Category: Driving

Keeping the wheels turning – 16 October 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Some weeks the wee Blue car hardly turns a wheel, and then there’s this week when we found ourselves driving every day of the week!

Today we drove to over for lunch at John & Marion’s.

It was truly a wonderful day. Blue skies and good friends. Marion produced a lovely lunch that was worth the drive through quite heavy traffic. We also had a few rain showers too, but nothing too heavy. It’s nice to meet up for lunch, knowing that we’ll be driving in the light. Driving in the dark never used to faze me at all, but lately I’ve found it more and more a chore. Just getting older I suppose.

We spent most of the day discussing weddings and how much has changed from when we got married, a few years ago now! The up and coming wedding sounds like a good day and I think we’re both looking forward to it.

I couldn’t help but compare yesterday’s drag of a drive home from Glenburn with today’s easy run home from J&M’s. All the heavy traffic was heading the other way today and our lanes were quite calm by comparison.

I couldn’t decide what to use for today’s PoD, then Scamp suggested the knitted flower she’d laid claim to last week. It was an inspired choice. Just a drape from an old off cut from a piece of purple velvet and a bit of careful disguise of bits and pieces and we had a PoD.

Sometimes things create more difficulties than are really necessary and sometimes, like today, it just works!

Good Friends and Good Food. What’s not to like?

Hoping to go dancing tomorrow.

We went Dancin’ – 15 October 2026

Posted on by Zogman

I had a few problems to work through in the morning, but between Scamp and me we got them fixed.

The problem solving meant that I had very little time to get ready to go to Glenburn for today’s Tea Dance. Scamp’s new haircut got a lot of positive comments from all the Tea Dancers. Why does she get all the praise? Nobody even notices it when I ‘waltz in’ with a new short back and sides! Actually they probably do notice, but turn away, hoping not to embarrass me.

It was the usual mix of dances. Waltz to start with, then a Cha-Cha, followed by a Rumba. With the occasional sequence dance thrown in to take us up to tea time. Lots of chatter because of Scamp’s haircut again and time for the guys in the room to have a blether.

We danced another mixed selection of dances in the second half. Scamp was being careful to keep a weather eye on the clock, but we’d forgotten that the children wouldn’t be at school this week, so we could be selective with our choice of dances.

We eventually exchanged our dance shoes for outdoor wear and drove out of Glenburn.

The traffic in the morning had been fairly heavy, but I made a bad choice of route home and got caught up in an even heavier collection of homeward bound workers. That meant about an extra half hour of driving in stop-go traffic. However we did eventually clear it and arrived home just a little bit late.

I went for a walk to the shops after we got home and that’s where I found today’s PoD which is Bindweed growing through some bushes. Pretty looking white flowers, but I wouldn’t want them in my garden. They are extremely invasive plants, and are difficult to eradicate.

Tomorrow we may go out for a run somewhere.

Grey Heron – 13 October 2026

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Saw a Grey Heron hiding in the pond at St Mo’s.

I just missed a couple of heavy rain showers today. It was a rushed day. We drove to Falkirk to get a new carpet for the kitchen. That was the high point. Once Scamp had chosen the size, colour and pattern of the carpet, we paid for it and drove back home again. One new carpet in, as another went out. I don’t know how old that ancient carpet was, but it disappeared into the skip at the Council Tip today.

One brightener of the day was seeing a Grey Heron in the shallows of the pond at St Mo’s. I managed to get a few shots of the bird before it spotted me and flew off. The one shot I got was just a ‘lucky’. As it turned out, it was the only shot of the bird I got before it flew away. It’s a couple of years since I’ve seen a member of Mr Grey’s family. I hope I didn’t scare this one away completely and he/she returns to the pond soon. The heron made PoD.

We drove over for dinner with Crawford & Nancy in Larky. It’s been a long time since we could all meet together and we really enjoyed the blether. We talked so much we forgot about time and didn’t leave Larky until just before midnight. We’ll suffer for it tomorrow.

No plans for tomorrow.

Today was a bright shiny day for a while – 7 October 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was out for coffee with Isabel, but I had far too much to do to go waltzing over to Costa.

Today I’d set my target on getting the 2026 September photos sorted out. I wanted to make sure that each of the photos had a Yellow or Red or Grey Tag:

A Yellow tag (Yellow means OK, but not great.)
A Red Tag (Red means excellent.)
A Grey Tag (Grey means rejected.)

Some had, some hadn’t, but most had a tag of some colour.

Then I noticed that the 2026 August photos hadn’t been tagged, so I started from them and worked up to the September photos. Some of the August photos were a bit mixed up, but most of the September ones were in the correct place.

With that done, I could delete all the rejected photos and concentrate on getting the August and September lot into some form of order on my external SSD.

Big, Deep, Breath for the next stage which was to chuck out the 2025 photos which were languishing in a very large Cache on the SSD. I’d read a bit about it and it seemed that I could remove most of these old redundant files. Heart in mouth, I deleted one year’s photos … and nothing went bang!

It all worked. I thought it worked too simply, but after leaving it for a while and coming back to it. Everything I’d planned worked. I don’t know how that happened, but it did.

Success!

That probably means nothing to you, but it meant my SSD experiment worked.

I tried to explain what I’d done, when Scamp returned, but I did see the MEGO (My Eyes Glaze Over) effect on her face.

For the remainder of the day, we went shopping and I went for a walk in St Mo’s. That’s where I saw a yellow leaf trying to hide behind a tree and that fitted the PoD prompt right away.

I might go to bed early tonight. I’ve got a sore back, partly due to the stress of working my way through about 600 photos.

Visiting the Kelpies – 6 October 2026

Posted on by Zogman

The lighting was good today and it seemed a shame to waste it.

We drove over to Helix Parkwhere the Kelpies live. For once it was a lovely day, a little bit cool, but nothing my Rab jacket couldn’t cope with. We went in what Scamp calls the “wrong way round”. That means we crossed the Forth & Clyde canal and walked clockwise to reach the great beasts. It’s a totally different view you get from this direction. One worth trying if you’ve never been there before.

Unfortunately the wind was from the North West so the smell from the sewage works was just a wee bit overpowering. Typical Scotland. Design and build a beautiful pair of statues and position them right next to a sewage works and a line of pylons. That’s what the people want to see and smell apparently!

The tea shop was a bit overcrowded when we went there for a scone and a cup of coffee, but we did get a seat which was better than I thought it was going to be. Then we wandered round the ‘souvenirs’ on display in the shop. Most of it a bit overpriced, but lots to look at.

We drove from Helix Park across to Klondyke Garden Centre looking for some plants to brighten up the garden. There were lots on display and of course the inevitable Christmas toys and books. Well, at least it was October and the nights were drawing in! Scamp and I found a couple of plants that looked as if they would inject some much needed colour to the garden. I managed to find a Sarracenia (Pitcher Plant). I hadn’t seen one for ages. I think my last one didn’t like the hot weather we had during the summer. This one looked quite small, but fairly healthy.

Drove home and logged 40,000 on the way back.

Dinner was a baked potato with prawns in a Mary Rose dressing. I’d meant to make a pizza, but didn’t have the time by the time we got home.

PoD went to one of the Kelpies, backlit and with a tiny starburst shining through it.

No plans for tomorrow. Alex has his apron on and is looking after Carol while she recovers from a new knee op. So no photos for us.

Dancin’ – 3 October 2026

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It was Saturday and that means we’re probably dancing … somewhere.

We were off to Brookfield for our usual Saturday dance class. The first topic was Rhumbumbumba. It’s my least favourite stagger across the floor, tangle yourself in knots waste of time. I could give it the real description I use, but Scamp doesn’t like swearing! Suffice to say it’s absolute rubbish.

Next was the October Waltz. I’m not entirely sure we’ve done this one before, but Scamp likes it and I’m coming round to it now. After a few practices I think it and me could become friends. A fairly gentle waltz that glides along quite easily.

After the October Waltz was a Melody Foxtrot, just to loosen us up, or to be more precise, to loosen me up. Waltzes, especially fairly new ones make me tense and I end up leading with the wrong foot or even worse, standing on Scamp’s toes, but the Melody Foxtrot (which doesn’t have a Foxtrot in it) is an old friend. One that me and it get on well with.

The last part of today’s repertoire was a Butterfly Jive. I’ve never actually seen a butterfly jiving, but if I know the session is coming to an end, I’m quite happy to stagger round the dance floor copying those around me.

That should have been the end of today’s routines, but of course, Stewart was determined to squeeze in a final Rhumbumbumba. I noticed one of the men in the class was sitting it out. That was all the excuse I needed and I sat down facing him. Two old guys smiling at the antics of the dancers and not caring what they thought.

Drove home through a very quiet Glasgow on a Saturday afternoon. I think we only took about 40 minutes to get home. That must have been a new world record.

Scamp was tidying up the back garden when we got home, then Hazy phoned to ask me for some details that she needed for checking some come computer stuff. After a while I phoned her back with the numbers she wanted and she phoned back to confirm that the computer stuff checked out. A big thanks to you and Neil for clarifying that, Hazy. I was pretty sure I’d already checked it, but a second confirmation is never a bad thing. Next check is in April if all goes well!
If all that sounds a bit disjointed, don’t worry. It’s just computer talk 😉.

I went for a walk later and found the seed heads of the Yellow Flag Iris plants in St Mo’s were ripening and some of the seed pods had split open allowing the seeds to turn a rich brown. They appear every year around October in a variety of distorted shapes. That became PoD.

No real plans for tomorrow, at least not yet.

 

Cosmos – 2 October 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was going out for lunch with Shona in the early afternoon today. I was carrying slabs of Chipboard out to the car and on to the much used Council Tip.

Chipboard if you don’t know is a manufactured wood product made by compressing wood chips, shavings, and sawdust together with a synthetic resin or binder. Those of you who have used it will know it’s really heavy. The largest sheet I was carrying was even heavier than normal because it was backed with mirror glass panels. I almost apologised to the wee Blue car for making it carry that weight!

I dropped Scamp off at the Town Centre and drove my chipboard to the Council Skips. I carefully lowered the mirror glass panels very carefully into the skip because I didn’t want it to break and give me ten year bad luck! The panel slipped in easily without even a chip, so someone else may have collected the bad luck.
The other sheets were lighter and they also dropped into the waiting skip without a problem.

I’d some time to spare before I went home, so I took the Blue car to the car wash and got the bloke to give it a good wash. I’m sure it enjoyed the wash, because it had been really mucky.

I managed to meet Scamp and Shona at the cafe in the town centre for lunch:
Starter: Chicken strips with a spicy coating for all three of us
Main: Scamp had Risotto, Shona had Spag Bol and I had a Burger
Dessert: Tiramisu for the ladies and I had Ice Cream trio.

After a lengthy blether, Shona went shopping while Scamp and I drove home in a nice clean, shiny car.

The day had started with sunshine in the morning, but by the time we got home the clouds were coming in, the rain had started and the wind was getting up. I thought my chances of getting any photos today were nil. Then the wind dropped for a while and the rain stopped. The clouds were still there, but I’d enough time to get a dozen or so photos of flowers in the garden. PoD went to a Cosmos flower.

I think we may be going dancing over the weekend.

 

Dancin’ – 1 October 2026

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Off to Glenburn to do some dancing!

The roads were busy heading out to Glenburn. A lot of roadworks on the way there didn’t help, but we managed to get there almost on time. It wasn’t only the roads that were busy, the community hall was quite well attended too. A lot of faces we hadn’t seen for a long time. Scamp reckons it’s because the children are back at school now and the grandparents are free to enjoy themselves without having to look after the little darlings

The format was just the usual. Starting with a couple of waltzes and then a few tangos and some cha-cha dancers took to the floor too. All this was interspersed with some sequence dances before the tea trolley appeared.

It’s a tried and tested routine that everyone knows and most folk seem to enjoy it. I for one really enjoyed today.

We drove home through Glasgow at a steady, if slightly slow pace that brought us back home again.

I went for a walk down to the shops when we got back and that’s where today’s PoD came from. A selection of colours shining through today’s leaves. Truly, Autumn is here.

Tomorrow I think I’m taking a collection of broken up chipboard pieces to the Council Tip. I thought I’d manage to take them this morning, but time was too tight.

I think Scamp is going out for lunch with Shona.

Spiders – 29 September 2026

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Actually yesterday’s photo, but it deserved to be today’s.

Scamp was out today to meet Shona for a blether and to give her back her washing that had been languishing in our house while we were off in Jersey. I know, it’s a bit complicated, but that’s the way things panned out. I’m not going to bore you with the reasons for the exchange, let’s just say it worked for both parties.

While she was out, I completed the emptying of the clumsy big cupboard that has been taking up space in the living room for years. It’s amazing the amount of stuff that was in that space. It took me about two hours to decide what was staying and what was going. For once there was more going into the black bag than was staying in the living room. It was sad to see some things going into the black bag, but that’s what we’d planned and we stuck to it.

When Scamp returned, I filled the Blue car with as much stuff as it would hold and drove it over to the Council tip. At first I thought I wouldn’t get in, there were so many cars queued up outside, but the crowd gradually filtered down to my turn. I passed the test of the guard at the gate and told the truth for once. One black bag of refuse and three or four sheets of cardboard. I got a space and did as I was told, dumping things in their allocated spaces, then drove back home before I was told I’d put something in the wrong skip.

The next thing to do was to put some of that expensive petrol in the car. My, how the numbers in the petrol pump whizzed past until I had about three quarters of a tank. I almost closed my eyes when I saw just how big the numbers were!!! But we needed the petrol to get the car home. Also, we are hoping to drive to Glenburn this week for the tea dance and we’d need petrol for that too.

The final task for today was to carefully demolish that old cupboard. Carefully, because there were sheets of mirror glass on the back of it and I didn’t want any of it to shatter and leave shards of glass all over the living room. My little used DeWalt drill made short work of the multitude of screws that were holding the cupboard together

Scamp made a brilliant Saag Paneer Kedgeree for dinner. Absolutely wonderful!

PoD was, as I said, yesterday’s photo of a little spider hanging upside down on its web. Delicate little thing.

I think I may have to speak to the Namecheap experts tomorrow to get them to show me how to Reissue my SSL Certificate. You’ll understand that Hazy. I can never remember the exact method. Hopefully I’ll get a patient expert. Wish me luck!

Seed Heads – 19 September 2026

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Cow Parsley seed heads I found on today’s walk around one of the Cumbersheugh ponds.

It was a dull day. Dull and windy too. We drove over to Brookfield for the Saturday dance class, only to find that the bowling club had the run of the place without mentioning to the time allocated to the dance class had been reduced by a third. It would have been helpful if the bowling club had the decency to tell us the class time had been reduced. Maybe we should have complained to the mayor or lord provost or some such personage. We dancers seem to lose our place against the might of Brookfield’s bowling club. They should be reminded that we, too have a right to use the facilities. We pay for them too!

Actually I quite enjoyed the early finish to the afternoon. I quite enjoy most of the dancing, but Bumbarumba or whatever it’s called isn’t my idea of a dance. It’s a bit of a shambles if you ask me. Most of the folk were struggling to keep in touch with this attempt at a dance. Too fast for some and not exciting enough for others. I’m with the ‘Too Fast’ group.

A quick reprise of the quickstep was very useful and we both managed it. I struggled, as usual, but Scamp just ran through it as if it wasn’t there. That’s the difference between her and me. I struggle to remember these dances, Scamp has them on-tap, so to speak.

We drove home choosing to take the Clyde Tunnel to avoid the delays that usually appear if we try the dreaded Kingston Bridge route. Today it was an easy rung home for a change. I don’t know if that was due to a lighter load of vehicles on the motorway or just a ‘Lucky’ with the extra half hour. Whatever, it worked!

Good to hear from Alex that Carol has arrived home again after her operation on her knee. Hope it sorts itself out quickly Carol.

Today’s PoD went to a Cow Parsley head I saw in St Mo’s. Just because it looked interesting.

Tomorrow we may be packing bags,