Category: A Walk

Watching them Running Races – 1 October 2023

Posted on by Zogman

We were out fairly early (for us) to watch the Great Scottish Run.

We got the train in to Glasgow and were both amazed at the number of runners on the train, already dressed in shorts and vests. It was a lovely morning though and when we got to Glasgow, the start for the race at George Square was already thronged with folk. Some were the 10k runners who had already completed their race and were walking around with their medals dangling from their necks. Some were friends and family of those whose Half Marathon was still to begin. Some were just like us, folk who came to cheer on the runners, bang on the plastic barriers to make a noise and also to take photos. I was in the ‘take photos’ category.

We found a space in the barrier on the starting straight and watched the runners practising their starts before the race proper started. Then, almost exactly on time the gun went off and so did the runners. Elite runners first, then the ‘good’ club runners, followed by the less serious group and finally those just hoping to finish and be able to walk tomorrow.

I must admit I wasn’t as enthralled with the race as I had been with the cycle race a month or so ago. However I was impressed with the pace everyone set, even the less serious group were making a good show of things. Scamp, a marathon runner herself stood and clapped and banged on the barriers as well as shouting encouragement. I could see that she wished she’d kept up with her running, but it’s easier out in the countryside where we used to live. Not so in the urban area we’re in now. Not so safe either.

After we watched all of the estimated 20,000 go through the starting gate and face the hill up St Vincent Street I managed to get just four photos of the runners taking up the entire width of the road. And every shot was out of focus!!! Thankfully I didn’t know that until I got home. Maybe I should replace that shonky, unreliable kit lens. Some day, maybe I will.

We found a Cafe Nero that didn’t have a queue right out the door (almost, but not quite) we had a coffee and a pastry each to stave off our hunger pangs. Then we walked over the the Jamaica Bridge to watch the elite runners turn on to Clyde Street and head for the pastures of Glasgow Green. That’s where I got the shot of the floating runner from. Taken with that same shonky, unreliable kit lens!

After we’d watched the runners coming round that bend and saw one poor bloke being supported by an older man, maybe his father, and felt relieved when both of them started jogging on towards The Green. After that we headed home.

In the afternoon, and after lunch, Scamp went out to plant some bulbs we’d bought during the week and then went on to cut the front grass too. I knew I’d have at least one decent PoD shot among the 500 odd I’d taken, so I started moving folders around the SSDs to create enough space to allow me to archive the September photos. It took a while, probably a good hour or more. If I’d been using external hard drives, I’d still be working at it tomorrow too.

Dinner for Scamp was salmon with cauliflower and potatoes. I roasted a large lamb shank in the le cruiset in the oven. I got it in the butchers at Muirhead and it was pre-marinated in herbs and mint. Truly it was delicious with the same veg as Scamp’s. There’s some left over that I might freeze or just eat during the week.

Final east for the day was to do the first Inktober 2023 sketch where the prompt was ‘Dream’. You can see my rather hastily drawn sketch here. Not my best work, but I’m hoping I improve as I remember how to do this sketching lark.

Tomorrow we’re booked for lunch with June & Ian and Crawford & Nancy. Should be a lively lunch!

 

Dining out – 29 September 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was out to FitSteps this morning and instead of sitting on my backside, I chose to hoover (or Dyson) the living room and the hall carpets. Not satisfied with that, I washed down the shower cabinet and cleaned its filter. Then I could settle down to read a chapter of my latest book on my Kindle app.

When Scamp returned we discussed what to do about lunch and therefore what to do about dinner. We finally settled on going to Broadwood Farm which is part of the Stonehouse chain of pub restaurants. It was still windy this morning and there was just the threat of rain so we wrapped up well to make sure Agnes wasn’t on her way back to say a final “Cheerio”. The restaurant was almost empty, while there were a queue of cars waiting at the drive through at McD’s next door. I think I’d rather have the food in Broadwood than anything in McD’s, but it seems that I’m in the minority. We both chose fish ’n’ chips today and while it certainly wasn’t haddock or cod that ended up on my plate, it was well cooked and tasted fine. Scamp had a glass of red and I had a pint of Tennents to wash it down. We sat and talked a while after the meal and I watched the cars on the stop/start roundabout and was thankful for not having to go to work any more.

We walked home via the shops where we got a pizza to stick in the fridge just in case we felt hungry later and a couple of pineapple tarts to enjoy with a cup of coffee back home.

I had considered going for a walk in St Mo’s in the morning, but chose to to do some housework instead, so while Scamp enjoyed her pineapple tart and a coffee, I plodded round St Mo’s. I took a wee awkward Lensbaby Sweet 35 with the A7. It’s called ‘Sweet’ because of a ‘sweet spot’ in the centre of the lens while the rest of the image is intentionally blurred. The 35 refers to the lens length, 35mm. It’s another manual lens with no autofocus, but that’s one of its joys. A difficult lens to get a handle on, but once you understand it, it’s an interesting piece of kit. It got today’s PoD which is a branch of Berberis growing at the side of a path through the houses. It may have been planted by the council before the cost cutting began!

A glass or two of 19 Crimes red wine took the place of the pizza, but it can stay in the freezer until it’s needed.

We’re undecided about where to go tomorrow. It will depend on the weather.

Has she gone already? – 28 September 2023

Posted on by Zogman

We hadn’t even noticed she’d been, Storm Agnes. She must have passed us by.

Neither of us noticed an increase in the wind during the night. Perhaps the weather maps were right for once when they showed the central belt being storm-free last night and early this morning.

Scamp had a list of places to go this morning. First we were driving to the Muirfield Centre to pick up free tickets to a tea dance. Actually a tea dance that last for five hours! That would be a marathon. Can we go home for our dinner half way through and come back after but still get our tea at the tea dance? Just asking!

Next stop was Calders to book a round table for six folk, except they didn’t have a round table that would sit six. Five, yes, but not six. Probably an EEC ruling that’s still in place. While we were there, Scamp bought some bulbs in the garden centre. Not the electrical variety, but the ones you plant in the garden. Hopefully they’ll brighten up the garden.

Last stop was Tesco for the messages. Just the usual, a bottle of wine, a bottle of gin and some odds and ends of food.

After lunch I took the A7 out with a macro lens and got today’s PoD. It’s a spider wrapping up tonight’s dinner. I should really have gone further afield and got a bit of landscape, but the sky was clouding over and there wasn’t really any decent light on the hills, so spiders and webs were all that I managed.

Dinner was Bacon and Borlotti Beans, something I haven’t made for a long while, but it was deemed edible, in fact, quite edible which was good because it’s one of those dishes you have to constantly be in charge off. It would, of course, have been better if I’d been better prepared. Maybe next time!

That was about it for today. No real plans for tomorrow, other than having a drink on Friday night, because I’m not driving to Bridge of Weir the next morning. The teachers are swanning off being teachers on a cruise ship.

Fish Pie – 27 September 2023

Posted on by Zogman

That’s dinner sorted!

Scamp was making Fish Pie for dinner tonight. The fish came out the freezer yesterday and spent the night thawing in the fridge.

With the warnings about the impending arrival of Storm Agnes, I thought it would be a good idea to grab some photos early, so when Scamp said she wanted to post a couple of cards in Condorrat, I thought I’d join her on her mission.

There was only the slightest breeze when we walked over the motorway bridge, bought, wrote and posted the cards. On the walk back, Scamp went left, heading for home and I went right to walk round St Mo’s. There wasn’t much to see. Yesterday’s dragonfly wasn’t to be seen, nor were there any bees or butterflies. I sometimes wonder if insects and birds can sense the arrival of stormy weather. I did get some photos of pretty weeds in St Mo’s and a spiderweb with little water drops clinging to it from last night’s rain, but PoD was going to go to a yellow leaf lying on a bed of seed heads that were just beginning to turn from green to brown.

The making of the fish pie is a secret passed down by word of mouth through the generations of women in the family. Actually Scamp’s sister gave her the recipe, but the making was done while I was out walking round St Mo’s. When I came in the place smelled of cooked fish, in the nicest possible way, but the fish itself was hidden by a tablecloth, lest I catch a glimpse of it.

Lunch was yesterday’s “What’s in the fridge” soup and it had improved overnight as all soups do. Then I got busy turning my rough photographs into finished gems, or at least recognisable objects. While I was doing that, Scamp was assembling the fish pie. I asked her if she needed any help, but was dismissed with “No, it’s fine.” I know my place! The next time I looked, the fish pie was assembled, but again covered with a tablecloth. I didn’t dare peek!

The first slice of the pie was truly delicious, but the second slice was elevated to greatness with a slightly browned top, just like a good shepherd’s pie. Brilliant!

We drove up to “The Legion” for tonight’s class and as I suspected, Kirsty was intent on rubbing the rough edges off the Waltz Nioli. I recognised some of my mistakes and also the rough edges of my own dancing. I actually enjoyed the last track because we danced through our mistakes and finished the entire track. Not perfectly, but we didn’t stop once!

Storm Agnes is due to make landfall about 4am. Hopefully I’ll be in the Land of Nod by that time! No plans for tomorrow.

 

Out for a walk – 26 September 2023

Posted on by Zogman

A walk between the showers.

But first, there was work to be done in the morning. I decided that I’d make some soup for lunch. Not one of Scamp’s ‘Just Soups’, but more a ‘What have we got in the fridge’ soup. What I found was some carrots, a leek, a red pepper, a slice of bacon, a couple of kale leaves and in the cupboard a tub of broth mix. That should be enough to make a pot of soup, with some boiling water and a couple of stock cubes. After chopping the veg and grating one of the carrots, I brought the lot to the boil and then let it simmer for about an hour. It looked like soup and it smelled like soup, so it was soup. That was lunch sorted, and the rain was on. I chose to drive down to the shops to get some bread while the soup was simmering. I drove to the shops because the rain was getting heavier, straight down rain.

The soup made a fairly filling lunch and the rain went off. I was thinking I might chance a walk in St Mo’s, but a quick look over the Campsies told me that although the sun was shining and the streets were drying, it wouldn’t be long before the rain would return … and I was right. However, Scamp and I did get out later in the afternoon for a walk once round the pond at St Mo’s in sunshine. I almost managed to grab a shot of a dragonfly, only one shot before it flew off and that was out of focus. Such a pity. On the way back home I got a few shots of a bloke waking home along the path through the trees and that made PoD. It’s heavily edited, but I quite like the warm light and the streaks of light across the path. The light on the path is real, but the warm light is just pure Lightroom!

The rain didn’t return for a few hours, but when it came it was torrential again. We’re expecting more rain tomorrow and strong winds too when Storm Agnes visits us. I do hope the two who are holidaying in Wales don’t suffer too much from the stormy weather.

Another short practise tonight to rub more rough edges off the waltz and it’s beginning to look like it will actually be danceable soon.

No plans for tomorrow. Just making the most of a wild day, I think.

A long day – 23 September 2023

Posted on by Zogman

A day that started around 9am and finished around 1am the next day, which means, of course, that this is a catch-up!

We started off at 10.15am heading to Brookfield. We had a quorum, but only just with four couples. Our dancing started off with Tina Tango, the music being Scamp’s favourite ‘Shivers’. Two tracks of that got us moving, then we moved on to Cha-Cha which I admit I struggled with, but eventually came to terms with. I remembered Janes warning to keep my feet just scraping the floor and not make clumpy noises, but I’d entirely forgotten the other nuances of the dance. Information overload was my excuse.

A couple of tracks of Mayfair Quickstep and then we went on to Joy’s Waltz which I almost had before the teachers swanned off for a fortnight ‘working’ on a cruise ship, then another week on holiday. We hadn’t practised it since then and it had dissolved from my memory. I just got angrier and angrier with my inability to remember what went where. Eventually, with Scamp’s patient help it all came back, well, almost all. But I’ll write down the sequences and practise them before the teachers return from their next holiday, ‘cruise work’ in three weeks. Then Joy’s Waltz will be a joy to behold!

Another two sequence dances and we were done for the day. Done dancing at least. After we drove home I intended driving somewhere to get a PoD, but I forgot my phone, so I drove back home and parked the car, then went for a walk in St Mo’s where I found a wee knothole about the size of £2 coin in the wooden boardwalk. A moss had colonised it and from above it looked like a tiny garden in an urban environment, but maybe that’s just me.

By the time I got that processed and posted it was time to get ready to drive to Crawford and Nancy for dinner. It was a good evening and night and dinner was good too. I tried to solve Crawford’s problem with connecting his iPhone to his Microsoft PC but eventually had to give up. I have exactly the same problem trying to get the Macs to connect to my Android phone.

We got home just after midnight after driving through some torrential rain on the M74 and as I said at the start, the day finished around 1am after Scamp had gone to bed and I’d had a wee whisky as a nightcap.

Tomorrow ( ok, today, but ‘tomorrow’ is traditional) we will treat the day as recovery from a full day.

 

Dancin’ again! – 21 September 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Today we were going to a tea dance in Glenburn.

It was a lovely bright morning, but cold. Well, I felt it cold anyway. I should have gone for a walk, despite the temperature and shot some photos, but I didn’t, preferring to stay in the warm living room and complete Wordle and Spelling Bee. That meant I’d need to squeeze in a shooting session when we came back from Paisley. Never ideal, but I’ve only myself to blame.

I hadn’t realised just how windy it was until we were on the motorway heading west, and meeting that westerly wind head on. Despite the wind and the intermittent rain we made good time reaching Glenburn before the dance started … for once.

First dance, was a sequence to ‘warm us up’ apparently. I’d expected a waltz, but it was not to be. The waltz was next and I got lost again. Before we left the house I got Scamp to list all the figures we did and I wrote them all out in order. They went clean out of my head. I always think of a waltz as being a slow dance, and it is, but there are a lot of steps in the Waltz Nioli and that means your feet and brain need to be nimble and mine simply aren’t nimble enough. That compounded with a lot of folk on the floor made it difficult for learners like us … or me. We sat with a good crowd at our table and the banter was good. We attempted everything that was flung at us apart from a ballroom Tango and a Tango Serida. We struggled through a Cha-Cha and by the end of that particular one, almost remembered how to do it.

As usual we left early at 3pm to avoid the school rush and almost made it. As usual the Kingston Bridge was a congested car park, but we were on the M74/M73 route and avoided the stop – start – change lanes – change back of the M8. It takes a bit longer in miles on the M74, but at least you are moving at the legal limit most of the time.

Back home I went out for a walk in St Mo’s and got today’s PoD which is a Common Carding Bee on a Scabious flower. We couldn’t decide what to have for dinner and finally chose Fish Fingers, Egg and Fried Potato. Perfect for what was turning out to be a cold day.

Tomorrow we may go looking for a small heather plant to replace one that died during the drought in the early summer.

Out early to beat the rain – 20 September 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Today Scamp convinced me it would be a good idea to go out early and grab some photos while the sun was shining. That sounded like a plan.

I wore my boots, because it was going to be mucky out there. It was a bit wet underfoot, but there were some interesting cloud shapes and also some blue sky  and some glorious sunshine. I took a quite a few photos with the A6500  and the Pentax 50mm while I walked round the pond.  It’s a new steep learning curve, taking photos without autofocus and without really being sure your aperture setting is what you think it is.  I don’t know how I managed before digital.  At the halfway point I found an empty can of Irn Bru sitting on the wooden seat that appeared a couple of years ago, probably more, actually.  I took a few shots with the Pentax and then swapped the combo to the A7 and my 16-35mm lens.  Sitting there I had a good view over the pond to the pines behind and that, not the Irn Bru can, made PoD.

As I was walking back the clouds got heavier, the blue skies less and the sunshine almost gone.  I’d got my photos and as I was walking home I could feel the first spits and spots of rain.

Back home it was lunch time and I tested out a packet of sausages I’d bought in Waitrose.  They were boggin’.  I could smell the preservative from them and the skins were thick and rubbery.  I survived them, but the remainder went in the food bin.  Now I know why they were half price! Then the rain that had threatened did appear and it was heavy for a while.

Decided I’d finish off the photos I’d started to process and then saw that there were no folders or files on the desktop.  Usually a quick restart fixes things like that, but not today.  I began to think that I’d been hacked.  The folders had gone.  They weren’t simple hidden.  Everything else was as normal and I couldn’t understand it.  Then I remembered I’d been messing about with Hazel, not you Hazy, but Hazel the app.  I checked and there was the culprit.  It had tried to backup the entire contents of the desktop to the NAS drive.  Thankfully I make an automatic backup every week to a removable drive and managed to get everything (and more) back from last week’s backup. We had a quick practise later in the afternoon and it was a shambles.  I seem to have forgotten everything overnight. Too much computer nonsense in my head.

By then I’d scoffed dinner and Scamp was ready to go dancin’. At the hall, I think I was still trying to process exactly what had gone wrong and wondering if some of the folders were recoverable from the NAS, so that’s my excuse for not being able to put a foot right all night.  With that said, in the few glances I had at the other couples, we were actually doing not too bad.  We did manage to finish the routine almost perfectly a couple of times.

Drove home and after reassuring myself that it was ‘Pilot Error’, we had another practise for the tea dance tomorrow.  This time I listened to Scamp, remembered what teacher Kirsty had said and concentrated on where my left foot and my right were going.  I think we might be ok for tomorrow.

Only plan for tomorrow is to go to the tea dance and introduce them to Kirsty’s Waltz. That’s the plan.  Whether it comes to fruition or not is a different matter.

Up Early – 18 September 2023

Posted on by Zogman

The new dishwasher was being delivered today.

We got a message yesterday to confirm that the dishwasher would be delivered between 06:35 and 09:05 today. At 06:49 I got a phone call from the delivery guys to say that they’d be arriving in about 10 minutes. The removal of the old dishwasher and the connection of the new one took less than 15 minutes, and that included a short demo and a test of the water feed and the drainage. We were the first delivery for these guys and they’d another 27 to get through today, and today was fairly light day apparently.

With the new machine working we could settle down to breakfast. Then a quick wash of a few cups, plates and cutlery. The big bonus of this washer was the countdown timer. No more having to guess how long it had been on and how long we’d need to wait before the red light went out. The down side ( there’s always a down side, isn’t there) was that the baskets that hold the plates are quite flimsy. Swings and Roundabouts.

Fed, watered and with Wordle and Spelling Bee done, we were looking at a miserable day and no idea what we were going to fill it with. Scamp said we needed Messages and I suggested Stirling, rather than Tesco. That’s where we went.

The further north-east we went the better the weather looked. In fact the woman on the checkout in Waitrose was voicing lyrical about the sun shining and wished us a good day in the sun. We’d parked at Waitrose and walked in to Stirling town. Scamp was looking for a birthday present and I was just looking for lunch. She found what she was looking for and in the same shop I found an Aladdin’s Cave. Three big display shelves filled with old cameras, lenses and projectors, all for sale. Talk about “a wean in a sweetie shop!” I didn’t know where to look first. I did see one standout piece of old glass. It was a Pentax 50mm f2 K mount lens. I didn’t have a K mount adapter to allow it to fit on a Sony camera, but when I was crowing to Alex about this find, he casually mentioned that he had what I was looking for, so I’m hoping to drive over to Motherwell tomorrow to borrow it. It seems that the whole photographic collection belonged to one man. I don’t know what the back story is, but I’m looking forward to finding out.

We filled a trolley in Waitrose and packed all the bags into the boot of the wee Blue car, then drove back through the wild weather to Cumbersheugh. I hadn’t found a PoD today in Stirling, but I thought I’d manage to get some shots down by the Luggie Water and that’s where today’s PoD came from. It’s the old railway bridge over the Luggie. Still carrying the Glasgow bound railway.

Scamp picked the rest of the apples from the James Grieve tree and we now have a fair supply of them in the fridge and in a big stainless steel bowl. I’m not sure what her plans are for them, but I’m sure she will have something organised.

We had a quick dance practise tonight and managed to get through the entire waltz from Kirsty’s class. Hope it stays in my head until Wednesday.

Tomorrow I may drive over to see Alex, but it depends on the weather.

An hour on the moor – 14 September 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was off to meet Mags today for lunch and I chose to go to Fannyside to check for swallows.

As I’m sure I’ve said before on the blog, it’s easy to tell when the first swallows arrive in my neck of the woods, but it’s far more difficult to remember when the last swallow left for warmer climes. Fannyside is a great place for birdwatching and I did see one swallow or maybe a swift, it was quite far away and travelling fast. Anyway it was one of those two, I’m sure. Just one swallow. It doesn’t make a summer.

The weather was not very summer like either. Strong west wind buffeting the clouds around and drawing the occasion rain shower from them too. I parked in my usual place and took a walk up to East Fannyside farm where today’s PoD came from. As usual, it’s a combination of two images. One for the sky and one for the landscape, merged in Photoshop. Not too difficult. Levels and toning done in Lightroom afterwards.

On that subject there is a new version of Photoshop just being advertised in the last few days with built in Generative Fill which is Adobe’s attempt at AI. It allows you not only to edit images, but to ‘paste in’ images from an Adobe database. You can even write a script explaining what you want to add and where. I can’t see me using this AI tool, but I’ve said that before about other innovations and had to eat my words later and adopt them. I’ll wait and see.

We did have a short practise tonight. Mainly the last section of the dance that we finished last night. The videos we took are a boon to working your way through the dance language and finding out what exactly is going on. Watching Kirsty’s demonstrations makes the dance look really strange, but once we partner up it all makes much more sense. It is such a pity that Kirsty doesn’t have a permanent dance partner like Stewart & Jane do.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending going to FitSteps. I may practise some drawing.