Category: Birds

Snow – 12 January 2017

Posted on by Zogman

Today dawned with snow on the ground.  Within fifteen minutes, there was snow in  the air too, but no time to gaze admiringly at it.  We had to be showered, breakfasted and on our way to Wishaw General Hospital ASAP.

Tried driving the M73 on to the M74, but it was gridlocked, so change of plan Nº 1.  I’d come off at the M8 intersection and take the M73 back to Cumbersheugh and thence through Airdrie – a nightmare at this time of the morning with the school run in full swing, but at least the traffic would be moving.  Change of plan Nº 2.  The M8 looked clear and running well, so round the roundabout and on to it.  At the very least, we were heading east (the right direction).  The rest of the journey was without incident.

Arrived at the hospital to find that the computer hub was down and nobody could access patients’ notes.  However, we were seen within minutes and twenty minutes later Scamp was ‘under the knife’ so to speak.  After the procedure was complete, we drove home unfortunately squashing a fox on the way.  Poor thing had no chance, and I had no chance to avoid it.  Such a shame.

By the time we got home, the sky was blue once again and I managed a walk across to St Mo’s.  Not a lot of interest to photograph, but I liked the water drops on the cow parsley.  Where would I be without cow parsley?  The female mallard seemed to be paddling around in a dream and I got quite a few shots of it.  By the time I was coming home,  the blue sky was gone and the snow had started again.

Tonight there hasn’t been any more snow but it was freezing hard the last time I was out.  More snow and wind forecast for tomorrow.

Ne’erday – 1 January 2017

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Ne’erday to Scots, New Year’s Day to the rest of the world.

Made some bread in the morning and left it to rise while we went for our traditional walk around Broadwood Loch.  It was a bright morning and the sun was quite blinding, reflecting on the water of the loch.  Got some photos of the gulls sitting on the fence at the outfall of the loch.  We used to call them seagulls when I was young, but these birds have never seen the sea, far less paddled in it.  The furthest they get is foraging in the various landfills around the country.

Further around I got some shots of cormorants stretching their wings to dry.  It appears that these birds have also rejected the maritime life for the more sheltered inland waters.

Lots of people taking the opportunity of getting out in the sun, even if it was cold like today.  Allegedly 5ºc, but a cold 5º.  There was a bit of a breeze which probably made it feel even colder.  However, when you’re walking and talking you don’t feel the cold so much.

When I looked at the photos once we got back, I wasn’t impressed, so I grabbed my camera and headed out again, alone this time, to St Mo’s.  Scamp was more interested in watching the ballet on telly.  Got some landscapes taken with the Oly 5 and some more burds had their photo taken with the Nikon.  I managed just over an hour out before the light started to fade, but at least I got some better shots this time.

Dinner tonight was roast chicken with roast potatoes and mixed leaves.  Very nice.  Pudding was panna cotta with crushed raspberries.

Struggled to understand the latest Sherlock while I struggled to understand the first Sudoku of the new calendar.  Eventually solved the Sudoku but got lost somewhere in Sherlock.  Nothing strange there.

May go out somewhere tomorrow, maybe not.  It depends on the weather.

Christmas Day Blues – 25 December 2016

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“And so it is Christmas, and what have you done?”  Well, not a lot really.  According to my fitness gizmo I took 2475 steps and walked 1.13 miles, was active for just 20 mins while burning 1790 calories.  In short we stuffed ourselves silly and because of the horizontal rain and 60mph gusts outside we hardly ventured past the door.

Christmas dinner was Rib Eye Steak for me and Trout for Scamp with a starter of Chicken Forestiere for both of us.  Pudding was the killer for me.  It was a Winter Fruits Trifle with Plums, Clementines, Amaretti biscuits soaked in sherry, Caramelised Condensed milk with Mascarpone topped off with Whipped Cream.  I may, just may have burned 1790 calories, but compared to the two helpings of trifle I had it looked like a paltry excuse for exercise.  That was the worst overeating I’ve done in years.

We both enjoyed opening our prezzies, just like a couple of weans, then sat down to a cup of coffee.  Afterwards we spoke  to Hazy and JIC, Hazy by Skype and JIC by phone and both seemed to be having a great time.  But then, they didn’t have two helpings of Winter Fruits Trifle to contend with.

Today’s PoD is a Goldfinch, one of a bunch who now frequent our birdfeeder.  They seem to love the little black sunflower seeds and dine almost exclusively on them.  We don’t see them in the summer, only in the winter.

Heading for bed earlier than usual to try to sleep off this enormous feast.  Hoping for calmer conditions tomorrow and our usual pasta for dinner.

Cycling – 11 December 2016

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It was a decent temperature today, mild at 10ºc for December, so I thought I’d take my bike out for a winter run.

I’d some housekeeping to do first as Scamp’s sister was coming to stay for a few days and the ‘painting room’ was more like a pigsty.  It took longer than I’d intended to get the room looking nearly ship-shape.  This was partly due to me getting sidetracked into adding details to my most recent painting, but after an hour or so it was reasonable.

After lunch which was last night’s curry reheated, I got the bike out and pumped up the tyres a bit and I was good to go.  Cycled my short course which is only about 6 miles, but included a lot of climbs and descents, as well as a fair bit of off-road rutted tracks.  A good run for a re-start to my cycling.  It felt a bit cooler than the recorded 10º, but that might have been the wind chill and it might have been because I’ve not cycled since the end of the summer.  There were lots of geese flying south today.  That may be a sign of the weather getting more wintry in the next week or so.  One skein of geese flew directly overhead and the noise they made was deafening.  I’m guessing they were discussing the best place to roost for the night.  Night was indeed coming on fast, so I took their advice and headed for my roost for the night.

Salsa Ball tonight, so it will be a late start tomorrow, but Scamp has a party planned for ‘Gems’, so we won’t want to leave it too late.

Postponed again – 10 December 2016

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Today we were intending to go to Embra on the train.  After yesterday’s experience on the train back from Glasgow, I thought it would be better if we travelled on a weekday, preferrably a middle weekday when the hordes were at work and not congregating in Embra as they undoubtedly would be today.  We decided to go to Stirling instead on the train.  Then I realised I had a parcel to pick up from the post office and that it would be silly to backtrack to the railway station just to get the train which would probably be overcrowded too.  Ach, to hell with it, let’s just go to Stirling by car.  Not entirely novel, but it’s what we bought the car for in the first place, to travel where and when we wanted.  Such convoluted arguments, just to go shopping!

Stirling was busy, but the carpark was fairly empty and we happily paid £1.40 for a day ticket.  You can’t even get an hour’s parking for that in Glasgow.  Wandered round the farmer’s market in the main street and I got a piece of Flat Iron Steak.  Something I’ve amazed butchers with my knowledge of in the past, but never handled before and never eaten either. It comes from the shoulder blade of the beast you know!  A fact I picked up when talking to a chef on a cruise ship.  It looks like a nice piece of meat and I’ll tell you about it once I cook it.  Other than coffee in a Cafe Nero and more redacted purchases, that was it for our visit to Stirling, although I did have an interesting talk with a salesman at the Stormfront (Apple Reseller) shop.  I was pleased to hear that although he was enthusiastic about the Apple hardware, he was less impressed with the knowledge and attitude of the sales staff in Apple shops.  I may go back to view the merchandise again once I’ve investigated it a bit more.  Three years warranty also enticed me.

When we got back there was just enough daylight left to grab my cameras and head off to St Mo’s for a few photos.  Of all the shots I took, my favourite was the one with the heron isolated among the reeds.

Dinner tonight was once again from Bombay Dreams, although this time I was less greedy and have left enough for lunch tomorrow.  Very circumspect for me.

Tomorrow?  Preparing for the Grand Salsa Ball and little else.

Santas on Parade – 4 December 2016

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We were driving into Glasgow when we saw a sign:   “Warning! Santas Running”  Hmm.  Looks like a Santa run.  I couldn’t pass up the opportunity of a PoD and that’s how it turned out.

After checking with the NLC volunteers, it turned out that the fun run had just started, but as we were about halfway round the course, we had a while to wait before the first runner, oops, Santas arrived.  These aren’t the real Santas by the way, but are some of his fleet footed assistants.  Having said that, Santa was only a few miles away in Falkirk yesterday, so I wouldn’t put it past the old fella to have sneaked in to the fun-run.  We watched for a while and Scamp got into the spirit of things and was happily cheering them on their way, while secretly wishing she’d heard about it earlier and had managed to wangle a Santa suit and an entrance number for herself.  Me?  I’d hold the jackets.  Lots more Santa pics on my Flickr page.

Once I’d got a few photos and was sure I had at least one contender for PoD, we drove the rest of the way in to Glasgow.  Scamp had the bright idea of parking at Cowcaddens and getting the Subway to St Enoch’s.  A stormer of an idea as it turned out when we saw the queues for different parking places around the town.  Just to clarify, Glasgow is a city, but it’s always been known as The Town or more likely, The Toon.  After we’d wandered round what is, apparently, the Medieval Part of Glasgow, down by Clyde Street and I’d taken some photos of extremely non-Medieval buildings, we had a coffee and headed for home.  Glasgow on a Sunday in December is no fun.  It’s full of shoppers and disappointed looking foreigners hoping to see men in kilts everywhere.  Thankfully the ‘Bastard Drummers’ were nowhere to be seen or heard.  Not even the mad “Bowie & Bolan” bloke who neither sounds nor looks like Bowie or Bolan was in evidence.  Thankfully again.

Came home and relaxed for a while before getting ready for the Sunday Social.  The highlight of the week for us.  Had a great time as usual and met an old friend (Kul) there, once we managed to get parked – nightmare during panto season – and basically that was it for Sunday.  Beautiful day with plenty of sunshine, although a bit cold.  Currently 0.3ºc with snow forecast.

Tomorrow is Monday with all the hustle and bustle that Mondays bring.

Fidgeting – 29 November 2016

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Fidgeting:  To move about restlessly, nervously, or impatiently.
That sort of sums up me today.

After completing yesterday’s Sudoku (easy) followed by today’s puzzle (medium), I was stuck for something to do.  Scamp was going out to lunch with a friend, so I had an hour or so to do as I pleased.  I thought about starting a painting, but couldn’t settle to it.  Sketching?  No, that didn’t work either.  St Mo’s didn’t appeal today.  The final decider was that I’d agreed with Scamp that I’d bring back some messages.  Stuff like milk, bread and onions.  Stuff for dinner, that’s messages in Scotland.  This agreement forced me to go out.

I went to Auchinstarry on the off chance that I’d get another look at the kingfisher.  It wasn’t there, but a grey heron was.  It kept flying off whenever I took the camera out and although I wanted a static shot with the heron’s reflection in the canal, I realised that if I was going to get anything, it would have to be an action shot.  I got it, twice.  My favourite, though, is the landscape with the trees.  I like that view and this time I managed to avoid the power lines that usually deface this shot.  It was the light that made it special and that’s what it’s all about.

After the walk and the photos, I did go for the messages at Lidl.

No plans for tomorrow yet.  It depends, as Scamp would say, on the weather.

An Early Rise – 25 November 2016

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Up and out of bed before 8.00 this morning, but it wasn’t the desire to take photos in the frost that was sparkling in the morning air that got me up, it was someone knocking the front door.  It turned out to be the wrong address.  The gas man was actually looking for the bloke next door.  However, it did get me up and that led to me achieving yesterday’s target.

Walked through St Mo’s and got a few photos, some of which are in the matrix above.  There was quite thick fog when I left the house with a temperature of -5.6ºc, but when I reached St Mo’s a few minutes later, the fog had gone, taking with it my chance of some ethereal early morning shots.  I did see a deer, but it was far to far away and moving like the wind.

By the time I got home, Scamp was scraping her car and since I was meeting Fred for coffee later, I decided to clean mine too.  The joker who lives a couple of doors down had parked next to me last night and left my car in the shade of the early morning sun that I’d hoped would have thawed it out.  People should think before they park next to me.  So it was frozen hands for me before lunch, but at least the windscreen was clear.

Met Fred for coffee and swap shop.  2 CDs from him to me.  1CD from me to him.  Not a lot to discuss today and I think the cold is getting to all of us.  He’d done some sketches of course and so had I, but not as many from each of us as we’d had in the past.

img_3579-flickrFred had to leave early so I did too.  I walked along the Luggie again and, probably with the thought of sketching in my head, got a quick sketch of a bridge done.  Not the most beautiful structure, but  architecturally interesting and demanding from a perspective viewpoint.  It’s not quite finished, but it was quite cold and my fingers were getting numb and I’d got a likeness of it.  I had my leather gloves with me, the expensive ones.  Two pairs for a fiver in Perth one year!  I should have worn the fingerless gloves Hazy gave me to keep my hands warm but my fingers free.  They’re not just for FOTO GRA4s! (in joke).  They’re going in my jacket pocket tonight.  I got some photos down the Luggie too.

From the 44 photos I took today, I whittled them down to 14 and from that I chose my 5 favourites.  That’s what you see above in the matrix.

Be careful how you touch the blog today as it might still be a bit greasy, that’s because dinner was a small fish supper for Scamp and a special fish supper for me (fish in breadcrumbs) eaten with the fingers of course.  I was feeling generous, so I shared my special fish with Scamp.

Looks like it won’t be quite as cold tomorrow.  Ice is nice as long as it doesn’t stay too long.

Cold and Frosty – 21 November 2016

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Yes, in the morning it was cold and frosty and it stayed that way for most of the day too.  Poor wee violas in the hanging basket at the back door.  They rarely see the sun in these winter days and today they looked wilted.  When they finally thawed out about 4pm, the sprung back to life as if it had never happened.

Today being Scamp’s ‘Gems’ group’s singing practise, I packed my bags and headed for the leisure centre where I intended to have a swim and a nice 30 mins or so in the sauna and the steam room.  That’s 30 minutes total, not 30 in each!  However, it was their turn for ‘essential maintenance’.  So far we’ve had the air-con in the changing room refurbished and the gym equipment replaced.  Last week it was the jacuzzi that was essentially being maintained and today it was the hot rooms time for an overhaul.  Next week the pool?  Who knows.  It always worries me when an establishment like this gets a complete facelift.  Usually it presages a change of ownership.  I hope I’m wrong, but I just have that feeling …

After the curtailed swim, I left and headed for Fannyside Moor, just on the outskirts of Cumbersheugh to get a PoD.  Actually I had one in the bag from earlier in the day when the bluetits found the bird feeder had been refilled, but another one or two wouldn’t go amiss.  I was armed with the old Sony F707 and the Furry Monkey.  Hoping his magic paws would do the needful with the IR filter again.  Well, he worked his magic, but there just wasn’t enough direct sunlight to give the necessary IR, so I resorted to a couple of landscapes taken with normal light instead, the best of which is above.

Salsa tonight was the usual mayhem with Jamie Gal forgetting his moves which “… worked perfectly earlier in the day in my office!” Then trying to make up a name for them, before attempting to translate the name into Spanish.  Great fun!

Kizomba?   Hmm, not a lot of fun and I sense a rant starting.
This was the last lesson of the block and I would have thought that Kay, the teacher, would have been pushing hard to keep us interested.  Instead she just tread water for almost all the class time.  Because her teaching assistant was absent, she had one of the class members run the guys through a ‘warm-up’ reprise of the last seven weeks’ moves while she did the same with the girls.  The ‘warm-up’ lasted for twenty minutes.  Twenty minutes of an hour long class.  Then she introduced a new ‘helper’ who either didn’t speak English or didn’t want to be there, because he hardly uttered a word all night.  You could tell the class weren’t too happy when she applauded us all after our first dance and nobody in the class responded.  I nearly left there and then when she attempted to introduce ‘Musicology’ as a topic.  I wasted two hours of my life with the dreadful Samira attempting to make this into a science instead of something that everyone can do naturally.  If you can’t understand the beat of the music, this time wasting exercise wasn’t going to help you IMO.
Scamp wants to go back for a second block of Kizomba, but I’m not so sure.  This is the second week we’ve been without a teacher for the guys.  I like the dance, but if there is no teacher for us, then I’m not getting value for my money and that’s not a good thing.  I’m suggesting we pay the class on a week by week basis to see what transpires and if it doesn’t improve, I’m not going to continue with it.

Temperature is rising and even as I write this at 11pm it’s warmer than it’s been all day.

Dentist tomorrow 🙁

A Day of Surprises – 15 November 2016

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Surprise No 1

When I woke this morning, just after 8am, the sun was shining.  It stayed that way too.  Now after the last two days we’ve had, that was a big surprise.  I checked all five of my photo backup drives and with a combination of them all, I can account for all the photos from 2000 to November 2016.  Not bad going.  However, one of the big old Western Digital MyBook drives looks like it’s a goner.  That is a great shame.  I’ve always thought WD were a really good make, but I suppose the ten or twelve years I’ve had it, it’s worked hard and sometimes there has been the occasional accident, so I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt.  Soon it was time to leave the photos and go get my flu jag.  That’s jab to some people, but jag if you’re Scottish.

Surprise No 2

When I got to the surgery they were just calling my name.  That was lucky.  When I went to see the sister, I recognised her right away as an FP (Former Pupil) of Cumby High.  I couldn’t think of her name, but I remembered the face, because last night when I was browsing the photos in the oldest collection, I came upon the poster I’d made for Bugsy Malone, one I was really proud of, and here was the female lead from the show wearing a nursing sister’s uniform.  We got talking and she asked if I had any photos of the show, because nobody in her family had thought to bring a camera to the show.  I told her that I probably had, but it would take me some time to find them.  I couldn’t believe that was away back in 2003!  Anyway, she said she’d just give me a gentle wee jag.  She lied.  It was gentle at the time, but it’s aching now!

Surprise No 3

After I got back and found the said photos, hundreds of them as it turned out, I got dressed for the weather which was still bright, but cold and headed to Auchinstarry.  Walked along the railway to Twechar and got some photos in the sunshine.  I’ve still to process them, but by the time you’re reading this, they will be done with a bit of luck.  Walked back and took a long cut – the opposite of a shortcut  and walked the last half of the path along the canal.  Almost reached Smithston when a kingfisher flew out from my side of the canal bank, across the canal and down towards the marina.  I was too surprised to grab my camera which was switched off in my bag.  Walked along to where I thought it had landed but couldn’t see it.  Then to my amazement, it shot out of the far bank and continued down the canal and away.  It’s years since I’ve seen a kingfisher on the canal and I was beginning to think they had gone.  Since this one is at least a mile and a half away from my last sighting, I’m hoping there are at least two of them now.  I’ll be ready next time with the Nikon and the 300mm lens.

Weather forecast for tomorrow is wintry with rain, hail and snow predicted.  We’ll just have to wait and see, it’ll be a surprise!