Category: Beasties

A nice day for a stake – 21 April 2020

Posted on by Zogman

Not a spelling mistake. Not a very meaty stake.

The apple tree, our big James Grieve apple tree has been staked for a long number of years now. When the original stake was put in, the tree had barely started fruiting. Last year it was becoming quite bent and bowed with the weight of the apples on its much longer branches. That was when we decided it needed a better support. Today I cut up a lovely piece of mahogany used to be a ‘stretcher’ for holding up the washing line before the whirly came into our lives and the washing line became redundant. The stretcher originated from the woodwork department of a certain high school that doesn’t exist any more and for a years or so has been propping up the fence at the back door. Today it was repurposed as the support for the apple tree.

With the prop cut to length and sharpened to a fair point, it should have been easy to hammer it in to the ground, secure the branch to it and remove the old support. Things that should be easy rarely are as any DIY person will tell you. First it was almost impossible to hammer the new stake into the ground with the old one in place without damaging all the flowers on that branch, so with Scamp holding the branch, I cut off the cable tie securing the tree to the old stake and carefully removed the stake. Next there was what we will call ‘a discussion’ as to exactly where the new stake would go. Polis were not called to intervene, but it was a close run thing. Eventually we found a place that we could both agree on and the stake was duly battered into place. The branch was secured to the stake with a cable tie, cushioned with a couple of old socks. That seemed to work the last time and hadn’t damaged the branch unduly. We may replace the original stake just to provide extra support if we think the tree needs it, but for now it should be ready to carry the masses of fruit we’re hoping for, if I haven’t destroyed all the flower buds.

With the job done we had lunch. After lunch I went for a walk in St Mo’s and got today’s PoD which I think is a hover fly. It might be a honey bee, but I’m fairly certain it’s a hover. It was another beautiful day if you could find somewhere sheltered from a fierce eastern wind. It might be blowing in from the North Sea, but it felt as if it was coming from the Arctic. Still the whin bushes were glowing in the sunshine and the pine trees behind them were providing a barrier to that wind.

Went looking for a wooden box I made when I was an apprentice away back in the late 60s. Didn’t find it, but Scamp found a few strips of colour negatives and we scanned them into the iMac. Some good memories there. I’ll distribute some of them when I’ve got them all scanned.

Before dinner I started on today’s Lockdown Library painting. Tonight it was to be four pears. Laid down some basic washes and left it there to go and sample Scamp’s veggie chilli. It was delicious. One of those dishes that taste so good you forget there’s no meat in it. After dinner I laboured on at the painting and finally got it to a stage I was fairly happy with. It’s photographed and up on Instagram.

No plans for tomorrow, other than maybe another dance practise.

East wind, Cold wind – 17 April 2020

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It was a bit dull dreich looking out at it today. Outside it was quite cold too.

It didn’t feel like a day for venturing far. In the afternoon the sun did try to get through, but without much success. I finished off the trees painting and it’s hanging in Instagram as I write. It’s number five in an as yet undisclosed number of sketches loosely linked by the title Lockdown Library. I’ve now decided that they will all be square format to fit in with the original Instagram ideal. How long it lasts and what the medium is each day is, shall we say, loose at present.

I did encourage myself to go out to St Mo’s in the afternoon to get some photos and some exercise. It’s so easy on these dull days to just sit there on the sofa while the day drifts by. The prospect of getting some photos to brighten up the blog and to add to the 366 encourages me to go out. All you youngsters who are now furloughed (if that is even a word), and all of you who are working from home, use these home-days as a taste of how life might be when you’re retired (if that is even a word when you reach 65, 70, 75 …).

There wasn’t much to photograph today. I did see a deer, but it saw and heard me too and was off. He/she needn’t have bothered. I was only armed with the E-M1 and a 30mm lens. The deer would have had to have been inside the social distancing limit for me to get a photo. What I did get was the cheery couple of Wood Anemones you see here. I also took inspiration from Ruth Spigelman on Flickr and attempted a ‘Fly Day Friday’. There were some flies around and the one I chose was black and looked a bit like a flying ant. I expect that come next Friday I’ll have forgotten all about Fly Day Friday. Not many people walking round St Mo’s today, but a constant stream combining their exercise walk with a shopping for essentials down at the new shops. We may go there tomorrow after our delivery from Tesco which is scheduled for between 12noon and 1pm.

Watched the second episode of Quiz. Yes, Hazy we can see how this is quite intriguing. Earlier we went through the four ballroom dances we (kind of) know, this time dancing them to music.

Possibly shopping tomorrow and finding places for all the groceries from Tesco.

Just another glorious day – 15 April 2020

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Long may they last.

More sunshine and more warmth. Gentle breeze that didn’t really cool things down dramatically.

I walked down to the shops to get some basil for dinner and a couple of limes to make Mojitos. As it happened, the basil was used for dinner, but we both agreed the Macaroni with Bacon, Peas and Basil was promising a bit more flavour than it was producing. More, or stronger, cheese and a bit more of the creamy sauce was both our suggestions. The limes weren’t used, however. Maybe at the weekend we’ll have a couple of Mojitos to let us pretend we’re in sunny climes. I went for limes and basil, but returned with wine (never a bad thing) pizzas (they were cheap) and chicken goujon things which went into the freezer to be discovered some day when we’ve nothing in our mind for dinner. Sat in the garden and soaked up some rays when I came back from the shops. The shops were fairly quiet for a change. No need to queue at M&S!

Earlier in the day we were working in the garden. Scamp got the front grass cut and I’m sure she’ll feel better for that. She managed to do the whole grass, yet still avoid the delicate looking little Stock flower that was growing through the grass. Now that’s skill. I planted some more peas (Ambassador) in little planters this time. I also planted some teasel seeds in a tray. We brought the seeds up from our visit to Hazy in January, when N-D was off in Goa. Not sure they’ll thrive here, but I’ll try.

While I was on my way to the shops, I took a detour through St Mo’s and got today’s PoD of a ladybird taking the high road over the edge of a leaf. First ladybird I’ve seen this year, a Seven Spot.

Had a short dance practise tonight.  Jive was the subject, but we couldn’t remember how to do one of the moves, the Whip Throwaway.  It was never a favourite, but now it seems to be lost in both our heads.  Maybe a night’s sleep will bring it back.

Weather looks dull for tomorrow, but we can’t complain because the past few days have been glorious. No real plans for tomorrow. Today’s sketch was a poor rendition of an apple. I must do better tomorrow.

A cold start – 13 April 2020

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It had been cold during the night, but once the sun broke through, it soon warmed up and turned into another beautiful day.. Nothing much to do today and no need to go anywhere.

In the afternoon I went for a walk with the Nikon, a long tele lens and a macro lens. Carried the Oly 5 with Samyang 7.5mm lens in my pocket, just in case anything worked for it.

<Technospeak>
I’d had a problem yesterday with the Nikon. Some of the pics were blurry. Couldn’t explain it because they were all shot at 1/800th sec shutter which should have dealt adequately with camera shake. After some research, I began to suspect mirror slap which means that the mirror flipping up causes internal vibrations in the camera. Fancy modern cameras have a setting that reduces it, but the D7000 is the oldest of the 7000 series and doesn’t have that facility. What it does have is ‘Quiet Mode’ which I think may be the predecessor to the damping of the mirror. I switched it on today and it seemed to work. No visible, or should I say less visibly blurred shots. I’ll keep a watching brief.
</Technospeak>

I wanted to get some Hover Fly photos, but the hover flies, though hovering happily wouldn’t stay still once they’d landed which led to some interesting shots of empty grass stems. Also, they were easily spooked and so I couldn’t get close enough to use the macro lens and was trying my best with the long lens. It’s not nearly as good at fine detail as the macro. However, I did get some decent shots after a while.

Walking back home I noticed the light shining through the larch tree pine needles and they weren’t bothered by me getting close with the macro lens. One of the shots of them made PoD.  Polis car drove round St Mo’s car park when I was walking home, then positioned itself at the entrance.  Not so much looking for ‘baddies’ as much as acting as a deterrent for anyone foolish enough to think they can drive to the park to go for a walk.  Warning, police state approaching!

Back home, we sat in the garden for a while and enjoyed the late afternoon sun before it began to cool and I went in to make the dinner. Unusually for a Monday, it wasn’t pasta, but risotto. Chicken and Mushroom risotto. Worked out fine, and the next bit is just a reminder for me if I have to make it again.
Pan fried the chicken pieces in oil, then made the stock for the risotto. Once it was hot I transferred the chicken pieces from the pan to the stock pot. That way the flavour of the chicken juices was added to the stock. Seemed to work.

Put a sketch on Instagram today. Just a pencil sketch of a wee bowl that sits beside the TV. It looked lovely in the sunlight this morning. It’s the first of my Lockdown Library. Don’t know how long the series will continue. We’ll have to wait and see.

Up early tomorrow to get our Iceland delivery, all the way from Reykjavík I believe.

Daddy’s gone to Iceland – 10 April 2020

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Yes, I know we’re supposed to stay home and keep safe this Easter Weekend, but this was an offer I couldn’t refuse.

The offer was a delivery slot from Iceland for Tuesday, almost brilliant. “Almost”, because it’s for a time slot between 8am and 10am and with my luck it will be at the ‘8’ end of that time period, so I need to be up early for it. That said, it’s a slot and there aren’t many of them around. Coincidentally, it was last Friday Scamp managed to snag a slot on Tesco. Perhaps Friday’s are the key to nabbing a slot.

Scamp volunteered to go shopping to the local shops and brought back a fair amount of goodies. It was a dull start to the day, but by the time she was going out (solo) it had warmed up and the sun was shining. So much so that she came back I took the Nikon out for a walk in St Mo’s. At first I couldn’t see anything worthwhile to photograph, but then I spotted a hoverfly, first one this year and was sure I’d seen a butterfly too. It wasn’t until a bit later in a different part of the park I got a good clear shot of it. Not the best photo in the world, but my first butterfly this year. It’s a Peacock and fairly common, but it’s another sign that spring is here.

PoD was a long lens shot of a crow sitting on a branch. I liked the graphical feel of the shot. It almost looked black and white on the computer and when I changed it into true B&W I hardly noticed the difference. Second time around the pond I found the carcass of a swan. Don’t know what killed it. It could be a loose dog or a fox or daft kids throwing bricks, but there wasn’t much left of today. Then I heard a couple of swans flying overhead. They swung round the park and then landed on the pond. That sent the two resident swans into frenzy. They started puffing up their wings and heading in to separate the newcomers. It seemed like battle royal for a while, then everything calmed down. It looked like the residents won and the two visitors were being carefully monitored. Peace had broken out when I left. Didn’t get any decent shots of the action because my Tamron was in stupid mode and wouldn’t focus properly. It’s an odd beast. Sometimes it produces pin-sharp shots, others it’s a pain in the arse.

Aloo Saag for dinner. It too is a pain in the arse to make, but it usually tastes brilliant. Didn’t quite hit the mark tonight. Too much salt or too little spinach, I’m not sure which, but the result was the same – too salty, the customer said.

We did a bit of dancing practise tonight. Waltz No 1 and Waltz No2, then Foxtrot and finally Quickstep. All done to music too. These practise sessions work for me. They just get the muscle memory working.

As usual no plans for tomorrow. We’ll take the day as it comes.

A Tick – 6 April 2020

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How I hate these tiny invaders.

Found it last night as I was getting ready for bed. A tiny little black dot with a bright red surround and it was itchy. It was my first tick of 2020 and I’ve no idea how it came to be on me. I’m scrupulously careful these days when walking in long grass. Always have my jeans tucked into my socks. Never crouch down in the long grass. Rarely even put my knee on the ground. I don’t suppose it matters how, it was there and it had to be removed and the wound cleaned. Luckily Scamp had bought me a pair of needle pointed tweezers a year or two ago and they helped pull the tiny thing out. It was only about 1mm long, I had to use one of my old camera lenses as a magnifier to be sure it was a tick, although all the evidence pointed to it being one. It was. Just need to keep taking the antihistamines and using some Germoline for a few days. Covid-19 and ticks, what a wonderful world!

Hadn’t intended going anywhere today, even with the brilliant weather predicted and that’s what we did. We stayed Home. Made some soup in the afternoon and got a delivery from Tesco with about 75% of the stuff we’d ordered. Not bad really considering we didn’t have to traipse round what is now a One-Way store. That’s worse than IKEA. At least it just has arrows projected onto the floor which you can ignore. Ignore the one-way system in Tesco at your peril.

Finished painting the upstairs window sills. That’s all the sills now have at least two coats. Some have three and a couple of lucky ones have four, I think. But who’s counting. The paint has been put away for this year and the brush has been washed. I intend to do no more to it.

Today’s PoD is a couple of Forsythia flowers. Last autumn I pruned the forsythia too hard. I got a gentle lecture from Scamp about next year’s flowers growing on the old wood I’d just cut off. I don’t intend to make the same mistake this year. “Prune immediately after the flowers fall, not in the autumn” is the mantra.
We still had a few flowers, despite my hacking.

Poor Boris, or BoJo and Fred calls him seems to be in a bad way. He was admitted to Intensive Care tonight after being given oxygen in the afternoon. I don’t like him, but I feel he’s in over his head with the epidemic. He just looks shattered. Who would have that job?

That more or less summed it up for the day. Tomorrow we should go out for a walk, if only for the exercise.

The man who worked in the garden – 29 March 2020

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Today I became that man, the man who worked in the garden.

I didn’t do it for very long, you understand, just long enough that it was noted, and I wasn’t alone. Scamp was making sure I didn’t do anything stupid, like dig up any of her plants. I dug up two leeks for her to put into soup, gently forked over that area of the raised bed and planted some Ambassador peas in their place. After that I hoed over the remainder of the bed to break up the soil and displace the weeds that were beginning to show themselves. It looked a lot better with the soil broken up a bit, so I then turned my attention to the flower bed beneath the window and broke up the soil there too with the hoe. I’d forgotten how satisfying it was to use a dutch hoe to get rid of weeds and to aerate the soil. While I was there, I cleared out a few pots from the greenhouse leaving more space for the pots with actual plants in them, not just weeds. Scamp was busy planting pansies in a long trough that hangs on the fence. With that all done, I felt I’d actually done something in the garden for a change. It was a cold day, although the sun was warm. We don’t get much sun in the back garden and today was worse with a north wind blowing right into it. We adjourned for lunch.

After lunch I went for a walk over to St Mo’s. Scamp encouraged me to go, but stayed inside herself. I think she needs just as much ’me time’, as I do. St Mo’s wasn’t too busy today, I think that north wind again kept people inside, using the ‘self isolating’ excuse reason to stay warm. There wasn’t much to see, but I did get a chance to take a three frames focus stack of a fly basking in the sun with the hedge sheltering it from that wind. Other than that, there wasn’t much to recommend it today, so the fly grabbed the PoD. Still can’t find those bracket fungi with the oyster shell pattern.

After dinner I slapped more oil paint on the acrylic underpainting and have now just the tree to add. I say “just the tree”, but it’s not as simple as that. Trees are difficult for me and as this is the focal point of the painting, It has to be reasonable accurate. A bit of practise needed tomorrow before I take the plunge. The lack of a ‘CTRL Z’ button really is an oversight on the part of the people who design paint brushes.

Other than practising painting trees, we have no other plans for tomorrow. Maybe a walk if the weather is decent? Maybe dancing practise if it’s not? Who knows.

“The man who worked in the garden” was the unseen gardener in Bill & Ben the Flowerpot Men. Just incase you didn’t know.

Breaking the rules – 25 March 2020

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We walked to the shops today, but I broke the rules by going out for a second walk later! Rebel!

We didn’t need much at the shops, which was just as well really. Like Sim has been complaining, no flour to be had anywhere, and of course, no toilet rolls. Well, not at the new shops anyway. They did have milk and they did have pancakes. They also had salt which has been in short supply too, so we got all three. That was about it. Walked back through very fine rain. That terrible wetting rain that just soaks you without you noticing it. It wasn’t cold though, the weather machine said it was over 12ºc for a while, so I gave my big Bergy jacket a rest and took my rainy coat instead. Much more comfortable and a lot lighter than the Bergy with all my odds and ends in the pockets. While we were at the shops, I saw a VW Campervan with two surf boards on top! I kid you not. Where were they off to I wondered? Maybe Tiree to catch some wild waves, or maybe just driving around looking cool.

I made a sort of pizza for lunch. It was the remains of yesterday’s flat bread dough, with some fresh flour, yeast, salt and water added. I think Scamp was right, I should just have made a proper pizza and been done with it. As it turned out, it wasn’t all that great. A bit doughy in places, but excellent in others. Baked it in the microwave using convection oven setting for about 12minutes at 220ºc. I’ve written that so I will remember it the next time I want to make a pizza in the microwave. I might not remember it, but I’ll know where to look to find it. That’s one thing Google has taught me.

After lunch I got itchy feet again and went out looking for something interesting. Yes, I know you’re only supposed to be out ONCE a day for a walk, run, jog or cycle, but I’m a rebel and I was going to tear up the rule book and put it in the bin. I wasn’t going to throw it away, I’m not that much of a rebel. I found a use for all that rain, it gave me a chance to capture today’s PoD. Just a little grass stem holding all those raindrops on its hairy surface. It would only work with that fine rain we’d been having. Heavy rain would have wetted the surface and prevented the surface tension on the raindrop from forming a shield for the enclosed water.
Then when I was coming back, I spotted a little ladybird, the first I’ve seen this year nestling under the cover of a leaf and spotted with raindrops too. Two good subject in one day.

We did a bit of a dance practise later in the afternoon. Waltz Nº1, Waltz Nº2, Quickstep and Foxtrot. Not all perfect, but adequate, considering that this is the first practise of the Isolation. Possibly Jive tomorrow.

No real plans for tomorrow, so if you’re reading this Boris, I don’t expect to be breaking the rules tomorrow. I’ll be a good little prole and not go for more than one walk.

Up and out before 11am – 25 November 2019

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Well, that didn’t happen.

It was a great plan and would have worked too if it hadn’t been raining. To be honest, it had been raining all night and the morning was just the continuation of the deluge. Maybe I shouldn’t call it a deluge, it was mainly just rain in all its glorious variations, but whatever variation it was in, I wasn’t going out in it, at least not yet.

By lunchtime and with Gems looming, I decided I’d go “For the messages”. Scamp gave me a list. I put on my big Bergy jacket and drove off to get some food. Raided Tesco and got everything on the list and a few more things too, and still it rained. Came home, put away the messages, grabbed my camera and went for a walk in the rain.

They were actually laying tarmac on the paths round St Mo’s pond when I went over and I saw the strangest sight. My brother has a saying “The things you see when you haven’t got a gun.” The thing I saw today was a bloke in the full hi-vis rain suit lying stretched out on the freshly tarmacked path while the aforementioned rain fell continuously. I was just getting worried for his safety or mental state when he got up and stretched in a leisurely way. I imagine the warm tarmac was quite comfortable to lie on. I just hope there’s not a man shaped depression on the finished footpath. Maybe a ‘tarmac angel’. Of course I had a camera, but I’d only brought a short lens with me and wouldn’t have been able to get a good shot of it, but what a shot that would have been!

Found a few bits of wildlife around and about, mainly in and on the trees. Tiny wee snail about 4mm long, a fly that presumably had hatched in the relatively warm spell we’re having. Similarly a shield bug, bright green underneath and dull green and brown on top. Perfect camouflage when sitting on the bark of a tree. The fly won PoD.

After dinner we drove in to Glasgow to find that Shannon was taking the class. Big disappointment and big surprise to even the other young teachers. We vamoosed to the kitchen area and practised our jive, quickstep and waltz for a while. Scamp hadn’t been feeling too good today because she has waterworks problems and they were making theirselves felt towards the end of our enforced practise, so we left early after warning everyone coming in that Shannon was taking Jamie’s class. We’re guessing after some research by Scamp that he’d been caught out by a train blockage between Aberdeen and Edinburgh. We’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and let it be.

Scamp may be going to lunch with Mags tomorrow all being well and I might be having coffee with Val and Fred all being well. We’ll wait and see. It’s still raining!

Dull, Foggy and Wet – 24 November 2019

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Typical Sunday!

Drove to B&Q in the morning to get some Jeyes Fluid to clean our smelly dustbin. We’ve definitely got some. I know because I bought it last year. After spending about an hour searching everywhere it could have been we gave up and bit the bullet. I went to B&Q to spend £3.50 on a new bottle. Hardly worth the effort of searching every cupboard in the house, only to come up empty handed. It was just as I reached B&Q that I drove into the fog. The motorway had been misty, but B&Q’s microclimate turned that into thick fog. Drove back out of it on the way home and it remained misty here for the rest of the day.

Took a walk to St Mo’s in the afternoon to try for some moody shots in the rain. The light was a bit too low for the new Teazer2 to do its best work, but the Oly came up trumps and got the best shot of the day, the little spider on its wet web. That became PoD

Spoke to JIC in the evening and discussed managing people, Welsh folk with guns and sports massage! Watched another slow episode of His Dark Materials. It’s certainly dark, but does it have to be so slow? I don’t remember the book dragging on like this. It’s becoming too tedious to watch.

There wasn’t much more you could say about the day, in fact the title of the blog sort of summed it up. Dull, Foggy and Wet. These days, realistically, if you don’t get up and out by about 11am, you’re not going to get any worthwhile photos. That’s what I might do tomorrow.  One good thing that happened was Scamp making a lovely Coq au Vin for dinner.  We were very restrained and managed to keep some for tomorrow’s lunch.  A great sacrifice!

Gems tomorrow and hopefully dancing at night.