Category: Birds

Change in the weather – 13 May 2024

Posted on by Zogman

We woke to white skies all around. No sign of the blue skies we’d been enjoying last week.

I was out in the morning to get bloods taken at the health centre. Two chatty nurses kept me talking after the bloodletting had finished. I though at first it was my magnetic personality and my scintillating conversation that was dazzling them. Then I realised they were just making sure this auld guy had been sitting in the chair for the mandatory five or ten minutes, whatever it was, before releasing me into the wild world outside.

I’d got out early and decided I’d pick up a loaf and some fruit, plus Scamp’s meds on the way home. With all the warm weather we’ve had, the trees have been dropping their sap on the cars, and mine felt like the bonnet was covered in sandpaper, so a trip to the carwash would be a good idea … except, it seemed that everyone else in Cumbersheugh had the same idea, so instead I drove home.

Back home Scamp was edging the concrete slabs we have spread across the grass at the back of the house. If you don’t keep cutting the grass back it attempts to cover the slabs. Scamp was doing a good job of disabusing it of that idea.

After lunch she started cleaning up what we laughingly call a patio. It’s just a load of badly laid concrete slabs placed end to end, but we did make some wooden duckboard plates to allow some air in under the plants, but other forms of detritus had found its way in too. Between us we managed to sweep it up and add it to the compost bin.

I took some time out from the garden to sketch today’s topic which was A Songbird. The Blackbird is our finest and most easily recognised songbird. Years ago you could hear Larks and the occasional Song Thrush, but the urbanizing of our countryside has ousted them all, that and the seagulls and magpies. I’m just happy to listen to the blackbirds singing in the morning and in the evening.
We try to encourage them into our small garden, leaving chopped up apples for them to tear apart as repayment for their song.

After that, I took the A7 over to St Mo’s and got some decent photos. It was a toss up whether PoD went to Mrs Wolf Spider hauling her egg sac behind her, or the wilderness garden with aquilegia, poppies and dandelions that has sprung up in the last two weeks at the end of our road. In the end Mrs W won out.

Dinner tonight was Red Pasta. That is a tomato based sauce. This time with Cirio concentrated tomato puree. We couldn’t get it anywhere, then a couple of weeks ago we found it on sale in Waitrose, so we got two packets. Lovely strong tomato flavour. Not a bad dinner with basil and spinach leaves too for more texture.

That was about it for today, except to say that it’s raining tonight, not torrential, just good soaking rain. Scamp had feared that we’d need to start watering the garden, but Mother Nature did it for us!

Busy tomorrow afternoon.

Another improving day – 22 February 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Me, that is, as well as the weather

A fairly late rise, but I didn’t, in my heart of hearts think I was fit enough to go dancing today. Not for myself, but I didn’t want to spread it to all the other dancers at the tea dance. So it was decided the we wouldn’t grace the dance floor today. I think we were both in agreement about that.

We had a morning call from Hazy and talked about Jamie’s house improvements as well as Neil’s antibiotics and of course the Ninja Tilly who ambushes ‘monsters’ in the bedroom. Good job Hazy hadn’t realised that Scamp and I were still in bed, tucked up and warm without an attack cat anywhere nearby.

I spent most of the morning writing up yesterday’s blog post which I chose to forego yesterday to get a good night’s sleep instead. I’d left myself a list of bullet points that would help me to flesh out yesterday’s wee stories.

I took a walk round St Mo’s in the afternoon and spooked a deer again. I’ve a feeling they are going to start banning me from walking through the woods. Or accuse me of being a stalker – a deer stalker, or is that something different? I also stalked a couple of innocent swans in the pond and one of the shots got PoD.

It was cold again outside with temperatures dropping down to single figures. I was really glad to get back to the house for a heat.

Dinner tonight was my all time favourite – Mince ’n’ Tatties. Scamp made it and there’s some left for, probably Saturday, when I’m hoping to make it into Spaghetti Bolognese (without the tatties, obviously.)

I made a decision on ON1 Photo RAW 2024 tonight. It has to go. There are only minor improvements compared with last year’s 2023 version. The examples and tutorials use carefully selected photos that work well with ON1. Real world examples fail miserably. I’ve issued my request to be refunded the cost of the software well within the required 30 days. I almost feel like Alex with his changing camera collection. Sorry Alex!

Today’s prompt was Chestnut and I used an old (2018) photo of mine with a couple of chestnuts in it. Not just one chestnut either. Instead I give you two. One still hiding in its shell and one that has extricated itself from the spiny green cover. I used to love chestnuts or ‘Chessies’ when I was wee. Baking them in the oven after soaking them overnight in vinegar which allegedly made them invincible. Don’t try it, it doesn’t work. Carefully drilling a hole through the middle and passing a string through, knotting it at both ends to keep it secure. Then the excitement of smashing the opposition’s ‘chessie’ with yours. However, it was usually my specially hardened chessie that cracked first. Great fun when you’re six or seven.
Now I keep them over winter in our cold greenhouse and plant them in the parks in the spring to grow into chestnut trees.

Watched The Apprentice later. Is that program meant to be real or a comedy? Where one contestant couldn’t work out how to use a measuring tape.

Best Wishes to Simonne who is travelling to Trinidad tomorrow to visit her dad. Say Hello to Jaime for me please, Simonne. Hope your sister untangles the red tape.

We might do lunch tomorrow with June and Ian.

Looking for mythical creatures – 16 February 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was out in the morning to get her hair cut. I was left in charge of the house.

When she returned looking glamorous we discussed what to do with the remainder of the day. We discussed various options and came up empty handed. Finally, after a long wait I suggested we go shopping in Lidl in Kilsyth. My ulterior motive (there is always one) was that I’d heard tell of a kingfisher frequenting the Garrel Burn.

So after we’d bought our shopping we took a walk through Kilsyth and followed the burn all the way to the main road without seeing any life in the burn whether fish or feathered. We walked back to the car by a different route and found a tributary to the Garrel, but it didn’t look as if there was any activity in it either. I’m not sure if the story of the kingfisher is a myth or not, but I’ll give it another chance some time, maybe going downstream as well as upstream this time.

I did get one decent photo on our walk. Looking through a circular hole in the cast iron bridge over the burn to look upstream through the trees. I just liked the frame the circle made for the burn. That became PoD.

On the way back to the car we discovered the fresh fish shop we used to visit in Kilsyth. Scamp was impressed with quality of the fish and bought a piece of salmon for tomorrow’s dinner. I’d already selected a thick slice of rump steak for mine from Lidl.

We drove home and found a nearly empty car park and had our choice of parking places for once.

Today’s prompt was “Violet”.
I chose to paint some African Violets, at one time my favourite flower. They used to be seen in garden centres all around the country, but now they seem to have fallen out of favour. One of the easiest plants to propagate from cuttings, I may go looking for some once the cold weather has gone.

That was about it for the day. Dinner was the remains of yesterday’s chicken which for some reason disagreed with Scamps teeth and a very old filling came out. It had to happen late on a Friday when the dentist isn’t open at weekends. I think it might be something soft and easily chewed for breakfast tomorrow, maybe porridge!

It appears that the dancing teachers have returned and so have the classes, starting tomorrow.

Broadwood Loch – 3 February 2024

Posted on by Zogman

It was a much better day than we’d expected. Occasional threat of rain that never materialised.

Finally decide we needed some exercise and went for a walk round Broadwood Loch. As Scamp always says, there’s not much in it for me. It’s a big soulless manmade loch. Loads of swans and a good few geese, but that’s about it. Obviously the Smew that caused so much excitement last month had flown the coop, so to speak. We decided we could extend the walk into the woods and had to smile at the decoration on the ‘Christmas Tree’. Every year there are more tree decorations on it. I don’t know who does it, but they have to be congratulated. It’s always worth a photo.

Further into the woods a great deal of work had been done to improve the path and fill in the hollows that used to flood every year. It took a long time for the work to be completed, but for once it was worth the wait. I kept looking for the flooded part and was quite surprised when we arrived back on the main path.

We curtailed the part of the walk that usually takes us round the exercise machines and instead walked round to M&S for a pizza and some spicy hot chicken nuggets that are advertised as Chicken Pakora by someone who has never had pakora before. A loaf and two pineapple cakes from Iceland completed our purchases and we walked home. Four and a bit miles according to Scamp’s pedometer and just over 9200 steps according to my Fitbit.

Scamp had started to make some soup, before the walk so when we got back she turned it on again and added some more veg to the mix. The soup was intended for tonight’s dinner, but the chicken stuff and the pizza was more than enough.

We watched a film on iPlayer called The Good Liar. Part way into it I got the feeling I’d seen it before, but when Scamp said she thought so too, I knew I was right. However, we couldn’t remember how it finished! So we just watched it. Good acting by the cast and a good ending. A few sweary words in it, but nothing the good lady of the house hasn’t heard before.

I was getting tired when it finished and decided to leave the blog and the EDiF sketch until Sunday, so this is a catch-up as I’m sure you are aware.

The PoD is a Canada goose we saw on the pond. Not brilliant by any manner or means, but it ticks the PoD box.

Tomorrow looks wet. That’s all I’m going to say.

Colzium and Brodens – 26 January 2024

Posted on by Zogman

It was a lovely morning, too good to waste. To make the most of it we went for a walk.

We drove to Colzium Estate just outside Kilsyth. Lots of snowdrops just coming in to flower and lots more to look forward to in a couple of weeks. We walked up the road through the trees and crossed the bridge over the Colzium burn. When we stopped in the middle a robin flew down to see what we were up to. I thought it would fly away immediately, but I took my camera out of its bag anyway and there was this wee robin looking like it was posing for the camera. Scamp said it was asking which was its best side! I took a few shots then realised two things. Firstly it had a damaged claw on on foot and secondly we were in its way, because it was heading for a pile of birdseed that someone had left on the parapet of the bridge. I apologised to it and we left it to have its lunch. One of those shots made PoD.

We walked on, along the steep road that circles the Big House and its gardens. It used to be the entrance drive when the house was in its heyday. At the top we turned right and then took the even steeper path to the left that led us through the woods to the wee bridge over the Colzium Burn just downstream from the Tak ma Doon road. We crossed the bridge and headed down the quite slippery path on the other side of the burn. Scamp started searching through the fallen branches for a suitable stick to give her some support for walking down the path.

Halfway down we found a big fallen tree that turned out to be half a tree, It looked as if the tree had split in two in the past and this one half had been torn from the other one during last week’s storms. You don’t realise just how big trees are until you see one lying down. We get so used to see trees standing above us. We met a woman who said she didn’t know if it was safe to walk in the trees when it was windy. I hadn’t thought of that. You wouldn’t stand much of a chance if a tree fell on you. Scamp was a bit saddened to see the broken tree lying there and I could see how she’d feel that. We walked on down to the bridge again, having done a complete circuit of this part of the estate. The robin that we’d seen the last time we’d passed was still there eating the seeds. It must have been the same one. There can’t be two robins with a damaged claw in the same place, could there? To end the walk we walked past the old curling pond, now a duck pond and from there back to the car.

So, should we drive to The Fort to have lunch at Wagamama or should we dine locally at Brodens? We settled on Brodens. Scamp had breaded fish ’n’ chips with a glass of Malbec and I had steak pie with mash washed down with a pint of Guinness. After that we walked home.

We watched a strange pair of girls selling manufactured diamonds on Dragons Den. If you watch it, you’ll understand what I mean by strange. It’s not really the people who are strange, but their devious dealing.

Scamp has now packed her sandwiches and fruit into separate boxes and is ready to meet June tomorrow and get a taxi to Glasgow to sing the Verdi Requiem with about 600 other singers in the Royal Concert Hall. I’m not going, because she says I wouldn’t like it. Probably right.

Oh what a day – 16 January 2024

Posted on by Zogman

The snow we were warned about never quite came

It was actually a bit disappointing. We were ready to batten down the hatches and put on extra blankets to keep ourselves warm and when the first flakes started falling just after the predicted 9am we felt vindicated. This was going to be a real winter. Then the snow stopped and the temperature actually rose slightly, and kept rising very gradually.

Hazy phoned to tell us that they were planning to get out for a week’s holiday some time around Easter. I don’t blame her. Everyone should have the opportunity to get away somewhere after the dull depressing winter weather we’re having. Just something to look forward, that’s what we all need. She also told us about the cats needing their claws trimmed. I’d never heard of cats getting pedicures, dogs yes, but not cats. She also talked about long term plans for a family cruise, maybe next year, with the D’Aguairs.

When she’d gone off to bed again to dream of holidays and cats feet, Scamp and I tried to fix a problem she had with her computer, or to be more exact with New Outlook not providing notifications of emails. I sent her an email to see if we’d fixed the problem and that’s when everything fell apart.

The first indication of a problem was when the email I sent was returned to me with a note from Google to say it had been rejected. It was exactly the same problem I had at the back end of last year. Also I couldn’t open my blog. The blog started out over ten years ago just as a bit of fun but now there’s almost ten years of work in it. That’s over 3,000 pages of typing!

I tried to fix the problem myself, but had to contact my web hosting company where someone talked me through the repair process. I fixed the email in a few minutes once I’d remembered how it was done. The problem with the blog was a bit of code I’d put in the wrong place in the DNS section of the website. Luckily the person I was chatting with online gave me the instructions for the repair and said it would take about forty minutes for it to propagate which is how they described the code being updated in DNS readers throughout the world. I waited an hour, and when nothing happened, shut it all down and went for a walk to clear my head. Got a few photos when I was out, but by then it was 4.30pm and almost dark by the time I was coming back. It took three hours before the blog returned, the email worked and I had access to everything. Relief beyond belief as they used to say on an old advert!!

One of the first shots I took was destined to be PoD. It was a wee robin, well fluffed up to give it some insulation against the cold that was coming tonight. I took it with a new lens I’d ordered on Sunday and which was delivered today in the middle of the turmoil. It’s a heavy chunk of glass and mainly plastic, second-hand of course. Hopefully it will replace an old worn out standard lens I’ve had for years and which doesn’t operate very well now.

Tomorrow I’ve a letter to write and some boxes of stuff to organise for putting up into the loft for another year. Another cold night tonight.

 

 

… a new one just begun – 1 January 2024

Posted on by Zogman

A new day and a new year. I wonder what it will bring.

The weather was fine today and we were going for a walk. Not driving out for a walk as I’d intended. Scamp though a walk nearer to home would be better. We walked down to Broadwood loch where there were more than the usual amount of photogs, all carrying some heavy duty glass. I had the A6500 with short and very short lenses. One of the photogs asked if I was there to photograph the Smew (pronounced Sm you). I told him “No” then he proceeded to tell me that a smew is a small white diving bird with strong black patterns and a white crest. I’d heard of it, but not being a ‘twitcher’, I wasn’t really interested, but he seemed quite excited about it. Then I recognised him. He used to teach at the same school as me, long time ago. I let him go and put the camera back in my bag in case someone else would give us more directions to the best smew spotting places.

We walked over the dam and round the exercise machines. First time I’ve been there for ages, not since last year in fact 🙂 . Then up past the shops, all of which were closed, but some had lights on inside. Scamp guessed that they were taking down the Christmas decorations and getting the Easter eggs in. I think she might be right. I had a few shots in the bag, so we walked back home.

Lots of computer stuff to do at the end of a month. Photos to move into long term storage disks and catalogs to, well, catalog! All just the housekeeping that computers don’t do for themselves. I started it and let it run while Scamp made Scrambled Egg with Smoked Salmon. Very nice. We had it on toast after I cleaned out the toaster and then managed to remove some charred remains of long gone bread from the inside. It actually worked after that. Perfectly happily toasting bread, too lightly, but that’s not a problem. Maybe there was some bread crumbs in the electromagnet and my shaking and poking got rid of it, or maybe it was just a lucky day when it felt like working. Anyway, we had toast.

Dinner tonight was a strange but interesting cooked mix of veg for Scamp and a very nice sirloin steak for me. Both washed down with a glass of Merlot courtesy of Jamie & Simonne. Thank you both.

PoD turned out to be a photo of some gulls looking for that Smew!

No plans for tomorrow, yet, but I’m sure we’ll find something to do!

 

 

Dancin’ – 21 December 2023

Posted on by Zogman

We were back to a tea dance today after a long lay off.

First, earlier in the morning I went for a walk in St Mo’s to get a photo or two while Storm Pia was still giving Scotland a severe buffeting. It was gradually powering down, but it was taking quite a while. I was glad I hadn’t been there when Pia was at full strength.

I saw a blackbird fly into a tree and I’m sure he saw me too, but he turned away and tried the “If I can’t see him, he can’t see me” trick. As I took a few steps towards him, he caught me and flew away, but not before I had one more shot. How can birds navigate through that maze of branches? That final shot gave me a PoD. One in the bag on a morning walk. That’s good.

By the time I walked home, I had just enough time for a quick lunch before getting dressed for dancing and then we headed off to Glenburn for the last tea dance of the year. Despite the weather, it was a fairly easy drive to Paisley. The hall wasn’t very busy when we arrived, but the dancers gradually trickled in and the dance started with a waltz. I stumbled through the first track, but by the second it was flowing better. We danced Waltz, Rumba, Cha-Cha and three or four sequence dances. Really, the only one I completely messed up was the Quickstep which I knew I could do. Just not today.

As usual we left a few minutes early to avoid the schools coming out. However, it appeared that the traffic was light on both the M80 and the M74, also, thankfully, the wind had reduced to a normal breeze.

We watched what I thought was a tedious Celebrity Sewing Bee tonight. It was probably the worst of the ‘Christmas’ specials foisted on us these days in the name of entertainment. It’s just a bunch of has-been and never-was ‘celebrities’ getting their faces on the TV again. Bah Humbug!

Tomorrow I believe we need some shopping and there’s a chance we may have a pub lunch later.

Yet more bloodletting – 5 December 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Today I had my annual checkup with the nurse.

Actually the checkup today was with the sister, as these annual checkups usually are. She checked my BP, then tried it again. On the third try, I asked if there was something wrong and she said my BP was quite low. After she had looked at my record she asked me if I would mind them reducing some of my meds. Mind? I said I’d be delighted. I’ve felt for months if not years that my blood pressure meds are too low and nobody listened, now here was somebody listening. Long story short she has reduced one of my BP meds by half for a month and will monitor it after that. That, and the fact that and having lost a bit of weight and was stabilising at that, was the good news.

The not so good was that my vitamin B12 level was lower than it should have been and the doc wanted to get more blood tests. She took the blood and said the doc would review it in a week or so. So now I wait to see what the doc has to say probably in a phone consultation in a week or so.

It’s always the same when I got for an annual checkup. One good thing and one not so good. That’s life, I suppose.

That left me with the rest of the day to play with, but it wasn’t a playing day, in fact it was dull and dreary. Cold too, with the temperature barely reaching 3ºc. At least it was a positive temperature, not sub zero. We should be grateful for small mercies!

Finally, later than I’d intended the sun broke through the clouds and I dragged myself out to St Mo’s for a walk and hopefully a photo or two. I think I left it just too late for the good light, but I did get some sunset photos of the light through the trees. My favourite, and PoD was a shot over the pond of the gulls and geese circling and trying to find a bit of clear water to land on in the middle of the partly frozen pond.

Tomorrow another early(ish) rise and coffee in Costa with Colin Campbell and John Malley. Looking forward to that.

 

A Dreich Day – 26 November 2023

Posted on by Zogman

A early walk in St Mo’s today, hoping against hope that there would be enough frost left to allow me to get my picture, but knowing that there wouldn’t be. I was right. There wasn’t. However I did get the PoD which is a photo of a gaggle of geese, a pair of swans, innumerable mallards and one cormorant that thought it fitted right in and that nobody would notice. Even the ducks were laughing. The rest of the walk brought no more photo opportunities and it was one of those damp colds that seems to eat into your bones, so I walked home and found Scamp talking to Hazy on the phone.

After Scamp and Hazy had completed their discussions, I had a chance to talk to Hazy. Just talking about the weather, cats and how the ‘down south’ folks were getting on. Then it was time for Hazy to have a snooze and time for our lunch.

Today’s lunch and dinner were from the far famed “What have we got in the fridge and freezer” collection. Scamp’s lunch was yesterday’s potatoes fried with some baby tomatoes and a chopped up black pudding with an beaten egg to bind them together. Mine was the remains of a pack of padron peppers, a slice of spiced beef ham, a slice of bacon and a trio of baby tomatoes. Both lunches filled a space and, well, mine at least were delicious.

While Scamp watched a recording of Laura Kuenssberg’s Sunday politics show, I started the post processing of today’s scant collection of photos. Sometimes I enjoy the cut and thrust of Kuenssberg’s verbal fencing, other times, like today, I just can’t be bothered. I struggled for over an hour with one of the photos of some raindrops on a grass stem before I thought to myself “Why?”. Do you like it? Is it worth the effort? The answers were No and No, so I left it.

By mid afternoon it was time to raid the freezer again and this time Scamp found a large fillet of salmon and I found two beef olives. Both needed time in a warm place to defrost and then thaw out, so we left them to it. While Scamp booked us a week in the sun. Not tomorrow, and not next week either, but it’s booked now and the parking is too. With judicious use of Black Friday offers and discounts from last year’s holiday we cut a fair chunk out of the price. It’s nice to think, as the days get shorter and the snow is forecast by the weather fairies, that there are still warm places we can go to.

Watched the final Grand Prix of the year and of course the usual suspect won. It is almost as if they are working to a script, either that or some of the cars are powered by Sublight engine thrusters.

Spoke to Jamie and got him up to speed with our complaint to British Gas and the power of having an Ombudsman on your side. Heard about the problems dealing with English Heritage who seem to be working with quill pens on parchment. Although some of the more advanced drawings are done with fountain pens and paper.  It’s hard to believe what some of these people ask folk to do.

Tomorrow we may go out for a run to warm the car up and maybe get an ES daylight bulb for my new lamp.