Category: Flowers

Another dreich day to begin with – 13 October 2024

Posted on by Zogman

I think the temperature was around 3ºc when I was making breakfast, but that was from reading the temperature directly from the sensor at the outside of the back door.

Something had gone awry with the wireless connection between the sensor and the display. The sensor hangs on the door jamb at the back of the house and the display lives in the nice warm house itself. The sensor seemed to be reading, but the display wasn’t receiving. The repair is simple. It’s just a case of removing the old batteries and replacing them with new ones. The calibration isn’t so easy, although we’ve done it many times since we bought this usually trustworthy bit of kit about 30 years ago(?). A long time ago, anyway. After reading the instructions carefully, it all came flooding back and, as we watched the temperature drop outside the back door, the internal display followed it. Success!

Shocked to hear that Alex Salmond had died yesterday. Sixty nine is no age at all these days. I never really liked him, but he did seem to have the best interests of the nation at his heart. Such a shame.

I was staring into space after fixing the temperature gauge when I noticed the sun had crept round to light up the sunflowers Scamp had arranged in a vase. They really glowed in the sunlight, so I grabbed the A7 and took half a dozen, ok, nearer a dozen photos. One of them made PoD. Nice to see a bit of sunshine to brighten our day.

After an elegant lunch of fried cloutie dumpling, fried bacon and a fried egg I girded my loins and put on my boots, fleece and gloves and marched into the garden to do battle with the Teasels and Buddleia, then chopped them into easily transportable chunks that I could bag ready to go into the skips tomorrow. It really was cold and the spines in the teasels would have ripped my hands to pieces were it not for the gloves.

Jackie phoned Scamp just as I was debating a walk in St Mo’s just in case the sunflower photos wouldn’t quite cut the mustard once they’d been processed. I was halfway round St Mo’s when I realised I didn’t have my phone. It’s so strange and disconcerting when you realise you don’t have your phone with you. I just feel so disconnected from everything just because my lump of plastic, glass and some ’tronics isn’t in my pocket. I walked back and heard all about the goings on with the “Gorgeous wee baby” up in Skye.

Dinner tonight was Burrata and Tomatoes with Basil as a starter, followed by leftover Chicken breast and Spinach made into a pie with Potatoes on the side. Dessert was Apple slices in pastry. I thought it was lovely. Scamp wasn’t impressed with her work. Never satisfied!

Spoke to Jamie later and heard his planned holidays climbing mountains in Arran and later in 2025 a wedding in the highlands. We’d been planning holidays too. Some time in the new year hopefully, a week or so in the Canaries would be nice.

PoD was indeed,  the sunflower in the sun. Today’s prompt for Inktober was another uninspiring “Horizon”. What is the horizon, but a curved line that the human eye sees as a straight line. I gave a simplistic answer to a simple prompt, as you see here. The prompts this year are tedious.

I think I may be taking some garden refuse over to the skips tomorrow if the weather is good.

 

Another day, another appointment – 8 October 2024

Posted on by Zogman

This time it was an appointment at Monklands hospital, but don’t panic, it was just for a checkup. Scamp came with me to keep me company.

The sister at the health centre had been a bit concerned by my low BP a month or two ago and when I said I’d had a couple of dizzy spells, I think she decided to get it looked at. So she sent me for an ‘echo’. I’ve had one before a long, long time ago and the result was that everything was ok. Thankfully after I’d been rolled on to my side today and had an ultra-sound taken of my heart, the technician said she had “no concerns”. She also said that “everything was pumping well”. That was a relief. All we needed to do now was to find the car and also find a way out of the housing estate I’d parked in.

Back home I could enjoy my lunch, a roll ’n’ cold meat. Scamp had a roll ’n’ scrambled egg which she managed to keep on the roll. Yesterday she managed to drop her fried egg on the kitchen carpet! Don’t tell her I told you.

Yesterday I washed and polished the bathroom. Today I was hanging up a new hook for her body polisher. We bought the hook at the weekend and it’s exactly the same as the one I got when we got the new bathroom, ten years ago, and it’s still stuck to the wall. Very clever wee thing.

Today’s prompt was “Hike”. It was drawn a week or so ago when I was getting organised for Inktober. It’s always good to have some of these drawings done early so they only need to be posted in Flickr as needed. I quite liked this sketch, it was so much more lively than yesterday’s.

I’d gone over to St Mo’s in the late afternoon to find a PoD. It’s getting harder and harder to find something interesting to post every day, but thanks to Scamp I had one already done. It’s a trio of roses that she cut in the garden and brought in. Beautiful blooms. Really deserved PoD.

We had Salmon Balls for dinner. I do believe you were sniggering about them when we were discussing them on Sunday, Jamie, but they were actually very good. We had them with potatoes and tender stem broccoli. So much better than yesterday’s disaster.

Tomorrow I’m expecting to meet Alex in Glasgow to go for a walk, take some photos, exchange news and have a pizza.

 

 

What a grey day – 6 October 2024

Posted on by Zogman

One of those days that just never get properly started.

The only thing we did today that’s worth mention is to go looking for new lights for the rowan tree. So let’s start there.

We drove to Calder’s Garden Centre first, but after struggling through the congested aisles of the main shop the area where the lighting is displayed was now home to a half full size family of polar bears and other assorted Xmas junk and there was a cloying scent of cinnamon, the Christmas scent. Still on display among the menagerie were a few boxes of lights, but not the kind that Scamp was looking for. So we drove further onward.

Next stop was Torwood, another of Scamp’s favourite garden centres. They had a larger array of lights and thankfully no polar bears or cinnamon. However, although there were many boxes of the lights and they were the ones we were looking for, most of the boxes had previously been opened and rejected. We rejected them too. We drove home empty handed.

It fell to Mr Bezos to fulfil our need for lights. Ordered in the late afternoon and they will be delivered tomorrow or the next day. What would we do without Amazon.

Spoke to Jamie later and were glad that he had had a fairly relaxed day. I must admit I’m intrigued by the wild boar meat he bought and would like a report on it once it’s been cooked and consumed!

I struggled with a sketch for today’s prompt, “Trek”. In fact, most of the prompts this year highlight to the author’s interest in walking and climbing. Ten of the thirty prompts have that theme. I changed it a bit and it became Star Trek and from that I drew today’s iconic badge.

I also had a hard time getting a photo. The day was so dull and wet, I thought I was going to miss out on a photo, but a walk around the garden in the late afternoon brought today’s PoD which is the Rozanne geranium.

I’m hoping to speak to the man in the garage tomorrow about some work needing done to the blue car.

 

 

 

Service Charge – 4 October 2024

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We were both out early this morning.

Scamp had to catch the bus to get to FitSteps and I was driving to Glasgow at the same time to drop the blue car off for its annual service.

I left the car at the garage almost exactly at 10am and was told that it would be ready by 5pm. That’s seven hours for a three hour service! This appears to be normal practise for Macklin Motors, but not anywhere else I’ve ever used. When I asked the service technician why it would take that long, he said I should have been told that it was an “Open Booking” and would be worked on as soon as was possible, but there were two people off ill today. That sounded a bit familiar, because when I booked the same car in at the same garage a month ago for its MOT it did in fact take seven hours before I got to take it home and the reason was … there was only one MOT tester available that day. Sounds suspicious! I agreed and signed away my afternoon then went for a walk round the city. First port of call was Nero for a coffee and a chance to plan the rest of the day. Foolishly I took the option of their new blend Honduras and it was pretty awful. So a bad start to the day.

When I texted Scamp to tell her the news, she asked if I wanted her to come in to town, but I told her not to bother and that I’d phone the garage about two to see what progress had been made.

I walked down to St Enoch Square and got a couple of photos there, one of which became the PoD, but there was very little directional light and the milky white sky didn’t help. I know he looks as if he’s talking to his hand, but he’s posing with his new phone, I think. I took some more photos of new graffiti being sprayed on the wall of the Clyde Walkway and admired the vision of these guys being able to visualise their finished artwork. Haven’t seen any girl graffiti artists, but I’m sure there are some.

I got another message from Scamp saying she was now free to come in to Glasgow for lunch. That sounded a good idea. I met her in the bus station about an hour later and we went to an Italian place we’d looked at last Friday. Just as we were heading there I got the call from the garage to say the car was ready. The time was almost exactly 2pm. For once they were right on time. I said I’d be along to pick up the car as soon as possible.

The food in the restaurant was good, but my Spaghetti a la Polpette wasn’t very hot and the meatballs had the feel of ‘Ping’ (microwaved) about them. Scamp said her Risotto was fine. So we decided to give them another chance. A bit like Macklin Motors!

On the way back to the garage I got a new book by Chris Brookmyre. I’d heard about it in the Great Scottish Book Club and it sounded interesting. The book is The Cracked Mirror. It should have been £18, but I had a tenner in my Waterstones card, so I got it for £8! I’m almost finished a Peter May book Lockdown which started so well, but has descended into farce in the final 150 pages.

I got another surprise when I went to pick up the car. There were two advisories. Thankfully nothing needing done immediately, but just another expense that will need to be looked at early in the new year. I’m talking about New Year already and it’s not even Halloween yet!


Prompt for today was Exotic and my sketch was of a Bird of Paradise flower which fitted the bill perfectly.

Tomorrow we are expecting to be dancing Paso la Paz, It’s all about stamping our little feet and wiping the blood from our shoes. If you don’t understand, re-read the blog from 28th September.

The Bunny – 29 September 2024

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A lazy day. At least, for me it was. Scamp was dividing plants in the garden.

Scamp was dividing a Candelabra Primula. One mature plant made an extra three plants. The original plant went back into the hole it came from and the three divisions went around it. Hopefully all four will survive the winter. I’m pretty sure she did some pruning as well. She just loves pruning plants to make them nice and tidy.

After the gardening, it was lunch time and of course we watched Laura Kuenssberg interrogating two Conservative hopefuls for the top job. Why anyone would want a job where apparently everyone hates you, I’ll never know. An easy life and a lazy Sunday is more my expectation these days. In fact, why restrict it to Sundays? Let’s make it any day with a “Y” in it. There, that’s something to strive for.

Next for me was a walk in St Mo’s for a few photos. Not a lot going on over the road today. A few shots of a dark red dragonfly and another couple of a pigeon surveying the pond, but the PoD went to a bunch of Michaelmas Daisies. I thought it was fitting that these flowers should find their way into Flickr on the 29th of September, the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel.

Spoke to Jamie later and found that he’s having to deal with problems at work that he hadn’t expected. Life isn’t easy sometimes. I felt really sorry for him. On a brighter note, it seems he’s going to have a new back door some time soon. One that fits the frame this time.

I was standing at the window this morning looking at nothing when I noticed a movement on the path. It was a rabbit, munching away at the weeds on the far side of the path. I pointed it out to Scamp who thought it might be a pet rabbit that had escaped from its owners. It certainly didn’t look as skittish as wild rabbits usually are and seemed quite happy to have found some new free food. We watched it on and off for about half an hour before it disappeared. Must keep an eye out for it in the next few days.

I’m intending going down to the village tomorrow to price four new tyres for the blue car.

The Messages – 17 September 2024

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Today we went for the messages, but just for a bit of fun, we went to Morrison’s in The Fort.

Before that, Scamp was out early checking on her roses and cut three flowers which are now sitting in front of me in a vase on the coffee table. With the light in the morning coming in the front window they were easily a possible PoD.

It’s surprising the difference in prices between Morrison’s and Tesco. It’s also surprising the different range of food and drink in the two. If we had the time, we could buy half our shopping in one store and half in another, but we’d probably spend more on petrol driving between them. We got a really cheerful checkout girl who managed to wangle a free bottle bag for us because we’d bought six bottles of various alcoholic beverages. Try getting that in Tesco!

We drove home and after a quick lunch, Scamp started cutting the grass in the back garden. I volunteered to cut the front grass, but forgot that I’d then have to clean the mower. A fly move by Scamp there. Before I got inveigled into doing any more gardening I went for a walk in St Mo’s.

About halfway round the circuit, I had a wee problem with the zoom lens. It had managed to put itself into manual mode ( it should have been in ‘autofocus’ mode). I couldn’t understand what I’d done wrong this time. There were no benches to sit on while I puzzled it out, and the big boulders beside the path aren’t the most comfortable seats, but I did resort to them for a while, but could find no solution. The standard lens was working fine and so was the camera, so the problem was with the zoom lens. When I got home and checked the settings, I found the solution to the problem. This next paragraph is for my benefit.

If the camera goes into Manual mode, move the zoom switch to No 3 position and hold the button down for 1 second. That should fix it. The No 3 position is programmed to switch between manual and auto and it requires a press of 1 second to switch between them. Now remember that for next time ya daftie!!!

There, that’s me telling myself off!

Back home Scamp was making dinner. Fried potatoes and fish. The fish had come from Morrison’s today and was lovely. Scamp had opened a bottle of wine so we had a glass each to go with our dinner. A glass of wine on a Tuesday? The sun must have gone to our heads.

PoD did turn out to be the three flowers. The pink one is Gertrude Jekyll the rose bud is the winter colour for Lady of Shalott and the warm yellow one is a fully out Lady of Shalott. They were too good to miss.

Tomorrow is to be as warm as today in the west, so we probably won’t be heading east, but we might go out for a spin.

 

 

Dancin’ – 12 September 2024

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This was the first tea dance in ages, at least, it felt like ages!

A very small group today, spread thinly around the hall. About ten couples in total which is most unusual for a tea dance. But we danced. That was what we came for and we were going to get our money’s worth. We were sitting with Leslie and Gordon who don’t usually get to the tea dances because of Grandparent Duties. But other that them, it was ’Weel Kent Faces’ at the rest of the tables. The usual suspects, you could say.

The dance started with a waltz as usual and to my surprise I could remember most of the steps. We danced to two tracks with occasional ‘brain fade’, but nobody seemed to notice. Then it was in to the usual routine with the Ballroom Jive, then sequence dances. The afternoon really did seem to fly in and we took part in most of the dances.

As usual we left just a little bit early to avoid the school rush an this time we seemed to get it just right. A few spots of rain on the windscreen occasionally on the drive home, but otherwise a bright day as long as you were in the car. Outside it was cold, a measure of what is to come tonight, apparently. Temperatures around 1ºc predicted widely. It’s definitely autumn now.

PoD was a Tiarella flower from the garden with a distorted background courtesy of the LensBaby again.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending going to FitSteps. Afterwards we might visit Isobel who isn’t feeling well just now.

A busy day – 10 September 2024

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I was meeting Val and John for coffee and a blether today.

Val was the first to arrive and once we’d rearranged the furniture and got the coffees sorted we had a blether, just the two of us. Then John joined us and I went to get his coffee while he and Val had a chin way. They worked in the same school for a few years and knew a lot more folk than I did. After that it was a free for all. I’d forgotten that Val used to work in Jersey and actually had lived just round the corner from the hotel we were staying in. I wish I’d spoken to him before we went away, because he could have told me what other interesting places were available to us.

After a couple of hours Val’s wife joined us and of course the conversation turned to doctors and the lack of them in the surgeries we all attend. It’s a constant complaint that you can’t get to see a doctor these days. Their get-out clause is to get you to photograph that part of your body you want to talk to them about. That’s not the way to run a practice.

When we split up to go our separate ways, I went with John through the Antonine centre and Val and his wife went the other way. John went on to drive home and I got some fruit in Tesco and then drove up to GO Outdoors with a new list of criteria to apply to the jackets there. So far it’s come down to three possible jackets. No real front runners yet.

PoD was grabbed at the back door of the house. Just some Bizzie Lizzies in a hanging basket in the rain. Seemed a good title for a busy day.

Just a Monday – 9 September 2024

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We didn’t do much today. It was a drizzly, grizzly day with very little good light.

It was a day to drive down to Tesco and get the messages. So that’s what we did. Nothing exciting, just shopping, although we now have ice lollies in the freezer. That might brighten an even duller day if such a thing exists.

The miniature sunflowers are doing their level best to shine, so they became PoD. Also we watched University Challenge and we got four right answers between us. Only just being beaten by the worst pair of university no-hopers I’ve ever seen.

No Dancing for Scamp – 6 September 2024

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There was no FitSteps class today because the teacher was under the weather. I felt sorry for Scamp, I think she was looking forward to some exercise.

I had an appointment at Monklands hospital for a check-up because I’d had a problem with dizzy spells and with my BP. However, that seems to be fixed now but it’s best to get it checked. It only took a few minutes to stick on the sensors all over my front then to read the results. The girl working the computer didn’t tell me what the results looked like and I didn’t press her. Results in a week I’m told.

From Monklands it’s just a hop and a skip to GO Outdoors. I was looking for a new raincoat, a good one like my blue one used to be. I’d hoped to get one exactly like the blue one, but couldn’t find what I was looking for and went away empty handed.

That was about it for the excitement of the day. The PoD was a close up with a specialised lens called a LensBaby which does a great job of distorting things. The subject was a Switch Ophelia, a colour changing Hydrangea.