Category: boardwalk

Last Dance Class – 2 September 2023

Posted on by Zogman

… for two weeks!

Drove to Brookfield for the last dance class for two weeks, well, the last Ballroom Basics dance class because the teachers are off on holiday. However, Scamp has managed to inveigle us into another dance class in Cumbersheugh to make up our dancing time. It won’t be the same dances and Kirsty’s style will be slightly different, but the language will be the same and a change is as good as a rest. Best of all, it’s just up the road, literally. No miles and miles of roadworks to navigate through!

But today we did have to navigate the 50mph then the 40mph and back to the 50mph and then back to the 40mph before we were suddenly allowed to do a heady 70mph then 60 mph then back to 70mph again all on the same stretch of motorway. It’s confusing.

Dancing today began with Tina Tango danced to Shivers and then a never-ending extended version of Sweet Dreams (are made of this) by Eurythmics (10:23 mins), thankfully cut short by Stewart. After that we went straight into the new Cha-Cha with the Cross Basic which I think I have now conquered. I even managed to get the ‘drunken sailor’ right a few times! A couple of Blue Angel Rumbas finished off the first set.

Feeling quite pleased with myself I expected the next set would be Joy’s Waltz, which we had both practised and were happy with. But surprise, surprise, it wasn’t. It was the Quickstep which we hadn’t practised. However, after bit of one to one with Stewart, and encouragement from Scamp, it fell into place. Another section of this difficult dance done. Just to make sure we were all exhausted, we finished with one track of the Midnight Jive which is non-stop kicks, spins and cross steps.
It felt great to walk out into the sunshine after all those mind bending dances. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to practise them on Thursday at the tea dance.

Back home I re-read an email from Churchill insurance to make sure they really wanted THAT MUCH! for a year’s car insurance. No way was I paying that. That was before I logged in to Money Supermarket and found out that Churchill’s was actually a sort of middle ground insurance estimate. Scamp checked Saga and Esure just to be sure and they were coming up with close to the same numbers. Maybe Churchill aren’t so far away from the mark after all.

Scamp was desperate to get the grass cut, both front and back and I thought I might go out and take some photos later in the afternoon. So that’s what we did.The grass does look a lot better cut short and I did manage to get one photo I was pleased with, so we both achieved our stated goal. I phoned Scamp from St Mo’s to ask what she wanted for dinner. Fish ’n’ Chips from the chip shop in Condorrat was the answer. That suited me too, so I set off for that place. The phone call was also a test for the new connection. EE is now gone and has been replaced by Tesco Mobile. Double the data for less than I was paying for EE, plus the price is frozen for the 24 months of the contract. Best of all, the phone works better with the O2 masts that Tesco use than with EE’s. At least for now, anyway.

PoD was a male Common Darter dragonfly sitting on the boardwalk of St Mo’s. Lovely warm light from the late afternoon sun.

Tomorrow I think we’ll go out somewhere for a walk.

 

Dancin’ again – 19 August 2023

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We were off to Brookfield again today for a dance class.

Unbelievably, less than a month after the months long roadworks on the M8, today they were back again. This time slightly further down the road. Can these numpties not get their ducks in a row and just do all the roadworks at the same time, instead of this Forth Bridge comparison (once it’s finished, start again). Harrumph!

The first of two tracks in the warm-up today was Shivers by Ed Sheeran, much to the delight of Scamp. Two tracks as normal, but the second one was immaterial, it was Ed Sheeran’s that counted. Then it was in to the main event of the day which was a Cha-Cha which started out as a fairly easy amalgamation of moves we already knew, but is gradually building and being refined by the teachers, but really just Jane I think, into a mammoth dancing extravaganza. Today’s addition was a Cross Basic. It was definitely cross (at least Scamp was) but it was never Basic. I think we might need some living room practise for this one.

Next up was Joy’s Waltz which is starting to gel in my head. It’s only taken since May, on and off, for it to stick, but I think I’m getting there at last. I only hope they keep it as it is and don’t go adding any more steps to a dance that is quite doable as it is.

Actually the drive home via the Clyde Tunnel was quite relaxing compared with the drive out, but the warning signs were out predicting another month’s driving misery.

After lunch we went for a walk down to the Broadwood Boardwalk and back via M&S for tonight’s dinner. The PoD came from the boardwalk and it’s Bittersweet Nightshade. Perhaps not as deadly as its better known relative, but I wasn’t risking it and neither were the birds, it seemed.

There had been some rain overnight and more is predicted for tomorrow, although the winds might have calmed down a bit. If we get a dry spell, we may get out for a walk.

Nothing but Blue Skies – 5 December 2022

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One of those cold, bright December days when you just have to get out.

Admittedly, it took a nudge from Scamp to make me get up and put my boots on and even then, it was about half past one in the afternoon before I managed to set foot outside the door. By then it was far too late to drive to Drumpellier which had been our stated destination, but Scamp agreed that a walk round part of Broadwood Loch would be a fair substitute.

So with both of us suitably dressed for the winter weather, we walked round the boardwalk at Broadwood, which is where today’s PoD came from. Technical details later. From the boardwalk we walked over the dam and I saw a bloke photographing the seagulls on the outfall of the loch with what I think was a Canon with a serious looking lens. Probably at least 500mm. It certainly outgunned mine, but it was fitted on to a ‘plastiCanon’. Not a real camera at all IMO. I tried a shot of the gulls too, but as usual, the result failed to inspire me. I hope he was skilful enough to get a good result with inferior equipment.

We walked over to the exercise machines and then up past the ripped up ground that will soon be converted to a ‘Micky Ds’. Allegedly they’re hoping to have it up and running for Christmas. I can’t imagine that happening, but who knows. It just might. We were going to the hole in the wall machine at the BP garage for some read cash in case the man who is coming to service the boiler tomorrow hasn’t got a card machine. With ‘real’ money in our pockets we headed for home and found the heating had noticed our absence and warmed the house up for us, all by itself. Scamp, of course, complained that it was too warm!

Dinner tonight was going to be Arancini (deep fried rice balls) using the remainder of yesterday’s risotto. Scamp was in charge of the arancini production line. She shaped the rice into little balls just smaller than a tangerine, dipped them in seasoned flour, then coated them in egg. Finally dropping them gently into the bowl of breadcrumbs. I was making the tomato sauce to go with the rice balls and also at the end of the production line, rolling the arancini in the breadcrumbs then easing four at a time into the hot fat from a wire scoop and fishing them out again onto kitchen paper a few minutes later. It may sound complicated, but it worked really well and without argument on either side.

The proof of the Arancini was in the tasting and we both agreed that they tasted fine and were filling enough with the tomato sauce. Quite messy though and would be even more messy without a dishwasher.

As I said, the PoD was a shot of the boardwalk at Broadwood Loch. In fact it was a panorama built in Lightroom from five separate images. I liked the finished result. The light was really good this afternoon and that warm glow from the afternoon sun gave it a wintry feel.

According to the weather fairies, we may be experiencing another ‘wintry feel’ this week with the chance of the first snow of the winter. We’ll hope it’s not too serious an attempt from the white stuff.

I’m off to the doc’s tomorrow morning to see what he has to say about my leg. Also, the bloke is coming to service the boiler, also in the morning.

No Soup Today – 8 November 2022

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We went as far as the shops today.

Today was wet when I got up, and it stayed wet for most of the day. We did go out in the early afternoon to get some veg to make soup and also some chicken to make paella for dinner.

Spoke to Hazy for a while and heard more about Neil’s op. Probably more than we really wanted to hear. I don’t envy you the surgery, Neil, but I hope it brings you the relief you’re looking for.

No chicken breasts or thighs to be had in M&S, but plenty next door in Lidl. Are M&S chickens that much better quality than Lidl? I don’t think so. Tiny wee turnips in M&S for 95p each. Big turnips in Lidl for 65p. Ok, maybe the chickens in M&S come from better farms, but a turnip is a turnip. It smacks of food snobbery. That’s my moan for the day. I used the chicken and did make paella, but the soup will have to wait until tomorrow.

After we walked home we went out to look at the garden and drain some of the pots. The entire back garden is simply waterlogged just now. Maybe if I’d pulled up one of my leeks I’d have remembered to make the soup, but I didn’t. Instead I took the smaller A6000 out for a walk in St Mo’s. I got a few shots, all landscapes, but they all seemed to be dark and underexposed. It took a while to tease a decent photo out of the morass, but I was quite pleased with today’s PoD, taken from the boardwalk and looking right into the sun.

Back home the paella was a bit dry, but I was using a new pan and this is the first time I’ve made paella for ages. That’s my excuse.

That was about it for a day that started wet, stayed dry for an hour or two in the late afternoon and returned with more rain later in the evening. The garden will be even more waterlogged. Actually, we have mushrooms growing in the front garden! We saw them today.

Tomorrow looks a better day. We may go out somewhere.

Autumnal – 16 September 2022

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This is the first day this year I’ve really felt the autumn chill in the air.

Scamp was going out to her FitSteps class this morning and I cleared up yesterday’s dinner dishes. After that I put on my hoodie and with the A7 and the macro lens in my bag I went for a midday walk in St Mo’s. The weather was beautiful to look at, bright sun and blue skies with a few clouds scudding past. The temperature was a bit low though, not very deep into the double figures. It had been in single figures when I was making the breakfast.

The sun must have been warming up the boardwalk round the pond, because the air was full of little red dragonflies that I think were male Common Darters with a couple of Small Black darters too. One of the common darters made PoD. I’d hoped to get some photos of bees feeding on the blue Scabious flowers, but there were none to be seen today. Perhaps they all had the day off.

By the time I got back, Scamp had returned from her class. We discussed going out for lunch, but finally agreed we couldn’t be bothered and settled for a home lunch.

After lunch, Scamp planted two gigantic bulbs of Crown Imperial which is a , one at the front of the house and one at the back. She also planted some small Globe Alliums. Finally, because the sun was warm as long as you stayed where it was shining, we pruned the apple tree to reduce the amount of fruit the poor thing has to carry. We both agree that it will probably need staking in the spring to give it some extra support.

Dinner was provided by Golden Bowl and I volunteered to walk over to Condorrat to collect it. It was getting quite chilly when I was coming back. I think we’ll be looking at single figures again tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow we’ve an early shift at the dance class. Stewart wants class to start at 10am rather than our usual 11am. That will mean getting up at about 8.30am. On a Saturday!

Posted today – 24 April 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Hopefully this blog will be posted the same day it was written. That will make it the first since April 13th. Here goes!

I spent most of the morning and some the afternoon writing the last few blog posts, posting them and also posting photos on Flickr. I always start off with good intentions on days when we’re on holiday, but I never quite manage to stick to those intentions. After all, I’m on holiday and blog writing, which can sometimes be good fun to do, can also be a terrible drag. Anyway, the backlog is gone for now.

After lunch we went for a walk round Broadwood stadium, the long way round. Over to the boardwalk and over that wibbly, wobbly way to dry land. Who in their right mind makes a boardwalk from plastic. Halfway along the boardwalk it feels like it’s ready to tip you into the loch it crosses. Typical NLC cost cutting. Some day it’s just going to collapse and then an investigation will begin and ‘Lessons will be learned’. After that they will replace it with another cheapo plastic boardwalk until the same thing happens again.
Well, we survived the boardwalk today, but it’s in a far worse state than it was in the last time we crossed it. We walked on over the dam then up past the exercise machines stopping on the dam to take a photo of a herring gull at the outfall from the loch. I never knew there were herrings in Broadwood Loch. We also got a good laugh at a Crested Grebe with its bad hair do. Unfortunately, the Sony 55-210mm lens wasn’t in a focusing mood today, so I don’t have a record of it.

We were sorted for dinner, so didn’t need to stop at the shops on the way home and I reckoned I had at least one decent shot from the birdwatching at the dam, so I didn’t need a walk over to St Mo’s.

Scamp watered the back garden using a watering can. I preferred to use the hose and watered the front garden. It will be so much easier if we get an outside tap fitted, but the tap adaptor worked for today. Also, as Carlyn, next door had watered our plants while we were away down south, I watered her’s today.

Dinner was steak for me and salmon for Scamp with a side of salad in the style of Simonne, but really nothing like as good as hers. I must practise that culinary skill.

Spoke to Jamie and heard about his plans for the coming week, jetting off to the US again to cause more mayhem by pouring oil on troubled waters. Good luck with pleasing all of the people all of the time, Jamie.

PoD was the herring-less gull.

Tomorrow I may plant my sort-of cow parsley, some in pots and some in the ground. I also need to get my hair cut soon as May is approaching fast. At least my kilt fits, I tried it on yesterday.

Happy Birthday Scamp – 24 March 2022

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A day of celebration, overeating and a bottle of wine into the bargain.

Spoke to Hazy in the morning and after the traditional singing of “Happy Birthday” she told us how Granny’s 90th birthday party turned into a Super Spreader event, with everyone present becoming positive for Covid! Luckily, Hazy hadn’t attended, unluckily for Neil, he had and is suffering today. Hope he feels better soon and Hazy stays negative.

After she had opened her cards and replied to most of the well-wishers on FB, we got changed into slightly dressier clothes and drove over to Falkirk. Actually not quite to Falkirk, just to the outskirts, to The Boardwalk restaurant for lunch. It’s an airy, modern building, part of a chain.It’s part of the same company as Coast, a restaurant we’d been to a month or so ago, near Port Glasgow. The meal that day was superb. While Scamp’s food today was very nice, I was disappointed. Starters was Mixed Tempura which I thought was oily, but Scamp disagreed. She was allowed to, it was her birthday. Mains were Smoked Haddock Gratin for Scamp and it did look impressive and tasted the same I’m told. Mine was Duck Ragu Rigatoni. The sauce was bland, the duck tasteless and the pasta overcooked. There’s not a lot you can say about it after that. Nobody came to ask how the meals were and the service was very slow. However, I’m glad Scamp enjoyed her meal.

After lunch we walked up to the Falkirk Wheel and watched a bus load of people get lifted up on the giant machine. I took some photos, but it was one of the lined up canal boats that got PoD. The centre was working on its winter timetable and was closing down at 4pm, which is fair, I think as there weren’t many folk there.

First stop on the way home was at Torwood for a pot for the new rose, and two bags of compost. I talked Scamp into another new rose which she reluctantly agreed to and also a pretty red anemone. Neither us had seen a red one before! That meant another two pots!

Final stop on the way was at the shops for a Bramley Apple Pie, ice cream and cream to go with it. Back home we had the apple pie as a belated dessert. We had a bottle of wine to wash it down and then watched the final of this year’s Apprentice. I think we were a bit surprised at who won in the end.

Tomorrow we’ve both got appointments with Simpson Opticians in Larky. Hope the sun doesn’t shine too brightly after getting the drops.

Off the leash – 24 January 2022

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Scamp was heading out for lunch with the rest of the Witches. I was given free run of the house.

After she was picked up by Jeanette I did think of driving out somewhere to get a few landscape photos, but the sky was that moody overall grey and without some directional light I’d be struggling to make a landscape look interesting, so I chose to wait for a while. I thought about starting a painting, but couldn’t decide what to paint. These dull days make it difficult to find an interest in anything. I did for one foolish moment toy with the idea of clearing up the back room, but one look at the enormity of the task was enough to disabuse me of that task. Instead, I had lunch. Beans on sourdough toast. Earlier I’d picked up Jamie’s transatlantic plane on Flightradar 24 and lunchtime gave me a chance to check his position. He was about halfway across the Atlantic as I was scraping the last of my beans from the plate.

I’d a letter to finish off and once I’d done that, it looked like the sky was brightening up with a bit of movement in the clouds, so I got my boots on and the camera sorted and went out for a walk in St Mo’s. The woods were looking bare. Bare trees, dried up grass and not a lot happening. I did try to grab a few shots of lichen and moss and also a few late season fungi, but nothing new. Nothing exciting or interesting. The most interesting was a leaf spread over a fallen log and worn almost transparent by the elements. That might look good reduced to monochrome. I walked further than I’ve gone for ages, across the boggy grassland almost beside the slip road from the motorway, but the landscapes were all the same. I’d taken them all in the past. However, when I came out of the woods the sky was definitely clearing and Jamie was heading south towards the eastern edge of Canada at about 38,000ft.

Heading back towards home I got a decent shot along the length of the boardwalk with the 18mm lens sporting its washed and clean lens hood. Also I took two shots looking towards the breaking sky over the pond. Both were taken in portrait format, one to make the most of the sky and the other to show the silted up edge of the pond. I intended to join them together in Photoshop. That was it for the photography and it looked like Jamie was now even higher at 40,000ft and crossing the border into the US. I hoped he was actually on that plane and had managed to get up for that 4am taxi!

Scamp was home by the time I got back and we compared our day. It would seem that the Railway Inn is worth a visit some time judging by the praise it was getting from Scamp. It would be good to start going out to eat again, now that the restrictions are being relaxed. We might even get to go back to salsa with a bit of luck!

Scamp’s lunch was Macaroni with Chips. My dinner was Tagliatelle with a meat Ragu. More in the pan for tomorrow or to go in the freezer to be discovered some hungry day.

I watched as the Airbus turned on its dogleg to final and landed in a place I’ve never been and am never likely to see with my own eyes. I hope you get to read this Jamie and aren’t too bored with all the photography talk. Enjoy your visit to the Big Apple.

The PoD is the two part picture, assembled and manicured in Photoshop then finished off in Lightroom. The others I took today are on Flickr.

We have no plans yet for tomorrow. Sometimes that’s the best way.

 

A walk around part of Broadwood – 24 December 2021

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It was cold and it was raining, but we went for a walk anyway.

All the shoppers seemed to have tired themselves out yesterday. Today the shops were almost deserted. Only ‘almost’ though. There were still some of the dyed in the wool ‘have to buy something, anything’ brigade out splashing their cash. We didn’t. I’d like to say we had more sense, but who was out in the rain and who was in a nice warm shop?

We did an anticlockwise version of our usual walk, starting with the exercise machines path and then across the dam, round on to the boardwalk and back along the pavement beside the main road. Today’s PoD came from the boardwalk where we disturbed a group of Tufted Ducks and they became the subject of the photo. I was surprised to see that big white disc in the sky again. I saw it last Friday over in Fife, but since then it had been hiding. There were rumours that it had been self isolating, but I couldn’t say for the truth of that. I don’t know if the sun could catch Covid. Back home it was toast and scrambled eggs for lunch, by which time the sun had disappeared again.

In the afternoon, Scamp iced the Christmas Cake and we took turns at putting the decorations on it. My first choice was the Santa on his sleigh, as always and Scamp’s was the children on their sledge. The rest we took turns at.

By that time the darkness had encroached enough for the house lights to come on and evening was in charge.

That was about it for the day’s adventures. Tomorrow we must wait to see if we’ve been good enough for Santa to have come!

 

Out for a walk – 22 August 2021

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Or two, in my case.

It was a warm sunny morning, but we didn’t really get going until the afternoon. We finally decided to walk round Broadwood again, but the opposite way round, just to be different. There wasn’t a lot to see, but when we came out at the wee pond near the Irn Bru factory, I did see a dragonfly sunning itself on the top of one of the NLC signs telling you what to look for. It could have been a living advert for the woodland walk, but it got its photo taken anyway. A few steps further on, there was another dragonfly, also sunning itself on a wooden fence. I tried for its photo, but couldn’t get through the grass that was shielding it. I gave up and eventually it did too and flew away. Still, I had one in the bag.

Back home I had a look through the afternoon’s shots and, yes, there was at least one shot of the dragonfly that would pass muster. However, there were more things out there, I was sure. So I left Scamp to read and went for a short walk in St Mo’s. Found more small dragonflies sitting on the upstand of the boardwalk and included them in my photos. Even better I found a Leaf-hopper, a bright green leaf-hopper (Cicadella viridis) and took its picture too. I tried a Wolf spider, but couldn’t get it all in focus. There was a Garden Cross spider but it was too far away and there was no way I was wading into the murky waters of St Mo’s pond. It’s bad enough when you don’t know what you’re walking in, but it’s worse if you do!  The leaf-hopper got PoD, just beating the posing dragonfly from earlier in the day.

Decided that I had enough and came home to make dinner which tonight was Naked Fish and Carrot Chips. I thought we had everything to make the dish, but then found we had no garlic. I added garlic granules but they didn’t quite cut it. Also, the carrot chips weren’t very chip-like. Discussion later with the chef himself, disclosed that he thinks there should be more cornflour than the recipe says. I agree with Jamie, that would probably work. We were discussing this when he phoned after the dinner was made and eaten. We also found out about how things are down Cambridge way. You forget that England has different rules and timings than up here. Schools are still on holiday there while they are back at work here. House buying seems to work on mystery and black magic there whereas it might be archaic here, but it’s much more clear cut.

Scamp had been working hard trying to learn some of the figures and their link steps form the second half of the Foxtrot routine. My versions were different, but between us we managed to get everything sorted out and it now looks doable again. It just needs a few more practise sessions and we’ll have a full foxtrot.

Tomorrow seems to be even better than today and today was good. Not too bright and sunny, but warm. Tomorrow we are governed by high pressure, so we should be dry at least. No plans.