Category: Butterfly

More Butterflies – 3 August 2026

Posted on by Zogman

This time it was a Painted Lady. The butterfly that starts in Africa and can end up in Alaska. Not all in one flight and in some cases it’s a different butterfly that takes over from the first one … it’s complicated. If you’re interested, search the internet for it.

Today we were going shopping at Waitrose in Stirling. It was a “Long and winding road”. The street we live on was having a makeover. That meant, although we wanted to go right at the end of the street, instead we had to drive through the car park of the football stadium, round the stadium itself then back on to the main road again. After that the devious road menders had closed off the road that would normally have taken us to the motorway … but not today. Instead we had to go a circuit of Cumbersheugh to get back to the motorway. I suppose it made sense to the folk who designed it, but for us it was a pain in the backside.

We did get to Stirling quite easily after the initial problem. Scamp was thirsty so we had a coffee and shared a pastry, then filled a shopping trolley with goodies. I got a nice bottle of gin that was reduced by a fair bit. Scamp got a bottle opener she fancied and a couple of bottles of wine. One because she’d had it before and liked it. The other because it had an interesting label. Why not!

We drove home and found yet another way that would take us back to the house without going anywhere near the football stadium. We had been places today that we had never seen in years. It was a learning experience – Every day’s a school day!

It was a dull day. No butterflies to photograph and nothing that even remotely made we want to go out. What we had done was to pick up a Charlie Bigham’s Butter Chicken for Two. A lovely dinner in about 30 minutes. Yes, we know it’s not good for us, but it tasted like it was!

We watched an episode of University Challenge in the evening. Then Scamp wanted to watch a special edition of Gardener’s World and I started typing this.

Hopefully tomorrow won’t be as complicated as today was. I hope you understood at least half of it!!

 

A Butterfly Day – 2 August 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Beautiful day for butterflies. I counted fifteen butterflies congregating on the buddleia bush in the garden.

The day actually started with some joker trying to reverse a lorry and connected ‘chipper’ along a path that was never meant to carry such a wide load. After a bit of an argument I convinced him to disconnect the ‘chipper’ and push it down to where it should have been and then drive the lorry round to the wider road further down the estate. Then we discussed how to repair the tree he had damaged. After that the ‘boss’ and I worked out that the best thing to do was to cut part of the tree branch down. With it done, we shook hands on it, but some of the minions were still making noises. Scamp and I went back to breakfast.

For the rest of the day, Scamp was happily working on the garden. She had a vision of what she wanted to happen and I was glad to let her get on with it. I must admit that she has made an excellent job of clearing up the garden. It’s not quite finished yet, but a lot of work went into making it look much better than before.

I was busy taking photos of the butterflies that had covered the buddleia bush. About half a dozen different types were flying round and through the buddleia flowers and my favourite was the Comma with its easily recognised ‘Cut out’ on its wing. The most amazing one was the Painted Lady which migrates from Africa and mainland Europe to the Uk, and in this case to Scotland. This is the first time I’ve seen one.

Spoke to Jamie later in the day and heard about the exorbitant price for their water bill. I’m glad we live in Scotland!

Tomorrow Scamp and I are probably going shopping. What fun!

Dancin’ – 1 August 2026

Posted on by Zogman

On the first day of August

It was a busy morning with traffic on the road, probably from folk coming home from holiday and others on their way out. Once we got past Glasgow airport the traffic reduced. Today we were back in Brookfield and dancing old dances. Some were more successful than others. People, including us, were still having problems with Rona’s Rumba. Jane was making changes to the routine but, as someone said, there are too many turns both clockwise and anticlockwise. I can understand that Jane has devised the dance for a friend who passed away, but you sometimes have to stand back and look at the routine. That’s all I’ll say.

It wasn’t my best day. I was complaining about everything. I have no excuse for it, just one of those dance days when things get under my skin and I can’t do anything right. We danced quite a few routines that, normally we’d work our way through without any problems, but today they just didn’t work. Most of it was my fault. Probably best to forget today and come back fresh for the next dance.

For once we drove home over the Kingston Bridge and kept the wheels turning all the time. It’s not often I’ll say that. The weather was variable today. Cloudy one minute and in sunshine the next. Not to be trusted, though because Scamp was complaining about little showers of rain when she was working in the garden later. We both worked on an old tree that’s been growing next to the wall in the back garden and between us I think we’ve given it a good short back and sides today. Our ‘Brown Bin’, the garden waste bin was almost full with one bushy tree.

We had three butterflies changing places round the Buddleia bush in the garden. One of them, a Red Admiral, finally settled on a plant pot and I managed one photo of it before it flew off. That photo made PoD.

I spent some time rearranging my Lightroom catalog, something I’ve been meaning to do for months now. Hopefully it will be a more logical way of working this year.

Dinner tonight was Mac ’n’ Cheese and although it was a bit salty, it tasted great. Scamp was cooking, of course!

No plans for tomorrow so far.

Up and out early – 20 July 2026

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Well, fairly early, let’s not get too excited.

Scamp and I drove over to Larky in the morning where I picked up my new distance vision glasses. These ones are going to stay in the case until I lose the last pairs. It’s not a case of “If” I lose a pair, more a case of “When”. Scamp is threatening to make me a pair that I can dangle round my neck! I don’t think so. I may be getting on in years, but I’m not quite over the hill yet.

With the new glasses in my pocket we drove over to Chatelherault for coffee and a cake each. It’s ages since I’ve been there, and even longer since Scamp has been. It was such a beautiful morning with a blue sky and a few fluffy white clouds. I hadn’t bothered to bring a camera, partly because I tend to go into Photographer mode when I bring a camera and spoil the day by whipping the camera out at every opportunity, and partly because I’ve seen Chatelherault in almost every weather condition.
Anyway we did go to the cafe and had a cafe and cake. Then we had a leisurely walk around the park, admiring the panorama of the central belt in all its glory. After our walk we drove home. It was a bit strange to go for a short walk instead of a ramble through the trees. Quite refreshing for a change.

Back home and after lunch we noted that a load of wood was covering the garden next door. It looked like the construction of the fence had begun in earnest.

Scamp chose to sit in the front garden away from the saws, hammers and digging that was going on and I went for a walk in St Mo’s. I had thought it was supposed to cool down today, but if anything, it felt warmer. I’d forgotten to bring water with me so I curtailed my walk, but I did get some photos of butterflies over by the football park. PoD and my favourite was a Meadow Brown. It was a bit battered and bruised, but was still flying.

Scamp suggested Pasta Carbonara for dinner. It’s ages since I’d made it and it took me a while to get the recipe right, but Val must have been watching me over my shoulder and making sure I was getting it done properly.

Spoke to Jamie tonight, a bit out of sync because they had been late getting home from a barbecue. It seems that they are still having problems with water. Hopefully once we get our predicted rain, it will fall on their garden too.

The wood that had been lying in the garden next door is now looking like a real fence. They are making good progress with it. I’m impressed with what is really just one day’s work.

We may need to get some ‘messages’ in tomorrow.

We went shopping – 7 September 2025

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You know it’s been a dull day when the highlight is “We went shopping”.

Some days are like that. You can have days when the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and you manage to capture fifty photos, each one better than the last. Then there are days where you manage to grab half a dozen shots of butterflies and are satisfied with that. Today fell into the ‘satisfied’ category.

We went shopping, as I mentioned and that got us out of the house for half an hour or so. Just the usual shopping for lunch and dinner. Mainly essentials.

Jamie and Simonne were on their way back from yesterday’s wedding but were stopping off in Glasgow to meet up with a couple of their old friends. They arrived back at the house around 5pm. By then I’d been out for a walk across the football park behind St Mo’s and had hardly taken the camera out of the bag. I did get just over 100g of brambles on the way back.

I made a hash of getting Simonne’s SD card to work in the new computer. Why do the different companies insist on sticking to their own formats. It would be so much easier for everyone if they just took the sensible approach of one size and one format fits all. Anyway, in the end we got the photos she wanted, although I’ll have to work out how we make a heart shaped background for one of them.

For dinner, Scamp and I had Chicken Milanese with our own potatoes and Scamp’s speciality, Rats, which of course is short for Ratatouille. Jamie & Simonne shared a pizza. We all had Passionfruit & Raspberry Cheesecake for dessert while we watched Lando Norris being humiliated by being given a derisory second place as compensation for having had a slow pitstop. Poor guy was very noncommittal in the interview.

We’re expecting the young ones to be leaving early tomorrow to take the road south. Hope they have a problem-free journey and arrive home safely.

Us? I think we might be going looking for the elusive bread bin again, with maybe the chance of dancing Cha-Cha in Kirsty’s class later.

Walking – 29 July 2025

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Today, we went for a walk around Colzium estate, but before that I had to face the ladies who like my blood.

It was time for my annual review at the health centre and the first stage of that is to give a sample of my blood for testing. Not something I look forward to, but I guess it is better getting it over with as soon as possible. So I was up fairly early to get it done.

After that the day was our own. After lunch we discussed what to do and where to go. I voted for a walk round Colzium estate in Kilsyth. It’s a fairly short circular walk with offshoots you can take if you’re feeling fit or if you feel the real need for exercise. We stuck to the easiest route we knew we could manage and had a pleasant walk up almost as far as the Tak Ma Doon road, a narrow, twisty road that’s not bad to drive in the spring, summer and autumn, but not in the winter especially if there is lying snow or ice.

We crossed the Colzium burn near the top of the estate and then walked back down the other side. There is usually a quite photogenic waterfall under the wee, old, bow backed bridge near the top, but there was very little water going over the ‘Falls’ today. We thought we’d stop in at the cafe for a cup of coffee on the way back to the car park, but found out that it closed at 3pm. It was now 3.15pm. Never mind, we went for a walk round the Walled Garden instead. It’s a bit overgrown now and really need a bit of TLC, but the flowers and trees are interesting. It also gave us a chance to have a seat. It’s easier coming down from the top of the estate, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.

Lots of butterflies again today in the walled garden, gorging on the Buddleia flowers.

When we walked down to the car we crossed another bridge over the same burn and I spotted two little saplings growing out of a crack in the bridge parapet. That made a decent PoD with plenty of out of focus ‘Bokeh’ to create a backdrop.

Not far along from that we chanced to meet one of Scamp’s ‘Witchy’ friends. Not real witches, you understand, just a nickname. Stood talking the family and then drove home.

Dinner was pasta with thin slices of bacon, a tin of tomatoes and a couple of frozen spinach balls thrown in for good measure. It seemed to go down well.

Watched this year’s final of Masterchef – The Professionals. We are always amazed at the lengths these couples go to to create their sugar and chocolate presentations.

Tomorrow I’m intending staying at home while Scamp is hoping to go out with the ‘Witches’.

Butterfly Day – 28 July 2025

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Scamp and I were in the garden in the morning when I spotted a Red Admiral butterfly, then another and another and a Tortoiseshell too.

The Buddleia bush had been blooming really well this year so perhaps it’s it that is encouraging this sudden influx of colourful butterflies, but long may they continue to visit our garden to feed on the nectar that seems to be very popular. One shot of a Red Admiral grabbed first place in the PoD.

Other than that it was just an ordinary Monday, except we didn’t have to go shopping because we’d bought a decent basket full yesterday. Scamp, of course was pruning and chopping back flowers in both the front and back gardens. I’d had another uncomfortable night with the warm, muggy nights, so I went for a snooze in the afternoon. I know it’s not a great thing to do, because you wake from an hour in dreamland and feel worse than when you went to bed, at least, I do.

We spent about half an hour later in the afternoon practising the Continuous Hover Cross for tonight’s Foxtrot class. It’s a dance routine that is complicated to work through, well, for me it is, anyway, and it doesn’t seem to achieve anything for all its twists and turns. Even worse the man’s steps are totally unrelated to the lady’s. That means I have to learn my steps and not rely on following Scamp’s! After a few runs through, we almost had it taped. Then Scamp got an email from Kirsty to say that she was intending doing a different dance, still a Foxtrot but totally different from what we’d been practising!!

Only two couples were up for tonight’s class, which was good because we had the whole floor to ourselves, but bad because there was nowhere to hide. We stumbled through the steps, or to be more precise, I stumbled through and tried to follow Scamp’s. In the end it almost went together properly.

I was checking my emails tonight and found that a big parcel is due to arrive soon, but with confusing arrival dates. It will definitely be this week, but when which day is not clear. Maybe, just maybe, there will be more than one parcel, one for each day!! No, that’s just greedy.

No plans for tomorrow yet.

Another butterfly – 23 July 2025

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It’s that Buddleia bush again. It draws butterflies and bees like a magnet.

This time it was one of the commonest British butterflies, the Red Admiral. Not as scatty as some and fairly large too which made it easier for the A6500 to capture, and gave me a PoD.

Scamp was out later in the morning to meet Shona for lunch. I’d intended going out to get my hair cut, but got entangled in another problem with the Mac Book Pro that meant iCloud Drive was getting itself in a knot as was I. I’m not going to go any further with that, other than to say if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.

I finally gave up the thread of where I was going, left the MBP powered up and running, then went to bed. Woke about 4.30am and found that the MBP had solved the problem itself.
If it’s not broke etc.

Tomorrow (or really today) I may go and speak to someone who can explain in words of one syllable what went wrong.

Another wet and warm day – 21 July 2025

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Not at the same time, though.

This will be a quick blog. Although we did very little, the day just seemed to run away with us.

In the morning I spoke to an Apple robot with a Scottish accent, explained my problem and she fixed me up with an appointment for tomorrow with a ‘Genius’! A living, breathing one, I hope.

After that I noticed we had another butterfly on the buddleia bush and when I went out to see if it was still there, realised I didn’t have a camera. Luckily Scamp had her’s handy and she gave it to me, because the butterfly was too high for her to reach. That’s when it flew away, but eagle eye’d Scamp saw another one, a Peacock butterfly this time. We grabbed three shots with the phone and then it flew up and over to the back of the tree, but we got the shot! It made PoD.

We had a look through the laptops, for fridge-freezers after that and after tomorrow’s Genius Bar, we might actually order one.

We went to Kirsty’s dance class in the late afternoon and I almost managed to do new version of the Foxtrot with the diabolical Continuous Hover Cross, my nemesis! It was actually too hot to trot in the dance room and there was no cool air blower.

That’s as much as I’m going to write for now. Enjoy the holiday, Neil and Hazy. Hope you have fun. By the way, I finished Rivers of London episode 10 today and wouldn’t recommend it.

I’m off to bed no hoping to cool down, hopefully. Tomorrow may be another busy day.

Flying Things – 15 May 2025

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Another bright sunny morning, although the breeze was cold, despite the temperature being 13 point something degrees, according to the old thermometer in the house.

I just had enough time to tackle Wordle although Scamp had already started into the more complicate of the NYT puzzles. Then it was time to get dressed properly for the drive to Glenburn for today’s Tea Dance. A smaller than normal group with quite a few folk calling off, probably because of the good weather.

It was the usual fare, starting with a waltz. We tried hard to work out the steps of Waltz Nioli, but got as far as the first half dozen steps before it all fell to pieces. We eventually gave up and started a wee short nameless Waltz that Kirsty had taught the class fairly recently. That worked, but it was a lot shorter than Nioli.
Next Stewart called for a Jive routine, any jive routine. We danced the Seven Spins we’d learned with Michael, all those years ago – before Covid, that’s how long ago. A couple of sequence dances later and it was nearly tea time with a fairly lengthy chance for a blether.

Second half was more sequence than ballroom, with a few well known sequences and also a few we’d almost, but not quite forgotten. As the clock was just past 3pm we decided that if the next one was worth dancing, we do it, otherwise we’d drive home. The next one turned out to be the Ria Bachata, but not to real Bachata music, so we said our goodbyes and drove home.

An almost non-stop drive from Glenburn, over the Kingston Bridge and home. Not the best drive time we’ve had, but the wheels were turning all the way. That’s very unusual on a Thursday afternoon.

Back home, Scamp was having a rest in the garden and I was going over to St Mo’s to see if any of the dragonflies and damselflies were coming out to play. Well, the dragonflies were, but I only saw one damselfly and it was keeping a low profile in and out of the weeds by the side of the pond. Keeping out of reach of the dragonflies that were patrolling the pond looking for easy takings.

I walked round the pond then went back the other way. Sometimes that gives you a different view of the park. Today I followed a wee butterfly with strange markings and got a shot or three of it. Next a damselfly came past and attached itself to a nearby leaf. Another half a dozen frames made sure I’d a photo of that too. Finally as I was walking home I spotted a bedraggled Crane Fly (AKA Jenny Long Legs in Scotland) was dangling from a trio of Horsetails, the prehistoric perennial plants. That became PoD.

Dinner tonight, just for a change was pasta with a rich tomato sauce. Very nice it was too. I made it!

We watered the garden later when the sun was going down. Scamp did the front and I did the back, despite warnings on the BBC to the effect that water shortages may mean a hosepipe ban. It’s just meant to scare us and we’re not listening!

Tomorrow Scamp may go to FitSteps in the morning. I have no plans.