Category: Driving

The man who worked in the garden – 20 March 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Today I was that man.

In the morning Scamp was out at FitSteps. I stayed at home because I’d promised to fix the upstairs front windows that screeched when you opened them. Some lithium grease and a shot or two of WD 40 sorted that and now they open easily, or at least better than they did.

It was in the afternoon that we started work on the front garden. Scamp did most of the work. She directed operations and told me the names of the plants and flowers she was working with. I was the labourer. I did some riddling of the coarse earth that came from last year’s potato bags and shovelled it into tubs that needed more of a covering. Scamp pruned the stragglers in the Berberis pots. We both inspected the plants that were beginning to show their heads and Scamp watered some plants. She actually watered plants because they needed the moisture. Last week we were complaining about the amount of water that was falling from the sky. Today the earth was dry(ish). How things change in a week.

For some reason I wasn’t all that bothered with taking photos, but about 5pm we were both feeling that it might be a good idea to walk over to Condorrat to get a couple of fish suppers. That way, nobody had to cook. I actually walked over without a jacket. That gives you some idea how warm it was. While I was out, I took some photos of the gorse bushes which are a lovely warm colour. Sharp thorns, but bright yellow flowers.

We watched the final of Landscape Artist 2026 and were disappointed that the Scottish person didn’t win. Why must the English always win?

Tomorrow I expect we’ll be going dancing. I’m not looking forward to the long drive home, though.

 

 

 

Chatelherault – 19 March 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Out early, well … early for me on a bright Thursday morning. I was going to meet my brother for a short photo walk. I’d been warned that I had to be back in Cumbersheugh by 3pm or I’d turn into a pumpkin. I’ve been a pumpkin before and I didn’t want to repeat the experience.

I met Alex at his house and we drove over to Chatelherault and went for out usual coffee. It gives us a chance to catch up on what the other has been doing in the last week or two. The rainy weather we’d both been through recently meant that neither of us had been doing much photography, and for me at least, it was mostly indoors photography which sometimes gives me the chance to try something new, but can also be a drag. Today we agreed on a walk over the Duke’s Brig.

We’d hardly started when we both spotted a robin sitting on a fence post next to the path we were following. It was a cheeky wee bird that kept hopping along the fence as we followed it. I got a few decent shots of it and one in particular with the robin against a sparkly bokeh background became the PoD. I’ll admit that it was close run thing with a grab shot I got of two Corgies getting their photos taken, but the robin won.

We walked over the bridge and on to the Cadzow Oaks. Some eejits had started a fire at the base of the 500+ years old trees, but someone with sense had put out the fire before it could take hold. I sometimes wonder at the mentality of these people.

I was being careful and made sure I had enough time to drop Alex off at his house and leave myself enough time to get back home by 3pm, but not before we had another coffee (for me) and a juice (for Alex). We agreed that we’d try to get out again next week.

Drove back to Cumbersheugh and picked up Scamp and we drove over to Coatbridge for a meeting with her specialist who took us through Scamp’s recent meeting with the Dundee team and checked her for changes to her Essential Tremor. There had been some changes, but only slight.

Tomorrow, Scamp is hoping to go to FitSteps as usual on a Friday. Me? I may tidy up my room, but only maybe!

A walk in the park – 18 March 2026

Posted on by Zogman

A long lie in after yesterday’s late night drive.

A relaxing morning was called for to recover from yesterday’s drive home from Larky. It was a lovely morning. Blue skies and light cloud. It seemed a shame not to get out in it, even if was still a bit wet underfoot. Scamp was tidying up, but also searching for signs of new growth in the pots and troughs around the back garden. For my part I got a spade and a garden fork and turned over the soil and old veg in the compost bin. The quality of compost in the bin was surprisingly good for once.
We both lifted old leeks from a couple of pots too. After they had been washed, Scamp shared them with John and Carly next door. Both of them had fed us with soup over the winter and this would hopefully be a suitable ’Thank You’.

After a light lunch Scamp suggested we go for a walk round Drumpellier Loch. I thought it was a great idea. In fact it was such a warm afternoon, for the first time in ages I walked round the woodland without my big orange Rab jacket and it really did feel like spring. On the way back to the car, we wandered round the Peace Garden in the park where Scamp wanted to see the flowers. I didn’t think there would be anything to see this early in the year, but she proved me wrong. Lots of wee pockets of flowers all around the garden. We found a monument to peach in the Peace Garden and that made PoD.
We even managed to have an ice cream cone each with raspberry on it. Real raspberry like we used to get from the ice cream van!

Back home, I unloaded the photos I’d taken, but Scamp wasn’t finished yet. She found lots more tubs to investigate and hauled a pail full of weeds out as she was going with her wee hooked digger tool.

I made dinner tonight and it was Pasta Carbonara. It’s ages since I made it, but this one was almost perfect. Maybe I could have added more cheese, but only a little amount.

We watched the first episode of AI Confidential on BBC2. I’m not sure what to make of it. Bits were surreal, but also the true story behind it made me think again. I think I’ll watch episode 2 if I get a chance. It’s thought provoking. Also it made a change from Masterchef which is becoming boring for me now. Scamp would probably disagree!

Tomorrow I’m intending to meet Alex for a short walk in Chatelherault in the morning, but I need to be back to take Scamp to see her consultant later in the afternoon.

 

A belated blog post – 17 March 2026

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A wet day and a late night.

Scamp had Calendula to drop off at Isobel’s in the morning, so we drove down to the village, and handed them over. Stopped off at M&S on the way home looking for some fruit, but as usual there were none to be seen. Why is it that the smaller Tesco and M&S outlets hardly ever carry a full stock of the fruit and veg, while the larger shops have a glut of them and are selling them off as yellow ticket, almost out of date, items? Surely it’s not beyond the wit of the providers to provide! We drove home without the fruit and veg we’d stopped for.

In the afternoon, and after lunch I went for a walk in St Mo’s while Scamp stayed at home. A bunch of mushrooms at the side of the path through the trees caught my eye and in a short dry spell, I managed to get a few shots them for a PoD. Back home I did a bit of research and the outcome was that they were likely to be related to the Ink Cap family. So said Google and who was I to argue.

We were off in the evening for dinner with Crawford and Nancy in Larky. The rain had returned as a constant drizzle that is more annoying than full force rain. The wipers never really settle down to be intermittent of on full in that kind of weather, but we arrived in Larky at about our predicted time

A lovely dinner and a good blether with discussions of holidays, cruises and aches and pains. We’re off that age now when these things are important! We left just before midnight and were cruising along nicely when we saw that our exit from the motorway was closed, presumably for roadworks. Not to worry, we’d the sat nav on and we’d just pick it up at the next exit, except, it too was closed. After a lot of missed exits and more road closures, Scamp finally found a route through the east end of Glasgow and we emerged onto the M73 and back home just before 1am. Cup of tea and off to bed. Glad that drive was over.

Tomorrow, we’ll have a long lie in.

 

It was a dancing day today – 14 March 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Drove over to Brookfield for the first dance class in ages.

Traffic was quite heavy this morning when we went to Brookfield. First worrying sign was that everyone still had their outdoor jackets on. While I was signing in, Stewart broke the news that the heating was off. Something had gone wrong with the Hive heating system and this in a big hall is not a good thing.

Stewart suggested we start with a House of Bamboo to get us moving. Not my favourite line dance, but at least it warmed us up. Next was a much more complicated ‘Hobie Quickstep’. I remembered the name, but couldn’t remember the actual steps. Scamp remembered part of it, but it was just a blur to me. Also, it went on for ages and I was getting really fed up with it. A new Waltz was next. It might be named Britannia or it might not. It was really just a bit of fluff to keep us on the dance floor and moving. The final dance was Rona’s Rumba, named for an enthusiastic dancer in the class, who passed away a few years ago now. This was one of Jane’s creations because she and Rona were great friends. We finished with two old favourites, Midnight Jive and the mental Fireball. I excused myself to go to the toilet instead of chancing the Midnight Jive because although it gets your heart pumping, it’s a bit of a nothing dance. Fireball is just a fun dance, in fact I wouldn’t even call it a dance. It’s just an attempt to be the person or persons who can shout “Oi !!” and “FIREBALL” the loudest.

With that we were done and returned the hall to the poor bowlers who must have been freezing sitting in an unheated room discussing this year’s competitions. Rather them than me.

The drive home was a nightmare with two lanes being squeezed into two and a crawl for about ten miles before everything started to thin out with no rhyme nor reason for the problem. Sometimes it’s like that and some day I’d like to view the motorway from a helicopter to try to understand the flow of traffic ( or the lack of flow ).

Back home I went for a walk to stretch my legs and got today’s PoD which was a Sycamore seedling pushing its green head out of the leaf litter in St Mo’s. I thought it deserved a photo. Walked home in the rain. By the time I got home the rain was going off! Sometimes life is like that.

For ages, since I got this new iMac I’ve had the feeling that the colour balance wasn’t right. Today I found out why.  I fixed two switches in the “Displays” part of “System Settings” Here they are for when I next need to use them:

Brightness set as suits the display.
Automatically adjust brightness – OFF
True Tone – ON
Colour Profile – Adobe RGB (1998)

Remember that ya Numpty!

No plans for tomorrow, but I might see if Alex is free next week.

 

Visiting Isobel – 12 March 2026

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It was a very windy and very wet day.

Scamp had intended meeting Isobel at Costa as usual, but a call from Isobel saying that she didn’t want to go out today because of the wind meant we’d go for tea and biscuits in Isobel’s house. It didn’t look as if I was going to get many photos today, so a blether with Isobel would be fine. Scamp had lots of photos to show her of the visit she and Shona had to Edinburgh. I hardly got a word in edgeways as Scamp and Isobel hogged the conversation. Nevermind, the coffee and biscuits made it worthwhile.

Drove home and picked up some apples and a cake for Scamp and a bag of scones for us both to share. By the time we got home, the weather had calmed down a fair bit, but squally rain showers made the chance of photo unlikely. However, after lunch the sky started clearing and I thought I’d risk a half hour walk round the pond to see if there was anything interesting to photograph.

Once round the pond and just as I was thinking that the cloud scapes were looking interesting, the first spots of rain fell. I got a few shots of the clouds before the heavens opened up and I got soaked. I did think of sheltering under the big pine trees, but by the time I reached them the rain had done its worst and I decided to walk home.

I dumped the photos in the computer after I’d changed my clothes and made a foolish mistake when I was uploading the photos. Thankfully I must have pressed the “Fixit” button and it seems as if it’s all but repaired. I’ll know for sure tomorrow.

Scamp made a really interesting Sweet ’n’ Sour dinner tonight. We must check the recipe and try it again some time soon.

The cloudscape made PoD and it looks as if it got through its problem.

I think Scamp is going to FitSteps tomorrow. Other than that, we have nothing planned.

A windy day – 11 March 2026

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Scamp was out in the morning.

Scamp and Shona were catching a train to Edinburgh, although Shona didn’t know that because this was a surprise visit. I wasn’t going although Scamp had offered me a seat on the train. I decided they would be better without me, and anyway I had some computer stuff to work on.

As it happened, I dropped the pair at the station then headed over to the butcher’s in Muirhead. I was looking for some decent stewing steak, an equal quantity of mince, some fish and a couple of beef olives. I could have shopped closer to home, but I trust the Muirhead butchers because they had never let me down.

Back home I assembled my cables and drives to decant February’s photos but couldn’t find the connector to fit the iMac. Eventually I gave up and sat down to work through Wordle and was surprised when I finished it in three guesses.

The next thing on my list was to order some coffee from Henry’s coffee company. Another small company I’ve used for a couple of years. Recently they have been waiving the delivery cost if you spend more than £30 and delivering to our door. Unfortunately I noticed they now use Royal Mail for their parcel deliveries and that is not good. Royal Mail are one of the worst companies I’ve ever used. They lose orders, deliver the wrong order and generally just make a hash of everything. I may have to resort back to a collection system. At least I’ll know it’s my coffee that I’m drinking.

I did think I might go out for a walk with a camera in the afternoon, but one look out the window made the decision for me. Horizontal rain is not my idea of fun, nor is sleet, nor hail and all three flew past my window as I watched the day go down the drain. I eventually did manage a dry half hour round St Mo’s and the PoD I got was a photo of a Salmonberry which are apparently related to Brambles.

No real plans for tomorrow, but it seems to be wet and windy.

Glasgow Fire – 10 March 2026

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Wandering around central Glasgow trying to make sense of the world.

I tried to avoid going in to Glasgow today. A fire that started in a vape shop near Central Station on Sunday, got out of control and ultimately caused the collapse of one of the oldest buildings in the city.

I didn’t really want to go and see the damage, but I needed to find out what was going on in the 24-105mm lens of my camera. For almost a month now I’ve had this annoying screeching noise from the lens and the only place I knew could help was A. J. Johnstone in the centre of town.

Johnstone’s camera repair shop is really close to the, still smoking, collapsed building, but I got instruction from the company on how to find the entrance to their shop without going near the old building or crossing police tape. The company’s shop is on the fifth floor of an old building. There is a lift that carries two people at a time but only reaches the fourth floor. However, climbing the last flight to the fifth floor was a better solution that climbing up all five. When I got to the repair shop, the news wasn’t good. The damage was in the barrel of the lens and the disassembly and refitting would be at least £500 with a six month warranty. I had the feeling it wasn’t a repair he wanted to do, and I didn’t really want to shell out £500 for something that might only work for six months. I thanked him for his free advice and found my way out of the warren these old buildings are like.

I phoned Scamp to tell her the bad news, then headed back to the city centre. Then like all the others, I just stood and looked at the damage to Bothwell Street and Hope Street. There was an almost total silence from the people standing looking at what used to be a building they knew so well. Eventually I dragged myself away after I took a few photos of the devastation.

I got the Alloa train from Queen Street and phoned Scamp to ask for a lift from Croy to home. It wasn’t the day or the answer I’d hoped for, but I had already spoken to a salesman in WEX and he had sort of prepared me for what the repair man in Johnstone’s had confirmed. It’s not the end of the world. The lens still works for now, but I will have to save up for a new lens eventually.

One final note to self:
Remember what the man in Johnstones said. “Don’t buy secondhand camera equipment. It’s false economy.”

PoD had to be the view through the blue Police tape to the fire engines and the firemen still hosing down the remains of a once proud building.

Tomorrow, Scamp is intending to head east.

Bob the Builder – 8 March 2026

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… just for one day!

We had a busy day ahead of us today. We were taking Shona to Monklands to have an ultrasound. After that we were taking her back to her new house to get her bed assembled then have new curtain poles and curtains fitted. Luckily the existing fittings for the curtain poles were still there, so that saved us a fair bit of work. The bed the council had provided was pretty poor and I can see me having to strengthen it in the near future. She’s hoping to get other bits and pieces of snagging finished soon and she’ll be able to move in permanently. As usual I’d only brought some of the tools with me, but by luck we had enough to get all the work done in a couple of hours. We left her smiling from the front door of her her new house.

We drove back home and I went for a walk in St Mo’s partly to get some photos and partly to straighten my back which was aching with stretching up to fit the curtain poles and the curtains, all five of them. Scamp and Shona did all the clever stuff and I did the climbing up the ladders. I knew where I was heading for to get today’s PoD. I’d seen the Flowering Currant bush yesterday and thought it would make a fine photo. However, when I checked the camera, the power was down to 6% which is nowhere near what I was hoping. I took what I could get and walked home. Back home I discovered that the battery I was using was swelling. Never a good sign, so it will need replacing very soon. I don’t think I’ll risk recharging it, just in case.

That was a hard day, hopefully tomorrow will be easier when we go to meet Andrew in Falkirk.

Old Friends – 18 February 2026

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Today we drove over to Condorrat to meet a couple of old friends.

I have exchanged Christmas Cards with Elizabeth for a long, long time, but this year I forgot, and I think she forgot too. It’s a growing old thing. Anyway, when this year’s card arrived she suggested in it that it would be good if Scamp and I could come and visit her and her daughter, Fiona. I was delighted, and offered them a few ‘clear’ days and Elizabeth chose today. As time went on, I wasn’t sure if I should cancel, because Scamp is just recovering from a heavy cold and I’m just starting one. However, we went, and had a great time. Remembering names from the past, both pupils and teachers. Not all were good and not all were bad, but we only made a point of remembering the former! We spent a good couple of hours there and agreed that we should do it again some time.

As we were leaving, Fiona presented us with two jars, one full of Apple Jelly and another full of Thick Orange Marmalade. I haven’t opened either of them yet, but I’m sure they will taste as lovely as they look. That is where the PoD came from today. It started off as a dull day, weatherise, but later, just as we were leaving, the sun shone for an hour or so. Another sign that Spring is on the way.

Other than that, there was little to say about today. But dinner was one of Scamp’s specialities, Chicken Milanese. Chicken battered flat with a rolling pin, dipped in egg yolk and fried in a frying pan. We had chips with ours and the whole thing just worked.

We watched Masterchef the Professionals tonight. It’s amazing how a couple of simple changes can make a considerable difference to a show. None of that ridiculous shouting that used to go on. Long may it continue, but it’s early days yet.

I had a phone consultation with the doc today and it appears that my Ferritin levels are a bit high, but nothing to worry about. I’ve to get another blood test in six months.

PoD is done and it’s getting near my new bedtime, so I’m going to take some Benylin and go to bed.

Maybe going dancing tomorrow. Depends on how we feel.