Category: A Walk

Not just one tin – 18 March 2020

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Scamp went foraging in Tesco today and came back with EIGHT tins of tomatoes! Success!!

Who would have thought six months ago that two cardboard containers of tomatoes could elicit such joy? It must be how the original hunter gatherers felt coming back to the cave with their arms full of food. It seemed that Tesco were being sensible for once and limiting shoppers to two boxes each of tinned tomatoes. Now they need to do the same with toilet rolls. That will come, I’m certain, but not without a lot of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.

For the rest of the day, I went for a walk in the afternoon, just over to St Mo’s. Managed to grab a couple of photos of leaves in a bit of warm sun, then everything went a bit dark as a hail shower blew in. I sheltered in the trees until it passed and then came back out to grab another set of shots of the same leaf, but wet this time. Waited another few minutes and the sun came out again and took my final shots against the light, trying to get some detail in the veins and in the dried fleshy part of the leaf this time warmed up in the transmitted sunlight. Despite all my efforts and the great colour contrasts of the third lot of shots, it was the wet leaf shots that looked best and that’s what became PoD.

Scamp made some soup “Just Soup” as it’s come to be known and we had that for dinner. The tins of tomatoes have been squirrelled away upstairs out of temptation’s way. We may get some more, but we won’t be greedy. We did well today.

On the virus front, it was announced in the afternoon that Scottish and Welsh schools will close on Friday. What this means to exams is anybody’s guess. Some say the SQA may use prelim exams as a marker for grades, but not all subjects have prelims (“mocks” in England). Some say continuous assessment could be used and some say that the exams should be rescheduled until later in the year. None of these alternatives are really going to change the fact that the results this year will be unrepresentative of pupils’ work. Who would be the Education Secretary? To compound matters, it’s just been announced that English Schools will close on Friday too. Reminds me of the Alice Cooper / Michael Bruce song – “School’s out for Summer, School’s out forever”

Tomorrow I’m hoping to have some coffee delivered. Get the essentials sorted out, then we can think about the luxuries!

The new reality – 17 March 2020

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We’ve decided that we just have to get used to this new chapter in our lives. It’s not of our making, and there’s nothing we can do to fix it. We can, however make the most of it. As Scamp says, at least we’ve got a garden we can work in while we’re not allowed to travel or to go dancing. The occasional walk will also help keep us moving and motivated. Today, though, it was preparation for the gardening.

Went out in the morning to get some compost and some seeds, veg seeds. Just peas, kale and rocket and two bags of compost. I know that a lot of that compost will find its way into flower pots and flower beds, but some of it will also help bolster the worn out compost in the raised bed. I’m seriously thinking of lifting the remaining leeks and using them for soup. Both the black kale and the curly variety are just about finished now. I’ll maybe use them up in the soup too. If there’s any left, I’ll bag it and freeze it. That way nothing is wasted and I can work at replenishing the compost in the bed. That’s the plan. However, rain put paid to any sensible work today and the compost is stacked in the back garden covered with a tarpaulin to keep the rain off and also allow it to dry out a bit.

After lunch Scamp encouraged me to go out for a walk while she watched some of her pre-recorded programs. It was dry when she suggested it, but by the time I had my boots on, there were raindrops on the window again. It didn’t really matter, I wanted an hour to myself, just as she deserved an hour to her self. I walked to St Mo’s but there were no deer and no frogs to commune with. I found an interesting bud just bursting on a stubby tree. It reminded me of a lucky rabbit’s foot I used to have on a keyring when I was a teenager. Then someone told me it hadn’t been all that lucky for the rabbit and I decided it wasn’t a very sensible thing to have in my pocket and put it in the bin. The furry bud became PoD and the rain didn’t go off, in fact it became straight down soaking rain an my jacket was dripping wet by the time I got home

Dinner tonight was the Thai Chicken Stir-Fry I bought yesterday. I bought 500g of it and that was too much for the two of us, but when we halved it, that wasn’t quite enough. I realise now I should just have cooked the lot and then we could have eaten what we wanted and chucked out the rest, but in these straitened times it seems such so wasteful to throw stuff out. Maybe we’ll use it for lunch tomorrow instead. That might work. Anyway, I thought it tasted fine although Scamp said she felt it was too spicy. I got the idea from a meal at JIC’s where he had bought and cooked a similar stir-fry with beef as the protein. I’m guessing you have to trust your butcher when you’re buying pre-assembled food like stir-fry and we both trust our individual butchers.

Nowhere to go tomorrow, but the weather looks kinder than today, so we may go for a walk. Ordered coffee from Perth and was told it should be delivered tomorrow, so may need to work around that.

House arrest for the auld yins – 15 March 2020

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So Mr Hancock wants to keep the auld yins at home. He used to be funny too, in Hancock’s Half Hour. Not so funny now.

Woke to the news that the over 70s are to be isolated at home for a long time. We may be old and doddery Mr Hancock, but we can still understand numbers. How long is ’a long time?’ About as long as a piece of string I’d imagine. Left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.

Anyway, on to today, proper:
Scamp drove us to Tesco to get the messages. Just the usual essentials. A bottle of Gin, a box of Tonic, a bottle of Wine and two bottles of Beer. Oh, and some of the usual extravagances like a loaf, some veg and a tin of beans. No tins of tomatoes – none on the shelf. No pasta – none on the shelf. Ditto toilet rolls and kitchen towels (who eats these?) Drove back home and disgorged the three bags of clinking essentials plus the fripperies. Lunch was a duck egg for Scamp and a omelette for me.

The sun was coming and going all day, but thankfully without any of the nasty wet stuff falling from the sky. Scamp was making an apple pie to go with the dinner and another pear pie too. Me? I was going out to take photos and, as Scamp said, to talk to the deer and the frogs. She knows me so well. I did actually see a deer, just as I was entering the tree line at St Mo’s. Unfortunately it heard my heavy footsteps crunching through the leaf litter and it was off like the wind. I loosed off one shot at it with my trusty Oly E-M1 and 200mm lens, but all I got for my trouble was a blurred shot of a deer’s white tail as it danced daintily around the trees and away.

That was the last deer I saw today. It obviously didn’t want to talk to me. The frogs, on the other hand were much more receptive to my thoughts on Covid 19 and its implications for the over 70s. They listened with rapt attention while I laid out the reasons why the government’s position on the latest proposals was untenable. I took some shots of them while we were discussing it, but as I stood up, they all disappeared into the murky St Mo’s pond without even a ripple of applause. That’s why none of their photos are appended here. They just didn’t deserve that publicity. Instead, PoD went to a photo of a green shoot against some of last year’s moss fruiting bodies. Some jiggery pokery was done on the shot in ON1 and I think it worked quite well.

On the way home I heard an unfamiliar aircraft sound and searched Flightradar24 on my phone for it, but it wasn’t listed.  The only plane near me was a high flying jet.  On looking for more information I found it was a Cirrus Aviation  Vision SF 50.  I’d never seen one in the real world, but it’s my favourite plane in X-Plane 11, and there it was directly above me.  A tiny wee white dot in the sky.  I even managed to get a few shots of it and at maximum zoom, you can just make out the ‘V’ shaped tail.  It made my day!

Dinner for me was gammon steak with cauliflower cheese and potatoes. Scamp had the same minus the gammon steak. Her apple & cinnamon pie served with cream was the pudding, followed by Sunday coffee (coffee with amaretto.)

Spoke to JIC tonight and he poured oil on troubled waters again and put our minds at rest with his Sensible Science. Glad to hear that Sim is feeling a bit better now too.

Tomorrow may (or may not) be the last Gems meeting for some time. Scamp is going to ask them how they feel about suspending it for a few weeks. I’m doing the same with coffee for the Auld Guys. We may go to dance class later if we’re allowed 😉

Smiddy for lunch – 14 March 2020

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We just wanted to get out today and the Smiddy at Blair Drummond fitted the bill

Drove out there through occasional drizzle, but with the chance of some brightness too. I realised we’d made the right choice when I saw the specials menu. Baked potato with Veg Chilli, Jalapeños and Sour Cream. Haven’t had that in ages. They also had Erdinger no-alcohol beer on the drinks menu, so I had that too. For Scamp it was Mac ’n’ Cheese with the Smiddy hand cut Chips (Skin on), washed down with a glass of red. If I’m going to be picky, and I do have my foodie credentials to uphold, the potato felt as if it had been under the heat lights for a while and the chilli tasted like a re-heat, rather than fresh. Like I say, being picky. Scamp bought some fresh veg from the deli. She always prefers fresh veg, not packed in cling film. Things you can lift and check the condition. Ok, you maybe pay more that at Tesco, but you get to choose what you’re buying.

While she was making her selection, I took the opportunity to grab some photos of the Gargunnock Hills which were managing to find some sunshine from somewhere. The sky was broken and there was light up there, but not a lot. Today’s PoD shows the resulting panoramic image, built from five frames. It looks like I saw it.

Then, as the rain was starting, we headed back home. As we were driving past Stirling, the road was very wet but the sun was shining brightly. A typical Scottish day. It seemed as if we’d just missed a heavy rain shower, although we were about five miles north and we had only had spits and spots of the wet stuff.

I thought there was going to be enough light to go for a walk in St Mo’s when we got home, but although it didn’t actually rain, it was just too dull. You know my saying by now. “It’s all about the light”. I took one record shot of a pine tree “Pineapple” and that was out of focus, so glad I got the pano from the Smiddy.

While I was out, Scamp started in the back garden. Mainly cleaning up and freshening the soil round the plants, but also a bit of pruning. The rose between us and our next door neighbour was getting bit unruly and spreading into the poor woman’s garden. A few clips with the secateurs soon brought it into line with where it should be. Some of the plants are beginning to show new growth, so I expect she’ll be wanting to get started on the rest of the garden soon, all being well. I’ll try not to get roped in too much.

Watched half of a recorded program about figure drawing. Not something I’d like to have a go at. Portraiture maybe, with a teacher who could actually demonstrate the techniques, not like the one I went to at Cumbersheugh College a year or so ago. However, the hour of the program I watched was interesting enough to go back to another time and see the second half.

Overall not a bad day. In fact it was a much better day than some poor people on a Jet 2 holiday were having when their plane did a ‘U turn’ on the way to Tenerife and flew back to the UK, because the company decided that was the safest option. What a disappointment that would be!

No Sunday Social tomorrow. AdS have cancelled all socials and all classes for at least a fortnight and more likely a month due to Covid 19. It’s all becoming a bit claustrophobic now. We may go for a walk somewhere tomorrow if it’s dry.

A bit of sunshine – 13 March 2020

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That’s what we all need sometimes, a bit of sunshine.

There was the odd sprinkle of rain too, but that’s ok. Spoke to Hazy in the morning to explain yesterday’s blog post in more detail. After the explanation and checking that all was well down her way, we got ready and drove out to Rouken Glen in the south of Glasgow. We’d been there a few months ago and said we’d come back. It was Scamp’s suggestion of a destination today and it was a good one. The last time we were there we were looking for the waterfall, but failed to find it. Today we seemed to be surrounded by waterfalls. High drops, low splashing waterfalls and one that seemed determined to soak us with spray. I’d taken the tripod in the car, but of course I didn’t take it with me because I didn’t think we’d see any of the waterfalls. Numpty!  One of the waterfall pics got PoD.

The other thing I saw was what I think was the nymphal shuck of a damselfly or maybe a sedge. Can’t be sure that’s what it was, but almost certain. It looks like something designed by H.R. Giger. It was paper thin and must have survived the gales and the torrential rain since last summer.

Lunch was in the Boathouse Cafe next to the boating pond. Roll ’n’ Pork Sausage for me and Scrambled Egg on Toast for Scamp. Coffee was better than the usual cafe coffee. Almost as good as my new Blue Box coffee, Hazy. Much lighter than my usual Perth blend, but nice for a change. Walked back through the park and drove home just before the start of the rush hour.

Paella for dinner tonight and it was a good one. Almost, but not quite, too dry. I probably won’t be able to make one like it for ages now.

I think we’ve both come to terms with the P&O situation now. Another email arrived this afternoon to the effect that we can cancel the cruise and have our deposit refunded. We are both in agreement that it would be the best course of action in the circumstances. My thoughts are that with so many places almost in lockdown, it would not be much of a holiday anyway, even if Boris hadn’t made his declaration. Also, if we had been allowed to go, we’d have been in a bus travelling south with 40 or so others wondering if that old lady’s irritating cough is actually Covid 19 or just a cold. Imagine getting all the way to Southampton and being told you can’t board because you are showing signs of a virus you didn’t have when you left the house. Maybe for once Boris has done us a favour.

We have no plans for tomorrow. It looks like rain in the morning, clear for an hour or so and then more rain at night. Never mind, we had a good day today. We can’t be greedy.

Cold, not Corona – 10 March 2020

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Woke with a stuffed up nose and clogged ears. Not the symptoms of Covid 19, just a common cold.  Still felt miserable.

I’d said I’d go with Scamp to see how Isobel was faring with her new knee, but decided it would be better to self-isolate to use the new term for ‘stay at home’. Scamp left early to have coffee with Shona before she went to see the invalid. I took some Haliborange tablets and searched for a ball and socket head I was sure I had somewhere for the new tripod, without success (it lets you turn the camera to almost any angle). When I got fed up with searching I sat and watched the rain showers thumping down then made a pot of soup for dinner tonight, so at least all my time wasn’t wasted.

Finally took some sketch paper upstairs to draw and while telling myself that it wouldn’t be there, I searched through some boxes in the chest of drawers and immediately proved myself wrong, because there was the ball and socket head! Things are never where you expect to find them. Forgot about the drawing and started trying out the new fitment on the tripod and it worked perfectly. It was about that time I started to feel better. I also started to watch the sky in the hopes that there would be some blue among the clouds. There was none, but the clouds were clearing above the Campsie and that’s usually a good sign. A couple of hours later I made the decision to go out. The sun was shining and the clouds had cleared. So had my head.

Got the tripod set up perfectly in an awkward wee gully at the outfall of water from the pond at St Mo’s. There was a fair volume of water coursing down and it looked a likely place for a moody slow shutter shot of moving water. I shot a few at different exposure times, but wasn’t really happy with any of them. I made a mental note to take a pair of secateurs with me next time because the barbs on the bramble stems were tearing into my ankles. Spoke to Susan G who was out walking her dogs and wondering what the hell I was doing prancing around a mucky burn.

Walked round the upper path and found a much better run of water. Just a little drainage ditch with water pouring round a boulder. Another tricky position for a ‘normal’ tripod, but easy peasy for the Benbo. It’s what that tripod is made for. By the time I’d shot my fill of oily looking water, I realised it had started raining. Walked back along the boardwalk and the heavens opened. That’s when I got today’s PoD. It’s a three shot hand-held HDR image, but you probably guessed that, so I won’t bore you with the details. Second place went to the oily water shot, taken with the camera on the new tripod. Brilliant piece of British engineering.

Soup, bread and a baked potato for dinner as we listened to the news that Italy was now basically cut off from the rest of the world for at least two weeks. So strange to see the Colosseum in Rome with about four people standing beside it. Similarly St Mark’s Square in Venice virtually deserted. Strange days.

No plans for tomorrow. Hoping I’ve not passed the cold on to anyone else. If I get the all clear from Scamp, we’ll maybe go dancing at the British Legion, our new venue for Wednesday night classes.

A day in the Toon – 6 March 2020

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Scamp suggested it and I agreed. A day in Glasgow. No driving, no dancing, just a day in the Toon. Sounds good to me too.

Walked over to Condorrat and got the eXpress bus to Glasgow. Coffee in Nero first then a walk through JL. Visited the ‘toy shop’ on the top floor, just to see if there were any bargains on show, but of course, there weren’t. Didn’t really expect any, but I’m not in the market for bargains anyway, so I wasn’t really bothered.

The new Aaronovitch book (with luminous cover!) from Waterstones and the prospect of a pair of Wranglers in TJ Hughes took us along Argyle Street. The book was bought, but the jeans weren’t. Mainly due to the lack of ability in TJ’s staff to assess the size of the queue and stop changing tags on stock and man (should that be ‘person’) the tills instead. Nope, Job Demarcation demands that I stay at the job I was given and not deviate from said job until sanctioned by a more senior member of staff Or in other words “I was only obeying orders”. Left the jeans back on the shelf and walked out. How do these stores survive? Especially when others like JL are sinking?

In Paesano, a Number 3 pizza (anchovy, olive, capers, mozzarella, sugo and EVOO) for me and a Number 1 pizza (Sugo, rocket, No garlic, No cheese) for Scamp with two glasses of house red saved the day and brought a little bit of Italian sunshine to Glasgow.

Walked back to the bus station via Cass Art for black watercolour paint and a cheap sketch pad then caught another eXpress bus back to Condorrat. Walked home with smiles on our faces. It was a good day.

PoD was some folk heading up Bucky Street for the bus home after ‘Making Glasgow’!

Scamp made Chicken Goujons for supper, washed down with another glass of red wine.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to be fed at Cotton House, with the prospect of a walk afterwards.

Last Dance in The Weavers – 4 March 2020

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Thankfully the last dance in that pokey little room, but we beat the corners.

First we got a phone call from Isobel to say that she was indeed getting out today. Although she’d get transport from the ward to the car, she would need a wheelchair to get from the car to the house, because the hospital wouldn’t load us a chair. Absolute nonsense, but totally in keeping with expected NLC policy. Scamp was not to be fazed by this problem and phoned one of the Gems singers and an hour later we had a wheelchair in the back of the Juke. You don’t realise just how much room a folded up wheelchair takes up in a car. I see the problem now Hazy.

By the time we’d worked out how to transport Scamp, Isobel, me and the wheelchair from the hospital to Cumbersheugh, Isobel had phoned to say she’d been told she was going to get hospital transport. Because she had more than one step up to her door and also she only had one handrail, she needed an ambulance person to get her safely into the house. One problem solved, but now we had to return the wheelchair and also return our life to what sometimes amounts to “Normal”. We went to lunch.

Lunch was in Craigend Nursery which used to be a decent sized plant nursery with a small tearoom bolted on. Now it’s very large tearoom with a nursery bolted on almost as an afterthought. Lunch was a beef burger and chips and salad and a dollop of ‘coleslaw’ that looked like a dog had been sick on my slate (no plates, just slates. Retro chic). Scamp had a very greasy looking Mac ’n’ Cheese. I don’t think we’ll be rushing back there.

Drove back and Scamp went to offload the wheelchair while I went to visit the ducks in St Mo’s. I also walked to the shops to try to get lemongrass for tonight’s dinner. Met an old friend of ours from salsa. Haven’t seen her for years, five years at least, according to her. How time flies. Didn’t get the lemongrass, but I did get today’s PoD which looks as if it’s been taken with flash, but it was just low afternoon light. A lucky shot.

Tonight we were dancing for the final time in The Weavers. I won’t be sad to leave that horrible room with its strange angles. What we did do was produce a decent foxtrot and another ‘work in progress’ quickstep. After a long explanation of how to dance in any shape of room, we even managed to remove the corners of the room and turn them into gentle curves, just by altering stride length and not dancing in entirely straight lines. It worked!

G&Ts tonight to remove the rough edges of an awkward day. Much like The Dukes of Hazzard song “Staightenin’ the curves Flattenin’ the hills …”. Exactly like tonight’s dancing.

Tomorrow more dancing in the afternoon hopefully. In a proper room this time.

Hey look. Not dancing today! – 3 March 2020

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A day to relax, perhaps.

I’d intended to do some painting today while Scamp was out having coffee with Annette. What I did instead was pot up some chilli plants that had been lingering on the kitchen window sill. While was in this horticultural mood, I also split up a succulent that’s been aching to be repotted for years. When I looked at what it had been growing in, it seemed to be almost all gravel. There was a tiny wee ring of compost on the surface, but the rest was just pure grit and old dead roots. Although it looked a bit tired, it had been producing quite a few ‘babies’. I managed to dislodge five little suckers which have now been repotted in a mixture of compost, grit and sharp sand. I’m sure it have a fair bit more nutrient than they have been used to. I’m hoping they have enough, but not too much.

Scamp returned at lunchtime and after that she went out to buy dinner which turned out to be a Chinese stir-fry using noodles rather than her usual favourite rice. I enjoyed it, but I think Tesco were being a bit mean with their mixture which would have benefitted with some ginger to gee it up a bit. Other than that, the noodles made a pleasant change from rice. I think it will be my turn to cook tomorrow, so I have to think up something interesting. It’s so easy to get stuck in a rut. I have something in mind, it just depends on whether it ends up on the plate!

While Scamp was out shopping I grabbed my camera bag and went for a walk in St Mo’s. That’s where I found the little seedling growing in a tree. It seemed quite settled in its elevated position just about head height. I think it may be an ash and it’s growing in a sycamore tree. An interesting cross fertilisation.

Scamp’s aunt, Isobel is currently in hospital after having a new knee fitted. She phoned today to say that she wasn’t getting out today as she expected, but might get be allowed home tomorrow. We’d already agreed that if she was kept later than today, we’d be ’hospital transport’. So, tomorrow is partly put on hold until we get a phone call. Hoping to dance at night for the last time in a that tiny awkward room in Condorrat. Next week we’re supposed to be moving to the British Legion in Cumbersheugh which will definitely be a big improvement, we’re told

Freedom! – 1 March 2020

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Sketching is fun and so is painting, but when you have to do it every day and also dance to someone else’s tune, it becomes work.

Today was the first day of March and that meant the inaccurately named 28 Drawings Later and Every Day in February were finished for me. It was fun for most of the time, but when it starts to resemble work, I have to draw a line (no pun intended). I’m quite happy to do the odd sketch as the notion takes me, but I’m also happy to let it lapse for a few days. All being well, I’ll probably take up the cudgels again in May for EDiM.

It seems the news people are having a field day with all the Coronavirus stuff. They’ve found a perfect way to take up hours of screen time giving us updates and filling our screens with stats and visual representations of how bad this virus thingy is. Most folk don’t really care all that much. Until it actually affects them, it’s just another blah blah blah that takes up too much time and deflects the serious news to the last five minutes of the program. The gigantic map behind the presenter with whole countries splashed in RED don’t really tell the whole story. Yes, there’s a case of the virus in Scotland, but because of that, the whole of Scotland is painted red. Someone somewhere has read and applied “How to Lie With Statistics”, a brilliant book written by Darrell Huff and as valid today as it was when it was first published in 1954.

So, today, after lunch I went for a walk in a soggy St Mo’s. Got today’s PoD which is a dried up looking hummock of moss growing on a branch of a dead tree. It’s amazing what interests photogs with a decent camera and a macro lens. Apart from startling a couple of deer, that was the only interesting thing that crossed my path today. A dull windy day which eventually turned to sleety rain, but not until much later.

Curry from the Spice Tailor range for dinner. I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad one. Didn’t read the instructions properly for this one and left the chilli in for a bit longer than necessary, but it was fine, just spicy enough.

Drove in to the Record Factory for Salsa tonight, but the music was so dire we left earlier than we’d intended. It wasn’t just us, either. Almost all of the ‘old school’ were complaining too. It seems that a lot of Jamie G’s ‘Advanced Class’ have now gone over to The Opposition, Sergio & Patricia. I can’t say I blame them. The move from the STUC building out to the West End hasn’t endeared Shannon to a lot of people and the fact that Jamie seems to be away from class more than he’s there is bound to affect the continuity of teaching. At least they now cancel his advanced classes when he’s not going to be there. That is a move in the right direction.

Spoke to JIC tonight and found out all about his short trip to Boston. Poor soul hardly got to see round the city at all. All work and no play by the sound of it. Never mind JIC, you have a week to enjoy the peace between studying, working from home and looking after Vixen!

Tomorrow is a Gems day, but we also need to cram in some dance. Hoping we make a better show of things tomorrow night.