Category: 28DL

Woke to Sunshine! – 23 February 2020

Posted on by Zogman

How nice to see a bit of sunshine again after all the rain and wind.

It was cold but bright and I really enjoyed my morning coffee sitting on the sofa in the sun. You could actually feel the warmth of the sun. Of course it did rain to, but not enough to speak of, so I won’t speak of it.

After lunch and after watching Andrew Marr doing battle with Nicola Sturgeon who put up a valiant fight I have to admit, I went out for a walk. Fell on my backside taking lots of photos of cladonia variants, but I only took five of the little yellow crocus growing in the front garden. One of the many Scamp has planted there. It was the little yellow crocus that got PoD and I didn’t even fall on my backside taking it!

Even managed to plant some Chestnuts in pots in the wee greenhouse .  Hopefully they will be more successful than last year’s no-show, but there’s no guarantee of that with wild seeds!

Swordfish steak for Scamp’s dinner with potatoes and cabbage. For me, exchange Rump steak for Swordfish. Just a relaxing day after yesterday’s dance extravaganza. The sunshine lasted all day with the occasional rain shower to remind us that it’s still winter. Apparently we will be reminded even more strongly later tonight or early tomorrow morning when snow showers are forecast across the central belt. May have to change my plans as I’m hoping to meet the Auld Guys for coffee tomorrow. Let’s hope not.

Spoke to Jamie and heard about his forthcoming surprise trip to Boston. It’s a work trip, but it’s still a trip to the US. More power to his elbow, he certainly works for it.

SoD prompt was ‘Gate’ and I struggled with this one. It’s a gate we passed on the banks of Loch Leven in Fife. Such skill splitting the bar and then producing the curves. I’m not sure I’ve done it justice, but it’s as good as I can make it.

As I’ve said, I should be meeting the Auld Guys tomorrow for coffee and adult conversation. Maybe even a bit of book swapping. It all depends on the weather.

Dancin’, really Dancin’ – 22 February 2020

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Just another day of rain and wind and occasional snow, but with the chance of some brightness in the evening.

A parcel arrived for Scamp at midday. It was the long awaited pair of Adesso slippers. The first pair were the wrong size, my mistake. This pair, like Cinderella’s fitted perfectly. Anniversary present ticked off!

Today’s prompt was ‘Rain’. Now that should have been easy given that we’ve had nothing else pouring out of the sky for weeks now. Like the tiger, this drawing was scribbled down this morning on my ‘doodle sheet’ and despite trying to redraw it various times, I liked the feel of this original.

PoD was a picture I took in the downstairs toilet with one of those occasional spells of sun shining brightly behind the plants.

We went to Frankie & Benny’s at The Fort for lunch. Unfortunately, it seemed as if almost all of the east end of Glasgow were there too. The place was jumping and half of them were noisy weans. To compete with the noise of the conversations, the staff had turned up the volume of the music system, it seemed. Even despite all that, the food was good Cheeseburger (No mayo) and Fish ’n’ Chips. Guess who had what!

Then while Scamp went window shopping for clothes, I browsed Waterstones. Bought myself a book on painting with acrylics, something I’ve not dabbled in recently. It’d make a change from watercolours and ink.

When we got back to the car, we had to sit for a while to allow the blizzard conditions to decrease. No snow was lying, but it was certainly coming along, almost horizontally, quite fast. After that, the sun came out and there was blue sky above. Scotland, at least three seasons in one day.

All of this was the precursor for the main event of the day, Dancing. We were off to darkest Paisley to a community hall for a night of waltz, foxtrot, possibly quickstep and probably jive. Dancing with Stewart and Jane’s class. As like the Christmas dance, we were welcomed into the bosom of the company and found that three of those at the table had been on our last cruise with us! Great fun, although my waltz wasn’t quite as swish as it could have been and my salsa was a bit rusty, but We Danced, and in company too!

Arrive home just before midnight, so obviously this is a catch-up

Zog meets a Frog – 21 February 2020

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A whole day without a phone call from the doctor! What’s wrong, have I offended someone?

It was another horrible day. Wind and rain in varying amounts and intensities. Didn’t do much and didn’t go very far. What we did do was practise the Foxtrot and the Waltz ‘figures’ just in case we want to dance them tomorrow. Actually I’d gone for a walk in the afternoon and found a piece of open ground in the middle of the trees and there I had a short solo practise of the figures in the Foxtrot, because that’s the dance we know the least about. I must have looked what my mum would have called ‘a proper chookie’ (a fool) if anyone had caught a glimpse of me dancing through the trees!

It was when I was coming back from my outdoor dance class that I saw two frogs in an amorous embrace attempting to get out of a fast flowing burn that had appeared overnight. The lady frog was trying to climb up a crumbling banking without much success, so I lifted them both out of the burn and placed them on the grass, took their photo and then put them down in a more gently sloping sandbank to allow them the opportunity to continue on to dry land or reenter the stream. I thought as I was walking away that it must be the first time I’ve handled a frog since I was a wee boy. One of the photos I took was sharp enough to become PoD. Zog meets a Frog.

Today’s topic was ‘Olive’. I tried all sorts of still life setups with black olives and also the green variety. None of them appealed to me, then I thought of the most famous Olive of all, Ms Oyl. I also wanted a fairly easy drawing after yesterday’s complicated crown.

Tomorrow’s task is ‘Rain’. I think I might be able to construct something around that theme, considering we’ve hardly had one dry day since Christmas. Only other plans for tomorrow are to go out for lunch somewhere if we don’t get blown or washed away.

The Messages – 20 February 2020

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Today we planned to go somewhere to stock up on messages.

We drove to Falkirk and just managed to miss seeing a gigantic tractor lose its trailer which was now lying on its side blocking a roundabout at the entrance to Falkirk Hospital. Police and a heavy breakdown truck in attendance trying to keep the roundabout clear. Luckily we were on the other half or the roundabout. Further down the road a fire engine was heading towards the roundabout with blue lights on. I said to Scamp “I think we’ll take a different road home.”

We bought Morrisons today. I quite like Morrisons now. They have a totally different selection from Tesco and they also sell Yorkshire Mixtures sweets. I get a bag about once a month. Today they also had £10 off my whisky of the moment. Lastly they do one of the best Roll ’n’ Sausage for a knock down price. So after we’d bought the shop and I’d headed into a snowstorm that lasted about 5 minutes to fill the Juke’s boot. After that, we had lunch.

Back home and before I sat down, I got a message again to phone the surgery. What was it this time? One of the vampires had phoned in sick with anaemia and needed a quick fix? They’d got the labels wrong again and they wanted to tell me I was pregnant? Neither of the above. It was just to tell me that the doctor had left a prescription for me at reception. They couldn’t tell me what the prescription was for or why the nurse hadn’t mentioned it to me yesterday. I just left and drove up to the health centre. Discovered that the prescription WAS for me and it was because my urine sample had shown a slight infection. It must be something to do with my age and the fact that I had a severe infection last year. They’re being ultra-cautious. Well, better to deal with it than to have the pain I had last time.

Home again and the rain that had been pelting down had stopped, so I took an hour to myself in St Mo’s and managed to catch some late afternoon sun. Favourite shot was of a multi branch Cladonia lichen. That became PoD.

Today’s SoD was to be “Sparkling”. I chose Mrs McQueen’s favourite hat. It’s got lots of sparkly bits and bobs on it, so it fit the bill perfectly. I’m quite impressed with my render of the velvet in it. It seems to hold the creases and folds well.

Tomorrow, for once, we have no plans.

Curry and Dancin’ – 19 February 2020

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Today we finally went for a curry in Hamiton after I’d been to the doc’s.

Yesterday I got a message  asking me to contact the doctor’s surgery re: the results of my blood test.  I phoned and was told that the doctor had looked at the results and my Haemoglobin level was too high and the nurse wanted to check it.  I made an appointment for this morning and the nurse went over all the results, but never mentioned haemoglobin.  When I queried it, it turned out the receptionist had got mixed up between haemoglobin and haemoglobin – sugar level. Yes, the sugar level was a bit high, but lower than it had been at my last test.  Panic over.  Nothing to worry about.

With that out of the way and another awful day of wind and rain in almost equal quantities we drove to Hamilton for a curry in the Bombay Cottage. Food was as plentiful as always. Starters were obviously freshly cooked but my main tasted a bit like it was a re-heat.  Scamp’s was fine but a bit spicy.  Still, that is just nit picking because this is one of the best Indian restaurants we’ve been to.

Hamilton, as I’ve said before is a bit of a ghost town now, compared to what it used to be like. For that reason and because of the weather we didn’t linger long. Visited Currys on the way home to see how much it would cost for another desktop hard drive for photos. Easy answer, they didn’t have any. Also it seemed to be Union Meeting day with all the sales staff in a huddle round a table, presumably discussing something so important they couldn’t (be bothered to) help customers. And then they complain that on-line shopping is killing the High Street. Hamilton High Street is already dead and buried and the same is about to happen to the retail park.

Back home, a grab shot of some daffs on the doorstep produced an acceptable PoD. SoD topic was ‘Phone’. Since most mobile phones are simply featureless black slabs of glass and plastic, I thought I’d go back a decade and sketch our old house phone. Nice curves and rectangles. Somehow more soul than and Android/Apple glass slab.

We went dancing tonight in The Weavers in Condorrat. Not the biggest dance floor in the world and probably the strangest shape for one, being a distorted rhombus, Awkward to dance round. Especially so, if like me you are awkward to start with. Made a hash of the Foxtrot which we later put down to the teacher having cut a portion of it out to make it danceable in the space we had. Back home we went over the ‘figures’ again and sorted some of it out.

Tomorrow we’re intending going for the messages.

Another visit to the doc’s tomorrow – 18 February 2020

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Not another blood test this time.

Got a message to call the surgery and was given an appointment tomorrow with the nurse to discuss my results. They had a free spot at 8.40am! I bet they did, as far as I know they still have it, and they can keep it too. Do you really think I’m getting up at 7.30am to have breakfast then drive through the gathering school runs just to find out that the nurse is running late and doesn’t arrive until 9.30? I think not. There’s a reason that slot is free. It’s because nobody wants it. I’m going at a sensible 10am. When the nurses will all be in and the weans will be in school.

With that settled, I started my new book “The End of the World Survivors Club”. I started it, but it’s just not cutting it for me. Not as gripping as the first book, but that’s sometimes the way with the second book in a series, or even worse in a trilogy. Because, in the second book of a trilogy, you just know that nothing is going to happen. I may struggle on with this one, but I don’t think so. Sorry Hazy.

I think I spent most of the day getting the blog hammered out in Day One and then posting it online. There must be an easier way to do it than this, it’s just that I haven’t found it yet.

Scamp was feeling a little bit better today, but not well enough to go out for lunch. I don’t blame her. I foolishly went out to get some photos in St Mo’s and got caught in a sleet shower, arriving home soaked. Saw a Golden Eye, nothing to do with James Bond, everything to do with a black & white duck with, you’ve guessed it, golden eyes. Beautiful wee thing it was too. It was too far away to be a contender for PoD, that went to a couple of coots. I really do think they recognise my red jacket and associate that with the person who feeds them bread. As soon as they saw me they gently swam in for some food and I gave them the two slices of granary loaf I’d kept for them after I’d fed the greedy swans and mallards earlier.

Today’s prompt was ‘Tennis’. Like I wrote on Flickr, I don’t like football or golf. Probably a cardinal sin in Scotland. I don’t like tennis either. I just don’t do ball games. Table tennis is the only one I partly mastered.

Tomorrow after the nurse has shouted at me, Scamp and I may go out to lunch in Hamilton. Hopefully, lunch will be a curry.

Driving the ladies to town – 16 February 2020

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Today Scamp was off on her travels again. This time with her big sister to meet their wee sister.

The bus to Inverness was at 9.10am on Sunday, so we were up early. Out about 8.30 to pick up June then the drive through the wind and rain to Glasgow. Dropped them off at the Concert Hall and watched to make sure they were across the road safely and then drove back home for a restful day.

Didn’t actually do much with Storm Dennis thundering around the houses. I did manage to drive up to Tesco and buy myself a steak for dinner, then decided instead to make Chicken, Chorizo, Beans and Tomatoes. No recipe and no chicken, so I went for a walk to St Mo’s to see how high the water was and then do a detour to the local shops to get some chicken thighs. The water level in St Mo’s pond was fairly elevated, but not as high as I’d expected. The weather was actually quite decent, apart from the wind, but by the look of the clouds it wasn’t going to stay that way for long. Cut short the walk after I’d got my planned PoD which was an apple sitting on a rock. When I go out for a walk in the woods I usually take an apple. I eat about half of it and leave the rest somewhere conspicuous and it’s usually gone the next day. Deer, rabbits, squirrels and mice are all welcome to join in. Today that apple became PoD.

Walked back via the shops. No chicken thighs in the first shop, but that’s the benefit of having three grocery shops in a row. If you don’t find what you want in the first one, one of the others is sure to have it, and that’s what it was today. By the time I’d finished my last bit of shopping, the rain joined me for the walk back home.

Made what I think of as a chicken and chorizo stew and put it in the slow cooker to, well, cook slowly. Then finally produced yesterday’s sketch of Rooftops. Sort of from my imagination and also partly from photos I’d found of Robin Hood’s Bay. So that’s yesterday’s SoD done, but no time to attempt today’s topic of ‘Basket’. I really must get better organised.

Scamp seems to be enjoying the luxury of a night in an Inverness hotel with here sisters, while I eat chicken and chorizo stew. Actually it tasted quite good.

Tomorrow I’m intending going dancing by myself!

Recovery – 14 February 2020

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It was a wet day again and we were still in the grip of one weather system with the second waiting in the wings. Where’s the ‘warming’ in Global Warming. All I see is rain, wind and cold.

Scamp’s cold doesn’t seem to be lifting much. We both think it came about wandering around in a cold wind at the tower of London. Most of the day was spent in recovery mode, just trying to come to terms with the wet and windy weather we’ve been sheltered from down south.

I went for a walk across at St Mo’s. I couldn’t really be bothered, but it had to be done to comply with the new ruling that the 365 must continue. PoD is of green shoots. A sycamore seedling pushing up through the leaf litter. Maybe spring will push its way through the storm clouds some day soon.

Managed to clear the backlog of drawings and paintings for February with a fairly decent ‘Day at the Seaside’ painting which covered the Wave topic, followed by a dire black and white sketch for the ‘Light’ prompt.

That’s about all you can say about today, other than tomorrow will be better.

Parrots, Pizza and Reverse – 12 February 2020

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A strange mixture, but all in the correct order.

Last full day down south and my how the time has flown. All the things we were going to do and all the places we were going to see. Well we did do some of them and we did see some of them too. Today we were going to take Hazy to the garden centre, the same one Canute and Delia had taken us to, so I knew the route. We had some time to waste first, so I left Scamp to guard the house while I went for a walk in Horton Park.

Like I’ve said earlier, is a well kept park. Lots of little pathways going everywhere. Cycle tracks with obstacles to jump or ride over. Confusing signage which seems to point out five different ways to get to the same place, all in different directions and with different distances, and parrots! Well, actually they are parakeets, green ones that screech their way across the treetops, never coming close to the ground. Found lots of interesting little nicknacks all over the place. Rusted fenceposts that must have been pre-WW1. Little clearings in the woods and more parrots. I’d only been given an hour at most to investigate the woods, less than that once I’d navigated my way round a roundabout. Soon my phone was warning me that I’d used up half my time and it was now time to return to the house.

Managed to drive out the driveway and on to the road without hitting anything. For some reason the traffic was kind to me and allowed me a space to exit on to what is usually a very busy road. Followed the road Canute had taken and quickly found the garden centre without having to cross the standing water that had dogged his journey. Pizza in the garden centre is usually a must, but today it must have been the apprentice chef who was in charge, because when my buzzer announced its arrival from the oven, what I took charge of was a bit thin and scorched. I ate most of it. Scamp’s baked potato looked no better. Bought a few things then wheeled Hazy to the car and found out how to fold the wheelchair neatly into the boot. That’s when the trouble started.

We had to reverse out of the parking space, but every time I though I’d selected reverse, the car moved forward. I checked the gearstick to see if I had to lift the stick to select reverse, or push down on it, but neither of those was available, it was simply a case of push left, then forward … except that didn’t seem to work. Hazy even phoned Neil in Goa to find out if there was a magic word you had to use first, but he just confused me even more by saying that you moved the stick left, but kind of left and back, and then forward. If it had just been Scamp and I in the car I’d have started swearing then. If I had I’d have missed the sight of a beautiful bird, a Red Kite flying up out of a field across the road. I was half watching it the the stick slipped neatly into reverse and we were off again on our way. I was careful not to do anything stupid that necessitated reverse gear again until we arrived home and the passengers were safely in the house. Then I did the unforgivable. I read the manual. It said to use a dynamic movement to select reverse. More a curve left and forward, rather than two discrete movements. It worked like a treat. Now I saw what Neil had been describing. However, after I’d managed to get the car into the position it was in before we left, I got out, locked the door and walked away. I don’t think we’ll bother looking for a Mini as our next car.

PoD is one of the old pre-WW1 fenceposts.
SoD is a rose, using what I remembered from the technique I learned from an old man on a cruise a couple of years ago.

Spent the evening packing everything into two roll along cases one bag and a rucksack. Tomorrow we’re off home.

The Men in Red – 11 February 2020

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Today we went to the tower. Luckily we came back again.

Walk to the station. Train to Wimbledon (no Wombles again!). Underground to Earls Court. Change train for Tower Hill, and we’re there. Tower of London awaits.

Walked to the ticket office and got our tickets, concessions of course. Had our bags searched and joined the crowd for the first of many interesting and really entertaining bloodthirsty stories of the tower’s chequered history told by the Yeoman Warder in his black and red uniform (Don’t dare call it a costume!). Beheadings, stranglings, hangings and interments, they were all laid out in their gory glory. It was great fun. The only problem was the wind. It stole away any warmth in the sun and nearly blew away our Yeoman Warder’s hat. Poor bloke must have been chilled to the bone having to stand there and give his talks.

After our 45 minute tour we went in search of some coffee and possibly some soup to warm us. It was tomato and basil soup and it was very welcome. Next Scamp wanted to see the Crown Jewels. Now I’m not entirely convinced that what we saw were the actual Crown Jewels, but they were certainly impressive. As well as the Crowns, lots of them, Sceptres another bucket load and a cardboard box of Orbs, there were platters, plates, punch bowls (one big enough to use as a bath) and assorted cutlery and tableware. All behind glass and looking splendid, but how would I a non-expert be able to tell if they were real or fake? I reckon the real stuff is in a vault somewhere guarded by a dozen big Alsatians and a battalion of the SAS. The vault itself is on an island with a moat infested with crocodiles and the Loch Ness Monster’s wee brother. That’s where I’d put the Crown Jewels, not in a glass box for every Tom, Dick and Harry to gawp at. They weren’t even in the Tower itself. They were in a building across the road. The Tower is used to display all the guns, swords and assorted weaponry from down the ages. Interesting, but pointless these days. (Note: Some of the swords were definitely NOT pointless. They had very real points.). It was the tower that provided the PoD.

When we’d had our fill of riches and weapons and been told all the blood-thirsty stories, we took the trains back to Hazy’s and dinner. It was good to be somewhere warm after all that freezing wind.

Today’s prompt was ‘Burn’. My take on it was burning the candle at both ends. We all do it. We all think we’re getting away with it, but sooner or later, that plan of action will catch up with us.