Category: Flowers

Another hot day – 30 April 2025

Posted on by Zogman

I didn’t think it could be hotter than yesterday, but it proved me wrong.

I phoned Alex in the morning and apologised because I couldn’t make time for a photo-walk. Just one of those awkward weeks when neither of us were available at the same time.

It really was another day for not doing very much. Scamp was off at midday for coffee with Annette. I stayed home and read for a while in the garden. I’m nearing the end of Tainted Cup, Hazy.

I was hardly out of the garden all day. I hadn’t slept well last night, because it was so hot and I had hoped to grab a little shuteye in bed with the windows open, but that just didn’t happen. Anyway, it was very comfortable sitting in the garden watching the world go by.

When Scamp came home she decided to walk down to the shops to get dinner which turned out to be a stir fry, a rather spicy one. We both agreed it had too much ginger.

Watched the first “Glow Up” of the year. The usual format with some humans and some wanna be’s. A bit disappointing.

PoD was taken in the garden, of course. It was a purple aquilegia. Quite a delicate looking one.

I think we may be dancing tomorrow if it cools down a bit.

Driving to Fort William – 21 April 2025

Posted on by Zogman

On Thursday, Scamp suggested a few days in Skye might clear up my problems with photography. Did I want to drive or take the bus? I jumped at the chance to drive to Skye – in two stages. First day would be from Cumbersheugh to Fort William. Second day would be Fort William to Staffin.

  • Weather was drizzling rain for most of the way.
  • Stopped at The Green Welly for a comfort break.
  • Saw a train of old carriages pulled by equally old double header diesel engines.
  • That stop also gave us a chance to get the give the sat nav the coordinates for the B&B
  • Sat nav got the wrong road, but Scamp remembered where we should be going.
  • The B&B was the same, but the owners had changed.
  • Went to The Lochy for dinner. Fish ’n’ Chips and Scampi ’n’ Chips.

Hoping to head for Staffin tomorrow morning.

Coffee in Starbucks? NOOoooo!!! – 16 April 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Actually it wasn’t that bad!

I was driving over to Hamilton today to meet Billy Kent. He was married to my distant cousin, Margaret. Margaret’s mum and my mum were cousins, so that probably would have made us second-cousins. Margaret died about two years ago.

I got a Christmas card from Billy last year saying that we should meet up some time. He put his phone number on the card and for once I put it into my contacts. In February we had a phone discussion and decided we’d meet halfway at Starbucks in Hamilton. Unfortunately every day he suggested didn’t suit me and all my suggestions didn’t suit him. It was beginning to look as if we weren’t going to have this meeting. However, last week we did find commonality and that day was today.

Scamp and I had visited Billy and Margaret’s house for dinner many moons ago and I they had visited ours. I really think it was Covid that broke the bond between us and it was difficult to rebuild it. Then Margaret died. So, in a way, this was the rebuild beginning. Although I wasn’t sure if it was the same person I was going to meet today. Thankfully it was.

Over a couple of mugs of coffee, we just blethered like two auld guys do. Telling stories, some of them slightly exaggerated and some just stories. After an hour and a bit we were both talked out and it was time to go our separate ways. I enjoyed the experience and we said we’d do it again. I think we will.

I’d arrived a bit early and it was beginning to drizzle. By the time we were leaving, it was bucketing down. I think they were even throwing down the buckets as well as the rain.

The motorway was treacherous with standing water making driving a bit risky, but I got home ok. I stopped at M&S to pick up some things for dinner. My turn to cook and it was to be fish risotto made mainly in the oven.

Since I had some time to spare in the afternoon I re-started work on the giant 3D Lego jigsaw. The first section from last week was easy to visualise. This one, not so much. To make things more complicated, some of the parts were made as mirror images of each other before being joined together later. I’m glad there was a QR code that I could scan to see the construction in more detail. That was a great benefit. Hopefully this present section will be completed tomorrow. I should also photograph the sections as they are completed.

PoD was a picture I saw while I was building the Bonsai. It’s a Poinsettia plant that sits on the window ledge of the back bedroom. Beautiful colours that contrast so well.

I’m hoping to meet Alex tomorrow for a walk and a blether.

Out to lunch – 15 April 2025

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Taking Shona to belated birthday lunch today.

Just before midday we picked up Shona and drove the mile or so to Nonna’s at Dullatur.

The place was empty, but then it was only 11:50 and it didn’t open for lunch until 12:00.

Starters were Focaccia for Scamp and I to share while Shona had Chicken liver Paté

Mains were Scallops and Black Pudding for Scamp, Courgette Spaghetti with Zucchini Crisps. I had Penne Salsiccia

Desserts were Tiramisu for Shona and Sticky Toffee Pudding for Scamp and a pot of tea for me. Scamp criticised the Sticky Toffee Pudding and I felt there was too much cream and salt in the Penne Salsiccia. Other than that, it was fine. Service was slow, but the place was filling up by the time we left and there seemed to be only two people on the floor and possibly another two in the kitchen.

It was a lovely day. We had a window seat and a view over the golf course watching all the golfers walking and driving their golf buggies full of their golfing bats.

We dropped Shona back at her house after lunch and she was still in time to collect Ben from his carers.

Back home, Scamp was out gardening for a while and I had an afternoon snooze! Later she took me on a guided tour of the garden and I took some photos of the Stellata Magnolia which is almost in full bloom. One of the flowers made PoD.

I’m hoping to meet up with Billy Kent tomorrow at Starbucks – I might order tea, rather than a Starbucks. At least you know what’s in tea!

It rained – 14 April 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Today was a bit dull to start with, but so is going for the messages, and that’s what we were doing today.

The postman was early today and the post was coming through the letter box just as we were opening it to go to Tesco. Scamp’s appointment letter for her scan was amongst the junk that always arrives on a Monday, through the letter box. After a quick read through it, we felt a lot better. At last we had a date to work towards.

Drove over to Tesco and half filled a trolley with messages. Just the usual day to day shopping, like fruit, milk, bread and stuff. Nothing fancy, just the basics.

After lunch I wrote out a couple of cards, sympathy cards for Margaret from Warrington and another card for her to pass on to her daughter whose husband had died recently after a short illness. I put on my uncomfortable and expensive waterproof jacket and walked over to Condorrat to post the cards in the rain.

I had intended to walk down to the shops to get some veg to breathe a bit of life into our usual Monday Pasta dinner, but decided half way there that I’d just go home instead. The rain was getting heavier and it wasn’t a day for wandering around getting wet.

The Monday Pasta dinner wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be, in fact I was quite pleased with it. Another “What have we got in the fridge” dinner.

The PoD went to a little cluster of daisies on the football park behind St Mo’s school. All the wee flowers had closed up shop early because of the rain. I didn’t blame them. There’s another photo in Flickr of the bird feeder you sent me, Hazy. No takers from the bird yet. I think the Blackbirds in particular aren’t keen on eating above the ground, but it’s early days. An interesting idea. Thanks.

Tomorrow we’re intending taking Shona out to lunch. I’m hoping for a drier day!

 

Rain at last – 13 April 2025

Posted on by Zogman

We had been promised rain today and it actually came as predicted!

There wasn’t much rain, but enough to wet the ground and give the plants in the garden a drink.

Rather a changeable day which was mainly dry but with occasional heavy showers, especially later in the evening.

After tidying the kitchen and the living room after Saturday’s dinner guests, there wasn’t really much to do except, perhaps watch the water falling from the sky for a while.

Later in the day I took the A6500 out to St Mo’s to look for some photos. Yesterday, I’d set the aperture and shutter speed to manual and had forgotten to reset them. Today, for some reason, I set the ISO to 100. That meant that a lot of todays photos taken in between the rain shower and in bright sunlight were overexposed and too light. It took me about an hour after I got home to see how I’d done all that. Once all the settings were back to normal, Lightroom dealt with the overexposure quickly. The PoD was a bunch of flowering cherries and the overexposure coupled with a wide aperture accidentally provided exactly what I wanted in the flowers. Sometimes things just work.

Spoke to Jamie in the evening and told him the 3D jigsaw he and Simonne had given me for my birthday was underway. The base is now complete and ready for the tree to grow in it.

Watched the Bahrain F1 GP and apart from a few interesting passing manoeuvres, it was the same old, same old.

Tomorrow we may have shopping to do – just the essentials.

Cooking, Baking and Polishing – 12 April 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Plus a bit of cleaning and tidying up.

We were expecting visitors today. John & Marion were coming to dinner. I started in the morning picking some herbs from the garden to go into the rolled breast of lamb, then began searing the meat in the heavy Le Creuset before pouring a fairly hefty amount of red wine into the casserole and setting it to roast for four hours (Gas mark 3.5 if you’re interested). After that I made some bread dough to bake into a loaf. Again, it was a fairly long process, but without too much work on my part.

Meanwhile Scamp was dusting and polishing every conceivable surface in the living room and organising the odds and ends that were being taken up to the spare rooms to make the place look better. Then, now that the kitchen was cleared, she made her take on Ratatouille or “Rats” as she calls it.

With most of my work finished, I hoovered the living room before leaving Scamp to do the work on the kitchen and hall. By the time we were both finished the room looked liveable in!

I gave myself an hour in St Mo’s to look for a photo, but actually found the winner in the front garden. Months ago, Scamp had planted five ‘Rasta’ Tulip bulbs and we had been watching them grow and open up these last couple of weeks. With the sun shining on them, they looked fantastic. One of them made PoD – no contest!

The visitors arrived just on time and I was busy again, serving the roast lamb, but actually the star attraction for me was the Greek salad, Scamp had made. Either that or the Tiramisu that was the dessert.

Once John & Marion left, and we’d loaded and turned on the dishwasher, we sat and watched the F1 GP from Bahrain.

All in all, a busy day, but good to hear news from the visitors side of things.

Tomorrow we might be getting the first rain in a fortnight. Goodby sunshine.

Another beautiful day – 7 April 2025

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Scamp wanted compost and agricultural grit for the garden, so we went looking.

We drove to Torwood to see if we could find some. We found all the compost and the bags of grit, but Scamp wasn’t impressed with the price they wanted for delivering the heavy stuff. It would have cost more than the compost and grit combined. However, she did manage to get a few tubs of flowers, big and small with the possibility of getting the heavy stuff locally. We had lunch there too and I got a tray of leeks plants . They’ve come a long way from when we’d get a bunch of leeks wrapped up in wet newspaper from a couple of blokes who worked in the greenhouses along Clydeside. Changed days.

We drove home and stopped at Calder’s where Scamp got Vermiculite and Perlite. Both recommended as good drainage for young plants.

Scamp had been complaining about the length of the grass in the back garden, so I took out the strimmer and gave it all a fairly rough short back and sides. Maybe that should read … a very rough short back and sides. Still, after Scamp had raked it over it looked ok. It’ll need a proper cut in a week or two I think.

After that I went for a walk over St Mo’s while Scamp took a book and a seat into the garden. In St Mo’s I found a couple of clumps of Cowslips, another sign that Spring is Springing. One of them became PoD.

When I came home, Scamp was in the house, on the phone to Jackie, So I kept her seat warm in the front garden and watched the world go by for a while.

Soon it was time to get dressed for Kirsty’s class where we were dancing a Melody Foxtrot. We actually got to demonstrate it to the class because Kirsty had only learned it this afternoon and of course we are experienced dancers now.

One of those classes where time seems to disappear. Hopefully we’ll have two weeks off dancing now because the Brookfield teachers are off teaching on a cruise and the Link where Kirsty’s class runs is closed for two weeks at Easter.

Tomorrow we may go out to lunch in Glasgow.

Another beautiful day – 6 April 2025

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Thankfully without the wind we’ve had recently, just a gentle breeze to keep us cool today. It would have been better if it was a tad warmer, but it is only the beginning of April and it was dry, so we shouldn’t complain too much, although we always will.

Spent an extra hour or so in bed finishing “Paperboy”, my latest book. Enjoyable, but not as good as book 1, “Squeaky Clean” in my opinion. Loved the writer’s use of Glasgow slang and language.

That left us the whole morning to wait before the Japanese GP aired. Finished Wordle after a struggle, gave up on Spelling Bee, but completed the new game, “Strands”. The race, itself was more a procession than anything else. You could hear the commentators attempting to make it sound interesting, but that just wasn’t happening. A dud, I’m afraid.

We spent half an hour wandering round the garden while Scamp explained her intentions for new planting and pruning. It looks like we might need to to reposition some of the branches from Schoolgirl to cover up where I was overenthusiastic with my autumn pruning. Schoolgirl it a tough rose and will be able to take that extra stretching, I hope.

I spent some time photographing tiny little spiders with my big heavy macro lens and then rejecting almost all of them. PoD went to a group of greenfly clambering over a rose leaf. I should mention that the second place photo of one of Scamp’s parrot tulips is worth a look too on Flickr.

Dinner was Cauliflower in a Filo Pastry Case, baked in the oven. It sounds fairly plain, but it was delicious. A lot of work for Scamp to prepare the veg, and it really needed four hands to get the baking tin out of the oven.

Spoke to Jamie later in the day and heard about his asparagus plants and plans for seed planting – vegetables, of course! Also their search for reasonably priced, but good quality outdoor garden furniture. We don’t really get enough sun to merit outdoor furniture!

Tomorrow it looks like we may be going out looking for compost and maybe gravel to provide more drainage for some of Scamp’s pot plants.

Dancin’ – 5 April 2025

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Dance class was in full swing this morning in Brookfield.

Lots of folk desperate to get their fix of dancing, all eager to learn, even including me. There would be no dance class for at least two weeks because the teachers were off on holiday ( or as they described it, “teaching on a cruise” ). So a holiday by another name.

A gentle intro to start with. A couple of easy sequence dances before we charged into today’s topic: Tango and all that it entailed. Bent knees, staccato movements, spin turns, half turns, reverse turns. My head was spinning and we were only halfway through the routine.

A break for a lecture then on again, this time the target was a quickstep nobody really remembered from before Covid. Isn’t it strange that so much is now described as pre-Covid and past-Covid, but nobody wants to discuss the years that were stolen by Covid itself. This dance, though was done during Covid and we were just learners then and hadn’t reached the heady heights of Quickstep. We learned a lot of it today. Even they mysterious ‘Fishtails’ that used to baffle me, but which are quite familiar territory now. Most of it I enjoyed.

We finished with another couple of sequence tracks before being sent on our way back home.

It was a beautiful day. At least, to look at, it was a beautiful day, but it was the cold wind that stole away the warmth of the sun. When we got home it was great to sit and soak up the heat coming through the windows, knowing it was really cold outside. The weather fairies say it’s going to get warmer during the coming week. I certainly hope so.

We decided to have dinner from the chip shop. Scamp settled for a Black Pudding Supper and I had the first Chicken Breast Supper I’ve had for years and years. Both were very filling but Scamp said her’s was a bit spicy.

We watched an old BBC programme about who wrote what songs back from the ‘70s until the present day or at least into the 2020s. It was a bit tedious after a while, but there was nothing else worth watching on a Saturday night. To be honest, there never is at the weekend.

PoD went to some flowering cherries or Gean as they are known in Scotland.

Tomorrow, hopefully we’ll go out for a run somewhere. Prezzies are needed for some folk.