Category: Driving

Wet and windy – 7 August 2024

Posted on by Zogman

After yesterday’s beautiful clear skies, today was back to white skies and occasional rain showers.

The breeze was getting up too and the combination of all three gave me cause to forget any ideas of wandering the countryside looking for interesting views. I may have been completely wrong and the weather in St Mo’s microclimate might have been sub-tropical, but I didn’t think so.

We drove to Tesco, but the weather there was just the same as at home, but we got some milk and eggs and a couple of apples then drove home again. After receiving a royal wave from Sir Fred the artist as he drove away in front of us.

Lunch was beans on toast. Nothing wrong with that, but it was a measure of the day. Jackie phoned Scamp later in the afternoon and while they were having a chinwag I played around with a set of acrylic pens Fred had given me yesterday, or maybe the day before. I wasn’t really taken with them, but he had sent me a couple of pictures he had painted with them, so I felt duty bound to try them out. Maybe today just wasn’t the day for them. Instead I chanced a couple of photos during a dry spell and a Cerinthe flower made PoD. Strange purple/blue flowers that look a bit like Shrimp Plants. By switching to manual mode on the a6500 I managed to get a fast enough shutter speed and a deep enough aperture to get a couple of decent shots in the wind that was blowing.

We couldn’t decide on what to have for dinner, then one of us, probably Scamp suggested fish ’n’ chips from the chip shop. By the time we had decided to go to the chip shop, it was really too late. We decided to leave the food until we came home from dance class.

Tonight, Kirsty was revising the Rumba before turning it into a Cha-Cha, a fast one at that. Lots of lovely little twists in it that made the two routines totally different. Lovely, that is, when you could manage the switch. I think I have it now, but we’ll find out tomorrow. We’re hoping to go to the first tea dance in about a month. But back home and today, we had our fish ’n’ chips after dance class and it was delicious. I’ll probably suffer for it tomorrow, but tonight it’s fine.

Tomorrow Scamp is booked for an early session to get her hair cut, and as I said, we’re hoping to go to a tea dance in the afternoon.

Culross (Sorry Hazy) – 6 August 2024

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We couldn’t decide where to go today, once we realised it really was dry outside!

After discussion and after rejecting A Walk Down The Green and after accepting Dunfermline only as a last resort – there’s nothing there now except the park and the peacocks. I suggested Culross.

I follow a Canadian photographer Gaetan Bois who almost always uses a cinematic 2:1 format (two units long to one unit high) and often shoots with a wide angle lens. I’ve tried his method and while it doesn’t always suit my subjects, it gives an interesting frame for a photograph. I just knew I could get some nice wide angle shots across the Forth estuary from Culross.today that would work with the 2:1 format. Thankfully Scamp agreed without knowing my reason and off we went.

Culross was very busy. The carpark was almost full, but we found a space and with blue skies and fluffy clouds above us, we went for a walk. Keeping the Forth on our right hand side we walked in the general direction of Preston Island which, if you’ve read the blogs before, you’ll remember is not an island any more, but has been reclaimed using slag from the now defunct Longannet power station. No, I was lugging a heavy camera and two heavy lenses today, so no long walks thank you very much.

We did walk along the path beside the old rusty railway and crossed at the gate, then walked further on until we found a seat. Some of the views south, across the water to Bo’ness, are quite stunning, but today the tide was well out and it wasn’t so inspiring. That didn’t stop me from taking plenty of photos, of course!

One of the reasons for going to Culross was that we could have a spot of lunch, either at the Red Lion pub or at the Biscuit cafe, so after our rest we walked back the way we’d come to find somewhere to eat. The first possibility was the Red Lion. It had been busy when we were walking out and when we reached it on the way back, it was possibly even busier. No free seats in the marquee, so it would be the Biscuit cafe.

We got there just as a table was being cleared, so at least we’d have a seat. After a look at the menu, Scamp settled on a scone and a latte. I fancied a bacon roll and a flat white. When the girl came to take our order Scamp asked for a scone with jam and cream. No scones – sold out. I asked a bacon roll. You guessed it, no rolls. The girl was very apologetic. There were more people than they’d expected. I ended up with a flat white and a bowl of very good soup. Scamp had a latte with a slice of my bread. Still, it was a lovely day and we needed a good day after yesterday’s rain.

We had a look in the pottery shop downstairs, but the prices were a wee bit more than we were willing to pay, so we returned to the car and drove home, still in sunshine, but with a few black clouds now on the horizon.

Dinner for me was Sunday’s stew with potatoes and cauliflower. While Scamp’s was Cauliflower Tomato Cheese a new twist on Cauliflower Cheese from an old Rose Elliot book. We watched a few folk running races and some bikers too at the Olympics in Paris

PoD was a view across the Forth to Bo’ness, just as the tide was beginning to come in. It just didn’t inspire me once I’d messed around with it in Lightroom. The colours just didn’t work, although the 2:1 proportions worked for me. However, once it was reduced to black & white, I liked it and that’s what made it PoD.

An hour ago we had a really heavy shower of rain. It only lasted ten minutes at most, but dropped a fair amount of rain in that time. I’m glad we didn’t get caught in anything like that during our walk today.

We’re hopefully going to dance class tomorrow, other than that, nothing planned.

 

 

Wet – 5 August 2024

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It seems like only the other day we were pleading for rain so we wouldn’t have to water the garden. Today we got our wish.

It started off dull with the clouds sliding down over the Campsie Fells. It had rained all night and we said “Thank you” for some rain at last. Today we were looking for the tap to turn it off again. I think it was the lack of light that was getting us down more.

We drove to Tesco for the normal Monday shop and I bumped into Fred. Haven’t seen him for ages and that’s probably because he hasn’t been out much. He did have a wee prezzy for me, a pack of acrylic paint pens. The colours are a bit lurid, but they might be interesting to mess around with. I think we’ll try to arrange a coffee for Fred, Val and I with maybe the chance of coercing Colin to join us. If nothing else it would be a chance to do a book exchange.

Shopping done, we drove home, still in the rain and packed all the stuff away, then had lunch. I had a sandwich with cold meat that had been in the fridge. Later I wasn’t feeling well and I’m thinking that cold meat might have been the culprit. It’s now in the bin.

I did get out for a while in the back garden, when Scamp was risking the rain to prune her newly transplanted Candelabra Primulas. I was more interested in the Japanese Anemones and sheltered under the rowan tree and got a few shots of them. One of the shots got PoD.

On Saturday we had walked in the sunshine past the Mausoleum in Hamilton and through the underpass below the M74. The photo of the underpass with some silhouetted figures got Explore this morning. That was a nice surprise, I wasn’t expecting it. I was hoping my photo of the Dent sheep would Explore, but interest in it has fizzled out.

Scamp was determined to Dyson the living room today and I helped out, moving stuff around and doing a bit of dusting round the window sills … inside, of course. After that I felt a bit dodgy and almost fell asleep on the sofa, so I took myself up to bed for an hour. I think that helped, but what helped more was Scamp making an excellent vegetable omelette for dinner. Such a pity, her’s wasn’t a patch on the one she made me!

Watched a bit of the indoor cycling at the Olympics and it was passably interesting. I think I might have an early night tonight. Just finished The Long Drop by Denise Mina. Based on a true story about Peter Manuel a serial killer back in 1958. I remember walking to school and everyone saying that Manuel had been hanged and being shocked. It wasn’t the best book I’ve read, but parts of it were very well written. 3/5 on Goodreads.

No plans yet for tomorrow, but the weather looks hopeful.

Great naan and average curry – 3 August 2024

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Today was forecast with rain, but the weather was warm and dry for most of the day. After discussion we decided on a trip to Hamilton, to Bombay Cottage for a curry.

We got seated right away and although I had very little to look at in the conservatory, Scamp had a great view of some wedding guests being piped in to the Town House which used to be the Town Hall. It seemed to be a grand event with a piper and colourful bridesmaids, and of course a beautiful bride. Thankfully I was facing the wrong way and missed the show. What a shame. However I did see the lady photographer with her two cameras slung at hip height. I’m not sure I agreed with her handling of the cameras, in fact I’ve rarely seen any professional photog shooting one handed with her shooting list held in the other hand. I wonder how they turned out, and how many hours poring over Photoshop made them worth seeing.

Food was good, but not great, the naan was a bit underdone, but that was more our fault for not specifying ‘well done naan’. It’s saving grace was that it was there in one naan shaped piece and not the chopped up atrocity that ’s sometimes served. My Rogan Josh was a bit mild for my liking and Scamp’s Shimla Bhaji was similarly lacking in heat. All in all, ‘could do better’, but it was saved by the Ice Cream with Raspberry and ‘Scooshy Cream’. A house speciality. I just knew we wouldn’t need anything else to eat after we got home … and I was right.

It was still a lovely day, so we parked at Hamilton Palace Retail Park and walked down so I could take some photos of the Hamilton Mausoleum. Originally the burial place of the Dukes of Hamilton, but subsidence in the 1960s and 1970s mean they were re-interred in a cemetery in Hamilton. It is still an impressive building.

We extended the walk by taking in the underpass that goes under the M74 and allows access to Strathclyde Park, locally known as Straffie. On the way I managed a few shots of folk walking through the blacked out underpass into the light on the other side. Out of Hamilton and into Motherwell, or maybe into another world. It wasn’t clear!!! One of those shots got PoD

Once we were safely through the Stargate without entering another dimension, we walked back again, retracing our steps before driving home.

There was washing to be hung up and it did get a gentle blow for the wind for an hour or so, but then the weather looked like it was taking a turn for the worse, so we brought them in again. Just in time to miss the rain that had been promised by the weather fairies.

Watched two more episodes of the Turkish Detective and that about wrapped up tonight’s exciting viewing.

Tomorrow we may go out for a walk if the weather holds.

Getting things done – 2 August 2024

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Scamp was out to FitSteps and I was hoping for a lazy morning … but.

I got strange emails from someone, possibly robot generated which said I had to sign in with my password. No indication who or what was requesting it. So I typed in my password … ‘course I didn’t. Do you really think my head buttons up the back? (That was a rhetorical question). I deleted it and it came back, again and again and again. Each time I deleted it, it returned.

I gave up and when Scamp returned, I drove up to the doc’s to book my diabetic blood test. I had already tried to phone the health centre, but I got a terrible line each time I tried to speak to Gort’s sisters who man Kenilworth. I finally got to speak to a human face to face after driving to the health centre and she gave me my little sample bottle and a note with my date to donate some blood and also a date to speak to the nurse.

When I got home we drove in to Glasgow to book the car in for MOT. I had had enough of phone conversations for one day. Got the MOT booked then we went for lunch in JL.

Later, while Scamp went looking for a new bag ANOTHER ONE, I wandered round Buchanan Street taking candid photos of folk, any folk who would stand still for long enough for me to press the shutter. Then we met up again and drove home.

The messages I’d got in the morning just wouldn’t go away and Scamp was getting similar messages from Mickysoft. I began to smell a conspiracy. Were there really Reds under the Beds?

I left it for a while and made dinner which was paella and a really good one for a change. The fact that it was washed down with a very nice red wine only improved dinner even more.

I got an WhatsApp from Alex to say that their car was booked in at Edinburgh for the flight to Jersey and then I realised that we had forgotten to book ours in at Glasgow for that same destination. Oops! While I booked the car in, Scamp booked the Holiday Inn. Rather than get up at stupid o’clock it would be so much more civilised to walk across to the check in. Thank you Alex.

Those messages that started this morning just wouldn’t go away. Then I realised they were only appearing on my phone, and not on any of my Gmail addresses. That narrowed things down. The clincher was the dates they started appearing. Those three things gave me the solution which was to simplicity itself to repair. Thankfully it worked.

That was about it for a fun-packed day which ended better than it started. PoD was a photo of a bloke sitting on a bollard gazing in bemusement at the crowds rushing past on Buchanan Street. Some editing was necessary.

Tomorrow looks like it will be wet, just as this evening was.

Chatelherault – 31 July 2024

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Today I drove over to Motherwell to pick up my brother and we drove to Chatelherault.

Chatelherault was the shooting lodge of the Duke of Hamilton in past times. Today it’s mainly used for corporate events and weddings. We were going to neither.

After a coffee we walked down to the Duke’s Bridge which takes you over the Avon Water 80ft (25m) below. From there we walked on to the Cadzow Oaks, a group of trees which date back to the 1400s, growing in earthworks that are reckoned to have been there since the 12th century. The whole area is really beautiful and worth a walk if you are ever in the area. If you imagine Tolkien’s Ents, that’s what the Cadzow Oaks bring to mind.

After soaking up some of the history of the area we retraced our steps past the now crumbling Cadzow Castle with little remaining of its former glory. Then we recrossed the bridge and had lunch in the cafe which was almost empty for a change. A few photos of the views round the ‘Big House’ and it was time to get back.

I dropped Alex off at his house and drove home. It was a hot day and I had the air-con on full, but when I stopped at lights just off the motorway, I turned the air-con off and the engine stopped too with a message telling me I’d saved 0.2kg of carbon! It hasn’t done that for well over a year!! Maybe the long drive up from Dent last weekend has recharged its tiny battery.

Dinner was a lovely Chicken Milanese made by Scamp, then we were off to dance class where it showed that we hadn’t done any practise for about two weeks. We really must get some practise in before next week or we’ll get chucked out.

PoD today was a little heart padlock hanging from the handrail of the Duke’s Bridge and a test to see if the camera was performing the autofocusing and it appears to have passed the test. Next thing to do is to try to get its big brother to do so too.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending to go for coffee with Isobel and I’m hoping to do some backing up and preparation for the first photos of August.

Editing blogs – 30 July 2024

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Scamp was out this morning to have a blether and a coffee with her sister.

I stayed at home to edit and publish a week’s blog posts. They were shorter than normal posts, but I still had to go through the rigmarole of writing it in Day One (that’s what I’m doing now). Then logging in to my webspace and dumping the text in the correct place, before I sourced the photo that went with the text and posted it in the right place. After that I’d only another seven or eight to do. It gets a bit tedious, but it’s not all doom and gloom. I can look back a year and see what I was talking about then. I can search the blog for bits and pieces of my life that I’ve forgotten about. Occasionally I do feel I should just chuck it in, but as Scamp keeps reminding me, I’d regret it. But there should be an easier way to synchronise the writing with the posting.

I had just finished the last posting when Scamp returned from her extended blether with June. Both of them had lots to say and stories to tell, and you know what gossips, sisters are.

After lunch we drove to The Fort for Scamp to return a pair of sandals that looked good, felt good but not really good enough to splash the cash on. Luckily she’d only worn them inside.

Later in the afternoon I took the A7 with a macro lens and the Tamron zoom for a walk in St Mo’s. The Tamron got a bit of use, but the handy wee 50mm macro won the day, capturing not only the PoD of a snail snuggled into the leaves of an unknown plant, but also a closeup of a wee black fly that Google Images could not agree on the name for.

I watered the garden and the bloke next door’s too. We take turn about at watering the front gardens. Everything looked and felt dry. Such a strange thing about Scotland. Scamp may water the back garden tomorrow.

I’m hoping to meet my brother tomorrow and then we’ll drive over to Chatelherault for a walk and a blether.

 

Driving again – 16 July 2024

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After yesterday’s driving extravaganza the last thing I wanted to do was drive today.

So I got in the car about 10am and drove to Falkirk. To the Ironworks Business Park. Nobody was about, so I phoned the bloke I spoke to yesterday. He said I was at the right place and he’d be with me in 10 minutes. He was as good as his word and he apologised for not speaking properly but he’d been to the dentist and one side of his jaw wasn’t behaving properly. Know that feeling? I do too!

I was there to get some coffee and he took my order and gave me a large discount for having come all the way from Cumbersheugh. I even got a free bag to carry the coffee home. I’ve since tested the coffee and found it just as good as I thought it would be.

Drove home and had a piece ’n’ banana for my lunch and Scamp copied me! I was just making the sandwich when I saw a magpie sitting on a branch of the rowan tree in the back garden. Usually I chase them off, but this one looked a bit sad, so instead I grabbed my camera with the zoom lens and got half a dozen shots through the back window. It’s always good to have a few in the bag.

I’d been worrying about the front tyres on my car, so I drove down to Jim Dickson’s garage in the village where ‘Young’ Jim pronounced them good for a few hundred miles yet. That set my mind at rest.

Back home I took the A6500 and the 70-180mm and went for a walk in the sunshine to St Mo’s. I got a few shots of insects and plants, but nothing outstanding. It was quite a muggy afternoon with hardly a breath of wind.

Dinner was pasta and tomato sauce with a whole bunch of basil leaves that I’ve been growing on the window sill. It was quite delicious, even if say so myself.

It’s just passed 9.30pm as I’m writing this and there is a lovely sunset building. After such an overcast, close afternoon it’s good to see a bit of sunshine.

No plans for tomorrow, but I might make a start on some stew.

Out for a drive – 15 July 2024

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It was actually intended as a drive to Stirling to buy some ingredients for next week, but then it got a bit out of hand.

Scamp wanted to get some rose food for her beloved roses. They have worked hard since spring, producing a continuous show of flowers. Now the plants need a little help with some nutrients to extend their flowering period. She was sure we could get the rose food in Dobbies at Stirling. When we got to the turn off to Dobbies, every other gardener seemed to want to go their too, but it was impossible to cross the road in to the garden centre because of a long, long line of cars, all going in the opposite direction. We decided to move on to task 2

Task 2 would be easy. We’d just drive to The Smiddy, a cafe/restaurant near Blair Drummond Safari Park where we could hopefully get some venison and definitely get some coffee. Unfortunately they had no venison and wouldn’t have any until next week sometime. They did have the coffee, but only the pre-ground variety. Not what I was looking for. Since it was heading for lunch time and the cafe was quiet, we had a coffee and a scone each and I bought two skinny bottles of Old Engine Oil, a lovely black stout that only rarely makes an appearance on shelves. I managed a couple of shots of the Gargunnock Hills with a beautiful sky.

Back on the road again and got parked at Dobbies this time. They didn’t have the rose food, nor the lawn feed that Scamp remembered she also needed. We did get other things, though, so our journey was not in vain.

Back in the saddle and on to Waitrose where they did have the venison. Hooray! One of the ingredients bought and ticked off. As usual we bought one or two other things too, just to make the stop worth its while. I also got PoD which was the Wallace Monument at Stirling with a nice bit of sun on it.

I suggested we go from there to Klondyke Garden Centre where they just might have the plant food. Hooray No 2! They had both foods. Not exactly what she wanted but a reasonable substitute. We were back on the road and on the way home. What had started as a beautiful hot morning had degenerated into a cloudy and muggy day. Thank goodness for air-con!

When we got home, Scamp scattered the rose food and the grass feed in the required places and by then it was time for dinner. After dinner which was burger for me and mushroom and pepper omelette for Scamp (with the half of yesterday’s trifle as dessert)

As I settled down to process today’s photos I noticed I had a message on FB. I’d almost completely missed my old pal Charlie’s birthday, and here was his reply agreeing that him, Steven and me really needed to do a catch-up. I don’t know if my two readers will remember Charlie and Steven, but Charlie was my apprentice many years ago and Steven and I used to drool over motorbikes we knew we could never afford. I’m hoping we’ll all manage a meet-up some time in early August. Charlie is a pensioner now. How in the name of the wee man did that happen???

So, almost all the boxes were ticked today. Only one more to go and I might be able to tick that one tomorrow, all being well.

Enjoyin’ Dancin’ – 13 July 2024

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Out to Brookfield to the last dance class for a while.

Three weeks off dance class. The teachers are off on holiday teaching on a cruise ship in the Canaries for two weeks and recovering for another week. I hope they have fun!

Today’s class started with the Butterfly Jive after a couple of walk-throughs. With a little bit of help, I sort of made my way through it. Two units at the end of the routine are still just beyond me, but I’m sure with Scamp’s help I’ll manage to get them sorted out.

Next we went straight into a technique session about the Foxtrot. Very technical in places, this pointed up where we were both going wrong with my favourite dance. Sometimes I felt I was doing something wrong and Stewart corrected it for me and sometimes Scamp was not quite in the right place and that was fixed by Jane. Altogether we learned a lot about the techniques. Then we had a strange practise session where we had to dance the same six steps over and over again while applying CBMP (Contra Body Movement Position) where your legs to in one direction and your upper body goes in the opposite direction. Difficult to explain and counter intuitive to dance, but once you get it, it improves your dance technique – or so I am told. I have enough trouble getting my feet to go in the direction I want without encouraging my upper body to go in a different direction!

The last half hour of the lesson was a refining of the White City Waltz and the Blue Angel Rumba. All in all it was a very useful morning and one I enjoyed. I think the fact that the class size was small and that allowed folk to ask for help and to correct problems.

Drove home through fairly light traffic, so light in fact that we took a shortcut through the Clyde Tunnel and merged back into the M8 without missing a beat. Scamp calculated that this was Glasgow Fair weekend, which might account for the light traffic. Whatever it was, it cut about 20 minutes from our usual commute.

We’d booked a table at The Cotton House for 2.15pm today and had a filling lunch. Thai Spring Rolls followed by Chicken Chow Mein for Scamp and Chicken Satay followed by Salt and Chilli Chicken with Noodles for me. No room for dessert, but I did have three jelly beans as my sort of dessert! Glad we booked, because the place was full.

I couldn’t be bothered going for a walk when we got home. Too dull and with rain predicted. Instead, I found the PoD when I was wandering around the garden and saw a Green Orb-Weaver Spider building its web on our gigantic Teasel plant. Meanwhile, Scamp wasn’t happy with the Berberis she’d replanted. It was falling to one side and just didn’t look right, so she dug it up and replanted it a second time.  Now it looks right. Scamp the perfectionist!

We watched two episodes of The Turkish Detective tonight. Interesting, but the Detective Inspector’s delivery reminded me of Columbo. Entertaining police drama with some elements of dark humour. Yes, I’d watch another couple of episodes.

I finished a book that Fred gave me, The Secret Hours by Mick Herron. It was like saying goodbye to an old friend. It’s a spy story with so many twists and turns, it left me wondering who was following who. Jamie and Neil, I’d recommend it to you. Unputdownable is the only way to describe it, although as it was reaching its end I wanted to put it down, just so I could keep reading it later, if that makes sense!

No plans for tomorrow, but it looks like rain again.