Category: A Walk

Old friends – 14 January 2024

Posted on by Zogman

It was a cold start to a colder day.

Ice and frost welcomed us to the start of another winter day. Nobody seemed to want to go out and that included us. However, after lunch I did put my boots on and walked over to St Mo’s. Not surprisingly there wasn’t much change from yesterday, so I went for a walk in the woods and that’s where I found two old friends. Two sixteen spot ladybirds, each neatly tucked into two different crevices in a tree. I’m sure they hatch in the late summer or early autumn and hibernate through the winter months. Always the same variety with orange wing casing and white spots. Totally different from the ‘normal’ ladybirds we usually see with red wing cases and black spots. Usually I find them in groups of two or three, huddled together, but todays ones were each in their own little hollow. Maybe they weren’t talking to each other.

Two trees away I found a green shield bug. That’s a rare occurrence in winter. As far as I can tell, they hibernate in grasses and leaf litter during winter months, but this one was half way up a tree.

I walked back after that, happy that I’d managed to get something other than trees and reflections in the pond for a potential PoD. Then I found when I opened the computer that my reflection photo from a couple of days ago had been awarded “Explore” which is the Flickr equivalent of ‘going viral’. Suddenly the whole Flickr world wants to ‘like’ your photo and some folk comment on your photo. It’s kind of embarrassing, because it’s usually a run of the mill photo that gets the accolade. I have no idea who chooses the photo to get the award and I have no idea what formula they use. I just accept it and say thank you!

Dinner tonight was a rather strange M&S packet of DIY Fajitas. We heated up the chicken and veg packet in the microwave then did the same to the packet of tortillas spread the tortillas with the supplied tomato salsa and sour cream then put a layer of the chicken and veg mix on top before rolling them up. The kit made four fajitas, two each and although a bit messy and awkward to eat, they tasted ok, a bit spicy, but nothing too hot. Would we try them again? Maybe not. Not really very substantial and messy to make, although that might be down to my lack of fajita making skill.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard about the problems commuting to work while fields on either side are temporary ponds and how they are having to contend with the cold winds from the east while their roof is being replaced. I don’t envy them.

PoD was the green shield bug. Two images merged in a program called Affinity Photo. It’s what photogs call a Focus Stack. Too complicated to describe here and too boring for non-photogs.

We had a flurry of snow in the late afternoon and if it returns tomorrow, that might change our plans for driving to Larky to get Scamp’s glasses fixed.

A slow awakening, then Samba – 13 January 2024

Posted on by Zogman

It was a slow climb out of the depths of sleep to the reality of morning.

It certainly took me a long time to clear my head enough to realise that it was morning. Too much to eat and too much to drink. I’m usually careful when I know I’m going to be driving in the morning the next day, but I’d so enjoyed the company last night that I’d kind of overindulged.

Once I was showered and dressed I felt better and we drove in to Brookfield in good time. Beautiful blue skies with white fluffy clouds all the way. First dance was a Blue Angel Rumba which I’m coming to terms with. Next was what, before we joined this class, was called the Christmas Waltz, but which has now been renamed the Spring Waltz. Again, I was a lost soul to start with, but I’ve grown to realise it’s not as complicated as I thought, even if it does have a Back Corté. Whatever that is.

Next was the Samba. I used to hate the Cha-Cha until I realised I could dance it fairly competently. Now the Samba is my most hated dance. It doesn’t help when one of the teachers seems to be more critical than is really necessary when ‘helping’ us. She really needs to remember that we are giving her money each week to be taught, not to be criticised for everything we do. Not the most friendly person I’ve ever met. Maybe I just have a thing about some dance teachers. Anyway, I much prefer anything in the Cha-Cha to the Hopalong Cassidy ‘Voltas’ that seem to delight everyone in the Samba. I honestly do not see myself ever dancing this in public!

Drove home under blue skies and white fluffy clouds again, just the same as yesterday and spent the early afternoon clearing up the living room and the kitchen. I went for a walk to St Mo’s later for some photos with the intention of coming home with a loaf. I actually came home with a bit more than that, but with a potential PoD or two.

In M&S I bumped (almost literally) into a former colleague who is now deputy head in Glasgow and commiserated with her because her school is being inspected soon. Right now the big news is the Post Office postmasters and mistresses who have been accused of stealing money. It wasn’t really stolen, it was a dodgy computer program called Horizon that went ‘ape’ for a while. But when I heard about those folk being accused of what amounted to theft by the investigators, I remembered how I felt when the HMI (Her Majesty’s Inspectors) came to interrogate us. These people should be ashamed of themselves.

On the way home I was watching a big swathe of pink/white cloud stretching up behind a bunch of Scots Pine trees and trying to find the best angle to shoot them from. Finally found it and that became PoD, relegating a photo of the setting sun to “almost a PoD”.

That was about it for today. Dinner was much more restrained than last night and was a pizza with a glass of wine.

Hoping to get out for walk tomorrow.

A busy day – 13 January 2024

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It was a busy day today. I was lucky, I was only making the main course, while Scamp was making starter and dessert. Dinner would be about 7.30pm, but the work started about 11am, in fact, Scamp’s dessert was started yesterday and left to infuse overnight.

Once the kitchen was cleared, I powered up the Instant Pot and got it to fry the chicken. That was a mistake, because it’s difficult to get the heat at the right setting. Too low and it just stews the chicken, too high and it burns, and there are only three settings. Even the middle setting is a bit fierce. In the end, I used the wok to fry the chicken. Ten chicken thighs done in three batches. For some reason the three onions that were to be sliced and fried worked perfectly in the pot! Some things work better than others. From there in, it was just a case of following the recipe and after about 45 minutes everything was working well and the Instant Pot was in Slow Cooker mode and just chugging along.

We’d missed a couple of ingredients, so I volunteered to drive to Tesco to get them while Scamp worked on at the ice cream. When I returned, we began deep frying the haggis bonbon starters. Scamp formed them and fried them while I transferred them to the kitchen paper on a tin in the oven.

By the afternoon we could have lunch and rest a while, knowing that everything was fairly well under control and working. Later in the afternoon I took a camera out for a walk in St Mo’s and got a decent view over the pond with the clouds reflecting on the water. PoD in the bag.

It was nearly 8pm before Crawford & Nancy arrived. While I was at Tesco, I’d bought half a dozen bottles of beer, because I know Crawford likes his beer, only to find that he had nominated himself driver for the night! Ok, not a disaster, because I can always drink a bottle of beer!

Dinner was Haggis Bonbons for starter with Chicken Tagine for main, then Homemade Yoghurt Ice cream for pudding. The tagine was a bit tasteless, but the rest was lovely.

It was a great night, even if I did eat and drink too much and we said goodnight to them just before midnight. That left us about half an hour to load the dishwasher for morning and go to bed. Tired, but fairly happy.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to go dancing at Brookfield.

Dancin’ – 11 January 2024

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It was going to be a busy day, so I took the opportunity to go for an early walk in the woods.

The sky was clear and the sun was shining, but it was cold when I was walking over to the park just before 11am. That’s early enough for me, these days. There was a time when I was driving to work just after 7am. Thankfully those days are gone now and in the past they will remain. Fewer dog walkers in the morning, although there were some. Mostly it was couples or single walkers unfettered by canine accomplices. Although the weather was good, there were very few opportunities for photos. I took a few, but when I got home and inspected them, there wasn’t much of interest. Anyway, time was marching on and we were going to Glanburn just after midday for the first tea dance of the year.

The hall was filling up nicely for today’s dance. First up was a waltz and we opted for Kirsty’s Waltz Nioli. First track was a bit of a mess, but in the second track I found my feet or more likely, my feet found the script and it turned out fine. In fact, the Rumba, Cha-Cha and even the Quickstep all fell in to place today. I hope it’s not an isolated instance.

It seems that Stewart & Jane have started a new regime where the first half of the dance is devoted almost entirely to Ballroom and Latin. After the tea break, the second half is now almost all sequence dances. I’m not sure I like that approach, I prefer mixing the styles, but I don’t run the show and possibly that’s for the best. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed today’s dance and it’s not often I say that. I think it was that I’m beginning to become more confident in the routines and a lot of that is down to the work Scamp and Kirsty put in pointing me in the right direction. Short routines that can have extra parts added to them or awkward ones removed. After all we are doing this so that we can dance, not so that we can blindly follow the teachings of others.

Drove home feeling that we’d achieved something today. Then when we got home, Scamp got a text from Kirsty to say that she’d fallen today and broken a bone in her wrist and would be in plaster for at least two weeks! Poor Kirsty will be distraught, and so will we! One day back in her class and disaster strikes.

Since Scamp was going to be busy getting ready for Crawford and Nancy on Friday, I suggested an M&S curry might be best for dinner and the suggestion was accepted.

I eventually settled on a picture of a path through the woods at St Mo’s for PoD. It was the best of a bad lot, but not really all that bad.

Tonight the prep for Friday started for Scamp, but tomorrow I’m intending to make my half of the bargain, the main course.

The ice is melting – 8 January 2024

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And not before time say some!

But first things first. We were in dire need of food, so Scamp and I drove to Tesco to see what they had to offer. Blueberries, onions, bacon and razor blades were high on the list as well as bananas, milk and bread, but for some unknown reason there were no rolls. Real rolls, that is. There were plenty of those soft fluffy pretend rolls, but none of the crusty or well fired variety. You couldn’t call those soft things “Rolls”. This dearth always seems to happen on a Monday. Maybe the bakers were joining the junior doctors and going on a one day strike every week. Maybe the bakers really are qualified junior doctors and they had been called up to plug the gap in the NHS. For whatever reason, it looked like we’d have to forego our roll ’n’ banana today.

I had a plan that might avoid a roll-less day. On the way home we drove in to Condorrat where I managed to pick up a half dozen crusty rolls for £2.22. I even paid for I using cash. Real, hard cash, coppers and silver coins counted out carefully into the lady’s hand. We would eat a lunch of roll ’n’ banana!

Suitably fed and knowing we wouldn’t fade away from starvation, I went for a walk in St Mo’s, hoping to grab some of the sunshine that was coming through holes in the clouds. Ah, but as soon as I got to St Mo’s, the holes were filled in again and the sun slid from sight. I should have known. Still, I managed a few interesting photos. The first was a hogweed which had been covered in ice that was now gradually melting. The second one and PoD was one of my Dangerous Dan shots. Take an expensive camera with an equally expensive lens. Place it on the ice of the pond. Point it in the general direction of a subject and press the shutter button, lightly. As soon as the shutter clicks, whip it away before the ice knows it’s there and tries to grab it. Of course I’d tested the ice first to make sure it would hold the weight of the camera. A passing bloke walking his dog asked me I was all right, kneeling on the boardwalk. I told him I was fine, but afterwards I wondered if he was asking me if I was “alright in the head!” Maybe I’m not, but I love taking photos from strange angles.

After what I hope is the final adjustment to Lightroom Catalog 2024, I think everything is back to firing on all cylinders. The photos went into Lightroom and came out the other side looking better for their trip through its many and varied boxes of tricks. They are now on show in Flickr and one of them, the Dangerous Dan one is at the top of this page.

Dinner tonight was pasta with a nicely spicy Amatriciana sauce ( bacon, tomatoes, dried chilli flakes and basil) dusted with some Parmesan cheese.

Tomorrow Scamp is booked in the morning for coffee and a blether with June and Shona. I’m hoping to parcel up the calendars and get them sent out to the north of Scotland and the south of England and some places in between.

Dancin’ – 6 January 2024

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Scamp was out first to defrost the car. We were driving to Brookfield for the first dance classs of 2024.

The temperature was hovering around zero when we drove out to Brookfield, but the sun was almost blinding, shining from a bright blue sky. Thankfully we got there without any roadworks apart from the usual 40mph drag through central Glasgow.

First surprise was that the tiny dancers, who usually take ages to leave the hall, had already gone! Maybe someone had complained. I should have asked Jane if it was her. Only four couples ready and waiting to go dancing. Last in were Peter and Gillian who travel almost the same distance as us.

First dance was the Blue Angel Rumba which we’ve almost mastered and was the gentle entry into this years dances. Next was the, new to us, Christmas Waltz. It looked complicated, but taken in bite sized pieces it wasn’t so bad, although there were a few unpronounceable and complicated bits to it. In retrospect, I think we managed not too bad in it, but it will need some practise during the week to cement it into my head. Finally a fast and frantic Samba with Samba Walks, Botafogos and Voltas. Voltas were described by Jane as “Like kids pretending to ride a horse”. A sort of “John Wayne dance step.” Google it and you’ll see what I mean. By then, my little brain was full to bursting and I was glad to change my dance shoes for clumpy black street shoes and drive us home.

Lunch was two bits of bread with a slice of square sausage between them. Scamp had similar with an egg substituting for the square sausage.

I struggled for a while trying to work out what was going wrong with the 2024 catalog on Lightroom. Eventually I gave up and as the sun was still shining I went for a walk in St Mo’s. The road and paths were quite slippery, but the boots coped with it. The sun was low by the time I was walking along the path behind the woods and I got a few decent shots of the trees and the shadows they were casting. One of them became PoD.

Dinner came from a cold walk over to Condorrat to Golden Bowl. As I was coming back I could see the mist lying about a metre above the grass. Quite creepy looking. I tried to photograph it, but failed to get the impression I was looking for.

Later in the evening I tried again and almost managed to repair the damage to the catalog. I gave up and left it until tomorrow when hopefully a night’s sleep will make things clearer

Temperatures around zero predicted for tomorrow. That will decide what we do.

 

Dull day that brightened up later – 5 January 2024

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It started off misty and cloudy, but later in the day the sun came out and it was fairly bright.

The task for today was to take down the decorations, pack up the tree and get everything ready to go up into the loft later in the week. Scamp was in charge of operations and as usual she was organised. Cards were taken down and left in a pile for checking later. Tree decorations went into their box and then into their bag. Batteries were removed from lights to stop them corroding. I took the lights down from the wee tree outside and from the fence. They are still drying out, hanging over any vertical surface that will carry them. It really was a military operation.

By lunch time it was all done and I’d had enough time left to go for a walk in St Mo’s. Today’s PoD turned out to be fern fronds glowing in the sunshine. There wasn’t much else to photograph today. I should have taken a macro lens with me, but I forgot. After that it was computer time.

One of my SSD drives that power the iMac now has a dodgy connector socket, which means that if I’m not careful, and it gets nudged, I lose everything I’ve been working on. Most annoying. What I wanted to do today was transfer the data from the drive to a replacement that doesn’t seem to have the connector problem. It’s a fairly easy procedure to do, but even with the super fast SSDs, it takes time. That means there’s a lot of sitting about. Thankfully I could check the progress on my laptop as I was following an instruction video on YouTube that I’d used before and it worked. It worked again today, but took most of the afternoon to complete. I’ve now got it running fairly well, with just the occasional blip to fix.

It was late when I finally turned the computer off and had dinner which was baked potato with veg chilli. The chilli had been in the freezer for a few months and was really needing used up. It tasted fine, so being frozen for months hadn’t harmed it much.

We did manage a quick practise dance tonight. Part of Joy’s Waltz, part of the Quickstep routines from Stewart & Jane and also from Kirsty, then Kirsty’s Waltz Nioli to finish off.

Tomorrow we’re intending going to dance class in Brookfield, hence today’s practise. Other than that, nothing much planned.

Going out! – 4 January 2024

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Today we were going in to Glasgow on the bus.

We weren’t going for anything in particular, although Scamp had a free offer of a cup of tea and a cake for two at JL. So that must come first.

Because Scamp was the owner of the golden ticket, she got to collect the tea and a scone each while I was tasked with finding an empty table for two. I got one with a view up Sausage Roll Street, one of my favourite views in Glasgow. JL’s offer was for tea or coffee with a cake or scone with butter, but we had to pay extra for jam. I thought that was a bit mean of JL. Giving you something free, then asking you to pay for part of it. Penny pinching.

The rain had been torrential when we were heading to Glasgow, but when we stepped out of Buchanan Galleries the sun was shining and it remained shining all day long. We walked down Buchanan Street and along Argyle Street then down to Clyde Street, along the Clyde Walkway, then over the suspension bridge before turning right and along past the new Business Centre, turned right there and crossed The Squiggly Bridge to the other half of the Business Centre then back into the city centre with a stop at Nero for a coffee. Not a bad walk, that gave me nearly today’s 10,000 steps.

We hadn’t anything else to do, so we walked back through JL and just managed to catch the X3 for a run home, but not just home, because we stayed on and got off at the shops, a new experience for us, getting the bus to the shops! Scamp got flowers because it was Thursday and we chose some veg, prawns, noodles and sauce to make a stir-fry for dinner.

Scamp had intended taking the tree and decorations down today and I had intended having a practise of the Quickstep, but instead I sourced some pictures of the Kelpies to send to Simonne to add to a Memory Book for her dad. Then I wrote a message to Hazy and finally I updated the OS of my blog. It was only about two years out of date! If I get this blog posted, that will be most of my To-Do’s, To-Done! Yes, I know the apostrophe shouldn’t be there!

PoD was a photo of the Metropolitan Cathedral of St Andrew down by the Clyde in Glasgow.

A good day out, just walking. No plans for tomorrow, but some things still on the To-Do list.

… a new one just begun – 1 January 2024

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A new day and a new year. I wonder what it will bring.

The weather was fine today and we were going for a walk. Not driving out for a walk as I’d intended. Scamp though a walk nearer to home would be better. We walked down to Broadwood loch where there were more than the usual amount of photogs, all carrying some heavy duty glass. I had the A6500 with short and very short lenses. One of the photogs asked if I was there to photograph the Smew (pronounced Sm you). I told him “No” then he proceeded to tell me that a smew is a small white diving bird with strong black patterns and a white crest. I’d heard of it, but not being a ‘twitcher’, I wasn’t really interested, but he seemed quite excited about it. Then I recognised him. He used to teach at the same school as me, long time ago. I let him go and put the camera back in my bag in case someone else would give us more directions to the best smew spotting places.

We walked over the dam and round the exercise machines. First time I’ve been there for ages, not since last year in fact 🙂 . Then up past the shops, all of which were closed, but some had lights on inside. Scamp guessed that they were taking down the Christmas decorations and getting the Easter eggs in. I think she might be right. I had a few shots in the bag, so we walked back home.

Lots of computer stuff to do at the end of a month. Photos to move into long term storage disks and catalogs to, well, catalog! All just the housekeeping that computers don’t do for themselves. I started it and let it run while Scamp made Scrambled Egg with Smoked Salmon. Very nice. We had it on toast after I cleaned out the toaster and then managed to remove some charred remains of long gone bread from the inside. It actually worked after that. Perfectly happily toasting bread, too lightly, but that’s not a problem. Maybe there was some bread crumbs in the electromagnet and my shaking and poking got rid of it, or maybe it was just a lucky day when it felt like working. Anyway, we had toast.

Dinner tonight was a strange but interesting cooked mix of veg for Scamp and a very nice sirloin steak for me. Both washed down with a glass of Merlot courtesy of Jamie & Simonne. Thank you both.

PoD turned out to be a photo of some gulls looking for that Smew!

No plans for tomorrow, yet, but I’m sure we’ll find something to do!

 

 

Another year over – 31 December 2023

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Well, almost over.

The day started with a visit to Currys in Coatbridge to get photo paper and a chance to browse the shelves for a new toaster. The one we have must be about 20 years old and has worked well, but lately it’s been struggling to hold the bread carrier against the force of the spring. I reckon it’s an electromagnet that either has crumbs or dust on its contact, or the wiring in it is getting weak and cannot pull the full magnetic force. If it’s dust, the portable hoover might just manage to clear it. If it’s the coil in the electromagnet, it’s beyond my ability to repair. The prices Currys were asking for a fairly ordinary toaster were in places eye watering. Who pays £200 for a toaster? I got the photo paper, but the toaster will have to wait until Tuesday at least, when the shops re-open.

We drove home and Scamp encouraged me to go out and take some photos before the light started to fail. That would be a sensible thing to do. After all, this was the last day in 2023 and a decent photo for PoD was compulsory. It arrived in the shape of an old park bench in St Mo’s. The bench is made of recycled plastic, but it has lichen growing on it. It must be something that’s added to the plastic mix when bulk it up or maybe to strengthen it. Surely ordinary lichen wouldn’t grow on pure plastic. I must ask a scientist some time. The photo wasn’t impressive when I took it, but separating it into its constituent parts made it a lot easier to work with and I was happy with the result.

Spoke to Jamie and heard that the weather down south was much better than we’ve been having. Hope Vixen’s leg improves soon.

I think that’s all for 2023. I believe 2024 is approaching rapidly, so I should really draw this last blog of 2023 to a close. I wish you all a happy and healthy new year.