Category: A Walk

More good news – 26 August 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Off to see the nurse this morning.

We drove up to the health centre where Scamp left to walk to the town centre to get some English notes at the bank, only to find that the bank was closed. Today was an English bank holiday, but not in Scotland according to NLC, but what do they know, they are only the council.

While Scamp was at the closed bank, I was getting some good news from the Nurse/Sister. I’ve been taken off another of my meds. The nurse took my BP both sitting and standing and was happy to take me off another pill I didn’t need. I’m still being monitored and have another appointment to attend in a month or so, but it’s another step in the right direction.

I drove up to the town centre to meet Scamp who had sent me a message about the bank and I had sent her a message to say I was on my way to meet her. Neither message reached its target. Maybe one of the masts was down or maybe it’s just Cumbersheugh. Anyway, when we got home the messages appeared and we had lunch.

Later in the afternoon, plans were made to lighten the loads I carry on my shoulder. Two cameras is just too much to carry with associated lenses. Just for a test I took only the A6500 with two light lenses and it was comfortable for a walk in St Mo’s. That’s actually lighter than one A7iii camera without a lens. I’m beginning to think I may have to reduce the load I’m carrying on my shoulder, although the quality of the final image will suffer. At present it’s just an idea, whether I can carry it through is another thing entirely

Today’s walk to St Mo’s got me a PoD I was happy with. It was a drone fly or maybe a large hover fly on a Scabious flower head. I quite liked it, I think because of the out of focus background. The weather wasn’t exactly warm, but it certainly wasn’t cold and thankfully it was dry. More rain forecast for tomorrow.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending getting her nails done and I’m still clearing up more stuff to go to the skips.

 

 

Today we went to Edinburgh – 23 August 2024

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See, sometimes I do give it its real name, not just Embra. We were going to get what my mum would have called “a wee minding” Just a wee something they could hang on their wall if they liked it, or keep it in a drawer if they didn’t. Either way, it was a gift for a Special Occasion.

Today was deemed a non-driving day. We walked down to the bus stop at the shops and got the wee red bus down to Croy Station. From there we managed to get two separate seats in First Class because the guard said there were no seats anywhere else and anyway he wasn’t going to fight his way through the crowded carriages to check any tickets. It was almost the end of the Edinburgh Festival and that was the reason for the crowded train. Our carriage was full, but next door in the other half of the carriage a party was going on. Scamp said there were at least five ‘ladies’ eating their way through some vile smelling food and screaming their heads off. I was pleased that there was a sliding door between them and us that kept almost all of the noise in their section.

As is traditional, we got off at Haymarket and walked up the hill to cross over Ladyfield to Caffè Nero. It was at Ladywell I got my PoD. It’s a mono shot of a man walking across a bridge that runs over one of the really busy roads in the city.

Once we’d had our coffee we walked down to Princes Street to pay for and pick up the gift we’d come for from one of Mhairi’s daughters who was minding the stall. I didn’t embarrass the girl by asking her is she was the one who was in the office chair or the one who was pushing it.

They used to come with their mum to our weekly salsa class in the ground floor of what had been a big old fashioned school. It also doubled as a Trades Union office during the day, but on a Monday night the two girls would take it in turns to ride down the sloping entrance ramp on an office chair with dodgy castors. Usually one or other of them would crash the chair and come crying to mum who wasn’t at all sympathetic. “They bounce” was her reply when someone asked if the girls were injured!

So having achieved our main goal, we walked through Princes Street Gardens. Always well tended gardens and today was no exception. We were just in time to hear the One o’clock Gun. Which was a lot louder that I remembered.

I was still looking for a new waterproof, breathable rain jacket and I tried on a few on Rose Street, but couldn’t find the Goldilocks jacket. Some were too short, some had only two pockets and some were just plain uncomfortable. I’m still looking.

I suggested Whighams and Scamp said that was where she was heading! Lunch was a bowl of mussels for Scamp with a glass of French white wine while I had a Goan vegetable curry and a pint of Tennent’s. Both meals were lovely. We walked back to Princes Street and after getting a couple of books in Waterstones, we wandered along and got separate seats again on the train to Croy. Got the wee red bus again which dropped us at the Shops and we walked the rest.

All in all, that was a really good day. It would have been better without all the crowds who had come to see the festival, but you can’t have everything. Weather was good. Sunny but with a gusty wind again.

Tomorrow we’re intending to go to the dance class in Brookfield.

Out on the town – 21 August 2024

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I was meeting Alex today for a photowalk round Glasgow.

Actually bumped into him on Buchanan Street after I got off my train. Scamp had given me a lift to the station and ten minutes later I was on the train to Glasgow.

Alex was testing a new lens, let me rephrase that, “Alex was testing out another new lens” This one was a Chinese 35mm f1.4 manual lens. By manual I mean there were no electrical or electronic connections in the lens, nothing. Sometimes that’s a good thing, sometimes it’s a hindrance. His lens was a nice size and weight. It balanced well on his S6600 body. I wished him well with it, but it wasn’t for me. I like to control the settings on my lens, but give them a bit of leeway to help me get the best out of the camera/lens combo. I’ve had manual lenses in the past and got on well with some of them, but now I like to know that they can think for themselves!

As usual, it was coffee first, then catch up on what we’ve been up to in the last few weeks. Next we made our plans for the day. Alex wanted to photograph some distorting mirrors in the GOMA and I wanted to visit a photographic exhibition on Argyle Street.

We walked to the GOMA and got our photos. I managed a picture of The Duke on his horse with a seagull perched on its tail.

Next stop was the art exhibition, except after walking as far as High Street, I discovered when I checked with my phone that it wasn’t in Argyle Street, but up at the top of High Street. Oh well, we were on High Street now, so we might as well continue and see what was on show. The exhibition was in a couple of old shops that had been knocked into one. Interesting prints roughly 10” x 8” mostly B&W but with a few colour too. Not at all busy, but it was worth the walk. Must keep an eye open for it next time we’re doing a photowalk.

We walked further on and found a gable end with a mural of St Mungo holding a robin. It was a pity that someone decided it would be a good idea to plonk what looked like a gas installation right next to it. I took some photos anyway, because a couple of trees framed the photo well.

We walked back to the city centre and from there to Paesano for lunch. Lots of interesting buildings and mural on the way there. Things you’d pass easily, not realising they were there.

After our usual Paesano pizza lunch (Alex’s turn to pay) we went back to the GOMA and got some more photos. I wasn’t impressed. Nothing much had changed since my last visit. From there we went down to Princes Square where Alex wanted to test out his new lens again, inside this time, in the dry. It had been raining all day. I watched fascinated as four ladies equally spaced went up on the escalator. I suggested to Alex that they looked exactly like the old shooting galleries in the fair. The ones where you had to shoot down the moving targets with an air rifle, back in the bad old days!

By that time we were getting thirsty, so we had a coffee in the cafe in Princes Square. Coffee was black and weak. Wouldn’t darken their door again.

At the bus station I managed to get on the X3 with literally minutes to spare.

47 Photos taken today and not one chucker among them! That must be a record.

I’d messaged Scamp to say I didn’t need any dinner, but she’d heated too much of last night’s tagine, so I did have a few fork fulls of it just to fill a wee space. We couldn’t decide whether to keep the remainder or put it in the bin. Since the main protein had been chicken, I felt it would be safer to put it in, and that’s what happened.

A good day, but a pity about the rain. Just over 11,000 steps which isn’t bad.

PoD was the escalators (without targets) in Princes Square.

Tomorrow we might be going dancing. High winds forecast.

A busy day – 20 August 2024

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Much of my work had been done yesterday. Today was Scamp’s day.

I took the easy way out and drove to Glasgow. I’d a shirt to exchange at Slaters which was easily accomplished and that left me enough time to get my hair cut and my beard trimmed . Much easier getting somebody who knows what he’s doing to do the work than trying to work with cutters and scissors while staring intently in the mirror. I also managed to find time to source some white chocolate for the topping of the cake Scamp was baking. Easy, especially if you’ve planned your route in advance.

Not so easy was getting to Glasgow in the first place and getting home again as the council had decided the roundabout at the bottom of the road needed a sprucing up, complete with 4-way traffic lights. There had been no notice this was happening, so it was a nice surprise!! Ratbags!

When I got home, after another 15 minute delay, stuck in the queue, I realised I’d forgotten to get olives. Rather than face the queue again, I walked down to the shops and got the olives, then got soaked walking home.

After a change of clothes I was given the job of finding, and clearing, the table in the living room where it lay hidden under a pile of magazines, cables, SSDs, a computer and assorted rubbish (all mine). Then finding a place to put said rubbish where I’d find it again when needed.

After that I helped out in the kitchen with the fiddly bits of dressing the Portobello mushrooms for the starter and re-heating the main course I’d made yesterday while Scamp made the pudding. All achieved just in time to welcome John & Marion.

Dinner was:
Starter: Portobello Mushrooms with Cheese, Spinach and Parma Ham
Main: Chicken Tagine
Dessert: Baked Apricot Brioche.

It was a good night. Lots to discuss. The new grandchild for J&M, Erin. John’s new car, (although he says it’s Marion’s), a Renault Clio and a hybrid to boot! Holidays were discussed and days away too. Much later than any of us intended we let them go and we started the clearing up.

Another glass of wine for Scamp and a small whisky for me and it was time for bed.

PoD was a view looking down Buchanan Street from the opposite side of the subway entrance.

Plans for tomorrow will start with whoever is making breakfast, switching on the dish washer. I’m intending meeting Alex for a photowalk in Glasgow.

Out in the morning and in the afternoon and then again later – 19 August 2024

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Out in the morning to get my blood results. The good news is that I am no longer described as Diabetic. The bad news is that it was only by one point on the scale. I hoped it would be a better result, but I’ll take it and keep eating a healthier diet without sugar. Still, another possible step forward is there removal of Bendroflumethiazide from my daily diet of pills. It’s not a long term removal yet, I’ve another meeting with the Sister next week to check if that reduction is working for me.

Back home I had time for a sandwich. A piece ’n’ tinned salmon to be precise before I was off again to another health centre, this one in Muirhead to get an injection to prevent a virus called Respiratory Syncytial Virus, (RSV to its friends) from getting its hooks into me. Half an hour out of my day seemed a worthwhile offering for a better winter.

Since I was in the wilds of Muirhead, I drove home by the long road with a chance of some photos looking over to the Campsies. Not much to see today, though. Just half a dozen horses in a field on one side of the road and a farmer’s field of just-cut hay or silage on the other. I chose the second option, because I’m not that keen on horses and at least the landscape doesn’t walk away when you’re trying to photograph it.

We had been for ‘messages’ in between Nurse 1 and Nurse 2 and had stopped for petrol on the way home, but the petrol pump didn’t recognise my card, so I had to use my backup one, the one I made myself from an old bus pass and a bit of wire. That’s ok in an emergency, but I really needed to get the proper card fixed.

So when I got home from Nurse 2, I had a shopping list dictated to me and off I went again up to Tesco and the Bank. I tried the faulty card in their machine and it spat it out too, so the nice lady in the bank gave it the once over before telling me I needed a new one. Probably it will get to me some time this year. Until then I can just use the old bus pass with the bit of wire.

I got the ‘messages’ in Tesco and tonight I chopped them up, boiled them with some other stuff we had lying around and made something that didn’t taste too bad and hopefully will make a dinner for our visitors tomorrow.

The PoD was the photo of the landscape. A bit cobbled together, but not so much that you’d notice. Not my best work.

Various plans for tomorrow. Which one we choose is, as usual weather dependent.

Oh yes. I’ve been told to say that I was only joking about making a card from an old bus pass and a bit of wire. It was a pass from school I used!

No Dancin’ today – 17 August 2024

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Usually on a Saturday we drive to Brookfield for dance class, but today after some discussion, Scamp decided she didn’t want to go today because her course of treatment for her cystitis isn’t complete yet. I agreed with her decision.

It turned out to be a dull day. Not a lot of sunshine, in fact hardly any, but no real rain showers either. Just a dull, Scottish Saturday. The furthest we went was a drive to ‘The Shops’ to get some messages and something for tomorrow’s dinner. We usually walk there, but were going to be carrying back two message bags of stuff and I made the decision not to do that, but drive instead. After all, that’s what we bought the car for!

I went out for a walk in the late afternoon. Just one circuit of the pond at St Mo’s and it was actually quite pleasant at that time. The PoD was a Moss Carder Bee, a fluffy, gingery bumble bee that sometimes has brown and orange stripes. They get the ‘carder’ name from their habit of combing material together (carding) to create a covering for the cells in their nesting place containing the larvae. There you go! You learned something today … and so did I!

I didn’t come straight home, but walked over to Condorrat to get a small fish supper with two pickled onions for Scamp and a Special (bigger fish coated in breadcrumbs and deep fried) fish supper for myself. I was shocked at the price I had to pay, but it was worth it for such lovely fish.

Nothing worth watching on TV, now that the Turkish Detective is finished, so if anyone has any suggestions of what to watch on iPlayer, please let us know.

Finished my latest book ‘Down Cemetery Road’ by Mick Herron this morning 4/5 on Goodreads. Definitely recommended to all. Now I’m prowling round Amazon looking for something else on Kindle.

No real plans for tomorrow.

What a day! – 15 August 2024

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It was raining, heavily when I left the house about 10.30 this morning.

First I got a message from Alex to say he had a wee problem. He had a found a wasp’s nest in the loft and the wasps were coming in to the bedroom. He had been stung quite and was going to phone ‘the experts’. I suggested he contact Environmental Health and let them fix the problem and he agreed. He was apologising that he wouldn’t be able to meet me for a photo walk today! That would be the least of his problems.

I was taking the blue car in to Macklin Motors in Glasgow were it was booked for an MOT. I was driving down the M80 with headlights and wipers on full, the rain was so heavy. I dropped the car off at the garage just around 11am and was told it would be ready around 4pm. Not wanting to hang around for five hours, I walked back to the bus station. By the time I got there I was soaked from head to toe. Luckily I got an X37 almost right away. In the bus, I took off my, no longer waterproof, jacket which, although soaking had protected me from the worst of the rain. Purely by luck the bus took an alternative route to avoid massive roadworks in Condorrat and Mollinsburn which have been going on for almost a year, and by a quirk of fate dropped me within easy walking distance of the house.

Back home the rain had lessened and I could change into dry clothes. Scamp wasn’t far behind me and after lunch we settled down to wait for a message from the garage to say whether the blue car had passed or was needing money spent on it. That phone call never came, so around 3.30pm I took one bus to the town centre and another from there to Glasgow, saving a good half hour from the X3’s journey time.

By now the rain was gone and it was all blue skies and white clouds. So still not having heard from the garage I wandered down Buchanan Street and took a few photos of the entrance to the subway. A great subject for humans and reflections. I got a PoD which is the view looking down Buchanan Street, with the the reflections of people and buildings in and by the glass and marble entrance to the subway station.

Then I made my way up the hill to Macklin Motors, only to be told it would be nearer 5pm before the tester was finished, so I took my seat along with a couple of others in the same predicament. More than an hour and two games of Sudoku later, I got the call. The car passed but the advisory note told me they thought it needed 3 new tyres and would I like to arrange a day to have them fitted? I said I’d hold off on that for now. If it took them six hours to do a two hour MOT, how long would it take to fit three tyres?

But the joys of motoring weren’t over yet. It took me about twenty minutes to clear Glasgow and get on to the M8/M80 and the road home. How can people drive in Glasgow at rush hour? It’s absolute madness.

Finally got home and parked and found that Scamp had made Carrot & Lentil Curry with Pitta Bread. Absolutely the best food for such a stressful day! She is a gem!

I got a message from Alex tonight to say that Environmental Health are coming to visit him tomorrow. He said he’s been stung between fifteen and twenty times, but managed to kill two wasps!! He sent a picture of his swollen hand that you don’t want to see, believe me!

Tomorrow we may take the car out for a spin.

That was a hot one – 14 August 2024

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We’d intended getting the train to Edinburgh today, but waking late put the skids under that plan.

Instead of Edinburgh, we went shopping in Tesco. I’d a pile of books to give to Fred, because I often meet him in Tesco, but today, when I was prepared, Fred wasn’t there. Still, we did get a few things we needed and I got a Ginsters, half of which would provide my lunch.

After lunch Scamp was pruning bits off the big rowan tree at the back of the garden. She was complaining that the branches were hanging down over the pedestrian path. Then she mentioned that a bush that separates our next door neighbour from us was also becoming a bit of a nuisance and should be trimmed. I said I’d do that one and used a block of Imperial Leather soap to lubricate my old trusty panel saw and had the offending trunks and branches cut down in no time. Then we stripped the branches from the big trunks and heavier branches and piled them into one of our expanding nylon bins before chopping up the trunks and heavy branches. I volunteered to take them over to the council skips and empty the bin there. This must be pruning time, because the enormous skips were full of tree branches.

One of the reasons I volunteered was to give me a chance to get some landscape photos up at Fannyside Moor, and that’s where I headed once the chopped up tree and bush branches had been disposed of. It really was a lovely day. Blue skies and fluffy clouds with just enough of a gentle breeze to keep me cool. I did get a few landscapes and also some macro shots too, although I didn’t have a true macro lens with me.

After I came home I wasn’t feeling too good. Too much sun without a hat to provide some shade and probably not enough water as well. Scamp is always telling me I don’t drink enough water and she’s probably right. A rest outside, reading WITH a hat on let the worst of it disappear.

Scamp was making a fish curry for dinner using a Spice Tailor mix or one of its offshoots and while it wasn’t all that spicy, it had good flavour and the fish was delicious in it.

Last night we watched the first Mastermind of the new season and tonight we watched the first University Challenge. Both great standbys and so much better than Eastenders or River City. One is depressing and the other is just a packet of fairytales.

PoD turned out to be thistles entangled in barbed wire with a nice sky.

Tomorrow I’m intending taking the car in to Glasgow for its MOT, meeting Alex and hopefully bringing the car back home tomorrow night. That’s the outline plan anyway.

 

Birlin’ round Stirling – 13 August 2024

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Scamp wanted to go to Stirling today, but couldn’t remember why!

Spoke to Hazy in the morning and found out about Neil forgetting his passport for travelling to Cologne and having to get his dad to drive with it to the airport. Silly boy!

We didn’t get as far as Cologne, we drove through the rain to Stirling and managed to find a parking space in the Waitrose carpark. Others weren’t so lucky. We walked in to Stirling proper because Scamp thought I need a new shirt. M&S was a disappointment in the Mens department. Very few shirts, in fact, very few of anything. Slaters on the other hand is unassuming from the outside. When you go in you’re met with a steep stair taking you up to the shop. Suits, shirts, shoes, jackets and jumpers all for men! No women’s department. Refreshing!

We stopped for coffee and a bite to eat in Caffe Nero before we went back to Slaters. I did get a shirt I liked. I haven’t tried it for size yet, but even if it doesn’t fit, I know I can exchange it for a better fitting one in any of their shops.

Then it was back to Waitrose for The Messages and as usual we came home with a lot more than we intended, but really, we expected that, it’s what usually happens. The drive home was again through the rain showers and the gathering wind.  Then when we got to Cumbersheugh the rain dried up, but not for long.  Soon the rain was hitting the window again  However, I managed to time a walk round St Mo’s well for a change and had a walk, got some photos and was back home in the dry. It’s not often I manage that.

PoD was a drone fly taking off from a Knapweed flower. Just a ‘lucky’ capture.

That was about all the excitement we could manage today. Better weather is promised by the weather fairies for tomorrow. If it appears we may go out somewhere.

 

Cutting the connection – 12 August 2024

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Heavy rain and hail during the night, but thankfully no thunderstorms.

I was off to the doc’s for a diabetic blood check. That took me out of the house and got me moving. The nurse who took my bloods said she hadn’t heard any thunder either but she’d heard on the radio that the afternoon was to a lot brighter than the morning. She must have known something I didn’t because when I was walking in to the surgery the clouds were gathering, but when I left it was to blue skies and white clouds. Things were looking up.

After lunch we did our usual Wordle and Spelling Bee and then Scamp was checking our bank balance and found that BT were taking more than usual for our BT account. After a few checks and some simple arithmetic we discovered that we were paying for at least one service we didn’t need. Long story short, we phoned BT and were shuffled from one department to another with a ten minute wait each time. Eventually when one department warned us that it was a 40 minute wait I’d had enough we gave them the nominal 10 minutes and hung up. Enough was enough. I think we’ll be cutting ties with BT. We only use the landline for talking to two or three folk and those two or three use mobiles anyway. Also with the impending change to the new digital network, landlines will soon be dead anyway. Bye bye BT.

I eventually got chucked out of the house about an hour later so that Scamp would have peace and quiet to do the ironing. I walked over to St Mo’s and got a few shots of dragonflies basking in the summer sunshine – Yes, the nurse had been right. The sun did come out and stayed out. I walked down to the shops with the knowledge that I had at least one photo in the bag.

Came home with some fruit and veg because it was my turn to make the dinner, pasta with tomato sauce. It turned out looking a bit of a mess, too many ingredients, but I’d got some chorizo in M&S and I slowly fried it in a separate pan and added it to my portion of the dinner. Still not delicious, but very nice.

The PoD was a male Common Darter demonstrating a yoga pose. I think it was downward-facing dog.

Tomorrow we may be going shopping somewhere.