Category: Garden

Piper at the gates of dawn – 4 May 2017

Posted on by Zogman


Trying to keep up the musical lyrics theme, today we went to Stirling, all should become clear.

It was another bright day with a cold easterly wind.  We had decided to complete yesterday’s tasks with a visit to the travel agent in Stirling to see what they could offer for our summer cruise.  When we were walking through the centre of Stirling there was a bloke, a piper, with the obligatory £20 kilt on making the most awful racket outside the Stirling Tourist Office.  Just as we drew level with him, two officials came from the office, walked over and uttered the termination introduction; “Before you get started again mate …”  As we walked down the street, I noted that there was no skirl of the pipes from behind us, so I presume he had been sent on his way with a flea in his ear (and a stopper in his drones.)

After about an hour in the travel agents where we had set out our initial requirements:

  1. Cruise
  2. Eastern Med
  3. June – July

Later we added almost as an afterthought:

  • Not an inside cabin
  • Not on a low deck
  • Not Greece
  • Flying from Glasgow
  • Not more than £xxxx each
  • Not an old ship

It’s amazing just how many requirements we have after our initial ones.  That said, the bloke in the shop was very patient, but I’m sure he’d heard all these lists before and knew the initial requirements are only ever sketchy and will be firmed up and filled out later.  We left the shop with a couple of possibles and after a coffee and a bog awful Goat’s cheese an beetroot panini for me and an excellent (I’m told) Mushroom Toastie for Scamp we had chosen the front runner.  Back to the shop and confirmed the booking.  We’re off on a cruise in the summer, DV.

Thought I’d get an Amazon Fire Stick to stick in the (not so) smart TV with which to watch some extra content.  Y’see that’s what happens when you visit the weans and find they’ve got access to a world of entertainment you haven’t dreamed of.  Cruised round all the electrical retailers in Cumbersheugh, but nobody had one.  Bummer.  Scamp did manage to get some solar powered lights from B&M though, but only after a bum steer when we found the box that allegedly contained six lights only had four in it.  Typical Cumbersheugh thievery.

Dinner tonight was another ND recipe.  Chicken with Rice using a very tasty pre-roasted chicken.  Again, thank you Masterchef Neil.

Today’s grab shot is of Marguerites in the garden.  They were enjoying the sun too.  Also, I’ve just checked and all six solar powered lights are shining brightly.

Today’s title, comes from Pink Floyd’s first studio album, of course.

Tomorrow?  The search for an Amazon Fire Stick continues.  Maybe JL will have one.  Failing that, I’m sure Amazon will have it in stock.

I’ve got a bike – 3 May 2017

Posted on by Zogman

This morning we took Scamp’s car down to the garage for its MOT.  Then back for breakfast.

That’s how the day started.  Since we were up and about early, we decided to make the best of what was shaping up to be a beautiful day.  We drove to Torwood Garden Centre to get some plants and ended up with nine plants and a bird bath.  We’ve been looking for a bird bath since Trinidad, back in February, but couldn’t find one we liked or didn’t grudge the exorbitant price for.  This one was exactly what we wanted.  Made from concrete, fairly small and fairly priced.  We’d originally intended continuing on to Stirling, but changed our plans and just went home so that the plants could find their way into their new homes, assisted by gardener Scamp of course.

Back home we had just had lunch when the garage phoned to say the car had passed and was ready to collect.  We brought it home and as the gardening needed expert hands, Scamp decided to carry on with that while I dragged the bike out for a run.  For the first time this year, I took it on the bike rack to Auchinstarry and cycled along the canal almost to Kirkintilloch and then back again along the railway.  Going out was fine with the sun on my face and the wind at my back.  The run back wasn’t so idyllic, but it was still enjoyable.  I think everybody who had a bike was out on it today, or at least that’s what it seemed.  Not surprising on such a lovely warm, if windy day.  Tracked it on my new FitBit and was surprised at the amount of data it generated.

Salsa tonight was good although the drive in was a not much fun with traffic jams because of a breakdown in the middle lane just at the busiest spot near the Royal Infirmary.  Poor woman who had to escort her kids on to the fencing at the edge (there isn’t a hard shoulder at that part), then get them back again into the breakdown truck, with their cases!

Looks like tomorrow is going to be much the same as today.  Maybe going to Stirling.

Coming down is the hardest thing – 2 May 2017

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This was the day of rest, after the conveyer belt that is Gatwick. Go to the bag drop. Get past security 1. Look in the camera, DON’T SMILE! Go past security 2. Oops, not quite. Tablet didn’t pass muster, had to be swabbed down and run past the camera again. On to Departures and time to peruse the offerings in Dixons, priced up by 10% then Special Airport Reduction of 8% makes them look like bargains. Wait for the gate. Go to the gate. Loading! Oops, that should be boarding, but it feels more like loading. Look at the camera, DON’T SMILE! I love the flying, I hate everything that goes with it.

That was yesterday, today is the opposite. Do what you want, when you want, if you want. I started off cleaning up the painting room, but was sidetracked into starting my mushrooms which are now resting after having drunk more than their bodyweight in water. After that I did a bit of gardening because the gaffer was out for coffee again and I could suit myself (what you want, when you want, if you want. It ’s a good maxim) I cleared out the raised bed and dug in some bone meal. Old fashioned fertiliser. Transferred my indoor raised peas into the mini greenhouse to harden and put the ones from the greenhouse into the propagator to give them a bit of a boost. That was quite enough of the green fingered stuff for me. It was lunchtime.

When Scamp came back, she took over the horticulture, and I grabbed my camera. Eventually ended up at Fannyside after a few deadends. One grab shot turned out as PoD. It’s entitled ‘Earrings’ for obvious reasons. It would have been better if the sheep was a bit closer, but I’ve never worked with a sheep as a model before and it didn’t seem to understand my directions. I’ve changed my title photo from a mosaic to a single shot, the PoD. Sometimes there will be more on Flickr, sometimes not. It’ll be a surprise!

Dinner today was Spanish Rice with Chicken and Prawns. Big thanks to ND for introducing us to it.

Today’s title is from ‘Learning to Fly’ by Tom Petty

Tomorrow, we’re looking for more gardening stuff after taking Scamp’s car for MOT.

Child Minding – 30 April 2017

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We didn’t do much in the morning.  ND was at church and the weather wasn’t too good.  We all sat and talked for a while.  The PoD is of the dried up hollyhocks in Hazy’s front garden.

When ND returned, we got ready and went to Canute and Delia’s for lunch.  After being ‘welcomed’ the two chihuahuas, Basil and Molly, we sat down to the biggest lunch I’ve seen in a long time.  Potato Salad, Green Salad, Channa Daal, Chicken Curry, the list goes on and on.  Then there was pudding afterwards!  All the time we were being entertained by Marcie, Joey and Jess’s daughter.  Not two years old yet, but ruling the roost in the house.

Suitably fed and entertained, we left later in the afternoon and went back to the house.  Sat and watched StarWars VII and again marvelled at the CGI until we just accepted it as real.

This week’s sketch was actually done earlier in the week at the Old Naval College in Greenwich.  As with most sketches, it’s not quite true to life, but hopefully it gives the idea of the building and I liked the quality of the line.  The building did look good that day with the sun shining on it.  I’d like to draw it again, maybe if I had somewhere to sit!  Drawing while standing is sore on the back!
Back up north tomorrow.

“I don’t get hangovers yet” – 23 April 2017

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This morning we went for a walk round the Barras.

I was going looking for a cheap Bluetooth 4.0 dongle – it’s a bit of computer hardware, in case you don’t know.  There used to be a multitude of wee computer shops selling legitimate and highly illegal hardware and software down the Barras.  Most Barras stuff was knocked off, one way or another and everybody knew that and accepted the risk that what you were buying was either unlikely to work once you got it home or a man in a black suit wearing a cap with a black and white chequered pattern would relieve you of it as soon as you stepped away from the stall.  No guarantees, no money back, but glorious bargains to be had.  Not today and by the looks of things not ever again.  The Barras was dead.  All the wee shops and some of the bigger ones were closed and firmly shuttered.  Worst of all, there was almost nobody about..  It looks like the end of an era, and also the end of my search for a cheap Bluetooth dongle.

We walked down to Glasgow Green and strolled through the trees just springing into leaf, about a month behind the ones we walked in last week in Astwick.  That’s what happens, they get the weather, we get the scenery.  It’s a fair exchange and I like the way it’s weighted.  We were just heading for the People’s Palace for my usual Sunday roll ’n’ sausage and Scamp’s tea ’n’ toast when three girls passed us and the following snippet of their conversation floated towards me  “… I don’t get hangovers yet. I suppose I will later …”.  I felt like telling her she had to be actually drinking alcohol first.  Merely talking about it won’t have the desired effect, nor will drinking lemonade or coke.  I almost shouted “Try Buckfast.  That should work.”  She was english, which explains everything.  Just one step away from being american.  (Yes, lower case ‘e’ and lower case ‘a’.)

Today’s sketch was from the Wintergarden of the People’s Palace.  Simpler and more accurate than previous ones IMO, maybe because I was sitting down enjoying my R ’n’ S while I completed it.  The trees were Celtic trees.  Green, White, Green, White, Green.  Must have been planted by a Sellic supporter!  But then, you don’t get many trees with Blue or Red leaves do you?  The mono shot of the old shop with the ‘ghost signs’ was not from the Barras, but from quite near there.

Back home to do a bit of joinery, completing the duckboard for the plants to stand on.  Actually enjoyed it and it looked reasonable when it was finished.  It could maybe do with a lick of paint or stain to finish it off, but the biggest part of the work is done now.  Helped Scamp with a bit of gentle gardening after that, but nothing creative, just labouring really.

Made some bread 50/50 white flour and dark wholegrain flour from Prince Chic’s own farm.  I imagine he planted it himself and then carefully tended it, talking to it daily before harvesting it with a scythe he’d sharpened himself then grinding it carefully in an authentic and architecturally sound windmill.  Lastly he’d transport the flour by horse and cart to Waitrose where we bought it.  He’s that kind of a guy.  The bread was good, thanks Chic.

Tomorrow is Monday so it’s Gems day.  I’ll be making a hasty exit.

The man who worked in the garden … 20 April 2017

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Another early rise this morning to go, not for a walk over St Mo’s this time, but to Tesco for muesli which I fancied for my breakfast.  A lovely morning with bright sunshine although the weather fairies depressingly predicted clouds drifting in from the north.

After that bout of energy, and after breakfast, Hazy Skyped for a while.  By then it was about lunchtime, or should that be ’dinner time’ (all will be explained later 1 ).

After dinner oops, lunch, I settled down to watch episode 1 of Lucifer.  Brilliant.  Such deadpan humour.  I might even extend Prime, just to watch it.  Thank you for the heads-up Hazy.

Then the man came with the greenhouse.  It was a dawdle to set up and it was soon in its place in the garden after digging up the roots of an old bush and levelling the ground again to move the magnolia tree.  It’s not an enormous greenhouse, but it is green and has a ridged roof, like a house, so it’s a green-house and now has a few plants in it.  Planted seeds of  English basil, and some English peas.  Still to plant the English beetroot.

To ensure we did have even more plants, we went to B&Q and bought some seedtrays and a pot of flowers.  While we were there, I went to Currys.  I’d been last week to see if they had cheap bluetooth keyboards to use with my Linx 10 tablet.  They did have, but when I took it to the till, two assistants were serving one customer while a queue formed.  The store manager seemed to be enjoying berating a junior employee quite loudly in the middle of the store.  I got fed up and went to return the keyboard when he said “I’ll take that over at the other till sir.”  I told him he was too late, but he didn’t seem concerned.
Today, I relented and decided that last week was a one off and went back to Currys to get the keyboard.  This time when I took it to the till, the assistant was on the phone trying to get some issue for a customer cleared up.  Again a ‘manager’ was standing in the middle of the store, this time watching a video on a man’s laptop.  It did not appear that this was a problem he was solving, in fact it looked like a couple of friends discussing something.  Again, I gave up after a few minutes.  Walked past the ‘manager’, yes, he did have a badge on with his title, put the keyboard back and walked out.  Not a word was spoken this time.  Don’t they want sales in this shop?  Harrumph!

Went to St Mo’s when I came back.  Got a few macros and that was it.

Tomorrow is Friday and that might mean a day In The Toon.  Perhaps.

  1. In the children’s tv program Bill an Ben, the mysterious gardener goes for his dinner in the middle of the day, not lunch, dinner.  This allows the Flowerpot Men and Little Weed to get up to mischief.  The show ends when ‘The man who worked in the garden had finished his dinner and was coming down the garden path!’
    For a much deeper social commentary on ‘The man who …’, go here.  Who knew there was such a deep undercurrent of social division in this children’s programme? ↩

People in glasshouses shouldn’t …! – 19 April 2017

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One of the ideas we brought back from JIC’s was his little plastic covered greenhouse.  Something else we couldn’t bring back from Astwick on the plane, but it wouldn’t be too difficult to find one up here in our own myriad of garden centres and DIY stores, would it?

We started out looking in B&Q, but the Cumbersheugh branch is only a small warehouse and they didn’t have plastic greenhouses, or any greenhouses actually. Dobbies in Stirling was next, not the *most popular* centre at Milngavie, because we might be looking for lunch and that’s not an option in Milngavie.  There were a host of different sized and shaped mini greenhouses, but none of them were exactly what we were looking for.  Lunch was very good.  Roast turkey, roast potatoes and veg.  Scamp went for her usual baked potato.

Back along the M80 to Robroyston to see what Homebase had to offer which wasn’t much.  Far less than Dobbies, but still not what we were looking for.  Eventually we agreed to come home and check what Amazon had to offer and that’s where we finally found our ideal mini greenhouse.  Well, we hope it is, because we don’t get it until Thursday at the earliest.

Went over to St Mo’s later to see what had changed.  The answer was very little actually, but I got a couple of photos.  I wanted the white of the blossom to stand out against the dark background, so I used spot metering on the Nikon to meter off the white of the petals and that gave me exactly what I was looking for.  I liked the isolation of the coot on its nest among the mare’s tails.  This is one of the occasions where my mosaic maker isn’t quite producing the best quality.  Much better to click on the image and see it on Flickr.

Intending to build the decking prototype tomorrow, once the gas man’s been to do the maintenance on the boiler.

A Day of Rest – 10 April 2017

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As usual on the day after a long drive, I didn’t feel very much like going anywhere.  The furthest I got during the day was out into the garden to photograph these flowers.  Scamp thinks the violas look like her earrings and I have to agree with her.  What do you think Hazy?  I like violas, they have such cheeky wee faces.  The red plant is Forest Flame and the red parts aren’t really flowers, they’re leaves.  The flowers are quite insignificant little white bell flowers, like lily of the valley and they are just beginning to fade now.  Scamp’s mum called it a Living Flame and that’s an equally good name.  The white flower is from our Magnolia Stellata.  It was looking very sickly, but Scamp has nursed it back to health.

Like I said, I didn’t do much today.  Tonight I went to salsa and made an absolute hash of the new move, Tambor.  Maybe by Wednesday it will have sunk in enough for me to pick it up again.

I really should have gone out for a walk today because the sun shone most of the day and it was dry, although there was a strong, cold wind.  Must get up and get out tomorrow.  This inactivity is not good for you!

The Lodger – 1 April 2017

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The back bedroom has been *my room* for a long time, and the front bedroom is the spare room with just insufficient room to swing a cat, so when the lodger appeared, we were a bit lost about where he should go, but we needn’t have worried. He had provided his own bed in his own room.

When I got up to make breakfast this morning I was amazed to see a wren sitting, no, not sitting, dancing on the clothes rope in the back garden. Singing his heart out, he was obviously full of the joys of spring and eager to entice Jenny, or any other lady wren to dance along to his tune. After I’d grabbed the nearest camera and taken a few shots, then grabbed a more suitable camera / lens combination and repeated the exercise, I noticed him fly down to the back door. At first I couldn’t see where he had gone, then I realised. Scamp has a plant pot hanging by the back door. It’s called a Wanderella and is conical in shape with the wide part of the cone at the top. It’s almost full of peat and has holes about 2cm diameter all down its length. I’ll try to get a photo tomorrow. I guessed that Mr Wren was using one of these holes as an impromptu nest. It was actually a good ploy as Scamp had upended a bowl on the open end of the wanderella to keep the peat from getting waterlogged during the winter.
Later in the morning when Mr Wren was out carousing outside the garden we risked lifting the bowl and there was a beautiful hollow ball of moss with two entrance holes, just the right size for a wren. The nest was empty, so we put it back in place as carefully as we could. It wasn’t until much later in the afternoon that I noticed that he had returned. I hope we didn’t disturb things too much because a lot of work had gone into that green moss ball.

We drove through torrential rain today to go to Vecchia Bologna for lunch. Mine was one of the worst pizzas I’ve ever eaten, but Scamp said her veggie penne was lovely. I know I should have complained, but this is the first time I’ve had a poor meal in the restaurant. That’s one of their lives gone. Two strikes and you’re out. These days there is far too much competition for food to be sloppy about cooking and presentation.

Waitrose, then home. It looks like Crazy Water Fish tomorrow. Something we learned to cook in Sorrento at a one day cook school. It’s a long time since we’ve made it, but Scamp thinks she still has the recipe.

Fought with iTunes in the afternoon and eventually managed to get it to give up the forty tracks it insists on leaving on my iPhone every time I try to clean it out. I’m a great Dylan fan, but if I hear Abandoned Love one more time I think I’ll risk the six points on my license just to throw the phone out the window. Anyway, with the help of the Interweb, I finally ditched the forty songs. I also managed to get rid of the ‘greyed out’ tracks on iTunes. It’s amazing the little tips you pick up on the iTunes forums. I’m a firm believer that Bill Gates wrote the code for iTunes. It’s clumsy, it’s bloatware and it never works properly. Typical Windoze crap. I rest my case.

Had a quick walk around St Mo’s just before the sun completely disappeared, but only got a few almost usable shots of a coot sitting on its nest. Not great, but not too bad either.

Tomorrow we may be going to the (F)Art Galleries to hear a choir. Scamp will probably listen to the choir and hopefully, I’ll sketch. No Sunday Social until the arm is healed 🙁

Happy Friday Eve – 30 March 2017

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Sitting in the waiting at the plastic surgery unit of GRI just after 9.30am waiting for Scamp to have her stitches removed after her last op, I earwigged in on a conversation between a nurse/clerical assistant, (I don’t know which) and a clerical assistant.  Always find it best not to raise your head when you’re earwigging!  Anyway, the conversation went something like this:

’Good Morning and happy Thursday!’

’Happy Friday Eve, you mean.’

’Sorry, I didn’t quite catch that.’

’I said “Happy Friday Eve”.’

’Oh, yes, Friday Eve.  I hoped I’d got it wrong and you’d said Friday.’ <resigned> ’Never mind.’

I’d never though of it as Friday Eve before.  Puts a whole different slant on Thursday.

Scamp wasn’t too long because, as it turned out, she’d had dissolving stitches, so didn’t need them cut out, just washed regularly and massaged liberally with moisturiser.  Since we were out and about early, we went for a run, as planned, to Braehead with the added excitement of taking in a trip to IKEA!  Oh, lucky me.

On arrival, we had coffee in Costa.  Now, I’m not getting into that big Costa v Nero thing again, but Nero sell coffee and Costa don’t.  Fin.  I had an Americano which was supposed to be extra strong.  If this was the extra strong, I’d hate to see the normal variety.  However, it’s only coffee, not worth starting a fight about.  After drinking brown water, I agreed to a walk around this almost empty group of retail opportunities, or shops to you and me.  The only one marginally interesting was the Apple shop where all the shiny new mega buck technology did grab my attention.  One scary machine, labelled a Mac Book, had a cable plugged in to what I thought was a power socket and sported one other socket which turned out to be a headphone socket.

  • No USB ports.
  • No SD card slot.
  • No Lightning connector.
  • No DVD drive, of course.

I asked one of the Apple acolytes if I was correct in my assumption and she said I was.  “If you want to add a usb drive you need to buy a USB-C adapter.”  What about an SD card reader?  “Oh, you can get an adapter for that too.  The USB-C socket is what is used to power the machine and also to connect peripherals when they become available.”  It did come in pretty colours, though, but is it a computer?  I think not.  What would Steve Jobs say?  After watching the movie about his life, last week, I think he would have agreed totally with this ethic.  I don’t.  I think I’ll keep using my eight year old MBP until it stops working entirely.  Hopefully, by that time peripherals will have become available, or Apple will have dropped this ridiculous extravagance.

Thankfully, IKEA have actually listened to consumers and have now provided short-cuts through their massive warehouse and it no longer mandatory to follow the yellow brick road.  We ended up with the purchases we’d planned and a couple more besides.   One of which I’m resting my tootsies on as I write this.  We bought a new rug for the living room.  A cream coloured patterned rug which I am trying to avoid getting dirty.  It looks and feels very nice.

When we got home and had lunch, I went out looking for inspiration and a plant pot big enough to hold Scamp’s azalea.  I found one and also a pretty wee pot of anemones that brighten up  the garden a bit.  My final purchase was a plant pot tray, like a big saucer which is sitting on the upturned cracked pot that used to house the azalea.  With an old clay flowerpot on top it makes a fine water container / birdbath for the garden.  We’ve been talking about getting one since we got back from Trinidad.  I doubt if we’ll attract Blue-Gray Tanagers or Kiskadees, but it might give the Starlings and the Robins a place to drink and have the occasional bath.

No plans for tomorrow.  Maybe lunch somewhere.