Category: Driving

Looking for mythical creatures – 16 February 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was out in the morning to get her hair cut. I was left in charge of the house.

When she returned looking glamorous we discussed what to do with the remainder of the day. We discussed various options and came up empty handed. Finally, after a long wait I suggested we go shopping in Lidl in Kilsyth. My ulterior motive (there is always one) was that I’d heard tell of a kingfisher frequenting the Garrel Burn.

So after we’d bought our shopping we took a walk through Kilsyth and followed the burn all the way to the main road without seeing any life in the burn whether fish or feathered. We walked back to the car by a different route and found a tributary to the Garrel, but it didn’t look as if there was any activity in it either. I’m not sure if the story of the kingfisher is a myth or not, but I’ll give it another chance some time, maybe going downstream as well as upstream this time.

I did get one decent photo on our walk. Looking through a circular hole in the cast iron bridge over the burn to look upstream through the trees. I just liked the frame the circle made for the burn. That became PoD.

On the way back to the car we discovered the fresh fish shop we used to visit in Kilsyth. Scamp was impressed with quality of the fish and bought a piece of salmon for tomorrow’s dinner. I’d already selected a thick slice of rump steak for mine from Lidl.

We drove home and found a nearly empty car park and had our choice of parking places for once.

Today’s prompt was “Violet”.
I chose to paint some African Violets, at one time my favourite flower. They used to be seen in garden centres all around the country, but now they seem to have fallen out of favour. One of the easiest plants to propagate from cuttings, I may go looking for some once the cold weather has gone.

That was about it for the day. Dinner was the remains of yesterday’s chicken which for some reason disagreed with Scamps teeth and a very old filling came out. It had to happen late on a Friday when the dentist isn’t open at weekends. I think it might be something soft and easily chewed for breakfast tomorrow, maybe porridge!

It appears that the dancing teachers have returned and so have the classes, starting tomorrow.

Cormorant – 15 February 2024

Posted on by Zogman

It was a wet day today. Nothing really to recommend it, except that there was no mist today, unlike yesterday.

After a lazy start and a light lunch, we drove up to Tesco in the town centre to get some messages. As I’ve said before, there is more of a choice there and why stint yourself when you can add five minutes to your drive and get a far better choice. We bumped into Shona there and remarked on her new hair colour. Then we drove home. Some days are full of exciting surprises and some are days like today.

I went for a walk round St Mo’s because the rain had stopped for a while and I wanted to get out. Scamp was busy booking a hair appointment for tomorrow. Not hair colouring, just hair cutting. Occasionally a Cormorant visits the pond in St Mo’s and it was standing there today holding its wings out to dry. It would take quite a while for them to dry today because although it was mild, the wind had disappeared with the rain. As I said, it was drying its wings, but it kept turning round to see what I was up to behind it and one of those times I managed to get a full face to face shot. Quite pleased with it. PoD done and dusted.

Dinner tonight was roast chicken and it was done perfectly. I also roasted some beetroot we’d bought at the weekend and it will probably go into a salad or on a piece of bread tomorrow. I cut the tops off carefully, Hazy, and they are now sitting in their water bath on the kitchen window sill. The garlic and spring onion were getting leggy so they are now planted in soil in the greenhouse.

I found today’s prompt, Chartreuse, one of the most restrictive this year in EDiF.
Chartreuse is an alcohol based herbal liqueur made by monks in southern France to a secret recipe. It sounded to me like an upmarket Buckfast, also made by monks to a secret recipe. The two main differences are the cost and the colour. Chartreuse is green or yellow and Buckfast is brown with red tinges (or so I’m told). I liked the idea of green wine, but not the cost.

The clock is in the picture because the first time I heard the word Chartreuse was in the track “Clockwork Chartreuse” on the Loudon Wainwright III album “Attempted Mustache” back in the early ’70s. The lyrics are fairly violent and probably wouldn’t be allowed in these PC days.

Scamp is booked to get her hair cut tomorrow morning and I might cut mine in the afternoon. Twins!

Out to lunch – 14 February 2024

Posted on by Zogman

But a case of the Curate’s Egg

Today Scamp mentioned that she would like to visit a new garden centre called Homegrown. We’d nothing better to do, so we drove over to Gartcosh to see what it was like.

We found it easily enough, just a few minutes off the M73. It was a new-build rectangular block. We went straight upstairs to the restaurant and were one of the last to get a table. All the other tables were already reserved, but didn’t have any notice on them to say they were not free. We both settled on the soup, Leek & Potato, and chose to have coffee afterwards. The soup was fine, lots of flavour, but apart from the obvious L&P I couldn’t quite put my finger on the other ingredients. When we finished and the waitress was taking away the plate I asked what was in the soup and that’s when things started to go wrong. The waitress just couldn’t answer my question and mumbled “Well, leeks and potatoes … “ Scamp leapt to her aid by suggesting “Celery?” She agreed that “there was celery in it and onions…”

In the end I gave up and we both ordered coffee and a scone. When mine arrived it was absolutely roasting. Just one notch down from glowing red hot. Worse, it was brick hard (probably a fire brick.) The final flaw was that it was baked onto the black serviette it was sitting on, I had to tear the thing off. Scamp said her’s was fine, but a bit hard. When a second waitress came to take away our plates, Scamp mentioned the problem with the scones. The waitress made a few noises, but seemed unable to string the noises into a coherent sentence. We paid and left to see what treats the shop and plants had in store for us.

The answer was “Not Much”. It seemed a bit of a shambles. Shopping trolleys filled with cushions were being wheeled about in quite a tight space and shelves were being re-stacked in the shop area. Some lovely pieces were on display for ‘lovely’ prices. The outside plants area was the same. Lots of workers with wheelbarrows bring in raw materials and the sound of a Stihl saw cutting through sheet steel. Almost everything was overpriced compared to the garden centres we’re used to visiting.  The overall impression was of a work in progress.

Would I visit again? Well, today could just have been a bad day, but there was definitely a feeling of style over substance here. Also, people were being turned away from the restaurant because tables had been pre-booked. That is fine if there is a card on the table to say ‘Reserved’, but there wasn’t. They company might also think of investing in buzzers to hand to potential customers if they want to keep them onside. I’m usually happy to give a company a second chance, but I’m not sure I would for this one.

We drove home. I’d managed to get a couple of grey photos of a grey landscape on a grey day. I turned one of them into a sepia toned monochrome image that would become PoD.

Next task was to get sketches and paintings done for today and yesterday in EDiF.
Yesterday’s prompt was Lime, so being cantankerous, I made it Limes. After a couple of aborted attempts at using salt to give me the texture I was looking for in the lime’s skin, I eventually searched on YouTube and found the answer. I learned that the best way is not to remove the paint using salt, but to add the texture with a fine brush and a stippling action. Lo and behold, the additive method works. I’m done now with limes. I’ll keep them and the salt for Margaritas!

Today’s prompt was for “Rose”. This might have had something to do with today’s date, 14th February is traditionally Valentine’s Day. To me it was just a chance to sketch and paint a rose, more or less freehand with very little pencil sketching. I did it in what an art teacher once called my ‘splashy style’ totally the opposite of yesterday’s ‘Lime’ which was quite tight and calculated. Strangely I enjoyed both techniques.

Tomorrow looks a bit like today as far as the weather is concerned. I’m not sure where we will be going yet, if anywhere.

Just for a change, the sun shone for a while this morning – 10 February 2024

Posted on by Zogman

It didn’t last, but it was a sign of things to come, hopefully.

We managed to get out early today, well, early for us at least. I suggested Stirling as the place to go and off we went. I’d checked the battery in the A6500 and it was in fairly good order. I checked the SD card and formatted it. Then we left for Stirling and halfway down the motorway I realised I’d left the camera bag (with camera) on the sofa in the house! Never mind. I had my phone with me that would see me through the amount of photos I’d take.

After cruising around a busy Waitrose car park we finally chanced upon a space and squeezed ourselves into it then we went for a walk round Stirling. We both wandered round our own collection of shops and agreed to meet up later, which we did. Scamp suggested an M&S curry deal for dinner and I agreed. Dinner bought we asked each other, did we really want to go for a coffee? Neither of us were all that interested, so we walked back to the car and dumped the dinner in the boot then went to see what we could find in Waitrose. I got a rolled breast of lamb that will hopefully become my dinner tomorrow and Scamp got a couple of nice pieces of fish. Paid and added the takings to the growing pile in the boot, then made someone’s day bay nudging forward into the long, long queue of folk cruising round looking for a free space. A delighted looking woman in a van was happy to take ours and we drove home.

It’s funny the way weather works. When we were driving towards Stirling the sky ahead of us was much lighter than that behind us. When we were driving home in the early afternoon, the light ahead of us was much lighter than that behind us again! How does that happen?

Back home I went for a walk in St Mo’s WITH the camera this time, but got nothing interesting, so I walked down through the muddy wilderness behind St Mo’s to the shops and bought a load of stuff we didn’t need, but which was well received when I got home.

PoD was a quick phone shot in Stirling of three folk sitting on a bench, each texting on their phones. It’s entitled “Happy Tappers”.

Today’s prompt was “Ash”. This tree might soon be a thing of the past with Ash dieback being so rife these days. In my own street about half a dozen trees were felled in autumn last year. Some of them weren’t even ash trees, which brings into question the integrity of some of the tree fellers the council employs.

Today’s prompt was ‘Ash’. I always liked playing with the ash seeds when I was younger. We never called them Keys, we called them ‘propellers’ because of their shape and also because of the way they spun when they fell from the trees. Let’s hope some clever folk can devise a way to save the trees and staunch the damage done by the disease.

Dinner was that curry and it still looks like the lamb breast will be tomorrow’s dinner for me at least.

No real plans for tomorrow. Maybe Glasgow Green.

Another day, another busy one – 7 February 2024

Posted on by Zogman

It snowed during the night last night and it froze afterwards, so it was a photogs paradise.

We were going out just after midday, so I booted up and went for a walk around St Mo’s to see what I could find to fill the PoD gap. The place is totally different in the morning to the afternoon which is my usual hunting ground. Everything looks or seems fresher. The light is coming from the south east, not the south west so most of my subjects look very different. The PoD turned out to be a dried out Hogweed plant from last year with its star-like flower stems holding little beads of ice that had been snow that melted to water then froze into ice. I liked the way the warm background contrasted with the ice.

I had a few in the bag when I walked home, but the usually trustworty A7iii was misbehaving today. First it decided not to take photos, then it thought better of that and took a dozen or more in motor-wind mode and by then I’d had enough of its high jinks. I’d already tried switching it off and then on again but that didn’t work – it rarely does with modern electronics, so it was the nuclear option. I took out the battery, counted to five and put it back in again. That showed it who was boss! Or so I thought. The sneaky camera had taken 50 shots on motor-wind and loads more besides. I’m hoping to look into the issue tomorrow. No time today.

Back home we had time for a quick lunch and then we were off with our dancing shoes to Motherwell to a church hall for a new(!) Tea Dance. Strangely, it’s just along from Alex’s house. It was a bit stressful going to a new hall with new people and a new teacher, but we survived. More than that, we both enjoyed it. The folk were friendly and welcoming and the dances were ones we knew for the most part and any ones that we didn’t know, we were tutored in by the more experienced dancers. Tea and cakes at half time, then a class tutorial on the Ria Bachata which we knew almost better than the teachers. The music wasn’t as interesting as S&J’s, but you can’t have everything. We both thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon and would be happy to go back. We even got invites to other tea dances in the surrounding area.

We drove back and just as we came on to the motorway my phone rang. It was Alex saying “Did I just miss you at the Loaning?” I laughed out loud. He had just been coming back from a walk into Motherwell when he thought it was me driving past. How strange it that. I’ll have a lot of explaining to do at the next photo walk!
One of the best things about this new hall is that it’s motorway driving almost all the way and there’s no Kingston Bridge to crawl over on the way home! That, in itself is a delight.

The prompt for today was “Tangerine”. So, another fruity one. Just the one tangerine, because I thought I was being a bit generous yesterday with my two and a half plums. I tried the old trick of using salt to create the skin texture of the fruit, but for once it didn’t work. The salt was difficult to remove too, so if you think the sketch tastes a bit salty, you now know why.

Tomorrow Scamp is booked for coffee with Isobel and I’ve some work to do in the house. I also need to get a card for Alex and post it. The snow is gone for now, but we’re expecting it to return on Friday.

Mountain climbing and lunch with Shona – 6 February 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Today we were taking Shona out to lunch.

Scamp and I had planned to take Shona to Cafe Bothy. It’s actually called Coffee Bothy now, but we prefer the original name. It’s a great wee restaurant in a place called Blairlogie in Clackmannanshire. Isobel was the first one who found it, being guided by her granddaughter and Isobel introduced us to it. Shona had never heard of it, which isn’t surprising as it’s in the middle of nowhere on a farm off a single track road. Shona had Fish ’n’ Chips, Scamp had Mac ’n’ Cheese and I had Mince ’n’ Tatties. All with the apostrophe correctly place before and after the n you’ll notice! That was the main course. We all opted for cakes rather than pudding afterwards and it was Strawberry Tart for Shona, Cream Doughnut for Scamp and a Gypsy Cream for me with coffees to follow of course.

Fed and watered, Scamp suggested we drive to Dollar park for a walk. Unfortunately we couldn’t find it and instead we drove up and up and up a steep single-track road to a car park for Castle Campbell instead. From there we walked up and up and up, then down the other side. We had walked up the hill many years ago, but we’d forgotten just how steep the climb is. The two ladies gave up, when it looked like we’d have to wade across a ford, but I was determined to get a photo on such a beautiful day. As it happened, I didn’t need to ford the burn because there was a bridge tucked away out of sight from the road. I did manage to get up to the top, and got the photo I was hoping for, but I was really knackered after it. The castle wasn’t open. It doesn’t open until April. We may go back then and if we can get parked again, we might take our time and go visit the castle properly.

I walked back down the hill from the castle then over the bridge and up the hill on the other side wondering all the time what kind of vehicle the custodians must have if they travel that road every day to open up. Whatever it is it most certainly isn’t a wee blue car! The drive home was scenic, but I didn’t see anything that was any better than a castle among the trees with a rushing burn beside it. Very ‘Outlander’.

We dropped Shona off at her house with time to spare before Ben came home from school. Driving into the sun was strenuous, not that I’m complaining because the sun was shining, far from it. But I decided I needed to clean the glass in the car inside and out. When I got the Juke I got a big bag of useless spray bottles as part of the ‘deal’. I used the Bug Remover spray and the Seagull Crap remover too, but I remembered as I was driving home, peering through a grey windscreen that there was Glass Cleaner in the bag. I found it when we got home and cleaned all the windows inside and out. I also cleaned the wing mirrors. Hopefully that should make driving less of a bind.

The prompt for today was “Plum”. Being a generous person I added a couple more plums to the singular fruit that was requested and just to be sure they were fresh, I ate half of one. That’s what you see here. Believe that and you’re softer than these plums look!!

Alex had to cancel our photo walk this week because he was needed at home. Hopefully we’ll get out next week. This week was tight anyway. Just one of these weeks when everything piles up.

Tomorrow we may be going dancing in Motherwell. Scamp has been talking about it for weeks and we really need to go there to see how good it is and if it’s an alternative to Glenburn.

Busy, busy, busy – 5 February 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Out just after 10am for an appointment with the sister at the health centre and the day had begun.

It was just a check-up to see if my there had been any sided effects after removing a blood pressure pill from my collection. The sister was happy with the results so far and asked me to make another appointment in three months time. Other than that, she was happy to discharge me.

Drove back home, picking up a loaf and a couple of jugs of milk on the way. Time for a coffee and then I was out to pick up Val and take him to Costa for a coffee and a blether with Fred. The blether lasted for just over two hours and many and varied were the tales that were told, but when Fred’s conversation turned to politics I started putting my jacket on. Val seemed to cotton on to the fact that the blether was over for today and we all walked out into the wind and the heavy rain that had been with us for a few days now. I dropped Val off at his house and then made my exit before I got totally soaked.

Back home I felt a bit sick. I blame it on the ‘coffee’ in Costa. It was good for a couple of days, but it’s back to the floor sweepings again . I knew it was too good to last. I’d taken a few shots of some succulents in the morning and thought I could make a PoD of them, but I was just wasting my time. Instead I used a phone camera shot of ‘Nelly’ the Pleiospilos Nelii looking quite relaxed in her new painted pot. I’d sent the photo to Hazy, but with a bit of a crop it made a decent PoD too.

Today’s prompt for EDiF was “Cream”. I chose the Ice variety of cream and rather than have a neat, tidy, delicious looking ice cream cone, I picked the one that’s half melted and runs down over your fingers, making you wish you’d accepted the offer of the paper napkin. It’s also the time when you realise the ‘wet wipes’ are in the car and you can’t open the car door without without making a bigger mess. Ah, life is full of problems, isn’t it!

That was about it for the day. Short and sweet today. That’s just the way it is sometimes. Tomorrow looks better than today, with a light breeze and the risk of some sunshine! We may take Shona out to lunch.

Out to lunch – 1 February 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Out for some garden shopping and then lunch. It’s a hard life.

Dropped in at our new next-but-one neighbour and introduced ourselves properly. We’d bumped into her on Tuesday, but we were rushing to get the bus to Glasgow. Scamp felt bad about that, so we made good today. Then we were on our way to Stirling, but not to Waitrose, to Lakeland and Dobbies.

It’s easy getting parked at Dobbies which used to be the only shop in the retail park. Now that Lakeland has been added and various in-house department have been added to Dobbies the car park has become busier, but it’s still fairly empty, especially on weekdays. While Scamp was browsing in Lakeland I took the opportunity to get some photos, because the light on the nearby Ochil Hills was lovely. Usually I have to poke the camera lens through the two three metre high fence to get a photo, but today the gate was unlocked and I could walk right through and get an unrestricted view of the hills and the Wallace Monument. I took full advantage of it. Then I joined Scamp in Lakeland. She wanted a new Silicone Lemon Preserver that she will use for limes. We looked at other stuff too, of course. There are so many things in Lakeland that we never realised we couldn’t do without.

We walked through to Dobbies because Scamp wanted some sweet pea seeds and a few bulbs. I wanted a new pair of boot socks and a bag of cactus compost for potting up my split rock plant. We got everything except the seeds, but she found some other seeds to replace them. Isn’t it amazing that you can go to a garden centre to buy socks.

We drove out of Dobbies and headed north to The Smiddy near Blairdrummond for lunch. For Scamp it was easy, Mac ’n’ Cheese, her favourite and apparently it was just as good as it usually is. For me it was Gobi Curry (roasted cauliflower curry). First time I’ve seen it on the menu, but it was really, really good. The cauliflower was crunchy, the curry was acceptably hot and at first I thought I’d miss the rice, but the flatbread it was served with was an ideal replacement. I’d have it again in an instant. I got a couple of burgers to cook at the butcher shop and a couple of beef olives too. A bag of coffee beans and a miniature of gin rounded off our purchases in the deli. Another couple of landscapes and we headed home.

This being the 1st of February, my first sketch was due today. The prompt was Honey. I thought of drawing a honey drizzler, but I’d drawn one last year … or was it the year before? Anyway, I found a bottle of Rowse honey in the cupboard and thought it would be perfect. A nice easy sketch to start with.

PoD went to the view from the open gate over to the Ochil Hills. Photoshop made sure nobody would know there was a motorway cutting across the photo!

No plans as yet for tomorrow, but Nelly needs to move into her new house once I mix up the compost.

 

Just a dump – 29 January 2024

Posted on by Zogman

No, not Cumbersheugh this time, just a bit of clearing out.

Things that had outlived their usefulness or that no longer worked. They were going on a one way trip to the council skips.

But first there was shopping to be done. A long rambling walk round the aisles of Tesco collecting some things we don’t really need, but a lot of things we can’t do without. A Monday shop is really a necessity shop. No frills, just food shopping, mainly.

With that done it was time for lunch, then a gathering together of all the bags and buckets of stuff referred to earlier. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of things that we can fit into the boot of the blue car. When we got to the council tip, most of it went straight into “General Household” the cover-all description of the miscellaneous detritus that isn’t wholly metal, wood or rubble. I did have one or two items that went into the “Metal” skip and one that would have gone into “Small Electrical” if that skip had been there. Instead it went into “General …”

Now I reckoned I had an hour or so to go and get some photos. I chose the Forth & Clyde canal between Haggs and Allandale as my destination. After a being stopped at a few roadworks (February is the month for councils to ‘get rid’ of their unused money. If they don’t do that, their grant for the next year will be reduced) where unnecessary work was being done quite slowly. Eventually I reached the canal and got a few shots on the A6500 then headed for home.

Dinner tonight was pasta with mushrooms, bacon and chilli flakes in a tomato sauce, plus one special ingredient, Hazy. Finely chopped up greenery from a single stem of spring onion growing in a pot of water on the kitchen window sill! That just finished the sauce off perfectly.

PoD was a shot looking west from one of the locks on the canal with a nice little reflection of the trees.

We have plans for tomorrow. Hopefully they will be revealed in tomorrow’s blog.

A day on my tod – 27 January 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Out about 9am (that’s earlier than a ‘normal’ Saturday when we’re going dancing) to drop Scamp off at Ian’s – June’s weekend retreat!

Scamp and June were off to Glasgow Royal Concert Hall to sing the Verdi Requiem with a few other singers. Originally it was expected that there would be about 600 voices. The final total for today was 804!! That’s a lot of noise. I wasn’t involved at all. All I did was drive Scamp to meet June at Ian’s. After that, my work was done and I could rest for the remainder of the day.

As it was, I must have wasted a good half hour of the day attempting to find where they hide the crunchy peanut butter in the Town Centre Tesco. They have the strangest idea of a logical pattern to their shelves, but eventually I did find this addictive breakfast necessity. It’s the closest thing I’ve found to the ‘Pease Brose’ my mum used to make. It was made from ground up dried peas, not peanuts, but strangely the processing was similar.

With the crunchy peanut butter jar in my pocket I could have my breakfast and then struggled with Wordle and gave up on Spelling Bee, then read a bit more of my latest book set in Skye. I kept waiting for the weather to decide what it was going to do, so that I could decide what I was going to do. Eventually I made the decision to drive to The Fort for a couple of things. One is still in abeyance and the other, a white nylon round paintbrush I was hoping to find in Hobbycraft, but there were none of any size in the shop. Lots of white nylon flat brushes, but I’ve already got one of those. I use these nylon brushes to pick dust spots off the sensors of my cameras. If you activate them with a blower brush first the nylon fibres generate a static charge and attract the little dust motes in the camera. The big flat works perfectly for a quick sweep over the sensor, but the small rounds get into the corners. I’m not a tidy or house proud person until it comes to the innards of my cameras! Disappointed I went to see if Waterstones had anything interesting to offer, but even they let me down. I drove home.

I drove home in a different direction than normal, because the light was just right to grab a photo of an old farm that sits on a hill above the motorway and I knew where I could abandon the car for the few minutes it would take. Half a dozen photos later I was heading homeward again. Parked and then took a walk to the shops for a ready meal of Prawn Bhuna for my dinner.

By the time I was coming home, the light was fading but I extended my walk because I’d been sitting for most of the afternoon and needed to stretch my legs. I also wanted to try out my new photographer’s gloves that Scamp had bought me. They worked really well with the little finger cover that you can sneak off so you can accurately press the shutter and not one of the plethora of other buttons on a camera, then you can cover up the finger again so you don’t get frostbite. Brilliant idea. Thanks Scamp.

Just as I was fiddling with the finger guard I registered a movement off to my right as a young buck wandered across the path and off into the woods. Not running just ambling along. I was so entranced with this deer that I didn’t have time to photograph it. Someone once said it’s better to watch something happening in front of you that waste your time trying to photograph it. I agree … sometimes!

Scamp got back just before 10pm still pumped up from being part of such a big choir. I imagine June would be the same. I wished I’d been there to feel the sound of 800 odd voices, but I don’t think I’d have enjoyed the music, so probably best to hear about it once removed.

The picture of the old farm made PoD. I liked the finished article, although it wasn’t quite what I set out to capture.

We have no plans for tomorrow. We’ll see what the weather brings.