Category: Garden

At last, a pineapple – 29 March 2021

Posted on by Zogman

It was a windy old day today and a lady arrived and asked us to stick something down our throat and then up our nose. What a fun day.

We’ll get to that in a minute, but before that I cleared my painting table and put the potting tray on it along with four flower pots and one of those plug trays that look like the inside of a chocolate box, vacuum formed for those who used to teach about such things. A bag of that disgusting peat-free compost and a trowel completed the inside gardening accoutrements. I already had the seeds in the room and I proceeded to fill the pots with compost and sow Yellow Aquilegia, Strawberry Aquilegia and plain old natural Purple Aquilegia. Next was the plug tray. It too was filled with the same compost and into it was planted peas that I’d harvested last year with this exact purpose in mind. Two peas to each compartment. They might be Boogie or Ambassador or some other pea, I’m not sure. I took everything back down to that windy garden and watered all the seeds with pure rainwater and put them in the greenhouse and zipped it up to keep out the wind and hopefully to capture some of the sun’s warmth. Let’s see what appears.

The lady arrived, an Australian lady this time. Strange, it’s always been a lady who brings these instruments of torture and asks us questions. This time she was offering another year of tests although we are only part way through this year’s lot. The next tests are blood tests and I don’t think we’ll be taking them. I don’t mind the questions and the swabs, once you’ve done them a few times aren’t really all that bad. However, we were discussing the blood tests and assume we’d wouldn’t be able to do them in the kitchen. If that’s the case, then we might have to travel to Motherwell to the big ‘Tumbling Dominoes’ centre to get the blood taken. In summer it’s an ok drive, but a waste of a morning or afternoon, but in the winter it’s a different story. We’ll wait to see if we get offered them and what the procedure will be, but I think we’re thinking we’re doing enough.

Just after she left our Tesco order arrived with a substitution of Kinder Eggs for the Cadbury’s Cream Eggs Scamp had ordered. This was a surprise to me because I didn’t remember ordering them. Scamp was annoyed because it was meant to be a surprise for me, a good surprise. So the Tesco delivery man is in the same bad books as Alexa, who divulged the content of the delivery that was to be a Scamp’s birthday surprise.

I went for a walk later in the afternoon when the wind was calming down a bit and the rain that had been on all day had stopped. I wanted to see if I could find some Larch Pineapples, also called Larch Roses apparently. I couldn’t find any although the pollen dispensers were there in their hundreds, then, high up in the tree I saw what looked like a ‘pineapple’. I walked round to the windward side of the tree and finally found a couple of ‘pineapples’ just above head height. The wind was gusting strongly on this side of the tree and out of the five shots I took, the one you see was the only survivor of the cull when I got back home, and by virtue of that, the PoD. You can see how the shape of the pine cone is already there in the petals of this flower, because that is what it will turn into, a pine cone.

Hoping for a better day tomorrow. Today was wild and wet, but warmer than it’s been of late. Tomorrow will be cooler as the wind turns more northerly, but hopefully we’ll manage a walk.

Gardening, Mojave and Cannoli – 19 March 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Not quite in that order, but does the order matter? Not to me, it doesn’t.

Let’s start with Mojave. On this beautiful spring day I decided I’d back up the iMac and install Mojave. I’d downloaded it a few months ago. Said goodbye to Sierra and ran the installer. Oops. Got this message “This copy of the Install macOS Mojave application is damaged, and can‘t be used to install macOS.” Ok, no problem. I’ll just download another copy, except… Mojave is not listed in the Apple App Store. I finally found out how to download it. You first have to put the original installer in the bin then empty the bin. Next you have to restart the machine. Once it’s restarted, you must use Safari, Apples clumsy browser and then there is a path to the App Store that allows you to download the installer. Why this devious path to a free download?

It’s just a ploy by Apple. They want you to install the most up to date version of the operating system, currently Big Sur. It’s the only version available to download openly from the App Store on Firefox, Chrome or any browser except Safari. It seems that the reason they keep hiding older versions of the OS is to keep you moving on to a new OS every year or so until you can’t upgrade any more and a new computer is the only way to upgrade the OS. I’ve read this explanation many times today in different words, but all with the same theme. Apple was always seen as wearing the white hats, but like politicians, they’re all as bad as each other!

That was the morning. Later in the morning we were off to B&M to shop for a new pot for the Pieris that has been looking a bit sad since the end of last year. Also we needed new rechargeable batteries for the solar powered lights in the garden. Got both and both fitted in Scamp’s car. After lunch we were back out again in Blue this time to get ericaceous compost to pot up the plant and another bag of general purpose compost to top up the raised bed. Got both and some other incidentals.

Then the hard work began. We struggled to get that pieris out of its old pot, but it was jammed in solid. There was absolutely no give. Eventually I’d to use a hacksaw to cut the pot away. Then lifted it into the new pot and packed the ericaceous compost gently into the gaps. That should give it some growing space for a year or so. Scamp gave it a good watering, but it will need more tomorrow. I’ve rarely seen roots so packed into a pot.

We agreed that tonight we’d have fish ’n’ chips from the chippy in Condorrat, so I headed off just after 4pm. I saw the daffodils when I was leaving the house. They were shining well in the sun, so they made an easy PoD. While I was waiting at the chippy, I was eyeing up a couple of meringues in the window. Got my order in and while I was waiting I noticed a rack of cannoli, little Italian deep fried pastry shells with a sweet ricotta filling. Just to test them, I got two meringues and two cannoli. They were just as good as any we’ve had in Italy. Only surpassed by ones we bought in a cafe in Venice. The meringues were also delicious.

That was one busy day with a lot of hard work done. The pieris looks happier already. The lights are on in the garden. Hopefully tomorrow will be more relaxing.

A minimalist day – 7 March 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Not a lot done, but there was definitely the feeling of spring in the air.

We did some work in the garden in the morning, although I must admit that most of my ‘work’ was photographic. Scamp did the heavy lifting. Repotting the chives that came from my mum, easily thirty years ago and probably a lot more. Every couple of years they outgrow their pot and need split up and repotted. I swear that if one single tuber was planted in a 300mm (12”) pot, within two years its roots would be using all the available space. Still the taste of new potatoes with butter and chives is a delight and makes it worth keeping these plants in a garden. Between us we chopped up two plants and replanted them. I hope they are happy in their new home and don’t go crazy right away.

In between bouts of ’helping’ with the repotting, I was taking photos, mainly of the crocuses. The blue/purple ones are my favourites, I think. That’s how today’s PoD came about. It’s just a low level view of one of Scamp’s long narrow pots, a rectangular one that sits on the kitchen step for a couple of weeks in the spring before it goes back into its shady position near the fence. It seems to thrive in that cool damp place but looks spectacular sitting on the step in the evening sun. It’s another plant that really should be split every few years, but I don’t have the heart to do it and I don’t think Scamp has either.

After lunch and after listening to a spirited baiting of Gavin Williamson the Secretary of State for Education by Andrew Marr, we went out for a walk in St Mo’s. No photos taken although I did take the Sony with the kit lens (light camera bag today). Not a lot of humans out, but a tribe of teenagers trying to start a fire in the woods. Also letting off bangers, either because Rangers had won some cup or other or maybe because they’d discovered matches. Who knows. Anyway we walked round the pond a couple of times and declared that we had achieved our stated purpose of getting some fresh air.

Dinner tonight was yesterday’s curry reheated, which sounds a bit sordid, but actually it was delicious, but apparently the paneer was still squeaky. My Chicken Rogan Josh was even hotter than yesterday.

Dance lesson tonight was a re-run of last week’s with a few pointers about presentation and general tidying up of the rough edges. Next week we move from rumba and waltz on to Tango. Ooh, must remember the rose between the teeth!

It stayed dry nearly all day, but it’s been raining tonight and we’re due for more of the wet stuff tomorrow. No real plans.

A day of sunshine – 1 March 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Just for a change!

Rather a late start, but that was because of a late night and a small dram of Tamnavulin last night. Just to help me in finishing off the last drawing of the February challenge.

It was a foggy start too, but you just knew the sun would burn it off if you gave it a chance. We gave it a chance and soon the sky was clear and there were only a few clouds sliding across it, however it was cold outside because the sun in early spring in Scotland takes a while to get it’s furnace pumped up to full heat. Sitting in the living room with the sun shining in, the light was wonderful. I used that light to illuminate what became today’s PoD which was a wilting tulip. Flowers are often more interesting when they are just past their display best, I think. I took a few, well, a couple of dozen photos of the tulips and hyacinths in that lovely directional light. While I was processing the results, Scamp went for a walk to the shops to get lunch.

After lunch we drove down to see Isobel who has a great wee sun trap at the side of her house. She had been out working in the garden and we sat for a while and exchanged books before we headed back home with some detailed instruction on when and what to prune in the garden.

Just for a laugh we put the gingerbread house out in the back garden for the birds to eat. It was much later, while I was getting ready to make dinner that I noticed a movement in among the pots. At first I thought it was a dunnock (small brown bird that forages around the pots), but it was a wee mouse. It looked smaller than a house mouse, but the same colour. It seemed interested in the house or perhaps the smells coming from it. I don’t think we really want rodents in the garden, no matter what size they are, or how cute. I think I know where it/they are coming from. The old clothes pole I cut down last year is lying behind the pots. I’d forgotten all about it, but it would be a perfect home for a rodent family. Tomorrow I’ll saw it into manageable pieces and take it off to the tip.

It seems a bit strange to be sitting writing the blog without having to do a sketch too, but February is past and I need a rest from daily drawing for a while. Maybe later in the year, all being well.

Weather looks colder for the next few days. Today was just like a spring day, let’s hope the rest of the week remembers that it is meteorological spring. No plans for tomorrow.

The day that the rains came – 14 February 2021

Posted on by Zogman

At last the snow was retreating.

We’d had a long day yesterday. Today was a day for catching up with stuff and not doing much more than that. What I did do was post yesterday’s Robin painting and catch up with yesterday’s blog. I also baked some bread, practised the rumba we learned over the last two weeks, learned a new waltz routine and baked a loaf.

The catch up of blog and painting were done in the morning and the early afternoon. The bread was made in the early afternoon, but didn’t even see the oven until about 8pm, just after the dance class where we learned the new waltz routine which looked quite complicated at first until I realised that it was made up of bits and pieces we’d picked up in Michael’s and Kirsty’s classes, then it was just a case of fitting them together as seamlessly as possible. We also went over the rumba routine we learned last week and got rid of some of the rough edges.

Spoke to JIC in the evening and discussed finance with him and also Vixen’s sore eye. I swear that dog is the most accident prone canine I’ve ever heard of. For such a big, strong, absolutely fearless animal, she’s had more than her fair share of bumps and scrapes.

That was about it apart from one of us standing at the window every half hour reporting on the disappearing snow. The only problem is that it’s disappearing too slowly for some folk!

Tomorrow we may go shopping on foot. I might take a more interesting photo than today’s PoD which was some moss growing on our Magnolia Stellata. That and also get today’s “Venice” prompt finished and tomorrow’s “Cycle” completed too. If I get half of those thing completed, I’ll be a happier bunny.

Snow, snow, snow – 9 February 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Usually I’m complaining about rain. Today is was snow.

It was snowing when we woke. There was no sign of the footpath at the front of the garden. Just a flat even surface of snow from the house out to the start of the trees on the far side of the path. One set of footprints where some unlucky soul had plodded his weary way to find his car in the whiteout. We went back to bed, thankful that today we’d nowhere to go and nothing to do.

When we’d had our morning coffee and were wondering it the snow would go off today, we made the decision to clear the path to the main footpath. With two of us working at it, it didn’t take too long. Then I remembered we had a bag of salt that I ‘obtained’ from the janitor at the school. Scamp showed me where it lived at the back of the overcrowded bin shed. After some swearing I brought the bag out and spread some salt over our efforts to hopefully preserve some of the clearing we’d done. It seemed to work.

After lunch I assembled my long lens on the Sony and grabbed some shots of the blue tits and robins in the garden. I felt sorry for the wee ground feeding birds in the back garden, so we found an old plastic tray and filled it with birdseed, leaving it in the back garden. It was soon cleared, so we refilled it and that lasted for a couple of hours and provided today’s PoD. It was taken on my old Tamron 300mm lens that never really worked properly on the D7000. It certainly works on the Sony. Then a heavy shower of snow covered the seed tray and by that time the light was going. Unfortunately the snow showed no signs of giving up.

Dinner tonight was Spaghetti a la Anything in the Fridge. It worked quite well, but could have been better. The Sticky Toffee Pudding however was excellent again.

We had a quick reprise of the rumba routine tonight and watched a few of our old salsa moves. Old being the operative word as some of those videos go back to 2010!

Sketch tonight was “Walk”. I’d already decided I wasn’t going out in that snow which was now nearly up to the top of my wellies. No, today’s sketch was purely out of my imagination aided and abetted with some images from Google Images. I looks reasonable and will do the job.

Tomorrow looks cold, with temperatures not likely to go into the positive numbers at all. We may stay in.

Hardly past the door – 20 January 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Well, actually I was out today. I took the bins out tonight, but that was it.

It was such a dull depressing day and then it started raining. Last night it snowed, just as we were going to bed, but you wouldn’t have known it this morning. The thinnest scraping of snow on the cars was all that remained of the fluffy flakes that were falling just before midnight last night. The rain today soon finished even that off.

We had a new Covid reporter today. Sharon arrived just after 11.30 and we did the needful with the swabs, then answered her questions. Thankfully it was only raining today. If she had come tomorrow there’s a good chance she’d have been covered in snow by the time we were finished.

Lunch was a rather tasteless Vegan Pizza from Pizza Express. Some things just don’t work as vegan. Vegetarian, yes, but vegan cheese is a step too far. Afterwards we did think of going for a walk, but it was that horrible clinging drizzle and neither of us could think of a good reason for going out, so we each made a cup of coffee and sat back down.

PoD was a shot from the kitchen window of a starling having its daily bath. Shot through the window using my old 300mm lens on an adapter on the Sony. Not the best prospect, but the photo was useable and it worked, just!

I was nominated to make dinner tonight which was a Chicken Cobbler. The chicken was fine, but the cobbler was a bit stodgy. Lots of work to make and lots of chopping in preparation. Might try it again with some suggestions Scamp made. I can see them working.

Today Joe Biden became President and Donald Trump left under a cloud. Fred sent me this photo. I think it sums up the day perfectly.

We’re expecting heavy snow during the night and the quantity of that snowfall will determine what we do tomorrow.

 

Planning is everything – 18 January 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Making a plan is just the start. Sticking to it is everything.

Today I had a plan. Things to do. I didn’t make a big long list and attempt to tick them all off. I know I’d cherry pick, choosing the ones I wanted to do and getting them done, leaving the rest for tomorrow or the next day. Much easier to make a short list of a few things and get them done. Three is a good number to start with. Odd numbers are good. More interesting.
Today’s list:
1. Go for a walk.
2. Get a photo.
3. Write a letter.
If I can achieve a task while engaged in another, that’s a bonus, but doesn’t leave space for an additional task. No, it leaves space for free time e.g. To play Angry Birds!

It was dry in the morning and we couldn’t decide it it was going to stay dry for long enough to go for a walk, but we both wanted to get out in the open air for a while so we went. As soon as we left the house the rain came on, as usual. We were out now and we were already wet, so we might as well go for a short walk round St Mo’s, maybe twice round.

The rain just kept coming. Sometimes light and sometimes heavy, but always there. We both knew that if we couldn’t feel it on our faces and we put our hoods down, it would start again, but we played its game anyway. We went round the pond twice. Once anti-clockwise and once clockwise. Didn’t see anything that encouraged me to take a camera out of the bag. We came home and had soup for lunch, Scamp’s “Just Soup”, good and thick.

Following its usual pattern, the rain went off, the clouds parted and the sun shone. I put my boots back on to fool it and went out into the garden instead to get a photo. The rain came back on, but I got half a dozen photos of buds on the rhododendron in the back garden. I loaded them into the computer and while Scamp talked to her wee sister on the phone, I went upstairs to write that letter. Three tasks completed.

Tonight’s dinner was more Just Soup and then Pasta a la Carbonara and a really good one too, even if I say so myself.

Today’s PoD was one of those six photos of the rhododendron buds.

Tomorrow’s list is almost full, and it looks as if the best time for a walk will be in the morning. Possibility of some snow tomorrow or Wednesday night.

Another cold start to the day – 30 December 2020

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Temp was -3.7ºc this morning. We were in no rush to go out.

Instead, Scamp started baking a couple of Dundee cakes. They should have had whisky in them, but she doesn’t like the taste if it (why!!?) so she substituted Calvados instead. I gave her a bit of help with the logistics. I held the paper cases open while she spooned the mixture in. I’m useful for some things.

With the cakes in the oven, I was staring out the window and I realised that there was a Long Tailed Tit pecking at the fat block that hangs from the tree. As we watched, it was joined by another four of them. They are very rarely seen near houses, preferring open country. I thought that if I grabbed my camera and went through the manipulations that are necessary to connect it to the adapter and to the long lens, the birds would be long gone. But no. They were still there. I managed two shots, then a blackbird seemed to startle them and they flew off. I guessed that now they’d found the fat blocks, they’d be back and sure enough about five minutes later they were crowding round the food. I managed a few more shots before they flew off again looking for something extra to finish their lunch.

Our own lunch was now calling us and I used the heat from the oven to warm through my slice of mince cake (I’ve got the last bit in the fridge for tomorrow). It was delicious and it disappeared in no time.

I wanted some more ammunition just incase the bird pictures didn’t work out, so I dressed for the just above zero weather and walked round St Mo’s. Scamp isn’t too keen to go walking in this icy weather, so she stayed home to admire her cakes and do some cleaning. I did get a few shots in St Mo’s, but nothing to compare with the birds from this morning. I walked down past the back of the school to the shops, but saw nothing of note. I was hoping for some deer, but they were off somewhere else today.

Back home and after dinner, it was the Long Tailed Tits that made Pod. I also got my first two or three calendars printed. Then the printer started banding a bit, so I think it needs the ink reservoirs refilled. I may do that tomorrow.

Tomorrow being Hogmanay, it’s the day for cleaning before we usher in a new year. I’ve volunteered to wash down the kitchen cabinets which are really badly in need of cleaning. Scamp will no doubt be similarly engaged elsewhere in the house.

A dull day with one bright shining light – 4 December 2020

Posted on by Zogman

It was raining in the morning and it’s raining now, at 23:57. It hasn’t stopped raining all day.

Today was a day for finding things to do inside. Scamp made a start with putting up our four Christmas cards and some of the decorations. I followed suit by clearing the dining table and together we covered it with the Snowman™ table cover. I bought it many years ago and worried that I’d paid too much. It’s paid for itself many times over since then. It always brings a smile to our faces, even in such trying times.

With that done and after lunch I intended to take a walk to the shops, but after I opened the door I changed my mind. These are the days we bought the car for. Days when you don’t want to come home dripping with rain. Not exactly soaked to the skin because the Goretex in the Bergy works so well, but not feeling totally comfortable either. Waltzed into M&S and stocked up on oranges, grapefruit, chicken and a curry each for tonight’s dinner. Went to the till and that’s where the magic happened.

After I’d scanned all the messages, I scanned my M&S card and got a message to the effect that today as a special surprise, my purchases were all free! I checked with the till assistant and she confirmed that tonight’s dinner was on M&S. Scamp has had one of the M&S cards for months, probably over a year and has never got much more than a bag of Percy Pig sweets. I won over £25 worth of groceries and I’ve only had the cards about a month! Almost walked back because I was still in shock at my good luck, then I remembered I’d brought the car and drove home.

Today’s PoD is a Christmas Rose growing in the garden. I risked the rain to get its photo. According to Scamp’s records it’s a Helleborus niger “Christmas Carol”. It was very pretty sitting there in the rain brightening up that corner of the garden.

I did attempt a picture of the letter M subject, but I wasn’t impressed with it and a bottle of beer followed by a glass of Hortus Gin from Lidl put paid to any and all attempts to improve it. Hopefully tomorrow will be more fruitful.

We have no plans for tomorrow other than a Zoom dance at night for which we practised tonight. We even attempted a medium paced salsa track and had to sit down to allow the room to stop spinning afterwards.