Category: Folk

Glasgow in the rain … and sun – 29 December 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Four seasons in one day? Why stop at four? Scotland can deliver four seasons in as many seconds, but it doesn’t always choose to do so.

We drove up to Tesco today, then headed in to Glasgow and the sun was shining … for a while. Then the rain came. After that the sun came out and dried up all the rain just like in Incy Wincy Spider. We got parked on level 4 of Buchanan Galleries and walked down Buchanan Street. It was raining again and the rain continued all the way down Bucky Street. I spotted a potential PoD outside the Apple shop with its resident sandwich board hopeful. Almost did a “Bad Thing” when I accidentally unscrewed the lens on the A7. Luckily none of the wet stuff got into the lens or the camera. Locked it securely on and continued taking photos as if nothing had happened. Dropped in at Tiso to get some waterproofer for our Bergy jackets which are absorbing more water than they are shrugging off. Thankfully the Goretex is doing its job properly and that water shall not pass!

First stop was Argento to get the Nominations charm she should have got from Santa. Thanks to a helpful sales assistant we got it, and another one she’d bought before Christmas, installed into the bracelet in the shop.

We walked further down the road, but there was a fire alarm in Frazer’s department store and the place had been evacuated which meant that there were people everywhere, almost blocking the pedestrian precinct. We were ready to go home, so we walked along Argyle Street and up Queen Street. Had a browse in Cass Art, but I don’t need any materials, I just need to take time to produce some paintings or drawings.

The carnival was still in almost full flow in George Square and I got a photo I had missed when Alex and I had visited a few weeks ago. It was a trio of carousel horses, but have a look on Flickr and check the names. Can you still get away with that? Apparently you can. Show folk are obviously not as PC as some!

Scamp had a voucher to use up in JL, so she treated us both to tea and a cake. I ordered coffee instead of tea. I’m not sure what I got, but it wasn’t my kind of coffee. The cakes were just lovely. Scamp’s was and Orange Grove and mine was a Red Velvet. That was our high calorie lunch.

I’d been looking at a ‘returned’ pair of binoculars before Christmas. JL doesn’t do ‘used’, or heaven forbid, ‘second hand’ items. Luckily they were still there. I tried them out in the shop and they were just what as good as they looked. I took them. Scamp demanded that she pay for them as they were a late Christmas present for me. I started to argue, but a wagged finger told me to just say “thank you”, which I did.

We drove home via Curry’s in Coatbridge because I wanted photo paper. I found the paper I wanted and bought two boxes because they would come in handy. I got a surprise at the till because there was money off if you bought two! Bingo!

Back home I had one more thing to buy, a bottle of Dark Matter rum. A spicy hot rum. Unfortunately Tesco weren’t stocking it, but what I noticed was a bottle of Langs Banana Rum. It had been discontinued many years ago and I thought it was dead and gone forever. I sampled some tonight and although it’s more a banana flavour than a rum distilled with actual bananas, there is a hint of the old rum there.

Last night I roasted some tomatoes and red peppers with a couple of small onions. Today I made soup from the veg, all by myself … well, almost. With helpful suggestions from Scamp and also following the soup recipe from the Instant Pot, I made a pot of Tomato and Red Pepper soup. It’s a bit thinner than my last batch, but a lot easier.

PoD turned out to be the bloke with the advertising sigh outside the Apple Store in Buchanan Street. He looked totally ‘drookit’.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending going for coffee with Shona, but I might pass on that. I’ve a letter I need to write. One I should have written a year ago.

Christmas Eve – 24 December 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Seemingly going against all the things I complained about yesterday, we drove to Tesco today.

However, we weren’t going to fill our trolley with loads of unnecessary foodstuffs, we were going to find out if some kind soul had handed in a purple leather glove that Scamp had dropped in the store a couple of days ago. Luckily some kind soul had indeed handed it in and along came a smiling Scamp to show off that very glove. We restricted ourselves to a few veggies and a jug of filtered milk, then drove home. More madcap driving as we were leaving the car park with cars abandoned in every space that looked as if you could get at least one of your tyres on to it. Apparently the shop is going to be closed tomorrow for a full day! We’ll all going to starve to death if we don’t but everything we can get our hands on NOW!

After we got home and found places for the veg and stuff to go, we went for a walk in St Mo’s because the weather was reasonable for the time of year, it was dry and there was only a light wind. A good day for a gentle walk into the woods and back along the boardwalk. Not into the deep woods, you realise, because we weren’t kitted out with walking boots, just a gentle walk round the pond. I did think of taking a second circuit and allowing Scamp to go home alone, but I’d got a few photos of weeds dripping wet from the overnight rain, so we went home together.

After lunch I post processed the photos and found I had two worth posting on Flickr. Also, for this last week and a bit in 2022, I tidied up an image I’d processed, but hadn’t previously posted and it’s on Flickr now too. A weed picture got PoD.

By 3.15pm the house lights had come on and it was looking like early evening. Dinner was discussed and we decided to have Pasta Carbonara using fresh pasta we bought in Waitrose. It only takes minutes to make with the fresh pasta but it takes well over fifteen minutes with the dried stuff.

Tonight I wrapped up Scamp’s parcels for tomorrow and they are sitting next to the tree. I’m supposed to be making the dessert for tomorrow’s dinner if I remember to get organised in the morning.

All four of our invalids seem to be recovering from their respective ailments, which is good to hear and Hazy has organised a three way Zoom link-up for tomorrow. It will be good to see and hear from everyone. We’re looking forward to it.

Happy Christmas to all my readers!

 

 

Shopping – 23 December 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Not once, but twice we went shopping today and still we don’t have absolutely everything.

The world is going crazy this year. Never have I seen anything like the shopping madness I’ve seen this week. Admittedly, the last two years have not been ‘normal’ and this year almost feels like we’re making up for lost time, but this year, the amount of food I see in trolleys astounds me. I almost felt we were being mean when we picked up a shopping basket instead of a trolley when we went to M&S this morning. One of the good things about being able to walk to the shops is that the amount you buy is limited by the amount you can comfortably carry. We bought only what we needed. If you drive to the supermarket you are not so limited in what you transport back to the house.

After lunch I set out to go for a walk to St Mo’s and got a PoD which was a bunch of Cladonia lichen growing on a mossy stone among the pine needles. One in the bag, I walked to Condorrat I was going to get a steak from the butcher for my Christmas dinner on Sunday. The butcher isn’t part of a chain, and he’s local. I can see what the meat is like because it’s in a chiller display, not ready packaged on a shelf. As I was walking back I realised we hadn’t got a pizza for tonight’s dinner. Always pizza on a Friday. I phoned Scamp and we met up at St Mo’s school and walked down to the shops for the second time today. We came home with bags of stuff. I’ll admit we bought more than we needed, but not a boot load.

That was about it for the day. A relaxing day with a couple of walks to keep the wheels turning. Scamp is feeling better today, so hopefully her course of antibiotics is working for her.

Tomorrow we may go out to get milk, because even with two trips to the shops we still forgot things!

The shortest day – 21 December 2022

Posted on by Zogman

After today, hopefully things will begin to get a bit lighter.

Scamp began today vacuum packing the fish she bought in Waitrose earlier in the week. She got one done, but after that the machine stopped. The vacuum worked, but it wouldn’t seal the pocket. We both tried it to no avail. It seems like the heater that does the sealing has given up the ghost. We use the machine quite a lot. Maybe not as much as we used to, but it comes in useful, especially for meat and fish. We had a look for a replacement. Amazon, of course, had them, but they were suspiciously cheap. Lakeland had them too but they were a bit more expensive. Currys advertised them, but they had none in stock, as usual. It looked like a trip to Stirling was in order.

We drove there through heavy rain showers, finally got parked in an extension to the car park. It seemed that everyone else had come to the Dobbies/Lakeland/Cotswold mini retail park. Scamp had a wander round Dobbies while I was off taking photos of the Wallace Monument looking grey and intimidating, standing on its hill with a grey sky above. When she returned said the queue for the restaurant was the longest she’d seen in the shop. That was why the car park was so busy. Everyone was here for their Christmas dinner!

Lakeland had two different models of vacuum sealer. We chose the heavier and larger of the two it just looked a bit more solid than it’s smaller sibling. I humphed it into the boot of the blue car and we drove off home. I was going to stop for photo paper in Currys, but it’s such a circuitous route to get to it, I couldn’t be bothered. Instead I thought I’d stop at Tesco in Cumbersheugh to see if they had any, but the queue to get in to park wound round the carpark, out past the petrol station round a roundabout and up to the main road. Maybe another day would be better. I can’t believe folk are queueing up to go to Tesco for their Christmas dinner!

I’d used an old Panasonic TZ90 to take the photos of the Wallace monument and the camera had made expensive sounding grinding noises, but the photos were there, although they weren’t the best shots I’d ever taken. However once they’d been dunked in a bath of Lightroom suds they were a bit cleaner and another bucket of ON1 Photo RAW gave a bit of colour to them. To finish them off, I went outside to catch the beginning of a sunset with the A7iii and pasted it on to cover the grey sky and it began to all come together, as you can see at the top of the page.

Once the new toy had been unpacked and inspected, the instruction book read and digested we each had a go at sealing up some fish. It seemed a bit quieter than the old one, but it is a lot younger. It seems to do the job it was intended for. So we’re happy.

It’s been a wild windy and wet day. We’re hoping for a brighter, day tomorrow with a bit less rain

A distinct quiet – 16 December 2022

Posted on by Zogman

There was a distinct quiet about when I woke, almost as if everything was muffled. That probably meant it was snowing or it had snowed during the night.

I took a look outside and indeed, everything was white. Cars, road, trees and paths, everything. It wasn’t actually snowing at the time, but it definitely had been. One poor bloke was clearing his dark red car and getting ready for the morning commute. However, as it was about 6.50 in the am, I went back to bed and slept for another couple of hours before getting up to make breakfast. You can’t rush these things.

When I looked out a two hours later there were only two sets of footprints showing on our path. It must have been Wullie who lives at the corner and works odd hours. Nobody else had moved their cars and the space left by the dark red car was now covered in snow, so there had been another fall of the white stuff when I wasn’t watching. The temperature was a remarkable 0.3ºc when I was making the breakfast, a POSITIVE 0.3ºc. It felt like it had been weeks since the temperature had been above zero, but it was only a few days.

After breakfast I wrote my remaining cards and, dressed for the weather, I walked over to Condorrat to post them. I was hoping against hope that they would arrive on someone’s mat before new year, but I wasn’t confident about their chances.

On my way to Condorrat I took a photo of some leaves that would turn out to be the PoD. Just some warm brown leaves in a bunch without any frost or snow on them, but surrounded by lots of raindrops on the branches, in fact there was a very fine drizzle in the air. On my way back home I took a detour round St Mo’s pond, bit couldn’t see anything that would compete with the leaves. No directional light, you see. You really need directional light to give you shadows and form, to take away the two dimensional look of a photo.

Lunch was a bowl of Slimmers Soup. I don’t know if it is actually slimming, but the recipe came from Slimmers World via June and it’s quick to make and is just what you need when you’ve been out chilled in the snowy wastes. Scamp made it and it always tastes good.

We had already cancelled a dinner date with John and Marion for today because of the weather. Today we got a message to say that dance class tomorrow is also cancelled. One of the teachers is suffering from a cold or flu and doesn’t want to pass on her ‘Lurgy’. That’s a pity, but better safe than sorry in this weather.

Dinner tonight is Salmon fillet and potatoes for Scamp and a tub of stew Scamp discovered in the freezer. Both went down well. A wee glass of wine helped them on their way.

It’s been raining on and off all day and the temperature has been rising. We’re now up to 3.4ºc and the snow is finally receding. No real plans for tomorrow, but we’re hoping to get out somewhere if the roads are still clear.

The Early Bird – 9 December 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was off to her FitSteps class and I was out too.

It was early for me at just after 11am, but the sun was shining and so was the frost that coated everything, in fact it was sparkling. I went for a walk over to St Mo’s and realised I should have brought the macro lens to capture some of the ice crystals that were covering the reeds beside the boardwalk. But it was cold. Definitely below zero and if I went back to get the lens, I’d be even colder by the time I got back to the business of actually taking photos. I soldiered on using the kit lens and the 18mm ultra wide. One of the first shots I took got PoD. It’s just a backlit bramble leaf with the sun sitting just above the tree tops.

I wandered on, but nothing I shot was as good as that first photo and so I made my way back. The poor swan, the geese and the ducks were restricted to swimming a circle of open water surrounded by ice. I didn’t envy their day on the pond.

I walked home and got a few more shots looking up the lane at the edge of the woods. I knew if I had someone in the frame to give me a composition of sorts, I could deal with the lighting later in the computer. And so it was that one a bloke was walking home from the shops and he became the second shot to be posted on Flickr. Two in the bag. All that was left to do was post them.

We had soup for lunch when Scamp came home, not happy that I’d forgotten to buy a fresh loaf. Later we walked over to Condorrat to post some cards and buy some stamps. I don’t know why we buy stamps these days. There are so few days when Royal Mail are actually working. It’s beginning to look like a general strike with the postal workers, the train drivers, the teachers, the English and Welsh nurses and now Border Force taking industrial action.

Anyway, as well as stamps and finally, bread, Scamp also treated us to a Fudge Donut each from the Spar shop. They were delicious. None of your ‘real cream’ in the donut, no it was 100% synthetic. It tasted like the cream I was sent up to Frames for when we lived in Larky. You got it in a cardboard tub with a paper top and it tasted great. We got it when my mum was baking cakes because my Aunt Mary was visiting. Happy days.

Dinner tonight was baked potato with tuna for Scamp and for me it was the bolognese sauce I made earlier in the week, defrosted and reheated with pappardelle. A bit dry, but perfectly edible.  Later we ordered some presents from Santa, but arriving from Amazon for good boys and girls.  Present company excepted!

Tomorrow we’re intending going to dance class in the morning and then to the Christmas dance in the evening. That is, if the weather holds.

Another day in the Toon – 27 November 2022

Posted on by Zogman

We’d discussed the possibility of driving home via Glasgow yesterday, but the weather was so depressing, we left it until today.

It was a much better day today. Sunshine aplenty from early morning, so we drove in to Glasgow. Scamp had things to buy and I had photos that would need taking. Between us we achieved our stated goals. It wasn’t quite as cold as we’d thought, but when you were out of the sun it gave a better picture of the air temperature. Maybe it reached double figures, but not by very much.

We also made some time for coffee and a cake, but decided we’d just go home for lunch. The Christmas Market was jam packed with punters today, so we gave it a body swerve and headed up Buchanan Street. There were four little groups of children dressed in costumes and all well chaperoned who were performing dance routines all the way up the busy street and collecting for charity. I think we saw four of the groups, some with five or six dancers, some with just two, but all were very accomplished. We also saw a bloke who was jumping through flaming hoops and hoops with knives round the edges. He was collecting too, but not for charity!

I found my PoD at the bottom of the street. A low level shot of a bloke selling helium balloons. Those big bunches of brightly coloured vinyl balloons and I was lucky enough to catch him removing one to sell to a little girl. That was my picture of the day right there. I got a couple of mono shots too that made it to Flickr.

Back home and after lunch Scamp headed down to the shops to get a chicken for dinner while I worked on the photos. By the time she was coming home the light was beginning to fade, but by then the photos were uploaded into Flickr, so I didn’t need to worry about going out for more shots.

Dinner was roast chicken with potatoes and roasted veg and it was quite delicious. Pudding was just as good. It was a slab of ice cream with meringue crumbled over it. A healthy squirt of raspberry sauce finished it off.

Spoke to Jamie later and broke the news to him that we wouldn’t be coming down to their house for Christmas. The trains are too risky with every week bringing more strike announcements. The flights are overpriced as a result and for him to drive to the airport and back, picking us up and then delivering us back again would take a large chunk out of his day on what should be holiday time. We did say that we like to come down in the spring and we’ve agreed a possible time. Hope you’re not too disappointed Jamie. Glad you’ve booked a trip to see Jaime in Trinidad.

That was our day. Tomorrow we’re hoping to take Shona out for lunch. Out to lunch again, I hear you say?! Well, we haven’t been out for lunch this week yet. Mind you, it’s only Sunday!

 

Dancin’ – 26 November 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Drove through the rain to Brookfield to find an enormous marquee sitting in the car park.

Thought for a minute the class had been cancelled, or that the marquee was for us to dance in. Neither was the case. It appeared that the marquee was for an event later in the day and unfortunately the class hadn’t been cancelled. We filed into the hall to find tables arranged round the hall. More obstacles for us to dance round or collide with, depending on our dancing skill. The class started with a Melody Foxtrot, two tracks of it. Then it was full pelt into the Cameron Quickstep and almost all of the practise we’d done last night went clear out of my head. Gradually it returned after I listened to Scamp’s whispered directions, but it wasn’t the resounding success I’d hoped for. Although, neither was it the disaster that it could have been, so we’ll take that as a positive.

Midnight Jive was next just to give us a chance to clear our heads before the teachers decided to throw in the Jetlag Waltz, which we’ve only danced once or twice, but like most of these dances, consists of dance ‘units’ that are bolted together to form a complete dance. It’s knowing what order the units are in that makes for the level of difficulty. According to Scamp we have that one on video and so should be able to make more sense of it by next week, all being well.

I thought we were going to be forced into the Christmas Pudding Rock to finish with, but instead we did a round of the Sally Anne Cha Cha. I don’t know who Sally Anne was, but this wasn’t a cha-cha. Again it was a series of dance units bolted together in what seemed like random patterns. Noisy and energetic and fairly good fun. Got our blood flowing ready for the drive home.

The actual drive home wasn’t too bad although the weather wasn’t too clever. Still raining and I really need to replace the wiper blades soon. The way they rattle across the windscreen sets my teeth on edge. We stopped at the shops on the way home to get milk and donuts and cakes, because we’d been good and not made a total mess of the morning’s dances.

I took a walk over to St Mo’s in the late afternoon because the rain had stopped and the sky was clearing for a warm looking sunset. Warm looking, yes, but it was getting cold, so only one circuit of the pond. PoD was a shot of a woman walking her dog along the boardwalk with some early evening light.

Dinner tonight came courtesy of Golden Bowl. Chicken Chop Suey and Fried rice for Scamp and Chicken Chow Mein for me. Very nice, if a bit dry.

We watched Hidden Figures on TV. It’s based on the true story of three women of colour in America attempting, and succeeding in working for NASA to make a success of the first American in space. Yes, we’ve seen it before, but the message was still there and the fact that we’d both lived through such ridiculous bigotry shocked both of us, just as it had on our first viewing.

Tomorrow looks a lot better than today according to the weather fairies. I hope they have it right.

A day at the fair – 23 November 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Got the train in to Glasgow to celebrate the fact that they weren’t on strike today!

Spoke to Hazy this morning and we heard all about the joys of being a house owner. Also found out that although Neil’s nose is a lot better and healing nicely after his op, although it hasn’t affected his snoring ability! We discussed Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City books and his appearance on The Big Scottish Book Club.

Scamp didn’t need the car today, so I drove down to the station and got the train in to Glasgow to meet my brother. As usual, we went for a coffee and discussed what to do and where to go. I’d hoped to go and photograph the lights at the Christmas market in St Enoch’s Square or just get some street shots. We agreed that the Christmas market would be good with a few fairground attractions thrown in for good measure.

First, Alex wanted to photograph the inside of Princes Square and wasn’t sure if we were allowed to take photos. It appeared that almost everyone was taking photos inside, although we were the odd ones out because we were using ‘real’ cameras. Everyone else had phone cameras. We got the photos, then bumped into Mirka and Artur who used to go to salsa class in Glasgow. It appeared that Mirka was trying hard to get Artur to go to a new class in Motherwell, but he’s still resisting!

Photos taken and goodbyes said, we went to lunch in Il Pavone in the basement of the department store. We both had pizzas, but I struggled to finish mine and in the end had to give up. Too much veg and far too much cheese.

Once we’d been fed we walked down to the Christmas market which wasn’t quite as busy as I’d hoped. Fewer rides too, but the did have an enormous spinning wheel called The Booster. It looked scary. I tried my best to get some decent shots of it and although I got a few, most of the pics went in the bin when I got home. We both prowled around trying to find something to capture our interest. My favourite place was a Pick ’n’ Mix stall that seemed to attract all sorts of folk. That’s where PoD came from.

Eventually we’d had enough and headed back. I went to Queen Street and Alex went to the bus station. We agreed to do it again, but actually we will be doing something like it again when we’re going to lunch tomorrow with Alex and Carol.

I did have a wee space for dinner when I got home because Scamp had made Veggie Chilli with brown lentils. Totally different from mine. Very nice, but maybe needed some more chilli. Poor Scamp had been working all day tidying up and hoovering while my brother and I had been out on the town!

Tomorrow, like I said, Alex and Carol, Scamp and I are hoping to have lunch down Clydeside. The teachers across Scotland are all on strike tomorrow for the first time in almost 40 years. That will mean thousands of weans will be having a free holiday! Hope they don’t go where we’re going.

Another early rise – 22 November 2022

Posted on by Zogman

This early rise was because I’d an appointment with the doc.

A misty morning and a bit cold for a drive up to Kenilworth for a consultation with a doctor. The sister, at my annual checkup a week ago, recommended that I take my leg with me to show it to the doc. I’ve had sores appearing and disappeared on my right leg for almost a year. The last meds they gave me seemed to cure the affliction, only for it to return a month or so later. Phoning for an appointment only results in the receptionists telling you to take a photo of the problem and sending it in to the surgery so everyone can have a good laugh at it. However if the request is properly phrased to a form like: “The sister recommended that I make an appointment …” That get a fast track to actually speak to someone face to face.
That’s what got me to the surgery at just before 9am. The doc had a long look at the sores and gave me a stronger prescription and booked me for a further consultation in two weeks time. Let’s hope it’s not so strong that it melts my leg. That would be a problem.

Drove home and had a slightly late breakfast after I’d dropped my prescription off at the chemist. Scamp and I worked on our Wordle workout and then went on to Spelling Bee. Surprisingly I got a 4 for Wordle and found the hidden seven letter word in Spelling Bee. What DID we do for entertainment before Wordle and SB?
With our brains suitably exercised, we drove up to Tesco for “The Messages”. Lots of them. I was beginning to think we’d need a bigger trolley!
Then it was time to stick a posh cotton bud up the nose and down the throat, then package the whole thing up and seal it in its posting bag which Scamp had offered to take to Condorrat to post. Then the awful, boring, badly written survey form had to be filled in. Tedious is the only printable word I can use to describe it, but it’s done and sent.

While Scamp took the evidence to the post box, I gathered up all the odds and ends we’d collected in the past couple of months and took them to the skip. That left me a decent amount of time to drive up to Fannyside to get some decent landscape photos. As I passed Fannyside Loch, I could hardly believe the reflections. I had to stop and get a photo … or five. I asked a lady who was just about to leave the clubhouse if I could park there for a couple of minutes. She said that I could, but she was just about to lock up. No time to use a tripod, then, but I was pretty sure the A7 would handle it easily. The colours and the reflections took only 1/125th of a second to record, but I knew they were fine without spending time checking. I thanked the lady and showed her the photo, then I drove over to the parking place I usually use and watched as the mist rolled down the valley, flowing like water around the trees and then round the old ruined farmhouse that sits on a wee hill.

By the time I left, the sun was almost setting and I met a couple of photogs. Not Scottish, possibly Polish photographing the loch from behind the fence. I had had a much better view uncluttered by chain link. I told them where I had been and suggested they might like to try a few shots from there. They agreed. The girl was building a portfolio to get her into college and her boyfriend was there to carry the gear, I think! They headed off to find the mist and I drove home to download the photos and start dinner.

For the first time in ages I ran through 71 photos and didn’t even reject one! My favourite, and PoD was one of the first shots I took of the loch.

Tomorrow I’m intending to meet Alex and take some photos around Glasgow. Not such an early rise, I hope.