Category: Flowers

Fourth of July – 4 July 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Another day of thundery showers followed by warm sunshine.

Scamp decided we should go shopping and I went along to make sure it was done properly! We arrived back home with a sight more than the milk, potatoes, fruit and veg. Stopped on the way to get the makings of tonight’s dinner which was stir-fry. We just got in the door as the rain started.

Yesterday Scamp decided the bed needed changing and the mattress turned. Today she decide the upstairs rooms should be hoovered so between us we hauled out the bed, dusted behind it then hoovered there too. Finally we put almost everything back in place. Some things though, including my ancient but totally shot leather slippers didn’t go back. They went into the bin instead. Poor things were almost worn through. I’ll never find another pair like them.

We were just relaxing with a coffee after our work when the rain came on again and it really did come down like stair rods. The weather fairies had warned of thundery showers and for once they were correct. I waited until I was sure the rain had stopped then booted up and walked over to St Mo’s with the A6000 in tow and took a few insect and flower photos. The flower photos won today. The ultimate winner was a photo of a branch with Snowberry flowers. Delicate little pink bell shaped flower that will produce bunches of white ball shaped fruit in the autumn. Managed to get back dry, apart from the drips coming from the trees after the heavy shower earlier.

Got an email from Nissan asking me to Pay Up or Put Back by September. Still considering what the final fate of the wee Blue car will be.

No plans for tomorrow as yet.

Rain, Sun and Wind – 2 July 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Three words to sum up today as far as weather goes. There was rain. Sometimes heavy sometimes light, but always there on the horizon. Then there were occasions sunbursts, sometimes while the rain was falling, but welcome when they appeared. Lastly there was wind for the third day recently. Gusty wind blowing in from the west. Very unseasonable weather after a Flaming June.

Scamp was out planting her new flowers. They are a white Salvia and a white Penstemon. Both in the new pot she bought (but didn’t wear) yesterday. They are now ensconced in the front garden to strengthen the barrier and hopefully prevent the Scottish Terrier from round the corner from crapping in our front grass. If that doesn’t work, then we’ll have to resort to digging pits with sharpened spikes at the bottom, between the pots or the ‘nuclear option’ – Land Mines. Anyway, for now the flower pots are doing a good job of keeping Hamish at bay. In the afternoon I swear I saw Scamp out in the front garden watering the plants while the rain was tipping it down. I now have seriously concerns about her sanity.

Later in the afternoon I put my boots on and went for a walk in St Mo’s, hoping to get some photos of some yellow Flag Irises, but was disappointed to find that they were long gone. That spell of hot weather had forced the flowering of these elegant plants way ahead of their usual blooming time. What I did find was a couple of Batman hoverflies, so called because they have what looks like the Batman symbol on their thorax. Then a Five Spot Burnet moth feeding on its favourite knapweed flower. After some discussion with myself, the Burnet moth got PoD.

Watched a crazy Austrian GP with almost half the field succumbing to five second penalties for exceeding ’Track Limits’. For once, Charles Leclerc didn’t find the wall!

We don’t have any plans for tomorrow.

 

A new month – 1 July 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Finally I’ve cleared the backlog of blog posts and Flickr submissions. It took a bit longer than I expected, but even as I was downloading today’s photos, I found more on the A6000 that I had missed so I’m now up to about 1300 photos for June. That’s a personal record, I think. It’s partly down to the new phone. The results I get from it are almost indistinguishable from those on my A6000. Not quite as good as the A7iii, but it gets close when I use the RAW mode on the phone camera. Quite amazing. Truly now, the best camera is the one in your pocket.

I spent most of the morning and part of the afternoon clearing up loose ends of blogs. If any of you out there notice any mistakes, please don’t tell me, because I’m not going to do anything about them. Not long after midday I posted the final backlog blog.
Meanwhile, Scamp was doing the ironing and by the time she was finished, I was just finishing, so we could have lunch. Both of us settled for banana on toast.

After lunch Scamp decided she needed another garden tub to house her two new plants, so we walked down to the shops, got some messages and other essentials like jam doughnuts and then picked us a reasonably sized tub that Scamp threatened to wear on her head on the way home to protect herself from the rain. Thankfully the rain dried up once we left the shop. I could have gone for a walk in St Mo’s and probably I should have, but instead I came home with Scamp and did my file shifting that I usually do at the end of the month.

It had been windy since early morning and photography in the wind is difficult, so I chose to take some shots in the back garden where there is a bit of shelter from our high fence. PoD turned out to be the seed pods of the long gone Shooting Star flowers that bloomed in May. There wasn’t much more to tempt me today. Maybe I should have gone over to St Mo’s or encouraged Scamp to wear that flower pot hat and got a shot from one of those two situations … or maybe best not!

No plans for tomorrow.

 

The last day in June – 30 June 2023

Posted on by Zogman

What a month this has been. Two weeks in the sun – too much sun. Record high temperatures. Torrential rain. Then cooling down. Things got so bad that the BBC weather app went crazy, gave up and just predicted temperature highs of 8ºc and lows of 7ºc for the next week. I think it just got fed up with all the fluctuations!

The furthest I got today was a couple of shots of an aquilegia in the back garden. Taken in the rain that never seemed to stop all day.

Scamp went out in the morning to meet Isobel for coffee and then June & Ian arrived there too. That was her morning and part of the afternoon filled. She made a delicious Prawn & Pea Risotto for dinner when she came back. Meanwhile I was writing, writing, writing and am almost finished. Tomorrow should see the end of the backlog. I think I’ve said that before!!

Tomorrow a new month and a new start hopefully.

A parcel arrives – 27 June 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Today we were going to Stirling for the messages.

Drove to Waitrose and decided to get the messages first then go for a coffee. As usual we spent more than we intended to, but went for a walk into Stirling for a coffee to console ourselves. Loads of folk milling around taking photos. Tourists! They should be banned. Eventually the tour guide rounded them up, counted the legs and divided by two and seemed satisfied with the result. Then he shepherded them away to their waiting coach. Probably wished he had a sheepdog to help with that!

We drove home Scamp found a note to say there was a parcel waiting in the shed. It was a lovely wee blue pot with a Pleiospilos nelii or Split Rock plant from Hazy. Thank you both very much. I did think of trying to drill a drainage hole in the bottom of the pot, but the risk of breaking it was too great, so I just left it as it is.

After a few trips to the car to empty out all the bags of messages, I went for a walk in St Mo’s and it rained. That didn’t stop me getting some photos of a bunch of wild Geraniums flowering away nicely in among the grass. That was PoD.

Once the Split Rock plant, now named Nelly for obvious reasons, has settled in it will make a great subject for an inside photo.

 

The rains came – 25 June 2023

Posted on by Zogman

More washing today.

It was one of those drizzly wet days that wasn’t quite up to deciding what it was going to do. With nothing much to do but washing, Scamp made a start in that. She also started pruning back some of the dried out plants in the back garden, in fact, both of us tidied up the plants, dead heading the aquilegia and some of the roses.

In the afternoon the rain started and just forgot to go off. I did manage to grab a few shots of Simply The Best, the golden rose in the front garden. It was looking good with its collection of raindrops. That was PoD.

Later we spoke to Jamie and heard about the trials of having people just turn up to look round your garden. This was the first of the Open Garden days jeu had signed up to and it seemed to be a success. I think they both enjoyed it.

Watched an interesting Canadian GP with the usual suspects at the front.

Finally getting round to making plans for the next day. Scamp’s out to lunch and I’m off to Hamilton.

Some gentle gardening – 4 June 2023

Posted on by Zogman

I’ve had two trays of veg waiting to be planted. One of leeks and one of kale. Today we were on a gardening day.

First things first, we’d planned to water both front and back gardens, so I fitted the new adapter to the kitchen tap, connected the hose and turned on the tap. Water flowed out to the the front garden where Scamp was ready with the sprinkler and give the plants a good soaking. Not one drop dripped into the sink. We’ve struggled with an inadequate, poorly designed tap connector for years but this new one just works!
When Scamp was finished watering the front garden, I took over to do the back. The only mistake I made was forgetting to keep the sprinkler on when I’d turned the tap off, because if you disconnect the hose, the back pressure washes the inside of the kitchen windows, and the inside sill! Hopefully I’ll remember next time!

Scamp walked down to the Shops to get potatoes for tonight’s dinner and while she was out I planted out my kale and leeks. Eight leeks planted in a pot and six kale plants in the raised bed. Not so raised as it was last year because that top part of the wooden frame is totally rotted through, so the soil level is reduced a bit. I also planted two of my sunflower seedlings in the raised bed. I think, in retrospect that I may have been a bit hasty in planting them out. I may re-pot them tomorrow into big pots instead. Easier to move around, because in these dry days they might benefit from being in a position a bit sheltered from the direct sunlight. Y’see, I do listen to Scamp sometimes.

After lunch, I took myself out for a walk in St Mo’s with my trusty A7 and a large, heavy macro lens, looking for damselflies. I did find some, but they were too skittish and as soon as I got close enough to photograph, they flew away. Hopefully they will calm down in the weeks to come. PoD was taken in the garden and is a couple of Lupins with a Golden Torch rhododendron in the background. If truth be told, and it rarely is, it’s actually two shots stuck together in Photoshop. Photoshop’s AI is getting better all the time. While I was out, Scamp was trimming the grass edges of the paving stones. We need the paving stones to provide a solid surface in the swamp that is the back garden in the winter, but it’s hard to strim right up to them, so trimming the grass is easier than strimming in this case. The problem is that the work is backbreaking, so a little at a time is the best way.

Later when I returned we sat in the sun, Scamp with a Pimms and me with a beer and discussed Life, the Universe and Everything and agreed that the answer probably is 42.

Dinner was stew and sausages with cabbage and Jersey Royal potatoes. Scamp substituted salmon for the stew and sausages which was probably the right thing to do, because the stew was a bit tough.

Spoke to Jamie and discussed the joys of having hot water on tap, now that his old boiler has been replaced. Also spoke about the forthcoming Open Garden event that they are taking part in for the first time next week, all being well.

Tomorrow Scamp is hoping to meet up with June for coffee. I intend to do that potting up of the sunflowers.

Water, water, everywhere – 28 May 2023

Posted on by Zogman

We’d been promising ourselves for over a week that we’d water the garden. Today we did … and a little bit more besides.

Spoke to Hazy before we got started and we were pleased to hear that Penny was no worse for her op and was making good progress, despite having a blue lampshade on her head. Heard too about their progress with getting a new boiler installed.  I asked her about a book I’m reading The Left-Handed Booksellers of London and she laughed, because she’s presently re-reading it! How strange is that?!

The hose was unrolled and the tap adapter fitted in place, but this was a fairly new tap and the adapter didn’t fit very securely, but it would do, or so I thought. Scamp started on the front garden while I kept an eye on the adapter. I went to check that the pressure was suiting Scamp when I heard the splash. The adapter had worked loose, but was still connected to the tap and sending a fountain of water over the kitchen window. I turned the tap off and fixed the adapter again, this time tightening it was a pair of mole grip pliers and turned the water on again. This time it seemed more secure so I removed everything from the kitchen sink area and wiped the window and the sill down. I was just about to tell Scamp to keep the water flowing when she was finished and to tell me, because the back pressure would blow the connection again, when the same thing happened again. She hadn’t turned the water off, but a kink in the hose had done the same thing and stopped the water flowing and the back pressure had washed the windows again. A few expletives later we were back in business with a reduced water pressure this time.
I watered the back garden and as Scamp said, you could almost hear the plants sighing after their fairly lengthy drink.

With the watering done and the kitchen back to normal again we had lunch and I went out for a walk with a different lens combination: Wide angle, 50mm macro and LensBaby 50mm and +1 diopter CU lens.  That should cover all eventualities!  I was looking for a little bluebell I’d seen yesterday and I reckoned the LensBaby and CU lens combo would give me the effect I was looking for.  However, despite having the correct tools for the job, the light just wasn’t right. I took some photos, of course, but they just weren’t what I’d intended. Then I saw the bright yellow splash of colour. At first I thought it was a Brimstone Butterfly before I got close enough to see that it was a moth, not a butterfly. Later research discovered it’s true identity. It was a Brimstone Moth. I’d never heard of such a thing before, but Google Image Search confirmed it. That was PoD sorted.

Plodded home, happy for once that I’d seen something new in St Mo’s woods.  Scamp was reading in the back garden when I got back with a glass of wine, so I thought a bottle of beer for me was in order.  Later Scamp went to prepare dinner which was Caprese Salad for starter followed by Prawn Salad as a main and Apple Pie for dessert.  Thoroughly enjoyable and while we were eating, Tubular Bells was playing in the background. Isn’t it strange to think that Tubular Bells is 50 years old this year!!

We’d just finished when Jamie phoned to tell us about the Open Gardens project they are taking part in this year and that Their boiler might, just might be being fitted quicker than they’d thought.  Keeping our fingers crossed for you both.

Today’s prompt was A Tin Opener.

The only one we had in the kitchen drawer was a clumsy plastic scissor action tin opener, then my wife suggested. this one.
It was sold to us a long time ago as a Baby Can Opener. it’s only 50mm (2″) long which probably accounts for the name.

We did a lot of Youth Hostelling in our younger days and this tool was ideal. It took up very little space in a rucksack and could open tins and bottles, plus it was much cleaner and sharper than the “Bonzer” can openers the hostels supplied. They had been clean once, I believe, but one look at their fearsome blade was enough for me to reach for our Baby can opener instead.

Since it is such a tiny little tool I thought I’d be generous and sketch it open and closed!

We watched an interesting and crash happy Monaco GP.  Wildest Monaco GP we’ve seen for years.  It even rained, which is strange.

Tomorrow we may go in to Glasgow.

Intense – 27 May 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Drove through some fairly heavy traffic to get to dance class and it was hard work, the driving and the class!

The traffic was heavier than normal for a Saturday morning, but we managed to pass the slower traffic and ended up in Brookfield earlier than I anticipated. The class started with a Foxtrot. We’d expected Joy’s Waltz v2 and had practised it last night, but after a few dummy runs, our foxtrot was decent enough. No fancy rise and fall, just the basic routine but smoother than it sometimes is. It took me a while to fall into the order of the steps, but by the end we were looking quite good, and able to finish the routine and start again without stopping.

That foxtrot took us and the teachers a lot longer than they had intended, but the next one, Queen of Hearts Rumba was new to us, well it certainly was new to me. It’s a sequence dance, and after a couple of walk throughs, I was getting it right most of the time.

Third was Joy’s Waltz v2 and that v2 made a big difference. None of that complicated foot entanglement we had two weeks ago. That didn’t mean it was easy. Both of us found that we were turning the wrong way, but with a few helpful shoves from Jane I got the idea of the correct way to go.

A couple of sequence dances to lighten the mood and to bring us up to the end of the class. One, of course to Scamp’s favourite ‘Shivers’, and Stewart’s favourite ‘Green Door’.

The traffic going home is always terrible, but today for some reason it was fairly light and although we went the M74 route, we could almost have made good time crossing the Kingston Bridge instead.

I went out for an hour when we came home, but didn’t get anything startling. PoD turned out to be a buttercup flower which I liked.

The prompt for today was Your Favourite Game. Mine was Wordle

For the past year or so, since Scamp found this addictive game on a friend’s page on Facebook, we have struggled to complete it every day.
Like all good games, it’s the simplicity that makes it addictive. Six tries to find the hidden five letter word with minimal clues.

One of the best things about it is that you can only play one game a day, so you have to make the most of it, but it doesn’t take up all your day. Unlike Angry Birds which is my second favourite.

One of the worst things about it is that you need an internet connection to play it. That means if you are flying or on holiday in some remote place you can’t complete the game and if you can’t complete it, you lose all the points you’ve gained. That is maddening!

Dinner tonight came from Bombay Dreams and it was a shade poorer than is usual from them. Scamp had her usual Mushroom Paneer and I ordered a Special Handhi. I’m not sure that’s what I got, because there was no mention of a tomato sauce in the menu and there were none of the onions that were advertised. However the bread was good, Tandoor Roti. Best bread we’ve had from there.

There had been a sprinkling of rain today during the morning and afternoon, but nothing serious. We may water the garden tomorrow. Apart from that, no plans.

A glass of wine and a cucumber – 26 May 2023

Posted on by Zogman

The glass was a prompt but the cucumber was in the garden.

While Scamp was off at FitSteps class this morning I did a rough sketch for today’s prompt which was A Glass of Red Wine or Juice. I chose the wine of course and as usual, the rough sketch got more and more refined until it became the painting. I was running out of free space on my concertina sketch book, so I’d drawn it on the back of a sheet from my A5 sketch book and I’d already been doodling on it weeks ago. That meant I had a lot of erasing to do once I’d finished painting. I think it worked really well.

When Scamp returned we went for a wander round the garden and that’s where I saw the wee green spider. It’s a Cucumber Green Spider and it looks like it’s just caught its lunch on its web. The web was stretched across one of the rhododendron flowers in the garden.

After our lunch, Scamp went and sat in the garden for a while and I put up a hook on the fence to hang the watering can from. That was the sum total of my work today, other that frying my lunch which was a venison burger that I found in the freezer. It was a bit past its ‘sell by date’ and had lost a bit of its flavour, but was ok with potatoes and beans. Scamp had the same potatoes and beans, but with a veg sausage.

She stayed out a bit longer but eventually gave up because the sun was coming and going all the time, just as the weather fairies had predicted.

Hoping to go to dance class tomorrow if we can get a quorum.