Category: Birds

Dull start – 18 April 2020

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Dull start to the day, but prospects were good.

The plan for the day was to wait stay close to home in the morning just in case the Tesco man came early. By about 11am the sun was out and people were out in their gardens. Went out to speak to the next door neighbours and find out how they were coping. Just the same as us really and it looks like they are keen gardeners too almost as keen as Scamp.

I’d quoted the wrong time slot yesterday for our delivery, it was in fact 11am until midday and he arrived just before midday. With the stock cupboard back to healthy numbers, we had lunch and considered our options for the rest of the day. We needed some fruit and something for tonight’s dinner, so a walk down to the shops was in order.

Bigger queues today. My theory is that those working from home are trying their best to work what used to be a normal week, I.e. Monday to Friday. That leaves their weekend free and that freedom means they can shop. Hence the bigger queues than during the week. We got in fairly quickly to M&S. Slightly more expensive, but shorter queues, and on a day where the sun was shining, but a cold east wind was blowing, M&S was a good option.

Walked back and after some encouragement from Scamp to “Go out for your walk”, I did just that and took the Nikon out for some exercise in St Mo’s. Lots of folk walking round the pond. I don’t think the folk who designed the new boardwalk intended the widened ‘passing places’ to be used to maintain Social Distancing, but they work well in spring 2020. I had decided to wear an old hoodie instead of my fleece for a change. It was warmer and it doesn’t get out much. I think it’s about ten years old now and I’ve probably worn it less than ten times!  It was almost too warm when I was in the sun, but in the shade and in the wind it was quite cool.

I wanted a photo of a coot sitting on its nest away at the far side of the pond. The coots build their nests on floating pontoons of reeds, rushes and horsetails. This one was in an almost unreachable place. I say almost because I thought I could find a way through the bushes to get to it. It took a while and a bit of scrambling to find a spot near enough the nest, but no too near to spook the bird and with a good line of sight. The hoodie was ideal for the task. Hood up I could push my way through the brambles and hawthorn bushes to get to where I wanted to go. When I got there the coot had left the nest to chase off a potential interloper if the shape of another coot. I waited, because I was fairly sure she’d come back to the nest once the offender had been chased off. So she did after about ten minutes sailing up and down the periphery of the reed bed she returned to the nest, got comfortable and sat on the eggs again. I got as many shots as I dared without worrying about frightening the mother away. After that I made my exit.  The coot got PoD.

Back home it was curry for dinner. Not home made and not carry-out and not just any curry, this was M&S curry. I’d made flatbread in the afternoon from brown wheatmeal flour. When I got home it had risen and was looking good. Curries were hot without being too hot, my lamb rogan josh was a bit lacking in the lamb section and Scamp’s was certainly Hot, but quite good. The flatbread was a definite hit. I’ll make that again.

Tomorrow we may go for a walk as the wind is from the south and hopefully it will be a bit warmer.

Better than we expected – 12 April 2020

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We had expected a cold, cloudy day, but we got quite a lot of sunshine.

Scamp managed to grab a delivery slot for Saturday 18th from Tesco. Isn’t it strange that something so mundane as ordering a grocery delivery can bring a smile to our faces? It’s a measure of how our lives have changed. Anyway, while she set up the Saturday delivery, I amended our Tuesday delivery, adding a few things. Mainly because I’d never done that before. It’s also strange that something that’s being done by all the supermarkets is slightly different in all of them.

Both tasks completed, we went for a walk in St Mo’s. I took the Nikon and the little Oly 5 which doesn’t get out much now. I know how it feels. The Nikon produced some brilliant macro shots of furry looking ferns, a bright green blob (also known as a moss fruiting body) an a nesting coot. The Oly 5 with the fish-eye lens attached captured a wide angle view of St Mo’s. The PoD went to the furry fern crozier. The remainder can be seen on Flickr. The park wasn’t too busy today, just a few weans on bikes and a couple of adults taking their daily exercise. Scamp took my photo on the bench I’d earmarked for last Wednesday’s shot, but I’ll keep it on my phone for now, because I look guttered. It was meant to show off the tee shirt I got from Canute, but you can hardly see it. Pity, because I quite like it.

Scamp spent a half hour or so talking to Shona on the phone. I can’t imagine how that girl copes with Ben in a flat on lockdown. Anyone who has kids at this time must be absolutely round the twist trying to find something, anything, for them to do while they’re not at school.

We both spent half an hour speaking to JIC later and marvelled at the amount of gardening they’re getting done in the warm weather they get.  Got a fair bit of slagging from him for not being able to get a delivery from Ocado.  OK JIC, I walked into that one!

One idea I’ve had started from a picture I saw on Flickr. It’s an Instagram challenge to complete a drawing a day for the lockdown period. I’m a bit late coming to it, but it sound feasible. Starting it tomorrow. Small sketch posted from my phone.

That’s it for today. A bright, sunny, spring day in lockdown. Tomorrow will probably feel more like winter if the weather fairies are to be believed.

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.

Short and sweet – 9 April 2020

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Not a lot to say about today, so this will be short and sweet.

After the excitement of yesterday, today was a bit of a let down as far as the weather was concerned. I presume a lot of work went in to getting the weather just right for my birthday, so today was recompense for that. It started off dull and grey and eventually deteriorated into drizzly rain tonight.

In the afternoon I did manage to drag myself out to St Mo’s to get a few photos, but the PoD was taken earlier in the garden with a little bit of light, not actually very bright light, but light none the less and I’ll take that. The subject is Scamp’s Pieris, variety Forest Flame. It really lives up to its name with bright red leaves in the spring and the promise of its tiny little white bell flowers to come in late April and early May. It’s a real uplifting bush, especially on a dull day.

Yesterday both the usual park benches were in use and today nobody wanted to sit in the damp and decidedly cold east wind. I can’t blame them really. Lots of geese seem to have taken up squatter’s rights in the pond and the two swans are making a show of telling them who’s pond it is. Like two big white polis, they patrol the perimeter of the pond shouting “Move along there. Nothing to see.” In swan-speak, of course.

So that was it for today. Another two prezzies today, one from Neil-D’s mum and dad and another from Gems, well probably Margie really! Lovely lady.

Tomorrow we must a-foraging for milk, bread and possibly eggs. Just down to the local shops, because it’s unlikely there will be any slots for Tesco and we can’t understand the workings of the ASDA Click ’n’ Collect layout.

There you are. I told you it would be short and sweet, and it was.

A walk in the park – 3 April 2020

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What’s the point of having a Fitbit if you don’t use it?

That’s the question Scamp asked me yesterday, so I did. I wore it today. As I sit here writing this blog, I’ve achieved 10,803 steps. A lot of those steps were gathered walking round Broadwood Loch this afternoon. Scamp wanted to go for a walk and as there was a bit of hit and miss sunshine, I went with her. We walked down to Broadwood and then round the loch. Not the most interesting walk in the world, but it got us out and moving. I managed to get a couple of shots of a Crested Grebe, not sure if it’s a Great Crested, but it was quite a good one. There wasn’t much else to see, but on the plus side, there weren’t a lot of people around either, so that was a bonus. I wanted to see if there was a way to photograph the outfall from the loch, but it’s carefully managed so that the actual waterfall is obscured from view. I may have another look sometime, but on a cursory glance today and a couple of preparatory shots through the railings, it’s a no-go. Pity.

Came home and Scamp made a startling discovery. She’d logged in to Tesco and found a whole page of free slots for home delivery. I was dubious to begin with, but it looked genuine, so she has completed her order and the goods should be arriving on Monday. No guarantee that they will actually have the advertised articles in stock come Monday, but if it means we don’t need to queue along with all the masked minions, I’m up for it. If it means we don’t have to lug great bags of potatoes and tins up from M&S I’m doubly up for it. We’ll see.

I made red lentil curry for dinner to be served with the remainder of Wednesday’s chicken and it was while I was making it I got today’s PoD of the crow making off with a bit of stale bread. Actually, the better shot for me, although the quality was poor, was the one here of a crow dunking its bread in the birdbath to soften it. Now I’ve heard of this before, in fact, my dad used to tell me tales of crows soaking their bread. I though it was just that, a tale, but today I saw it happen before my eyes. Bread must have been just a little too hard for him! Curry was voted hot, but just on the safe side of too hot. There is some left over to use tomorrow with some fish or some eggs. Both work well with it. Might try to get some coconut milk to calm it down because it will have ‘matured’ by then!

That was about it. Hoping for high temperatures this weekend, but not as high as the folk down south will be getting. Might get some things done in the garden. I’m thinking Scamp may want to cut at least some of the grass if it stays dry long enough.

Mothers Day – 22 March 2020

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I made the breakfast. I even sliced up a banana for Scamp, with none for me. I did this only for Scamp on behalf of the weans … and because banana on my porridge would be a step too far.

Today was shearing day. The thatch that’s been growing under my nose and around my mouth was getting far too lush. It had to go. So I took it upon myself to give it a quick Number Four. I possibly could have gone to a number three, but it was just 1.9ºc when I was making breakfast and, at my age I need a bit of insulation on the upper lip and the chin, so a number four it was.

After hacking away for a while and washing all the clippings away I felt ready to face the day. Scamp was already speaking to Hazy on the phone when I went downstairs. She didn’t even notice my carefully sculpted facial hair. Neither did Hazy, but as this wasn’t a video call or FaceTime, I’ll forgive her. It was only hours later when I told her about my barbering skills she looked and said “Oh, yes”. That’s all you get for all the planning and careful cutting then. Hmph!

It being Mothers Day, Scamp had the choice of where to go for our daily walk. She chose St Mo’s surprisingly. I thought she’d want to go to Broadwood, which I find boring, but she likes. No, she thought there would be fewer people at St Mo’s after yesterday’s crowds at Drumpellier. It was another beautiful day and there were a few folk, mainly mums and dads with a single wean. They weren’t observing the proper social distancing rules, but I suppose they were all living under the same roof, so what’s the point of maintaining the 2m exclusion zone when you’re outside if you’ll be sitting in the same room when you get home. I did get what turned out to be today’s PoD on our walk, it was another of those flowering currants, but this time about half of the flowers had opened. I was hoping to get a chance to take some more later in the walk or even later in the day, but technology got in the way. After we’d done our circuit of St Mo’s, Scamp suggested we walk down through Condorrat and over the ‘Red Bridge’. That extended our walk a bit, even if it was beside a busy road, still quite busy even with so much isolation going on. The motorway however was almost deserted. I’m pretty sure we could count on the fingers of one hand, the number of cars and lorries that passed under our feet as we crossed the Red Bridge. The M80 was carrying its lightest traffic load for a long, long while.

After we got back, Scamp took the bull by the horns and instituted a video call to her sister in Skye. I was most impressed with the ease she did it with. A real tech genius Scamp is. I’ll be going to her for help with all my problems now!

Later, I thought I’d go for a solo walk around St Mo’s to see if Mr Grey had returned. He had, but he was away on the far side of the pond, well out of reach of the 200mm lens. I tried to get some macro shots of some nicely lit moss spores, but for some reason still to be explained, the shutter seemed to fire, but no photos were recorded. That’s the reason we ‘chimp’ (check the image on the back screen of the camera) but I had confidence in the ability of the E-M1, misplaced confidence it seemed.

Dinner tonight was the second half of the Thai Chicken Stir-Fry for Scamp and the first half of a Beef Stir-Fry for me. Both with egg noodles instead of the usual rice for a change. Scamp’s was fine, if a bit oily. Mine was so hot it would have set the oil on fire. The girl in the butchers said it had “a bit of a kick”. I’d say! A kick like a mule. I’ll treat it with caution when I get round to eating the other half. It’s in the freezer at present, I hope it hasn’t melted anything in there!

Spoke to JIC later and got his take on Covid 19. He’s much more down to earth than the BBC. It’s good to hear a more reasoned, grounded voice on the subject.

Tomorrow we may go for messages. Just ordinary messages and if we find toilet rolls, buy lots and lots of them!

Sunny Coatbrig’ – 21 March 2020

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Any place as grimly industrial as Coatbridge, that has an area called Sunnyside, obviously has a sense of dark humour.

Today we went to the leafier part of Coatbridge (It will always be Coatbrig’ to me because that’s what my dad called it). We drove out to Drumpellier which has a small loch and an imaginatively designed play park based around a Crannog. There are buoys in the loch that mark out the original ‘real’ crannog that was home to Iron Age families. Some Iron Age families still live in Coatbrig’ I think.

Today we weren’t interested in the history and pre-history of Coatbrig’, we were more interested in a walk round the loch in the fresh air. Contrary to our usual route, we took the anti-clockwise path, walking against the usual flow of prams, bikes and weans on those strange three wheeled scooter things that the weans move with a skiing motion. They always looked awkward to me and the weans seemed to be having a hard time getting them to go where they wanted. It didn’t take us long to get round the loch and there wasn’t all that much to see I’m afraid. The camera stayed quite happily in its bag for the whole circuit. The visitor centre and tea shop was firmly locked and bolted shut as per Boris’s instructions, so there was nothing for it but to drive back home again. Of course we could have turned around and unwound ourselves by walking round again by the clockwise route, but there would still have been very little to tempt the photographer in me and we’d still have to find a way past the skiing tricycle owners. Nah, we just went home for lunch.

Before we’d gone out we were talking to the couple in the pensioner’s house next to us and again they were offering to bring us back any messages we needed. I think they’re both younger than us, but it is strange to be “the old people”. I haven’t seen myself as old until this year. Yes I refer to Colin, Fred, Val and me as The Auld Guys, but that’s tongue in cheek. To think of myself as ‘old’ is uncomfortable. However, it was kind of them to think of us.

After that, I went for a walk in St Mo’s and found my old adversary Mr Grey, or at least one of his family stalking frogs, I think, in St Mo’s pond. While he stalked, I stalked him and got a few shots before he took off on those enormous wings and flew off. I was ready for him though. I’d set the camera to motor drive (Slow) and managed to grab a few images as he glided past on the tree line. My favourite, and therefore PoD was what you see here and only shows his head after I made a hash of panning. It’s always been difficult to pan and take multiple shots on an SLR. With a DSLR it’s no different. The only camera to allow you to see what you’re taking without interruption is a rangefinder. There are very few digital rangefinder cameras and the ones there are, are above my budget. So for me it’s press the button and hope for the best. I may try to pan with the shutter set to electronic some time. I believe that works. Next time I’ve got decent light and a suitably slow flying heron I’ll test out the theory.

Dinner tonight was paella and Scamp suggested that we reduce the quantity to reduce the waste. It should have been easy, but I don’t think I got the amount of stock right. Needs more testing. Everything needs testing, it seems.

Tomorrow we are hoping to go out walking in the fresh air again, probably in the afternoon. Weather looks much like today, that is cold and a bit dull, but we’ll hope for better.

Last Dance in The Weavers – 4 March 2020

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Thankfully the last dance in that pokey little room, but we beat the corners.

First we got a phone call from Isobel to say that she was indeed getting out today. Although she’d get transport from the ward to the car, she would need a wheelchair to get from the car to the house, because the hospital wouldn’t load us a chair. Absolute nonsense, but totally in keeping with expected NLC policy. Scamp was not to be fazed by this problem and phoned one of the Gems singers and an hour later we had a wheelchair in the back of the Juke. You don’t realise just how much room a folded up wheelchair takes up in a car. I see the problem now Hazy.

By the time we’d worked out how to transport Scamp, Isobel, me and the wheelchair from the hospital to Cumbersheugh, Isobel had phoned to say she’d been told she was going to get hospital transport. Because she had more than one step up to her door and also she only had one handrail, she needed an ambulance person to get her safely into the house. One problem solved, but now we had to return the wheelchair and also return our life to what sometimes amounts to “Normal”. We went to lunch.

Lunch was in Craigend Nursery which used to be a decent sized plant nursery with a small tearoom bolted on. Now it’s very large tearoom with a nursery bolted on almost as an afterthought. Lunch was a beef burger and chips and salad and a dollop of ‘coleslaw’ that looked like a dog had been sick on my slate (no plates, just slates. Retro chic). Scamp had a very greasy looking Mac ’n’ Cheese. I don’t think we’ll be rushing back there.

Drove back and Scamp went to offload the wheelchair while I went to visit the ducks in St Mo’s. I also walked to the shops to try to get lemongrass for tonight’s dinner. Met an old friend of ours from salsa. Haven’t seen her for years, five years at least, according to her. How time flies. Didn’t get the lemongrass, but I did get today’s PoD which looks as if it’s been taken with flash, but it was just low afternoon light. A lucky shot.

Tonight we were dancing for the final time in The Weavers. I won’t be sad to leave that horrible room with its strange angles. What we did do was produce a decent foxtrot and another ‘work in progress’ quickstep. After a long explanation of how to dance in any shape of room, we even managed to remove the corners of the room and turn them into gentle curves, just by altering stride length and not dancing in entirely straight lines. It worked!

G&Ts tonight to remove the rough edges of an awkward day. Much like The Dukes of Hazzard song “Staightenin’ the curves Flattenin’ the hills …”. Exactly like tonight’s dancing.

Tomorrow more dancing in the afternoon hopefully. In a proper room this time.

Getting your ducks in a line – 27 February 2020

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There was snow lying this morning when we woke. Snow in February, that’s normal isn’t it? Does that mean Global Warming’s been cancelled?

Only time will tell if the proposed Global Warming has indeed been cancelled. For my part I think the snow was an oversight. It was fairly quickly removed from all gardens and some active person was actually removing it from the Campsie Fells by the time we were going out. We drove to Drumpellier and found that the snow that had been removed from Cumbersheugh had been dumped there. I presume it was Coatbridge that had paid for the snow to increase its scenic value and it had been inadvertently delivered to Cumbernauld. We walked round the loch. It was very pretty with a clear blue sky, but a cold wind and I did get today’s PoD there. It’s a Tufted duck and it was only one of the hundreds pestering the swans that are the usual stormtroopers when there’s food to be had. It made a refreshing change. Cup of coffee in the visitor centre which had an area cordoned off with serious looking red tape and heavy duty polythene that obscured our view of what was behind it. I firmly believe this is the Coatbridge way of quarantining suspected Coronavirus victims. Scary thought!
By the time we got back home all the snow had gone and half of the snow on the hills had also disappeared. Probably the work of an NLC operative with a big barrow and a few black bags. Cumbersheugh doesn’t get to keep anything. NLC just takes it away to Coatbridge or Motherwell!

After lunch I made some dough for a second attempt at Salt & Pepper bread and set it to rise while I went for a walk. I got a few more photos, but not until I’d reset the time and date on the camera. None of the other settings had been reset, only the time and date! Strange. Despite getting more photos, it was a shot of Tufty that remained the PoD.

I made some soup when I got back and also cooked some mince under Scamp’s instructions. Then I fired the bread after I’d sprayed it with water and put some pepper and sea salt on top. It rose well and tastes quite good. I had mince ’n’ tatties with beetroot. Scamp had salmon with tatties. Soup was fine. It was bean soup, to which the response is always “I don’t want to know what it was, I want to know what it is now!” Proof that the old jokes aren’t always the best.

Today’s prompt was “Duck”. This is my take on that topic. It’s a mallard I photographed last year in Cumbersheugh. And, before someone asks, NO I wasn’t tempted to draw and paint a Donald Duck instead!

We have no plans for tomorrow.

Coffee and some adult conversation – 24 February 2020

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Coffee at midday with the rest of the Auld Guys.

Topics under discussion were how to fix NLC, health centres and Boris.

  • It was generally agreed that NLC are now BER (Beyond Economic Repair) which is a nice way of saying FUBAR.
  • Health centres seem to be screwing up a lot of people. Within about a 10 mile radius the three centres under discussion were all operating different systems and all of them totally inefficient. Possibly they too are BER.
  • The book I’m reading at present is Real Tigers by Mick Herron. One nasty piece of work in the book is Peter Judd who is Home Secretary — described as ‘a loose cannon with a floppy fringe and a bicycle’ has his eye on Number 10. Now Peter Judd’s initials are PJ. If you say them quickly they’d sound like BJ, then all sorts of similarities are revealed. A nice piece of satire or simply a coincidence? You choose.

With the world once again set to rights, we went our separate ways and vowed that we’d organise our next meeting in a pub in Glasgow. We’ve been saying it for years and it hasn’t transpired yet. Perhaps 2020 will be that year.

When I got home, Gems were in full voice, so I swiftly had a roll ’n’ bacon and went out into the grim sleet to see if there were any pictures out there worth taking. There were as it happened. I’d stopped on one of my favourite places for a view of the Campsie covered in snow when the clouds came down and obscured them. Then I heard the sound of geese and a large skein appeared from behind some trees. There seemed to be hundreds of birds in the group that split up and rejoined as I grabbed my camera and shot off a few frames through the smirr that had started to fog up the lens. A quick wipe with my shirt tail cured that and I go some more before they headed off north. What do they know that I don’t. The resulting image is at the top of the page.

Dancing tonight was a reprise of waltz which I will tentatively say we can now complete without arguing 75% of the time. After that we did some foxtrot and made a bit of hash of it, but nothing that can’t be improved with some more practise. New to us tonight was quickstep. Now we’ve done quickstep with Michael, but this was quickstep with names for all the steps and the figures and it seemed to flow much better than when we were dancing it in Blackfriars. I’m not saying we have it off pat yet, it’s still a work in progress, but we’re about half way there. Feeling much better about this dancing lark.

I’m not publishing my attempt at a Mandala which is today’s challenge. I wasted an hour of my life drawing it and I don’t intend to foist it on anyone else. If you want to see it go to FB or Flickr.

Tomorrow, no plans, but I think we’ll be practising the quickstep figures.