Category: Ice

A stitch in time – 13 December 2022

Posted on by Zogman

The weather was foggy today, really foggy. It didn’t look as if we’d be going very far.

With that in mind, and the fact that my warm walking trousers badly need washed, I thought I should maybe stitch up my other pair that have been living in the back bedroom waiting for the sewing machine to come out. Today would be that day.

Actually it didn’t take too long to take a couple of inches off the legs and stitch it back up again. I’d done it before with the pair that are now drying over the banister after Scamp washed them. That first time needed a lot of planning because these are posh walking trousers with a liner. Thankfully I remembered most of the steps and just copied them this time, but without the swearing.

Partly to test the new trousers and partly to get some etherial photos in what turned out to be freezing fog I wore them when I went for a walk in St Mo’s. It was COLD, really cold -7.3ºc when we woke. There was a slight dampness in the air and I was wondering if we were going to get snow, but the sky cleared a bit and the dampness in the air receded. I think it was the dampness that helped create the Rime Ice on, well, just about everything. In fact I think I had some in my beard for a while. It’s ice crystals that grow in the shape of sharp needles, but are really fragile. Strange things you see in freezing fog. It was a picture of some cow parsley seeds covered in rime ice that got PoD today. It was strange how that fog seemed to draw all the colour out of everything.

Eventually I felt I’d taken enough fog and ice pictures to satisfy me and I turned for home. On the way I was thinking if I’d have tea or coffee when I reached the house, then I decided it would be cocoa instead. It’s ages since I had a cup of cocoa and it was just the right thing to warm me up today. Another thing, or things, that heated me up today were my Scarpa boots and a pair of Hazy’s knitted sox, purple and blue striped ones, H. Great boot sox, and no, that’s not a plea for another pair. I have plenty.

Dinner tonight was more minestrone soup and Macaroni ’n’ Cheese with both tomato and brown sauce. Quite, quite excellent.

We’d hoped to be making dinner for John and Marion on Friday, but I phoned John this afternoon to say that with the weather showing no signs of improving, we’d not be surprised if they chose to reschedule. John seemed relieved and he has a really heavy cold, so the ladies of the house will consult their diaries and a new date will be chosen.

Tomorrow we may be visiting Margie to hear more of her stories and find out what she’s been up to. It’s quite a while since we’ve seen her. Then we have a Tesco delivery booked for later.

The day the tree went up – 12 December 2022

Posted on by Zogman

The usual Monday morning struggle to get a Wordle and a Spelling Bee answer. Still looking for that seven letter Spelling Bee word!

It had been a cold night last night, -6.3ºc according to our weather machine. Maybe it is time to change the 1TOG duvet for something a little thicker and warmer.

I’d half intended to go shopping in Waitrose in Stirling, but after defrosting the car and driving cautiously down a road that was sparkling with ice, we both agreed that we’d make do with Tesco in Cumbersheugh today instead. As well as that, Scamp booked a delivery for Wednesday evening, just in case.

When we got back from Tesco I decided to keep my boots on and take the big Sony out for a walk in St Mo’s to see if there was any chance of some frost photos. Bright sunshine today and yes, lots of frost on everything. I took a walk over the woods to the wee pond beside the motorway because I was sure I’d find some little frost trees and sure enough there were a few. Not as many as I’d hoped, but enough to photograph. It’s still scary putting an expensive camera on to the ice and pressing the shutter button, listening all the time for creaking noises from the ice. I needn’t have worried about it, the ice was really thick today. On the way back home to a couple of rolls ’n’ square sausage I found some more little frost trees on the verges of the big pond, and of course I took some pictures. Happy with the shots I headed for those rolls.

Back home and after lunch and a bit of post-processing I climbed the ladder into the chilly loft to retrieve the Christmas Tree, two bags of decorations and two boxes of the more fragile decorations. Inside one of the bags was the sweetie tin that holds the lights and that all important letter. When Scamp opened the envelope and read the letter, she handed it to me. I’d almost forgotten about this important epistle. So many questions, so many plans. Some came to fruition, some we’ll return to, hopefully. The tree is now up and decorated while Joni Mitchell sang about “putting up reindeer and singing songs of joy and peace”. It’s traditional, and that’s what Christmas is all about.

Later in the afternoon I made Minestrone soup. Just loads of different veg, a tin of tomatoes, a tin of beans, salt, pepper and almost a litre of water. No stock cubes, all that veg makes is own stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for an hour. Add a handful of smashed up pasta later and simmer for another 15 mins. It’s really more like a veg stew. Came from a book we bought just after we got married. It was published in 1978.

PoD went to one of those little frost trees and a cold heart made second place.

No real plans for tomorrow, but a parcel may come and be instantly ‘disappeared’. Schrödinger’s parcel, Hazy! 😉

 

Not driving today – 11 December 2022

Posted on by Zogman

The wee car got a rest today.

Scamp was the only one braving the icy weather because she was off to Glasgow for lunch and then a concert at the Royal Concert Hall. Me? I was to stay at home waiting for a parcel that would be arriving some time before 10pm. Amazon are really good at giving you a time slot for their deliveries, but it would be good if the time slot was a bit narrower! At least it gave me an excuse to stay in the warm.

I did actually go out for a while, but only the back garden to get something to put in Flickr. That something turned out to be a photo of a Christmas Rose. If you look closely, you’ll see that it has a frozen water drop hanging from it.  It got PoD. Another photo that was competing for first place was one of a strawberry flower that never quite managed to turn into fruit, but I liked it anyway. It’s on Flickr.

The parcel eventually arrived just after 4pm, by which time the sun had set and the temperature was dropping away. I was glad I’d taken the opportunity to get those flower photos in the garden.

Scamp sent a text to say that she was on the 6.05pm bus and after shuffling around the different bus time tables, I was pretty certain that it was due to arrive in Cumbersheugh about 6.40, so I got wrapped up and put my boots on, then went out to meet her because the paths were treacherous with only a few of them being gritted. As I was walking through the estate I saw something running up the road that crossed my path. At first I though it was a ginger cat, then realised cats don’t have that shape of muzzle. It was a fox. Not a big one, but it was loping along at a fair lick. Who would be a fox in this weather. My calculations were correct. I met Scamp at the bus stop but while I was waiting I grabbed a quick, almost abstract photo with my phone. It was a security light casting a shadow of some weeds onto the new perspex bus shelter. It will need some work to make it useable, but it might appear on Flickr once I’ve fixed it. We took our time to walk back along the path. My boots are great for keeping your feet dry, but they’re not much good on ice. I should have worn my YakTrax. It’s that time of year.

I’d already decided that my dinner tonight was going to be from the freezer and it was a portion of Carrot and Lentil Curry. Scamp wasn’t impressed because I think she was going to have it for her lunch this week!

Spoke to Jamie and heard about Simonne’s third bout of Covid, yes THIRD!  Poor woman must be fed up looking at test kits and wondering what she did to deserve this.  Jamie was having a hard time at work too.  Trying to disguise the annual Secret Santa from visiting American dignitaries.  Even worse is the prospect of having to work in the days between Christmas and New Year.  However, being Jamie, he always manages to smile about it.

I might get out tomorrow for some frost photos because otherwise we’ve a free day. Maybe we’ll go for some messages too.

 

The Early Bird – 9 December 2022

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Scamp was off to her FitSteps class and I was out too.

It was early for me at just after 11am, but the sun was shining and so was the frost that coated everything, in fact it was sparkling. I went for a walk over to St Mo’s and realised I should have brought the macro lens to capture some of the ice crystals that were covering the reeds beside the boardwalk. But it was cold. Definitely below zero and if I went back to get the lens, I’d be even colder by the time I got back to the business of actually taking photos. I soldiered on using the kit lens and the 18mm ultra wide. One of the first shots I took got PoD. It’s just a backlit bramble leaf with the sun sitting just above the tree tops.

I wandered on, but nothing I shot was as good as that first photo and so I made my way back. The poor swan, the geese and the ducks were restricted to swimming a circle of open water surrounded by ice. I didn’t envy their day on the pond.

I walked home and got a few more shots looking up the lane at the edge of the woods. I knew if I had someone in the frame to give me a composition of sorts, I could deal with the lighting later in the computer. And so it was that one a bloke was walking home from the shops and he became the second shot to be posted on Flickr. Two in the bag. All that was left to do was post them.

We had soup for lunch when Scamp came home, not happy that I’d forgotten to buy a fresh loaf. Later we walked over to Condorrat to post some cards and buy some stamps. I don’t know why we buy stamps these days. There are so few days when Royal Mail are actually working. It’s beginning to look like a general strike with the postal workers, the train drivers, the teachers, the English and Welsh nurses and now Border Force taking industrial action.

Anyway, as well as stamps and finally, bread, Scamp also treated us to a Fudge Donut each from the Spar shop. They were delicious. None of your ‘real cream’ in the donut, no it was 100% synthetic. It tasted like the cream I was sent up to Frames for when we lived in Larky. You got it in a cardboard tub with a paper top and it tasted great. We got it when my mum was baking cakes because my Aunt Mary was visiting. Happy days.

Dinner tonight was baked potato with tuna for Scamp and for me it was the bolognese sauce I made earlier in the week, defrosted and reheated with pappardelle. A bit dry, but perfectly edible.  Later we ordered some presents from Santa, but arriving from Amazon for good boys and girls.  Present company excepted!

Tomorrow we’re intending going to dance class in the morning and then to the Christmas dance in the evening. That is, if the weather holds.

Coffee with Isobel – 7 December 2022

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We were out this cold morning (-0.4ºc) for coffee with Isobel. Always an entertainment. Straight talking, never bothered who hears her and straight to the point. She never changes and that’s what’s so great about her. She and Scamp had a long conversation about her extended family and I listened because there wasn’t much chance of getting a word in edgewise. When the two of them had finished their discussions we dropped Isobel back at her house and then came home via Tesco.

After lunch which was a bowl of Scamp’s rather delicious lentil soup, I dragged my boots on and went over to St Mo’s with the A6000 and a couple of lenses. Again I was just that half an hour too late to capture the trees lit by the setting sun. One of these days I’ll get it right. However I did get a shot of a duck feather sitting on the ice with tiny little frozen water drops hanging from it. That became PoD. The contender for the accolade was a low down photo of a single dandelion with its seed head closed, waiting for a blustery day to release those seeds to the vagaries of the wind. It’s on Flickr if you care to look.

Dinner tonight was paella which I haven’t made for ages. It tasted good, so good in fact that we ate the whole lot. I’d hoped to keep some of the rice to make more arancini tomorrow, or next day.

We watched the Portrait Artist winner for this year painting her portrait of Lenny Henry. I wasn’t impressed with her, or the painting, but I was impressed with him. I hadn’t realised he’d worked to get a PhD. What impressed me most about his was his quiet manner. No longer the noisy shouting comic, but a man who looked comfortable in his skin. We both agreed that the portrait didn’t look like him, and isn’t that what portraits are all about? Nice perspective and control of things like foreshortening, but there was only a fleeting likeness of him in the face. Disappointing.

Tomorrow I’m heading in to Glasgow to take some photos with Alex and hopefully to have a pizza for lunch.

 

We went for a walk – 11 February 2022

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Today turned out a lot brighter than we expected, but cold at -3º when woke. There was no sense in wasting a dry and sunny day, so it was boots on and out!

Since it’s just a week to go until the op, Scamp had discarded her lenses and was wearing the dreaded glasses. She decided she’d like to go for a walk somewhere different. I suggested Mugdock and that’s where we went, by the long road, the wrong road. Well, it’s been a while since we last drove there and it was a nice, clear, cold day, so a bit of sight seeing just added to the outdoor experience. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Finally, we got there and got parked quite easily. We walked round the castle and the loch and then back to the car. That sounds like a poor walk, but we covered about 10,000 steps, so it was a fairly decent ramble across boardwalks, muddy paths, frozen paths. The loch was still frozen when we got to it with the mallards sitting on the ice wondering what was happening.

When we arrived back at the centre, we had a roll ’n’ egg for Scamp and a roll ’n’ sausage for me. To wash it down we had what they called a Flat White each, but as Scamp said, you were unlikely to overdose on caffein after drinking it. It was more like a Babyccino! It went in the bin and we went to look for seed compost in the nearby Calder’s garden centre. We couldn’t find any so we drove to Dobbies and got a bag of the stuff there. From there it was the long drag home.

Dinner tonight was Sweet Potato Soup and then Pizza. Watching yesterday’s Apprentice where Scamp’s least favourite competitor was sacked. I too was delighted.

PoD was a shot taken up the main avenue of the estate among the high pines.

The prompt for today was Moon River, so this may need some explanation.
Moon River left me very little wriggle room, apart from painting a moody shot of a moon reflected in a river, and I have no idea what a ‘Huckleberry Friend’ is. Almost a fortnight ago I showed the prompt to one of my wife’s friends who immediately said Breakfast at Tiffany’s and my wife agreed. The only Breakfast at Tiffany’s I’d heard of was a song by Deep Blue Something, but I guessed that wasn’t what the ladies were talking about. Sooooo, I kind of turned it on its head and sketched a breakfast of sorts in a little cafe called Tiff & Ann’s. That’s what you see here. I added the blue box because apparently that’s what Tiffany’s is famed for, that and eye watering prices. I never like to make things too easy to understand. A big thank you to Sheila and Margie without whom I’d have painted a moon and a river and Huckleberry Hound!!

Tomorrow looks like rain, in fact the weather is practising for it tonight. We may go out if we can manage to get a dry spell.

 

The Smiddy – 20 January 2022

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Out to lunch today.

Drove over to The Smiddy at Blair Drummond because it was a lovely spring-like January day and because the food is generally good and not too expensive. Great scenery too looking across the carse to the hills in the distance. I’m sure I’ve said all this before, but it bears repeating. The management of diners is improving because, while you still can’t book a table, you do get given a buzzer now when you arrive. This is a good ploy on their part, because it allows you to wander round the shop that is joined on to the cafe. While the cafe food is reasonably priced, the articles on sale in the shop range from expensive to exorbitant. Bottles of beer in the shop are more than twice the price of the same in Tesco. Lady’s masks, very prettily embroidered, are about £13 each. I though £15 was expensive for three reusable ones in Boots. Now I’m recalibrating.

We did have to wait a bit more than the ten minutes we were told when we entered, but we did get a table today! Service was slow. I had a home made beef burger that came with warm (ie, not hot) chips and the usual salad. Scamp had a Mac ’n’ Cheese also with those, just warm, chips. I don’t think they were deep fried chips, more oven baked, but they looked hand cut rather than reconstituted. But service was slow. I was glad that Scamp suggested we have coffee after we’d had our lunch. Coffee arrived without a spoon. It’s little things like that, that make you question whether you will rush back again. Yes, I realise it’s mid week and yes, I realise it was lunchtime, so it was busy, but if you want people to keep coming back you have to be on the ball these days.

I did take a couple of rushed shots while we were there, but the light was gone by then and it was my own fault for not taking them before we went in. Maybe next time, if there is a next time.

Back home after stopping at Lakeland/Sainsburys on the way for the makings of tomorrow’s pudding, I decided there was just enough light to get an hour in St Mo’s to bolster my collection from The Smiddy. It had been freezing during the night and the ponds were still frozen even late into the afternoon. I tested the ice on the wee pond and deemed it strong enough to hold the weight of the Sony with kit lens. It held, just, although there was a skin of water on top of the ice, so I was ready to whip it up and out of harm’s way at the first sound of cracking. As it turned out, the shot didn’t make the cut and PoD is a photo taken standing, with both hands on the camera, of the wee frozen pond.

WiFi disappeared tonight again at almost the same time it did yesterday. This time I phoned to complain and hopefully get an explanation. I got a sort of explanation that it’s an on-going repair. ‘They’ thought they had fixed it yesterday, but then found that the repair had failed today, so ‘they’ were working on it again tonight. I don’t know who the mysterious ‘they’ are and why they are only allowed to work at night. Maybe ‘they’ are nocturnal. Maybe Virgin are employing vampires who can’t work in daylight. That might be the case, because they are bleeding us dry for a service that’s not up to standard. The WiFi came back after a couple of hours, but the member of the Help Team I spoke to said it might happen again tomorrow until they find a solution.

So, I’d better get this posted in case it all goes a bit tricky again! Working tomorrow making dinner for Crawford & Nancy. Soup’s made tonight. Pudding is almost finished, but still lots to do tomorrow.

Oh Burger! – 9 January 2022

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It was a day for getting your hands dirty.

I’d bought 500g of steak mince on Friday and had already made a mince pie with half of it. The other half was destined to languish in the freezer until it was old and grey, or be made into burgers today. That rhymed, but it was an accident! Better a burger than an old grey mince ball.

I put the mince into a bowl, and since it was fresh meat, I thought it deserved fresh herbs, so I ventured into the swamp that is the back garden and cut and chopped some Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. If I’d thought about it I’d have added some Parsley for obvious reasons. Added an egg to bind it (that could be a canticle line, couldn’t it) and some salt and pepper. Then it was time to get my hands dirty and massage the whole thing into a not too sticky ball that was cut into two then the balls were flattened to make rough burger shapes. One did go in the freezer, but it won’t last long in there, the other went into the fridge to chill.

Lunch time beckoned and it was an omelette for me and a slice of black pudding with some fried potatoes on the side. Was I really going to have room for dinner tonight, I asked myself? Yes, of course I would, just as long as I didn’t eat all of the omelette. For once I took my own advice. We watched and criticised the new Sunday morning politics show that’s being fronted by Sophie Raworth. Too many interruptions said Scamp.

I was just finishing off an epistle to Alex when I looked out the back window and saw a rainbow spread across the sky where there had only been grey clouds when I had started. Even better, there was sunshine too. Closed the laptop, (sorry Alex) and put on my boots and jacket and lugged a Sony A7 across to St Mo’s. Found some swans swimming in a vague line along the side of the pond and thought that might be PoD. Then I took the camera up to the small pond which was covered in ice and the ice was covered in water. I took a £1000+ camera and lens. Placed them gingerly on the wet ice of a pond. Gently pressed the shutter button. Didn’t breathe, but with my heart in my mouth whipped the camera away before the ice changed its mind. One look at the camera screen convinced me that I’d a PoD.

Walked home where I finished the email to Alex and gave him the first look at the PoD. Then it was time to cook the burger. Almost 15 minutes, 7min and a bit on each side then a resting time of about 10min while we had thin Sourdough toast and paté as a starter. Scamp had Roasted Cauliflower with Roasted Baby Tomatoes and I had a Handmade Burger with potatoes. Pudding was a Christmas Pudding with Posh Madagascar Custard. Actually, the Christmas Pudding and Posh Custard was the winner for both of us.

We rested for a while after that and coffee, then spoke to Jamie and found out about Fences, Water Softeners and Gardiners.

Finally finished the Hidden Palace, Hazel. Beautifully written book. I think I now need to read book 1 again to remind myself how all this came to pass. I do hope there is a book 3.

Tomorrow we may go out for a spin. I need to put some expensive alcohol in the Blue Car’s tank. I think Vodka would be cheaper than petrol, these days. <Thinks, can you run a petrol car on vodka?>

Johnny Frosty – 4 January 2022

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Some folk have Jack Frost, but my mum always called him Johnny Frosty, pronounced “Joanny Froasty”

Joanny Froasty definitely was about this morning. He’d been up early to cover the cars with a crisp white coating. The temperature was still sub-zero when Scamp went to make breakfast. It was her turn. We chose not to rush to get up because it was warm in bed and we both had good books to read. Let those who wanted to go to work, go. We’d stay and mind the house.

We did eventually get up and since it was such a lovely crisp morning, I suggested a walk. Maybe just a short one around St Mo’s pond. Scamp wasn’t sure. She’s not too keen on walking when it’s icy and we were pretty sure it was going to be icy. It was. We had to walk on the grass most of the way over to the park and then again on the grass until we were up the hill and under the cover of the trees where there isn’t ever much standing water to turn into ice. The rest of the fairly recently laid tarmac was an ice rink. A sloping ice rink that threatened to slide you down into the pond itself. Luckily the grass was still boggy and gave a better grip. Next time, if it’s still icy, we’ll dig out the Yak Trax. I was just reading last years blog yesterday about how we could crunch across the icy paths with these steel shod feet. What clever folk Mr Yak and Mrs Trax were.

I took some photos as we walked round the pond and they looked good on the camera screen, so I was content to limit our walk to just the one circuit. Scamp agreed and we walked back, sticking to the grass where we could.

After lunch it was time to take down the decorations, the cards and the tree. Now they are all bagged and boxed and waiting for me to put them in the loft until next year. The place did look a bit bare, but not for long.

I wasn’t impressed with the photos taken in St Mo’s once I’d downloaded them from the camera and decided there was just enough time to grab some more before the sun set. It was much colder than when we had our walk this morning. The sun was low now and not nearly as warming as it had been, however I did get some shots I liked and was heading home when I saw three different skeins of geese all travelling west. Probably heading for a grassy field not far away which seems to support many groups of geese on their journey south. It’s great to watch these flights of birds and even better to listen to them calling to each other. I often wonder what they are saying. But the cold was beginning to bite now and I headed home.

These photos were much better and I actually got three good enough to go on Flickr. My favourite, and PoD was the one you see here of the weed with the ice melt forming balls of water, with setting sun behind them.

My next task was to find out how much MPB would give me for my hardly used Oly E-M1 Mk2. The good thing about selling through them is that you get an instant quote, based on your estimated condition for the camera. I was happy with the quoted price and downloaded the form which never prints properly the first time. I finally got it printed, filled in and signed. Then I had to find all the bits and pieces that had to go in the box along with the camera. With it all boxed up it was time for dinner. Scamp was making a J&S speciality, Bacon and Borlotti Beans. Great recipe, beautifully cooked.

Last thing to do was to wrap up the parcel to be uplifted by DPD tomorrow. I was a wee bit sad to be sending that lovely camera away, but I hadn’t used it for months and it seemed a shame to just have it sitting there when I could get some money from it. Of course I have a way for that money to go!

Tomorrow I’d like to get some photo paper and we need a wall calendar too. Scamp has volunteered to wait in for the parcel.

Snow management – 11 February 2021

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Another day removing the snow from the paths and from the cars.

Scamp started the effort by brushing the snow from the roof of her car. Then while I got rid of the rest of the snow on mine and ran the engine for a while to get rid of the condensation that gathers on all the glass surfaces, Scamp started to get rid of the snow that had accumulated on the path in to our house and the next door neighbour’s. Most of it was wind blown snow, but a small amount was fresh snow. When she was finished and the car was dry inside, I used up almost all of our remaining white salt to make sure the path stayed clear of snow and hopefully of ice.

After lunch we went for a walk down to the shops, more for the exercise than for any great shopping expedition. I think we bought more food for the birds than for ourselves. The plan was for Scamp to walk back with the bags and I would go for a walk in St Mo’s. I changed it slightly to walk up the path behind St Mo’s school and along a path that I’ve walked many times, but today I was wearing wellies and I could just wade through the areas that I usually have to avoid because they’re too deep for my leaky boots. It was like a whole new landscape with hardly any landmarks because everything was covered in a white duvet of snow.

Went for a walk in St Mo’s and followed some deer tracks for a while, but never saw the maker of the tracks. The tracks looked fresh, but either they were hiding somewhere or were just over the next hill, or the next one again. PoD was a whin bush covered in a shiny ice crown. Shot into the sun it really sparkled. Everything else I took was just a cliché snow picture.

By the time I was coming home it was chilling down again and the temperature when I got to the house was -0.5ºc and it felt about a degree below that. We had bought some fat balls for the birds, so I put three of them on a tray in the back garden. An hour later they were all gone. I suspect it may have been a big black crow or a magpie that was the culprit. Even a flock of starlings wouldn’t devour three fat balls that quickly.

Yesterday’s sketch, posted today was the beach at Pigeon Point in Tobago. If you’re going to draw and paint a beach, make it a peach of a beach. Pigeon Point fits the bill.

Today’s sketch is a strange one. The prompt was ‘Draw’. What I drew was my right hand holding a graphite stick. If my right hand was the model, then my left hand was the one that drew the sketch. It’s harder than you think drawing with your left hand. Even knowing exactly where you want the lines to go, doesn’t mean that your muscle control will ensure it goes where you intended. A worthwhile exercise.

Tomorrow I might manage to get my car out for a drive. Today I got it to move, but not far. Scamp may have to wait until the mountain that’s in front of her’s has melted away a bit before she is mobile again. Other than that, it’s wait and see what the weather brings us.