Category: Flowers

Back to dull again – 12 December 2023

Posted on by Zogman

One good day and then back to dull grey skies and rain. Scotland the Grim.

Scamp was going out to meet June and Shona. I reckoned I would be surplus to requirements, so I left them to it and stayed home in case a parcel arrived. I felt that was a reasonable excuse / reason, even if Jamie had sent me a message to tell me it wouldn’t arrive until afternoon. What I did attempt was a watercolour wash over a rough sketch of a house. It was a tutorial I saw on the December issue of Urban Sketchers. It looked good when the tutor did it. Not so good on mine. I left it to dry and went to look for something to photograph, preferably inside, because it was raining.

Scamp arrived home later looking drookit and we had toast & beans for lunch. Not long after lunch the parcel arrived. It’s sitting in the living room now, looking at me and silently inviting me to slit the sellotape and look in, but I know better than that. Scamp would not be a happy bunny if I did that. I may do as she suggested and cover it with a table cloth and pretend it’s a low table until the big day. Thank you Jamie and Simonne!

Dinner tonight was Spaghetti Carbonara the way Val told me to make it. No cream! Just two eggs with one additional egg yolk, beaten up with grated parmesan. A slice of smoked bacon cut into thin strips and fried in a pan (I added mushrooms, but it’s probably better without) while your spaghetti is boiling. Once everything is ready, pour the eggy mixture into the pan with the bacon, drain the spaghetti well and add to the eggy, cheesy mixture. Grind on some pepper and mix the spaghetti with the egg mixture. You can do the cheffy thing where you flick the egg mix over the spaghetti if you want to look as if you know what you’re doing. Serve immediately. Spaghetti Carbonara the Val way.

Today’s PoD is an old favourite of mine, Christmas Cactus. A two frame focus stack to get back and front in focus.

Thank you again Jamie and Simonne for the parcel. I wonder what’s in it!

That was about it for today. Tomorrow, Scamp is out for coffee again, this time with Isobel. I may go with her or I might return to my painting.

In the Toon – 10 December 2023

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Just a flying visit today. It was dull, it was wet and it was miserable. It was Scotland!

I was taking a lens in to WEX to sell it on to some lucky girls or boys who really needed an 18mm f2.8 Samyang FE lens. I imagine they will be clamouring to be the first to get their hands on it, even with the mark-up WEX will put on it.

I took a crowded train in to Queen Street and walked up Bath Street and down the other side in the rain, handed in my boxed lens and got the paperwork, then I was back over the hill again to the city centre in the rain. I walked down Buchanan Street heading for George Square and on the way I took a few shots. Then I thought to myself, “Why bother. You’ve delivered the lens. Just go home.” Sometimes it’s sensible to listen to yourself. I turned in to Queen Street station and had 3 minutes to get through the crowds and on to the Edinburgh express. First stop Croy. I thought the train going in to Glasgow was busy, but this one was rammed!

Phoned home to see if Scamp wanted anything in Tesco, got a negative to that and then drove home to a lunch of bacon and egg washed down with a cup of coffee. I expect my jacket is still dripping!

Two days ago I photographed a poor wee rose bud clinging to its broken branch. It got PoD. Yesterday I cut it down, smashed the end of its stem to let the poor thing take in some water and carefully placed it in a rose vase on the kitchen window sill. It took about fifteen shots to get what I was looking for, but eventually I was happy with the result and today it got PoD for the second time.

Dinner tonight was an experimental Chicken Poached in Chicken Stock with Roast Potatoes, Baby Mushrooms and Multicoloured Veg. Served with a Chicken and Pea Jus. I think Scamp has been watching too much Masterchef the Professionals! It was delightful. I could almost hear that presenter’s breathy delivery with Gregg shouting in the background OH MATE!!!

We watched the sad end of one person’s journey in Strictly. The show is becoming a parody of itself. Not funny anymore, results predetermined. I give it one more season before it’s completely kaput.

Spoke to Jamie and thought he sounded more upbeat than of late, even if their wall might need repaired, but glad to hear that work can now begin again for a week or so.

No plans for tomorrow. I think it might rain!

Jags – 8 December 2023

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Today it rained, but thankfully not as heavy nor as continuous as yesterday’s deluge.

I was on the ball this morning, or so I thought. There was a bud on the Alec’s Red rose in the front garden that was on a broken stem. We’d agreed that it was pointless trying to save it and we kept forgetting to cut it. As it wasn’t raining when we woke, once I’d showered and dressed, the first think I did was to grab camera and photograph it. Scamp doesn’t like the idea of photographing dead flowers and I don’t really agree with it either, but this shot appealed to me. I don’t know why, it just did. I took only about half a dozen shots before the rain came and I returned to the safety of the house. One in the bag. After yesterday’s lack of light, I was just pleased to have enough sunlight to take a photo.

After I’d imported the photos and was happy that I did actually have some photos in the bag, I started working on a short leet of photos for the 2024 Calendar. It’s a long winded process, but if I work a month at a time it doesn’t take too long. By the time I’d stopped, I’d completed up to the end of August 2023. Far too many photos, far more than I’d need, but this is the long leet. More culling will reduce it to the short leet from which I’ll choose a maximum of four photos per month. Believe me, it works … in my head, at least.

Lunch today had been booked last week for Brodens which is becoming our go-to lunch venue on a Friday. It’s slightly more expensive than Broadwood Farm, but the food is cooked fresh for you and it just tastes better. Plus I can get a pint of Guinness with my meal, but not today.

Today we were getting our Covid and Flu jags. One in the right arm and one in the left arm. The vaccine place was The Link across from The Tryst at the Town Centre which at least two of my readers will remember, I’m sure. Since I knew I’d be driving later in the afternoon and because of Scotland’s draconian drink driving rules, I knew one pint would put me over the limit.

The Link wasn’t exactly overrun with customers for the jags. It was us two and a bloke called Andy, who lives around the corner for a while before another couple of folk daundered in. We were told after we had our two jags that we hadn’t to drive for 15minutes after our jabs because we wouldn’t be insured if we had an accident. I didn’t think that applied to us, because we’d had jags instead of jabs!

Went to pick up Scamp’s prescription and my B12 prescription from the chemist and waited for half an hour in the queue, only to be told that mine hadn’t arrived from “Central Distribution” yet. That’s what more efficiency organisation gives you, a longer wait for everything!

Scamp watched the final of Professional Masterchef and I must admit I watched it too in amazement at what the three cooks produced.

Later we watched an interesting tongue in cheek ‘documentary’ about the discovery, testing and marketing of Viagra. Lots of double entendres. At times it was like watching an old Carry On film. Who knew that most of the testing was done in Merthyr Tydfil in Wales, but it was first sold in America and only much later in the UK.

Tomorrow looks like another day of deluges. We’re looking for somewhere with less rain.

 

 

Rain – 7 December 2023

Posted on by Zogman

It rained all day. Non stop rain. Continuous and soaking rain and it was so dark outside too. Get the message?

Scamp was going out to lunch today with her pal, Mags and I was hoping to get myself a cheap(ish) pair of jeans.

I was also hoping to drive in to Glasgow for an undisclosed shopping expedition. Instead, I chose to drive to The Fort. For once I got parked quickly and went for a walk around the circular shopping area. I didn’t find what I was looking for and thought I’d cut my losses and just do what I’d intended doing to start with and drive down the M8 to Glasgow. However, after I’d walked back to the car, I was soaked, well, I wasn’t, but my jacket was.

Instead of Glasgow, I drove back to Cumbersheugh and got the veg and chicken I needed for tonight’s dinner. That and a Ginsters for my lunch. Then I drove home. Scamp was on her way home on the bus by that time.

I kept hoping that the rain would stop, but I’d seen the weather reports yesterday and had read the forecast on my phone, so I knew it was a forlorn hope. The rain was on for the day.

By the way, I got my jeans and Scamp enjoyed her lunch!

Let’s hope tomorrow is bright, like the Gerbera, but I’d settle for dry!

Just a normal Sunday – 19 November 2023

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A dull day with not a lot to recommend it weatherwise.

I spent most of the morning flicking through Flickr and for once enjoyed just looking through other folk’s pictures. I’m sure Scamp was doing Wordle and Spelling Bee, but I’d fallen out with both after Wordle had claimed that I hadn’t completed my 146th puzzle and sent me back to 1 again. I’ll not have that from these dastardly americans. I’ll just stop playing their stupid game and then they’ll be sorry.
I’ll start fresh tomorrow!

Lunch for me was bacon, egg, mushrooms, tomatoes and scorched Padron peppers. The only place I know I can get the peppers is Waitrose, so every time I go there I get a packet of them. Some of them are a bit hot, and there’s no way to tell if you’re going to get a hot one or a normal one. That makes them more interesting. Scamp had the more sedate egg, black pudding, mushrooms and tomatoes.

We watched what turned out to be a really interesting Las Vegas F1 GP. Lots of thrills and a few spills with the lead changing hands a few times before the inevitable happened and the world champion bullied his way to the front. As always it was the battle for 2nd and 3rd places that held the most interest and probably skill.

It was the first time the race had been held in Las Vegas and the lead up to it took more time than was really necessary, but I’m guessing it’s the American way to overload the race with the glitz and glamour. Because the race took so long to get started, it was late in finishing too and the light was beginning to fade when I finally walked over to St Mo’s for what I thought would be today’s PoD. As it happened, I got one landscape shot that was worth uploading, but PoD went to a grab shot I’d taken in the morning of a Rudbeckia flower in the garden. The plant has been flowering for about two months now and it’s survived high winds and torrential rain and is flowering still. While I was out in St Mo’s, Scamp was gardening, planting out some bulbs that will hopefully provide some much needed colour next spring.

I’d my apron on today to make my dinner. I’d bought a couple of short ribs at Waitrose and the recipe I was using said to brown them in a casserole for ten minutes. I knew I’d need a bit of protection from the spatter that would come from the fatty meat and I was glad of the protection the apron gave me. Then the meat had to rest while I made the slurry that would provide the base for it in the pot. Too many things to list here, but half a can of stout went into it too. Finally the meat went on top, the lid went on and it was set to cook for about 3 hours in the oven.

Scamp had chopped up onions, carrots and turnip and that made the veg part of the meal which we had with potatoes. I was too slow getting the meat roasted and the slurry made, consequently I had to cut the cooking time to two and a bit hours, but the meat was fine, and the veg went well with it. Scamp had a veggie version of the dinner and her’s seemed to be good too.

Spoke to Jamie later in the evening and heard about poor Vixen being upset having been in different kennels twice in a month. Poor thing wouldn’t know if she was coming or going. I’m sure she’ll settle down soon. Jamie and Simonne were meant to be doing a run today, but the weather was against it and Simonne wasn’t feeling well into the bargain, so they’d cancelled.

No real plans for tomorrow, although we need to get the CO2 monitor replaced before we get the boiler maintenance done. Also, I believe a visit to IKEA is on the cards for this week.

Still Wet, Still Windy – 20 October 2023

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I could write, “For details of the day see yesterday”, but I won’t.

It started like yesterday, with wind and rain, but things needed to be done. Scamp was off to FitSteps until the phone rang and it was Kirsty hoping she’d catch Scamp, which she just managed to do. The message was that today’s class was cancelled because too many folk had called off. I must say it sounded like the most sensible answer, but I think Scamp was disappointed. Can’t blame her.

So where to start? First thing and easiest to set up was the tomato soup. Just a case of tipping the roasted tomatoes, onion, garlic and peppers into a pot adding a tin of tomatoes a cup of water and a litre of stock. Bring it to the boil and simmer for 30mins. Next was to thaw out the stew and dust it with flour, salt and pepper and leave it to dry out a bit and once the soup had had its 30mins, we drove to M&S for fripperies like fruit and bread, then Tesco for breakfast stuff and essentials like tonic and ice lollies. Got to get your priorities right.

Back home it was time to fry off the stew in the big wok and, once it was nicely browned, pitch it into the Instant Pot with carrots and onions and some stock, set it to slow cook for about 4 hours. Sit back and enjoy a Ginsters lunch. I know they’re not good for me and that they give me heartburn, but they do taste great. Scamp had a fried egg sandwich. Much healthier I’m sure. Simonne phoned to say they were on their way, so we were all running to schedule.

I kept thinking (hoping) it was getting lighter outside and that the rain was getting lighter, the way you do when you know you’re just lying to yourself. I eventually decided that an inside photo was the way to go today and took today’s PoD which is a bunch of carnations sitting at the kitchen window with the rain splattering on the glass.

The bed for the visitors was still to be made, so we got that done and the remaining obstacles were removed to the front room, leaving the room quite neat and tidy.

Next task was to blitz the soup and decant it to another pot. It was looking good, then Simonne phoned to say they were almost at Scotch Corner and were going to break the journey because the traffic was really bad and there had been a number of accidents. I think we both felt relieved to hear that. It’s a long journey in normal weather, but much more challenging with so many weather warnings across the whole country. We got a message later to say they’d arrive at Kendal and were going for dinner and a pint! Well deserved I’d say.

So we had some of the soup for starter with some Giovani Rana pasta to follow. Not the best we’d had from that range, but still better than Tesco.

Today’s prompt was ‘Frost’. I could not decide what to draw for Frost. Then, lateral thinking again, I found a picture of Robert Frost and tried another fifteen minute sketch. It worked.

We’re now expecting the visitors tomorrow, just as I predicted in Thursday’s blog! Some of us had these skills and some haven’t! Oh yes, and I did have heartburn thanks to the Ginsters, and I’ve taken my Gaviscon!

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.

Roses, Freezers and Heather – 22 September 2023

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Scamp was off to FitSteps this morning and I was looking for something to do.

The sun streaming in the back window lit up a pair of roses Scamp had put in a vase to keep them from getting battered useless in the wild winds. I thought it would make a good photo and gathered a camera, a lens and a tripod, plus some wee microfibre cloths to make a mat for the vase to sit on and also for a backdrop. I thought I’d get it done in a few minutes, half an hour at the most. An hour and a half later after Scamp returned from her class I was finally working on what was to be the PoD! It’s the fading flowers of the rose Lady of Shalott. I liked the way the sunlight through the window picked up the textures of the roses. Scamp wasn’t impressed, she doesn’t like to see flowers, especially roses in this condition.

We drove up to Calders in the afternoon because Scamp wanted a white heather plant to replace one that didn’t survive the summer drought. I thought at first we’d gone to the wrong place, this seemed to be a Santa’s Grotto with giant Santas, fairy lights and decorations of every shape, size and colour, especially white. The place was mobbed, I’m guessing it was people waiting to be buzzed for lunch or wandering round the grotto after lunch. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the garden centre looking so busy. Christmas may be coming, but we haven’t even had Halloween yet!

We stopped at Tesco on the way home to get some veg to make Veggy Chilli for dinner, but before that there was the matter of a freezer that had almost as much snow in it as Santa’s Grotto! We’re not sure what has happened to it. Scamp reckons SOMEONE had left the door slightly open, but when I was clearing it out and scraping off the frost that had formed, I noticed the seal at the bottom of the door was twisted and wasn’t making proper contact with the frame of the freezer. I think we’ll need to keep an eye on it for a few weeks. Between us we cleared off all the frost and found very little actual ice, which is also suspicious, and it’s freezing away quite happily now.

The veggy chilli wasn’t a great success. Too much water too little chilli and not enough flavour sum it up. First time I’ve used the Magic Pot for a while, so we’ll see if it will be good enough for lunch tomorrow.

Tomorrow we think the dance class is back on, although we haven’t had a confirmation from Stewart yet. We might be going to Larky later.

Dancin’ again! – 21 September 2023

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Today we were going to a tea dance in Glenburn.

It was a lovely bright morning, but cold. Well, I felt it cold anyway. I should have gone for a walk, despite the temperature and shot some photos, but I didn’t, preferring to stay in the warm living room and complete Wordle and Spelling Bee. That meant I’d need to squeeze in a shooting session when we came back from Paisley. Never ideal, but I’ve only myself to blame.

I hadn’t realised just how windy it was until we were on the motorway heading west, and meeting that westerly wind head on. Despite the wind and the intermittent rain we made good time reaching Glenburn before the dance started … for once.

First dance, was a sequence to ‘warm us up’ apparently. I’d expected a waltz, but it was not to be. The waltz was next and I got lost again. Before we left the house I got Scamp to list all the figures we did and I wrote them all out in order. They went clean out of my head. I always think of a waltz as being a slow dance, and it is, but there are a lot of steps in the Waltz Nioli and that means your feet and brain need to be nimble and mine simply aren’t nimble enough. That compounded with a lot of folk on the floor made it difficult for learners like us … or me. We sat with a good crowd at our table and the banter was good. We attempted everything that was flung at us apart from a ballroom Tango and a Tango Serida. We struggled through a Cha-Cha and by the end of that particular one, almost remembered how to do it.

As usual we left early at 3pm to avoid the school rush and almost made it. As usual the Kingston Bridge was a congested car park, but we were on the M74/M73 route and avoided the stop – start – change lanes – change back of the M8. It takes a bit longer in miles on the M74, but at least you are moving at the legal limit most of the time.

Back home I went out for a walk in St Mo’s and got today’s PoD which is a Common Carding Bee on a Scabious flower. We couldn’t decide what to have for dinner and finally chose Fish Fingers, Egg and Fried Potato. Perfect for what was turning out to be a cold day.

Tomorrow we may go looking for a small heather plant to replace one that died during the drought in the early summer.

What a glorious day! – 17 September 2023

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Yes, that was meant to be sarcastic. The rain started this morning, an extension of yesterday’s deluge and forgot to stop, it seemed.

The furthest I went was a drive to the shops, not even a walk. There wouldn’t have been any joy in a walk and no point from a photographic point of view.

Toast and beans for lunch and dinner was an oven baked fish risotto, the drive to the shops was to get the fish. The good thing is that the oven does all the work, as I’ve said before.

We watched what turned out to be a quite exciting Singapore GP and that was NOT meant to be sarcastic. The race kept us in suspense right up to the end, a tension only released when George Russell crashed out on the last lap. Oh dear, what a shame (back to sarcasm!)

Jamie phoned just as the race finished and we talked about their holiday in Wales. Hope they have some decent weather for that.

I did manage to get a PoD. It was taken in the rain and is a Fuchsia, a purple and white one tucked away in a corner of the garden.

Hopefully our dishwasher will be delivered tomorrow. But the message from Currys is that it will be delivered and fitted between 6.35 and 9.05AM tomorrow. I can’t remember when we last had to be up at 6.35am. Probably the last time we went on a cruise, many months ago!

Other than overseeing the installation, we have no plans for tomorrow, although the weather looks better than today.