Category: A Walk

Expect Strong Winds – 20 October 2024

Posted on by Zogman

That’s what the weather fairies have been saying for a few days now.

Well, it didn’t look like the weather fairies were telling the truth in the morning. Dull to start with followed by sunshine and occasional showers, but we knew it wouldn’t last, and it didn’t.

By early afternoon it was clouding over and the gentle breeze turned into gusty winds which blew in some ragged showers. Luckily we didn’t really need to go out anywhere because we had agreed on a Scottish favourite, Haggis, Neeps and Tatties. With an addition of Carrots to add a wee bit of colour to the feast.

While Scamp was getting the veg ready,I went for a walk in St Mo’s. I’d offered her the chance to walk with me, but she preferred to stay at home in the warm. It was a sensible choice, because there wasn’t much to photograph today, but I enjoyed the walk, which seems a stupid thing to say when you’re walking into driving rain, but with a good jacket and lots of layers, it’s a fairly pleasant walk twice round the pond at St Mo’s. PoD turned out to be an old favourite, looking down the boardwalk and catching the clouds being driven on by those strengthening winds. Converted to monochrome it looked distinctly uninviting!

The prompt for today was ‘Uncharted’. I’ve drawn a subject similar to that a few times for the monthly challenges, so this one was already in my head and it turned out to be a Treasure Island theme with an island with the actual treasure part torn from the map! “Arrr, Jim me lad!” Any other piratical comments are equally happily accepted. Drawn on cheap Cass Art absorbent paper with a Lamy ABC children’s fountain pen that Lamy no longer make! Why? It’s a great pen to keep in your pocket. Rarely leaks and if it’s kept clean it works really well.

Spoke to Jamie in the evening and heard about his ‘normal’ week and we told him about our ‘normal’ week. It seems like his weather is a bit like ours, but without the really high winds.

The forecast says the winds will calm down a bit tomorrow. How quickly and by how much is not clear, it depends on what app you read. We’ll go with the best one and ignore the rest.
Strangely, I was just reading last year’s blog for the 20th Oct and the weather was much like I was describing today!

Tomorrow Scamp is booked to go to Muirhead just after midday to get her Flu and Covid jags. I have to wait until Sunday to get mine.

Lunch – 18 October 2024

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Scamp was off to FitSteps in the morning.

While she was out, I decided to make sure I got a PoD, so I went over to St Mo’s. The sun had been shining when we woke, but by the time I got out, the sun had disappeared and the clouds were rolling in. I got quite a few decent shots, but the low light meant that they were all going to be ‘gritty’ looking with digital noise. Not a big problem as Lightroom is excellent are smoothing out the grit.
Just as I was heading home, the rain started and it was coming down in sheets. You could see it against the dark of the trees blowing along in waves. Thankfully I had my new jacket on and it was proving its worth as it shed the rain easily.

Scamp was a few minutes ahead of me and after we’d done Wordle and Spelling Bee, we had an hour or so to read before getting ready to walk over to Brodens for lunch with June and Ian. Fish and chips for three of us and Mac ’n’ Cheese for Scamp. I risked a pint of Guinness as I didn’t think I’d be driving anywhere in the afternoon. It had been some time since the two sisters had been together for a blether so Ian and I let them talk amongst themselves and gave Scamp a chance to show off the latest baby photos we’d been sent, the ones June hadn’t seen yet. The two ladies had fairly large desserts while Ian had a latte and I had another Guinness, a half pint this time.

We paid up and made plans to come back again. June and Ian walked round onto Condorrat Main Street to get their taxi home and we started walking back. Next thing, John, the taxi driver, pulled up and gave us a lift to the house. That’s just the kind of person he is. He and Carlyn had been shopping and I offered to help, but he wouldn’t hear of it. Although it was just a short journey, It was kind of them to stop for us.

Today’s PoD came from St Mo’s and was a baby conifer with raindrops beading on its needles. Lovely blue/green which contrasted well with the warm yellows and oranges around us.

Today’s prompt was “Drive” and I sketched, not one, but two Hard Disk Drives. It should have been three, but I couldn’t be bothered to add the last one. One drive could probably be formatted as an extra storage medium. The other two are really only fit for the skips.

It looks like there will be enough folk for a class tomorrow, so I think that means we might be going to Brookfield to join them.

Cardigan, Doll and Sketching – 16 October 2024

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Scamp was off to meet Isobel in the morning. Just before she left, she got an “Ur ye in?” text from Hazy, to which she replied “Phone dad. Ahm gaun oot!” Those of you who are englanders might not understand this and I’m not explaining. We had a three way discussion of the week so far, then Scamp was off to drive up to Costa for her meeting with her cousin. Meanwhile, Hazy and I had a discussion of books, new cars and Bake Off. Nice to know we’re on the same footing with Bake Off. Thanks for the recommendations, H.

It was a fairly lengthy phone call, almost an hour by my reckoning and I really enjoyed it. My task for the day was to find my Lamy Safari fountain pens, refill them with black drawing ink and get a sketch done. I actually cleaned and filled the Safari and the ABC child’s pen, although I only used the Safari for today’s prompt which was Grungy, not Grunge as I thought it was. Grungy was much easier for me. Just pick a face from Google that looked lived in and sketch it with a lot of corrections. That did the trick. By the time Scamp had returned, I was done. Fifteen minutes later the sketch was scanned, resized and posted.

After lunch, Scamp parcelled up a cardigan and a woollen doll Isobel had knitted, then I did the addressing of them to Grian and Scamp went off to post them. She’d already posted a couple of cards. One to Allan & Jaki and another to the new Gran & Grandpa.

Later in the afternoon I went for a walk to St Mo’s. On the way I dropped in at Brodens and booked a tab for June, Ian, Scamp and I. St Mo’s was a bit dull by the time I was getting there, but I did manage to get a couple of decent shots from the batch I took. Just leaves showing off their autumn colours. Lazy photography.

Tonight was a simple dinner. We had the last of the Butternut Squash soup from a couple of days ago, then Scamp had home made Ratatouille, “Rats” to us, and I had a veggie chilli which had been maturing nicely in the freezer and was blinding hot once it was reheated!

No dance class tonight. It seemed to be a last minute decision by Kirsty. No reason given. Maybe it was because it was October Week and she thought there wouldn’t be enough folk. We don’t know.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to go to the Tea Dance in Paisley.

Everybody need a good punch sometimes – 15 October 2024

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It was me who needed it. Scamp just needed elastic.

That meant a drive to The Fort. We could have taken a bus there, but it would have meant a good half a dozen changes and really, it would have been quicker walking. No, we drove, because that was one of our reasons for buying a car.

Before we drove away, however, I needed to stabilise the tyre pressures in the car. I thought I’d need to use the fancy new electronic pump at the garage, but as it happened, all that was needed was to release some pressure from two of the tyres. After that we were balanced again. It all started just before the car went in for service and before the new tyres were fitted, so I can’t even blame either party. It’s a pneumatic mystery.

We drove to The Fort. It was absolutely jumping! We’d both forgotten this is October week or “Tattie Week” as we used to call it. The holiday began during October in the 1930s when children were taken out of school to help with the potato harvest. The tradition continued until the 1980s when new farm machinery made handpicking obsolete. You see what you’re missing, all you youngsters! Anyway, although there were no tatties being picked at The Fort, there were hundreds of weans out with mums and dads, desperate to spend money.

Scamp was looking for elastic and after getting help from one bloke who was filling shelves in Hobbycraft, we solved the elastic problem. I was looking for a leather punch to put a new hole in my belt and managed to get one for a tenner. With our first boxes ticked, we fought our way through the mob to find two baby cards. One for the mum and dad, Jaki and Alan and another for Gran and Grandpa Jackie and Murdo. Now we were free to stravaig as far and wide as we could in this great shopping complex. Scamp went to find some fruit and I went browsing in Waterstones and found the latest Ian Rankin book. Rebus Goes To Jail or something like that. After that we drove home, still checking those tyre pressures, but they were fine.

I had hoped to go for a walk and take some photos in the late afternoon, but after attempting to fix a computer problem with Scamp I gave up the idea and went for a scrounge in the garden instead. That’s where today’s PoD came from. It’s another change of colour for Switch Ophelia the colour changing Hydrangea. Taken with the Sony A6500 and a Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 an excellent combination.

Today’s prompt was Guidebook and my sketch was a wee sarcastic jibe at the folk who still post sketches done in iPad and even AI generators. No actual sketching and certainly no ink used in a group that is only for ink sketchers. Some folk think they’re so clever, that nobody will notice. But we do!

Tomorrow Scamp is intending having coffee with Isobel. I might dust off my old Lamy fountain pens and do some even older fashioned ink sketching. The prompt is Grungy.

A cold start to the day – 14 October 2024

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A temperature of 3ºc in the morning is just a little cool. We decided to read in bed for a while before facing the day. At least it was a Positive three degrees! We should be thankful for small mercies.

Eventually we did drag ourselves out of bed and I started by collecting the odds and ends of things that needed to be taken to the skips once the world had defrosted. After that it was the inevitable Wordle and Spelling Bee that took up my time and soon it was lunch time.

We both had the same thing for lunch, it was the remains of the leftover chicken from Saturday. It had lasted well and although, maybe a bit dry, had plenty of flavour. Scamp has boiled the carcass and made the basis of some stock with it. After lunch I had a look at a couple of recipe books to find the makings of Butternut Squash soup. Probably using the leftover chicken stock. As it happened, it’s still leftover, but in the fridge now.

I’d gathered up a big barrel shaped collapsible container full of the chopped up buddleia and teasel bushes yesterday and today they went into the boot of the blue car along with a big plastic basin full of old phones with some odds and ends. The old blue zip-up bag went onto the back seat and that just left room for me and my camera bag.

The skips were busy today, it being Monday. They’re always busy, but on a Monday it’s busier than normal. Folk are cutting down and trimming trees and bushes as the flowers fade and the leaves start falling. The garden waste skips were the busiest today. I got all the bags and basins emptied and then went for a run up to Fannyside.

Fannyside is such a quiet space and if there is just a gentle breeze like there was today, it’s the most peaceful place on earth. Only the birds calling from the trees and the occasional plane making very little noise, but drawing white con trails across a blue sky. A great place to watch the world go by. I took a few photos, but only two made it to Flickr and of the pair, only one got PoD. It’s a wee Flowerpot Man Jackie gave us many years ago. He lives on a ledge in the downstairs toilet and holds one of the Christmas Cacti. His face always brings a smile to mine.

Back home I was ready to start that Butternut Squash soup. This was a new recipe to me, from a Mary Berry book. One of the thousands she’s written. I did eventually get it made and although I thought it was a bit thin, Scamp disagreed. In the end I had two bowl of it and Scamp only had one, so it wasn’t that thin!

Today’s prompt asked for “Roam”. I couldn’t be bothered with another person walking up a hill with a rucksack on their back, so instead I rearranged the letters and turned it into “Roma” and sketched what might have been a grand building in Rome. Actually I drew the sketch yesterday and kept it on the back burner until today. Who’s to know?

The plan for tomorrow is to go to The Fort. Scamp is looking for elastic and I’m hoping to get a leather punch to make more holes in my belt. I must be losing more weight!

Another dreich day to begin with – 13 October 2024

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I think the temperature was around 3ºc when I was making breakfast, but that was from reading the temperature directly from the sensor at the outside of the back door.

Something had gone awry with the wireless connection between the sensor and the display. The sensor hangs on the door jamb at the back of the house and the display lives in the nice warm house itself. The sensor seemed to be reading, but the display wasn’t receiving. The repair is simple. It’s just a case of removing the old batteries and replacing them with new ones. The calibration isn’t so easy, although we’ve done it many times since we bought this usually trustworthy bit of kit about 30 years ago(?). A long time ago, anyway. After reading the instructions carefully, it all came flooding back and, as we watched the temperature drop outside the back door, the internal display followed it. Success!

Shocked to hear that Alex Salmond had died yesterday. Sixty nine is no age at all these days. I never really liked him, but he did seem to have the best interests of the nation at his heart. Such a shame.

I was staring into space after fixing the temperature gauge when I noticed the sun had crept round to light up the sunflowers Scamp had arranged in a vase. They really glowed in the sunlight, so I grabbed the A7 and took half a dozen, ok, nearer a dozen photos. One of them made PoD. Nice to see a bit of sunshine to brighten our day.

After an elegant lunch of fried cloutie dumpling, fried bacon and a fried egg I girded my loins and put on my boots, fleece and gloves and marched into the garden to do battle with the Teasels and Buddleia, then chopped them into easily transportable chunks that I could bag ready to go into the skips tomorrow. It really was cold and the spines in the teasels would have ripped my hands to pieces were it not for the gloves.

Jackie phoned Scamp just as I was debating a walk in St Mo’s just in case the sunflower photos wouldn’t quite cut the mustard once they’d been processed. I was halfway round St Mo’s when I realised I didn’t have my phone. It’s so strange and disconcerting when you realise you don’t have your phone with you. I just feel so disconnected from everything just because my lump of plastic, glass and some ’tronics isn’t in my pocket. I walked back and heard all about the goings on with the “Gorgeous wee baby” up in Skye.

Dinner tonight was Burrata and Tomatoes with Basil as a starter, followed by leftover Chicken breast and Spinach made into a pie with Potatoes on the side. Dessert was Apple slices in pastry. I thought it was lovely. Scamp wasn’t impressed with her work. Never satisfied!

Spoke to Jamie later and heard his planned holidays climbing mountains in Arran and later in 2025 a wedding in the highlands. We’d been planning holidays too. Some time in the new year hopefully, a week or so in the Canaries would be nice.

PoD was indeed,  the sunflower in the sun. Today’s prompt for Inktober was another uninspiring “Horizon”. What is the horizon, but a curved line that the human eye sees as a straight line. I gave a simplistic answer to a simple prompt, as you see here. The prompts this year are tedious.

I think I may be taking some garden refuse over to the skips tomorrow if the weather is good.

 

Cold but clear sky – 10 October 2024

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A clear, cold day 3.1ºc in the morning. Not a cloud in the sky when we woke. That was the incentive to get up and go!

Scamp filled the flask with boiling water and then filled a bag with some biscuits and crisps so we’d have something to eat when we arrived at Cramond. It’s a village in the north west of Edinburgh and sits on the River Almond where it meets the Firth of Forth. There’s very little to do there, except go for a walk. We chose not to walk out to Cramond Island, which is only an island when the tide is out. When the tide comes in, it returns to its island status. There’s even less to see on the island, but there are the remains of some WW2 gun emplacements and, of course, the submarine blocking concrete structures we always called the “Toblerone’s” because they looked just like those chocolate triangles.

We walked up the hill and went through the grounds of Cramond Kirk, a place I never knew existed. I didn’t take any photos. I’ve got this thing about cemeteries and churchyards. Instead we walked through the churchyard and out the other side to a big park with the ruins of a Roman fort laid out in the grass. We didn’t know then, but we do now that a building which looked like an office was actually a cafe and we could have had something to eat in it. Maybe next time. Instead we walked through some woods, down to the promenade.

We walked east along the promenade for a mile or two and then decided we should turn back. So far the breeze had been on our backs and I just knew it was going to feel colder when we were walking into it. Even with my gloves on, my pinkie fingers were freezing in the wind and I was glad to get back to the car for coffee, biscuits and a heat! I was also glad I’d decided to wear my big lined Berghaus jacket today.

Drove home and did some shopping on the way. The weather was still bright and cold. Scamp had bought some fancy timed lights that come on for six hours, then go off for eighteen. Battery operated, so not so delicate as solar powered lights. We put them up on the Rowan tree in the back garden and lit them about 6pm. I’m not sure I’m going to wait up until midnight to find out if they are working like they should!

I got a cryptic message from Alex tonight about 10pm. It just said “Look up in the East”. I did and once my eyes became accustomed to the light, there it was, a pink light in the sky, then it became two lights, side by side. The Aurora Borealis. I remember Fred saying that the best thing to do is photograph it with your phone camera because it’s more sensitive than the human eye. That’s what I did and this is what appeared.

PoD was a group of trees that I really like on the Cramond Promenade. I’d have liked the people to be nearer, but took what I got and we walked on. It was too cold to linger

The prompt today was “Nomadic” and I drew the sketch you see here of my idea of a nomad with his camel. I think the camel looks better than the nomad, even if it doesn’t seem to have any legs. It was probably on the Buckfast last night and that’s why it’s ‘legless’.

With that bad joke, I’ll leave you to go and look for your own aurora. Scamp’s intending to go to FitSteps tomorrow. I may do some more sketches.

 

Welcome Grian Murdo Macdonald – 9 October 2024

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Allan & Jaki’s wee boy was born last night, 8-10-2024 at 11.21pm, weighing in at 8lb 9oz. Those of a non-imperial persuasion can do their own calculations.

I was meeting Alex for another day in town. Weather could have been kinder to us, but it was dry for most of the day, but it was cold.Scamp kindly gave me a run to the station and I just missed the train! Not to worry, I was early and so was he for once. After coffee in Nero we went for a walk down Buchanan Street and took in this week’s artworks on the Clyde Walkway. From there we walked downstream and continued taking photos on the walkway and The Squiggly Bridge. Official name ‘The Tradeston Bridge’ but real name The Squiggly Bridge.

From there we crossed the river and walked through the mountainous office buildings on the ‘South Side’ before recrossing the Clyde by the King George V bridge. From there we made a series of zig zags until we followed our noses to Paesano for lunch. One Number 5 for Alex with less cheese and one Number 3 as it comes for me. Only non alcoholic drinks for both of us because Alex doesn’t drink and I was driving tonight.

The cold was starting to bite when we came out of Paesano and crossed the road to George Square looking for subjects, but there were very few. Eventually we gave up and went to Costa for a coffee and a heat. Cost I hear you say? Surely Nero? No, it was Alex who was buying and he wanted to go to Costa. Actually the flat white was just like real coffee. I was impressed.

After a heat, we headed back to the bus station, agreed to meet again in two weeks, then went to our respective sides of the bus station where, for the second time today I was just in time to see the X3 disappear round the corner.

Got back home to a plate of ‘Just Soup’ which went down nicely. Then it was time to get ready for tonight’s dance class. This Foxtrot we’re learning is quite tedious. It’s got that ‘manufactured’ feel to it, as if they are trying to cram in a load of different figures into a dance that wasn’t made for them. I can’t really explain it any better, other than to say that when Kirsty is demonstrating each of the two halves that make up the full dance, she demonstrates on the diagonal of the square dance floor. However when we’re dancing it, it’s on the shorter orthogonal, so it’s a bit of a cheat. Also, when we dance round the edge of the floor, everyone can follow the leader, but if we tried to use the diagonal, we’d crash into each other. A bit of mathematical spacial awareness, there. Just believe me, she’s cheating!
Anyway, we did get to do the individual sections and occasionally managed to join them together into a complete dance. Who said dancing is easy?

PoD today was a couple sitting at the ‘Graffiti Gallery’ on the Clyde Walkway with the ‘Blue Man’ keeping his eye on them!

Today’s prompt was ‘Sun’. The old,ancient Derwent Linemaker 0.5 pen came good again and produced the ink linework for this sketch of a man walking into the sunset. It was later augmented with some watercolour, but I think I might have been better leaving it as pure ink. Too late now.

Tomorrow, for once this week, we have no plans!

Broadwood – 7 October 2024

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Out to the docs to get my BP checked.

Just the last of the checks to confirm that my BP had stabilised. Not just one nurse, but two. The sister and a student nurse checked my BP an gave me the all clear. All done in a 15 minute visit and I don’t have to come back until my annual review.

On the way home, I drove up to Tesco and got milk and rolls, just the real essentials today, then back home for lunch and a debrief with Scamp before we booted up and went for a walk around Broadwood Loch.

The weather wasn’t warm, but neither was it cold. Just a hoodie today for both of us, no need for a raincoat. As usual and against the flow of walkers, but with the flow of joggers, we walked round the loch clockwise. Because it had rained during the night, we didn’t risk the forest section. I know it’s been been cleared and drained, but I didn’t fancy going all the way round it only to find out there was a great long section that would be up over our boots in mucky water. Safer to stick to the path. I got some long lens shots of a cormorant stretching its wings out to dry and thought that would make PoD, but it was the first shot I took today looking along the loch to Blackwood and then The Campsies in the far distance that got the accolade of PoD.

I attempted a recipe for Linguine with Smoked Salmon and Spinach, except we didn’t have any Linguine because Scamp doesn’t like it and we didn’t have any Spinach either. There was a requirement for double cream and we had none of that or a hundred other things, but we did have the smoked salmon. The inevitable result was that it tasted awful and went in the bin.
Note to self: Before you start, read the recipe and check the ingredients!

We had pizza for dinner and it was lovely.

Today’s prompt asked for a Passport. I’ve now seen a few variations on Pass the Port with a glass of wine being passed from hand to hand. I tried a version of the British passport, and now that I look at it, it isn’t all that bad. But what I settled on was a pastiche of a passport. A Scottish passport with a bottle of Buckfast, two crossed thistles and an advert for Greggs. I’m sure Alex would approve.

I’m off to the docs again tomorrow. Just getting my money’s worth from the NHS before all their money disappears.

 

Off to Spain – 5 October 2024

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Now don’t get excited, we were just outside Paisley, but we were dancing Paso La Paz like Spaniards!

Well, Scamp was dancing it like a Spaniard, I was plodding along in her wake, more like a Spaniel than a Spaniard. It’s the fast and furious Spanish bullfighter’s dance that we started last week. It’s really too fast for me and my old dance shoes. They are struggling to keep up with Rumba One (in joke), far less do the heel stomps and the toe taps and the arm across the chest. I struggled with this last week and this week I think I was worse. Heaven knows how I’ll get on with the full strength Paso Doble the teachers are talking about!

The Paso La Paz was actually the last routine we did. The first one was the Queen of Hearts rumba which was our warm up. It too was a mystery until the second track when muscle memory took over and pushed me in the right direction. It’s been years since we originally learned this sequence dance and that’s my excuse for getting it wrong through most of the first track.

The second dance was the Viennese Waltz. It looks fairly easy when you’re watching it on Strictly, but don’t be fooled there are fast passages in this too. Natural Turns (clockwise) and Reverse Turns (anti-clockwise) plus Half Natural and Half Reverse. By the time we got to the end of the second track I couldn’t remember if I was coming or going.

Next was the Paso La Paz, but you’ve heard all about that already, so I won’t go into it again. We finished off with two tracks of a Midnight Jive which is a simple sequence dance that is extremely exhausting. I think Stewart just chose it out of badness!

We drove home and had a restful afternoon lunch. Couldn’t decide what we were going to have for dinner and eventually settled on a microwaveable curry from M&S washed down with half a bottle of Barossa Ink.

Later we watched tonight’s Strictly and wondered what Toyah Willcox was doing on this show, apart from a bit of self promotion. I don’t know how much she paid to be on the show, but it’s definitely not enough.

Today’s PoD was a branch of Berberis we passed on the way to the shops. Beautiful bright red and orange leaves.

Today’s prompt was Binoculars which is what I drew. These are a pair of Nikon binoculars I got for a song in John Lewis a couple of years ago. Light, bright and with a good magnification they are almost always in my case when we go on holiday.

Tomorrow we may go looking for tree lights to brighten up the Rowan tree in the back garden.