Category: A Walk

Nae Dancin’ – 4 February 2023

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It wasn’t us who called off today it was the teachers.

We were up, showered, dressed and ready to go when a WhatsApp message alerted us that the already depleted class had suffered another call off and that the teachers had decided the class wouldn’t go ahead today. A bit of a disappointment for me but a much greater one for Scamp. So we changed back into ordinary clothes from our spandex and lycra ’Strictly Suits’ and discussed what to do with the day.

Eventually we made the decision to go to Stirling for lunch. That meant Indian Cottage. For us it’s the only place to go for food in Stirling. We’d intended parking in the ‘council’ car park, but it’s now run from an app and I didn’t have the app. Also I’d heard bad things about ‘RingGo’ so we parked at Waitrose because we’d be shopping there later.

Indian Cottage was busy but there wasn’t a queue. We recognised most of the staff from the last time we’d been there. Later Scamp reminded me that we’d been less than complimentary about the food the last time we’d visited. This time it was all good. Good food, good servers and the naan bread we had was ‘well done’ as requested. Hopefully we’ll be back again soon.

We took a walk around the Thistle Centre. I was looking for a book, any book that interested me as I’m still eking out my last few pages of Project Hail Mary. Scamp was looking for tops and skirts in M&S. Both of us met again later empty-handed. However Scamp did manage to find something that suited her as we walked back to the car. I’m not saying what, but all will be revealed later in the month DV.

We did go to Waitrose to pay for our parking by buying some lamb for me and a couple of bottles of wine for Scamp, well, for both of us really. It’s just that she’s a much better chooser of wine than me. With that done we donated our parking space to a worthy driver who was tired of waiting and waiting for a space, and drove home.

I’d taken a couple of shots of a building in Stirling that I’ve meant to photograph for ages. When I go it home and added a better sky than nature provided today, it looked good and became PoD.

Today’s prompt was ‘A Good Year’. Just for fun, I found it on Prime Videos and we watched it tonight. I’d already planned to use a picture of a wine bottle for the prompt because the story is based in a vineyard, but then I saw the car Russell Crowe drives and knew it was a better subject for today. So a yellow Smart Car made the sketch of the day.

Tomorrow I must decide whether I’m having a lamb shoulder shank or a lamb rolled shoulder, or maybe neither and they’ll go in the freezer and Scamp will come up with something different. I’ll let you know!

 

Dull Day – 2 February 2023

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Phone call this morning to say that Andrew wasn’t well. Could we reschedule?

I think we were both looking forward to our discussion with Andrew today. We were also looking forward to seeing what shirt he was sporting and what jokes he’d slip into conversation. However he wasn’t well and there was no point in preventing him going home to his bed with a couple of paracetamol. We did reschedule.

That left a completely different day for us to deal with. In the end, the weather was the deciding factor. It was decidedly ‘not nice’. It was raining and the wind was blowing a hoolie, so we ended up staying at home. We did complete Wordle and today’s Spelling Bee. I checked yesterday’s Spelling Bee and it was ITEMIZING. Another win for american English.

After lunch I went for a walk in St Mo’s and got the PoD which is a collection of at least two different lichens and mosses. It was the only photo I took today that really deserved the name ‘photo’. I walked back via the shops and brought back a nice bottle of wine that we had with our dinner.

Dinner tonight was an experiment. It was to be veggie chilli, but it would be the first one to be made in the magic pot. I won’t say it was a great success, but it wasn’t a complete failure and it did prove that you can cook brown lentils in under 5 minutes, instead of 20. Impressive. We were missing a couple of ingredients, so that probably contributed to the lack of flavour and I’m hoping to put that right tomorrow.

Prompt for today was ‘You’ve Got Mail’. I’ve definitely not seen that film, but I produced a pencil and pen sketch that covered the idea of mail, which was good enough for me.

Tomorrow we’re hoping for a bit less wind and rain and a chance to go out for a walk.

A new month, a new challenge, an old friend – 1 February 2023

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Today is the first day of February. White Rabbits (x3), but the first of February also brings the EDIF (Every Day in February) challenge. Let the torture begin.

This month’s prompts are all films. Not such a good topic for me, but that’s what a challenge is all about. Today’s prompt is The Red Shoes. Now I have actually watched this film, or so I’m told by Scamp, so no excuses, I just drew a pair of ballet shoes. But before we get to that, here’s how the day started:

For once, both Scamp and I were bamboozled by today’s Spelling Bee. Wordle was fine and we got the hidden word, but Spelling Bee with its “american” dictionary was a nightmare. Eventually we gave up. If you want to try, here are the letters for today:

N I E Z M T G

The challenge is to rearrange them into a word with at least 7 letters. I put them into an anagram solver and it couldn’t do it. Can you?

I was picking Val up to take him for coffee and a blether today. He’s not been too steady on his feet recently, so we tried out the new Costa which has a drive through. We got parked right next to the front door but although there is a disabled parking and a paved path to the shop entrance, the only lowered pavement for wheelchairs and such can only be accessed from the road! The heavy door couldn’t be opened by someone in a wheelchair. This is a new build. Only about six months old. Don’t they think about disabled access?

Anyway, we had our coffee and a cake each and then it was the old Val I was talking to. We started talking tech! Me talking about running my iMac from a collection of external SSDs and Val talking about having a Raspberry Pi that works better and faster than his Mac Book Air. Two hours flew by. The only down side was the half gallon of full fat milk they put into each of our Flat Whites. Slight exaggeration there, but not much. I drove him home and we agreed to do it again in a month’s time.

The sun was still shining when I dropped him off at his door and I thought I could grab a few shots from up on Fannyside. Of all the photos I took, my favourite was an old fence post with a green mound of moss and its fruiting bodies standing proud against the sky. That was easily the PoD!

Dinner tonight was Fish ’n’ Chips, home made. Lovely bit of fish, although Scamp thought it was slightly overdone. I disagreed.

Back home and just after dinner I got a sketch done of a pair of ballet shoes. Splashed on some red paint, added some ink and that’s the first one done. The challenge has begun.

Tomorrow’s prompt is “You’ve Got Mail” I’ll have to bend the rules a bit to get that one done. Also tomorrow we’ve an appointment with Andrew in Falkirk. We’ll be interested to hear what he has to say.

Busy, busy, busy – 31 January 2023

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A lazy start, but that didn’t last.

After that lazy start and another chapter read in my book, we drove up to Tesco. Scamp wanted a gift bag and a card for a new baby in June’s extended family, no, not Shona, nor the other fella (heaven forbid). It was Ian’s daughter who had a 9lb 9oz baby boy at the weekend (do your own conversion you metric people!). We had bought a couple of baby things yesterday in Glasgow and apparently you then have to buy a gift bag and, of course you need a card. I gave the blue car a tank full of petrol, but thankfully I didn’t need to gift wrap it, or send it a card. I just filled the tank until it was full and it said “Thank you very much, I was thirsty.” We drove home because I needed a cup of coffee.

Next jaunt was to Calders garden centre, although it seems that at present they don’t have a garden as part of it is going to be a new restaurant and tea room. Scamp has always said that’s where the money is made these days. There were six of us crammed into a table that would comfortably have held four, but no more. Food was poor. Scamp’s soup had no taste of anything, she said and my baked potato was tepid and also had no taste or texture. The tea was ok! We were on a timer too, because Scamp had an appointment with the nurse at 2.30, so we had to leave earlier than we’d have liked. Bumped into Isobel who was having tea with her granddaughter and told her I was a “Cheeky So and So!” Who? Me? You must be thinking about someone else, Isobel!

Drove through pouring rain to get to the doc’s and waited while Scamp got an all clear for her chest infection. Next we were off to Tesco where we attempted to buy half the shop. Drove home and I just had enough time to grab a pair of boots and have a short walk in St Mo’s. Just one circuit of the pond and a short walk through the woods. It was in the woods that today’s PoD came from. Although I was focused on the larch pine cones, it was the sunset that held all the interest and the colour. Processed in three different apps. Lightroom, Photoshop, On1 and back into Lightroom. It was worth it, though, in my opinion.

Dinner tonight was Scrambled Egg on a slice of bread for Scamp and Mince with an egg poached in it, also served on a slice of buttered bread for me. A Larky favourite.

Tomorrow I’m intending to pick up Val and take him for coffee in Costa. Looking forward to some good technological conversation. Hopefully it will take his mind off his bad leg.

Happy Anniversary to us – 30 January 2023

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Not the legal anniversary, that’s still to come, all being well. This is the one that matters to us.

We were getting the bus in to Glasgow today. I like to have my earbuds with me when we go on the bus. It helps to pass the time and Scamp says she doesn’t mind, but I couldn’t find the little white pill case that holds the earbuds anywhere. I only spent about ten minutes searching for the case, but eventually we had to leave to walk to Condorrat to catch the bus.

Walked through JL and out into Buchanan Street and from there to coffee in Nero in St Enoch’s. Then we got the subway to Kelvinbridge and walked to La Lanterna in the West End. The place wasn’t busy to start with, then about half a dozen girls rolled in and the silence was shattered. Scamp had arancini as a starter and veg lasagne. I had bruschetta as a starter and meat lasagne. I wouldn’t say it was the best lunch I’ve ever had. The bruschetta was a slice of French bread, no garlic and cold. Basically it was a roll ’n’ chopped tomatoes. Scamp was happy with her arancini but wasn’t so complimentary about the lasagne, while mine was fine. Maybe not their finest offering and a relatively uninspired menu overall.

We walked up Great Western Road and had a drink in Oran Mor, then got the subway back to Buchanan Street. Scamp got some Rituals shower foam then we caught the bus home.

I’d taken some photos in Glasgow with the A6000 and my favourite was a grab shot taken through a window in Cafe Nero. That became PoD.

Remember that white pill case with the earbuds. It turned up, sitting on the duvet in our bedroom. I was sure I’d looked there and it wasn’t to be seen. The fairies must have brought it!

Tomorrow we have a table booked for lunch with Crawford & Nancy and June & Ian. I’ve been warned not to have the coffee as it makes Costa coffee look great. I’ll heed the warning.

A dull day – 29 January 2023

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I drove for about three minutes today. I must have driven about 200m. That’s as far as I wanted to go.

Last night I’d parked at the top of the road, because we didn’t get back from dancing until after 11pm. That meant almost all the parking spaces were gone. This morning a space appeared, so I walked up the road and drove the car down to a space outside the house. I locked it and went home. That was the sum total of my walks today. It was such a dull day I didn’t want to go anywhere. I knew the light would be poor wherever I went on the central belt. Today’s PoD was going to be another tabletop.

Lunch was the usual Sunday fry-up and dinner was, as predicted, yesterday’s curry reheated with some yoghurt added to thicken up the sauce and some Garam Masala for flavour and a pinch of hot chilli powder to give it a little kick. Still it needed something and we were both at a loss as to what that was. It filled a wee space. That’s about as good as it got.

Spoke to Jamie later in the day and heard about their plumbing problems. Glad to hear you got them fixed.

PoD was a tabletop. It’s the desiccated flowers from a Christmas flowering cactus. Pretty little things in their own right.

That’ about it for the day. Tomorrow we’re hoping to go out for lunch somewhere. More later, hopefully.

Dancin’ in the Evenin’ – 28 January 2023

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That was the focus of the day really. The light that would brighten our day. Would we go to the dancin’ in the Evenin’ or not?

It was a bright start to the day with sunshine streaming in the front window and it was when it lit up the wee bowl of roses that sat on the coffee table that I grabbed my camera and took the first photos of the day. I discovered that if I angled the shot in the right way I could frame the flowers with the black screen of the TV. In fact, if I chose to use the long lens of the 105mm macro, I could make the TV screen appear bigger and therefore give a bit more of a background than if I used any of my other lenses. Too much information? Probably. Anyway, it worked and I’d a shot or fifteen in the bag.

Scamp had already decided yesterday not to go to today’s dance class on the grounds that she might still pass on her coughs and sneezes and as it takes two to tango or quickstep or even waltz, that meant I didn’t go either. I didn’t mind, because I’m a lazy so and so and another hour in bed suited me fine.

After she took her final meds for the week, she began to feel better and the coughing reduced in intensity and volume. It looked as if we might go to the ball tonight after all. We didn’t have any cans of juice or lemonade to take to the Saturday Social and it’s not a tea dance, so we walked down to the shops to get some. On the way back I took a detour through St Mo’s and the best I got was a couple of shots of golden light on the trees across the pond. It didn’t matter, because I was sure one of the shots of the roses would fill the bill for PoD.

It turned out I was right. With a little Photoshop jiggery pokery I had a decent shot of roses bathed in sunlight, contrasted against a black background. The shots of the trees across the pond just looked dull and uninteresting by comparison.

Dinner was Easy Chicken Curry from a recipe I’d read about in last year’s blog post where I’d written about the previous year’s blog post, (January 2021) and it was back in 2021 I found the recipe and instructions. It was messy to make up with half a dozen spices mixed by hand into the chicken, but after that and with yellow fingers from the turmeric I fried the chicken and added tomatoes. Basically that was the curry made.

After dinner we dressed for the social and drove to an already busy Brookfield where we got seated with Barry & Cath and Niahmat & Audrey. No holds barred in that crowd, everyone got a slagging for one reason or another. Also Niahmat and Scamp shared notes (no pun intended) on singing with the SNO chorus.

We danced almost every dance we knew, but I drew the line at quickstep. I really didn’t think Scamp was fit for that kind of dancing. We did one of every dance, remembering the nurse’s message not to overdo things. We left just before the end because we were both tired out.

How nice it was to travel over the Kingston Bridge at a gentle 40mph when we’re usually stuck to a stop/start 4 or 5mph on a good day.

Tomorrow we’ll do a self assessment to see how much energy we expended doing the most intensive exercise we’ve had all week. No plans for going anywhere.

What a difference a week makes – 27 January 2023

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A week ago Alex and I stood on the pier at Culross in ‘the golden hour’ and shot off over 100 frames between us. Today I took about 20.

Last week the sun during that hour was glorious, as were the colours it produced. Today there were light patches in the clouds, but no actual sunlight and no shadows either. What a difference a week makes.

Scamp suggested a drive to Torwood Garden Centre to buy some seeds this morning. I added that after we visited Torwood, we should continue on to Culross, sorry Hazy. (Hazy absolutely hates Culross which we now call “The ‘C’ Place”) Alex and I had lunch in a wee cafe there last week and it’s not far from Torwood. After a lot of discussion we settled on lunch at Culross and leaving Torwood for another day. Scamp was adamant that would give us both some time to do what we wanted. Me to take photos and her to read in the car with a view to look at occasionally. That worked for both of us.

I walked to the end of the pier, just like last week, but the view, without the blue sky and the sun wasn’t quite what I’d hoped for. I took a few photos and then we went for lunch. Scamp had Mac ’n’ Cheese and I had Stovies. Much more like my mum’s stovies than anything I’ve tasted. Chopped up potatoes, onions and sausages with a heavy gravy, that’s typical stovies. I thoroughly enjoyed them while Scamp said the Mac ’n’ Cheese was quite good. Damned by faint praise I think. Fed, watered and photos taken, we made our way home. Into the deeper gloom of Cumbersheugh.

Scamp’s cough is definitely becoming less noticeable and that’s a good thing, but she didn’t want to go to dance class tomorrow just to be sure she wasn’t going to pass it on to anyone else. She had also cancelled today’s FitSteps class for the same reason. We’re still not sure if we’ll go to tomorrow evening’s Ballroom Social. I leave it up to her to decide.

So, the visit to “The ‘C’ Place” was the highlight of the day. The photos weren’t brilliant, but I didn’t find a PoD which is the view from the end of the old pier looking over the Forth estuary to Edinburgh.

Tomorrow we may go out again in the afternoon. It depend on the weather.

 

The Fort and The Luggie – 26 January 2023

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We were off to The Fort today, again in brilliant sunshine.

Scamp wanted to return some things and I wanted to spend some book tokens. We did think we’d manage lunch too. That didn’t happen, but two out of three ain’t bad. I did get my book and it’s a physical book, not a Kindle or an audio book. I blame Hazy for that after she gave me an over 470 page book for Christmas. That’s given me back the incentive to start reading ‘paper’ books. Not so good for reading in bed, in the dark, but easier to pass on to someone else.

Scamp got her money back from pre-Christmas purchases then charged round the big new Boots trying to find nail varnish remover. To be honest, it’s the worst laid out shop I’ve ever been to. Almost no signage to help the unwary and ultra safety conscious. Any shop where you have to produce proof of age to buy a foil for an electric razor is taking things too far.

We bought some food, some flowers and NO DRINK in M&S, not that we often buy drink there. No, we get most of it from Tesco where it’s cheaper. As it happened, neither of us were bothered with going for lunch and we just drove home … after we found the car in the enormous Fort car park.

After lunch I went for a walk, not in St Mo’s today, but along the Luggie Water. It’s ages since I’ve walked the Luggie and I really quite enjoyed the walk. PoD is a shot, taken with the A6000 of the falls at the east end of the path. Taken with an ultra-wide angle lens, from almost at the water level with the camera on the Gorilla Pod and with a slow shutter speed to ensure I got some movement in the water. I was concentrating on the technicals of the shot and hadn’t noticed, until I looked at the shot on the computer that it looks like there’s a giant Platypus Duck coming out of the waterfall!

Mushroom Risotto for dinner. Hand made in a pot on the stove this time using a cherrywood paddle. Sometime it’s best to take the technology out of food preparation. It was lovely, by the way.

Scamp seems to have lost most of the squeaks and whistles that the cough was helping to produce. Also, although she’s still coughing, she feels that the phlegm is moving out of her system.

Tonight looks cold again (-2ºc) but tomorrow the clouds and rain are rolling in, so maybe not a good day for a walk. Glad we got out today.

A late start and a lovely day – 25 January 2023

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I must have been tired, because it was well past 9am when I woke today.

Scamp was already awake and reading her Kindle. She too must have had a good night’s sleep. It’s good to see her beginning to improve.

I though we might go for a walk today because it was a bright winter’s day. Scamp said we needed some shopping, so I suggested we drive to Lidl in Kilsyth to get the shopping then go for a walk along the canal. Just a short walk along the canal cross over the Plantation and back along the old mineral line. That would cover both options. So that’s what we did, kind of!

We drove to Lidl and got the messages as usual and also as usual we bought more than was absolutely necessary. We even found they had Neapolitan ice cream wafers! Sharp eyed Scamp spotted them in a freezer. When we came out Scamp asked if we could go to Colzium instead of the canal. The suited me too, so we drove in to the parking area that has more craters than the moon (I’ve never been to the moon, but I’ve seen pictures and Colzium wins on crater count). Parking was easy, it was just the driving that was dangerous!

We walked a slightly shortened version of our usual exhausting climb along the banks of the Colzium Burn and Scamp managed it easily. I got lots of photos, from little pockets of snowdrops to rushing waterfalls the burn was tumbling through. PoD was a 15 frame panorama that was eventually cropped down to a 12 frame. I felt the sky was a bit bland, although it was a beautiful blue, so I slipped in another one, one of my own from a few months ago. It seemed to suit the picture. It’s a view across the farmland of the Colzium Estate.

Back home it was Haggis, Neeps and Tatties, because it was Burns Night tonight and Haggis, mashed Turnip (Neeps) and mashed Potatoes (Tatties) is traditional. It was absolutely lovely and as Scamp herself remarked perfectly portioned. Not too much of any of the constituent parts.

I forgot to mention that my new driving license dropped through the letterbox this morning. Once you reach 70 you have to update your driving license every three years. My update is now almost complete. I still have to post off my previous license which I have cut in half as required by the DVLA. Scamp got her first one a week ago.

Tomorrow we may be driving to the Fort to visit M&S and Waterstones. I’ll let you guess who goes where!