Category: Food

Green – 17 August 2016

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17AugI’d read on a blog somewhere about taking shots of part of an object or even parts of an object and allowing them to define the whole and another about taking more time to study a shot before taking it.  They must have struck a chord with me because that’s what I found myself doing today.  First when we went to Strathaven this morning after we’d picked up our new reading glasses in Larky.  We were sitting having lunch in a wee cafe.  The local secondary school was coming out for lunch too and for a time we were surrounded by school weans.  I felt quite nostalgic for a while.  Aye Right! (that mean’s “No I DId Not” in Scotland).  Anyway, we were sitting next to a wall and over the wall was the Powmillon Burn and a beautiful fern lit by contré jour light (backlight). It looked good, and it still does after Lightroom has had a go at it.  I took another wide angle shot from the same position, but it did not come out of Lightroom very well.  In other words, it was rubbish.

That sort of set the tone for today’s photos.  Also,most of them were green, like the fern, but one that bucked the trend was a shot of a Yellow Wagtail which wasn’t a plant and wasn’t green, but it WAS only a part of the frame, because I couldn’t get closer and I only got one shot.  Remember, it’s better to have one shot in the bag and then try to improve on it rather than fart about trying different compositions but then miss the shot entirely and end up with nothing.  The other one that wasn’t green was the blue blobs shot which was taken with the intention of having only one flower of the three in focus.

After Strathaven, we came straight back home as I wanted to get the ingredients for tonight’s dinner and Scamp wanted to cut the grass in the back garden.  Grass is also green, or am I stretching this too thin now?

With the dinner half made and having solved today’s Sudoku puzzle while sitting in the garden, I went for a walk to St Mo’s to see if there were any other parts of things I could isolate and that’s where the leaf and the two grasses came from.  Back home I finished making today’s dinner – Thai Green Curry.  Total coincidence!

Possibly one more glorious day tomorrow before the rains come.

On the buses – 16 August 2016

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16 augToday I had a retinopathy appointment where the nurse takes a photograph of the retina of my eyes to check for damage to the small veins and capillaries there.  As the nurse sometimes needs to put drops in my eyes to get a clear picture, I can’t see very well for a couple of hours afterwards, so I had to get the bus instead of driving.  Since we were limited to the bus to start with, it made sense to use it again to go for a wee run.

It was a beautiful morning again and it looked like it would stay blue sky and sun for the rest of the day, so we headed east to Dunfermline in Fife.

We went for a walk through Pittencrief Park wandering around the flower beds.  I walked through the greenhouses too, but Scamp decided to wait outside in the sun.  We both agreed that the flower beds were looking a bit untidy, with weeds taking over in places, but if councils continue to refuse to increase the council tax supported by the Scottish government, then the less important jobs will not be done.  Corners will be cut, but unfortunately the grass won’t be.

Lunch was in Wetherspoons.  Damned by some for having a boilerplate menu and a poor selection of beers, it suits us fine.  It is what it is.  Eat, drink and don’t pay too much.  That’s our motto.

Back home we sat in the back garden with a Pimms each and a book to read.  Enjoying the late afternoon sun.

A walk in the sun, beer and fish&chips for lunch, then Pimms in the garden and best of all, no driving.  What’s not to like?

Happy Birthday JIC on a significant date 16 – 8 – ’16.

The Lodge – 13 August 2016

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13 AugToday was to be dry, and so it dawned. Dry with a little sprinkling of sun – even better. The weather fairies had been telling the truth for once. That said, we took ourselves off to the wild highlands or at least the Trossachs which is a sort of tame wild highlands. We were pointing the car at David Marshall Lodge or DML for short. Instead of our usual route through Thornhill to Aberfoyle and up the Duke’s Pass to DML, we rebels took the alternative way through blue-rinse Callander and over the other side of the Duke’s Pass to DML. Callander is usually a bottleneck on this drive and so it was today, but the bottleneck was caused by two of the boys in blue (with yellow hi-vis jackets and a speed gun) checking the speed of anyone wishing to venture in to the town from the general direction of Stirling. Not that we had much chance of raising our speed above jogging pace because some numpty at the front had forgotten to bring the red flag with him to indicate that a motor vehicle was approaching. That’s the way it seemed anyway. We passed the polis quietly, sedately and well under the speed limit. The drive up the Duke’s Pass was uneventful and terminally boring. It’s strange that when driving some roads, the scenery is much better in one direction than in the other. I hadn’t noticed how little of interest passed the car as we travelled along this road until today. We arrived at DML only to find that, Shock! Horror! they’ve changed the name to “The Lodge”. Now to someone born and brought up in Larkhall, The Lodge is synonymous with either Lambeg drums, Orange sashes and flute bands or groups of men congregating in a hall with a builder’s square and a pair of dividers over the door. I’d never been involved in any way with either group but that is what The Lodge means to me. Orange or Masonic, these are the only Lodges I’ve known about and this was neither. No sashes of any hue, no aprons and no rolled up trouser legs – do they really do that? What happened to David Marshall? Was he ex-communicated? Did he retire? Was he sacked? Maybe they found out that he didn’t belong to either Lodge, and he had to go. We’ll never know, I guess. However, like the Clyde Arc will always be the Squinty Bridge and the Tradeston Bridge will always be called the Squiggly Bridge, so The Lodge at Aberfoyle will alway be DML to us.

We paid our £3 for a day’s parking and headed off to get some foties and to walk the paths. Set up my tripod below the waterfall and waited until the lighting was right. Took a couple of test shots to get the shutter speed and the exposure right before starting the long exposure shots to get the water looking fluid. Then some prick, sorry if you’re offended by the description, but that’s what he was, walks right in front of me just as I’m taking the first exposure. Photobombed by a moron. Really, they walk among us. I wasn’t for moving, despite the midgies which were clouding round me. He proceeded to clamber up and over some rocks. Maybe he thought he was a rock climber. Nah, you need to have a brain for that. I was waiting for him to fall in, that would have made a good shot. I took a few shots with him in different positions to make sure I could easily edit him out later. When I was happy with what I’d got I walked back to Scamp who was standing near his keeper (who was quite apologetic) and said to her, “Don’t worry, the monkey won’t be in the final shot.” Some folk shouldn’t be allowed out, even with their keeper.

After that, we had to cut our walk short as I was getting eaten alive by midgies. We had a quick lunch at the cafe. Scones are good and coffee is brown(ish) water. Don’t risk it if you like your coffee to taste of coffee. If you normally have your caffeine hit in Starbucks, you probably won’t notice any difference. After that we drove down the other side of the Duke’s Pass and on to the Loch Ard road which is a dead end road after about 20 miles or so. We didn’t venture that far. We stopped in a parking place and Scamp opted to stay in the car while I went looking for more photo opportunities without idiot photobombers. Met a group of mallard ducks that seemed quite happy to pose for me until it became obvious that I had nothing worth eating with me, then they went off in search of better feeders. Photographed some wee sailing dinghies on the loch, passed an outdoor wedding reception in full swing (hope they had lots of DEET spray) and drove back home. Bypassed Callandar just in case the polis hadn’t filled their quota of speed merchants.

Dinner was yesterday’s curries reheated and served with rice and home made flatbreads. I think they tasted even better than yesterday. Maybe it was just that we’d been out in the fresh air. Looking for similar weather tomorrow. That would be nice.

It didn’t get any better – 12 August 2016

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DSC_6090- flickr--225Got up. Had coffee. Went to the physio to be ‘manipulated’, pummelled, stretched and have pins stuck in my shoulder. All the while listening to the Zumba instructor next door exhorting her class to “Don’t give up now!!” (It beats me why people go to these classes to listen to ‘thump-thump’ music while sweating half their body fluids away and being castigated by a skinny sadistic instructor. It must be the masochistic streak in the human race. You wouldn’t catch me being tortured for an hour and paying for it.) Rested for half an hour and then had more pummelling, stretching and ‘manipulation’ before being set free. Until next week. Came home. Had mince with an egg cooked in it served on a piece of bread for lunch (Quite a West of Scotland delicacy). Dinner was provided by Bombay Dreams and as usual their portions were enormous. Half today and half tomorrow, we decided. No point in stuffing ourselves. Not for breakfast, though à la N. D’Ag. No, reheated for tomorrow’s dinner.

It rained all day.

Tomorrow will be better say the weather fairies. Sunday will be sunny and warm they say. We can only live in hope. If not, construction of the Ark will begin tomorrow.

Another Dull Day – 11 August 2016

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAMet Fred for coffee in the middle of the day.  Came home.  Went for a walk.  Photographed a two headed swan at St Mo’s.  Came home.  Had mince and tatties with carrots and ‘roop for dinner. That was the highlight of the day by a million miles!  It rained all day.  Heavens, it can only get better now, surely.  Can’t stand the possibility of watching another night of boring olympics badly filmed and with commentary by over excited numpties who would give morons a bad name.  I think I may go and watch paint dry.

Fish Again – 5 August 2016

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E8051190-Edit- flickr--218Out fairly early to pick up our fish and crab meat from Oyster Oyster in Linlithgow. While we were walking into the town from the carpark, I saw this view of St Michael’s church spire pointing upwards behind the trees. Everyone thinks this is part of Linlithgow Palace and it looks as if it should be, but no. It dates from 1964 and is made mainly of aluminium.

When we got back it was time for a technology injection with a coffee or two with Val. It was good to exchange problems and solutions with someone who understands why that borked Nexus is a “wee shalenge”[sic]. As I expected, he suggested yet another way to solve the Nexus problem, or maybe just a chance to create a new problem.

When I got back it was time to prepare the main course. To speed up the preparation of the sauce, I decided to slice the ginger with the mandolin. Yes, JIC, I managed to slice my finger once again. The good news is that it was ginger I was slicing, not orange, so no acidic juice got in the cut. However, I had to continue the prep with two plasters on the cut and my hand in a plastic glove. Thanks to Nurse Scamp, it wasn’t any worse. Fish is now prepped and bread is baked without any more dramas. Just waiting for our guests to arrive.

Fanatics, Festivals and Food, always Food – 30 July 2016

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E7301117- flickr--212Today was the start of the Merchant City Festival and we usually try to visit at least once during the week or the weekend, depending on how long it runs. This year it’s for a whole week. What we didn’t know, well I didn’t know, because Scamp with her ear to everything that’s going on everywhere had already heard that there was a YES2 rally in George Square. Oh dear, I fear I may offend some people here, so if you have nationalist tendencies, it’s probably better that you go in to the kitchen now. I’ll call you back when I’ve finished denouncing Nick the Chick and all her deluded followers.

I don’t know who was selling the big saltire flags (probably made in China), but they were doing a roaring trade. The world and his wife seemed to have one. If you weren’t waving your flag, you had to wear it, like a cheapo Superman cape. We even saw a couple of dogs wearing them, but they didn’t look as excited as their owners. Most of the participants had at least some blue paint on their faces too, trying to look like William Wallace, the famous Mel Gibson look-a-like. E7301119- flickr--212There were even some English Scots.  I do not know what that was all about.  One incensed bloke was bawling into a microphone connected to a loudspeaker. I really should have told him that the purpose of the loudspeaker was to avoid him having a very sore throat the next day. The clue is in the first syllable of LOUDspeaker. He was saying “WE’RE NOT LIKE THE OTHER PARTY” Which other party was never made clear. “WE’RE HAPPY TO LET ANYONE SPEAK. ANYONE CAN COME HERE AND SPEAK” as he held on grimly to his microphone. Everyone else who had come to the rally, and there were hundreds of them, was pumped up with excitement and national fervour. You could easily tell the tourists. They were the ones wandering around, without flags, but with confused looks on their unpainted faces. As I walked through the throngs I was amazed by the amount of excitement and happiness. Give a boy and girl flags to wave on a sunny day and they’ll be happy. Give them their own country to run? Aye Right!

I enjoyed looking at the motorbikes, none of which were made in Scotland. Scamp just looked embarrassed.

Right you, you can come back out of the kitchen now. The bad bit’s finished.

Wandered down to the Merchant City to see what was happening. As usual there were crowds of people there. A few ‘maddies’ wandering around entertaining the punters, like the four blokes standing on one of the marble ‘pews’ in the pedestrian area. They were spray tanned, wearing plastic nappies and miming in harmony – think synchronised swimming on land … with nappies! Bands were playing their wee hearts out and food stalls were selling every kind of food imaginable. You could even challenge Andy Murray Live to return two of his serves. One man said “It’s no’ even the real wan! It’s jist a big TV screen.” Come on pal, what did you expect? The double winner of Wimbledon standing there trading shots and insults with the cream of Glasgow’s shell suit wearing tennis afficionados? I don’t think so.

E7301121- flickr--212Maybe it was the smell of the street food, but we both agreed it was lunch time and headed off towards the Italian Kitchen. Lovely lunch. It’s far too long since we last darkened its doors. Hopefully it won’t be long before we are back.  Scamp had Salmon with a pesto sauce fried potatoes and a side salad.  I had salsiccia and chilli pizza

On the bus back, one wee boy recognised me as his ex-teacher (I nearly slipped up there and said ‘old’ teacher). Scamp said “You see, somebody remembers you!” That kind of made my day a bit brighter.

Joke:

A Scotsman, and Englishman and an Irishman go in to a bar, but they couldn’t stay. They had to come out, because the Englishman didn’t like it.

The phone was there all the time – 27 July 2016

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27 JulyScamp phoned up about the replacement phone for the one with the broken seal. For once she got a Scottish voice. She started to explain the saga when the guy broke into the stream of consciousness and asked “Samsung?” When she agreed, it was a Samsung, he told her that it happens all the time. Allegedly Samsung do open the boxes to make sure that the Samsung phone in the box is up to scratch (and has no actual scratches). It’s their version of Quality Control. Why then don’t they seal the boxes back up? Dunno, neither did he. He did however assure her that the phone was legal and ok to use. Why couldn’t the other three duffers have told her so in the first place, causing her untold stress and a needless 48 hour wait before she got the phone working? Vodafone. I think that’s the answer. The company that doesn’t know its arse from its elbow. I’m going to take the assistant at Vodafone Glasgow’s advice and go with Tesco next time. In fact, I may take Fred P’s advice and buy a phone and just do Pay as You Go next time. For all the call time I use and the minimal amount of text I send, I could survive on PaYG, with a decent amount of download time.

That started the day off a lot better than yesterday. The sun came out too for a while, so we went to sunny Falkirk to get some fish for the tea. Seabass en Papillote, just like I made for us and Hazy last week. I hope I spelt it right, but I can’t be bothered looking it up!

Went on an expedition to St Mo’s later to get some photos. Found lots of hoverflies. Always like taking their photos. There are such a variety of them around at this time of year. Also lots of Soldier Beetles AKA Bonking Beetles for obvious reasons!

Finally I tried getting Annette’s Nexus 7 to work again using yet another hopeful sounding ‘solution’ from an ‘expert’ on the net. It didn’t work, but it did kill it completely this time. Now it won’t charge either. I think I may have eventually ‘bricked’ it. Good riddance.

Hopefully another dry day tomorrow when we can go out and I can get a couple of landscapes photographed if not painted. We’ll see, it’s all in the lap of the weather fairies.

A more relaxing day – 22 July 2016

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22 July bToday was a day for relaxing after the last couple of driving days.

We were intending getting the bus in to Glasgow, but as the rain was pelting down (the garden needs it), we changed plans and drove in. For lunch we went to the Chinese restaurant on Sauchiehall Street (AKA Sausage Roll Street) where Scamp used to take her mum for lunch. We’d been there before. It always was in the “Cheap and Cheerful” category, but today it was only “Cheap”. The food left a lot to be desired. My Sweet and Sour Chicken was tasteless, apart from the sickly sauce. Scamp’s Chicken Pineapple was also tasteless. I don’t think we’ll be back. I think we might be spoilt by Cotton House.

After we came back, I went to get petrol because we’d used up all the Chessington petrol from yesterday. Then I went for a walk down the Luggie Water. Not a lot there to photograph apart from some early fruiting rasps. Drove over to Moodiesburn then over the back road and found some horses in a field. Took Harry the Horse’s photo, and drove home.

Jackie, Scamp’s sister and her husband referred to previously as Murd were on the way north from Southampton and I was going to give them a lift from Glasgow. That was before they got caught up in an almighty traffic jam just before Tebay services. They were due in Glasgow around 7.30pm. It’s now 10.30pm and they’re still not here. They told us they would get a taxi from Glasgow instead of tying up my night, which was very good of them.

A relaxing day for us, but maybe not for Jackie and Murd

Don’t know what we’re doing tomorrow. To quote Scamp “It depends on the weather”

Homeward Bound part 2 – 21 July 2016

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E7211012- flickr--203After yesterday’s journey into the epicurean dungeon that is Lancashire services I decided that we wouldn’t risk salmonella, dysentery or norovirus and would leave earlier than planned hoping to find a cleaner service station.

I woke around 5am and couldn’t get back to sleep, but I lay until almost 7am when Scamp, having been woken by me asked if I wanted to just have a cuppa and head off. I agreed with her suggestion and by 8am we were washed, dressed and on our way north again. As I expected, the traffic was much lighter today and we made good time. We stopped at Southwaite services. What a difference. Light, clean and with people who wanted to serve you. Apparently their dishwasher was working because they had proper cups, not made of cardboard. I don’t know what it is about cardboard cups I don’t like. I think it’s something to do with the feel of the cardboard against my lips. Picky? Not me. Anyway, having had a proper breakfast and a proper coffee, or peppermint tea in Scamp’s case, we journeyed on. Weather was much more Scottish as we crossed the border and we even manages a little bit of rain.  Not a lot, just enough to welcome us home.  It was much cooler too, around 19ºc most of the way.  We turned into our street just after 11am. Last week we were just getting on the road at that time.

The rest of the day was spent lazing around, backing up computer stuff, posting photos and generally winding down. I got ready to take my bike out later in the afternoon, that was when the rain came on, so I did nothing instead. A bit of a waste, that’s the way it is.

Tomorrow, the bus will take the strain.

PS
I mentioned yesterday about the poor WiFi in the Travel Lodge.  I didn’t manage to get the blog posted using it.  I imagine there were too many words for it to handle 😉
What I finally did was use my iPhone which was connecting with four bars of 3G.  I created a personal hotspot and used that to finally upload the blog post.  Isn’t technology wonderful when it works.