repaired. No, I don’t know what the ‘data section of the SSD’ is either. But I think I have a solution. Every week the Mac does a backup of the drive and the last backup was on the 27th of April. The outage happened on the 29th. That means the last backup is clean and error free. Now I just have to work out how to squirt that backup into a clean SSD. Sounds complicated, yes, but it may work. Worth a try at least.

PoD was a trough of orange tulips I say at the top of Buchanan Street.

Tomorrow we may go dancing at the Glenburn Tea Dance. I also must try to get day 1 and day 2 of EDiM posted.

 

 

The last day of April – 30 April 2024

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It seems to have been a long month in some respects and a short one in others.

Today poor Humza went down to the Job Centre to see what they had for an unemployed former First Minister. Poor man. Because he resigned, he won’t get any unemployment benefit. Seriously though, the sharks are circling now, sensing blood in the water. Who’ll be first to grab the sword of Damocles?

We put these things behind us and went for the messages. Traditionally it’s a job for a Monday, but as I was out with the boys yesterday, it became a Tuesday job for a change. No change at Tesco, still no ’Real’ rolls. What it going on with the world when there are no rolls to be found in Tesco. No ‘Well Fired’ ones and no ‘Ordinary’ ones. This has to be the new first minister’s duty, to find out what’s going on at Roll-gate!

Back home and after a piece ’n’ flat sausage for me and some French toast for Scamp, I started again at the never ending job of refilling the bookcase upstairs. Meanwhile Scamp was out doing some weeding. I ended up with a sore back and I’m sure Scamp was the same. But at least the garden was looking a bit brighter and we were finding places for books and stuff to go in the bedroom. Tomorrow I’m hoping to meet Alex for a walk and a blether and I’ll also be taking some books to the Oxfam shop.

Dinner tonight was Haddock and Prawns with Fennell and Leek. A fairly easy recipe that all happens in one pot. Fiddly in places, but basically you just bung things in as you go along. It worked fine, as it usually does.

PoD was a pink tulip from the garden. Sitting up proud and bouncing around in the breeze. It was actually warm today, noticeably warm for a change. It must be spring right enough!

That was about it for the day. Tomorrow a fairly early rise to get the train in to Glasgow.

Old Friends – 29 April 2024

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I met Fred and Val today for coffee and a long blether..

Three Cortados, one each, and we were off discussing what was going on in our worlds and what we were doing. Val had a new whizzo electric wheelchair and we were impressed with its manoeuvrability which he was keen to display. We exchanged books I returned two to Fred and gave him one. Val got another one of mine and Fred gave me one of his. Fair exchange is no robbery! Another round of Cortados was needed to keep the talk going, and I think we spent about two hours discussing everything from politics to religion. Fred, remarkably, had a lot of good things to say about the now resigned former First Minister Humza Yousaf. I think we were all in agreement that he had been handed a poisoned chalice. Val’s wife had been to Tesco and by the time we were breaking up, she arrived and we agreed to do it again in about a month. I think I’ll put a note in my diary to book another meet-up.

Back home lunch was a soft roll with banana and a chance to listen to the resignation details. Poor bloke, hung out to dry by all and sundry, including myself at times.

Later in the day I went for a walk in St Mo’s in the rain.  First rain for about a week, but I got a few shots. PoD went to a close-up of moss, cladonia and some seed heads. Don’t ask me why, it just spoke to me!

After dinner the TV went off. At first we thought the circuit board had tripped, but then Scamp found a message on her phone to say that most of Cumbersheugh was without power. It took about an hour to get it back on. In the interim, Virgin Media claimed that they were the ones who were working on the repair! That would be a first. I think this fault was more like a substation outage, than a Virgin one.

Finally we agreed on a hotel for Gillian and Ed’s wedding. All booked, but not paid for yet. I felt the tension go out of Scamp when she got the confirmation. The delay was mostly my fault for not doing my bit earlier. However it’s done now and we can go to a wedding DV.

Tomorrow is a day for doing the messages. Maybe we’ll manage to get some real rolls, not the silly softies we had today. Mea culpa!

Gardening – 28 April 2024

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Today I was determined to get my next batch of potatoes planted.

Before I could really get started with planting them, I had to tackle the grass in the back garden. Scamp had been saying for weeks that she needed to start cutting the grass and since I had nothing to do and the sun was shining, I took it upon myself to cut the grass. It didn’t take too long, because there majority of the grass was fairly short, but in the middle of the garden there were great tufts of the stuff, so that was where I started. Chop down the big stuff and the rest will fall. That theory seemed to work. Next was the time consuming edges.

My method here was to lift all the pots from an edge and use the mower, rather than the strimmer to cut all the straggly bits in one fell swoop. I did two sides in that way, but the other two would need to be strimmed. That worked fairly well too, except I accidentally pressed the starter and instead of strimming, I found myself digging a short trench in the grass. Now all that was needed was the cleaning of the mower and the strimmer. As usual, that took even more time than the actual cutting. A squirt of WD40 to keep everything clean and they could all go back into their boxes for a week or two.

I’d tested my new potato bucket yesterday and although there were no green leaves poking out of the soil, the bucket allows you to see what’s going on underneath and there were a healthy number of white roots appearing.

Using the soil that is left in the old raised bed, I managed to half fill two potato bags and plant three seed potatoes in each one. With the tops rolled down to hopefully keep them open, they are now sitting under the old Rowan tree ready to produce lots of Charlotte potatoes for us.

I had just enough time to get some photos of flowers in the garden before I started making dinner which was Carrot & Lentil Curry. Not long after I’d taken the photos and had the curry bubbling away, I got a text from Scamp to say that they had missed the connection for Glasgow at Perth. The Witches weekend away was turning into a disaster. Broken down bus yesterday and a missed connection today. They eventually got a connecting bus after a half hour wait. And while they were doing that I was at home processing the photos.

Best shot and PoD was a group of Honesty plants that just seem to continuously self-seed. Our Magnolia Stellata came a close second.

Scamp eventually arrive about an hour late and I picked her up then we had dinner together comparing our experiences of the days ‘off the leash’.

Tomorrow I’m hoping to meet Val and Fred for coffee.