Category: Driving

Sunshine! – 12 July 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Today we had sunshine from first thing in the morning until early evening.

It was a bit of a surprise. We hadn’t expected such a warm, bright day. If past experience is anything to go by, it will all turn to rain tomorrow. However, we made the best of today.

While I was making breakfast, I watched a young blackbird having a bath in the bird bath tucked away among the vegetation at the back fence. It seemed to be really enjoying itself. Despite the rain, it’s been pretty dry so far this month. I think the rainwater has been sucked away into the grass.

Later in the morning we drove to Tesco where Scamp pointed at the bags of compost and I lifted one down from the top of the pile. How good it was that Tesco piled these bags in the foyer of the store, where they don’t get wet and don’t weigh twice or three times their dry weight. Such a simple thing you’d think, but hardly any of the garden centres think of it and we’re left to manhandle sodden bags of compost. We also got two pots. One to keep as a spare and one to transplant the Berberis plant into. It seems to be struggling where it is in an impractical pot with a wide opening at the top and a narrow base, leading the plant to be blown over in the gusty weather we’ve been having. After the gardening essentials were in the trolley, the rest was just shopping!

After lunch I drove to Fannyside and took a few photos of the sheep and cattle, but the PoD went to a fence post with Cladonia lichen covering the top and with a layer of spider webs over that. I saw a wee bird that might have been a Stonechat, but the new lens was just to short to get a decent shot of it, but a longer lens would cost more and weigh twice as much as the Tamron. So the Stonechat will have to come to me next time if it wants its photo taken.

Back home Scamp was enjoying the sunshine in the back garden and I joined her for a while, almost, but not quite finishing my book from Fred. I’m spinning it out, because it’s difficult to keep track of all the people in the story and they keep changing their names. I also don’t really want to get to the end, because I’m enjoying it so much.

Later we thought we should water the garden. Scamp did it, front and back while I made the dinner. I say “I made the dinner”, but to be honest, the oven made it. There was very little prep and very little skill in the Chicken and Pea Tray Bake. It was a bit salty, but definitely delicious.

We’re hoping to go dance class in Brookfield tomorrow, but don’t have any more plans.

Dancin’ – 11 July 2024

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Today we drove to Glenburn for the first tea dance for a while, or what felt like a while to me.

Not a great turn out for the dance, but some folk will be on holiday and some will be on child-minding duty, I suppose. Not everyone lives such a free and easy life as we do!
There were a couple of strangers in the camp. One couple were apparently semi-professionals and boy did it show in their styling. Very much the lady with her head back and the man holding poses on his tiptoes before plunging into a ‘running step’ along the diagonal of the dance floor, while the majority of us were quickstepping carefully, keeping to Line of Dance.

For the first time in ages we stayed for the full tea dance. Usually we leave early to avoid schools coming out and the long queues of folk driving home after work. Schools aren’t in until the middle of August and a lot of folk are on holiday despite it not feeling like summer this year. We could actually have stayed on the M8 and driven over the Kingston Bridge today and been home even earlier than we did. Traffic had been light going to Glenburn and it was equally light coming back.

I didn’t bother going out for a walk when we got home, instead I just photographed some flowers in the garden. Winner, and PoD was a shot of Switch Ophelia which is a form of Hydrangea. Flowers start as pale green, then creamy white and finally pink. Beautiful flowers and, as you can probably see it attracts red spider mites too!

No plans at present for tomorrow. Weather looks ok, today was nice and warm, but no sun until after 8pm.

Beautiful warm day. Was that summer? – 8 July 2024

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In the morning, I started to clear out some to the rubbish in my room. Just junk mainly. That left me some room to store the things I wanted to keep in the racks in the corner. The rubbish bag is full and it’s in the grey bin now. Can’t go back.

I drove up to the town centre later to get my hair cut. It didn’t take long, probably about ten minutes from me opening the door to going back out again. A number 2 cut all over cost me less than a tenner!

I’d parked in Tesco car park, so it seemed a good idea to pay for it with a bag of rolls for lunch. Not as good as the ones they used to bake on the premises, but not bad, if a bit doughy. On the way in I bumped into Lorraine Henderson who I used to work with. It was quite embarrassing, because she obviously had forgotten my name and I had forgotten her’s. She was with a friend who originally came from the Cumbershugh area but was now in the US. Said was on holiday here and said she would come back here ‘in an instant’, and I thought “Aye Right!”

Back home and after lunch, I started making a support for the apple tree. One bough in particular is carrying a heavy load just now and that load is just going to get heavier as the apples swell. The support is a bit rough and ready, but it’s holding for now. I think we might need another one further along the branch just to stop the bough from breaking. That’s for the future. For now it’s a lot better than it was.

When we were finished and sort of tidied up, I drove Scamp up to B&M to get a set of three storage boxes. One was earmarked for holding her dance shoes and another would be for my shoes, although I’ve a plan to chuck out some of the older shoes I’ll never wear again.

The weather was still lovely when we got back, so Scamp read in the garden with a Pimms and I went for a walk in St Mo’s. PoD was a close up of a solitary Soldier Beetle. Unusual to see just one. Usually they are in pairs, busy making more Soldier Beetles! Saw and photographed Common Blue Damselflies too. When I got back to the house I had the final bottle of beer from last year’s box. Only slightly out of date, but tasted fine. Dinner was Tuna Pasta and that was really nice.

Hoping to meet Alex in Glasgow tomorrow to go to the Burrell Collection. Rain predicted!! Scamp says she’s going to do some tidying.

Talking gardens with Isobel – 4 July 2024

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Today we were meeting Isobel for coffee in Costa. Not my favourite place, but it suited us today. Just a place for the ladies to have a blether.

The conversation was wide ranging, about family and the difficulty for young folk to find a permanent job, but eventually it all came round to flowers, plants and gardening. Isobel is a really dedicated gardener and I’m sure she and Scamp could spend all day talking about plants and different regimes for planting, feeding and disposing of unwanted plants. She is quite a hard task master with no quarter given. If a plant isn’t performing, it either gets cut down to the ground to force better growth next year, or it gets ripped out and dumped in the bin. There’s usually another plant ready and waiting to fill its place.

When the talking was done Scamp went to get a new cover for her phone and I drove Isobel home, then I went back to pick up Scamp and we drove home. She told me that everyone in the shops wanted to sell her a wallet type cover but she stuck to her guns and got the cover she wanted, not one they wanted rid of. I know where she gets that attitude from, Isobel!

After lunch we walked up to the Polling Station and handed over our bus passes as proof of identity, then put our cross in the correct box. Strangely we used to be quite coy about who we had voted for, but now we were much more open about it and both of us had gone for the same party. Spoiler Alert: It wasn’t a Conservative!

It was a wild day with gusty winds and heavy rain showers, but thankfully we got up to the Polling Station and back again without getting wet. That’s a miracle in itself these days.

I managed a walk in St Mo’s later in the afternoon and although it wasn’t very wet, the cold blustery west wind wasn’t great to walk in and I was glad to get back home with a couple of photos. This time I’d fixed the new lens on to the A6500 where it was a bit overbalanced by the Tamron. It still produced a decent shot of a little wee yellow flower which became PoD. I must look it up to see just exactly what it was. While the lens copes quite well with these almost macro subjects, it’s not really suited to them. It’s more a large landscape lens or a means of isolating a subject from the background. Maybe I need to get out into the wider world to test it properly.

Dinner was Savoury Rice which is basically “What have we got in the fridge?” with some rice cooked in a chicken stock. It was very nice. I had it without any additions, but in retrospect, maybe a dash of Soy Sauce and maybe a splash of Yorkshire Relish would have lifted it.

That was about it for the day, except for Andy & Jamie Murray’s doubles exit from Wimbledon, against a better pairing. I’m not sure if he will continue to the mixed doubles now.

No plans for tomorrow yet, Just waiting with bated breath to find out who wins the poisoned chalice of the house in Downing Street.

 

A wee surprise – 2 July 2024

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We had agreed that we should go out somewhere today.

I suggested to Scamp that she might like to go down to Troon to test out the dance floor there. There are two dances a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays and since we were committed on Thursday, why not go today? By the time I’d rinsed the breakfast dishes, Scamp had laid out prospective dresses and shoes, so I guessed the invitation had been accepted!

The dance started at 1pm and finished at 3pm. The drive down to Troon was without event and by the time we got there the sun was shining. Even better still, there was a parking space next to the hall. After heading in to the wrong building by mistake we were given detailed instruction on how to get to the hall which was next door, but was hidden round a corner. Booked ourselves in and paid a tenner for both of us, probably the going rate for us Auld Yins!

We found a large dance hall with the compere and keyboard maestro ready for action on the stage with his three keyboards. He had a good sound system and the sang to all the tunes he played, and he played a lot. We were used to Stewart & Jane’s setup where they played pre-recorded music and there was tea at half time. Not so today. If you wanted something to drink, you had to provide it yourself. That way participants didn’t lose any dancing time.

I think we danced for almost everything he played. The only things we stayed seated for were the ‘school dances’ Military Two Step and Canadian Barn Dance. We also avoided the Viennese Waltz which isn’t in our syllabus. We even added in a Salsa track and a Bachata, just for fun. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming. Ronnie and Millie seemed surprised to see us and we had a bit of banter with them.

For once in a dance class, the time seemed to fly. I don’t think it was because my dancing was stunning, because it wasn’t, I think I was just enjoying dancing. But soon it was time for the last waltz and we assured everyone we spoke to that we’d be back, despite the long drive.

Since we hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast, Scamp suggested we go for a late lunch at the Lido in Troon: Mussels for Scamp and Italian sausage and pasta for me. We had stopped at Morrison’s on the way home to buy a loaf and ended up with a trolley full of stuff, as usual.

The run back in  the rain, took a bit more time than the drive down, but I’d expected that. Much more traffic on the road and a lot of congestion coming off the M74 on to the M 73. I’d hate to drive through that every day.

I only took six photos today and kept only four of them. PoD was a bloke sitting on the wall at the seaside having his lunch.

We have no plans as yet for tomorrow. I’m sure something will turn up.

Dancin’ – 29 June 2024

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An enjoyable dance class for once.

It started with a few Butterfly Jives. The teachers need to realise that some of their pupils are not as young as they used to be. After the third one, I was beginning to think this was a bad move. After sitting in a car for forty-five minutes with the only movements being my feet on the pedals and a few hand movement on the wheel, the toe-taps, spins and toe-heels were raising my blood pressure and overworking my lungs. But as soon as it started, it finished … thankfully!

The next dance was a gentle Foxtrot. It must be my favourite dance, slow and gentle. While it didn’t have anything energetic, it certainly had a lot of technique with Sway and CBMP. I don’t have a clue what CBMP is other than it’s when you move in one direction while your body is trying to go in another. The teachers make it look so easy, but then, they would. They’ve been practising it for ages. I still enjoyed it.

Stewart managed to squeeze in a couple of Tina Tangos when it seemed we were all losing the place with the Sway and the CBMP. The first one was to Ed Sheeran’s Shivers just to please Scamp.

Last ballroom tracks were for Joy’s Waltz which everyone thought they’d forgotten until we’d danced it through a couple of times and then it sort of fell into place. All down to Muscle Memory.

A couple of fast tracks finishing with Fireball! complete with clapping and shouting “Oi”. Great fun. An almost totally enjoyable class. Just a bit too much theory for me in the middle.

We drove back home via Cowcaddens where we parked and went to pay for and pick up the Tamron 70-180mm f2.8 Di III VXD G2 lens. It might have been Buyers Remorse, but when I got it home, it wasn’t quite as good as I’d hoped it would be. I’m not totally sold on it and it may not end up being a keeper. Only time and a few hundred more test shots will swing it one way or the other. Today’s PoD was taken with it. Just a green leaf but one with lovely curvature.

Tomorrow looks better than today, but no plans for what to do with it yet.

A Late Lunch – 28 June 2024

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No, we didn’t sleep in. This late lunch was planned.

Crawford and Nancy asked us over to Larky for a late lunch, around 2pm. So after watching different weather patterns moving across the sky and still not being sure which one would run the day, we got ourselves decked out in our going-out clothes and drove to Larky.

It turned out a really nice day, as long as you were inside looking out. I reckon it wasn’t quite so warm on the other side of the glass walled conservatory. Lunch was Butternut Squash soup, followed by a Slice of Salmon fried and dressed with Philadelphia Cheese and Roasted Peppers with New Potatoes and Asparagus. Dessert was Bramble and Cream with a drop or two of alcohol to spice it up. Last, but not least was a sponge cake topped with Philadelphia and white chocolate. The whole lot washed down with a Americano coffee.

We sat and talked about where we’d been and what we’d done since our last meeting which wasn’t all that long ago, but we’d all covered a lot of ground since then. C&N had been using their Historic Scotland and National Trust cards to gain access to a host of places as well as a we-got-lost-and-found-this visit to the Japanese Garden near Dollar. We had been places too, using our Senior Rail Cards, we’d travelled to Stirling and its castle and Edinburgh and on to Leith. So, we had a lot of things to talk about.

When the ladies retired to the conservatory afterward, Crawford and I struggled to find out how to get photos on to an advertisement he was making using his new Chromebook. I’d never used one, but I was sure I could work it out, but I was wrong. It must be the most annoying piece of useless tech. Impossible to navigate without swearing. Eventually I had to admit defeat. Then he told me he had actually built the advert already on his iPhone and it was much easier that using a Chromebook. I could believe that. After about an hour, we were back where we started without having put anything onto paper. We gave up and joined the ladies.

Drove home and got parked after a bit of coming and going with four cars trying perform a ballet routine so that two could leave and two could park at the same time. Eventually it worked out and we even had a spare space!

PoD went to a photo I saw building as we were driving home. It’s a view looking over towards Lenzie from a single track country road near us. It’s actually two photos joined together to make a panorama.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to go dancing and on the way home, pay for and pick up a lens. Apparently it arrived in the shop in the late afternoon.

 

Back in the old routine – 22 June 2024

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10:15am found us driving towards Glasgow and on to Brookfield. We were going to dance class.

When we got there the ickle girls were being presented with awards for being the best ballet dancers in Brookfield Hall while Stewart & Jane looked as if they were about to blow a gasket. I could understand why. We lost ten minutes of our dance class to this little frippery.

Jane was the one to call a halt to the celebration when she started clearing away the unnecessary seats and allowing us to get out of our trainers and into our dance shoes while the little charmers went charging round the hall. Then we danced a little bit of fluff, the Blue Angel Rumba It wasn’t blue, I saw no angels but there was a little bit of rumba there. Next, as we’d expected, we went through the Butterfly Jive. Again, I must complain because there were no Butterflies although there were a few Jive steps. It’s quite complicated and it’s FAST. Far too fast for my poor feet. They’ve only just learned how to waltz and foxtrot, but aren’t experienced enough to handle a fast Jive. Neither am I come to that. I managed to get my phone to record the routine and hopefully between now and next Saturday we’ll have had a chance to learn the steps and assemble them in the correct order.

Next was a new ‘improved’ version of the Tango we’d learned ages ago which had a ‘Prom turn to Rock turn’ added to it. I’d never understood what a Prom turn to Rock turn was, something to do with 6th years leaving party added to Mick Jagger’s on-stage antics. Actually it’s just fancy word for a turn and then rocking back and forward. Next Jane added ‘The Chase’ which I didn’t understand and still don’t. Just a whole pile of pirouetting on the dance floor, much like the ickle girls were doing earlier. Thankfully Scamp managed to make sense of this new dance language and we got through it.

We finished up with another couple of sequence dances, a Midnight Jive and a Bossa Nova. I can handle them.

I was so relieved when the teachers started clearing up, because my little brain was full after we did the Blue Angel Rumba and I was beginning to get a nagging headache.

We drove home through the lightest traffic I’ve ever seen on the M8/M74. In fact, when I glanced over to the Kingston Bridge, the traffic on it was travelling at about 50mph. Unheard of on a Saturday afternoon.

I was absolutely beat and feeling quite down, when I got home. A piece ’n’ egg helped, but didn’t cure it. Scamp suggested I take a couple of paracetamol and I did and I felt better. Went for a walk in St Mo’s later and got a few photos. That’s where the PoD came from. It’s what my mum called Purple Vetch, so that’s what I’m calling it too.

Dinner was provided by Golden Bowl, Chicken Chop Suey and Fried Rice for Scamp and a Special Chow Mein for me. Both quite, quite delicious. A large glass of red to wash it down helped too.

The walk in St Mo’s lifted my spirits and the Golden Bowl helped too, but the heavy lifting was done by Scamp, as always. Thank you my love for talking me out of a bad day … again!

Nothing planned for tomorrow, but I think we need to practise the Butterfly Jive. Who knows, we may even find the butterfly!

Back to Dancin’ on a Thursday – 20 June 2024

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After a few missed Tea Dances and a few cancelled ones, we were back to the ‘normal’ grid for this week at least.

A lazy morning (again) and then the time seemed to disappear and suddenly it was time to get changed to go to Glenburn. The weather wasn’t anywhere as good as yesterday’s blue skies. Milky white seemed to be the sky’s choice today.

A fairly easy drive to Paisley for a change and after a dodgy first waltz, we got back in a groove. Not a great one, but I didn’t make too many mistakes. Actually, that was the story of today’s tea dance. Not perfect, but we danced almost every dance that came up. After tea, the teachers decided to introduce a lesson on a new jive routine. I think that is only the second time they’ve included a lesson in a tea dance program. This one was fine when we were walking through it, but when the music started it was a different story … and that was a fairly sedate jive track. We imagine the dance will be reprised on Saturday for those who weren’t at Perth last weekend and weren’t at the tea dance today. A real jive sequence dance!

The drive home was just as easy as the drive to Glenburn and when we got home I went for a walk in St Mo’s to see what was there to photograph. The milky skies of the morning had given way to blue skies and sunshine and although there wasn’t very much to photograph, the wildflowers were all looking good. A photo of a grass flower got PoD, mainly for the detail in the seedhead. Who knew that grass had flowers?!

Giovanni Rana potato Gnocchi with spinach and mozzarella filling was dinner tonight. I wasn’t greatly taken with it, but Scamp was. I felt the filling was a bit dry. I’m sure we’ll try it again maybe with a sauce the next time. It was different, that we agreed on.

No real plans for tomorrow. It all depends on the weather.

Doon the Canal – 19 June 2024

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This morning, Scamp was out for coffee with Isobel while I stayed home and finished my book.

The book is Edge of The Grave by Robbie Morrison. A story based in 1932 Glasgow. If you’re thinking it might be interesting, my recommendation would be to ignore it, and go straight to the second book in the series, Cast a Cold Eye, a much better read. I’ll write a review of EoTG on Goodreads soon, but don’t expect it to get five stars.

When Scamp returned from Costa, and after we had lunch, Scamp suggested we go for a walk. I agreed and chose Auchinstarry as the destination.

We got parked quite easily for a change at Auchinstarry, it’s usually a full house in the afternoon with folk parking there and walking or cycling along the canal. It was a very pleasant walk along the Forth & Clyde Canal, with around 25 photos taken. Favourite and PoD went to a landscape view across the valley to the Campsie Fells under a blue sky and for once I didn’t have to fake the sky!!

We turned at Twechar and walked back along the old mineral line, but about half a mile from the car, Scamp was complaining about cramp in her foot and I was constantly shifting my camera bag to a different part of my shoulder to ease the ache that had appeared. I think we were both happy to get a seat on the wall at Auchinstarry Quarry. Just five minutes made all the difference. Then we drove home and sat in the garden for a while to enjoy the sun. Scamp with a Pimms and me with a glass of beer.

Highlight of the day was watching a cow on the far bank of the Forth & Clyde Canal munching its way through the lush vegetation at the water’s edge.  It stopped for a while to stare at us and it reminded me of a poem:

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

Leisure by William Henry Davies.

Our own dinner tonight was a re-heated veg chilli and it had increased in heat since it had been put in the freezer a month or so ago.

Watched the second of Scotland’s matches in the Euros and decided that they almost deserved the 1 – 1 draw, but towards the end they were looking ragged. This is the opinion of two people who have only been to one football game in their lives!

Hazy, the Captain’s Grog was even better than Boozy Gladys. You can really taste the rum in the beans. Two very good choices!! Thank you.

Tomorrow is a Tea Dance day. Hopefully I’ll be able to remember which is my left and which is my right foot!