Category: Beasties

The Lawnmower Man – 5 June 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was out this morning to meet June for coffee. I thought I’d cut the grass.

It’s a long job, cutting the grass. Not as bad as some folk who have enormous lawns that need a petrol driven mower, but who secretly hanker for a ride-on mower! Ours is just a wee pocket hankie by comparison, but there’s a bit of preparation needed before you get started, pots to shift and then shift back once the first cut is taken. Squirting WD40 into the squeaky rear wheel, that screeching was putting my teeth on edge.

After I’d done our wee square, I thought it would be the right thing to do to cut Bobby Flavel’s grass too. I know my method is very rough and ready compared to Bobby’s straight lines, but at least it’s done and tidy. I hope you were sitting up there watching me struggle with the mower at the end of its lead, Bobby, just managing to get the furthest edge cut. Angela was the first person to cut Bobby’s grass after he passed away and we all agreed that we should take it in turns to cut his grass. For that reason and also because she doesn’t have much free time to mow her own grass, I cut Angela’s pocket hankie too. My good deeds for the day.

If the preparations before starting are a pain, the cleaning of that mower are even more of a drag. However, Scamp maintains it well and I think my cleaning routine was almost as good as her’s. I gave the blade a squirt of WD40 and then gave the squeaky wheel the grease it wanted. Done!

I’d just finished when Scamp arrived home. Piece ’n’ Cheese for her lunch and a slice of buttered bread covered in the remains of yesterday’s stew for mine. By then the sun had made an appearance and after some dithering, I took the A7 and the big heavy macro lens out to St Mo’s looking for damselflies, only to find that the dragonflies had taken over the ponds. There were dozens of them fighting and gatecrashing each other’s parties. Just like the unruly teenagers we get in the same neck of the woods with their ghetto blasters later in the summer. At least the dragonflies were just “doing the what comes naturally” and weren’t hyped up on Buckfast!

I couldn’t get as close as I wanted to the dragonflies, so I got as good a shot as was possible and enlarged it in ON1 software at home and produces what you see here. It’s a four spot chaser.

On the way home I had to check out the work being done by the council road repairers. They’d closed off part of our street to repair a section of the road. It has been crumbling away for years and a month or so ago they patched the bits that were easy to do. This, though, was a major bit of work with the tarmac being scraped back to the hardcore base and fresh tarmac replacing it. It was supposed to take two days, but it looks like it’s finished tonight.

Another end of day seat in the sun with Scamp. Both of us reading with a glass of something to keep us from drying out in this sunshine!

No plans for tomorrow, at least not at present.

 

Driving everywhere – 3 June 2023

Posted on by Zogman

The dance class for today was cancelled due to too few numbers, so we used the daw wisely by tidying up loose ends.

We drove to The Fort in about 23ºc of heat with the intention of getting a pair of Crocs for me and a pair of shorts for Scamp. Neither of us achieved our goals and we went for lunch at Wagamama to console ourselves. Prawn raisukaree for Scamp and Chicken raisukaree for me (raisukaree = curry) with Ebi Katsu to share (butterflied prawns coated in panko and deep fried)

Fed and watered we next drove to B&Q to get an adapter that would allow the hose to be used from the kitchen tap without the use of a great deal of swearing and fountains of water. I think we got the right adapter this time, but I believe we may be testing tomorrow.

I fancied getting a hat (Hazy, similar to Neil’s) and that meant a trip further into darkest Coatbridge, but with the satnav to help us, we found Go Outdoors. There they had the hat I wanted in a size that fitted but at a price that was a little more than I’d intended paying. However, if you bought a discount card for £5 we got roughly £15 off the price and a further 20% off the remainder. That brought it down to what I’d call a reasonable price!! Pity they didn’t have Crocs!

We drove back to Cumbersheugh, trusting the satnav to get us back to ‘civilisation’ and I finally snagged myself a pair of Crocs to replace my ancient and crumbling pair I bought in Fuerteventura many, many years ago. Just a bit annoyed that I had to pay full price for them! Scamp also managed to get herself a pair of shorts and we drove home slightly emptier of pocket, but with new purchases.

Back home it was still hot, so to cool down I changed into shorts and went for a walk in St Mo’s. Managed to capture my first damselfly of the year, an Emerald. Also photographed a wee fly, looking a bit like a robber fly sitting on a buttercup. The robber fly got PoD. On the way back home I dropped in at the chip shop in Condorrat for a Special Fish Supper to share with Scamp. Sat for a while in the garden reading, watching the birds queue up to get some water from the birdbath.

We watched a fairly interesting Spanish GP tonight, with a few drivers demonstrating their off-road skills, but thankfully no crashes.

Got a message from Jamie to say their new boiler has been installed. Hot and cold running water is a great thing, isn’t it. That and a real shower! We know how you pair feel.

No plans for tomorrow, although we may water the garden, hopefully without flooding the kitchen!

Grass Cutting and Water Drops – 24 May 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Not me, Scamp was doing the grass cutting today.

I was the hired help who moved the plant pots for the gardener to cut right to the edge of the path. Then once the cutting had been done, I moved them all back again. It wasn’t an onerous task and I’m much rather do the lifting than the cutting.

Today’s prompt was A Water Drop. It seemed such a simple task, but even with a few photos in front of me, I just couldn’t get anything like a drip to grace the paper. After three attempts, I gave up and had a “Piece ’n’ Sausage” for my lunch. I really needed to clear my head of water drops, so I drove up to Fannyside Moor and went for a walk with the A7. I’d two lenses with me. One wide angle and one macro. I reckoned I could use both today and I did. I took a few landscapes with the wide angle, the best of which is on Flickr. It’s a view from my parking place, across the moor to the Campsie on a beautiful spring day. Changed to the macro and caught a little ladybird, a Striped Ladybird to be precise. Red with white spots and stripes. I also saw a strange beetle which Mr Google says is a Two Banded Longhorn Beetl, quite a mouthful, and a host of slow flying Hawthorn Flies.

The best of the wildlife was still to come and it was the PoD. It’s a Drinker Moth Caterpillar, about as long as my middle finger and it was walking along a barbed wire fence. It was walking because these caterpillars have feet, not all do. I remember seeing one before, but I can’t remember where. Will have a look through my records.

Back home Scamp was reading in the garden and I encouraged her to have a glass of wine while I had a beer. Well, it’s ‘hump day’ (the middle of the week) so we were allowed. Scamp made stir-fry for dinner and it was really good, better than mine. After dinner I returned to the painting of the water drop and went back to basics. No fancy backgrounds, just the water drop. It worked, but I’m still not happy with it. Could do better is the expression I’m thinking sums it up.

No real plans for tomorrow. It all depends on the weather.

Was that summer? – 13 May 2023

Posted on by Zogman

A quite beautiful day of sunshine.

We drove to Brookside in the morning through the 40mph zone that wasn’t quite as bad as last week, although some folk were mistaking 40mph with 20mph, it seemed. We got to the class just in time. Just four couples including a decidedly pregnant Jasmine who, with her partner made light work of just about everything.

Started off with a couple of Mayfair Quickstep tracks to warm us up. The hall had a curtained off section today for some undisclosed reason, so we were dancing on what was virtually a square. After that, and after an explanation for those who hadn’t been there last week, the teachers launched into Joy’s Waltz. I thought we’d found a sneaky shortcut to get us through the Overturned Spin Turn, but was quickly shot down in flames by Jane who explained that although it did speed up the OST, it meant that when we came out of it we’d find our feet were tangled. Back to the drawing board then! I still can’t get the hang of the OST and I think I’ll resort to Scamp’s suggestion that we just fake that step and concentrate on getting the rest working.

Next we did the Sweetheart Cha-Cha with a few new adaptations just to make it more difficult, I think. Most of that went quite smoothly, even the new steps that they’d squeezed in. Thankfully Jasmine had filmed the new improved Sweetheart Cha-Cha and posted it to the group tonight.

Final dance steps were the Jive with American Spins, Alternative Stop & Go and Cha-Cha Walks. These words mean very little to me and will be forgotten by the time I finish the blog!

One last wee sequence dance, Rumba One to finish and that was us released to face the traffic going home. Overall, it was a good class, although the lady that Scamp has named Mrs Posh was being a bit of a know-all.

The drive home was easier than I expected, possibly because everyone was going to the seaside today to make the most of the sunshine. We just drove home and after lunch we worked in the garden. Scamp was chopping up a dying azalea and I was concentrating on potting up my sunflower seedlings and the wee rosemary bush we bought about a month ago.

I’d just finished doing my gardening and was putting the compost away when I felt a familiar sting on the back of my leg. I’d picked up a tick somewhere, possibly yesterday. First this year. Let’s hope it’s the last.

Dinner was a roast chicken and salad with a bottle of Prosecco to brighten it up even more.

PoD went to a purple aquilegia flower in the front garden.

Today’s prompt was An Elephant.
We don’t get many elephants roaming the hills in Scotland, and the only ones I’d photographed were either made from cast iron or paintings on billboards. However, Mr Google kindly supplied me with a model that fitted neatly on my A5 page.

I think the sky is clouding over as I write this and we’re expecting rain tomorrow. Let’s hope today wasn’t Summer! The weather will determine what we do tomorrow.

The gardens needed it – 8 May 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Today was wet. It went from drizzle to full on downpour, but it was wet all day!

We weren’t going far today anyway. I might have gone in to Glasgow to get myself a new suit, a dark suit, both my other suits are light grey and a dark one would be a change. Also, only one of my suits actually fits me, the other one fits like a sugar bag. Not a good look. Anyway, that decision was taken away from me with one look at the weather. The furthest we were going today was Tesco.

Just a normal Monday shopping trip. Nothing exciting unless you class short dated tomatoes, carrots and onions as exciting. Three bags full it was today, all bundled into the boot and drove home.

What we did do was give our plants a bit of a soaking in the rainwater. My two chilli plants seemed to come to no harm in it and Scamp’s Cerinthe seedlings seemed to grow even taller after being in the downpours.

After lunch I gave in, put on my boots and my walking trousers and went out looking for a photo that would become PoD. It was really wet wherever I went and after about half an hour I was sure I could feel that squidgy sensation that you only get when you’ve got a leaky boot. But I was out in the middle of the park when it made itself known and I still hadn’t got that magic PoD. Then it appeared. It was a water droplet hanging from a larch needle. I took my time and eventually shot half a dozen frames of it. One of which I deemed sharp enough to become the PoD for today. Then, and only then, I squidged my way home. The sock on my right foot told the tale. There was a leak and it looks like there is a crack in the tread of my boot and that’s where the water is getting in. It might be a cut, not a crack, but the result is the same. I wouldn’t think it’s repairable, although someone on YouTube will know different, I’m sure. I might need to shell out for a new pair of boots now.

Today’s EDiM asked for An Ant. I originally thought of drawing a couple of Leaf Cutter Ants, but couldn’t find a clear enough photo to draw them from. I finally settled for a Flying Ant. There were a lot of these scary looking beasties flying around last year, I seem to remember. Apparently there is an actual Flying Ant Day. In the UK it seems to be around the 17th July. It all depends on the temperature and windspeed. There, I bet you didn’t know that!

Tomorrow we’re booked for lunch with Shona. Not sure yet where we’ll be going. Like the Flying Ants, it depends on the weather!

Rain – 30 April 2023

Posted on by Zogman

It was hard to decide if it was just starting to rain, or just finishing a spell of raining when we woke. In actual fact it was just trying out the different textures of rain to see which it liked the best. That too was a difficult decision for the weather, and one it toyed with for a good few hours before finally choosing to stay dry and allow the sun to shine.

There were things to do today. There was milk to buy and a sensible plain loaf, a cake wouldn’t go amiss either, cakes never do. There were people to bump into. People I hadn’t spoken to for years. The people, or person in question was Mary Jane Hunter, ex of Cumby High. She and Scamp had a lot in common apart from height. They had both had cataracts removed and corrective lenses inserted that took away their shortsightedness and gave them a totally new view on life. It’s nice to meet folk you got on with years ago and who you still admire.

Back home Scamp had covered the draining board in the kitchen with an off cut from a waterproof table cover and was potting up her ten Cerinthe seedlings to separate them and to give them a chance to develop better roots. I liked the idea and planted out some Acer seeds my brother had given me last autumn. They had been in plastic bags in the little greenhouse to keep them dry while they ‘conditioned’. Apparently the exposure to sub zero temperatures is needed for them to germinate once they are planted out in soil.

Dinner tonight was Potatoes with Carrot and Onion Mash. Protein was Hoggit Shoulder Steak for me, bought at the farmers market in Embra yesterday and Salmon for Scamp. Unfortunately for her, the salmon just didn’t taste ‘right’. So it was a vegetarian dinner for her. My hoggit was excellent soft and delicious. (2mins 30seconds per side and 5mins resting time). I couldn’t eat it all, so I’ve about a third of it sitting in the fridge for tomorrow or Tuesday. Bananas fried in Rum was requested was requested for pudding. It was excellent too. Hot, sweet, sticky orange flavoured rum coating bananas sliced long ways. Sounds messy and it was, also sounds a bit sickly and it was, but we both enjoyed it. Can’t remember exactly where I first saw it being made, but I think it was on a cruise, years ago.

Because of the rain, I couldn’t be bothered wandering around St Mo’s, getting wet and not finding anything worth photographing, so today’s PoD came from the garden. It’s an Aquilegia playing host to a family of greenfly. I think I might have to evict them soon. As usual with macros, I didn’t see the greenfly until the images had been loaded into the computer.

Spoke to Jamie and Scamp was delighted to hear that he has taken her advice and cleaned all the glazing panels in his greenhouse. They have had a few days of good weather and have almost all the flowers planted now.

We have no plans for tomorrow, and it looks like more rain.

A day of comings and goings – 13 February 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Messages were flying this morning.

Message from my brother to say he can’t manage a photo-walk tomorrow. Bummer. Cryptic message from John saying “Will you be in between 12noon and 1pm”. Another cryptic message from Hazy that just read “We’re off!” And all of this before breakfast.

After I’d replied to Alex saying tomorrow was going to be tight for me anyway, so not to worry. Then replying to Hazy to say “Enjoy the short break.” After these replies I began to wonder what John’s message meant. I’d a fair idea what it was and decided to keep it a surprise for Scamp. Next message was for Scamp. It was a phone call from Nancy wanting to arrange a date for us to go to their’s for dinner. Scamp got that sorted. I was hoping there would be a lull in the message exchanges just for a short while to allow us to get Wordle and Spelling Bee done and dusted.

Well, we did manage to get the essential puzzles completed and later in the morning Scamp said “Annette’s coming over to see me about 12 o’clock”. Oh oh! Now I’d need to say that someone else was coming over about midday too and, of course had to reveal John’s message. As it happened, Scamp managed to reschedule Annette’s visit to tomorrow and John was just dropping off a parcel and a card before he and Marion drove off. By now it was lunch time and then we were off to Falkirk to see the man who talks in £s and $s and occasionally €s.

Arrived in Falkirk right on the dot of 2pm. Andrew talked us through the money markets as he sees them with lots of interesting asides to keep us interested. We had some questions for him and he gave us good advice on how to deal with upcoming problems. We left after an hour bamboozled, but feeling more upbeat than I thought we would.

Back home I got a photo of a crocus flowering in the front garden and that became PoD. Just a lone yellow flower against a green background.

Today’s prompt was The Sting. I didn’t relish the challenge of sketching Robert Redford or Paul Newman, so I chose another Sting expert as my challenge. Wasps can be vicious insects. Unlike honey bees they can sting you more than once if they choose to do so. That has never stopped me from photographing them, but I tend to more than a little cautious when they’re around.

Tomorrow I’ve promised myself I’ll get my hair cut. I was going to do it myself, but better to get someone who knows what they’re doing to do it.

A more relaxing day – 14 October 2022

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Lazy start, didn’t wake until about 10am

In such a mixed up week I completely forgot that Scamp was off this morning to her FitSteps class. Brave girl, this was only the second time she was driving the blue car for real. When she left I started thinking about today’s prompt which was ‘Empty’. A Humblebums track “Silk Pyjamas” had been in my mind for the last two days, with the lyrics ” … empty pockets, heavy debts …”. Of course, Paul Simon’s song “Diamonds on the soles of her shoes” also worked with ” … empty as a pocket with nothing to loose …”. So what I’m saying is, it just had to be an empty pocket and with that I started sketching. The music made me do it! The first attempt became the final attempt and although the hand wasn’t right, it was close enough and a splash or two of water added bit of necessary form. Sketch done with lots of time to spare.

When an energised Scamp returned, happy that she’d reverse parked and had a good exercise hour into the bargain we had a coffee and she had a shower, then we were off to lunch at Dead Deer. Scamp had Kedgeree Fish Cakes and I had Gammon Steak. Of course, both of us had chips and eggs. The bloke who served us was fairly chatty and friendly. The place wasn’t very busy for a Friday lunchtime, so he had plenty of time to spend talking to diners. After he asked if the food was ok, he turned to me and asked if I was a teacher at the High School, because the chef had seen me in passing and wasn’t sure it it was me, but didn’t want to ask. I just laughed, sometimes I can go nowhere without being spotted. Usually a nod and a smile is all I get. That’s better than “Campbell ya ba5t@rd!” and a laugh.

Since there was no rush to clear the tables, we sat and talked for a while over the dirty water that was trying hard to be coffee. Future plans and destinations were discussed and a sort of solution was found. That’s all I’m saying at present.

Back home I did manage to get out for half an hour in St Mo’s. There was a strange gathering in the woods with about half a dozen neds with Buckie bottles and a pram with a toddler in it. I thought “Oh-Oh, this looks like trouble.” But I needn’t have worried, it was all good natured. One big bloke, well over six feet tall gave me the “Ye all right mate?” to which I replied “No’ bad”. That was the correct password, apparently. Then he said “We’re just educatin’ the younger generation!” and we all laughed. I think it was a picnic they were having. A liquid one.

I found a PoD on the way back to the house.  It’s a Garden Cross spider, so called because of the cross shaped pattern on its back.  They’re quite common around here, but this was a big one, its body was about 2cm long and a beautiful chestnut colour.

No great plans for tomorrow yet.  It looks like it will be wet during the night, but promises a better day in the late morning and afternoon.

The Elephant on the path – 2 October 2022

Posted on by Zogman

We went for a walk and saw an elephant.

We did Wordle (Me 5, Scamp 3). We did Spelling Bee (Me 2 words, Scamp 1). I messed about with settings on the phone again and finally found a way of deleting all the annoying nonsense jokes and funny stories one of my pals dumps on me every day. Basically we just sat there wasting time while it was beautiful sunshine outside. Eventually one of Scamp’s “I’m fed up” sighs prompted me to ask “Should we go out for a walk?” Of course that was what the big sigh was for, so Scamp promptly agreed.

We walked out along the path to Broadwood and over the rickety bridge. Some idiot thought it would be a good idea to make a boardwalk out over part of Broadwood Loch, but make it out of plastic, presumably because it was cheaper and the plastic wouldn’t rot. It wouldn’t rot, but its not strong enough to hold lots of people either. NLC. Numpty Labour Council. Anyway we survived the Wibbly, Wobbly Way and walked on, over the dam down behind it and along past the exercise machines. Back up the hill and into then out of M&S with a bag full of messages.

It was when we were walking up the path to the house, I saw what I thought was a big fat slug on the kerb. On closer inspection, its skin was dry and not at all like a slugs slime. I tried to take some photos with my camera, but it wouldn’t focus close enough. My phone did, though. Back home I did a bit of research and found that it was in fact an Elephant Hawk-moth caterpillar. Like the ugly duckling, it turns into a beautifully colourful moth. You didn’t think it was a real Elephant, did you. Come on, it’s Cumbersheugh. Somebody would have taken it home and hidden it in their bedroom. Ah, but that’s a different story that I might tell you some time. The photo of the Elephant Hawk-moth caterpillar is on Flickr if you’re interested.

I started my dinner early. It was Stew and it needed a long time to cook, so I fried off the meat and dumped it with a chopped up onion, a couple of rubbery carrots and half a can of Guinness in the slow cooker and left it to slow cook for a couple of hours. Then I went for a walk in St Mo’s. It was still a lovely day but I found very little to photograph. I eventually settled for a single dandelion gone to seed. That became PoD.

The stew wasn’t great, because it wasn’t cooked for long enough. Scamp’s salmon was overcooked and the skin wouldn’t come off. Somewhere between those two extremes was the perfect dinner. Maybe tomorrow. Homemade Apple Sponge for dessert was perfect! Our apples too!

The prompt was ‘Scurry’? Well, it just had to be a mouse and cartoon mice are easier to draw than real live furry ones, so that was it settled. A cartoon mouse it was.

Spoke to Jamie later and we discussed phones and the difficulties of working with the Samsung website. Also on the discussion table was vegetable gardening. Glad he’s getting some decent tomatoes after a bit of a problem earlier in the year.

Hoping for a good day tomorrow. The weather fairies say don’t bother.

 

Back to the garage – 27 September 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Today we were going back to the garage.

We had a problem, but not with the car. The service history hadn’t been updated and wasn’t signed. I thought it would be a quick and easy fix, but forgot that the log book is a legal document and needs to be signed by the person who performed the service. That meant I had to wait for the service manager to take the book to the mechanic for him to sign, then bring it back. These little things seem to matter.

With the book signed, we continued on to Morrisons in Stirling. It was nearby and we hadn’t been to it for years, besides Morrisons is the only place we can be sure to get Neapolitan wafer ice cream. Just to be sure again, we got two packets. Of course we got other less important things too, like food.

After that we drove back through traffic that was considerably lighter than yesterday’s moving car park. Scamp discovered that the reason was probably the fact that there were three cows on the M73 after discovering that the grass was indeed greener on the other side of the fence. Something in the region of a ten mile tailback for three cows. And we wonder why the country is going to the dogs … and the cows.

I’d put the idea of a new phone on the back burner a week or so ago, today I turned up the gas. I had been looking at getting a Samsung Galaxy S21 FE, but Samsung UK didn’t have any to sell. John Lewis had none in any of its shops, Curry’s and Argos did have some, but they didn’t do 0% finance which the other two did. I’d read somewhere that Samsung had halted production of the ‘older’ phone, to concentrate on their newer models. I started looking at a more recent S22+. To help offset the cost, I could trade in an old phone – that offer wasn’t available for the S21 FE. The only stipulation seemed to be that it didn’t have a broken screen and that it would hold a charge. I put in the IMEI number of my old A40 and there it was, an instant £150 discount. I might just take them up on the offer.

With a bit of a smile on my face, I went for a walk in St Mo’s and found lots of spiders sitting in their webs, patiently waiting for an unlucky fly. However, the PoD turned out to be a shot of the late afternoon sun glancing across the Campsie Fells. I also walked over to Condorrat to get some stew and some mince to fill up my section of the freezer.  Back home I ordered another batch of Rave coffee.  Slightly different from what the Perth shop sells.  Not better, nor worse, just different.  A pleasant change.

It wasn’t until later in the evening that I discovered I’d brought something else back from St Mo’s. A tiny little tick on my wrist. It’s now gone to tick heaven. First one for ages. I hope it’s the last one for a while.

Tomorrow we’re visiting Margie. Always an entertainment.