Category: Flowers

A bunch of flowers – 26 July 2025

Posted on by Zogman

It was a dull day and these flowers helped brighten it up.

Like I said, it was a dull day. We’d intended going to Dunfermline on the bus, but I hadn’t slept very well last night and Scamp told me to have another hour in bed. That hour became two and I knew we weren’t going to make Dunfermline today. I think it was all down to the dreaded
Buyer’s Remorse, in fact I’m sure of it. It happens to me a lot. After I’ve bought anything, I immediately regret it after the confirmation that the money has gone through comes in. In a couple of days it will be fine, I’m sure.

Instead of Dunfermline, Scamp decided it would be a good idea to cut the front grass because it looked like rain was coming according to both our phones and for once the phones got it right. Only a few minutes after she’d finished cutting the grass, the rain arrived.

After the rain stopped, I drove up to Tesco to get some messages. On Thursday, Scamp presented me with a cookery book, ’30 Minute Mowgli’, and some of the stuff was to make tonight’s dinner, which was Spinach and Chickpea Curry. Lots of spicy stuff but it did take considerably longer than the 30 Minutes.

Cooking took my mind off the Buyer’s Remorse and although the food looked a bit like the recipe’s picture, it wasn’t really impressing me. That was before we plated it and started into actually eating it. I thought it was really, really good, and Scamp agreed with me. Now I’ve a feeling we’re going to be taking turns at investigating the other recipes in the book. Why Mowgli? Because that is the name of the restaurant we’ve been going to in Glasgow.

The bunch of flowers were today’s PoD. The rose on the right is ‘Simply the Best’ the other two roses are ‘Golden Wedding’ and the bunch of white flowers at the back are Gypsophila.

Hoping for a better day tomorrow.

Walking with the bees – 25 July 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Other insects were also there. Some stingers, some biters and some that just buzzed round my head and deserved a good slap for annoying me.

Before that, Scamp was out early as usual on a Friday, to go to FitSteps. I decided to stay home and do some work for a change, mainly because it had started raining. Before she left for her class, Scamp gave me instructions for using the new liquid for the washing machine and when she left I emptied all the dirty washing into the washing machine and set it chugging through the load.

Next I’d some clearing out to do on the iMac. Just some old files that I no longer needed. The oldest were no longer suitable for the eight year old iMac, so must have come from its predecessor, the Mac Book Pro, running Snow Leopard! I think they must belong to the clockwork version. I also managed to check the security files, passwords and such. Before I knew where I was, the washing machine beeped to tell me its work was done for the morning. That meant I had to hang up the washing inside as it was still raining.

Lunch was a ‘Piece in Corned Beef’. I’d forgotten I had some in the fridge and didn’t want it going to waste. By then Scamp had returned hot and bothered after a heavy exercise session with Kirsty and the rest of the girls. She made some corrections to my handling of the damp clothes. I will write it up some time soon to ensure I don’t make the same mistake another time.

I went for a walk down to the shops by the convoluted paths round the back of St Mo’s school since the pupils are still on summer holidays. However it was the bees that grabbed my attention. I’d doused myself well with Smidge insect repellant first and walked down the narrow path with shoulder high wild flowers on both sides and it seemed that every plant was covered with bees searching for nectar and being covered with pollen as a result. I made the mistake of setting the camera to Continuous Shooting which means that if you hold the shutter button down, it will just keep taking photos until it has filled its buffer or you remove your finger. Even on ‘slow’ mode I still managed to capture 70 photos in a short time, most of which ended up in the bin. Today’s PoD was a White Tailed Bee feasting on a Creeping Thistle flower.

Dinner was beans, and chips with an egg for Scamp and a couple burgers with chips and jalapeños for me. A fairly decent dinner.

The rain had drifted by the time I was walking down the path behind St Mo’s and the sun shone for a while in the early evening. Not a bad day.

Nice to see where you are staying Hazy and Neil. Pity about the birds messing on the seats. Be more strict with them and tell them to clean up their act!

Possibly going to Dunfermline tomorrow.

Decisions made – 24 July 2025

Posted on by Zogman

After yesterday’s problems and the early morning repair iCloud Drive had done, I found that another part of the tangled web was also self-repairing.

I made the decision to drive in to Glasgow and speak to someone who could explain what was happening in the iMac, but not until I got my hair cut!

After the shearing, Scamp came along in to Glasgow for the ride, but she was heading for Waterstones to buy a gardening book. We split up, she went up Sauchiehall Street and I went down Buchanan Street at almost exactly 90º to each other. Central Glasgow is built on a rectangular grid. That’s why it is constantly being used as a substitute for New York by film makers.

As usual, all the ‘Geniuses’ were busy in the Apple Store and I didn’t have an appointment, but one member of the sales team answered all my questions, including what was going on with the self repair thing. I decided there and then that I’d order a new iMac 4 with a decent amount of storage and a nice fast processor. Decision made. Now I just have to be patient and wait a couple of weeks for the Blue iMac to arrive.

I walked up from Buchanan Street to Waterstones to meet Scamp and it was there I saw the opportunity for today’s PoD. Three ladies having lunch and setting the world to rights and demonstrating that they could do it much more efficiently than any three men!

Scamp got her book. A well written description of lots of flowers, only flowers, so that’s exactly what she wanted.

We walked back down to Paesano for a pizza lunch. A coffee in Nero and then drove home. Thankfully Glasgow wasn’t nearly as congested as it had been last week.

There were a couple of surprises waiting for me back home. Scamp handed me a Mowgli recipe book written by the owner of the Mowgli restaurant we went to for my birthday, back in April. All 30 minute recipes. The second surprise was that today was the anniversary of the day we got engaged back in 1971! An auspicious day.

There was still a bit of heat in the air when we got home, so we sat in the front garden for a while with a G ’n’ T each before the sun was almost dipping behind the nearest houses.

Another busy day, but when I got home, the confirmation email was on my old iMac and I felt better.

No plans for tomorrow yet.

Out early to speak to a Genius – 22 July 2025

Posted on by Zogman

I’d a 10.35am meeting with a genius. Not an everyday occurrence, but this was a problem solving mission and only an Apple Genius would do. Scamp, meanwhile went for a coffee in the Benugo cafe in JL.

After lugging my big heavy iMac to the Apple Store, I met a big friendly giant Genius who was going to sort out all my problems. He didn’t actually solve all the problems, but by watching carefully what he was doing I managed to remember the sequence he worked through to get the Desktop back and other stuff too. The rigamarole below took him about 10 seconds, but undid a lot of the damage last week’s outage had created. He seemed quite impressed that I was running the system on a couple of SSD drives and told me to connect the master drive to the new Mac if I was getting one and use it to enter all the complicated stuff for me. I didn’t want to tell him I’d done that about four or five times already over the years.

<Technospeak>

Find ‘System Settings’ from the Apple menu

Click on my name

Choose iCloud

Choose iCloud Drive and then ensure that the top two buttons are set to ON.

Done

I later found that I could also mess about with the bottom buttons too, but didn’t.

</Technospeak>

Packed up the big heavy iMac again and took it back to dump in the car, then I went to have a coffee with Scamp in the cafe and told her whole story.

We went down to the JL basement to look at fridges and freezers and fridge / freezers. Scamp found a few she liked and we made a shopping list of them, but we bumped into a very helpful salesperson who told us that JL have a cutprice sale of goods on the first Sunday of every month. I think we might be going there to see what they have. Just to finish off the morning, we bought a DIY fan, because it’s still quite warm and this big old fashioned fan will help to keep us cool.

PoD turned out to be a couple of Red Clover flowers. I found them during a walk round St Mo’s.

I was a bit disappointed with the amount of cleaning out I’ll need to do before the iMac is ready to give up it’s place at the table and meet the new challenger, but nothing is perfect in this life, as Scamp always reminds me.

Dinner was an M&S stir-fry. Not the best one I’ve ever had. Too sweet for me and Scamp didn’t like the Singapore noodles. I don’t think we’ll get that again.

Watched Bakeoff the Professionals tonight and wondered where they get the ideas for the challenges.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending to meet Shona for lunch. I think I may be ironing out more of the ‘puter problems.

 

 

Another wet and warm day – 21 July 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Not at the same time, though.

This will be a quick blog. Although we did very little, the day just seemed to run away with us.

In the morning I spoke to an Apple robot with a Scottish accent, explained my problem and she fixed me up with an appointment for tomorrow with a ‘Genius’! A living, breathing one, I hope.

After that I noticed we had another butterfly on the buddleia bush and when I went out to see if it was still there, realised I didn’t have a camera. Luckily Scamp had her’s handy and she gave it to me, because the butterfly was too high for her to reach. That’s when it flew away, but eagle eye’d Scamp saw another one, a Peacock butterfly this time. We grabbed three shots with the phone and then it flew up and over to the back of the tree, but we got the shot! It made PoD.

We had a look through the laptops, for fridge-freezers after that and after tomorrow’s Genius Bar, we might actually order one.

We went to Kirsty’s dance class in the late afternoon and I almost managed to do new version of the Foxtrot with the diabolical Continuous Hover Cross, my nemesis! It was actually too hot to trot in the dance room and there was no cool air blower.

That’s as much as I’m going to write for now. Enjoy the holiday, Neil and Hazy. Hope you have fun. By the way, I finished Rivers of London episode 10 today and wouldn’t recommend it.

I’m off to bed no hoping to cool down, hopefully. Tomorrow may be another busy day.

Another dull day – 20 July 2025

Posted on by Zogman

We seem to be having more than our fair share of dull days recently.

The day was brightened up when I saw a butterfly on the Buddleia bush in the back garden. I know that’s not exactly earth shattering, but this is the first butterfly to have sampled the nectar on our buddleia. Just as I was about to capture this yellow butterfly, Scamp said she’d found another one, a Tortoiseshell, I think. It was difficult to see as it blended in so well with the dry foliage of the bush. Unfortunately it was more skittish tha the yellow one and flew off. (Mr Google said the yellow one was a Cabbage White. I think he must be colour blind.)

I did get a few shots of the yellow butterfly and one of them made PoD. I think Scamp got some photos of it too.

Dinner tonight was Sea Bass with potatoes and roasted veg. I thought the sea bass was one of the best I’d tasted. Scamp said the veg was a bit limp after she had put a lid on the pan. There’s no pleasing some folk.

Spoke to Jamie and we discussed our differing weather systems. We have had some rain and so has he, but both of us would like more.

Tomorrow we are expecting more of the wet stuff with the possibility of thundery showers too. Oh what fun.

A wee girl – 17 July 2025

Posted on by Zogman

We were driving to Falkirk today. Scamp’s bracelet was ready to pick up and so was my coffee. Unfortunately not in, or even near the same place.

First stop was Falkirk for the coffee I’d ordered a couple of days ago. Next was a drive back the way we’d come to find ourselves at the centre of the town where I parked and Scamp walked over to the jewellers to pick up her bracelet which had had a new catch welded to it and was nice and shiny. From there we drove back home for a quick cup of coffee and then it was time to get dressed properly to go to Hamilton for lunch with John and Marion.

It was a lovely morning when we were doing our circuit of Falkirk, but by the time we reached Hamilton, the clouds were rolling in. Lunch was a Salmon Fillet wrapped in Prosciutto with pesto and baby tomatoes. Dessert was layers of puff pastry wrapped round strawberries and whipped cream. I know there is a fancy name for it, but I can’t remember it.

Then came the surprise visitors. Laura and her daughter Erin arrived and we spent a couple of hours being entertained by this one year old wee girl. Such a happy little child who kept us amused all afternoon. She took Scamp’s hand and they walked hand in hand round the living room. Scamp didn’t instigate it, Erin did! I was given teething toy to play with until she asked for it back. Erin, that is, not Scamp!
Too soon, it was time for mum and baby to go home and off they went. Not one cross word from Erin, just smiles.

We sat and talked with John and Marion for a while, then it was time for us too to go home. Just as we were leaving the rain came on. It had been predicted, but I think we were just too busy playing with Erin to notice.

We drove home through the M74 busy with homeward bound workers. I’m glad we don’t have to work anymore!

PoD was a wet Rudbeckia flower from the garden.

Tomorrow we may go in to Glasgow to see the start of the Merchant City Festival.

A bit of a computer disaster – 15 July 2025

Posted on by Zogman

I’m having a bit of a problem withe the iMac and with MacBook Pro.

What should have been a simple clearing out of the iCloud Drive went a bit awry on the iMax and I ended up losing my ‘diary’ – Day One. I also lost some data from the MBP, but for some reason Day One on the MBP wasn’t affected. Hopefully I’ll get is sorted out in a few days. Until then I’m going to be jumping between my Macs. That’s what I get for not making backups!!

As you can see, I can even get the PoD displayed, so it’s not so desperate. It’s a wild Cranesbill flower

Possibly going out for a photowalk with Alex tomorrow. That might clear my head.

Another day in the sun – 12 July 2025

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Scamp was out in the early afternoon, meeting a friend for lunch.

While she was out, I started dismantling a couple of bird feeders. One had been partly demolished by a squirrel a couple of weeks ago. The other one was almost new, but just wasn’t fulfilling the brief, so it too was being taken to pieces. The problem with the second feeder was that when I was filling it with the fine seeds I’d been using ran right through it. I reckoned I needed a baffle or a temporary block in the metal mesh tube that makes up the body of the feeder. I cut a piece of brush handle and roughly shaped it so that it would reduce the volume of seeds going into the tube. Then I needed to fit the wooden block into the mesh tube and screw it in place. It took me some time and a lot of swearing to get it into the place I’d selected for it.

On the first test, it seemed as if the model worked, but still too much seed was flowing down the tube and out at the bottom. I set it up hanging from a tree branch in the garden and it appears to work … partly. Now I think I need to reduce the seed flow a bit more.

By the time I’d cleared up the workbench and most of the mess, Scamp had arrived back home. With the temperature rising we had lunch in the garden and discussed our mornings. Then, as the sun was brightening the back garden we sat and read for a while. PoD was two Osteospermum flowers soaking up the sun

We were heading to Larky for dinner with Crawford and Nancy in the evening and we sat on their patio and blethered for an hour and a bit, had a light dinner inside and then retired to the patio again to get a conducted tour of the garden. Later we watched the full moon rise and rise above the trees. A very mystical sight and one I’ll remember for a long time, I think.

We drove home and arrived back at the house just after midnight. A wee dram for me and a G ’n’ T for Scamp completed a lovely day out with friends. I’ll remember the guitar next time Crawford … promise.

Tomorrow the temperature is forecast to be at its highest. With 29ºc predicted.

Things to do – 9 July 2025

Posted on by Zogman

It’s not often I have a list of things to do in the morning, but today I had.

I was up and showered early(ish) this morning and drove to the health centre to book an appointment for my annual check-up along with the inevitable blood letting. Just for a change I got a pleasant receptionist who actually helped me without any of their usual harrumphing. It won’t last, I told myself. The next time I come in, it will be Gort the Alien. Anyway, I got the appointment for the blood letting and for the dreaded meeting with one of the sisters. I don’t know if there are any doctors in the health centre now. It seems to be run by the receptionists and the sisters or the nurses.

Relieved that one of my tasks had been completed, I drove on to Tesco, Big Tesco as it’s known in the town. Every time I shop there, I feel that things have been moved and even the direction arrows have been rearranged to make it more easily accessible. At least that’s what we’re told, but I think they just do it to ensure that you walk the longest distance, searching, always searching for that lightly seeded brown loaf or the pot of flat leaved parsley that used to be in the same section as the leeks, but which has now disappeared completely. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve seen others like me wandering the aisles with the same blank look as me. However, today I did find almost all the items that were on my mental list (I’d left the physical list at home). Feeling fairly please that I’d managed to get most things on my list and therefore ticked the second box, I drove home.

Back home, Scamp was repotting some of yesterday’s plants and pruning others. I decided I’d tidy up the Rhododendron by removing the old flower stems. It’s a fairly easy task and I’d already cleared half of it a week or so ago. The bush looks so much better now it’s done.

Later I took my A7ii fitted with a 50mm f2.8 macro lens and proceeded to photograph a few flowers in the back garden. My favourite, and PoD turned out to be a close up of a wild orchid. I used manual focus with Peak set to medium and Red. That was a note to self, as I’m sure you guessed. Just in case I look back at the photo some day and ask myself how I took it! Simple.

Dinner was a mixture of pastas with mushrooms, tomatoes and onions, with a squirt of tomato paste and half a tin of chopped tomatoes. A typical “what have we got in the fridge?” dinner.

Tomorrow, Scamp is booked to go to the hairdresser in the morning and I’m intending to read in bed.