Category: Friends

Frogs – 8 March 2021

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Hundreds of them. All of them, it seemed, busy making more frogs.

The day started wet, but we watched the weather monitor (the birdbath) carefully and eventually when the ripples from the raindrops disappeared, we knew we had a window of dry weather.

Without waiting for second bidding, we were out and walking down to the shops. It’s not a very exciting task, a walk to the shops, but it’s a measure of the boredom we all feel that this everyday occurrence becomes the highlight of the day. The visit was successfully completed and lunch was served.

I went out for a walk after lunch and that’s where I saw the frogs. The pond was bulging with them, all with one thing on their minds, making babies. Well, eventually there will probably little froglets, but the frogspawn was being laid down thickly today. The frogs were too far away for a decent image with the kit lens I had, so I went back to get the long zoom. However, either it or the adapter, or more likely both were having a hissy fit and the lens just wouldn’t autofocus. I gave up in disgust and went back with the macro which is longer than the kit lens, but considerably shorter than the zoom. The result of which is the lack of any good frog photos for PoD. Instead I have promoted the arty photo of some catkins to that spot. Tomorrow, if I get a dry spell, I’m hoping to take the recalcitrant combo of lens and adapter and use them in manual focus mode to grab the shot of the frogs for tomorrow’s PoD. No promises, just a possible work around. One last thought on Frogs before I leave the subject for today: If you’re reading this on computer, you can click on a link on the right hand side for “A Year Ago Today”.  If you navigate from there to the 8th March 2020, you will find how predictable frogs can be.

We had ‘white pasta’ (Fusilli a la Carbonara) for dinner, but on Val’s recommendation, I used Pecorino cheese instead of Parmesan. Scamp said it tasted different but neither better nor worse. I didn’t like it so much as the usual parmesan. Pecorino is much milder and creamier than parmesan. Maybe next time I’ll use a mixture.

Fred phoned me tonight and we talked for an hour or so about various topics including politics and the new comedy series “Drawers Off” where five amateur ‘artists’ take turns at being a partially nude model for the others to paint or draw. Last week was quite interesting, but not quite the quality of art I expected. Tonight’s was just cringe worthy, both Fred and I agreed on that. If you want to see what I mean take a look. It’s only a half hour slot and being at 5.30pm on C4 there’s nothing to scare the horses, except perhaps the final ‘art works’.

Tomorrow looks like wind and rain which might be fine for the frogs, but not so good for the photography. We’ll just have to take it as it comes. Oh yes, and we might hear an announcement from Her Majesty the Nicola about a slight loosening of the rules governing group meeting outdoors.

Sunshine for our anniversary – 17 February 2021

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Forty eight years ago we tied the knot and the knot is still tight forty eight years later.

I actually got a message from Parcel Force to give me a one hour time slot for the delivery of my new lens. It wasn’t an anniversary present. Nothing to do with anniversary. Pure coincidence this time. The time slot was for 11.45 – 12.45. Right in the middle of what looked like a good day, but of course they got the time wrong. About 10.15 there was a knock at the door and there was a parcel on the doorstep with a Parcel Force man retreating.

After opening up the big box and extracting quite a heavy piece of metal and glass, taking a few photos, just to make sure it worked, we planned the rest of the day. We had dinner to buy at Tesco and meds to collect at the next door chemist, then we might go for a spin out in a world that had colour, not simply white.

It was when we left Tesco I thought we might go to Motherwell, the Capital city of North Lanarkshire and find Baron’s Haugh which is a nature reserve and parkland where my brother was taken loads of great photos.
So … we were heading for a nature reserve with plenty of opportunities for nature and macro photography and I remembered, just as we were driving down the slip road to the motorway, that I’d left my brand new macro lens at home, because when we left we’d intended to tootle round Cumbersheugh for half an hour and there would be limited photo opportunities there that I hadn’t already made use of. Numpty.

The reason for Baron’s Haugh in particular was because of a FB post from one of the salsa beginners from last year, berating me for being less than complimentary about Motherwell in general. She waxed lyrical about Baron’s Haugh and we though we should give it a try sometime. We got there after only one wrong turn (sat nav hadn’t a clue for once) and had a half hour walk past one of the bird watching areas in the sunshine although the wind was cold. We were standing on a crossroads of paths and I was checking exactly where we were with the OS map on my phone when a deer ran past, then another and another. In total, four deer ran past, less than 50m away. Motherwell is certainly a lot more rural than I remember it. We walked back to the car, but didn’t see any more wild animals and drove home, agreeing to go back again, better prepared for the conditions. Isn’t it strange that it took a Polish girl about the same age as our daughter to tell us about this parkland, almost on our doorstep.  Thank you Mirka!

Dinner tonight was individual fish pies from Tesco. Sounds a bit downmarket for an anniversary dinner, but they were rather posh fish pies in little thin wooden baskets and were baked in the oven. Washed down with a very nice bottle of white and followed by Eve’s Pudding from M&S. The only thing we made (Scamp made) was bruschetta as a starter and it too was intensely tasty.

We listened to Album II by Loudon Wainwright III (Me and my friend the Cat!) and reminisced for the second time recently. A great day.

PoD was a fence post covered in ivy from our Motherwell walk.

I used coloured pencils for today’s prompt of “Violin”. Not quite what I was intending it to look like. A bit clumsy but a change from paints and graphite or ink sketches. It’s OK, that’s all I’ll say.

The other day I almost cut my hair. “… It was getting kind of long. Could have said it was in my way, but I didn’t and I wonder why …” Tomorrow I may do that thing.

As you will have guessed this is another catch up. Hopefully the last for a while.

V Day – 13 February 2021

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Vaccination day for me today. It’s a long wait until 4.40pm!

I just couldn’t settle today. Bobby Flavell, our neighbour, and I had agreed to travel up to the vaccination centre on the bus. What paranoia that created. Travelling in the closed confines of a bus! With other people on board! Would we survive? Bobby couldn’t get his car out to drive there and I couldn’t be sure of getting mine back into a parking space when we returned. Besides which, so many DPD, Argos and other delivery vans bombing up our snow covered street meant there had been a couple of bumps and a lot of near misses. The bus seemed the sensible option.

As it happened, it was the driver, Bobby and I on the bus. It didn’t even have to stop all the way to the Muirfield. We even got dropped off almost right at the door, meaning we were there about half an hour early.

We waited in the first queue to have our basic details taken then a quick temperature check and we were into the second queue.
Next stop was the verification of our letter, confirmation of our details and formal agreement to have the vaccine.
The next station was where things almost went pear shaped. Here we had to list any medication we were on and any allergies we had. I explained that I have had a severe allergic reaction to certain shellfish. This seemed to raise a flag because some vaccines use shellfish extract as a transmission agent. I’m not sure if that was the exact description or not, I just had this vision of all the planning, re-planning  and checking out we’d gone through to get here and then being told, “Sorry mate. This one will kill you, not cure you”. However, all was well. I was getting the Astra-Zeneca vaccine which doesn’t use shellfish.
On to the table with those bright red syringes in their box. The actual vaccination was a bit of an anti-climax. The only problem was that with the allergy problem I’d to sit for 15 minutes to make sure everything was ok, while Bobby was off scot free. However, like a good neighbour he waited for me in the anteroom and we caught the bus home. Done!

Today’s PoD celebrated the occasion with my Mini-Me, Zog, taking my place and the nurse ready with what looks like a very big syringe! I’d planned it in the afternoon and it took all of five minutes to set up and take.

Dancing in the evening with a Valentine’s Zoom Dance. Great fun as usual, and maybe more so because we can actually participate in a few more dances, although the waltz and quickstep are taking second place to the more compact sequence dances as space is limited in our living room. Still good fun.

No time to do a sketch or painting, but that was to be expected on such a busy day. As you will realise, this is another catch-up blog post.

Hopefully on Sunday I will clear my feet and I’ll be able to start on Monday with a clean sheet.

We had more snow on Saturday, only a light covering and the temperature is starting to rise. Sunday might see the beginning of a much needed thaw. May go out to get the essentials for dinner, that’s all.

Walking in the white stuff – 10 February 2021

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The snow was still there in the morning, but thankfully there was no new covering.

Before we could get on with the day there was a funeral to attend.  A virtual funeral for one of Scamp’s oldest Gems members, Netta.  She had died over a week ago and today we sat for half an hour and remembered her as we watched the ceremony.  She was an old lady, but a real ‘gem’.

I wanted to clear most of the snow off the car to allow today’s sunshine to help melt the rest.  It was a good idea that partly worked.  Some of the snow melted, the side that faced the sun was the most successful, but hopefully more will follow tomorrow as we are to have another cold, but sunny day.  There must have been about 200mm of snow on the roof of the car, also on the bins and all the plant pots.  I was thankful I’d bought a pair of good wellies going cheap in a sale many years ago.  Not the most comfortable footwear, but at least you don’t have to worry about wet socks.

When the postman came he brought Scamp a Blue Envelope.  She now has a date for her first vaccination.

After lunch, Scamp declared that she was off to the shops to get tonight’s dinner which was going to be Cod with Bacon, Peas and Lentils.  I was going out for a walk in the snow wearing my new best friends, my green wellies.  I walked over St Mo’s and I think I followed  the tarmac path, although it was difficult to find at times.  Walked through the woods marveling at the difference 200mm of snow can make to a landscape.  PoD became the snow ball on the cow parsley seedhead.  The snow looked solid, but it was almost translucent and as light as a feather.

Dinner was changed from Cod with Bacon etc to Chicken Soup followed by Fish Finger sandwiches.  Very satisfying and still sticking to the Fish on  a  Wednesday theme.  No painting or drawing yet.  One is done, but I’m not happy with it, so a new or rearranged one will hopefully appear tomorrow.

Tonight the temperature is dropping down below -5ºc.  It’s going to be cold tomorrow.

How much more rain is up there – 4 February 2021

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I don’t know how much more there is in the clouds, but a lot of it fell today. All day!

It just never stopped today. Rain, rain and more rain. We spoke to Hazy on the phone for half an hour in the morning. Found out, among other things, that Neil D was doing a virtual parents night last night and has another one tonight. Tonight’s one has every slot filled. So that’s probably about two hours of non-stop talk. Rather him than me.

I was just getting ready to brave the elements and go out to shops after lunch when Fred phoned. I realise now I should have just gone and chatted with him on my rainy walk, but I’m an auld guy and I despise these youngsters who wander around shouting at the top of their voices, apparently to nobody. Maybe they are talking on their phones through the tiny mike on their headphones, maybe they are just pretending they have friends when they have none. It’s even harder to decide what’s going on when they’re wearing ‘Real’ wireless headphones that dangle like little white earrings and have no white cord connecting them to a phone. Anyway, you weren’t going to catch me doing that sort of thing, so I told him I’d phone him back.

Actually it wasn’t too bad walking in the rain. I quite enjoyed it, although I didn’t have a chance to take any photos. I did try, but it was impossible. Tomorrow’s prompt for EDiF is “Underwater” and that’s what today’s PoD would have been if I’d taken anything. As it was, I chose to walk home and photograph something at home. That something turned out to be a Delphinium flower. One of many in the bouquet we got on Saturday. I quite liked it and thought it looked like a nursery rhyme flower fairy. Scamp saw a unicorn in it. I wonder what you’ll see.

I did phone Fred, but he was busy at the time and didn’t pick up. He phoned back later in the evening and we had a good natter about painting and Landscape Artist of the Year with judges that were basically talking out of their collective backsides, although Fred used more pointed language!

I was late starting today’s sketch although I’d worked it out in my head before I started, The topic was ‘Winter’. I think it looks a bit twee, but some of the painting is ok. It’s done and posted in time and that’s the main thing. Tomorrow I’ll start early and get the drawing/painting done in daylight. That’s what I said I’d do today, but there just wasn’t enough daylight to draw by!

More rain and snow forecast for tomorrow. After that it dries up a bit, but it gets a lot colder too. You just can’t win at this time of year.

Pencils, paints and brushes – 1 February 2021

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February and two sketching challenges begin today.

Another day in the frozen north. No snow, just frost on the cars. We didn’t need to go out, so we stayed in until we were sure that things were warming up, then we made our move.

We were heading down and round Broadwood today. The main paths were mostly clear and thawing nicely, but in the shade of the trees round the boardwalk at Broadwood the ice was as treacherous as usual. Today’s PoD was taken from there. It looks like the whole loch is just one big sheet of ice, but five minutes away, round the corner it’s open water. Strange. We watched a Goosander slipping and sliding on the ice trying to grab what appeared to be a piece of lemon.  It eventually gave up and went back to fishing. Thankfully round the corner the paths were much clearer. We walked our usual route round the end of the loch and on over the dam then down near Blackwood and back up to the stadium. That took us neatly to the shops. I was the only one carrying money, so I got to go to M&S to get veg for tonight’s dinner and a loaf.

Back home and after lunch I got a call from Colin to reassure me that he was keeping fine, with a bit of a chest infection, but definitely ONLY a chest infection. He’d been to see two doctors on Zoom or something like it and they had prescribed an antibiotic which he says is working. It must be cold today because he said he was going to work in his big heated greenhouse, but ended up coming back into the house for a heat. While we were talking he was watching his wife going for her second circuit with the dog “Round the Policies” as he puts it. A walk round his enormous garden. We chatted for a while about things in general and commiserated with each other for holidays lost and cancelled and agreed to keep in touch.

Ray was the only one of the Auld Guys who still hadn’t replied to my email from last week, so I phoned him, or tried to. The phone rang for about seven rings then stopped and a lady’s voice told me “Thank you. GOODBYE!” As abruptly as that. No chance to leave a message. Strange. I checked on the computer if I had the correct number, but it was. I thought I’d leave it for a while and phone later.

Dinner tonight was Chicken stuffed with spinach and wrapped in Parma Ham with oven roasted chips (home made). A Scamp creation which went down very nicely. Pudding was Cherry Crumble. Again, from Scamp’s fair hands. Equally delicious. Then the phone rang. It was Ray. Great to hear his voice. We discussed phones, RSPB Garden Bird Watch and how boring life is now. He’s a bit put out, because Nic hasn’t sent him a letter with his vaccine appointment yet and I’ve got mine (strangely the same day as Colin’s wife’s – but in a different town). I suggested the lack of letter might have been down to him being English. He just harrumphed! We also agreed to keep in touch.

In the afternoon I put on the heater in my room and started on the first prompt for Every Day in February and 28 Drawings Later. The prompt was “Coffee”. I managed that, as you can see. Not my best, but I’m a bit rusty and also I couldn’t find my favourite ‘Sword Brush’. I’ve found it now buried under a pile of papers on the dining table. I’m hoping for a better result from tomorrow’s prompt.

That’s about it for today. A day with a walk, two contacts made and a coffee cup painted, not to mention that chicken with parma ham.

Tomorrow we have no plans, but snow is forecast for during the night, so we will be at the mercy of the elements again.

50 – 30 January 2021

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Today it’s exactly 50 years since we first met at our friends’ engagement party. That was a Saturday too!

It was cold and frosty with just the thinnest covering of snow, so it was boots and YakTrax just in case. Not a long walk today, just a couple of circuits of St Mo’s pond. I took the Sony plus kit lens and my old Sigma 105mm macro on the adapter. The Samyang 18mm is always in the bag. That covered all the necessary bases. Two circuits was what we predicted and that’s what we did. Cold, but not absolutely freezing. Most of the photography was of landscapes with the macro lens providing some arty-farty close ups. After lunch it was time for me to give a cursory glance at the photos and for us both to begin to prepared dinner and tidy up a bit.

Later in the afternoon a knock at the door signalled the arrival of a large box of beautiful flowers from Hazy, JIC, Neil D and Sim. (Alphabetical arrangements are always safest). To say we were taken by surprise is an understatement. It’s rarely Scamp or I are lost for words, but we were today. Thank you, you lovely people.

Dinner was a sit at the table affair and a full three course meal. We decided it would be appropriate to celebrate the fifty years since we met with a glass (or two) of Prosecco before dinner.

It began with a seafood starter. Mine being Prawn Cocktail and Scamp’s was Seared Scallops. Mains were Lightly Smoked Trout for Scamp and Sirloin Steak for me, served with potatoes. Dessert was Eve’s Pudding. All washed down with a very nice red wine. Music just had to be Songs of Leonard Cohen.

Later we tasted a bottle of Dark Matter (not the whole bottle, not yet anyway!). I had a small glass, neat and Scamp had her traditional Coke with her’s. Interesting taste of spice, something hot and treacle. We may need to try some more tomorrow, just to be sure. While sampling we watched a bit of TV and decided an early night would be best before the room started spinning too fast for us to find the door.

PoD was a landscape from the morning’s photo shoot.

Tomorrow will be the day of reckoning, I’m sure.

This, inevitably, is the catch-up write up.

The researcher returns – 27 January 2021

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A different researcher this time, another lady. Same tests unfortunately.

We had an early(ish) appointment this morning. 10am is early for us, but we were there, ready for the tasty swabs (yuk), but feeling better about it because we had been paid last week and Scamp had already spent half of hers on foodbank food in Tesco. I’m planning to do the same this week. Today’s Q&A only lasted fifteen minutes because we’re getting a bit more prepared for the questions. However the ONS are keeping us on our toes by adding questions and re-writing others. Sneaky.

With the test done and the world starting to defrost a bit, I volunteered to go for a walk in St Mo’s to check out the state of the paths and the general ‘walkability’ of the place. I also planned to take a few photos, of course.

I was intending grabbing a shot of a woolly hat sitting on a fence post. I’d seen it a couple of days ago and thankfully it was still there. Don’t know why this particular piece of headwear caught my eye, but it did and it made PoD. I took a landscape of the snowy wastes on the edge of the pond too, more or less a record shot, but it also went in to Flickr. The last one to enter today was an old shot from 27th January 2020. It was taken with the Nikon D7000 from the back bedroom looking towards the Meikle Bin and with a bit of jiggery pokery it looked presentable. It fits my new category of Throwback. I see a lot of folk on Flickr doing it and thought I’d have a go.

After lunch I convinced Scamp that a walk round St Mo’s was possible, so we booted up and walked the wild and icy paths round the pond. I won’t say it was the most interesting walk we’ve had, but it got us out in the fresh air for a while, fresh air and drizzle to be more precise.

Back home I ticked off one of my tasks for the day and wrote an email to the Auld Guys. Just a catch-up to say how we were spending our time. So far, only Val has got back to me. I’m going to suggest we try a five way video call using Zoom. It might work for some it might not for others. It’s worth a try.

Scamp and I had discussed changing the date for what would have been the Easter cottage holiday. It was either change the date or cancel. We settled on changing the date to July and that’s now done. Hopefully we will have been released from Lockdown by then.

Next thing to do was to phone John Malley and that’s what I did. Marion is teaching from home with two live teaching sessions per day and then four single person video calls for pupils having problems with the work. Ross is still working from home and Laura is now engaged to (Big) Ross. I think that’s you all caught up with what’s happening in Hamilton and area.

Dinner tonight was a superb Fish ’n’ Chips with beetroot and tomato sauce. Home cooked, of course by the pescatarian cook.

Most of the snow, slush and ice has now gone and the paths are preparing for the next load to be dumped on us, perhaps tomorrow morning. If it’s dry we’ll go for a walk. Maybe a drive then a walk.

Colzium Explored – 22 January 2021

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It was a cold start, but clear. Scamp suggested we go for a walk. I suggested Colzium.

So we drove over to Colzium Estate on the outskirts of Kilsyth. We’d walked it many times, but today we took a different path. Not really a new path, but one that’s been closed for a few years for reinstatement of fences. It is a steep and winding path that leads up the side of the Colzium Burn to a wee bridge over the burn, then down the other side past an unofficial animals’ graveyard. It was a tough climb, but it was a beautiful day and the light was perfect. Got a few slow shutter shots of the waterfalls from the bridge at the top, but it was one of the faster shutter shots that eventually became PoD. After that we walked on past the house and the bloke who was working his metal detector over the grassy park area. I wonder what he was looking for. There was a battle near there hundreds of years ago, but not on the site he was prospecting. Maybe he knew better than the historians.

We walked a path to the right which climbed up a hill and turned out to have been the drive into Colzium house from the Tak ma Doon road. We didn’t go on to the road, but took a path to the right which led down and round to the walled garden of the estate. On the way we passed a sign for the ruins of Colzium Castle. I never even knew such a place existed. What little is left of it is now been build into the side of a house on the estate. Back round to Colzium House and then round the boating pond which has now silted up so badly there’s hardly enough water for the ducks and swans to swim in. From there we walked back to the car and drove home. An interesting morning that stretched into the afternoon and helped us amass just over 5000 steps.

Dinner tonight was Chicken Curry. I was reading about it in January 22nd 2000 blog last night. I’d forgotten all about this easy as pie chicken curry. If you care to look it up you can find a link to the recipe that’s still live. It certainly is easy and tasty.

The photo from the top of the Colzium Burn got PoD after a bit of massaging in two different apps. However, it doesn’t matter how it got there, it’s the result that counts!

Scamp got a bit of bad news this morning. Netta Lennox died yesterday. Hazy, you might remember her from choir. She was a lovely lady, one of the original Gems. She was over 90 and had been ill for some time.

Tomorrow looks cold. It’s just below zero now and still dropping. We may go out somewhere if it warms up.

The ice is melting – 5 January 2021

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Time to get the boots and the YakTrax on and go for a walk.

Just a walk round St Mo’s, but the ice is still treacherous, even more so as there was a slight melt happening and the water was covering the ice. With care it was possible to get round and that’s what we did. Just one circuit. The ducks haven’t returned from their holiday in a warm place and it looked like the swans had become frozen to the ice that covered St Mo’s pond, but they were just pretending and got up and staggered around while we watched. The worst bit of the walk was the boardwalk, because the ice runs for the whole width of the path with no snow and therefore nowhere to get a better grip. However, again, the YakTrax proved their worth and we completed the walk intact.

I made a loaf after lunch because we needed bread or at least we would tomorrow. For speed and also because I couldn’t be bothered with the faff of hand kneading, I asked the mixer to do the hard work and it did produce a decent dough. Set it to prove and headed off to St Mo’s again for a second chance at some photos, although I reckoned I had one in the bag already.

I tried another of the daring camera on the ice shots, but the ice was melting and I could hear it creaking a bit under my boots. I could also smell the decomposing leaf mass under the ice, so it definitely wasn’t as stable as I’d have liked. Four shots and I was off onto dry land again.

Back home and an hour or so’s work and I had a mono PoD of a park bench and a colour shot of the view from the ice. The PoD came from the morning walk with Scamp and the colour shot was from the afternoon.

The bread had completed its first prove and I placed it carefully into a Banneton which is a round basket made from rattan to do the second prove. Rattan is a climbing palm that grows in Indonesia. There, you’ve learned something today. I don’t often use the banneton, but it was recommended for the long proving times necessary for sourdough bread. It certainly produced a very decorative spiral pattern on the dough which rose quite quickly in the warm living room and the bread baked beautifully. Too late for our dinner unfortunately, maybe just as well because I don’t think it would have gone too well with a fiery chicken curry. The ice cream afterwards did go well with it.

Spent an annoying hour trying unsuccessfully to get rid of some dust bunnies on my sensor. I think I ended up with more than I started off with.

Spoke to Canute tonight. We were supposed to phone him, but instead, he phoned us. Had a long talk about the ‘joys’ of grandchildren. Living with Covid and the effects it had on small retail shops. I’d forgotten that his school clothes business would now be Click ’n’ Collect. It must be so difficult for small businesses in these days of constant on – off closures. We wished him well on his operation at the end of the month.

Tonight the temperature is forecast to drop to -5ºc. We may not be going far tomorrow.