Category: Arachnids

Well, that was a long day – 22 June 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Today was the longest day. I used to argue with my dad about which was the longest day. You were right dad, the 22nd June

After a cup of coffee each, Scamp announced that she was going to the shops to get something for lunch, but before that she suggested Kedgeree for dinner. That suited me and I got a slab of smoked haddock out of the freezer. It was just warm enough to walk to the shops wearing shorts. I thought I’d made the wrong decision at first, but when you’re walking you don’t notice the cool breeze so much.

We walked back and made some lunch. Mine was roast ham, lettuce, baby tomatoes and sweet peppers in a wrap. Scamp had a tomato sandwich. After lunch, Scamp went out to work in the garden. I’d done some gardening yesterday, so that was my work done for the week. Instead, I took the Sony with a short macro lens and a Lensbaby for a walk in St Mo’s. Saw a sneaky spider on a grass flower waiting to ambush any unsuspecting insects and used the Lensbaby to photograph some wild Geraniums bobbing around on the breeze. The geraniums got PoD.

Back home I did a bit of painting, well it was more a case of just slapping some paint on a sketch I did last week. The paint improved the sketch, but then again, covering it in a coat of Crown gloss would have improved it too, in my opinion. I wasn’t impressed.

Tonight’s dinner was Kedgeree which is one of Scamp’s specialities. Spicy but not too hot and lots of lovely smoked haddock in it to give that salty taste to the rice. All topped off with an egg that was just runny and no more. Lovely meal.

Watched another Sewing Bee tonight, but I think it was last week’s episode. I won’t say who left tonight just in case any of my readers haven’t watched it yet. I’d intended watching the first episode of Slough House tonight on Apple TV+ after I signed up to Apple for at least a month. I’d just finished Mick Herron’s latest book, Bad Actors. In the epilogue he explains all the shenanigans that went into making the film for Apple.

Tomorrow we’re booked for coffee with Isobel and after that a visit to Calders is on the cards to find a circular metal support to carry the weight of the flowers on Scamp’s latest rose – Lady of Shalott.

A toy off the rack – 16 June 2022

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In my defense, it’s a long time since I had one.

Scamp was out in the morning having lunch with Mags. While she was out I compared and contrasted the two ‘smart’ watches which would replace the Huawei (not so) smart watch I have just now. To be honest, it’s been a great watch, doing most of the things I needed, then in February came an upgrade and since then the ‘smart’ has gone out of it. It doesn’t record heart rate, it doesn’t record sleep patterns, it doesn’t even have a timer any more. I’ve tried restarting it, factory resetting it and to no avail. Huawei being so secretive, they don’t publish the earlier versions of the OS, and nobody on the net advertises one. Its time has come if you excuse the pun.

By the time Scamp had returned I had decided on a Fitbit Versa3 which was almost the same price as its competitor, the Garmin Venu Sq which is a horrible name for anything. I could get either one in Argos today, so after hearing about the improved food in Wetherspoons in Cumbersheugh, I set off to navigate the labyrinth under the shopping centre of The Toonie. I went with an open mind, knowing that whatever I picked, it would be the wrong one, but the screen was bigger and better quality in the Fitbit, also I’d already had one, two in fact, and knew it would last well for two years, then suddenly die.

I hated it after I got it. The strap has an unusual locking mechanism and is awkward to fasten. The square face is a bit stupid, because all the watch faces for it are round. It was going back. However I had to play-test it and I’d sleep on it, literally.

I took it, and the Sony out for a walk to see if the GPS would work (it did), and while I was out got some photos of Wolf Spiders, the ones that don’t build webs, but ambush their prey instead. Vicious little spiders! Met a lady walking her dog who, the lady that is, was interested to discover that I was photographing spiders, not just lying comatose on the boardwalk! Wolfie made PoD.

Got an email last night from Alex to say that he was laid up. He’d been emptying an old shed that had boxes of weedkiller in it and thinks he may have ingested some! Since you’ll realise that this is a catch-up, I can tell you that he’s feeling a lot better on Friday morning.

I also got a couple of messages from Jamie and Simonne to say that the really love my watercolour picture of their house, which was good to know.

That was about it for Thursday on a lovely warm, sunny day. The Fitbit works for me because I have the records of my old Fitbits to remind me of past walks. From April 2017 until June 2021:

I took 12,814,083 steps
I climbed 32,030 floors
I walked 5,772.65 miles
I burned 4,632,748 calories

That’s not bad, I think.

Tomorrow we’re getting ready for Crawford and Nancy who are coming to dinner. Oh no, more hoovering!!

Visiting Margie – 7 June 2022

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I had the morning to myself and grabbed it with both hands.

Scamp was out for coffee with Annette, which meant I had some time to myself. I’d really meant to pot up my basil plants, but when you’ve got a good book, it’s difficult to put it down. Today’s good book is Bad Actors by Mick Herron, the eighth, and most recent of his Slough House series. That was a good way to use my free time, I thought.

When Scamp came home, and after lunch, we drove up to Margie’s strange wee split level house. She doesn’t get out much now and really seems to enjoy the company. The stories she tells are an entertainment in themselves and time simply flies when we’re there. Two and a bit hours just disappeared today amid stories of drinking Prosecco in the afternoon and dodgy, trouble making family members. We left her to rest before her son came in to make her dinner and keep her company in the evening.

We drove through more roadworks. There seems to be a rash of them these days. It’s like March, when all the excess funding has to be used up before the end of the financial year. But this is June and more needless work is still being done. There must be a reason for it, but it evades me. I got a shock when we went up to Tesco to get petrol and the price at the pump was £1.82 per litre. Last week it was around £1.76! I got enough to do us for the next few days and will shop around for our next fill up.

I still hadn’t a photo for PoD, so after we parked, I took the Sony out for a walk round the pond. Found a spider on its web looking translucent in the afternoon sun. With a bit of jiggery pokery in Lightroom it glowed nicely. Not a lot of insect activity, except from the bees which seemed to be enjoying the afternoon sun. Maybe they’d heard the weather reports, predicting wild weather with high winds and rain that are on the cards for the next few days and are making honey while the sun shines.

Scamp was chef tonight and she made a lovely stir-fry. I can never get the mixture right when I’m making it, but she seems to do it without thinking and gets it right every time. It’s a skill.

Tomorrow the weather starts to turn wet. I may make a loaf from one of my bread kits.

 

Flash dance class – 4 June 2022

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We got a message today to say that due to the small numbers in today’s class, the time would be reduced from 90 minutes to 60 minutes.

I was delighted. Sometimes the dance class goes on for too long and an hour seemed just about right, but by the time we were finishing up, I could have happily worked on for another 30 minutes. However the teachers are the bosses here and we’d added a new Cha-Cha to our dance list. The Charnwood Cha-Cha uses a lot of moves we’ve learned already with just a few differences. I wouldn’t say we had it off pat, but most of it was there. The other dance we did was the ‘Baby Waltz”. So called because it’s a shortened routine. Most of the time I got it right, but towards the end my brain was lagging a bit and I kept making the same mistake, time after time. Eventually we agreed. I was over-thinking it and when I just went with the flow it worked again.

I wanted some stuff in Cass Art in Glasgow and Scamp suggested we go for lunch in Doppio Malto, an Italian restaurant and beer shop. We’d been there before and the focaccia was the best we’d had anywhere. Today Scamp had a Bean Burger with chips and peppers. I had Supreme of Chicken. Not quite the supreme of chicken that I’d had last week at Laura and Ross’s wedding, just a bit more rustic. With grilled aubergine slices, courgette and peppers and served with hand cut skin on chips. And of course we had that super focaccia with rosemary and salt. Just as good, if not better than the last time.

We went to Cass Art but they didn’t have what I was looking for. When we were walking back to the car, Scamp suggested that we go to Hobbycraft as it’s almost on the way. We did, and they had what I was looking for. Also they had dark chocolate chips which I wanted to try making Cantucci (little hard Italian biscuits) what my uncle Jimmy White would have called Hard Tack!

Back home it was really warm but with a gentle breeze to cool things down. I put on my shorts and a tee shirt and took the Sony for a walk in St Mo’s. There I got today’s PoD which was a Green Orb-Weaver Spider, sometimes known as a Cucumber Green Spider.

When I got back, Scamp was already ensconced in the back garden, reading but only with a soda water and lime. I joined her and we had a beer each. I’m now reading Bad Actors because I finished Under Pressure by Robert Pobi. Brilliant book.

Another setback Hazy. The post office in Tesco was closed today because of a strike by postal workers. You couldn’t write this! I might be quicker driving down and handing you the memory stick! I’ll try again tomorrow.

No plans for tomorrow, except to try to post a parcel to Chessington!

 

Out looking for leeks – 2 June 2022

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Any excuse to get out and have a sneaky bit of lunch, but the wee car was sounding exhausted.

We started out early, because a lady would visit us today and ask us to stick a cotton bud thing down our throat and then up our nose before answering a series of very searching questions which we answered very quite honestly. Then after she went away leaving us with a memorable word picture of India we two went different ways. Scamp went to pick up Isobel to go for coffee and I wanted to do some painting. Neither of those things happened. Scamp phoned to say that she though the car was making a strange noise, maybe exhaust? I agreed because I’d heard it as she drove away. I never quite go round to doing any painting, because I wrote a long email to Alex instead. One thing added to my to-do list and immediately ticked off.

When she got back from having coffee at Isobel’s rather than at Costa, we drove off in the blue car to Clydeside, looking for somewhere for lunch and also if they had leek plants in that place, it would be a bonus. Gouldings was the first place we went to and it was bedecked with bunting and purple banners declaring that there was a Platinum Jubilee. The other thing they had was a very long queue for food. So we went looking for leek plants, but, eh, that was something they didn’t have. It’s become more and more difficult to find garden centres that sell veg plants. Flowers, yes. Vegetable plants just aren’t sexy enough though. Nor are they pretty enough. We left empty handed.

The next place was Dobbies which used to be Sandyholm. The car park was almost empty, not a good sign, but I did find leeks in their vegetable area. Scamp found a couple of interesting flowers there too and there was no queue for lunch. So we paid for the plants, put them in the car and went back for lunch. Scampi and chips for two and that was lunch sorted. When we drove past Gouldings on the way home, I did wonder if we’d have had our lunch by then if we’d stayed in that queue.

Dropped in at John & Marion’s to hand over a memory stick with a load of wedding photos on it. Then we continued on our way home to plant out today’s leeks, hydrangea and tomato plants. Actually none of these were planted in the soil, but they were watered with the rest of the garden when we dug out the hose and used it on the front and back gardens. Tomorrow I have kale to plant and also some leeks. Scamp has the flowers to deal with. I also have pea plants to transplant along side one pea plant that is growing from seed in the raised bed. Strangely, it looks as if I’ve got a kale plant growing from last year’s sowing!

I took a walk over to St Mo’s after we got home and got PoD which is a shot of Horsetails looking like an alien jungle. Also, if you look in Flickr you’ll find a pugilistic Wolf Spider that just missed PoD and slightly confused mushroom that thinks it’s autumn come early! On the way back, I had a poke at the exhaust in Scamp’s wee Red car and it’s definitely needing a visit to Jim Dickson’s garage. I think it’s hanging by a thread just now.

Tomorrow we’ve decided it will be a gardening day. Lots to do there now that we have some warmth in the soil, so time to start things growing.

 

The day after – 26 May 2022

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Today was always going to be a day of recovery.

First thing on the cards was to start the washing. Scamp got the washing machine loaded early and after waiting for a clear spell without any rain, she hung it out to be blown about in a strong gusty westerly wind.

We agreed we weren’t going far today. The furthest we went was Tesco for all the things we need to replenish the stores cupboard and the fridge. Scamp drove the wee Red car to Tesco, and just for the sake of it, I tried to open the boot and surprise, surprise, it worked! The boot opened. It hasn’t worked for ages and I thought I’d have to strip down the inside coverings of the boot to find the switch that had stopped working. It looks, now as if the switch has just come loose. Not a completely reliable boot yet, but a step in the right direction.

With the food bought and the cupboards full again, we had lunch. Then I was considering taking a camera around St Mo’s when the rain came on and it was heavy so we had to bring all that washing in again. Later, I did manage to get over to St Mo’s. Photography was difficult in the wind, but in sheltered spots the sun was bright and warm. A little Garden Cross spider made PoD.

Scamp walked down to the shops to get some smoked fish for dinner and I made Haddock and Cabbage Risotto.

I think we accomplished what we set out to do today. A day of recovery. No plans for tomorrow as yet.

Stuffing bags – 17 May 2022

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Scamp was out this morning, early and I decided I should make a final push at stuffing things into bags.

Yes, but stuffing things into bags in such a way that I’d be able to find them again later! That took up most of the morning, by which time Scamp had returned with confetti and cards, because we’re going to a wedding, not today, thankfully, but soon.

Bag stuffing completed and purchasing completed we settled down to lunch.

With some time to spare, I wangled a 3 for today’s Wordle. Scamp wasn’t so lucky, with a 6, but at least she did get the word, which is the target to aim for some days. If you haven’t a clue what I’m talking about, search the interweb for Wordle and join the people driven crazy by this addictive word puzzle. It’s like the old ‘70s peg game Mastermind with a touch of Scrabble thrown in for good measure.

That entertained us for a while before we had to decide what dinner was going to be. I suggested the easy way out – get an instant curry from M&S. That seemed to hit the spot and off we went in search of that quarry. We found a couple of new curries on the shelves. Scamp chose a Prawn Bhuna and I had a Lamb Rogan Josh we also had some Onion Bhajis. We walked back up the road and Scamp volunteered to take the food home which gave me the chance of a walk round St Mo’s. Found today’s PoD near the pond. It’s an as yet unidentified spider with its dinner of a black fly. No macro lens today, so this was captured with the kit lens.

Back home with just enough time to get changed before we headed off for the last week of Jamie Gal’s little pop-up salsa class at the Fort Theatre in Bishopbriggs. Such good fun, and such a pity he doesn’t have the time to keep it going. I’ll miss the exercise on a Tuesday night.

Back home the Bhuna was too much for Scamp so I ‘helped’ her to finish it as well as my own. The verdict was that the Bhuna was just hot enough to be comfortable. The Rogan Josh was good, but needed salt and the Bhajis were just ok. At least we didn’t need to cook it.

Heavy rain tonight that is due to last through the night, leaving a better day tomorrow. Let’s hope they got it right.

 

Tidying up loose ends – 16 May 2022

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Lots of stuff to do yet, but it’s getting clearer what’s needed and what’s not.

It was a wet morning and Scamp was out to Tesco, which gave me a chance to tidy up the back bedroom and clear a space to work on. When she came back the settee was cleared and ready.

To save time we just drove to The Fort. We were parked right next to another blue Micra. Exactly the same model and style. Twins! I wanted a book at Waterstones and she was looking for cards and gift boxes for yesterday’s gifts. I hate that work, ‘gift’. It’s so lacking in definition and emotion. I’d much rather say ‘Prezzy’, but I don’t suppose you can go into a shop and ask “Where do you keep the Prezzy boxes, please?” So that vanilla word, ‘gift’ will have to do. In Waterstones I managed to find both the books I was considering, sitting on the rack next to one another, so I bought both. One with a gift voucher (there’s that word again. I’ll call it a book token next time) and one with real money. The books were “May God Forgive” and “Bad Actors”. Met Scamp on the way back from the book shop and we drove home.

Back home it was lunch time and also time for a couple of chapters in my new Robert Pobi book “Under Pressure”which looks like another page turner. (Hazy, I don’t know if Neil has read this one, it’s the next in the sequence after “City of Windows”. Maybe you could mention to him.) I gave myself a limit of reading until 2.30 and then I had to start sorting things out after. I ended up with the settee covered again with clothes ready to go into cases. After I’d done all I could do, I grabbed a camera and two lenses and walked over to St Mo’s, hoping for some damselflies again, but there were none. The rain from the morning had disappeared and it was actually quite warm. Much warmer that the 10ºc we had going in to The Fort. I did find a big spider tending its web just by the side of the boardwalk and it became PoD. Not much light though, because those heavy rain bearing clouds were still hung overhead, so I took that as a sign to take my lucky spider shots and go home.

Dinner tonight was a bit of a mix up. Boiled some spaghetti, then cut some shallots and red pepper thin and fried them in some oil before adding some passata. While it was cooking through, griddled some slices of courgettes, aubergines and mushrooms in my ribbed pan. When the pasta was cooked I added it to the sauce and served the veg as a side. It was different and it seemed to work. This chapter is a reminder to me of how I made it.

We had a quick refresher of the “Baby” waltz, the Sweetheart Cha-Cha and the Fishtails from the quickstep.

Tomorrow is the last day of the short salsa class in Bishopbriggs. Who knows what Jamie Gal will throw into the mix!

Spider Man – 14 May 2022

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That’s me!

But let’s start at the beginning. We were going to dance class this morning. Up and out by 10.15 and walking in to the clubhouse of Brookfield Bowling Club, where the dance class is on a Saturday morning, by just before 11am.

We weren’t the first on the floor today, that privilege went to a couple who had been learning the first dance for their wedding in a couple of weeks time. Usually we just wait outside and see what delights the cast offs from a Food Bank have for us. It’s a terrible shame to see such good food go to waste when greedy guts like us could eat it. The couple. They needed an audience to demonstrate to and who better to show off their dance to, than us oldies and not so oldies. We watched their routine and while not faultless, it was exceptionally good for just a few short weeks of practise.

After they left, we were on the floor. This was really a preparation for next week’s ball in Perth which we won’t be able to attend. It suited us though, because we got a chance to run through a lot of dances in a short time. Thankfully we got another chance to brush up on our Quickstep, but also the X-Line Tango, the ‘Baby’ Waltz which might be useful soon as well as the Sallyanne Cha-Cha and the Sweetheart Cha-Cha. Not a bad list of dances to cram into an hour and a half. When we left we had to navigate the ‘Boolers’ who were playing their first serious match of the year, all dressed in their bowling whites. How the groundsmen and women manage to keep that grass looking so healthy and so short is beyond me.

Drove home by way of the Clyde Tunnel which cuts off a large part of the 40mph narrow lanes while road repairs are conducted, but also the crawl up to the Kingston Bridge. So much more relaxing after a hard morning’s dancing.

I think we were exhausted after our energetic morning and just sat around for a while after lunch competing with each other for the shortest number of tries at Worldle. Scamp got 5 and I got 3, Hazy. While Scamp walked down to the shops for potatoes, I earthed up OUR potatoes. Two bags almost full of earth now and two about half full.

Later I took the Sony for a walk in St Mo’s, hoping that the heat today would encourage some damselfly activity, but although there was a fair selection of insect life, there are no damselflies as yet. Loads of Wolf Spiders, though. I watched one trying to terrorise an ant, only to be doused in what I think was formic acid from this tiny ant. I don’t think the spider will make that mistake again. A full face shot of a wolf spider made PoD.

Tomorrow we might go for a walk, maybe to Chatelherault.

 

Gardening – 8 May 2022

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Scamp wanted to get the grass cut before the rains came. I wanted to plant some seeds.

Before that, Scamp started off de-icing the freezer. It’s a thankless task, so we split the job between us. Scamp started with a scraper tool and bowls of hot water to start the thaw and I took over with an assortment of kitchen tools plus knives and scrapers from my art supplies. Between us we got the job done fairly quickly.

Lunch was next and after that we started on the gardening. After a lot of huffing and puffing, we did manage to get both of these tasks completed, although I must admit that Scamp’s was by far the more energy sapping of the two. She cut the front grass, strimmed the edges and used her mighty blower to get rid of the loose cuttings. I attempted to dig into the skim of soil that covers a pile of rubble at the end of the garden and planted a row of Ammi majus, the cow parsley look-alike next to the old buddleia just to see if it would grow in such poor soil. Then I planted some Ambassador peas in a tray in the greenhouse and also a line of four of the same peas in the raised bed.

As I was working round the raised bed I saw a little daisy flower sitting in the shade with its flower head in the sun. That seemed like a good subject for the new Lensbaby Sweet 35 optic. It turned out so good, it made PoD.

While Scamp rested her back, I walked mine over to St Mo’s and got a few more with the Sweet 35. It seems a bit more extreme than the Sweet 50. The distortion is much more pronounced, which was the reason I bought it in the first place.

I was having the Lamb Flank Parcel I’d bought yesterday, for my dinner and Scamp was having a chicken pastie. Both with potatoes and carrots. Her’s seemed fine, but my lamb was fatty and probably undercooked. An hour and a half roasting in the oven at Gas 5 is nowhere nearly enough. Just a note to self for when I get round to cooking the other one that’s now in the much cleaner freezer. The other note to self is not to buy Salt & Chilli Wings from Tesco. Took far longer than the stated time and didn’t look anything like wings. Not a good impulse buy. Scamp had made a fruit salad for dessert with apples, oranges and pineapple, plus a tablespoon of Cointreau. Again, not nearly enough Cointreau, but a refreshing end to the meal.

Spoke to Jamie for a while over a very dodgy WiFi connection. Good to see them getting a bit of ‘me time’, or is that ‘us time’? Doing a bit of walking in the Lake District. Heard about plans for the future.

That was about it, except about fifteen minutes ago a tiny little tick appeared on my wrist, just crawling out from under my watch strap. It was quickly despatched before it could get stuck into my heavily medicated blood. First one I’ve seen for ages. On the subject of ‘first one I’ve seen for ages’, yesterday I saw my first swallow this year. They do say that one swallow doesn’t make a summer, but I saw three. Does that make a summer then?

Maybe going looking for a pair of good sturdy brogues tomorrow as an alternative to kilt shoes. Dark brown for preference, although my fashion guru says that won’t go with the rest of the outfit.