Category: Birds

Bike – 11 April 2019

Posted on by Zogman

In the morning we went to buy Waitrose.

We didn’t totally buy Waitrose, but we made a valiant stab at it. We also walked into Stirling and had a coffee. A lazy morning.

In the afternoon, Scamp just failed to get the grass cut before the competition, the next door neighbour, got started on her smaller grass patch. While she was doing that, I took the Dewdrop out for a run. Didn’t go far, didn’t want to push things too early. Just went as far as the old dump and got today’s PoD there. I had to crop the bottom off the landscape to remove the unsightly cables for the ‘leccy trains. Still looks an inviting scene in my eyes. On the way back I sat and watched Grebes fishing in Broadwood Loch. They can stay underwater for 20 seconds! Quite amazing. It was a beautiful afternoon. Warm sunshine, but a cooling breeze.

Made some Beef Clives (Olives to you) tonight and am just about to put them in the freezer. Scamp made Chicken Milanese with new potatoes and spiralled veg. Damn spiralizer didn’t work properly. It would appear that the microswitch in the ’safety’ feature isn’t seated properly because it’s very safe. It doesn’t switch on properly. It cost us eight quid too! It’s going back.

Not the busiest of days, but the bike got an airing and Scamp got the front grass cut. I also reset the name servers for my webspace (whatever that means), but I don’t think the changeover is complete yet. Maybe tomorrow.

Tomorrow we have that wonderful thing – No Plans.

Lovely Spring day – 9 April 2019

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It was a lovely spring day today. Blue sky, white clouds and the birds were singing. Ahhh!

The only thing wrong with it was the cold wind. There’s always got to be a fly in the ointment. That didn’t stop me driving to the butchers to get some meat. Then I had to drive a circuitous route to get some petrol for the thirsty Juke. That was because the road between St Maurice’s roundabout and the Broadwood roundabout plus most of the Broadwood roundabout itself were closed for some secret work that only NLC roads and works department know about. Same circuitous route on the way back. At least when I passed, it looked like they were actually doing something.

When I came home the sun was still shining, so I grabbed the Olys and took them for a walk in St Mo’s. Saw a couple of deer, but decided not to follow them in case I startled them and they ran on to the road. Found a couple of newts in one of the smaller ponds, but PoD was Mrs Goosander’s Bad Hair Day. Got that when I was feeding mouldy bread to the ducks and swans, although the greedy gulls got most of the bread. The goosanders didn’t seem to didn’t seem to want to fly in to snaffle the bread they preferred to paddle like blazes and cruised in at the rate of a speedboat. Crazy wee birds with scary looking teeth in their beaks.

We both had a practise at the next routine with from Timesteps with some clever little kicks and flicks. That’s all Jive Talk by the way.

Tomorrow we’re intending to go dancing in the afternoon at Blackfriars and I may go to the struggling Debenhams to get a new pair of Chinos. Who knew that ‘Chinos’ is a racial slur at Chinese people?

A free afternoon – 4 April 2019

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Scamp was out at a Gems gig this afternoon, so I had time to do as I pleased.

As usual with a free afternoon, I did what I usually do and frittered most of it away. I’d intended doing a bit more painting, but I didn’t. I was going to read a bit more in my most recent book, a true story about a forensic pathologist, but I didn’t. I did sit at the computer for a while, but ended up not doing anything constructive or creative.

Eventually got out and bought a rhubarb plant because the old one looks as if it’s dead. I think we’ve had it for a few years now and it’s been producing some stalks every year, but even after a mild winter it’s not waking up for spring. Bought another one anyway. You can’t have too many rhubarb plants. Got some Calabrese which is Italian or Green sprouting broccoli. Too early to plant it out yet (it was only 4ºc this morning) but it can harden off in the little greenhouse.

Took the cameras for a walk in St Mo’s and got today’s PoD of a coot sitting on its nest in the pond. The coot makes the nest in exactly the same place every year. Literally a creature of habit. I also got a ‘fun’ shot of half a bottle of cola of indeterminate vintage. Called the photo ‘Ginger’, remembering the Robbie Coltrane video of the same name. Watched part 1 of Tutti Frutti last night and that must have been what put it into my head.

Tomorrow I might have an hour free in the morning because Scamp has the dentist. Don’t have plans for the rest of the day, but next week I must take Hazy’s advice and get my new home for my blog sorted out.

Last Full Day – 26 March 2019

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Ticking off the last few things we had to do in The Warm Place.

After breakfast we took the free bus into Caleta after a mystery tour round the various hotels around the town. We were keeping a weather eye on a big black cloud that was getting ominously close and were becoming a bit concerned that we might just need the brollies we’d left in the hotel! With that in mind it was a smart walk around to see the newly renovated Ereza Mar hotel which had been partly torn down the last time we’d been on the Windy Island. It looked really smart, but that was just the white paint and the blue roof tiles. We’d seen the holes in the blockwork of the balconies!

Walking back towards the town we felt the first spits and spots of rain. Warm rain, but rain, none the less. That gave us the opportunity to nip into the Irish bar for a pint of Guinness for me and a half pint of lager for Scamp. By the time we came out the cloud and the rain had disappeared, the streets were dry and the sky was blue once again. Walked along the sands and grabbed today’s PoD which was three seats with a view, but no takers. There is a strange dearth of visitors on the beach this year. It might be something to do with Brexit that’s keeping the Brits at home, but that wouldn’t prevent the French, Germans and Italians from grabbing some early spring warmth. Can’t quite work it out, and we’ve heard quite a few people saying the same thing. Signs of the times perhaps.

Sat on a seat beside a child’s lost toy mouse and had an ice cream, just looking out to sea. Then we said goodbye to the toy mouse and walked on to see the fish in the little river that flows out of Elba Sara. I got some photos of a bird that might be a Turnstone, but PoD remains the three seats.

Just sat by the pool in the afternoon, but the clouds were massing again and it wasn’t looking as good as it had done earlier.

Getting ready for dinner, I slipped getting out of the bath that doubles as a shower. Banged my side against the bath and staved my finger. Silly old fool. It felt reminiscent of November in Lanzarote when I woke up on the last day with a lump the size of an egg on my elbow and no knowledge of how it had happened.

Dinner wasn’t anything special to write home about, so I won’t.

Spent our last evening packing and re-packing the bags and cases. I really must review my bag packing list. With a bit of re-organising I manage to get the carry-on bag down to 4.3kg which was much better than the vastly overloaded 8kg going out.

Tomorrow it’s going to be a long day.

First Day – 21 March 2019

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We’d decided that today would be a day of rest after yesterday’s fraught day of travel and that’s what we did.

In the morning we just sat by the pool. Scamp went for a swim but I decided to stay on dry land. My head was not my own. I hadn’t slept well and apart from the excess of alcohol yesterday, I realised I’d had more than my fair share of sun without a head covering. Also, I’d been careful on the flight not to drink too much and the combination of all these things meant I was probably dehydrated and had slight sun stroke. That’s why my head felt slightly woozy. The reason I’d not slept well was because I kept waking up hearing noises during the night. We eventually decided that because our room faced into the prevailing wind, the constant buffeting by that strong wind was causing the chairs to vibrate on the balcony. Not only ours were vibrating, everyone else’s chairs and tables were doing the same thing too. Thankfully in the afternoon, somebody realised what was happening and the chairs were removed into the flat or stacked in such a way that the noise was eliminated. That was a great relief.

Saw a Hoopoe in the gardens of the resort and amazingly it let me get quite close. It made PoD. Haven’t seen one here before, in fact the only one I’ve seen before was in Puerto Rico in Gran Canario about 10 years ago.

In the afternoon we went for a walk as far as the small strip of shops just short of Caleta De Fuste. Walked back along the new walkway.

Later in the afternoon, I went for a walk over to the wild side beyond Elba Sara. Got some photos of the camels walking to their overnight accommodation and also some shots of a curlew.

Show tonight was a music quiz which didn’t interest us and shows the quality of the entertainment in this hotel.

16,179 steps 7.3 miles today.

Tomorrow we may get the bus into Puerto del Rosario.

The highlight today was lunch – 19 March 2019

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Some days are simply filled with fun and frolics. Some days are filled with work, work, work. Today was neither.

We couldn’t decide whether to go to Stirling or Glasgow today. Instead, we settled for Cumbersheugh. We didn’t need much, but we did need some shopping. Not ‘messages’, but ‘shopping’ there’s a difference, but much too subtle to try to explain here. After the shopping was completed successfully, we came home to rest from our labours before heading out to Milano’s for lunch. Started was Pollo Fritto for both of us and Pizza for me, Pollo a la Fiorintina for Scamp. Because she was driving, I had a half pint of Tennents. My food was fine, but Scamp’s rice was decidedly stodgy, almost like sticky rice.

After we got back I went for a walk to Condorrat with a slight detour round St Mo’s. Spotted a male goosander in among the tufted ducks and the mallards. Managed a few shots of it and it became PoD, even although the shot was taken at a fairly high ISO rating.

Dull day, and when I was coming back, all the cars had their lights on. Such a difference yesterday’s sunshine. It was cold too. Spring one day, winter the next.

Tomorrow it might be summer! Well, there’s always a chance with the spring equinox.

Less than manic Monday – 18 March 2019

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Broke the surface just after 8am, then promptly fell asleep soon after and didn’t rise until 11am.

Must have needed the sleep! Spoke to Hazy on the phone for a while, then my morning coffee mix of Cuban and Sumatran beans woke me up properly. Did a bit of sketching with Margie in the early afternoon before I got itchy feet and went out for a drive to find a PoD. I drove all round the locale before I found what I was looking for, accidentally.

I’d driven up the Whin Edge Brae, so called because of the whin (gorse) bushes that line it. I chose this location because the light on the hills looked as if it would be interesting. I thought I’d get a decent set of frames, from which I could build a panorama of the Campsies. It was while I was grabbing these images that I heard the skein of geese approaching. Finished the pano frames and then managed to frame the skein just above a spot of sunshine on the Campsie Fells. I’d like to say that they were flying south, but they were actually heading due west at the time. Just after I took the shot the whole group banked through 180º and turned due east and were last seen heading for Edinburgh, or Embra to give it its proper name. I’m guessing they were looking for a large enough field or loch to land and feed then rest for the night. I’m sure they knew where they were going.

Drove in to the STUC building tonight for Salsa and enjoyed taking the beginners through their paces with Balsero being the highlight of their night. The advanced class were a bit down on leaders, Jamie and I being the only two men there. Scamp had to stand in as a leader and managed to lead the new move, Prisma perfectly.

Tomorrow we may go the Stirling or Glasgow for some shopping and lunch.

Not the best of days – 12 February 2019

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Some days are good and some are simply bad. Today was the latter.

The tree in the garden that was trimmed yesterday doesn’t look at all like we thought it would. It may take some time for it to grow into itself again, but for just now it just looks a bit ugly. We’re both agreed on that and we’re both to blame for not making it clearer to Nicky what we wanted. However, like that awful haircut we’ve all had, it will eventually grow back. Unfortunately, trees take longer than hair to grow. We may make a bird box and fix it to the tree, at least then we’ll have something interesting to watch.

It’s always going to be a bit of a wrench having to go to another salsa class and now we have confirmation that the advanced class is to close in March. We’ve discussed it a lot in the last 24 hours and have come to the conclusion that it’s not just one reason for the lack of people, there are lots of reasons:

  • The class itself was becoming stale with long complicated moves that nobody in their right mind would attempt to dance in a club.
  • The Advanced class were always being merged with classes one or two levels below us. The constant merging of classes meant that the more advanced members were having to ‘tread water’ while newer, less experienced people caught up. When they did catch up, another class would merge in and the cycle would begin again. People simply didn’t want to pay for a class where they weren’t learning anything new.
  • Jamie is a great teacher, but only when he’s there. I realise he has other commitments with his work, but when he’s not there and less able teachers are taking his place, our interest suffers and some people, again, will move away.
  • There have been comments in class about some people, usually leaders, who are too rough and are injuring some of the followers. Scamp, herself has had a few bruises from these meetings. That is a definite reason for some of the followers leaving.

I really don’t know what the answer is, there may not even be one. We’ll try tomorrow’s ‘Advanced’ class. We’ll give it a fair test and it may be the salvation of Salsa in Glasgow. At least it will be with Jamie as a teacher.

I gave both our cars a quick wash and brush up today. They needed it, then when Scamp was out to lunch with Mags I hung out the washing and that’s where I saw today’s PoD! Scamp’s Christmas Roses are still in flower and are changing colour slightly. It looks like they are going to be sliding towards pink.

Today’s sketch is four Sugardrop tomatoes I spied when I was making paella tonight. A quick 40min sketch, but with decent technique and using a real brush, not a waterbrush for a change.

Tomorrow it’s dancing in the afternoon and hopefully dancing at night too.

Short back and sides – 11 February 2019

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Nicky, the arborist, was coming today to give our rowan tree a short back and sides. He didn’t mess around.

He arrived just after 10am and got to work straight away. He trimmed all the low lying branches and then some of the higher ones that were easy to reach with his expensive Japanese draw saw (cuts on the back stroke, like most Japanese tools). The next thing I saw was him strapping himself into his climbing harness and throwing a climbing rope over one of the sturdy upper branches. After that, he was up, up and away cutting a swathe through the branches that overhung the garden. I think it was at this point that Scamp became nervous and began to wonder if going to hack too much away. However, like a half cut head of hair looks in the hairdresser’s mirror, you have to have faith in the expert wielding the scissors, or in this case, the Japanese saw. By the time it was finished, the tree looks a lot more open. Light will get through and so will the air. He assured us that the ‘wounds’ (his word) would heal quickly and encourage new growth. Like the new hairstyle, it will take a bit of getting used to, but in a few weeks it will look fine.

All that was left was the disposal of the cuttings. That was going to take a few bucket and bag loads, about half a dozen in fact and since I was going to the skips today anyway, it seemed a good opportunity to make good the fresh start. With that in mind, and after Nicky had left we set to with the loppers and chopped all the branches into manageable pieces, bagged them and I took them in the car along with the rubbish from yesterday to the skips. The world and his wife were there too, dumping rubbish. We really do live in a throw away culture. At least the tree cuttings could be chipped and composted. Not so the rubble and timber. That will probably go to landfill.

Best laugh of the day was when we were doing our final tidy of the garden. An old bloke was walking past on the path behind the garden when I turned to Scamp to ask if some old rotten wood was going to. He turned to me and said “Would you mind keeping your voice down. You nearly woke me there.” I looked and he smile, so I said in my sincere voice. “My apologies.” We both laughed and he walked on. Just a wee bit humour gets you through the day sometimes.

After I dumped today’s stuff in the skips, I took a drive over to Fannyside Moss and got today’s PoD. It was taken with the Samyang fisheye lens. Drove back via St Mo’s with some bread to feed the wildfowl, although the greedy gulls got most of it. I know you’re not supposed to feed them on bread, but they didn’t seem to get that memo.

There was sad news at Salsa tonight. Our dwindling class numbers have made it impossible to continue the 7.30 Advanced class which has been running for 10 years in the same time slot in a variety of venues. We have only four weeks left in it and then we may have to look at joining the 8.30 class on a Wednesday. It’s nowhere near as good a class and the 8.30 time isn’t ideal. We may have to look for pastures new.

Today’s sketch of the banana and lime was done while listening to Masterchef, but I painted it under the light of a daylight bulb in the painting room otherwise the grinding of my teeth at the inane comments of the ‘fat bastard’ Gregg Wallace would have upset Scamp.

Tomorrow Scamp is out to lunch and I may, just may take the bike out for its first run this year.

Out even earlier – 18 January 2019

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Why is it when I set the alarm on my phone to make sure I wake up on time, I don’t sleep for more than an hour at a time?

Up and out for 8.20 this morning to go to the docs for a blood test at 8.50. I needed that half hour to scrape the car and get the temperature up to a reasonable level where your breath doesn’t freeze instantly in front of your face. Then I had to drive through the hosts of parents driving their children to school to make sure their little feet and knee joints didn’t wear out prematurely.

Got parked and grabbed today’s PoD of the sun colouring the sky and clouds above Carbrain. A bit of a misnomer, because everyone in Cumbersheugh knows there isn’t a brain in Carbrain. I walked a bit further and watched two women being terrorised by marauding feral seagulls behind Boots the Chemist. Great beasts of things, they were and squawking like banshees and the seagulls were almost as bad. By the time I got to the doc’s, the sun had broken free of the horizon and was lighting up the sky properly. Another shot in the bag which might have beaten the first if it wasn’t for the ugly flat roofed Carbrian flats with windows and no doors. “Blots on the Landscape”, could have been the title. Did my Tony Hancock impersonation (if that makes no sense to you, Google ‘The Blood Donor’, a Hancock classic) and then headed home for breakfast which on this cold, clear morning would be porridge and a cup of Assam. The best central heating known to man.

Scamp was determined to renew our passports online since she heard that you could take your own photo and get it validated immediately. It’s a brilliant system and I’m still not sure if it is a really clever algorithm (the word of the moment, don’t you know?) or an actual human sitting there giving thumbs up or thumbs down. Possibly this will be the ultimate Turing Test some day. Anyway, the upshot of it was we passed the test and ordered our shiny new passports. Then we’d to send our old passports off to be cancelled or redacted or simply have their corners cut off. Again will it be by machine or will it be by a minimum wage human? Who knows. Just so you know, you have to actually post the passport off, you can’t simply stuff it into the USB port in the back or side of your computer. That’s a pity. It kind of goes against the digital ethos of renewing your passport online. That said, the whole thing is much better than take the photo, fill in the form, post the lot away, wait a week, get a refusal because Gort says the corner of your mouth is slightly upturned and you might, just might be starting to smile. DO IT AGAIN PROPERLY THIS TIME. Yes, this is a big step forward, even if we don’t know if Gort is human or android.

Drove to Blantyre to Carrigan’s and had dinner tonight with Margaret and Billy. Food was good and plentiful. My roast gammon had been sitting under the heat lamp for a few minutes more than I’d have liked, but it was more than made up for with the dessert. Total silence while four of us struggled with our Tablet Ice Cream. Astounding dessert. Totally unnecessary, but total gluttony!

Managed to find my way back on to the M74 only to find the M73 turnoff was closed tonight, but then I navigated my way off and over the M74 and back on to the M73 turnoff on the other side. That confused the satnav.

Tomorrow I believe we may be going to Stirling to Waitrose for food. Hopefully we won’t be getting up early and I’m not setting my alarm, so I should sleep less fitfully than last night.