Category: Driving

Dancin’ – 20 January 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Last Brookfield dancin’ class for three weeks at least.

Scamp doesn’t think she’ll be able to go to next Saturday’s class because she’s intending to sing the Verdi Requiem (with a few others) at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow and I certainly won’t be going there, or to the dance class in Brookfield if I can at all avoid it. Far too shouty in both venues.

For some reason, the road to Brookfield was quite busy today. Either everyone was heading to the Monster Truck show at the SEC or there was football somewhere, maybe even both! But we’d been out early and made good time after we left the city centre and got past the 50mph restriction. We had about ten minutes to collect ourselves while the little darlings in the ballet class were ushered out of the room with their ‘mummies’ – no ‘daddies’ were in sight. Smart daddies!

First track was Melody Foxtrot with Robbie Williams’ Go Gentle. I don’t like him, but I do like the song. The rhythm and timing go so well with this gentle song. I can’t remember what track two was, but it obviously wasn’t a patch on Go Gentle.

Next we were in to Waltz Time with what we’re going to call the Spring Waltz. Christmas is so last year. After a few fumbles of the feet, I was beginning to enjoy the dance. Stewart did steal Scamp away to explain something technical about the dance, but strangely Jane didn’t steal me away to do the same. Maybe I’m so good there’s nothing they can teach me. Maybe pigs do fly? Anyway, once she’d been returned, we danced a few tracks of the waltz. Actually I’d have been happy to spend the entire 90 minutes just going through that dance, but after another sequence dance we knew that the leisurely dancing was over and we were going to be forced into the Samba.

I really, really, REALLY don’t think I will ever get to like, far less love this dance although Stewart says I will. It is fast, confusing and furious at times and totally outside my comfort zone. I’m still at the second part of it, having successfully managed to make a decent fist of the basic steps at the start. This is after three weeks of teaching. Sometimes you just have to accept that this doesn’t fit in my head, apart from Jamie’s oft times quoted complaint that: “Scottish hips don’t move that way”. That, is an excellent get-out clause for not knowing what the hell you are doing, and I thank you for that, Jamie.

Eventually the Samba ground to a halt and another cool-down sequence dance finished off the torture. We were done for today and, hopefully for three glorious weeks.

We drove home, almost in silence, letting the music from Spotify’s random Discover Weekly guide us along the M8, M74, M73 and then home. Lunch for me was a roll ’n’ cheese and for Scamp, a roll ’n’ egg, with both of us having a dessert of roll ’n’ bramble jam.

It was a dull day. The sun had threatened to break through the clouds, but didn’t really have the energy, so the clouds covered it and tucked it in. I did manage a few shots in St Mo’s, but none of them were award winners. PoD was a sepia toned discarded swan’s feather.

Dinner tonight came from Bombay Dreams and it was quite poor by their standard. Probably would have been better walking down to M&S and bringing back a heat-in-the-oven curry. I think we’ll let Bombay Dreams rest for a while to see if they can improve their recipes.

It’s raining quite heavily as I’m writing this and it’s expected to rain all through the night. Strong winds forecast for tomorrow. I may go out early(ish) to avoid getting blown away.

 

 

Goodbye Snow – 19 January 2024

Posted on by Zogman

It’s gone. The snow returned this morning, only to be washed away by the rain and the above zero temperatures. Not much above zero, but enough to rid us of the white stuff.

In the morning we went shopping. It was a big shop. What we used to do on a Monday until Tesco seemed to have fewer staff working on a Monday than on any other day of the week. Friday was quite different. Much more like what used to be a normal shopping day. They even had rolls! We loaded the car and drove home.

After lunch Scamp wanted to reorganise the front bedroom which has become a storage room. I wanted to go out and take photos somewhere other than St Mo’s, so while she was checking what we did and didn’t have and moving things around the various cupboards, I drove up to Fannyside to see how the wild moorland was surviving this tough winter weather. This was my first visit this year. There was a cold west wind blowing and that was making the cloudscape quite interesting. Probably this was the first real test for the new lens, just taking photos of anything and everything that interested me. Not being too particular about aperture or shutter speed, just enjoying the experience. The lens coped admirably with the scenes. Not one rejection, but I’m still not sure it’s the lens for me. Only time and a few hundred photos will tell.

Drove home and after checking the photos, started to make the dinner which was an old favourite, Fennel with Haddock and Prawns. Dead easy to make as long as you are organised, and for once I was.

According to the weather fairies, we’ve some wild weather to look forward to next week with strong winds and heavy rain. It never seems to stop this winter. Wind, rain, snow and sleet with the occasional half a day of sunshine mixed in. Weather was much more fun when I was wee.

PoD turned out to be a wide angle shot of the moorland at Fannyside and its amazing cloudscapes that looked much better live than my poor representation of them. A couple of other photos are keeping it company on Flickr.

Tomorrow we’re intending dancing in the morning.

Going over old ground – 15 January 2024

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It was a crisp morning, sub-zero, but we were going out. It had been snowing during the night, just a light covering, and then a hard frost had made the place look quite, well, … frosty!

Scamp needed either to get her glasses repaired, or a new frame, so we were driving over to Larky to see what the optician or his glamorous assistants could do. Terrible driving conditions, with the low sun shining right into our faces and the road salt on the windscreen having to be washed away every few minutes, but we made good time.

When we got to Larky, Scamp told me to meet her at the Co-op in half an hour or so. I didn’t need to be asked twice. I drove down to Millheugh to grab some photos. First place I looked was again looking straight into the sun, but with a great view of ‘The Boards’. That’s another name for a dam that created a sluice to power a waterwheel in the old bleachfield long before my time. The sluice, which we always called the Lade, is still there, but the bleachfield has gone long ago. Took a few photos there, then knowing I’d lose track of time, I set a 15 minute timer on my watch and went for a walk through Morgan Glen.

It used to be a great walk on a bright summer’s day, along the banks of the Avon, but the whole glen is a bit run down these days. It’s years since I walked along there. Now that I think about it, it’s MANY years since I walked along it, but bits of it haven’t changed much and other bits are broken down and hidden in the undergrowth. I found some Hair Ice which, according to the Met Office “… is a rare type of ice formation where the presence of a particular fungus in rotting wood produces thin strands of ice which resemble hair or candy floss.” As you can see here, that’s a fairly accurate description.

Not long after I found and photographed it, my timer buzzed to tell me it was time to head back. Sometimes when you turn back, the view and the light is totally different from that you saw walking out. So it was today. I took ‘a few’ more photos on the way back. My total for the day was 42 photos, 38 of which were ‘keepers’. Not a bad percentage. Then I drove back up to meet Scamp at the Co-op with her new glasses! Then we drove home with the sun at our back this time for most of the way.

I did think of giving the blue car a wash when we got home, but the temperature was just above zero and I didn’t want my wash water to freeze and cause an accident for some poor soul driving up the hill, or even walking up the hill, after dark. There are warmer, or less cold days to come we’re told.

Scamp made her version of Minestrone soup for tonight’s dinner.  Her version and mine are completely different from each other.  Both of them are from old books and both of them over time have had additions and subtractions from the basic recipe.  Both are good warming soups with loads of veg in them.

PoD turned out to be the Hair Ice, but it was a close finish between it and a photo of a tree stump with ivy dangling from it, taken against the light.

The forecast is for more snow, lots more snow, they say, and down to sea level for all of Scotland. We may not be going far.

Shopping – 10 January 2024

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We were off to Waitrose today for some (for some, read a lot of) shopping.

I felt the wee blue car squeal when I put the message bags in the boot after we left Waitrose. There were a lot of bags in there and quite a few of them were full. Despite that, I challenged the wee car by driving up the back road from Stirling to the top of the Tak ma Doon road. It’s a long and sometimes quite steep climb, but before we reached that, I gave it a rest at the entrance to Loch Coulter where I wanted to take photos, not of the loch, but of the wee farm across to the north-west. It’s a favourite place of mine to photograph and today the mountains off behind the farm were covered with snow, which was even better. Two or three photos of the landscape were enough in the cold breeze that was coming in from the north, so we drove on past Carron Bridge and on to the Tak ma Doon road, the twisting single track road with few passing places and great craters where NLC can’t be bothered to fill them in. But at the summit it gives a great 180º uninterrupted view from the Forth estuary in the east all the way to Glasgow in the west. Except, not today. It was too cold to take advantage of the views, even if they were stunning. We had reached the highest point in the road and it was downhill all the way now and I’m sure I heard the wee blue car give a sigh of relief.

Dinner tonight was Haddock Chowder. It’s one of those recipes where you have to have everything prepared in advance because once you start you’ve just got to keep going until you serve it in bowls after about 45 minutes of constant stirring and mixing. It wasn’t my best today, I admit that. Too much flour in the roux we think. However, as Scamp said “It’ll stick to yer ribs”. Very Scottish!

We were going dancing to the first dance class with Kirsty this year. After everyone had quietened down, Kirsty announced that today’s dance was to be a Foxtrot. As usual, she demonstrated the men’s part then the women’s part and after that we were pitched into the dance. I admit that I was flummoxed at first, but then realised I’d done all this, or something very like it with Stewart & Jane. After that, when things were baffling me, I just let muscle memory take over and while it wasn’t perfect, it was near enough.

Later we watched the first Landscape Artist of the Year with Dunnottar Castle in Aberdeenshire being the subject. For once, Scamp and I were in agreement about today’s winner.

PoD was a photo of that wee farm.

Tomorrow we might be going dancing. First tea dance of the year.

Dancin’ – 6 January 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was out first to defrost the car. We were driving to Brookfield for the first dance classs of 2024.

The temperature was hovering around zero when we drove out to Brookfield, but the sun was almost blinding, shining from a bright blue sky. Thankfully we got there without any roadworks apart from the usual 40mph drag through central Glasgow.

First surprise was that the tiny dancers, who usually take ages to leave the hall, had already gone! Maybe someone had complained. I should have asked Jane if it was her. Only four couples ready and waiting to go dancing. Last in were Peter and Gillian who travel almost the same distance as us.

First dance was the Blue Angel Rumba which we’ve almost mastered and was the gentle entry into this years dances. Next was the, new to us, Christmas Waltz. It looked complicated, but taken in bite sized pieces it wasn’t so bad, although there were a few unpronounceable and complicated bits to it. In retrospect, I think we managed not too bad in it, but it will need some practise during the week to cement it into my head. Finally a fast and frantic Samba with Samba Walks, Botafogos and Voltas. Voltas were described by Jane as “Like kids pretending to ride a horse”. A sort of “John Wayne dance step.” Google it and you’ll see what I mean. By then, my little brain was full to bursting and I was glad to change my dance shoes for clumpy black street shoes and drive us home.

Lunch was two bits of bread with a slice of square sausage between them. Scamp had similar with an egg substituting for the square sausage.

I struggled for a while trying to work out what was going wrong with the 2024 catalog on Lightroom. Eventually I gave up and as the sun was still shining I went for a walk in St Mo’s. The road and paths were quite slippery, but the boots coped with it. The sun was low by the time I was walking along the path behind the woods and I got a few decent shots of the trees and the shadows they were casting. One of them became PoD.

Dinner came from a cold walk over to Condorrat to Golden Bowl. As I was coming back I could see the mist lying about a metre above the grass. Quite creepy looking. I tried to photograph it, but failed to get the impression I was looking for.

Later in the evening I tried again and almost managed to repair the damage to the catalog. I gave up and left it until tomorrow when hopefully a night’s sleep will make things clearer

Temperatures around zero predicted for tomorrow. That will decide what we do.

 

Another year over – 31 December 2023

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Well, almost over.

The day started with a visit to Currys in Coatbridge to get photo paper and a chance to browse the shelves for a new toaster. The one we have must be about 20 years old and has worked well, but lately it’s been struggling to hold the bread carrier against the force of the spring. I reckon it’s an electromagnet that either has crumbs or dust on its contact, or the wiring in it is getting weak and cannot pull the full magnetic force. If it’s dust, the portable hoover might just manage to clear it. If it’s the coil in the electromagnet, it’s beyond my ability to repair. The prices Currys were asking for a fairly ordinary toaster were in places eye watering. Who pays £200 for a toaster? I got the photo paper, but the toaster will have to wait until Tuesday at least, when the shops re-open.

We drove home and Scamp encouraged me to go out and take some photos before the light started to fail. That would be a sensible thing to do. After all, this was the last day in 2023 and a decent photo for PoD was compulsory. It arrived in the shape of an old park bench in St Mo’s. The bench is made of recycled plastic, but it has lichen growing on it. It must be something that’s added to the plastic mix when bulk it up or maybe to strengthen it. Surely ordinary lichen wouldn’t grow on pure plastic. I must ask a scientist some time. The photo wasn’t impressive when I took it, but separating it into its constituent parts made it a lot easier to work with and I was happy with the result.

Spoke to Jamie and heard that the weather down south was much better than we’ve been having. Hope Vixen’s leg improves soon.

I think that’s all for 2023. I believe 2024 is approaching rapidly, so I should really draw this last blog of 2023 to a close. I wish you all a happy and healthy new year.

 

Off east to see the horses – 29 December 2023

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I’d promised Scamp an afternoon at the Kelpies and I hate to disappoint her.

So we drove over to Helix Park in Falkirk where the Kelpies live. It started off as a beautiful day, but by the time we got there, the clouds were rolling in. Paid for parking and walked over the canal bridge, then down the path beside the Forth & Clyde canal to admire the great beasts. I got a few photos as we were walking and we also passed the RE: Wild Thing which is an installation made from recycled bike parts made to represent the nature and wildflowers within the park. Very clever recycling (pun intended).

We crossed over the outfall of the canal and back to the main event, the Kelpies themselves. We both noticed that there were lights inside them today. I imagine they look quite impressive after nightfall. There was a small skating rink in the park, but I wasn’t intending going on the ice. I never did fancy ice skating. Thankfully there wasn’t much of a queue at the cafe and we could sit in relative comfort with our coffee and a scone, watching the folk taking selfies and group photos in front of the sculptures.

It was quite cold today and as the sky was clearing, it seemed to get even colder. Maybe that was because I knew the temperature was going to be sub zero tonight, or maybe the wind was stealing all the heat away.
We had one more walk round the horses and then walked back to the car, then drove home via Tesco for a couple of bags of messages. On the way back to the house I stopped at Fred’s house to hand in a Christmas/Birthday prezzy for him and a box of chocolates for Margo. Poor Fred’s birthday is on the 25th of December! He must have felt hard done by when he was younger, only getting one lot of prezzies!

We watched an entertaining Celebrity Masterchef. It’s not every day you’ll hear me saying that, but this one was special, because it was the food critics who were cooking for the previous winners of Masterchef. I don’t know how faked it was, but the celebs really did seem to be having a hard time getting things finished in the timescale. Worth looking for on iPlayer if only for the looks on the critics faces!

Dinner was a delicious Chicken Milanese. Chicken fillet battered flat with a rolling pin, coated in breadcrumbs and fried in the frying pan. Served with potatoes. A Scamp classic.

PoD was, of course The Kelpies, viewed from the other side of the canal from my usual place.

Tomorrow we might get some of the white stuff. Temperature is already -1ºc, right in the middle of the danger zone. Need to find our snow shovels perhaps.

Dancin’ – 21 December 2023

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We were back to a tea dance today after a long lay off.

First, earlier in the morning I went for a walk in St Mo’s to get a photo or two while Storm Pia was still giving Scotland a severe buffeting. It was gradually powering down, but it was taking quite a while. I was glad I hadn’t been there when Pia was at full strength.

I saw a blackbird fly into a tree and I’m sure he saw me too, but he turned away and tried the “If I can’t see him, he can’t see me” trick. As I took a few steps towards him, he caught me and flew away, but not before I had one more shot. How can birds navigate through that maze of branches? That final shot gave me a PoD. One in the bag on a morning walk. That’s good.

By the time I walked home, I had just enough time for a quick lunch before getting dressed for dancing and then we headed off to Glenburn for the last tea dance of the year. Despite the weather, it was a fairly easy drive to Paisley. The hall wasn’t very busy when we arrived, but the dancers gradually trickled in and the dance started with a waltz. I stumbled through the first track, but by the second it was flowing better. We danced Waltz, Rumba, Cha-Cha and three or four sequence dances. Really, the only one I completely messed up was the Quickstep which I knew I could do. Just not today.

As usual we left a few minutes early to avoid the schools coming out. However, it appeared that the traffic was light on both the M80 and the M74, also, thankfully, the wind had reduced to a normal breeze.

We watched what I thought was a tedious Celebrity Sewing Bee tonight. It was probably the worst of the ‘Christmas’ specials foisted on us these days in the name of entertainment. It’s just a bunch of has-been and never-was ‘celebrities’ getting their faces on the TV again. Bah Humbug!

Tomorrow I believe we need some shopping and there’s a chance we may have a pub lunch later.

Chatelherault – 19 December 2023

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Out on a photo walk with Alex.

I was due to pick Alex up at his house around 11am, but after getting up at about 4.30am to take some paracetamol to numb the pain from toothache, I wasn’t sure I’d be meeting him any time today. However, when the 8.30am alarm chimed out its merry tune there was no sign of toothache.

The early rise and the alarm were because we’d booked the man from Hannah and Howie to come and service the boiler. He was supposed to arrive between 9am and 1pm, and I was glad we’d set the alarm for 8.30, when he knocked on the door at 9.05. It only took him half an hour to do the service and report that nothing needed replaced this time, but maybe we’d need a gasket replaced at the next service, which should be in a year’s time. One thing done.

Scamp asked me to take her up to Tesco to get more messages, so I dropped her off and drove on to Motherwell, had a chat with Carol and Alex and I drove over to Chatelherault on the outskirts of Hamilton. While we were sitting in the car talking, an unusual bird swooped down not far from us. At first I thought it was a Shrike, but Alex though it might be a Jay, and when we got a good look at it, that’s what it was. Not very common this far north, but I think Hazy gets them in her garden.

It was a wild day with sunny skies one minute and torrential rain the next. We walked down past the Three Hard Men, the statues of David Livingston, William Wallace and Robert Owen cut from steel plate. I got a few shots, but wasn’t really struck on any of them. Alex, of course, got a cracker of a shot!

We walked further on to the old Avon Bridge where we saw a Kingfisher about a year ago, but the Avon Water was in spate, or probably more likely just running off a spate, but far too fast flowing for the kingfisher to show today. As we turned to climb the hill that would take us back to the Big House, we felt the first spits of rain. We’d both been watching the clouds rolling in and as there was no shelter, we just had to plod our weary way back through the rain. We got passed by about a dozen cyclists who must have been as wet as us, if not wetter. It was lovely and warm in the cafe though and we got a table without any problem.

I had just been given a tray with our two coffees and two scones when the woman at the till said the system had gone down. She took a note of our order and said she’d let us know when the system was back in business again. After our coffee and scone lunch, we sat and talked a while. People were being served again at the counter and it looked like the rain had stopped and the sun was shining again, so went back and paid for our lunch. The woman seemed surprised that I’d bothered to come back, but maybe it’s just auld guys like me who do that. Anyway, she gave me a wink and gave me a discount for being honest!

Alex suggested a walk to the Cadzow Oaks, the ancient oak trees that surround some earthworks. The oaks have been dated to the mid 15th Century. That kind of ancient. Some of the oldest living trees in Scotland. The earthworks are a mystery. Nobody seems to know their significance, and there is no clue to who built them. The oaks always make me think of the Ents that Tolkien wrote about. We both got a few photos of them, quite a few! One Ent photo made PoD. Then the rain threatened again and we walked back over the Duke’s Bridge to the car. I drove Alex home and we planned another outing between Christmas and New Year, probably to Glasgow if the weather behaves.

Scamp had been busy while I was away. There was mince cooking on the stove and a lovely smell of baked cakes from the oven. They were Dundee Cakes with a lovely mixture of fruit in them, as well as a measure of Black Bottle whisky. I’ve only had one, because although the paracetamol had done its job, I didn’t want to risk another early morning second dose.

Tomorrow, coincidentally, I’ve a dentist’s appointment to repair a broken filling, so I’ll maybe ask the lady dentist if she’ll have a look at my dodgy molar. Scamp is booked for lunch tomorrow at Calders. Hopefully I’ll be able to speak properly when she gets home, if my jag has worn off by then!

I saw blue sky! – 18 December 2023

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We drove up to Costa today to have coffee with Isobel.

We spent an hour in a cold barn of a place with a really high ceiling that means any hot air collects under the manky glass roof and doesn’t warm those seated below it. Although, I think the air con was blowing cool air around us. We sat in this dismal place for an hour. Isobel eventually put her coat on. An hour was enough in the cooler and we parted to go our separate ways.

Scamp and I were going to Tesco to get a trolley load of messages which tested the suspension of the blue car. It was just a Monday morning shopping expedition with little to differentiate it from any other Monday, except, the sun was breaking through and a big triangular chunk of blue sky was in evidence! Miracles do happen, even in Cumbersheugh.

We drove home and unpacked the bags and then stashed them in cupboards, fridge and freezer until the bags were empty. Scamp was going to have lunch, but I wasn’t going to let the blue sky and sun get away lightly. I changed into boots and drove down to Auchinstarry to get some real outside photos.

A couple of landscapes were first on the list, taken on a walk along the canal towpath, then as I was crossing into the Plantation, the light was just scraping down the side of the Campsie Fells. Just as I took the shot a deer ran across the path and into my field of view, except that the fraction of a second it takes for the shutter to fire allowed the deer to get into the trees. All I saw on the shot was the white of its tail. Never mind, it was the landscape I was photographing this time, not the wildlife.

I crossed the River Kelvin on the bridge and turned right to head back to the car park and found PoD. It’s a snail complete with shell, paddling across the waterlogged path that used to be a mineral railway line taking coal to Glasgow. A nice low angle and a slow moving subject gave me ideal image for the PoD.

Drove home after visiting Lidl in Kilsyth and wishing I’d walked through the wee park where a bloke told me he’d seen a kingfisher about a month ago, but the light was failing by then and I had to leave the kingfisher for another day. I drove home and had a late lunch of a piece ’n’ cold meat.

Dinner tonight was more of yesterday’s Carrot & Lentil Curry. It had matured since yesterday. Not as sweet and with some extra garam masala, it was a bit spicier.

Watched the final part of Portrait Artist of the Year 2023 where the winning artist painted Dr Dame Jane Morris Goodall DBE for the National Portrait Gallery. It was so good to see a portrait that ended up looking like the sitter for a change.

Tomorrow a bloke is coming to service the boiler and I’m hoping to meet Alex for a photo walk.