Category: Flowers

Rain! – 14 May 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Last night it rained and this morning “the streets were wet again with rain”.

It was strange to see rain again after a couple of weeks with any. It was good soaking rain, to, the kind the gardens need. The rain lasted all day which is great, as long as it remembers to turn itself off again tonight, because Alex and I are hoping to do a photowalk in Glasgow tomorrow and rain would make it uncomfortable.

We had an early lunch because the computer was set up for Neil’s Gran’s funeral service. This was the second funeral service we had watched. The first was Simonne’s mum’s just before the end of the Covid restrictions. I was impressed with Canute’s eulogy. It was very well presented and he spoke clearly. Towards the end, the choir sang one of my dad’s favourite hymns, How Great Thou Art and that nearly had me in tears.

When it was done we got around to normal things again. I walked down to the shops to get tonight’s dinner, which was going to be Prawn Stir-Fry. On the way back I attempted a few photos of dandelion ‘Clocks’ the dandelion seed heads. ‘Attempted’ because I knew when I was taking them that they weren’t very good and I was right.

Back home I sketched out today’s prompt request, A Dachshund. I don’t like dogs, but the prompt asked for a sketch of a dog, so I spoke to Mr Google and he kindly sent me in the right direction to find one that might fit the bill, and that’s what you see here. My interpretation of a Dachshund.

Dinner was ok, just ok, but I have to admit I fried the prawns perfectly, for once. Just before I started the cooking I grabbed a few shots of ‘Golden Torch’, probably Scamp’s favourite rhododendron. A close-up of a rhododendron flower got PoD.

We watched a cookery program with Jamie Oliver making springtime meals. I found it a bit tedious after a while and started counting how many times he said ‘Beautiful’. Just over 15 times in one 15minute section. One a minute, but it felt like more.  Although it passed the time. But both Scamp and I were impressed with the Rhubarb and Custard pie he made. That looked ‘Beautiful’. I think Scamp may try it.

As I said at the start, I’m hoping to meet Alex for a photowalk tomorrow. Just a daunder around Glasgow.

Now who sang those lyrics in the first line of today’s blog? And what was the name of the song?
As Scamp will tell you, I love quoting lyrics!

Change in the weather – 13 May 2024

Posted on by Zogman

We woke to white skies all around. No sign of the blue skies we’d been enjoying last week.

I was out in the morning to get bloods taken at the health centre. Two chatty nurses kept me talking after the bloodletting had finished. I though at first it was my magnetic personality and my scintillating conversation that was dazzling them. Then I realised they were just making sure this auld guy had been sitting in the chair for the mandatory five or ten minutes, whatever it was, before releasing me into the wild world outside.

I’d got out early and decided I’d pick up a loaf and some fruit, plus Scamp’s meds on the way home. With all the warm weather we’ve had, the trees have been dropping their sap on the cars, and mine felt like the bonnet was covered in sandpaper, so a trip to the carwash would be a good idea … except, it seemed that everyone else in Cumbersheugh had the same idea, so instead I drove home.

Back home Scamp was edging the concrete slabs we have spread across the grass at the back of the house. If you don’t keep cutting the grass back it attempts to cover the slabs. Scamp was doing a good job of disabusing it of that idea.

After lunch she started cleaning up what we laughingly call a patio. It’s just a load of badly laid concrete slabs placed end to end, but we did make some wooden duckboard plates to allow some air in under the plants, but other forms of detritus had found its way in too. Between us we managed to sweep it up and add it to the compost bin.

I took some time out from the garden to sketch today’s topic which was A Songbird. The Blackbird is our finest and most easily recognised songbird. Years ago you could hear Larks and the occasional Song Thrush, but the urbanizing of our countryside has ousted them all, that and the seagulls and magpies. I’m just happy to listen to the blackbirds singing in the morning and in the evening.
We try to encourage them into our small garden, leaving chopped up apples for them to tear apart as repayment for their song.

After that, I took the A7 over to St Mo’s and got some decent photos. It was a toss up whether PoD went to Mrs Wolf Spider hauling her egg sac behind her, or the wilderness garden with aquilegia, poppies and dandelions that has sprung up in the last two weeks at the end of our road. In the end Mrs W won out.

Dinner tonight was Red Pasta. That is a tomato based sauce. This time with Cirio concentrated tomato puree. We couldn’t get it anywhere, then a couple of weeks ago we found it on sale in Waitrose, so we got two packets. Lovely strong tomato flavour. Not a bad dinner with basil and spinach leaves too for more texture.

That was about it for today, except to say that it’s raining tonight, not torrential, just good soaking rain. Scamp had feared that we’d need to start watering the garden, but Mother Nature did it for us!

Busy tomorrow afternoon.

Toasting – 12 May 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Another warm day, but a close, uncomfortable heat, rather than the sunny summer heat we’d had last week.

It wasn’t too hot or uncomfortable to prevent Scamp from doing a bit of plant shifting in the back garden. Between us we have worked out a possible two tier plant stand between the greenhouse and the back fence. Plans are at the pie-in-the-sky stage, but we both have an idea what is needed. The problem is we may not both be thinking about same idea. Only time will tell.

After lunch I suggested we drive to Coatbridge to get a new toaster. The old Tefal single slot toaster has been working at less than 100% efficiency for a long time and we’ve been fighting a losing battle to get it to work. Today we made the decision to buy an new one. Not one of the all singing, all dancing gigantic ones, just a long slot one like the Tefal, but one that would work all the time. What we settled for was a twin long slot toaster. Slightly bigger than the Tefal but not by a lot. It would still fit into the space the old one came out of. It was a sad day to see the old one go, but that’s progress. We drove home and had to put the air-con on for the first time this year.

Before dinner I managed an hour in St Mo’s but that’s not where the PoD came from. I found a nice little bunch of Aquilegia growing beside the fence of a house on my way back home. They made PoD.

Today’s prompt was A Gemstone. Not being much of a gemologist or a jeweller, I asked my old friend, Mr Google and he pointed me at an Aquamarine which I purchased on-line so that I could sketch it for today’s prompt. It was a lot smaller than I’d anticipated, but with the help of a camera and a macro lens I got a big enough image to sketch the gemstone you see here.

You didn’t really believe that story, did you? No, I’m sure you didn’t.

Tomorrow Scamp needs to get her meds from the chemist and I need to give a thimble full of blood to the vampires!

Coffee with Isobel – 8 May 2024

Posted on by Zogman

We were out this morning for coffee with Isobel.

I sometimes don’t join Scamp when she’s meeting Isobel, but I chose to today. As usual, Isobel’s conversation covered family, gardens and anything else that was interesting her at the time. She’s a mine of useful information about gardens and plants, so Scamp is often picking her brains about what to plant and when to prune. Me, I just go along for the ride and interject with some cheeky comments if I think I can get away with it, which isn’t often with Isobel. One thing she did say was that a the new Home Bargains had some great bargains in the plants section. When we left Costa we decided to go and visit it, because Isobel was going shopping in the town centre.

The new Home Bargains is enormous, taking in the general shopping area, a well stocked garden area and a cafe, although we couldn’t find it. The prices for the plants were very good, but you had to be careful to get fresh looking plants as quite a few of them were wilting. We picked a couple of plants that Scamp fancied, a miniature Gypsophila and a Foxglove. We went in to Aldi which is next door for a loaf and some soda scones. When we came out we’d spent less than a tenner! Result!!

Back home after lunch Scamp was working in the garden and I thought I should too. I split up a pot of basil that I bought in Tesco and made four pots with the plants. We also cut down some old broken solar powered lights. They seem to work for about a year then just die. If you put new rechargeable batteries in, they don’t last as long as the original ones. I reckon it’s ingress of water at the cable junctions that causes the problem.

I was getting coffee delivered today from The Bean Shop. I was disappointed in the coffee I’d got from Braithwaite’s in Dundee when we were there. Old Brown Java was almost exactly as its name described. It tasted old and brown. I don’t know where in Java it came from, but it tasted like it had been mouldering in a damp cellar somewhere. But I digress, as it turned out my coffee wasn’t delivered until about 7.30pm, by which time we were halfway through a new Waltz routine with Kirsty. Quite a small class today, but that’s often a good thing. It was tonight. By the time our hour was up we’d learned the first waltz and were promised the second one next week, all being well.

Back home I found my coffee in the bin shed, exactly where I’d asked for it to be put. DPD always delivers! So far, at least.

PoD was a single solitary American Cowslip – Shooting Star. Usually I get at least half a dozen flowers, but this year there was only one. I’d read that the plant only lasts for about five years and that’s about the time I’ve had it. I have seeds that I harvested last year, somewhere in my room. I’ll need to find them and hopefully grow a new batch of Shooting Stars for next year DV.

I got a lot of flak from some of the more PC members of EDiM in Flickr. Almost all the comments were about the dangerous weapons I was sketching. A pencil and a scalpel. Ok, I agree about the scalpel, but a pencil?? Some folk just don’t live in the real world.

Today’s prompt was A Scooter.
This is the exact scooter I used to have many years ago. It’s a Triang Mobo scooter. Mostly made from metal with yellow wheels, red chassis and plate and black rubber grips. I travelled miles on that scooter. When I grew out of it, I passed it on to my brother. I wonder what he did with it.

Tomorrow, if the good weather stays, we may go and visit the big horses.

Meeting Erin – 7 May 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Today we were going to meet John and Marion’s new granddaughter, Erin.

In the morning I did a bit of more mundane work and ordered a replacement bus pass after the last one failed to connect on the bus.  It’s supposed to arrive within 14 days.

Scamp was really excited about it and I must admit I was looking forward to see the new baby too.

When we got to Hamilton, the star hadn’t arrived, so we sat and talked to John and Marion about how their lives were going to change over the next year. They seemed perfectly happy to be stand-in parents. I expect we would be the same.

We had lunch while we waited. It was home made Veg Lasagne and it was lovely. I must get Scamp to coax the recipe out of Marion. I din’t used to like veg lasagne, but now I prefer it to the meat version. Dessert was Apricot Trifle and it was very, very good, with crushed amaretti biscuits on top.

Just as we were finishing, Laura arrived with Erin. I’d forgotten quite how small, new babies are. I’d also forgotten about the little details like tiny little nails on her fingers and how bright blue her eyes were. I tend to forget these things after forty odd years. Scamp was obviously desperate to hold Erin and as soon as she had her cradled in her arms, she went straight into ‘Mother Mode’. The room was totally silent too, everybody’s eyes on that baby. Not long after that, the spell was broken when she started to cry. Laura did the thing every parent does and put her knuckle into Erin’s mouth and said “Yes, she’s needing fed.” Even I remembered that feeling of a baby’s gums trying to suckle your finger. So off mum and baby went to feed her and change her nappy.

We sat and talked with the new grandparents while this was happening and heard about their plans for holiday this year. Aruba sounds very exotic and it’s just a bit north of Trinidad. They are meeting up with friends there but it’s a long flight.

Erin was much more relaxed with a full belly and a clean nappy and John was having a great conversation before it was time to mother and baby to drive home. It was a great experience, but I’m glad we could hand her back when it was time to go. Did I have a chance to hold her? No, not me. I’m of the the Kevin Bridges group. More “How you doing mate?” than Goo Goo. I’d be terrified I’d drop her or something similar.

Soon after Laura and Erin left, we did too. Back home I changed into walking clothes and went for a walk in St Mo’s which is where today’s PoD came from, a pink Bluebell. Is that an oxymoron? On the way back home I stopped at the chip shop in Condorrat for a small fish supper that would be our supper. Very nice it was too.

Today’s prompt was for a pencil sharpener. This is my pencil sharpener. It’s a Swann Morton scalpel holding a Swann Morton No 11 blade. I used to use a standard sharpener with a built-in tub to hold the shavings, but the scalpel allows me to shave a much longer and narrower point on the pencil which doesn’t need sharpening quite as much as a standard rotary sharpener.
The only problem with the scalpel is that changing blades is difficult. I use a fine pair of pliers to twist the blade out and carefully twist a new blade into place. Oh yes, and remember that these are surgical quality steel blades. They are liable to cut more than pencils if you’re not careful!!

Tomorrow we may go for coffee with Isobel. It all depends on when a coffee delivery arrives for me.

Dancin’ – 4 May 2024

Posted on by Zogman

This morning we drove over to Brookfield for today’s dance class. The first class in about a month for various reasons.

I wasn’t really looking forward to today’s class. All those long lie ins on Saturday mornings were over today. Back to the grind stone. Actually it wasn’t all that bad, in fact I have to say I really enjoyed it.

First dance was the White City Waltz. Scamp said we knew it and I took her word. The demo that Stewart & Jane did reminded me of it, but after the first bit I was lost again. I think that maybe Kirsty goes too slowly at times, but S&J sometimes go to quickly for my wee brain to catch up. However, after two or three tracks we were dancing it like we’d always know it.

Next was the new Rumba routine. Again it looked insurmountable until you broke it down and found we knew most of the moves from previous dances and, although it took longer, it did eventually all go together.

The third and last dance was a Cha-Cha and the same as the Rumba, we managed to put all the moves in at the right time. We both made mistakes, but in the end we were dancing it fairly competently.

Drove home and after lunch we didn’t do very much. Scamp wasn’t feeling great and thinks she might have hay fever. She’s been taking Sudafed but it isn’t helping much. Later in the afternoon I went for a walk in St Mo’s and got a couple of decent photos. The PoD went to a branch of May blossom. I was intending to bring back dinner for both of us, Chicken Chop Suey and a portion of Fried Rice each. However when I phoned the Golden Bowl I was told their card machine wasn’t working and it would have to be cash. I’d only £12 in cash and that wouldn’t cover it, so I walked home, got the money and went over to Condorrat to pick up the food. I’ve now heard of a few places only dealing in cash transactions. Maybe they don’t want to pay the overheads the banks charge for the machine transactions or maybe there’s another reason. The food was good, just not as good as I remembered it to be. Next time I’ll return to my usual of Special Chow Mein.

Today’s prompt was “May the Fourth be with you” (4th of May) or a bee or a fly. I tried sketching a Lego Stormie minifig and I tried a honey bee. I tried a hover fly, but finally I settled on the flying assassin of ponds. The Dragonfly. They are such beautiful flyer. So skilful in the air, but such ferocious killers of other insects. I love them and I wait impatiently for the first ones to hatch every year. This is my sketch of a Common Darter (male).

Tomorrow we may go for a walk if Scamp is well enough.

 

Another fairly early shout – 3 May 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Today I was driving Scamp to her FitSteps class in Cumbersheugh and then I was off to Larky to get a second eye pressure test. I got there early and went for a walk down one side of the Main Street and then up the other side. Lots had changed. A big flash Indian restaurant had appeared next to the Coop where the bank had been (probably many years ago – I don’t go to Larky much now). Lots of shops boarded up or the shutters locked down. New houses on Academy Street. Too many changes to keep a note of. It’s a different place now.

I decided to wait in the optician’s in the hope that I’d get taken early, and for once that was what happened. The optician did a series of tests of increasing accuracy and came up with the possible solution that my right eye could have Ocular Hypertension. I would need to discuss it with a consultant at the eye hospital in East Kilbride, and if it is confirmed, it would be repaired with a laser op during an out patient’s appointment. It’s a fairly lengthy wait of 18-24 months for the consultation and it’s still in the early stages. He emphasised that it may not he that at all. It could be my sugar levels are raised as I’m described as pre-diabetic and my sugar levels rise and fall regularly, depending on how many chocolate Easter eggs I eat. So the optician has booked me for a meeting with the vampire in the health centre later this month. Oh what fun.

I drove home by a slightly different route, because the slip road to the motorway from Larkhall was closed to allow the creation of two new roundabouts. Instead I drove up to Canderside Toll and on the way found a new big Lidl. Went in and got a loaf, a mini pizza and a bag or rolls, because Tesco are not selling Scottish rolls any more! They’ve even taken out the ovens!! Cost saving, we presume. Anyway, Lidl to the rescue, and they do sell Scottish rolls. On the way back to the car I got a call from Scamp to ask me where I was. I told and she said she was just going out to the dentist. Oops, I’d forgotten all about her appointment to get her new silver tooth fitted! I apologised and felt bad all the way home.

Back home, we had our lunch and then I drove up to the town centre to get a much needed haircut. It felt so good to have got rid of that awful mop. When I got back, Scamp was chopping down the rose at the back door. I helped and we think it looks a lot neater now.

Dinner was a pizza from a new company in Condorrat. We had a 12” pizza with anchovies, capers and black olives. It took 10 minutes from ordering to delivery. That was amazing. The pizza itself wasn’t, at least I didn’t like it. Hardly any mozzarella and loads of cheddar cheese. A bit dodgy I thought, but Scamp was ok with it.

PoD turned out to be a photo of a pot of sunflower seedlings.

Today’s prompt asked for a bud or a bloom. This is not a flower yet, it is a bud from a Rhododendron (Nancy Evans). The red petals soften to warm pinks and golds as the flower opens to full bloom.
We almost lost it last year when we were on a fortnight cruise and there was a drought at home. “A drought in Scotland?”, I hear you say. Indeed our climate is definitely changing. Thankfully the first three months of this year replenished the water supply … and more.

Tomorrow the dance teachers are at Brookfield and we’re hoping to be there too, before they saunter off on another cruise.

Dancin’ – 2 May 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Another fun-filled day at Glenburn.

Actually it was quite a good day. Beautiful weather. If it hadn’t been for the cold wind, you would have believed it was summer.

In the morning I was still puzzling over that cryptic message on the iMac. I then did what I should have done in the first place and copied the first line of the message and pasted it in Google. There were a mass of complaints about exactly the same message as I had. It seemed that the problem is most prevalent on Mojave and later operating systems, including mine, Monterey. Most of the replies gave the usual ‘helpful suggestions’ like “Just do a restart, that will fix it” or “Use Disk Utility”. Neither of these work, but then I found a suggestion to dig into the Library module and search for “/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports“ then find and delete “Sleep Wake Failure” in the Diagnostic Reports. That sounded like a solution, but we were going dancing and Scamp was getting ready to leave, so I put the idea on the back burner until we got back.

At Glenburn we were sitting at the same table as Barry and Cath, who are a laugh. We think Barry was a polis before he retired and he now does executive tours of Scotland, mainly for Americans coming off cruise ships, or flying up from London to ‘do Scotland’. He tells some wonderful stories and I think most of them are true.

We danced a bit of everything today and excelled at none. Not really surprising, considering that we’ve had about four weeks without teachers in the last two months. We did eventually manage to almost complete the Waltz Nioli, but it was a struggle. We quickstepped round the hall without bumping in to anyone, but again, it wasn’t great to watch. Our greatest success was the Tango we were learning in Kirsty’s class. We actually finished the routine and it was so good to dance on a real floor with room to move, instead of on a postage stamp.
There might be a dance class on Saturday, but we think the teachers are off again for another fortnight in the sun after that, “Working”, they call it!

On the way home, Scamp wanted to pick up her dance shoes that the woman in Fitness Fashions was repairing for her. We were late getting away from Glenburn, but we did manage to get to Rutherglen before the shop closed and picked up the shoes. Another tick in another box.

I went out for a quick walk when we got home, but before that I searched out that Sleep Wake Failure script and dumped it in the bin, then emptied the bin. It worked! Twice now I’ve started the iMac and there was no warning message. Success!
I brought back about a dozen photos from the walk and the PoD turned out to be a bunch of Cowslip flowers that had been thrown into the pond at St Mo’s. I’m guessing it was some children who did it. I thought it made an interesting photo.

Dinner tonight was Fish Fingers, Egg and Spaghetti. You just can’t go wrong with that!

The first two sketches are done and posted for EDiM. First one, Lighthouse is a bit ropey, but the second, Chicken, is quite acceptable. More practise needed.

 

Tomorrow, Scamp is hoping to go to FitSteps in the morning and I’m intending going back to Larky to get my second eye pressure test.

 

The last day of April – 30 April 2024

Posted on by Zogman

It seems to have been a long month in some respects and a short one in others.

Today poor Humza went down to the Job Centre to see what they had for an unemployed former First Minister. Poor man. Because he resigned, he won’t get any unemployment benefit. Seriously though, the sharks are circling now, sensing blood in the water. Who’ll be first to grab the sword of Damocles?

We put these things behind us and went for the messages. Traditionally it’s a job for a Monday, but as I was out with the boys yesterday, it became a Tuesday job for a change. No change at Tesco, still no ’Real’ rolls. What it going on with the world when there are no rolls to be found in Tesco. No ‘Well Fired’ ones and no ‘Ordinary’ ones. This has to be the new first minister’s duty, to find out what’s going on at Roll-gate!

Back home and after a piece ’n’ flat sausage for me and some French toast for Scamp, I started again at the never ending job of refilling the bookcase upstairs. Meanwhile Scamp was out doing some weeding. I ended up with a sore back and I’m sure Scamp was the same. But at least the garden was looking a bit brighter and we were finding places for books and stuff to go in the bedroom. Tomorrow I’m hoping to meet Alex for a walk and a blether and I’ll also be taking some books to the Oxfam shop.

Dinner tonight was Haddock and Prawns with Fennell and Leek. A fairly easy recipe that all happens in one pot. Fiddly in places, but basically you just bung things in as you go along. It worked fine, as it usually does.

PoD was a pink tulip from the garden. Sitting up proud and bouncing around in the breeze. It was actually warm today, noticeably warm for a change. It must be spring right enough!

That was about it for the day. Tomorrow a fairly early rise to get the train in to Glasgow.

Gardening – 28 April 2024

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Today I was determined to get my next batch of potatoes planted.

Before I could really get started with planting them, I had to tackle the grass in the back garden. Scamp had been saying for weeks that she needed to start cutting the grass and since I had nothing to do and the sun was shining, I took it upon myself to cut the grass. It didn’t take too long, because there majority of the grass was fairly short, but in the middle of the garden there were great tufts of the stuff, so that was where I started. Chop down the big stuff and the rest will fall. That theory seemed to work. Next was the time consuming edges.

My method here was to lift all the pots from an edge and use the mower, rather than the strimmer to cut all the straggly bits in one fell swoop. I did two sides in that way, but the other two would need to be strimmed. That worked fairly well too, except I accidentally pressed the starter and instead of strimming, I found myself digging a short trench in the grass. Now all that was needed was the cleaning of the mower and the strimmer. As usual, that took even more time than the actual cutting. A squirt of WD40 to keep everything clean and they could all go back into their boxes for a week or two.

I’d tested my new potato bucket yesterday and although there were no green leaves poking out of the soil, the bucket allows you to see what’s going on underneath and there were a healthy number of white roots appearing.

Using the soil that is left in the old raised bed, I managed to half fill two potato bags and plant three seed potatoes in each one. With the tops rolled down to hopefully keep them open, they are now sitting under the old Rowan tree ready to produce lots of Charlotte potatoes for us.

I had just enough time to get some photos of flowers in the garden before I started making dinner which was Carrot & Lentil Curry. Not long after I’d taken the photos and had the curry bubbling away, I got a text from Scamp to say that they had missed the connection for Glasgow at Perth. The Witches weekend away was turning into a disaster. Broken down bus yesterday and a missed connection today. They eventually got a connecting bus after a half hour wait. And while they were doing that I was at home processing the photos.

Best shot and PoD was a group of Honesty plants that just seem to continuously self-seed. Our Magnolia Stellata came a close second.

Scamp eventually arrive about an hour late and I picked her up then we had dinner together comparing our experiences of the days ‘off the leash’.

Tomorrow I’m hoping to meet Val and Fred for coffee.