Category: Food

Rain – 4 July 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Light rain, heavy rain, torrential rain and rain driven on the wind. All types of rain welcome here today.

Maybe ‘welcome’ isn’t the correct word. It started off as a dull day and ended up as a really depressingly wet day. If we hadn’t needed some chicken breasts for dinner I wouldn’t have moved past the door.

PoD was another posey posted through the letter box. Such a nice surprise. Thanks again, Hazy.

The highlight of the day was the Paella I made for dinner. It tasted great, although there probably was too much chicken in it.

I think we’ve had enough rain now so could you please turn the tap off? Hope the message gets through to those who can control these things.

Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.

Dancin’ – 3 July 2025

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For the first time in what seemed like ages, we went to a Tea Dance today.

It was one of those terrible days with pelting rain one minute and sunshine the next. Mostly it was rain today, though. We drove to Glenburn in the afternoon along with about a dozen other couples. Not a great turnout, but enough for a quorum. Also, with the schools in Scotland being on holiday, probably a lot of grans and papas would be on child minding duty. Most of them wishing they were dancing instead.

Stewart and Jane did their level best to draw us out on to the floor with a Lace Agate Swing. A little bit of everything in this sequence dance, covering spins, chassis and even a couple of fishtails. I filmed it and watched the recording on my phone later in the session, but wouldn’t say I remembered all the steps, or the sequence of them. It was fairly fast too.

Just as a bit of an experiment I wore my Dance Sneakers rather than my usual Black & White leather dance shoes with the suede soles. I’m glad to say that the dance sneakers were just as comfortable as the traditional dance shoes, if not more so.

We danced Waltz, something that might have been a Rumba and a Cha-Cha with a lot of sequence dances in between to pad things out. We left, feeling we’d really enjoyed today, then Stewart dropped his bombshell. There would be no dance class on Saturday because Brookfield hall was being used for a summer feté. The dance teachers are off on holiday (teaching) for the next three weeks, so the next dance class won’t be until August. A long time to wait.

We left early as usual to avoid the traffic, then I drove straight into that traffic. It was a long slog down to and over the Kingston Bridge and it was all done in torrential rain. The big heavy clouds we had hoped to leave behind us, just followed us home.

Dinner tonight was Bacon and Borlotti beans, one of Jamie and Simonne’s recipes that we use quite often.

PoD turned out to be Willowherb a much maligned wildflower that brightens up rough ground everywhere.

I don’t believe we have any plans for tomorrow.

Going Home – 2 July 2025

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Not us this time, but our son and our daughter-in-law, heading for home after a week in Scotland. Hoping to see them again soon.

They were leaving early, so it was an early rise for us too. Then the house seemed so empty after the hustle and bustle, but good to hear a few hours later that they had arrived back home safe and sound with Vixen.

I was raining when they left us. I had been intending to meet my brother for a photowalk somewhere interesting, later in the day, but a WhatsApp message from him an hour after the climbers had left made me thing it wasn’t going to happen today. He said the rain was really heavy in his neck of the woods and to be honest, it had been raining constantly all morning with us. I decided the best thing to do was to cancel today’s walk and try for another day next week when, hopefully there would be at least one dry day. Not too much to ask, surely.

That left us with a whole day to fill, then Scamp reminded me that she was going out to lunch with Shona which left ME with a whole afternoon to fill. I had two posts to upload and two blog posts to write up, so it wasn’t really true to say that I had a ”whole afternoon to fill”. It was already filled.

A cup of coffee first and I got the photos uploaded. The blogs took longer, as blogs usually do. I was half way through the first one when I realised the rain had stopped and the sun was shining. I took that opportunity to grab some photos of flowers in the garden. One of them got PoD. That one was the low viewpoint shot of an orange Dahlia. Scamp’s first attempt at growing miniature Dahlias. Safe in the knowledge that I had at last one photo in the bag, I finished off both the blogs and posted them. The rain returned for another quick splash and then the sun shone again for most of the evening.

Dinner for me was beef olives with onions, potatoes and carrots. Since Scamp had already had lunch, she managed to scrounge a few of my potatoes.

A fairly busy day for both of us.

We’re hoping to go dancing tomorrow if the weather plays nice.

The first day of July – 1 July 2025

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After what was a Flaming June, July looks like it will continue the hot weather.

Jamie and Simonne were driving to Cumbersheugh on the first part of their return journey from Arran via a stopover in the Cairngorms. Today they were having a short overnight stop in Cumbersheugh. As usual they arrive almost exactly on time.

I had been out earlier with a shopping list of items that we’d need for the visitors. Red Top milk, smoked salmon, orange juice and lots of other things for lunch.

I think we spent half of the morning admiring Simonne’s photos of the Isle of Arran’s scenery. It never ceases to impress me that people can produce professional looking images from a phone camera. We spent the other half on a guided tour of the back and front gardens of our house, with Scamp giving a running commentary of all the flowers, complete with their names.

After lunch I went over to St Mo’s to get some photos. There wasn’t a lot to capture, but I did get some photos of a hoverfly or a drone fly, I’m not sure which, feeding on some Valerian wild flowers.

It was just one circuit of the pond, then back home because we were going to Cotton House for dinner in the late afternoon and we needed to get ready.

Scamp had booked a taxi to take us to over to Longcroft, but although we’d had a message that the taxi was on its way, we had to wait another ten minutes before it arrived. Almost at the restaurant and we got stuck in a great long queue through roadworks which made us even later at Cotton House, not helped by the driver who was in ’Tootle along’ mode. Maybe he had just had a really tiring day.

Food was as good as it usually is in the restaurant and I envied Jamie and Simonne’s Sweet & Sour Chicken Cantonese, although my own Salt & Chilli Chicken was nice, it wasn’t a patch on the sweet & sour. Scamp stuck to her favourite Chicken Chow Mein.

The lady driving our taxi back to Cumbersheugh wasn’t wasting any time. She was driving a rocket powered taxi and she wasn’t taking any prisoners. A woman on a mission.

PoD was a shot of a hoverfly on a Valerian flower.

In the evening, we watched ‘Mrs Harris Goes To Paris’ and really enjoyed it except for Jamie who got bored with it. I thought it was cleverly written and acted until the last ten minutes or so when it became too rushed.

Tomorrow we expect our two visitors will be heading for home. I may meet up with Alex.

Keeping Busy – 30 June 2025

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It was a day for tidying up the place, at least a bit.

Scamp handed me a big bag full of stuff that needed to go to the tip and then found another bag that could also go to the same place. Both were going to ‘General Household’, the councils catch-all for things that don’t have an exact skip to go into.

“Were do I put this home-made high intensity laser generator?”

“Err, General Household mate.”

Once that was done and the old dance shoes, cutting boards, broken seats and all sorts of other stuff, I was free to go for a drive and hopefully find something interesting to photograph … I did put the camera in the back seat, and not the boot, didn’t I?

Yes, I did, because when I got to my usual walking path at Fannyside, the black Lowepro and camera were on the back seat. I was hoping to get some photos of dragonflies, but none were flying today. What were flying was a group of Starlings. A ‘murmuration’ is the common name for a crowd of these birds, but I think I prefer a ‘Chatter’. It seems more like the noise they make, especially the young ones. I found that name on the interweb tonight!
The group must have been young birds, because they didn’t fly in the tight groups or indulge in the complicated wheeling patterns we associate with a murmuration.

One of the ‘Chatter’ groups made PoD today spaced out along some telephone wires, like musical notes on a stave … or a stave with three lines, anyway.

Back home we were working in the garden again. More fine tuning rather than the heavy work we’d been doing yesterday. Scamp was redesigning the layout of an awkward corner of the back garden and the changes she made created a totally different look to that area. A great improvement.

Drove home with some essentials. Milk and bread with an Apple Turnover to share.

Dinner was a typical Monday meal. Pasta with Tomatoes and Tuna. Nothing fancy.

It was clammy and sticky today. Not a great day for working, so that was partly why we restricted our workload.  We watered the garden for the first time in ages, and it did seem fresher once we were finished. Hope it’s a bit cooler tonight, cooler than last night at least.

No real plans for tomorrow, although maybe those trainers will still be in Tiso!

An early rise for me – 29 June 2025

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Just after 7.15am I was up and dressed and driving. Nowhere interesting though.

In fact I was going to get some fruit for Scamp’s breakfast. I tried M&S, but they didn’t open until 9am. Instead I carried on to Tesco in the town centre as they have the earliest opening times, 6am I’m told. It’s a long time since I’ve been up that early. My basket today held strawberries and raspberries, plus a carton of blueberries to add to my porridge. Drove home as Scamp was waking up and wondering where I’d been.

With breakfast consumed by both of us, we needed a plan for the day. Scamp wanted to get a few of our flowers planted in pots, or in some cases replanted, and a bit of tidying done to the back garden too, but not until the clouds had cleared from the skies and the inevitable puzzles were completed.

Also, I remembered to photograph a vase of Peony flowers. Alex and Carol had sent them last week when Scamp was feeling a bit low. She had been gently teasing the petals all week to encourage them to open. Today they did. I sent Alex and Carol the photo.

Now we could get started. We mixed up some compost, adding Perlite and pebbles to aid drainage and soon the first plant, Achillea was ready for watering. Next was a white Astilbe, one of my favourites. My mum used to call Spirea. Now that I see it, it doesn’t really look like Spirea, but someone had told her it Spirea many years ago and the name had stuck.

After lunch, Scamp started strengthening the fence between us and our new neighbours and I forked over a shallow bed beneath the back wall. I don’t think anything will grow very well there. Too many roots criss crossing the bed. However, maybe we’ll manage to something planted there.

By then it was time to tidy up and to rearrange the pots to make best use of the space and just change the scenery a bit.

PoD was the photo of those peony roses.

Dinner was a salad for starter, a tuna steak each and potatoes and tomatoes. Dessert was more of Jamie’s rhubarb with custard. You can’t get anything more traditional than rhubarb and custard!

Watched an interesting Austrian GP. Lots of thrills and spills and a surprise exit for one driver.

We have no real plans for tomorrow, but a new pair of trainers is still on the shopping list.

Out for a spin – 28 June 2025

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Today we had decided that we’d go out somewhere because the sun was shining.

It was windy and that made it a bit cool, but we we had promised ourselves that we’d go out somewhere today. That ‘Somewhere’ turned out to be Culross. I know there aren’t a great many shops there that sell trainers (there are none), but in a way that was part of the fun today.  We’d go to Culross, which is Hazy’s most hated, least liked place in the whole wide world and just look for some interesting things to photograph.

It was an interesting climb up the cobbled Tanhouse Brae and on to  Kirk Street.  The architecture in Culross hasn’t changed much in the last 400 odd years with pantile roofs and low lintels on the doors. I imagine there are a lot of hoops to jump through before you can get a sniff of a chance to own one of these houses.  Once you own one outright, I imagine that it doesn’t really belong to you, because of many and varied rules you have to abide to.  However, it’s good to see the houses owned and used by folk.

We continued our climb and nearing the top, or what we’d designated today’s top, Scamp spotted a modern looking house offering tea, coffee and cake in a private garden. I kind of got the feeling that we were going in there later.

Our journey today ended at Culross Abbey, an impressive piece of architecture both inside and outside. Beautiful lighting from the stained glass windows and those high, high wooden roofs.

As I suspected, we made a detour on the way back down to Culross village in to Tea Leaf. A tea and coffee shop with cakes and scones for sale.  We had one coffee, one tea and two scones to share, served with cream and home made jam. Scamp was in her element, wandering around the garden, finding ‘things’, lots of things.  On the way out of this fantastic garden she talked for a while to the owner, a florist who gave her names of plants we’d never seen before, but which are now on the shopping list, Jerusalem Sage being a one of them. The owner explained that she splits most of her plants later in the year and sells some off.  Scamp needed  no encouragement to add her email address to the list of those wanting to purchase some of those plants.

With that, we headed down the street to real life and drove home.  We stopped at Torwood to buy a couple of pots for two plants that needed potting up … and yet another interesting plant that I liked.  My fault this time.

Dinner tonight was from Golden Bowl and although the pork in the Chow Mein was a bit tough, the rest of the meat was fine.

PoD was a view from halfway down the cobbled path to the car park, looking over Culross (sorry Hazy) to Grangemouth in the distance.

No plans for tomorrow.  Maybe more gardening.

 

 

Today it rained – 27 June 2025

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I could almost finish the blog there with that statement, but that would be no fun.

We had intended to go in to Glasgow today to get a pair of trainers. I know the trainers I want, but the idea of wandering around Glasgow in the rain didn’t appeal much, so instead we waited to see if the rain would go off. It didn’t. Scamp did some tidying up and I went for a walk in St Mo’s.

While I was walking round St Mo’s looking for inspiration, this wee snail crossed my path. Both of us were very wet and both of us were on a mission. My mission was to get back home and dry again. I don’t know what mission the snail was on, but it knew where it was going.

Scamp and I had each chosen a different meal for dinner. Scamp was having Fish Fingers and Tomatoes, and I chose a Rib Eye Steak with Padron Peppers and Tomatoes. (Thanks for the tomatoes Jamie, we’re working our way through them!) That meant I had to extend my walk and source the steak. I walked on to the butchers and got the steak and a couple of slices of spiced beef ham, which is really a thin cut steak with copious amounts of mixed spice dusted over it. Sounds odd, but it’s a traditional Sunday breakfast item where I come from.

It might be raining, but as one of the weather fairies said, “At least it was warm rain.” That was definitely true. I was fairly wet when I got home, but my, allegedly, breathable jacket had been choked to death and the condensation meant I had to do a complete change when I got home.

My dinner was ok, just ok. Scamp said her’s was fine. Dessert was rhubarb (thanks for the rhubarb, too Jamie) with some custard and some cream left over from yesterday. That was the highlight of my meal.

Tomorrow we’re hoping for some dry weather to get out somewhere for a walk and maybe a new pair of trainers.

The mountaineers – 25 June 2025

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Not us! Not a chance.

Today our son and his wife were driving up to Scotland for an overnight stay before they headed over to Arran for a series of guided walks, some of which will entail a fair bit of climbing. We had we’d stay at home and give encouraging advice.

One thing I must say about our son is that he is amazingly accurate with his predictions of time and timing. Today after a journey of about six hours, he was only TEN minutes outside his predicted time. That’s accuracy.

With a little time on hour hands, we tidied, Scamp cleaned and I stuffed things into cupboards where they will never be found again for months, perhaps years. Finding them will be a great surprise.

I was chef for the day and dinner was Chicken and Pea Traybake. I spent a fair while chopping up leeks, but then there was little else to do before the chicken was roasted and the peas were cooked, so I took a camera over to St Mo’s and found a bunch of pink flowers worth photographing. I was sure they were Red Campion, one of the first flowers I learned about after daisies and dandelions. I checked with Mr Google and found I was right. Ragged Robin and Red Campion are very alike, but the smoothly rounded petals told the story that these were Campions.

Dinner was a success and Scamp had made a large Tiramisu for dessert. Only half of it was consumed today which will hopefully leave lots more for us two gluttons tomorrow.

A couple of glasses of red for Scamp and me after the climbers made their way up the wooden hill and my eyes were closing.

Early rise for the youngsters tomorrow. We might have a lie in.

A bit cooler – 24 June 2025

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It had been raining during the night and that might be what lowered the temperature today. It was definitely a fair bit cooler.

Rain appeared in the late morning. In one of the dry spells I went for a walk to the shops for bread. We had bought some sourdough bread yesterday in Waitrose. Today it was dumped in the bin. It was definitely sour, but it was also heavy and chewy. It gave the appearance of not having been risen properly. “Bertinet Bakery”. Steer clear. Today’s ordinary M&S loaf was much better.

I felt that I was running ahead of the next shower, all the way home. It never came, but the clouds kept coming, so instead of a walk in the park, I took a few shots of the Primula vialii I’d bought in Torwood. It looks as if it has a bit of a Red Hot Poker in its ancestry, but I couldn’t find a link for the two plants online. Still a good contrast with the red flowers and the greenery in the background. PoD found.

Tonight’s dinner was a Charlie Bigham’s Vegetarian Lasagne. The quality of this range never seems to change. Long may it stay so!

Hoping Jamie and Simonne have a good trip up the road, tomorrow.