Category: Flowers

Dancin’ – 24 August 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Today we drove to Brookfield for the first dance class in about three weeks.

It started well, with a Mayfair Quickstep which isn’t a quickstep, but that’s splitting hairs. Two tracks to make sure we were well warmed up, because it’s summer in Brookfield and they don’t have heating on in the morning until winter.

The first ‘real’ dance was a new Cha-Cha, new to us, anyway, but made up from figures we already knew. They were put together in different patterns, though. I thought I’d filmed it on my phone, but when I got home and looked at it, I’d a photo of Jane, the teacher, but no video. I really need to learn how to use this phone. I expect that someone, somewhere has a video of the new routine, but it’s not me!

Next up was a Viennese waltz. You see folk dancing this in Strictly and it seems to be all about blokes in evening suits and ladies with sticky out dresses ( that’s a technical description, by the way), twirling around on the floor, but it’s much more complicated than that. Oh boy, is it more complicated, and fast too. We did the baby steps quite well to start with, even that was difficult, but when they started mixing up Half Natural Turns and Half Reverse Turns with Full Natural and Full Reverse my brain sort of gave up and went to sleep. I don’t suppose we’ll ever go to Vienna and neither of us speak Viennese, so what’s the use of learning their dances? Huh?

The next one was more down to our earth. It was the Tina Tango danced to Ed Sheehan’s Shivers. I believe Scamp could dance this blindfold. I also believe that Scamp think I DO dance it blindfold which would account for stubbed toes for both of us. Anyway it was much easier that the Viennese waltz.

The final dance of the day was the Vogue Waltz. I can just remember dancing this on a Perth weekend. Bits of it were stuck in my memory slots, but other bits of it were Vague rather than Vogue, but we struggled on until I was almost fluent in it. Then they sprung a curve ball. We would only dance one round of the steps, then move on to a new partner. Woah! Chaos reigned for the three or four minutes this new routine was being danced. I’m so used to Scamp calling out instructions quietly in my ear that I though all the ladies did it. They didn’t, but a few of them laughed!! It was actually fun.

We drove home from Brookfield with our heads spinning with new and half remembered dance routines. We may try them out some time in the living room, just not today.

Lunch was a sandwich for both of us and we’d agreed that dinner would be provided by Golden Bowl.

Today’s PoD was a vase of flowers that sits on the kitchen window sill. Every time I’ve passed it for the last couple of weeks I’ve told myself I was going to photograph it, and today I was true to my word. I just liked the composition.

Tomorrow we are maybe going shopping.

Today we went to Edinburgh – 23 August 2024

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See, sometimes I do give it its real name, not just Embra. We were going to get what my mum would have called “a wee minding” Just a wee something they could hang on their wall if they liked it, or keep it in a drawer if they didn’t. Either way, it was a gift for a Special Occasion.

Today was deemed a non-driving day. We walked down to the bus stop at the shops and got the wee red bus down to Croy Station. From there we managed to get two separate seats in First Class because the guard said there were no seats anywhere else and anyway he wasn’t going to fight his way through the crowded carriages to check any tickets. It was almost the end of the Edinburgh Festival and that was the reason for the crowded train. Our carriage was full, but next door in the other half of the carriage a party was going on. Scamp said there were at least five ‘ladies’ eating their way through some vile smelling food and screaming their heads off. I was pleased that there was a sliding door between them and us that kept almost all of the noise in their section.

As is traditional, we got off at Haymarket and walked up the hill to cross over Ladyfield to Caffè Nero. It was at Ladywell I got my PoD. It’s a mono shot of a man walking across a bridge that runs over one of the really busy roads in the city.

Once we’d had our coffee we walked down to Princes Street to pay for and pick up the gift we’d come for from one of Mhairi’s daughters who was minding the stall. I didn’t embarrass the girl by asking her is she was the one who was in the office chair or the one who was pushing it.

They used to come with their mum to our weekly salsa class in the ground floor of what had been a big old fashioned school. It also doubled as a Trades Union office during the day, but on a Monday night the two girls would take it in turns to ride down the sloping entrance ramp on an office chair with dodgy castors. Usually one or other of them would crash the chair and come crying to mum who wasn’t at all sympathetic. “They bounce” was her reply when someone asked if the girls were injured!

So having achieved our main goal, we walked through Princes Street Gardens. Always well tended gardens and today was no exception. We were just in time to hear the One o’clock Gun. Which was a lot louder that I remembered.

I was still looking for a new waterproof, breathable rain jacket and I tried on a few on Rose Street, but couldn’t find the Goldilocks jacket. Some were too short, some had only two pockets and some were just plain uncomfortable. I’m still looking.

I suggested Whighams and Scamp said that was where she was heading! Lunch was a bowl of mussels for Scamp with a glass of French white wine while I had a Goan vegetable curry and a pint of Tennent’s. Both meals were lovely. We walked back to Princes Street and after getting a couple of books in Waterstones, we wandered along and got separate seats again on the train to Croy. Got the wee red bus again which dropped us at the Shops and we walked the rest.

All in all, that was a really good day. It would have been better without all the crowds who had come to see the festival, but you can’t have everything. Weather was good. Sunny but with a gusty wind again.

Tomorrow we’re intending to go to the dance class in Brookfield.

Another stay at home day – 18 August 2024

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Dull and a bit cool for August. Nothing to make us want to go out.

Didn’t even want to take any photos today, although later in the day I did take the camera for a walk in the garden.

I’d promised I’d wash the downstairs back windows and that’s what I did. A bucket of warm soapy water and a combination sponge scrubber and squeegee made short work of the windows. A quick wipe down with a polishing glove and the job was done. As promised!

While I was busy cleaning windows, Scamp was potting up some geraniums into bigger pots.

Eventually I got round to taking some photos and at Scamp’s suggestion, it was the miniature sunflowers time to shine. They have slightly smaller ‘faces’ than normal sunflowers, but very short stems. Barely 250mm overall height. Their big cousin is still growing in the same raised bed and is not far short of 2m at present. Another ‘carder bee’ appeared to have a closer look at the sunflower!

We couldn’t decide what to have for dinner tonight and it eventually turned out to be Tempura Prawns with Ayrshire Potatoes and Peas. An odd mix and the prawns weren’t anything to write home about, but the potatoes were lovely.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard about his birthday fish ’n’ chips with Simonne at the seaside. We also discussed the problems of removing ourselves from the clutches of BT.

Tomorrow I’m expecting to see the nurse in the morning then a vaccination to look forward to in the afternoon. Getting my money’s worth from the NHS!

No Dancin’ today – 17 August 2024

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Usually on a Saturday we drive to Brookfield for dance class, but today after some discussion, Scamp decided she didn’t want to go today because her course of treatment for her cystitis isn’t complete yet. I agreed with her decision.

It turned out to be a dull day. Not a lot of sunshine, in fact hardly any, but no real rain showers either. Just a dull, Scottish Saturday. The furthest we went was a drive to ‘The Shops’ to get some messages and something for tomorrow’s dinner. We usually walk there, but were going to be carrying back two message bags of stuff and I made the decision not to do that, but drive instead. After all, that’s what we bought the car for!

I went out for a walk in the late afternoon. Just one circuit of the pond at St Mo’s and it was actually quite pleasant at that time. The PoD was a Moss Carder Bee, a fluffy, gingery bumble bee that sometimes has brown and orange stripes. They get the ‘carder’ name from their habit of combing material together (carding) to create a covering for the cells in their nesting place containing the larvae. There you go! You learned something today … and so did I!

I didn’t come straight home, but walked over to Condorrat to get a small fish supper with two pickled onions for Scamp and a Special (bigger fish coated in breadcrumbs and deep fried) fish supper for myself. I was shocked at the price I had to pay, but it was worth it for such lovely fish.

Nothing worth watching on TV, now that the Turkish Detective is finished, so if anyone has any suggestions of what to watch on iPlayer, please let us know.

Finished my latest book ‘Down Cemetery Road’ by Mick Herron this morning 4/5 on Goodreads. Definitely recommended to all. Now I’m prowling round Amazon looking for something else on Kindle.

No real plans for tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Jamie – 16 August 2024

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Good to see you took the sensible approach and worked from home today, Jamie.

We’d talked about going to Edinburgh, but I wasn’t in a rush, so told Scamp she should go to her FitSteps class first. While she was there I messed around the house and had a long hot shower to ease my back which is still giving me grief some days. Scamp returned early from the class, and she didn’t look well. She knew herself that she had a little infection and phoned the surgery. After the usual questions they said the nurse would give her a call later in the morning. Good as her word, the nurse called back and asked a few more questions and said she’d leave a prescription at the desk in the health centre. About half an hour later I drove to the health centre, picked up the prescription and had it filled at the chemist next door.

That was us home for the day. No big deal, because we can go to Edinburgh next week some time, all being well. We may even have to forego tomorrow’s dance class too. You have to be sensible about these things.

Lunch for both of us was tea and toast. Neither of us was all that hungry. The afternoon dragged a bit, mainly due to the weather which was looking rainy without actually raining. Plus there was a cold wind blowing. Scamp was looking better and more relaxed too, so I took myself upstairs to do a bit of painting with some watercolour markers Fred had recommended. I wasn’t really impressed with the quality. The markers themselves had very coarse brushes and the ‘pencil’ end of the double ended markers was a bit soft. Just cheap markers, pretending to be something better. However that made me set up an easel and start painting with real watercolour. Just a wee landscape that will probably never see the light of day, but it kept me amused and out of Scamp’s hair for an hour or so.

I also got the PoD. Two roses in the garden had had their petals blown away in last week’s gales, leaving their stamens and pistils exposed, but in bright colours. The title of the PoD is Naked Roses! That should generate a few views!!

Alex sent me a message late in the afternoon to say that the Environmental Health people had visited and sprayed some white powder over the wasp nest and sealed off the room they are in. They were told not to open that room until the experts in their “Ghostbusters Uniforms” returned in a week’s time. I’m sure he will obey those instructions. I told him that I think the white powder the bloke was spraying might have been ‘Oofle Dust’. It always seemed to make things disappear for Sooty!

That rain never came today, but the wind was strong and the temperature was dropping away rapidly. Almost, as the weather forecast man said, as if it’s already autumn. Do you think there’s a way to get our money back for the summer we never had? Answers on a post card, please.

Tomorrow we will wait to see how the invalid is before making any judgement on what to do with the day.

 

Gardening – 11 August 2024

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Actually it was Scamp who was doing most of the gardening on this beautiful sunny day.

I think my contribution could be better described as “pottering”.

While Scamp was cutting the front grass and moving all the pots around herself because she knows exactly where they go and in which direction they face, while I’ll just plonk them in a spot with the same shape as the shape of the pot base. Unfortunately that doesn’t work with circular pots which have two axes of symmetry. I’ve given up offering to help, because I know it will be refused.

Anyway, while the cutting was going on, I was in the back garden photographing butterflies on the Buddleia bush. The bush has been flowering for about a month now and not one butterfly has ventured near it. Today, after I’d cut away a lot of the flowers that were going to seed, not one, but two butterflies were climbing over each other to get to this nectar rich plant. A Small Tortoiseshell butterfly got PoD.

Earlier I was spraying the big splat of seagull diarrhoea that had been dropped from height on the passenger side of the car’s windscreen. A few of scooshes of screen wash and it started to melt away quite nicely, but it left unsightly white streaks all down the bonnet. The easiest thing to do was to wash the car, and that’s what I did, the old fashioned way with buckets of water lots of detergent and a sponge. Buffed it dryish with those green mitts and left it to dry completely in the sunshine.

Back to gardening again and I emptied out our final potato bag and collected 650g of Charlotte potatoes. Scamp’s and my favourite variety. Since I had the garden table set up and the big black plastic tray, I potted up five wee chilli seedlings that were looking a bit poorly after being planted some time in the spring. I blamed the compost Tesco sold us to plant them in. It looked more like floor sweepings than compost. Anyway, they’re in better stuff now. Good compost mixed with sharp sand and Perlite for drainage. Hope they enjoy the view from the bedroom window.

Spoke to Jamie tonight and heard about Simonne’s visit to the Olympics while Jamie worked from home and did some gardening. Good to hear that the green beans are growing and the cobs of corn are ripening hope the squirrels give them a chance this year.

Tomorrow I’m intending donating a thimbleful of blood for my three monthly checkup. Thunder showers are forecast for most of tomorrow.

Windy day and Driving – 10 August 2024

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It was a bit of an uninspiring day. Gusty winds again and the threat of showers that never came.

I just couldn’t get out of the bit today. Nothing physically wrong, I just could not shift myself from the sofa. Maybe it was the thought of driving in to an evening dance at Brookfield that failed to inspire me or maybe it was a hangover from yesterday. I still had the sore back, and I think that is caused by carrying a heavy camera bag. Maybe I should listen to my body more!

Eventually we did the same as yesterday and walked down to the shops to get dinner. I had decided to have a venison steak that had been languishing in the freezer since May, but I had no appetite. Then Scamp suggested something simple like a baked potato and that worked for me. It was a heavy bag I was carrying back from the shops and was reluctant to hand it over to Scamp, so we both walked home, with me carrying a bag with two bottles of no-alcohol (and no-taste) beer and a heavy camera bag (then I wonder why I’ve got a sore back!).

When I got home I just turned around and walked halfway round St Mo’s, then back again, about half an hour it total, but happier now that I had a couple of fairly decent shots in the bag. PoD went to a Common Drone Fly, or so said Mr Google and friends, lunching on some cow parsley flowers. By the time I got back we just had enough time to have a baked potato each and then we had to get ready for the evening’s entertainment.

We were driving the Brookfield, but as we were driving out of the estate I saw the big splat of seagull diarrhoea on the passenger side of the windscreen. A couple of scooshes of screen wash told us it was stuck firm and there was no point in damaging the wiper blades on it. A job for tomorrow. On the M80 first it was a police car with blue lights on travelling in the same direction as us, next a 40mph speed restriction flashed up on the overhead gantry then about two miles later the next message was “Pedestrians”. Never a good thing on a motorway. However for the rest of the drive in to Glasgow there was no sign of police vehicles or pedestrians. We carried on regardless. Of course everyone had obeyed the 40mph sign 😉

The rest of the journey was just normal Saturday evening busy. Until we came to the Irvine turnoff, our turnoff. Then ahead was two lanes of red lights for as far as we could see. For the next five miles it was first gear and stop, first gear and stop. Then the blockage seemed to clear and we drove the rest of the way unhindered. We later discovered there had been a two car crash somewhere ahead of us and we were the lucky ones who joined the queue when it was at least moving, if slowly.

The dance itself was really great fun, mainly because we were at the same table as Barry & Cath plus Cath’s sister and Niahmat & Audrey and another couple we’d met at a dance weekend in Perth. The table was a bit congested, but the jokes and laughter lifted the evening. We danced a few ballroom dances and, I think, all but one of the sequence dances. For once, the night really flew in, although as we neared the Last Dance there was a bit of a lull sometimes. As if the energy had gone out of the night.

I almost always enjoy driving home at night from a Brookfield dance. Absolutely no need to drop out of 5th gear, even across the Kingston Bridge. We parked and I had a wee dram while Scamp, unusually had a decaf coffee before bed. Something in the dancing put my back right again and something about the night put me on the right road.

Tomorrow I might was the car, or the windscreen at the very least.

Wild Weather – 9 August 2024

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We woke to high winds with gusts in excess of 45mph. Wild weather.

Scamp was out to FitSteps in the morning. Wild winds couldn’t stop her doing her keep-fit exercises. I stayed home to read and to challenge myself with Wordle and Spelling Bee. After that my whole day turned. I just felt deflated and had no wish to do anything. I don’t know what caused it. It wasn’t my “Black Monkey” feeling, I was just totally fed up, and nothing Scamp did when she came home could lift me out of the hole I was in. Even worse, I couldn’t lift myself out either.

Eventually after lunch she Scamp she was going to walk to the shops and invited me to join her. I did exactly that and we walked and talked as we fought our way against the gale. On the way back, as sometimes happens she sent me on a walk round St Mo’s while she carried the messages back home.

I did feel a bit better when I got home although I had a sore back and a bit of a headache, but after a couple of hours snoozing on the sofa, I woke to sunshine, internal sunshine at least. The ‘ennui’ if that was what it was had gone. Maybe my snoring had frightened it away or maybe the Black Monkey had stayed in St Mo’s to pester someone else. I don’t know. All I can say is that I was much happier than I had been this morning and glad to be back home again.

While I was in St Mo’s I got a PoD which was, as you can see, a bee busy collecting pollen from some pink Knapweed flowers With those 45mph gusts today I wasn’t expecting to see many insects, but a bee’s gotta do what a bee’s gotta do, I suppose.

Dinner was Coconut Curry with Haddock. It’s one of the dishes Jamie & Simonne made during the holiday. Another thing that probably helped brighten my day with is cheerful colour scheme and spicy flavours. I recommend it to you once the recipe gets to Neil to be included in the Foodies Book.

The wind outside has eventually died down and we have peace in the garden for a while. Hoping to go dancing tomorrow, all being well.

Wet and windy – 7 August 2024

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After yesterday’s beautiful clear skies, today was back to white skies and occasional rain showers.

The breeze was getting up too and the combination of all three gave me cause to forget any ideas of wandering the countryside looking for interesting views. I may have been completely wrong and the weather in St Mo’s microclimate might have been sub-tropical, but I didn’t think so.

We drove to Tesco, but the weather there was just the same as at home, but we got some milk and eggs and a couple of apples then drove home again. After receiving a royal wave from Sir Fred the artist as he drove away in front of us.

Lunch was beans on toast. Nothing wrong with that, but it was a measure of the day. Jackie phoned Scamp later in the afternoon and while they were having a chinwag I played around with a set of acrylic pens Fred had given me yesterday, or maybe the day before. I wasn’t really taken with them, but he had sent me a couple of pictures he had painted with them, so I felt duty bound to try them out. Maybe today just wasn’t the day for them. Instead I chanced a couple of photos during a dry spell and a Cerinthe flower made PoD. Strange purple/blue flowers that look a bit like Shrimp Plants. By switching to manual mode on the a6500 I managed to get a fast enough shutter speed and a deep enough aperture to get a couple of decent shots in the wind that was blowing.

We couldn’t decide on what to have for dinner, then one of us, probably Scamp suggested fish ’n’ chips from the chip shop. By the time we had decided to go to the chip shop, it was really too late. We decided to leave the food until we came home from dance class.

Tonight, Kirsty was revising the Rumba before turning it into a Cha-Cha, a fast one at that. Lots of lovely little twists in it that made the two routines totally different. Lovely, that is, when you could manage the switch. I think I have it now, but we’ll find out tomorrow. We’re hoping to go to the first tea dance in about a month. But back home and today, we had our fish ’n’ chips after dance class and it was delicious. I’ll probably suffer for it tomorrow, but tonight it’s fine.

Tomorrow Scamp is booked for an early session to get her hair cut, and as I said, we’re hoping to go to a tea dance in the afternoon.

Wet – 5 August 2024

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It seems like only the other day we were pleading for rain so we wouldn’t have to water the garden. Today we got our wish.

It started off dull with the clouds sliding down over the Campsie Fells. It had rained all night and we said “Thank you” for some rain at last. Today we were looking for the tap to turn it off again. I think it was the lack of light that was getting us down more.

We drove to Tesco for the normal Monday shop and I bumped into Fred. Haven’t seen him for ages and that’s probably because he hasn’t been out much. He did have a wee prezzy for me, a pack of acrylic paint pens. The colours are a bit lurid, but they might be interesting to mess around with. I think we’ll try to arrange a coffee for Fred, Val and I with maybe the chance of coercing Colin to join us. If nothing else it would be a chance to do a book exchange.

Shopping done, we drove home, still in the rain and packed all the stuff away, then had lunch. I had a sandwich with cold meat that had been in the fridge. Later I wasn’t feeling well and I’m thinking that cold meat might have been the culprit. It’s now in the bin.

I did get out for a while in the back garden, when Scamp was risking the rain to prune her newly transplanted Candelabra Primulas. I was more interested in the Japanese Anemones and sheltered under the rowan tree and got a few shots of them. One of the shots got PoD.

On Saturday we had walked in the sunshine past the Mausoleum in Hamilton and through the underpass below the M74. The photo of the underpass with some silhouetted figures got Explore this morning. That was a nice surprise, I wasn’t expecting it. I was hoping my photo of the Dent sheep would Explore, but interest in it has fizzled out.

Scamp was determined to Dyson the living room today and I helped out, moving stuff around and doing a bit of dusting round the window sills … inside, of course. After that I felt a bit dodgy and almost fell asleep on the sofa, so I took myself up to bed for an hour. I think that helped, but what helped more was Scamp making an excellent vegetable omelette for dinner. Such a pity, her’s wasn’t a patch on the one she made me!

Watched a bit of the indoor cycling at the Olympics and it was passably interesting. I think I might have an early night tonight. Just finished The Long Drop by Denise Mina. Based on a true story about Peter Manuel a serial killer back in 1958. I remember walking to school and everyone saying that Manuel had been hanged and being shocked. It wasn’t the best book I’ve read, but parts of it were very well written. 3/5 on Goodreads.

No plans yet for tomorrow, but the weather looks hopeful.