Category: Family

Another early(ish) rise – 23 November 2020

Posted on by Zogman

Off to get some paint, not watercolour and not for me.

Shona is getting her living room painted and needed transport to get the half a dozen tins of paint from B&Q. I didn’t think it would be open, because away back in March it was closed for the first few weeks of Lockdown. It was open today but there was no queue. Found the paint after a hunt round the shelves. Organisation is not the watchword in this B&Q by the look of things. Drove back to her flat and carried the tins up the stair, dumped them and headed back to coffee in our house, our good deed done for the day.

<Technospeak>
I waited a while before I started interrogating the NAS drive again, but I was fairly sure it would work this time. It didn’t. I couldn’t get in through the control panel (called a Dashboard). I couldn’t get in through my homemade access app that’s worked for the last three years. I couldn’t get in through the low-level Network app in Utilities. I eventually succumbed to the inevitable and sourced a video that showed how to get into the case without the use of a claw hammer. That worked quite neatly. The upshot was the drive is undamaged, but it’s formatted to Linux and the partitions are Linux too. One person suggested booting into a Linux distro and using that to access the files. It works, but I can’t work out how to download them from there. More research needed.
</Tecnospeak>

By the time I’d gone through all these hoops, it was too late to get any photos, so after dinner I took the NAS hard drive and set up the tabletop you see here. If in doubt, use minifigs to set up something to laugh at. This one brightened my night. Well, that and the remains of yesterday’s wine.

Today’s sketch is brought to you by the letter ‘C’.  It could have been Citrus, Coconut or Camera, but I finally settled for two carrots.  Pencil sketch with a splash of watercolour.  I was fairly happy with the final result.  Managed to post it to Instagram from the computer, using Developer Tools in Chrome.  Nice little workaround.

That was about it for a really dull, depressing day. I’m sure my Italian Pal who understands Linux will have a solution to my problem. I’ll email him tomorrow. A wee challenge for him.

Tomorrow we have no plans. There may be dry spells in the rainstorms that are blowing in from the Atlantic. We might manage to catch one of those dry spells for a walk.

Just another Sunday – 15 November 2020

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It rained, it was dry, it rained, it was dry, … repeat.

We waited until after lunch before we committed ourselves to a walk. The sky was lightening, the clouds seemed a bit higher and it looked as if there was a decent chance of just a passing shower to spoil our walk. As it happened, our walk round Broadwood Loch was a dry one, by which I mean it didn’t rain. There was plenty of standing water to splash in if you were interested in that aspect of the walk, but Scamp doesn’t like to get her walking boots wet, or dirty. I, on the other hand was wearing my Clarks Super Slide-a-lot boots that keep your feet almost dry, but have virtually no grip. Stylish, but Pointless would be their marketing logo.

<Warning boring photography stuff inside>
There were loads of people out for a Sunday stroll in the fresh air and avoiding the rain showers that had dogged the morning. I got a few shots, but forgot that the Samyang 18mm has a mind of its own as far as focusing goes. I need to remember to check that it is actually locked on to focus before I press the button. Although the sky was lighter than the morning there were almost no clouds to give any texture. A milky white Scottish sky. Luckily I’d been experimenting with the old Sigma 105mm macro on the Sony earlier in the day and today’s PoD was already in the bag, a Jenny Long Legs or Crane Fly to give it a more general name. I hadn’t noticed the possibilities of the man feeding the birds until Scamp put me wise to it about half an hour ago. Maybe some of my technospeak is rubbing off on her.
<Photography stuff is gone now>

With constant tuition from Scamp I may one day be able to cook a decent stew. Today I tried a new method and it worked, still with tweaks from the chef. However I could never reach the heady heights of her apple crumble which was a pure delight! Bramley apples and cinnamon were the secrets, she said. My contribution was a loaf which looks quite good, but tomorrow will be the real test.

We practised a bit of Jive tonight, just to keep our hand in and our feet from tripping each other up.  Spoke to JIC later and he sounds better than he did last week. Discussed lockdown looking for hints and tips as it seems we may be heading that way by the end of the week. Lanarkshire, the pariahs of Scotland.

Hoping we’ll manage lunch tomorrow with C&N at The Cotton House.

Light – 10 November 2020

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The fog was there when we woke this morning and it stayed all day

One of those days where there wasn’t much to encourage us to go out. Although it wasn’t cold, it felt damp and uncomfortable. Although I managed to do my ‘8 active hours’ according to the Fitbit, I couldn’t tell you how I achieved them. It felt like a day of sitting around.

It wasn’t until late in the afternoon that I managed to shift myself enough to go out to get some photos. I walked over to St Mo’s looking for some macro subjects to ignite my interest. The subjects were there, but I really needed the light to be better. More light would help and some of it needed to be directional. I had hopes that there might be some late sunshine when the clouds parted slightly to expose a tiny sliver of blue sky. However the tear in the clouds soon healed again and the sun was lost for another day. I found a small toadstool growing on the edge of the pine woods and tried unsuccessfully to get a decent, sharp image of it. That’s when I switched my phone on and used its torch to give me that directional light. It worked and I had my PoD.

Also on my phone came the news that North Lanarkshire was to remain in level 3 of the restrictions after threats that we’d be elevated to level 4 which is basically full lockdown again. Skye, on the other hand were downgraded to level 1 which gives them a bit more freedom. Back home Scamp was talking to Jackie in Skye and congratulating her on her freedom.

She, Scamp, had been to Condorrat while I was out and had bumped into Chris Davies’ mum again. Hadn’t seen her for years and then bumped into her twice in a week. Sometimes life’s like that.

It was Scamp’s turn to make dinner and tonight I got to choose between two different offerings. I chose Kedgeree and it was a great choice and a great dinner. Tasty and just nicely curry flavoured.

Today may have been dull, but tomorrow will be wet, WET, WET. Not a Scottish rock band from the ’80s. More a Scottish weather pattern. We may go out, just to get away from the house for a while.

Stitchery and Boozy Pudding – 8 November 2020

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A day for putting things right. A day for mending. A wet, dull day. A day for getting things done.

The main reason I was mending and putting things right and also for getting (some) things done was that it was indeed a wet, dull day.

Before lunch I’d made some bread, well made the dough at least, well made the dough in the mixer and then adjusted it by hand. That was the delicate, skilled work. The rest was just grunt work. After lunch I adjourned to the sewing room where three pairs of jeans awaited my attentions. Scamp stayed downstairs and talked to herself while she made a … well, let’s contract it to Boozy Christmas Pudding, it’s got a much longer name than that, but cutting to the chase, that’s it. Once assembled it was to be cooked for three and a half hours in a slow cooker. It looked messy, so I let her get on with it.

First thing for me to do was fix a worn pocket in one pair of jeans. As the next pair would need exactly the same repair done, so ideally I should make all my mistakes on the first pair and then sail through the second. For once, that’s exactly what happened. The first pair was a pain in the backside. Cut the wrong shape of patch. Got in a fankle (another good Scots word) sewing the patch onto the pocket. Eventually got it fixed and it looked and felt ok, so I went down to see how the chef was getting on. She was almost ready to put the assembled pudding in the slow cooker. Got it in without too much trouble which meant she had three and a half hours to sit and wait. I started jeans two’s pocket.

This one was easier and soon I had two useable pairs of jeans that had been malingering in the back bedroom for months. The next pair needed a hem turned up. It was a bit of a struggle to get the sewing machine to accept that it could actually pierce the double, double thickness of denim that would form at the doubled up side seams, but with a bit of a run at it, together we achieved a reasonable result. Like the pockets, once I’d done one leg, the other one was a dawdle. Make that three pairs completed!

We were having Duck Legs with Orange Sauce for dinner. Actually M&S had done the hard work. All I had to do was take the duck legs out of the bag and bake them in the oven I’d just taken the loaf out of, for 30 mins. Covered them in Orange Sauce after that and another ten minutes in the oven saw them cooked. They actually tasted really good. I wondered as I was eating mine if they had both come from the same duck. Were they ‘handed’, you know, left and right legs? I hadn’t thought to look. They both looked about the same size, but how would you know these things? We rarely think that what we’re eating walked this earth with us. Maybe I should go vegan. Nope, chicken curry would put an end to that idea!

The time to open the slow cooker had arrived and Scamp carefully undid the string that held the tinfoil lid in place and the smell that wafted out was simply divine! Boozy? Yes. Fruity? Yes. We got a big slice each and slathered it in cream and discovered that it tasted as good as the smell. The rest is now in the fridge for tomorrow, but I fear it won’t taste as good as today’s offering. Pity, Hazy. It’s got eggs in it.

Spoke to JIC tonight just as I was beginning a swearing session at the Sony for not working with the remote app on my phone. The poor boy wasn’t feeling well with clogged sinuses, and on his weekend off too. That’s just not fair. However we talked for a while about Mr Trump, boilers and stuff.

I went back up to the Photography room (because the sewing machine had been put away again) and proceeded to take today’s PoD manually. Came down stairs and tried again, because I’m like a dug wi’ a burst ba’, and lo and behold the bloody thing worked. I’ve a feeling it’s only doing it to annoy me!

Tomorrow evening we are doing a WhatsApp with a man from British Gas to see how much they want to supply and fit a new boiler. The one we have at present is about 20 years old. We’ll be talking big numbers, I’m sure.

Windy and wet – 1 November 2020

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Today started out reasonable and ended with rain. Along the way there were also some gales. Just a typical Scottish winter day.

Scamp offered to drive us to The Fort. I was looking for another sketch book after having worn the last one out with Inktober sketches. She wanted to look for some fruit in M&S. We were both disappointed. The queue for the art shop was too long and too slow. M&S had no queue to get in, but the queue for the food section was just as long as mine was. We did some shopping and then drove home through showers that got heavier and heavier. I had hoped to get out for a walk in St Mo’s, but it wasn’t to be. Just like the past few days, the rain became incessant and it’s still raining as I write this.

I took a few photos of the Lady Emma Hamilton rose in a short spell of sunshine this morning and later I took another few of some Habaneros on the window sill. I decided that you’d probably seen enough photos of the rose, so the Habs got PoD.

Spoke to JIC and discussed Lockdowns, antibodies, chillies and banana plants. A wide ranging conversation, as it usually is with both JIC and Hazy. By the way, Hazy, I’m enjoying the strangely named “To Be Taught …”. Taking my time with it and eking out the last chapter.

That was the long and short of a dull day. No plans for tomorrow although Scamp is hoping to meet her sister in the morning. That gives me an hour or so to relax and maybe do something with that back room again.

A stinker of a day – 27 October 2020

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Not the best, but probably nearly the wettest of days.

It was dry in the morning, but not for long. Every time it teased us with the possibility that it was drying up, it started as soon as it heard the key turn in the lock. By the time we were outside, it was on full again. No respite all day.

Scamp was out with Annette whose turn it was to wait for her car to pass MOT today. I moped around the house deciding, will I, won’t I go out and get wet? Eventually I settled for NO, I won’t. I tried to get today’s sketch out of my head, but that didn’t materialise until much later. I tried reading a book that John had given me but gave up. I’m almost halfway through it, but I just can’t follow, or be bothered to follow, the plots. Too many words and too little going on. Thankfully Hazy agreed with me when she phoned later in the day. Life’s too short to waste it on poorly written books.

Finally gave in and took Blue out to Muirhead to get some carnivore food at the butchers. Hoped I’d see something worth photographing on what’s usually the scenic route home. Today everything was grey and wet and boring, so I didn’t even stop to say hello to the horses in the field. They looked as fed up as I felt. However, at least I’d done something constructive.

The next constructive thing to do was make some soup. Using Scamp’s (and my mum’s) method of a handful of this and a pinch of that, but with slightly more veg that I intended, the soup was simmering away quietly when Scamp arrived home. At least she’d had a decent day and kept Annette company while her car was undergoing its examination. It passed, but it’s a Juke and only about four years old, not like Scamp’s red OAP.

Spoke to Hazy about this and that. Heard her good news. New cars are always good news. Got a recommendation for a new book and warned her off my half finished effort.

In between rain showers I managed to grab today’s PoD which turned out to be two nasturtiums growing in a pot at the back door. They’ve flowered all summer long and are now flowering into autumn. No variation in colour. They’ve all been yellow, but at least they bring a bit of colour to dull days like today.

Finally settled on a sketch for today’s prompt, Music. It’s my old MiniDisk recorder/player. Brilliant machine that’s about 25 years old now and still works a treat. The disks hardly ever jump and the music sounds as clear today as when it was recorded. I’m sure you remember a certain choral concert at the Royal Albert Hall, Hazy!

That was about it for the day. The soup was good, thick, but good. It will probably be better with some water to thin it down. As far as tomorrow goes, hopefully it won’t feel the need for more water. I think it had enough today. We’re hoping to go for a drive tomorrow.

Out to Brunch – 22 October 2020

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Another day to get out and about fairly early.

We were picking up Isobel at 10.15 and then we were all heading off to Calders for either a late breakfast or an early lunch, it was unclear which. I’d been warned beforehand not to order coffee because I’d be disappointed with the quality and the quantity of actual coffee in my cup. The other two had scrambled eggs and a latté each while I went for poached eggs on sourdough bread with a pot of tea. Even the tea was a bit thin and to be even more critical, the eggs were a bit underdone and tepid. Maybe a bit harsh, but I am one half of the Foodie pair. As usual, Isobel regaled us with stories about her family.

We dropped her off and drove home for a cup of real coffee each. Then I went upstairs to check out a bag full of old hard disks that had been torn from ancient computers over the years. Two went in the ‘skip bag’ and two were given a reprieve until I get a chance to download the useful stuff, then they will probably be ‘skipped’ too. In the process I discovered that one of my old removable drives was also destined for the ‘skip bag’. It had had a question mark hanging over it for a while and now it wasn’t booting up, so it is with regret that it goes in the ‘skip bag’ too. However, as Scamp keeps reminding me, that’s what’s wrong with our house. Holding on to too many things that have outlived their usefulness. That’s why I make the breakfast every second day and do my fair share of the cooking too. Otherwise I might find myself in that big blue Ikea bag with the hard disks one of these days.

While I was doing the technology thing, Scamp was shopping for dinner stuff. The dinner turned out to be Trout en Croûte. They looked a bit like sausage rolls, but tasted so much better. They were so good I was almost won over to be a pescatarian!

Before dinner I risked another soaking by going for a walk in St Mo’s. Got a few shots in among the trees. Some nice looking toadstools (not good enough to eat though) and the PoD which is a spider living life in the upside down. Managed to get my feet soaked trying to get the mud off them by paddling in the shallows of the pond. Merrel is not the company it once was. Quality has really gone downhill in the last few years.

I had found some gems in my search of the hard disks. We spent an hour tonight watching a video we’d made in Amsterdam away back in 2007. Half an hour of seeing life in a different world. Crowds of people not obeying the two metre rule and none of them wearing a mask!

You will notice the lack of a sketch today. This is due to a technical problem (I didn’t have time … or inclination.). Hopefully normal service will be resumed tomorrow. I Lied!

On the subject of tomorrow, we have no plans as yet. Apart from two sketches!!

Immortal – 13 October 2020

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A dull day until late in the afternoon, brightened by coffee with Val

Off this morning for coffee with Val. I really enjoyed our hour of moans, rants and laughs. Coffee was just ok. You can’t say much more about it when it’s Costa’s finest :-/ After an hour of good natured conversation ranging from the technicalities of photographic sensors to the Italian method of cooking Spaghetti a la Carbonara with a nod to viewing Mars tonight and micro computers, it was time to go. We said our goodbyes and agreed we’d meet up again in a couple of weeks, all being well. He went to meet his wife, I went food shopping for lunch and dinner.

Back home and after lunch I took the new toy out for a walk in St Mo’s. I also took two pots of chestnut saplings that I’d been growing at home since February. I’d fully intended planting them earlier in the year, but things got in the way. Walked around St Mo’s trying to avoid two different tribes of school kids on their October break with nothing to do and nowhere to go. It might have been the same tribes as earlier, it might have been different ones. I didn’t look too closely. I just smiled at the dress (lack of) sense of these kids. Dressed as if it was summer, when winter is just around the corner. What worried me the most was that they were in great groups. We’re being told not to congregate in large groupings, but these idiots are wandering around in tens and twenties, completely oblivious to the risks they are taking with their health. Reminded me of a bloke I saw in Condorrat a few years ago. He had a tattoo on his arm of a biker with the logo “I’m Immortal … so far”. They say those under 15 don’t run a very high risk of Covid. That may be true … so far. I avoided most of the tribes and managed to get the saplings planted. Hopefully far enough away from the pathways and far away from the grazing areas used by the deer.

Got a PoD which is a male Common Darter dragonfly resting on the boardwalk. Looking at it full size on the computer I realised it had a lot of damage to one of its forewings. Such a delicate framework and such a short lifespan. They live fast, the dragonflies. Perhaps they too are immortal … so far.

Dinner was my take on Frittata. I should have asked the Italian man this morning for his recipe. Mine was based on a recipe I’d found somewhere and on Scamp’s timing. It worked out fine for me. We scoffed it!

Prompt for today’s sketch was Dune.  Cryptic. I wasn’t at all settled on a solution to this vague prompt, but I finally settled for a bottle of Mixed Spice. Cryptic, like the prompt.  If you’ve read Frank Herbert’s book you’ll understand.

I got an email from Hazy today to say that Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell was on sale for Kindle today of 99p.  I grabbed it.  Thanks Hazy.  Like I said, I don’t think I would have paid full price for it, but I’ll risk a quid!

Tomorrow looks wet again, so we may be reduced to doing inside stuff.  Work, in other words  🙁

A Sunny Sunday – 11 October 2020

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Beautiful morning when we really should have been out for a walk

While I was making the breakfast this morning, I was also making some bread. I always leave the bread making until midday at least, which means after it’s proved (first rise) and then risen properly, it’s rarely out of the oven in time to be sampled at our dinner. Today I was on the ball and had the dough made by the time the microwave pinged to let me know my porridge was cooked. Left it to prove for a good couple of hours after that. I could say that’s why we didn’t go out, but that would be a lie. I was just having a lazy morning. It wasn’t until after lunch that I remoulded the bread and left it to do its second prove.

We left the bread dough to its own devices, put on our boots and went for a walk. Today, Scamp suggested we go round Mosswater Nature Reserve. She doesn’t really like that place, because it’s a bit cluttered and the tall grass obscures what views there are. The good thing about it is the variety of ascents and descents in such a small area. She was also interested to see if it looked any better now the tall grass had died down. On the way there we found a couple of what I think were Shaggy Mane mushrooms. I wasn’t sure they were mushrooms, so we looked, but didn’t touch. They made the PoD.

After wandering round a figure eight course of Mosswater and still not being impressed with the views, we crossed the road and walked round the other nature reserve also a Mosswater, but this time it’s the “Local” nature reserve. A great deal of thought obviously went into their naming. From there we walked back up to Broadwood Loch from there back home.

Dinner tonight was one of a pair of gammon joints for me and a piece of trout for Scamp, both with roast potatoes and cabbage. Plus, of course, a slice or two of lovely white bread.

Spoke to JIC and wished him, Sim and Vixen a good holiday in Wales. It seemed like touch and go if they would get to go with the risk of an entire lockdown for Wales, but it seems the area they are headed for is clear. Hope the weather is as good as the lovely week we had in September.

Today’s topic was Disgusting.  If there’s one thing that disgusts me it is the now common practice of dogwalkers picking up their pooch’s shit in a bag, tying it off and lobbing it into the trees. Why go to the bother of pretending you care when, as soon as everyone’s back is turned, you revert to being an infection spreading vandal?

Tomorrow it looks like rain all day, so I think we will not be going far.

A cold day – 9 October 2020

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We didn’t go far as a result, but we did walk to the shops to get tonight’s dinner, M&S curry.

Today was Saturday, well it was for us. For some reason, both of us were convinced it was Saturday when in reality it was Friday. The start of the mid-term holiday here and the start of what is being called Lockdown 2. While we are not exactly locked down firmly like we were in March, we are constantly being reminded that we SHOULDN’T be going outside our own region. There’s not a lot of interesting places to go in North Lanarkshire and with restaurants and bars closed, yes, it is Lockdown 2. We did, however go virtually outside our region today.

Scamp went to Skye over the phone to speak to her sister and after some consultation they agreed that it would probably be best if our proposed trip to Inverness was postponed for a variety of reasons. That’s a pity because I was looking forward to the photo opportunities of the drive up north. Maybe things will change, but I fear not.

I travelled virtually to Glasgow to see if I could get a decent price for that camera I had for a weekend last week. One shop I phoned said they had one in stock. I asked if it was a display model. The woman said “No it’s not, it’s just been in the window, but we don’t let people play with it.” Obviously she didn’t really understand the meaning of the word “Display”. It used to be a good shop when it was simply called “Quiggs”. Since it’s changed its name to “Merchant City Cameras”, it’s got delusions of grandeur. It’s not even in the Merchant City! I said I’d think about it. Which means “I think I won’t buy it.”

After lunch and our phone calls ‘outside our own region’, we walked down to the shops. When we left the house it felt fairly mild, but as soon as we turned our back on the sun and felt the cold blast of the wind the mildness disappeared. I carried the messages back and then went for a walk where I got today’s PoD which is a hover fly called a Footballer, because it looks as if it’s wearing a football strip. That and two spiders that look as if they are fighting over today’s lunch. When I tried to upload them Flickr started one of its hissy fits, All the typing and clicking I’d done was lost and gone forever. Sometimes I praise Flickr to the highest, more often though I am more truthful.

Topic today was “Throw”. More soul searching to find something thrown or something to throw. I did consider Flickr going out a window, but that might have been hard to draw. I finally chose a dart being thrown. Fairly happy with it after resolving some of Scamps honest crits.

Tomorrow WILL be Saturday and we may go for a drive Outside Our Own Region. I hope you read this Nic.