Not driving today – 11 December 2022

The wee car got a rest today.

Scamp was the only one braving the icy weather because she was off to Glasgow for lunch and then a concert at the Royal Concert Hall. Me? I was to stay at home waiting for a parcel that would be arriving some time before 10pm. Amazon are really good at giving you a time slot for their deliveries, but it would be good if the time slot was a bit narrower! At least it gave me an excuse to stay in the warm.

I did actually go out for a while, but only the back garden to get something to put in Flickr. That something turned out to be a photo of a Christmas Rose. If you look closely, you’ll see that it has a frozen water drop hanging from it.  It got PoD. Another photo that was competing for first place was one of a strawberry flower that never quite managed to turn into fruit, but I liked it anyway. It’s on Flickr.

The parcel eventually arrived just after 4pm, by which time the sun had set and the temperature was dropping away. I was glad I’d taken the opportunity to get those flower photos in the garden.

Scamp sent a text to say that she was on the 6.05pm bus and after shuffling around the different bus time tables, I was pretty certain that it was due to arrive in Cumbersheugh about 6.40, so I got wrapped up and put my boots on, then went out to meet her because the paths were treacherous with only a few of them being gritted. As I was walking through the estate I saw something running up the road that crossed my path. At first I though it was a ginger cat, then realised cats don’t have that shape of muzzle. It was a fox. Not a big one, but it was loping along at a fair lick. Who would be a fox in this weather. My calculations were correct. I met Scamp at the bus stop but while I was waiting I grabbed a quick, almost abstract photo with my phone. It was a security light casting a shadow of some weeds onto the new perspex bus shelter. It will need some work to make it useable, but it might appear on Flickr once I’ve fixed it. We took our time to walk back along the path. My boots are great for keeping your feet dry, but they’re not much good on ice. I should have worn my YakTrax. It’s that time of year.

I’d already decided that my dinner tonight was going to be from the freezer and it was a portion of Carrot and Lentil Curry. Scamp wasn’t impressed because I think she was going to have it for her lunch this week!

Spoke to Jamie and heard about Simonne’s third bout of Covid, yes THIRD!  Poor woman must be fed up looking at test kits and wondering what she did to deserve this.  Jamie was having a hard time at work too.  Trying to disguise the annual Secret Santa from visiting American dignitaries.  Even worse is the prospect of having to work in the days between Christmas and New Year.  However, being Jamie, he always manages to smile about it.

I might get out tomorrow for some frost photos because otherwise we’ve a free day. Maybe we’ll go for some messages too.

 

Keeping Fit – 22 July 2022

Not me! This was Scamp’s adventure into dancing fitness.

Scamp was out just after 11am to go to a Fitsteps Tone. I have a Fitbit, so I don’t need Fitsteps too. My Fitbit keeps me toned to perfection. However, while she was away I spent a worthwhile hour or so running up and down the stairs, lifting stuff and searching through other stuff, looking for my Kindle. I thought I’d done almost as much exercise as Scamp had. That was until she came home still sweating from her class. About half an hour after that, I found my Kindle buried under a load of cartridge paper in my room. I really must tidy it up THIS WEEK! Apparently the class was a great success and she really enjoyed it. It certainly looked strenuous.

After lunch, I drove over to Fannyside and got some photos of what I though were sheep, but which turned out to be goats. Very nosy goats that came right up to the fence and one in particular more or less demanded that I take its picture, which I did, of course. I’d intended getting some landscape photos, but there was a van parked in my usual parking space so I went for a drive along the single track road to Arns which is a couple of houses about 50m apart. I eventually gave up looking for somewhere scenic to photograph and drove back to see if Van Man had moved on. Thankfully he had and I got my landscape photos. The lighting had been better earlier, but since there is only room in the parking place for one vehicle, I couldn’t stop.

I drove back after getting some moody cloudscapes. I stopped just after the boatyard at Fannyside Loch and got some better shots with the loch sparkling in the sunshine that had appeared. Behind the sun I could see the rain clouds looming and sure enough, as I was driving down towards Cumbersheugh the first splashes of rain hit the windscreen.

The rain stopped. I, too, stopped, at Tesco and tried to get a pizza and two litres of milk, but with a queue of twelve folk, some with the weekly shop in their trolleys, waiting for a slot in the self-service checkouts, and only two of the ten main checkouts in operation, I put the milk and pizza back in the racks and left empty handed. You’d think that a company like Tesco would be able to organise its staff better. It’s not as if they wouldn’t know that Fridays were going to be busy. The shop is usually jumping on a Friday. Or, do we blame it all on Covid again?

I went to Iceland, got the pizza and the milk and got served in a quarter the time it would have taken in Tesco. Maybe I’m just in a ranting mood today because Van Man stole my parking space in Fannyside!

Pizza was ok, but the glass of cheap Malbec wine was better. All was well with the world again. The PoD went to the photogenic goat, and second prize went to the landscape shot I took of Fannyside Loch.

We spoke to John and Marion in the evening and got an invitation to dinner next month. That will be good. That put another smile on my face. Wrote to Alex and sent him some photos.

Just before Marion phoned the rain started again. Not a shower this time but good heavy soaking rain. Good for the garden.

Tomorrow we may go out somewhere, but I also want to clear a space on the sofa in my room.

A Busy Day – 9 June 2022

This was always going to be a busy day. The question was ‘How Busy?’

I was first out. I was driving Scamp’s wee Red car down to Jim Dickson’s garage to get its exhaust fixed. It was a hairy drive with the exhaust banging and clanging all the way there and once I got to the village, I had the speed bumps to contend with. I was praying that the exhaust would hold on until we reached the garage. It did. I got it booked in and left to meet Scamp, who was driving the Blue car and had picked up Shona.

We swapped over drivers at the village and I drove the rest of the way to the hospital just outside Falkirk. Shona was going there for an X-ray to check that her broken arm was healing properly. With her dropped off, we drove to Torwood garden centre for a cup of coffee and a cake each. Then we walked round the plants. We were really looking for some bark to put on the plant pots to retain some moisture in them and also to dissuade the slugs from eating them. Apparently slugs don’t like crawling over bark. By the way, bark has now been renamed “Woof!” in the house. Oh! the fun we’ve had with that ?. We did find some bags of bark which would actually fit into the car and dumped one in a shopping trolley.

Of course we had a look at some of the plants too. Both of us have been looking for a plant called Snow in Summer. It used to be very common, but we couldn’t find it anywhere. Today Scamp found what looked like a pot of it. I checked the name on my phone and it was indeed correct. We got two pots of it, one small one to go in with the alpines and another to go into the general garden. Pelargonium Grandiflorum was our other purchase. Lovely colourful big flowers.  I found a part of the garden centre I’d not seen before.  It’s laid out as a sort of zoo enclosure with resin cast animals in it.  Some quite realistic, some not so much.  I took a couple of photos on the better examples.  They’re up on Flickr.

We loaded them all into the car boot and sat for a few minutes before Shona phoned to say she was ready to go. She had offered to buy lunch for us, so we drove to Broadwood Farm and had a taste of their carvery lunch. Scamp had turkey, Shona knew the server ? and got turkey, ham and beef. I had ham and beef. There was mash, carrot and turnip, peas, stuffing and gravy to hand and I think I had all of them except the mash. A very enjoyable lunch.

After lunch we went back to our house for Shona to see the wedding photos from two weeks ago. Halfway through the show I got a phone call to say the car was ready. When the show was finally over we drove Shona home, then down to the garage where we swapped over again and Scamp drove home while I settled the bill and followed her home.

There was a rain shower just as I was going out to get some photos, this time with the A6000. I’d taken a few shots earlier and although they looked good on the camera, I wanted a few more just to be sure. This time I used the 55-210mm lens, but the gusty wind made it a hit or a miss. In the end it was a shot of some daisies waking from the rain that got PoD.

I drove Scamp up to the Link in the evening to get her Pneumonia jag. It’s a once-only jag for over 65s.

That was a busy day with so many changes and things done. However, the wee Red car is back in business. Now all we need to do is save up enough money to put some petrol in its tank!

Tomorrow there is talk of going somewhere, possibly for lunch.

 

The day after – 22 May 2022

… the night before.

This was going to be a day of recovery. Recovery from too much to drink, from too much food and from too much dancing in new shoes.

We didn’t break surface until after 9am. Tea in bed with a good book. Then after that and after showering away yesterday’s excesses, breakfast proper. A look out the window confirmed our suspicions that there wouldn’t be much sunshine today. There would, however be a lot of rain.

Scamp went next door to speak to her sister and to see how she and Ian were getting on. She had walked much further than I had. I didn’t even pass the threshold. I took today’s PoD from the open kitchen window.

I did, however, have to go to the door in the afternoon when an american lady decided she’d just drop in to see us. I don’t know who she was or what she thought she was doing, but she soon got as far as the front hall before she got the “bum’s rush”. She allegedly thought this was a B&B and her husband wanted to use our ‘rest room’. I told her very little, and directed her to the house at the end of the drive. I know there is a sort of open door policy in the Highlands and Islands, but it’s strictly for locals, not for americans wanting to use our facilities. Anyway, we don’t have a room to rest in.

The rest of the day was without incident, but with a lot more rain. It was fish and chips for dinner. Both of which were cooked in the oven. Not an exceptional meal, but after yesterday’s excesses, something more grounded was required today.

Watched the Spanish GP, a boring race with little to recommend it.

Tomorrow we’re invited to dinner at Columba. A family dinner.

Coffee with Val – 19 January 2022

Out for coffee and a blether with Val.

As usual, Val was sitting there waiting for me when I arrived dead on 11am. It had been a beautiful morning with a sky that started off blue overhead and changed to a lovely warm pink over the hills, with the retiring moon sitting above the houses, away to the west. Of course I just had to open the back window to take a photo … or four.

We had coffee and a panettone each and sat discussing the world, food and technology for an hour and a half. The time just seemed to fly past and then Val had to go for a walk to prevent his legs from seizing up and I went to take some photos up on Fannyside. It’s a great place on a good day with views over the local countryside to the south and the chance to watch the cloud shadows over the Campsies to the north. The south view won today and that’s where today’s PoD came from. A herd of curly haired sheep mainly brown, but some black. Possibly a ram in with them, but that was a guess because they were hiding among the Scots Pine trees and some were so hungry they were eating the bark!

Drove home and had lunch then Scamp continued with the work she’d been doing in the morning. Dusting is not my favourite task, but I felt shamed into helping because the sun shining brightly in the front windows seemed to highlight all the dust sitting on any flat surface. I took the big bookcase behind my chair as my target for the day. I tried dusting the top shelf without moving the books, but it was impossible, so I removed all the books and put them in piles on the table. In between the bigger books I found a map and pictures of Venice my dad had brought or sent back from Italy during WW2. I remember him taking the book out of the bureau and showing us the map of the islands and pointing out where his billet was. There it was on the back page, neatly printed with an arrow to show where it was. It’s very fragile now and I might scan the pictures for posterity, but it’s folded up again and back in its place in the bookcase. If I hadn’t been so determined to dust the shelf properly today, I’d never have found it. I thought it was lost for good.

The wifi disappeared again tonight for a couple of hours. It seems that there are a few problems with both TV and broadband signals in the area.

It was cold today, but the bright sun made it feel warmer than it was. Hoping for the same weather tomorrow. We may go out somewhere for lunch.

Climbing and Flying – 1 September 2021

The assault on Croy Hill, the reverse direction.

Scamp suggested we go and visit Silvanus, the Roman warrior’s head that stands on the edge of Croy Hill, and instead of walking the usual path from Croy itself, we could walk along the canal and up on to the old railway line and tackle the hill from the north. It was a beautiful morning with blue skies and sun, so the walk seemed like a good idea, but first I wanted a closer look at a plane.

We’ve seen and heard a Spitfire flying around the town and I wanted a closer look. With that thought in mind we drove up to Wardpark and past the airfield, but saw no evidence of the old warbird. Disappointed I drove over to Kilsyth and from there to Auchinstarry where we parked and put on sensible walking boots for the walk.

I’d forgotten just how steep the climb was from the canal up to the old mineral line, but thankfully once we had reached that path, most of the hard work was done and we were on level ground for a stretch. The statue of Silvanus was much further along than we remembered, but as we were walking I could hear the sound of the Spitfire’s Merlin engines although I couldn’t see the plane itself. I checked with Flightradar24 and found that the plane was almost over Carron Reservoir, about 5 miles away. The sound of the plane faded as it dropped behind the hills. We walked on and as we neared the statue we could hear it returning. This time, with the help of Flightradar I found it heading straight for us. I took a few photos of it before it banked and overflew the airfield before climbing and performing a neat slow roll. Then it turned and headed back with flaps and undercarriage down. A few more photos before it disappeared over the hill to the airfield. I wasn’t sure I’d captured it, but at least it was better than nothing. A little bit of research at home led me to its website. You can book a flight in this two seater Spitfire. £3,000 will get you a 30 min flight in this old lady, which is five years older than me. I may have to save my pennies for a long time before I book that flight!

We met a bloke at the statue who was a Kilsyth local and was impressed that he’d ID’d the Spitfire. He wasn’t a fan of the Silvanus head, but like us was pleased that it hadn’t been vandalised in the time it had been up on the hill. We said our goodbyes and headed up over the hill while he seemed to take a lower path. I must admit I was wary of the hill because we’d passed notices to say that the cattle were back on the hill for the winter. These cattle are big brutes, if I remember right and I don’t like cattle at the best of times. “The best of times “ being when there’s a fence between them and me. There are no fences on Croy Hill. However we didn’t meet any today and we took the ‘easier’ paths where they were available, missing out the tourist routes over the tops.

When we had passed the top and were coming down the other side I realises Scamp wasn’t behind me. I walked back, expecting to find her having a seat somewhere. She was nowhere to be seen. I shouted for her, twice, but no response. I changed to a wider path that was closer to the edge and there she was. Did she not hear me shouting? Yes, she had. That could have been a time to pick up a ‘black monkey’, but for some reason I didn’t lose it. I think I was just glad to see she hadn’t come to any harm. She said she was on the right path and knew I’d eventually realise I was on the wrong one. That could be the story of my life!

When we got back to the car it was absolutely boiling inside. Drove home with the air con on full. It was lovely.

I spent the afternoon cleaning the sensors of the two Sonys. They seem to be absolute dust magnets. They are a bit cleaner now. Not perfect, but a lot better than they were. After that I got a request from Jamie to fix a photo for Sim. It was a fairly easy bit of editing, made even easier by the new Photoshop. Scamp was cleaning up the leaves in the back garden and managed to scrape both arms raking leaves from under the blackcurrant bush. Then it was Guinness and Pimms time in the garden, in the sun.

Fish & Fried Potatoes with tomatoes for dinner. A new twist on Fish & Chips. After that we sat in the garden while I listened to the end of my Alan Parks book, Bobby March Will Live Forever. Good story with a poor reader. It was there I got PoD. I was looking at a wee single sweet pea flower backlit by the setting sun. It took a wee bit of editing to get it looking like my eyes saw it, but that’s what Lightroom excels at.

A quick practise tonight. Just about half an hour at the most, but we covered Tango, Waltz, Cha Cha and Bossa Nova in that time.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending to go for lunch with Isobel, June and Ian. I’m hopefully meeting Val for coffee in a different place, but at almost at the same time. Scamp and I will be able to compare and contrast our experiences!

And the answer was …! – 15 May 2021

Beecraigs Park

Scamp was in agreement and off we drove to Linlithgow where we climbed (in the car) up a never-ending hill with speed bumps every 50m or less for an astounding 1,030m. If you do the division, you will discover that’s a helluva lot of speed bumps. Probably quite useful for boy racers coming down that hill, especially at night. However for me going up it was literally a pain in the bum. Eventually we drove into a mono-blocked and grassed parking place. Neither of us remembered this. We walked through and down to the Information Centre which I thought I remembered, but then realised it was much newer that it looked at first glance. Great panorama from the viewing gallery down to Linlithgow itself and across the Forth to Fife. This wasn’t the Beecraigs we remembered.

We walked down the road past the new caravan park and found the entrance to the park proper. This was more like it. What looked like a pedestrian bridge reminiscent of the old walkways over the lines at railway stations took us over the deer fence and on to the wide paths between the fields. The bridge, too, gave great views over the Forth, but where were the deer. There were cattle in the park where the deer used to roam. We found the deer further down the path, just hind, although the sign said there were stags in the field. If there were any the were cunningly disguised as hinds. We walked on.

Further along the path we came to the Loch. At least that hadn’t changed significantly, although because of Covid restrictions the two man rowing boats for fishing the loch were securely locked up in a pound. I suppose it’s hard to keep a two metre distance in a wee rowing boat. The geese and their goslings didn’t seem too bothered with the two meter rule.  They were too busy teaching the youngsters to swim and to feed properly.  It was good walking the paths through the enormous pine trees round the loch. They do say the air blowing through pines is good for your respiration. Our biggest disappointment in this new, ecologically friendly and Health & Safety conscious park was the children’s adventure playground. What had been an enormous pyramid constructed from ropes and bungee cords was now a shadow of its former self. I don’t know if you remember it JIC, but I don’t think you’d have felt a daredevil climbing that. With that said, lots of weans were screaming and shouting as they found their own adventures in this playground.

We eventually found our way back to the car and drove home down that steep hill with its uncountable speed bumps. We agreed we’d go back again. PoD turned out to be a goose standing proud in the loch. It seemed almost prehistoric to me.  I can’t explain why.  It was a close run thing between that and a monochrome shot across the Forth with the bridges on the right. It’ll be on Flickr as soon as I can get it loaded.

Dinner tonight came courtesy of Golden Bowl. Scamp had her usual Chicken Chop Suey and Fried Rice. I had Sweet and Sour Chicken Balls. Maybe my last one because the sweetness was just too much for me and I felt a bit ill afterwards. Chicken Chow Mein in future.

Short practise of the Cha-Cha tonight, mainly because we got the video of it today. Sketch topic was Medicines and my two bottles and a tube are here for your perusal. Glad you liked yesterday’s socks Hazy and recognised both your handiwork and also your repair!

Tomorrow, if the weather allows, we may go for a walk.

Out early and out of North Lanarkshire – 31 March 2021

We’d planned to go out today, driving and walking if the weather permitted and it did, so we did too!

We drove to Chatelherault in Hamilton or Fernigair to be more exact. I was never in Fernigair, I only passed it in the bus coming home from work in Cambuslang. I must have passed it going to work too, but I was probably half asleep then. I remember that all the houses were wooden framed and painted dark brown. Now they’ve all gone and been replaced by the tiny chicken box houses that cost a fortune and become too small for a growing family which forces them to buy a bigger chicken box somewhere else. And so the money goes round.

Chatelherault was then a private estate, owned by the landed gentry and mere proles like us were not permitted to even see their grand house behind its big stone wall. Nowadays anyone can tramp round their once private estate and that was our intention today. Last night we planned our route. We’d take the low path from the ‘Big House’ down through the forest and along beside the river to the ‘White Bridge’, then climb the steps to the high path and from there back to the car. That was the plan. Plans are a great idea. Even better is ignoring them.

The walk started well and there was just the hint of blue sky breaking through the clouds. What’s more, it was quite warm. Not South of England, 24º warm, but nearer 12º Scottish warm. We wandered along the path through the trees and listened to the Avon flowing beside us on the right and to the waterfalls coursing down the side of the glen on the left. Of course I just had to try a slow shutter shot (or five) of the waterfalls. The path was fairly dry which was good because I’d worn my Merrell blotting paper boots. Their only good point is the grips on the soles that are much better at preventing slips than the polished soles of the Clarks boots. Now if I could only remove the soles from the Merrells and glue them onto the Clarks boots I’d have the ideal walking boots. Even better, if Nic the Chick would let Tiso open up sooner, I’d be able to buy a pair of boots the equal of my Frankenstein invention.

Back to the path. The path meanders horizontally and also vertically which makes it much more interesting than any road or asphalt path. Parts of it are almost straight and the gradient is gentle, but that’s because the path is following the route of an old mineral railway line. After that line ended we had to climb steps over a rocky part and then it was down the other side and we were almost at the White Bridge. There is a tubular metal barrier across the path at that point and a sign saying PATH CLOSED. The amount of boot marks and paw prints gave the lie to that notice, so we to ignored them. We both knew that the White Bridge was no longer there. Only the pillars remain. Scamp wasn’t happy with clambering over a gap in the boardwalk that would take us to the remains of the bridge and to be honest, neither was I, but I did it and came back without injury.

We discussed our best path back to the car and decided not to climb the steps to the high path, but rather take a fork in the path we’d seen on the way there, that would take us to the Old Avon Bridge. We found the fork without any trouble and followed the path below the Duke’s bridge and after a few hundred yards were at another decision. Do we follow the path to the Old Bridge or take a path up the side of the glen to the Big House. We chose the latter and it was a tough climb. A rest halfway up gave us time to catch our breath and we continued on to meet yet another level of path. From there I could see the avenue at the front of the house. It was an easy ramble from there along past the White Park cattle the estate is famed for and on to the car for a slice of orange, then home.

After we’d had lunch and I’d inspected the photos. I took a walk over to St Mo’s partly to get some more ammunition for a PoD and partly to stretch my legs. The photos didn’t really materialise, but my legs felt better for the stretching.

PoD became the photo of the Duke’s Bridge taken at the start of the walk. About seven miles walked and according to my Fitbit 16,000 steps and 69 sets of stairs climbed. Unfortunately, only 7 out of 8 active hours. The Fitbit is never satisfied!

Saw some Wood Anemones and bright yellow Celandine on our walk. Also smelled Wild Garlic which will always be called Stinking Ingins. (ingins is Scots for onions). I should have foraged some to make pesto.

Hopefully a more gentle day tomorrow. Maybe another leg stretching walk in store.

A walk in the woods – 6 March 2021

Different woods.

It being a beautiful morning, Scamp was raring to go out … somewhere … anywhere. By the time we did get out the sun had disappeared and the clouds were sliding in. Those same milky white clouds that have dogged us all week. We walked down to Broadwood Loch and followed the path clockwise, which like yesterday was against the natural flow of people on the Broadwood Travelator. Again we took the first available exit and walked through the woods where we found a single deer, a hind, grazing beside Orchardton Pond. It stood for a few minutes inspecting us before it returned to its grazing. It was not in the least fazed by these humans pointing things at it. I suppose it must get used to the people walking along this path. I’m sure it wouldn’t be so happy being next to the Broadwood Travelator.

We left the deer to its breakfast and walked deeper into the woods following a winding path between the trees which eventually brought us back to the main path where we continued to walk against the flow until we were back on familiar ground along the ‘exercise machines’ path and from there back up the hills to home. My back was aching carrying one small and one big camera. I really have to be more sensible about these things. One camera is enough with a couple of lenses, but not the great weight of the 105mm macro or the old 70-300mm tele. A walk is no fun when you’re carrying a heavy load. Anyway, I’d pointed a piece of glass at a deer and got a few shots, one of which I was certain would make a decent PoD. As it was, there were quite a few decent shots, but I settled on this shot of the deer hind as my PoD.

Exercise over for the day, I settled down to finish yesterday’s Sudoku and then to select eight photos to send with my bi-monthly (that is every second month, not twice a month) email to my brother. Actually I was running a bit late this time as ‘Every Day in February’ had stolen away so much time. That took most of the remaining afternoon and is in fact, just posted!

Dinner tonight was courtesy of Bombay Dreams which is soldiering on as a delivery service. Quite the best Indian food in Cumbersheugh by a long way and enormous portions. Also the hottest Rogan Josh I’ve had anywhere and the squeakiest Paneer that Scamp has eaten. Half of it was consumed tonight and the remainder we’ll keep until tomorrow, possibly for dinner tomorrow night.

A gentle dance practise tonight just to make sure we (for ’we’ read ’I’) remember it for tomorrow’s lesson. I got both the rumba and the waltz correct … second time around. That was quite good for me. We were both happy with it.

Tomorrow looks like rain. I doubt if a walk will be on the cards, but you never know.

Dances with Wolves – 25 February 2021

Honestly, it will all become clear

It was a lovely morning which we kind of wasted by sitting inside. We had a webinar booked with the man from Falkirk. There is the risk that listening to someone who is so steeped in his subject may turn out to be heavy in jargon and ultimately tedious. No fear of that with this twosome. Both he and his sidekick explained the intricacies of the financial world in simple terms, leavened with a fair amount of humour. He and his female counterpart would make excellent teachers.

By the time we were through and had returned to the here and now, it was almost lunchtime so we had our toasted cheese and listened to Nic the Chick twisting and turning, trying to make everyone believe she’s squeaky clean. Now I much prefer the Sturgeon to the Salmond, but neither of them are to be believed. As my pal John would say, “You know they’re lying because their lips are moving.” That sums up politics and politicians as far as I’m concerned. To clear our heads we went for a walk.

We needed food for dinner, so we walked down to the shops, via St Mo’s because the weather was still good, if not as bright as it had been earlier. Came home laden with more than we had intended getting, but who’s counting how many cakes we need?

Today’s prompt was “Wolf” and since there are no wolves near where we live, I resorted to Google to find some likely subjects. With half a dozen chosen I dumped them into Google Drive and sat down to finish today’s Sudoku. Then I dumped some kidney beans, some chilli paste and a few hot peppers in yesterday’s bolognese and voila we have a chilli for tonight’s dinner. Scamp was having fish with veg and rice, so we agreed to half the rice between us and dinner was sorted. Mine was a bit tasteless, but boy it was hot. Wish I’d bought some sour cream at the shops.

After dinner had slid down, we attempted Stewart and Jane’s waltz Spin Turn. I tried it in my dancing shoes, but the didn’t slide enough on the carpet. I tried it in my sox, but the gripped the carpet too. I didn’t trust my bare feet to Scamp’s dancing shoes, but the most help was Scamp’s count of the beats and also slowing down Stewart and Jane’s tutorial video to 75%. I even found how to use iMovie to slow the video but not distort the speech. Perfect. Well, as close to perfect as we were going to get tonight.

I’d already sorted out PoD which is some Cladonia lichen with a little moss tree making a macro garden of sorts. Looks totally alien to me as most macro shots do. It’s a miniature world of its own. Time to tackle that wolf. I glanced at some tutorials on YouTube that promised methods for drawing realistic wolf heads, but most of them were from influencers who just shout at you and then stumble through 25 minutes of ‘tutorial’ with about 5 minutes of content. After suffering a few of these, I took my sketchpad and pencils up stairs, turned the heater on low and had a good look at the wolf pictures I’d found on Google. From them I built up a framework of a dog-like head and from there stretched out some parts and reduced others until a lupine head appeared. A little bit of yellow watercolour for the eye and we were done.

Tomorrow the weather looks settled, so I think we’ll try a drive somewhere with a flask of coffee and a couple of pieces. A February picnic.