Category: A Walk

It’s beginning to look a lot like Autumn – 4 September 2026

Posted on by Zogman

The leaves are turning brown, there’s that Autumnal feel in the air and the temperature is dropping gently. Yes, it’s definitely beginning to look like Autumn

I forgot to mention that it was also pelting with rain when Scamp and I drove over to Falkirk to pick up a packet of Henry’s coffee. Not too bad a run there, but definitely not much fun on the way back.

Later in the day we drove to Tesco for a trolley full of the usual suspects. Just a few odds and ends of vegetables and some odds and ends. A bottle of plonk here and a bottle of whisky there. Just the usual.

After we got home and had lunch Scamp wanted to ‘Tidy up the kitchen’. I’ve heard those stories before. They usually end up with “Have you seen my X, Y and Z”? Today it was my headphones. I rarely go out without them and as usual it was my fault for not putting them where they should be. Today they were hiding behind the couch in the living room. I have no idea how or when they got there, but at least I found them. I’d be like a bear with a sore head if I couldn’t have ‘some music where ever I go’

I walked round St Mo’s pond today. After last month’s tick attack, I’m being ultra-careful. These little black beasties are a danger to life and limb. I wish there was some way of dealing with them that didn’t involve flattening them with a hammer. All things great and small is a nice thought, but it doesn’t apply to Ticks!

PoD today went to a branch of Sycamore ‘helicopters’, so called because when they drop from the branches, they twirl like little helicopters. When I got back Scamp had done an excellent job clearing some space for the new machine to take the place of the old coffee maker. After a bit of reading last night I started to understand how the new machine worked, or partly understood would be a better description. I think we may go to JL tomorrow to speak to the salesman there to get some answers to questions we’ve both been wondering about. How do you control this? How do you adjust that? I’m sure he’ll be glad to see the back of us by the time we’re finished!

So, maybe a trip to Glasgow tomorrow, and maybe Shona will be doing an overnight with us. We’ll see how things work out.

Walking through History – 3 September 2026

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I met Alex today and we drove over to Loudoun Hill in Ayrshire. After a couple of wrong turnings, we found the path that would take us to the car park that gives access to Loudoun Hill itself. The hill is the remains of a volcanic plug and stands proud over the landscape. We didn’t actually climb the hill today, but maybe on a better day and with frequent stops to take on water and any other liquid sustenance, we could probably make it to the top. On another day and we’d probably get back down again! It’s a conical walk I’m told that should take between an hour and an hour and a half to get to the top. Another day, then!

On our way back down the single-track road that leads to the main Ayr road, I suggested we stop at The Heron for lunch. Scamp and I had been there before and thought it a bit expensive and the clientele, a bit snooty. Today, when two scruffy looking customers came looking for food, I think they didn’t know what had hit them. We both settled on a Croque Monsieur topped with minced bacon, something I’d never seen before, but definitely something to try again.

We drove home via Strathaven (Pronounced Stray-ven) which was undergoing a fair bit or change as most of the local towns are with road works everywhere. I thought I could find the way back through a series of shortcuts, but as usual, the ’shortcuts’ turned out to be ‘long cuts’, but eventually we did find our way home.

I dropped Alex off at his house and we agreed a tentative suggestion of another meet-up in a couple of weeks, but we both knew that it was unlikely to be that easy. However, If you don’t make plans, you’re likely to end up taking one of those shortcuts that become long cuts.

Jamie, I drove in to Glasgow after I left Alex and collected a very large, very heavy box from John Lewis. It contained the bits and pieces that would turn into a ‘Sage Barista Express Impress’ coffee machine. The De’Longhi has served us well, but it’s probably time for a new one. We may need some assistance with the twiddly bits, but I’m sure you can work out what we’re doing wrong. If either you or Hazy have any suggestions, they will be gratefully accepted.

Today’s PoD was a shot looking through the Spirit Of Scotland Monument to Loudoun Hill in the distance.

Tomorrow I’m hoping to collect a bag of coffee

Glasgow and England – 29 August 2026

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Today was a day to wander through Glasgow, looking for a bargain.

In fact it was just a day to go for a wander. Although Scamp did find a bargain in John Lewis. But it being under-garments, we are not allowed to discuss them in this blog!

I was sort-of looking for a new coffee maker. The one I have is over six years old now and does need a bit of care and attention, and as I have a few bob to spare, I’m thinking of upgrading it to a newer model. So far, it is merely a pipe dream, but if the price is right, I may make the change. It’s still not a firm commitment, but it’s bouncing around the ether somewhere.

I think we both enjoyed our short holiday down in the south of Engerland. It was good to wander round Kingston upon Thames and to sample the expensive alcoholic beverages for sale. Some were very nice and others were pulled straight from the River Thames, I think. Neil took us for a walk in Pinshill Park where we had a walk round this interesting landscape. We even had a scone, complete with frozen cream in an old castle. It was meant to be a clotted cream tea, but someone put the cream in the freezer, not the fridge! Anyway, we survived and on another day we walked around the city of London, got lost and then re-found ourselves.

All in all, we had a good time. Good food, good company and lots of folk to meet again. We enjoyed it all. At least until …

It was time to go home. Neil dropped us at a good staging point to get back on the overground train, again without many problems. Then we found our way from Vauxhall to the underground and onward to Kings Cross only to discover that our train was, like many others that day, potentially cancelled.

However, an hour late, we got the all clear and were off on our travels again on foot and managed to find the exact seats we were meant to be sitting on in 1st Class! From there it was plain sailing and although we were an hour late arriving in Edinburgh, we had enough points to claim a couple of hundred pounds of penalties from LNER. That softened the blow. Train from Edinburgh to Croy and a taxi from there took us back to the house. An interesting day.

The last two or three days have been deemed to be recovery days and not a lot of photos have been taken, but many more were taken on our trip Dahn Sarf as my old friend Ray would have described it.

We managed to ‘miss’ today’s dance class in Brookfield because Jane wasn’t fully fit. Next week’s class seems to be cancelled too, because Stewart and Jane are both booked for Tenerife for rest and recuperation. I’m sure they deserve it.

We have no real plans for tomorrow, but I expect Scamp will want to improve on my attempts to cut the back grass! She will also be waiting impatiently to discover what happens next in our visit to Dundee.

A rather muggy day – 18 August 2026

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Occasional rain, but always warm – too warm for me.

I went for a walk this afternoon, but despite searching all my usual places, I couldn’t find anything worth photographing. I eventually gave up and walked home in the rain which was at least refreshing!

Earlier in the day we had found a host of caterpillars munching their way through Scamp’s Nasturtiums and I put them all on some leaves across the path. Tonight I realised they would make and excellent subject for a macro photo. That’s how the Very Hungry Caterpillar came to find its way to becoming today’s PoD. It was indeed ‘very hungry’. Just look at the damage it did to a single leaf. One caterpillar did that! Now I know why gardeners dislike them so much. According to Google, this is the caterpillar of a Large White butterfly.

Nothing much else to report on today, although we did drive in to the outskirts of Glasgow for a coffee and a cake just to get us out for a while. Also, I did manage to find a bag of Marshalls Macaroni for you Hazy. You’ll get it the next time we meet.

These epistles seem to be getting shorter and shorter. I must encourage Scamp to drag me somewhere more interesting!

No plans for tomorrow, although we may take the train somewhere just for a change.

Out on the town – 12 August 2026

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Out with my brother today. Walking the streets of Glasgow looking for something new.

We took a walk down to the Graffiti area on Clyde Street. It’s actually called Custom House Legal Wall because it’s one of the few places where you can legally paint on the walls. I hadn’t realise that, after all the times I’ve walked around there. Every day is a school day, indeed.
I grabbed a clever looking bit of art there and it became PoD. Probably not to everyones taste, but it takes all sorts …

From there we walked left along the Broomielaw and then under the M8 before walking up the hill looking for the professional artists pillars that Alex had seen a couple of weeks ago. We got a few photos there before we got the ‘Bums Rush’ from a couple of blokes who told us that the area was a building site and we had to keep clear. We did that, for the most part, but then I went further and skirted the Express Way. It’s really strange, I’ve driven along that bit of road, but had never really stopped to see what was around me.

After I’d disentangled myself from all the roads round about that area, I retraced my steps and met Alex again. We decided it was time for lunch and Paesano is the only place we go on our walks. We were almost at the door when the rain started. The streets were dry by the time we left Paesano and we went for a coffee before we caught our respective buses to go home.

Scamp was sitting in the garden when I got home and I joined her while we waited for the eclipse, but although I got a few distant shots of the sun, the photos weren’t good enough to see any detail. Also, the clouds had rolled in and obliterated any details that would have been there. Oh well, maybe next time … when the next total eclipse comes in about 70 years.

Looking for insects – 11 August 2026

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It was another hot day. Not as hot as it was in the south of England, but certainly warm enough for us in Scotland.

The only thing we did today was to go for a walk to the shops. Well, to be honest, Scamp went for a walk to the shops, but I cut the walk short and went down to St Mo’s. Behind St Mo’s is what is usually a boggy area which is usually wet in all weathers. Of course, today it was almost bone dry. I was looking for the seed pods from the Flag Iris plants that grow there, but I realise now after some research that I have to wait until about November to get the distorted seed pods that grow down there! I’ll try to be patient.

On my walk back, I spotted a little Hover Fly sitting and probably feeding on a pink Knapweed flower. It took a few shots to get what I wanted from the wee fly, but in the end I had a PoD.

Back home it was my turn to cook and Scamp requested Pasta Puttanesca. That’s another recipe from a long while ago. I eventually found what I was looking for and Scamp said it tasted just right. I wasn’t too sure, but I’ll stand by her decision.

TV schedules were all over the place tonight which meant that the Sewing Bee hadn’t recorded on our dodgy Virgin device. It seems that every week we find another failure from this recorder. I thInk it may be time to move away from Virgin and get a more trustworthy recorder.

That was about it for today. Sat in the garden for a while soaking up the sun. Hoping to meet Alex tomorrow for a walk. I might even get back in time to watch the partial eclipse.

Off the leash – 10 August 2026

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Today Scamp and Shona were off on a day trip, I was off the leash.

I dropped the girls off at the town centre to catch the Ember bus that would take them to Dundee for the day. I had the whole day to myself. That gave me time to read for an hour or so and to plant a new batch of potatoes that would hopefully be ready for around Christmas, all being well. It was strange to think that I was planting them on one of the warmest days in the year and expecting them to ripen in time for Christmas, in four month’s time.

The butterflies were working hard among the Buddleia bushes in a corner of the garden. No more sightings of Hummingbird Hawk Moths unfortunately, but I’d take the half dozen Peacock and Red Admirals as a decent substitute. These butterflies are suckers for the buddleia flowers.

Later in the afternoon, I went for a walk in St Mo’s hoping to see some more butterflies, but none were flying there today. However there were a couple of Dragonflies and the warmth of the boardwalk seemed to make them lazy and easier to capture in camera. I got quite close, but had the wrong lens for the job – it seems I always do!
A nice shot of a Common Darter with its tail up in the air got PoD. I happily walked back, wondering how the ladies were getting on.

Not long after that I got the message to say that the girls were on the bus on their way home. An hour or so later my phone pinged to say they were just leaving Stirling. Picked the travellers up later and took Shona home, then drove home.

After listening to what the girls had got up to in Dundee, I felt as if I’d done nothing back home, but I’d enjoyed my day ‘off the leash’ and had a lazy evening watching TV.

Tomorrow looks like another hot one.

 

Another long lie in – 8 August 2026

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This is becoming a habit.

Unfortunately today, when we should have been driving to Brookfield for another dance lesson, we were just breaking the surface. Personally I blame the cup of Hot Chocolate I had last night before I went to bed. It always makes me sleepy. The half a bottle of Piquito Jumito we’d enjoyed had nothing to do with it. No, nothing at all.

So, it being extremely unlikely that we were going to get to Brookfield in time, we had a leisurely breakfast and planned the rest of the day. Scamp suggested that, since I’d been talking about going to Dunfermline sometime soon, we should do just that and go. That sounded like a great idea.

So it was that we walked down to The Shops where we picked up the local bus that would take us to the Town Centre and from there we would get another bus to Dunfermline. Oh, if only it was that simple, but we just missed the bus at the Town Centre and Scamp found herself trying to avoid a conversation with an old guy who was sure I was gay because I was wearing an old pair of pink trousers. Thankfully the Dunfermline bus arrived on time and we got on while the old guy went on to talk to someone else. I did feel a bit sorry for him. As my pal, Colin says, “You don’t know what they go home to at night.” I always try to remember that.

The rest of the journey was going fine until we took a detour that added at least half an hour to our journey. Why is Scotland going through a renovation boom just now? And more importantly, where is all the money coming from? However, we did finally get to Dunfermline and had a coffee and a pastry to calm us down.

We walked down to Pittencrieff Park but found that the Greenhouse was closed because of problems with the glass roof. Instead we walked round the carefully laid out flower beds. It wasn’t until we arrived back home that we discovered that the fruits of those beds, they were related to Ricin! I still made the Castor Oil Plant PoD.

After we’d taken some photos of the plants, we adjourned to Wetherspoons for Fish ’n’ Chips with a glass of wine for Scamp and a pint of Tennants for me. Then we just missed the bus home.

We seemed to be having a “Just missed it” day today as we watched the X3 disappear from the Town Centre stance in Cumbersheugh.

Despite all that, we had a good day. I would go so far as to say that I had a great day. Just a relaxing day. Thank you Scamp.

A much cooler day – 6 August 2026

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Today we were on our way to The Fort, well, it was actuallyMorrisons which is close to the fort itself.

We were going looking for Potatoes, because our last lot had far too many eyes (all the better to see you with). I think Scamp thought we could maybe have stopped at the fort to a coffee, but one look at the length of the queue to get a parking place put an end to that idea. So it was back home after Morrisons.

Back home, Scamp was determined to get the front grass cut. I didn’t think it was badly needing cut, but what do I know. I was the labourer, moving the pots around when needed and not a lot else. We both thought it was going to rain, all the signs were there, but for some reason the big black clouds passed us by.

Later in the afternoon I put my boots on and went over to the Shops looking for a bargain or two and came home with a few things. It was strange to see the crowds of folk all desperate to get a parking place at the fort, but back home there were hardly any queues. Scamp suggested it was because the kids would soon be going back to school and there would be a demand for new shoes, blazers and jerseys and our nearby shops didn’t sell much in that line.

Dinner tonight was yesterday’s Fish Risotto for Scamp with Mince ’n’ Tatties for me. Both food groups were being finished off to make room for fresh food and veg.

I did a bit of experimenting with a month’s lot of photos last night and found that I could get the screensaver to work properly again. Someone who had posted online suggested that maybe the screensavers were being hidden, ready to be removed in the next version of Adobe. This might indeed be true, because the software that controls the screensavers is buried deep in the bowels of Castle Adobe. That would be a sin. A bit more work today made it work the way it was supposed to, thankfully.

PoD today was a much worked photo of Geranium Rozanne after it had been dunked in various buckets of messy stuff. I quite liked the finished result.

No plans for tomorrow, but maybe lunch somewhere?

Overslept – 5 August 2026

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I had decided to go to bed early last night. But that didn’t happen. We didn’t wake until well past 9am, and then we had a late breakfast, we didn’t really want to go anywhere. A cold wind was blowing along the back of the house and it wasn’t really making me want to go for a walk.

Instead of going for a walk, I had one last attempt at speaking to a human about my painful right foot. I was amazed when a lady answered my story, asked a few questions and said she had referred me to our local health centre to take it further. Hopefully I won’t have to wait long to have it looked at.

Although we hadn’t had much for lunch, I suggested could we have a Fish and Cabbage Risotto for dinner except we didn’t have any cabbages, so I grabbed a camera and my waterproof jacket, just in case and walked down to the shops. With the roads still being dug up, it was almost as quick to walk to the shops as to drive. Besides, I might have missed some beautiful butterflies, even on a blustery day. I didn’t, but I got the cabbage and some frozen spinach which we are beginning to enjoy and got a photo of a Cow Parsley seed head that became PoD.

Let me explain last night. Scamp had been watching a program about Geoff Hamilton who was a garden expert on TV about 30 years ago. I watched it for a while then went off to write the blog and the photos. I’d just finished when Scamp was talking about what was worth listening to on the BBC Proms. She said two things, ‘Respighi’ and ‘Pines of Rome’. I don’t know where I heard it first, but many years ago I was doing something in the house and half listening to the story of the Pines on the radio. Then when I heard it played by a full orchestra, I was hooked. The story is about the centurions returning, exhausted from a battle and arriving as heroes to Rome. It’s very etherial, almost ghostly music that builds and builds as you get dragged into it. That’s why we didn’t get to bed last night until about half past eleven. Fantastic music. I think Scamp thought I was taking the Mickey to begin with, but realised I did really like this music.

No plans for tomorrow. Not yet, anyway.