Category: Food

Out to lunch – 14 February 2024

Posted on by Zogman

But a case of the Curate’s Egg

Today Scamp mentioned that she would like to visit a new garden centre called Homegrown. We’d nothing better to do, so we drove over to Gartcosh to see what it was like.

We found it easily enough, just a few minutes off the M73. It was a new-build rectangular block. We went straight upstairs to the restaurant and were one of the last to get a table. All the other tables were already reserved, but didn’t have any notice on them to say they were not free. We both settled on the soup, Leek & Potato, and chose to have coffee afterwards. The soup was fine, lots of flavour, but apart from the obvious L&P I couldn’t quite put my finger on the other ingredients. When we finished and the waitress was taking away the plate I asked what was in the soup and that’s when things started to go wrong. The waitress just couldn’t answer my question and mumbled “Well, leeks and potatoes … “ Scamp leapt to her aid by suggesting “Celery?” She agreed that “there was celery in it and onions…”

In the end I gave up and we both ordered coffee and a scone. When mine arrived it was absolutely roasting. Just one notch down from glowing red hot. Worse, it was brick hard (probably a fire brick.) The final flaw was that it was baked onto the black serviette it was sitting on, I had to tear the thing off. Scamp said her’s was fine, but a bit hard. When a second waitress came to take away our plates, Scamp mentioned the problem with the scones. The waitress made a few noises, but seemed unable to string the noises into a coherent sentence. We paid and left to see what treats the shop and plants had in store for us.

The answer was “Not Much”. It seemed a bit of a shambles. Shopping trolleys filled with cushions were being wheeled about in quite a tight space and shelves were being re-stacked in the shop area. Some lovely pieces were on display for ‘lovely’ prices. The outside plants area was the same. Lots of workers with wheelbarrows bring in raw materials and the sound of a Stihl saw cutting through sheet steel. Almost everything was overpriced compared to the garden centres we’re used to visiting.  The overall impression was of a work in progress.

Would I visit again? Well, today could just have been a bad day, but there was definitely a feeling of style over substance here. Also, people were being turned away from the restaurant because tables had been pre-booked. That is fine if there is a card on the table to say ‘Reserved’, but there wasn’t. They company might also think of investing in buzzers to hand to potential customers if they want to keep them onside. I’m usually happy to give a company a second chance, but I’m not sure I would for this one.

We drove home. I’d managed to get a couple of grey photos of a grey landscape on a grey day. I turned one of them into a sepia toned monochrome image that would become PoD.

Next task was to get sketches and paintings done for today and yesterday in EDiF.
Yesterday’s prompt was Lime, so being cantankerous, I made it Limes. After a couple of aborted attempts at using salt to give me the texture I was looking for in the lime’s skin, I eventually searched on YouTube and found the answer. I learned that the best way is not to remove the paint using salt, but to add the texture with a fine brush and a stippling action. Lo and behold, the additive method works. I’m done now with limes. I’ll keep them and the salt for Margaritas!

Today’s prompt was for “Rose”. This might have had something to do with today’s date, 14th February is traditionally Valentine’s Day. To me it was just a chance to sketch and paint a rose, more or less freehand with very little pencil sketching. I did it in what an art teacher once called my ‘splashy style’ totally the opposite of yesterday’s ‘Lime’ which was quite tight and calculated. Strangely I enjoyed both techniques.

Tomorrow looks a bit like today as far as the weather is concerned. I’m not sure where we will be going yet, if anywhere.

Blue skies in Paisley – 13 February 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Out taking photos with Alex.

I was out fairly early today, early for me, anyway. Walked to the bus stop under a bright blue sky and with the sun to brighten my day. Got the bus in to Glasgow and for once it was Alex who was late. His bus was going the slow way for a change. I didn’t mind, it gave me a chance to do some people watching in the bus station.

When he arrived we went for a coffee and discussed our options. I agreed with his suggestion of Paisley but rejected his offer of the Riverside Museum. He suggested we put my suggestion of Bowling on the back burner until the better weather came in. So we settled on Paisley as a destination. We walked down to Central Station bought our tickets and had just enough time to walk along to platform 12 to catch the train.

It’s a short journey to Paisley from Glasgow and so much better than driving there. I remember the pain it was to navigate round the one way system to get to Glenburn when we were just starting going to the tea dances. It was strange that the sat nav would give us directions from the house to Glenburn via Paisley town centre, but on the way home it took us a totally different way. I never did understand that. Anyway, we arrived in Paisley and started making our way to the waterfalls of the White Cart Water for some motion photos before Alex suggested we go for something to eat.

We wandered round Paisley looking for somewhere we could get a decent lunch and eventually settled on The Ugly Duck. A dingy looking place but the food was brilliant. Nothing flash, just a massive cheese burger with two burgers, a slice of bacon between them, pickles, lettuce and a slice of melting cheese. All washed down with a coke for Alex and Irn Bru for me. First time I’ve had Irn Bru for years. Now that we were fed, we made our way down to the White Cart to get some photos.

The weather was still just what the weather fairies had predicted. Sunny with the occasional cloud to give a bit of interest. The water was coming over the rapids at quite a rate, not surprising given the amount of rain that had fallen last night. We spent about half an hour choosing different viewpoints around the rocks.

When we had had enough we walked down to the Abbey and took a few photos there, both inside and outside. We didn’t linger long because the building was closing just after 4pm, but by then we had all the photos we wanted. When we were coming out a bloke stopped me and asked if we were there to photograph the Alien. That is Alien as in the film of the same name. I told him I hadn’t seen it the last time we had been there, so he pointed it out to me. Ha! Hidden in plain sight. I got some shots of it. It’s the spitting image of Alien.

Alex wanted to get some photos of the Town Hall and when we rounded the corner that would take us to it, the sun was displaying it perfectly. Another twenty odd photos and we were almost finished. Another bloke, about my age, stopped to ask if we’d got any good photos and then told me a story about how he and his pal had ‘borrowed’ his pal’s dad’s canoe when they were boys, and paddled down the rapids and on to the River Clyde where they fell in the water after clearing the rapids and travelling all that way. I never thought to ask him what had happened to the canoe!

We were indeed done. We walked back to the station, just in time again for the train back to Central. A cup of coffee and we parted company, but not before I handed him his birthday present which was the bow tie I’d made for him and struggled with for about a week. He’s just sent me a photo showing him wearing it! He really suits it.

Scamp had been working in the garden while I was off galavanting, and seemed to enjoy her day. Dinner was ‘Rats’ for Scamp on a pancake which looked more like a Crepe Suzette thickness than a pancake. I had a couple with syrup and they were lovely.

PoD just had to be the rapids that bloke had shot all those years ago. And I managed to finish off the prompt for yesterday which was Burgundy. I described it as:

“A rather messy glass of red wine and an empty bottle that might at one time have contained an expensive red wine. I enjoyed painting this subject, and I followed my mantra for all edible (or drinkable) still lifes which is to remove the evidence. And that is what I’m doing now. Hic!
Cheers!!”

No plans for tomorrow, but it looks like the weather will revert to rain again.

Going for the messages – 12 February 2024

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Just going for the Monday shop.

In the morning we drove over in sunshine to Tesco and bought some essentials. Monday is for essentials like milk and bread, except they had no filtered milk. None at all. There is something screwed with our local Tesco just now. Usually it’s no bread on a Monday or no rolls. It’s like the local Tesco is the second class citizen to the ‘Big’ Tesco at the town centre. No filtered milk was a new one on us though. They actually had bread, and rolls for once, but we didn’t want them!

Back home, after lunch, we watched the big black clouds come rolling in from the north west … and just roll past. Then the sun shone again. I could wait no longer, I put my boots on and went for a walk in St Mo’s with the A7. It had clouded over again by the time I got there, but a strong wind was breaking up the clouds quite efficiently and just for a minute the sun shone on the reed beds out in the pond and lit them up beautifully. I got two shots before the clouds closed the good light down again. I was happy with my shot which was just as well, because the sun didn’t come back again until I was home.

Dinner tonight was a plate of Giovanni Rana mushroom tortelloni, and very nice it was too, served with butter and grated parmesan. I’d a bit of work to do with the sewing machine after dinner and after a couple of silly mistakes everything worked out fine. Still some stuff to do to it, but it should be ready for next week.

I didn’t quite get round to sketching the bottle of Burgundy that was requested in the prompt. Instead I splash some paint on an ink sketch of a wine glass, forgetting the ink was water soluble and it all went a bit tricky, but there was no saving it, so instead I spattered more red paint on it and I quite liked the effect. Hopefully you’ll get to see it tomorrow.

PoD was indeed the light on the reeds in the pond and it looks quite good after being in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Hoping to meet Alex tomorrow for a photo walk, maybe in Paisley with the option of going to Bowling for some boat photos some time soon. Scamp has herself a free day to do with as she wishes. I’m intending to travel by bus.

Recipe from the past – 11 February 2024

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A dull misty day with occasional rain showers. Oh for some sun!

After a lazy start to the day, and after watching Laura Kuenssberg ripping into more politicians, I decided to go out in the early afternoon and get some photos taken, even if it was raining, but first there was a lamb breast to prepare and put in the oven

I’d found the recipe in my blog for just over a year ago and it had worked then, so it would work again. I had recorded the gas settings and the timings, so I stuck strictly to them. With it safely in the oven, I left Scamp in charge and walked across to St Mo’s

I did the circular tour of the pond and did manage to get some decent photos for a change. Of course it was when I was walking home that the really good light appeared and by that time I’d almost filled the 16GB card that was my self-imposed limit for the day. I did manage to squeeze another couple of shot in just to make the most of the light. As it happened, the PoD turned out to be one of the first shots I’d taken of a group of Cladonia lichen. I didn’t quit manage to get all of it in focus with a single shot, so did the next best thing and took one shot focusing on the nearest stalk and another of the further away one, then blended the two in Affinity Photo which is downright brilliant at this trick.

The prompt today asked for Olive. I did think of painting a picture of Olive Oyl, but I’d painted that lady some time ago in response for another prompt. So instead I tried the easy answer and drew some Kalamata olives in a wee bowl. I love olives of whatever variety, but have to be careful not to eat too many, if you understand what I mean. Luckily for me I didn’t have any in the house, so the temptation did not arise.

The lamb was quite excellent and just as good as I remembered it from a year ago. Served with potatoes, carrots, turnip and cabbage. Scamp, of course, only had the veg.

Spoke to Jamie and heard about his calamitous week with Simonne falling off her skittish horse, but no bones broken, just a bit painful. The latest setback is that there may be a problem with the new dormer windows. All to do with one member of the council being off ill, so no decisions can be made until they return. Really? If this was a company they’d all be sacked and replaced long ago. If it wasn’t for bad luck Jamie and Simonne wouldn’t have any luck at all.

We watched a comedy tonight. It was called Death in Paradise. It’s becoming more of a farce every week. Every ‘actor’ more wooden than the last.

Apparently we need MORE messages tomorrow. I thought we’d bought enough last week and on Saturday, but it appears I’m wrong and we’re probably going shopping again tomorrow.

 

 

Just for a change, the sun shone for a while this morning – 10 February 2024

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It didn’t last, but it was a sign of things to come, hopefully.

We managed to get out early today, well, early for us at least. I suggested Stirling as the place to go and off we went. I’d checked the battery in the A6500 and it was in fairly good order. I checked the SD card and formatted it. Then we left for Stirling and halfway down the motorway I realised I’d left the camera bag (with camera) on the sofa in the house! Never mind. I had my phone with me that would see me through the amount of photos I’d take.

After cruising around a busy Waitrose car park we finally chanced upon a space and squeezed ourselves into it then we went for a walk round Stirling. We both wandered round our own collection of shops and agreed to meet up later, which we did. Scamp suggested an M&S curry deal for dinner and I agreed. Dinner bought we asked each other, did we really want to go for a coffee? Neither of us were all that interested, so we walked back to the car and dumped the dinner in the boot then went to see what we could find in Waitrose. I got a rolled breast of lamb that will hopefully become my dinner tomorrow and Scamp got a couple of nice pieces of fish. Paid and added the takings to the growing pile in the boot, then made someone’s day bay nudging forward into the long, long queue of folk cruising round looking for a free space. A delighted looking woman in a van was happy to take ours and we drove home.

It’s funny the way weather works. When we were driving towards Stirling the sky ahead of us was much lighter than that behind us. When we were driving home in the early afternoon, the light ahead of us was much lighter than that behind us again! How does that happen?

Back home I went for a walk in St Mo’s WITH the camera this time, but got nothing interesting, so I walked down through the muddy wilderness behind St Mo’s to the shops and bought a load of stuff we didn’t need, but which was well received when I got home.

PoD was a quick phone shot in Stirling of three folk sitting on a bench, each texting on their phones. It’s entitled “Happy Tappers”.

Today’s prompt was “Ash”. This tree might soon be a thing of the past with Ash dieback being so rife these days. In my own street about half a dozen trees were felled in autumn last year. Some of them weren’t even ash trees, which brings into question the integrity of some of the tree fellers the council employs.

Today’s prompt was ‘Ash’. I always liked playing with the ash seeds when I was younger. We never called them Keys, we called them ‘propellers’ because of their shape and also because of the way they spun when they fell from the trees. Let’s hope some clever folk can devise a way to save the trees and staunch the damage done by the disease.

Dinner was that curry and it still looks like the lamb breast will be tomorrow’s dinner for me at least.

No real plans for tomorrow. Maybe Glasgow Green.

We did lunch – 9 February 2024

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Just an ordinary lunch in Brodens. It was that sort of day. A day for good filling food and a glass of something to wash it down.

I admit that I suggested it because it was Friday and for no other good reason. Also, Scamp had raved about the Fish ’n’ Chips in what used to be The Masonic Arms in Condorrat and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Well, the fuss was all about the slab of Peterhead Haddock in Breadcrumbs served with hand cut skin-on chips and the Breadcrumbs have a capital ‘B’ because they just made the fish great in both our opinions. It didn’t quite knock their Steak Pie off the number one pedestal, but it came very close. The lunch of champions.

The weather was awful. A bitter east wind driving rain that was horizontal at times with no letup all day long. Now at about 11.30pm the rain is tapering off a bit and the wind isn’t howling as much, but it’s still pretty cold.

I did some renovation work on yesterday’s project, but I think I may have to do a ‘Ribbit’ to quote Hazy and rip it all out and start again. Pity, it looked quite good, but it just didn’t work.

Today’s prompt was Charcoal. I hate charcoal. The only time I’ve used charcoal sticks is on an evening class on portraiture in college at the town centre. I found these fragile bits of burnt twig too messy to work with and spent more time cleaning up the paper than putting charcoal on paper. I still have the box you see here with about five of the original twelve sticks and a lot of charcoal chips. Charcoal isn’t for me (and neither was portraiture), so I’ll draw a rather grainy smudged line under it and say no more.

We watched an uninspiring episode of Death in Paradise that had an over complicated plot line and the usual almost ready to retire actors, making a few bob. That is one of the things that keep us watching. “Who is that?” and “What was she in?” Today’s guest appearance was Sean Maguire who was ‘Teggs’ Ratcliffe in Grange Hill from 1978 to 2008. A couple of my readers may remember him. Allegedly he was also in Eastenders, but we never watch is so we can’t verify that.

Basically that was it. PoD was a photo of a bunch of pink carnations with a very old joke tagged on to them. When we were walking back from Brodens I made the conscious decision not to go out for a walk in St Mo’s. I may be daft, but I’m not stupid. Neither did I want to catch a cold from the rain and that vicious east wind. I think I’m with Vixen in the avoidance of bad weather brigade.

Tomorrow looks better say the weather fairies. Not sure I believe them yet. We’ll wait and see.

Mountain climbing and lunch with Shona – 6 February 2024

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Today we were taking Shona out to lunch.

Scamp and I had planned to take Shona to Cafe Bothy. It’s actually called Coffee Bothy now, but we prefer the original name. It’s a great wee restaurant in a place called Blairlogie in Clackmannanshire. Isobel was the first one who found it, being guided by her granddaughter and Isobel introduced us to it. Shona had never heard of it, which isn’t surprising as it’s in the middle of nowhere on a farm off a single track road. Shona had Fish ’n’ Chips, Scamp had Mac ’n’ Cheese and I had Mince ’n’ Tatties. All with the apostrophe correctly place before and after the n you’ll notice! That was the main course. We all opted for cakes rather than pudding afterwards and it was Strawberry Tart for Shona, Cream Doughnut for Scamp and a Gypsy Cream for me with coffees to follow of course.

Fed and watered, Scamp suggested we drive to Dollar park for a walk. Unfortunately we couldn’t find it and instead we drove up and up and up a steep single-track road to a car park for Castle Campbell instead. From there we walked up and up and up, then down the other side. We had walked up the hill many years ago, but we’d forgotten just how steep the climb is. The two ladies gave up, when it looked like we’d have to wade across a ford, but I was determined to get a photo on such a beautiful day. As it happened, I didn’t need to ford the burn because there was a bridge tucked away out of sight from the road. I did manage to get up to the top, and got the photo I was hoping for, but I was really knackered after it. The castle wasn’t open. It doesn’t open until April. We may go back then and if we can get parked again, we might take our time and go visit the castle properly.

I walked back down the hill from the castle then over the bridge and up the hill on the other side wondering all the time what kind of vehicle the custodians must have if they travel that road every day to open up. Whatever it is it most certainly isn’t a wee blue car! The drive home was scenic, but I didn’t see anything that was any better than a castle among the trees with a rushing burn beside it. Very ‘Outlander’.

We dropped Shona off at her house with time to spare before Ben came home from school. Driving into the sun was strenuous, not that I’m complaining because the sun was shining, far from it. But I decided I needed to clean the glass in the car inside and out. When I got the Juke I got a big bag of useless spray bottles as part of the ‘deal’. I used the Bug Remover spray and the Seagull Crap remover too, but I remembered as I was driving home, peering through a grey windscreen that there was Glass Cleaner in the bag. I found it when we got home and cleaned all the windows inside and out. I also cleaned the wing mirrors. Hopefully that should make driving less of a bind.

The prompt for today was “Plum”. Being a generous person I added a couple more plums to the singular fruit that was requested and just to be sure they were fresh, I ate half of one. That’s what you see here. Believe that and you’re softer than these plums look!!

Alex had to cancel our photo walk this week because he was needed at home. Hopefully we’ll get out next week. This week was tight anyway. Just one of these weeks when everything piles up.

Tomorrow we may be going dancing in Motherwell. Scamp has been talking about it for weeks and we really need to go there to see how good it is and if it’s an alternative to Glenburn.

Broadwood Loch – 3 February 2024

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It was a much better day than we’d expected. Occasional threat of rain that never materialised.

Finally decide we needed some exercise and went for a walk round Broadwood Loch. As Scamp always says, there’s not much in it for me. It’s a big soulless manmade loch. Loads of swans and a good few geese, but that’s about it. Obviously the Smew that caused so much excitement last month had flown the coop, so to speak. We decided we could extend the walk into the woods and had to smile at the decoration on the ‘Christmas Tree’. Every year there are more tree decorations on it. I don’t know who does it, but they have to be congratulated. It’s always worth a photo.

Further into the woods a great deal of work had been done to improve the path and fill in the hollows that used to flood every year. It took a long time for the work to be completed, but for once it was worth the wait. I kept looking for the flooded part and was quite surprised when we arrived back on the main path.

We curtailed the part of the walk that usually takes us round the exercise machines and instead walked round to M&S for a pizza and some spicy hot chicken nuggets that are advertised as Chicken Pakora by someone who has never had pakora before. A loaf and two pineapple cakes from Iceland completed our purchases and we walked home. Four and a bit miles according to Scamp’s pedometer and just over 9200 steps according to my Fitbit.

Scamp had started to make some soup, before the walk so when we got back she turned it on again and added some more veg to the mix. The soup was intended for tonight’s dinner, but the chicken stuff and the pizza was more than enough.

We watched a film on iPlayer called The Good Liar. Part way into it I got the feeling I’d seen it before, but when Scamp said she thought so too, I knew I was right. However, we couldn’t remember how it finished! So we just watched it. Good acting by the cast and a good ending. A few sweary words in it, but nothing the good lady of the house hasn’t heard before.

I was getting tired when it finished and decided to leave the blog and the EDiF sketch until Sunday, so this is a catch-up as I’m sure you are aware.

The PoD is a Canada goose we saw on the pond. Not brilliant by any manner or means, but it ticks the PoD box.

Tomorrow looks wet. That’s all I’m going to say.

A blustery day again – 2 February 2024

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Very windy during the night, but it did calm down a bit in the afternoon.

I’ll admit it. It was a lazy day, although we did walk down to the shops to get some things for tonight’s dinner. I suppose it was a February day with wind, rain and overall, not that cold. I spent most of the morning backing up January’s photos onto a 4GB external drive and then finding that I didn’t have enough space on my 2GB drive to do the second BU. I’ll maybe need to get another external soon.

After lunch we walked down to the shops for potatoes, bread and pineapple tarts. A little Friday treat. We walked back up past St Mo’s school, then Scamp walked home while I went round the pond a couple of times. PoD was a gorse bush with a little wee yellow flower on the top. I hadn’t realised until recently that gorse bushes aren’t only evergreen, they also flower all year round. Dangerous looking sharp spikes on the bush.

Today’s prompt was ‘Copper’.
“Think out of the lines”, the lady admin said, so for once I did what I was told. Police (Polis in Scotland) are sometimes known as Cops or Coppers, so I chose a Scottish Polisman’s hat as my solution to today’s problem. Sketched in pencil and lined in with fountain pen and black ink then blocked in with a Pentel black brush pen before finishing off with a Posco white brush pen. I quite liked the monochrome effect.

I suppose that was about it for today. I’d intended writing to Alex, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

I don’t see us going far tomorrow, but you never know. The weather
may improve and pigs might fly.

 

 

Out to lunch – 1 February 2024

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Out for some garden shopping and then lunch. It’s a hard life.

Dropped in at our new next-but-one neighbour and introduced ourselves properly. We’d bumped into her on Tuesday, but we were rushing to get the bus to Glasgow. Scamp felt bad about that, so we made good today. Then we were on our way to Stirling, but not to Waitrose, to Lakeland and Dobbies.

It’s easy getting parked at Dobbies which used to be the only shop in the retail park. Now that Lakeland has been added and various in-house department have been added to Dobbies the car park has become busier, but it’s still fairly empty, especially on weekdays. While Scamp was browsing in Lakeland I took the opportunity to get some photos, because the light on the nearby Ochil Hills was lovely. Usually I have to poke the camera lens through the two three metre high fence to get a photo, but today the gate was unlocked and I could walk right through and get an unrestricted view of the hills and the Wallace Monument. I took full advantage of it. Then I joined Scamp in Lakeland. She wanted a new Silicone Lemon Preserver that she will use for limes. We looked at other stuff too, of course. There are so many things in Lakeland that we never realised we couldn’t do without.

We walked through to Dobbies because Scamp wanted some sweet pea seeds and a few bulbs. I wanted a new pair of boot socks and a bag of cactus compost for potting up my split rock plant. We got everything except the seeds, but she found some other seeds to replace them. Isn’t it amazing that you can go to a garden centre to buy socks.

We drove out of Dobbies and headed north to The Smiddy near Blairdrummond for lunch. For Scamp it was easy, Mac ’n’ Cheese, her favourite and apparently it was just as good as it usually is. For me it was Gobi Curry (roasted cauliflower curry). First time I’ve seen it on the menu, but it was really, really good. The cauliflower was crunchy, the curry was acceptably hot and at first I thought I’d miss the rice, but the flatbread it was served with was an ideal replacement. I’d have it again in an instant. I got a couple of burgers to cook at the butcher shop and a couple of beef olives too. A bag of coffee beans and a miniature of gin rounded off our purchases in the deli. Another couple of landscapes and we headed home.

This being the 1st of February, my first sketch was due today. The prompt was Honey. I thought of drawing a honey drizzler, but I’d drawn one last year … or was it the year before? Anyway, I found a bottle of Rowse honey in the cupboard and thought it would be perfect. A nice easy sketch to start with.

PoD went to the view from the open gate over to the Ochil Hills. Photoshop made sure nobody would know there was a motorway cutting across the photo!

No plans as yet for tomorrow, but Nelly needs to move into her new house once I mix up the compost.