Category: Driving

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.

 

Sunshine! – 12 July 2024

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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.