Category: dragonflies

Autumnal – 16 September 2022

Posted on by Zogman

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!

An early rise – 15 September 2022

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A voluntary one.

I’d had breakfast, but couldn’t find a book I wanted to read. The sun was shining although the temperature was just crawling into double figures, but I made up my mind to head out to get a photo of a climbing frame in a children’s adventure nearby. The reason for the photo was this week’s Flickr Friday requested a photo of a “Tower”. There is a tower, a rope climbing net and a slide on the climbing frame, so I reckoned it fitted the bill. There was also a lot of graffiti and a telephone number from an eighteen year old girl who was desperate for love. She must have been desperate, because there was a 17 scored out and replaced by the 18!

I took a few photos with the ultra-wide lens to accentuate the height of the structure, but wasn’t happy with it. To give the sun time to clear the surrounding trees, I took a walk in St Mo’s. There wasn’t much to see. The sun hadn’t cleared the trees here either so the cold blooded dragonflies would need to wait a while for it to warm their bodies and wings before they could fly properly. By the time I’d walked back to the ‘tower’, the sun was warming its eastern face and I got today’s PoD.

While I was doing some post processing of the PoD, Scamp left to meet June and Isobel. After I was satisfied with the photo and posted it on Flickr, I planted some basil seeds. Our basil plants are looking a bit straggly and will need replaced soon. Why buy basil plants from the supermarket when you can grow them right through the winter in the house?

Lunch today was a piece ’n’ banana for Scamp and a Cornish pastie for me. It was Thursday and Scamp had said she wanted some pansies to replace the violas that had flowered non-stop all summer, so I drove to Calders to get some for her. There was only one tray of Peach Pansies left in the garden centre, so I took them. Apparently Christmas is just around the corner. It looked like an articulated lorry had dumped all of its load at the garden centre. Boxes of jolly Santas, cheeky elves and reindeer, so many reindeer! That’s not to mention the lights and decorations, so I won’t mention them. Heavens, it’s the middle of September and we’re being suckered into buying Xmas tat already!

I drove home and made easy haddock risotto. Easy because the oven does all the hard work and as usual it worked perfectly. Nothing to do with me, I just follow the recipe and it works every time.

Tonight we had another dance practise.  A more in-depth one that the last two.  Trying to get the ‘slows’ and the ‘quicks’ in the right places and at the right time.  This ballroom dancing is not anywhere as easy as it looks on TV.

Miles and miles of folk queueing to get in to see the Queen’s coffin lying in state in London. Three miles, possibly four waiting to file past. If it brings the some solace then it’s a good thing.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending going to exercise class in the morning. I’ll exercise my right to stay at home.

Old Friends – 29 August 2022

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We didn’t do much in the morning, but the afternoon was full.

In the morning I saw the “Washing machine is ready to go” message when I went down to make the breakfast, so I switched it on. After breakfast Scamp wanted to go out for messages and I wanted to give my bike the once over, because I’m intending taking it out on Friday with a little bit of luck. The tyres are flat, but what state the inner tubes will be in, I don’t know. I might get round to that tomorrow, but today Scamp returned and saved me from getting my hands dirty.

After lunch I suggested we go for a walk. My offerings were Drumpellier, Auchinstarry for the Forth and Clyde canal or a more gentle Colzium. Drumpellier was our choice, so off we went.

As usual we walked anti-clockwise round the loch, then into the woods, taking it in turns to decide which road to take at each split in the path. It was a really warm day with a bit of cloud cover. We were just coming out of the woods when I saw a woman pushing an older woman in a wheelchair and recognised her voice. It was Morag from school and the older woman was her mum. We met up with her husband just a bit further along the road. We must have stood there for easily three quarters of an hour, just catching up and talking about folk we’d worked with. Funnily enough John and I had done exactly the same thing on Friday night. Morag has gone back to teaching again for half a week after having retired! I don’t know why people do that. Surely they are just taking jobs away from up and coming teachers who really need a job. I’m perfectly happy being retired and being able to live my own life. I’m sure Scamp would say the same thing, even if I do get in the way a lot of the time. We eventually said our “goodbyes” and we strode off, because the ice cream van was beckoning!

Just after getting the cones, I saw the opportunities of a photo with the swans. I handed my cone to Scamp and took a couple of photos of the birds. They weren’t too happy to see me and started hissing, as swans do, probably because I’d woken them up from their afternoon snooze. Two shots was all I risked, then caught up with Scamp again and we scoffed the ice cream, then drove home.

Two photos isn’t really enough for me. I kept my walking boots on and took the A7 out for a walk in St Mo’s where I got another sleepy dragonfly and back in the garden, a bi-coloured dahlia. Strange thing. Most of the flowers on the plant are pale pink, spotted with dark red. Some are plain red, but this one was half and half. Some sort of throwback perhaps. All are available on Flickr, but the swans got PoD.

While I was out, Scamp had been cutting the back garden grass. Hopefully that will be her finished for the year. Depending on the weather, the grass might need one more cut, but equally it might be good enough as it is,

Rather a good Pasta Carbonara tonight using Val’s Italian recipe with two full eggs and one extra yolk, but no cream. Apparently that’s how carbonara should be made.

Tomorrow we’re booked for coffee with Isobel in the morning. The rest of the day is our own.

Dinner in Hamilton – 26 August 2022

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Scamp was out in the morning and I was off the leash.

Scamp was out at her FitSteps class in the morning and I had the morning at least to myself, to do with as I wished. The trouble was I didn’t have anything in mind to do. I watered the chilli plants and checked on their condition. Both the old Jalapeño plant and the new hot looking thin chillies were doing fine. The old plant has two Jalapeños which are fattening up nicely but the chilli plant I brought back from Jans Vans in Skye are producing either long, thin, straight chillies or a strange corkscrew variety, both on the same plant. The Jalapeños are staying green as Jalapeños usually do, but the Skye chillies are starting to turn red. I’m not sure what’s stronger, the red or the green. I must try them some day, to compare and contrast.

I spoke to Ray while he was making his lunch and caught up with all that’s happening in his world.  I’d hoped that he would agree to join the Auld Guys for a beer or two in Glasgow, but he carefully avoided the subject.  However it was good to keep in touch.

In the afternoon I took a camera out to see what I could find in St Mo’s. Lots of dragonflies about, but the PoD went to a little grey and black spider on its web, just sitting beside the boardwalk.

In the evening we got dressed to go out to John & Marion’s in Hamilton. It’s ages since we’ve been together with Covid, holidays and weddings we’ve passed like ships in the night. All the talk tonight was of weddings and photo albums and catching up with what the families are doing now. While Scamp and Marion were discussing the photos and the weddings, John and I were planning a day with the Auld Guys in Glasgow. Hopefully that will come to pass soon.

We eventually left around 11pm and were home and parked just before the witching hour.  I got a surprise present from Marion.  A wee bottle of Limoncello!  All the way from Sorrento.  How nice was that!

Early(ish) rise tomorrow to drive to Brookfield for dance class, but with the sweetener of lunch booked at Coast in Langbank.

Dancin’ – 25 August 2022

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Tea dance. The first one in ages.

An accident on the M8 set us back by at least 20mins on our way to the first tea dance in at least a couple of months. We shouldn’t have complained, the poor soul(s) in the badly bashed red car on the hard shoulder were having a far worse day than us.

We drove on and ignored the route the sat nav was giving us and instead we forged our own route, one the sat nav had given us months ago. Why it changed its mind on the best route to the outskirts of Paisley is anyone’s guess. It was a good day for a drive round the motorways of Glasgow, even if some idiot towing a caravan almost forced us off the road. Some folk don’t realise that sitting a driving test before you take a car on the road is not an option, it’s the law. Maybe he just forgot he was towing a massive big white brick behind him. Maybe he was a moron. Probably all three.

We danced a decent waltz today, especially as it’s been so long since we’ve danced among so many people. Yes, we danced on the cruise, but that was in a tiny little elliptical floor. No room to show off our catalog of mistakes. Today we had the whole room to impress with our footwork. We even managed a reasonable Social Foxtrot as well, but we did stumble a bit in the rumba. More practise needed there to smarten up the routine. Lots of sequence dances in between and most of them I got right.

We left early to try to avoid the traffic on the Kingston Bridge. Scamp thought the traffic was lighter than yesterday, but I’m not so sure. In retrospect, I should have taken the M74 rather than the M8. Short term pain for long term gain.

I went for a walk in St Mo’s later and found a compliant dragonfly that sat very patiently for me to get some ‘head on’ shots of it. It almost feels like dragonflies, and damselflies too, are studying you while you’re studying them. The head to head shot got PoD, but a close second was a little hoverfly pretending it was a bee on a wild Scabious flower. The wee thing was completely covered in pollen and you could actually see the pollen on the stamens of the flower. That’s how pollination works and that’s why we need insects, even if some of them are a bit of a pain, literally!

One of Scamp’s specialities for dinner today, Potatoes with Cabbage and Bacon. Scamp going for the vegetarian version without the bacon. It’s one of those meals that doesn’t sound as if it works, but it does.

Tomorrow, Scamp is heading for her FitSteps class. I’ve got a couple of phone calls to make.

An improving picture – 18 August 2022

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Scamp tested negative this morning. Me, I’m at the coo’s tail as usual, still positive.

Scamp was careful not to look at the pink column as it rose in the recording window of the test kit. Then after about twelve of the required fifteen minutes she gave a yelp. It was a negative result. Not even the slightest ghost of a ’T’ trace. At last, one of us had broken free. Mine was slower than usual to confirm a positive, but it was there for all to see by the fifteenth minute. I didn’t expect it to be any better, but it would have been a nice surprise …

I took a walk down to the shops to get some bread and a bunch of flowers to brighten the house. Also got some cherries and the stuff to make a stir fry for dinner. Later in the afternoon we both went for a walk in St Mo’s. Just once round the pond, but that was enough for me to snag a few shots of dragonflies resting on the boardwalk. I reckon it’s the daily rain showers,  another of which we had in the late afternoon, that are increasing the water level in the ponds and that’s encouraging the hatch of dragons. Mostly Common Darters, both male and female, but a few Black Darters occasionally added to the mix. One of the low down views of a dragonfly made PoD.

Stir fry was ok, but I inadvertently picked up a carton of Vegan broth mix instead of Chicken. I’ll be more careful in future. I much prefer the milder chicken flavour.

It was a bit dull today. Couldn’t really get myself interested in anything. I’m just finishing my first Stuart McBride book in years and am not all that impressed with it. Too predictable, I think. However, I bought the Audible version with the Kindle book and it helped the flight home pass much more quickly than reading.

We may go out somewhere tomorrow, just to get out of the house.

Another day, another test – 17 August 2022

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This morning Scamp did another test, but it was just positive and no more.

The general rule seems to be that you have to stay at home for five days from the first positive test. I assume that after that time you aren’t definitely clear, but are unlikely to pass on the infection. Everything is so vague now that hospitalisations are so much fewer than they were last year.

Anyway, Scamp declared herself still positive although she was feeling better than yesterday. I declared myself happy that today I was up to date with blog posts and also with Flickr posts, but was intending going for a walk in the afternoon to get more photos to post and stories to tell.

While Scamp was busy in the garden I went for a walk in St Mo’s. There were lots of lovely dragonflies fluttering around the boardwalk at St Mo’s pond. Mostly common darter males but also a few black darters circling the ponds. Butterflies too were in plentiful supply almost all of them were Peacocks. Had a chat with Fred while I was out and before my signal broke up. I really do need to look into the possibility of changing my phone. One of the common darter males (head on) got PoD.

Hoping for another sunny day tomorrow.

An afternoon with the beasties – 1 August 2022

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The beasties in question were dragonflies and damselflies.

It was a lovely morning and we’d nowhere in particular to go. Scamp went off to get some messages at Tesco and to see what mess the roadworks at the roundabout were creating. Apparently it was a bit of a mess, but that’s not a surprise. I imagine it was even worse by 5pm when the factory traffic heads that way. There has been warning notices out for a week or so and we’d worked out alternative routes to take the avoid the congestion. Scamp had taken one of them and bypassed most of the stramash.

After lunch I had a look round my indoor garden of basil plants and chilli plants. The basil was drying out and took a fair amount of water to pump up its leaves again. One of the good surprises of the day was the old chilli plant from last year had made the effort and produced a fruit. I wasn’t sure the seed had set properly, but there it was a little 25mm fruit. The new chilli plant I got in Skye, of all places, is just covered in flowers and is fruiting away quite happily. I tried one of the branches of basil and the taste was really delightful. It had that spicy basil taste, but with a bit of aniseed to it too. Must be a different strain from the one downstairs. Scamp’s tomato plant is covered with fruit too. We had the first tomato yesterday and there are more ripening in the sunshine.

Later in the afternoon I went for a walk in St Mo’s and captured my first dragonfly of the year. It seemed quite content sitting on the boardwalk sunning itself. Not very skittish, either, sitting perfectly still for a few photos. A couple of blue damselflies crowded in to get their photos taken too. Then I found a big fly clinging to the shadow area of the upstand at the side of the boardwalk. It was a really big monster of a thing, about 30mm long head to tail. It too allowed me to take quite a few shots before I got fed up. Lastly there was a grasshopper, but I couldn’t quite get into a position to capture it. Pity, because they look almost alien. The dragonfly got PoD.

We had an hour in the garden when I got back. Just sitting listening to music on our headphones. It was a relaxing end to the afternoon.

Just before dinner, Scamp decided she’d better take the washing in as the clouds were gathering. I brought in the chairs too. Ten minutes later it was raining and it continued for a couple of hours. Not teeming rain, just gentle soaking rain. The best kind for the garden.

I had meant to go in to Glasgow today, but the notion left me. We may go tomorrow.

 

 

Finally getting my hands dirty – 3 June 2022

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About time too!

Went out this morning to get some bread from Tesco and hopefully post some photos to Hazy. The bread was no problem, but the post office was shut, as was the local one in Condorrat. Don’t blame me, blame Mrs McQueen and her Platignum Jubbly holiday. Ok, if I’d posted the parcel yesterday it wouldn’t have been a problem, but I didn’t. I still blame Mrs McQueen for it. If not her, then Boris. That’s the obvious fall back, Blame Boris.

Came home with the beautifully wrapped parcel and a loaf plus a couple of bars of chocolate for being a good boy. With that done, and not done, we started in the garden. I found a single pea had germinated from the five I’d planted in the raised bed, so I carefully dug it out and put it aside. Then I added some compost to the raised bed to replace all the stuff I’d dug out since the end of last years growing season. After that, this year’s planting could begin.

I planted four peas, plus the pea I’d recovered earlier in the back row of the raised bed. Next line was four curly kale plants. While I was planting them, I found what looked like another kale plant left over from last year. It turned out to be a piece of kale stem with a little green leaf sprouting from the middle of it. There was no sign of any root on what you might call a cutting, but the leaf looked healthy. Just for luck, I planted it with the rest of the kale. Next line was four leeks and that was the raised bed about full.

I’d five leeks left, so I emptied out last year’s plant pot that held about six leeks. Chucked half of the compost away and all the leek roots. Mixed what was left with some fresh composts and refilled the pot, then planted the remaining five leeks in the pot. Watered everything in as all the gardening programmes say you should and left then to sink or swim. Meanwhile, Scamp was potting up her new hydrangea and rearranging other plants to give them a better chance of catching some sunshine.

At that point, I felt I’d done more than enough gardening, so I grabbed a camera and a 105mm macro and went over to St Mo’s hoping to see a dragonfly I’d seen yesterday. I didn’t find it, but what I did find was a lazy Large Red damselfly which was compliant enough to sit there while I took a few photos of it. One of them made PoD.

Dinner tonight was a pizza we bought in Sainsbury’s yesterday and very nice it was too. Sainsbury’s always have produced good pizzas.

We may be dancing tomorrow or we may not. It seems there are only two couples definitely going to class. Hopefully we’ll find out in the morning. Mrs McQueen has a lot to answer for, I’ll tell you that, her and her Platignum Jubbly celebration.

Out for a test drive – 26 September 2021

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Testing the red car and no coffee in a coffee shop. Strange times.

We decided we’d take the red car out for a longer run than it’s had for while. Enough to allow the alternator to generate some electrical power and store it in the battery. I suggested we drive to Robroyston and have a cup of coffee then come home. The drive was fine and the wee red car performed perfectly. The coffee shop, Costa, not so good.

There was a reasonable queue in the shop, but when I got to the front one of the baristas told me there was filter coffee and soft drinks, but no coffee, no lattes and no cappuccinos. If there was no coffee, what were they making the filter coffee with? Maybe instant coffee? Or perhaps gravy browning? To be honest, in Costa it’s difficult to tell the difference. I said “No thanks” and we left. Most of the queue left too. I’m guessing there were no HGV drivers available for the coffee delivery.

Instead we went to Lidl and bought enough to make tonight’s dinner and some other things too and drove home to get our caffeine fix. Again the wee red car behaved perfectly with a few squeaks from the brakes and maybe a noisy wheel bearing, but essentially it was working just as it should do. Now we just have to find a petrol station that’s open, without a mile long queue, and one with petrol in the pumps. That might be a bigger challenge!

After lunch and after watching Andrew Marr savaging Grant Shapps the transport minister and listening to Keir Starmer mumbling about what he’d have done if he’d been prime minister (fat chance of that), after all that, I booted up and went for a walk in St Mo’s. Sitting on an old log I found four dragonflies. I joined their group and took their photographs, individually and in pairs and trios. Never quite managed the full group photo. Well, you know how it is with group shots. There’s always somebody who blinks or looks the other way and there’s always the joker who pulls a funny face. It’s just the same with dragonflies, except with wings. One of the dragonfly photos got PoD.

Dinner tonight was Haggis Neeps and Tatties. No, it wasn’t Burns Night, it was just a great idea from Scamp that really hit the spot. It was buying the turnip from Lidl that settled the case for H,N&T. Very enjoyable and even better, there may be enough haggis left for tomorrow’s lunch.

After dinner and after watching another fascinating GP which Hamilton won <Insert boo here> and Verstappen drove a spectacular second place after starting last <Insert Hooray here> we did a bit of online investigating. Scamp found that the owner of the garage we used to take our car to for MOT and servicing has now gone into partnership in a new place. We may go and do a drive by tomorrow, just in case the wee red car need some TLC.

Spoke to Jamie in the evening and found that life was just ticking over as normal down there. Told him I was testing Dashline and Lastpass, his and Hazy’s password managers at present. I’ve Dashline working on the MBP and Lastpass on the iMac. Not much to pick and choose between them, but I’m just a week in to the test.

Tomorrow we might do that drive by, or we might go for a walk or maybe we’ll do both. Who knows? You might, tomorrow.