Category: Garden

Dancin’ – 30 May 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Dancing and really enjoying it for once!

Drove through the busy M8 to Glenburn community centre for today’s tea dance. I don’t know what was going on, but the traffic both ways was much busier than usual and that led to us being just a wee bit late

We started off with a waltz, as always. Just to get us into the swing of things, we danced the first part of Kirsty’s Waltz on repeat. Next was a sequence dance then there was a Foxtrot and a Tango, two tracks of each interspersed with two tracks of sequence dances. The line dance today was the Waltz Across Texas, one of the most dire and depressing line dances. The one where nobody smiles. We didn’t dance it. That took us up to the tea.

After the tea break, Stewart started with Scamp’s favourite, the Tina Tango, inevitably danced to ’Shivers’ by Ed Sheehan, then we were back on the script with another waltz. And this time we danced what is now being called the Four Seasons Waltz. It was the Christmas Waltz, the Winter Waltz and then the Spring Waltz. Now it seems to have found a home as the Four Seasons Waltz. Whatever it is called, we danced it, the moves constantly improving as we went, and by the time we had danced both tracks we were getting it right most of the time.

Time was slipping away and soon it was our turn to slip out the back door, waving “cheerio” to those who didn’t have to drive through the hoards of school children. We made not bad time getting home by the longer, but quicker M74/M73 route that avoids the bottleneck at the Kingston Bridge.

It was Thursday, so Scamp asked for and got a bunch of flowers. She was quite exacting in her description of a bunch of flowers. In other words, she didn’t want plants. Much as she’d have liked them, we just don’t have anywhere to put them.

Tonight’s dinner was yesterday’s veg chilli bolstered with some passata and spiced up with some cumin and coriander. It tasted fine, but it the extra liquid makes it look like the pot is as full as it was yesterday. The magic porridge pot becomes the magic chilli pot!

After we’d eaten, Scamp started a purge on the spices cupboard. Anything older than 2024 was emptied into the bin and the jars are ready to go into the recycling bin. All 28 of them!

PoD was an easy one. The second Schoolgirl flower to bloom this year on the rose bush at the front door. The first bloom was about 3m above ground, so it would have been difficult to photograph!

Henry Hippo, the catwalk icon from the 9th of May, returned to model today’s prompt, Pyjamas.
Although hippos live in mainly warm countries, the night time temperatures are often very low. That is why Henry and other right thinking hippos often wear comfy pyjamas after the sun goes down.

No plans for tomorrow. Scamp is intending to meet Isobel after her (Scamp’s) FitSteps class. I may go for a walk.

The constant gardener – 29 May 2024

Posted on by Zogman

A little bit of tidying up of the garden in the morning. Then a lot more.

I’ve had seven little pots in our overcrowded greenhouse, hardening off before I planted them out. Actually I’d almost forgotten about them. Today I was going to plant them in the real world. The post held sprouting sunflowers. Their cotyledon leaves had now been replaced by their ‘real leaves’ and it really was time to plant them in the raised bed, except I’d been using the soil from the raised bed to bank up the potatoes. This was a shambles. I admit I wasn’t really dedicated to this gardening lark, but something had to be done. I decided the thing to do was have lunch!

After lunch the job started properly. Scamp was intending moving troughs with old daffodils in them from the front garden to the back to get them to dry out so she could gather the bulbs for planting next year, all being well. I felt ashamed that all I did was lug the planters about and not do anything creative, so I emptied all the pots and old plants from the raised bed, pulled up all the weeds I could reach and then used a bag of cheap compost to fill in the holes I’d been creating in the bed over the past months. I planted all seven sunflower seedlings. I also planted about ten leeks that were languishing in their plastic trays. Next I replanted two strawberry plants that were looking sorry for themselves and finally dug up and planted what might be a tree. I think one of our friendly birds planted it for us, but now it’s growing in a proper pot. I’ll be interested in seeing if it flowers and what fruit it bears.

Scamp planted up her new trough with Violas, Lobelia, two Heucheras and a Geranium. The trough is long and narrow and holds a fair amount of compost. It’s a heavy thing to carry through the house. She also did some general tidying up and kept an eye on me to make sure I wasn’t damaging any of her plants. As if I’d dare.

When we’d finished we drove to Tesco for some shopping that should have been done on Monday, or Tuesday, but was completed on Wednesday!

I made a fairly decent chilli non-carne for dinner, assisted by my commis chef. It wasn’t very hot, but I’m loathe to put more chilli powder in it, because chilli non-carne or chilli con carne have a reputation of becoming much hotter on the second day.

Five couples were getting in each other’s way tonight at dance class, but we did get round the floor and joined the first part of the waltz to the second part seamlessly after Kirsty supplied the middle section. It wasn’t perfect, but I’m sure, by next week we’ll have it working perfectly, DV.

Before I started making the chilli, I went for a walk in St Mo’s. Not a lot of interest there, but PoD became an Aquilegia flower I saw on the walk home. I think their season is drawing to a close, so I’m making the most of them while they are still here.

Today’s prompt has been completed, but it’s still soaking wet after I tried a very watery ink and wash technique. I’m sure it will be dry for tomorrow.

<Update> And here it is: Today’s prompt asked for a Turtle. The only ones I’ve seen live were the small freshwater turtles, but the images I found were of their bigger cousins, the sea turtles, so a Sea Turtle it was.
Just for fun, I painted it wet in wet. It seemed to suit the subject.

Tea Dance tomorrow. We may even attempt the, as yet, unnamed waltz if everything goes according to plan.

Computers! – 26 May 2024

Posted on by Zogman

The morning was all about putting more things in the new laptop.

Later we realised that One Drive was clogged solid and was wanting more space to put the data from the old PC. There seemed to be no way to unclog it and by lunchtime it was obvious that the data wasn’t going into the space we’d allocated for it on the C: drive. This surely wasn’t right. It got to a stage where the only sensible thing to do was to restore the machine to the way it was in the morning, when everything was working.

It took it a while to do that, but by the time dinner time came around, it had restarted and with a few omissions it was running just the way it had in the morning. We set it aside and had dinner after a few arguments.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard how he runs his PC in conjunction with One Drive. It sounded a lot easier than the way we were doing things. Maybe that is the way to go.
Good to hear that his Bee Orchids, whose flowers actually look like bees, were looking good. He even sent us a short video to prove it. By the time he hung up, and we’d watched the end of the Monaco GP, we had an outline plan of what to do to get this laptop show on the road.

Except it didn’t work out like that. When we turned the laptop on, we were met with a BSOD. The dreaded Blue Screen Of Death. The death of the laptop. It wouldn’t boot. From about 8pm until just after midnight, Scamp and I tried every possible combination of the multitude of problem solving hints and tips that were appearing on the blue screen. Nothing worked. Eventually Scamp made the corporate decision to go to bed and suggested we take the broken laptop back to JL in the morning. When she had gone I tried another alternative solution, using old fashioned DOS, but got nowhere. It’s now a quarter to one and I’m going to bed too. Hopefully the Techs at JL will come up with a solution.

PoD was an Aquilegia taken in the rain, just to be a place marker.

The prompt asked for a bitten apple. This one has definitely had a little nibble taken out of it.

Tomorrow, realistically later today, will surely be a better day than Sunday.

Today the rains came – 22 May 2024

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One of those days when you knew the weather had indeed turned for the worse.

Well, I guess the plants don’t see it that way, They are desperate for some fresh water even if it’s at the loss of some of the heat they’ve become used to.

<Technospeak>
Scamp had been complaining for a while that her watch wasn’t synchronising with her phone. We tried a few of the tricks resetting the phone and the watch we even did a soft reset of the watch. Nothing seemed to work. Eventually we did a factory reset of the watch and installed a new update that seemed to clear everything. It only took about three hours to work out the best way forward, with a stop for lunch in the middle. However, we did get it going in the end, but sometimes you just have to rely on your instinct rather than the wahoos who claim to be gurus.
</Technospeak> (Not seen that warning in a long time Jamie)

The next thing to do was investigate the situation with a new laptop for Scamp. Her storage is being eaten away and the battery is failing, so a new machine is on the cards. We thought we’d found an ideal solution in the HP Shop. But then we checked them on Trustpilot and it looks like they are going through a rough patch. Lots of complaints of punters paying for goods that just don’t appear. HP claim a delivery within 2 working days, but 2 weeks seems to be the norm. After another look round the stores, we decided that the HP store are a bit too risky

We’d had some spits and spots of rain during the day, but then the rain got heavier and heavier. I stood at the back door to shelter and took today’s PoD of wet roses in the rain. The title was “Raindrops on Roses. No Whiskers on Kittens.”

Not long after that the distant rumble of thunder came from the east and it rolled along the valley heading west. I didn’t actually see any lightning, but there was plenty of thunder.

When the rain finally abated, I drove down to Tesco to get a bag full of veg to make a stir-fry for dinner. Usually I buy an M&S set of protein, veg, noodles and stir-fry sauce, but today everything was either from the store cupboard or bought fresh or as fresh as Tesco veg is. It wasn’t the best stir-fry, but bits of it were good. Good enough to try again another day.

Today’s prompt was A Staircase.
My sketch was Just an attempt at a sort of perspective view of a dangerous looking open plan staircase. No handrail! No balustrade! No soft fluffy cushions to break your fall. It was a Health & Safety nightmare. Should have a warning “Do not ascend after drinking alcohol.” Parachutes an optional extra.

No dance class tonight.  We’re not sure why. Maybe too many people called off because of the weather. Maybe something came up and Kirsty wasn’t able to run the class. I’m sure we’ll find out in due course.

Tomorrow, perhaps the search for the world’s best laptop will continue.

 

Change of plan – 21 May 2024

Posted on by Zogman

We’d planned to go somewhere today on the train, but it looked like the weather was changing and there was just the chance of rain.

Scamp was the one who suggested we should take the train down to Largs on the west coast and from there we could catch the ferry to Millport, a town on the island of Great Cumbrae which is in the Clyde Estuary. However, looking out the window this morning it looked like we wouldn’t see much sun today, so we changed our plans.

Instead, we decided to go out looking for a particular plant trough to replace one Scamp wants to put into summer storage. It has held daffodil bulbs for the last six months. The flowers have now gone over and the plants need to be allowed to rest and rebuild their strength for next year. So we need a new trough to fill their space in the front garden. We drove to Klondyke Garden Centre, expecting to find one there, but they didn’t seem to stock that style. They did, however have hundreds, perhaps thousands of new plants, and we couldn’t leave without buying a few. We had a coffee first and a cake each to give us thinking time in the slowest cafe I’ve ever been in. The cakes were good, though!

Scamp eventually settled on a box of Violas and another of Lobelia, plus I got a pot of Marguerites, what my mum called Big Daisies. Marguerites always remind me of her. We drove home, but stopped at Calder’s Garden Centre, still looking for that trough. They had one that was almost a match, but was really too big to fit in the space. I suggested we try Home Bargains where we’d tried last week and were unsuccessful. Hopefully they would have restocked their shelves and have the troughs. Our luck was in. They had one left. It left with us. Scamp had also bought a pair of sandals in Klondyke and they went into the trough along with the plants which made it much easier to carry them into the house … just as the rain started. The temperature had been dropping when we reached Klondyke, and the clouds were massing, but now it was looking like we’d made the right decision, leaving Millport for another day.

I hadn’t taken a single photo all day, so I grabbed the A7 and took a few of daisies, ordinary daisies in the back garden. One of them made PoD. Just as well, because the rain continued all evening.

Dinner tonight was Pea and Lemon Risotto. An interesting mixture which Scamp made. We both liked it, but commented that there wasn’t enough to make a main meal. We’ll alter the quantities and try again some time because the flavour was good.

Today’s prompt asked for A Bicycle. This is my Kona Dewdrop. It was a great bike in its day, but now, like me it is retired. It doesn’t get out much, mainly because I don’t like riding it on the busy road around where I live and I don’t have a bike carrier for my car. I really should make the effort and take it off-road some day now that the weather is getting warmer. Maybe I will do that this year.

Watched the first Sewing Bee of the year later and both agreed on the person who left.

No plans for tomorrow, but we need to practise the Waltz.

 

Gardening again – 20 May 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Quite a busy day. Lots done for a change.

Today started with a visit to the doc’s, well to the practice nurse who confirmed what my optician had suspected, that my sugar levels were high. Not enormously high. A reading of 87- 88 is considered safe. My reading of 89 is considered high. One point over the limit and you are caught out! That doesn’t seem fair to me. However she was quite nice about it and gave me three months to put my house in order, with lots of sensible food suggestions. Unfortunately Jam Doughnuts weren’t to be seen anywhere in that list.

Back home and after lunch we drove up to Home Bargains and got two 50L bags of fairly decent compost. Drove home and started filling a tub for the new rhubarb plant, Victoria, with the sodden compost. I think they must have had it soaking in a paddling pool before the put it out for sale. I used Monty Don’s technique for repotting where he puts the plant, in its old pot, into the new pot, fills the compost around the pot, almost burying, it then removes it, takes the plant it out of its original pot and puts it into the cavity he’s created in the new pot, of course, it fits perfectly. Really smart Mr D. Even although the compost had been wet, I gave the plant a good soaking.

While I was doing that, Scamp was pruning some tangled weeds and roses from under the apple tree. She’s determined that she will limit it to two fruits on each branch this year to reduce the strain on this old tree.

It was too good a day to waste, so we sat in the sun for a few hours, reading and drinking lemonade (no additional sugar lemonade.) Dinner was the remains of Saturday’s chicken with pasta and a rich tomato sauce. Dinner was a bit later than normal because we both had good books to read and the sun was lovely and warm.

PoD was taken in the garden and is a Primula Japonica which is a candelabra style Primula with concentric rings of white flowers running up the stem. How many rings? I’ll tell you when it stops producing them.
I just photograph them, Scamp is the one who grows them.

Today’s prompt was for A Cloudy Sky. We have our fair share of cloudy skies in Scotland, but thankfully for the past week it’s all been blue skies and fluffy clouds. However, the weather folk are telling us to be prepared for wet weather and strong winds from Wednesday. If it comes, I’ll console myself with the knowledge that the garden will love the rain.

We do have some plans for tomorrow, but it depends on whether the weather holds.

Off the leash again! – 19 May 2024

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Scamp was off at midday. Going to see the Strictly Professionals in the Armadillo.

Before she left we had a phone chat with Hazel and heard that things are returning to normal again after Rita’s funeral. I think it has taken more out of then than they had anticipated. I’m sure the mid-term break and the thoughts of the holiday will give them something to look forward to.

I dropped Scamp off at the British Legion, where she joined in with the rest of the FitSteps ladies who were going. No men appeared to be interested. My duty done, I drove out to Westway Retail Park where I was intending to buy some bags of compost … but not today! There were crowds of folk coming and going from the Home Bargains store which was where Scamp told me the best bargains in compost were. I’m sure there were bargains to be had, but there were no spaces in the carpark, and I do mean NONE. If that’s how busy it was outside, what was it going to be like inside. I drove home via Tesco and bought a loaf to take home.

It was a cloudy day. Lots of high white cloud that the sun couldn’t penetrate, so I got the grass cutter out and chopped the grass in the back garden, shifting all the pots as I went to avoid having to use the strimmer. It didn’t take very long to hover mow the grass, but it did take easily twice as long to clean the mower afterwards. By the time I had finished and put the mower back in its place, the sun was starting to cut through the cloud and the place was getting that little bit brighter. I dug out some compost from the raised bed and used it to earth up the two potato bags and the potato pot. That was the extent of today’s gardening.

After a cup of tea the sun was indeed shining and it was warm enough to take out a garden chair and read in the sun. The Black Dog by Kevin Bridges was today’s book. A bit of a scrambled start, but then the real story had started. I don’t know if it’s been part ghost written, but the language seems quite flowery for Mr B, in places. I’ll see how it settles down.

Later in the afternoon I thought I’d go over to St Mo’s to see if there were any damselflies or dragonflies. There were both, but the damselflies were busy making more damselflies while the single dragonfly seemed to flying circuits round the pond. Eventually it rested on a horsetail, quite near to the boardwalk and I managed to get a few (about 30) shots of it. One of which got PoD.

Dinner for me was some of yesterday’s chicken with potatoes, chives and tomatoes and it was almost as good as yesterday’s.

Just before 8pm I got a text from Scamp asking to be picked up from the rooftop restaurant in the town centre. It seemed that the show was a success, although it wasn’t exactly what she’s been expecting.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard about their garden. What was growing and what was not. Simonne is off on her travels again, this time in England.

Today’s prompt asked for a Ball of Wool. This is not an exact spherical ball, more a disjointed cylindrical woollen object with hemispherical ends. So, to my eyes it’s a ball of wool, but I’m sure my daughter will correct me and tell me it’s yarn, not wool. It is what it is, and it was easier than I thought to draw.

We may go looking for compost again tomorrow, hoping to find a quieter time.

The First Damselfly this year – 18 May 2024

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We couldn’t decide what to do today, then Scamp suggested we go for a walk in Drumpellier park.

It had been very misty earlier in the morning but that soon burned off to reveal a lovely day. We walked counter-clockwise round the big pond and then walked into the trees. The trees are beautiful at this time of year with their lush green leaves. So much brighter than in the middle of summer when they darken down. We bumped into a wee excited boy with his mum. They had seen a deer and a squirrel. We walked on and chose a random set of paths to follow but too soon we were out of the woods and onto the converter belt of folk who just walk round the tarmac path that edges the pond. Scamp suggested we turn back and walk along a path that runs parallel with the tarmac path, but much deeper in the woods. That’s when we saw a deer. I don’t know if it saw us, but either it was quite used to humans walking through the woods, or it hadn’t seen us. It just crossed our path and walked into the dense woodland, lost to us. I wondered if it was the one the wee boy saw. We didn’t see any squirrels though.

Scamp’s navigation was spot on right. She told us where we would come out of the deep woods and on to a path we’d walked before, but in the other direction. The path took us back to the ponds and there in the ponds I saw the blue flash that could only be a damselfly. Indeed it was. I didn’t manage to get a clear shot of it, but I did catch another, dark yellow one and it became PoD. First damsel this year.

It was really warm today, so we got a couple of cones at an ice cream van then found a seat to sit on and watch the world go by.

We drove in to Coatbridge intending to buy the laptop we’d seen yesterday in Stirling, but unfortunately the only one they had was the display model and Scamp was adamant that she wasn’t taking that! Instead, we crossed the road and got a chicken for roasting for dinner, milk and some veg. Then we drove home for lunch, because all that walking had given us an appetite.

After lunch, Scamp went into the garden to sit in the sun and read. I changed into shorts and boots and walked over to St Mo’s and there I found, not only damselflies, but also a couple of dragonflies. Very early in the season for them. I forgot to mention yesterday that I’d seen the first swallow of the year. They are our late spring or early summer visitors and always brighten my day.

Dinner was great. Chicken was lovely and moist and Scamp’s crushed potatoes were equally good.

I was running a bit late yesterday, but yesterday’s prompt was for a cream cake. I think this one fits the bill. Layers of sponge alternating with layers of butter cream. Then the whole thing studded with strawberries, blueberries and a few brambles from the freezer. I’d eat it, given the chance!

Today’s prompt asked for A Game. The game I chose was Chess. I used to play it a lot, but once you stop playing you loose the rhythm of the game and it takes a long time to remember the patterns and the strategies. I really should go back to it, but it’s difficult to find a chess club where I live. Like so many things, computers have taken over and, while they are great for learning the game, playing against a human opponent is much more satisfying, even if you lose, which I did a lot!

Tomorrow Scamp is hoping to go and see the Strictly show in Glasgow with the rest of the FitSteppers. Hope she enjoys it.

‘puters and sunshine – 17 May 2024

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Scamp was out in the morning to go to FitSteps.

I stayed home and finished Cast A Cold Eye by Robbie Morrison. Worth reading, if only for the history of the Easter Uprising, the Black and Tans and what lead to the partitioning of Ireland. A good story, well written, part fiction, part factual.

I’d gone down to the shops after Scamp left and came back with fruit and some Sweet William flowers because Scamp wanted flowers for the kitchen. Forgot to get bread, though! However I did remember to take some photos. It was a bit breezy and the bush of Dog Roses I wanted to photograph was bouncing about a fair bit. I did get one good sharp shot and that became PoD.

After a cup of coffee and once Scamp had returned, we discussed what to do with the beautiful day that had opened up. We settled on a visit to Stirling and bit of shopping in Waitrose. Also, as Scamp’s computer was low on storage space again, we might have a look at a replacement.

We drove to Stirling and parked at Waitrose. Impossible at weekends, but easy on a Friday morning. Then we walked in to Stirling itself and had a panini each for lunch, then wandered back to Waitrose after a stop in Waterstones to buy the prequel to Cast A Cold Eye. We ended up with more than we’d intended buying, but that’s often the way.

Next we drove to Currys to look at a new laptop for Scamp. The lady we spoke to was very helpful, but not telling the whole truth about the ‘essentials’ we’d need over and above the laptop. She was also heavily hinting that Scamp should be considering buying virus checkers and space on the cloud for backup storage. It was at that point that I stopped listening to her and started shaking my head at Scamp when I disagreed with her sales pitch. In the end, she spoke more sense than hype, but the hype was still there. I think I’ll have a look at what we can remove from the present laptop, so that Scamp can use it without worrying, but the only solution I can see is to buy a new one.

We drove home in even more sunshine, and spent the remainder of the afternoon sitting in the garden soaking up some rays and admiring he flowers. Dinner was a Charlie Bigham veggie lasagne which is quite superb.

Today’s prompt was A Cream Cake. It was such a lovely day and as I said, we spent the afternoon in the garden with a G ’n’ T each, so I never really got round to sketching it properly. It is half finished and drying in the ’Painting Studio’, ie the back bedroom. I’m intending finishing it tomorrow, all being well.

That was a lovely day. Not a lot done, but listened to a lot of talk, half of which was hot air, as if the air wasn’t hot enough already. We may go somewhere nice tomorrow.

Planting – 16 May 2024

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It was a dull morning with one of those depressing white skies.

According to Scamp it was likely to brighten up in the afternoon. I liked her confidence and hoped it wasn’t misplaced. My first task was to split up my five dwarf sunflower seedlings in their tiny wee pot and two gangly mixed sunflowers in their pot, then repot them all into slightly bigger, individual pots. I built up the wooden garden table and got to work. They split easily and all had good root systems. I was about halfway through the seven seedlings when the first spots of rain started falling. I hoped it was just a shower, but as it got heavier, I adjourned to the kitchen and worked on the draining board. I did get them all potted up neatly. Then Scamp took over and was doing the same thing with her Calendula plants. The difference was I had seven plants, but Scamp was thinning out what must have been a hundred wee green plants. By the time we were finished, the rain had stopped. We watered the plants and they went to live in the greenhouse.

The postman brought a surprise letter for me which had my new Travel Card in it. That was pretty good delivery time by the robotic sounding AI voice I was ordering it from last week. I can go on a bus again with a clear conscience.

For lunch we went to Torwood Garden Centre. I had a quiche which tasted ok, but wasn’t, because I could feel it wasn’t happy in my stomach all the way home. It was a dodgy egg mix, I think. We did get some flowers, though. Carnations, leeks, rhubarb and geums to name about half of them. They all fitted nicely into the boot of the car. Drove home and unpacked. Then Scamp started organising them into the places they were going to live, while I went for a walk in St Mo’s. Today’s PoD was a Dogrose that had just flowered today. Two days ago it was wrapped up tight as a bud and today it was soaking up the sun that had appeared while we were in Torwood.

Dinner tonight was a slice of Salmon with Jersey Royal potatoes and a wee salad. I didn’t really want anything because of my dodgy quiche, but I was glad I did, because everything on the plate was lovely.

Today’s prompt was A Sunhat or A Pair of Sunglasses. The sunhat was the easy one. Sunglasses are the most awkward things to sketch. I sketched my Tilley Sunhat. Probably the most comfortable hat I’ve worn. It’s usually quite expensive, but I got it for less than half price after applying two discounts!
It keeps me cool in the summer and, because my hair is thinning on top, prevents me getting sunstroke in foreign climes!. One of the best things about it is it’s ability to be folded into a tiny space and when needed it pops out without a single crease.

PS. I’m not affiliated to Tilley, I just like things like this that simply work!

Tomorrow Scamp is hoping to go to FitSteps after missing out last week. Other than that, we have no plans.