Category: Driving

A Sunny Day – 24 June 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Another day of blue skies that belied the heat that would come later.

Scamp was out at midday, meeting the witches. I don’’t know why we men can’t do the same thing. Cup of coffee and a blether just to set the world to rights. It shouldn’t be difficult, but apparently it is.

Later in the afternoon I did as I had told myself and drove up to Fannyside looking for some flying beasties, but there were none to be seen. There were, however, a herd of Highland Cattle in a field next to where I stopped. They really are scary beasts when you see them up close. Thankfully there was a strong fence and gate that separated them from me. I got a few photos of their shaggy faces and one of them made PoD.

As I was driving home, I got a message from Scamp, telling me that the Witches Coven had flown home on their broomsticks. That was perfect timing as I was just heading down the motorway and home.

By the time I got home, Scamp was already settled in the folding chairs in the garden, soaking up the rays. It was that time of day when the sun is sinking a bit, but the air is comfortable enough to wear Tee Shirt and Shorts. We sat in the garden discussing our day and making plans for what we should to the garden. As I’ve said before, we need to move some of the heat loving plants to the front garden and the ones who prefer shade, to the back. Scamp is an expert at this.

Tomorrow we are hoping to go to the Queen Elizabeth hospital to find out if they have any suggestions for a cure for Scamp’s problems.

 

Keeping up with business – 22 June 2026

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In the morning we drove to Falkirk to sign some pieces of paper.

In fact we had to sign six different pieces of paper each. In the end I was beginning to get writer’s cramp! Still it was worthwhile and we felt a lot better after it was done.

After all that writing we thought we deserved a coffee, so we drove to Morrison’s for a coffee each. Scamp suggested we also have a cake each to celebrate. Her’s was a teacake and mine was a jam doughnut. Then we simply loaded up a trolley and pushed it back to the car. But not before we stopped to have a look at a trio of ceramic garden pots. So, we added them to the car boot and headed home.

It was just beginning to drizzle with rain as we were leaving the car park. It had been threatening to rain all morning so we were prepared for it. A totally different day from yesterday.

By the time we got home we had driven out of the rain clouds, but the skies were still heavy with more rain. We had lunch and decided what our next job was. It was mainly planning. Deciding which plants needed to move and which ones would stay. Also we were beginning to see which ones preferred shaded areas and which wanted to be in the sunshine.

Later in the afternoon I went for a walk in St Mo’s. Not a long walk, just a chance to see if there were any interesting insects appearing now that the weather was improving. There were a few dragonflies scudding round the pond, but the most interesting one was a Scorpionfly. It looks like a Scorpion with wings. Vicious looking with what looked like a sting in its tail, but harmless to humans (or so say’s Mr Google).

Scamp was going out tonight to a dance demonstration. Not Ballroom Dancing, more modern dance. She and the rest of the witches were going to cheer the girls on.  Also, as promised, the rain disappeared and the sun came out!

PoD went to the Scorpionfly, by a long way. High on the checklist was a Heron. A rare visitor now to the pond!

Alas, Keir Starmer’s job has come to an end. He resigned today. I admit I wasn’t impressed by him, but I almost felt sorry for him today.

We have no plans for tomorrow … yet!

Rain again – 19 June 2026

Posted on by Zogman

What a day. Rain started yesterday and seemed to continue all through the night.

Thankfully, it stopped about 5pm tonight. I was beginning to look for suggestions on how to build an arc. Not long after the 5pm turn off, the sun shone for the first time in about a week, the wind dropped and there was a lovely skyscape.

We drove up to Costa in the town centre to meet Shona. Scamp and her had a lengthy discussion around Ben. It seems that he is beginning to string sentences together now and is communicating for the first time. Long may it continue.

Isobel joined the group and got a chance to catch-up. Shona stayed for a while but had to go shopping. Isobel stayed to read for a while before it was time for her exercise class to start. We just went home to get lunch.

In the afternoon I put my rain jacket on and drove to The Shops and brought back some fruit and a bag that contained my new jeans from M&S. They fitted perfectly. Just the walk to the shops and back from the carpark and the walk to the house and I was soaked.

As I said at the start, the rain continued until 5pm before somebody turned the water off and it has remained that way until now. I hope I don’t mess things up now by saying that.

By the way, the PoD of two bees is actually yesterday’s photo. No way was I going out in the rain just to get a photo of two bees!

I believe there is football on tv tonight with Scotland playing Morocco. Please don’t let it get into double figures for the foreign team!

No real plans for tomorrow, but Edinburgh has been mentioned.

Another dull day – 18 June 2026

Posted on by Zogman

I’m getting fed up with the constant dull weather. I think my weather needs an upgrade.

We drove to Torwood today to get a white rose. Scamp has been suggesting a white rose might look good in the garden. A way to add a bit of light to the garden. I had to agree with her. Our front garden has lots of colour, but not one white rose. We also needed a bag of perlite to help aerate the soil.

At the garden centre we found quite a few white roses and Scamp selected one she liked the look of, ‘Diamond Dad’. Well, it is nearing Father’s Day! She also picked up a white Campanula to finish off the white theme. The only thing we forgot was at the Perlite we came for. We had lunch in the garden centre too. Just a Toastie each with tea and coffee.

Drove home just as the rain started and that rain lasted all day. I imagine it’s still raining now.

We were intending to have a couple of friends over on Friday for dinner, but a last minute phone call told us that my pal Crawford had pulled a muscle in his back and was presently at the local hospital. We agreed to find another suitable date when he is feeling better. We had just finish agreeing food for Friday, so that was now on hold, but I started making the Courgette, Pea and Spinach we’d decided on as a test. It was a really heavy soup that will need a bit of work to make it edible. I think we’ll try it again some other time and maybe chuck out the recipe book too. Perhaps that was a lucky break!

PoD was a wee ceramic lamb I saw in the garden centre. It looked as if it was sniffing the flowers.

No real plans for tomorrow, although we may meet Shona for lunch. We may get some Perlite too, but not to eat!

 

Early Rise – 16 June 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Today Jamie and Simonne were up early and so were we.

They were heading back down south and we waved them off. It was great having them for the few days, but hopefully we’ll see them again soon.

We drove over to The Fort later in the morning. I was hoping to exchange a pair of jeans for another pair that I might manage to get my legs into. Unfortunately the one size I wanted wasn’t in the rack, so I had to hand them back and get another pair online. I did get a book I was looking for in Waterstones with a birthday voucher from Jamie and Simonne. Thanks folks. It sometimes takes me a while to decide on books!

We had a coffee and a panini and we drove home. I did get the jeans exchanged online after a bit of faffing around but I’ll need to wait now to get them. Why does everything have to be difficult and take more time than is actually necessary.

The sun seemed to give up today and went in to hiding. I’d intended to take some photos, but instead I just walked down to The Shops to get a jug of milk.

Scamp had defrosted the freezer while I was out sourcing the milk and was refilling the freezer. In among the food was a partly thawed bag with a jam donut in it dated for January 2026. I let it thaw out and ate it. Surprisingly, it was perfectly fresh!

Tonight it was Fish Fingers, Egg and Spaghetti for dinner, made by Scamp. Tomorrow it will be my turn.

PoD was a bit of a cheat, a shot of a Shield Bug I took yesterday!

Tomorrow I’m hoping to meet Alex for a walk, a few photos and a blether. Maybe manage to squeeze in a pizza too.

The wanderers return – 15 June 2026

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Jamie and Simonne returned from their mountain climbing today.

In the morning we drove down to M&S. We’d usually just walk to the shops, but today we had quite a lot of food to bring back, so taking the car seemed to be the sensible thing to do.

Jamie had predicted that they would arrive back to ours by about 3pm. As usual, he was almost exactly correct, unloading the car at five minutes past three! You can always rely on him to get an accurate time check!

Back home and after lunch I went for a walk in St Mo’s. There wasn’t much of interest today, but I did manage to capture a nicely ball shaped Queen Anne’s Lace or Wild Carrot and that made PoD.

Dinner was all about soup and pizzas. Tomato soup and three different varieties of pizza. One large, thick rectangular one, one really hot and spicy one and an oval, thin one. Pizzas to suit everyone and almost all of them consumed while we talked at the dining table.

We talked for a while in the evening, exchanging ideas for the rest of the summer and hearing more about the walks the pair had done on Arran and the people, good and bad, they had met. Eventually it was time for the youngsters to head off to bed, and it wasn’t much later for us to do the same.

I think we’ll have an early rise tomorrow.

 

Not quite such a wet day – 12 June 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Driving round central Scotland looking for trainers unsuccessfully.

I got the message from Henry’s Coffee Company that a bag of coffee was ready to uplift. Drove to Falkirk, only to find that the shop was closed. A phone call sorted things out and the coffee would be delivered to our door today. That’s what makes Henry’s such a great company to work with.

We retraced our steps and drove to Go Outdoors next, looking for trainers. Not much luck. I saw one pair that were reasonably priced, but only one pair. We might go in to Glasgow tomorrow to see what Tiso has to offer. It all depends on whether Scotland win tonight. If they don’t, batten down the hatches and stay safe for a week or so.

Drove back home by the twisty backroads of Coatbridge and found the big orange parcel waiting for us in the usual place. Sent a thank-you message to the person who brought the coffee.

In the late afternoon I buckled up and went for a walk over to The Shops in and out of the rain all the time. Came home with another bag, sweeties this time. We watched a short episode of Hannah Fry explaining the benefits and pitfalls of AI. Quite interesting, and totally believable.

It had been a slightly better day than yesterday. A bit less rain and although there were a few times when the wind got bit high, at least the rain was lighter.

Hoping for a better weekend tomorrow. Also hoping that Scotland don’t do anything stupid.

Mowgli – 7 June 2026

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On Sunday we all drove to Croy to get the train to Glasgow.

Arrived in town in a fairly busy train and went for a walk to see the damage to Union Corner that is still not completely cleared. Really high scaffolding and also barricades blocked the view of this memorable set of buildings.

We walked back to Mowgli which seemed to fit the bill for today. Great dinner with far too many and varied food options to share. Just as good as the last time Scamp and I had been there. Unfortunately nobody’s birthday today, so no Brownies with a dollop of ice cream and a candle on top!

In the last few days Scamp and I had been discussing how to get our old home movie films from DVDs into a more usable format. Jamie came to the rescue and showed us how to let the computer do the hard work. He spent most of the evening rebuilding the clumsy DVD disks into a format that could be sent to anyone who has One Drive. I’m still not completely clear on the details, but I understand the method. By the end of the night, we had four DVDs converted. Amazing.

We watched the Monaco GP between the technospeak and lost count of the number of penalties and broken cars in a few hours of mad driving.

PoD went to Queen Street Station’s new architectural ceiling.

Tomorrow Jamie and Simonne are intending to do an overnight with friends in Aylth, near Blairgowrie.

The Japanese Garden – 6 June 2026

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Jamie and Simonne arrived last night and today Jamie drove to the Japanese Garden outside Dollar.

The route his sat nav took wasn’t the one we would have chosen. Narrow single farm tracks that didn’t leave much room for driving and certainly wouldn’t accommodate two cars meeting. Thankfully we didn’t meet any other cars!

The weather wasn’t great, but there was almost no wind which gave me great reflections on the pond and it would have been perfect if I hadn’t forgotten to take a spare SD card! However, I managed to offload some of the older photos to create enough space to get some decent shots.

We had coffee and a scone each in a wobbly wee lean-to bench at the back of the booking hut. We walked up to the Fairy Houses that are still there and thankfully the sun was shining for a while. I think the visitors were impressed!

Drove home by a more sensible route and Jamie & Simonne got ready to drive over to see Andy and Cat and the children in the evening.

We stayed at home and watched the qualifying for the Monaco GP. A few bumps, but not as many as we suspected.

PoD was a trio of Rhododendron flowers from the Japanese Garden.

Families Gathering – 1 June 2026

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It was a wet day and a sad day, despite everything.

Drove up to the car wash at Tesco. The owner must have thought I was mad. Who in their right mind would want their car washed on a day when it was lashing with rain. I would.

A quick lunch of a banana sandwich, then we were in the machine. That’s what it felt like. We three drove over to The Village and picked up Isobel. Then we drove to Cairntoul Court and dropped Scamp off to find her place in the ‘Big Car’. The car arrived and we all drove over to Daldowie and were ushered in.

The celebrant gave his speech which, if you were hearing it for the first time, would probably have been uplifting, but not today. Once the curtains closed it was all over. Nothing left to do but head back to the pub where the meal would be served.

The food I had was delicious. For the second day in a week, I had a chunky, lovely gammon steak with chips. We sat and listened to Ian and Isobel telling stories of times gone by, but the different groups kept to themselves and didn’t mix very much. Probably a Scottish way of dealing with a situation like this. Gradually everyone made their ways home, individually and in groups.

Back home the ladies had a laugh with a few drinks, remembering things that had happened over the years. It’s the Scottish tradition again.

Jackie is off home tomorrow and we’ll start straightening everything out and getting ready for our own lives to begin again.

Paul wasn’t a bad boy. A bit wild at times and out of his depth. May he rest in peace.