Category: Family

Dancin’ – 10 September 2022

Posted on by Zogman

We drove over to Brookfield in beautiful sunshine.

We arrived early, mainly because there were no football matches on today as a mark of respect for the death of the queen, so the road was fairly clear.

First today was a reprise and a cleaning up of the Charnwood Cha-Cha, which we managed fairly well. Next was a new Foxtrot routine. We only did about half of it, but it was looking quite good. A lot more technical than the older foxtrot we learned earlier in the year. After that, things started to go downhill rapidly for me. Stewart announced that we were going to learn a new sequence dance called there Balmoral Blues, and nodded to us, because we’d attempted it on Thursday by watching what others were doing and following them. Today was different. Today we were learning the proper version and it seemed to have many more steps than Thursday’s version. Jane said she hated this dance and by the end of the lesson I fully agreed with her. None of the figures seemed to gel with each other. It just looked like a hodge-podge of moves. Lastly was the waltz we’d been learning. I think my brain had shut down after the Bloody Balmoral Blues. I’d had enough. I just couldn’t figure out where we were and what came next. I apologised to Scamp and sat out the last five or ten minutes and watched other suffer.

We drove home by our alternative route through the Clyde Tunnel which cuts out the dastardly Kingston Bridge. It worked its magic again and we only had about five minutes of queueing on the other side.

Back home, Scamp went out to get chicken for tonight’s dinner and told me to get up and go out for a walk in the sunshine to brighten my mood. I took her at her word, but it wasn’t until she came back that I was kitted out to go for a walk in St Mo’s. Lots of butterflies, Peacocks, Red Admirals and maybe a Tortoiseshell. Lots of bees and hoverflies on the Scabious flowers too. PoD is a Common Carder Bee. Ended my walk by going down to M&S and sourcing a fish pie for tomorrow’s dinner.

I’m still searching for my next phone. I did think about an iPhone 13, but after some good advice from Hazy, I may review the Samsung again. Now it’s your turn Jamie and Simonne. I’m looking at either an iPhone 13 or a Samsung S22+ with 128GB. Hoping it will give me a decent camera and enough storage space for my needs. Do you pair have any suggestions?

Tomorrow is the Cumbernauld 10K.  We may go and cheer the runners on if it’s not raining and if we’re up in time.  We will not be running!

A late rise – 3 September 2022

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We must both have had a hard day yesterday. My excuse was that I’d been out cycling and Scamp’s was that she and the witches had been talking almost constantly for all of yesterday afternoon.

Once we’d dragged ourselves out of bed, dressed and completed today’s Wordle successfully, we discussed where to go and what to do with a very dull day. We settled on a run to Torwood, looking for something to buy for someone who has a birthday coming up soon. Unfortunately Torwood Garden Centre was having a bit of an Autumn Clean, which is really just a Spring Clean six months later. Lots of the garden furniture that usually lives outside was now inside and none of the usual stuff that Scamp expected to see had been put into storage, it seemed. For what must be the first time in our Torwood history, we left empty handed.

I suggested we try Calder’s in Cumbersheugh as an alternative, but although they had lots of things that “might do”, they didn’t have the exact article she was looking for. We were just about to leave when the heavens opened and the threatened heavy rain made us think again about walking out just then. Once the rain had eased, we ran to the car and drove home.

Later in the afternoon the sky cleared and although the sun didn’t shine, it was bright enough to take a camera for a walk in St Mo’s. The PoD went to a photo of a hoverfly on a Scabious flower, a wild scabious. While I was out, Scamp was talking to Jackie in Skye. She and Murdo are just recovering from the dreaded Covid and they both seemed to have it bad, but feeling better now.

On our walk earlier in the week, Alex and I had been discussing processing old photos taken years ago and tonight I worked on a photo of Castle Stalker in Appin from 2005. Taken with my old D70 it scrubbed up well as you can see here.

Tomorrow we may go looking for that birthday present again or we may leave that for a weekday when there will hopefully be fewer crowds

White Rabbits (x3) – 1 September 2022

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Scamp was feeling a bit dizzy this morning, so instead of taking Shona out for coffee, she came to us instead, for tea.

It was really a ladies morning with the two of them going over Shona and Ben’s recent visit to her cousins in London and Warrington. There was so much talk going on that there was no time to show her our holiday snaps. Just before we left to take her shopping, a parcel arrived for me! It was a surprise packet of tea from Jamie. Not your ordinary tea either, this was Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster tea. It’s peppermint and blackcurrant flavoured in a black tea base with ‘sparkles’ that glitter when it’s brewing. It actually tastes quite good. Maybe not quite as good as the bright blue “Intergallactic Space Juice” that came as a concentrate and was added to Sodastream bottles, back in the late ‘70s and early ’80s. Thanks for that, Jamie. It certainly brightened my day.

Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster was of course a cocktail created by Zaphod Beeblebrox in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

We dropped Shona off at the Town Centre and headed back to Tesco for some messages. After lunch I took the camera out for a walk in St Mo’s, but found very little to inspire me. However, back home Scamp had managed to get a photo of a Peacock butterfly on one of our multicoloured buddleia bush. This is probably the first butterfly to visit these “Butterfly bushes” and is certainly the first this year. I think she was quite pleased to beat me to the photo. I managed to get a few shots of it when it returned to the bush, but none are as good as Scamp’s. She must have a really good camera!

It was Mince ’n’ Tatties for my dinner and Bubble ’n’ Squeak for Scamp’s. Both good old fashioned plates of food. I managed to keep a few spoonfuls of the M&T to have for my lunch tomorrow.

PoD was a ball of thistledown waiting for the wind to distribute it to the four corners of St Mo’s. I liked the way it seemed to be bubbling out of the flower head.

Scamp has an appointment at the health centre tomorrow morning to let one of the nurses have a look at her ears and hopefully see if that’s what’s causing the dizziness although it seems to have settled down as the day progressed. After that she’s off to a Witches meeting at Moira’s. I’m thinking about getting the Dewdrop back on the road and going hunting brambles, if the weather holds.

A day at the horses – 31 August 2022

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Aha, but not just any horses. These ones are only half buried. That leaves it up to the imagination to see their hidden bodies!

In the morning after a cup of strong coffee, I drove over to Motherwell to pick up my brother and then we drove east to Helix Park in Falkirk. Alex was going to be introduced to the magic of the Kelpies and they didn’t disappoint. From the motorway you don’t get the full effect of these sculptures, but up close and with the feeling that, like dragonflies, you are being observed just as carefully as you are observing them. I lost count of the number of times we walked round them, looking at them from all angles and taking photos of them with a variety of cameras and lenses. I wondered how many hundreds of folk took selfies with them today. I wondered how many thousands of folk had their photo taken today, holding out their hand as if they were feeding these giant beasts. They are simply amazing.

After a while we paused for lunch and disappointingly, the sun went behind the clouds for a while and it looked like the best light of the day was gone, so we went for a walk over the canal and along the towpath on the far side, then back over another bridge further on. As we were taking some longer views of the beasts, we realised that the sun had just been having its lunch too and was now back to full strength again having pushed its way through the clouds. We went back for another shoot. This time from a different angle. We tried reflections in the water and reflections in the panoramic windows of the visitors centre. I walked back to the car to dump my raincoat which I wasn’t going to need now and found yet another viewpoint I’d not seen before.

Another coffee and it was time for the last of the photos and then it really was time to say goodbye to the Kelpies, but we did say too, that we’d be back. For now, though it was back to rush hour and the inevitable queues on the motorway. I drove Alex back to Motherwell and then came home, exhausted. I hadn’t quite realised how hot it was today. It was a long day and a lot of driving, but I really enjoyed it and I’m sure Alex did too. A monochrome ultra-wide shot of the Kelpies got PoD.

Tomorrow I may go out to lunch with Scamp and Shona or more likely I’ll just relax and read. I’ll maybe do some reorganising of August’s photos.

Coffee with Isobel and a question answered – 30 August 2022

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We were out this morning for coffee with Isobel at Costa, so almost coffee.

As usual Isobel was an entertainment. Full of stories of a visit to see the wreck of the Sugar Boat on an afternoon cruise from Greenock. The ship, the MV Captayannis was loaded with raw east African sugar for the Tate & Lyle refinery in Greenock. It was deliberately run aground to prevent it sinking after a collision with another ship during a storm in the Clyde in 1974. Apparently the remains of the ship can still be seen from the esplanade at Helensburgh, but Isobel’s trip started across the Clyde estuary in Greenock. I must admit, this is the first I’ve heard of the Sugar Boat and its story. We must go and have a look for it the next time we’re in Helensburgh. It’s actually visible on Google Maps about halfway between Helensburgh and Greenock.

Scamp was showing Isobel some of our holiday photos and then chanced upon a picture on her phone of a mystery flower that’s growing well in our garden. She showed it to Isobel who immediately recognised it as a Japanese Anemone, and to be honest, it does look like a very large anemone. We’ve been puzzling over that flower for well over a month now, but now Isobel has solved the problem.

We came home via the village to drop Isobel off at her house and then via Tesco to get some messages. Dinner tonight was to be Paella and we needed chicken thighs for that. Of course we bough a lot more besides the chicken. Back home and after lunch I struggled with today’s Wordle and was getting nowhere with it, so I did what I usually do and put it aside and went for a walk in St Mo’s. Not a lot of activity today, but I did get an animated looking group of dandelion seeds. They look as if they’re dancing in the breeze, but actually they’re caught in a spider web. I took a few insect photos too, but nothing spectacular, so the dandelion seeds got PoD.

Paella was ok, but the chicken thighs were a bit cheugh (chewy). Maybe my cooking or maybe not Tesco’s finest. Whatever, it filled a wee space.

We watched a fairly interesting program on the history of University Challenge which is 60 years old this year. I didn’t realise it had been going for such a long time. It was only fairly interesting because there was really far too much padding in it. A 30 minute program made to fit a 60 minute time slot.

I’ve talked Alex into going to the Kelpies tomorrow, rather than Glasgow again. If time permits, we might even get a half hour in Culross.

Just a lazy Sunday – 28 August 2022

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I’d thought we might drive down to Auchinstarry for a walk along the canal, but Scamp had other ideas.

After lunch, Scamp was looking longingly at the front grass and I could see her arguing with herself that it was a warm, dry day and the grass really did need cutting. I, on the other hand was going to make a Tagine with a couple of pieces of lamb neck I had taken out of the freezer last night. Decision made. Scamp would cut the front grass and I would make my tagine. There was no point in me doing the grass cutting, Scamp would only go and redo it … properly. Since I’m the meat-eater of the family, she was happy for me to cook my dinner.

That’s how it turned out. I let the slow cooker do the hard work of making the tagine after I’d filled it with chopped onions, fried lamb chunks, lots of different spices, chopped dates, chopped apricots and some orange juice. I took the slow cooker up to the back bedroom to bubble away to its heart’s content. That’s the great thing about slow cookers, you can dump them anywhere there’s a power socket. They don’t need to be taking up real estate on the kitchen worktop. Scamp was still grass cutting and trimming and blowing the cuttings away with the blower, so I wrote an email to Alex with some photos.

Speaking of photos, today’s PoD is a yellow rose that’s just “going over” to use the technical term for losing all its petals. Not my best work, but I couldn’t be bothered going anywhere today. Too much driving in the past few days and no real wish to go for yet another walk in St Mo’s.

A thin gin and tonic after we were both done made the slide from afternoon to early evening quite pleasant. Dinner was OK. Just OK. In retrospect, I’d have preferred potatoes or even rice with the tagine, but I’d opted for couscous. It was too dry and it didn’t really go with Scamp’s Ratatouille. I must make a note on my recipe not to use couscous. I’ve never really liked it anyway!

Watched an amazing drive by Verstappen coming from 14th on the grid (after losing his pole position because he’d used too many engine components) to win the Belgian GP. I almost felt sorry for Leclerc only able to achieve a 6th place after some startlingly poor tactical decisions by Ferrari. It would appear that the team have a death wish at present.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard about his troubles with squirrels or mice eating his big tomatoes, but leaving the small ones alone. It being a bank holiday tomorrow in England, he has an extra long weekend.

No plans as yet for tomorrow. We’ll take it as it comes.

Struggling with Wordle© – 2 August 2022

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I suppose that’s what Jamie would call a ‘Middle Class Problem’.

Before we started the day proper, we both did a Lateral Flow test and photographed the result ( Negative ). It must be one of the few times when a ‘negative’ is positive result! We didn’t need to do it, but we’d both agreed we’d do one within the two day time frame. Now it’s done and recorded, we feel better. When that was done the rest of the day could begin.

Hazy phoned and we discussed holidays and meds and the latest Becky Chambers book I’d just finished this morning. I even encouraged Scamp to read the last four pages of the book where the author was discussing gardening in an arid planet under transparent domes. The concept may have been alien, but the process was very familiar to Scamp. Like us, Hazy and Neil had watched the first part of The Control Centre and decided it wasn’t for them. What she did next was interesting. She didn’t want to watch any more of this drama set in Glasgow, but she wanted to find out how it ended, and she did. But then, that’s what Hazy is good at, researching! We heard about how the rest of the family is getting on and how Canute and Delia are being forced to close up their clothing shop as are the rest of the tenants are on that street because the landlord had plans for the area. It’s a shame, but also it will take a lot of pressure of them both. Generally this morning was a really good catch-up.

I wanted to go in to Glasgow for some photo stuff today and Scamp came for the walk. Not anything essential, just like Sunday, a reason to get out of the house. Just like Sunday too, we drove in to Cowcaddens, parked there and walked up Sausage Roll Street which really is a shadow of its former self. All the weird traffic lanes and boarded up shop windows drag this once vibrant shopping street literally into the gutter. Crossed the road and found that WEX was indeed open today. I’d checked after we did the Covid test and it was as we’d suspected a lack of staff to open the shop on Sunday. Got what I was looking for and we walked back down the virtually dead Sauchiehall Street and had lunch in a Nero. Then it was back in the car and home via Tiso for some Smidge.

It had turned out to be a lovely warm day with blue skies and just the slightest threat of rain. The rain had been heavy all night last night as was testified to by the amount of water in the buckets in the garden. I took a camera for a walk in St Mo’s later in the afternoon, mainly to find a subject for the Flickr Friday competition ‘Fire’. My fire was a burned out bonfire some of the local idiots had made in the woods. Scary to think that folk would do that just for somewhere to sit and have a clandestine drink on a Friday night. Have a bonfire in a wood! That’s sensible, isn’t it?

We had a dance practise tonight. Nothing fancy, just two waltz routines. The ‘Baby Waltz’ sounds easy, and it is for Scamp, but for me it’s a bit of a minefield, especially trying to remember what an ‘outside change’ is!

I’m off now to write the second part of an epistle to Alex with photos.

Tomorrow I think I need to do some rearranging of my storage options, and get an early night.

Every light a red light – 31 July 2022

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We drove to Bishopbriggs retail park, more to get out of the house than any great desire to participate in any retail therapy.

Scamp was looking for a chance to refill the medicine cabinet. I was looking for a replacement Giotto Rocket air blower. I use it to blow dust off the camera sensor and I fear my 2007 model is blowing more dust on than its taking off. I didn’t find one in Currys. I didn’t really think I’d get one there, it’s a bit of niche tool. Scamp did, however, stock up on over the counter antiseptics, plasters, mouthwash and all sorts of fun stuff. While I was off the leash I bumped into a former colleague who was shocked to learn that it was 8 years since I’d retired. Her gaze went a bit distant when she said that she had maybe another 8 years to go before she would be able to retire. I smiled and told her she’d enjoy it when the time came. She was kind enough to smile back.

When we were heading back to the car I suggested that we drive in to Cowcaddens and walk to WEX to get the aforementioned Giotto Rocket. Scamp was in agreement as we had nothing else to do. I’d forgotten about the swathe of roadworks and closures that are going on in Glasgow at present. We managed with the help of the sat nav to avoid most of them and got parked, but only after we’d stopped at just about every red light on the road in. We walked over to Bath Street and climbed up the big hill then went down the other side, then found the shop shuttered and with a notice to the effect that due to unforeseen circumstances it would be closed today the 31st of July. Bummer!

We walked back to the car and drove home, but not until I’d taken a few photos in the uninspiring chasm of Cowcaddens car park. You can see what I did with the photos in Flickr. The other photo I took that I liked was a shot looking up Hill Street in town, with St Aloysius Church at the top.

Back home we both worked in different rooms taking things out of cupboards and putting them together, rearranging them and putting some back and more rearranging. Oh what fun it was. Well, not really, but it has to be done.

Dinner was trout fillets with potatoes and cauliflower. Dessert was an M&S apple pie. Then we sat down to hopefully enjoy a Hungarian GP with George Russell ending in the gravel trap in the first lap. That didn’t happen, but at least Verstappen showed him a clean pair of heels to finish first after starting in 10th place. Hamilton too beat Russell leaving him in 3rd place. If you didn’t want to know the final score you should have looked away just after “… M&S apple pie.”

Spoke to Jamie and heard about his win at a Shortbread Baking competition at work and his preparations for his last week with his present company then a week long summer holiday before starting his new job. Good luck with all of that, Jamie.

Tomorrow I may phone WEX to make sure they are open for business before I commit myself to driving in to Glasgow again. Hoping to avoid most of the red lights!

Wet again – 25 July 2022

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Then after a long heavy shower, the sun shone and the clouds drifted away.

During that heavy shower I was trying unsuccessfully to repair the boot switch of Scamp’s wee red car. I took cover in the car and hoped the rain would go off because I hadn’t realised just how cramped it is in the back seat of an old Micra with the parcel shelf and the boot cover for company. Also, I was feeling the call of nature!!

Eventually the rain eased off enough to make the short trip to the house doable without getting thoroughly soaked. The boot is now locked and won’t be able to be opened until I get the switch mounted properly. The last time I fixed it, it was held together with that amateur mechanic’s standby viz: Duct Tape and Hot Melt Glue. I’m thinking I might try something more substantial this time as the tape was holding, but the hot melt glue was just sitting there, getting in the way. Allegedly you can buy replacement switches from a bloke in Wishaw of all places. Not sure I’m that desperate yet.

Back in the house and feeling a lot more comfortable, I had, what I can only describe as, a slab of bread and roasted cheese for lunch. The loaf it came from was far too soft to cut with the bread knife, really so I had cut a thicker than normal slice to make sure it didn’t crumble away (it made sense at the time). Actually it tasted better toasted than it had yesterday, just spread with butter.

Now that we were pretty sure the rain had gone, we went for a walk over to St Mo’s. There was nothing to see there and Scamp wanted to get a card in Condorrat, so we extended our walk to the paper shop in Condorrat. The next thing she wanted was a voucher from M&S to go with the card and we walked back the way we’d come and onward to the shops. We got the voucher and something for tomorrow’s lunch and walked home.

On the way Scamp got an email with a cabin number we’d requested, so then two computers were utilised to find where that cabin was located. We found it, but it was nowhere like where our initial email a couple of weeks ago had said. Never mind, another box ticked!

I still didn’t have a photo for today, so I went for a walk around St Mo’s again and this time took more heavy duty armoury with me in the form of the A7iii and the 105mm macro lens. Got some photos that looked worthwhile and came home, because in a change from tradition, Scamp had offered to make dinner tonight. Monday is always pasta and I am usually the pasta chef. Tonight it was pasta, Scamp style. It was Macaroni ’n’ Cheese and it was quite the best she’d made for a long time. Not one morsel was left on the plate.

When I looked at the photos, I knew something was wrong. Almost all of them were absolutely filthy. Not dodgy filthy, you understand. No, dust all over the sensor left black marks on the images. It must have been from the old Sigma 10-20mm lens I’d used, or more likely from the adaptor. It took about an hour with a magnifier a blower brush and a fine white paintbrush (that’s never been near paint) to carefully remove most of the dust. After that, cleaning up the actual photos was fairly easily done, but time consuming. PoD went to a wide angle shot of some wild flowers in St Mo’s.

We got some photos from Jamie showing off his tomatoes. They look great. I’m afraid none of ours are turning very red yet. I suppose that’s one of the advantages of having a ‘real’ greenhouse. Well done Jamie.

Tomorrow Scamp has an appointment with the hairdresser and I’ve just realised she might need her car, so I’ll have to tidy it up a bit so it doesn’t look such a sight!

A day of mixed weather – 24 July 2022

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Sometimes sunny, sometimes cloudy, but always with rain of some description.

Heavy rain, light rain, sometimes just drizzle or a Scottish smirr, but there was always water of some description falling from the sky today.

We voted with our feet in the morning and our feet were up on the coffee table, although I did clear the junk off my IKEA Poang chair and had a relaxing half hour or so on it. It’s a great chair for reading in, but not so good for using with a laptop. I suppose it was designed before laptops were a thing. Allegedly it was designed around 1978.

Eventually had to get up to help prepare lunch and then the laptop came out of hiding and I was lost in Flickr for an hour at least. It did seem to stop raining for a while after that, but it was only a ruse by the rainclouds. As soon as we went outside the rain started again.

<Technospeak>
It was about 4 o’ clock before I decided to put on my new Columbia trainers and take an unusual combination of Sony A7iii + adapter + Sigma 10-20mm lens out for a walk in St Mo’s. I restricted myself to one circuit of the pond and had to get all my photos in that time and only with my Heath Robinson contraption. It’s really a very capable lens. It originally fitted my old Nikon D70, but when I upgraded to a D7000 the lens wouldn’t work with the more demanding electronic connections, so it was relegated to a cupboard. When I was selling all my Nikon gear to fund my move to full frame Sony hardware, I couldn’t bear to part with the old 10-20mm and found an adapter that would allow its use on the A7 series. It still takes great pictures, but is now manual focus only. The other problem is that it’s an APS-C lens which doesn’t quite cover the sensor of a full frame camera, so some cropping is inevitable. I could allow the camera to do it for itself, but where’s the fun in that when you can spend an hour doing it yourself!
</Technospeak>

The old lens took today’s PoD which is a view of St Mo’s pond with its duckweed carpet, viewed from the pond outfall. I just liked all the different green hues in the picture.

Dinner tonight was yesterday’s pakora and curries reheated and with some flatbreads for good measure. It’s now making itself known to me again, so some Gaviscon may be necessary tonight!

Watched the French GP with more than its fair share of thrills and spills. Good to see Hamilton making it to the podium. Not so happy to see George Russell sneaking 3rd place from Perez.

Spoke to Jamie in the evening and heard how they survived the heatwave on Monday and Tuesday. Heard too about the tomatoes in the garden ripening while Scamp’s are still green.

I think it may still be raining outside and we’re forecast for more tomorrow. Maybe the garden still needs a little more.