Category: A Walk

A sprinkling of snow – 26 December 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Just a dusting, that’s all and even that turned to rain quite quickly.

It didn’t matter, we weren’t going anywhere today. Too cold. Too lazy. Too little chance of getting a parking space back home. Instead, I mixed the flour, salt, yeast, butter and water and kneaded the mixture for over 10 minutes then set it to prove in a bowl covered with clingfilm, then went back to the Sudoku I hadn’t finished yesterday. Gave up on that and it was time for lunch.

It was Sunday and lunch on a Sunday always centres around eggs, mushrooms, bacon, tomatoes, black pudding and sausage in various combinations and quantities. All that to be eaten while watching and listening to Andrew Marr mauling one of a long list of politicians. Unfortunately last week was his last show, so today we ate in silence. I’ll bet a few of those mauled politicians would be licking their previous wounds and breathing a sigh of relief.

The weather wasn’t getting any better. Still cold, still wet, but that hasn’t stopped me before and it didn’t stop me today. Big jacket on, boots, hat and gloves on and I lugged my trusty A7ii over to St Mo’s to find something interesting to photograph. My chosen target would have been a deer. I actually saw one quite close up today, certainly within the range of the 55-210mm lens I’d left on the table back home. It didn’t stay in my sights for long and was soon laughing its way across the rough grass and into the trees.

I did get a PoD which was the jaggy spikes of a whin bush, one with a watery drip at the end of the jaggy bit. It was almost beaten by a slimy looking mushroom/toadstool with an interesting pattern on its stem. I’m pretty sure I also got a photo of a chanterelle, but can’t be certain. When I got back I checked the bread dough and it was looking ready for its final shaping and proving which is best done in a sort of cane basket that creates a spiral pattern on the finished loaf and also forms the finished loaf into a sort of beehive shape, like you see in Pooh Bear books.

While I was uploading my pictures to the Mac, Scamp declared it Gin O’Clock and I agreed with all but the gin. Instead, I had a Rum ’n’ Coke, Dark Matter rum. That put a heat in me.

Back to the still unfinished Sudoku and gave in. Loaded it into an app in my phone and finished it with technological help. Done! Thankfully one of my prezzies from Scamp was a new 365 day Sudoku calendar. It’s not been opened yet. Almost a week to wait.

The bread turned out a bit flatter than I’d have liked although it tasted ok.  Too much butter in the mix, I think. Must try harder.

Dinner tonight was yesterday’s chicken bits with potatoes and brussel sprouts.

After dinner drinks were the usual latte laced with Kahlua for Scamp and a Barraquito with layers of Condensed Milk, Licor 43, Espresso and Frothy Milk for me.  The only place we’ve seen it is in Tenerife.  Mine was definitely high octane!

We’ve not seen the weather for tomorrow, but a quick glance at the weather app on my phone would seem to rule out the possibility of going far.

Happy Christmas – 25 December 2021

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Christmas Day and the sun is shining. How did that happen?

After the presents were opened we both booted up and went for a walk in St Mo’s. Scamp went once round and then left to get the cooking started. I went round for a second try for a PoD, and also to get used to my new wooly hat which I needed today with the temperature just above zero. The wooly hat worked, but the PoD now so much, but at least I had contenders.

While I was out dessert had been made. We had just enough time left for a quick lunch and then an equally quick shower before our Zoom meeting with the other pairs. We ended up about three minutes late, but who’s counting. Jamie and Sim had a few problems with their webcam, but once they had it working, the took the rest of us on a live tour of the house and the garden. Both Neil and I were really impressed with Jamie and Sim’s wireless connection as they wandered round the garden showing of the surroundings as well as the garden. Vixen slept through the entire Zoom call, apparently after tiring herself out playing with the new Kong that Hazel and Neil had sent. All in all, we thought it was a great virtual visit. Almost like being there. Maybe that will happen in the new year.

A little G ’n’ T was required while the chicken was in the oven. That gave the cook a chance to relax and gave me the chance to have a first look at the photos.

Dinner was:

Starter Prawn Cocktail
Main Roast Chicken with Roast Veg
Dessert. Lime Cheesecake

Of course, we both had too much to eat and possibly to drink and it took a while for all that excess to settle down.

I’d originally though about making bread for today, but it’s been postponed until tomorrow … at least. PoD turned out to be a nearly mono photo of an old bramble bush.

Rushing now to get this blog finished and posted before Christmas Day is done for another year.

Thank you Hazel and Neil for organising the Zoom meeting. Thank you Jamie and Simonne for the virtual tour of the house and thank you Scamp for being a brilliant chef for the day.

Tomorrow we may get some snow! Whether we go for a walk or not depends on the weather really, and whether we can walk after a day of over indulgence.

 

A walk around part of Broadwood – 24 December 2021

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It was cold and it was raining, but we went for a walk anyway.

All the shoppers seemed to have tired themselves out yesterday. Today the shops were almost deserted. Only ‘almost’ though. There were still some of the dyed in the wool ‘have to buy something, anything’ brigade out splashing their cash. We didn’t. I’d like to say we had more sense, but who was out in the rain and who was in a nice warm shop?

We did an anticlockwise version of our usual walk, starting with the exercise machines path and then across the dam, round on to the boardwalk and back along the pavement beside the main road. Today’s PoD came from the boardwalk where we disturbed a group of Tufted Ducks and they became the subject of the photo. I was surprised to see that big white disc in the sky again. I saw it last Friday over in Fife, but since then it had been hiding. There were rumours that it had been self isolating, but I couldn’t say for the truth of that. I don’t know if the sun could catch Covid. Back home it was toast and scrambled eggs for lunch, by which time the sun had disappeared again.

In the afternoon, Scamp iced the Christmas Cake and we took turns at putting the decorations on it. My first choice was the Santa on his sleigh, as always and Scamp’s was the children on their sledge. The rest we took turns at.

By that time the darkness had encroached enough for the house lights to come on and evening was in charge.

That was about it for the day’s adventures. Tomorrow we must wait to see if we’ve been good enough for Santa to have come!

 

A walk in Glasgow and a short day, the shortest – 21 December 2021

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We decided we’d go into Glasgow for a walk to see the lights.

There weren’t nearly as many folk wandering the streets of Glasgow as there were a couple of weeks ago when Alex and I were there. We walked down Bucky Street and thought the crowds were sparse. Only half the stalls were in St Enoch’s Christmas market and Argyle street just had normal weekday shoppers. When we walked up Queen Street the streets were almost deserted. I think we were both shocked by the lack of footfall at what should have been the busiest week of the year. Only Covid seems to be doing good business!

Back home, another parcel was ready to be posted and although I had taken a few shots in Glasgow, I wasn’t sure I had a worthwhile PoD, so I took a camera when I went out to post it. For some reason, and for the second time I’d been at Condorrat post office recently, it was surprisingly empty. Maybe everybody is ahead of the game this year and already have all their cards and parcels posted. It’s either that or, as the lack of crowds in Glasgow would seem to indicate, nobody’s buying presents or spending cards. Anyway, parcel posted and cards too, I went for a walk in St Mo’s woods. Couldn’t find much sign of life animal or vegetable, but I did see the wee pond reflecting a leafless tree and took some shots of that. It was one of them that made PoD. A photo of Bucky Street from the Concert Hall joined it on Flickr.

That was about the end of the excitement and the exercise for today, but I did achieve my 10,000 steps which I haven’t done for a long time.

Today was the shortest day and it felt like it too. From now on the days will get longer, the sun will shine bright and longer and that will cause the temperature to increase. Oh look! Another flying pig!!

Tomorrow I’m out for coffee with Val. A chance for some ‘tech talk’. Then in the afternoon we are hoping to visit Margie. Getting out and about for a change.

A dull day with a walk through – 19 December 2021

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It didn’t really rain today. It felt like it couldn’t be bothered, so it just smirred all day.

We were having lunch when Scamp realised that we hadn’t recorded The Andrew Marr Show. We watch it religiously every week, hardly ever missing an episode of his highly entertaining current affairs program. It’s not really meant to be entertainment, but watching him baiting politicians of all parties is simply excellent viewing. We missed it today because we’d forgotten to add it to the recording schedule. Worst of all, it was his last show because he leaves to host a new politics show on another channel. We needn’t have worried because with the miracles of a new set top box and iPlayer, it was already there for our edutainment.

So, we did get to watch him achieve the impossible by getting Sadiq Khan to answer ‘Yes’ to a question. Brave man Mr Khan having the courage to answer a question so clearly. Sajid Javid was a much slippier customer and manage to complete the ‘Yes – No interlude’ easily (too long ago for most of you to remember. Google Take Your Pick.) I’ll miss watching Andrew Marr on a Sunday morning.

After that I fitted the fully charged battery to the wee Red car. It now starts, or at least it did this afternoon without a problem but the radio still has the Wait 1 Hour message that its had since we tried the wrong pin months ago. How many hours do we have to wait?

Finally I went for a walk and got today’s PoD. A spider web with some water droplets hanging from it. Not startling, but at least it’s a photo and it’s in. It was just miserable out and that constant smirr was in the air all the time.

Talked to Jamie and he gave us a virtual conducted tour of the inside of THEIR new house. Quite a difference from the last time we saw it. It just looks like a home now with their own furniture in it. I know that Scamp is desperate to see it properly, but with the best will in the world, it won’t be until about next March, all being well. That’s a long time to wait, but better to be safe than sorry.

Scamp is booked for coffee tomorrow morning and I’m waiting for the DPD driver to come and collect a parcel. After that, the lady with the swabs and the questions is coming to see us. Busy day.

Fog – 18 December 2021

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Thick, then thinning. Wet and clinging. That’s fog.

For a week my phone’s weather app has been predicting fog on Saturday. Today it changed its prediction to sunshine. Unfortunately it had already ordered the fog and, like on Amazon, once you’ve paid for it, you’re already too late to change the order. So we had that grey sheet of obliteration all day.

Last night we got the message that today’s dance class had been cancelled, so the silver lining to that cloud was that we had more time to parcel up the prezzies and send them on their way. I say ‘We’, but you all know that it’s Scamp who does all the work. I just do what I’m told (for a change). Today was no exception. Hazy and Neil’s parcel needed a firm top for the box, so I cut a bit of heavy card from one of my big A1 sketch pads and it fitted perfectly. Scamp was ordering and paying for the delivery label the we hit the first problem. The printer wasn’t working. The PC said the printer couldn’t be found. Of course it was because of the new modem which had a new address and password. There was a neat solution, of course. You only need to bring the printer near the modem and press a button on the modem and on the printer and the two will connect without the need for a password. It’s never that easy. This must be a slightly newer version of the modem. It was only after a lot of swearing and searching on the InterWeb that I found you have to hold the WPS button down for about five seconds then do the same on the WiFi button on the printer. With our old modem you just pressed the WPS button, no need to long press it. Once that was cleared up and the labels printed and fixed on the parcels we could relax.

Well, not exactly, that was the next problem. The time was 12:10 and the Post Office closed at 12:30 today, so I got my jacket on and legged it over to Condorrat to hand the parcel over. Thankfully there was no queue and I got it into the bag and the receipt in my hands just as the Parcelforce men were loading the sacks. One down.

With a bit of time to spare now, I went to the butchers to get stew for my dinner this week, plus some Tattie Scones, plus four black puddings, plus a steak pie for my dinner tonight. Walked back to find Scamp had tidied up the carnage in the living room and it was time for a cup of Sumatran coffee. Hazy and Neil’s parcel is going DPD for logistical reasons. That is, I’d already paid for the DPD delivery before realising that we could have sent them both by Parcelforce.

After lunch Scamp and I went out in the fog for a walk round St Mo’s. It was that creepy fog that is thick in some places and non-existent in others. I grabbed a quick shot of a bloke striding home along the path through the trees and with a bit of work, that made PoD. Lots of spiderwebs revealed by the water droplets courtesy of the fog. Very etherial but very few that made a good shot.

Steak pie was lovely, if a little sparse in steak. I couldn’t tell you when I last had a butcher’s steak pie. Half of it is gone with the other half for dinner tomorrow. Scamp had a white dinner Cauliflower and Potatoes.

Later we watched a stretched out Strictly. We weren’t totally surprised by the winning competitor, nor were we impressed by the performance. The worst thing was the time wasting that was going on. I gave up after a while with all the weeping and ‘emulsion’ people were showing. How many crocodiles did they need to collect all those tears?

Thanks for the email address Hazy. We did eventually get signed in and found the film we were looking for on Amazon Prime, plus another one I wanted to see.

Tomorrow looks a bit like today, foggy. Maybe another walk in a different direction.

Off the leash – 17 December 2021

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Scamp was out at a Witches Christmas lunch at Moira’s. Do witches ‘do’ Christmas? Isn’t that an oxymoron? Or am I just showing off now? Answers on a postcard please.

That was after a rather fractious morning. I thought we were going to Torwood and Scamp thought we were going to Calders. After a dodgy manoeuvre crossing lanes in a thankfully fairly quiet motorway and a great deal of swearing on my part and silence on Scamp’s we did arrive safely at Calders. Later I apologised and agreed that she was right (as always).

Then, heading home empty handed, Calders not having the plant she was looking for, we dropped in at Tesco, looking for a box big enough to pack some (a lot of ) Christmas prezzies. Again I returned empty handed. No packing boxes big enough for our needs. We tried M&S, but still no packing boxes. Finally I tried Iceland and asked one of the assistants if they had any empty cardboard boxes. She asked how big and I made the usual accurate dimensions by holding my hand, palms facing and moved them from about 300mm to about 1m apart. Yes, about that size. She returned with a box nearly big enough to fit my car in. Yes, I said, that would do nicely. Thanked the young lady and we drove home with the box, now folded down, still taking up all the space in the back of the car.

After we’d bundled the box out of the car we had just enough time for a coffee before we headed off to Dunnipace to Moira’s house. As we were heading east, the sky was lightening and there was blue sky out there. After I dropped Scamp off at the lunch / party, I headed further east, asking the sat nav to give me directions to Kincardine in the Kingdom of Fife. It found it without any problem and soon I was driving over the Kincardine Bridge and parking.

I took the Benbo tripod with me. It lives most of its life in the boot of the blue car. Took my Sony A7 too. I knew where I was heading and soon I was set up on a strip of sand by the river with just enough time for half a dozen shots before the tide started lapping around the feet of the tripod. I moved back to the asphalt path and walked round the bridge itself, marvelling at the light and the open space here. Less than half an hour later I was walking back to the car, talking on my phone to Fred who had phoned me for a wee blether. After we’d said our bit and then said our goodbyes, I drove home with enough time for a plate of soup before the Tesco man brought three boxes of messages. I just decanted everything from their crates and left them on the work surface, the cooker lid and anywhere they’d sit safely, then phoned Scamp for an update on the time to pick her up.

Checked the photos and knew right away that they were a good set. Fifty three shots taken, five rejected immediately. That left 48 good sharp shots. That must be a success record for me. Phoned Scamp at 5pm to tell her I was on my way. I always get lost going into Moira’s estate. Today I’d set myself markers and knew where to turn left and when to turn right. For some reason it worked perfectly. Spoke to the witches. Moira as welcoming as ever and Annette pretending she was drunk and convincing nobody. It’s all just a laugh and good friendship. Unfortunately Covid had put an end to the Auld Guys coffee mornings in Costa and beers in The Horseshoe Bar. Maybe they’ll return next year, but I have my doubts. Dinner for me was a rather excellent, but gigantic pizza. Half waiting for me for lunch tomorrow.

The real bad news of the day was that the dance class has failed to generate enough interest from dancers this week and Stewart informed us that it is with regret that tomorrow’s class is cancelled. I hope this is all to do with last minute Christmas shopping and not Covid and it will return stronger in the new year.

PoD was a picture of the Kincardine Bridge with afternoon sunshine lighting it up.

Tomorrow we may go for a walk somewhere scenic and somewhere without shops.

Back at the Fort – 16 December 2021

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Feeling a bit flat today.

No, it wasn’t the tyres. We were going in Scamp’s car today except I was driving, but when I turned the key, nothing! The battery was flat. Possibly there is an earth leak somewhere or perhaps that cold snap dragged the battery down because it had only been run once in the last month and that was a fairly short run. Whatever, it was my car that I drove to the Fort.

Scamp was going to Next, M&S and Boots. But she had to score Boots off the list because they were counting them in and counting them out today. That’s not supposed to happen until Saturday, so maybe the staff were getting some practise in before the big day, or maybe they were just doing it to screw up the punters day. It didn’t seem to bother the folk who were queueing all the way along the frontage of Boots shop and that’s a really long front.

I was lucky, I was going for two sheets of thin neoprene and a roll of sticky backed velcro. Found both and waited about five minutes to pay. Heaven knows how long the punters outside Boots would have waited for their goods.

Drove home and after peering at the sky, decided I’d go for a walk first to grab some of the available light before it all disappeared. A walk in the woods at St Mo’s got me the PoD. It was an oak leaf with raindrops on it. The detail in the leaf really impressed me as did the colours that were there. No fancy filters or presets were used in it, just an adjustment to the levels (tones) and a bit of judicious cropping. Otherwise it was SOOC or Straight Out Of Camera. Walked down to the shops and felt a bit nervous about being in a crowd of people. I’d felt the same in Glasgow earlier and I did the same thing again, I put my mask on, at least until I was out of the crowds. How the media hype things up makes you think and act defensively at times.

Back home we hadn’t long to wait for the man from Virgin. This one was on the ball. No delving into the innards of the modem, he just tried twice then deemed that the modem was at fault. He put a new one in and it worked right away. All the websites we couldn’t reach without a VPN were now right there. Poor bloke had been working from 7am and didn’t finish today until 8pm. That’s a long shift. He gets 10/10 for everything in the evaluation email that’s coming soon.

Scamp’s been labouring all evening trying to fit a quart into a pint pot. I swear when one of the recipients of a Christmas parcel cuts the tape the contents will expand to fill the room. You have been warned!!

I think that’s the day covered. Scamp has a booking with the Witches for a Christmas lunch tomorrow. I have things to do and a Tesco delivery to find places for until someone tells me where they should all go.

Another dull, wet day – 15 December 2021

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It rained all day today, but Scamp went out for a walk in the rain.

It was a busy day, though. While Scamp was out posting Christmas cards the engineer arrived to service the boiler. While he was working away Hazy phoned. I just knew she was more interested in getting more information from her mum than talking to me, so I asked her to phone back which she did. Scamp arrived back just in time to save me pulling a cupboard apart to find the maintenance log for the engineer to sign. He gave us a lot of useful information in the time he was here. He showed us a much better way to use the central heating and keep the house warmer too. It’s always good to get information from someone who knows what they’re talking about. In half an hour he passed on more useful knowledge than the bloke from Scottish Gas had given us when he was fitting the boiler. So, the boiler was fine, as you’d expect considering it’s just over a year old, and the house is now a lot warmer without getting too hot.

Once he was on his way, we settled down to hear what was going on in Hazy’s house, while one of her cats was screaming to be fed. Poor wee soul hadn’t been fed for years apparently. Worse still, that bad girl was too busy talking on the phone to do anything about it. Scamp related her tale of woe about NHS waiting lists and the difference if you’re willing to pay. I hardly got a word in edgewise, but that was probably for the best ”It’s always good to get information from someone who knows what they’re talking about”.

After lunch Jackie phoned and I took the opportunity to boot up and go out for a walk in the rain. If it was good enough for Scamp, it was good enough for me. PoD came from that walk and is one of those little weeds I delight in photographing with raindrops clinging to the bracts that used to hold flowers. There is a saying “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” My thoughts today were “If life gives you rain, photograph it.” That’s what I did. Of course the photo is slightly fake edited. I used the new masking tools in Lightroom to blur the background while keeping the subject sharp. It’s not perfect, but it’s a pretty clever tool.

I walked down to the shops and got some frozen sweet corn to make Celeriac and Sweetcorn soup. It sounds awful, but it actually tastes very good. We were both agreed on that.

Years ago I made an adjustable lens hood for one of my Oly lenses. I found the drawing for it tonight and managed to export it from the PC to the Mac and print it out from there. Transferred it to a sheet of neoprene and lo and behold, it fits the new macro lens that didn’t come with a lens hood. I need to get some black velcro tomorrow to finish it.

That’s about it for today. Like I said, it was a busy day. I think we may be going to the Fort tomorrow.

Magpies and mushrooms – 13 December 2021

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Photography started really early today.

While I was making breakfast today I watched a magpie struggling to peck some fat from the bird feeder in the garden. It was sitting on a low branch, too low for it to reach the bird feeder, but it didn’t have the sparrow’s and blue tit’s ability to hover and feed. They aren’t quite as elegant as humming birds, but they do get the job done. Poor magpie eventually gave up, but not before I’d taken a few shots.

After breakfast we drove up to NEXT to get a parcel Scamp had ordered and was delivered to the shop. We were still waiting for the other parcel that should have been delivered to the house on Friday. It was a Christmas present for Nancy who we visited on Saturday. That’s why alternative arrangements and prezzies were required. Next we drove down to Tesco at Craigmarloch and got Scamp’s meds, plus some food necessities. Milk, veg, yoghurt, two bottles of rum and a bottle of wine, oh yes, and bread. Just the essentials!

Back home and after lunch I booked an engineer from Virgin to come on Thursday and see what can be done about the modem. Then it was time to go for a walk in the woods with a camera or two. My favourite from that trip was a close up shot of some deformed mushrooms. They almost look as if they had deflated, like a burst football. It was that image that made me think they might be ageing Puffball mushrooms. They became PoD and I’ve just had a message on Flickr confirming that they are indeed puffballs. It’s good to have experts on hand, even if they are virtual experts.

Not a lot else done today. It was quite dull with no texture in the sky until quite late in the afternoon, then the setting sun found some blue sky and proceeded to change its colour to a lovely shade of violet. Dark at the top and lighter lower down. It was such a pity there was nothing to give a focal point of interest, although I did of course photograph the sky anyway. Not long after I arrived back home the missing parcel arrived. Allegedly it should have been here by 1pm. It finally came around 4pm, but at least it did come!

Tomorrow we have an appointment with a consultant to hear what he has to say about Scamp’s eyes. Hopefully he will be able to give us a more realistic time frame for the procedure than the NHS.