Category: Flowers

The man who worked in the garden – 20 March 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Today I was that man.

In the morning Scamp was out at FitSteps. I stayed at home because I’d promised to fix the upstairs front windows that screeched when you opened them. Some lithium grease and a shot or two of WD 40 sorted that and now they open easily, or at least better than they did.

It was in the afternoon that we started work on the front garden. Scamp did most of the work. She directed operations and told me the names of the plants and flowers she was working with. I was the labourer. I did some riddling of the coarse earth that came from last year’s potato bags and shovelled it into tubs that needed more of a covering. Scamp pruned the stragglers in the Berberis pots. We both inspected the plants that were beginning to show their heads and Scamp watered some plants. She actually watered plants because they needed the moisture. Last week we were complaining about the amount of water that was falling from the sky. Today the earth was dry(ish). How things change in a week.

For some reason I wasn’t all that bothered with taking photos, but about 5pm we were both feeling that it might be a good idea to walk over to Condorrat to get a couple of fish suppers. That way, nobody had to cook. I actually walked over without a jacket. That gives you some idea how warm it was. While I was out, I took some photos of the gorse bushes which are a lovely warm colour. Sharp thorns, but bright yellow flowers.

We watched the final of Landscape Artist 2026 and were disappointed that the Scottish person didn’t win. Why must the English always win?

Tomorrow I expect we’ll be going dancing. I’m not looking forward to the long drive home, though.

 

 

 

A walk in the park – 18 March 2026

Posted on by Zogman

A long lie in after yesterday’s late night drive.

A relaxing morning was called for to recover from yesterday’s drive home from Larky. It was a lovely morning. Blue skies and light cloud. It seemed a shame not to get out in it, even if was still a bit wet underfoot. Scamp was tidying up, but also searching for signs of new growth in the pots and troughs around the back garden. For my part I got a spade and a garden fork and turned over the soil and old veg in the compost bin. The quality of compost in the bin was surprisingly good for once.
We both lifted old leeks from a couple of pots too. After they had been washed, Scamp shared them with John and Carly next door. Both of them had fed us with soup over the winter and this would hopefully be a suitable ’Thank You’.

After a light lunch Scamp suggested we go for a walk round Drumpellier Loch. I thought it was a great idea. In fact it was such a warm afternoon, for the first time in ages I walked round the woodland without my big orange Rab jacket and it really did feel like spring. On the way back to the car, we wandered round the Peace Garden in the park where Scamp wanted to see the flowers. I didn’t think there would be anything to see this early in the year, but she proved me wrong. Lots of wee pockets of flowers all around the garden. We found a monument to peach in the Peace Garden and that made PoD.
We even managed to have an ice cream cone each with raspberry on it. Real raspberry like we used to get from the ice cream van!

Back home, I unloaded the photos I’d taken, but Scamp wasn’t finished yet. She found lots more tubs to investigate and hauled a pail full of weeds out as she was going with her wee hooked digger tool.

I made dinner tonight and it was Pasta Carbonara. It’s ages since I made it, but this one was almost perfect. Maybe I could have added more cheese, but only a little amount.

We watched the first episode of AI Confidential on BBC2. I’m not sure what to make of it. Bits were surreal, but also the true story behind it made me think again. I think I’ll watch episode 2 if I get a chance. It’s thought provoking. Also it made a change from Masterchef which is becoming boring for me now. Scamp would probably disagree!

Tomorrow I’m intending to meet Alex for a short walk in Chatelherault in the morning, but I need to be back to take Scamp to see her consultant later in the afternoon.

 

Blossom – 15 March 2026

Posted on by Zogman

A wet and windy day, but the cherry blossom is in bloom.

Today was Mothers Day and Scamp had breakfast in bed. Then Hazy phoned and I made a quick exit to avoid getting in the way of two ladies talking!

There wasn’t much chance to get out and get some photos today. Lots of wind and rain. The rain, coming in waves, was heavy for short spells and was driven by a blustery wind.

Thankfully we had a quite exciting F1 GP to watch in the early afternoon. For the first time in ages we had not one, but two interesting race days recently. It felt like F1 used to be, years ago. Let’s hope the officials don’t spoil it by adding in restrictions.

I spent the rest of the afternoon watching the rain clouds, but eventually they did blow away and I got the decent shots I’d been looking for. I guessed the Cherry Blossom would be in bloom and I was not wrong. I managed to get some good photos of the flowers on two cherry trees. A spell of warm sun helped brighten the flowers and made them stand out from the background. PoD sorted!

Scamp made dinner, which was Sea Bass with Lemon Pepper Butter, Potatoes and Cauliflower. I made dessert which was Meringue with Fruit Salad, Diced Kiwi and Ice Cream. The whole thing served with Coffee and Kahlua for Scamp and black coffee for me.

Spoke to Jamie in the evening and heard that things may be brightening up for the pair of them. Hope it all works out, because you do both deserve a break after some long drawn out wrangling.

I believe we may be going shopping tomorrow.

A windy day – 11 March 2026

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Scamp was out in the morning.

Scamp and Shona were catching a train to Edinburgh, although Shona didn’t know that because this was a surprise visit. I wasn’t going although Scamp had offered me a seat on the train. I decided they would be better without me, and anyway I had some computer stuff to work on.

As it happened, I dropped the pair at the station then headed over to the butcher’s in Muirhead. I was looking for some decent stewing steak, an equal quantity of mince, some fish and a couple of beef olives. I could have shopped closer to home, but I trust the Muirhead butchers because they had never let me down.

Back home I assembled my cables and drives to decant February’s photos but couldn’t find the connector to fit the iMac. Eventually I gave up and sat down to work through Wordle and was surprised when I finished it in three guesses.

The next thing on my list was to order some coffee from Henry’s coffee company. Another small company I’ve used for a couple of years. Recently they have been waiving the delivery cost if you spend more than £30 and delivering to our door. Unfortunately I noticed they now use Royal Mail for their parcel deliveries and that is not good. Royal Mail are one of the worst companies I’ve ever used. They lose orders, deliver the wrong order and generally just make a hash of everything. I may have to resort back to a collection system. At least I’ll know it’s my coffee that I’m drinking.

I did think I might go out for a walk with a camera in the afternoon, but one look out the window made the decision for me. Horizontal rain is not my idea of fun, nor is sleet, nor hail and all three flew past my window as I watched the day go down the drain. I eventually did manage a dry half hour round St Mo’s and the PoD I got was a photo of a Salmonberry which are apparently related to Brambles.

No real plans for tomorrow, but it seems to be wet and windy.

Out in the morning … Early! – 9 March 2026

Posted on by Zogman

First stop was at Andrew’s shop at 10am, where he took us through the changes that have been happening in the world and explained the reasons for not listening too closely to the Doom & Gloom merchants, but equally not to believe those who say it will all be over in a few weeks. It’s the middle ground we need to listen to, not the hot heads. We left the shop feeling that we’d learned something today, even if he wasn’t wearing his wildly coloured socks!

Next stop for Scamp was a bit of shopping. New bed sheets to start with and coloured sheets to boot! What is the world coming to? Just to wrap things up, she added new pillows to her list of ‘Must Haves’. There simply was no stopping her today.

I did think she might want to go for a drive somewhere but she settled for Torwood Garden Centre for an early lunch. It wasn’t even midday, so it was a scone and a coffee each, then a walk round some of the flowers. In addition, we took a serious look at a new plastic greenhouse for the garden, but we couldn’t quite agree on which one to choose. Big decisions like that need time to make ther correct choice.

Back home I went for a walk in the rain with my squeaky old lens and got some more photos of the mating frogs and the Ribes sanguineum, the Flowering Currants. The flowers won.

Kirsty’s class has finally worked out how to deal with the Quickstep and today’s task was to dance a new waltz instead. It’s called the Blackwood Waltz and has a few tricky bits, but basically it seems to be a lot of units we’ve already mastered, but in a different order! Scamp thinks we’ve conquered it. I’m not so sure.

On the way home tonight, Scamp suggested a fish supper for a late dinner. Brilliant idea. It went down a treat!

No real plans for tomorrow, but we may take a wander past the partly demolished building in the centre of Glasgow that was almost completely destroyed yesterday by a fire in a vape shop. I’m thinking I’ll take my squeaky lens to a camera repairer in the town to let them have a look at it.

Bob the Builder – 8 March 2026

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… just for one day!

We had a busy day ahead of us today. We were taking Shona to Monklands to have an ultrasound. After that we were taking her back to her new house to get her bed assembled then have new curtain poles and curtains fitted. Luckily the existing fittings for the curtain poles were still there, so that saved us a fair bit of work. The bed the council had provided was pretty poor and I can see me having to strengthen it in the near future. She’s hoping to get other bits and pieces of snagging finished soon and she’ll be able to move in permanently. As usual I’d only brought some of the tools with me, but by luck we had enough to get all the work done in a couple of hours. We left her smiling from the front door of her her new house.

We drove back home and I went for a walk in St Mo’s partly to get some photos and partly to straighten my back which was aching with stretching up to fit the curtain poles and the curtains, all five of them. Scamp and Shona did all the clever stuff and I did the climbing up the ladders. I knew where I was heading for to get today’s PoD. I’d seen the Flowering Currant bush yesterday and thought it would make a fine photo. However, when I checked the camera, the power was down to 6% which is nowhere near what I was hoping. I took what I could get and walked home. Back home I discovered that the battery I was using was swelling. Never a good sign, so it will need replacing very soon. I don’t think I’ll risk recharging it, just in case.

That was a hard day, hopefully tomorrow will be easier when we go to meet Andrew in Falkirk.

An afternoon in the Toon – 9 February 2026

Posted on by Zogman

This afternoon we drove in to Glasgow, looking for a table cover.

Every time I drive in to Glasgow these days there is another road pattern to negotiate. Today was no exception. Where there had been two narrow lanes to reach Buchanan Galleries, today it was one single lane going downhill. How you get back up that hill is anybody’s guess.

I did get parked in the Buchanan Galleries and chose a suitable table cover to give our Christmas table cover a wee rest. I’m typing on the ‘Snowman’ table cover that’s been on the round living room table since mid December 2025. Hopefully we’ll replace it with the new one tomorrow.

With the table cover purchased, we went our separate ways. Scamp went to do some shopping in Glasgow and after dropping off the table cover I went to the Nile Barber to get my hair cut. We met up back in Buchanan Galleries and drove home.

I’d grabbed a couple of photos when I was walking back from the barber. One photo of some pink primulas became PoD. I was tempted to remove the photobomber who walked past the flowers just as I clicked, but then I realised he was part of the image and kept it in.

We went to Kirsty’s dance class in the early evening and found instead of six of us preparing for the Quickstep, there were five children of varying ages and two adults who seemed to have turned up out of the blue. I pitied Kirsty who had to teach six adults who were looking forward to the quickstep class and at the same time teach seven children and adults who looked as if they hadn’t danced in years. Hopefully everything will work out fine next week. I hope so.

We have no plans for tomorrow.

Dancin’ – 5 February 2026

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We drove to Glenburn to go dancing.

Drove through the rain and wind and traffic and were making fairly good time until we neared Glenburn where we had to get through three different sets of temporary traffic lights. One set of the ‘temporary’ lights will be there for months. That’s not my idea of temporary.

When we got there, Scamp was the star attraction with all the ladies and both teachers asking questions about what had happened on Monday in Dundee. I had laughingly suggested to her that she should have typed up a description of the day and run off a few copies to hand out to anyone who wanted to read them. Scamp said ‘NO’!

We did get through a fair few dances in our couple of hours. Most of them were sequence dances, but some were ballroom. We left it quite late to get back to Cumbersheugh, and took the M74/M73 route which is longer by the mile, but without as many holdups as the shorter M8/M80 way. I think in the end there’s not much difference between them.

It was raining when we arrived home and I chose an indoor shop for PoD. It’s a shot of a few Cerinthe seedlings sitting on a window ledge.

Hoping for a better day tomorrow. Always hoping!

Flowers – 3 February 2026

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Just a day to recover.

This Tuesday was another one with little to recommend it. I’d intended going out for a walk with Alex, but we agreed that wasn’t going to happen. The furthest I got was a quick set of grab shots in the garden when the rain and wind had calmed down enough to get some usable photos.

Scamp had a meet up organised with Isobel, but I chose to stay at home. Later and after lunch, Scamp and I drove to the town centre and spoke to a nice lady who offered us a week in the sun if we paid her some money. We said we’d think about it and after a long discussion at home, a decision was made.

Other than that, it was just another cold wet winter day with a few garden flowers ( Primulas) to brighten the gloom. They became the PoD.

 

Going for the messages – 28 January 2026

Posted on by Zogman

It was a lovely bright morning and it seemed a shame to waste it sitting in the house.

So, after some discussion, we decided to drive to Stirling to get some messages in Waitrose and have a walk through the town. In the end, and with a very full car boot we decided to have a coffee in Waitrose rather than walk down to Nero. The coffee wasn’t the best, but Scamp was happy with her latte and an iced bun staved off the hunger pangs for a while.

Instead of driving straight home, we turned off the motorway and parked near Haggs. From there we had a walk along the Forth and Clyde canal. The weather held up and with a few fluffy clouds in the sky and an almost perfectly flat calm on the canal we walked along the canal, heading east. Beautiful reflections on the still water gave me plenty of opportunity for photos. Even when we passed one of the locks, the water stayed still and allowed more photo opportunities.

Not far past the canal lock we turned and walked back to the car. We saw a couple of swans following the twists and turns of the canal, presumably looking for a good place to land. Unfortunately I just missed them! Maybe next time.

Back home and after we’d emptied the car, Scamp went out to plant two new pot plants, pink at the front and purple in the back. Both Primulas. Not happy with that, she did a bit of pruning and also stayed out in the sunshine just tidying up the back garden.

Dinner was a shared pizza from Waitrose. Then after I’d downloaded today’s photos and posted a couple, we watched another Landscape Artist of the Year. I don’t know where they find these ‘artists’, but today’s lot were some of the worst we’ve seen. Hopefully they will improve soon.

A week or so, Scamp asked Hazel to ask Neil if his mum knew where she, Scamp, could get Panch Phoron, a Bengali five spice mix. Today a parcel dropped through our letterbox and inside was a packet of Punch Pooran which is the same mix with a slightly different name. Attached was a message from Neil’s mum saying “Happy Cooking”. Isn’t it great when a plan comes together!

PoD went to a view looking east along the Forth and Clyde canal.

No great plans for tomorrow. Scamp says she might do some ironing. I may take a load of odds and ends to the council skips.