Category: A Walk

Getting lost in Glasgow – 5 September 2022

Posted on by Zogman

It’s easier than you think, especially if you follow the signs!

We were heading back to the House for an Art Lover today, but we were parking in town and taking the subway over to the South Side, then walking the rest of the way. What could go wrong? All we needed to do was follow the Glasgow Council signs from Ibrox subway. That would be the signs that pointed one way, then by a circuitous route, took us back to almost where we’d started. Eventually I gave up with the signs and with a little help from Google maps we found our way to the House.

Last night there had been some torrential rain and we’d decided we’d better come prepared and wear our raincoats. By the time we got to Bellahouston we were beginning to think the raincoats were a bad idea. The sky had been blue and the sun had been shining for our hour long walk, but when we got to the house and decided to have tea outside, the first raindrops fell. We did have shelter under a patio umbrella, but it wasn’t needed because the clouds rolled away, taking the threat of rain with them.

The visit was a success, though. A birthday present was bought and it was almost exactly what Scamp had been looking for. I’m glad our walk through the hinterland of Glasgow wasn’t in vain!

Rather than try to walk back the way we’d come, Scamp suggested we get the bus. According to my phone, the No 9 or the No 10 would take us in to town. The woman at the House told Scamp we needed to walk down to Paisley Road West to get the bus and that’s what we did. The bus took us on a mystery tour through Govan, eventually crossing the Clyde and dropping us on West Nile Street. Ten minutes later we were in the car and heading home. I don’t think we’ll risk using the detailed Glasgow Council signs again. In fact, I don’t think we’ll bother with the subway either. If we go back, we’ll get the bus. It’s so much easier.

Back home and after a light lunch, Scamp got ready to go to the dentist. This was to be the last visit in a treatment that started in December 2021. Covid rules, retirements and finding a new dentist had made a drama out of what wasn’t even a crisis. She returned with the usual slurring of speech that comes from a visit to the dentist. She’s not due to return until March 2023, but I might be the next to try out the new dentist.

I’d taken a couple of shots from the JL bridge in Glasgow, but they were nothing special, so I took my camera out with me for a walk in St Mo’s. Saw a couple of large dragonflies circling the pond, but they were busy egg laying and weren’t stopping to talk. Couldn’t quite catch them, so PoD went, instead, to what looked like a wee posy of wild flowers. Taken with the LensBaby which I haven’t used for ages. I still like the effect it produces.

No real plans for tomorrow, but Scamp thinks we might go out for lunch.

 

More rain – 4 September 2022

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We’re never happy. Either there isn’t enough rain or there’s too much. Today the moans were about too much.

Not real moans, but it would be good if it would rain all night and leave the days for us going for walks.

After lunch we did go for a walk. Down to Broadwood Loch, over the dam and round the exercise machines, which are gradually being swallowed up by the grass that surrounds them. On the walk we found some pretty purple and yellow flowers that looked a bit like potato flowers, but they seemed to produce bright red berries that the birds didn’t eat. That usually means they are poisonous and after a bit of research online it turned out that they were Woody Nightshade, also known as Bittersweet and were indeed poisonous. The flowers looked so good, they became PoD.

On the way back past Broadwood Stadium we chanced upon a different kind of berries. Lots of lovely fat, juicy brambles in easily accessed clumps beside the car park. We managed to pick just over 700g of berries which, added to my 550g from Friday gave us over a kilo of the black fruit which is now chilling in the freezer, ready for Scamp to boil it down with some apples to make juice that will in turn produce bramble jelly.

Speaking of apples, we had our first apple from our tree today. It was a bit tart, but perfectly edible and without any wasp bites of flaws. Lots more to come, but we were discussing today how best to support the poor tree, because it’s leaning over, pulled down by the weight of the apples. Perhaps Scamp’s right when she says we should reduce the amount of fruit we produce on it. It seems such a shame to remove fruit, but I suppose we have to consider the health of the tree too.

Dinner tonight was Chicken Escalopes.  Chicken breasts bashed flat with a rolling pin before being dipped in egg, then breadcrumbs and fried in the frying pan.  Really, really good.  Of course, Scamp made them.

Spoke to Jamie and thanked him for my fancy tea. He had been buying it online but it seems that there are shops, mainly in the south of England, but there is also one in Scotland. Good to hear from him that he’s beginning to settle into his new job.

We’re hoping to continue our search for a suitable birthday present tomorrow. Somewhere in Glasgow I’m led to believe.

A late rise – 3 September 2022

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We must both have had a hard day yesterday. My excuse was that I’d been out cycling and Scamp’s was that she and the witches had been talking almost constantly for all of yesterday afternoon.

Once we’d dragged ourselves out of bed, dressed and completed today’s Wordle successfully, we discussed where to go and what to do with a very dull day. We settled on a run to Torwood, looking for something to buy for someone who has a birthday coming up soon. Unfortunately Torwood Garden Centre was having a bit of an Autumn Clean, which is really just a Spring Clean six months later. Lots of the garden furniture that usually lives outside was now inside and none of the usual stuff that Scamp expected to see had been put into storage, it seemed. For what must be the first time in our Torwood history, we left empty handed.

I suggested we try Calder’s in Cumbersheugh as an alternative, but although they had lots of things that “might do”, they didn’t have the exact article she was looking for. We were just about to leave when the heavens opened and the threatened heavy rain made us think again about walking out just then. Once the rain had eased, we ran to the car and drove home.

Later in the afternoon the sky cleared and although the sun didn’t shine, it was bright enough to take a camera for a walk in St Mo’s. The PoD went to a photo of a hoverfly on a Scabious flower, a wild scabious. While I was out, Scamp was talking to Jackie in Skye. She and Murdo are just recovering from the dreaded Covid and they both seemed to have it bad, but feeling better now.

On our walk earlier in the week, Alex and I had been discussing processing old photos taken years ago and tonight I worked on a photo of Castle Stalker in Appin from 2005. Taken with my old D70 it scrubbed up well as you can see here.

Tomorrow we may go looking for that birthday present again or we may leave that for a weekday when there will hopefully be fewer crowds

White Rabbits (x3) – 1 September 2022

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Scamp was feeling a bit dizzy this morning, so instead of taking Shona out for coffee, she came to us instead, for tea.

It was really a ladies morning with the two of them going over Shona and Ben’s recent visit to her cousins in London and Warrington. There was so much talk going on that there was no time to show her our holiday snaps. Just before we left to take her shopping, a parcel arrived for me! It was a surprise packet of tea from Jamie. Not your ordinary tea either, this was Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster tea. It’s peppermint and blackcurrant flavoured in a black tea base with ‘sparkles’ that glitter when it’s brewing. It actually tastes quite good. Maybe not quite as good as the bright blue “Intergallactic Space Juice” that came as a concentrate and was added to Sodastream bottles, back in the late ‘70s and early ’80s. Thanks for that, Jamie. It certainly brightened my day.

Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster was of course a cocktail created by Zaphod Beeblebrox in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

We dropped Shona off at the Town Centre and headed back to Tesco for some messages. After lunch I took the camera out for a walk in St Mo’s, but found very little to inspire me. However, back home Scamp had managed to get a photo of a Peacock butterfly on one of our multicoloured buddleia bush. This is probably the first butterfly to visit these “Butterfly bushes” and is certainly the first this year. I think she was quite pleased to beat me to the photo. I managed to get a few shots of it when it returned to the bush, but none are as good as Scamp’s. She must have a really good camera!

It was Mince ’n’ Tatties for my dinner and Bubble ’n’ Squeak for Scamp’s. Both good old fashioned plates of food. I managed to keep a few spoonfuls of the M&T to have for my lunch tomorrow.

PoD was a ball of thistledown waiting for the wind to distribute it to the four corners of St Mo’s. I liked the way it seemed to be bubbling out of the flower head.

Scamp has an appointment at the health centre tomorrow morning to let one of the nurses have a look at her ears and hopefully see if that’s what’s causing the dizziness although it seems to have settled down as the day progressed. After that she’s off to a Witches meeting at Moira’s. I’m thinking about getting the Dewdrop back on the road and going hunting brambles, if the weather holds.

A day at the horses – 31 August 2022

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Aha, but not just any horses. These ones are only half buried. That leaves it up to the imagination to see their hidden bodies!

In the morning after a cup of strong coffee, I drove over to Motherwell to pick up my brother and then we drove east to Helix Park in Falkirk. Alex was going to be introduced to the magic of the Kelpies and they didn’t disappoint. From the motorway you don’t get the full effect of these sculptures, but up close and with the feeling that, like dragonflies, you are being observed just as carefully as you are observing them. I lost count of the number of times we walked round them, looking at them from all angles and taking photos of them with a variety of cameras and lenses. I wondered how many hundreds of folk took selfies with them today. I wondered how many thousands of folk had their photo taken today, holding out their hand as if they were feeding these giant beasts. They are simply amazing.

After a while we paused for lunch and disappointingly, the sun went behind the clouds for a while and it looked like the best light of the day was gone, so we went for a walk over the canal and along the towpath on the far side, then back over another bridge further on. As we were taking some longer views of the beasts, we realised that the sun had just been having its lunch too and was now back to full strength again having pushed its way through the clouds. We went back for another shoot. This time from a different angle. We tried reflections in the water and reflections in the panoramic windows of the visitors centre. I walked back to the car to dump my raincoat which I wasn’t going to need now and found yet another viewpoint I’d not seen before.

Another coffee and it was time for the last of the photos and then it really was time to say goodbye to the Kelpies, but we did say too, that we’d be back. For now, though it was back to rush hour and the inevitable queues on the motorway. I drove Alex back to Motherwell and then came home, exhausted. I hadn’t quite realised how hot it was today. It was a long day and a lot of driving, but I really enjoyed it and I’m sure Alex did too. A monochrome ultra-wide shot of the Kelpies got PoD.

Tomorrow I may go out to lunch with Scamp and Shona or more likely I’ll just relax and read. I’ll maybe do some reorganising of August’s photos.

Coffee with Isobel and a question answered – 30 August 2022

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We were out this morning for coffee with Isobel at Costa, so almost coffee.

As usual Isobel was an entertainment. Full of stories of a visit to see the wreck of the Sugar Boat on an afternoon cruise from Greenock. The ship, the MV Captayannis was loaded with raw east African sugar for the Tate & Lyle refinery in Greenock. It was deliberately run aground to prevent it sinking after a collision with another ship during a storm in the Clyde in 1974. Apparently the remains of the ship can still be seen from the esplanade at Helensburgh, but Isobel’s trip started across the Clyde estuary in Greenock. I must admit, this is the first I’ve heard of the Sugar Boat and its story. We must go and have a look for it the next time we’re in Helensburgh. It’s actually visible on Google Maps about halfway between Helensburgh and Greenock.

Scamp was showing Isobel some of our holiday photos and then chanced upon a picture on her phone of a mystery flower that’s growing well in our garden. She showed it to Isobel who immediately recognised it as a Japanese Anemone, and to be honest, it does look like a very large anemone. We’ve been puzzling over that flower for well over a month now, but now Isobel has solved the problem.

We came home via the village to drop Isobel off at her house and then via Tesco to get some messages. Dinner tonight was to be Paella and we needed chicken thighs for that. Of course we bough a lot more besides the chicken. Back home and after lunch I struggled with today’s Wordle and was getting nowhere with it, so I did what I usually do and put it aside and went for a walk in St Mo’s. Not a lot of activity today, but I did get an animated looking group of dandelion seeds. They look as if they’re dancing in the breeze, but actually they’re caught in a spider web. I took a few insect photos too, but nothing spectacular, so the dandelion seeds got PoD.

Paella was ok, but the chicken thighs were a bit cheugh (chewy). Maybe my cooking or maybe not Tesco’s finest. Whatever, it filled a wee space.

We watched a fairly interesting program on the history of University Challenge which is 60 years old this year. I didn’t realise it had been going for such a long time. It was only fairly interesting because there was really far too much padding in it. A 30 minute program made to fit a 60 minute time slot.

I’ve talked Alex into going to the Kelpies tomorrow, rather than Glasgow again. If time permits, we might even get a half hour in Culross.

Old Friends – 29 August 2022

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We didn’t do much in the morning, but the afternoon was full.

In the morning I saw the “Washing machine is ready to go” message when I went down to make the breakfast, so I switched it on. After breakfast Scamp wanted to go out for messages and I wanted to give my bike the once over, because I’m intending taking it out on Friday with a little bit of luck. The tyres are flat, but what state the inner tubes will be in, I don’t know. I might get round to that tomorrow, but today Scamp returned and saved me from getting my hands dirty.

After lunch I suggested we go for a walk. My offerings were Drumpellier, Auchinstarry for the Forth and Clyde canal or a more gentle Colzium. Drumpellier was our choice, so off we went.

As usual we walked anti-clockwise round the loch, then into the woods, taking it in turns to decide which road to take at each split in the path. It was a really warm day with a bit of cloud cover. We were just coming out of the woods when I saw a woman pushing an older woman in a wheelchair and recognised her voice. It was Morag from school and the older woman was her mum. We met up with her husband just a bit further along the road. We must have stood there for easily three quarters of an hour, just catching up and talking about folk we’d worked with. Funnily enough John and I had done exactly the same thing on Friday night. Morag has gone back to teaching again for half a week after having retired! I don’t know why people do that. Surely they are just taking jobs away from up and coming teachers who really need a job. I’m perfectly happy being retired and being able to live my own life. I’m sure Scamp would say the same thing, even if I do get in the way a lot of the time. We eventually said our “goodbyes” and we strode off, because the ice cream van was beckoning!

Just after getting the cones, I saw the opportunities of a photo with the swans. I handed my cone to Scamp and took a couple of photos of the birds. They weren’t too happy to see me and started hissing, as swans do, probably because I’d woken them up from their afternoon snooze. Two shots was all I risked, then caught up with Scamp again and we scoffed the ice cream, then drove home.

Two photos isn’t really enough for me. I kept my walking boots on and took the A7 out for a walk in St Mo’s where I got another sleepy dragonfly and back in the garden, a bi-coloured dahlia. Strange thing. Most of the flowers on the plant are pale pink, spotted with dark red. Some are plain red, but this one was half and half. Some sort of throwback perhaps. All are available on Flickr, but the swans got PoD.

While I was out, Scamp had been cutting the back garden grass. Hopefully that will be her finished for the year. Depending on the weather, the grass might need one more cut, but equally it might be good enough as it is,

Rather a good Pasta Carbonara tonight using Val’s Italian recipe with two full eggs and one extra yolk, but no cream. Apparently that’s how carbonara should be made.

Tomorrow we’re booked for coffee with Isobel in the morning. The rest of the day is our own.

Dancing, Dodgy Cars and Coast – 27 August 2022

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Drove to Brookfield for dance class, but with half an eye on lunch at Coast!

The traffic was fairly heavy going both ways on the M8, but we had left slightly earlier than usual and had time to spare. Car did a strange thing, it beeped three rapid beeps then the engine appeared to turn off and immediately on again. That’s a bit disconcerting and something I’ll add to my growing list of problems when I take it in for service next month.

Dancing was almost all about ballroom today. I think the teachers are aware that we haven’t had much actual teaching recently and were attempting to fill that gap. We started with the Vogue Waltz which we originally learned at the Perth weekend, so it was really a reprise for us. Next was the Charnwood Cha-Cha which we kind of knew. By “kind of” I mean that Scamp kind of knew it, but I was floundering! Finally we did the Jet Lag Waltz which was totally new for us at least, although some of the others seemed to know it. That’s a lot of different dances to get through in an hour and a half, but we were able to film the Jet Lag Waltz and hopefully Scamp will be able to decode it, chop it into manageable pieces and feed it back to me. I hope so, because next week the teachers are off to Tenerife for a week.

After a Midnight Jive to finish today’s session we were driving to Langbank to have lunch in Coast. That’s when I found out that half my stored destinations had disappeared from the memory of the sat nav. I’m beginning to think that the glitch in the morning caused that information to disappear. This really is the craziest car I’ve ever had the misfortune to drive. We did eventually get a route to the restaurant, but it was a different one from the route the Nissan app had given us yesterday!

The restaurant was fairly busy, but not too busy. My main course was the same as I’d had the last time I was there, Spicy Sausage Rigatoni Ragu with Penne pasta replacing the Rigatoni (a sign of the times). Scamp had Smoked Haddock and Salmon Gratin which she had had at the sister restaurant in Falkirk. We are creatures of habit. Both meals were declared excellent.

We drove over the Erskine bridge then through Bearsden and Kirkintilloch to get home avoiding a third day of the misery of the Kingston Bridge. It probably took longer, but we were travelling all the time. One little misfire from the blue car on the way home.

Back home I took the opportunity of some sunshine to take some more dragonfly photos in St Mo’s, but PoD went to a hoverfly feeding on a wild Scabious flower.

Watched a fairly boring Belgian GP Qualifying and later caught up with Shetland!

No plans for tomorrow. Maybe a day of not driving?

Dinner in Hamilton – 26 August 2022

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Scamp was out in the morning and I was off the leash.

Scamp was out at her FitSteps class in the morning and I had the morning at least to myself, to do with as I wished. The trouble was I didn’t have anything in mind to do. I watered the chilli plants and checked on their condition. Both the old Jalapeño plant and the new hot looking thin chillies were doing fine. The old plant has two Jalapeños which are fattening up nicely but the chilli plant I brought back from Jans Vans in Skye are producing either long, thin, straight chillies or a strange corkscrew variety, both on the same plant. The Jalapeños are staying green as Jalapeños usually do, but the Skye chillies are starting to turn red. I’m not sure what’s stronger, the red or the green. I must try them some day, to compare and contrast.

I spoke to Ray while he was making his lunch and caught up with all that’s happening in his world.  I’d hoped that he would agree to join the Auld Guys for a beer or two in Glasgow, but he carefully avoided the subject.  However it was good to keep in touch.

In the afternoon I took a camera out to see what I could find in St Mo’s. Lots of dragonflies about, but the PoD went to a little grey and black spider on its web, just sitting beside the boardwalk.

In the evening we got dressed to go out to John & Marion’s in Hamilton. It’s ages since we’ve been together with Covid, holidays and weddings we’ve passed like ships in the night. All the talk tonight was of weddings and photo albums and catching up with what the families are doing now. While Scamp and Marion were discussing the photos and the weddings, John and I were planning a day with the Auld Guys in Glasgow. Hopefully that will come to pass soon.

We eventually left around 11pm and were home and parked just before the witching hour.  I got a surprise present from Marion.  A wee bottle of Limoncello!  All the way from Sorrento.  How nice was that!

Early(ish) rise tomorrow to drive to Brookfield for dance class, but with the sweetener of lunch booked at Coast in Langbank.

Dancin’ – 25 August 2022

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Tea dance. The first one in ages.

An accident on the M8 set us back by at least 20mins on our way to the first tea dance in at least a couple of months. We shouldn’t have complained, the poor soul(s) in the badly bashed red car on the hard shoulder were having a far worse day than us.

We drove on and ignored the route the sat nav was giving us and instead we forged our own route, one the sat nav had given us months ago. Why it changed its mind on the best route to the outskirts of Paisley is anyone’s guess. It was a good day for a drive round the motorways of Glasgow, even if some idiot towing a caravan almost forced us off the road. Some folk don’t realise that sitting a driving test before you take a car on the road is not an option, it’s the law. Maybe he just forgot he was towing a massive big white brick behind him. Maybe he was a moron. Probably all three.

We danced a decent waltz today, especially as it’s been so long since we’ve danced among so many people. Yes, we danced on the cruise, but that was in a tiny little elliptical floor. No room to show off our catalog of mistakes. Today we had the whole room to impress with our footwork. We even managed a reasonable Social Foxtrot as well, but we did stumble a bit in the rumba. More practise needed there to smarten up the routine. Lots of sequence dances in between and most of them I got right.

We left early to try to avoid the traffic on the Kingston Bridge. Scamp thought the traffic was lighter than yesterday, but I’m not so sure. In retrospect, I should have taken the M74 rather than the M8. Short term pain for long term gain.

I went for a walk in St Mo’s later and found a compliant dragonfly that sat very patiently for me to get some ‘head on’ shots of it. It almost feels like dragonflies, and damselflies too, are studying you while you’re studying them. The head to head shot got PoD, but a close second was a little hoverfly pretending it was a bee on a wild Scabious flower. The wee thing was completely covered in pollen and you could actually see the pollen on the stamens of the flower. That’s how pollination works and that’s why we need insects, even if some of them are a bit of a pain, literally!

One of Scamp’s specialities for dinner today, Potatoes with Cabbage and Bacon. Scamp going for the vegetarian version without the bacon. It’s one of those meals that doesn’t sound as if it works, but it does.

Tomorrow, Scamp is heading for her FitSteps class. I’ve got a couple of phone calls to make.