Category: Food

A walk in the park – 6 March 2025

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We woke to a misty, almost foggy day.

Jackie was travelling up to Skye on the morning bus. We waved her off as she got in the taxi that would take her to Glasgow on the first leg of the journey. The second leg was a six or seven hour journey on the bus from Glasgow to Portree on Skye where Murdo would be waiting to take her on the last leg to Staffin. A few days later she was intending to do the whole thing again in reverse to return to Cumbersheugh.

With a morning and part of an afternoon to fill, I was pleasantly surprised when Scamp suggested we go over to Kilsyth for a walk in the sunshine that had appeared just as Jackie was getting in the taxi. We drove over to Colzium estate and that’s where I saw a single white crocus flower among the miniature daffodils. Just one, though, but it was shining brightly in the sun. That became PoD. We walked our usual path round what had been the driveway to the “Big House”, and then onward into the trees. This was the first time we’d walked in Colzium and there were a lot of torn up trees courtesy of the storms last month, or was it two? Anyway, a shorter than normal circuit took us to the coffee shop that, conveniently, was just opening. After coffee we walked back to the car and drove home.

Just enough time for a quick spot of lunch and then we had to get a bit better dressed for a meeting with the Co-op funeral office where we had a meeting with a funeral director. Paul, Margaret, Shona, Scamp and I were present at a rather disjointed meeting where it appeared the lady who was dealing with us had to also speak to a constant stream of other customers. Not the most professional way to treat people who are already stressed and upset. However, I was not running this show and had little to do, but on two separate occasions we had a thirty minute hiatus while someone somewhere talked to someone else.

The upshot was that a firm date for the funeral was agreed and all the papers were duly signed by Paul who was the senior member of the family today. We left after about two hours and went for a quick coffee and a discussion with tasks being allocated to willing parties.

Drove home and dropped people off as we went. Finally got home and parked. Dinner was Paella and it was a good one this time. It isn’t always so good.

Tomorrow we’re hoping for a more restful day.

A meeting of minds – 5 March 2025

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We met the interested parties in Tesco for coffee today.

We were discussing the plans for June’s funeral. Margaret phoned Scamp to ask where we were, because they were waiting in Costa. Then Scamp reminded her that she had told us it was to be at Tesco. That maybe ‘put her gas at a peep’ as my mum would have said. Scamp, Jackie and I had been prepared for a fight, but as a result, it never happened.

The group was Ian, Jackie, Margaret, Paul, Scamp, Shona and myself (listed alphabetically for fairness!). Everyone offered suggestions to the group with Paul and Shona as adjudicators.

The upshot of the meeting was that:

  • We had some photos of June to use in a short display
  • Paul wants to do a short ad hoc speech about his mum
  • Jackie would probably write a talk and if she wasn’t comfortable with it, I’d be ready to take over.

We left it at that and have a meeting planned with the funeral directors tomorrow.

We drove over to The Kelpies because Jackie had never seen them in real life. It turned out to be an awful day as far as the weather was concerned. Heavy rain showers driven along on a gusty east wind. However we did get a walk around the mighty beasts and I think that brightened Scamp’s day. The size of the sculptures impressed Jackie. We finished with another cuppa and a scone paid for by Jackie.

Later, at home I was delegated to go to the chip shop for fish suppers. A successful day with some of the pressure removed. Jackie goes back home tomorrow and is intending to return in a couple of days.

PoD was a slightly different view of a Kelpie,

Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow.

It feels like Spring (White Rabbits x3) – 1 March 2025

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Well, it didn’t feel like Spring when we were driving through a drizzle all the way to Brookfield for today’s dance class.

Thankfully when we came out again, the rain had gone and the sun was attempting to shine.

In between, we had a Midnight Jive to heat us up, because the Brookfield Politburo apparently thought 3ºc was warm enough for anyone!

Sufficiently warmed up, we were into the annoying October Waltz, even though it wasn’t October. I find it the worst waltz I’ve had the misfortune to attempt. It just seems so … “Clunky” is the only word I can use. It just doesn’t seem to flow and I was happier once it had gone back into its box, until the next time one of the teachers says “Oh, we haven’t done the October Waltz for a while.” There’s a reason for that I’d say.

Next was Tango and we struggled with that for a while, but it did get better after we got help from Jane. I think I could manage that one, given some effort on my part. Scamp helped by pulling me in the right direction and whispering the instructions in my ear.

We did Mambo Marina to finish with, but two fairly new dancers were left standing in the corner of the room looking bewildered while the teachers danced with a couple of ladies who knew the dance. That doesn’t seem like a dance class to me. Just a little bit of help would have put them on the right track. We had attempted to help the pair just over a week ago when they came to a Tea Dance we go to, but the teachers really need to TEACH. That’s what they are getting nearly twenty quid for every week!

After that we were allowed to go home. To go home with half a dozen eggs from one of the dance class who seem to be bringing eggs ever week or so. It’s very nice of them, the eggs come from a neighbour of theirs, and being free range, they do taste good.

Drove home through the normal tangle of cars and I chose the slow lane today. I really should have done the M74/M73 route which is longer, but faster overall.

I took a couple of lenses with the A7iii over to St Mo’s in the afternoon, once the sun was shining brightly and got a couple of photos. PoD went to a cloudscape with the setting sun just visible. I came home via Golden Bowl with Chicken Chop Suey and Fried Rice for Scamp and a Special Chow Mein for me. Nice to be walking home in the last of the day’s sun.

I almost forgot to mention, we thought the house was being torn apart in the morning or maybe broken into, but it was just the NLC house clearing mob tearing out everything they could find from the house next door. It seemed that Angela, who lived there after Betty (if you pair remember her) had done a ’moonlight’ without telling anyone. Strange woman. Now we wonder who we’ll get in her place.

Tomorrow we may go for a walk if the weather plays nice.

 

 

On Fannyside Moor – 28 February 2025

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Scamp was out for lunch with her friends and I took the opportunity to drive up to Fannyside Moor.

It was a cold day with a constant breeze stirring up the clouds on the moor and making it feel colder than it looked from a warm car.

I took the ‘big dog’, the A7iii with a couple of lenses. A shorter walk than I’d intended due to that wind feeling as if was cutting right through me, even with the Rab jacket. I think I spent more time watching the clouds scudding across the sky than taking photos. Watched a bloke about my age, on a mountain bike, go flying past me wearing a light jacket and shorts. That was adventurous today. Then another bloke passed me heading the other way, but he was running and dressed for the weather. Most days you see maybe one car on this road, but two folk out enjoying the fresh air was unusual. Then the inevitable car passed too. That made the trio!

Photographed a herd of sheep and a lichen covered fencepost, but PoD went to a long lens shot of the ruin of the old Jawcraig farm. In all, 28 shots taken but only 18 survived the first cull.

I decided I had enough photos to work with and drove home. Scamp arrived about an hour later

Dinner tonight was Penne al’arrabiata with the addition of some bacon.

I think we may be going dancing tomorrow. We’ll probably be the outcasts. The ones who didn’t go to Calpe for almost a week of dancing. Oh well.

St Andrews – 26 February 2025

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A wet day. Cold again with the wind blowing sheets of rain in from the east.

We walked in to the town after a late breakfast and were just in time to catch the number 99 bus from Dundee bus station to St Andrews bus station. It was a short run over to St Andrews that was made longer with the number of roadworks in progress. It’s the same every year. The councils have to spend their money by the end of March and this was almost the end of February, so much spending was evident.

We waked down the main street and you could tell the affluence of the town by the number of expensive shops and the wide streets. There were a few sales offers in evidence that brought some prices down to what I might have been happy to pay, except there were no camera shops as far as I could see.

We found a ruined castle beside the sea and Scamp discovered it was Historic Scotland, so we got in free with our HS cards. The ruin turned out to be St Andrews Castle, strangely enough! It would have been an interesting way to spend an hour if it hadn’t been for the almost constant drizzle. We did get a chance to watch a couple of Eurofighter Typhoons making noisy circuits around the bay, but we were both getting cold, so we found a Costa where we had what must have been the worst coffee in any Costa I’ve been in, and I’ve been in a few. The place was crammed, but not as crammed as one independent coffee shop we passed where William and Kate (whoever they are) had had their first coffee together, allegedly.

We walked back to the bus garage and got another number 99 bus that took us back to Dundee where we had a wander around the inside of V&A and found a complete rebuild of Mrs Cranston’s Tea Room. Apparently the original tea room was taken down piece by numbered piece from the Glasgow shop and rebuilt inside the V&A. Scamp was responsible for finding this online. An amazing construction. Very dark and very low ceilings. In another part of the V&A I found a scale drawing, hand drawn in ink, of part of the rail bridge which still carries trains across the Tay from Dundee to Wormit in Fife. The drawings looked almost exactly the same as drawings I’d done in the 1960s and nothing like the Autocad drawings produced nowadays.

We had a plate each of watered down soup in the V&A and watched the arial ballet performed by computer designed lights that looked like little ballet dancers.

It was a cold walk back to the hotel and we couldn’t decide where to go for food. On the way I went to Braithwaite’s and bought some decaf tea and some coffee beans. Then on our way back Scamp got a message from Shona to ask if everything was ok, because she’d heard about an explosion in Dundee city centre. After a bit of checking we discovered an electrical substation had indeed exploded and demolished a wall. This was in the morning and we knew nothing about it. Nobody was injured, thankfully.

Nearly 60 photos taken today and PoD went to a photo from the top deck of the V&A of somebody walking along the esplanade beside the Tay estuary.

Tomorrow we need to be packed and off home.

Off on our travels – 25 February 2025

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Today we were heading north east.

Travelling fairly light. Just the minimum amount with an A6500 and two lenses: 10-18mm f4 and 18-50mm f2.8 plus a laptop.

Taxi to the Town Centre and then the Ember Bus to Dundee.

First stop was Waterstones for a coffee and a scone each. It’s a bit of a tradition going to this old fashioned book shop. Braithwaite’s was our next destination, but it was closed on Tuesdays, so no coffee beans today. From there we got a bit lost, then found we’d been within 100m of the hotel we were looking for.

After dumping our stuff (Scamp was even lighter loaded than me) we walked down to the V&A, only to find that it too was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, but we had a walk round the building on a cold and windy day, but with a clear blue sky. I took some photos of The Discovery ship framed by the odd angles of the V&A. Then we walked back to the hotel to get ready for dinner tonight at the Dundee Rep restaurant.

Starters:
Scamp – Black pudding bon bon with pea puree, pancetta crisps & salad
Me – Arancini with light rice filling and a dressing I can’t remember, but was lovely.

Mains:
Scamp – Lentil & vegetable cottage pie with broccoli & carrots
Me – Korean pork collar with braised rice & broccoli, topped with spring onion and sesame seeds.

Desserts:
Both of us – Limoncello tiramisu. We both agreed this was disappointing. Not enough lemon flavour and too much heavy cream. Foodies!!

After that we managed to stagger up to the hotel. Scamp had a Rum and Coke and I had a whisky with water.

Went to bed, ready for tomorrow!

Almost 50 photos taken. PoD was a man walking under the V&A.

Tomorrow we are hoping to head east.

It was one of those days – 23 February 2025

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A day where the rain just never stopped falling.

Even when the gale force winds calmed down, the rain kept falling. A day when it would have been foolish to go out in the rain. But sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. I went out into the garden to photograph a clump of crocuses. Purple and yellow ones. They seem to grow well under the apple tree in the back garden. I did actually wait for a break in the showers and the wind before I attempted to photograph the flowers with their raindrops. Then after having taken just three frames, I retired to the safety of the house before the next shower and the next gale made landfall. The crocuses made PoD.

And that was it, really. The gales gradually calmed down and the rain showers became less fierce then for a short time the sun appeared and shone on us, but that didn’t last long. Now, as I’m writing this, the wind is strengthening again, but the rain has gone to annoy other folk for a while.

I had a Picanha steak for dinner. I hadn’t heard of it before a year or two ago, but now it’s becoming quite popular although M&S is the only place I’ve seen it recently. It seems to be a cut that has gained a following with barbecue chefs. I just pan fried mine with some mushrooms and fried potatoes. Scamp had a couple of Sea bass fillets with fried potatoes.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard about Vixen’s laser therapy and a swim to keep her muscles in trim. Good to hear that Simonne is starting to progress with her running.

Tomorrow we are expecting to attend an on-line funeral for Clive.

A problem solved – 21 February 2025

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Today, Scamp was off to FitSteps in the morning and I was determined to fix a problem that had been bugging me for almost two months.

The problem was that my .gmail accounts had managed the transition from Android to iPhone, but it felt like the Apple system was putting blocks in my way when I tried to put a couple of my own, home-grown accounts into the iPhone. Every time I tried, there was an error of some sort that prevented them being accepted. Today I solved it. I doubt if any of my readers are interested in the nitty gritty of the process, but after about six hours of work I finally found out how to do it.

The answer was there all the time in a combination of a Namecheap link and a Cpanel link. I needed both of these pieces of information to work the magic. I’ll store the work-through somewhere on the iMac, so I can come back to it when I’m sure it’s working. For now it’s a “back of a fag packet” solution. If you don’t understand that, then you’re too young! (Or I’m too old!!)

I started about 10.30am and finally had a working prototype by about 4pm with breaks in between for food and drink. It had been a terrible day with heavy rain showers and gale force winds. Scamp said she was nearly blown over getting from class to the car. Once in the car, driving was fine. That’s one of the benefits of having a car with a fairly low profile, it cuts through the wind well. I did go out into the back garden for a few minutes to recover a flower pot that our local grey squirrel had tipped over, but came back in when the rain got heavy. That’s when I found the PoD. It’s a view of the stained glass panel on the front door with raindrops on its outside face.

While I was still swearing at the computer, Scamp was making the dinner which was Carrot & Lentil Curry. Not a hot curry, just one that improves with resting and can have lots of additions to improve the general flavour. It’s an ancient recipe now carefully kept in a binder.

Tomorrow we may be dancing at Brookfield if there is enough interest to make a quorum. Some lucky folk are booked for a week’s dancing in Calpe, flying out on Sunday, but for a couple of reasons we won’t be with them.

Dancin’ – 20 February 2025

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Out shopping in the morning and dancing in the afternoon’

Sometimes, life is one big whirl!

Out in the morning to get my meds for the next couple of months and then I did some light shopping for lunch today and tomorrow. By the time I got back it was time to get ready for the Tea Dance.

Long, long tailbacks on the M77 which looked like it had been turned into a giant carpark for the day, and it was raining! It had been blue skies when we left the house, but the weather has been very changeable for the last few days. By the time we were taking the slip road off to Paisley, the congestion was easing an it looked like there had been a crash just a few hundred metres from our turn off. The rest of the journey to Glenburn was without incident and we were just a few minutes late.

Usual mix of waltz, jive and rumba with a few sequence dances to lighten the day. Then S&J announced that we were getting a short waltz lesson, the New Vogue Waltz. It wasn’t totally new to us, but it was a long time since we first learned it (November 2021 I’m told) at Perth. We we were almost total newbies, then. It wasn’t too bad and danced as a sequence dance you usually have someone in front of you to act as a guide to the steps. I’d say it was danceable, and certainly better than the overly complicated “October Waltz”. I think we might be introduced to the New Vogue Waltz on Saturday if all is well.

We left just after 3pm to avoid the school runs and I made a few bad decisions like taking the Kingston Bridge rather than the longer but less congested M74/M73 route. You win some and lose some. Torrential rain showers on the way home didn’t help much either.

I suggested we get some chicken thighs and make a Chicken & Pea Traybake for dinner and the suggestion was accepted. I waited until the rain had almost disappeared before I walked over to M&S. By the time I got there the sun was shining brightly and I cursed my stupidity to not bring a camera.

The traybake takes a while to cook, but as the oven is doing all the heavy lifting, it’s not a great hardship. It turned out just as good as every other time I’ve made it, and there are not a lot of recipes I can say that about.

Because I’d left the camera at home, I had nothing for PoD until I spied a pretty spray of pink carnations on the piano. A box and a paint can balanced on a stool provided a support for a jar of pencils and the carnations stood a decent distance away from an A2 drawing sheet pinned to the wall. Camera on a tripod and the PoD photo was taken. I quite like the result. Not perfect, but worth another try some time.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending going to FitSteps and I’m hoping to work out why the iPhone won’t accept one of my most used email addresses.

Paisley – 19 February 2025

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Got the bus in to Glasgow to meet Alex for a photowalk.

Actually I almost missed the bus by browsing the comments on Flickr, but luckily noticed on time and caught a ramshackle single decker electric bus. I think it must have been a second-hand vehicle from some other part of the UK.

I met Alex and we went for coffee in Nero as usual. It was a grim looking day and I wondered if it was worth going to Paisley or just staying in Glasgow. Finally decided to go and the weather there was a lot better than it had been in Glasgow, so good decision for a change.

We found the Ugly Duck cafe we’d been to the last time we journeyed to Paisley. It wasn’t busy and looked as if it was in the middle of an upgrade. I hope it isn’t a case of tart it up and sell it off. You never can tell these days. The food was just as good as the last time with Fish ’n’ Chips for two. Batter was a bit oily, but the fish was good.

After we’d paid (Alex’s turn) we went wandering around the town looking for a church that David from dancing had told me was worth a look. Apparently it had icons of some sort around the outside. I must ask him again for the address the next time I see him.

Because of lunch and the search for the church, we were just too late to see inside the Abbey. I was pretty sure it closed at 4pm and for once I was right.

While we were discussing the strange shape of the abbey, (none of the walls seem to have 90º corners) a wee English lady explained that it was because of a watercourse that ran underneath the building and hadn’t been found until fairly recently. Then she told us she was a tour guide for the building and gave us a run down of what was there to be see outside and inside. We agreed that we’d look out for her the next time we came to Paisley and get on her group.

On the way back to the train we found a wee Italian coffee shop. Very Italian with lots of cakes and biscuits. We were both still full from the fish ’n’ chips, so we avoided them, but the coffee was very good and freshly ground too.

Took the train back to Glasgow and went our separate ways, agreeing to do it again soon, all being well

PoD was a photo of Oakshaw Trinity Church in Paisley.

Possibly dancing tomorrow.