Category: Garden

Rain stopped play – 10 September 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Cloudy morning today, but the sun did manage to get through after a while. A coffee first then I could start work.

Today I was making Focaccia as the starter for tonight’s dinner and also a variation on Bread & Butter Pudding for dessert. Scamp had the much easier main course to make which was Sea Bass with Tomatoes and Potatoes. Focaccia is a sloppy dough with loads of olive oil to make it slippy and also sloppy. The first time I made it I kneaded it by hand and I remember chasing this messy dough all over the work surface. Yes, I did learn how to control a very wet dough, but vowed that the next time I’d let Mr Kenwood’s Chef do the hard work. So it was that I added all the ingredients into the bowl and let the dough hook go to work. About twenty minutes later I had a sort of dough and decide I could make it a bit wetter. Bad move. That meant the dough was too wet and I’d to add more flour. Eventually, I had the dough I wanted and I slopped it into a plastic tub to rise.

After lunch and after we’d watched Laura Kuenssberg tearing apart a new politician, it was time to check if the dough had “doubled in size”. Not quite, so I gave it another half hour to be sure and the sun was shining. That was the half hour it needed. It was ready to be slopped out on the work surface again, chopped into two big slippery pieces and stretched out in two baking trays to rest and stretch and grow bigger again with more olive oil in and around it. Another hour later, the sun was still shining and the dough was ready to be prepared for baking. I turned the oven on and poked my finger into the focaccia making big deep holes in it and then adding even more olive oil plus some rosemary, sun dried tomatoes and some sea salt. Then they went into the oven for 20mins. When they came out they looked fine, so guess what I added. Yes, more olive oil and then left them to rest and drink in all its green oily goodness.

I was watching the weather that wasn’t looking quite so sunny but I reckoned I could still get an hour in St Mo’s for some photos. A few minutes later, it was the sound that alerted me. The rain was coming down in torrents and Scamp’s washing was almost dry. Managed to save most of it, but the walk in St Mo’s wasn’t going to happen today. Instead I decided to photograph the rain. That will explain the title of today’s blog.

Later buttered four croissants, spread jam on them and set them aside. Next I beat up three eggs, some vanilla essence and some sugar then nearly boiled some milk and cream before chucking it into the bowl with the eggy mixture, arranged the croissants, tastefully, in a heatproof bowl and poured the creamy-eggy mess on top. Drizzled some sugar on top and stuck it in the oven to do its thing. I’d only made custard!! A bit lumpy in places and a bit thin in places, but custard, none the less! I was impressed. Plonked some rasps on top and there we had dessert.

Scamp only had to fry a fish or two, boil a few potatoes and chuck in some tomatoes. I had created a dessert with my own bare hands!

Focaccia was lovely and sticky. Scamp said it was missing something and I have to agree, I just don’t know what that ‘something’ was.

Spoke to Jamie and heard about swimming in the sea and thankfully the bat survey may now have passed muster with those who know about such things. I bet that’s a weight of their minds.

Tomorrow we may go in to Glasgow on the bus or the train. Oh, yes, and it’s still raining!

 

 

Signs of change – 9 September 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Maybe the last of the really hot weather for this year.

We had half intended to take the train to Edinburgh, but neither of us were all that bothered about getting out and about today. The clouds were low and the sun was taking a lazy day too, not trying to break up the clouds. Which meant that by the time we were up and organised, it was too late to go to Edinburgh.

While we’d both been reading after breakfast in bed, we’d heard the ominous thump of a bird hitting what sounded like the back room’s window. When I got up I found the body of a thrush lying beside the back door. It looked like the poor wee thing hadn’t suffered and had broken its neck in the impact. I disposed of the wee body.

Instead of Edinburgh, we went to Tesco. We’d chosen a recipe to try out. Chicken Thighs with Apricot Jam and Roasted Cauliflower. It sounds a bit cobbled together, but it was worth a try. We drove to Tesco to get the ingredients, but didn’t go any further. Really, it was one of those days when we were just waiting to find out when, rather than if the rain would come. Never one to sit back and wait, Scamp suggested we strip the bed and get some washing done, so that’s what we did, and it went in to the washing machine and out onto the ‘whirly’ before lunch. Lunch was a pizza that had been languishing in the fridge for almost too long. Almost, but not quite.

This weekend was the Ayr Air Show and although we’d decided not to go, instead I found a live feed on YouTube from Ayr and spent a good hour watching the planes go through their paces. It wasn’t as good as actually being there, but I was sitting in our living room, not wandering around the Low Green with a couple of thousand other folk. I sent Alex a message and sent him the link to the website. He texted me back to say that the Red Arrows had just flown over his house in Motherwell heading north east and then returned flying south west! Some folk just need to be better than you!

The Chicken Thighs with Apricot Jam and Roasted Cauliflower traybake turned out a lot better than I thought it would, but strangely, the star was the roasted cauliflower! Tomorrow I’m booked to make starter (focaccia) and pudding. Scamp is in charge of the main course.

It being a lazy day, I took today’s photo in the garden. It’s a close-up of a Rudbekia flower and it turned out better than I anticipated. An easy PoD.

It rained this evening. The first real rain we’ve had for about a month. The gardens really need a good soaking rain and this might just be the start of that. Thunder storms forecast for tomorrow

No plans for tomorrow, for obvious reasons!

Too hot to do much – 8 September 2023

Posted on by Zogman

What a strange thing to say in September!

Scamp was out at FitSteps in the morning, but I’d already been out walking in St Mo’s. Last night when I was going to bed I noticed that it was quite misty outside and this morning when I was making breakfast that mist had changed to fog. Absolutely perfect for some atmospheric shots. So I dressed for the climate and went for a walk in St Mo’s. The fog was lifting in the heat of the morning sun, but there were spiderwebs everywhere covered in tiny water drops from the fog and mist. Just what I was looking for. An hour later I had a variety of images to provide me with a PoD.

After Scamp left for FitSteps I had a look at the photos and used my normal method of rejecting the obvious ‘no hopers’, then grading the remaining shots as one, two or three stars. Two of the three stars were selected, edited and cropped to a better format, oh yes, and I also had time to have tea and toast!

When Scamp returned we discussed where to go for lunch, it being Friday and settled on Broadwood Farm. Cheap grub and the chance of a pint or a glass of wine to wash it down. With that settled, we walked over to Condorrat first to post a card and a letter, then walked down to Broadwood for our usual Friday lunch which was a carvery for me and fish ’n’ chips for Scamp.

Wandered back to the house after being fed and watered and sat in the garden soaking up the sun for the remainder of the afternoon. We could have gone to the Air Show at Ayr beach instead of Broadwood, but the thought of sitting in the car for an hour, especially after driving for a couple of hours yesterday didn’t appeal. The lazy way is sometimes the best.

I split up my basil plants and repotted them into three pots. Scamp potted up one of her new plants then removed one of the pots from the front garden and replaced it with one from the back garden that looked as if it needed a bit of sun. Later we watered both the front and back gardens. Although heavy thundery showers are predicted for Sunday, the plants need the water today.

PoD went to a spider repairing its web. One of the photos from this morning.

We’ve a couple of prospective places to go tomorrow. It will, as always, depend on the weather. Today was a good day.

A morning at the races – 3 September 2023

Posted on by Zogman

This morning we headed off to see the start of the annual 10K race just half a mile away from the house.

Unfortunately (1) when we got to the football stadium where the race was to set off from, we were just in time to see the runners, in the distance, leaving the stadium. I’d intended getting some sharp, slow shutter shots of the runners with the blurred out faces of the audience behind. Unfortunately (2), there was no audience. Not one person standing applauding as the runners sped past. Maybe because there was virtually no publicity and no map of the route. The best I could find was one of a Strava map from 2018. Now, I’m sure that if it was a Motherwell 10k we would have been overloaded with information and maps galore. There wasn’t even a countdown in the stadium. Maybe the bloke whose tannoy the council usually borrow couldn’t make it today. Disappointed and disillusion. It’s time Cumbersheugh shucked off NLC and became a notion in its own right. We stayed to watch the first men and the first women finishers running past.  I also say Scott Meenagh the double amputee who went to Cumby High run past.

We walked home and had badly made, scrambled egg and smoked salmon. I made it. After that, and after Laura Kuenssberg getting stuck into a Tory, we walked down to the shops to get the basic ingredients for tonight’s dinner which was to be Chicken and Orzo One Pot thing. It was also, almost a disaster. Should have been Skin on, Bone in chicken thighs and we got the Skinned and Boned variety. The orzo went claggy and although it was one pot, there was a lot of decanting and recanting (if that’s a word) of the various ingredients. The chicken was fine, as was everything else. We may try again, but use rice instead of orzo.

I’d gone out in the afternoon while Scamp was gardening. I was looking for something that would generate some photographic interest in me.

Spoke to Jamie tonight and learned that his and Simonne’s car insurance had gone up by as much as ours. That, in a strange was made me feel a bit better, but not a great deal.

I’d walked half way round the pond at St Mo’s when I sat down on an old wooden bench and found a Female Common Darter sitting beside me. It allowed me only three shots before it took off. Lots of male common darter about this year, but few females. Don’t know why. Later in my walk, I found a male darter on the boardalk. Always be wary when a dragonfly stands up, especially if it lifts its wings. It’s getting ready to flee, like the male common darter in today’s photo did. It was PoD.

Tomorrow I must write to Alex and find out where we’re going on Wednesday if he’s still free. Other than that, no plans.

 

 

Waltzing around – 24 August 2023

Posted on by Zogman

This morning we had a quick practise of the waltz. I needed it.

We spent so long yesterday arguing about whether we were going clockwise or anti-clockwise when we were doing the Cross Basic, I forgot all the stuff I’d learned about the Outside Spin. So this morning we concentrated on the Outside Spin. After a couple of mistakes I got back to the basics of it, and this next section is for my benefit. It will make no sense to anyone reading it, except me and perhaps Scamp:

After the Drag Hesitation, and the backward steps turn right and plant my right foot, then spin clockwise on it around Scamp. After that it’s a Back Lock and we’re nearly finished.

I think that’s it. It seemed to work yesterday and this morning.

That was this morning. This afternoon we drove to Glenburn to a very small group of dancers. First dance of course was a waltz. That’s when I realised I’d left the Outside Spin in the house, I must have, because I certainly didn’t have it with me! I just couldn’t remember how to get my feet to complete that simple couple of sentences in italics I’ve just written. It just wouldn’t come. Disaster! Thank goodness for sequence dances Stewart interleaves between the ballroom and latin dances. They repeat and repeat short ‘sequences’ of moves. That’s where they get their name from and also why they are so popular. After you’ve danced them for a while, they become embedded in muscle memory. I haven’t repeated the Outside Spin enough times yet to embed it.

After the halfway point of the tea dance, after the actual tea and coffee had been served and cleared away, the first dance of the second half is a waltz again and this time I stumbled through the waltz again, but this time it was a bit clearer and I remembered some of Stewart’s prompts and also Scamp’s hints. It was better, but not very elegant.

Barry and Cath, two long serving salsa dancers, and excellent tango dancers joined us after tea time for a blether. Also another dancer lady, Margaret McIver, sat and talked to us at tea time, but the two teachers sat in their little cliques and hardly spoke to us at all. That is not my idea of what teachers should do. They should encourage folk to join in the dance community and mingle. Maybe it’s just me, that I always find fault with teachers!

We left as usual just after 3pm to avoid the worst of the school transport, and we had a fairly easy run home.

I grabbed the opportunity of a few shots of our Japanese Anemone in flower in the garden and that became PoD.

Not the best dancing day, but maybe I’ve finally solved the problem of the Outside Spin and all it needs is practise now.

I think we both felt the temperature dropping a bit today. That seems to be the way the weather is going for next week according to the Weather Fairies.

No real plans for tomorrow, but we may go out to lunch.

Gardening and wildflowers – 20 August 2023

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A lazy day, with little to recommend it.

We did a bit of gardening in the late morning, just pruning the Buddleia in the hope that it would encourage more flowers, but I really think it’s past now and needs a serious haircut before the winter winds arrive. Scamp was busy moving some Honesty plants from the nursery pots to the pots they will hopefully live in until they flower next year. She can be quite ruthless with plants, ripping them out if she thinks they are ‘going over’, ie not producing the flowers they should be. I was also chopping down as much of the Aquilegia I could get away with. It’s well past first flush of flowering and there’s just the chance that it might flower again before the end of the year. More work needing done:

  • Sunflowers need staked.
  • I think we need to think about some winter colour.
  • We need to remove this year’s flowers from the Rhododendrons. This one is contentious. Some folk think we shouldn’t remove the old floret stems and some think we should.

Basically the garden is doing well. The few veg I have are coming along nicely, especially the leeks and the kale. Maybe we should plant some tatties soon for a Christmas crop.

In the afternoon I went for a walk in St Mo’s and got a few interesting wildflower photos, there being very little insect life about apart from the usual skittish Common Darters. It was a very green photo of a Pineapple Plant that got PoD. I remember when I was wee, being amazed that they did actually taste like pineapples! They smell like them too. As they are low growing, it’s probably best to just smell them rather than eat them as you don’t know what has been ‘watering’ them!

Dinner tonight was a Chicken Milanese we got from the butchers a week or so ago. Scamp was not impressed and I have to agree her version is better. Dessert was Apricot and Brioche Pudding. A bit like Bread and Butter Pudding, but posher!

Spoke to Jamie tonight and heard about his posh dinner on Friday. Sounded lovely. We must go look for The Unruly Pig. That’s the name of the restaurant, by the way.  We think our garden is growing well until we hear about their garden and then ours pales a bit in comparison.  However, ours is easier to maintain.

No real plans for tomorrow. It depends on the weather.

Driving and Cooking – 17 August 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Today we’d thought about travelling over to Edinburgh, but the clouds simply wouldn’t lift and the weather was going to be worse in the east.

Instead, we spent most of the morning deciding what we were going to have for dinner.  We were going through an old recipe book “Home by Seven Dinner by Eight” that we used to use all the time.  We found a few recipes that would work for today and finally settled on “Salmon, Asparagus, Pancetta, Tomatoes and Potatoes Traybake” as today’s dinner.  So we needed Salmon, Asparagus and Pancetta, the rest we had.  Off we went to get the fish at a new stall that had opened up recently in the grounds of the garden centre.  Two big slabs of salmon, some smoked haddock, some unsmoked haddock and an Arbroath Smokie.  A bit more expensive than Tesco, but the fish looked good.

On the way home we did drop in at Tesco for some odds and ends, but forgot to get the asparagus and the pancetta.  That didn’t matter, because I was intending going out again after lunch and I would get the remaining ingredients then.

Back home and after lunch and after I’d been to Tesco for the second time today, we settled in the garden. Me to take photos initally and Scamp to read. I got a PoD in the garden. It was one of Scamp’s plants grown from seeds we got down south in April.  It’s called Cerinthe and has blue/green leaves and purple flowers almost hidden from view by the leaves.  Almost hidden, but the bees find them no problem. A beer and a book afterwards to relax in a cloudy, but just warm enough temperature before dinner.

Because the dinner was a traybake, it was dead easy to make.  It only took about 20mins in the oven and it tasted as good as it looked in the book.

Despite the driving here and there, it was a fairly relaxing day. Tomorrow Scamp is hoping that her crown will be ready and that it will fit this time!

At the Carwash – 11 August 2023

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I actually took it to the carwash earlier in the week, but it was closed for maintenance.

Scamp was out in the morning to FitSteps and when she came home she looked exhausted, but happy. A sign of a good workout, or so I’m told, never having driven myself that close to the edge for a looooong while.

We also got a text from Hazy to say they were on their way home from their holiday in Wales. A change is as good as a rest, they say. I’m not so sure there was much of a rest for them with three children running round their feet!

I’d volunteered to make Chicken Ramen for dinner tonight. Basically a stir fry with soup added. For that we needed Chicken, of course and maybe some veg. That meant a trip to Tesco, because I already knew that M&S didn’t have Pak Choi. Unfortunately, although Tesco had pak choi, the only spring onions they had (another essential ingredient) were absolutely manky and Scamp rejected them out of hand. A few other things went in the trolley and a box of beer for me too. Cheap ‘holiday beer’ as Scamp calls it. Beer for drinking, sitting in the sun in the garden. The weather wasn’t really settled into sitting in the sun weather yet, but we always live in the hope that it might just change its mind.

We drove home and after a spot of lunch, I decided I’d wash the car, a sort of cheapo home carwash. We’d just got fed up with the car feeling like sandpaper. Sap from the trees we park under drips on the car and becomes semi solid just making everything, metal and glass feel rough. It also attracts wasps that love the sweet sap. It took me longer than I’d anticipated to get the car cleaned of all the sticky stuff and I even cleaned the inside of the boot and decanted some of the detritus that lives in there. It will find its way back in, I’m sure, after MOT on Tuesday.

Before I knew it, it was dinner time. The chicken ramen didn’t generate too many negative comments from Scamp which was surprising because I know she doesn’t really like noodles and there were loads of them in this recipe. Maybe a decent bottle of red to help wash it down helped.

The clouds began gathering in the late afternoon and then the first raindrops hit the window. No, I don’t think we were going to be sitting outside with a beer or a Pimms today. The PoD was taken just as the rain started in earnest. It’s a hanging basket of pink and white fuchsias from the garden. I thought that since Barbie is everywhere this summer, a little pink and white border would be appropriate!

Jamie had asked me for a recipe for pizza dough. I hope it works or worked out well for you and that the pizzas rise to the occasion!

Tomorrow we may go to Glasgow to see the Under 23 Men’s Race. Rain is forecast, so let’s hope they all get through unscathed.

 

Dancin’ – 10 August 2023

Posted on by Zogman

We were off today to Glenburn to do some dancin’.

I’d been doing a bit of studying this morning. It was mainly centred on the latest iteration of Joy’s Waltz. We had a half hour or so of practise last night that went over the waltz and a bit of cha-cha. Today I knew that Scamp would want to put that practise to good use. Even after a bit of last minute revision, I wasn’t sure that practise would make perfect. Getting round the floor without doing too much damage and without crashing into anyone would be a win for me.

I don’t know what the Paisley council have been doing with their spending plans, but they must have found some extra money in a biscuit tin in a cupboard because that’s the only way they could manage finance the roadworks around Glenburn where we were going for dancing. I lost count of the number of diversion signs and roads being dug up as we drove out there. Worst of all, the road we usually drive home was closed off with a lorry and a few dozen traffic cones. How were we going to navigate round that? The only way I could think of was driving through Paisley itself and that’s a nightmare journey I didn’t want to make. The best thing to do was to put it behind us for now and enjoy the dancing.

The weather today was humid, very humid. I think we got up to 25ºc on the car thermometer and the temperature in the hall must have been similar. Again, we were lucky in whose table we sat at. Chatted away with David & Carol, John & Madge until we had enough folk to make the floor look busy. Waltz, of course, was first and for the first dance I was quite pleased that I managed to achieve my two goals. After that, it was two sequence dances followed with two ballroom or latin dances. We managed to navigate the sequence dances, but my skill level at ballroom and latin dances went gradually downhill. Even muscle memory wasn’t working towards the end. Plus, as Ella Fitzgerald sang, It was “Too Darn Hot!”

We drove away from Glenburn and decided to go back the way we always would and see what happened. Worst comes to the worst, we’d follow the diversion signs until we got lost and then rely on the sat nav. However as we were coming down the hill to the Hurlet roundabout where the road had been closed, it had magically been opened again and we simply drove home by our usual M77, M8, M74, M73 route.

Scamp decided that the sun was going to shine when we got back and took her folding chair out to soak up some of its rays. I took the A6500 out for a walk in St Mo’s and got a PoD of a lazy dragonfly sitting on the stones that provide grip on the boardwalk. Being cold blooded, I imagine they get a fair bit of heat from the stones which warm up in the sun. I extended my walk down to the shops and came home with some fruit and some flowers, because, well, it was Thursday. When I came back I joined Scamp in the garden with a can of Brewdog stout (Try it Jamie, it works) and a Pimms for Scamp.

Dinner tonight was sausage, egg, beans and chips which was a bit unusual, but worked quite well.

Tomorrow we’ve no real plans, but a change may be afoot. Heavy rain predicted to mark the end of the hot clammy weather.

Parking – 8 August 2023

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Parking was my problem today.

I’d intended to drive to the station, park there and get the train in to Glasgow to book my car in for service and MOT and then go and photograph the teams as they completed the time trial.

There was no room at all in the big carpark beside the station. Usually there are one or two places where you can find a space, but today it was wall to wall cars in the spaces, on the grass, in the flower beds even. There were two spaces with a SUV taking up more than its fair share of one space and that left none for anyone else. I gave up and tried the station itself, but that is always full, even on weekends when nobody is parking to travel to work. It was full, of course.

I decided I’d just have to drive in to Glasgow and park at the garage, book my slot and drive home. I got in an argument with a big black Mercedes taxi who wanted into my lane, and had to manoeuvre around him. Gave him a blast with the horn, but I don’t think he was all that bothered. I was getting hot and bothered. Finally got off the motorway, found the garage and parked. Big fancy reception are as they all are now. Booked a slot for next week and was back on the road again in ten minutes. I just drove home. At least one thing was done.

After tea and toast Scamp suggested the carpark might be less congested now and I might get a space, get the train in to Glasgow and still get to see the time trial. That sounded like a good idea, but my heart sank when I drove into the carpark. Still full. SUV still taking up two spaces. Gave up and drove on down to Auchinstarry when I got my first lucky break. Just as I was coming in to this carpark, someone else was leaving and I got her space!

I walked along the canal and got some photos including the photo of the old steel seat half way along the path to Twechar that became PoD. It was a beautiful afternoon and I managed one more shot of a Marmalade hoverfly on a knapweed flower.

Back at the car I drove down to Lidl in Kilsyth and got some messages and one of their low GI loaves. Then I drove home and sat in the garden with Scamp who had cut the grass while I was out. She with a sparkling water and lime juice and me with a bottle of Joke IPA. Listened to Winter’s Gifts by Ben Arronovitch and relaxed

Dinner was Egg and Lentil Curry which we sometimes change into Fish and Lentil, but today Scamp made it the traditional way with hard boiled eggs. Hard to believe we bought the cookbook from Woolworths so many years ago.

Tomorrow I’m meeting Alex in Glasgow for a walk and a blether.