Category: A Walk

Scrambling Plants – 19 October 2026

Posted on by Zogman

We were out fairly early today, taking more unwanted stuff to the Council Tips. If this goes on much longer, we’ll be on first name terms with the men, (it’s only men work at the tip), who tell you where to put your black bag contents. Having said goodbye to today’s lot, we drove over to Stirling, and Waitrose.

We’d promised ourselves that we’d go to Waitrose Soon, but too many things got in the way and Soon just got forgotten. Today we made good on that promise. Monday turned out to be a good day to go to the shops. There weren’t too many shoppers to get in our way and the folk who restock the shelves had done a good job refilling them in time for us to fill our trolleys. With a bulging trolley’s worth of a host of food and a few drinks, we filled the boot of the Blue car.

Scamp reminded me that we had discussed dropping by Majestic Wines on our way home. We hadn’t been in that shop for years and we found that it was an interesting place to go. A host of bottles of every kind of wine were stacked in the shop. We were like two kids in a toy shop. We finally settled on four bottles, that should keep us going for the rest of the week, then, next week we’d do it all again. I think the poor wee Blue car wondered what was happening. First half of Waitrose ended up in the car, then, when it thought we were heading home, the Humans lobbed another case of wine into the boot!

Back home and after a late lunch, Scamp settled herself at the piano and I went for a walk in St Mo’s. It was good to see Scamp playing again. The piano has been too quiet for too long. Good to see it producing music again.

I walked round St Mo’s, and by the time I was going home, the light was failing, it had started out as a dull day and it wasn’t getting any brighter now. At the start of my walk I got a few decent shots of Purple Vetch plants hauling themselves up an old branch and marvelled at their ability to seek out supports to use for climbing. The Purple Vetch made PoD.

Watched the usual trilogy of puzzle games on BBC tonight and I managed to get some of them right for a change. Quite pleased with myself.

No plans for tomorrow yet, but I’m sure something will need done!

Autumn – 18 October 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Today was one of those wonderful autumn days with leaves falling from the trees and a crisp feel to the weather. A good day to be out and about. At least, it was good to be out if you were well wrapped up. When I got up this morning, the temperature was telling me it was 0ºc outside. Thankfully the heating had clicked on an hour before me, and for that I was very glad.

By the time we’d finished our breakfast, the sun was shining through the trees and those trees were thawing with steam rising from them. It was quite delightful, especially if you were inside looking out!

I spent most of the day looking for a connector for my old MiniDisk. I knew I’d seen somewhere recently. A connector that would allow me to play some of my ancient collection of MiniDisks. After about half an hour I found the little black tube that would take an AA battery and power the MiniDisk. It actually worked at the first try. I really should have two MiniDisk drives, but neither Scamp nor I could lay our hands on the other one. I’m pretty sure I can find it if I really need it.

Because we had been searching in cupboards and drawers, Scamp decided this would be a great time to gather up some hardware that I no longer needed. Between the two of us we separated most of that hardware into those that would be useful to keep and those that would be going in the skip. The Useful articles were soon outweighed by the ones heading to the Council skip. That means that tomorrow will probably involve one or two runs to the “Small Household” area of the tip.

Scamp made a lovely Fish Pie or Smoked Haddock Dauphinoise if you want the posh name!
While she was hard at work with the Fish Pie, I went for a walk over to St Mo’s and got a pretty shot of the late afternoon sun shining through the trees. That was the PoD sorted.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard about his plans for Christmas. It’s only October, but he likes to be organised.

Tomorrow if we get the black bags organised and off into the tip, we may go shopping.

Dancin’ – 17 October 2026

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Late getting out today, partly because it was cold. Ice on the car windscreen is never a welcome sight!

We drove to Brookfield to a busy class. The first dance, if you can call it that, was the Rhumbumbumba. I’d tried it last night and, with Scamp’s help, I could stumble through the routine. I knew the ‘real’ version was a lot faster, but I just couldn’t keep up with this manic monstrosity. Halfway through the routine I made my exit to the toilet and didn’t come out until the ‘music’ had stopped!

I put the Rhumbumbumba behind me and attempted the October Waltz. It was a lot more reserved and slower in places but quite twisting and turning. I managed to get through most of it with a lot of help from Scamp. I was beginning to think I’d lost this one too, but there was a glimmer of light at the end of this tunnel that gave me some confidence that all was not lost!

Jive was next and it was a combination of the Bowtie, Spanish Arms and the Mooch! No, I’ve never heard of these dances, either, but some of them were remarkably like Glasgow Jive routines we’d learned from a previous teacher an also there was a hint of Salsa in there too, so basically, I felt I was on safer ground.

The final routine was an X-Line Tango. We had learned it from the TV when we were in Lockdown, all those years ago. We used to be quite good at it, even if I say so myself. Of course the routine had been changed since then, but the basic dance was the same. By the end of the class I was feeling confident of two of the dances. That’s a pretty good average for me!

We drove home and after lunch, Scamp was hoping to get the front grass cut, but a heavy dew was taking a long time to dry out and eventually she gave up on it. I went for a walk over to St Mo’s and got a few decent photos on, what was a lovely day. My favourite, and PoD went to a Dogwood bush (Cornus alba) that just glowed in the sunshine. The brown seeds of the Yellow Flag Iris were coming into their proper weird shapes that looked like worms, so I took some photos of them too. The photos will become useful for those days when it’s raining or if I can’t see anything worth photographing. It’s always good to have a fall back.

We watched Strictly and although some of the dancers were worth watching, a lot of them seemed to have lost their interest. Maybe Christmas pantos and shows are dragging some of the contestants away.

No plans for tomorrow, but the grass will still be needing cut!

We went Dancin’ – 15 October 2026

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I had a few problems to work through in the morning, but between Scamp and me we got them fixed.

The problem solving meant that I had very little time to get ready to go to Glenburn for today’s Tea Dance. Scamp’s new haircut got a lot of positive comments from all the Tea Dancers. Why does she get all the praise? Nobody even notices it when I ‘waltz in’ with a new short back and sides! Actually they probably do notice, but turn away, hoping not to embarrass me.

It was the usual mix of dances. Waltz to start with, then a Cha-Cha, followed by a Rumba. With the occasional sequence dance thrown in to take us up to tea time. Lots of chatter because of Scamp’s haircut again and time for the guys in the room to have a blether.

We danced another mixed selection of dances in the second half. Scamp was being careful to keep a weather eye on the clock, but we’d forgotten that the children wouldn’t be at school this week, so we could be selective with our choice of dances.

We eventually exchanged our dance shoes for outdoor wear and drove out of Glenburn.

The traffic in the morning had been fairly heavy, but I made a bad choice of route home and got caught up in an even heavier collection of homeward bound workers. That meant about an extra half hour of driving in stop-go traffic. However we did eventually clear it and arrived home just a little bit late.

I went for a walk to the shops after we got home and that’s where I found today’s PoD which is Bindweed growing through some bushes. Pretty looking white flowers, but I wouldn’t want them in my garden. They are extremely invasive plants, and are difficult to eradicate.

Tomorrow we may go out for a run somewhere.

Grey Heron – 13 October 2026

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Saw a Grey Heron hiding in the pond at St Mo’s.

I just missed a couple of heavy rain showers today. It was a rushed day. We drove to Falkirk to get a new carpet for the kitchen. That was the high point. Once Scamp had chosen the size, colour and pattern of the carpet, we paid for it and drove back home again. One new carpet in, as another went out. I don’t know how old that ancient carpet was, but it disappeared into the skip at the Council Tip today.

One brightener of the day was seeing a Grey Heron in the shallows of the pond at St Mo’s. I managed to get a few shots of the bird before it spotted me and flew off. The one shot I got was just a ‘lucky’. As it turned out, it was the only shot of the bird I got before it flew away. It’s a couple of years since I’ve seen a member of Mr Grey’s family. I hope I didn’t scare this one away completely and he/she returns to the pond soon. The heron made PoD.

We drove over for dinner with Crawford & Nancy in Larky. It’s been a long time since we could all meet together and we really enjoyed the blether. We talked so much we forgot about time and didn’t leave Larky until just before midnight. We’ll suffer for it tomorrow.

No plans for tomorrow.

What a dull day – 12 October 2026

Posted on by Zogman

I don’t believe the sun got out of bed today.

For once I was up fairly early today, waiting for The Gates of Midnight to land on the carpet. It actually did arrive quite soon afterwards. I was a bit disappointed at the state of this ‘new book’, but then, after some research, I found that the soft, seemingly hand cut look was what the author had intended. I’m glad I got the hardback version or I would have missed the hand-made effect! No, I haven’t started it yet, Hazy. I might start it later tonight.

Scamp had realised she’d forgotten to replant one of her Heuchera plant (Lime Marmalade) yesterday, so she managed to get it split into four parts and divided them up round the garden. I’m sure she felt better for that, especially because it didn’t rain while she was out. After that it was the usual start to the day with a cup of coffee and the puzzles, we had lunch which was toast and beans, mainly because the beans were just passed their sell-by date and it seemed a shame not to use them. Scamp had wanted to go for a walk in the morning, probably a walk round Colzium Estate, but on checking I realised the rain had started and neither of us wanted to go for a walk in the rain. The rain seemed to be on a start/stop routine, because it couldn’t decide whether to go for the full rain option or for the drizzle. It settled for the drizzle.

We eventually walked down to the Shops for bread and stuff. Just essentials, because we were walking, not driving. On the way back, Scamp took the shopping bag and told me to go and have a walk round St Mo’s and that’s what we did. I went for a walk round the pond and she carried the ‘Messages’ home.

PoD went to  spider looking for food to fill its larder.

There wasn’t much to see in St Mo’s today. The swans came over to see if I’d anything worth eating, and then left when they realised there was no food to be had. There were lots of spiders on all the trees and desiccated branches and one of them got PoD. After that I just made my way back home. By about 4pm, the little light there was had disappeared and we amused ourselves by searching for a new kitchen carpet to replace the old charred one that’s way past its useful date.

We may go looking for a replacement kitchen carpet tomorrow. That has to be a better plan than today’s.

Triffids – 9 October 2026

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A day of mixed weather, but mainly rain.

It seemed that every day I put my boots on to go for a walk, the clouds would be waiting, massing on the horizon go drop some water on me. Eventually I gave up and walked out anyway. But first I had a Pizza to make.

I’d promised to make the pizza halfway through the week, but I managed to avoid the work every day … until today. I had most of the ingredients already just waiting for a chance to make a mess. I used an old recipe I’d had for years. I carefully measured the Olive Oil, Flour, Salt and Water. According to the recipe it would take ten minutes to knead the dough, but for some reason mine took about twice that. It did look nicely smooth without lumps by the time I was finished. I left it to rise for the required hour and guessed that would give me just enough time to do a walk round St Mo’s. I was just finishing the walk and on the way home when the rain started. Nicely timed.

The dough was rising nicely when I got back and I flattened it down to clear the air bubbles and left it to do its second prove and got the topping sorted out. Just some tomatoes a handful of chopped chicken and some tuna, with a blob of Burrata cheese. Gas was on and heating to gas 7/8 and we were ready for assembly. I reckoned 10 minutes would be a good starting point for baking, with the possibility of another 10 mins if needed. In the end it took nearer 30 mins total to bake it enough.

Thankfully, although the base was a bit wet, it all held together and most important of all, it was edible!

Scamp says I should make a smaller one next week to see if that improves it! My response is “How can you improve on Perfection?”!

PoD went to an indoor shot as the weather wasn’t going to play nice, and it was a pair of Sarracenia plants, Pitcher Plants sitting in the kitchen before I started baking the pizza. Otherwise they would have swallowed the pizza whole. Very hungry plants. They are not called ’Triffids’ for nothing. Always count your fingers after touching them.

Tomorrow we may go out for lunch.

A walk in the park – 8 October 2026

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Today we caught the bus rather than the car.

It was a lovely morning, very cold in the morning with a temperature in single figures and just the hint of ice on the hardy plants in the back garden. Brrr, winter’s just around the corner.

We were just in time to catch a bus that would take us to the town centre. About fifteen minutes later we caught the bus to Dunfermline. Walked round the gardens of Pittencrieff Park and then found the big greenhouses that we enjoyed so much were closed, likely for good, by the look of things. We had hoped that they might have been repaired since the last time we’d walked through the park, but it looked as if nothing had been done in the last couple of months. This looks like the People’s Palace in Glasgow all over again. No money and no desire to do anything about it. Don’t get me started on it again!

When we walked round the park we passed a couple, possibly just a wee bit older than us walking hand in hand. I couldn’t resist a quick photo of the pair. It wasn’t until we got home I noticed their feet were synchronised in the photo! PoD sorted out.

We walked back up the hill and out of the park after Scamp had a good look at the flower garden. We usually go for lunch at Wetherspoons, but today, just for a change I suggested we go to a local place. It wasn’t busy, in fact it was us and a couple of guys who were reminiscing about past glories. Scamp had a Mushroom Risotto and I had a Pizza Marinara. Both washed down with a glass of house red. It didn’t cost a fortune, but it was good to go somewhere quiet for a change.

The down side of today was waiting for the bus that would take us home. I think we just missed a bus, and it was a bit of a wait for the next one. We were ‘entertained’ by a trio of noisy weans who were definitely on something. Quite what, I wasn’t interested in, just as long as they didn’t get on our bus. They didn’t.

Next we got caught in a loooong tailback from repairs that seem to be taking far too long to complete. They should have been finished about a year ago, but were still dragging on.

The final problem was a bus that arrived late at the Town Centre and promptly broke down. We gave up and managed to catch another one that took us a round about journey round Condorrat, but eventually dropped us off near the door.

Other than that, it was a good day. Scamp got a cardigan or two and I got a new pair of corduroys. So we both came home with “A Toy Off The Rack” if you remember that!

No plans for tomorrow so far!

Today was a bright shiny day for a while – 7 October 2026

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Scamp was out for coffee with Isabel, but I had far too much to do to go waltzing over to Costa.

Today I’d set my target on getting the 2026 September photos sorted out. I wanted to make sure that each of the photos had a Yellow or Red or Grey Tag:

A Yellow tag (Yellow means OK, but not great.)
A Red Tag (Red means excellent.)
A Grey Tag (Grey means rejected.)

Some had, some hadn’t, but most had a tag of some colour.

Then I noticed that the 2026 August photos hadn’t been tagged, so I started from them and worked up to the September photos. Some of the August photos were a bit mixed up, but most of the September ones were in the correct place.

With that done, I could delete all the rejected photos and concentrate on getting the August and September lot into some form of order on my external SSD.

Big, Deep, Breath for the next stage which was to chuck out the 2025 photos which were languishing in a very large Cache on the SSD. I’d read a bit about it and it seemed that I could remove most of these old redundant files. Heart in mouth, I deleted one year’s photos … and nothing went bang!

It all worked. I thought it worked too simply, but after leaving it for a while and coming back to it. Everything I’d planned worked. I don’t know how that happened, but it did.

Success!

That probably means nothing to you, but it meant my SSD experiment worked.

I tried to explain what I’d done, when Scamp returned, but I did see the MEGO (My Eyes Glaze Over) effect on her face.

For the remainder of the day, we went shopping and I went for a walk in St Mo’s. That’s where I saw a yellow leaf trying to hide behind a tree and that fitted the PoD prompt right away.

I might go to bed early tonight. I’ve got a sore back, partly due to the stress of working my way through about 600 photos.

Visiting the Kelpies – 6 October 2026

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The lighting was good today and it seemed a shame to waste it.

We drove over to Helix Parkwhere the Kelpies live. For once it was a lovely day, a little bit cool, but nothing my Rab jacket couldn’t cope with. We went in what Scamp calls the “wrong way round”. That means we crossed the Forth & Clyde canal and walked clockwise to reach the great beasts. It’s a totally different view you get from this direction. One worth trying if you’ve never been there before.

Unfortunately the wind was from the North West so the smell from the sewage works was just a wee bit overpowering. Typical Scotland. Design and build a beautiful pair of statues and position them right next to a sewage works and a line of pylons. That’s what the people want to see and smell apparently!

The tea shop was a bit overcrowded when we went there for a scone and a cup of coffee, but we did get a seat which was better than I thought it was going to be. Then we wandered round the ‘souvenirs’ on display in the shop. Most of it a bit overpriced, but lots to look at.

We drove from Helix Park across to Klondyke Garden Centre looking for some plants to brighten up the garden. There were lots on display and of course the inevitable Christmas toys and books. Well, at least it was October and the nights were drawing in! Scamp and I found a couple of plants that looked as if they would inject some much needed colour to the garden. I managed to find a Sarracenia (Pitcher Plant). I hadn’t seen one for ages. I think my last one didn’t like the hot weather we had during the summer. This one looked quite small, but fairly healthy.

Drove home and logged 40,000 on the way back.

Dinner was a baked potato with prawns in a Mary Rose dressing. I’d meant to make a pizza, but didn’t have the time by the time we got home.

PoD went to one of the Kelpies, backlit and with a tiny starburst shining through it.

No plans for tomorrow. Alex has his apron on and is looking after Carol while she recovers from a new knee op. So no photos for us.