Category: A Walk

Off the leash – 15 January 2026

Posted on by Zogman

There was a big cardboard box heading our way today.

The man handed over the big cardboard box which wasn’t quite as heavy as it looked. We put it on the table and gently sliced away its Sellotape binding and even more gently lifted the contents out with their wicker handle. Then we untied the bow and stripped away the cellophane covering to reveal a large basket which looked as if it was made completely of fruit. Strawberries, some dipped in chocolate, different kinds of sliced melons, grapes on sticks and pineapple flowers. All arranged beautifully and very fresh. WoW!!!

It wasn’t until later we realised everything was held on spikes that had been driven into a carved out cabbage to support them. Ingenious! Of course we had to sample all of them just to make sure they were real and they were they were also delicious. Thank you Jamie and Sim. A wonderful surprise and the fruit is just ripe too!

Scamp was expecting visitors, Annette and Shona who were both coming for a blether, so you can imagine they too were impressed with this basket of so many fruits. I drove off before the ladies arrived, leaving Scamp to present the goodies.

I was heading for Kincardine Bridge on the Fife side of the River Forth. I’d taken photos there before and was hoping for a decent day, but it wasn’t quite as good as I’d thought. A bit breezy and decidedly cool on the banks of the river there. I’d been there a few times and knew you sometimes just have to take what you get. I walked along the path beside the water and guessed the tide was still coming in. I went as far as the old pipeline and turned back. I had a bunnet on, but had left my Buff at home. Silly old fool. I had my photos for the day and thought I’d head home when my phone chirped. It was a message from yesterday’s optician to say my glasses were ready to uplift. It seemed a shame to drive home when I could add a few miles to the journey and pick up the glasses, so that’s what I did.

The glasses were fine, as I knew they would be, so I paid the assistant and did head home this time. I missed Shona who was off at yet another meeting. However, I did bump into Annette and as she was driving home, she left me a space to park in. Thank you Annette.

That was most of the excitement for the day. The photos were ok, but nothing special. The fruit however made an excellent dessert after our Potato, Bacon and Cabbage dinner. Would you believe it, Scamp chopped up the cabbage and cooked it to go with the potatoes and bacon. Waste not, Want not!

Thanks again, Jamie and Sim for a lovely Christmas surprise.

PoD was a view looking over to the Kincardine Bridge.

Tomorrow Scamp is off to the first FitSteps class of the year. I may go a photographing again if the weather is good.

Off to Larky – 14 January 2026

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The living room was a bit of a mess after yesterday’s dinner.

However, the dishwasher was already filled and now it was switched on while the remaining pots and dishes were washed by hand before we settled down to sort out those puzzles again.

We had a fairly gentle run over to Larkhall at midday. While Scamp went to get her eyes tested, I put in my order for a new pair of glasses.

With that done, I drove down to Millheugh only to find that the bridge was being repaired, but I did manage to find a parking space beside the river. This is the first time I’ve been down that way for, probably a year. Since the last time Scamp had her eyes checked.

The Avon Water was really surging over The Boards, the manmade dam that was only there to force some of the water to run through a sluice that would power the machines of the Bleach Fields where clothes and sheets were washed and pegged out to dry. None of that remains now, it’s all been excavated and is now a housing estate. I went for a walk along the side of the Avon and got some photos. That’s where today’s PoD came from. I was surprised to see that there was still quite a lot of ice still lying in the shadow areas of the grassy park. Wet, slippery ice that threatened to cause a nasty fall if you weren’t careful. I was fairly careful.

After I estimated Scamp should be finished in the optician’s I drove back up the long hill back to Larkhall. I was just parking when I saw Scamp coming towards me. Nicely timed S!

We both had meds to pick up in Cumbersheugh so we drove there, but not before we stopped at a wee cafe for lunch. We could argue that it was on our road home, but it’s a cheap and not too nasty ‘greasy spoon’ place we’ve been at before. The place was absolutely jumping!! It was just after 1pm and almost everyone there was ‘of an age’. Most had grey hair and they were all talking at once, with a couple of big dogs barking their comments too. Roll ’n’ Scrambled egg for Scamp. Roll ’n’ Flat Sausage for me washed down with two coffees. Lovely.

Drove from there straight over to Cumbersheugh, picked up the meds and a couple of bottles of milk and then home to find our parking space was still there!

Dinner tonight was Pasta with Tuna. It’s becoming a staple on a week day.

Scamp is hoping to meet Annette and maybe Shona tomorrow. I might be off the leash for the first time in a long while!

Still busy – 13 January 2026

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This time it was preparations for a dinner.

We were having Crawford and Nancy over for dinner tonight and that means we were cooking and baking almost all day. It certainly felt that way, anyway.

Scamp had the difficult job of preparing the starter, main and dessert. I had the fairly easy job of baking a loaf. Both Scamp and I were working in the kitchen at the same time. Sometimes that works out well, but at other times it’s a disaster with one of us (me) stomping off in a strunt. This was one of the better days. Scamp’s soup had been made the day before, so the starter was sorted, but the main which was Prawn and Pea Risotto was to be made when the visitors arrived to maintain the freshness this meal deserved. The pudding, like the starter, had been partly made the day before and been kept in the fridge overnight.

It was really a relaxed start, and we even had time for lunch and an attempt at the NY Times puzzles, before the real work would begin.

I started the bread early, because the last couple of loaves hadn’t been a great success, I was being ultra-careful this time. I measured out the flour, yeast, salt, butter and water carefully and kneaded the resulting dough for the required ten minutes until it was smooth and ready to be set aside for an hour to rise. That left me with very little to do, so with Scamp’s permission, I went for a walk in St Mo’s and although I found some possibilities, I couldn’t find anything worthwhile. I’d left St Mo’s almost empty-handed and walked down to the shops for some odds and ends and was coming back when a lovely sunset was starting to build. Three of four shots later I had my PoD.

Back home Scamp was putting the finishing touches to the trifle which would be tonight’s dessert. It did look nice … tempting too, but I restrained myself. She had also started the main course and was totally control as only Scamp can be. My bread was rising nicely and was ready for the second stage of Knocking Back where you punch all the air out of the dough, dust it with flour and put it into a special wicker basket to do its second prove.

I left the loaf for an hour before I baked it at about 35minutes at Gas Mark 7 (that’s just to remind me because otherwise I’d forget) and basically it came out perfectly.

An hour later the visitors arrived and Scamp completed her main course and we sat down to a late dinner.

Everything turned out as planned for once and after a lot of talking and laughter, Crawford and Nancy drove home and I realised I hadn’t offered Crawford a ‘wee dram’ since Nancy was driving. I hope he wasn’t too upset. I’ll make it up to him.

We basically shovelled everything into the dishwasher then and went to bed.

Tomorrow we’ll do the rest of the tidying up, because we’re driving over to Larkhall for Scamp to get her eyes tested, while I go for a drive.

I’m sure you know this was a catch-up blog post!

Busy day – 12 January 2026

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The morning was the relaxing part of the day. The rest was kind of busy.

I had a couple of very belated Christmas cards to write, just a catch-up with people I used to work with and cards that I’d put on the back burner too many times for my conscience. They were a bit of a scribble, but both were different and to totally different people, so both where written as opposed to battered out on a computer keyboard. With that done, I felt a lot better.

We drove to the Town Centre Tesco for Scamp to collect some messages for tomorrow’s dinner with Crawford and Nancy at our house. Another tick in another box. The third thing for today was my annual retinopathy check which seemed to pass without too many questions. Then we were free to drive home on a cold afternoon. The occasional splashes of rain driven by a cold wind that seemed to continually change direction.

Walked over to St Mo’s more for the walk than for any photos, but the rain kindly stayed away for the half hour I was there. I got a couple of shots. PoD went to desiccated hawthorn berries on almost bare branches.

A spot of lunch and then we were getting ready to go to the first weekday dance class of the year. Today’s class was Tango. Slightly different from our Saturday class, but well worth going to. Little things to pick up on, like crossing my foot behind, not in front of the other.

Back home we watched our usual Monday trio of puzzles and games. Then as I was trimming and twiddling with today’s photos I discovered there was a problem with a couple of day’s photos. Two hours the dulling of the first of our automatic lights announced that it was 11pm. Bed time was coming up fast.

That’s when I started writing the blog. The tangled wires and stuff in Lightroom will have to wait until tomorrow to be fixed. It’s a busy life us retired folk lead!

Tomorrow I’m going to be baker of bread. I’ll also be a helper for Scamp when she needs it. Another busy day then Crawford and Nancy are coming for dinner. More high jinks!

 

And then the rain came – 11 January 2026

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Finally the rain came today and washed away all the frost and a whole lot of the ice. Hopefully a fresh start.

It was a dull day. I don’t think I saw the sun today. Lunch was French Toast for both of us on thick-cut bread. Long time since we’ve thick-cut, and it was good.

I went for a walk round St Mo’s in the rain, just to get out of the house. I got a few shots that didn’t really impress me, and when I came home I chose instead to build a little garden for myself. I think it was Hazel who gave me the idea of a table-top. Instead of a loaf of bread as a subject, mine was a table-top garden.

One thing I did manage to do today was to create a link each for the A7c and the A7iii to record the GPS positioning digitally on the SD cards. I’ve struggled with this for what seems like years, but now I may have found the answer.  Hoping to write it up tomorrow for later access.

Spoke to Jamie in the evening and we picked his brains about carpet cleaners, the good ones and the problems with some of them. I think we’re settled on the fact that we do need one, especially for the living room, it’s just the plethora of them that overwhelms us as Carpet Cleaner Newbies!

Good to hear that Simonne is going to Italy for a training week. Some folk are just born lucky. Just back from Trinidad and she jets off to Italy. Hope you enjoy the trip, S.

We have high winds today, for the first time this year. Hope it fades away for morning.

No real plans for tomorrow, but Scamp wants to go shopping and I have an appointment with the docs for Eye Screening. I’d rather be in Italy, thanks!

Not Dancin’ – 10 January 2026

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We woke about 9am today. We needed to be on our way to Brookfield by 9.45am at the latest. We were both in agreement that it just wasn’t going to happen.

The cars were frosted and the icy paths were uninviting, so Scamp wrote the ‘Sorry, not today’ message to Stewart. We both rolled over and snatched another half an hour’s sleep before I made the breakfast.
I know, I know we should have got up dressed and snatched a breakfast before running out (careful not to slip) and defrosting the car, before driving over to Paisley … but we didn’t. Instead we watched the sun warm the paths and gradually remove some of the ice from the safety of the living room with a cup of tea and coffee.

Later I did go out for a walk in St Mo’s. There was clear evidence that the thaw was beginning to take effect. Where yesterday the ice was dry and capable of supporting the weight of a couple of daft teenagers, today was a different story. The ice was wet and around the edges of the pond there were cracks beginning to show. Although the ice was beginning to melt, the cold breeze was plenty cool enough to make it a single circuit of the pond for me.

Back home, Scamp was baking Viennese Shortbread in two batches. I lent a hand for the easy stuff like fetching and carrying the trays and greaseproof paper, but she did all the difficult stuff and after three, or was it four checks on how the baking was going, eventually she was satisfied with the results. I must admit the shortbread was very, very good. It will probably be gone in a flash.

One bad thing today was my 16-35mm lens started screeching when it was being asked to focus on any faraway subject, and most of my subjects are faraway ones. I’m beginning to suspect a bit of grit or dust has found its way into the gubbins (technical term). That means it’s dead. Pity. I hadn’t really used it very much, but it did good work for a while. I doubt if I’ll miss it or replace it, but I was going to sell it just before Christmas. The moral of the story is: “He who hesitates is lost” and I lost.

Today’s photo was a Nettle looking a bit down in the mouth. The contre-jour lighting and the out of focus Bokeh lifted it enough to get PoD.

I’ve a backlog of letters to write to a few folk. Hopefully I’ll get them written and posted tomorrow.

 

Spending money – 9 January 2026

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Out this morning looking for a new cordless vacuum.

Our Dyson wasn’t running at its best and even after we fitted a new battery, the charge didn’t last all that long. Certainly nothing like the life I would expect from a Dyson.

We drove to Currys at Coatbridge which was the nearest place with a reasonable array of vacuums … except, they didn’t have any Dyson’s on display. Probably the most common vacuum cleaner on the planet, but they didn’t have enough room to display them. Apparently, and this is the story that came from one of the sales assistants,  Dyson demand payment from Currys to have their vacuums on display. It sounds a bit unbelievable, but that is what we were told. Strangely the same assistant told us we could see the Dyson range in Uddingston a few miles away. We ended up bringing home a Shark instead. It seemed to work just as well as a Dyson did, but was a bit lighter and hauled a great amount of dust in the time we used it. So who was the Shark? Dyson or Shark? I expect we’ll find out in the coming months!

While we were out, we did cast our eye over the carpet cleaners in Currys. I don’t think either of us were intending to buy one today, but we did have a look around. Some were big, some were small, some looked like they’d need a whole room all to themselves to be stored in. Maybe some of the bigger ones would fit in a small garage. I just wonder what colour the carpet in the living room would turn out to be if we used one over a weekend!

Back home and after we’d had lunch I took a walk over St Mo’s to see how the land was lying. A group of four or five teenagers were standing on the frozen pond, bashing away at the ice with metal bars. Maybe they were intending to ice hole fishing, like Eskimos or Inuits. I took some photos of them standing in the middle of the pond. The stupidity of some folk beggars belief. I’d imaging your lifespan if you fell through the ice would be measured in minutes.

I walked down to the shops and came back with some grapes, some sticky buns and a nice piece of rump steak. Most of the foregoing was for Scamp, but the steak was for me.

Dinner was a ‘small fish supper’ each. Delicious.

PoD turned out to be a photo of a boardwalk with little bunches of ice crystals spreading out from the gaps. Not great, but good enough for a cold icy and at times misty day.

Tomorrow I believe we are booked in for a lesson in dance at Brookfield. The first dance class in over a month. I’m glad now that we had a practise session yesterday at Glenburn.

Back in the land of the living – 7 January 2026

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After yesterday’s aches and pains, today was a much more pleasant day, thank goodness.

In the morning we drove to Tesco for some shopping, more shopping than we’d anticipated, but when we got home we discovered that the new freezer held a lot more than we’d expected.

After lunch, Scamp went for a walk in the garden and found the first Snowdrops had appeared. I think that January 4th is quite early for these delicate looking flowers, but it was good to see growth appearing in the garden. Scamp went for a walk around both front and back gardens and found more little green spikes appearing.

Even later in the afternoon I went for a walk in St Mo’s and although I didn’t find any snowdrops, I did get some interesting skies with planes creating jet trails through air that must have been almost as cold as the frozen St Mo’s pond! Neither the planes, nor the jet trails got PoD. That went to a photo taken in the house, as a test shot for a very old Olympus 40-150mm, f4-5.6 lens. Old Glass, although it felt like Old Plastic. Not much, if any metal in its construction, but beautiful quality results. That was today’s PoD and its title was Our Daily Bread.

Back home it was my turn to cook and today it was an old favourite for us, Chicken and Pea Traybake. Just set it up and let the oven do all the rest of the work. In addition, and since the oven was on anyway, I roasted some tomatoes, a leek and a couple of onions. That should make the basis for tomorrow’s dinner if all goes well.

That was about it for today. Not a lot done, but much more than yesterday. Hoping to go dancing tomorrow if the weather plays nice and doesn’t bring us some snow, which is possible. We’ll wait and see!

Dentist – 5 January 2026

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A morning visit to the dentist. On a cold day too, Minus 7ºc.

First I had to de-ice the car both outside and inside. Everyone in our street seemed to be doing it and complaining about the weather as we scrubbed and scraped. Thankfully I’ve got a good screen heater that works really well and didn’t take very long with to thaw the car out.

Drove over to Condorrat and got taken fairly quickly. I think I had three impressions made with that strange soft blue gum stuff they use, then after being ‘numbed up’ with the big syringes the dentists use, she drilled out the temporary filling I’d had. Totally painlessly too. Then a 1mm run round the diameter of the little stubby pillar where a tooth used to be, before Donna the Dentist made and fitted a temporary crown for me. I think it makes me a Lord or a King or something when I’m given a Crown.

A cup of tea back home provided the heat required to thaw my gum where the injection was still keeping it numb. It really didn’t take very long at all for me to be able to eat a bowl of soup for lunch. Good soup Scamp!

The sun was still shining so I risked a walk in St Mo’s. I’d left enough time for it to cast a light through the trees without it being too bright and after wandering around and not finding anything interesting, I managed to get the shot I was looking for. I was pleased with it and it made PoD.

Dinner was another variation on Pasta with Tuna. This one was a bit spicy, (too much chilli flakes) but a better amount of Balsamic Vinegar. Still experimenting.

Tomorrow I hoping to meet up with Alex and get some street photos. Hopefully there will be no snow for us.

Another really cold morning – 4 January 2026

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The temperature when we woke this morning was -5.7ºc which is brrrrr very cold!

We decided we’d wait a wee bit before we began taking down the decorations and lights, just to make sure everything was packed away before Twelfth Night which will be on Monday. It’s deemed unlucky to have your decorations up after then. But first, there was coffee to make and puzzles to complete and anyway, we weren’t in a hurry because we weren’t going anywhere special.

Once Scamp started to remove the decorations, I followed suit and volunteered to remove the outside lights on the fence and Jamie’s Tree. Both of them had performed really well in the freezing cold weather of the past week. The next task was to remove the indoor lights and sort the batteries into ‘Still Good’ and ’Not Worth Keeping’. Meanwhile Scamp was in charge of dismantling the Christmas Tree and packing it away for another year, and my next task was untangling the cables for the inside and outside lights. By lunch time we were almost there. I’m glad I wrote this because I just realised I’d left out a wee Christmas Tree Scamp gave me a few years before I retired. Couldn’t leave the poor wee thing out. It’s safely tucked away in a drawer in my room.

I got today’s PoD in the garden. The water buckets were full and now frozen solid, and yesterday I thought I might bring Katy back and give her a chance to do some skating on the frozen ice of the buckets. She performed perfectly and still looks good!

I went for a walk after lunch, just my usual tramp across St Mo’s and back again. However I wondered if I could get a shot of that damselfly shuck I found yesterday. I knew it was a needle in a haystack and didn’t really think I’d ever find it among the withered wind flower husks, but there it was! I took some photos and recorded the GPS position of it just in case I chance to go looking for it again.

Dinner was a rather tough beef stew for me and finely sliced potatoes and fennel bulb baked in the oven with cream and cheese for Scamp. It sounded wonderful and the smell from it was equally good, but Scamp wasn’t impressed with the outcome. I think she may attempt it again fairly soon.

Spoke to Jamie and heard all about their working fortnight in Trinidad, securing Jaime’s house and getting money sorted out for when the house goes onto the renting market. It all sounds like a nightmare, but it looks like the hard work has been done. I hope so for everyone’s sake.

Tomorrow I’m off to the dentist to have an impression of one my teeth taken for a crown. Doesn’t that sound like fun?