Category: A Walk

Back to the grind – 28 September 2026

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Back from a quick holiday to Jersey that we both enjoyed.

I made a suggestion to Scamp while we were on our short break. We really do need to do some tidying around the house, especially in the living room and we both agreed that it needs a fair bit of work. Today we took the first steps to do the first clean up.

I tackled a four shelf cupboard that has been sitting in a corner for almost as long as I can remember. It holds a load of stuff, but to be honest, has outlived its usefulness. Shelf one was the hard one. I knew it would be and most of it is now in a black bag ready to go to the skip.
Tomorrow we should be able to cut through the remainder of the clutter, and after that we just need to disassemble the frame. Some of the contents will stay, but not nearly as much as we had.

While I was starting to empty the cupboard, Scamp was working her way through music books galore, more cookery books than we have looked at in years and magazines, I was amazed at the amount of foody magazines that really should have gone ages ago. We were both working and making changes. It’s amazing just how much in this house is simply clutter.

I got out for a walk in the afternoon in the sunshine while Scamp was deciding what dinner was going to be. I got a few shots over at St Mo’s and the best one was a deep pink Antirrhinum trying to squeeze its way through a wooden fence. That was PoD.

Tomorrow will hopefully be much like today, but with a bit more effort from me at least. There are more plans for other areas on the ground floor that also need tidying!

Hazel Nuts – 20 September 2026

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Today it the first day I’ve seen Hazel Nuts on a tree, in Scotland.

Ignoring the “Fnarr, Fnarr – Oo er Matron!!” group, I’m talking about the seeds of the Hazel tree (Corylus avellana). We don’t get all that many growing around here, so this was a great surprise to me. Hopefully it’s the beginning of more trees round our local pond.

There wasn’t much to do today, with sunshine for a short while, closely followed by rain showers. We didn’t go far, and relied on getting things done at home.

I did manage to get a walk around the pond, and that was where I found the Hazel trees. A very few people out walking. Just a usual Sunday.

PoD went to the Hazel nuts.

Tomorrow I may go out and get my hair cut. That would at least mean I’d achieved something, if I’m successful …!

Seed Heads – 19 September 2026

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Cow Parsley seed heads I found on today’s walk around one of the Cumbersheugh ponds.

It was a dull day. Dull and windy too. We drove over to Brookfield for the Saturday dance class, only to find that the bowling club had the run of the place without mentioning to the time allocated to the dance class had been reduced by a third. It would have been helpful if the bowling club had the decency to tell us the class time had been reduced. Maybe we should have complained to the mayor or lord provost or some such personage. We dancers seem to lose our place against the might of Brookfield’s bowling club. They should be reminded that we, too have a right to use the facilities. We pay for them too!

Actually I quite enjoyed the early finish to the afternoon. I quite enjoy most of the dancing, but Bumbarumba or whatever it’s called isn’t my idea of a dance. It’s a bit of a shambles if you ask me. Most of the folk were struggling to keep in touch with this attempt at a dance. Too fast for some and not exciting enough for others. I’m with the ‘Too Fast’ group.

A quick reprise of the quickstep was very useful and we both managed it. I struggled, as usual, but Scamp just ran through it as if it wasn’t there. That’s the difference between her and me. I struggle to remember these dances, Scamp has them on-tap, so to speak.

We drove home choosing to take the Clyde Tunnel to avoid the delays that usually appear if we try the dreaded Kingston Bridge route. Today it was an easy rung home for a change. I don’t know if that was due to a lighter load of vehicles on the motorway or just a ‘Lucky’ with the extra half hour. Whatever, it worked!

Good to hear from Alex that Carol has arrived home again after her operation on her knee. Hope it sorts itself out quickly Carol.

Today’s PoD went to a Cow Parsley head I saw in St Mo’s. Just because it looked interesting.

Tomorrow we may be packing bags,

Four wheels on my wagon – 18 September 2026

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Well, actually eight wheels if I’m going to be pedantic!

Scamp and I drove up to the town centre to have a blether with Isabel. Costa was cool as usual with the chance of a gale blowing through it at any given moment. The place was crowded as usual on a Friday with weans and their parents. Spoiled screaming toddlers wanting things, any things, just wanting! Scamp seems to be able to zone out these annoyances, but I can’t. One day I might manage to work out how she does it. Anyway, we stayed for the usual hour and a half in this cold cafe before Isabel felt she had to go for a walk round the shops. She went one way and we went another.

Scamp and I were looking for a reasonably priced and a suitably sized cabin case to take on holiday, when we get round to going on holiday. The cases seem to come in three sizes: Small, Medium and Enormous. I was looking for a small, but ended up with a medium. One of the new fangled eight wheeler cases that everybody seems to have these days. After some research it seemed that the one I chose could be squeezed into an EasyJet frame. However, I don’t think it would fit in a Ryanair frame. I think an empty is the size that Ryanair would countenance. So, we think our bags/cases will fit. All we need now is a holiday to go with them.

It was a dull day today, with lots of showers and squally rain. In the afternoon I went for a walk to the shops to get the requirements for tonight’s dinner which was a very old favourite, Cod and Prawns with Fennel and White Wine. It’s a bit fiddly to make, but once you make it a couple of times it all becomes fairly simple. Today’s was very nice, even if I say so myself, although Scamp thought the cod needed more salt. I couldn’t see it myself, but I knew there was salt and pepper in the mixture. Sometimes that changes the taste for you. Strange but true.

It was good to get out for a while, even if I didn’t get any photos. Instead, I found a photo from earlier in the and after some jiggery pokery, it became a new photo. Funny that 😉.

Tomorrow we’re intending to go dancing at Brookfield.

Umbrellas – 15 September 2026

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It was a cold day today. There was a gusty wind blowing and also I hadn’t bothered to wear my rain jacket. At my age, I should have known better.

I went out for a walk in the afternoon. It was just going to be a short walk round St Mo’s pond and I was sure I could get round without getting too wet. There wasn’t much to see on the walk, but the occasional light through the trees gave enough interest for a few shots. It wasn’t until I was heading back and passing the kids playpark that I saw the Umbrella. Probably a child’s toy umbrella that they’d dropped into one of the swings on the way home. Anyway, there wasn’t anyone around so I took the opportunity to take a couple of shots (or 33 to be more exact). My favourite one, and PoD, was the one you see here.

When I got home, three different letters dropped through our letterbox. Three different letters from three different people who were giving the details for Scamp’s procedure which is now booked. Why we need three different experts to each send slightly different official letters, I don’t know. I can only say that we’re definitely going now.

I did a bit of sewing today. An old peg bag that holds clothes pegs had fallen apart a few weeks ago and I’d promised to fix it. Scamp had repaired it years ago and it worked well until a different row of stitching on the other side of the bag fell apart. I set to this afternoon and stitched both sides (Belts and Braces!). Hopefully that should keep it in good working order for a few years.

Scamp is out with The Witches tomorrow and I’m tidying up my room.

Gardening – 13 September 2026

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Scamp wanted to get the grass cut today.

We hadn’t cut the grass properly for ages and today looked like being a decent day, so the strimmer and the mower were brought out. Scamp worked through the rough stuff at the edge of the front grass with the strimmer, while I moved the pots on to the path. Then she started on the main area of the grass and I wrapped up the strimmer. It all sounds a bit shambolic, but it does work. Once everything was done and cleaned, we stashed both the cutters away in their place in the cupboard.

While Scamp had a coffee, I went for a walk over to St Mo’s still keeping to the paths just in case any little nasties were lying in wait. On the boardwalk there were quite a lot of dragonflies circling each other and I did manage to get a few shots. I thought one of them would have made PoD, but after looking through the final shots, the winner went to a little spider wrapping up its lunch.

Back home Scamp started dinner which was an old favourite. Prawn and Pea Risotto. Quite delicious.

Spoke to Jamie later in the evening and Scamp gave him the full explanation of last week’s visit to Dundee.

The Old Farm – 09 September 2026

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It’s actually an old ruined farm that gets more ruined every day.

Scamp was out in Glasgow with Shona. I stayed home to ‘get some work done’. As usual, the real work was put on the back burner and I got nothing practical done. However, I did manage to get out to Fannyside to take some photos. The lighting was good and the low sun helped. I was quite pleased with the result.

Not long afterwards I got a message from Scamp to say they were having coffee in Glasgow before they came home. I hadn’t realised time was getting on and drove over to Croy station to pick up the ladies. Dropped a message to Scamp to say that I was parked up at the station, only to find that it was the NEXT train they would be on, after me taking all the short cuts I could think of.

Today I was making dinner and it was to be Salmon with Pasta and Fresh Baby Spinach, but I dropped the pan that was holding the salmon and, of course it went over everything. I don’t think Scamp was very pleased.

Just one of those days.

Into the distance – 8 September 2026

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Tuesday morning and we were visiting Ninewells hospital in Dundee.

It was a sunny morning with a mist over the River Tay.

We took a taxi to the hospital where Scamp had an MRI and CT scan this took over an hour. Time for a quick coffee and then a meeting with the consultant and the surgeon.

Forty five minutes later we left with a positive state of mind.

A spot of lunch and the bus home.

Crocosmia and Coffee – 6 September 2026

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Not a very promising day for weather.

It felt like the rain was ready to start at any minute. I didn’t have much hope of getting out, but as usual, I live in hope.

Shona was staying with us for the weekend and it felt like she really needed the rest. While Scamp and I were up fairly early, she took almost the whole morning to break surface. We were agreed that she probably needed the rest.

I turned on the new coffee machine later in the morning and it performed exactly as Scamp and the bloke from JL had described it. In no time at all I was holding a full coffee cup of the dark strong flavoured liquid. Maybe just a little bit too strong flavoured if I’m being honest, but a few drops of water soon reduced the strength enough to give it a more pleasant taste. As Jamie says, it takes time to get it tasting the way you want it.

Later in the day and once Shona had returned from the Land of Nod, I went for a walk over to St Mo’s, still being careful not to wander into the greenery or the possibility of more biting insects. On the way back, I found another Painted Lady butterfly feeding on flowers in our garden. There had been a couple of cold snaps recently and I felt sure the delicate butterflies would have taken shelter, but there it was feeding on our flowers. A quick check with Google confirmed it was indeed a Painted Lady.

The butterfly didn’t stay long and was soon off on the wing again, but by then I had a new PoD and it was a Crocosmia flower growing against a wooden fence and showing off its orange and copper colours to all and sundry. That became PoD.

After Shona had left to go home, we spoke to Jamie and I thanked him for his helping me work out how to adjust the grind setting for the coffee I was using. Who knew how difficult it was to make delicate adjustments to coffee grinders. Good to know that someone is there at the other end of the phone to explain what went wrong a day or so ago. I’ve just opened a new bag of coffee which will need a different set of tweaks to get it to deliver the same taste and strength as the one I’ve just finished. It’s all highly technical, or maybe it’s just me who is a tech freak!

Hopefully we will be on our travels again next week sometime.

Out in Glasgow again – 5 September 2026

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This time I was looking for the bloke I spoke to about tuning the new coffee maker a week ago. Spoke to Jamie in the morning and he gave me a few pointers on using the coffee machine. That helped a lot, especially the settings for the grind size. Thanks J.

When I got to JL the salesman was nowhere to be found. I guessed that he was on his lunch break, so, instead we went for a walk up Sauchiehall Street and had a quick lunch in Waterstones. I was looking for a book, but nothing took my fancy. Eventually we walked back down the street to Buchanan Galleries and by then the bloke had returned from his lunch. He showed me how to correctly remove and replace the grinder. Another good help. While we were there, Scamp found an interesting serving plate that took her fancy and added it to her collection.

With my new knowledge, Scamp and I went for a walk down to see the changes that had been made to George Square. As I said to Scamp afterwards I wasn’t too disappointed by the changes that had been made to this old square in the centre of the city. They had placed trees round the perimeter of the square which was a start, but it would have been better to have some greenery too. Maybe that will come in the future. Very few of the statues had been replaced, probably to appease the more sensitive souls who would be easily offended.

We caught a train back to Cumbersheugh and picked up a couple of pizzas and a cake from M&S on our way home. Shona was doing an overnight with us tonight and we all watched a fairly lengthy tongue in cheek SF film, which Scamp enjoyed so much, she promptly booked the sequel for next week!

I applied the changes to the coffee maker that Jamie and the bloke from JL had suggested and it improved greatly. The dial is now rising to about halfway round the ‘clock face’ (you’ll understand that Jamie). I’ve probably missed out a few things, but it’s a work in progress, and the little things will iron themselves out over time. It does make good coffee!

PoD went to a bloke (a different one!) who was tuning and playing his banjo with all his accoutrements around him, including his dog (!) on Buchanan Street

No plans for tomorrow as yet.