Category: Birds

Out walking with my brother – 6 October 2021

Posted on by Zogman

My choice of venue today and I chose Chatelherault, because I can spell it without having to look it up!

Drove to pick up Alex in Motherwell and ended up sitting talking to him and Carol about lots of things, but most of all nothing to do with photography! Their grandson, Jack had been sick all night last night and was a bit disappointed he could come and meet me just in case he passed on his bug. Maybe next time. After an hour or so, Alex and I left to drive to the Chatelherault estate. It’s centered on a big house that stands on a hill looking over a great avenue of trees to the town of Hamilton. In fact it looks straight down to the mausoleum where the Duke of Hamilton, who owned the house, is buried. What a strange thing to do on a bright sunny summer morning, to look over where you know you will be interred!

It was the big house itself that was our first target and we took a few shots of it under a clear blue sky. Then some shots of the avenue with Hamilton in the background. Thanks to the amount of rain we’ve had recently the atmosphere was clear and cool with no mist of haze to spoil the distant view of Ben Lomond and The Cobbler. From the house we walked down to the Avon Bridge and what did I see there, but a kingfisher. Just a tiny wee spot, and just as I pointed it out, it flew off downstream. We both saw it and it couldn’t have been anything else. That bright iridescent blue is unmistakeable. We waited to see if it would return, but it never did. Such a shame. Too far away to get a photo, but we saw it, both of us saw it. First time ever for Alex and first time in about ten years for me.

We turned and walked back to the centre along the river walkway, swapping cameras as we walked. Alex got a chance to try out the full frame sensor of the A7 and also the neatness of the A6000.
Lots of folk running and cycling along the path and lots of things to photograph. Then it was a tough climb up never-ending steps to bring us back to the grassy banks of the estate.

Had lunch at the centre and then went for walk over The Duke’s Bridge to see the Cadzow Oaks. Ancient trees that have survived for thousands of years only to be burned by some morons. Such a shame. Then it was back to the big house for a last few shots in much better light than those we’d taken in the morning.

We both agreed that the next visit will be Alex’s choice and it looks like it will be in a couple of weeks and will be to Kelvinbrige in Glasgow, maybe with a visit to the Kibble Palace.

Scamp had been busy while I was away, planting Snowdrops and raking the grass at the front of the house. She’d also gone for a walk in the town centre and it confirmed her fears that it is falling into disuse. Plenty of nail bars and charity shops, but little else. A common complaint in Scotland.

Dinner was Giant Fish Fingers, Chips and Beetroot. Lovely food and just what I needed.

PoD was a picture of the big house and the formal garden framed by two giant yew trees with their strange red fruit looking like soft plastic or red pitted olives if such a thing exists. Sketch for today was Spirit, and I was thinking more about the alcoholic liquid spirit than the Woooo! kind.

Tomorrow we’re intending to go to another tea dance. Same venue as a fortnight ago. I did enjoy it, I just don’t know if my back will!

 

I’m late, I’m late – 5 October 2021

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For a very important date!

We got a phone call when we were less than halfway to Falkirk, just checking that we were coming to the meeting with Andrew at 10am (it was now 10.05!). Scamp apologised and said we had thought the meeting was at 10.30. However, all the traffic lights we met, every one was at green, so we weren’t extremely late, but we were profuse in our apologies when we got to the office. We spent about an hour with Andrew and learned a lot about the state of global finances and although a lot of it went over my head I enjoyed his view on the state of the parties, political and otherwise. As we left, the great man asked if we were to spend some money in local businesses and we agreed that we were.

The business we went to was Torwood Garden Centre which is in Falkirk and therefore local. We had a quick lunch there and then went looking at plants. We were actually looking for Snowdrop bulbs for Scamp to plant in the front garden, but apparently the transport problems had reached as far as snowdrops bulbs according to the lady at the information desk. That’s the same story we heard at Calder’s last week too. Scamp did manage to find a geranium plant that she could find a place for and a new light ball to hang on the tree. We had done as Andrew had asked.

Back home I checked with Alex that tomorrow was still ok and it looks like it is. Later in the afternoon I took the A7m2 with the 50mm macro lens out to St Mo’s to look for mushrooms. I found a few likely subjects, but none that I hadn’t seen before. What I did find was a very furry caterpillar and that made PoD. Then, as I was heading home, I spotted a green and brown spotted dragonfly laying eggs in St Mo’s pond. Surprisingly it then started laying eggs on part submerged tree branches and also on the stonework of a little outfall from the pond. Later I identified it as a Southern Hawker. Apparently they are making their way further north these days. Another sign of Global Warming.

Dinner was Chicken Ramen with Rice Noodles. Quite tasty, quick and easy. Later we watched a Jamie Oliver program on a new way of making a quiche. We might just have a go at that.

Inktober prompt for today was “Raven”. It took me a long time to settle on a suitable sketch, but eventually I managed it with the help of a pencil, a fountain pen, a fineliner, a brush pen, a paintbrush and some black paint. A lot of tools for a simple sketch. Overkill I’d say.

Tomorrow I’m hoping for some decent sunshine to go taking photos at Chatelherault in Hamilton with Alex.

Rain at last! – 6 September 2021

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It rained all day.

This was the day we’d planned to go somewhere scenic where I’d get a chance to shoot some landscapes, instead of macros around St Mo’s. Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with macros and St Mo’s has been a life saver for us these last two years, but I just wanted to get out and take some photos in a wider landscape. However, it would have to be another day.

It was a dismal drizzle that was the main feature of the weather today. All the spiderwebs in the bushes across from the house were holding more than their fair share of moisture and, while very photogenic, I knew I’d be soaked to the skin if I even tried to get near them. I’ve done it before and I wasn’t going to be tricked into it again.

What I did notice when I was making my morning coffee was the little blue tit sitting on my pea frame. I stood there for a while watching it feeding on something invisible to me. I guess it was finding insects and maybe spiders in the nooks and crannies of the frame. When I’d finished my coffee and returned to the kitchen there were two blue tits this time on the pea frame. Both busy acrobatically feeding on the canes and wooden slats that make up the frame. This time I grabbed my camera and took a few shots through the window. I knew that although they seemed totally engrossed in their search, as soon as I put the key in to unlock the door they’d fly off, so I just had to be satisfied with a few shots through the window (thankfully recently cleaned). At least that would be two or three shots in the bag for today.

We drove up to the town centre as the drizzle turned to real rain. Scamp was going to Tesco and I was going looking for a decent pair of trainers in JB Sports. Not surprisingly, I didn’t find any. It would be a miracle if I was to find a Pair, far less a pair that I’d spend money on. Most of the boxes were empty or only had one shoe in them. It must be a shoplifter’s paradise. I came away empty handed, but still wearing my battered and torn Merrell Moabs. Comfortable now, but leaky as a sieve. Scamp was waiting for me in the car and we drove home through the drizzle to Bubble & Squeak and an egg for lunch.

I browsed the internet looking for trainers that I’d actually pay money for, but found little. Eventually gave up and when Jackie phoned Scamp I went upstairs to get a painting out of my head and on to paper. It was a pastel painting I was attempting. It’s part finished, but I don’t see it getting much further than tomorrow before it heads for the bin. Checked out the blue tit photos from the morning and they really weren’t all that bad. One of them made PoD. A little blue tit sitting on the cane at the top of the pea frame, looking as if it’s singing its wee heart out. It entitled “Singing in the Rain”.

Dinner tonight we shared a Giovanni Rana meal for one of Gnocchi with a Tomato, and Basil Sauce as a starter. Main course was another Giovanna Rana, this time Mushroom Tortellini. Giovanni is a clever man. The gnocchi starter was nuked for four and a half minutes and the tortellini was boiled for two minutes. That’s fast food, but not fast-food if you understand me. That hyphen does a fair bit of damage!

A gentle practise of the Foxtrot, Waltz and Saunter Together tonight worked well. No great mistakes by either party.

I think the rain may have stopped now and we’re hoping we might get out somewhere scenic tomorrow.

New hair do – 24 August 2021

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Not me, I’ve had mine cut for this year.

Scamp was off to the hairdressers who were going to dress her hair for her. I was going out to get some photos, but first there were photos to look at and and yet more photos to look at on Flickr. I’d charged up the cameras and made sure there was still space on the SD cards, then Scamp returned with her hair suitably dressed. Well, I thought it looked fine, but she didn’t like it. What is it they say?
“The difference between a bad haircut and a good one is two weeks.”
They also say “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”
’They’ say lots of things, most of them pointless.

After lunch she was thinking about cutting the grass and I was thinking about taking some landscapes, then Veronica phoned to say she (or her husband) thought the music we’d made for her to sing to at her daughter’s wedding was too high and could we lower it? Scamp and her discussed it over the phone and decided we could lower it by three semitones. I agreed although I’ve never seen a ‘semitone’ but I’ve been accused of ‘lowering the tone’ a few times! It was the work of about ten minutes to do what was necessary to the recording and burn it on to a new CD. Scamp said she’d take the CD to Veronica and I said I was going looking for photos.

I drove up to Fannyside, parked and was just walking up the road when I saw a tiny little dragonfly, not a damselfly, sitting on a fence. I kept my eye on it while I carefully drew the camera out of the bag and switched it on. I took my off it for a second and it was gone. The next thing I knew was it was sitting on my shoulder. Too close to use the camera, but if I could just get my phone out of my pocket … but it was gone again, and this time it wasn’t coming back. Such a pity, but a good story!

I walked up the path and discovered a host of birds sitting on a power line. I couldn’t count them, there were so many. The main bunch were starlings, but there were some sparrows and a few swallows, all twittering away. I got a few photos and then they all flew down into the garden of a farmhouse as if a dinner gong had sounded. That congregation was PoD. Shot a couple of landscapes, because that was what I’d gone for, but nothing beat the birds.

Drove on towards Arns, which is a farming community on the outskirts of Abronhill, on a narrow single-track road with no passing places when I met a van coming the opposite way. I reversed along the road for a few hundred metres until I found a safe place at a gate into a field where I could squeeze up next to the gate and the van could squeeze past. I got a wave. I thought I deserved a round of applause. Driving in reverse, using my reversing camera as a guide. I’ve never met any traffic on that road while I’ve been driving … until today.

Drove on to the car park at Greenfaulds station and parked there, then went for a walk along the Luggie. Got a photo of a spider, a big one, tucked into one of the seed heads of a yellow rattle plant. I’ve posted it on Flickr hoping for an ID.

A can of Guinness and a tin of Pimms for Scamp in the garden back home. More strawberry vodka & lemonade later to watch a recording of University Challenge. What a hot day that was. Hoping for the same tomorrow.

Scamp’s out to lunch with two of the witches tomorrow. I might make myself a pizza and then take the Dewdrop out for a run.

Canal, Canoes and Cygnets – 7 July 2021

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We went for a walk.

It was a lovely morning and after Scamp had hung out the washing we got our boots on and went for a walk. We stepped out the door and the rain came on!

By the time we’d gone half a mile, the rain had stopped. For the first time in what seemed like ages, we drove down to Auchinstarry, parked and went for a walk along the canal towards Twechar. I’d been a bit sensible with the camera gear and only carried the Sony, the kit lens and the 18mm. I thought a change of subject to landscape would be good, but really it was the walk that was interesting me more and I knew Scamp would enjoy a walk in the countryside, especially on a day like today.

For once we weren’t bothered too much by cyclists. Maybe that was because it was midweek and some unlucky folk would be working. Some folk have to! We did see a few people out in Canadian style canoes, a few in kayaks and one person on a paddle board. That must the the most uncomfortable way to travel on water. Kneeling and paddling. Even for the experts, standing up and paddling doesn’t make sense to me. All the discomfort of windsurfing without the feeling of speed. Not my idea of fun at all.

Despite my desire for some landscape photography and despite actively shunning the macro lens today, I did succumb to taking a few shots of hoverflies, but only a few. With a blue sky above and lush green fields below, thanks to the recent rain, it was landscapes that won the day, especially with the activity on the canal giving an extra interest. I did think though, watching those Canadian canoes nearing Twechar, that I could almost hear the banjos playing the theme from Deliverance!

When we were almost back at the car Scamp spotted a large flotilla of cygnets following their mother down under the Auchinstarry bridge. Nine cygnets in all. Laying all those eggs must have been an experience Mrs Swan wouldn’t want to repeat again.

Back home Scamp started making another Swiss Roll. This is the second one and she seems much happier with it than last time. This time she opted not to include the ganache. On a taste test she thought it was a little dry. I just ate mine.

The swan and its nine cygnets made PoD.

No real plans for tomorrow, although we may go somewhere we haven’t been in a long time, but it’s not Venice!

Wall to Wall sunshine – 6 June 2021

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Long may it last, even if we do have to water the garden!

After lunch we went for a walk round St Mo’s pond and stood watching the damselflies. I managed to capture one or two of them, or it could be that I caught the same one once or twice. Who knows with damselflies, they all look the same, don’t they? Well maybe not, because occasionally you can spot slight differences in their wing structure, some also have defects that mark them as different from the rest, just like humans, I suspect. Anyway, I was using the Sony camera and the Sigma macro lens and I did manage to get a PoD.

From St Mo’s we went down to Broadwood Stadium to extend our walk and take in the exercise machines path, then back across the dam through the houses and the underpass before climbing the long steep hill to St Mo’s school and then home. Not a bad walk. Later I wanted to see if any dragonflies had appeared, so I went for a short walk over to the pond, but there was no sign of life and it was getting late in the afternoon, so I headed home, because tonight was a dance class and I didn’t want to be in a rush to get dinner made and get a quick practise in. I needn’t have worried, Scamp was on the ball and had my burger cooking while her scallops were waiting their turn to go in the other pan.

Dance class tonight started with Mambo Marina which is a fairly old sequence dance that we learned months ago, but of course I’d forgotten bits of it. A quick reprise from Scamp and I was good to go. The Foxtrot was going to be next and it was nowhere near as easy as the MM. Lots of little tricky bits to it and we couldn’t agree on the correct footwork, but Jane and Stewart soon ironed out our problems and it was plain sailing after that. Last part of tonight’s lesson was the Cha-Cha. It is such an energy sapping dance. Most of the moves are fine, but it’s that little cha-cha step that has to be done right to keep in the tempo of the dance, that’s the problem. However, we managed to get it completed without too much trouble. We sat in the garden to cool down after that with a couple of beers. It really was a beautiful night.

Spoke to JIC later and got the low down on house hunting in and around Cambridge, Simonne’s run today and how JIC’s ankle injury is doing. Gave him some sage advice from his gran on how to prevent birds from eating all his veg. Black thread was her secret weapon. I imagine it works equally well with English sparrows as it did with Scottish ones! I hope so anyway.

Watched a Crash – Bang, Baku GP. Not driver errors this time, but tyre failures. More like Wacky Races than a GP!

Tomorrow morning Scamp is off to have coffee with June. I’m hoping to finish my epistle to Alex.

The man who worked in the garden – 28 May 2021

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We couldn’t decide whether to trust the weather or not. NOT won.

It wasn’t a terrible day, but it wasn’t looking like it would stay dry all day, so we chose to work in the garden instead. Lots of things needed fixing, moving, cutting and filling, so there were plenty of jobs to fill our time. I started by strimming the back grass. There wasn’t much grass to strim, but just like a bad haircut, it’s the little areas with the long strands that make the place look untidy. I’d done most of the grass and weeds when the plastic cable on the strimmer broke. When I thought I’d reassemble the cutter again the drum flew off and the plastic strands became tangled into a birds nest. Ten minutes and a bit of swearing later it was working again … properly!

Scamp meantime was rearranging the flower pots. Because of tree roots in the back garden, many of the pots sit at odd angles and today it was the pieris that was causing problems. I thought it might benefit from some bark underneath it as a cushion and levelling agent. The problem was that the pieris itself is really heavy and fairly bushy, so it takes two people to manoeuvre it into place again after it’s been moved. I think it looks better now that it’s on an even keel, but I’m not sure Scamp agrees. Only time will tell once it’s settled in its place. I dug out some compost from our compost bin and used it to cover the sprouting potatoes in their bags, after I’d filtered it for slugs which were promptly despatched to the brown compost bin to go to the council recycling facility. Scamp was also adding a load of trimmings and rubbish into the same brown bin for recycling. All in all an hour and a bit’s work made the whole back garden look so much better and gave us an appetite for lunch.

After lunch we went for a walk round St Mo’s, but again, no damselflies, although the cygnets were out with mum and dad. Last night after posting the blog I was reading last year’s blog and found that a year ago yesterday I’d photographed the first damselfly of the year. So, rather than being a bit behind this year, we are actually ahead of last year’s hatch. The walk brought today’s PoD which is a snail sheltering under a leaf. I wondered, as I was taking the shot, if that snail knew more than me and perhaps rain was on the way.

Dinner tonight was Frittata. Fry up a couple of leeks with any veg or meat you fancy in an oven proof pan. Beat up eight eggs and half a cup of milk and pour over the leeks/veg/meat mixture. Cook for about 5 minutes then bake in the oven at 180c for 15 mins(ish). Done. Serves four or serves two for two days. Sorry Hazy, obviously not for you!

Today’s prompt was for “Your Car, Any Car, A Matchbox Car …”. I chose Scamp’s Wee Red Car. I took some photos of it today and tonight I attempted to draw the car from those reference photos. Trying to get realistic curves in perspective is much harder than drawing an extension cable, even a four gang, switched, three pin UK one. Believe me. However, it’s done!

So, although the majority of Scotland is now in Level 2 or below, Glasgow has to remain in Level 3 until next week at least. I feel sorry for all the restaurant owners and publicans who can’t open their doors because a fairly small section of the community can’t obey the rules. Another case of ‘one bad apple’, or so it seems.

Tomorrow we may go on the road again, somewhere, whatever the weather. That will mean filling the Blue car’s tank again. That will be the fourth time in five months! I’m not sure we can afford this luxury!

A dull day – 21 May 2021

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It rained. Nice weather for ducks and also swans.

Spoke to Hazy in the morning and got a low down on weather in Epsom, which sounded exactly the same as it was here. Wild and wet. Found about their trip to Wales and pleased that Neil D is expecting to return to work on Monday. A nice rambling conversation that brightened our day.

We drove to Stirling after the phone call mainly to visit Lakeland, but also to get out of the house for a while. No point in attempting a walk the rain stopped that idea. We went to the mini shopping centre that holds Lakeland and Dobbies, one of the last Dobbies after the business was chopped up and sold off. It still holds the Dobbies name, but who knows which conglomerate owns it now. The big “D” was once a garden centre, but now it’s become more of a department store with various different enterprises under its roof. Strangely, it’s possible to walk through from Lakeland to Dobbies although they are separate businesses and don’t share the tills. Scamp wanted a new cling film dispenser in Lakeland and I wanted some proofing wax or cream for my new boots. We got both, but also an assortment of other useful things, plus tonight’s dinner and a couple of plants. I took some photos of the Wallace Monument while we were there. It was a bit distant, but it was sitting under a glowering, but interesting sky. It made PoD. We drove home with a pizza for lunch from Sainsburys and tonight’s dinner from Cook. All from under that same Dobbies umbrella.

When we got home and after lunch, Scamp started the ironing and, as the rain had stopped and the clouds had lifted a bit, I went for a walk in St Mo’s, sticking strictly to the paths. Not much to photograph or to challenge the Wallace Monument for PoD, although I did laugh at the two resident swans out swimming with their seven, yes, SEVEN cygnets. Initially Mrs Swan was trailing three of them and Mr Swan escorted the other four. Then after some unseen signal the two groups of cygnets merged and created a convoy with mum at the front and dad at the back. Then off they paddled to the nest on the island. A photo is on Flickr.

We had a curry from Cook for dinner. Scamp had Chickpea Curry and I had Chicken Jalfrezi. Scamp complained that her’s wasn’t spicy enough. I had to add some yogurt to mine to cool it down. Maybe we should have mixed them for a medium hot curry. Still, it was as good as an M&S curry, but with a bit more flavour. I think we’d try it again.

I bit the bullet today and signed up for the subscription deal with Adobe. So far it’s working really well. It runs faultlessly on both machines and although it’s more expensive than other photo processors, it’s the one I know best. Some of it is pretty useless to me, but that’s always going to be the case. I’ll check it for the fourteen days I’m allowed before I need to buy it and then I’ll decide.

No sketch done today. Too much nonsense to get cleared away. I’ll do a catch up tomorrow.

No real plans for Saturday, but we might go out somewhere for a walk. It’s forecast to be a brighter, but colder day than today.

 

And the answer was …! – 15 May 2021

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Beecraigs Park

Scamp was in agreement and off we drove to Linlithgow where we climbed (in the car) up a never-ending hill with speed bumps every 50m or less for an astounding 1,030m. If you do the division, you will discover that’s a helluva lot of speed bumps. Probably quite useful for boy racers coming down that hill, especially at night. However for me going up it was literally a pain in the bum. Eventually we drove into a mono-blocked and grassed parking place. Neither of us remembered this. We walked through and down to the Information Centre which I thought I remembered, but then realised it was much newer that it looked at first glance. Great panorama from the viewing gallery down to Linlithgow itself and across the Forth to Fife. This wasn’t the Beecraigs we remembered.

We walked down the road past the new caravan park and found the entrance to the park proper. This was more like it. What looked like a pedestrian bridge reminiscent of the old walkways over the lines at railway stations took us over the deer fence and on to the wide paths between the fields. The bridge, too, gave great views over the Forth, but where were the deer. There were cattle in the park where the deer used to roam. We found the deer further down the path, just hind, although the sign said there were stags in the field. If there were any the were cunningly disguised as hinds. We walked on.

Further along the path we came to the Loch. At least that hadn’t changed significantly, although because of Covid restrictions the two man rowing boats for fishing the loch were securely locked up in a pound. I suppose it’s hard to keep a two metre distance in a wee rowing boat. The geese and their goslings didn’t seem too bothered with the two meter rule.  They were too busy teaching the youngsters to swim and to feed properly.  It was good walking the paths through the enormous pine trees round the loch. They do say the air blowing through pines is good for your respiration. Our biggest disappointment in this new, ecologically friendly and Health & Safety conscious park was the children’s adventure playground. What had been an enormous pyramid constructed from ropes and bungee cords was now a shadow of its former self. I don’t know if you remember it JIC, but I don’t think you’d have felt a daredevil climbing that. With that said, lots of weans were screaming and shouting as they found their own adventures in this playground.

We eventually found our way back to the car and drove home down that steep hill with its uncountable speed bumps. We agreed we’d go back again. PoD turned out to be a goose standing proud in the loch. It seemed almost prehistoric to me.  I can’t explain why.  It was a close run thing between that and a monochrome shot across the Forth with the bridges on the right. It’ll be on Flickr as soon as I can get it loaded.

Dinner tonight came courtesy of Golden Bowl. Scamp had her usual Chicken Chop Suey and Fried Rice. I had Sweet and Sour Chicken Balls. Maybe my last one because the sweetness was just too much for me and I felt a bit ill afterwards. Chicken Chow Mein in future.

Short practise of the Cha-Cha tonight, mainly because we got the video of it today. Sketch topic was Medicines and my two bottles and a tube are here for your perusal. Glad you liked yesterday’s socks Hazy and recognised both your handiwork and also your repair!

Tomorrow, if the weather allows, we may go for a walk.

We needed some rain for the garden – 8 May 2021

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Today we got it.

We went out for a walk in the morning when it was just a drizzle that was falling from the sky. If we’d gone out half an hour earlier we’d have had a dry walk, but then again, if we’d gone out half an hour later we’d have been soaked. We just got a little bit wet. Came home, had a coffee and sat and watched the rain. I hadn’t taken one photo on the morning walk. I just hoped it would dry up later and I’d get the chance to capture some photons.

Lunch was Tortellini fairly fresh stuff, soft and tasty. Not like the dried pasta variety which never really softens properly until you boil it for ages, then you lose all the stuffing. Like most things, it’s worth the extra to get good pasta. Struggled with Lightroom after lunch. I don’t know what the problem is. I blamed the virus killer I installed, but now I’m thinking it’s the update to Mojave (MacOS 10.14) that Lightroom doesn’t like. There are some folk writing on the InterWeb about it and I’m beginning to think it’s true, because the new laptop is running Catalina (MacOS 10.15) and it just refuses to allow Lightroom to install on it. Perhaps Mojave was the thin end of the wedge and it just causes problems for my long in the tooth, old Lightroom. Such a pity, because up until now it has been bombproof. Still, nothing lasts for ever.

Finally I gave in. The birds were singing, which is usually a sign of a dry spell. I put my boots on and grabbed the camera. Scamp was hard at work preparing a rhubarb pie and a small apple pie to go with tonight’s dinner which was Giant Fish Fingers, New potatoes and Marrowfat Peas. I did get some photos on the new Oly. My favourites were the Cowslip flowers with the raindrops still fresh on them and one of them got PoD. Actually the rain was still falling, but I didn’t mind it much. I stood watching the swallows dive and spin around St Mo’s pond catching insects on the wing and occasionally just skimming across the surface of the pond, presumably catching them as they hatched and lay defenceless on the surface film. Fascinating to watch, but pointless to try to catch. That’s not to say I didn’t try.

Dinner was as excellent as I hoped it would be and, even better, there’s more rhubarb pie for tomorrow. The two of us scoffed the apple pie between us. Some of Scamp’s best pastry skills on show today with a light, crisp pie that tasted as good as it looked.

A short dance practise tonight just to make sure we can indeed perform the Catherine Waltz to music. I’m sure that’s my problem. Dancing it without music doesn’t seem to be a problem, it’s when we try to keep to the soundtrack that things go wrong. Hopefully tomorrow’s class will show us to be faultless.

Today’s topic for EDiM was Eyes, Ears, Nose, Hand or Feet. I chose Hand and made a mess of it. I know I left it too late, but I finally got the grip of it by making a fist of it!

Tomorrow, hopefully there will be less rain and it won’t stay all day. A little dry time would be good, weather fairies. If you’re listening.