Category: A Walk

Walking with the crowds – 18 February 2023

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After sitting in the sun in the morning we walked down steps to the coastal walk and went left.

It was a bit dull today as the PoD shows. It seems that in the morning the sky is clear and the sun shines, but in the afternoon the clouds roll down from the mountains and it all gets a bit tricky. Later in the afternoon, as the sun is sinking, the clouds clear away again. That’s been the general run of weather so far.

We walked, with everyone else it seemed, as far as Puerto Colon which probably sounds good in Spanish, but has a different meaning in English! We were looking for somewhere to have a quiet lunch with no football on a giant tv. We both agreed on a pizza for lunch. Lots of restaurants and cafes with photos of pizzas, but were any of them capable of making a decent one? Eventually we found what looked like an authentic Italian restaurant called Amalfi which had a sea view but no TV, and we both had a pizza. Scamp had margarita and I had anchovy and olive. Scamp said her pizza had too much cheese, but mine was perfect with a good base and plenty of salty anchovies. We took our time walking back to relieve the pressure on Scamp’s knee and also just to enjoy the place.

We danced tonight to brilliant singer, Beatriz Lopez, who brought along her fan club. Where we’d been dancing with about three or four couples for the past few days, tonight there were about three times that, mostly women, but some men too. I could understand why, because she was charismatic and could follow the mood of the room and work with that. Unlike yesterday’s ‘entertainer’

 

 

Fifty years – 17 February 2023

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Fifty years ago we got married in a wee church in Shettleston in the east end of Glasgow. After the service we went back to Scamp’s mum and dad’s with a few friends and relatives for a Co-op purvey.

I hope you’re sitting comfortably because this is a long blog post!

Today we were blessed with sunshine. After we opened the cards we’d brought with us and had breakfast, we went for a walk. We walked down the slope to the coastal path and turned right. This would take us away from the commercial areas and out to pastures new, an area we hadn’t walked to before.

Scamp was feeling the after effects of yesterday’s longer than required stroll in the other direction and her knee was beginning to give her gyp, so we took it easy on today’s walk. Thankfully I was better dressed today with my baseball cap to protect my head and I’d remembered to put sun cream on before we left the hotel.

We walked for a fair distance out past the viewpoint for the blowhole where, if the tide is right, the incoming waves fill a hole in the rocks and blow up out of a fissure above. Quite impressive if you’re there at the right time. The tide wasn’t far enough in today, unfortunately. Further on we crossed a dried up river bed that’s now home to a host of balancing stone monuments, thousands of them. Then we found a viewpoint near the beach where the paraglider come in to land. That’s where today’s PoD came from. It’s a five frame panorama built in Lightroom to give a really wide view of the mountains and the hotels around here.

We decided to walk back and found a cafe that had some shade and a young bloke took about half an hour to make us a jug of sangria. He was working alone and was having a hard time keeping everybody refilled. The sangria was really good. Freshly made and full of fruit.

Then we met The Man from Salzburg. Scamp wanted to have lunch at a wee restaurant we’d eaten at the last time we were here, and was partly the reason for our walk today. There was queue and we waited patiently (impatiently for me) for a table to become free. Eventually one of the waiters pointed to a table and told us to go there. But there weren’t any empty tables where he pointed. Then the bloke who was smiling at us from a table waved us over. It seems that he was happy to have someone else to talk to while he finished his Barraquito (like a Cortado, but with added condensed milk and Liquor 43). He seemed a happy bloke and when we told him we were from Scotland he explained that he’d travelled all over Scotland on holiday. The only thing he didn’t seem to like was haggis after someone had told him what was in it! He said that he was from Saltzburg in Austria and was on holiday in Tenerife for four weeks. He scoffed at our one week and said “That’s not enough!” After a while he said he had to go and left us to our lunch which was a Chicken Milanese for Scamp and Thai Chicken Curry for me. Service was slow at this restaurant too, but we weren’t in a hurry. When we left we passed the table over to another man, German this time. It’s a strange way to run a cafe.

We were walking back towards the hotel when we noticed the paraglider were all coming off the mountain and we turned round and found a place to watch them land. Some of the landings were a bit clumsy and some were downright scary. Then there were the tandems where the poor person in front had to bicycle his or her legs to keep from falling when they landed on the rough sand of the beach. £100 for a flight!

Back at the hotel, it was ’School Dinners Food’. Not one of their best days. But we did have our photos taken by the one of the hotel resident photographers who would have taken more photos today if we’d let her, than we had taken at our wedding, fifty years ago! We chose a small selection from the ones she took.

We listened to the worst singer ever in the Piano Bar. He was playing guitar and ‘singing’. However, it was when he attempted to ‘sing’ What A Wonderful World while mimicking Louis Armstrong. That was creepily awful and, that’s when we left. I think he went to the Billy Connolly school of music where he lampooned country and western singers. The difference was this bloke was serious. We played Rummikub in a different area of the piano bar.

We’re sitting on the balcony of the room now drinking G&Ts and reviewing the day.

My Fitbit says 17,900 steps, 8.05 miles, 153 floors.

 

5.05am wake up call – 16 February 2023

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Today it was a quick cup of tea and then off.

The bags were packed yesterday which only left a morning drive to Glasgow Airport and the usual nail biting passage through security, although this time an organised approach and copious amounts of Tesco’s finest clear resealable plastic bags made light work of getting through unscathed.

The usual overpriced breakfast in Frankie and Benny’s and it was almost time to fly through the air in an armchair in an aluminium tube for four hours, listening to three tubes in front of us on their way to a 60th party bash. Thankfully they weren’t going to our hotel.

After we landed we had the mile long walk through the labyrinth to be inspected by the polis and have our passport stamped then the interminable wait for bags before we walked out into the sunshine and the heat. Clever Scamp had organised a personal transfer to the hotel rather than sitting in a bus that took another hour or so to drop off passengers at their hotels. Been there, did that, didn’t enjoy it one little bit. Paying the extra was worth every penny. Our driver came from Cuba and was happy to recommend the best Salsa club to go to in Tenerife. He seemed a genuinely nice bloke and reminded me of the constable in Death in Paradise. Must have been the accent.
Booked in at the hotel, but our room wouldn’t be ready for another half and hour, so we had lunch and our first Holiday Beer.

Once we got rid of the cases and got changed into tee shirt and shorts we went for a walk in the sunshine. We walked down to the front and turned left past all the cafes and restaurants. It looked fairly familiar, although bits of it had changed and there was a lot of new accommodation everywhere. We walked for miles and I foolishly hadn’t brought a hat. A lesson learned.

After dinner we went to see what entertainment was available. We danced an embarrassingly bad salsa. Don’t drink and dance – it’s not a good image. We quickly decided to stick to soft drinks for a while and sobered up enough to dance much better, later. The girl singer was good and there were quite a few people dancing.

What they call ‘local spirits’ in the hotel are free to all inclusive guests , but are just not worth drinking. We agreed we’d buy a bottle for the room tomorrow.

PoD was a shot of Adeje, looking back from Puerto Colon.

Fairly early bed, after a long day.

Busy, busy, busy – 15 February 2023

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Today was just BUSY. It wasn’t the brightest day we’ve had, but there was a lot to do in the house.

Scamp was out in the morning to get her meds and I was busy putting the list of clothes into the big bag and the list of tech in the slightly smaller bag. By lunchtime it was almost done and we settled down to hear what Nick the Chick had to say about SNP and Resignation.

I truly wasn’t expecting that. Neither was Fred, I think. Not one WhatsApp message, photo or dodgy video making fun of her. Nothing. It was that kind of shock. Probably months down the line there will come a revelation that will partly explain the machinations behind her decision to step down as First Minister. For all her faults, she saw the country through two years of Covid and I have to commend her for that. At times we thought she was being too cautious, but better safe than sorry. So, who’s going to take her place? There doesn’t seem to be a rush to pick up that poisoned chalice!

In the afternoon I took a walk in St Mo’s, partly to clear my head and partly to see if the big digger that had been parked there (not in my head) had done anything useful. Well, it had … sort of. Two ponds that act as overspill areas for the main pond had been partly cleared of weed and some of the verges of the main pond had been cleared. Other than that, not a lot. Was that it, or was that just the groundwork for something more major coming soon? Who knows with NLC.

I took a few photos, but nothing interesting, however, on the way home I got today’s PoD which is a trio of swings in the playpark. I think it was one of the photos Alex took at Culross that sparked my imagination. My shot wasn’t quite as good as his, but it was a reasonable PoD.

Finished this morning’s good work and I think everything is where it should be now. No time for a sketch today, but I’ll try to catch up in the coming week.

Early rise tomorrow.

 

Still recovering from yesterday – 12 February 2023

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It’s Sunday. It’s ok to lounge about on a Sunday.

Basically that’s what we did. We lounged about the living room. We watched Laura Kuenssberg savage another politician and when they’d dragged his bleeding body away, it was lunch time. We had two rolls left over from yesterday’s lunch, so that’s what we had. Scamp had an Omelette on a roll and I had Bacon ’n’ Egg on a roll. Neither of them looked very appetising, but that’s not the point. The point is to use up what’s in the fridge and that’s what we did. Actually mine was really good and I didn’t hear any complaints from Scamp.

In the afternoon Scamp walked down to the shops to get some bits and pieces for tonight’s dinner which was to be Fennel with Cod and Prawns. Another case of using up what’s in the fridge and freezer. Fennel from the fridge, Cod and Prawns from the freezer. Every little helps.

When she came back, I went out for a walk in St Mo’s. It was lighter than I thought outside and the reason was the clouds ,that seem always to be there these days, were just that little bit higher. High pressure is in charge according to the weather fairies. Buds were bursting in the trees and I did photograph some, but it was a splash of bright yellow lichen on a park bench that got Pod. In case you’re interested, it was a Xanthoria parietina. The strange thing about it was that the park bench was made entirely from recycled plastic. I wonder where the lichen gets its nutrients from. I know that some lichen have been known to digest plastic, but not this common and garden variety. Unless it’s learning! Thoughts of “The Trouble With Lichen (John Wyndham) spring to mind. Anyway, that was a bright splash of colour that got PoD.

Spoke to Jamie later had heard that Simonne is halfway on her trip to Japan. Stopover in Kuwait and onward and eastward tomorrow. We talked a while about meet-ups in the spring. Where and when are not agreed yet and will need all three parts of the family to agree on dates and place. I meant to tell you Jamie that I’ve signed myself up to Audible today. Two free books for the first month. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Today’s prompt was The Graduate. The Graduate is one of the films I have seen a few times. I liked the music and I liked his sports car. I wasn’t enthralled by the story, but everyone said you had to go and watch it because of ‘the scenes’. I preferred to watch ‘the scenes’ of Dustin Hoffman driving that red Alfa Spider across the bridge and thinking “one day, maybe …”

Tomorrow we’re hoping to go to see Andrew in Falkirk, but we’ll be going in a blue car.

 

Dancin’ workout – 11 February 2023

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Today was a dancin’ day and no mistake. No respite either!

The warmup today was a the Cameron Quickstep. That’s almost half a circuit of the floor, even before the teachers begin to make additions. Apparently it’s really a sequence dance! I can’t see many Tea Dancers doing this one without a defibrillator nearby. We tried it slow – a walk through and it was achievable. Then the teachers turned the music on and it was chaos. What comes next?? Is it the Zig Zag or is it the Chair? Nobody seemed to know or care. It was that old joke, all the moves were there, just not in the right order. Eventually, and I mean eventually we worked out where we were, what comes next and where we were meant to be. After half an hour we were exhausted, well, at least I was. I had to have a wee sit down to get my breathing back to normal.

We left the quickstep behind and did a wee relaxing Bossa Nova to cool us down before we entered the next 30min class on Foxtrot. I thought we had this in the bag, but it was in the wrong bag, not the one I’d brought. After some corrections from Jane and then Stewart, we began to find the dance we’d practised for a couple of turns round the living room. The living room Foxtrot bore some resemblance to the Brookfield (big hall) version, but only an expert could see it. Again, eventually, we managed to put all the pieces together and it began to sort of flow.

Another break and it was time for the third half hour which would be Tango. We can do a fairly representative tango, but then the teachers decided to add in another part that was new to us. It wasn’t difficult, in fact it was similar to another part of the routine and that’s what made it difficult. It was similar, but not the same, possibly too similar. In time we’ll either work it in properly or erase it from our memory – probably the latter.

Just to keep our heart rate up it was a couple of Midnight Jives to finish. I’m not sure whether that was a dance class or a workout. It was good and we learned a lot, but I was exhausted by the time we were walking out into the drizzly rain.

Drove home again via the M8/M74 route and stopped for rolls and a Danish pastry at the shops on the way home. I was so knackered, I went for a 45min snooze in the afternoon. By then it was dinner time and we’d agreed on a fish supper each for dinner. I walked to Condorrat and was back in about 15 mins. Record time. On the way there in the gathering gloom I got today’s PoD which was taken in the Adventure Playground in the park on the path to Condorrat. Lurking around in a kids playpark after dark! That sounds dodgy, but I love these rough cut balancing toys they look so graphic.

Today’s prompt was The Big Blue. Not only had I not seen this film, I’d never even heard of it. The only Big Blue I was aware of was IBM! However, I went with the flow (no pun intended) and watched the previews on YouTube. Still it meant very little to me.
The deepest I’ve dived, personally, was 2m in the swimming pool at Butlins, or was it Pontins? I can’t remember. But I do remember it didn’t give me the urge to go any deeper. However, I do remember you needed flippers, and a mask better than the ones you got in Woolworths, so that’s what I’ve sketched and painted today. I like the mask. It’s quite manic looking. Like a Japanese Daruma with both eyes painted in!

Tomorrow we may be resting our weary limbs. We might walk to the shops if we can summon the energy!

Good Dancin’ – 9 February 2023

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We drove to Glenburn today to get some dancin’ done.

We were driving in bright sunshine today. I could have been photographing things instead of driving through roadworks to get to two hours of dancing, but hopefully there would be sunshine when we got home, providing we got back before sunset!

We were a bit late getting to the hall, but we weren’t the only ones. Actually we danced well today. Quickstep was our star turn. We managed to finish one full set and continue on to the next which is a bit step forward for me. Scamp was guiding, of course, gently reminding me what was coming next and it helped build the picture of the routine in my head. That may sound strange, probably it is, but it’s the way my brain works. We’d practised the Waltz in the morning. Just a short dance round the living room, but very useful for keeping the steps alive for me.

As usual we left the hall early in the hopes that we’d be able to avoid the crowds of school kids and also the inevitable roadworks, but for once there were no gangs of school weans and even more surprising, we seemed to avoid the roadworks. We went with the M77/M74 route and it worked a treat. Yes!, we did get back before sunset and Yes!, there was still sunshine. Not a lot, I grant you, but enough photons were flying about to allow me to capture them on whatever magic flypaper is in the back of the A6000. Today’s PoD was a couple of catkins hanging from a tree in St Mo’s.

Today’s prompt was White Nights. I watched a bit of the film, couldn’t make head nor tail of any of it, so did a bit of alphabetical “jiggery pokery”. That’s a technical term that would take too long to explain.
Basically, I took the trailing ‘s’ from the title, then found an almost brand new ‘K’ in my pocket, so I added it to the start. “Fair exchange is no robbery”, they say. So here I present to you my interpretation of White Knight. Simples!

Tomorrow Scamp is intending to go to her FitSteps class and I’m hoping put some ‘scintillating stitches’ in my jeans to prevent a little tear becoming a big rip!

Ice Cold with Alex – 8 February 2023

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Alex and I were meeting up to drive to The Kelpies today

It was a bit cold when I left the house to pick up Alex from the train station. By the time we got to Helix Park where the Kelpies live, it was ‘Baltic’. The wind was getting up and the temperature was going down. To start with it was fine, we even got in free because the car park is unsupervised between September and March, or thereabouts. We took some photos of the unicorn at the entrance to the car park. It’s made from woven strips of willow, we think on an armature of either copper tubes or maybe just cleverly jointed willow. I imagine it looked good through Alex’s new glass, a 70-350mm APSC lens. It wouldn’t work on my Full Frame camera or I’d have taken some shots. It’s also too expensive and too niche for me.

The main subject of the day was to be the kelpies themselves, so we walked down the long avenue to have a look at them. Alex wanted to photograph them from a hill above the car park and I wanted much the same viewpoint, but looking through some ornamental grass, rather than over it. Once I’d taken them I wasn’t impressed with the results. We walked on the meet the beasts.

I’ve been to the kelpies many times now because they are one of Scamp’s favourite sculptures and mine too, I must admit, but I wanted to try some different views. With that in mind, while Alex was photographing the 1/10th scale maquettes outside the cafe, I wandered along beside the canal under the motorway flyover and got some different perspectives on the monster horses. One I haven’t worked on yet on the computer was taken with Baron the ‘head up’ Kelpie rearing over the motorway. Different because you don’t see his body, just from the neck up.

I took a few more, but after we met up again, we went for coffee and a sandwich. The heat when we entered the cafe was a delight. You don’t realise how cold you are until you come in to the warm. Fed and watered, we left to face that wind that seemed to be getting stronger. I took a few shots of the maquettes with the wee 1/10th scale man beside them, helping to give a sense of scale. After a fair bit of work, that became PoD. A few photos later we agreed to call it a day. Windchill was getting to my face and fingers and to Alex to I imaging because he was the one who suggested we head for home.

A total of 93 photos taken with 8 of those rejected. Alex had taken 99. We had both taken a lot of ‘doublers’, but you’ve got to do that sometimes to cover all bases.

I dropped him back at the station and then realised when I got home that his woolly bonnet was in the foot well of the car. A good day, even if it was very cold.

Today’s prompt was ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’. I started out intending to sketch the moon reflecting on a river, because Moon River was the most famous song in the film, but a doodle of Audrey Hepburn quickly took shape instead. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow, but not the Moon River flow in this case!

Tomorrow we’re hoping to go the a tea dance, but first I think we might need some practise time.

A cancellation – 7 February 2023

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The plans had changed.

Yesterday Isobel phoned to ask us both to come to the house. This morning she phoned to cancel because she was suffering from a bad cold. We know what that’s like, having suffered from it ourselves lately and postponing was the right thing to do.

Instead of visiting Isobel, we we went to Tesco. Scamp had accrued quite a few vouchers and I had a couple from our Covid surveys. I checked them this morning just to see that they were still valid and was relieved to find that they were. Our trolley was fairly full when we reached the checkout, with about half going to the Foodbank and half coming home with us. A fair split, we thought.

Lunch for Scamp was sourdough bread with cheese. Mine was sliced rolled lamb from Sunday followed by sourdough toast. I don’t really like sourdough bread in its raw state, but toasted it’s a whole new ball game. Delicious and light.

In the afternoon Scamp was doing ironing and I was going out to walk in the little bit of sunshine that had appeared. It actually stayed for almost an hour and PoD was a view across the wee pond with a threatening black sky and the dark waters of the pond sandwiching a glowing golden strip where the sun lit up the dead grass of the park. I liked it right away.

Dinner tonight was Cauliflower with Cheese Sauce served with Potato Wedges. I added the last of my lamb to it after frying it off in the pan. I think I used up most of the good stuff in that piece of meat. I’ll be on the lookout for more from the same source the next time we’re in Waitrose.

After dinner Scamp suggested a dance practise.  It’s amazing how much you forget in a fortnight.  Everything had gone from my head.  Baby Waltz, Quickstep and Foxtrot.  I could remember all the start moves, but after that was a blur.  Thankfully Scamp knew what went where and when and we did eventually manage to put a shortened version of the routine together.  Whether it will still be there tomorrow remains to be seen!

Today’s prompt was The Pink Panther. Some prompts require a lot of thinking and planning then you get a fairly easy one. This was an easy one. I couldn’t say I’d never seen this film, or the cartoon series. The films are classics and the cartoons are too. I chose the easiest route possible and went for the pink cartoon animal.

Tomorrow Alex and I are hoping to go to the Kelpies. He’s coming to Cumbersheugh on the train and I’m picking him up at the station, then we’ll drive to Grangemouth where the Kelpies live, but I’ve another idea that might just work out well to test his new long lens. It depends on the weather.

So, tomorrow Scamp is intending to meet the rest of the witches for lunch and Alex and I intend to go somewhere to take photos!

Another Scottish Day – 5 February 2023

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It was a bright start to the day, but then it faltered.

After lunch Scamp walked down to the shops to get some stuff for dinner. While she was out I started on my dinner which was to be Rolled Breast of Lamb. Actually it was already rolled. All I needed to do was preheat the oven to Gas 4 and sear the rolled lamb in a pot, then put the lamb into a pre-warmed roasting tin and deglaze the pot with some wine. Next I’d to pour the sticky wine over the lamb, wrap it in foil and bung it in to the oven for four hours. I was just finishing when Scamp arrived back.

She wanted to start cleaning out the greenhouse and after she’d laid the contents of our tiny wee plastic greenhouse, I was called upon to choose what I wanted to keep, which wasn’t much. With that done, I left her to it while I walked aimlessly around St Mo’s for an hour. There wasn’t much to photograph, especially as the morning sun had now long disappeared and was getting ready for bed if the amber light on the horizon was anything to go by. I did get a couple of photos of some gorse flowers which I’d say were flowering far too early, but they don’t listen to me, they just do as they like. One of them became PoD.

Today’s prompt was “National Velvet”, an ancient ‘horsy’ film with Elizabeth Taylor. I made no attempt to sketch Elizabeth Taylor. Instead I drew one of the ladies I saw at the Christmas Fair last December in Glasgow, enjoying a ride on the carousel horses, which don’t look anything like The Piebald in the film. Also, the woman I saw on the horse looked nothing like the person illustrated here. I hope that clarifies everything. I liked the painting of the horse, but the proportions were all wrong. Carol commented that the woman looked like Mickey Rooney. I said it was probably the lady’s five o’ clock shadow that gave that impression!

The roast lamb was, even if I say so myself, absolutely beautiful. The crunchy bits, especially so. I’ll look for that in Waitrose the next time we’re there. Scamp’s lightly smoked salmon could have been lighter still, she said. Foodies! What can you do with them?

Spoke to Jamie later and heard more of the details of Simonne’s trip to Kobe in Japan. Long way for a two day conference, but that’s the way the world turns these days.

I finished Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir today, a Christmas prezzy from Neil and Hazy.  A great story, well told. Ok, maybe a bit heavy on padding in places but really thought provoking and well researched. At 465pages it was a bit of a mammoth tome for me, but really worth reading.

Tomorrow I was hoping to get out with Alex to take some photos and to see his new Sony 70-350mm f4.5-6.3 G OSS lens, but I’ve heard nothing from him, so maybe not. In that event, Scamp wants a trip to a garden centre, probably Torwood to get some seeds and some fresh seed compost.