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Another wet and warm day – 21 July 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Not at the same time, though.

This will be a quick blog. Although we did very little, the day just seemed to run away with us.

In the morning I spoke to an Apple robot with a Scottish accent, explained my problem and she fixed me up with an appointment for tomorrow with a ‘Genius’! A living, breathing one, I hope.

After that I noticed we had another butterfly on the buddleia bush and when I went out to see if it was still there, realised I didn’t have a camera. Luckily Scamp had her’s handy and she gave it to me, because the butterfly was too high for her to reach. That’s when it flew away, but eagle eye’d Scamp saw another one, a Peacock butterfly this time. We grabbed three shots with the phone and then it flew up and over to the back of the tree, but we got the shot! It made PoD.

We had a look through the laptops, for fridge-freezers after that and after tomorrow’s Genius Bar, we might actually order one.

We went to Kirsty’s dance class in the late afternoon and I almost managed to do new version of the Foxtrot with the diabolical Continuous Hover Cross, my nemesis! It was actually too hot to trot in the dance room and there was no cool air blower.

That’s as much as I’m going to write for now. Enjoy the holiday, Neil and Hazy. Hope you have fun. By the way, I finished Rivers of London episode 10 today and wouldn’t recommend it.

I’m off to bed no hoping to cool down, hopefully. Tomorrow may be another busy day.

Another dull day – 20 July 2025

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We seem to be having more than our fair share of dull days recently.

The day was brightened up when I saw a butterfly on the Buddleia bush in the back garden. I know that’s not exactly earth shattering, but this is the first butterfly to have sampled the nectar on our buddleia. Just as I was about to capture this yellow butterfly, Scamp said she’d found another one, a Tortoiseshell, I think. It was difficult to see as it blended in so well with the dry foliage of the bush. Unfortunately it was more skittish tha the yellow one and flew off. (Mr Google said the yellow one was a Cabbage White. I think he must be colour blind.)

I did get a few shots of the yellow butterfly and one of them made PoD. I think Scamp got some photos of it too.

Dinner tonight was Sea Bass with potatoes and roasted veg. I thought the sea bass was one of the best I’d tasted. Scamp said the veg was a bit limp after she had put a lid on the pan. There’s no pleasing some folk.

Spoke to Jamie and we discussed our differing weather systems. We have had some rain and so has he, but both of us would like more.

Tomorrow we are expecting more of the wet stuff with the possibility of thundery showers too. Oh what fun.

Dull and Wet – 19 July 2025

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We did think of going in to Glasgow to watch the Pride march, but the weather was against us.

Rain showers seemed to be the order of the day and neither of us wanted to stand in the rain for the hour that it would take for the procession to pass, then have to sit in a bus for another three quarters of an hour to get back home. Blame me if the march was really good. It was my fault!

The rain wasn’t continuous today, but for a while it was ‘straight doon rain’. Fairly heavy for a while then just drizzle for an hour while it caught its breath, then back to heavy again. We seem to be caught in this cycle of heavy rain, then light rain and repeat for the next few days.
The furthest I got was a drive down to the shops to get bread and fruit. Two loaves we bought earlier in the week were now speckle d with the blue spots of mould. All to do with the moisture in the air we think.
After lunch I did take some time out to get some rainy photos in the garden. Photos of clothes pegs dripping with rain in the garden next door. That made PoD.

One of the problems I’ve had since before the the computer took a flaky earlier in the week, is that I can’t send files from the desktop computer to the laptop and vice versa using iCloud Drive. Both drives seem to on speaking terms now, but unfortunately they are still arguing about who’s the boss, like squabbling weans!

The iMac has actually been running really well today, perhaps because it took a couple of hours yesterday to sort out its problems. Again, we’ll wait and see.

No plans for tomorrow as yet. The weather fairies say wet, with the chance of thunderstorms and heavy rain. This is how we pay for the recent good weather.

Merchant City Festival – 18 July 2025

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Today we were going in to Glasgow for a bit of fun and to hear a man singing.

First Scamp had her first FitSteps class in a few weeks and by the look on her face it had been quite exhausting. Kirsty sometimes get a bit carried away with her keep fit class and what better day to get carried away than the first day back ‘at school’.

I decided we should go to Glasgow in the car. Buses can be a bit hit and miss in the summer, so, better to use transport you can rely on … ours.

The road to Glasgow was extra busy today, then Scamp said that today was the first day of “Glasgow Fair”. Years ago when I started work, Glasgow Fair was a week or sometimes a fortnight long and almost every works shut down for those two weeks. Now it’s not nearly as stringent a rule, but still some people keep to the old ways and have two weeks off in the middle of July. Maybe Scamp was right and maybe all these cars were heading to Glasgow or Edinburgh airport to get away for a while.

We got parked fairly easily in the JL car park which tended to add weight to Scamp’s theory. We walked down to the two or three streets that were cordoned off for the Festival, but we were too early. We mingled with the thin crowds who, like us were waiting for the fun to begin.

We decided a coffee and a panini would help pass the time. Scamp wanted freezer bags in a wholesale shop too, so we got those further along the street. By the time we got back the clowns were out as were the Scottish Ballet team and a couple of giant moving statues. A bloke who I thought was part of the show started a conga line and lots of folk joined in. The line was held together with old aluminium folding seats. Then the bloke gathered the seats up and stashed them before climbing up a niche in a wall with his feet on one side and then he managed to squeeze his back into the other side before edging upwards to a balcony easily two storeys above. We’re not sure now if he was a performer or just a nutter, because he followed the balcony round and disappeared round the back of the building! Weird!

Scamp found an old friend from Salsa days and stayed talking to her for a while. I was waiting for Finlay Napier to begin his hour long slot. I didn’t think Scamp would enjoy the music, but I was wrong. She likened him to Michael Marra a much lamented Scottish singer-songwriter and I could understand why.

When he was finished, we walked back to the car, but first Scamp wanted to look at a skirt, so I wandered round the Buchanan Galleries until she came down the escalators with a big fancy dress box and a big smile on her face. I had a smaller box and a smile on my face too. It was a rechargeable hand held fan I’d been looking for, for weeks. Of course it wasn’t for me, it was for Scamp. I think she liked it.

We drove out of Buchanan Galleries into a solid wall of cars. It took us over half an hour to clear about 100m of congestion before we could insinuate our way on to the motorway. I’d hate to have to do that every day.

PoD is one of about a dozen photos I took today of a man up on a cherry picker finishing off a graffiti portrait of a girl on the five or six storey gable end of a building. Amazing to watch.

The computer is still complaining and running really slow, but at least it’s cleared its own congestion in iCloud Drive which I couldn’t do. Amazing things Apple hardware can do.

Today was dry, but very close and clammy. Tomorrow we are forecast for rain and thundery showers. I don’t think we’ll be driving far tomorrow.

 

A wee girl – 17 July 2025

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We were driving to Falkirk today. Scamp’s bracelet was ready to pick up and so was my coffee. Unfortunately not in, or even near the same place.

First stop was Falkirk for the coffee I’d ordered a couple of days ago. Next was a drive back the way we’d come to find ourselves at the centre of the town where I parked and Scamp walked over to the jewellers to pick up her bracelet which had had a new catch welded to it and was nice and shiny. From there we drove back home for a quick cup of coffee and then it was time to get dressed properly to go to Hamilton for lunch with John and Marion.

It was a lovely morning when we were doing our circuit of Falkirk, but by the time we reached Hamilton, the clouds were rolling in. Lunch was a Salmon Fillet wrapped in Prosciutto with pesto and baby tomatoes. Dessert was layers of puff pastry wrapped round strawberries and whipped cream. I know there is a fancy name for it, but I can’t remember it.

Then came the surprise visitors. Laura and her daughter Erin arrived and we spent a couple of hours being entertained by this one year old wee girl. Such a happy little child who kept us amused all afternoon. She took Scamp’s hand and they walked hand in hand round the living room. Scamp didn’t instigate it, Erin did! I was given teething toy to play with until she asked for it back. Erin, that is, not Scamp!
Too soon, it was time for mum and baby to go home and off they went. Not one cross word from Erin, just smiles.

We sat and talked with John and Marion for a while, then it was time for us too to go home. Just as we were leaving the rain came on. It had been predicted, but I think we were just too busy playing with Erin to notice.

We drove home through the M74 busy with homeward bound workers. I’m glad we don’t have to work anymore!

PoD was a wet Rudbeckia flower from the garden.

Tomorrow we may go in to Glasgow to see the start of the Merchant City Festival.

In the Ancient Woods – 16 July 2025

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Today Alex and I went for a walk in the woods.

Special woods, these were the ancient Cadzow Oaks. They are estimated to be nearly 800 years old. Many have fallen now and some have been vandalised, but a gallant few are still alive and producing leaves and acorns.

It’s not a long walk from the cafe in the country park to the oaks, and it’s all downhill to start with to cross the Duke’s Bridge over the Avon Water, but then it’s a drag of a walk back up the other side to the oaks themselves. However, it’s worth the walk. It really is. It puts me in my place every time I see them, amazed that they are still standing, still producing leaves and acorns after about 800 years. I sat for a while today just looking at these giants, and some of them are giants, imaging how the landscape would have looked back in the time of Robert the Bruce when the trees were just saplings.

We had been hoping for the sunny skies the weather fairies had promised, but although the skies were clear in the early morning, by the time we got to the oaks, we were treated to a white sky and the very occasional break in the clouds.

Strangely, Alex and I took exactly 45 photos each today. Not a great score, but enough for us to need another coffee back at the cafe to sustain us. After that I drove back home, via Motherwell to drop Alex off at his house. He suggested Glasgow for our next outing, all being well. I think I agree with him. It’s been about a month since we’ve been. There will surely be something new to photograph.

Scamp made Carrot & Lentil Curry for dinner. It was a bit salty, but will improve and settle into itself in a day or two.

As regards yesterday’s computer disaster, the laptop and the desktop computers are linked with iCloud Drive. The laptop is almost back to normal, but the desktop is hanging by a thread now. One nudge in the wrong direction and it will be curtains. So I’m afraid I’m going to bite the bullet and buy a new one. I’m intending going in to Glasgow this week to ask one of the ‘Geniuses’ at Apple for their recommendation, but I know it will be a case of don’t fix it, buy new.

PoD was the remains of a fallen Cadzow Oak with a live Beech tree behind.

Tomorrow I’m intending to drive to Falkirk tomorrow to pick up some coffee from “Henry’s At Home” my go-to place for decent coffee beans. Meanwhile Scamp is hoping to pick up her repaired bracelet, also in Falkirk.

A bit of a computer disaster – 15 July 2025

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I’m having a bit of a problem withe the iMac and with MacBook Pro.

What should have been a simple clearing out of the iCloud Drive went a bit awry on the iMax and I ended up losing my ‘diary’ – Day One. I also lost some data from the MBP, but for some reason Day One on the MBP wasn’t affected. Hopefully I’ll get is sorted out in a few days. Until then I’m going to be jumping between my Macs. That’s what I get for not making backups!!

As you can see, I can even get the PoD displayed, so it’s not so desperate. It’s a wild Cranesbill flower

Possibly going out for a photowalk with Alex tomorrow. That might clear my head.

Going for the messages – 14 July 2025

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Monday is traditionally shopping day and we drove to Morrisons in Falkirk, in the rain. We were delighted to see some real rain today, just as long as it doesn’t think that it’s staying for good. Scamp got her grass seed scattered and washed in with the prospect of more scattering tomorrow, all being well.

We wandered round Morrisons and bought more than we really should have, but that’s the problem when you’re not shopping in your local supermarket, you keep finding new things on the shelves and adding them to your trolley. Then you realise how little space you have left in it. Anyway, as we were piling the shopping into the blue car, I said to myself, Well, that’s something done.

My main complaint with Morrisons is that the cafe was closing at 2.30pm. This seems to be a common occurrence in the Falkirk shop. The slightest thing causes the shop to shut. It’s raining. Oops we’ll need to close the cafe. Don’t they want to make money?

Scamp had an old bracelet that needed a new clasp and there is a wee jewellers in Falkirk she trusts with her fragile things, so we managed to get two things done in the same place. The bracelet should be ready for collection on Thursday. Two tasks completed.

While Scamp was off explaining what she wanted done to the bracelet, I was sent off to Waterstones to browse the books. I did see two I liked the look of, but of course I didn’t write down their titles. Instead Scamp met me and we went for a coffee in Nero across the road. I thought I’d manage to drop in to Waitrose on the way to the car and snap the titles on my phone, but only one was still there on the stand. For the life of me I cannot remember the name of the other one, but with an interesting cover, I’m sure I’d recognise it again. At least I had one title safely in the phone.

On the way back to the car we passed Falkirk Trinity Church. Even in the rain it looked really good, and after a few shots I got what I wanted and with a little bit of work at home it would become PoD. Task number three completed. We drove home in the rain.

Tonight was the start of the Monday dance class with Kirsty. The plan was to begin with a Foxtrot. As with most of the dances we do, Kirsty takes them forward very slowly to make sure nobody is left behind. I think she sometimes takes too much time to it, but usually Scamp starts shoving me around the floor and that is when I see that it it isn’t all that different from the routines we use in Stewart and Jane’s classes. Sometimes the names are slightly different, but my feet know where they are going, because we’ve walked through those techniques many times at Brookfield. It’s really just muscle memory, or parts of it. By the end of the night, things were clicking into place. More Foxtrotting may be planned for next week, all being well.

Tomorrow it looks like more rain for us. Good for the garden.

 

 

 

Now that’s better – 13 July 2025

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A slightly cooler day. Much more like what we expect in Scotland in July.

I wasn’t feeling great in the morning and ended up having toast and tea for lunch while Scamp had her usual Sunday fry up. After a pretty lacklustre Laura Kuenssberg offering we allocated each other jobs to do in the garden

It may have been cooler, but there was still a lot of work to be done. Scamp was determined to get both the front and the back grass cut and I let her get on with it after I’d moved all sixteen plant pots out on to the path to allow her a clear run with the mower. I also evicted at least twenty slugs from their previous living quarters under the pots, then rehoused them in the bushes in front of the house.

The sweet peas have been growing at an astonishing rate and really needed some extra support. The wind was getting strong too, so I cut and tied some bamboo canes to prevent the sweet peas from getting broken. I know they aren’t as delicate as they seem, but wee bit extra wood and twine wouldn’t do any harm. They now reach almost 2m in height. Scamp thinks we will need to pinch out the growing tips to force the growth into the body of the plant. I think she’s right.

With the tasks and the front and back grass successfully cut, we could rest for a while. I still had to find a PoD and walked round St Mo’s to see if there were any contenders. The first thing I saw was a curved and twisted bunch of sycamore seeds, probably not this year’s growth, but almost definitely last year’s. That was PoD, but further into my travels, I came upon a Clouded Border Moth. Tiny little thing smaller that a 10p coin. First time I’ve seen one or even heard of one. Must look out for them.

Dinner was a demo by Scamp of the best ways to make an omelette. She did her’s one way and I did mine as directed. Both ways worked and both were different. I’ll try to repeat the exercise this week.

Spoke to Jamie and found that their temperature yesterday was almost exactly the same as ours, about 400 miles apart. It’s a strange world. I think they might be considering buying an air fryer. I know Scamp says they are bulky and probably not much use to us, but it might be interesting to hear their opinions if they do get one.

Hope the temperatures continue to drop gently for a few days and that there is some rain, both for England and Scotland. The gardens need it.

 

A late night leads to a late morning – 12 July 2025

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We were slow to rise today. Too much moon gazing last night.

It was going to be another hot one today, in fact the temperature did reach 29ºc in the afternoon, as predicted by the weather fairies. We did attempt to sit outside at the front of the house, but had to give in and move to the back garden, despite a whole bunch of children from next door, all having a wonderful and noisy time splashing in a paddling pool. Water and Sun are the main constituents for fun when you’re under 10, I think. I can’t really testify to that, but I do remember going with my mum on a bus that took us down to Millheugh and going paddling among the rocks in the shallow water to catch minnows which we called Minnens. I also remember stepping on a broken bottle there and getting a taken back to the doctor’s in Larkhall in one of my mum’s friend’s car to have it checked out. I’ve still got the scar to this day. No stitches nor anything, just a big plaster and either TCP or Dettol.

Back to the 21st century, Scamp and I had lunch inside because it was too hot outside today. Later we found a fairly cool spot in the back garden after the noisy weans had gone somewhere else. Scamp and I went for a walk in St Mo’s which is where today’s PoD came from. It’s a Common Blue Damselfly and it sat there posing for ages. A big blue dragonfly was patrolling the pond at the time, but it hardly stopped its circuit, so I didn’t get a photo of it. Sometimes they choose a resting site, a boulder or a bulrush that it will cling to for a while as it scours the pond for interlopers, but not today. Too busy.

I was on dinner duty today. Scamp had made a lovely light salad a couple of days ago, but mine was going to be different. A mixture of sweet and savoury. An apple, a pear, strawberries, beetroot, cucumber and lots more went into the bowl, along with cooked chicken breast pieces and some lettuce. I was quite proud of my creation. It was based on a salad Simonne had made for us a year ago. It was a success, I’m glad to say.

Thankfully the temperature is going down again as the sun sets. We’re hoping for a slightly cooler day tomorrow too.