Category: Garden

Gardening and wildflowers – 20 August 2023

Posted on by Zogman

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

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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

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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.

Over 400 photos yesterday – 9 today – 7 August 2023

Posted on by Zogman

That’s the way it goes with photography sometimes.

Scamp went out in the morning to get us milk and bread and I stayed in because a parcel was arriving and also to organise some photos to send to Alex. I’d meant to do it last week, but life got in the way. It was a pleasant enough day in between the rain showers.

Later we went down to Calders because Scamp wanted a bag of compost to replant some pots. She needed a bit strong boy to carry the bag and since we couldn’t find one, I was the labourer today. For once, we went looking for compost and that’s what we came home with. No extra flowers or plants and no other paraphernalia. Amazing. We’re both a bit prone to adding things that we don’t need when we go to garden centres. Later in the afternoon, I was still working on yesterday’s photos after I’d emailed Alex’s photos and Scamp had finished repotting the plants and had just decided to take a walk over to the park to get some photos when the rain came on. So instead of a walk to the park, I grabbed some photos in the garden and that’s where today’s PoD came from it’s an unknown fly on an Astrantia flower. It’s amazingly sharp given that the breeze and rain were moving things around, and of course the insect was moving too. The anti-shake on this camera works.

That was about it for the day. Just a normal Monday with a bit of sun, a bit of wind and some rain.

Hoping to go in to Glasgow tomorrow to get some photos from the Time Trial while Scamp is off meeting June for coffee.

 

Lazy – 28 July 2023

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Today was the exact opposite of yesterday, thankfully.

Scamp was up and cleaning the pots and trays from last night’s dinner. I helped out and stacked away the plates. Then Scamp was off to FitSteps. The first class in more than a month. While she was away I scrubbed out the remaining pots and trays and then got on with yesterday’s blog which you regular readers will know happens a lot, especially after a late night.

After her exercise and my blogging we had pizza for lunch then some more reorganising, but gentle reorganising. I managed to find some of the stuff I stashed away yesterday. Some of it is still there and will be returned to the living room when I need it in an attempt to reduce the clutter.

All that done, the idea for today was to relax and I think we deserved it after yesterday’s cooking and baking. Dinner tonight ended up being Fish Fingers, Egg and Spaghetti with a couple of fried potatoes on the side. A bit different from last night.

PoD was a shot of a bunch of pansies growing in the back garden. I managed to get just one of them in sharp focus. Unfortunately that was simply luck. I’d like to say I did it on purpose, but it wasn’t! Maybe it’s just me, but I always think pansies and violas have human-like faces. These ones look fierce.

Hoping for a similarly lazy day with a bit of dancing thrown in.

Slippin’ and a Slidin’ – 22 July 2023

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We were dancing in a restricted floor today. About a third of the floor was cordoned off because of the risk of sliding on a very slippery floor. Something to do with a kids party last week.

Only four couples and the teachers so the reduced dancing space wasn’t really much of a problem. Nobody seemed to know what had been applied to the floor, presumably to clean up after last week’s kids party, but it did make the floor quite slippy. Thankfully resourceful Jane had a solution. She poured some water in the corner of the area we were dancing in and encouraged everyone to dip their shoes in it and then wipe it off. It was supposed to make the suede soles more grippy, and it worked!

Two sequence dances to begin with then we launched into the nitty gritty of the Rumba routine we’ve been learning. We knew the figures in the rumba, but these were the little nuances, what Tom Paxton called “the John Wayne dance steps”, the details. If you don’t know who Tom Paxton is, Google him! We learned a lot, especially from Jayne’s instructions, but also from watching Stuart’s footwork. It brought the Rumba to life and made us feel we were ‘dancing’ it, not just going through the motions.

Another sequence dance to allow us to clear our heads, then a little Cha-Cha routine that was composed almost entirely from figures we already knew. I think this was a hastily ‘invented’ cha-cha to have something that could be danced within the reduced area we had available. We picked up most of it and Scamp filmed the demo and shared it on the class WhatsApp page, so we all have something to work on. Again there was an emphasis on the quality of the steps. This may be because we’re booked for a trip to the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool soon!

We drove home along a busy M8, but one without roadworks or 40mph restrictions. Oh Joy! We went to Tesco when we got home because I quite fancied a roll ’n’ sausage, but either the bakers were on strike or the ovens had packed in, but there were no rolls to be had, not real rolls, anyway. They had soft baps, but they’re not real rolls, not Scottish Roll! So it had to be a plain sliced loaf instead.

Dinner had been discussed on the drive home and we settled on Chicken & Pea Traybake. Simplicity itself unless you are scaling it up to feed six as we were a year or two ago in Cumbria. Thankfully it was only the two of us today and all the requirements were available in Tesco.

I was going to go for a walk in St Mo’s after lunch, but there was a soaking drizzle by then and I wasn’t interested in getting wet just to take some photos, so instead I took some photos in the garden instead. I still got wet, yes, but at least it wasn’t far to go to get into the dry again. PoD went to a bunch of daisies. I liked the fact that when I’d strimmed this area in the garden yesterday, I’d deliberately missed the daisies. I hate to chop them down, the are such survivors!

Tomorrow looks better than today, but there are no certainties about the weather these days.

Another box arrives – 21 July 2023

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Scamp was out early to go to the dentist to get phase two of her tooth replacement completed. This one involved two injections and a reshaping of the old tooth to take the new ceramic crown. Also she had x-rays taken and an impression made. The procedure lasted just under an hour and a sorry looking Scamp arrived home with that numb mouth we’ve all suffered at some time.

Meanwhile there was a knock at the door just after 9pm and there stood a man holding a big cardboard box with my name on it. It was a new camera, well, it was a second-hand camera really. I rarely buy new now. It was a Sony A6500 first announced in 2016, so it is old, but not ancient. It will replace the A6000 I’ve had for a few years. I’m selling the A6000 to offset the price of the new kit. I had a look over the new camera and it does all the things I want it to and a few other things as well. I think it’s a keeper, but I’ve only had a few hours in a busy day to play test it. Over the weekend I’m hoping to find a dry hour or so in the midst of all the rain that’s predicted to test it out more fully.

 

When Scamp returned and after her mouth had thawed out, I though it might be a good idea to walk down to Broadwood Farm for lunch. I’d had their carvery a couple of times and fish ’n’ chips the last time. Both were perfectly fine and good value for what we paid. The fact that I could also have a pint of Tennents had no bearing on the matter at all. Anyway, today I had one of their pizzas. I think they made a mistake with the pizza. I think they baked the cardboard box and threw away the pizza. It was totally tasteless and running with oil from the pepperoni. Never again.

After we walked back Scamp wanted to cut the grass front and back. I moved all the pots from the front of the front garden to allow her to run the mower down the edge of the tarmac path, then I replaced them. Once she’d finished mowing the front and was emptying the mower, I strimmed around the other three sided of the front grass. Then I strimmed round the pots in the back garden. I don’t mind the strimming, it is hard on my back, but I hate cleaning the mower afterwards.. The actual cutting of the grass takes about 10 – 15 minutes. Cleaning the mower afterwards can take half an hour. There must be a better way to do this.

By then I was thinking I might take the new camera over and introduce it to St Mo’s. It performed quite well, although the battery power diminished very quickly. Admittedly I’d been adjusting settings quite a lot that mean the rear screen is on a lot and that uses a fair bit of power. It’s something I’ll check in the coming week. PoD was a cluster of caterpillars high up in a tree. I think they are the caterpillars of the Buff Tip Moth, but I’m not sure.

The weather predictions for the weekend don’t look great. Lots of rain for most of the UK. I think our first lot is due tonight, so it might be a wet drive to dance class tomorrow. Other than that, no real plans.

A surprise parcel – 19 July 2023

Posted on by Zogman

A warm sunny morning, at least it was in the house with the sun streaming in the window.

The postman arrived just before lunchtime with a parcel. Scamp was expecting a parcel today, and was sure it was for her, then she noticed it had my name on it! It was a camera bag from Alex. I’d completely forgotten he said he had a spare bag that wasn’t big enough for his needs and it was too late to send it back. It was an ideal size for my A6000 and space for an extra lens. I phoned him to say thanks and we had a good talk about what we’d been doing. I also sent him a link to a website where you can book a Glasgow walk for free with an option to make a donation to the RNLI. We agreed it was worth looking into.

I’d noticed today how dusty and rough the inside window sill had become, so while Scamp was off up to the town centre I sanded down the sill and gave it a first coat of varnish. Waited for it drying which was almost instantaneously given the heat coming in from the sun and gave it a second coat. In all, the sill had three thin coats of varnish and looks much better now. I wonder who invented the disposable vinyl gloves. Whoever they were, they must have had the idea after they’d been painting window sills. I finished the job with clean hands. A first for me!

Scamp had had her nails done for going away on the cruise and now she wanted to get the remaining coating removed. The lady who did her nails said it was fairly easy to get them done and she has now booked a session to get the coating removed and redone.

When she returned I grabbed my camera and went out for a run to find some scenery worth shooting, but first I dropped in at Colin’s house to find out how his wife was keeping. She’d been in hospital after she’d come home from holiday and had an emergency operation. She looked a bit tired, but that’s to be expected. I remember Scamp looking a bit like that after her op. Good to see her up and about, albeit with a stick, but we’re all getting to an age when we need some extra support sometimes.

We stayed for a while just blethering in the sun. I hadn’t realised what a lovely little sun trap they had in their patio. Colin wouldn’t allow me to go without some veg so I came home with four courgettes and a cucumber from his garden.

I did get a chance to get my landscape photo, but PoD went to a bunch of Hydrangea flowers. Scamp’s Hydrangea Paniculata ‘Switch Ophelia’. A variety of hydrangea that changes colour throughout the summer. We feared the hot weather might have killed it, but here it is flowering happily after a fair bit of hydration.

Busy day tomorrow. Things to do and places to go, hopefully.