Category: A Walk

Out for a spin – 8 July 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Just a run round old haunts.

We spoke to Hazel on a bright sunny morning. We had a good blether about people we knew and books we’d been reading. Caught up with what the foxes were doing, which was appropriate, because foxes were playing a big part in my book today.

Once we were all up to date with each other, Scamp and I struggled and complained about Wordle and all its hangers on. We seem to do nothing but moan about the links the setters find for the morning puzzles, but we still do them religiously, every day.

We both agreed that the weather was too good to waste sitting in the house and we went for a drive over to Gouldings Garden Centre in Rosebank partly to have a spot of lunch and partly so Scamp could ogle the plants on display. Scamp had Mac ’n’ Cheese for lunch and I had what was advertised as Chilli con Carne. I’m not so sure there was a great deal of Carne in the Chilli. There did seem to be a little bit of sugar in it though, which was strange. Scamp said her Mac ’n’ Cheese was a bit sweet too. Hmm were Gouldings kitchen trying to mask something in their lunch menu? Maybe.
When we were leaving with a handful of plants each, I bumped into an ex-teacher, with his wife. It’s been ages since I’ve met him, but he hasn’t changed … thankfully.

We drove along Clydeside for a while and then turned off, heading for Kirkmuirhill and found ourselves behind a slow moving tractor on what was in effect a single lane road. It was a slow crawl through Auchinheath to Kirkmuirhill where eventually the tractor turned off and we had the road to ourselves. Eventually reaching Lidl in Larkhall where we got a flowerpot for one of the new plants and a bottle of Hortus gin for me. I think Scamp enjoyed the run in the country and so did I. We’ve now gathered a few more plants for filling up borders and replacing older ones.

I took a camera and a 50mm f2.8 macro lens out for a walk when we got back. Got a couple of decent shots among the many I took. PoD went to a Cucumber Spider wrapping up its prey. The spider is easily recognised. It’s bright green with a red spot on its bum.

Tomorrow I should book my annual bloodletting at the doc’s, since they asked so nicely, and there may be plants that need a new home.

 

Sunshine! – 7 July 2025

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At last we had a day of sunshine with no rain. Hopefully it will stay around for a few days before we start begging for rain again.

Fred phoned me this morning just as Scamp and I were heading out to get the messages and Scamp insisted I take the call. We had a long blether about friends and the stupids who run the health centre. Thankfully Fred didn’t get a chance to sidle into his favourite subject, Politics. Just a blether.

When Scamp returned and I brought in the bags from the car and we had lunch. After that, Scamp started planning changes to the back and front garden. Some plants aren’t doing very well and need to be moved to cooler positions, while others that need more sun are being sent to the front garden. It’s a constant cycle in a garden.

Just exactly on time, a box arrived from Parcel Force. Most unlike them to be on time. Inside was a new battery for the small Dyson cleaner. They really know how to make things easy for you. I took out three screws, removed the old battery and replaced it with the new one. Done and dusted in less than five minutes. Why can’t everything be as easy as that?

Later in the afternoon I went for a walk in St Mo’s, mainly to test out an old lens I’ve had for years and hardly used. It’s a 16-35mm f4 Sony and although it produces decent images, I don’t use it enough, so it needs, like the plants in the garden, to be moved somewhere else. I’m not sure yet if it’s going to go, but it’s a possibility.

It was quite warm, but windy today which meant it was difficult to get the picture of the day to sit still long enough for me to get the photo I wanted. Eventually after about a dozen shots, I got what I wanted. The photo is of a Soldier Beetle sitting by itself on the head of a Cow Parsley plant. I liked the ‘bokeh’, the out of focus blobs in the background.

Scamp made dinner tonight it was a simple meal of trout fillet with Cornish potatoes dressed with a salad of lettuce, apple, shallot, pepper and tomatoes. All very like what Simonne made for us last year, down in Dent.

Well, the sun is still shining and the skies are blue. I think you could say we got our wish today. Tomorrow we’re intending going looking for Parsley plants for the planter in the garden.

More Rain – 5 July 2025

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I’m going to use my mum’s chant on the weather:
“Rain, Rain, Go away. Come again another day.”

I’m getting really fed up with the constant drizzle. It just drags you down, and although a month or so ago we were praying for rain, we’ve had enough now, thank you very much.

We did get past the door today, though. Scamp and I went for a walk down to the shops and came back with two big shopping bags full of food for today and probably tomorrow as well. The parking situation is so bad on our street, nobody wants to move out of their space for fear of not getting back into their parking place when they come back. We need the council to take the bull by the horns and mark the parking spaces properly instead of allowing any Tom, Dick and Harry from just parking their car anywhere. It wouldn’t cost very much to white line the street and then we’d be able to see who the unthoughtful parkers are. Annoyingly, some of the streets in our area have already been white lined, but that was about three years ago, and there has been no further action on the matter.
There, now my blood pressure is back to normal again.

I went for a walk in St Mo’s in the late afternoon and found a baby’s dummy (or pacifier if you’re posh) lying on the path. That gave me an idea for today’s PoD. One of the dozen photos I’d taken was good enough to pass the test and did become PoD.

Dinner was a Smoked Haddock Fillet with Cheese Sauce for Scamp. I had a Lamb Biryani. Both from M&S. Where would we be without you!

That was the end of a rather boring day. We’re hoping against hope that tomorrow will be just a wee bit drier and a wee bit sunnier.

The first day of July – 1 July 2025

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After what was a Flaming June, July looks like it will continue the hot weather.

Jamie and Simonne were driving to Cumbersheugh on the first part of their return journey from Arran via a stopover in the Cairngorms. Today they were having a short overnight stop in Cumbersheugh. As usual they arrive almost exactly on time.

I had been out earlier with a shopping list of items that we’d need for the visitors. Red Top milk, smoked salmon, orange juice and lots of other things for lunch.

I think we spent half of the morning admiring Simonne’s photos of the Isle of Arran’s scenery. It never ceases to impress me that people can produce professional looking images from a phone camera. We spent the other half on a guided tour of the back and front gardens of our house, with Scamp giving a running commentary of all the flowers, complete with their names.

After lunch I went over to St Mo’s to get some photos. There wasn’t a lot to capture, but I did get some photos of a hoverfly or a drone fly, I’m not sure which, feeding on some Valerian wild flowers.

It was just one circuit of the pond, then back home because we were going to Cotton House for dinner in the late afternoon and we needed to get ready.

Scamp had booked a taxi to take us to over to Longcroft, but although we’d had a message that the taxi was on its way, we had to wait another ten minutes before it arrived. Almost at the restaurant and we got stuck in a great long queue through roadworks which made us even later at Cotton House, not helped by the driver who was in ’Tootle along’ mode. Maybe he had just had a really tiring day.

Food was as good as it usually is in the restaurant and I envied Jamie and Simonne’s Sweet & Sour Chicken Cantonese, although my own Salt & Chilli Chicken was nice, it wasn’t a patch on the sweet & sour. Scamp stuck to her favourite Chicken Chow Mein.

The lady driving our taxi back to Cumbersheugh wasn’t wasting any time. She was driving a rocket powered taxi and she wasn’t taking any prisoners. A woman on a mission.

PoD was a shot of a hoverfly on a Valerian flower.

In the evening, we watched ‘Mrs Harris Goes To Paris’ and really enjoyed it except for Jamie who got bored with it. I thought it was cleverly written and acted until the last ten minutes or so when it became too rushed.

Tomorrow we expect our two visitors will be heading for home. I may meet up with Alex.

Keeping Busy – 30 June 2025

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It was a day for tidying up the place, at least a bit.

Scamp handed me a big bag full of stuff that needed to go to the tip and then found another bag that could also go to the same place. Both were going to ‘General Household’, the councils catch-all for things that don’t have an exact skip to go into.

“Were do I put this home-made high intensity laser generator?”

“Err, General Household mate.”

Once that was done and the old dance shoes, cutting boards, broken seats and all sorts of other stuff, I was free to go for a drive and hopefully find something interesting to photograph … I did put the camera in the back seat, and not the boot, didn’t I?

Yes, I did, because when I got to my usual walking path at Fannyside, the black Lowepro and camera were on the back seat. I was hoping to get some photos of dragonflies, but none were flying today. What were flying was a group of Starlings. A ‘murmuration’ is the common name for a crowd of these birds, but I think I prefer a ‘Chatter’. It seems more like the noise they make, especially the young ones. I found that name on the interweb tonight!
The group must have been young birds, because they didn’t fly in the tight groups or indulge in the complicated wheeling patterns we associate with a murmuration.

One of the ‘Chatter’ groups made PoD today spaced out along some telephone wires, like musical notes on a stave … or a stave with three lines, anyway.

Back home we were working in the garden again. More fine tuning rather than the heavy work we’d been doing yesterday. Scamp was redesigning the layout of an awkward corner of the back garden and the changes she made created a totally different look to that area. A great improvement.

Drove home with some essentials. Milk and bread with an Apple Turnover to share.

Dinner was a typical Monday meal. Pasta with Tomatoes and Tuna. Nothing fancy.

It was clammy and sticky today. Not a great day for working, so that was partly why we restricted our workload.  We watered the garden for the first time in ages, and it did seem fresher once we were finished. Hope it’s a bit cooler tonight, cooler than last night at least.

No real plans for tomorrow, although maybe those trainers will still be in Tiso!

Out for a spin – 28 June 2025

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Today we had decided that we’d go out somewhere because the sun was shining.

It was windy and that made it a bit cool, but we we had promised ourselves that we’d go out somewhere today. That ‘Somewhere’ turned out to be Culross. I know there aren’t a great many shops there that sell trainers (there are none), but in a way that was part of the fun today.  We’d go to Culross, which is Hazy’s most hated, least liked place in the whole wide world and just look for some interesting things to photograph.

It was an interesting climb up the cobbled Tanhouse Brae and on to  Kirk Street.  The architecture in Culross hasn’t changed much in the last 400 odd years with pantile roofs and low lintels on the doors. I imagine there are a lot of hoops to jump through before you can get a sniff of a chance to own one of these houses.  Once you own one outright, I imagine that it doesn’t really belong to you, because of many and varied rules you have to abide to.  However, it’s good to see the houses owned and used by folk.

We continued our climb and nearing the top, or what we’d designated today’s top, Scamp spotted a modern looking house offering tea, coffee and cake in a private garden. I kind of got the feeling that we were going in there later.

Our journey today ended at Culross Abbey, an impressive piece of architecture both inside and outside. Beautiful lighting from the stained glass windows and those high, high wooden roofs.

As I suspected, we made a detour on the way back down to Culross village in to Tea Leaf. A tea and coffee shop with cakes and scones for sale.  We had one coffee, one tea and two scones to share, served with cream and home made jam. Scamp was in her element, wandering around the garden, finding ‘things’, lots of things.  On the way out of this fantastic garden she talked for a while to the owner, a florist who gave her names of plants we’d never seen before, but which are now on the shopping list, Jerusalem Sage being a one of them. The owner explained that she splits most of her plants later in the year and sells some off.  Scamp needed  no encouragement to add her email address to the list of those wanting to purchase some of those plants.

With that, we headed down the street to real life and drove home.  We stopped at Torwood to buy a couple of pots for two plants that needed potting up … and yet another interesting plant that I liked.  My fault this time.

Dinner tonight was from Golden Bowl and although the pork in the Chow Mein was a bit tough, the rest of the meat was fine.

PoD was a view from halfway down the cobbled path to the car park, looking over Culross (sorry Hazy) to Grangemouth in the distance.

No plans for tomorrow.  Maybe more gardening.

 

 

Today it rained – 27 June 2025

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I could almost finish the blog there with that statement, but that would be no fun.

We had intended to go in to Glasgow today to get a pair of trainers. I know the trainers I want, but the idea of wandering around Glasgow in the rain didn’t appeal much, so instead we waited to see if the rain would go off. It didn’t. Scamp did some tidying up and I went for a walk in St Mo’s.

While I was walking round St Mo’s looking for inspiration, this wee snail crossed my path. Both of us were very wet and both of us were on a mission. My mission was to get back home and dry again. I don’t know what mission the snail was on, but it knew where it was going.

Scamp and I had each chosen a different meal for dinner. Scamp was having Fish Fingers and Tomatoes, and I chose a Rib Eye Steak with Padron Peppers and Tomatoes. (Thanks for the tomatoes Jamie, we’re working our way through them!) That meant I had to extend my walk and source the steak. I walked on to the butchers and got the steak and a couple of slices of spiced beef ham, which is really a thin cut steak with copious amounts of mixed spice dusted over it. Sounds odd, but it’s a traditional Sunday breakfast item where I come from.

It might be raining, but as one of the weather fairies said, “At least it was warm rain.” That was definitely true. I was fairly wet when I got home, but my, allegedly, breathable jacket had been choked to death and the condensation meant I had to do a complete change when I got home.

My dinner was ok, just ok. Scamp said her’s was fine. Dessert was rhubarb (thanks for the rhubarb, too Jamie) with some custard and some cream left over from yesterday. That was the highlight of my meal.

Tomorrow we’re hoping for some dry weather to get out somewhere for a walk and maybe a new pair of trainers.

The mountaineers – 25 June 2025

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Not us! Not a chance.

Today our son and his wife were driving up to Scotland for an overnight stay before they headed over to Arran for a series of guided walks, some of which will entail a fair bit of climbing. We had we’d stay at home and give encouraging advice.

One thing I must say about our son is that he is amazingly accurate with his predictions of time and timing. Today after a journey of about six hours, he was only TEN minutes outside his predicted time. That’s accuracy.

With a little time on hour hands, we tidied, Scamp cleaned and I stuffed things into cupboards where they will never be found again for months, perhaps years. Finding them will be a great surprise.

I was chef for the day and dinner was Chicken and Pea Traybake. I spent a fair while chopping up leeks, but then there was little else to do before the chicken was roasted and the peas were cooked, so I took a camera over to St Mo’s and found a bunch of pink flowers worth photographing. I was sure they were Red Campion, one of the first flowers I learned about after daisies and dandelions. I checked with Mr Google and found I was right. Ragged Robin and Red Campion are very alike, but the smoothly rounded petals told the story that these were Campions.

Dinner was a success and Scamp had made a large Tiramisu for dessert. Only half of it was consumed today which will hopefully leave lots more for us two gluttons tomorrow.

A couple of glasses of red for Scamp and me after the climbers made their way up the wooden hill and my eyes were closing.

Early rise for the youngsters tomorrow. We might have a lie in.

Shopping – 23 June 2025

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Today we were going shopping.

It was a day of hit and miss showers. Also, it was much cooler than it has been of late which was great for sleeping in. Those hot muggy days of last week were not the best for trying to get some rest.

Instead of doing the usual Tesco run we went to Waitrose in Stirling for a change. Wow, did we have a big shop today! I was beginning to think the boot wouldn’t be big enough and we’d need to buy a trailer. It’s not often we’re tempted by the variety of goods on sale there, but we were today. I’m sure I heard the wee Blue car groan when we shut the boot.

We had just unpacked when there was a knock at the door and there was a delivery man with what obviously was a box of flowers addressed to Scamp. The card inside was from Alex and Carol. We found out later it was because I’d been saying that Scamp seemed a bit down lately and Alex must have picked up on that. Such a kind thing to do. Thank you Alex and Carol.

After lunch I wanted to go out and get some photos and left Scamp reading at home. I got a few shots, most of which were of insects or wildflowers. Insects always seem to have their own agenda and either stay put for a while, or are off ‘doing things’ immediately you point a camera at them. I must have found the lazy ones today. One was a strange looking red eyed fly and the other was a little pure black insect that I’d have called a ‘Buzzer’ if I was fishing. Both flies were hiding under leaves or sitting on leaves. Either way they were sheltering form those hit and miss showers I was talking about. Of the two, I chose the Black ‘Buzzer’ as PoD.

As usual I’d been carried away with photographing insects and plants and forgot the time. Scamp was going to a dance display arranged by one of the Witches. By the time I got back she was almost ready for Jeanette Witch to pick her up.

I’d had mince for dinner yesterday and today I was converting it into Spag Bol. Not a difficult task and I soon had the feeling that the plate I was using wasn’t really going to be big enough, so I ate as much as I wanted from an excellent Spaghetti Bolognese then put the remainder, regretfully, in the bin. Dessert was the last squat peach. Just as lovely as the first one had been, two or three days ago.

Scamp staggered in just before 11pm and raved for a while about the dancing those girls and one boy could do. I’m glad she enjoyed it, but I’m not so sure I would like it.

Tomorrow I may be going to get a new pair of trainers. The ones I got from Go Outdoors are ok, just ok. I’m sure there are better ones out there.

Another hot day – 21 June 2025

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But with signs that a change is coming.

We drove over to Larky in the afternoon. We were going to see Crawford and Nancy. Crawford’s mum died last Tuesday and we just wanted to drop in to see how they were getting on. Jean was over 90, but had always been fairly active. A great gardener.

We sat and talked to C&N and the afternoon just disappeared. It had been a long time since we’d seen them and there was a fair bit of catching up to do.

We were meant to have lunch on the patio, but we had a couple of heavy showers while we were there, so it was an inside lunch.

When we left to come home the weather stayed dry all the way back, in fact it stayed that way for most of the day. It was still very warm and overcast with the threat of rain that never arrived.

In the early evening I went for a walk over to St Mo’s without really having any thought of what to photograph. I ended up taking some shots of six cygnets on the pond at St Mo’s with their mum and dad making sure they didn’t get into any trouble. That made PoD.

That was about it for today.

Hoping for some rain overnight for Scamp to get a chance to start some grass seed.