Category: Family

Changeover Day – 20 May 2016

Posted on by Zogman

EM100080- flickr--144--141Today was the day for leaving Hazy and N D’Ag and heading for JIC and Sim. To achieve this we had to walk to the station, get the overground train to Vauxhall (which must be my favourite architectural area of London) and then the underground to Kings Cross. From there we had to get tickets and travel to Baldock where JIC would pick us up after work. Work? Oh yes, I can vaguely remember that word! As it happened, we arrived far too early and had to wait in the pub. Such an inconvenience 😉 JIC arrived on time and off we went to Astwick.

Spent an hour or so wandering around his garden. His and Sim’s, but the veg plot is definitely JIC’s territory and not Sim’s. She takes care of the trees and flowers and that side of the garden is looking good too. The scenery around Astwick is a breath of fresh air. Not dramatic – no hills or mountains, but just lots of greenery and birds. Saw a woodpecker, but it was too fast for me.

Going to meet Vixen tomorrow because she is in kennels for our visit. I feel a bit bad about that, but I suppose it makes sense. A bit apprehensive about meeting her, but I’m sure it will go well.

Today’s PoD is from the verge of Hazy’s drive.

Heading South – 17 May 2016

Posted on by Zogman

combo bAfter an early (well, early for us now) rise and a taxi ride, we were on the train to Embra and thence on the train to London.

The carriage was a bit old and clunky but still very comfortable.  For once, we seemed to pass from light to dull as we travelled south.  It never actually rained, but at times it seemed like it wanted to.  There were lots of photographers out taking photos of us on our journey, or so it seemed until we realised that they were actually waiting to get a shot of the Flying Scotsman which allegedly we had passed just outside Newcastle.  What a disappointment.  I hope they got their shots and, if they got one or two of me peering out of the train window, that they got my ‘good side’.

Further down the line we had to brake to a stop because of a ‘trespass incident’.  I’m guessing that some photogs were getting a bit too enthusiastic in their attempts to get a nice good close-up of the steam engine.  As a result, we were 10 minutes late getting to London, and missed our connection at Vauxhall by 5 minutes.  I used the time to grab the couple of shots you see here.  Vauxhall seems to constantly re-invent itself.  Every time we stand on the platform of Vauxhall station, more new buildings are rising around us.

When we got to Chessington, N D’Ag had just arrived to give us a lift in the car.  Now if some braindead photog hadn’t trespassed at Thirsk, we wouldn’t have  been 10 minutes late into London and we wouldn’t have missed our connection at Vauxhall and we would have had a fairly long walk to the house.  Some things just work out.

Maybe the food on the train wasn’t as good as we thought.  Scamp was feeling sick tonight.  Hopefully she’ll be right as rain tomorrow, but we don’t want the actual rain, thank you very much.

Noilly Prat – 7 May 2016

Posted on by Zogman

comboNoilly Prat is a brand of vermouth from France. “White” Noilly Prat is the archetype of dry, straw-coloured French vermouth.  It’s also the words I woke up to today.  I don’t know why.  Maybe it was precognition or just a word that I saw somewhere and got trapped in my cerebral cortex.  It happens a lot to me.

Woke later than normal and felt as if I hadn’t rested at all.  Only myself to blame.  That’s what happens when you get home at 2am after a long day, coupled with a late night the day before.  Dragged myself out of bed, then a shower and a cup of strong coffee helped put the world back on its axis.

Today we were driving down to Kilmarnock to visit Dorothy B.  We spent a good hour there with her and Colin.  Enjoyed the company and I’m sure she did too.  Got her up to date with what’s been going on in our life and our prospective plans for the next few months.

It was a dull kind of day with very little direct sun, so although I took my cameras as usual, nothing inspired me enough to haul one of them out of the bag.  We drove back up the M77 and dropped in at Waitrose for ‘the messages’ and a light lunch.  While Scamp was deciding on a bottle of wine for tonight, I turned around and what caught my eye?  Why a bottle of Noilly Prat!  Just coincidence.

When we got home, and after finishing yesterday’s (extremely) Hard Sudoku with a little help from my tablet, I went for a walk to St Mo’s.  Again, nothing was tempting me to get my camera out, then I saw the moss fruiting bodies.  Difficult to see with the naked eye, but amazing detail shows up when you use a couple of extension tubes on the Oly with the Panasonic 45-200 zoom.  The green larch needles were taken contre-jour (against the light) and I just liked the little pink flower.  Three shots survived out of 37 taken.  Not bad really.

TV was crap as usual on a Saturday night so we watched a recorded episode of Rick Stein.  He was in Berlin, and what wine was he celebrating?  Why Noilly Prat!  Once is coincidence, twice gets scary, especially since if you’d asked me yesterday what Noilly Prat was, I couldn’t have told you.

Earlier in the week we were promised 24ºc for Sunday (tomorrow), but the weatherman’s revised estimate tonight is nearer 18ºc.  Oh dear, let’s hope it doesn’t go any lower.

More bright intervals – 23 March 2016

Posted on by Zogman

combo bWent to the gym and then had a swim this morning, or to be more precise, we split it over midday.

After lunch we went different ways. Scamp stayed in and did the ironing, and I went a walk along the old railway. It seemed like a good idea as there were occasional breaks in he clouds and the sun was managing to shine through. Everybody and their dog was out walking today and I mean that literally everybody had at least one dog. Some had two, some had three. One woman went over the score and had five or six of the yappy wee things. I must get a dog. Everyone else has one. I hate to be left out (Joke!) I have no intention of saddling myself with a dog, cat, rabbit or budgie. I’ve got Scamp and me and that’s more than enough.

Today’s shots are all of weeds I saw on the walk.  To some they are just weeds, but when you look closely, there are so many little details in them that you miss if you see them as ‘just’ weeds  It’s that and the shapes they make and the hidden colours in them that I find interesting.  Well, they are to me.

There’s a sign halfway along the path I walk explaining that the path follows the route of an old mineral railway which linked various pits and quarries around Kilsyth and Twechar. The sign goes on to explain that the wagons were pulled by little engines called Pugs. I remember my dad telling me about the pugs that pulled the Hutches (small wagons) at the clay mine he worked at quite near Twechar. The sign always reminds me of my dad and his stories and the way he would kind of draw the scene in the air as he was talking Almost like his hand holding an imaginary pencil. Also the way he used to talk. The way he smacked his lips when he was really involved in his story. It’s when I take the time to remember these things that I can see him sitting there telling stories. He was a great story teller.

 

Cramond – 28 December 2015

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combo wToday we took JIC and Sim to Cramond. The weather was dry and we had a gentle walk along the the Almond to the waterfall. We agreed that beyond that, the path would get too muddy and slippery for those without boots, i.e. all of us. To waste some time we watched a red rubber ball trying unsuccessfully to escape the eddy below the waterfall. (You probably had to be there!) We walked back and had coffee and a scone at the quite excellent Falls Cafe before walking down to the estuary and deciding it was just too late to attempt the crossing to the island in the shadow of the ‘toblerones’.  If you haven’t seen them, it will mean nothing to you. They were anti-submarine defences from WW2.

After that we drove home because Sim and JIC were meeting Scott for a liquid lunch and a catch up after twenty odd years.

While I made dinner, Scamp injected profiteroles with cream (more successfully than I did last week). Later JIC and Sim returned with the aforementioned (I like that word, did you guess?) Scott with his wife and wee girl. Scott hadn’t changed a bit.  It was almost as if he had left out house the day before, rather than twenty odd years before.  They stayed, reminiscing about exotic dancing and other escapades from the past and then it was time for dinner.

I’d already booked The Legend of Barney Thompson to watch after dinner. Oh dear, I wish now I hadn’t. It was the most dire film I’ve seen this year, or probably in any year. Whatever you do, don’t watch it. Absolute Crap! The book, well the first book anyway, was funny. The rest had nothing at all to recommend them. The book was just a ‘British Film’. Rubbish.

Don’t know what tomorrow will bring, we’ll let the fates decide.

An Uplifting Day – 27 December 2015

Posted on by Zogman

combo bWe woke to sunshine.  Real, unabated sunshine with drying streets too.  Scamp needed to go shopping, so we had to risk driving out to Tesco with no hope of getting a parking space when we got back.  When we got back after an altercation with a total prick in the carpark. – As an aside, I’d like to say that one of the great benefits of having your own little slice of webspace it that you can say what you really feel without fear of having it redacted by some pinhead admin.  I am the admin so I’ll say what I like. –   Anyway, the prick took umbrage at me bumping a car’s wing mirror (not even his car) with my trolley.  After emptying my trolley, I just gave him a smile as I walked as slowly as I could in front of his car.  One of the great benefits of being old is that you can do things like that.  If the aforementioned prick wants to scream and shout at you, all you do is grab your chest and stagger around a bit and watch the colour drain from his face.  Then you smile again, stick your tongue out and walk away.  It’s a brilliant windup.  Yes, I know ‘boy’, ‘crying’, ‘wolf’ etc. Until then it’s still great fun and to be recommended for dealing with angry pricks.

Got back to find that there was a wedding stretch limo reversing tentatively up the hill near our house.  To accommodate it, I had to park miles from the house and carry the bags down the hill.  Is that what they call ‘Karma’?

After a cup of coffee I went for a walk to St Mo’s armed with the Nikon and 70-300 and also the old E-PL1 with 9mm.  Got a few shots, but for once the 9mm failed to perform.  Don’t know the reason why.  It might have been too slow a shutter speed because there was a considerable blur in the images, but this is the first time I’ve used that camera/lens combination.  Maybe I’ve gotten so used to the remarkable E-PL5 that I’d forgotten how limiting the ‘1’ is.  Must do some more tests before I can make a reasoned judgement.

After that we were waiting for JIC and Sim to arrive from ‘darn sarf’.  They made really good time and were great company tonight.  Let’s hope the weather holds out for tomorrow, because it’s been a great day today, weatherwise and a very entertaining one too.