Category: Family

A Wet Day – 4 October 2023

Posted on by Zogman

We knew it was going to be a wet day, but there was no respite today.

It was a dreich day and no mistake. It started during the night and continued all day. There’s not a lot more I can say about the weather, so I won’t.

Spoke to Hazy in the morning and we caught up with all that’s happening down south. Oh yes, and she was phoning us on her new iPhone 15. Not that I’m jealous or anything, but it does look good. Wish you health to use it Hazy and a new one when it’s done! We discussed Nelly, the Pleiospilos Nelii or Split Rock she gave in June. It’s changing its shape and Hazy thought it was going to flower, but on closer inspection it looks like it’s getting ready to split and push out two new leaves. I look forward to seeing that happen.

After we said “Cheerio”, Scamp and I had lunch. Scamp had a cheese sandwich and I had the remains of the lamb shank I cooked on Sunday. After carefully warming it in the microwave, I added some gravy granules to thicken the juices that had appeared in the bowl and made a decent lunch out of it. A toasted slice of rosemary and green olive sourdough finished off lunch. Rosemary and green olive sourdough? What would my mum have made of that? I’m sure she would have tried it, but would she have liked it? I think she would have. I don’t think my dad would have thought!

With Nelly still on my mind, I set up a tripod in the back bedroom and photographed that strange wee succulent. If you look carefully at the photo you can just see the spotted pale green leaves beginning its push up towards the light. That was PoD sorted.

I spent what was left of the afternoon sketching out my take on Dodge, today’s prompt. Yes it’s another cartoon, but it’s just for fun anyway. I never said I was an artist and maybe this proves it.

We drove up to the dance class in intermittent rain. I think this was our last full attempt at the Waltz Naioli. I’m feeling much more confident about it now and I think we could dance it in public now. It was a struggle at the start, but Kirsty is a very patient teacher who goes over and over the tricky parts of the routine. She’s nowhere near as patient as Scamp is though, but between them I can see the progress I’ve made. I didn’t want to come off the floor tonight, that’s how much I’ve enjoyed this dance. Thank you ladies!

Alex and I were supposed to be going to Paisley tomorrow, but the weather looks like a watered down version of today. The water being rain. So we’ve decided to meet in Glasgow, have a coffee and go for lunch. I think that sounds really sensible.

Lunch – 2 October 2023

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We were heading for Calders today to meet up with June & Ian and Crawford & Nancy for lunch.

It was a good day. I think everyone enjoyed it. Just a catch-up with some decent food. We’d been to Crawford and Nancy’s for dinner a fortnight ago, but June and Ian hadn’t met them for quite a while. Lots to talk about by everyone and lots of jokes and laughs. Like I said, a good day that everybody seemed to enjoy.

When we all broke up, Scamp and I went for a wander round the plants in the garden centre and she bought some violas and a cyclamen to fill up one of her now empty pots. Those pots don’t stay empty for long because Scamp usually has something in mind for them.

While she was doing that I filled a bucket of hot soapy water and gave the car the wash I’d been promising it for the last week and more. It really did need it and it looked so much better afterwards. That left me with just enough daylight time to get some photos in St Mo’s. “Spiders” was the topic for today in Inktober and that’s what I found all along the path round the pond. Spiders of every shape and size, from the size of a pin head to ones as long as my pinkie. However, they didn’t make PoD. That went to a wide angle shot of a bunch of wild geraniums growing in the wilderness area near the pond. The big blue flowers really brightened my walk.

Back home it was time to work on today’s sketch and it was a solitary spider that was my model from one of my own photos. I don’t think I’ve really done it justice, but it’s better than yesterday’s “Dream” in my opinion!

We had a quick practise of the Waltz Nioli and it worked quite well. Still a few rough edges to work on, but most of it is there now. Hopefully we’ll have another practise tomorrow.

We had a look in Which tonight hoping to get some hints on what to look for in a new fridge and a freezer, or maybe a fridge-freezer combined. Just a bit of preplanning since the freezer is not looking in good health just now. Prices are a lot higher than I expected, but I suppose everything is going up in price these days.

No real plans for tomorrow. The weather looks decent without being brilliant, but we’ll wait and see what we get.

Soil – 25 September 2023

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We were meeting Isobel for a coffee and a long blether this morning.

We drove up to the town centre and found Isobel halfway through her latte. I imagine it would have been cold by then. She seems to like cold milky coffee. I can think of few things more disgusting than that, although cold milky tea must come close. My Cortado seemed to interest her, but as she said, it hardly even a mouthful. We sat and talked for over an hour and found out that her son had delivered a bag of topsoil for her. Scamp has been looking for topsoil to pack round her roses to give the roots more of a grip in their pots. After interrogating Isobel we discovered that the soil came from Dobbies in Stirling and was reasonably priced. So reasonable that she had decided to get her son to buy another bag for her. Scamp was telling her that she was needing some and we might just go to Stirling to get a bag or two. Then I said to Isobel, “why don’t you come along for the run” and she agreed.

So it was that we drove to Stirling. lifted three bags of topsoil into a trolley, paid and left. Isobel’s quip that “It’s the shortest time I’ve been in a garden centre in my life.” was true. They hadn’t been in that plant paradise for more than fifteen minutes! While they were in looking for the topsoil I had been taking photos of the Wallace Monument and the Ochil Hills through a two meter wire fence. A bit clumsy, but the photos worked. Half a dozen shots in the bag.

We drove home and the wee blue car was struggling on the hills going home. Three full 25litre bags of damp soil and three folk too, plus a heavy camera bag and a zimmer. That was straining its three cylinders to the max, but at least were keeping most thing in threes!

We stopped in the village and used Isobel’s zimmer to transport her bag of soil up the path to her house. Then we drove back home for lunch which today was pizza.

After lunch Scamp got her tools out and started filling the rose pots with the soil. It looked like good quality stuff with maybe more than its fair share of sand mixed with the soil, but it hadn’t been very expensive, so we didn’t mind. I did consider taking a walk in St Mo’s, but when I checked the clock, it was almost dinner time and as it was Monday I was pasta chef today. A sort of cross between Penne Arrabiata and Amatriciana. It tasted fine anyway.

A quick Wednesday Waltz practise tonight and I do believe we are beginning to lick this dance into shape, but whisper it, because I don’t want it to hear!

After a bit of photoshopping and some jiggery pokery I declared one of today’s shots to be the PoD.

We have no plans for tomorrow.

Testing, Testing – 19 September 2023

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Testing yesterday’s purchase and the other acquisition.

I drove over to Alex’s to borrow his K mount adapter so I could test the ‘new’ lens. New, is a bit of a misnomer as it’s at least second hand and maybe has passed through a great many more hands since it was really New. Last night I’d found a tiny bit of mould in one of the internal elements. Nothing that would have a detrimental effect on any of the shots I was hoping to take with this piece of ‘Old Glass’. I also found a few fine scratches on the rear element, but again, they wouldn’t make any difference to the photos. Sat and talked about family and stuff with Alex and Carol and I’m sure the two cats were listening too. Pretty wee things that reminded me of Tibby.

After an hour or so I drove home and took a detour in the direction of Lenzie to a wee draw in by the side of the road to get some test photos taken of a bit of farm land that looked like a promising photo opportunity. As it happened, the light wasn’t quite as good as I thought, but it did give me a chance to test out the Pentax 50mm f2 lens I’d splashed out some money on yesterday. I was surprised at the quality of what is really a kit lens, and not really all that well rated. Last night I was having ‘buyers remorse’, but today I was delighted. It’s circa 1995 vintage, so it’s manual focus, but I knew that and it’s also very compact, especially when it’s bolted onto the Sony A7. One of the Pentax’s shots became PoD. The storm clouds you can see from the PoD followed me home and didn’t drop any rain until I was safely in the house. Sitting in the living room I took a few shots of the raindrops on the leaves of Alec’s Red and they looked good too.

Scamp had roasted a chicken for dinner with roast potatoes and cabbage to go with it. It truly was the best chicken I’ve eaten for a long time. The pudding was rhubarb and apple crumble using our own rhubarb and apples. It too was delicious. Then it was time for the test. It was time to pack the dishwasher, slide in the washer tablet, choose the program and press the start button. Like new parents we watched the counter light up and listened to the water trickling into the reservoir, then it was off and running. We could leave it to do what it was bought for. An hour and a bit later it had washed all the dishes and they were drying. A sigh or relief all round!

We had a longer practise session than I’d intended tonight, but there were rough corners to rub off the new waltz and it’s dance night tomorrow, so Kirsty will be looking for mistakes, I’m sure. Finally I got a grip on things and worked out where I was and what came next. I think most of it was muscle memory, but internal clues helped too. Not least in the help category were Scamp’s whispered prompts. We might need a reminder tomorrow, but I think we’re good to go.

No plans for tomorrow. The weather fairies are warning of heavy rain and strong winds tonight and tomorrow morning.

Rain stopped play – 10 September 2023

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Cloudy morning today, but the sun did manage to get through after a while. A coffee first then I could start work.

Today I was making Focaccia as the starter for tonight’s dinner and also a variation on Bread & Butter Pudding for dessert. Scamp had the much easier main course to make which was Sea Bass with Tomatoes and Potatoes. Focaccia is a sloppy dough with loads of olive oil to make it slippy and also sloppy. The first time I made it I kneaded it by hand and I remember chasing this messy dough all over the work surface. Yes, I did learn how to control a very wet dough, but vowed that the next time I’d let Mr Kenwood’s Chef do the hard work. So it was that I added all the ingredients into the bowl and let the dough hook go to work. About twenty minutes later I had a sort of dough and decide I could make it a bit wetter. Bad move. That meant the dough was too wet and I’d to add more flour. Eventually, I had the dough I wanted and I slopped it into a plastic tub to rise.

After lunch and after we’d watched Laura Kuenssberg tearing apart a new politician, it was time to check if the dough had “doubled in size”. Not quite, so I gave it another half hour to be sure and the sun was shining. That was the half hour it needed. It was ready to be slopped out on the work surface again, chopped into two big slippery pieces and stretched out in two baking trays to rest and stretch and grow bigger again with more olive oil in and around it. Another hour later, the sun was still shining and the dough was ready to be prepared for baking. I turned the oven on and poked my finger into the focaccia making big deep holes in it and then adding even more olive oil plus some rosemary, sun dried tomatoes and some sea salt. Then they went into the oven for 20mins. When they came out they looked fine, so guess what I added. Yes, more olive oil and then left them to rest and drink in all its green oily goodness.

I was watching the weather that wasn’t looking quite so sunny but I reckoned I could still get an hour in St Mo’s for some photos. A few minutes later, it was the sound that alerted me. The rain was coming down in torrents and Scamp’s washing was almost dry. Managed to save most of it, but the walk in St Mo’s wasn’t going to happen today. Instead I decided to photograph the rain. That will explain the title of today’s blog.

Later buttered four croissants, spread jam on them and set them aside. Next I beat up three eggs, some vanilla essence and some sugar then nearly boiled some milk and cream before chucking it into the bowl with the eggy mixture, arranged the croissants, tastefully, in a heatproof bowl and poured the creamy-eggy mess on top. Drizzled some sugar on top and stuck it in the oven to do its thing. I’d only made custard!! A bit lumpy in places and a bit thin in places, but custard, none the less! I was impressed. Plonked some rasps on top and there we had dessert.

Scamp only had to fry a fish or two, boil a few potatoes and chuck in some tomatoes. I had created a dessert with my own bare hands!

Focaccia was lovely and sticky. Scamp said it was missing something and I have to agree, I just don’t know what that ‘something’ was.

Spoke to Jamie and heard about swimming in the sea and thankfully the bat survey may now have passed muster with those who know about such things. I bet that’s a weight of their minds.

Tomorrow we may go in to Glasgow on the bus or the train. Oh, yes, and it’s still raining!

 

 

Mrs Robinson goes to a dance – 7 September 2023

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Today we were taking Isobel to a tea dance in deepest Paisley.

It was a muggy morning with heavy skies and no sign of the sun, but it did clear up in time for us to drive to the Village to pick up Isobel. We were the first folk to arrive in the hall at Glenburn and had the pick of the tables!

The room filled up quickly and we were joined by a couple who we meet on Saturday mornings. It was a waltz to start with and I made a fair hash of it, but at least we were on the floor. The usual order of two ballroom tracks followed by two sequence tracks continued up until tea time then we had time to sit and blether. I think my favourite dance today was the social foxtrot. It’s a nice easy tempo to dance to and nothing strenuous or difficult to remember and no need to work about getting in folk’s way, plenty of time to take avoiding action.

We left as usual just after 3pm to avoid the schools coming out and managed the transition from M77 to M74 with ease. A bit longer road than going over the Kingston Bridge, but so much more relaxing than having to crawl along behind the car in front always looking for a space to appear in the lane that’s travelling faster than yours. It gave Isobel a chance to look around at different scenery too. She even explained what the massively tall fence round just outside the city boundary was. I thought it was a council tip and the fence was to keep the seagulls away, or the poly bags in, but it was a golf practise range. I’ve been driving that road every Saturday for weeks and never realised that’s what it was. You live and learn.

Dropped Isobel off at her house and drove home via Tesco for fruit and to replenish Scamp’s Pimms cupboard, but by then the clouds were thickening and it looked like it had been raining in Cumbersheugh village. Back home the streets were dry, but maybe that was a precursor for what is forecast for next week.

On the way to Glenburn there were notifications of Ayr Air Show beginning tomorrow and lasting until Sunday. I thought we might go, but in the air show page on the net, it didn’t look all that enticing. I think we’ve seen most of the aircraft before. The only good thing about it is that it’s free, the down side is you are standing, possibly for an hour waiting for something that might be cancelled due to weather conditions. We might not bother.

I took out my ancient Tamron SP 70-300mm f4-5.6 Di for a walk in the park when we got back. It’s a Nikon fit, but it works on the Sony A7iii on a Viltrox adapter in manual mode. It has a load of faults, but still produces the occasional good image. Today was a good image day.
A shot of Field Thistles beginning to fill the air with their fluff balls became PoD.

Tomorrow, no plans. I think I might sit with my feet up. Walking around Glasgow all afternoon yesterday, dancing class at night and a tea dance today takes it out of my poor wee legs and feet!

A day among the beasties – 22 August 2023

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The beasties in question were damselflies, dragonflies, butterflies and a single little caterpillar with a face that only its mother would love!

In the morning we did little except Wordle and Spelling Bee. Then Hazy phoned and we had a good half hour chat about the Wales holiday with the Welsh side of the family. Pity the house wasn’t quite up to the Cumbrian one, but you always have to take estate agent’s descriptions and photos with a pinch of salt. Glad that everyone took their turn at cooking, and it’s alway good when everyone sits down to a meal together.

Lunchtime arrived much quicker than I expected and after we were fed and watered, we walked down to the shops to get some messages. It was on the way back home that I thought I might just manage to get some more butterfly or dragonfly photos in St Mo’s

So on with the boots and out I went to see what I would find today. It was actually quite warm in the sun and I made the right decision for once and left my raincoat at home and wore a hoodie instead. There were hosts of dragonflies about, but they were too busy dive bombing each other and flying dogfights among the rushes. Mostly they were common darters, with the males outnumbering the females about 2:1. I gave them up as a subject for today. The days are getting shorter as we move into the last quarter of August, so the dragonflies had other things on their mind.

I did find a couple of peacock butterflies sunning themselves on the flowers, but they were too far into the bushes and I knew they’d fly off as soon as they saw me coming. Also, it’s prime tick weather just now and I don’t want any more of these black devils on me. Neither them nor the inevitable clegs which you may know as horse flies. So, no butterflies either. I was busy photographing two hoverflies on a lovely pink knapweed when a common blue damsels dropped in and sat quite comfortably watching me at work before it too became a subject. I kept expecting it to fly off, but it seemed happy and obviously saw that I wasn’t a danger to it. With a couple of dozen photos taken, I headed for home for dinner which was cauliflower and potatoes with a cheese sauce.

It wasn’t until I was processing the photos that I noticed the cheeky green insect (don’t know what it was) poking its head up from the knapweed flower. Photobombed by a tiny green insect. That shot became PoD!

A quick practise tonight of Joy’s Waltz, especially the Outside Spin. Then a run through for Scamp of the new Cross Basic in the cha-cha which is really just another of Jane’s add-ons that are designed to look elegant, but cause a lot of grief! Most of the problems were ironed out … eventually.

I’m planning on meeting Alex from the train tomorrow and we’re heading to Auchinstarry to get some photos of the barges at the marina.  Scamp might be having coffee with Isobel.

Gardening and wildflowers – 20 August 2023

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A lazy day, with little to recommend it.

We did a bit of gardening in the late morning, just pruning the Buddleia in the hope that it would encourage more flowers, but I really think it’s past now and needs a serious haircut before the winter winds arrive. Scamp was busy moving some Honesty plants from the nursery pots to the pots they will hopefully live in until they flower next year. She can be quite ruthless with plants, ripping them out if she thinks they are ‘going over’, ie not producing the flowers they should be. I was also chopping down as much of the Aquilegia I could get away with. It’s well past first flush of flowering and there’s just the chance that it might flower again before the end of the year. More work needing done:

  • Sunflowers need staked.
  • I think we need to think about some winter colour.
  • We need to remove this year’s flowers from the Rhododendrons. This one is contentious. Some folk think we shouldn’t remove the old floret stems and some think we should.

Basically the garden is doing well. The few veg I have are coming along nicely, especially the leeks and the kale. Maybe we should plant some tatties soon for a Christmas crop.

In the afternoon I went for a walk in St Mo’s and got a few interesting wildflower photos, there being very little insect life about apart from the usual skittish Common Darters. It was a very green photo of a Pineapple Plant that got PoD. I remember when I was wee, being amazed that they did actually taste like pineapples! They smell like them too. As they are low growing, it’s probably best to just smell them rather than eat them as you don’t know what has been ‘watering’ them!

Dinner tonight was a Chicken Milanese we got from the butchers a week or so ago. Scamp was not impressed and I have to agree her version is better. Dessert was Apricot and Brioche Pudding. A bit like Bread and Butter Pudding, but posher!

Spoke to Jamie tonight and heard about his posh dinner on Friday. Sounded lovely. We must go look for The Unruly Pig. That’s the name of the restaurant, by the way.  We think our garden is growing well until we hear about their garden and then ours pales a bit in comparison.  However, ours is easier to maintain.

No real plans for tomorrow. It depends on the weather.

Happy Birthday Jamie – 16 August 2023

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Hope you had a good day.

We didn’t do very much this morning. Yesterday was a bit of a buzz. Scamp was out in the morning and in the afternoon. I was out in the morning then spread my 10,000 odd steps all over the west end before I brought the street legal blue car back. Today was different. We weren’t sure what the weather was going to do, and neither was the weather. Eventually we settled on lunch in a new restaurant that seemed as if it was in the middle of a building site.

We got a seat next to the loudest woman in the place. She had finished her main course by the time we arrived and was just starting into what looked like a 15cm x 15cm x 15cm brick of Sticky Toffee Pudding with custard. All she seemed to do was stuff her face with the chocolate coated pudding while she FaceTimed with someone on her phone. Eventually she decided she had to leave NOW and got up and left, leaving most of the dark brown brick untouched Suddenly the restaurant was a much quieter place.

The food was good, but not exceptional. I had a double gammon steak with egg, pineapple and chips. Steaks were small, so they ended up being the same size as a normal one. Scamp had fish ’n’ chips one of her standard tests for a new restaurant. The food was fine for a cheap lunch. We agreed we’d probably go back, but maybe to the carvery next time.

Drove home via Lidl where I wanted a cob loaf and between us added more to the basket than we really wanted, or needed, but Lidl’s like that. You see things in there you haven’t seen for ages.

About a month ago I scraped the rear wing of the car when I was parking. Today I wondered if the old trick of using Brasso to spread the top coat over the scratch would still work. The answer is it works a treat. Brasso is a very fine abrasive and if you rub it on to the affected area it heats up and the paint skin melts into the scrape. Allegedly toothpaste does the same thing.

I took the A7 out for a walk in the afternoon while Scamp was reading. For the first time in ages I got lots of photos. I’d actually taken some in the morning. The Shooting Stars that had flowered so well in May were now spreading their tiny seeds anywhere they could find some damp earth and the seed pods were almost empty, but very photogenic. St Mo’s however produced some insect life. Dragonflies, peacock butterflies and mating damselflies especially were in great supply, but the PoD went to a teasel in the garden that’s beginning to show its needles. This is the first time I’ve grown them and I’m looking to see them flowering.

No plans yet for tomorrow. As usual it all depends on the weather.

A dull day in Glasgow – 9 August 2023

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Yesterday it was parking. Today my complaint was transport.

Scamp drove me down to the station this morning to catch the train to Glasgow to meet Alex. I just missed the train by seconds, and had to wait 20 mins for the next one which appeared on the board as the train I missed was disappearing around the bend. I wandered along the platform and back again then went for a seat in the waiting room because I’d decided to carry two cameras and three lenses. One each and an extra one if the need arose. Sat for a while then as the platform got busier, I walked back to see how long it was now before the train. Apparently it was on time at Falkirk, the previous stop to mine. Then things started to go wrong. Originally it was due in 14 minutes, then that changed to 16 minutes and then it just read DELAYED. Now we all know that if you remove the L the Y and the second E, the truth is there to read. This train was DEAD. The announcement came soon after that and it told us that the train was due at 11.24am. Amazingly it did arrive right at that time. Admittedly that doesn’t happen often, but it’s still annoying when it does.

Met Alex at the bus station after I walked up from the train station in Glasgow and we went for coffee. Our usual start to a day taking photos in Glasgow. I suggested we go down Buchanan Street through St Enoch’s an on to the Clyde Walkway where we can walk downstream to the Squinty Bridge. Hopefully the day would brighten up from its dull start and the sun would shine (Spoiler alert: It didn’t). I think I was surprised that he agreed right away, so that’s what we did.

We took some photos of the artwork that constantly changes on the concrete panels of the walkway. We took some shots. My out and out favourite was the chicken with the lip ring and the amazing reflections in its eyes. I don’t know how they achieved that. Such clever and artistic people doing graffiti nowadays. Take a look at it on Flickr if you get the chance. With that done we crossed the South Portland St Suspension Bridge. I don’t ever remember being on that bridge, but somehow it felt familiar. That’s where PoD came from. Taken from the Gorbals end of the bridge looking back to the city. A wee slightly wobbly man with a clinking poly bag told us we shouldn’t be taking photos of his pals down on the steps and when he realised we’d Scottish accents he smile and we were his pals. His passing remark was “Glasgow’s a lovely city”, and you know something? He was right!
We saw another two better dressed gents crossing the bridge looking like they’d been to a wedding or maybe a posh lunch walking with a man carrying an orange box filled with plants. It looked like they were together, but trying to deny it. Strange things happen on the south side of the Clyde

We turned right and walked along into what turned out to be the financial district. Lots and lots of new high rise office blocks. Most of them owned by or affiliated to Barclays. We walked on because we were beginning to feel hunger pangs. Crossed back over at the Squiggly Bridge and made our way back into the city.

We found a Nero on a street corner and lunch was BLT sandwich for Alex and mushroom Tostati for me. Not really a lunch, just something to keep the wolf from the door.

Walked back up Buchanan Street and caught our individual bus home, except, to keep things symmetrical, I just missed the X3 home and had to wait 20 minutes for the next one!

Dinner tonight was yesterday’s curry reheated but with fish instead of eggs. Still delicious, just different.

Tonight we had a quick rehearsal of Joy’s Waltz and the new Rumba because we may be going to a tea dance tomorrow.