Category: Food

Slippin’ and a Slidin’ – 22 July 2023

Posted on by Zogman

We were dancing in a restricted floor today. About a third of the floor was cordoned off because of the risk of sliding on a very slippery floor. Something to do with a kids party last week.

Only four couples and the teachers so the reduced dancing space wasn’t really much of a problem. Nobody seemed to know what had been applied to the floor, presumably to clean up after last week’s kids party, but it did make the floor quite slippy. Thankfully resourceful Jane had a solution. She poured some water in the corner of the area we were dancing in and encouraged everyone to dip their shoes in it and then wipe it off. It was supposed to make the suede soles more grippy, and it worked!

Two sequence dances to begin with then we launched into the nitty gritty of the Rumba routine we’ve been learning. We knew the figures in the rumba, but these were the little nuances, what Tom Paxton called “the John Wayne dance steps”, the details. If you don’t know who Tom Paxton is, Google him! We learned a lot, especially from Jayne’s instructions, but also from watching Stuart’s footwork. It brought the Rumba to life and made us feel we were ‘dancing’ it, not just going through the motions.

Another sequence dance to allow us to clear our heads, then a little Cha-Cha routine that was composed almost entirely from figures we already knew. I think this was a hastily ‘invented’ cha-cha to have something that could be danced within the reduced area we had available. We picked up most of it and Scamp filmed the demo and shared it on the class WhatsApp page, so we all have something to work on. Again there was an emphasis on the quality of the steps. This may be because we’re booked for a trip to the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool soon!

We drove home along a busy M8, but one without roadworks or 40mph restrictions. Oh Joy! We went to Tesco when we got home because I quite fancied a roll ’n’ sausage, but either the bakers were on strike or the ovens had packed in, but there were no rolls to be had, not real rolls, anyway. They had soft baps, but they’re not real rolls, not Scottish Roll! So it had to be a plain sliced loaf instead.

Dinner had been discussed on the drive home and we settled on Chicken & Pea Traybake. Simplicity itself unless you are scaling it up to feed six as we were a year or two ago in Cumbria. Thankfully it was only the two of us today and all the requirements were available in Tesco.

I was going to go for a walk in St Mo’s after lunch, but there was a soaking drizzle by then and I wasn’t interested in getting wet just to take some photos, so instead I took some photos in the garden instead. I still got wet, yes, but at least it wasn’t far to go to get into the dry again. PoD went to a bunch of daisies. I liked the fact that when I’d strimmed this area in the garden yesterday, I’d deliberately missed the daisies. I hate to chop them down, the are such survivors!

Tomorrow looks better than today, but there are no certainties about the weather these days.

Another box arrives – 21 July 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was out early to go to the dentist to get phase two of her tooth replacement completed. This one involved two injections and a reshaping of the old tooth to take the new ceramic crown. Also she had x-rays taken and an impression made. The procedure lasted just under an hour and a sorry looking Scamp arrived home with that numb mouth we’ve all suffered at some time.

Meanwhile there was a knock at the door just after 9pm and there stood a man holding a big cardboard box with my name on it. It was a new camera, well, it was a second-hand camera really. I rarely buy new now. It was a Sony A6500 first announced in 2016, so it is old, but not ancient. It will replace the A6000 I’ve had for a few years. I’m selling the A6000 to offset the price of the new kit. I had a look over the new camera and it does all the things I want it to and a few other things as well. I think it’s a keeper, but I’ve only had a few hours in a busy day to play test it. Over the weekend I’m hoping to find a dry hour or so in the midst of all the rain that’s predicted to test it out more fully.

 

When Scamp returned and after her mouth had thawed out, I though it might be a good idea to walk down to Broadwood Farm for lunch. I’d had their carvery a couple of times and fish ’n’ chips the last time. Both were perfectly fine and good value for what we paid. The fact that I could also have a pint of Tennents had no bearing on the matter at all. Anyway, today I had one of their pizzas. I think they made a mistake with the pizza. I think they baked the cardboard box and threw away the pizza. It was totally tasteless and running with oil from the pepperoni. Never again.

After we walked back Scamp wanted to cut the grass front and back. I moved all the pots from the front of the front garden to allow her to run the mower down the edge of the tarmac path, then I replaced them. Once she’d finished mowing the front and was emptying the mower, I strimmed around the other three sided of the front grass. Then I strimmed round the pots in the back garden. I don’t mind the strimming, it is hard on my back, but I hate cleaning the mower afterwards.. The actual cutting of the grass takes about 10 – 15 minutes. Cleaning the mower afterwards can take half an hour. There must be a better way to do this.

By then I was thinking I might take the new camera over and introduce it to St Mo’s. It performed quite well, although the battery power diminished very quickly. Admittedly I’d been adjusting settings quite a lot that mean the rear screen is on a lot and that uses a fair bit of power. It’s something I’ll check in the coming week. PoD was a cluster of caterpillars high up in a tree. I think they are the caterpillars of the Buff Tip Moth, but I’m not sure.

The weather predictions for the weekend don’t look great. Lots of rain for most of the UK. I think our first lot is due tonight, so it might be a wet drive to dance class tomorrow. Other than that, no real plans.

Gardening, shopping and organising – 18 July 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Not necessarily in that order, so it’s probably best to get things sorted by date and time.

The shopping came first. I wanted a bag of rolls to enclose the sausages I was intending to cook for my lunch. That meant a trip to Tesco, because The Shops only sell soft bap rolls, not the crispy Scottish rolls we like. So I drove up to Tesco to get the rolls, milk and also some raspberries for Scamp. While I was there I had a look at their selection of hardback books. I’m not entirely sold on my most recent Kindle book, so I might go for something mainstream for a change. Must ask John who the author he told me about is (and write it down this time). So no books for now, but I did get the milk, rolls and rasps. One roll with ordinary sausage and one with red onion sausage. I think the red onion sausage was the better of the two. Scamp had her usual one roll ’n’ egg.

With the afternoon came a shower of rain that looked as if it was going to be heavy and prolonged, so we took the nearly dry washing in. Of course that was what it was waiting for and the rain promptly stopped. Meanwhile I was making tomato soup. Scamp bought two packs of tomatoes that had been reduced in Tesco on Sunday and yesterday I roasted them with an onion and some oil for an hour to concentrate the taste. Today all I had to do was add a litre of water, two stock pots, a tin of tomatoes and a cup water, bring to the boil and simmer for an hour. That left time for mixing up some seaweed fertiliser (disgusting stuff) and giving all the plants front and back a bit of a feed. Meanwhile Scamp was pruning the climbing rose in the back garden. I used the loppers to chop down the higher branches she couldn’t reach, accidentally slicing off two branches with buds still unopened. One of them Scamp managed to retrieve and put in a glass with water on the window ledge. It will open. She has a knack for these things.

We walked down to the shops to get the makings of a stir fry for dinner. Back home the soup had been cooling, and I blitzed it so we could have it as a starter for dinner.

I’ve been meaning to phone Val and take him for coffee. This week I went one further I got Val to set a date and then told Fred who said he was free that day too. So we three are going out for coffee together next week, for the first time in ages – fingers crossed.

I went for a walk around St Mo’s while Scamp interrogated June over the phone about her weekend with Shona. I’m glad to say the bus trip went well. My photography gave me a few insect photos, one of which got PoD. Must get out and do more landscape photos. Insects are ok, but this time of year is great for landscapes too.

The soup was the best I’ve made for a while, but the stir fry didn’t turn out all that well. The pork which was the protein in my share was a bit tough and Scamp’s veggy version was just a bit too spicy hot for comfort and also she thought the veg needed more cooking. I had to agree about the veg, but the sauce was just spicy enough for me. Foodies! Never happy.

So, you see, Gardening, Shopping and Organising, but not necessarily in that order!

Tomorrow if the weather is favourable we may go out somewhere.  Otherwise we’ve got some more shopping to do.

More rain again – 16 July 2023

Posted on by Zogman

It seems we are in a cyclic weather pattern. Wet in the early morning which continues to mid afternoon when the sky brightens a bit and the rain gradually fades out. By evening, around 7pm the sky clears and there is colourful sunset. By late evening and into the night the clouds reappear and the cycle continues.

This pattern has continued for more than a week now with little change and we’re really becoming quite fed up with it. I think it’s time the powers that be had a word with the weather fairies and told them to get the finger out and give us July sunshine in July. That’s what we pay our taxes for and we’re just not getting value for money! Get It Sorted.

Today followed that pattern, albeit with the addition of some wind, surplus from that presently being handed out to those in the south west of the UK. We had two plans for today. One for a damp day and one for a dry one. We implemented the Damp Day Plan and drove up to Tesco to “Get the Messages”. Came home with a boot fairly full of essential foods, beverages plus assorted household stuff.

After lunch I took my recently waxed boots for a walk in St Mo’s along with the A7 and the big, heavy macro lens. I was looking for ‘beasties’. I got one long shot of a Common Darter dragonfly and just over 30 shots of a Wolf Spider. That’s what happens when you forget that you’ve set the High Speed Motorwind. Even worse, I had switched the camera to ‘silent shooting’, so I didn’t even have the machine gun noise to warn me that I was filling up the SD card at a frightening rate with shots I’d just had to ditch in the bin later. No wonder the camera felt heavier when I was going home. I’d dressed for the rain we’d been promised, but the weather fairies got it wrong again and I was sweltering in a, supposedly, breathable rain jacket. Still, I did get the shot of Wolfie, the female wolf spider with her egg sac dragging behind her.

Dinner was Fennel with Cod and Prawns. It’s a long time since I’ve made it and, even if I say so myself, it tasted great. Even better was the fact that there were individual pots of ice cream for dessert! Scamp had Salted Caramel and I had Chocolate.

Spoke to Jamie after dinner and heard that we may indeed be getting a visit from Simonne this coming week as she’s on a whirlwind tour of labs in Central Scotland. Also heard that the plans for the new roof of their house may not be ready in time to get it replaced until spring. The wheels of English Heritage do turn slowly.

Watched Sewing Bee later and commiserated with the contestant who didn’t quite make it to the semi-final. Good to hear in the news that Djokovic was beaten by Alcaraz in the mens final at Wimbledon.

Hopefully we’ll get some good weather tomorrow and we’ll be using the Dry Day plan!

 

 

An early rise – 15 July 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Well, definitely an early rise for me.

We were up, fed, watered, washed (and in my case shaved), dressed and out the door by 9.45am, ready to drive out to Brookfield for our first dance class in a fortnight and only the second dance class in over a month. We were both a bit apprehensive about how we would get on with this dancing lark. We had had a half hour practise last night and it had gone fairly well. I’d remembered more than I thought I would from the Quickstep and we’d pushed it beyond that up to the end of Scamp’s knowledge of the steps.

We had our usual sequence dance to start with. Then instead of the quickstep, the teachers took us through the Rumba routine we’d been learning a fortnight ago. It’s similar to, but not the same as the rumba we learned during Lockdown. It’s our “Zoom Rumba”. Today, as usual they inserted new figures and then tweaked some of the elements we already knew. That worked well, mainly because we already had a good basis to work from.

Next was quickstep and we struggled through it, and again they added new figures but explained them well and allowed us to film them so we could go over them at home.

Overall, it was a worthwhile morning with a lot of consolidation of what we already knew as well as adding in new material. I felt we got round the floor quite well, not perfect by any manner or means, but adequately.

Drove home and after discussing what lunch and dinner would be, we settled on going to the Red Deer on the way home and having a late lunch or and early dinner, call it what you will. Scamp had fish ’n’ chips and I had gammon steak, both served with chips.

It had been raining during the night last night and although it was dry and bright, it looked like it might return to rainy weather later. However, the wet weather stayed away and we had a dry afternoon. I went out for an hour in St Mo’s and got some insect photos. Scamp said she was reading, but I’m sure she was poring over those new moves we’d filmed.

Watched the first night of the Proms and disagreed about a new version of Finlandia. Scamp thought it was too fast and I liked it.

PoD was a cobbled together photo of mating Burnet Moths, technically it’s ‘focus stacking’ and it worked.

No firm plans for tomorrow. If the weather is good we may go for a walk, otherwise we’ll go shopping. Either way, an early rise is not on the cards.

Rain again – 14 July 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Another day of cloudy skies and rain.

It’s almost back to bullet points because neither of us got much done today. Scamp did some washing and hung it out in a dry spell, just as it started to smirr. We decided the breeze would dry the clothes more than the rain would wet them and they stayed like that for about half an hour. That’s when the thunder started and the first big drops hit the window. Then it was a mad rush to bring them in before they got soaked. Surprisingly, our Scamp’s calculations about the wind versus the rain were correct and the clothes were drier than they might have been.

I drove up to Tesco to get lunch. We just can’t get decent Scottish well fired rolls in the new shops, so we have to drive to Tesco for rolls and we might as well get the rest of the messages at the same time. A roll ’n’ flat sausage, well, two rolls actually. One is never enough! After that, Scamp was reading and I was trying to get my head around Adaptive Presets in Lightroom. Sounds boring, but it’s so much more than that. I scrubbed through a 16min video by some bloke explaining a technique that could have been covered two minutes. In fact after all 14 minutes of waffle, he DID explain it all in two minutes at the end. After all that it didn’t actually do anything amazing.

Later in the afternoon I gave up on the idea of a walk today. The rain just wouldn’t let up. Instead, I cut the remains of what might be our last Schoolgirl rose for the year and took some photos of it with the A6000 on a tripod. That’s what you see here and that is the PoD.
This morning I did get a nice surprise on Flickr. My landscape shot across Fannyside Moor which is more of a painting than a photograph, to be honest, got into Explore. Explore is an award in Flickr. Nobody knows who awards it and you are never told why. Some say it’s simply a random selection made by a computer. I tend to believe that. Still an award is an award.

Early rise tomorrow because the dance class starts at 9.30am instead of 10am.

 

 

More rain – 11 July 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Another wet morning, but then the sun shone for a while.

I think it must have rained all night. Certainly, any time I woke during the night I could hear the rain thumping down. That rain lasted all morning, after which the sun did shine for a while, sometimes through the rain and sometimes it seemed to attempt to dry the pavements.

After lunch, Hazy phoned and we had a long discussion about holiday homes with family, not our immediate family, but Neil’s. I liked the idea that Neil’s school finishes a week before the rest of the English schools. Is that really only to allow them to avoid the higher priced school holidays or is there a less sensible reason. Whatever it is, more power to their elbow. Good to know that Penny is getting better and we did learn some interesting techniques for getting cats to swallow medication!

After we’d finished talking, and after I was sure that it was safe for me to take a camera over to St Mo’s, I dressed for the weather and went for a walk. I took the A6000 which isn’t particularly water resistant and not at all waterproof, so the weather check was necessary. I was hoping to get some dragonfly photos. There were a couple of them buzzing each other over the ponds, but neither of them wanted to settle for a portrait session. What I did find were some hoverflies and damselflies and a beautiful Clouded Border moth. White with dark chocolate brown spots on the wings. At first I thought it was dead, but now I’m not so sure. I’m pretty sure it was just resting, almost hidden in the grass. It’s a night flying moth apparently so probably best not to disturb it in daytime. The moth got PoD.

There were a few spots of rain while I was out, but they didn’t come to anything and, in fact, it’s stayed dry all the rest of the day. Probably that will be enough to bring on another deluge!

Dinner tonight was an old favourite, potatoes, cabbage and bacon. Scamp, of course had no bacon. It’s an odd mixture which I remember my mum making and I hated it then. I’ve changed my opinion on this old fashioned food now.

Scamp is booked for lunch with Annette tomorrow and I intend to tidy up some loose ends.

 

Faceplant – 10 July 2023

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It was quite a nice morning today until we were leaving the house. Then the rain started.

We were off to Callander today. Quite a pretty place except on Sundays when the ‘Blue Rinse Brigade’ invade it in their droves. Driving from Stirling in their wee cars at 30mph everywhere. Thankfully, we didn’t see any today because it was Monday and they’re not allowed out on Mondays.

The River Teith or to give it its proper name, Eas Gobhain (upstream of the road bridge it’s the Eas Gobhain, downstream it’s the Teith) was running high today, almost, but not quite overflowing into the carpark. We took a walk round the circular path that follows the river (you choose which one it is!) which was running fast as well as high. The poor wee ducks seemed as if they were jet propelled going downstream, but struggled to make any headway going the opposite direction. It was a fairly short walk round an are of wetland. From there we walked into the town, but just as we were deciding to turn back, the rain which had all but disappeared, chose to return. We bought what turned out to be a sourdough loaf and a couple of fruit pies and headed back to the car.

It looked as if the rain was on for the day, so we drove over the bridge and back to The Smiddy restaurant which was busier than normal. Then Scamp had the great idea of sitting in one of the covered booths and buying lunch from a pop-up cabin on the site. Roll ’n’ egg for Scamp, Roll ’n’ bacon for me with two coffees. The rain seemed to be following us and once we’d had our lunch, we headed homeward.

Dinner tonight was Giovanni Rana tortllini pasta (basil and pine nuts) with butter and cheese. The bread we bought was as tough as old boots, although I haven’t actually eaten boots, this is what I think they would taste like. Being sourdough, it should make good toast.

The PoD went to a wide angle phone photo of one man fishing Eas Gobhain. There were about a dozen folk watching him, but they were expunged with Photoshop. They were cluttering up the place.

The Faceplant? Yes. Tonight it was torrential rain and Scamp thought her wee pepper plant was going to get bashed, so I volunteered to bring it in. I took one step outside and my foot slid from under me and I fell, face first into the soggy earth. I think Scamp got as big a shock as me. I really should have taken a selfie, but I didn’t. I just laughed and brought all three plants in. Two chilli plants, one sweet pepper plant plus one extremely muddy and wet me! I got off lightly. Just a couple of scratches and a severe telling off.

No plans for tomorrow. The plants can stay outside and get wet.

 

Sunny – 9 July 2023

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Not only sunny, but warm and dry too.

I went out in the morning to grab a photo of honeysuckle flower. Not far away, just literally a five minute walk. I’d photographed the flower yesterday, but wasn’t happy with the result. This one was better, but still not what I wanted.

We did a bit of gentle gardening later in in the morning. Nothing severe, just a bit of pruning of the branches the rowan tree. Branches that had wind damage or maybe damage from the hot weather when we were sailing the Adriatic. To keep balance, since we’d removed some things from the garden, we paid back by feeding the rest of the plants in the garden. Scamp did the feeding of the roses, the rhododendrons and the Azalea. I had the messier job. Of feeding the vegetables and the rest of the plants with seaweed feed. It is like strong tea once it’s been diluted, but take my word for it, it doesn’t smell anything like tea.

We walked down to the shops in the afternoon for a chicken and some odds and ends. When we got back, Scamp was determined to get the grass cut. I was determined to go out and get a photo for PoD. It was warm enough to walk without a jacket or even a jersey. On the way to St Mo’s, I had one last try for the photo of the honeysuckle and that’s what you see here. It didn’t make PoD, but that’s because I saw an, apparently abandoned, bike in the BMX track in St Mo’s. Actually it wasn’t abandoned. What you don’t see is the owner’s mum walking up the hill to retrieve the bike!
Yesterday’s PoD was a shot of a little shelter for a spider’s babies. Today I noticed the shelter was completely closed up, protecting the beasties from wind, rain and predators.

Roast chicken for dinner with roast potatoes and roast veg. A roasting day, finished off with a choux bun!

Spoke to Jamie today and hear that Simonne might be visiting a factory near us later in the month. Oh No! That means I will have to clear up the back bedroom. I’d better start on it tomorrow!

No plans for tomorrow.

 

Thunder and Rain – 8 July 2023

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Beautiful morning, then it clouded over and thunder came rolling up from the south.

It didn’t last very long, especially after the heavens opened up and released some torrential rain, but it grumbled around to the north for a while just to let us know it hadn’t gone completely.

We couldn’t agree on what to do with the day, then Scamp suggested we walk down to Broadwood Farm for lunch. The seemed a good idea, so off we went to a fairly quiet Broadwood. Quiet, as in there weren’t many people in the restaurant, but there was a kids birthday party going on in one of the children’s rooms and they were having a great time. For once I didn’t mind it too much and we both enjoyed Fish ’n’ Chips with Mushy Peas. Scamp had a glass of Malbec and I had a pint of Tennents Not exactly in the same category as Banca da Roma on Wednesday, but neither was the price and there wasn’t a 12.5% invisible cover charge either.

It’s good to see that the wee Broadwood Farm isn’t totally in the shadow of the MacDonald’s megalith. There is room for both in the area as both serve different demographics. Also, I’m beginning to develop a taste for Tennents lager!

Once we’d been fed and watered, we walked home via The Shops. Just odds and ends and a plain loaf. Enough to keep body and soul in harmony. Back home we watched the live qualifying for the British GP. After all the roaring and shouting was done, the usual recipient was in pole position. I was hankering for a chance of a photo now.

Just as I was leaving, the rain started, but it was like holiday rain, warm splashes of water on the paths creating that smell you only get after rain hits warm tarmac. I smelled the same scent on Thursday when Alex and I were walking into Dunfermline town after a deluge. The rain didn’t last long and by then I’d found my potential PoD. It was a spider’s nest to hold its baby spiderlings. The first time I saw one was in June last year, and while the design was slightly different this time, it was basically the same. It’s a reed leaf pulled over by many silken spider threads to provide some shelter for the spider and spider babies. That was an obvious PoD.

Now that Andy Murray and to a lesser extent, Cameron Laurie are out of Wimbledon, that’s it finished for another year, so instead we watched the penultimate part of Stanley Tucci’s travels round Italy. Tonight it was Sardinia, and just as interesting as all his previous ports of call.

More thunder in the evening and although the rain wasn’t quite as torrential as in the morning, it was heavy enough to clear the air again.

No plans for tomorrow as yet. We’ll wait and see what the weather brings.