Category: Food

Coffee with Val – 17 November 2021

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Out with Val to hear his news and pick his brains.

First time for ages I’ve met Val for a coffee and a chat. Drinking Costa’s version of coffee and trying not to compare it with real coffee. We spent a good hour and a half comparing each other’s technology and being amazed at the advances in computing that have become par for the course these days. He showed me a photo of his latest microcomputer the size of a postage stamp and I discussed with him the challenges of upgrading an iMac with more memory and a 1TB SSD.  Did manage to get Val to give me his opinion on the SSD as a replacement for the HDD in the iMac.  That previous sentence wouldn’t have meant a thing to most people, because, like almost everything we said today, it was in the form of numbers or letters with only a smattering of words to leaven it. So you see, Jamie, you are not alone in being a technophobe.

Back home for lunch and then later in the afternoon I went for a walk in the woods of St Mo’s looking for Stag’s Horn fungi. Managed to find one I’d been unsuccessful in photographing on Monday. Today’s shot was better, but still not great. PoD is a Sycamore seed with a wing that looks almost like windsurfer sail. The seed is caught in the the fork of a tree, maybe a sycamore itself!

Dinner was disappointing ravioli from Waitrose. Quite tasteless. It didn’t help that dinner was interrupted when the kitchen tap started running and wouldn’t stop. After struggling with it for about fifteen minutes, it stopped by itself. I still don’t know what caused it or what made it stop. Maybe it just felt it wanted a bit more attention than I was giving it.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to pick up Scamp’s new glasses which should be ready in the afternoon. If they’re not ready, Scamp will be reading the riot act!

Goldfish bowl – 15 November 2021

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Today the lenses came out and the glasses went on and there was a long face.

Today was the day Scamp had chosen to remove her lenses for the four week preparation for her next visit to Hairmyres, when she would be measured for the lenses that might just improve her sight and remove the cataracts that have been growing. It was not a day without its tension and sufferance. However as everyone she’s met has told her, “It will be worth it in the long run.” Not much consolation when you’re looking at a world that has no straight lines. It must be what a goldfish sees from its bowl. I don’t think you’re really encouraged to put goldfish in bowls these days, but apparently you can do that to people, because It Will Be Worth It …

The rest of the day was quite dull and dreary. Just what you expect after coming down from the heights of a weekend filled with bright lights, music, glitz and some glamour. I think my dad got it right: Auld Claes and Purrich. Even the weather seemed to be dragging us down.

I did go out in the late afternoon when the sky brightened for a while. I walked part of the woods in St Mo’s looking for ‘beasties’ while Scamp watched TV from her goldfish bowl. I came back with a few shots of a spider on a tree and that got PoD.

It being Monday, pasta was on the menu. It was one of those,’ What’s in the fridge’, meals. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. Today’s worked. Finely chopped veg cooked with some finely chopped pancetta, then passata added to make the sauce. Served with penne. A Monday dinner.

Watched an interesting Brazilian GP. Some good driving with some very clever tactics. F1 is becoming more and more a statisticians race, where the outcome is carefully calculated on a constantly changing spreadsheet. Some of the fun has gone out of it.

We had a surprise invitation from Jamie to a video call from their new house. They got their keys today and they both looked delighted. They took us round the garden, through the downstairs rooms and then up those notorious stairs to upper floor and that ridiculously small door. It looks like it was a pair of cave explorers who lived in it before, not a couple who are older than us! Beautiful house all the same. Oh, and that garden!!

Hoping the weather fairies have got it wrong and it’s going to be a lovely day tomorrow.

Like being on holiday – 13 November 2021

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Back to our regular Saturday class, in a different venue.

Breakfast in the restaurant of the hotel. Just like being on holiday in Lanzarote or Fuerteventura, but just a tad cooler. Not self service either, but the same food choices. Tinned fruit cocktail for each of us, then a choice of eggs, sausage (veg and pork) hash browns, beans, tomatoes and bacon. I suppose you could have had all of the above if you wanted, but we restricted ourselves to what we felt was appropriate. Restaurant was busy, but we got the chance to share a table, strangely enough with two of the folk who had been at our table last night.

After breakfast, Scamp and I went for a walk through the town that was just waking up. Strange to see Perth at this early hour. We walked down to ‘The Ship’ which is really the viewing platform. A curved platform that cantilevers out over the river and gives you the feeling that you are indeed on a ship. Walked back to the hotel ready to start the class.

The lesson today was the Vogue Waltz. As usual, it looked impossible when the teachers danced it through. Then we had the step by step walk through and it began to look possible. Danced the whole thing and the individual figures began to fit together. The problem, as always would be when we tried to dance it again after an hour or so.

Afternoon was free time. We went for a coffee in Nero then walked over the middle bridge of the three over the river to the gardens on the other side. Bright sunny autumn day. Beautiful colours in the trees and we found a couple of ponds with great reflections of the church. Walked down as far as the railway bridge and then walked back through the gardens to the upstream bridge. Watched two punters, one in a kayak and the other on a paddle board making light work of the rapids below the bridge. Got some coffee, tea and a replacement plunger for my Aeropress at the Bean Shop. By then we decided it was lunch time and I suggested a pizza in Pizza Express. I had a pizza, Scamp had a chicken salad. Both filled a wee space! Time to go back and get ready.

Posh frock and suit for dinner. It was meant to be a black tie event. I had a black tie, but no black suit, so my dark grey one would have to do. Dinner was much the same as the yesterday’s. Service was even slower than usual. Waiter seemed to stomp of in the huff when a bloke at our table complained of a draught from the door into the kitchen. He didn’t seem to want to serve the coffee after the meal. Eventually Scamp had to ask for coffee and he did serve it, if reluctantly. You just can’t get the staff these days. We were a full complement at the table tonight with a couple from Dundee taking the last two seats. Bloke as a bit of a pain, complaining that they shouldn’t have same sex couples on Strictly and that they needed a man and a woman as presenters, not two women. His wife was extremely condescending and just wanted to talk about herself and her family. Nice dancers, nasty people. Glad when they had to leave early.

We danced all night, completing another two salsa routines with Peter and Gillian. Was that ‘completing’ or ‘competing’? I’m not too sure! It was fun whatever slant you take.

Dragged ourselves off to bed just after midnight.

Today’s PoD was that reflection of the church I mentioned.

Just an hour’s ‘tea dance without the tea’ tomorrow. Then it’s the long road home.

A day in the Toon – 11 November 2021

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The first for a long while.

We got parked on level 4 of Buchanan Galleries, which a couple of years ago would have been impossible. Today there were lots of spaces on level 4, and I even missed a few on level 3.

First stop was Paesano for a lunchtime pizza. Even Paesano was quiet today. Maybe something to do with COP26 or maybe something to do with the ongoing pandemic. Whatever it is, it’s not a good sign. Pizzas were lovely. My number 3 (anchovy and olive) had a few more slices of garlic than normal and I liked that. Scamp had her new normal number 1 (tomato sugo, no cheese, extra rocket and mushrooms) was perfect for her. Her usual complaint was that the base was too thin.

While I went for a walk in the sunshine down to a charity shop in the merchant city to look for an old manual lenses and then on to Cass Art to see what was going cheap, Scamp was going clothes shopping. We agreed to meet later in Buchanan Galleries.

Only one lens in the charity shop and it was an M42 thread teleconverter. Something that goes between the camera and the lens to increase the focal length. Makes the lens into a telephoto, in other words. Not what I was looking for. Maybe next time.

Cass Art had a sale on with 20% off across the board. Not an ‘up to’ 20% reduction, just an honest 20% off everything. I bought two ‘concertina’ A5 sketch books and a bright red bag to carry then in.

Walking back to meet Scamp, I found today’s PoD, a queue of punters waiting at a bus stop outside Queen Street station with a sign above that read “Now is the time to come”. We’ve all stood at a bus stop willing the bus to come! Scamp hadn’t found any clothes that she was happy to spend money on, but she did find some pretty coloured and smelling shower gel.

Met Scamp and remembered that I needed a black belt for the weekend. Not the most exciting thing, but I found what I was looking for in JL. We went home. The clouds were gathering by then and I think we had had the best of the day.

Later in the afternoon I went for a walk to the shops and it started raining. It’s definitely raining now. Just what the weather fairies predicted.

Tomorrow morning I’m off for my ‘annual’ checkup with the nurse. The first in almost two years.

Walking in sunshine! – 9 November 2021

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Out photographing with Alex.

I’d watched the weather predictions for this week and Tuesday looked like the best day. Alex and I agreed that we’d go and walk round Baron’s Haugh which is another name for the Dalzell estate on the outskirts of Motherwell. It dates from around 840 when it was a Royal Hunting Forest. Today it’s a maze of roads and paths with lots of odd buildings dotted around the grounds. We walked round the south side of the park, taking the path between the wildlife pond and the River Clyde. Lots of evidence of flooding with the path having been swept away recently.

After we reached the end of the path and after Alex had consulted his Photographer’s Ephemeris app, he decided that the light would be just right for some decent photos of the Big Hoose, Dalzell House. On the way we passed the Japanese garden and made a mental not to go back and photograph the Japanese maples there after we’d photographed the house. We did get a few shots of the house, trying for the best angle to capture the light on the building, but lose the cars in the carpark. We were just finishing when a bloke came out of one of the cars with a tall monopod with what looked like a GoPro on top. It was a telescopic monopod, as most of them are, but this one extended to about 15m! Although there was very little breeze today, there was enough to cause a bit of a sway at the top. He seemed to be using a phone to control the camera. I hoped he had set a fast shutter!

We walked on because the best of the light had left the building and we walked back to the Japanese garden. Talked to one of the gardners who was sweeping up those red maple leaves. It turned out he was in charge of a group of volunteers who were cleaning up the garden and the burn that runs through it. He was happy for us to photograph the trees gave us free rein to take photos.

By the time we had finished there and said goodbye to the gardener, the light was definitely on the way to the horizon and it was time to go. Dropped Alex off at his house and drove home with really dark clouds ahead of me and the prospect of rain that didn’t appear.

While I was out with Alex, Scamp was out for coffee with Shona so she could hand over our house warming present. Yes, Jamie, it was towels!

Dinner tonight was Scampi chips and tomatoes. Scampi, which was baked in the oven, we agreed was just ok. Not sure we’d have it again.

PoD was one of the views of the Big Hoose after some delicate Lightroom work to remove offending cars.

Tomorrow looks a bit like today as far as the weather is concerned. Perhaps not quite as much sunshine.

Tablet, but not Mrs Tilly’s – 7 November 2021

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It was a better day that it looked in the forecast.

According to the weather fairies we were to have a blusterous day with scattered showers. I’ll agree with the ‘blusterous’ part, but there really weren’t many showers, a few, but nothing to get upset about. After fiddling around doing basically nothing as you do on a Sunday morning, I decided to go and get ‘hands on’ with a tablet. Instead of depressing Coatbridge, we went to almost equally bad, Bishopbriggs. I did get the chance to try out a few and although the 10” iPad was lovely, I was looking for a small, probably 8” tablet that I could use as a Kindle reader. A Kindle reader with the added attraction of a games player for when the words get all mixed up, as they sometimes do, especially when reading a book with big words. I still wasn’t sure, so left empty handed again, however I did get some help from an assistant who obviously hadn’t been through the training centre at Currys, and actually ‘assisted’ this customer. He’ll learn that’s not the way it’s done.

After lunch and more faffing around, I finally decided the light was looking good enough for me to go and find a PoD. Lots of lovely low sunlight and that produced today’s PoD which was a fern leaf shot against the light. The leaf was almost transparent and you could see the shape of the spores against the bright green leaves. I quite liked the effect. There wasn’t much else to photograph today. Some fungi and more fallen leaves, but no deer or anything like that.

Scamp was in charge of dinner and we had the soup she’d made yesterday. It was maybe a bit spicier than she’d anticipated and the addition of three slices of red chilli on top just about set the roof of my mouth on fire. However, I survived after a cup of milk. She’d put a single slice of chilli on top of her soup, but after my reaction, it was promptly removed. The actual soup was quite delicious with just enough crunch in the kale to make it interesting without it overpowering the rest of the soup. Main was yesterday’s chicken served with potatoes and her signature mix of carrots, turnip and onions. I don’t know if that mixture has a name, but it’s absolutely brilliant. I made the pudding which was a steamed pudding served with a Morello cherry sauce. I say ‘made’, but that means I took them out of the packet and microwaved them for exactly the right time! I believe I may be allowed to make that again.

Spoke to Jamie later and found out that the news is there is almost no news. Things seem to move very slowly in Engerland! Most of the news was Scamp’s with her mixed up last few days.

Tomorrow looks wet, certainly a fair bit wetter than today. That will decide what we do.

Driving, Dancing and FPs – 6 November 2021

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Driving to Bridge of Weir at early o’clock in the rain.

The teachers wanted an early start today. Half an hour early to be more precise. I wasn’t too bothered until I realised I had about fifteen minutes to shower, shave and get dressed. I managed it … just! It was a really mucky morning. High winds, lashing rain and when we headed down the street the automatic headlights came on. It was going to be one of those days.

Despite the weather and threats of disruption on the motorway because of COP26, we made good time to the dance class and the room filled up quickly with far more dancers than usual. The teachers had decided that today was a reprise of all we’d learned so far. The only one we really screwed up on was the quickstep. The rest we fumbled our way through, but the quickstep wasn’t quick and most of my steps were in the wrong place. I don’t know if I will ever be able to be totally confident with that dance.
Sometimes, for me, the time drags in class, especially if I’m having problems with a dance, but today the time flew in. However, our lack of practise time in the past fortnight was showing. We need more time on the floor, especially if Scamp is going to be out of class for a month. We might ask the teachers for a private lesson or two to keep us up to date.

The drive back is usually a painful stop and go for about five or six miles as we near Glasgow, but today, perhaps because of the weather or the threat of disruption, it all went remarkably smoothly. In fact we took almost the same time for the return journey as for the outward one in the morning. That won’t happen every day.

There was more light as we left Glasgow and headed for Cumbersheugh and I was beginning to get hopeful that I might get out to take some photos, but the brightness was short lived and we were back in the land of gloom, wind and rain.

After lunch Scamp made some weird sounding Curried Kale soup which we have yet to taste, because it’s intended for Sunday’s starter, but which looks interesting. I took a walk down to the shops in the late afternoon to get a chicken for tonight’s dinner. We also needed potatoes, so that was a heavy bag to lug home. Additionally I took a long way home, hoping to get something worthwhile out of the day because the sky was brightening and the rain had stopped. PoD became A Road Less Travelled a gloomy path through trees heading towards an underpass. Nice bit of gloaming light through the trees warmed it up a bit. Just as I was heading down the path a workie said those worrying words “Were you my techy teacher?” I couldn’t deny it, he obviously knew me. He was great big towering bloke who I remember as a quiet wee pupil. He didn’t have a busy beard then either. Sometimes it’s good to meet FPs, especially when they speak to you. Not so when they shout your name across the street!

Tomorrow looks a bit like today, but hopefully with less liquid falling from the sky. We might get out for a walk.

 

The end of October – 31 October 2021

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Halloween and the day the clocks went back to GMT, plus the end of Inktober 2021.

All that and it was still raining!

The only useful thing we did today was to walk to the shops to get some veg for me to make a veggie chilli. For something that changes every time I make it, I was surprised when it actually turned out quite well today. One courgette, one Red Pepper, half a Red Chilli and Onion (chopped fine), a Red Onion (quartered), a large Tomato chopped, a tin of Kidney Beans and half a tin of chopped tomatoes. The veg fried for five minute or so then the rest tossed in along with a teaspoon of cocoa powder (thank you Aunt Belle). Brought to the boil then simmered for about half an hour. Served with rice and pitta bread if you have any. It wasn’t blindingly hot, just hot enough, but Scamp’s Lime Cheesecake finished things off and performed any cooling action that was required.

After we returned from the shops and before the culinary skills were on show, I went for a walk in St Mo’s and got today’s PoD which was a tree sapling growing from a stump of a tree. I just liked the idea of a tree growing in a tree. Sketch of the day was for the final prompt of Inktober 2021, ‘Risk’, and was a glass of whiskey, half finished with a set of car keys beside it. We all take risks. Sometimes the benefits mean the risks are worth it. Sometimes they’re not. I’m not making judgements here, just drawing an ink sketch. Strangest thing though, when I was walking upstairs to photograph the sketch for posting. I always do it under my daylight bulb, anyway I was singing a line from a Roger Waters song ‘Four Minutes’. Listen to it and you’ll see why I mention it.

I’m rushing to get this posted before the month changes …

… It’s posted with less than a minute to spare, now I can finish it.  The day did brighten up a bit and later in the evening I went to the door and stars where shining in an almost clear sky.  I don’t think it will last, more clouds, more rain predicted for tomorrow.  I think tomorrow we might go shopping in the morning and Scamp has plans to have coffee with June in the afternoon.  I have a final sendoff planned for Inktober 2021.  It wasn’t my favourite Inktober, but I got all 31 sketches done in time.  That’s good enough for me.

Jagging in the Rain – 30 October 2021

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Scamp’s turn this time.

Drove up to The Link and Scamp joined the queue that took her through the different stages of the procedure for getting your booster jag and her flu jag. An experience we’ve both been through a couple of times now. She hadn’t been feeling brilliant earlier in the morning, but after the magic jags she was a lot better and improved throughout the day. It might be her new meds that don’t agree with her.

Of course it was raining all morning, but as we were driving home it did appear that the clouds were breaking and there was blue sky up there. After a light lunch I volunteered to go out and get dinner. Go out with a camera and get dinner, that is. I drove up to Fannyside and gawped at the colours and sharpness of everything. That’s what happens when you have three or four days of heavy rain, light rain and drizzle to wash the landscape clean. Not just the landscape, the sky too seems to get a wash down. All the dust in the atmosphere gets removed and you can see for miles. Late afternoon sunshine does help too, as do the scattered clouds being blown along by a strong, cold, western wind. It’s holes in those clouds that create little spots of sunshine on the land and give it texture. That’s what I was hoping for and that’s what I got today. It was a photo of an old ruined farmhouse on a hillock that got PoD, or rather, it was the lighting on the landscape that got PoD. The hillock and the old ruined farm were just props in the picture. “It’s all about the light”, someone once said.

When I got home, Scamp was feeling better, certainly well enough to enjoy a Bigham’s Fish Pie. I had a Lasagne. Both of them are expensive for what they are, but they’re worth it for the taste.

Watched another episode of Shetland and the plot thickens. After that it was time for Strictly, and as we hadn’t been able to get to the dance class today, this was our dance fix. I couldn’t be bothered with it after a while and gave up to write this and think about what today’s sketch, the second last one for this year’s Inktober, would be. I also listened to a track from A Momentary Lapse of Reason by Pink Floyd. Superb, although I never really understood what it was all about.

Tonight, the penultimate prompt in Inktober 2021 was ‘Slither’. I chose a snail as my muse. In the past month I’ve resorted to Google for some of my images, but this was one of my own photos, for a change.

Tomorrow I’m told we may be going for the messages. I’m hoping for some sun, I’m always looking for some sun or at least decent light, but I’ll settle for ‘dry’.

Another early one – 28 October 2021

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Taking the wee red car to get its yearly checkup. Always a case for heart in the mouth.

Drove down to the garage and waited. It was supposed to open at 9am, and although one of the mechanics appeared, it was still locked up. Eventually we left the car key with him and just at that moment someone arrived with the key to the garage, so we headed off home for breakfast, stopping at Tesco on the way for milk and bread. Unfortunately it was still before 10am so the other essential (alcoholic beverages) weren’t available.

A while after breakfast I eventually decided that it was dry enough to risk a walk in St Mo’s to get some photos. If the day brightened up later I’d get some more, but that looked unlikely to say the least. I did get some photos, but none of them were really contenders for the PoD.

Came home and we had lunch. Finished today’s Sudoku and started investigating the possibility of getting my phone to get itself an upgrade. I’d put a dodgy piece of software in it about a year ago that would prevent Samsung doing upgrades every second day. Now that software had disappeared, but its effect was still there. Eventually after consulting with the inter web I found that it hadn’t really gone. It was just hiding deep in the settings. When I too the plunge and switched it off the updates screen lit up. BUT I needed the phone because that was the number I’d given the garage, but once I got the word that the car was ready to pick up, I’d start the installation.

Hazy phoned not long after and she and Scamp had a long discussion about dresses for weddings. You will notice that the ‘wedding’ word is in the plural and it’s no surprise then to discover that the ‘dress’ word is also in its plural form. After the fashionistas had completed their discussion I managed to get involved in the conversation too. We talked for a while about family stuff, just catching up, really. Then my phone rang. The car had passed and been serviced, so was ready to collect. We talked to Hazy for a while longer then said our “cheerios”. Drove to the garage, paid our dues and drove home.

When I was driving back, the sky was definitely clearing from the west. By the time I got home blue sky was visible. I waited for Scamp to return then took my camera for its second walk today in St Mo’s. It was quite warm with beautiful light and I did manage to get a PoD. It was just a little weed that had been washed for days by the torrential rain and all its neighbours had been washed clean at the same time. They really sparkled in the late afternoon sun.

Dinner was Bubble ’n’ Squeak, a long time favourite of mine, but something I haven’t had for years. I even learned to make it myself a long time ago. I may have to relearn it.

The prompt for today asked for ‘Crispy’. I gave them a Crispy Cake. Made with Corn Flakes or Rice Krispies, it fits the bill for me. One of the few cakes Hazy can eat. It mush have been your phone call that put it in my head.

Tomorrow I go to see the health centre vampires who will want to take some of my blood. It’s almost Halloween, so it’s quite fitting.