Category: Garden

Flowers in the rain – 1 September 2026

Posted on by Zogman

It was one of those days when it rains almost all day.

Last night Scamp admitted that she’d been having toothache. It was coming from a big molar. She’d had pain from it before, but this time it was more severe and it wasn’t going away. She had taken Ibuprofen and Paracetamol. Both worked to a degree, but when the pain returned this morning she phoned the dentist who very kindly fitted her in to her busy schedule in the afternoon. I drove her over to the the dentist, dropped her off and waited. That’s when the rain started. Some torrential rain and some, just wet and noisy, rattling on the car’s roof. Just over half an hour later she got her wish and the big old molar was gone. She seems ok now. The pain has gone and the swelling has gone too. I hope the fairies leave her a present for being a brave girl.

Afterwards, I was making a late lunch in the afternoon. Scamp didn’t really want anything to eat, but then she decided that she could manage a mashed up banana because it was soft and easily swallowed. That seemed to help settle things too.

The post came late today and the postman brought the details for our visit to Dundee along with his usual collection of junk mail. So now we can see where we are going and who we’re going to see. We still don’t know how long we’re going to be there, but hopefully we’ll have more information once we’ve spoken to the doctor and the surgeon.

Today’s PoD was twin Japanese Anemone flowers taken in a grab shot in one of the dry spells in the garden.

It’s been a busy and exciting day, all things considered. Hopefully things will calm down for a bit now.

The Butterflies Return – 31 August 2026

Posted on by Zogman

It was a blustery and breezy day today, but it didn’t dissuade the butterflies or the bees.

Our Buddleia bush has lost all its flowers this month. Not surprising really, given the number of bees and butterflies that have visited it. I thought they were gone for good, but then this morning, not one, but two butterflies were visiting our smaller white buddleia. One was a Small Tortoiseshell and the other was a Peacock. They stayed for most of the day and the gusty breeze didn’t seem to upset them.

I was just thinking, wouldn’t it be good if our esteemed leaders could behave like the butterflies and just simply get on with things instead of all the posturing and back biting they usually exhibit.

Other than photographing the butterflies, I didn’t do much. I did take a camera for a walk over to the shops, but couldn’t find what I was looking for and came home empty handed.

Scamp used the day to thin out some of the compost we’ve gathered this summer. It will stand us in good stead for winter planting once it dries out, all being well.

I worked in the morning to clear out some of the unmarked photos from August and hopefully tomorrow I’ll dispose of the ones that failed to get a Red or Yellow marker. That should clear out some of the ‘dead wood’.

August is a month I’ll be glad to see the back of. So many mistakes and problems with fitting the subjects and details into the catalogs. I think I need to use a much clearer way of organising the photos.

No real plans for tomorrow, but Scamp may be looking for an appointment at the dentist to have a look at a tooth that’s become painful, just recently.

A rather muggy day – 18 August 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Occasional rain, but always warm – too warm for me.

I went for a walk this afternoon, but despite searching all my usual places, I couldn’t find anything worth photographing. I eventually gave up and walked home in the rain which was at least refreshing!

Earlier in the day we had found a host of caterpillars munching their way through Scamp’s Nasturtiums and I put them all on some leaves across the path. Tonight I realised they would make and excellent subject for a macro photo. That’s how the Very Hungry Caterpillar came to find its way to becoming today’s PoD. It was indeed ‘very hungry’. Just look at the damage it did to a single leaf. One caterpillar did that! Now I know why gardeners dislike them so much. According to Google, this is the caterpillar of a Large White butterfly.

Nothing much else to report on today, although we did drive in to the outskirts of Glasgow for a coffee and a cake just to get us out for a while. Also, I did manage to find a bag of Marshalls Macaroni for you Hazy. You’ll get it the next time we meet.

These epistles seem to be getting shorter and shorter. I must encourage Scamp to drag me somewhere more interesting!

No plans for tomorrow, although we may take the train somewhere just for a change.

MOT day for the Blue Car – 17 August 2026

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Dropped the car off at about 9am at the garage then phoned a taxi that took me home.

Scamp was just on her way out to meet Shona for coffee and a blether. I made a cup of coffee and attempted Wordle and the rest of the puzzles and waited. About an hour later I got the result. A failure because of a fractured front coil spring. Not surprising given the number of potholes and broken drain covers that are scattered around Cumbersheugh. Did I want to go ahead with the repair and service? It was the first failure I’d had with this car in the six years of driving it. I don’t think I had much to complain about. Yes, just go ahead.
I phoned Scamp to tell her the bad news, but she also agreed that we’d done well with over 39,000 miles it had done. I think in retrospect that I got off lightly.

The rest of the day just chugged along. Not really a good day to go for a walk, but instead I photographed a bunch of fading flowers in a vase on the window sill. They were the variety “Lady Emma Hamilton”, one of Scamp’s favourites. The light was beginning to fade and I spent an hour or so adjusting the levels in Lightroom until I had the picture the way I wanted it. I could have worked for a few extra hours, but knew I was just wasting my time. Lady Emma Hamilton made PoD.

About 4pm I got the message from the garage that the car was ready to be collected. Another taxi ride took me bak to the garage. I pushed my card into the reader and collected my keys. We were back in business. I didn’t notice much different in the drive home, but I couldn’t argue with the work done.

Dinner tonight was Pizza and a slice of Scamp’s version of Tiramisu which was very welcome.

Later, Scamp was typing and messages were flying to and fro between others in the family. I was asked for my opinion a few times, but I think I was more engrossed with Angry Birds than was healthy for me, especially if I wanted to keep breathing. One ‘faux pas’ with the Lady Emma Hamilton debacle was bad, but not listening to Scamp would be unforgivable. I listened properly and agreed with what she had planned.

No real plans for tomorrow.

Dancin’ – 14 August 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Today was the first tea dance day in ages, and it showed.

First, though I went to get some fruit in Tesco. That gave me a chance to stretch my legs. A ‘piece’ on banana was my lunch, then it was time to get ready for today’s tea dance.

We started by driving to Glenburn, only to find a Road Closed sign stopping us. Thankfully, after checking our direction on the screen and after working out what direction we should be heading in, we managed to plan the best route through the streets on the edge of Paisley, and it worked. We weren’t the only ones who were caught out by this last minute decision to close the road. There were a few puzzled looks from cars in front of us. In the end, we were only a few minutes late.

My dancing was poor today. I’ll admit it. I just couldn’t put a foot right. It’s a wonder Scamp didn’t disown me, the number of times I was wrong footed. I think the reason was that today was the 13th of August. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

My dancing ability improved a bit later in the day, once I’d had a cup of tea and a blether to Barry & Cath. Also, the dances were a lot easier in the second half. Almost all were sequence dances, with the occasional simple Waltz or Rumba.

Drove home through fairly heavy traffic, but by using the M74/M73 we got there in a decent time.

I was stuck for a PoD until I found a bunch of little purple flowers in the garden with the sun shining through the fenceposts. That won the day.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to have Crawford & Nancy for dinner, so that means we’ve got a lot of work to do.

Looking for insects – 11 August 2026

Posted on by Zogman

It was another hot day. Not as hot as it was in the south of England, but certainly warm enough for us in Scotland.

The only thing we did today was to go for a walk to the shops. Well, to be honest, Scamp went for a walk to the shops, but I cut the walk short and went down to St Mo’s. Behind St Mo’s is what is usually a boggy area which is usually wet in all weathers. Of course, today it was almost bone dry. I was looking for the seed pods from the Flag Iris plants that grow there, but I realise now after some research that I have to wait until about November to get the distorted seed pods that grow down there! I’ll try to be patient.

On my walk back, I spotted a little Hover Fly sitting and probably feeding on a pink Knapweed flower. It took a few shots to get what I wanted from the wee fly, but in the end I had a PoD.

Back home it was my turn to cook and Scamp requested Pasta Puttanesca. That’s another recipe from a long while ago. I eventually found what I was looking for and Scamp said it tasted just right. I wasn’t too sure, but I’ll stand by her decision.

TV schedules were all over the place tonight which meant that the Sewing Bee hadn’t recorded on our dodgy Virgin device. It seems that every week we find another failure from this recorder. I thInk it may be time to move away from Virgin and get a more trustworthy recorder.

That was about it for today. Sat in the garden for a while soaking up the sun. Hoping to meet Alex tomorrow for a walk. I might even get back in time to watch the partial eclipse.

More butterflies – 9 August 2026

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I don’t think you can ever have enough photos of butterflies.

I don’t want to rub it in, but we had rain again this morning. Not a lot of rain, but enough to let us know that it’s still around, just waiting for a chance to drop on us.

The rain came and went for most of the morning and a bit of the afternoon, but didn’t bother us. Scamp and I did some pruning of the Buddleia bushes later in the afternoon and by then the butterflies were returning to the bushes. I think the rain in the morning dampened the flowers down and maybe that accounts for the limited amount of interest from the butterflies but the bees are much hardier. In the evening all the butterflies returned, circling the buddleia plants again. I got a few photos of a Red Admiral that became PoD.

Scamp and I emptied the last of the potato bags and collected quite a few potatoes. Almost all of them were in good condition, but a lot of the soil was dry, probably from being under the Rowan tree for too long. A few of them were the size of marbles and we used a tip we’d seen on Gardeners World. We replanted two of the potato shaws that still had smaller potatoes attached. Then we filled up the pot they had been in and watered them in well. Hopefully that will produce some more potatoes, but even if they fail, we won’t have lost anything.

Dinner tonight was Cauliflower in Cheese Sauce for Scamp and Stew and Kidney for me. Dessert for both of us was Rhubarb and Strawberries a strange mixture, but really good. We only tried it because our strawberries were starting to go over. We both agreed we’d do it again. Your rhubarb was mixed with our thinner rhubarb, but both worked together, Jamie.

Tomorrow Scamp and Shona are intending to go out for the day, somewhere nice! That’s all I know.

 

A leisurely day – 7 August 2026

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We sort of had a long lie in today but managed to wake before 11am!

After breakfast we discussed what to do with the day. It was Scamp who suggested we drive to Hamilton for a curry in Bombay Cottage and that suited me too. So off we went to Hamilton. No problems with roadworks on the M74 down to Hamilton.

The food was good and the Naan Bread was really hot. Just out of the tandoor. I had Chicken Rogan Josh and Scamp had Vegetable Shimla Bhaji. Ice cream helped take the sting out of my Rogan Josh. We were both amazed that the same person who has always served us was still there doing the same job. He told us he’s been there for sixteen years, but is retiring this year. I don’t know if he will retire. I think he’s in with the bricks.

We discussed whether to go somewhere else or just go home afterwards, and settled for going home. Again, we were on the right road to just drive our normal route home without any roadworks, but many people seemed surprised that the road ahead was closed.

In the afternoon we went for a walk around the front garden. One of Scamp’s favourite rose bushes isn’t doing very well, We’re not sure what the root problem is, but a lot of the leaves are covered in big holes and others are discoloured. I think she might write to one of the companies that have supplied the bushes in the past and find out what we should do with it. For today, we cut the plant back by about a third in the hopes that it will give it a jolt. Also it is nearly time to give the roses a second feed. That may help too. If all else fails we’ll do a more drastic cut in the end of spring.

Today’s PoD really came from yesterday’s shots. It’s from an old broken wall across from the house with leaves hanging over the cracked brickwork.

Hope Jamie and Sim enjoy their friend’s wedding.

Tomorrow should be dance day. Hopefully it will be better than last week.

A Butterfly Day – 2 August 2026

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Beautiful day for butterflies. I counted fifteen butterflies congregating on the buddleia bush in the garden.

The day actually started with some joker trying to reverse a lorry and connected ‘chipper’ along a path that was never meant to carry such a wide load. After a bit of an argument I convinced him to disconnect the ‘chipper’ and push it down to where it should have been and then drive the lorry round to the wider road further down the estate. Then we discussed how to repair the tree he had damaged. After that the ‘boss’ and I worked out that the best thing to do was to cut part of the tree branch down. With it done, we shook hands on it, but some of the minions were still making noises. Scamp and I went back to breakfast.

For the rest of the day, Scamp was happily working on the garden. She had a vision of what she wanted to happen and I was glad to let her get on with it. I must admit that she has made an excellent job of clearing up the garden. It’s not quite finished yet, but a lot of work went into making it look much better than before.

I was busy taking photos of the butterflies that had covered the buddleia bush. About half a dozen different types were flying round and through the buddleia flowers and my favourite was the Comma with its easily recognised ‘Cut out’ on its wing. The most amazing one was the Painted Lady which migrates from Africa and mainland Europe to the Uk, and in this case to Scotland. This is the first time I’ve seen one.

Spoke to Jamie later in the day and heard about the exorbitant price for their water bill. I’m glad we live in Scotland!

Tomorrow Scamp and I are probably going shopping. What fun!

Dancin’ – 1 August 2026

Posted on by Zogman

On the first day of August

It was a busy morning with traffic on the road, probably from folk coming home from holiday and others on their way out. Once we got past Glasgow airport the traffic reduced. Today we were back in Brookfield and dancing old dances. Some were more successful than others. People, including us, were still having problems with Rona’s Rumba. Jane was making changes to the routine but, as someone said, there are too many turns both clockwise and anticlockwise. I can understand that Jane has devised the dance for a friend who passed away, but you sometimes have to stand back and look at the routine. That’s all I’ll say.

It wasn’t my best day. I was complaining about everything. I have no excuse for it, just one of those dance days when things get under my skin and I can’t do anything right. We danced quite a few routines that, normally we’d work our way through without any problems, but today they just didn’t work. Most of it was my fault. Probably best to forget today and come back fresh for the next dance.

For once we drove home over the Kingston Bridge and kept the wheels turning all the time. It’s not often I’ll say that. The weather was variable today. Cloudy one minute and in sunshine the next. Not to be trusted, though because Scamp was complaining about little showers of rain when she was working in the garden later. We both worked on an old tree that’s been growing next to the wall in the back garden and between us I think we’ve given it a good short back and sides today. Our ‘Brown Bin’, the garden waste bin was almost full with one bushy tree.

We had three butterflies changing places round the Buddleia bush in the garden. One of them, a Red Admiral, finally settled on a plant pot and I managed one photo of it before it flew off. That photo made PoD.

I spent some time rearranging my Lightroom catalog, something I’ve been meaning to do for months now. Hopefully it will be a more logical way of working this year.

Dinner tonight was Mac ’n’ Cheese and although it was a bit salty, it tasted great. Scamp was cooking, of course!

No plans for tomorrow so far.