Category: #EDiM

Entertaining lunch – 24 May 2021

Posted on by Zogman

We were picking Isobel up and taking her for coffee today.

Always an entertainment, Isobel. She just speaks her mind and if you don’t like it, then … tough. For some reason I actually enjoyed my coffee in Costa. Maybe it was the company or maybe it was the Bosh Chocolate Slice which I hadn’t noticed was vegan, but you couldn’t tell! It could also have been because I told the barista not to add any water to the already almost full cup. This may be the first and last time I say this, but the coffee tasted like … coffee! A first for Costa. After a couple of hours we were talked out, although I’m sure Isobel would have kept going for another hour at least. However we had to get home for 3pm. She was going to Tesco which is at the opposite end of the great cavern that is the Antonine Centre. We walked along with her and after she’d bought the plants she came for, I walked back to get the car and bring it round for Scamp and Isobel. On the way I took two photos of one of the architectural monsterpieces of Cumbersheugh. I had plans for it.

Drove round and picked up the two of them, drove to the Village and deposited Isobel at her house. Back home we had time for lunch before a man phoned and asked us a few personal questions before knocking on the door and giving both of us each a cotton bud to stick down our throat and up our nose. We gave it back to him and off he went. That was our Covid survey completed for June, even though it’s still May. I’d say that we’re getting used to it, but that would be a lie. It’s still a really uncomfortable thing to do and we still have another six or so to look forward to. Oh what fun we have.

I forgot to mention that the rain started around 11.30am and it didn’t stop until about 5pm. I know the plants need the rain, but the back garden is going to feel like a paddy field if this goes on much longer. With that in mind, I decided that the two photos I took in the afternoon would make PoD with a little bit of Photoshop magic. The new ‘shop is a far more complex, yet at the same time simpler app than the old version CS3 that I’ve been using for the last 10 or so years. What you see here took an hour or so to do. The last time I tried it, it took four or five hours and it was nowhere near as convincing a result as today’s. I approve of it, even if most of the heavy work is done for you. It’s the result that counts.

Sketch tonight was Your Sketchbooks. There’s no way I was going to draw all my sketchbooks. If I had attempted it I’d probably finish around 4am. A fair selection was all I did. You will note, I’m sure that there are three items in the sketch. An odd number yet again. Makes for a more dynamic composition I’m told.

Don’t know what we’re doing tomorrow. It looks wet, but hopefully not as wet as today.

Dreary, wet and Foxtrot – 23 May 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Another of those drizzly wet days.

There was little point in going far today. The forecast had been for rain in the morning and it appeared almost exactly on time. It gave me a chance to start today’s sketch which was A Treasure Chest. The sketch was done early, but the painting took a bit longer. Overall, I’m fairly happy with the result.

The rest of the morning was spent fixing all the little niggling bits and pieces that surround any big app. Moving bits of code and plugins that do all the heavy lifting in Lightroom and have to be slotted into their correct place by hand. I think most of it is done now. The actual program seems to run a lot faster than the old V6.14 I was using. It should do, this is Lightroom V10 I’m using now!

We did manage to get out for a walk in the late afternoon with only a light shower to dampen our waterproofs. Blustery wind and cold too. This doesn’t feel like May. I was watching an interview with a bird watcher the other day and he was saying that up until recently the seasons were predictable and stayed in their patterns. Now all that seems to have changed and the seasons appear to be more chaotic. He said it’s almost certainly down to Global Warming. He might be right.

Scamp made a lovely dinner tonight with grilled chicken that had been marinaded in ground cumin, ground coriander, chopped coriander and garlic. It was absolutely beautiful. Served with potatoes and roast veg.

PoD came from the walk to St Mo’s in the afternoon. It’s the unfurling crozier of a fern. I was impressed with the quality of it. Nothing to do with me, just a great camera and an excellent lens.

Dancing tonight centred around a Foxtrot. I think we did quite well with it, although Scamp reminded me that we’ve only been doing the easy part so far.

Spoke to JIC later and caught up with how things are down south. It seems that the weather we’ve been having has been pretty much universal. Rain and more rain.

Tomorrow we’re booked to meet Isobel for coffee at Costa.

Driving and meeting old friends – 22 May 2021

Posted on by Zogman

We couldn’t decide what to do today. We did think about going up the east coast to Kirkcaldy, but then thought better of it because today was a Saturday it would be busy. Instead we waited for the postman.

The postman brought a big parcel for Scamp. She already knew it was coming so it was not a big surprise. Inside was a long green box with a recipe and ingredients to make a cake. JIC gave me the present of a bread making subscription for Christmas. It’s been great, encouraging me to bake breads I’d never have tried otherwise. Scamp’s green box contained a similar thing, but for cakes instead. I did think, after I bought it, that it was a bit cheeky, sending a brilliant baker like Scamp a baking kit, but I’m hoping that, like me she’ll discover interesting cakes to bake. Ones she’d never have considered without that little push. Also, hopefully, I get to taste the results!

With the parcel opened and the on-line signing up done we set off for Bishopbriggs to get another USB drive to back up my photos on. It’s part of my complicated back up regime for ‘easy’ retrieval. It always amazes me that every time I go to buy an external drive I can get twice the storage space for the same price I paid for the last one. It’s something akin to Moore’s Law (Google it).

It was at the retail park that we bumped into Mhairi and Robert who used to go to Salsa with us. We spent a good twenty minutes discussing the effect of the pandemic on small businesses like theirs, some good and some bad. Good to speak to folk we hadn’t seen for a long time, years, in fact.

On the way back we stopped at Lidl in Kirkintilloch, hoping to get a bottle of Hortus Gin. Unfortunately they only had the flavoured varieties and I wanted the plain and simple one. What amazed us when we arrived was the queue to get in to the drive-through at McDonalds. Who, in their right mind, would queue to get a hamburger that’s never seen any ham? Maybe the clue is in that phrase “in their right mind”. How many of them have actually tasted real meat? We drove on to Kilsyth where there were ample supplies of Hortus and no Mickey Ds. Obviously much more sophisticated tastes in Kilsyth

Back home we went for a walk in St Mo’s and just managed a glimpse of the new cygnets. They were off with mum and dad to get some food over in the reeds at the far side of the pond. I’m guessing it was their equivalent of a walk to the shops. I hadn’t really managed a decent shot today, so I bolted on the macro lens and photographed the Strawberries and Cream Aquilegia that sits at the front door. Beautiful flower. Instant PoD.

We had a practise of the Cha Cha tonight. Who knew it was so exhausting? Then to cool down we did a couple of Rumbas. Things fell apart and tempers frayed when we tried the waltz with its Stewart’s clumsy addition of a spin where there shouldn’t be one. We agreed to continue on to the Catherine Waltz. Then to save bloodshed we put the living room back into a living room again rather than a dance floor and a war zone!

Yesterday’s sketch has appeared and its title is Spice Jars. I don’t know where it could have been hiding 😉. Today’s prompt was Dice, so today’s sketch is titled Lucky Sixes!

Tomorrow looks wet. Some baking may be done by one or both of us.

Right on time – 20 May 2021

Posted on by Zogman

It was promised for 11am and at 10.50am the first drops fell

Today was dry when I was making breakfast around 8.30am. It was cloudy and it was dull, but it wasn’t raining. I checked my weather app around 10.15 and it was predicting rain at 11am. Later I went out to photograph today’s PoD which is an anemone which is sitting on the back step and when I looked closely there were raindrops on the petals. Two quick shots and that was enough for me. They looked sharp and there wasn’t any reason to hang around. Went out front to collect the empty bins, Thursday being bin day, and when I was coming back in it was definitely raining. I checked my watch and it was 10.50am. Rain arrived right on schedule. Fifteen minutes later it was coming straight down. Glad I got those two shots when I did.

The rain did go off again for a while, but in the afternoon we went to Calder’s garden centre to get a plant Scamp had liked the look of earlier in the week. She didn’t have time to buy it then, but she got it today. When we came out of Calder’s it was raining again. To be fair, all of the foregoing was predicted by the weather fairies yesterday and for once it came true.

That was about the end of our activities for the day, although our electricity went off for almost an hour just before dinner time. We’re in a warning listing with the electricity company and we always get an automated call when something like this happens. They were predicting a two hour delay before it would be connected, but the lights came back on after an hour. Luckily we both had fairly well charged laptops so we could continue to play games and fritter away some time without power, but without internet it was a different story. Scamp was resourceful and used her phone’s hotspot to save off the work she was doing to the cloud. It’s amazingly useful to have a decent phone and a bit bandwidth to do stuff like that nowadays. Who’d have thought twenty years ago that power like that would be at your fingertips.

Strangely I was just about to download the new Lightroom/Photoshop bundle when the outage happened, so it’s not installed yet, in fact it isn’t even downloaded yet. Maybe tomorrow.

Today’s sketch prompt was for a corkscrew. I drew the Waiter’s Friend we keep in the drawer in the kitchen. Probably the best corkscrew I’ve ever used . So simple and easy to use. A true design classic. The problem with classic pieces is that everyone knows what they look like, so your sketch has to be fairly decent. Mine is reasonably accurate, but not exact. It looks like the real article and that’s good enough for me.

Tomorrow we may go shopping to Stirling or Falkirk. We’ll maybe toss a coin.

Off on our travels again – 19 May 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Another beautiful morning. Scamp suggested we do the ascent of Barr Hill or drive to Dunfermline for lunch. I thought if we went to Dunfermline I might get a chance to play with try out my 6 stop ND filter at Torryburn on the way home. That seemed to meet with her approval, so I bundled two cameras in the car (the tripod was already there) and off we went.

Parked at Pittencrieff Park and with the Oly in its old brown bag slung over my shoulder and the tripod left to look after the Sony in the car, we walked over the park. Trees were beautiful carrying a full head of blossom. We walked down past the big glasshouse which was locked as expected due to Covid restrictions and round the formal garden which looked well maintained although hardly any of the flowers were blooming. Just too early in the year for that. Lots of primary kids on activities week running races and having shouting matches in the big empty spaces of the park. Two folk were doing a meditation under a bit tree. I don’t know what kind of tree it was, we weren’t close enough to do an ID, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a Bo tree!

We walked over to the aviary and found one shy peacock that would strut along the outside of the fenced enclosure, take a look at us and hurry back. It did this three or four times. All the peacocks and peahens had names and identity rings on their legs. Two old guys were discussing them as if they were family members or friends they met at the pub. Today’s PoD came from there and was just a lucky shot, catching the bird with that “What you think you’re looking at?” look on its face. We said goodbye to the peacocks and the peahens and headed into town. We went in to Nero and I had the best coffee I’ve tasted (except my own) for about a year or more. After the first wave of the pandemic, Nero started selling coffee in takeaway cardboard cups and seemed determined to fill the cups to the brim, diluting the coffee so much it was undrinkable. Today’s coffee, while not up to my or JIC’s standards was certainly a much more palatable drink than those watery waste of taste cups from last year. Even better, the coffees were served in real cups. Surely a sign that things are returning to normal.

We both wanted to get a cheap Hoodie, just to keep in the car for emergencies. Right next door to Nero was Primark. Less than £20 for two hoodies seemed like a bargain. They’re not top quality, but they will serve the purpose they were bought for. We walked back to the car, not stopping to count the boarded up shops that won’t open again for some time. Some shops that have been in the town for years have now disappeared. That’s sad. Dunfermline was a bit of a ghost town before Covid hit, but not even the ghosts have gone, it seems. Maybe it will rise from the ashes, but it might take some time.

Drove back via Torryburn where I was hoping for high tide, some heavy clouds and a bit wave movement. Unfortunately, the tide was right out, the sun was shining and you couldn’t even see any waves. We didn’t even get out of the car, we just drove home.

Stopped at Tesco to get yet another birthday card (count back 9 months from mid May and that might give a clue to the reason for those births 😉). Scamp got herself a pair of leisure trousers.

Scamp had bought me a tray of Calabrese yesterday, so when we got back I planted a row of them in the raised bed and watered them in. I don’t really think they will need watered, because we’re due some heavy rain tomorrow. I also completed today’s prompt which is “The View From Your Window” That was tough. I’m not totally happy with the result, but it’s finished and it’s uploaded now, so I’ve completed today’s challenge.

Tomorrow, because of the weather forecast, I think we might go for a drive if we’re going out at all. I don’t think a walk will be on the cards.

Another beautiful day – 18 May 2021

Posted on by Zogman

It was another beautiful morning. Too good to stay in bed and even too good for a morning coffee. That kind of good!

Scamp had booked a table for her and Margie for early afternoon, so a walk, not local, but not too far was the request. I thought maybe the walk along the canal to Twechar would probably be too long for today and the short version with the shortcut across the plantation would be too short. Maybe Colzium. It’s a week or so since we’d been there and there were a couple of little waterfalls I wanted to investigate in the park, so there was another bonus. So it was that we drove out through Kilsyth to the once private estate that is now open to the public.

We have worked out a decent route around the park with some short hill climbs and interesting scenery past rushy streams and walks through the woods. Just to make it a bit different I chose a path we hadn’t walked before, not knowing it had a long climb in it. It took us to a bridge over the Colzium Burn. I thought we’d crossed this particular bridge before, but Scamp disagreed and she was right. When we walked down the other side of the burn we came to the bridge I was thinking about. That’s where I got today’s PoD. Again it was Scamp’s observation that brought the heart shape hanging from the tree branch to my attention. I was quite pleased with the composition, positioning the heart against the white of the falls. We walked on down.

We walked down the wide avenue from the ‘Big House’ to the old curling pond. Some of the rhododendrons were in full flower, but most were like our own and just coming into flower. The trees, though, were glowing with colour. Strangely it was autumn colour, but it seemed to work with the green around it. We drove home.

While Scamp went off for lunch with Margie, I started today’s sketch. As usual, some of the prompts are slightly random. Today’s was An Interdental Brush. I decided to be generous and sketched both of mine, one with its holder. It’s amazing how useful these little wire brushes are. My friend, Fred, describes them as miniature toilet brushes. I’ll leave that thought with you!

Next task was a bit of technology (That’s your five minute warning JIC). Lightroom is having problems with the new Mojave OS and it simply won’t run on the new laptop. With that in mind I’m thinking about moving to the new Lightroom/Photoshop package from Adobe that is a subscription system. To do that I need to create a new Adobe account. Now many years ago Adobe was hacked and my email address was one of the ones that was sold off by the hackers. Despite changing my password as soon as I knew, I eventually had to shut down that address. Just in case the same thing happens again, I created a new email address for the new account. For some reason it was simplicity itself to set up on both machines. Maybe Apple are making improvements with these new operating systems. Now that the email works and has been checked, tomorrow I’m ready to sell my soul to Adobe for a Lightroom for the 21st century. (OK, JIC it’s safe to come back.)

When Scamp returned I was putting the finishing touches to the Interdental Brush still life and she pronounced it good enough to post.

Spoke to Fred tonight and we discussed politics, Rangers supporters and how boring life is these days. Then the conversation turned to cars before touching down for a while on painting.

That was about it for today. Tomorrow we’re hoping to get out for another walk, because it may be the last dry day for a while.

First day of Level 2 freedom – 17 May 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Freedom for Scamp and freedom for me.

Scamp was off, with the rest of the witches, to Annette’s new house in Bonnybridge for the first get together since August. I didn’t even have to drive her there, that was James’s job. Once I’d waved her off, her freedom started, and so did mine.

While she was settling in to her Prosecco, I was wandering round Tesco, buying some razors, shampoo, shower gel and also some long life milk to put into the food bank bin. That salved my conscience and used up another of the vouchers we get every month for doing our Covid research test. Half of what we got would go to the foodbank and half we could keep. That was our unwritten rule and we’ve stuck to it fairly well, I think.

Next thing to was to post my next lot of sketches on Facebook. I’d worked out a method that would get pictures and text on the site quite quickly and for some reason, the computer gods were looking down and smiling today because it worked. Two tasks completed.

Next was today’s sketch with the prompt “Your favourite brushes and pencils”. Asking for your favourite brushes or pencils is like asking who your favourite child is. At present my pencil of choice is the Palomino Blackwing soft. The brushes I use most are my Robert Simmons, Saphire 6 and my Daler Rowney Sword. They all sit so neatly on my brush holder, a gift from my thoughtful daughter. That was my task, to get all of them into a sketch, then add colour. The result, you can see here! Three down.

After lunch I took some photos of the American Cowslip (Shooting Star). It flowers every May and once the flowers are past the whole thing disappears, reappearing in the spring with a rosette of green leaves from which the flower spike starts to grow. According to some sites, the plant only lives for about five years. We’ve had it for three years now, so it’s probably in its prime. Let’s hope it lasts more than the five years. Photo taken and processed. PoD selected and number four ticked off.

In between all these tasks, I listened to more of The Reluctant Assassin, had my lunch and generally lounged about doing nothing. It was great fun.

I was just finishing off the painting when I got a text requesting a taxi to Bonnybridge. Took the shortest route which took the longest time because the schools were coming out and that meant all the local roads turned into carparks. Despite that, I arrived at the house on time, and at the same time as Jim, one of the other witches’ husband. We found the four witches and a very acrobatic dog in the summer house in the back garden. We weren’t even offered any of the cakes or sandwiches that were on display. Maybe they were for decoration only!

Back home the long way that was quicker, much quicker than the route I’d taken to go there. It seems that Scamp also had a good time. Lots of catching up done and plans made for the future. Maybe we both need our freedom days.

Tomorrow Scamp is out in the afternoon again, this time to take Margie to tea at Calders. I’ll find something to do, I’m sure.

 

 

A walk in the woods again – 16 May 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Out before I’d even had my morning coffee.

The weather looked good and it wasn’t forecast to last, so we got up and went for a walk round Broadwood. Scamp suggested the walk because on good weekends like this one, you have to be out really early to get a parking place that allows a walk along the canal, her first preference. Even at 10.30am we would have been too late. So it was the second choice which was the extended walk round Broadwood Loch.

Unfortunately we didn’t see any deer down for a morning drink at the wee pond, but we did enjoy a walk in the warm sunshine through the pines. The path was a bit muddy in places, but we were both well shod and the water and mud weren’t too deep. No cormorants on the island because the swans seem to have taken control of their island again and Mrs Swan was sitting on her nest. As is our wont, we walked clockwise while everyone else in the world seemed to want to walk counter-clockwise. That just shows how little they know.

Back home for lunch and after watching the belligerent Andrew Marr terrorising Matt Hancock we chose different paths for the afternoon. I was cooking stew for my dinner then going for a walk to the shops to get potatoes and veg for tonight’s dinner. Scamp was itching to get the front grass cut. We both achieved our stated goals. The grass was cut and the veg was bought. With the hard work done, we settled in the garden with a beer each. Scamp was reading and I was listening to a book being read to me, The Reluctant Assassin by Eoin Colfer. I’m getting the hang of this Audible malarkey. It’s really quite good having a book read to you.

A glass of wine with dinner which was Scallops, mixed veg and potatoes for Scamp. Replace the scallops with Stew and you have my dinner. Scallops were deemed “nice, but not worth the money” and my take on the Lidl stew was “get it from a butcher next time”.

Dancing tonight was a bit of a shambles for us. Both of us made mistakes but both of us also managed to dance a whole routine without too many errors. Not our finest hour, but not our worst either.

Spoke to JIC and heard that he’s actually going to have to go in to work next week. That will be a change for him I’m sure. I’m not all that sure that working from home is the way to go. It’s much better if you can separate the two. That way the work is less likely to be carried into your home time. Believe me, I know, I’ve done it.

PoD is one of Scamp’s Allium flowers just about to burst out of its protective sheath. Sketch today asked for a crumpled piece of paper and that’s what I drew.

Tomorrow Scamp and her witch friends are meeting up for the first time since August 2020 at Annette’s. I’m the driver who’s bringing them back in the afternoon. That’s the plan anyway. Things may change, of course.

And the answer was …! – 15 May 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Beecraigs Park

Scamp was in agreement and off we drove to Linlithgow where we climbed (in the car) up a never-ending hill with speed bumps every 50m or less for an astounding 1,030m. If you do the division, you will discover that’s a helluva lot of speed bumps. Probably quite useful for boy racers coming down that hill, especially at night. However for me going up it was literally a pain in the bum. Eventually we drove into a mono-blocked and grassed parking place. Neither of us remembered this. We walked through and down to the Information Centre which I thought I remembered, but then realised it was much newer that it looked at first glance. Great panorama from the viewing gallery down to Linlithgow itself and across the Forth to Fife. This wasn’t the Beecraigs we remembered.

We walked down the road past the new caravan park and found the entrance to the park proper. This was more like it. What looked like a pedestrian bridge reminiscent of the old walkways over the lines at railway stations took us over the deer fence and on to the wide paths between the fields. The bridge, too, gave great views over the Forth, but where were the deer. There were cattle in the park where the deer used to roam. We found the deer further down the path, just hind, although the sign said there were stags in the field. If there were any the were cunningly disguised as hinds. We walked on.

Further along the path we came to the Loch. At least that hadn’t changed significantly, although because of Covid restrictions the two man rowing boats for fishing the loch were securely locked up in a pound. I suppose it’s hard to keep a two metre distance in a wee rowing boat. The geese and their goslings didn’t seem too bothered with the two meter rule.  They were too busy teaching the youngsters to swim and to feed properly.  It was good walking the paths through the enormous pine trees round the loch. They do say the air blowing through pines is good for your respiration. Our biggest disappointment in this new, ecologically friendly and Health & Safety conscious park was the children’s adventure playground. What had been an enormous pyramid constructed from ropes and bungee cords was now a shadow of its former self. I don’t know if you remember it JIC, but I don’t think you’d have felt a daredevil climbing that. With that said, lots of weans were screaming and shouting as they found their own adventures in this playground.

We eventually found our way back to the car and drove home down that steep hill with its uncountable speed bumps. We agreed we’d go back again. PoD turned out to be a goose standing proud in the loch. It seemed almost prehistoric to me.  I can’t explain why.  It was a close run thing between that and a monochrome shot across the Forth with the bridges on the right. It’ll be on Flickr as soon as I can get it loaded.

Dinner tonight came courtesy of Golden Bowl. Scamp had her usual Chicken Chop Suey and Fried Rice. I had Sweet and Sour Chicken Balls. Maybe my last one because the sweetness was just too much for me and I felt a bit ill afterwards. Chicken Chow Mein in future.

Short practise of the Cha-Cha tonight, mainly because we got the video of it today. Sketch topic was Medicines and my two bottles and a tube are here for your perusal. Glad you liked yesterday’s socks Hazy and recognised both your handiwork and also your repair!

Tomorrow, if the weather allows, we may go for a walk.

Socks and a hot curry – 14 May 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was off on a walk with Veronica and I was starting today’s painting early.

Scamp was booked for a walk with Veronica. Just a walk round Broadwood Loch. I was staying at home, hoping to get today’s sketch started early. Started, yes, finished, no. Today’s topic was A Pile of Socks. Not something I’d have chosen, but that’s what’s interesting about working your way through someone else’s list of topics. You don’t get the chance to draw and paint the easy stuff, you just do the best you can with what you’re offered. Sometimes it takes lateral thinking, sometimes there’s no way out, you just have to do it. I had a pile of socks to put away, so I used them as my starting point. Pencil sketch to start with, then some watercolour. That didn’t look quite right, so I added some watercolour pencil to it. That was better, but it still needed more. When Scamp came home from her walk, she suggested I add one of her socks to the mix. It couldn’t do any harm, so I added the yellow sock to the pile, partly tucked under another two. Yes, that altered the composition in a good way. You might recognise a bit of darning and Scamp’s sock, Hazy! I left it for a while and we had lunch.

Wednesday’s Challah bread was being cut down fast, but we both knew it wouldn’t stay fresh for much longer. The recipe that came with the ingredients said that the bread made great French Toast. That’s what we had for lunch. It was good, but the eggy mix didn’t really add anything to the bread. Also you expect French Toast to be savoury, but the bread is naturally sweet, so the tastes don’t really marry up.

After lunch and after hearing that Glasgow was likely to remain in Level 3 with rising cases of the Indian Variant, when almost the rest of Scotland would go to Level 2 on Monday, we rethought our plans for tomorrow. We’d considered going for a walk down Glasgow Green, but maybe that wouldn’t be such a good idea now. We decided we’d go for a walk today at least because the weather was pleasantly mild and we’d leave tomorrow until tomorrow. We walked round St Mo’s, twice round the pond. On the second circuit I was photographing a fly on a Marsh Marigold when I noticed on a flower nearby just the hint of a spider’s front legs. Sure enough, there was a spider dangling from one of the petals. I assume it was waiting for some unsuspecting fly to drop in for lunch, the spider’s lunch. The flies must all have seen this trick before, because they kept a good distance away from the secret spider which became PoD.

Back home we were planning our dinner and Scamp suggested a curry mix. We’d bought a Biryani kit the last time we were in Waitrose and that’s what we made. It was supposed to be a “Two Chilli” curry. I think the printer must have missed out the “Twenty” before the “Two”. Boy, it was hot. It was tasty too, but you’d have to take it down a few notches before you noticed the taste. Thank goodness for a tub of yoghurt to cool our mouths down.

It was now time to decide if the socks stayed as sketch of the day or if they were replaced with something better. I decided they stayed, dated and signed the sketch and we were done.

Tomorrow we may go for a walk somewhere that’s not running scared from the Indian Variant. I have an idea, but you’ll need to wait until tomorrow to find out where!