Category: A Walk

Another lovely day. Make the most of it – 24 April 2020

Posted on by Zogman

It was a lovely warm day. Blue skies and wall to wall sunshine. Best of all, there was little or no wind to cool us.

To make the most of it, we sat outside in the morning and soaked up some rays. I even wore my shorts to grab as much sunshine as I could. Coffee maker was working, a bit arthritically, but working none the less and I enjoyed a cup in my folding seat at the front door. Stayed there more or less all morning with the occasional walk round the block to make sure we weren’t becoming too sedentary.

I did make one foray inside and that was to order an aeroplane. It’s a Pilatus PC12 and retails at an eye-watering $5.36M (+VAT). I managed to beat them down to £18 (+VAT). It may be delivered this year, but I have the X-Plane 11 version to fly until it can be shipped. It’s a beautifully kitted out plane and I’ve not even crashed it yet. With the deal done and downloaded, I retired to the front lawn to plan my flights and soak up some rays with another cup of coffee. I managed to nab a PoD which was a little beetle that kept circling us and eventually landed on Scamp’s coffee cup. It had previously landed on my hand, but I wasn’t quick enough to snap it. I named it Alexander for obvious reasons.

In the afternoon, after a lunch of Piece ’n’ Flat Sausage for me and Piece ’n’ Egg for my co-pilot, we went for a short constitutional round St Mo’s. Place was dull and fairly empty, so the photo of Cowslips was all I got.

Tonight’s dinner was a salad with Salmon for Scamp and an overcooked rump steak for me. Salad was lovely, but my steak was too tough.

Watched an interesting film on Amazon Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School. The key words in the title were ‘Ballroom’ and ‘Dancing’. It was entertaining and interesting. Well, it passed an hour and a half and took our minds of Sturgeon’s revelation that things wouldn’t return to ‘normal’ until next year at least and that social distancing wouldn’t go away until the autumn, if then. Yes, we want to be treated like adults, Nick, but we like fairy stories at bedtime!

Tomorrow looks like being the last of the good weather with the possibility of rain on Sunday and almost definitely next week sometime. The gardens need it, but we want sunshine! With that said, there is just the chance of a Golden Bowl dinner tomorrow.

Early delivery – 23 April 2020

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Scamp’s turn for breakfast and an early knock on the door.

Our veg box arrived this morning as Scamp was making breakfast just after 8.30. What a haul it was Pineapple, Melon, Avocados, Tomatoes, Grapes, Carrots, Potatoes and lots, lots more. Far more than we expected or needed, really. I’m sure well manage to eat our way through most of it though.

Just after I’d had my shower this morning, I felt a well remembered itch on my left wrist and sure enough, there was the little black spot that turned out to be a tick, the second one I’ve had this year and hopefully the last. It had been sitting quietly underneath my watch strap. I think I may have to stick to the main paths in the parks from now until the start of the winter when they die off.

Today was bin day and we are working our way through cleaning all the bins. Today’s customer was the green bin for bottles and plastic – recycling waste. I took up the cudgels and scrubbed it out with a big hard brush. I must admit it made a fair difference to the bin and was a worthwhile use of my time. It also gave me a chance to wander around and get some sun on me.

The unthinkable happened this morning.  The coffee machine wouldn’t work.   No coffee was forthcoming from it.  In fact, nothing was coming from it.  I could hear the pump doing its best, but not a drop was coming out of the basket.  Tried the steam jet and it worked, so it wasn’t the pump that was at fault.  After a bit of rudimentary stripping down, it turned out that some gunk was stuck in the dispenser.  The bit that the spray connects to.  There are four holes in the dispenser block and none of them were working.  After a lot of poking and prodding I got three of them back in business and that was as far as I was willing to go.  I watched a video of an engineer stripping down a Gaggia like mine and knew that it was well beyond my knowledge or tools.  I put it all back together again and went looking on the Which site to see what was available.  It’s not the cost that’s the problem, it’ sourcing the things in these difficult days.  Later I managed to make a cup of coffee with it, but it took a long time.  I’m afraid you pair (you know who you are) have probably made the right decision with my birthday present.  I’ll see what happens tomorrow.

After lunch I went in search of milk down at the shops. Beginning to see more and more people wearing masks now. Some, in fact most, seem to be home made. I might look for a pattern and put some of my ‘fat corners’ to good use. I did see a couple of example patterns somewhere and read of people having irritation from the elastic rubbing on their ears. There was a suggestion that you could modify the design to have a strap with a button and another with a button hole which would fasten behind the head instead. I don’t think I’d adopt that method it sounds a bit like “Do you think my heid buttons up the back?”

Hauled my bag of milk and chocolate (that’s the prize for going) back home and hadn’t taken one photo. Then I remembered the little basil seedlings that are growing on the kitchen window sill. They became the PoD.

Dinner tonight was an old time favourite. Cabbage, bacon and potatoes. Sounds uninteresting but it’s truly delicious.

Played a bit of catch-up with the Lockdown Library for Instagram. I got painter’s block yesterday, so today I’d two drawings to do. Actually I did do a quick sketch of my dance shoes last night, but wasn’t happy with it. Today I added some brushed on black ink and they came alive. So that worked for yesterday. Today’s sketch was a simple one of my old iPhone SE. Now it seem so small.

Tomorrow I may HAVE to cut my hair. It’s getting to be really annoying and messy. Its time may have come.

The supervisor – 22 April 2020

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Who would have thought that towards the end of April Showers month we’d have to get the hose out and water the garden?

Gardening today. First I offered to strim the back grass. There is really no point in hauling out the grass cutter and doing a proper cut, because of the lumps and bumps and paving slabs that make it almost impossible to get an even cut. I chose instead to use the strimmer, but only after moving all the plant pots to give myself a fairly easy run at it. Then the pots had to be put back again and we couldn’t be sure exactly where they went. Finally Scamp declared that they were near enough right. I photographed the layout so we’d know next time.  I also took the opportunity to photograph her blue Muscari (Grape Hyacinth) and Chionodoxa luciliae (Glory of the Snow). Muscari made it to Flickr (G o t S didn’t).

The next gardening task was to fit the hose to the tap and spend a fairly pleasant half hour hosing down the back garden. I’d already soaked my sprouting peas in the bird bath to make sure they continued to sprout. Like I said, it was a fairly pleasant half hour, but not for Scamp who was leaning out the back bedroom window apparently “Just supervising.” A quick flick of the spray controller to “Full Firefighter Force” and an accurately directed jet caught her unawares and put an end to her supervision. Of course, I got pelters for that afterwards. As an act of atonement I washed all the back windows and squeegee’d them clean. I even did the awkward back door.

After lunch, when we were speaking again, Scamp went out to the front with her book and read for a while in the sun.  It was warmer today, because the wind was a bit less boisterous than it has been of late . I should have been painting, but instead I went for a walk to St Mo’s. Before I went, I took some macro shots of a pair of yellow tulips. One of them made it to PoD. The only half decent shot I got in St Mo’s was one of a mummy Mallard with her brood of ducklings. Pity they were so far across the pond to be almost invisible in the ripples. I saw and captured one other interesting sign of the times. I’ve seen artists on FB painting messages on stones and leaving them for someone to find. Today I found, not one, but two on a seat in the park. It’s a nice thought that took very little time to do, but might give someone some much needed support. I hope so.

Didn’t get a painting done today, so maybe I’ll manage to play catch-up tomorrow. Hoping for a veg box delivery some time tomorrow. It’s amazing the silver linings that are appearing from these dark clouds.

A nice day for a stake – 21 April 2020

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Not a spelling mistake. Not a very meaty stake.

The apple tree, our big James Grieve apple tree has been staked for a long number of years now. When the original stake was put in, the tree had barely started fruiting. Last year it was becoming quite bent and bowed with the weight of the apples on its much longer branches. That was when we decided it needed a better support. Today I cut up a lovely piece of mahogany used to be a ‘stretcher’ for holding up the washing line before the whirly came into our lives and the washing line became redundant. The stretcher originated from the woodwork department of a certain high school that doesn’t exist any more and for a years or so has been propping up the fence at the back door. Today it was repurposed as the support for the apple tree.

With the prop cut to length and sharpened to a fair point, it should have been easy to hammer it in to the ground, secure the branch to it and remove the old support. Things that should be easy rarely are as any DIY person will tell you. First it was almost impossible to hammer the new stake into the ground with the old one in place without damaging all the flowers on that branch, so with Scamp holding the branch, I cut off the cable tie securing the tree to the old stake and carefully removed the stake. Next there was what we will call ‘a discussion’ as to exactly where the new stake would go. Polis were not called to intervene, but it was a close run thing. Eventually we found a place that we could both agree on and the stake was duly battered into place. The branch was secured to the stake with a cable tie, cushioned with a couple of old socks. That seemed to work the last time and hadn’t damaged the branch unduly. We may replace the original stake just to provide extra support if we think the tree needs it, but for now it should be ready to carry the masses of fruit we’re hoping for, if I haven’t destroyed all the flower buds.

With the job done we had lunch. After lunch I went for a walk in St Mo’s and got today’s PoD which I think is a hover fly. It might be a honey bee, but I’m fairly certain it’s a hover. It was another beautiful day if you could find somewhere sheltered from a fierce eastern wind. It might be blowing in from the North Sea, but it felt as if it was coming from the Arctic. Still the whin bushes were glowing in the sunshine and the pine trees behind them were providing a barrier to that wind.

Went looking for a wooden box I made when I was an apprentice away back in the late 60s. Didn’t find it, but Scamp found a few strips of colour negatives and we scanned them into the iMac. Some good memories there. I’ll distribute some of them when I’ve got them all scanned.

Before dinner I started on today’s Lockdown Library painting. Tonight it was to be four pears. Laid down some basic washes and left it there to go and sample Scamp’s veggie chilli. It was delicious. One of those dishes that taste so good you forget there’s no meat in it. After dinner I laboured on at the painting and finally got it to a stage I was fairly happy with. It’s photographed and up on Instagram.

No plans for tomorrow, other than maybe another dance practise.

Two ponds in one day – 20 April 2020

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It was a fair bit colder today caused by a strong east wind.

East winds are usually cold. They blow in from the North Sea which has no North Atlantic Drift (Wrongly called the Gulf Stream) to warm it up. It felt raw today, but inside with the sun streaming on through the front windows it was lovely. So lovely I didn’t want to shift too far from the couch, which is a bad thing really. Eventually had to move to get lunch. After that I was encouraged to go for a walk to allow Scamp some ‘me time’.

I chose to walk round St Mo’s, but I’m becoming jaded with its greenery, its swans and geese and even its trees which are starting to look very tree-like all of a sudden. I didn’t even take any photos there today. Instead I walked down through the underpass and on to Broadwood Loch. Unfortunately it was the same story as yesterday. Too many people in too big a group with only one brain cell between them. The paths are very tight in places and while some people give you room to pass, some of the dunderheids don’t know enough about social distancing or don’t care and just bustle past. Really, they shouldn’t be allowed out without a carer, a polis escort or at the very least, a man in front of them with a red flag. Cumbernauld! Where it’s not just the dogs that piss on the trees.

On the way back up over the green hill between the ring road and the houses where they are considering (Councilspeak for going ahead with) building yet more houses on the greenbelt. That’s where I found another wild cherry tree and took its picture. That became PoD. Hardly needed any post processing.

Watched Christine & The Queens tonight on YouTube on Fire Stick because it’s about ten times faster than using the Sony TV to do it. It all started with trying to watch the Stones on BBC singing in harmony(!) with each other from their homes, over some supposed video link that was as dodgy as the singing. At least it was funny, but the presenters, oh dear, the presenters. The Wood family. Just not up to the job I’m afraid. That’s what sent us to YouTube to find C&TQ, which was what we were looking for. Amazing performance from Glastonbury last year.

That was about it. Short dancing practise today. Tomorrow, probably longer one.

Walking on new paths – 19 April 2020

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Up and out early to go for a walk in the new paths of Broadwood.

Actually, although we were up and out fairly early, the paths were already being well used by others. Cyclists and joggers were out in force and so too were those, like us, who were out for their daily exercise. On our way out we met a few fellow walkers and in the woods we met hardly any. In fact the paths were so quiet we spotted a deer feeding near the little lochan not far from the famous Irn Bru factory. Fear not, dear readers it was drinking from the lochan, not from a can of Irn Bru.

The walk back was the usual boring walk beside the least interesting piece of manmade loch in the Western Hemisphere. Broadwood Loch is not my favourite place, as I’m sure you’ve guessed. It was made even more tedious by having to avoid the great unwashed walking in the opposite direction or attempting to cycle in that direction via the steep banking on the opposite side of the path from the loch. The punter in question just managed to stay vertical, more from good luck than from skill. Forget the story that “It’s just like riding a bike. You never forget.” Possibly you do never forget, but only if you knew how to do it in the first place. Pity, because it was a waste of a new bike!

Back home and after lunch I started again at the painting of the four slices of orange. I’d given up yesterday and slapped a coat of white on top. Today I redrew the painting with new orange slices. It was a bit better, but still not right. Eventually I gave up and started a third time on a new sheet of paper. This time I used a viewfinder, something I’ve never used before, but with its help I managed a reasonable copy of the scene in front of me. Slapped some thin acrylic washes on the sketch and left it to dry while I took the camera for a walk in St Mo’s.

Not much happening there, but at least I was out of the house again and doing something. The something I did was complete my 10,000 steps for the day and then a little late the 8 active hours. Result (of a sort)! Today’s PoD was of catkins sitting on the surface of the pond, like little yellow ducklings. Back home I finished the painting and it started to look much better. Sometimes it’s the simple things, like the shadows that bring a picture together.

Mojitos tonight. Not the best mojitos I’ve made, but reasonable. Scamp later told me I was using the wrong sugar and I suggested that soda water might have been better than sparkling water. Just excuses really. The best way to enjoy a mojito is to get someone to make it for you and then try to walk back to your hotel. That’s not going to happen any time soon.

Spoke to JIC tonight and found out that our nice warm day with a cold wind was a non-starter, compared to their 20+ºc. We probably managed 14º at best, and that was without windchill.

Tomorrow, as usual in Lockdown, we have no plans. Well, maybe some dancing practise again.

Dull start – 18 April 2020

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Dull start to the day, but prospects were good.

The plan for the day was to wait stay close to home in the morning just in case the Tesco man came early. By about 11am the sun was out and people were out in their gardens. Went out to speak to the next door neighbours and find out how they were coping. Just the same as us really and it looks like they are keen gardeners too almost as keen as Scamp.

I’d quoted the wrong time slot yesterday for our delivery, it was in fact 11am until midday and he arrived just before midday. With the stock cupboard back to healthy numbers, we had lunch and considered our options for the rest of the day. We needed some fruit and something for tonight’s dinner, so a walk down to the shops was in order.

Bigger queues today. My theory is that those working from home are trying their best to work what used to be a normal week, I.e. Monday to Friday. That leaves their weekend free and that freedom means they can shop. Hence the bigger queues than during the week. We got in fairly quickly to M&S. Slightly more expensive, but shorter queues, and on a day where the sun was shining, but a cold east wind was blowing, M&S was a good option.

Walked back and after some encouragement from Scamp to “Go out for your walk”, I did just that and took the Nikon out for some exercise in St Mo’s. Lots of folk walking round the pond. I don’t think the folk who designed the new boardwalk intended the widened ‘passing places’ to be used to maintain Social Distancing, but they work well in spring 2020. I had decided to wear an old hoodie instead of my fleece for a change. It was warmer and it doesn’t get out much. I think it’s about ten years old now and I’ve probably worn it less than ten times!  It was almost too warm when I was in the sun, but in the shade and in the wind it was quite cool.

I wanted a photo of a coot sitting on its nest away at the far side of the pond. The coots build their nests on floating pontoons of reeds, rushes and horsetails. This one was in an almost unreachable place. I say almost because I thought I could find a way through the bushes to get to it. It took a while and a bit of scrambling to find a spot near enough the nest, but no too near to spook the bird and with a good line of sight. The hoodie was ideal for the task. Hood up I could push my way through the brambles and hawthorn bushes to get to where I wanted to go. When I got there the coot had left the nest to chase off a potential interloper if the shape of another coot. I waited, because I was fairly sure she’d come back to the nest once the offender had been chased off. So she did after about ten minutes sailing up and down the periphery of the reed bed she returned to the nest, got comfortable and sat on the eggs again. I got as many shots as I dared without worrying about frightening the mother away. After that I made my exit.  The coot got PoD.

Back home it was curry for dinner. Not home made and not carry-out and not just any curry, this was M&S curry. I’d made flatbread in the afternoon from brown wheatmeal flour. When I got home it had risen and was looking good. Curries were hot without being too hot, my lamb rogan josh was a bit lacking in the lamb section and Scamp’s was certainly Hot, but quite good. The flatbread was a definite hit. I’ll make that again.

Tomorrow we may go for a walk as the wind is from the south and hopefully it will be a bit warmer.

East wind, Cold wind – 17 April 2020

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It was a bit dull dreich looking out at it today. Outside it was quite cold too.

It didn’t feel like a day for venturing far. In the afternoon the sun did try to get through, but without much success. I finished off the trees painting and it’s hanging in Instagram as I write. It’s number five in an as yet undisclosed number of sketches loosely linked by the title Lockdown Library. I’ve now decided that they will all be square format to fit in with the original Instagram ideal. How long it lasts and what the medium is each day is, shall we say, loose at present.

I did encourage myself to go out to St Mo’s in the afternoon to get some photos and some exercise. It’s so easy on these dull days to just sit there on the sofa while the day drifts by. The prospect of getting some photos to brighten up the blog and to add to the 366 encourages me to go out. All you youngsters who are now furloughed (if that is even a word), and all of you who are working from home, use these home-days as a taste of how life might be when you’re retired (if that is even a word when you reach 65, 70, 75 …).

There wasn’t much to photograph today. I did see a deer, but it saw and heard me too and was off. He/she needn’t have bothered. I was only armed with the E-M1 and a 30mm lens. The deer would have had to have been inside the social distancing limit for me to get a photo. What I did get was the cheery couple of Wood Anemones you see here. I also took inspiration from Ruth Spigelman on Flickr and attempted a ‘Fly Day Friday’. There were some flies around and the one I chose was black and looked a bit like a flying ant. I expect that come next Friday I’ll have forgotten all about Fly Day Friday. Not many people walking round St Mo’s today, but a constant stream combining their exercise walk with a shopping for essentials down at the new shops. We may go there tomorrow after our delivery from Tesco which is scheduled for between 12noon and 1pm.

Watched the second episode of Quiz. Yes, Hazy we can see how this is quite intriguing. Earlier we went through the four ballroom dances we (kind of) know, this time dancing them to music.

Possibly shopping tomorrow and finding places for all the groceries from Tesco.

Out walking – 16 April 2020

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Firstly for food and later for exercise. Are you allowed to say “for enjoyment’? Or is that forbidden in this strange new world?

Went out this morning to go to the butcher’s and passed a line of Wild Cherry trees, Gean, we call them. Thin, almost bare branched with a bunch of fluffy white flowers on the end. They never cease to cheer me up, even on a dull day. Today was a dull day and with a cold wind too! Walking back I decided I had to have a photo of them and this was the best one. I’ve been photographing these trees for years now. Not every year, but almost. The first camera I remember using to photograph them was an Olympus C2000z back around the year 2000. Twenty years ago! I must dig out those photos if they’re still around. Anyway, that first walk was for essential provisions, which is perfectly legal.

The second walk was in the afternoon. Twice round St Mo’s pond and a chance for more photography. If asked why we were walking round a pond twice I’d have to say that it was for exercise. No officer we did not gain any enjoyment out of the walk at all it was a route march over hills and through woods, purely to breath fresh air into our lungs. There is a theory that walking in pine woods is good for the respiratory system. I read that once officer. Luckily no officers were there to interrogate us on the reasons we were out of our house. It seems that some of our constabulary are taking the new powers a bit seriously and laying down the letter of the law, rather than its spirit.  We’ve not been bothered, but some people have.

Dinner tonight was an attempt at a chicken stir fry and although neither of us was one hundred percent happy with the result, it was worth trying again and another recipe that needs just a bit of gentle tweaking.

Spoke to Hazy tonight and she pointed us in the direction of Quiz which is a dramatised version of the attempt to cheat at Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Watched episode 1 on the Amazon Fire Stick. Much quicker than trying to get the TV/Tivo combination to connect to it. Quite enjoyed it.

The other thing I watched was another instalment of Watercolour Artist on Sky Arts. I’d watched one episode before and it was fairly staid and “British”. That’s not a compliment. The second one was set near Edinburgh and involved three artists painting the Forth Bridges … two of them. Where was the other one, the Queensferry Crossing, the newest one? It wasn’t on any of the camera shots. Only at the end did it become clear. The film was made in 1999!! That’s even before my Oly C2000z! I believe “Scraping the bottom of the barrel” is the expression I’m looking for. That’s another thing about the Lockdown. There is a dearth of new drama, documentary (except Covid-19 related) and soaps. Once we return to ‘normal’ whatever normal will be then, there will probably be a hiatus while the filming backlog is filled in. And then there will be Brexit …

Tomorrow we have no plans. Maybe more walks and maybe some dance practise.

Just another glorious day – 15 April 2020

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Long may they last.

More sunshine and more warmth. Gentle breeze that didn’t really cool things down dramatically.

I walked down to the shops to get some basil for dinner and a couple of limes to make Mojitos. As it happened, the basil was used for dinner, but we both agreed the Macaroni with Bacon, Peas and Basil was promising a bit more flavour than it was producing. More, or stronger, cheese and a bit more of the creamy sauce was both our suggestions. The limes weren’t used, however. Maybe at the weekend we’ll have a couple of Mojitos to let us pretend we’re in sunny climes. I went for limes and basil, but returned with wine (never a bad thing) pizzas (they were cheap) and chicken goujon things which went into the freezer to be discovered some day when we’ve nothing in our mind for dinner. Sat in the garden and soaked up some rays when I came back from the shops. The shops were fairly quiet for a change. No need to queue at M&S!

Earlier in the day we were working in the garden. Scamp got the front grass cut and I’m sure she’ll feel better for that. She managed to do the whole grass, yet still avoid the delicate looking little Stock flower that was growing through the grass. Now that’s skill. I planted some more peas (Ambassador) in little planters this time. I also planted some teasel seeds in a tray. We brought the seeds up from our visit to Hazy in January, when N-D was off in Goa. Not sure they’ll thrive here, but I’ll try.

While I was on my way to the shops, I took a detour through St Mo’s and got today’s PoD of a ladybird taking the high road over the edge of a leaf. First ladybird I’ve seen this year, a Seven Spot.

Had a short dance practise tonight.  Jive was the subject, but we couldn’t remember how to do one of the moves, the Whip Throwaway.  It was never a favourite, but now it seems to be lost in both our heads.  Maybe a night’s sleep will bring it back.

Weather looks dull for tomorrow, but we can’t complain because the past few days have been glorious. No real plans for tomorrow. Today’s sketch was a poor rendition of an apple. I must do better tomorrow.