Category: Family

The world is warming up – 10 January 2021

Posted on by Zogman

And it’s raining.

I liked the snow. I even liked the ice, but like an old friend who overstays his welcome, it was good to see it go. Today it was on its way to another place that needed snow and ice.

We decided to go for a walk in the morning because it was dry and the temperature was above zero. Almost as soon as we closed the door, the rain started. We intended walking round St Mo’s, but without grippers, that was going to be a tough trek, so instead we walked round along the pavement beside the road and just took our time to go the longest road we could to get back to the house. Not the most scenic of routes and the camera stayed safely in the bag the whole time. I intended going out myself for a walk later, but that didn’t happen.

Instead we had lunch and then I started to make some soup. I remember my mum pouring boiling water from a kettle on the leeks in the garden and me digging them up to make soup. That’s what I did today. My last three leeks were meant to make the soup on New Year’s Day, but we never got round to it. Today we came out of the big freeze and although the ice and snow were leaving us, they still held the raised bed in their grasp, so I had to resort to my mum’s trick with the kettle. It worked and the leeks came out. Well, two of them did, the third one broke getting it out, but I did manage to get both halves eventually and they were going to be cut up anyway.

With the soup on the go, I started doing the prep for the veggie chilli we were having for dinner. We’d decided that we’d use what we had in the fridge for the chilli. Peppers, onions, carrots and butternut squash all went in to the pot along with a tin of tomatoes and a litre of stock. It was a bit monotone, more yellow than I’d intended, but I chopped up two of my small jalapeños that I’ve kept in the freezer, thinking they would provide some heat if not any colour. The didn’t do much of anything for the chilli. After thinking about it, I remembered that Sim, and expert on chillies and said she’d put the whole chilli into a curry seeds included. I’d been too careful, removing all the seeds. Next time I’ll use the whole chopped up pepper. Probably that will make it too hot! The soup was a bit thin, but ok. The chilli was a bit bland in colour and taste, but both together filled a space.

We were supposed to be taking part in a Zoom dance class tonight. Scamp was really looking forward to it, but I wasn’t. I always feel so uncoordinated in a dance class, a ballroom class anyway, but I was willing to put up with it for Scamp. She had the booking confirmed by the teacher and we were ready to go at 7pm. That slot came and went, so most of the Zoom dances start at 7.30pm, so that was probably the start time for a lesson too. 7.30pm came and went with no message to give us the starting link. We eventually gave up at 8.30pm. Scamp is going to text the teacher tomorrow to see what the problem was.

Spoke to JIC afterwards and were amazed by his revelation that work in many of the labs in the UK is having to be shelved because many of the consumable tools are not being replaced because Covid research and vaccine development is being prioritised. It’s not until you hear from someone at the ‘coalface’ that you realise the different problems this pandemic is creating for everyone. These things don’t make it to the evening news!

PoD was a macro of raindrops on a kale leaf. The leaf is now in today’s soup. Some of the raindrops will be too!

Tomorrow we may attempt a walk somewhere and to be honest, the cars need a run to keep them healthy too. So maybe a drive to somewhere for our daily exercise walk.

More snow – 8 January 2021

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Woke to another dusting of snow. A light dusting this time.

Fed the birds to keep them happy and tried to defrost the birdbath, not that any of the birds would have been suicidal enough to attempt a bath in this weather, but they might appreciate some liquid water to drink. Lunch was Scamp’s savoury slice which warmed us up on a decidedly cold day. After that and a cup of coffee we felt it was safe enough to go for a walk to the shops to get today’s dinner. Which was to be Neil’s Italian Chicken.

On the way back I took a detour round St Mo’s in search of some beautiful sunny weather and some snow. I found both. The paths were slippy and I didn’t have my YakTrax with me, so I was trying to be careful and managed not to fall or even to slip … very much. Got my photos and even made my first ever video with the Sony camera. It was of a crow rolling in the snow! I’m guessing it was getting the snow crystals into its feathers to help it dust off the mites that were harbouring there.

Back home we spoke to Hazy who was eager to find out all about yesterday’s mysterious visitor. I was forgetting that Neil D had already performed the “cotton bud down the throat” trick with the same gagging response we had.

When we came off the phone we found that the washing machine was stuck at the spin cycle. It was still displaying 12 minutes to go, but the Spin light was flashing. Also there was a fair amount of water in the machine. We managed to get it to drain some of the water out and Scamp removed the wet clothes and took them up to drip off in the shower. Useful things showers! I found the drain pipe and drained off the remaining water, then tried to remove the pump filter. It wouldn’t budge. This machine is about 20 years old and I’ve maybe once needed to remove this filter. Either it is baked in or there is something inside blocking it. My money is on the second one and if I’m right, it’s money, some coins, that are doing the blocking. The only way to get into the filter is to turn the machine on its side and remove it from the bottom. Now that’s easier said than done because if I recall correctly there is a big block of concrete that acts as ballast for the rotation of the drum and moving that is going to be a job for a JCB. Scamp said a firm NO to that course of action. We tried the machine again and Lo and Behold, it worked. Not at its best, but we did get all the washing spun dry(ish). How long it will work before the aforementioned blockage returns I don’t know. We spent a good half an hour looking at prices and reviews of washing machines, then had a shortened version of the dinner we’d proposed, namely fried chicken with potatoes and broccoli. Then G&Ts all round.

Watched The Serpent on TV. Weren’t impressed, couldn’t be bothered with all the jumping back and forward through time so junked it. A bit of a wasted day, but it was good to talk to Hazy and I enjoyed both of my walks. PoD was a shot looking through the woods in St Mo’s.

Tonight a temperature of -7ºc is predicted. It’s already down to -6.5ºc, so it looks like the prediction may come true. Thankfully it may rain on Saturday or Sunday. When is the last time I’ve made a statement like that? I don’t think we’ll be going far.

Christmas Day – 25 December 2020

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This was always going to be a busy day, but also a happy one.

Opened our prezzies in the morning and as usual, I had more to open than Scamp, but she got a few surprises in her big box with the silver ribbon. It was just the big box her new Kipling bag had come in, but it looked impressive. After the great openings and the even greater packing of the cardboard into the blue recycling bin, the real work of the day started.

We had a Zoom call arranged with JIC & Sim and Hazy & NeilD at 1pm. Before that Scamp had today’s pudding to make in the slow cooker, today’s PoD had to be taken and it’s a family tradition, so it had to be done right. The turkey had to come out of the fridge to warm up and I had to make myself look presentable. We achieved all of that and got the table cleared too just in time for the call.

It was really good to see everyone, even if it was digitally. Zoom is such a clever tool for everyone and is what everyone needs in these awkward times and also at this highly emotional time of year. We were all very careful and everyone got a chance to speak to everyone else. I couldn’t believe just how fast that hour went, but it did. It simply disappeared. We must do it again soon.

Back to the grind, although there was very little for me to do, except finish clearing the table and getting the dishes out of the highest shelf in the cupboard. I also had time to post today’s PoD which is of Fairy Nuff, the fairy who doesn’t sit at the top of the tree. She lives in a display cabinet most of the year, but does get out at Christmas.

I was in charge of the turkey and managed not to burn myself basting the bird. With military precision, Scamp got all the veg cooked perfectly and everything came together at the right time. The pudding too turned out as well as last time. I carved the turkey, something I don’t ever remember doing before. Food was great, just as I’d expect it to be with Scamp in charge. However, for the first time in years, I felt that I overate. Just too much of everything. We had a small bottle of Tokaji sweet dessert wine in addition to half a bottle of red. Too much of a good thing doesn’t always work. That’s why I’m going to have an early night to hopefully sleep off my excesses.

I hope all my readers had a great day today because the unlucky ones can look forward to day one of a 21 day Lockdown from tomorrow.

Tomorrow looks decidedly wet for us. We were hoping to be able to walk off some of today’s overeating, but that may not be possible. It might be a case of climbing the stairs and descending about fifty times plus a half hour dancing practise to achieve the same step count.

A walk in the rain – 22 December 2020

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Up early to get a new window in the Micra.

Not my Micra, this was Scamp’s. It had a crack on the driver’s side of the windscreen, just above the dashboard that looked as if it would increase in size after the first heavy frost. Today the man was coming from Autoglass to fix it. He phoned about 8.15 to say he was on his way. Scamp’s car was jammed into a fairly small space, so I took the opportunity to steal Scott the taxi driver’s space at the end of the row and give the bloke a fighting chance of getting the screens exchanged. I had to scrape the windscreen first after the first hard frost we’ve had in ages. I was a bit gentle with it, not wanting to make the crack any worse than it needed to be. He arrived on time and it took him almost exactly the 45 minutes he predicted and it looks a nice clean job. He said we should leave it for 30 minutes before driving it, but it was unlikely to move far today.

I’d cleared Scamp’s car’s screen, so I started on mine and drove up to Boots for our meds and Tesco for bread then back home with the air con blowing a gale, a warm gale. We wouldn’t go hungry today. Leftover tomato soup and croutons for lunch, then after letting that settle we got our boots on and went for a walk in St Mo’s.

We’d been in for most of the morning and then we’d waited for a while before we left on our walk. The weather in all that time had been beautiful. Cold but clear and clean. As we walked round St Mo’s pond for the second time we could definitely feel rain. We just continued on, hoping that it was just the edge of a cloud we were catching, but it wasn’t. We were wet by now, so we just walked home. We’d done our two circuits of the pond and on the last one I’d got PoD of the light through the trees with the rain falling.

That was about it. We checked the TV schedules to see if there any decent films to watch, but there were none, at least none that I wanted to watch. We switched to Netflix and were grateful that we did. Thank you Hazy for adding some films to our list. Hopefully that will keep us from watching The Snowman one more time.

Spoke to my cousin Margaret and heard about her troubled year.  Sometimes we forget about other people’s problems, constantly bemoaning our own.  Then you hear from someone who has overcome much more serious troubles and it puts your own life into a clearer perspective.  Thankfully she’s on the mend again and has avoided Covid-19.  As she says, she’s just battling on.

Tomorrow we have no plans. Hoping we won’t have an early rise.

Lockdown Blues – 20 December 2020

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We’re not really there yet, but we know it’s coming.

I suppose I should get the pencils sharpened and the pens refilled for more lockdown sketches, because we are being condemned to at least three weeks of virtual lockdown as Nic puts most of Scotland into level 4 as a precaution. Yes, it makes sense, but that doesn’t make it any easier.

We were entertained by Andrew Marr this morning tearing at the poor health minister Matt Hancock like a demented Jack Russell. The poor man hardly got a chance to answer one question before another two were being fired at him by Marr. I think we both felt just a little bit sorry for him. He managed to parry a few of Marr’s thrusts, but I’m sure he felt punch drunk after doing down for the third time in round two.

It was a dull day weather wise too. A bit wet at times, but mainly just grey. However I got my boots on, grabbed the camera bag and headed off to get some photos. My first stop was the tree where the little ladybird had been hibernating before my too bright light disturbed it. At first I couldn’t see it, then I found it about 50cm further up the trunk. Grabbed a few shots, both with the old Sigma lens and also with the Sony. The Sony won hands down, but now I realise that the anti-shake wasn’t set to the correct focal length for the Nikon which is quite an old lens and doesn’t send all its information to the camera electronically. Still, I got a few shots to remind me of where it was.

The ladybird didn’t make PoD, but another spot in the woods gave me a pretty landscape type shot. It looks so calm, but beyond that fence there is a four lane motorway with all sorts of vehicular transport rumbling along it day and night, summer and winter. There’s hardly a ripple on that wee stream to distort the tree reflections. PoD, even before I processed it. I also grabbed a mono shot of some weeds which completes a full week of monochromatic images.

Spoke to JIC in the evening and found out that both he and his sister are in level 4. That’s the whole family in it! Have we been bad or something? Is it because I called the respective leaders Bumbling Boris and The Littlest Witch? If so, I’m sorry, but they both deserve it. The leaders, not the siblings, that is.

Dinner tonight was Haggis, Neeps and Tatties. What a brilliant brightener for a dull day. Just as long as you don’t ask what was in the haggis. You don’t want to know.

That was about it for today. Hoping to meet Val for coffee and some technological chat tomorrow and then Scamp and I might visit Tesco to look for a turkey, a small one, if such a thing exists.

Coffee with the family – 18 December 2020

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Today we were out early (10.30am) is early, to have coffee with Shona, but more of the clan were already there.

I wasn’t going to go, then I felt bad about it and changed my mind at the last moment. Scamp said she was going to take the blue car anyway, because her red micra has a crack in the windscreen. Not a bit crack, but enough to put her off driving it, just in case. When I agreed to come, I told her she was driving. We weren’t going far, just up to the town centre. Got there almost on time (my fault for my procrastination) and found that not only was Shona there, but Isobel was too. I wondered if Scamp had got her days mixed up, but no, it was Isobel who had her time mixed up. She got there for 10am to meet one of her friends and it turned out she should have been there for 11am. She didn’t mind, she said, she’d just wait. And she did. Because of the Covid rules in Scotland, she wasn’t allowed to join Shona, Scamp and I as that would have made an outlawed 3 families at a table. It gets so complicated with all these rules, not to mention the fact that all four nations in the UK have their own rules and none of the four seem to have a common ground. That’s what happens when you have headless chickens and Bumbling Boris in charge. Chaos!

We sat for an hour listening to Shona telling all her news and there was lots of it too. You don’t realise how lucky you are until you hear someone explaining all the tangled web of their own life. After about an hour we were all up to date with what had happened recently and we had a few laughs too. Shona always finds something to laugh at. We said our goodbyes and Scamp drove us home. When we left the carpark at around midday, the automatic headlights came on. That will tell you how little daylight there is in Scotland in mid December.

After lunch two parcels arrived in quick succession. One from Hazy and, we think, one from Canute. The light, which had improved when we arrived home was failing at around 2pm, so I packed my camera bag and went for a walk in St Mo’s. I wanted a mono shot to continue my week of black & white photos. Then I got talking to one of the two guys who was running RC (Radio Control) cars on the BMX track and I took a few photos of the car running over the jumps. One of the photos made PoD.  The mono shot didn’t quite make the cut, but it’s on Flickr.

Back home I’d volunteered to make a veg curry from scratch and got started with the flat bread dough before I made the curry. It took longer than I thought (it usually does!) but by 7pm we were eating a fairly decent veg curry with potatoes, butternut squash, courgettes and chickpeas in it. Like I said, it was a bit hot, but not too hot … just! More left for tomorrow, but it will need some yoghurt to cool it down I think.

That was about it for today. Looks wet for tomorrow and we’ve nowhere to go. Scamp has booked a slot at M&S, so we may do some shopping.

 

The Ladies – 15 December 2020

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Parcels to send today. Going down south by different routes.

Parcels loaded into the car this morning and off to post them. One going by Royal Mail because the postman knows where our son and his wife live. One going by DPD because they are cheaper. It’s a race then. Which one wins. Which one gets there quickest. We’ll find out later in the week, hopefully.

With the heavy posting done, it was time for a drive into the wilds. The wilds of Fannyside Moor. It was a beautiful morning with blue sky and just a little cloud or two. Once we got there we just sat in the car and listened. Listened to nothing. Just the distant sound of the occasional car running across the moss. That’s the peat moss, the moorland road across the peat moss. A single track road with passing places in the middle of the Central Belt in Scotland. Not ten miles from Cumbersheugh and it’s a single track road with passing places. This is the 21st century isn’t it. Anyway, we sat and listened to the radio for a while and then let the silence rule us. Perfect peace.

When we got out we found a bunch of ladies standing watching. Lady sheep, that is. Some black and some white, but all waiting and watching. Sheep have this disturbing way of looking at you that makes you think you should really turn round because something may be creeping up on you from behind. They also look as if they’re sizing you up, challenging you. Actually, I think they were just waiting for the farmer to bring their lunch. I took some photos and we walked down the road a way. Took some photos of an old ruined farmhouse and then came back. They were still there, the ladies. Still watching. Still waiting. Took some more photos and they all drifted away, bored with the show.

Drove home for lunch and Scamp went to visit her sister while I filled my birthday pen and started on the pile of unwritten Christmas cards. I got halfway through them when Scamp returned. I’d had enough of that for now, so I grabbed my camera and went to bolster my collection of photos. I needn’t have bothered. It was too late and the rain came on. I get the feeling it just waits for me some times. Came home and had a look at the photos, but as I suspected, they weren’t worth the bother. Went back to finish off the cards.

I don’t usually approve of the ‘one size fits all’ catch up ‘what we did this year’ stories that used to be all the rage at Christmas, but I decided that this year had been such a momentous one it was worthwhile cataloging it. If for nothing else, it showed our friends that they are not alone. We’ve all had a terrible year. Some worse that others, but nobody got away lightly in 2020. I’ll include it in some of the Christmas cards, just to keep folk in the loop.

Tomorrow we pay another whack of money to Royal Mail when we have to buy the second dose of stamps for this load of cards.

Tomorrow looks wet for most of the morning and early afternoon. What fun today was, though. I wonder if those sheep are still standing. Watching, Waiting.

Getting out and about – 7 December 2020

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We went for the messages.

In the morning we drove to Tesco for bread, milk and apples. Fairly basic. We came home with a whole lot more than those essentials, but no more gin. Bumped into Colin C and Evelyn and got some of his news. Some of his extended family had picked up the the infection and had to self isolate, so Colin and Evelyn were looking after them, when it should be the other way around. He said he’d seen Fred when he came into the store, but there was no sign of him. He was probably hiding.

Back home and after lunch Scamp decided the paths were safe enough to go for a walk in St Mo’s, just to get some fresh air. We did one circuit of the pond and crossed paths with a bloke I usually bump into there and pass the time of day. He does clockwise circuits, I do anti-clockwise. I hadn’t realised until he said so. We’re both usually there alone, today he was with (I assume) his wife and I was with Scamp. I was just saying to Scamp that I usually bump into him on my circuit of the pond and she said “He’s probably saying that to his wife too.” So it was confirmed, the woman was his wife. Women know these things.

I’d got three photos in all the time we were out and I swithered (Great word it means I couldn’t make up my mind) about using them or going out to get more. Got slightly better photos of the ladybird (still only one) and some fungi with ice on the top, but PoD went to the landscape. Taken about the same time of day as yesterdays and has the same basic colours. Yesterday’s colours were part of the ‘cheating’ today’s colours have not been messed with.

While I was cleaning up the photos, Scamp was talking to her sister on the phone and sharing news and views with Skye. Then I found an excellent set of tutorial videos on the Synology NAS by a bloke on YouTube. If you’re interested, it’s called mydoodads. Much, much better than the tutorials from Synology itself.

Well, it seems that JIC has to wait for a while for his chance to complete his Cranford course. The tutor was in touch to say that he had a ‘family emergency’ and would re-schedule. No luck son. Some folk just have to do it the hard way … every time.

Rain forecast for tomorrow, so we’ll have to wait and see if a walk is on the cards.

Cold and Frosty – 6 December 2020

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It was really quite frosty this morning with still a little bit of snow on the hills. Cold.

It didn’t look like there was going to be much walking done today with icy paths and roads. Scamp didn’t fancy going out at all and spent most of the day Christmassing the house even more. I must admit it does feel festive now. Not something I’d have considered in a ‘normal’ year, but this hasn’t been a normal year by any measure.

After lunch I took the cameras, two of them, out to St Mo’s in search of the elusive ladybirds. Only one today and that was burrowed into a crevice in the tree on the shadow side, so even the Oly had a hard time focusing on it and with the shutter speed of 1/8th sec, I wasn’t going to get anything worthwhile, so I gave up and went looking for a landscapes shot. Finally found what I was looking for with an early sunset sky reflecting on the wee pond on the edge of the woods. There was just the hint of mist forming and I knew if I waited a while that mist would thicken up and it did. I took a few shots and then decided it was time to head home, because the sun was indeed setting.

As usual it took a few minutes to frame and grab the shot and an hour or so to convert it into something I was satisfied with. I managed to beef up the mist and then added a few bits of extra frost to the grass in the foreground. ‘Cheating’, Scamp calls it. I say it’s just emphasising what’s already there.

Spoke to JIC in the evening and wished him well in the final part of his Cranfield course. Heard that they were having similar weather to us with mist and fog and cold. No snow though!

Watched an interesting if slightly confused F1 GP. Felt sorry for George Russell trying to do his best with a completely disorganised Mercedes pit crew. I think they must have got them from Rent-A-Numpty. Two disastrous tyre changes robbed him of a win. Bottas on the other hand robbed himself.

Hoping for a better day tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Hazy – 2 December 2020

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After sending the usual birthday greeting to Hazy, I forced myself to get up and face the day.

We did a Skype with Hazy. It’s so hard to decide which of the many video conferencing apps to use now. Each one has its own advantages an disadvantages. We settled for Skype because the Birthday Girl thought it would be best. It was great, considering Mickysoft has its claws in it. Having said that I did notice a £ sign next to my sign in name. Is that a sign of things to come? Got to see her opening her presents and then caught up with all things round about Epsom and we had a few laughs too. Then it was time to go.

I rejoined battle with my NAS drive and Scamp went shopping for bird food and things. I got nowhere with the NAS. It just could be that the drive has been damaged by that one kick in the head too many. Since I’d accessed it last week using a Linux distro last week, I’d assumed everything was intact. Now I’m thinking that the data may be intact, but the OS is damaged, hence the problems I’m having trying to contact it with its own software.

I made a pizza to get my mind off the problem NAS. It was looking good, then I dropped it when I was cutting it. Half fell on the floor and I promptly decided that was my half. Just as bread always falls butter side down, so the half pizza fell topping side down. It’s all to do with neutral axis and centre of gravity. When you look at it that way it’s perfectly logical … but still annoying. It actually tasted ok and the pizza base was perfect. Scamp’s half was even better I’m told.

Struggled for a short while with the NAS software before I gave up and went for a walk with my camera in St Mo’s. I’d left it too late, far too late and by time I found some interesting stuff, like a couple of hibernating ladybirds, there was really insufficient light to get a decent shot. Then the rain started and I made the decision that a warm house was better than a cold, wet forest and I went home. All the time I’d been planning what to do with the NAS disk and by the time I came home I had a plan. The PoD went to a piece of Reindeer Moss although there were no reindeer to be seen and it was a bit of lichen, not moss.

I won’t bore you with the details, suffice to say that the plan worked. Copied a few files from the dodgy NAS drive to a newly formatted little hard disk using Linux as the copying OS. Now I can go to bed knowing that I can retrieve most, if not all, of the data on the drive. Thank you Colin for the suggestion and thank you Val for your help. Thank you lot for reading this exciting story of lost data and bad drives. Don’t worry about your WD My Cloud, Colin. It will be fine just as long as you don’t kick it in the head too many times.

A quick dance practise tonight before Scamp made Fish ’n’ Chips. Ages since we’ve had that.

I couldn’t settle on a subject for today’s sketch which would start with the letter ‘L’..  Light? Landscape? Lamp?  All were attempted and rejected.  Eventually I asked Scamp if she would like a drink as today was ‘Hump Day’, middle day of the week.  It’s all downhill from here, or so they say.  She was having G ‘n’ T and I was going to have beer, then I thought I might have lager, and the subject just appeared like magic.  It’s not a magic drawing, of that I’m sure, but it’s done and posted, so that’s a success of a kind.

Tomorrow looks like a Scottish winter. Thankfully we’re not rushing out anywhere too early, at least I hope we’re not!