Category: A Walk

Crowned – 7 July 2022

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Queen for a day perhaps.

Scamp was out to the dentist today, not in the morning as I’d mistakenly reported yesterday, but in the afternoon. That left the morning free to speak to Hazy for half an hour or so. Things seem to be plodding along down south, but slower than they’d like. Dozy deacons were part of the problem and over lengthy exam answers were another. But one of the was the diet that Tilly (one cats) was on seems to be a success and she has reached her target weight. It was when we were talking to Hazy that I realised Scamp’s dentist appointment wasn’t for another four hours! Oops.

After we said our goodbyes, Scamp and I walked down to the shops to get some messages. Just something for lunch and a loaf to put it on because there was no bread in the house, at least, no bread that was eatable. On the way back we got some solar lights for the back garden. They don’t provide much useable light, but they do look pretty at night.

After lunch, Scamp steeled herself and walked over to the dentist to get her new crown fitted. It’s been a protracted issue this tooth. It all started back in December when she needed a filling, but because of Covid it wasn’t done then the dentist retired and she had to wait until another one was appointed. Oh, I could go on and on, but so did the wait and the bill got bigger and bigger, as did the cavity, until the new dentist said the only way to fix it was with a crown and that was the crown that was fitted today. Thankfully it worked and to look at it you’d never guess it wasn’t a real one.

While she was being crowned, I was out walking in St Mo’s better armed today to capture some insect photos. It was a lovely warm summer’s day.  Not at all like yesterday with its gale force winds. I took the big heavy macro lens and got a few ‘keepers’, but a lot more ‘chuckers’. My favourite was a little fly feeding on some pink blossom. It was the contrast between the dark flower and the pale pink of the flowers that swung it for me. That was PoD.

Back home it was warm enough to sit in the garden and make plans for alterations to the planting that might go ahead next year, all being well. Sitting making plans with a bottle Birra Moretti for me and a glass of Yellow Tail Merlot for Scamp is as good a way as any to spend an afternoon. Dinner was a very nice Prawn and Pea Risotto.

We watered the garden after dinner. It really needed it and I think the plants will look a lot better tomorrow.

The Boris Saga continues. Today he resigned as leader of the Tory party, but intends to stay on as a caretaker PM. Why doesn’t he just go? Nobody wants or trusts him anymore. It’s quite sad really.

We might go out for lunch tomorrow, but that’s as far as plans go.

 

Windy Willie – 6 July 2022

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Windy Willie was out and about today, gusting around the houses and making the trees sway. Thankfully he’s now away to annoy some other people, but he was a nuisance for a while for photographers trying to capture images of insects on flowers.

Unbelievably, despite the occasionally torrential rain we’ve had recently, the back garden was suffering a drought. Because of the wind, using the hose wasn’t practical, so Scamp and I were carting full watering cans around the garden to refresh the poor plants. I think the potatoes were the worst and that wasn’t obvious until we emptied on of the ‘tattie bags’ and found the soil was bone dry right down to the bottom. The bag produced enough potatoes for dinner tonight, but a lot of them were the size of buttons. That’s what gave us the idea to just water the whole garden.

After lunch I thought it was time I shifted my backside from the couch and went for a walk. Unusually, Scamp agreed to come with me. I know that she doesn’t really enjoy a walk round St Mo’s, so I suggested we walk down to Broadwood and walk over the dam and up past the exercise machines. That got her approval. Out of the wind, it was quite pleasant with temperature in the mid teens. In the wind it was a different story. On the final leg of the walk, Scamp suggested she would go home and I could do a circuit of St Mo’s. That sounded like a good idea. The best of both worlds.

My first circuit didn’t raise any interesting insects or, indeed anything. On the second round, there was more insect life on the hogweed and cow parsley. That’s where today’s PoD came from. It’s just a wee hover fly, but it was in focus and it was sharp, mainly because I was sheltered by a few trees which stopped the flower heads from bouncing around. Also, I was using the kit lens, not a dedicated macro lens, which meant I wasn’t going as close as I’d have liked and this helped the sharpness of the photo. It wasn’t the most productive day with 34 photos taken and 28 of those rejected for various reasons.

Dinner tonight for Scamp was Omelette with Cabbage and New Potatoes, for me it was Wild Boar Burger with Cabbage and New Potatoes. The potatoes were really very good. I only wish I’d earthed them up earlier and, of course, taken more care with the watering.

Boris still bumbles on despite having almost no support from his colleagues. He’s a bit like the visitor who doesn’t know when to leave the party and has to be ushered out the door. Maybe he needs the money!

Tomorrow Scamp is out in the morning to the dentist, hoping to get the long running saga of the broken tooth finally sorted.

Culture Vultures – 5 July 2022

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A day in the Toon with my brother.

Today I took the train in to Glasgow thanks to a lift from Scamp. In Glasgow I met my brother and we went on the bus to Kelvingrove Art Gallery. There’s also a museum there, but I was more interested in the art gallery today. Of course I also wanted to take a few photos and have a blether with Alex.

By the time we got there, the daily organ recital was about to start and this gave us the chance to do a bit of people watching and of course, and of course, with watching comes photographing. I was amazed at, not just the dexterity of the organist, but also the jive he was doing with his feet on the pedals, all thanks to two live feeds showing his hands and feet on two tv screens.

When the recital was over we went for a quick bite to eat and a natter then went to see a retrospective of artist John Byrne’s work. The size of the paintings and the quantity were astounding. Little things, too stuck I’m my mind, like the letter he wrote to René Magritte, addressed to Magritte, Belgium. And it not only got there, but also generated a reply by the Belgian artist. There was so much to look at, we stayed for an hour or so before going back upstairs to take more photos.

Alex wanted to photograph the famous laughing and crying heads that hang from the roof in one of the rooms. I went looking for a couple of paintings I liked. Unfortunately, one was out on loan to Auckland in New Zealand and one simply wasn’t there, but there was no one to tell me where it had disappeared to. What I did find was a restored Van Gough painting of Alexander Reid from Glasgow. Then another favourite, Roses by Samuel Peploe. A bit of culture does you no harm.

Eventually we met up again and had one more cup of coffee just as the cafe was closing. After that we left to catch the bus back in to Glasgow where Alex went to one side of the bus station and I went to the other to get home the cheap (free) way. A good day in town.

When I got home Scamp was sitting in the garden enjoying the last of the day’s sunshine as the clouds started to roll in, but we did manage a glass of beer each and discuss our different days. She had done some washing and if you’ve waded through the foregoing, you know what I did.

PoD was a close up of the elaborate door handles from Kelvingrove.

No plans for tomorrow. It looks like rain. I don’t know if Boris has made plans for tomorrow. Since his Health secretary and his Chancellor resigned this afternoon, he may be looking for a competent removals firm!

A Pencil – 4 July 2022

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I found a pencil today. I’d searched everywhere I could think of yesterday to no avail, but today it was found.

I’d been roughing out a sketch of Jacki and Allan’s house and been using a giant A2 sheet of paper which meant I needed a nice big, thick pencil. I knew that Hazy had given me a lovely wee stubby clutch pencil many years ago and I thought it would be ideal for the purposes, but like I said in the intro, despite Scamp’s and my intensive search, we couldn’t find it. Even this morning, with the sketch half finished, I still couldn’t lay my hands on that pencil. Yesterday we had hauled out loads of boxes and chucked out lots of stuff in the process, but the pencil wasn’t to be found. This morning, after another hour’s fruitless search I remembered two places it could be. Both of them were leather shoulder bags and it was in a zipper pocket in the second bag that I found the pencil. I swear the lines I drew with that pencil were the best in the whole sketch.

What had started out as a rough, now has a splash of paint on it, but it’s still going to be a rough. I don’t think I like the photo I’m working from and need a better view. It was taken in a rush on the day before we left to come home. I don’t think I can use that as an excuse for a few days in Skye, but it’s a nice idea.

I took a walk over to St Mo’s this afternoon to clear my head and because Scamp wanted to walk over to the shops. I walked with her halfway there and then walked round St Mo’s a couple of times while she went round the shops. Lots of cow parsley flowerhead on show in St Mo’s, all bobbing around in the gusty wind, but that didn’t seem to deter the hover flies and beetles from landing on them and having lunch. It was a nightmare trying to get photos in that wind, even more challenging than yesterday along the canal. Then I found my PoD which is a plant called St John’s Wort whose main claim to fame is as a herbalist source of anti-depressant. Something to do with the flowers, it would have to be, because the seeds are deadly poison. I’ve seen those black berries in the winter and wondered why no animal or bird was eating them and now I know why. Look, but don’t touch.

I watched two more episodes of Slough House. Some of Lamb’s on-liners are pure gems, or maybe it’s just my sense of humour.

Tomorrow I’ve arranged to meet Alex in Glasgow to go to the Art Galleries. He wants to do some slow shutter arty photos, I want to go and look at a John Byrne exhibition. We’ll probably meet up later for lunch, all being well. Scamp intends to cut the front grass while I’m away.

 

An injured dog – 3 July 2022

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This morning, Scamp suggested a walk along the Forth & Clyde Canal. I agreed.

We drove to Auchinstarry and got what was probably the last space in the car park. I’d decided to bring two cameras with me, one with a macro lens and one with a medium long zoom, to reduce the need to change lenses out in the wild. That meant I needed the new rucksack. Actually, it worked out quite well, because although there were patches of blue sky, there were also a lot of heavy looking rain clouds. Having the rucksack meant I could carry my rain jacket but be free to walk with just a jersey and trousers. Boots, of course were mandatory for both of us and of course, Scamp chose to wear her rain jacket, just to make sure it wouldn’t rain.

Lots of folk walking dogs or walking in family groups and loads of cyclists. I couldn’t blame them, it was a lovely morning. I’d only seen a couple of hover flies in St Mo’s during the last few weeks, but there were literally clouds of them along the canal. I think the reason for that is the cow parsley and hogweed flowers are out along the side of the towpath and those flowers are very attractive to hover flies. I’d put the 50mm macro lens on the A7, but it was having a hard time focusing on the insects because there was a stiff breeze which made the big flower head bob about a lot. I wished I’d packed the long, heavy 105mm macro instead. But I carried on regardless and did manage a couple of shots that were sharp enough to keep.

We walked as far as Twechar where we left the canal tow path and crossed the road on to the old railway line and walked it. There are some lovely landscape shots to be had there and I decided I’d remove the macro lens and stick on the kit lens instead. I was half way through the transfer when a cyclist appeared heading the way we’d come. He said he thought I’d an injured dog when he saw the brown and dull green rucksack. Scamp told him “No, it’s just a man who always needs to change things!” He laughed and said that was perfectly all right! I apologised and we went our separate ways after I’d taken a few landscape photos.

For the last four or five years a great amount of work has been going on to improve the flow or the Garrel Burn. It’s finally finished and although the path I used to walk has not seen a great improvement, it would appear that the burn now meanders rather than flows through the wetland. We walked part of it on our way back to the car. Maybe next time we’ll take the Wibbly Wobbly Way and see what improvements there are.

We went home via Lidl to get a chicken for dinner and came home with about £50 worth of chicken, bread, cherries, kitchen scales and a bottle of gin. How I wish we had a Lidl rather than a manky Aldi in Cumbersheugh.

We watched an action packed British F1 GP with dangerous looking crashes and the lead changing hands with every second that passed. Glad to see that Max isn’t having things all his own way.

Spoke to Jamie and heard how the roof problem is still on hold until the bats survey is complete. Glad we don’t have bats in our belfry. Also got advice on completing the mandatory LF test for boarding the ship. Thanks for that Jamie.

PoD was a picture of an, as yet unknown bright pink plant growing by the side of the railway path. If anyone recognises it, an ID would be appreciated.

Tomorrow we have no plans.

 

 

Last Dance – 2 July 2022

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For a while anyway. Three weeks without dance classes while our teachers are off teaching on a cruise to the Baltic.

Drove out to Brookfield this morning. Into low lying cloud and drizzly rain. Not the best start, but that wouldn’t matter once we changed into our dance shoes and had the first couple of sequence dances under our belt. They were familiar, but then they would be. We’d danced them on Thursday afternoon at the tea dance. Next was Waltz. Not either of the waltzes we knew quite well and not any of the other variations on the theme of waltz that we’d experienced in the last year or so. No, this one was new to us and to most of the class too by the sound of things. The first part was really difficult for me at least. A 270º turn that looked so easy when Stewart was demonstrating it, but impossible for me. The next part wasn’t quite so difficult once you broke it down. Oh, and the language! Those esoteric phrases that mean nothing to me and describe nothing either. I’d give you examples, but they don’t stick in my head long enough to be recorded. I’m guessing I’m the same when I’m talking about “Shutter priority” and “three frames focus stack”, but there must be normal words that can describe a “reverse weave” for folk who are still struggling to decide whether they start on left or right foot.

We survived the waltz and then it was Cha-Cha. This used to be my pet hate, but now I’m beginning to enjoy it, although it does all happen fairly fast. We did not too bad with the cha-cha. One thing I like about it is that you don’t travel very far. Another thing is that it doesn’t matter, at our level, which direction you are facing after you finish. You just continue from there. That may not be the what would get you top marks in a competition, but it works for us.

All too soon, we were finished and I’d actually enjoyed most of the class. Next we had to decide how to get home. On the way in we saw the crowds of Orange Order marchers enjoying their legal right to march through Glasgow with their banners. I wondered what would be the easiest way back from Brookfield, avoiding them. I chose to take the shortcut through the Clyde Tunnel and along the Express Way. That usually cuts off the 5mph crawl up and over the Kingston Bridge, but for some reason today both routes were equally free running and we were home much earlier than we expected.

But I’d forgotten we were going to collect my suit from the cleaners and I had to go out again to collect it, perfectly cleaned with the marks, whatever they were, removed. Well worth the £15 it cost. I got some ham for my lunch when I was next door in Tesco.

Watched the live practice for the British F1 GP and got really interested in the final minutes of a race that was run in Scottish weather (ie torrential rain) in an English circuit. It looks like it will be difficult to predict a winner tomorrow.

Went out for a walk in St Mo’s and PoD was a Latticed Heath moth. I’d tried to capture an image of one yesterday, but it evaded me. Not so today. It became PoD.
I came home via the chip shop in Condorrat with two small fish suppers. I know I’ll suffer for them afterwards, but the taste outweighs the inconvenience and there’s always Gaviscon.

Watched the final of Glow Up and wonder if any of these aspiring make up artists really go out dressed as devils and zombies or if it’s just a test to see how off the wall they can be.

Tomorrow we don’t have any plans. If the weather would settle down we could maybe get out for a walk somewhere interesting that isn’t Broadwood or St Mo’s. We live in hope.

The first of July – 1 July 2022

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Hopefully a warmer and calmer month than ‘Flaming June’.

We faced the potential of more rain and drove up to Tesco for milk, bread and breakfast cereals and ended up coming home with what was a fairly substantial weekly shop.

Back home I had my usual end of month clean up of the last month’s photos. It’s amazing how many photos I take in a month, even once I’ve culled and deleted the obvious junk photos.

Because I’d cleared out some space on the computer, that gave me the chance to fill that space with more photos. That’s why I went out for a walk in the afternoon to get some photos. It was definitely going to be an insect of some description that was going to be PoD and it turned out to be a Ringlet butterfly that filled that first space in Flickr. I’m trying to actively reduce the number of photos I post in Flickr to increase the quality of my submissions.

While I was over in St Mo’s taking photos, Scamp was pruning and clearing space in the garden, digging things out and moving things around. Just keeping things in good order.

We did manage half an hour or so in the garden when I was back from my walk and Scamp had taken her gardening gloves off. Time to read a bit and have a glass of wine. Then the sun disappeared and it was time to head inside again.

Tomorrow hoping to get one more dance lesson at Brookfield before the teachers go off on their three week holiday work on a cruise ship.

Squaring the circle – 29 June 2022

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Today we were in the market for some supports to help stop the sag.

We drove to Torwood and argued about discussed the various options for a support for at least one of Scamp’s roses. They really are massive and a bit lanky. Eventually we settled on two different, totally different support systems. One was interlocking metal rods that create a pentagonal frame for a basically round bush in a square pot. The other was three bamboo hoops, so essentially six legs, again supporting a round bush in a square pot with the addition of some coarse garden twine. We’ll see how they survive the summer into the autumn.

With the roses now better supported and feeling uplifted ourselves we drove back via Tesco for some real essentials. Just stuff for dinner which would be the leftover curry from yesterday with the addition of one of those ‘real essentials’, decent Garam Masala. The stuff we’d been using was 90% cinnamon and 10% floor sweepings. Not good. On the way out I spotted Fred buying some flowers for Mrs Fred and we had a wee blether for a while, comparing books we’d lent each other. I knew Scamp would be waiting patiently in the car for me, but I made my excuse and left agreeing to phone Fred later in the week.

After we’d both cut ourselves to ribbons squeezing the rose bushes into their new cordons, Scamp pruned some of the plants that were running to seed and I pruned the highest of the roses that were also going over.

With the garden work done just in time to avoid a heavy shower, we waited a while for the sun to come out and went our usual ways. Scamp went to do more rearranging of plants in the garden and I went for a quick walk round St Mo’s. Two circuits gave me what I thought was a skinny little flying ant, but what turned out to be a Sabre Wasp. That became PoD.

I’d a painting to do today for one of our dance teachers. It’s been promised since March and I kept putting it off to do other ones. Today I finished it, mounted it and framed it. We’re intending to go to a Tea Dance tomorrow, so I can deliver it to him then. Hope he likes it.

Later we watched the Sewing Bee and Scamp correctly predicted the winner. Because the SB was on at the same time as Andy Murray’s second round match, we missed the thrilling second half, having watched the first half earlier. If you don’t want to know the score, look away now …

Right we’re back again. Since anyone who was interested, already knows who won and the rest of you aren’t interested, I’m not going to tell you.

Scamp was really pleased that one of the plants she’d been given when we were down at Jamie and Simonne’s was flowering. It’s a little pink geranium. She sent them a picture of it and also a picture of a rose called “Simply the Best” that looks quite startling just now. Of course she got good comments on both and she deserves them.

Tomorrow, as I said, we’re hoping to go dancing at Paisley. Other than that, nothing much planned.

Showers – 28 June 2022

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It rained today, not all day, but occasional heavy showers all day.

We spent the morning looking for a pair of glasses. My glasses. My good glasses, not the cheapo readers I use most of the time, the ones I’m wearing now. No, they were the much more expensive ones I got from the opticians and the ones that, I now realise, don’t give me eye strain. We searched high and low for them, literally. We searched up on the top of cupboards and down under the settee in the living room. We looked in the kitchen, in the toilet, in the bathroom and worst of all in ‘my’ room where strange things are buried under more strange things. Eventually we gave up and had a cup of coffee each and didn’t speak about where they could be or where we hadn’t looked yet. For about half an hour we tried to put the glasses out of our heads instead of on our heads. Finally I frisked the bed for the second, or was that the third time? There, in the middle of the bed I felt a bump that shouldn’t be there. That bump was my glasses. They had been playing ‘hide and seek’ with me, and had chosen a smart hiding place, where I’d left them after I was finished reading in bed this morning. It only took us about three hours to find them. The good thing about the search was that it vastly increased my step count for the day. So, if I found my glasses, why am I wearing readers? Because the ‘lost’ pair had been bad and have been shut in the bedroom all day as a punishment. Furthermore, they have been warned that if they try that ‘hide and seek’ game again, they will be banished to ‘my’ room with all the terrors it contains!

After a lovely lunch of fried potatoes and the leftover chicken goujons from Sunday, Scamp declared that rather than go for a walk round St Mo’s, she’d rather do the ironing. I chose St Mo’s and took the Sony with its big, heavy macro lens, hoping for some wet weather shots taken in the sun during one of the dry spells. The dry spells occurred, but the sun was absent today. Instead I found a Ringlet butterfly, some more spider nests and best of all, a Plume Moth. So small and insignificant you’d pass it by, but if you look closely at this insect you will see its wings are far to narrow to carry it aloft. The reason is that when it lands, it doesn’t fold its wings along its body as most moths do, it rolls them up neatly and holds them out at its side, making a sort of cross shape.

Two of the great things about the Sony A7iii are Silent Shooting and Continuous Shooting. I won’t make Jamie yawn by explaining what they mean, although you can probably guess, I’ll just say that it means you can take lots of pictures in a very short time if you keep the shutter pressed. I managed to take about 200 shots of the Plume Moth in about two minutes. That meant I had 200 shots to look through when I got home.

After I’d done the first cull and got rid of about 150 of them, I started making tonight’s dinner which was Carrot and Lentil Curry. An old favourite and although it wasn’t as good as Scamp’s version, it filled a wee space.

PoD went to the Plume Moth.

Almost felt sorry for Serena Williams getting beat in the first round at Wimbledon. That must be a tough fall from grace.

No plans for tomorrow yet. Weather looks similar to today with perhaps less rain.

 

 

Thirty years a slave – 27 June 2022

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Scamp reminded me that eight years ago today I retired after thirty years a slave.

My good (for ‘good’ read ‘only’) suit was going to the dry cleaners today, hopefully to remove some mysterious marks on the jacket. Since the dry cleaners is next to Tesco, it seemed a shame not to go and get some messages and Scamp’s meds. So we ended up with a fair load to bring back.

Back home Scamp started phoning P&O to check when we could book seats on the plane, only to find after 45minutes hanging on the phone that we do that through Jet 2. However, at least the procedure on Jet2 was really easy. One down. Next we had to get proof of Covid vaccination printed off. Two down, but still more than a few to go.

After lunch we went for a walk round St Mo’s. Once round for Scamp and twice round for me. One of the little green spiders with a red spot near its spinneret caught my eye. Pretty colour patterns on a reed leaf also appealed, but it was a Honeysuckle flower I saw on my way home that got PoD.

Spoke to Jamie tonight and heard about gardening in that enormous garden of his. Also, preparations for moving to a new job are high in his mind.

After dinner we watched Andy Murray get safety through his first match at Wimbledon.

Not a lot done today, but important things ticked off the list. Oh yes, and Scamp has a tiny baby tomato on her plant!

Tomorrow’s activities depend greatly on the weather.