Category: Garden

Scamp fixes the kettle – 1 July 2021

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Scamp did some investigating and came up with a solution to the chemical smell from the kettle.

First, though we spoke to Hazy and I found out that there’s to be a new series of Good Omens. A sequel of sorts, but with Neil Gaiman in the writing team, it’s never going to be a simple sequel. Thank you Hazy for that heads up. It will be on Amazon Prime first, so bang goes my idea of cancelling Prime.

Scamp’s research led to an old fashioned solution to the smelly kettle, but it worked. Two tablespoons of Bicarbonate of Soda went in to the tank and then the tank was filled with tap water. It had to stand for an hour or so, so we left it while we went out to get some plants at Calders.

Today, Scamp chose a tray of Dahlias, a tray of Petunias (which always remind me of an old song “Don’t jump off the roof, Dad” Search for it on Spotify and you’ll find out why) and finally another Begonia. While she went to speak to Carol from Gems, I paid for the plants and sat cooling in the car. Isn’t air con the most wonderful invention, especially on days like today when the temperature is hovering around 25º?

With the gardening requirements met, we drove home via Tesco and got the ingredients for tonight’s dinner which was Chicken Salad, but will always be known as Neil’s Chicken Salad for the simple reason that he was the first one who made it for us.

Then it was time to wash out the kettle (it’s much easier calling it a kettle, rather than a water boiler). I gave it a good rinsing with about three changes of water. After that, to make sure the boiler part of it was rinsed too, we boiled one whole tank full of water, a cup at a time. Another rinse and we were good to go. It worked! It was as simple as that. That cleaning took all the chemical smell away. I must remember to ask a chemist how that worked 😏.

After lunch with a cup of normal tea smelling tea for me and White Tea for Scamp, she settled down to plant her new acquisitions. I grabbed the Oly this time and took it for a walk in St Mo’s and then out into the wild area that will soon become yet another Micky D’s. I got some really nice pictures of a Common Blue damselfly, but then I remembered I’d taken some photos of some roses in a vase on the coffee table after we’d spoken to Hazy. With a little jiggery pokery they shone on a dark background and became PoD.

We sat for a while in the garden before dinner, listening to John and Carlyn’s ‘’Ten Pence Mix wafting gently from their garden. Actually they played some decent music for a change (no Eagles). I had a beer and Scamp had a glass of her new best friend, Bramble & Raspberry Gin. Then it was time for Neil’s Chicken Salad.

This might have been the last of the really good weather. We’ve been warned by the weather fairies that rain is on the way, if not tomorrow, then Saturday and definitely by Sunday. We’ve had a good spell of warm sunny days, so we shouldn’t complain, but we will! Scamp’s leg is looking better today. The swelling is going down but it’s still itchy.

What we do tomorrow will depend on how near the rain clouds manage to get.

One Italian, One Indian – 25 June 2021

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Those were our choices for lunch.

Felt a bit better when I woke up this morning. So much better, in fact, that I got up to make breakfast. Well, it was my turn. By the time I was in the shower, yesterday’s tiredness and aches were gone and it was business as usual.

Scamp started making use of the Swiss roll tin we bought yesterday and had the sponge baked and rolled in double quick time. I’ve never seen this process before and hadn’t realised that you roll it up with the paper still attached. Then it’s put in the fridge to cool and when it’s removed, it sort of retains the shape and doesn’t crack.

Scamp offered to drive to Mango and I gratefully accepted. It’s good to be a passenger sometimes. It also gives me the chance to listen to any unusual noises from a car I’m not driving. The noises I was hearing sounded like a wheel bearing on its way out. We’ll need to get that looked at soon.

Our booking at Mango was for 12.30pm and by. the time we arrived, just in time, the restaurant was already about two thirds full. That’s always a good sign. Scamp ordered a starter of Juliette, which was deep fried pieces of pizza dough. An interesting taste, but maybe a little too heavy for a starter. Her main was Risotto Pollo. My order was Palak Vegetable Pakora with a main of Lagan Ki Boti which was Lamb in Ginger and Garlic. All were very good. Different takes on traditional Italian and Indian staples. We just had time for a dessert. Scamp’s was Tiramisu, of course. I had Turkish Delight Cheesecake. The cheesecake was the only thing that let them down. Far, far, too heavy and thick, although the topping which looked and tasted like Fry’s Turkish delight was lovely. Our bill came to £88 which was a bit steep for a three course lunch, but got a laugh and an apology from the head waiter who got it changed, quickly to the £36 it should have been.

Back home I transplanted the sole chilli plant from last year into a bigger pot with fresh compost and I also repotted two basil cuttings I’d taken last year. All three were looking a bit sickly, but hopefully they should perk up now they are in fresh soil.

Meanwhile, Scamp was making the coffee cream for the Swiss roll and also the ganache. Until about five years ago, I couldn’t have told you what a ‘ganache’ was, but with the proliferation of cooking and baking shows on TV I now know it’s the shiny soft coating on cakes and fancies. I didn’t actually see the coffee cream going into the roll, or it being re-rolled without the paper that stops it sticking together, but I did see the ganache being poured over it and it running and glistening just like it does on GBBO. It was decorated with melted white chocolate buttons as a drizzle on top and looked very professional!

With my overseeing of the baking process finished 😉, I took the Sony with only a wide angle lens and went to find something interesting in St Mo’s. The ‘something interesting’ turned out to be a low level view of a daisy on the St Mo’s school football park with a glowering sky overhead. It made a nice change to only be carrying a camera and a lens. I think my back felt the benefit. That photo got PoD.

A quick dance practise tonight, just to make sure we’re up to date with the Tango and the latest Foxtrot routines. We were! Then we found we’d forgotten the Waltz. This is what happens when you don’t get a chance to dance properly with people on a dance floor. Hopefully, soon, someone will bang the Bumbler and the Nippy Sweetie’s heads together and we’ll get a chance to dance!

Tomorrow we may go somewhere nice. Not sure where, but anywhere away from Cumbersheugh will be good.

It was a lovely morning … 24 June 2021

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… but then it all got kind of wet!

Indeed the morning was lovely. Not too bright, but warm and there was always the hope that it would stay that way at least until the evening, then we’d be thankful for overnight rain. However just after lunch, when we’d decided to drive in to Glasgow, the rain started. It’s now just after 10pm and I don’t think it’s stopped yet. Now don’t get me wrong, this is exactly the kind of rain we and the plants were looking for. Nice light, soaking rain. Not a heavy cloudburst then it all dries up. No, this was what the garden needed a good continuous rain that would wet the ground through. I should have expected it to happen. The schools in Scotland broke up today for the summer holidays and it always rains on that afternoon … every year!

We did drive in to Glasgow, well actually we drove in to the Buchanan Galleries because all the shops we wanted were there. Scamp was looking for a Swiss Roll Tin and possibly a new vacuum flask to replace our two ageing ones. One of which keeps the water hot, but leaks. One which keeps the water warm but doesn’t leak. We found a flask in JL and the tin in Lakeland. I’d thought about going for a browse in Cass Art, but when it came to it, I couldn’t be bothered with a walk in the rain, so I went back to JL to look at ‘The Toys’. What I did get was a pair of suede elbow patches to repair one of my favourite rugby shirts. Even better, the patches are iron-on with holes already pierced in them for stitching on, if I decide they need the extra security. I may try them tomorrow. Once we were sure we had everything, we drove home through the rain. One stop at The Shops to get butter for the Swiss Roll and a bar of chocolate each for Scamp and me.

Grabbed a few shots in the garden, mainly of flowers and a quarter of a Calendula got PoD. Watched a second episode of Rankin Pontificates, some sort of photography challenge, but really a vehicle for that man. Not impressed. That may be the last one I watch. Sorry Hazy. It looked good, but so far it isn’t for me.

Feeling like I’ve a cold coming on which is a shame because Scamp has booked us in at Mango, a new(ish) Italian/Indian restaurant near the mighty Cotton House. I’m sure I’ll be feeling a bit better by then. A small glass of Dark Matter spiced rum with a splash of water in it is helping. A couple of paracetamol tablets will also aid recovery and guarantee a good night’s sleep – That sounds a bit like an advert, doesn’t it? Maybe that’s where I got it from.

Ok, off to bed early tonight and we’ll see if the morning brings a visit to Mango!

Shopping and the Garden – 19 June 2021

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Scamp did the shopping and I took some photos in the garden. An unequal balance.

Today was a day of getting your head round the fact that you are no longer on holiday and instead you have to do all the mundane things you’ve been able to avoid when you were on holiday. It’s the little things like cooking and shopping. Tidying up the garden too comes into it. It’s just becoming grounded again. That’s what we did today. There were no high points, in fact that was the idea. We wanted to return to status quo. Be ordinary again and be ready for the next adventure, whenever and whatever it is.

PoD was one of the flowers from Scamp’s Allium christophe, a big sphere of star shaped flowers. Absolutely beautiful as a ball and also as individual florets.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to do a Zoom day. Zoom catch-up in the afternoon with Hazy and JIC and Zoom dance lesson in the early evening.

Well, that was a hot one – 13 June 2021

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I don’t know how far up the tube the little cylinder of mercury got, but it was quite far.

Not as far, perhaps, as the others in the family who are further south than us. Temperatures there were close to 30º by all accounts. Thankfully we had a cooling breeze to keep us in a more temperate climate. That said, we were still pretty warm and with blue skies and occasional clouds, the world was looking quite good.

We did a bit of gardening maintenance in the afternoon and then we both went for a walk in St Mo’s, but there was little insect activity, probably on account of the strong breeze through which the dragonflies might navigate, but the poor little damselflies would find it a struggle. Scamp and I went one circuit together before she left to do some more gardening with the option of a seat in the sun later. I carried on for another round of the pond.

On that second trip round I did find a Common Blue damselfly sitting quite happily on the boardwalk warming itself in the sun. It was a bit skittish, so I took my time stalking it and grabbed a few shots before I heard heavy footsteps behind me as a young couple passed. That was enough to scare off my Common Blue. Strangely, the girl turned and looked at me as I apologised for almost blocking their path and I’m sure she was a former pupil. She was probably wondering what her old teacher was doing sprawled on the boardwalk. Possibly she would come to the wrong conclusion that I’d been consuming intoxicating liquor! That would come much later in the day.

The common blue was the best shot of the day although I did go further afield in search of something larger, but there were no dragons flying today.

I came home and found Scamp in the back garden, reading, so I made her a Pimms and had a can of lager for myself. I then spent a comfortable half an hour in the sun, listening to my next Audible choice which is book 10 in the Inspector McLean series by James Oswald. Then it was time to get dinner sorted.

Tonight, dinner was Crab and Chilli Linguini. I was being ultra-careful as crab is really quite expensive, but most of the hard work had been done for me because I was using dressed crab that had been in the freezer for a month or so and came from a company JIC had recommended. The dinner was good, but not great. My fault, or my recipe’s fault, certainly not the crab’s. Too dry was the general complaint from both of us. Maybe next time I’ll make a better job of it.

No dancing tonight. Not our fault, but problems with internet connection at the teachers’ end. After a couple of near things, it was declared a no-show and as nobody seemed to have a free evening this week, normal service will hopefully be resumed next Sunday. We did have our own practise in the living room as all the furniture had been organised for the class.

Spoke to JIC and heard about all the trials and tribulations of house hunting down south. They really are finding some strange houses and even stranger sellers. Also we learned that there are swimming pools for dogs down south. Isn’t that what ponds and lakes are for?

Annette is coming to visit tomorrow for lunch. Other than that, nothing planned.

A dull Saturday – 12 June 2021

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Not a day for doing much or going anywhere, although it did brighten up later.

Scamp did a bit of tidying up in the garden and moved some plants around to give them more sun and also to put them in places where they could be seen better. I deadheaded some of the aquilegia plants to, hopefully force them to produce more flowers. Scamp also cut the grass at the front and edged it I am now reminded!

We had the other half of yesterday’s quiche for lunch. I think I prefer it cold, while Scamp definitely prefers it hot. After lunch I took the camera for a walk in St Mo’s. Snapped a few damselflies, but because I hadn’t lifted the macro lens, none of them were acceptably in focus. I walked out behind St Mo’s school and disturbed a big dragonfly. It flew around for a while before almost crashing into me. It seemed to perch in a tree, but when I looked I couldn’t find it. PoD turned out to be a little fragile looking damselfly that seemed to be playing hide and seek with me hiding behind a stem. Every time I moved, it moved too. I took some photos of it and left it to its game.

When I cropped the damselfly photo in Lightroom later, it was really a small image. However, this new Lightroom has the ability to enlarge a photo to four times it original size without losing definition. That’s what I did. The process is called ‘Enhance’ and that’s what it does. It takes a fair bit of processing power to do it and the PoD took almost 30 seconds. The wait was worth it, because the quality is quite amazing.

We walked over to Condorrat tonight to pick up a Golden Bowl dinner we’d ordered. Two Chicken Chop Suey and two Fried Rice. Just as good as it always is. It’s great that some things don’t change in this world.

After dinner, Scamp and I watered the garden, just the front garden and just with watering cans. If the warm dry weather continues we may hose back and front gardens tomorrow night. We had a quick practise later for tomorrow’s class. The routines are a bit rough, but we have most of the steps in the right place.

No plans for tomorrow. We’ll see what the weather brings us.

 

It almost rained today – 9 June 2021

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Not quite rain, but a definite dampness in the air.

Scamp was feeling a bit fragile this morning, having been a bit sick during the night, but after a big dollop of the white medicine that has been sitting on the top of the cupboard for ages she gradually felt better as the day progressed. I think the medicine is peppermint flavoured white emulsion paint, but it seemed to do the trick.

Just before lunchtime there was a sprinkling of rain. Not enough to satisfy Scamp, but better than nothing. It didn’t last long either, but it did at least wet the plants. After it had turned off again, I went out to photograph School Girl, the rose at the front door. The first flower bud opened today and it was right at the top. Standing on tiptoes I could just get a clear shot of it. It looked good with the raindrops beading on the leaves and gave me another chance to get lots of salacious views on Flickr with the usual title of “Wet Schoolgirl” or something similar. You’d be surprised by just how many views, not likes, just views, that title brings in. I really don’t know draws so many people people to a picture of a peachy pink rose ☺️!

Because of the delicate state of the patient, and the disappointing weather today we didn’t really go very far. We just kept waiting for more of the promised rain. It never came back for a long time and I got fed up waiting, so I grabbed a camera and took it for a walk in St Mo’s. I was sure I’d already got a decent PoD, but if you don’t go and look, you can’t complain about not having a photo. I went, I looked but I didn’t get anything that beat the rose picture, partly because the battery died after about ten shots.

By dinner time Scamp was feeling like her old self again and she even made tonight’s dinner which was Kedgeree and although it was a bit dry, I liked it and told her so. She thought it needed salt and more liquid. Maybe she’s right, but it was fine for me.

After dinner the rain returned. It seemed to be just about enough to wet the ground again, so we may have to consider doing a rain dance tomorrow if the dry spell continues.

Hoping for a better day tomorrow and also hoping that Scamp gets a restful night’s sleep tonight.

Coffee and Visitors’ Biscuits – 8 June 2021

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It was the biscuits that swung it for me.

Isobel phoned this morning asking if we wanted to come down and visit today. She said we could have a cup of coffee and she’d bought Visitors’ biscuits. I didn’t know what visitors’ biscuits were, but I was fairly sure they weren’t Rich Teas or Digestives, so I was up for it, so was Scamp. She was on the phone to Annette about a certain caravan in St Andrews that would become vacant some time soon, so I agreed for her and said Scamp would phone her when the deal was done with Annette.

I had a couple of Aquilegia plants to pot up for Isobel, so I got started to that and we were almost ready to go. Just a quick cup of coffee first then we were off to the Village.

We had an entertaining hour or so with Isobel then she gave us a guided tour of her garden. She has a wealth of plants in her fairly small garden and takes no prisoners. If she thinks a plant if failing, it gets chucked out. I’m sure Scamp gets some of her gardening nous from Isobel. Oh yes, and the biscuits were Tunnocks Teacakes and very nice they were too!

On the way home we stopped at Tesco and came out with a shopping bag fairly clinking with our ‘groceries’. A bottle of gin, one of Pimms and one of Limoncello. All the bottles were reduced, so some money spent, but a fair amount saved too! We drove home.

Hazy phoned almost as we crossed the threshold of the house and we had a long chat. Lots of books discussed and yes, Hazy, The Hidden Palace is now on my wish list. I may even re-read the Gollem and the Djinni too, if I can remember how to read after all the Audible books!

Went for a walk in St Mo’s in the afternoon to give the ‘new’ Samyang 18mm lens a good test and it passed with flying colours. Every shot from macro, through middle distance to far distance was in focus. It’s such a pity that I had to shell out an extra £50 to buy the lens station that would allow me to upgrade the firmware. It’s just another case of a company expecting users to do their work for them and also having to pay for the privilege. The rush to get technology on the market ahead of rivals means that the tech itself goes on the shelf only part finished. It’s things like this that make me give up on some companies like Samyang. Yes, they are cheap, but yes, they are nasty too! Rant number 2 this week is over.

Dinner tonight was Butter Chicken, but for some reason this time the sauce was a bit acidic. It can only be down to the passata as that’s really the only thing that was changed since the last time. Next time I’ll just used blitzed tomatoes. Still makes a decent curry sauce, though.

PoD went to a bunch of clover flowers photographed with the updated Samyang 18mm.

No plans for tomorrow. It looks like being a wet morning.

 

 

A busy day – 7 June 2021

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Scamp was off to meet her sister. I was head gardener for a while.

Lots of things I could have been doing, but I chose to put my free time to good use and scrubbed out the bird bath then refilled it. My chilli plants have been desperate for more space and some real compost, not the floor sweepings B&Q seem to think they can foist off as ‘peat free’. What is this sudden panic to make everything peat free? Crofters up north have been digging it up, drying it out and burning it in their fireplaces for centuries. Suddenly they are virtually criminals because apparently that peat has been storing carbon and saving the planet. It seems strange to me that all these activists use the same terms like “locking away the carbon”. It’s as if this new jargon explains everything, when in actual fact it’s more like The King’s New Clothes. Everyone seems afraid to ask them what that means in Topsy and Tim language. How does it lock it away? Where does the peat put the carbon? I think it’s all smoke and mirrors, but probably not peat smoke. Anyway, I used some general purpose compost which may or may not have peat in it and the chillies are probably better off in it than in the B&Q floor sweepings. Rant over. After that I soaked the plants in the bird bath, muddying the water and undoing all the good work I’d done there.

Before I started the gardening I’d made a pizza dough and left it to prove in the warm living room. When Scamp came home I’d just finished rolling and stretching some of the dough to a rough circle and put it into the proving oven (the grill that had been preheated for about five minutes) to puff up. It was just a simple tomato base with extra chopped up fresh tomatoes and some grated mozzarella on top. Baked for about fifteen minutes at gas 6 – that was just a reminder for me. It was very successful.

Next Scamp wanted to wash her car, but couldn’t reach the roof, so I did that and then gave it all a bit of a soapy wash while Scamp scrubbed off the sticky sugary stuff that drips from the trees in late spring. Then I set up the hose for her to wash it all off and started on my car. It made sense to just get it all done at the same time. Thank you Bobby Flavell for the use of your outside tap again.

With the cars sparkling in the sun, Scamp decided to water the garden. Easier to use our own water for that, so I fixed up the hose and let her get on with it while I went for a walk in St Mo’s. Not a lot of movement, but one little Common Blue damselfly sat and watched me while I carefully dragged my camera out of the bag and took its picture a few times.

After dinner the Amazon man dropped off a parcel I’d ordered last night. It was a Samyang Lens Station. Basically the 18mm lens I use on the Sony camera is crap at focusing. However, Samyang will sell you a piece of kit that connects your lens through the computer to their website where you can download a new firmware file that will improve the focusing. It’s a neat scam and it certainly works! Thankfully, so did the lens afterwards, because I’d read horror stories on websites to the effect that the software could wreck your lens. Maybe it could, but it only improved mine. I’ll do a field test tomorrow just to make sure.

Finally wrote to my brother. The last email I sent him was in March! So much going on? Not really, just bad time management on my part. Must get better organised.

The last thing to do on a busy day was to have a quick dance practise just to make sure that the muscle memory was working properly. It was, after a false start!

No plans for tomorrow. We’re waiting to see what the weather will be like.

Hooray for rain – 5 June 2021

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Out looking for compost and a pot.

Such exciting lives we lead sometimes. What could be a more satisfying thing to do on a Saturday afternoon that taking a trip to the garden centre for a bag of ericaceous compost and a chance to compare the size, shape and price of different plant pots. In the end we did buy the compost, but passed on the pots, judging them no better than the one we’d bought earlier in the week. For once we were totally focused on the task in hand and didn’t really look at the plants on sale, we just bought the compost and went home.

It was a was a warm day and I just knew Scamp would want to get the new rhododendron planted in its slightly acidic compost. I, on the other hand wanted to have a look for some damsels or even some dragons. It was warm enough to wear a pair of shorts instead of jeans and that’s what I did. I walked over to St Mo’s, but there were no damsels or dragons to be seen. I took some photos of hawthorn blossom before I found what would be PoD. It was a little black fly crawling about on a tree trunk. I’m guessing it’s a Wasp Fly of some description, but I was struck by its strange eyes. The compound eye seems to have a simple eye in the middle of it. Since it’s on Flickr, someone will probably be able to ID it for me. Anyway, it got PoD.

Came back and Scamp was putting the final touches to the planting and was trying to water the rhododendron in, but something was blocking the watering can. She cleaned the rose from the watering can but that didn’t help, then she found that something was stuck in the spout. After prodding it with a garden cane, out popped a snail, complete with shell. How it managed to climb into the watering can and get stuck in the spout we’ll never know. I thought it was only Incy Wincy Spider who did things like that!

After dinner we watched a Baku F1 GP qualifying session with more than its fair share of crashes. Everyone seemed to want to throw their million pound race cars into the barriers today … and that was just the qualifying! What will the actual race be like, tomorrow?

Since we had missed last week’s dance practise, we though we should do a walk through of what we’ve learned so far, and we have learned quite a lot. Tonight we walked through two different waltz routines, a rumba, a tango and a cha-cha. We sort of walked through the first part of the foxtrot too, but couldn’t remember or agree on the first five or six steps. Hopefully it will all become clear tomorrow.

My weather app on my phone has been promising rain today for most of the week. It was apparently going to start at 4pm. They got it wrong by almost an hour. Just after 4.45 the first raindrops hit the window. It turned to hail for a time and then went back to rain again. It didn’t last all that long, but it did mean we didn’t have to water the garden, so the snail will be relieved.

Tomorrow seems like a better day and if the weather app is as accurate as it was today we may get out for a walk.