Category: Beasties

Here, there and everywhere – 19 September 2024

Posted on by Zogman

That’s how it felt. We seemed to be here, there and everywhere.

I was driving Scamp to the train station this dull morning to catch the train to Glasgow. Then I was going shopping for the ingredients for tomorrow’s dinner with Crawford & Nancy and June & Ian (I don’t know why Crawford comes before Nancy, but June comes before Ian!). Once the shopping was done I came home and had my lunch. I had most of the items on my list.

After lunch I lay down on the toilet floor and squirted more silicone up into the offending joint and almost choked on the vinegar smell from the silicone. For the second time in a week I remembered to put on the disposable gloves before I started using the sealant gun. If you don’t, it’s a messy job getting rid of the sticky silicone. Hopefully the joint will be sealed now, at least temporarily, although it will need a plumber to repair it properly.

By then, Scamp was probably on her way to meet Mags for lunch in Cumbersheugh town centre, having got an express bus from Glasgow. At last, the clouds were clearing and the sun was shining.
I was on my way to meet Fred for a coffee in Tesco. We spent an hour or so, Fred and I, setting the world to rights. Something we haven’t done for ages. Then he unloaded a few books on to me. The only thing about Fred is that he tells you almost the whole story of the book as he’s handing it to you! You don’t really need to read the book then! With the book exchange complete, we parted ways, he going to get his meds and I was going home. Tesco coffee is awful! Worse than Costa!

After catching up with Scamp, and hearing about her day, I went over to St Mo’s to see if there were any flying beasties worth photographing. Almost right away I found a Black Darter, but it was well named. It darted this way and that and wouldn’t settle. I let it have its way and waited until it trusted me, then I got a few photos of it sitting on a horsetail plant. That was PoD sorted.

Dinner tonight was Fish Fingers, Egg and Spaghetti. Then it was time for me to start the prep for tomorrow’s dinner party, Chicken Tagine. I’d made it fairly recently, but this time I had all the ingredients. It took a good hour and a half to get all the prep done and the cooking completed. It looks exactly like the last one, but just not as sweet. I think it will do the trick. I’m just doing the main with Scamp making the starter and dessert. My work is done for now.

Tomorrow more prep and more cooking probably.

Still looking – 7 September 2024

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After yesterday’s failure to find a suitable rain jacket, today we were venturing into Glasgow to cast my net wider.

First stop was Tiso, but there wasn’t much I was willing to shell out money for, but I did have other possible places, so we went up Sauchiehall Street to the rather posher Nevisport where the bloke who was serving got all technical and explained the difference between all the jackets and also talked a lot of sense. Although the jackets he was selling were expensive, I could understand where my ideas of a waterproof, breathable jacket with lots of pockets was a pipe dream, rather than a practical piece of kit. It looks like I have to be more realistic in my search.

I thanked him and wandered down to Blacks. Once upon a time it was a very well thought of walking and climbing sports shop, in fact we still have a tent and flysheet deep down in a cupboard that we bought in Blacks many years ago. For a while there it was a bit nearer the GO Outdoors type of shop than the Nevisport, but although it is a bit more cut price than quality, it’s moving up in the world again. I saw a few jackets that might just work. I’ve given up on the possibility of lots of pockets, but now want at least a double skin jacket with a decent wire framed hood. Colour is immaterial! We had a look in the smaller Tiso in the centre of town, but they had a very limited range, so we went for lunch.

We went to Wagamama, after the success of Izakaya I wanted to compare it to Wagamama’s version. There was no comparison. Izakaya may have been expensive, but the flavours they put into a bowl of beef stock were miles ahead of the watery taste of Wagamama. So disappointing. Scamp also said her curry was a bit tasteless too, so it my just be that particular shop that’s worth avoiding.

Got the bus home and I went walking in St Mo’s with the A6500 and the 70-180mm zoom lens. It’s a strange combination of the big lens with the small sensor, but it just seems to work. Got a nice PoD of a male damselfly backlit so the head and mouth parts of the insect almost seem translucent.

Feeling down to earth – 5 September 2024

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Not just physically down to earth, but also emotionally down, because the big adventure was over for now.

Hundreds of photos to wade through. Literally almost 800 photos to grade and work through. It’s great fun taking the photos, but not so much fun culling them and organising them. I addition to which, the month changed half way through the holiday and there were conventions to sort through putting files in order in the right place … Aargh! It’s a nightmare just thinking about it, but it has to be done. I have to remind myself, this is a task I’ve set myself for more than ten years now. Every year it gets harder, but I won’t change it just yet.

Today the cases were opened and the first load of essentials were dumped in the washing machine and then it was switched on.

I went out for a walk in St Mo’s and got today’s PoD which was a Jenny Long Legs. Not to be confused with a Daddy Long Legs which is an arachnid, as you well know.

We had taken the bins out last night and today it was time to drag them back in again. Normality had returned.

Tomorrow, more of the same, probably.

Dancin’ – 22 August 2024

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Bright sunny day that developed the look of rain, which never appeared until evening.

We were going dancing today at Glenburn, but before that, Scamp went shopping for bread and milk, so that after lunch we could get changed into dancing clothes and go.

We didn’t dance as much as we’d thought we would because we were sitting with a couple from Largs. The lady struck up a conversation with Scamp while we men sat around and chipped in the occasional comment, as men do.

We did manage a fairly lengthy quickstep without making it too obvious that we were repeating a lot. I attempted Fishtails, but need a lot more practise on the actual strategy of fishtails before I can confidently insert them into full dance. There are lots of little steps like that we know and just need the confidence to add them to our short routine. Practise, that’s what we need the most. Anyway, it passed an afternoon that otherwise we’d have used up sitting around the house.

Drove home and had an M&S curry for dinner. For the first time I was distinctly unimpressed with the Chicken Tikka which was just bland with nothing to commend it in my opinion.

We watched episode 1 of a series called Vienna Blood, set in 1906 Vienna. I drew comparison immediately with The Turkish Detective which even with occasional subtitles was a much better series. Scamp took issue with the close-ups of staring eyes. Maybe episode 1 was a good place to stop.

The PoD was a robin that stopped for a quick splash in the birdbath in the afternoon. Another swimmer I saw today was a snail, complete with shell in an old mushroom tub sunk in the raised bed, I’d originally poured some no alcohol beer into it to see if the smell would attract slugs to drown in it, but they appeared uninterested in pretend beer. This snail, however wasn’t drowning in the now rainwater tub, it was actually swimming. I’ve once seen a big black slug paddling in puddles with its ‘head’ above water, but this snail seemed to be floating in the water. Maybe the shell holds enough air to make it buoyant. I must investigate that.

Tomorrow we may be going east in search of some sun.

Return of the damsels – 14 July 2024

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One of those days with a white sky above the Campsie Fells but with low clouds lying in the valley. It happens a lot here it’s temperature inversion I think.

Once the day had warmed up and we’d solved Wordle and Spelling Bee, it was almost lunchtime. Scamp made Shakshuka which is eggs poached in tomatoes and spices. It was very nice, too. I think I could probably stretch to cooking that.

The big story of the day was the shooting of Donald Trump. Just a flesh wound, thankfully and the assailant was brought down in a hail of bullets which seems to be the American way of dealing with these things. Still, I suppose they had to avoid the bloodbath that could so easily have happened.
On a lighter note, I was wondering if one of the security guards really did shout Donald, Duck!

We watched Laura Kuenssberg’s attempt to get some sense from some Labour Party woman who only wanted to robotically recite the party line ad nauseam. Not a lot of cut and thrust there and I got the feeling that Laura was thankful when that interview finished.

Moving away from politics, and on to more interesting stuff, Scamp was ‘tidying up’ things in the garden later in the afternoon and I took myself off to St Mo’s to see if there was any activity there. Indeed there was. Not only were there butterflies flitting around, but also there was one dragonfly and a few skittish common blue damsels. Two or three days of warm sunshine had brought them out.

When I came back, Scamp and I sat reading for a while, while cooling down with a G&T each. It was quite pleasant until the rain started and forgot to stop. It didn’t get really heavy, but it was persistent.

Dinner tonight came from the freezer and was reheated Carrot & Lentil Curry for Scamp and reheated Chilli con Carne for me. Dessert was half a strawberry trifle shared between us. The remaining half will hopefully be tomorrow’s dessert.

PoD was a Common Blue damselfly sitting on the edge of the boardwalk today. Most of the insects were very nervous and flew off whenever I came too close. This one didn’t. It just sat there soaking up the sun and watching me, intently. It felt like it was sizing me up as its next meal!!

I walked home before it could attack.

England lost in the final of the Euros. That’s a pity, but at least it might “put their gas at a peep” as we say in Scotland, at least what auld guys say in Scotland!

No plans yet for tomorrow. As usual, it all depends on the weather.

 

Wet and Windy – 3 July 2024

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Another day when the weather was wasn’t very like the July we all used to know.

Hurricanes in the Caribbean and temperatures almost in single figures at home. This isn’t at all like the summers we’ve been used to. What happened to summer? Did I blink and miss it? We’ve struggled through a wet, windy and cold winter, only to find at the end that it was at times, warmer than it is this summer. Personally I blame the government!

I did go out for a while in the afternoon hoping it would stay dry at least, but it didn’t. Luckily the trees are all in full leaf now, so I could shelter until the worst of it was past. I did get a couple of decent photos, despite the wind and the rain. Best of a reasonable lot was a photo of a Drone Fly, a kind of Hoverfly, feeding on the flowers of a Cow Parsley head. Probably not the prettiest of insects, but the new lens delivered a sharp image of it. There’s another of a ‘spider house’ on Flickr that gave the drone fly a run for its money.

That was about it for the day. Scamp didn’t even go out to prune her roses. It was that kind of day. I think we were both a bit tired after two hours of almost constant dancing yesterday.

We did a bit of digital tidying up. Moving photos from Scamp’s old computer on to a storage SSD and from there onto her new computer. Now it’s her job to complete the tagging of the photos before copying them to OneDrive. I suppose, grudgingly, I have to admit that there are things that OneDrive can do very efficiently.

Dinner tonight was the ready-roasted chicken we bought in Troon yesterday served with potatoes and cabbage. It made a decent meal and the chicken was lovely.

Tomorrow we may be meeting Isobel if we don’t get blown away, because there are more gusty winds predicted.

 

Plume Moth – 25 June 2024

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It was another dull day, but a bit cooler than it has been of late.

Hazy phoned in the morning and told us about her interview and the way it was conducted. Totally different from the last one a couple of years ago. She seemed surprised at how relaxed it was, but I doubt she, herself, or Neil would be relaxed. I imagine the whole experience made her uneasy and she’d need a good few days to recover.

Scamp went out afterwards to look for a new phone. Not the iPhone that Hazy teased her with, but a sensible Android. First question Hazy asked later was “What colour did you get?” It’s a running joke in the family. Phones are so much smarter these days. It only took less than an hour for the phone to download everything from the old phone and install it in the new one. The most difficult thing was trying to get her Versa 4 watch to sync with the new phone, but then the Versa was made by Fitbit which has now been taken over by Google who haven’t made any improvements or updates in a couple of years. They just keep pushing their Pixel phone. That’s just how the world turns these days.

In the afternoon I went for a walk in St Mo’s, looking for insects to photograph, I did find a Plume Moth which became PoD. Plume moths don’t fold their wings, they roll them up when they land. They look quite otherworldly with their long spindly legs and those rolled up wings.
I’d intended to go for a longer walk into the woods, but the clouds that were surrounding the park were looking rain bearing, so I wandered home instead. It was getting dark, too although it was just about 5pm. The ISO reading on my camera was 12,800. Normally in June you would expect a reading of about 125. Quite a difference!

That was about it for another dull and at times very dull day. Watched Bake Off – The Professionals and saw the Scottish duo kicked out. A pity, but it was deserved.

Probably meeting Alex for a photowalk tomorrow.

Old friends – 14 January 2024

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It was a cold start to a colder day.

Ice and frost welcomed us to the start of another winter day. Nobody seemed to want to go out and that included us. However, after lunch I did put my boots on and walked over to St Mo’s. Not surprisingly there wasn’t much change from yesterday, so I went for a walk in the woods and that’s where I found two old friends. Two sixteen spot ladybirds, each neatly tucked into two different crevices in a tree. I’m sure they hatch in the late summer or early autumn and hibernate through the winter months. Always the same variety with orange wing casing and white spots. Totally different from the ‘normal’ ladybirds we usually see with red wing cases and black spots. Usually I find them in groups of two or three, huddled together, but todays ones were each in their own little hollow. Maybe they weren’t talking to each other.

Two trees away I found a green shield bug. That’s a rare occurrence in winter. As far as I can tell, they hibernate in grasses and leaf litter during winter months, but this one was half way up a tree.

I walked back after that, happy that I’d managed to get something other than trees and reflections in the pond for a potential PoD. Then I found when I opened the computer that my reflection photo from a couple of days ago had been awarded “Explore” which is the Flickr equivalent of ‘going viral’. Suddenly the whole Flickr world wants to ‘like’ your photo and some folk comment on your photo. It’s kind of embarrassing, because it’s usually a run of the mill photo that gets the accolade. I have no idea who chooses the photo to get the award and I have no idea what formula they use. I just accept it and say thank you!

Dinner tonight was a rather strange M&S packet of DIY Fajitas. We heated up the chicken and veg packet in the microwave then did the same to the packet of tortillas spread the tortillas with the supplied tomato salsa and sour cream then put a layer of the chicken and veg mix on top before rolling them up. The kit made four fajitas, two each and although a bit messy and awkward to eat, they tasted ok, a bit spicy, but nothing too hot. Would we try them again? Maybe not. Not really very substantial and messy to make, although that might be down to my lack of fajita making skill.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard about the problems commuting to work while fields on either side are temporary ponds and how they are having to contend with the cold winds from the east while their roof is being replaced. I don’t envy them.

PoD was the green shield bug. Two images merged in a program called Affinity Photo. It’s what photogs call a Focus Stack. Too complicated to describe here and too boring for non-photogs.

We had a flurry of snow in the late afternoon and if it returns tomorrow, that might change our plans for driving to Larky to get Scamp’s glasses fixed.

Oh what a beautiful morning – 11 October 2023

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And the makings of a beautiful day.

Scamp was out in the morning to have coffee with June. While she was out I found a subject for today’s Inktober prompt – “Wander”. I started work on it right away, drawing on a Seagate A4 sketchbook. I usually draw ideas to begin with in a cheap sketchbook, but have been caught out many times by working up a good sketch in them, then when I put a watercolour wash on them the paper soaks up the water, buckles and the sketch becomes a disaster area. Now I’ve learned to draw on decent quality paper that will hold the watercolour without falling apart. Yes, the paper is more expensive, but it saves a lot of swearing!

Lunch, when Scamp came in was, soup. Quite delicious soup. Then with the sun still shining I walked over to St Mo’s and found myself surrounded by dragonflies. Yesterday’s unseasonably warm weather coupled with today’s sunshine must have released a hatch of the insects. Mainly they were Common Darters with a few Black Darters too. I grabbed a few shots with the 85mm lens which performed really well, even if it didn’t allow me to get as close as a macro lens would. I also found a big clump of mushrooms that had appeared overnight. Again I think it was the weather than had encouraged them to sprout. This time it was the combination of warm weather and lots of rain, two things fungi thrive on. The mushrooms got PoD.

Back home Scamp was talking to her sister in Skye on the phone, but I didn’t hear much of the conversation because I was trying to scan in today’s sketch and post process the photos from the afternoon. We were going out to Kirsty’s dance class tonight, so I knew I had to get everything done as early as possible.

A photo of a tree beside the Luggie got ‘Explore’ on Flickr. I was quite impressed. It was almost OOC (Out Of Camera, meaning it had minimal processing). Second one in about a month!

Dinner tonight was a rather excellent fish ’n’ chips with beetroot. Not the best beetroot, but the fish made up for it. A lovely slice of cod!

There were only two couples for class tonight, but it was very useful. Plenty of room for dancing and also lots of tips from Kirsty about the little dance nuances I frequently forget. Lessons learned. She even got the chance to give us a quick and very short Quickstep routine to work on. Next week it’s Tango. Must remember a rose to hold in my clenched teeth!

Came home and opened the fridge door and the internal light went off. Oh No! Has the fridge been listening to us discussing replacing it? However, it was just the bulb that had blown. We’ll have to go out and source one tomorrow.

No other plans tomorrow. We’ll see what transpires.

 

Not going far – 29 August 2023

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I had enough exercise yesterday. I didn’t want any more today.

Scamp was out early to get her nails ‘done’ again, then she was meeting Shona for coffee. I was asked if I wanted to join them, but I decided they would get on better without me!

Instead I stayed home and read for a while and looked through the photos that had arrived in Flickr overnight. The window cleaner arrived and I spent a wee while blethering to him. Basically, I did nothing, or as close to nothing as I felt I could get away with.

After Scamp arrived home with her new lilac nails we had lunch and then I went for a walk in St Mo’s. It was one of those days with gusty winds blowing the rain clouds around, creating what the weather fairies delight in calling ‘scattered showers’. PoD went to a rather demonic looking photo of what looks like a pair of horns behind a bush. It’s actually a macro of an earwig’s rear end! There are over 1000 species of earwigs in the world and only 4 are native to the UK.

The competitor for PoD was a shot of a Peacock butterfly with its wings locked together to keep a sudden rain shower out of their delicate upper surface. As soon as the rain stopped the wings folded out and it sat there taking in the warmth from the sun that had appeared after the cloud cleared.

Dinner tonight was an experiment. Pasta Carbonara with mushrooms, shallots and finely sliced bacon. It seemed to go down well and will be worth trying another time.

A short dance practise in the evening  just to make sure the Joy’s Waltz and the new short(ish) cha-cha are firmly in my head.

Tomorrow is an early rise. Scamp and the rest of the witches are off to Pitlochry on the bus for the day. I’m driving them to the Town Centre to catch the bus which leaves at 8.45am! I hope they have a great day. No singing on the bus, though!