Category: A Walk

Sub zero – 10 May 2020

Posted on by Zogman

Temperatures predicted to be below zero tonight and it didn’t feel that much warmer today.

We both did a walk around the garden trying to work out what had gone wrong with the acer which is looking very sorry for itself. Scamp thinks its roots have been too wet and that could be part of the problem, but I think it’s been sitting in the sun too long too. It seems to like the shade. Perhaps it’s a combination of the two. It’s now back in the place it’s been for the last year and has had a change of compost, with more drainage so we’ll keep a watching brief on it for the next wee while. Otherwise, things are progressing well. The cold east wind today was making some of the alliums bob about a bit and we may need to give them a bit more support soon. It was one of allium heads that got PoD.

Under Scamp’s careful tutelage I made a steak pie in the afternoon. It turned out a lot better than I thought it would. Different butcher, slightly different method, but the result was the same, just as good as last time. Even better, there’s enough left over for tomorrow’s dinner.

We needed some potatoes for tonight’s dinner, so I volunteered to go out into the cold and get some. Of course I came back with a lot more than potatoes. That’s the trouble with having to queue for your shopping, you want to make sure you get everything you went for and tend to buy things you didn’t have on your list.

Spoke to JIC tonight and heard how his garden is progressing. It sounds great and I’m sure he’s not exaggerating. His garden is huge compared to ours and I know he spends a lot of time keeping it up to scratch. I don’t think I could expend that amount of energy on a garden, but I’m sure Scamp could.

Sketch for today was a pet or an animal. Damselflies are animals according to some learned people. I took them at their word and painted a blue damselfly. I’m not sure if they, or my artwork is to everyone’s taste, but that’s not the point. It’s the act of painting that it’s all about. Doing something.

I’ve closed down the wee greenhouse tonight, just incase the weather fairies have it right with their -1º in the middle of the night. I’ve got some things to do tomorrow, including cleaning up this computer. It’s running very slowly and needs a good clean out. I think the time for a new OS is getting closer too! Oh yes, and we’re hopefully getting a Tesco order delivered tomorrow as well. A busy day beckons.

Big Al takes charge – 8 May 2020

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Bit the bullet and called in some help.

Phoned Wheelcraft this morning and spoke to Big Al. Told him what the problem was and he said to bring the wheel in. Once he’d stripped out the ball bearings and cleaned the grease out he spotted a crack in the hub cup. It’s going to need a new hub and the wheel rebuilt. About £50. It’s a good job I didn’t get the cone off, because I’d never have thought of looking for a crack in the cup. He’s just the same as the last time I was there. Social Distancing? I don’t think he’s been listening to Boris or Nick. Three people working in that pokey wee place. Still, he knows what he’s doing and is the only one I’d trust to repair my wheel, even if it’s going to cost a bit more than I’d expected.

Drove back from Clachan of Campsie in an improving day, although there were a few heavy looking clouds hanging around the Campsie Fells as we drove past them. The rain didn’t come, though and the Juke was driving well. It’s amazing that when you’ve been travelling at walking pace for the last four our five weeks, 40mph seem really fast!

Scamp went out to get some stuff for tonight’s dinner and I walked with her part of the way, then veered off to walk round St Mo’s. I was looking for pine cones, because we’ve found that a cat (?) has been crapping in the her sweet pea box and apparently one of the best preventative measures is to cover the box in pine cones because cats don’t like to walk on them. I suppose they are quite jaggy and would hurt the poor pussy’s feet. Me, I wanted to go for land mines, but Scamp wouldn’t have that as the box is too close to the wall of the house. We’ll see how the pine cones work first.

While I was out I got today’s PoD which is a spider wrapping up a little black fly. I felt sorry for the poor fly, but in another shot you can clearly see the hooked claws on its feet. Possibly a robber fly. There are a lot of them about in the late spring and early summer. Anyway of the two shots I kept out of the 14 I took, this was the best. Not the best of a bad lot, but not far off it.

I made Asparagus with Lemon Spaghetti and Peas for dinner and despite the fact that it was very lemony, I quite enjoyed it.

Tomorrow is Saturday, but that’s just a name now. Don’t have any plans

Wheels within wheels – 7 May 2020

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It’s just a wheel after all, what can be difficult.

I’ll tell you what can be difficult. Finding a spanner that actually fits the locknut on the wheel axle. That’s number 1. Finally solved that one by using a shifting spanner. Next problem was finding a spanner that would fit the inner, possibly cone nut. Not only fit, but also be thin enough to slip into the gap between the locknut and the wheel hub. It was at that point that I gave up on repairing the front wheel of the bike. I could find a spanner that fitted in the slot and seemed to be the right size. Unfortunately the nut is 13mm and the only spanner I had that was thin enough was 14mm. Sometimes you just have to take heed of these warnings and say let’s go and look at how much I’d have to pay to Halfords for a new wheel. The answer was that prices start at £65!! For a piece of Halfords trash? I’d hope not. The fact that it’s also a disk brake wheel would inevitably increase that price. I put back the rubber gaiter and the spindle and went to see if Wheelcraft were still in business. No answer on the phone. Likewise the bike shop in Cumbersheugh village. I’ll try again tomorrow. If the worst comes to the worst, I’ll order a cone spanner from Halfords and use that to strip the wheel down. At least then I’ll know if its ball bearings that’s inside or a cassette.

Halfway through the wheel struggle, I took some time out to help Scamp with manoeuvring the plant pots back into place in the front garden. She did the hard work of cutting and trimming the grass, I cleaned the mower. Gave it a spray with WD40 too to hopefully prevent more grass from sticking to the underneath. I planted the peas that I’d been growing in a plug rack, so now I have one full row of little green heads poking through the soil of the raised bed. Tomorrow I’m intending planting another rack of them. Kale will soon be ready for thinning out. Dug up the last of the black kale I planted last year. Green kale still looks good, so it will get a week or so of growing before it too is removed.

Later in the afternoon I went for a walk down to the shops to get some ingredients for tomorrow’s dinner. On the way home I saw one of those three wheeler Ski Scooters that you wiggle your way along on and wondered how difficult it would be to ride that home. It was a bit rusty, but I could clean it up. Might be worth a try. Then again, I don’t know who was the last person to use it and if they had washed their hands before they were last playing with it. Probably better not. However, if it’s still there tomorrow …

Didn’t have a PoD, so had a look in the garden, but nothing really inspired me. Finally settled on a wizened tulip that was dropping its petals. It took a bit of delicate balancing to get the two final petals to stay put long enough to get the photos taken. Quite happy with the result. Reminded me of a flamenco dancer. Beautiful colours.

No plans for tomorrow. Scamp booked another slot for Click & Collect at Tesco for the 18th which is just a nice time giving a bit of space from next Monday’s delivery. Never used Click & Collect at Tesco. It will be an adventure, and a short run for the Juke. Must keep the wheels turning.

Out early and on the Dewdrop – 6 May 2020

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I’d considered going out yesterday, but realistically it was too cold. Yes, it was warm, hot even in the sun, but the wind was cooling, too cooling. What I did say was that I would go today and I did. The wind had dropped and it was a really enjoyable run, but after only about twelve years, it looks like I need re-grease the front wheel bearings. I’d have thought the bearings would have lasted longer than 12 years 😉 I need to have a serious look at them tomorrow to find out if they can be cleaned and re-greased or if I need to buy a new cassette unit. Still, it was a good run on a warm day and contributed to my daily exercise. Got a PoD too. It turned out to be a Drinker Moth caterpillar (Euthrix potatoria).

Back home after lunch I’d half decided to go out for a walk to get some more photos, but a seat in the sun, joining Scamp at the front door was an even better option so I took that with both hands. Read a few more chapters from my latest book City of Windows. Enjoying it. Saw my first swallows while I was sitting there. It was the screaming sound they make that alerted me. Maybe they were house martins or swifts. I don’t know the difference. Must find out.

When Scamp decided that it was warm enough to take her lounger to the back garden, I finally gave in and took the Oly out for a walk in St Mo’s. It would probably have been better if I’d taken the SD card with me, but luckily there wasn’t much to photograph. Then when I was walking back across the BMX track a damselfly lifted off in front of me. No time to take a photo, even if I’d had an SD card!

By the time I came back empty handed, it was cooling down a bit and we ate our kedgeree inside, but took our tinned peaches in lime jelly outside with us. Coffee outside after that, then out of a clear blue sky a little cloud appeared and obliterated the sun. Then that same cloud grew bigger and didn’t seem to want to leave the sun. That’s when I decided it was getting too cool for comfort. Shades of what’s to come if the weather fairies are to be believed.

That was a good day. The first real run with the Dewdrop this year, my first swallow this year and my first damselfly this year. I’m happy with that.

Just another sunny day – 5 May 2020

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It was one of those unexpectedly good days. Expected it to be overcast and right from the start it was lovely sunshine.

Possibly it was because of that sunshine, but neither of us did very much in the morning. Scamp was reading and I was struggling through today’s Sudoku. Cup of coffee each and a bit of cake. After that we agreed that we needed milk and bread, so off we trotted to the shops. Big queues everywhere except The Food Factory, so that’s where we went. They didn’t have as much as M&S or Aldi, but we weren’t looking for much, so that sufficed for our shopping.

Back home, lunch for me was a panini wrapped round some tinned red salmon and lettuce. Ages and ages since I’ve had salmon of the tinned variety. It has a totally different taste from ‘real’ salmon. Makes you wonder what it’s made from. I doubt if there’s much fish in there. Scamp had tuna with lettuce on a panini and declared it fine. There again, tinned tuna is nothing like fresh tuna. Hardly the same colour and nothing like the taste. What is it really? To finish off lunch we had a piece of banana cake. It was truly delicious. I had two bits and I think Scamp had the same.

I’d a bit more work to do in the back room. I’m thinking about making a light box to photograph my drawings in and I was scrounging around for some cardboard to make it. I think I’ve managed to find enough. May start construction tomorrow after the plans are drawn up. I’ve been watching some folk making them on YouTube and they don’t look too difficult. We’ll see.

Got fed up and decided to take the Big Dog out for a walk in St Mo’s and Scamp decided a walk would do her good, so off we went. Went round the pond twice and that’s where I got the picture of the baby coot looking really straggly and scruffy. Strange how the area around their beak is like orange fur when it will later become the iconic white plate. They were deep in the horsetails and were difficult to spot and even more difficult to get a clear shot of. I shot about 20 frames, but it was the very first one that was the best and that made PoD.

We had a bit of a dance practise tonight and covered some of the sequence dances with Scamp trying to teach me a couple of new ones she’d seen Stewart and Jane doing in their little Lockdown Videos. Really appreciate them taking the time to do them.

Tomorrow I may go cycling, just may. It was warm in the sun today, but the east wind was cold. Tomorrow is to be warmer apparently. We’ll see.

Hot Stuff – 4 May 2020

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Up at 4.30am for a cooling glass of OJ.

It did the trick, but it took me ages to get back to sleep again. It was, in the words of the song “Too … Damn … Hot!” I finally broke surface just before 8.30, but still felt tired. We both agreed that we need to change the duvet cover to our cheapo IKEA low tog one. That was one job added to the to-do list.

Scamp was delighted to hear that while we were struggling with heat, the grass was getting a good soaking from the rain. That meant we didn’t have to water the combined weedkiller, mosskiller, lawn feed into the roots of the front grass again. We didn’t bother to spread any on the back grass, because if all the weeds and moss was killed off, there wouldn’t be much else there, except about a dozen blades of grass.

Last night I’d been on the point of removing myself from Every Day in May on Facebook.  Today I did it. EDiM is a private group for sketchers to share and discuss our interpretation of a daily prompt. It’s a great idea and one I’ve taken to in the past couple of years. Unfortunately, a change in Admins has meant a change in the rules. I’m in agreement with some, but felt the need to complain about some that have been slipped in quietly in the dead of night. Now a member can’t post a drawing/sketch in their own page and then link it to EDiM. The Admin gave a somewhat contorted reasoning for this new rule. I disagreed. Today I received a reply to my criticism which basically explained how to post the pic twice, once to my page and then once to EDiM page. Now I know the difference between condensation and condescension and I hate being talked down to. That is why my response was “Wrong Answer.” Left the message a couple of hours to be read by anyone passing by and then left the group. I know the words “Toys” and “Pram” may be in your mind, but I don’t like to be told how to do something the awkward way when there are already routes in the software to do it much more neatly. Too many leaders in that group now, I believe. Too many rules.

We went for a walk, our daily exercise to St Mo’s. When we were walking there, we both spotted a bunch of daisies sprouting from a crack in the mortar of a wall. They became the PoD. Scallywag Daisies.

Scamp was baking today while I was working in the painting room. She made a Banana Cake which we haven’t tasted yet and also a Fruit Loaf which was very nice, especially spread with butter and with a cup of tea to wash it down. Tomorrow, hopefully we will get to taste the Banana Cake.

That was about it for the day. The rain cleared up halfway through the morning and the sun shone which was probably what enticed us out to St Mo’s. Weather seems set to improve in the next few days, but tales from the weather fairies of “Wintry Showers!!!” at the weekend. I don’t like the sound of that!

May need to go out for milk tomorrow, but just down to the local shops.

Oh, yes, and May The Fourth Be With You.

Mobile again on four wheels – 2 May 2020

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Driving again, but still the queues persist.

Tasks for the day:

  • Get some plywood to make painting boards
  • Fix up the sparkly new lights
  • Decide on dinner

Just to get it done, I fixed up the solar cell and then the two of us got the new lights fitted round the tree. It looks a bit untidy, but I think the effect will work when it gets dark. I still believe a rethink may be necessary, but they are unwound and in place for now.

After lunch we drove to B&Q to get the plywood. Saw the length of the queue to get in and drove back home. Got into our parking space again. Battery seems to be charging ok. No plywood, so instead I used a mini roller to put gesso on a couple of boards I’d found. Old Dalerboards that were probably meant for oil painting only, so I don’t know if the acrylic gesso will stick to them. I’m sure I’ll find out tonight or tomorrow.

I took the mandatory trip over to St Mo’s for today’s photo. PoD turned out to be of a spider apparently levitating in front of some whin bushes. I don’t know what happened to the GX 80 I was using, but every shot turned out with the whin flowers looking golden rather than the more acid yellow they really are. Something went wrong somewhere with its colour balance. However, that’s what we have Lightroom for. A little bit of sliding the sliders and all was well again. PoD nearly went to a photo of a girl bunny (not a bunny girl!) wearing sunglasses. I hope whoever lost it, finds it again.

Hearty Miso Ginger Chicken Soup was our dinner tonight and we both agreed it sort of worked, but not quite. Neither of us were all that keen on the miso soup, so we’d probably replace that with chicken stock. The chicken was fine. Cut into thin strips it cooks really quickly. We both liked the Pak Choi, but would reduce the amount of ginger as it seemed to take over. Not a complete rewrite of the recipe which stayed substantially the same, just tweaking. The one thing that worked for us was the bread. A dark mix of three types of flour, so I won’t be able to make that one again!

Well, it took a while for it to get dark enough for the lights to come on round the tree, but they are sparkling brightly now so Scamp’s happy with them.

Nothing planned for tomorrow, although it seems to be a little cooler than today.

Webinar Day – 1 May 2020

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Webinar with the man from Falkirk.

I was set up early for the webinar, but for some reason there was no sound, even on the setup screen. Tried the help page and it told me to login again and switch off the ‘unmute’ request that would pop up. Tried that, and no unmute request. Emailed the link to Scamp who got in no bother and with sound. Aha! Scamp is using Chrome. Tried the link on the iMac with Chrome and all was well. Firefox is becoming a bit of a resources hog and seems to get slower with every new iteration. It may be time to move on to something smaller and faster.

The webinar was very illuminating and also very entertaining, thanks to Andrew’s quite dry sense of humour. So deadpan, he sounds like a Yorkshire Chic Murray if such a thing could exist. Lots of graphs and charts, each one explained fully, and it appears that he’s confident we’re on the way out of this mess. Only time will tell. Q&A session afterwards was equally entertaining and the final send-off with “Well thank you all for coming, especially those who dressed for the occasion and the couple who didn’t dress at all, well, hmm…”. Typical Andrew. Facts fully explained with his calm delivery.

Got a message that my meds were ready at the pharmacy. An ideal way to test out the new battery. Out and away without any bother and only three folk in the queue in front of me. If I’d been thinking of going to Tesco instead, there would have been at least forty folk in the queue in front of me. This is the longest queue I’ve seen there. The explanation from Scamp is that it’s a Friday – traditional shopping day. Also it’s the first day in the month, a lot of folk still get paid on a Friday. Whatever the reason, we left them to their day in the chain-gang and came home. Battery is still sitting half way up the scale, so I’ll keep an eye on it for the next few days and maybe give it a longer run tomorrow or Sunday.

We walked over to Condorrat for some fresh meat and eggs at the butchers and was tempted to let Scamp bring the bag the rest of the way and then go for a wander in St Mo’s, but chose instead to come home and find a recipe for black pudding tapas we’d seen on Hairy Bikers. I don’t like them, but some of the food they make is very tasty. That’s where I got my paella recipe from years ago. It was while I was waiting outside the butchers I saw the sign on the top of the butchers van. It almost became PoD, but not quite.

I did go over to St Mo’s for a walk after I sourced the black pudding recipe and got a couple of decent shots. The winner of PoD was the crozier with a bit of back lighting to brighten it up.  The weather helped there and I almost forgot to mention that we had another unexpectedly lovely day.  It looked more like we’d have a fair dose of cloud, but it never appeared until it was time for dinner, thankfully.

Might take the Juke out for a run tomorrow just to give it a chance to charge the battery, because THERE’S NOWHERE TO GO NOW!!

Batteries were included, fully charged and free – 30 April 2020

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Woke to rain again. Just a little and it’s still not overstayed its welcome yet.

New method for the blog, as suggested by Scamp. Writing it in stages as I find time during the day so I don’t have to plug away at it until midnight. Let’s see how it works out.

Tried the car first thing and it was another no response from the battery. Phoned the emergency number after answering a couple of questions about Coronavirus for the safety of the repair man I suspect, I was told the engineer would be with me in about 90 minutes. Just over the 90 minutes later an RAC van drove slowly up the hill, he’d be looking for me then.

It only took him a couple of minutes to diagnose a faulty cell in the battery that was dragging the voltage down from 12v to 9v. Not repairable, no point in charging it and as it was within the warranty period he could replace it there and then with a new one free of charge, saving me £265. Battery was replaced and then we stood and discussed the world and the ’New Normal for a while. I didn’t mind. I started the car and he checked that everything was as it should have been before filling in the paperwork. I didn’t even have to sign anything. He wouldn’t, or that should be couldn’t accept a cup of tea for fear of being contaminated with a potential Covid-19 virus from us and by handing back a used cup, could potentially pass on a virus to us. How the world has turned since March.

We said our goodbyes and I commented that I’d shake his hand, but I wouldn’t be allowed. We went in to have our lunch and I think he did the same in his van, still with the flashers on so no questions would be asked.

After lunch I walked down to the new shops to get some chocolate for me and a set of outdoor fairy lights for Scamp. It was dry for the walk, but when I was in the shop it was teeming down outside. When I came out again it was dry. April showers, even if it’s the last day in April. I waited a while when I got back before going out for today’s photo, which was a smart decision as a hail storm descended on us. After that the sun shone again and I was out like a shot. Found today’s PoD over at St Mo’s. A dandelion on a bad hair day. I also found a pair of very wet reading glasses hanging on a tree branch on the way home. How they got there I don’t know, but I know how the owner felt, having lost more than my fair share of specs over the years.

That was about it for today. Doing the blog in stages is good as long as I stick to it. It also helps to have a laptop that uses the same blogging software as the iMac and can share the part finished articles over WiFi.

Tomorrow we are hoping to be taking part in a webinar with the bloke from Falkirk. Should be interesting.

Another delivery day of sunshine and groceries – 28 April 2020

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This time Tesco were doing the needful for the groceries and the blue skies were producing the backdrop.

A dull day at 4.40am, but the birds were singing happily. Blackbirds I think, certainly not magpies that abound just now and definitely not seagulls they should be banned or better still culled.

Spent the morning clearing off the dried paint from my painting palette which is nothing more than a large white floor tile, but it has a hard glossy surface that works so well with any kind of paint and generally washes clean. It didn’t do it today, in fact I had to take some turps on a rag to it. That got the paint moving. Unfortunately it made the whole house smell too. I think I’ve finally got rid of the smell tonight. Since I had the turps out, I cleaned my oil painting brushes with it and then washed them in hot soapy water. That way they won’t pass any Covid-19 to each other.

Gary, the window cleaner came round today to make an honest fiver. Haven’t seen him in ages and we did a bit of long distance social distancing catching up. He was asking after you JIC. I don’t think you knew him Hazy. He used to go to karate class with JIC and me. Then it was lunch time.

In the afternoon I sat and struggled again with the problems of getting a Pilatus PC12 to follow a GPS trace. Finally, and I say this with a fair degree of certainty, I know how to set it properly and make the aircraft play nice. It’s just a case of knowing which of those screens to set up properly, which of the buttons to press and when. Heaven knows how real pilots know which of the buttons to press and more importantly, which NOT to press.

Later in the afternoon I went for a walk round St Mo’s. Just because it was so nice, I went round twice and got a couple of photos of blossom and flowers. The blossom was Hawthorn or May Blossom. That got PoD. The other little flower I got was a Lousewort. Ugly name for a pretty little flower. I’d read last year’s blog last night and I’d photographed the same flower, but hadn’t found a name for it. Now I know. I used my old trusted Collins book Wild Flowers of Britain and Northern Europe to find it. Of course I cross-checked it with Google!

Dinner tonight was a combined affair. Scamp made Cauliflower Fritters and I made Souk Style Chicken and Chickpea Soup. It was like a soupy tagine. Very spicy, but not hot. We got the recipes from a cooking magazine and Scamp suggested we both look through it separately and write down recipes we would like to try. Not surprisingly, we both chose a lot of the same things. We’re intending to work through the list now and maybe cut a few from it to make a short list of favourites.

Tesco delivery arrived early as usual and with the wrong printout of groceries. Scamp was confused for a while and then she noticed the delivery address was wrong. Most of the stuff we ordered came this time, even bread flour. Now the problem is going to be finding yeast. We’ve enough to do for about a month, so there’s no rush for it. Just a matter of waiting until the panic buying is past its peak.

Read some sad news on the web today. Apparently John Prine a singer songwriter I’ve been enjoying for the last few months died on 7th April with complications from Covid-19. Such a pity. If you get a chance, search Spotify for Some Humans Aint Human. Clever lyrics that mean so much more nowadays.

More rain tonight, but the day was clear and sunny for most of the time. However, the weather fairies say the good weather isn’t going to last. We’ll just have to wait and see.