Category: Garden

Where did the sun go? – 14 May 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Yesterday we had wall to wall sunshine, but not today.

Today the sun chose to play hide and seek among the clouds and it was more hide than seek for most of the day, although in the evening we did get a clear sky for an hour or two.

There wasn’t much to say about today other than we were promised rain and we did get a thimble full (if you know how much that is). It wasn’t much. Enough to wet the path and that’s about it.

I did nip out in the afternoon to photograph a delicate looking pink aquilegia that had just flowered today, or maybe yesterday. Anyway, I liked the colour of it. That got PoD.

Spoke to Jamie in the evening and heard about their recent food poisoning that they are attributing to stuffed squash.  Strangely we had that self same thing when we were down there last month and felt no ill effects, but Toxic Squash Syndrome is a known illness.  Who knew vegetables could be bad for you?  Both appear to be over the bout and Jamie said he doesn’t think he’ll eat another squash.

Today’s prompt was Something Typical From Your Region. I thought I’d draw and paint a kilt. Never, ever call it a skirt. That will cause a great weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and probably a brick thorough your window! This is an approximation of Modern Campbell tartan.
Note:
1. The Sporran – originally for holding your money, now your phone, house keys, wallet, car keys and loose change.
2. On your left side is a little dagger shaped Kilt Pin to stop the wind blowing open the front flap of the kilt and frightening the horses.
3. Tucked neatly into your stocking top another dagger, the Dirk. Originally a real one for defense, but now probably a plastic or wooden replica. No good for fighting off the enemy, but at least you won’t be marched of the premises by the police.
5. The Buckfast tonic wine is what’s really typical of my region.

Hoping to take Shona for lunch tomorrow if Ben goes to school, that is!

Was that summer? – 13 May 2023

Posted on by Zogman

A quite beautiful day of sunshine.

We drove to Brookside in the morning through the 40mph zone that wasn’t quite as bad as last week, although some folk were mistaking 40mph with 20mph, it seemed. We got to the class just in time. Just four couples including a decidedly pregnant Jasmine who, with her partner made light work of just about everything.

Started off with a couple of Mayfair Quickstep tracks to warm us up. The hall had a curtained off section today for some undisclosed reason, so we were dancing on what was virtually a square. After that, and after an explanation for those who hadn’t been there last week, the teachers launched into Joy’s Waltz. I thought we’d found a sneaky shortcut to get us through the Overturned Spin Turn, but was quickly shot down in flames by Jane who explained that although it did speed up the OST, it meant that when we came out of it we’d find our feet were tangled. Back to the drawing board then! I still can’t get the hang of the OST and I think I’ll resort to Scamp’s suggestion that we just fake that step and concentrate on getting the rest working.

Next we did the Sweetheart Cha-Cha with a few new adaptations just to make it more difficult, I think. Most of that went quite smoothly, even the new steps that they’d squeezed in. Thankfully Jasmine had filmed the new improved Sweetheart Cha-Cha and posted it to the group tonight.

Final dance steps were the Jive with American Spins, Alternative Stop & Go and Cha-Cha Walks. These words mean very little to me and will be forgotten by the time I finish the blog!

One last wee sequence dance, Rumba One to finish and that was us released to face the traffic going home. Overall, it was a good class, although the lady that Scamp has named Mrs Posh was being a bit of a know-all.

The drive home was easier than I expected, possibly because everyone was going to the seaside today to make the most of the sunshine. We just drove home and after lunch we worked in the garden. Scamp was chopping up a dying azalea and I was concentrating on potting up my sunflower seedlings and the wee rosemary bush we bought about a month ago.

I’d just finished doing my gardening and was putting the compost away when I felt a familiar sting on the back of my leg. I’d picked up a tick somewhere, possibly yesterday. First this year. Let’s hope it’s the last.

Dinner was a roast chicken and salad with a bottle of Prosecco to brighten it up even more.

PoD went to a purple aquilegia flower in the front garden.

Today’s prompt was An Elephant.
We don’t get many elephants roaming the hills in Scotland, and the only ones I’d photographed were either made from cast iron or paintings on billboards. However, Mr Google kindly supplied me with a model that fitted neatly on my A5 page.

I think the sky is clouding over as I write this and we’re expecting rain tomorrow. Let’s hope today wasn’t Summer! The weather will determine what we do tomorrow.

The gardens needed it – 8 May 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Today was wet. It went from drizzle to full on downpour, but it was wet all day!

We weren’t going far today anyway. I might have gone in to Glasgow to get myself a new suit, a dark suit, both my other suits are light grey and a dark one would be a change. Also, only one of my suits actually fits me, the other one fits like a sugar bag. Not a good look. Anyway, that decision was taken away from me with one look at the weather. The furthest we were going today was Tesco.

Just a normal Monday shopping trip. Nothing exciting unless you class short dated tomatoes, carrots and onions as exciting. Three bags full it was today, all bundled into the boot and drove home.

What we did do was give our plants a bit of a soaking in the rainwater. My two chilli plants seemed to come to no harm in it and Scamp’s Cerinthe seedlings seemed to grow even taller after being in the downpours.

After lunch I gave in, put on my boots and my walking trousers and went out looking for a photo that would become PoD. It was really wet wherever I went and after about half an hour I was sure I could feel that squidgy sensation that you only get when you’ve got a leaky boot. But I was out in the middle of the park when it made itself known and I still hadn’t got that magic PoD. Then it appeared. It was a water droplet hanging from a larch needle. I took my time and eventually shot half a dozen frames of it. One of which I deemed sharp enough to become the PoD for today. Then, and only then, I squidged my way home. The sock on my right foot told the tale. There was a leak and it looks like there is a crack in the tread of my boot and that’s where the water is getting in. It might be a cut, not a crack, but the result is the same. I wouldn’t think it’s repairable, although someone on YouTube will know different, I’m sure. I might need to shell out for a new pair of boots now.

Today’s EDiM asked for An Ant. I originally thought of drawing a couple of Leaf Cutter Ants, but couldn’t find a clear enough photo to draw them from. I finally settled for a Flying Ant. There were a lot of these scary looking beasties flying around last year, I seem to remember. Apparently there is an actual Flying Ant Day. In the UK it seems to be around the 17th July. It all depends on the temperature and windspeed. There, I bet you didn’t know that!

Tomorrow we’re booked for lunch with Shona. Not sure yet where we’ll be going. Like the Flying Ants, it depends on the weather!

Rain – 30 April 2023

Posted on by Zogman

It was hard to decide if it was just starting to rain, or just finishing a spell of raining when we woke. In actual fact it was just trying out the different textures of rain to see which it liked the best. That too was a difficult decision for the weather, and one it toyed with for a good few hours before finally choosing to stay dry and allow the sun to shine.

There were things to do today. There was milk to buy and a sensible plain loaf, a cake wouldn’t go amiss either, cakes never do. There were people to bump into. People I hadn’t spoken to for years. The people, or person in question was Mary Jane Hunter, ex of Cumby High. She and Scamp had a lot in common apart from height. They had both had cataracts removed and corrective lenses inserted that took away their shortsightedness and gave them a totally new view on life. It’s nice to meet folk you got on with years ago and who you still admire.

Back home Scamp had covered the draining board in the kitchen with an off cut from a waterproof table cover and was potting up her ten Cerinthe seedlings to separate them and to give them a chance to develop better roots. I liked the idea and planted out some Acer seeds my brother had given me last autumn. They had been in plastic bags in the little greenhouse to keep them dry while they ‘conditioned’. Apparently the exposure to sub zero temperatures is needed for them to germinate once they are planted out in soil.

Dinner tonight was Potatoes with Carrot and Onion Mash. Protein was Hoggit Shoulder Steak for me, bought at the farmers market in Embra yesterday and Salmon for Scamp. Unfortunately for her, the salmon just didn’t taste ‘right’. So it was a vegetarian dinner for her. My hoggit was excellent soft and delicious. (2mins 30seconds per side and 5mins resting time). I couldn’t eat it all, so I’ve about a third of it sitting in the fridge for tomorrow or Tuesday. Bananas fried in Rum was requested was requested for pudding. It was excellent too. Hot, sweet, sticky orange flavoured rum coating bananas sliced long ways. Sounds messy and it was, also sounds a bit sickly and it was, but we both enjoyed it. Can’t remember exactly where I first saw it being made, but I think it was on a cruise, years ago.

Because of the rain, I couldn’t be bothered wandering around St Mo’s, getting wet and not finding anything worth photographing, so today’s PoD came from the garden. It’s an Aquilegia playing host to a family of greenfly. I think I might have to evict them soon. As usual with macros, I didn’t see the greenfly until the images had been loaded into the computer.

Spoke to Jamie and Scamp was delighted to hear that he has taken her advice and cleaned all the glazing panels in his greenhouse. They have had a few days of good weather and have almost all the flowers planted now.

We have no plans for tomorrow, and it looks like more rain.

Stuck in the toilet – 28 April 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was out in the morning to her FitSteps class and out again in the afternoon for coffee with Isobel. I was stuck in the toilet.

Actually it’s not as bad as it seems. Yes, I was in the toilet, but I was replacing the carpet tiles in there. There are only six tiles to lay, but every one has to have cut-outs to accommodate pipes or the curved base of the toilet bowl or door frames.

This was probably the third or fourth time I’ve had to relay the tiles. The good thing about it is that the outgoing tiles act as templates for marking out the new ones. It’s the cutting that’s the most difficult stage. It’s been quite a while since I last had to do this job, but after a couple of tiles, it all came flooding back. The secret is to mark the back of each tile out using the old tile as a template and a white wax sewing pencil. Then with a sharp Stanley knife you cut halfway through the stiff backing. That should allow you to crack the new tile along that line. The most awkward part is hacking through the carpet fabric. It’s not easy working in such a confined space, but once you get into a rhythm it all goes fairly smoothly, but I don’t fancy having to do it for a living! By the time Scamp got back from FitSteps I was working on the last tile. Six new tiles laid in just over an hour.

After a spot of lunch I drove Scamp up to Costa in the town centre to meet Isobel, June and Ian. I didn’t wait, I had other fish to fry or in this case sausages to fry. Stopped at the butcher’s in Condorrat for mince, stew rolls and flat sausages. Some call them Lorne sausages, some call them square sliced (pronounced Skwer Sliced). To me they have always been flat sausages. That was my section of the freezer filled again with mince and stew. One of the sausages was for lunch, as was one of the rolls.

When Scamp got home I took the A7 out for a walk in St Mo’s later to get some photos. I couldn’t really see anything that appealed to me, but the two trees with the upwardly mobile branch made me smile. It became PoD.

When I got back, Scamp was working in the garden. That reminded me that I hadn’t planted my anniversary present, a packet of Sunflower seeds, so I set to and planted almost all 20 of the seeds. I had some left and offered them to Scamp to plant. Not that it’s a competition or anything like that. Just a friendly neighbourly gesture. We’ll see who’s pops out of the soil first – of course it’s a competition.

There is just an outside chance that we may go to Edinburgh on the train tomorrow. Weather permitting, of course.

Strawberries and a drive – 25 April 2023

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Yesterday I said we might go out for a run today, or else we’d stay home and pot up the strawberries. We actually achieved both!

There was quite a cold snap last night, or early this morning. I’d put the strawberries into the greenhouse to hopefully protect them from the worst of the cold. The Busy Lizzies were already in the greenhouse. The strawberries didn’t seem to have noticed the cold, but the poor wee Lizzies were looking a bit sorry for themselves. Scamp took them out and sat them in the sun for a while, hoping aginst hope that they’d recover. It might have worked, but we’ll find out for sure tomorrow.

It was cold in the morning, but the sun was warm, so we made the decision to pot up the strawberries in their tower pot. It’s a terracotta pot with eight hole for the plants and is the same material as an old fashioned flowerpot. That means it needs to be soaked in water before planting or else it will draw the moisture from the compost, so it has been sitting in a bucket of water for about a week. We made up some compost using two different strengths and then added some gravel to assist with drainage. We only had six wee strawberries in their pots all different varieties. Bad calculation on my part. I’m the Maths Man, apparently. It’s just coontin’ I can’t do. It didn’t take us long, working together for once and not arguing … very much and the pot is now sitting in the place Scamp prepared for it.

After lunch, the sky was still clear, apart from a few fluffy white clouds and I suggested we drive up to the Carron Reservoir to get some landscape photos. It was a fair climb for the wee blue car, up the Tak Ma Doon road with its hairpin bends and 2nd gear hills. Then it was feathering the brakes for the run down the other side. Instead of heading across the road at the end, we turned left for a mile or so and found an almost empty carpark where the parking machine was ‘Out of Order’. Even better.

I put my boots on and we walked through the woods and up past the dam. As we got there a small child, we couldn’t determine what variety it was, was running along beside the dam wall with its parents, holding a ‘6’ balloon. Almost at the middle of the dam, and after a gigantic party popper had fired confetti into the air, it let go of the balloon, just a few seconds before a low flying Easyjet plane appeared over the hill. A bit foolhardy, considering the plane was almost certainly on final to Glasgow Airport. However all was well and the screaming trio ran down the grassy slopes and into the woods.

I took some more shots of the reservoir and the scenery behind. Perfect day for landscapes and the surrounding hills just finished off the view. We sat for a while just watching the world go by and the balloon disappearing into the clouds. Then we walked back and drove the scenic route back, along the banks of the reservoir and down the Crow Road then homeward.

Stir fry for dinner tonight then watched another semi-final of University Challenge were the ‘goodies’ won and the ‘baddies’ were vanquished! Later another episode of Magpie Murders teased us with more information but inevitably complicated more than it explained.

PoD didn’t turn out to include the reservoir or the clouds, but was of the woods and a carpet of pine cones.

You’ll hardly believe this, but Hazy has a Split Rock plant Ruby Flush (Pleiospilos Nelii) called Phileas almost the same as my unnamed Lithops! Some people can’t see green cheese … ! 😉

Tomorrow Scamp is booked for coffee or it may be lunch with the Witches. I have other plans which I won’t reveal yet.

 

The highlight of the day was …

Posted on by Zogman

… going to Tesco. It was that sort of day.

That was in the morning and we needed the usual, bread and milk and came home with a lot more, as usual.

I think that was the furthest I walked today. From the car to Tesco and from the shop back to the car. Oh yes, and a detour for petrol for the blue car.

We had planned to pot up the strawberry plants we’d bought a few days ago, but although the sun was shining brightly, it was cold outside and we put off the garden work for another day. Also, as sub-zero temperatures were predicted for tonight, it didn’t seem fair to subject the strawberry plants to that shock. Let them stay another night in the relative warmth of the greenhouse.

I did get called upon to help Scamp shift a pot of Leucanthemums from the back garden to the front. I suppose I could count that as an active five minutes. Later in the afternoon I set about finding a PoD and today it was a pot of Lithops which have the common name ‘Living Stones’ and I’m sure you can see why. They are quite tiny, the two green ones measure about 1cm on their long axis. They are stemless succulent plants that resemble stones to avoid being grazed by animals in their native habitat which is South Africa. They would never survive in our Scottish climate, so must remain house plants, although they might get a chance to feel the sun on their back for a few days later in the year.

An uninspiring day, really. Last night, apparently the Northern Lights should have been visible here, but there was almost 100% cloud cover when I went to bed around midnight. Tonight the predictions aren’t so good for solar wind activity, but we do have a clear sky!

Tomorrow we might go out somewhere for a run, just to say we’ve been out. Failing that we might just stay at home and pot up the strawberries.

The Messages – 22 April 2023

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According to the weather fairies, it was going to rain today. They were right, but only just.

The morning was lovely, well, again it was lovely to look out at it. However, it was still cold outside. We had agreed last night that we’d go shopping today. Not Tesco or Lidl, we’d been there during the week. Instead, we were going to Stirling – to Waitrose. Waitrose just sucks you in and makes you spend more than you’d intended to. Whereas, in Tesco and to a certain extent, Lidl you know where everything is and you can buy the things you need, rather than what you want.

When we got home there was a cardboard box that had dropped through our letterbox. Inside were six little plant plug plants, Busy Lizzies. Tiny little plants that are now in the greenhouse until they get strong enough to be planted out in the garden. Strange to think that delicate little plug plants are delivered by post.

Scamp found a suitable hanger to hold a fuchsia and it’s now hanging on a hook in the back garden. While she was gardening, I took the Sony A7 out with a couple of lenses for a walk in St Mo’s. PoD turned out to be a close up of some larch needles positively glowing in the afternoon sunshine.

By the time I got home the clouds were beginning to mass and as I’m writing this, the first rain in a week or so has been falling.

Dinner tonight was a Veg Lasagne by Charlie Bigham. This is the third one we’ve had (not tonight, we’re not that greedy!) and they have all been exceptionally good.

Tomorrow we are expecting more rain and cold winds from the north. Brrr!

Labourers – 18 April 2023

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I felt better when I woke this morning.

Neither of us had anything much on our to-do lists, so we had quite a lazy start to the day. We completed Wordle and Spelling Bee and watched Scott, who lives at the corner, barrowing sand to his back garden. It must be a nice change for him to be transporting sand rather than the hardcore he’s been ferrying for the last week. I think the idea of having an easy maintenance garden with artificial grass was a good one, but he may have blinded himself to the amount of work it takes to set the whole thing up.

Scamp went for the messages later in the morning and we also settled on Cod & Prawns with Fennel & White Wine for dinner. It sounds terribly posh, but it’s one of the easiest recipes I’ve got, and a one-pan recipe to boot.

Just after lunch we noticed two of Scott’s neighbours carrying some wooden planks round to the garden and we decided if we helped out, the job would be done in half the time. Scamp and I carried two 3m heavy plastic panels between us. We’re still not sure what they are, but by the look of them they were decking panels. They were awkward things to manoeuvre round the corners of the narrow public path, but we managed about six of them in total, then we switched to carrying two 3m lengths of 3” square timber instead (note the seamless switch between metric and imperial there ????).

I thought we’d done enough labouring for one day, but Scamp had more tasks in store. She is rearranging the pots in the back garden and using some of them to create a border at the front of the front garden, to prevent unwanted dogs from crapping on our grass. If that doesn’t work, pepper might be the solution! Allied to this is the fact that the peony rose needs to go in to a more suitable container that will give it some room to stretch its roots. With that in mind, we mixed up two lots of compost and added some perlite, then planted the peony. It’s now in its allotted place under the front window where it will get the sun from morning until late afternoon.

Now we really were finished for the day and we could enjoy a beer. A Broadside Shandy for Scamp and the rest of the bottle for me. The sun was tempting me out, so I added my +1 diopter close-up lens to the 35mm LensBaby and went off to find a subject in St Mo’s. Came home with a few catkin shots, but PoD went to an experimental distorted image from this morning when the sun began to cut through the clouds. It was that same setup of the LensBaby with the +1 diopter. I just liked all the out of focus highlights.

According to the weather fairies, it’s to be a good day tomorrow again. We might go out for a run somewhere. No labouring, I hope.

A dull day, a dull head – 17 April 2023

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Woke after a good night’s sleep, but the cough is still there. Thankfully it left the sore throat somewhere during the night and it’s now lost.

We didn’t really have any plans for today other than to go looking for a terracotta strawberry planter, and some strawberries to put in it for Scamp, and a little pot of Lithops (Living Stones) for me. Also, both of us wanted a rosemary bush to replace the one that died during the winter. That meant a visit to Torwood for most if not all of those things.

We did find some of the above, but not all. However, we found other things that we couldn’t have done without. A tray of Antirrhinum aka Snapdragons or as my mum used to call them Map-maps. Much easier names to remember than Antirrhinum. We had lunch in the cafe at Torwood. A quiche and a tipsy cake to share with a coffee and a peppermint tea. Then we were gone.

I’d brought a camera, of course and we stopped at Haggs so that I could get some shots with the new ultra-wide lens. The sky was clearing, but not nearly quick enough, but I got some moody ultra-wide, ultra low level (nearly in the water) shots of the canal. A couple walking along the tow path probably though I was going in for a swim, but thankfully that didn’t happen.

A collapsible pop up rubbish bin for the garden was on our list but we didn’t find it in Torwood, instead, Scamp spotted one in B&Q. Also at B&Q we found a tray of Busy Lizzies for Scamp’s Wanderella planter. Our final purchase was six square blue carpet tiles to replace the dark green ones that I’ve been promising to replace for years. The first dull day, that will be my chance to take out the green and bring in the blue.

Back home and after we’d unpacked everything, it was time to do some basic gardening. For me it was potting up two Teasel plants and chopping up the old rosemary bush. We did get a tiny little rosemary bush at Torwood, but it will be a long while before it grows to big enough to donate some leaves to a lamb casserole. Meanwhile, Scamp was potting things and planting other things and generally being a powerhouse of gardening prowess. Just watching her made me tired and I had to sit down – that’s my excuse!

PoD was that low shot along the Forth & Clyde canal.

Dinner tonight was made by the gardening powerhouse herself and it was Mac ’n’ Cheese! Of course it was delicious.

Tomorrow is supposed to be bright and sunny, so say the weather fairies if you believe them. We’ll see how it turns out.