Category: Garden

A deteriorating day – 18 June 2024

Posted on by Zogman

The morning promised so much with blue skies and fluffy white clouds, but then then it started to cloud over and the promise of the morning was gone.

It didn’t stop us from getting out in the garden and doing a bit of pruning of anything that looked as if it was struggling, straggling or had lost all its flower petals. Scamp did the low roses and I did the high up ones. I think we do need to more brutal with the pruning of the roses this autumn to try to force more growth from the lower branches. The flowers at the top of the rambling rose are almost reaching the upstairs windows.

There was some rearranging to be done too, especially on the Compte de Chambord. It was growing lop sided in its pot, with most of the buds facing a wall. I volunteered to pull it out of its place and turn it around so the rose buds got the benefit of the sunshine. It has the sharpest and shortest thorns in any rose I’ve seen. Some stems are completely covered in them.

In the afternoon, Scamp was about to head down to the shops when the rain started. It was a wise decision on her part to wait for the rain to go off, because it just seemed to get heavier and heavier for a couple of hours and then the rain clouds blew away and all was well again. Scamp got her walk to the shops and just after she returned, I went for a walk in the park. While we’d been pruning in the late morning, I grabbed some photos of the peony rose, Karl Rosenfield. It has only produced one flower this, its first year. Apparently that is quite common on Peonys and we’re hoping for more next year, all being well. Karl Rosenfield got PoD, but I got a couple of shots in St Mo’s, mainly wildflowers sprinkled with raindrops. Some are on Flickr.  Glad we did both go out for a walk, because later the rain returned.

We didn’t do much more today. I think the rain curtailed a lot of things. I messed around with the new version of ON 1 2024. It’s OK, but that’s all. Nothing like as good as the rave reviews the company were throwing around for the last couple of weeks. It’s really clumsy compared to Lightroom or Capture One. The only thing I use it for now its the excellent resizing app and its really fast denoising ability.

Hope you’re settling down now Hazy and hoping for a good resolution of the problems. BTW, Boozy Gladys was very, very nice. Lovely flavour. Tomorrow I’m intending to test Captain’s Grog!

 

Dentist – 17 June 2024

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Not for me, thankfully. It was for Scamp this time.

The nagging ache from the crown she had fitted a few weeks ago was keeping her awake at night, so this morning she phoned the dentist and got an appointment for 9:45 today. It didn’t take the dentist long to examine the tooth, but she explained that she couldn’t do anything other than look because her dentist chair had developed a fault and she was waiting for the engineer to arrive to fix it. She did say that it could be an infection and gave her a prescription for antibiotics.

We drove over to the chemist at Tesco and did our usual Monday shopping while we waited for the prescription to be filled. Back home with the messages, she took the first of four-a-day tablets and we had lunch.

One Thursday a couple of weeks ago Scamp got a box of solar powered lights, fifty of them. After lunch I was given the job of hanging them on the tall fence. Fifty seems an awful lot of lights, but it didn’t take long to clip them on to the fence and check that they worked. While I was doing that, Scamp was dead-heading the roses and pruning some of the plants in the back garden.

I’d no idea what I was going to photograph today, other than I wanted to use one of my less used lenses, an ultra-wide lens that gets some wonderful effects. Scamp was looking a bit down after getting the garden licked into shape again, so I suggested we drive somewhere for a walk. That seemed to brighten her up, so that’s what we did.

We drove over to Grangemouth and into Klondyke garden centre. The smile on her face when she saw all those flowers told me it was the right decision. We wandered round the roses and the flowers, before we settled on the Bargain Bench where we picked up a Foxglove and a Candelabra Primula for a fiver each. They’re a bit battered and bruised, but with Scamp’s green fingers they will come on a treat. She also got herself a couple of semi-circular metal plant supports that she has been looking for.

We stopped at the Kelpies on the way back and went for a walk round the Big Horses with a few hundred other folk. That gave me an ideal opportunity to use the ultra-wide lens to great effect. My favourite shot got PoD. I’d also picked up an ‘Explore’ award in Flickr this morning for the photo of the reflections of boats on the Water of Leith on Saturday.

The only down side to the day was driving home through the traffic jam that is the M876/M80 on the road home. I’d hate to have to drive those roads every day going and returning from work. Even when I was working, I was only fifteen minutes from my workplace.

Scamp said tonight that she thinks the meds are working. I hope they are and that she gets a good night’s sleep.

Tomorrow we may go out again if the weather fairies are correct and the skies are blue.

Fathers Day – 16 June 2024

Posted on by Zogman

I remember complaining to my mum and dad that there were Fathers days and Mothers days, but when were the wee boy’s days. The answer came from both of them “Every day is wee boy’s day!” Funny how you remember these things.

Today Scamp was making breakfast in bed for me on Father’s Day. Tea, two Weetabix with blueberries and milk with a strawberry on top. Also on the tray was a glass of orange juice with a couple of carnations in a vase. Later in the morning I spoke to Hazy and thanked her for the prezzy which she always remembers and the card. I will enjoy some of the first packet tomorrow, hopefully, Hazy. We talked for a while about the books we’re reading and what’s coming up on our lists.

My father’s day present from Wordle was a score of 3. Best I’ve had for quite a while. I also managed to get one of the two available Pangrams which is also an achievement for me. Nice to know we fathers are appreciated by the New York Times!

The main task for me today was to repot my Venus Flytrap and my miniature Sarracenia pitcher plant. They’ve been waiting far too long for new compost and a wee bit of Sphagnum moss to retain the moisture. It didn’t take long and I’m sure they will both feel the benefit of getting their feet wet in now soil.

PoD was taken from just outside the back door, because the rain had been on from early this morning and looked as if it was going to continue for most of the day. I’ll admit to being lazy today and not venturing out into the wide world, but I’d no wish to get wet for no reason and today’s photo of a straggly Campanula fitted the bill perfectly.

Wrote to Alex who seems to have picked up another virus (not a computer one) just as Carol is beginning to improve. Hope you both feel better soon.

Dinner for Scamp was Salmon fillet with Ratatouille (AKA ‘Rats’) and potatoes. If you substitute a steak for the salmon fillet, you have my dinner. Dessert was the other half of yesterday’s Tiramisu from M&S.

Spoke to Jamie in the evening and thanked him for his card. It seems the doc is not sure whether it is Whooping Cough that Simonne has, but they are treating it as that for now, just in case. Hope you feel better soon Simonne. Jamie and I also discussed what books we’re getting through and as usual, I didn’t really enjoy some that he suggested and vice versa. I think that’s quite normal for us.

Well, that was a lovely Father’s Day. I thoroughly enjoyed being pampered for a day. Great cards and prezzies. Thank you all very much. I don’t deserve you.

Scamp is going to phone the dentist tomorrow to get her new crown investigated, because it’s becoming more painful. Hope it gets fixed soon S.

We wuz Robbed – 14 June 2024

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Scamp was off to FitSteps this morning I was staying home.

It wasn’t the brightest morning and it didn’t look as if the day would brighten much. However I was feeling quite happy. Yesterday, I’d ordered a two day rental of a lens, an expensive one, but after sleeping on it, I decided this morning it wasn’t for me. It wasn’t the cost of the lens so much as the weight of it. Approximately 840gms. That’s a heavy load to lug around along with a big camera and another lens. I was wondering how I was going to extricate myself from the trial, when I got an email from the company apologising that the lens couldn’t be delivered to me in time. I’d read somewhere that the lens was coming from Edinburgh, but it was actually coming from Vauxhall and would have taken two days to be delivered. Relieved, I enjoyed my coffee.

When Scamp returned from her class, she brought the rain with her and that rain stayed with us for the rest of the day. We had both considered going to Brodens for lunch, but neither of us were really all that bothered and instead had a light lunch at home.

During one of the lighter rain showers I strapped an old Nikon fit Tamron zoom to the A6500 with an adapter. Then shot some flowers in manual mode as neither the autofocus, nor the anti-shake work on the old Tamron now. One of the photos made PoD. It was the best shot of the dozen or so I took.

Dinner was Arancini which are little balls made from left over cooked rice ( we used yesterday’s paella),  coated in flour and dipped into beaten egg, then into breadcrumbs. They are left in the fridge for an hour or so before being deep fried.  Crunchy and delicious, they don’t last long.  We had ours with a home made tomato sauce.  Val assures me they should have a bit of mozzarella pushed into the rice balls before they are coated in flour.  We generally don’t bother.

Later in the evening we watched the buildup to the Euros football competition and weren’t surprised when Scotland were beaten 5-1 by Germany. Now I know next to nothing about football, be even I could see they were completely outclassed. I imagine there will be sore heads in Munich tonight.

No plans for tomorrow, but the weather looks as if it will be the same as today’s … wet!

Mixed Messages – 13 June 2024

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The second day when things didn’t go right.

I was on the phone, my phone, to Fred in the morning. He had some spare time while Margo was in at the doc’s and he thought we should have a chin wag. Then the house phone next to me started ringing with a mobile number. I was upstairs and knew that Scamp, downstairs, would answer it. After a while I noticed that the phone was still showing “Connected”, so broke off my call with Fred and went to see what was going on. Scamp had been talking to her pal, Mags who was wondering why Scamp wasn’t at Wetherspoons for lunch as agreed … except there hadn’t been an agreement!

Last week Scamp phoned Mags to find out if they were both meeting for lunch, only to discover that Mags was on holiday in Benidorm! After a bit of discussion they agreed that they’d meet when she and her husband came home. It would appear that Mags assumed they’d meet today and was waiting at Wetherspoons. To make things easier I drove her up to the town centre to meet up and everything turned out ok. Two days in a row when confusion reigned!

I dropped in at Tesco on the way home to get some chicken and veg for tonight’s paella. I intended using Orzo instead of rice, but once I got home I realised the recipe wasn’t as simple as I’d assumed, so I reverted to our usual paella rice base.

After lunch the rain appeared. It had been threatening all morning, but finally it got organised and decide it should be a wet day today. I still hadn’t a photo to turn into PoD, so I took some shots of a straggly Campanula plant with pretty lilac flowers in a hanging basket beside the back door. With a bit of editing it became PoD. It wasn’t a day for trailing over to St Mo’s getting wet for nothing, so, if all else fails, there’s always flowers.

When Scamp returned she explained what she thought had happened with the mixed messages that had crossed and recrossed the ether between her and Mags. Thankfully I’d got the right Messages in Tesco, even remembering to get yoghurt for Scamp!

The paella turned out fine and Scamp has the remains put aside in the fridge for tomorrow, maybe Arancini for lunch. Other than that, we have no plans for tomorrow. Scamp intends to go to FitSteps in the morning, but the weather looks like it will be another wet one.

More Food – 9 June 2024

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No, that’s not a hungry mouth you’re looking at! It’s just that Scamp has been doing a grand job of cooking this weekend and it continued today.

Breakfast was just breakfast, but even then Scamp was the one who made it. Two Weetabix with Rasps and Blueberries for me and Bran Flakes and Rasps for Scamp. No milk for either of us.
Just kidding, of course we had milk!

Lunch was Healthy Shakshuka which is basically “What you’ve got in the fridge” with a tin of tomatoes and sweet and smoky paprika with a couple of eggs cooked in the mix. I’d seen the recipes for it many times, but never quite got round to making it. I can assure you I missed a trick there! It was absolutely brilliant. We ate it watching Laura Kuenssberg getting ripped into politicians of various stripes. A fearsome lady is Laura.

We spent most of the afternoon trying to get OneDrive to share a folder between Scamp and me. According to the cartoons on the Mickeysoft site it was simplicity itself, but unfortunately it didn’t work. I thought it might be because one of us was using a PC and the other was using a Mac, but I don’t think that was the root of the problem. I think it’s just that Mickysoft just doesn’t know how to play nice. Eventually we did get it working, but the road to success was a rough one with may potholes and dead ends.

By ’… most of the afternoon …’ I meant a couple of hours, although it felt like more than that. To give me a break from all the tech stuff, I took a walk in the garden and took a few close-up photos of the Foxglove flowers that are in full bloom just now. One of them got PoD. I thought it looked like Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors, or maybe it was Laura Kuenssberg! I also potted up some chilli plants I’ve been growing from the seeds of last year’s or maybe two years ago’s chillies. They’ve been a bit mollycoddled, living in the warmth of the south facing window of the spare room. Tonight they are in the, not so warm, plastic covered greenhouse. I’m sure they’ll be tough enough for it.

While I was pottering and potting, Scamp was cutting away dead flower heads and then pruning back the overgrown vegetation in the back garden. When she was finished it just looked like the plants had been given a really neat haircut. She’s getting good at this sort of thing.

Spoke to Jamie tonight and heard all about their holiday on the coast.  Sounds like a lovely place to relax for a week.  He put us right on how to share folders and told us that the method we were using was almost the same as his at work.  Good to know that we’re on the right track with some things!

For dinner tonight, Scamp took charge again and made a stir-fry. I feel like a ‘kept man’ tonight! I’ve done little or nothing all weekend apart from drive us to and from dancing class yesterday and then moan about it.

Tomorrow we may go out some where and I’m hoping to make dinner. I’m the pasta cook and Monday is Pasta Day!

 

 

Water – 3 June 2024

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Today, for the first time this year, we watered the garden this evening.

Yes, we had splashed some water on the plants before, like when we had planted them out, but this was the first time the front and back gardens had been given a good soak.  For weeks we’ve been told to expect rain and none came.  Now that we’ve taken the bull by the horns and used the watering can on all the plants, it will probably rain tomorrow.  For today, though, it’s been watered.

In the afternoon I gathered a few bags of stuff that either wasn’t working or had been gathering dust and took it all up to the skips to be disposed of.  As always, there was a constant flow of folk bringing similar car loads of garden refuse, electrical equipment and what is generically known as “General Household” to these great big bins and the crushers were there working their magic to reduce what was once a carefully assembled chest of drawers to matchstick.  That must be a satisfying job.  I saw the delight in one woman’s face as she tipped a two layer glass TV stand into one empty General Household skip.  It made a lovely crashing sound as it disappears into thousands of little chips of broken safety glass.

I drove out of the council tip and up to Fannyside.  It was a lovely day until I opened the car door and it almost blew shut again.  Fannyside is quite exposed and the gusty west wind was stronger than I’d anticipated.  I was hoping to see some dragonflies, but not today, not in that wind.  I did see some swallows, though. I stopped to watch them and a Stonechat which I’d heard of but never seen before. Then I listened to a skylark singing as it rose, and there it was, watching me from the the field. A Fox. It just sat there on its haunches, in the long grass, looking at me.  Not fazed at all but the human with the big black tube pointed at it.  When I turned to walk away, it did too.  I had one last look at it, but it didn’t turn back, it just walked into the water weeds that surround a bog in the field. I did get half a dozen or so photos of it.  This is one of the best.  I’d been thinking of buying a longer lens for photographing wildlife and birds. Maybe this was the signal that it might be a good idea.

Back home Scamp was reading in the garden, so I brought a bottle of beer out with me and joined her.  For some reason the weather fairies didn’t like my interruption and clouds began to roll in and the wind became gustier until I was forced to go in to make the dinner.

I think we may be going out to lunch tomorrow with Shona. Her treat this time.

Down the Green – 2 June 2024

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The day arrived bright and shiny, but it soon dulled down to a white sky.

Despite that, I suggested we drive down to Glasgow Green and go for a walk. We also needed a replacement bulb for the oven. I’d already replaced one which lasted about three days. Hopefully down at Pearson’s electrical shop in the Barras we’d get one that would outlive the last one.

We found a parking space fairly easily at The Green, quite unusual for a Sunday, and walked down to The Barras and it was jumping! There seemed to be folk everywhere, all looking for a hidden gem in the junk pile. I blame Bargain Hunt and such like on the TV. We found Pearson’s and got two bulbs in a blister pack for £3. The rest of the Barras was pretty run down. We walked around it for a while and then headed back to The Green. Even as we were leaving, there were hoardes of folk scrabbling through the broke cups and saucers for a goblet of gold that must be there somewhere.

We walked a different route round The Green. Down the avenue of carefully clipped conical conifers then down to the road that runs parallel to the Clyde. Stopped to take a photo of the murals on the Chivas Regal distillery, then on to the suspension bridge to watch the rowers in twos and fours and some singles going upstream on the left side and down again on the right.

When we’d had enough of that we walked back to the car and drove home. About a three or four miles from home we both heard a roaring noise and a white BMW came scorching along past us on the hard shoulder, nearly colliding with two cars broken down on the hard shoulder, then crossed two lanes passing one car and cutting back in again immediately. It all happened in about 5 seconds. Thankfully I’ve got the reg on dash cam and I’ve stored it away until I decide if the polis would like to see it. I daresay there were a few folk would have their own version of it on their dash cams.

Thankfully that was the excitement over for the day. I strimmed the edge of back grass and then grass hoovered it with the mower. The mower only took about five minutes, probably less to cut the wee postage stamp garden, but it took me about a quarter of an hour to clean it.

Dinner tonight was a trout fillet served with potatoes, chives, spiced beetroot and some salad leaves. Perfect for a day that was finally beginning to brighten up.

PoD was a photo I took on The Green of a lady cycling past the trees. Amazing range of greens in those trees.

Tomorrow looks like rain, but that’s what the weather fairies said about today too, so we’ll wait and see. No real plans.

Dancin’ – 1 June 2024

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This morning we were off on the road again to Brookfield on a beautiful day.

Today we started with Midnight Jive which was ok. I think everything started going wrong after that. The teachers were concentrating on refreshing our memory of dances for the summer Gala Ball in a couple of weeks and they started with Cha-Cha. I don’t like Cha-Cha. I never have and I doubt if I ever will. I knew the dance we were being taught, and we had done it many times before, but I just clumsily bungled my way through it, despite Scamp’s best efforts. I was just glad when that section came to an end.

Next up was a Foxtrot, but to make the dance simpler and easier to dance, they chopped it in half. I don’t really think it made the dance any easier, in fact it became a bit disjointed. I would agree, however that it would be easier to dance on a crowded floor, because it was so short, but it just lacked the flow that the full length dance had. Nothing to do with the fact that it had become one of my favourite dances. Lovely smooth lines that went together well. They did go well before it was made ‘easier’. After a couple of sequence dances we were set free. Maybe I was just clumsy today and that made me grumpy too. Maybe it will all work out next week. I hope so for Scamp’s sake.

Drove home, still in brilliant sunshine and stopped at M&S for bread and cooked chicken. Today’s dinner was to be a salad made to one of Neil’s recipes and the chicken is one of the main constituents.

Lunch was cold ham for me and cheese for Scamp. After lunch we went for a walk in St Mo’s where a Common Blue damselfly made PoD. I was using the A6500 with a lens from the A7iii. A strange combination that didn’t work for me the last time I tried it, but which produced some lovely images today.

A seat in the garden with a glass of wine and a book after the walk was the order of the day. It really did feel like summer which it is today. Meteorological summer starts today.

Scamp turned a chicken breast into a lovely dinner tonight. The mix of dressings made it extra special. Perfect food for such a lovely day.

A bunch of photos had arrived on our phones this morning from Jamie and Sim on holiday in Suffolk. Looks lovely, but I think we have better weather! Enjoy it. I’m sure you will have found some interesting walks there.

No plans as yet for tomorrow.

The end of May – 31 May 2024

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Also the end of Spring and the end of EDiM (Every Day in May).

Was it a good month? No, not particularly good. We got a week and a bit of sunshine, warm sunshine, but also a bit of thunder and torrential rain. Damselflies appeared fairly early and a couple of hardy dragonflies arrived very early. Scamp got a new computer after a dodgy one and I got Excel and OneDrive. Lots of flower photos, and a fair selection of architecture photos, but not a lot of landscapes.

This morning Scamp was off to FitSteps and then she went for coffee with Isobel. By the time she came home I’d finished my sketch of a Portuguese Man of War jellyfish to cover today’s prompt of a Jellyfish or an Octopus. Her response to the picture was an indifferent “Meh”. I had to agree and we had lunch.

After lunch I did a rethink and found a photo of an octopus to sketch and paint. Although it was far more complicated to draw than the PMoW, it had enough room in it to add shadows that would create the 3D effect the jellyfish lacked. That got a better response from Scamp.

Leaving it to dry, I went for a walk in St Mo’s and found today’s PoD almost right away. I saw the man sitting on his chair throwing balls for his dogs and I liked the contrast between his jacket and the trees in the background. He did spot me photographing him, but I just held out until he looked down at the dogs and took the ‘keeper’.
If this was you, I apologise!

While I was out I phoned Scamp to ask if I should bring home a Special Fish Supper for dinner. A Special, in case you don’t know is two slices of breaded haddock. Much lighter and with better flavour than an ordinary battered fish. She agreed and I dropped in at the chip shop on the way home. The chips were a bit cool, but the fish was excellent.

The sun had passed the house and was shining in the garden, so we sat and read for a while. Next door were having a family gathering, so after a while I retired to the quiet of the house and posted today’s PoD, the Octopus and a wee extra shot of my relatively tidy painting desk. Relatively tidy FOR ME, that is.

Some folk have commented on my list of ‘Tools’, so I thought that, as this is the last one in EDiM 2024, I should give the Tools a spot in the limelight to take a bow. Without them I wouldn’t have been able to produce the 31 sketches.

We watched Rebus, a new BBC series. I recommend it to all the Scottish contingent if you are wearying for home after talk of Special Fish Suppers. WARNING It does contain lots of sweary words and a fair bit of violence.

We’re intending to go to dance class tomorrow, but no more plans.