Category: Garden

A problem solved – 21 February 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Today, Scamp was off to FitSteps in the morning and I was determined to fix a problem that had been bugging me for almost two months.

The problem was that my .gmail accounts had managed the transition from Android to iPhone, but it felt like the Apple system was putting blocks in my way when I tried to put a couple of my own, home-grown accounts into the iPhone. Every time I tried, there was an error of some sort that prevented them being accepted. Today I solved it. I doubt if any of my readers are interested in the nitty gritty of the process, but after about six hours of work I finally found out how to do it.

The answer was there all the time in a combination of a Namecheap link and a Cpanel link. I needed both of these pieces of information to work the magic. I’ll store the work-through somewhere on the iMac, so I can come back to it when I’m sure it’s working. For now it’s a “back of a fag packet” solution. If you don’t understand that, then you’re too young! (Or I’m too old!!)

I started about 10.30am and finally had a working prototype by about 4pm with breaks in between for food and drink. It had been a terrible day with heavy rain showers and gale force winds. Scamp said she was nearly blown over getting from class to the car. Once in the car, driving was fine. That’s one of the benefits of having a car with a fairly low profile, it cuts through the wind well. I did go out into the back garden for a few minutes to recover a flower pot that our local grey squirrel had tipped over, but came back in when the rain got heavy. That’s when I found the PoD. It’s a view of the stained glass panel on the front door with raindrops on its outside face.

While I was still swearing at the computer, Scamp was making the dinner which was Carrot & Lentil Curry. Not a hot curry, just one that improves with resting and can have lots of additions to improve the general flavour. It’s an ancient recipe now carefully kept in a binder.

Tomorrow we may be dancing at Brookfield if there is enough interest to make a quorum. Some lucky folk are booked for a week’s dancing in Calpe, flying out on Sunday, but for a couple of reasons we won’t be with them.

Snow and an Anniversary – 17 February 2025

Posted on by Zogman

In the morning there was snow, but it didn’t lie for long before the snow turned to rain.

It was one of those days when the weather couldn’t decide what to do for the best. First it decided that today was to be a snowy day with fairly thick flakes coming down. Then it chose to change its mind and make the snow disappear, before thinking again and returning to the snowy theme. On and off, it went all morning until eventually snow was cancelled and just plain dull was the choice for the day. Then it rained, of course.

We didn’t do much today. We drove over to Tesco to get Scamp’s meds and a few bits and pieces for lunch and dinner.

After some discussion we decided that we’d go dancing in the early evening and spent a fairly useful hour trying to work out how we were going to dance the Foxtrot. Would we choose style 1 where we would do part one and then repeat that pattern.
Or would we choose style 2 where we would start with part one and then add on part two before returning to part one and repeating the entire routine.

To be honest, I was completely lost. Style 1 I could understand and I could almost manage style 2, but neither of them seemed to allow us to move round the dance floor and it looked to me as if we were simply dancing a routine on the same area of the floor all the time. I was confused … Dot Com. I don’t think this was one of Kirsty’s more thought out routines.

We drove home after the class and had Giovanni Rana pasta with some fancy out of date mushrooms on the side. Neither of us liked the mushrooms very much and they more or less stayed ‘on the side’.

We did scoff a couple of half bottles of wine while we watched Mastermind and University Challenge, shouting out the occasional answer now and again.

It was our 52nd wedding anniversary today and we were allowed to do those things without fear or favour.

PoD was a picture of a Christmas Rose from the garden, looking a bit battered and bruised by the wild weather, but still flowering nicely.

Tomorrow I’m hoping to meet Charlie and maybe another couple of folk I haven’t seen for about forty years! Perhaps I should wear a red carnation!

Another cold day – 12 February 2025

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Another day when we didn’t venture far.

We did walk down to the shops to get some things for dinner, potatoes and bread and stuff. Oh yes, and a bag of jam doughnuts too! First ones I’ve had in ages.

We had spotted the wee yellow crocus just below the front window. Looking a bit bedraggled now, it had survived all the storms and came up smiling and yellow. Today Scamp noticed it had company. An even smaller crocus beside it. Both of them are of the species ‘Dorothy’. Bright yellow with a bronze stripe. Pity there hasn’t been very much sun to encourage them to open up properly.

One of the things we got at the shops was a Butternut Squash. I’d meant to get one a day or two ago and completely forgot. It’s been cooked now and is waiting to be blitzed into soup, probably tomorrow. The main dinner tonight was Fish ’n’ Chips and they were delicious.

In addition, she also made a Rhubarb Pie. Lovely crumbly pastry with sharp, but not sour rhubarb. One quarter disappeared almost immediately, but there’s plenty more for tomorrow, all being well!

That was about all there was to say about today. No walk today. Too dull and cold. No point in putting yourself through that when you have a couple of pretty crocuses in the garden to photograph and make PoD.

No plan for tomorrow as yet.

Winds have gone – 25 January 2025

Posted on by Zogman

We should have been driving to Brookfield this morning, but I didn’t fancy the drive in the conditions and thankfully, Scamp didn’t argue.

The ‘conditions’ were that I had to get from Brookfield to East Kilbride after the dance class on a day when the weather didn’t seem to want to “play nice”. As it happened, although the snow did come as predicted, I’d have had plenty of time to drive over to EK. My fault. My bad. I regret it now, but as Scamp says, it’s over, it’s in the past, leave it.

We drove up to Hairmyres about an hour earlier than we needed to, but it was snowing and EK has a reputation to uphold for snow forgetting to turn off once it’s been turned on, so an hour in our pocket seemed like a good idea. And it was.

It was hard driving into the sun after most of the snow had disappeared. Even wearing sunglasses didn’t really help, but we made it out to the edge of Hamilton and up the hill to the Whirlies roundabout. Brilliant name for a roundabout. It was just after that we saw the red lights ahead of us, hundreds of them. After driving in first gear for a few metres, waiting a few minutes and crawling further along what’s really just a mile or two long straight, half an eye on the car in front and half an eye on the clock we saw the blue and red lights of either an ambulance or a polis car. We never did find out which, because it was long gone before we reached the next roundabout where a car was parked half on the road, half on the 200mm high verge of the entrance to the roundabout. That’s the worst parking I’ve ever seen.

After that long crawl, it was a fairly easy drive to the hospital. We were still a bit early, but that was just luck. I got taken right away and the two nurses who did the pressure check on my eyes were impressed with my results.

Then we had a long wait to see the doctor, about an hour I’d reckon. Last time we were there it was football was on the tv. Today it was horse racing. Almost as boring as football, but not quite. Eventually my name was called and Mr Sharma was not quite as dismissive as last time. He even answered some of my questions after he told me that the drops had worked and the pressure in my eye had reduced by a half. I’d still have to keep using the drops for a while, but for now he didn’t want to see me for three weeks or three months, I can’t quite remember which. All I heard was the the pressure in my eye was down by a half.

We drove home, parked the car and did nothing for the rest of the day. Dinner was an omelette for Scamp and a couple of lamb burgers for me with a baked potato each and shared a tin of beans. Great relaxation food.

PoD is a Rhododendron bud in the back garden.

Tomorrow we may go shopping after I do my drops!

Well, that was a scary one – 24 January 2025

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The wind came early in the morning.

We had been well warned about the coming storm Éowyn and boy, it was a corker! It started around 9am and rapidly strengthened up to midday with 60mph winds and gusts in excess of 90mph. It was an uncomfortable morning. Almost a year ago with Storm Isha, I was writing that I was sure the front windows were going to blow in with that. This year I’m writing that I was 100% certain the front windows were going to blow in, but, again, they survived and so did we. After yesterday’s calm, and in the belief that the weather fairies had got it wrong, we told ourselves it wouldn’t really be as bad as last year, but it was, and some.

With our bins scattered around the street, it looked like a bomb had hit us, and I suppose in a way, it was what Americans call a Weather Bomb. Described by the Weather Centre as: “A low pressure system whose central pressure falls 24 millibars in 24 hours in a process known as explosive cyclogenesis.”

Eventually after a good seven or eight hours of battering things began to be just a little bit calmer out there and we began to hope the end was in sight. However, it wasn’t until the Red warning was reduced to an Amber warning we began to breathe a bit easier. The warning level is now Yellow, the lowest warning level. That warning level will remain tomorrow (Saturday) but will be linked with snow and ice rather than wind. Of course, there is another weather system waiting in the wings for next week, just as there was last year. It’s funny how cyclic these warnings are.

I’m supposed to go to the hospital tomorrow to have my eyes checked again by Mr Sharmer (The Charmer!) and Scamp want to go dance class first. I hope we can manage to fit both visits in. It’s probably a good idea, really. The dance class might take my mind off the eye drops and Mr S!

PoD turned out to be a picture of the bins scattered along the path outside the front of the garden. It’s called The Massacre of the Wheelie Bins.

Hoping for a calmer day tomorrow.

Snowdrops – 19 January 2025

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The first snowdrop flowers to appear in the garden.

It was Scamp’s idea that I should take a photo of the first snowdrops. I think it was just a ploy to get me to go outside for a while, but I didn’t mind. Finding a decent viewpoint to shoot them from, because they were nestled into a corner of a square pot, that was a challenge. I eventually used a piece of matt black neoprene to give a dark background that would hide the plastic pot, but wouldn’t be too detailed and draw the eye from the plants. Eventually I came up with about six photos. Three from one angle and three from another. The final choice was up to Scamp and she chose this one. I think she was right. She sometimes is!

The remainder of the day was a typical Sunday. Lunch for Scamp was one of yesterday’s fresh eggs, fried with some tomatoes on buttered bread. I had the remainder of Friday’s mince with another of those eggs poached in it. A Larky standard!

Later after Scamp had taken in all that Laura Kuenssberg had to say about the release of hostages from Israel and Gaza and the forthcoming deification of Donald Trump, we went for a walk to the shops. Of course I took a camera with me, but I didn’t use it. I knew the first snowdrop would stand for PoD. It wasn’t as cold as it had been in the morning when I’d been on location in the garden photographing flowers, but on the way back home a chill began to descend.

Dinner was Trout Fillets with Hasselback Potatoes (why do I keep calling them Hasselhoff?), Peppers, Tomatoes and Shallots, roasted in the oven. Absolutely lovely. Why do I keep describing food? Because we are both foodies and good food deserves to be praised.

Spoke to Jamie and heard how he had spent his week weeding and working in the garden while Simonne lived the high life in Florida. Your time will come Jamie!

Tomorrow morning I’m expected to donate a full test tube of my precious blood to demonstrate how wonderful it is!

Dull, Dull, Dull – 17 January 2025

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Where did those lovely blue skies go.

They were there yesterday, complete with Lenticular Clouds. Today it’s just heavy grey skies 🙁

Scamp was away early in the morning to go to FitSteps and I had the run of the house for a good couple of hours or more, because she was meeting Isobel for coffee after the class. I stayed at home and enjoyed the peace and quiet.

I read for a while, considered going out for a walk, but the dull grey sky didn’t do much to encourage me, so I stumbled through more tweaks to the amazingly complicated iPhone 15. Many moons ago when I got my first MacBook Pro, you could take it in to the Apple shop in Glasgow and they would talk you through alll the things you could do with it and answer your questions as you went. I think things have changed a lot since then, judging from my last foray into Apple Glasgow.

After Scamp returned, and we had lunch, I drove up to Kenilworth to speak to a doctor. It was a routine appointment to get myself a PSA test to make sure my ‘waterworks’ were behaving properly. Before Covid, I’d had six monthly checkups, but Covid changed so many things. I just thought I should be getting back into that routine again. The doc gave me a once over and declared that there were no major problems, but suggested I should cut down on my caffein intake which meant less tea and coffee. That would be a hardship for me, as you can imagine, but I’d been gradually reducing my coffee intake recently, so I guess it was no great surprise. Blood test is set for Monday, so coffee and tea might not be the only things I’ll be reducing.

As I was driving home I saw a break in the clouds appearing and thought I might catch a shot or five with my new camera, but as I got closer to home, I realised I couldn’t outrun that golden disk and it would have dipped below the horizon before I could get to a suitable vantage point. Instead, I drove home and picked up a tiny wee stick with two green leaves sprouting from it. It was a cutting of a Honeysuckle from the garden, but it didn’t seem to ‘take’ and eventually appeared to be dead. We were going to dump it in the compost bin when I noticed what looked like white rootlets at the base. Scamp re-potted it and sure enough, two little green leaves appeared. To give you a sense of scale, the leaf on the left is just a tiny bit less than 5mm long. The twig will eventually be cut back if the leaves continue to grow. PoD in the bag!

Scamp had Bubble ’n’ Squeak for dinner and I had Mince ’n’ Tatties. Delicious, because Scamp made them, not me!

Tomorrow I think we might be going to dance class. First time this year and first time in about a month!

Wet – 13 January 2025

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We have become so used to dry, cold, icy days that rain is almost a novelty … Almost!

We soon became tired of the constant rain, but couldn’t find the place where you turn it off. Instead we both wandered off into our individual bedrooms. For my part I started gathering old bits of tech, filling a bag with them and dumped the bag in the bin. Scamp had been complaining about the number of jackets of varying age and condition in my room, so the next target was to gather them into two boxes, Keepers and Chuckers. Usually I go back on my promises and keep them all, but surprisingly, this time I kept to my word and put more than half of them in the box to go to the Salvation Army.

I struggled to get WhatsApp into the new phone, and at one point I thought I’d destroyed it, but after a bit of help from Scamp it all became clear and it’s now on computers and phones. I’ve still got a lot of apps to load on, but it looks like being a long drawn out process.

I didn’t go far for today’s photo, just into the garden. It’s a bud from Scamp’s Lady Emma Hamilton rose that never quite got a chance to open and then was frozen solid for a week. Such a pity, but only to be expected in mid winter.

We had intended going to the first night of the dance class, but neither of us were in the mood for it, so Scamp wrote a note of apology to Kirsty and promised we’d do our best to be there next week. Kirsty replied with a couple of videos of the class learning a Waltz in the new, much larger and brighter room in the Link.

Hoping against hope for better weather tomorrow, but I’m told we may need some shopping, but I might manage to get something photographed along the way.

Dining out – 3 January 2025

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But not until about 6pm. Until then we’d need to starve.

We were going out to dinner at John and Marion’s, but were a bit worried about the weather. No snow as yet, that was due for Saturday or Sunday, but there was ice on the paths and no guarantee that we wouldn’t get some snow.

I’m still struggling with the iMac. Ever since New Year I’ve had problems getting the catalog and the photos to work together. I’m beginning to think the old catalog I’ve been cleaning out and reusing for the last three years has become corrupted somewhere along the line.

I spent most of this afternoon finishing off the calendar photos. It took longer than usual because of the problems with the Mac. I think the basic calendar is more or less complete now and I might try a test print tomorrow. No time for one today because it’s getting near time to drive over to Hamilton.

Scamp was looking out the window just now and there was a fox in the front garden. She said it calmly walked across the grass without a care in the world. I didn’t get a chance to see it, but it was time to drive to Hamilton.

Had a great time with J&M and the food was excellent as always. John had even made a loaf of bread for the meal. I was really impressed. He admitted that it was Bread Maker bread, but that doesn’t matter, it’s the taste and the thought that counts. We came a bit earlier than usual with worries about the weather still in our heads.

Later in the evening, when we were home we hears strange noises coming from the bushes across the path from us us and I caught a quick view of a fox. Just a small, young one. We guessed that it was lost and that was reason for all the Yip, Yips coming from the bushes.

PoD was a photo of a Kissibel apple I’d halved and left in the back garden for the blackbirds. I think it might have been frozen solid and was too hard for the blackbirds.

Hoping for a thaw tomorrow.

 

A day to recover – 28 December 2024

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We had earmarked today as a day to recover and that’s what we did.

The furthest we got on Saturday was a visit to Tesco for the messages. Nothing fancy, just restocking the fridge, freezer and the storage cabinets. It was a dull wet day and neither of us wanted to very much.

In the afternoon, we managed to organise Scamp’s photos into some semblance of order sorted by date. I hate PCs!

Scamp is still not fully recovered from the bug she picked up, but hopefully a day or two of Scottish air will sort her out.

PoD was a wee bluetit building up its fat reserves in the garden.

Tomorrow we may go for a walk if we’re up for it/