Category: A Walk

Happy New Year – 1 January 2023

Posted on by Zogman

A new day, a new year, but the weather remains the same.

New Year’s Day is one of those days that promises a lot and delivers very little. It sounds as if it’s one big party from start to finish, but for most folk it’s not. It’s a day off work for those lucky enough to be employed, but a day off work in the dullest time of the year isn’t a bundle of fun, really. Christmas is all bright lights and having fun, but NYD is a bit of a let down, I’ve always felt. Maybe it’s just me.

We went for a very quick walk round St Mo’s pond. Scamp wanted to try out the GPS on her new watch and yes! It worked!! It also gave us an excuse to be out in the fresh air. Bumped into Susan Greenshields in the park with her two dogs. We said hello and repeated the HappyNewYear speech everyone does on the 1st, as usual without a happy smile on our faces. It was a rushed conversation because we’d just been sent the Zoom link by Hazy who was hosting today again.

Back home it was boots off, jackets off and get the laptop set up. Scamp doing the ‘techy’ things today. Actually this was the high point of the day. Just like being there. Everyone talking over each other and it was good to see that both Neil and Jamie were looking a lot better than on Christmas Day when both were definitely not at their best. I think we used up almost all the allotted time on Zoom and I felt better after that. Just talking to folk is great sometimes, but talking to them and seeing them is even better.

Dinner tonight was Forestier Paté for starter then Potatoes, Brussel Sprouts and a choice of Salmon Fillet or Ribeye Steak for the main, finishing with Panna Cotta which I managed to make in the morning. It was a bit rubbery I thought, but Scamp said it was fine. Two more in the fridge for tomorrow.

I spent most of the rest of the day wrestling with Lightroom while Scamp read. Most of the swearing has abated now and I think Lightroom and I have declared a truce. Battle may resume tomorrow if it doesn’t play nice. However, we now have a photo calendar on the wall using Hazy’s wonderful idea of using a clipboard. Hopefully calendars will be printed this week … or maybe next.

PoD was a grab shot of a bloke walking his dog down that lane. The path that keeps giving.

Thank you, H, J, N & S for the Zoom meeting, it brightened our day.

Tomorrow looks better than today, but I’m not sure yet if it’s just a weather fairies’ ruse! Only time will tell.

The end of a long year – 31 December 2022

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At last we got a dry day!

To celebrate we went for a walk. A long walk round Broadwood Loch. Not the most interesting place for photos, but that didn’t stop me from taking some. I don’t think I’ve seen the loch looking so still. One wee moorhen paddling smoothly across the waters almost made PoD.

After lunch Scamp walked down to the shops and I went for another walk in St Mo’s this time. There I got today’s PoD which is a sycamore key caught in a whin bush. I just liked it and that’s why it got the last PoD of 2022.

I walked over to Condorrat later to get a Special Fish Supper for me and a Small Fish Supper with two Pickled Onions for Scamp. If you don’t know what a Special Fish is, imagine a haddock fillet dipped in breadcrumbs and deep fried x 2 and you have a rough idea. Just the thing for the last Saturday in 2022.

I’m not going to go over the good bits and the bad bits of 2022, because it’s not over yet. Maybe tomorrow.

Speaking about tomorrow, we have no plans. Probably because it’s snowing right now.

Happy New Year when it comes.

Standing water – 30 December 2022

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Scamp was going to have coffee with Shona today.

I drove Scamp up to Costa in the town centre. What should have been a quick journey turned out to be a bit fraught. I thought I’d be smart and take the shortcut through Condorrat. Alas the sign saying No Road On Right had fallen down. I hadn’t noticed it at the time, but once on to the closed road there was nowhere to go but back again. Still stuck on the idea that this was a shortcut, I carried on round the Condorrat ring road. Then I was stuck in a queue because the road was flooded almost right across the road and cars were taking turns to drive through it. We did eventually get through the flooded stretch, but it was deeper than I’d first thought.

I came home the normal way and went to get my meds, then went next door to Tesco and got some fish because I was making a fish risotto for dinner. I also got a vanilla pod to use for Sunday’s dessert. Almost six quid for one vanilla pod? Somebody’s having a joke here. The reason the road was flooded this morning was because it had rained incessantly through the night, but when I came out of Tesco the sky was clear and the sun was shining. Where did all the rain go? Not a cloud to be seen!

I drove home, dumped the stuff and grabbed my camera bag and went over to St Mo’s. Of course, as soon as I left the house the sun disappeared and the first spots of rain appeared. Undeterred I carried on and got some photos of the flooded pond. Not the most interesting photos and by this time the white cloud had covered the sky, so there was no texture from that either. Still, I had a photo or five and an hour ago I didn’t think I was going to get any.

I walked home and just as I got in, my phone rang. Scamp’s bus from the town centre hadn’t appeared. I drove up to the town centre and picked her up. I made sure I came home the long, but unfolded way.

After lunch which was yesterday’s soup with croutons, or fried bread if you prefer, I settled down to write to Peter Hayward who I used to work beside. I’d only just got started when two cards dropped through the letter box. One for Scamp and one for me from Peter. After reading it I felt even worse for not writing sooner. But the letter was finished and in with the belated Christmas card then I walked over and found I’d just missed today’s collection. Never mind, it wouldn’t have been going anywhere until Monday or Tuesday anyway. After dropping it in the post box I felt a lot happier.

Back home again I started the dinner. It was Leek and Haddock with Cabbage. The cabbage wasn’t really meant to go in the risotto, but it was languishing in the chiller drawer of the fridge and it seemed a shame no to use it. Apparently that was a really good risotto. I don’t know what I did differently, but I too liked it.

The photo you see here as PoD has a more interesting sky than when the shot was taken. I don’t consider that cheating because I took the photo of the sky months ago and just got an app to insert it, and its reflection into the picture. By the way, its title was Porcupine, because that’s what I thought of when I first saw this big clump of reeds!

Tomorrow there’s talk that it may, just may, be dry. If that’s the case we might go for a walk. Drumpellier has been mentioned.

New Technology – Old Recipe – 26 December 2022

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We had a new bit of technology to play with. Foodie technology.

First we had Wordle and Spelling Bee to complete and I scored a scary Last Chance Saloon ‘6’ in Wordle. Scamp phoned her sister in Eastfield and I adjourned to the ‘Painting Room’ to read my photo mag.

Later I washed out the pot with detergent, as directed, and dried it, then reassembled the whole thing, checked that there were no more bits of paper or sticky reminders in the main pot and we measured 750ml of cold water into the pot and plugged the beast in. When we put on the lid it caught us by surprise and played a little tune. Apparently it was an ascending scale it was playing. We followed the instructions to the letter and the whole thing began to heat. A few minutes later, the pot lid sealed itself and the countdown started until the water boiled five minutes later. We had boiled 750ml of water automatically. When we released the pressure on the pot and opened the lid it played the same tune again but it was a descending scale. A kettle would have done it in about the same time, but now with the same panache!

It was still dry, so Scamp went over to meet June for a longer chat and I went for a walk in St Mo’s and got today’s photo of a really pretty weed. This is a macro picture which means a really close-up shot. That little weed was about 60mm high. Millimetres, not Centimeteres! I also managed to get soaked getting it when the hail that had been threatening turned to sleet and started hammering down. I really need to get my Bergy jacket proofed again.

Back home, Scamp had managed to miss most of the shower but was quite wet too. We had lunch and looked at that big black pot again. The plan was to make some ‘Just Soup’. A real world test of its capabilities. Another part of the learning curve. I chopped the veg and Scamp sautéd them in the pot then we added the stock, put the lid on and set it to cook for 3 minutes. Three minutes to make soup from vegetables? Our mums would never have believed us! But the proof of the soup was in the eating. Would it taste like ‘Just Soup’? It did.

We also managed to work out why my Fitbit would record my walk to St Mo’s, but Scamp’s much more modern and fancier Fitbit wouldn’t. Eventually, after an exasperating hour and a bit of reading suggestions on the web and fiddling with settings, we finally found he missing switch and it started looking for the GPS signal which, of course, it wouldn’t find in the house, but we’re confident it will find outside, possibly tomorrow.

Dinner was high tech soup and it did taste good. It maybe needed a pinch of salt, but that’s easily done. Later we watched a rather tedious Death in Paradise, which is still a home for retired actors.

No real plans for tomorrow. Possibly a walk, possible a trip in to Glasgow. It snowed here tonight, so maybe the weather will be our guide.

 

Christmas Eve – 24 December 2022

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Seemingly going against all the things I complained about yesterday, we drove to Tesco today.

However, we weren’t going to fill our trolley with loads of unnecessary foodstuffs, we were going to find out if some kind soul had handed in a purple leather glove that Scamp had dropped in the store a couple of days ago. Luckily some kind soul had indeed handed it in and along came a smiling Scamp to show off that very glove. We restricted ourselves to a few veggies and a jug of filtered milk, then drove home. More madcap driving as we were leaving the car park with cars abandoned in every space that looked as if you could get at least one of your tyres on to it. Apparently the shop is going to be closed tomorrow for a full day! We’ll all going to starve to death if we don’t but everything we can get our hands on NOW!

After we got home and found places for the veg and stuff to go, we went for a walk in St Mo’s because the weather was reasonable for the time of year, it was dry and there was only a light wind. A good day for a gentle walk into the woods and back along the boardwalk. Not into the deep woods, you realise, because we weren’t kitted out with walking boots, just a gentle walk round the pond. I did think of taking a second circuit and allowing Scamp to go home alone, but I’d got a few photos of weeds dripping wet from the overnight rain, so we went home together.

After lunch I post processed the photos and found I had two worth posting on Flickr. Also, for this last week and a bit in 2022, I tidied up an image I’d processed, but hadn’t previously posted and it’s on Flickr now too. A weed picture got PoD.

By 3.15pm the house lights had come on and it was looking like early evening. Dinner was discussed and we decided to have Pasta Carbonara using fresh pasta we bought in Waitrose. It only takes minutes to make with the fresh pasta but it takes well over fifteen minutes with the dried stuff.

Tonight I wrapped up Scamp’s parcels for tomorrow and they are sitting next to the tree. I’m supposed to be making the dessert for tomorrow’s dinner if I remember to get organised in the morning.

All four of our invalids seem to be recovering from their respective ailments, which is good to hear and Hazy has organised a three way Zoom link-up for tomorrow. It will be good to see and hear from everyone. We’re looking forward to it.

Happy Christmas to all my readers!

 

 

Shopping – 23 December 2022

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Not once, but twice we went shopping today and still we don’t have absolutely everything.

The world is going crazy this year. Never have I seen anything like the shopping madness I’ve seen this week. Admittedly, the last two years have not been ‘normal’ and this year almost feels like we’re making up for lost time, but this year, the amount of food I see in trolleys astounds me. I almost felt we were being mean when we picked up a shopping basket instead of a trolley when we went to M&S this morning. One of the good things about being able to walk to the shops is that the amount you buy is limited by the amount you can comfortably carry. We bought only what we needed. If you drive to the supermarket you are not so limited in what you transport back to the house.

After lunch I set out to go for a walk to St Mo’s and got a PoD which was a bunch of Cladonia lichen growing on a mossy stone among the pine needles. One in the bag, I walked to Condorrat I was going to get a steak from the butcher for my Christmas dinner on Sunday. The butcher isn’t part of a chain, and he’s local. I can see what the meat is like because it’s in a chiller display, not ready packaged on a shelf. As I was walking back I realised we hadn’t got a pizza for tonight’s dinner. Always pizza on a Friday. I phoned Scamp and we met up at St Mo’s school and walked down to the shops for the second time today. We came home with bags of stuff. I’ll admit we bought more than we needed, but not a boot load.

That was about it for the day. A relaxing day with a couple of walks to keep the wheels turning. Scamp is feeling better today, so hopefully her course of antibiotics is working for her.

Tomorrow we may go out to get milk, because even with two trips to the shops we still forgot things!

Postman and Driving Mayhem – 22 December 2022

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Off to hand deliver a Christmas card and then driving to the Fort.

I’d left it too late for Elizabeth Gough’s card to be delivered by Christmas, but as I was going to be passing her house on my way to the last purchases at The Fort, I dropped it through her letter box. I was caught in the act by her daughter and then all three of us had a blether at her front door. I was invited in for coffee, but I declined as I knew it would be difficult to park at the Fort and if I’d accepted, I would have been there for an hour at least. It must be well over a year since I’ve met the pair of them and we had a lot to catch up on. Eventually I took my leave and headed back on the road to Easterhouse.

The parking was worse than I’d anticipated, much worse. There must have been about a hundred cars circling the gigantic parking areas and nobody was finding any spaces. I eventually had to give up and I thought I’d head out towards Drumpellier park and from there to Currys at Coatbridge to get some photo paper for the calendars. When I got near Drumpellier I could see there was low lying mist over the loch and, as I did have a camera with me today I drove in to the park. The light was lovely and the mist gave a great backdrop. Even better still, the car park was running at about a quarter capacity. I got a few photos and then headed back to see if Scamp wanted to go fro a walk. I wasn’t in a rush to get the photo paper anyway.

Instead of a walk we had lunch. Scamp wasn’t feeling too good and thought she had a wee infection. She had phoned the doc’s and was waiting for a call back from the nurse. The call eventually came about 5pm and the nurse said she’d leave a prescription at the surgery reception. I drove over there, picked it up and got it filled at the chemist, next door to the surgery. Then came drove home. It was getting cold by the time I was leaving the house and colder on the way home. I’m expecting the temperature will be below zero tonight, although it’s just about 4ºc just now.

I made celeriac soup for dinner. Thick and warming, but not getting much of the celeriac taste from it. Anyway that and some toast with a half a pizza later was a substantial mid-week dinner.

Good to hear that you’ve got your heating fixed, even if it is only short time, Hazel. Good advice from your mum to get a few local quotes too. Remember that the firms like our Scottish Gas like to put doubts in your head, saying that it’s difficult to get the parts now for older boilers. Sometimes that’s just to scare you.

PoD was a photo of four gulls sitting on the ‘Whale Tail’ in Drumpellier park. The sculpture was created in 1989 by artist Neil McLeod and entitled ‘Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea’.

No plans to go anywhere special tomorrow and definitely no driving to shops if today’s experience is anything to go by. We’ll probably do some local shopping.

Empty handed – 20 December 2022

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Today we’d agreed to get the bus in to Glasgow.

There was little dithering about, we just got ready, I’d packed my bag with the A7iii, the TZ90 and a couple of lenses and we walked down to get the X3, the sloooow bus to Glasgow. It was when we were getting on the bus that We were just getting on the bus to Glasgow when I realised I didn’t have my camera bag. It was still sitting on the table in the living room, where I’d left it. I decided I’d just have to make do with the phone camera. Actually it produced a few good shots. I took them intentionally in RAW mode and accidentally in HDR mode, but the results surprised me. Quite impressed. In fact so impressed that one of the shots made PoD. It’s looking up at a reflection in a window on Buchanan Street.

We wandered round the centre of the Toon, sometimes separately and sometimes together, because this was Chrissy Prezzy outing and we both had different places to go. As lunch time approached we couldn’t decide where to go. Neither of us was all that bothered about going to Paesano for some reason. Instead we ended up in John Lewis with a toasty each and a cup of tea. Not an elegant lunch, but it kept our stomachs from grumbling. Then we headed for the bus.

I was praying that we wouldn’t get the X3 and just as we were crossing the road to the bus station, the X3 dragged itself out onto the road and back to Cumbersheugh. Oh, thank you! I don’t think I could have handled another 45 minute journey stopping at every bus stop on the way back to Cumbersheugh. Instead we got the Falkirk bus that stops in Condorrat and walked home. It was a decent day. Not too cold but with occasional rain showers. Scamp got a new pair of sensible shoes, not dance shoes, and we had lunch. I got a photo and now know I can go out without a ‘real’ camera.

Tomorrow I’m told we may need some messages and I need to write a couple of cards and post them.

 

Shopping – 19 December 2022

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Today we were going out in the wide world, maybe even as far as Stirling.

The rain that started last night had continued all night and into this morning. It had done a good job of removing most of the ice that had held us in its grip for the last week. Today we were driving to Stirling to get some messages, but as Waitrose is posh, we’ll have to call it “Shopping”.

Waitrose was utter madness. There were cars circling the parking area just hoping to get lucky and find a space. I dropped Scamp off near the door and told her I’d pay to park at the council car park just along the road and bring the car round when we were ready to go home. That was the plan, but instead of leaving, I found a space just being exited right in front of me. I took it and said “thank you” to the crazy driver who had reversed out of it at speed and nearly “tee boned” the bloke in front of me. I let Crazy Driver go and slipped into his space.

After almost an hour of wandering round the shop and with a full trolley we loaded everything into the boot of the blue car and drove home. Lunch was the remainder of yesterday’s quiches and they tasted better today, well, mine did anyway. Scamp made no disparaging comments about her’s, so I guess she agreed. By about 2pm it felt like the sun was setting, so it was boots on and out to St Mo’s for a photo before the little photons disappeared entirely. PoD became two Dogwood branches with their very wet berries. The bright red stems do a lot to brighten the landscape.

Back home I got a phone call from what looked like Margaret Kent, but it was her husband, Bill who spoke. Margaret had passed away at the end of June and he was apologising for not telling me about it at the time. The poor man sounded devastated and I felt so sorry for him. Margaret was my second cousin. Her mother and my mum were cousins, but I always knew her as my cousin. Then Billy told me that Maureen, another second cousin had died in September. Both of them had been seriously ill for a couple of years, but we occasionally bumped into each other. That put a bit of a damper on the day.

The snow has now all gone and most of the ice too. We might go in to Glasgow on the bus tomorrow, all being well.

The long slow thaw continues – 18 December 2022

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It’s taking a long time to remove that ice.

It was one of those days when we should have gone out somewhere, anywhere just to get out of the house, but we didn’t. The furthest I got was a walk down to the shops to get some ingredients for today’s dinner. I got as far as the corner house before I was forced to put on my YakTrax.  Rain water on top of ice is a deadly combination.  Luckily the Yaks cut right through and give you a perfect grip.  Everybody else in the Central Belt was there too and they were buying thing, indiscriminately. Food! Let’s buy Food. The shops will be close for days over Christmas, where will we but Food. That’s the way it seemed anyway. I just wanted tomatoes, shortcrust pastry and cheese, but there were folk loading up great trolleys with every kind of consumable item they could lay their hands on. I know it usually happens at this time of year, but every year it seems to get worse, or maybe I’m just getting old and crabbit. “Surely not”, I hear you say!

I’d considered driving down to the shops, but I thought the walk would do me good and when I got there I was pleased that I’d walked. The road was clogged with cars in both directions. That’s where all the shoppers came from. I was thankful that some bright spark had put a Pelican Crossing at the entrance to the retail park. That got me across safely.

Walked back up the road as the sleet started. It soon turned to rain again, but didn’t seem to melt the snow or the ice, despite the temperature being above zero for the second day.

Dinner was to be a quiche. Mine was hot smoked salmon chunks and broccoli. Scamp’s was cheese and tomato. Not the best Sunday dinner, but fairly filling.

Spoke to Jamie later in the evening and heard about his week. Heard too about his plans for between Christmas and New Year, now that he doesn’t need to work those days. Looking forward to it. Glad to hear that Simonne is negative for Covid today. That’s a good sign.

Watched a 30 years of Jools Holland program after the phone call and like all of these things it was good in parts and in others it was just the same old faces, getting older. But 30 years? Surely not, is it?

PoD was a tradition. It’s Fairy Nuff the fairy not on the top of the tree!

Tomorrow there are no excuses, we’re going out, even if I have to dig wheel tracks out onto the main road!