Category: insects

A day among the beasties – 22 August 2023

Posted on by Zogman

The beasties in question were damselflies, dragonflies, butterflies and a single little caterpillar with a face that only its mother would love!

In the morning we did little except Wordle and Spelling Bee. Then Hazy phoned and we had a good half hour chat about the Wales holiday with the Welsh side of the family. Pity the house wasn’t quite up to the Cumbrian one, but you always have to take estate agent’s descriptions and photos with a pinch of salt. Glad that everyone took their turn at cooking, and it’s alway good when everyone sits down to a meal together.

Lunchtime arrived much quicker than I expected and after we were fed and watered, we walked down to the shops to get some messages. It was on the way back home that I thought I might just manage to get some more butterfly or dragonfly photos in St Mo’s

So on with the boots and out I went to see what I would find today. It was actually quite warm in the sun and I made the right decision for once and left my raincoat at home and wore a hoodie instead. There were hosts of dragonflies about, but they were too busy dive bombing each other and flying dogfights among the rushes. Mostly they were common darters, with the males outnumbering the females about 2:1. I gave them up as a subject for today. The days are getting shorter as we move into the last quarter of August, so the dragonflies had other things on their mind.

I did find a couple of peacock butterflies sunning themselves on the flowers, but they were too far into the bushes and I knew they’d fly off as soon as they saw me coming. Also, it’s prime tick weather just now and I don’t want any more of these black devils on me. Neither them nor the inevitable clegs which you may know as horse flies. So, no butterflies either. I was busy photographing two hoverflies on a lovely pink knapweed when a common blue damsels dropped in and sat quite comfortably watching me at work before it too became a subject. I kept expecting it to fly off, but it seemed happy and obviously saw that I wasn’t a danger to it. With a couple of dozen photos taken, I headed for home for dinner which was cauliflower and potatoes with a cheese sauce.

It wasn’t until I was processing the photos that I noticed the cheeky green insect (don’t know what it was) poking its head up from the knapweed flower. Photobombed by a tiny green insect. That shot became PoD!

A quick practise tonight of Joy’s Waltz, especially the Outside Spin. Then a run through for Scamp of the new Cross Basic in the cha-cha which is really just another of Jane’s add-ons that are designed to look elegant, but cause a lot of grief! Most of the problems were ironed out … eventually.

I’m planning on meeting Alex from the train tomorrow and we’re heading to Auchinstarry to get some photos of the barges at the marina.  Scamp might be having coffee with Isobel.

Happy Birthday Jamie – 16 August 2023

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Hope you had a good day.

We didn’t do very much this morning. Yesterday was a bit of a buzz. Scamp was out in the morning and in the afternoon. I was out in the morning then spread my 10,000 odd steps all over the west end before I brought the street legal blue car back. Today was different. We weren’t sure what the weather was going to do, and neither was the weather. Eventually we settled on lunch in a new restaurant that seemed as if it was in the middle of a building site.

We got a seat next to the loudest woman in the place. She had finished her main course by the time we arrived and was just starting into what looked like a 15cm x 15cm x 15cm brick of Sticky Toffee Pudding with custard. All she seemed to do was stuff her face with the chocolate coated pudding while she FaceTimed with someone on her phone. Eventually she decided she had to leave NOW and got up and left, leaving most of the dark brown brick untouched Suddenly the restaurant was a much quieter place.

The food was good, but not exceptional. I had a double gammon steak with egg, pineapple and chips. Steaks were small, so they ended up being the same size as a normal one. Scamp had fish ’n’ chips one of her standard tests for a new restaurant. The food was fine for a cheap lunch. We agreed we’d probably go back, but maybe to the carvery next time.

Drove home via Lidl where I wanted a cob loaf and between us added more to the basket than we really wanted, or needed, but Lidl’s like that. You see things in there you haven’t seen for ages.

About a month ago I scraped the rear wing of the car when I was parking. Today I wondered if the old trick of using Brasso to spread the top coat over the scratch would still work. The answer is it works a treat. Brasso is a very fine abrasive and if you rub it on to the affected area it heats up and the paint skin melts into the scrape. Allegedly toothpaste does the same thing.

I took the A7 out for a walk in the afternoon while Scamp was reading. For the first time in ages I got lots of photos. I’d actually taken some in the morning. The Shooting Stars that had flowered so well in May were now spreading their tiny seeds anywhere they could find some damp earth and the seed pods were almost empty, but very photogenic. St Mo’s however produced some insect life. Dragonflies, peacock butterflies and mating damselflies especially were in great supply, but the PoD went to a teasel in the garden that’s beginning to show its needles. This is the first time I’ve grown them and I’m looking to see them flowering.

No plans yet for tomorrow. As usual it all depends on the weather.

Over 400 photos yesterday – 9 today – 7 August 2023

Posted on by Zogman

That’s the way it goes with photography sometimes.

Scamp went out in the morning to get us milk and bread and I stayed in because a parcel was arriving and also to organise some photos to send to Alex. I’d meant to do it last week, but life got in the way. It was a pleasant enough day in between the rain showers.

Later we went down to Calders because Scamp wanted a bag of compost to replant some pots. She needed a bit strong boy to carry the bag and since we couldn’t find one, I was the labourer today. For once, we went looking for compost and that’s what we came home with. No extra flowers or plants and no other paraphernalia. Amazing. We’re both a bit prone to adding things that we don’t need when we go to garden centres. Later in the afternoon, I was still working on yesterday’s photos after I’d emailed Alex’s photos and Scamp had finished repotting the plants and had just decided to take a walk over to the park to get some photos when the rain came on. So instead of a walk to the park, I grabbed some photos in the garden and that’s where today’s PoD came from it’s an unknown fly on an Astrantia flower. It’s amazingly sharp given that the breeze and rain were moving things around, and of course the insect was moving too. The anti-shake on this camera works.

That was about it for the day. Just a normal Monday with a bit of sun, a bit of wind and some rain.

Hoping to go in to Glasgow tomorrow to get some photos from the Time Trial while Scamp is off meeting June for coffee.

 

Uncrowned – 4 August 2023

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No crown for Scamp today. The dentist said it wasn’t good enough for such a beautiful mouth.

Much to Scamp’s annoyance, the dentist did indeed say that the crown she had been waiting all these weeks for wasn’t fit for purpose. It wasn’t the correct size or shape and just wouldn’t fit into the available cavity. So it’s another two weeks wait until the crowning ceremony once the new one arrives. Not a happy bunny!

She was back home for a cup of (white) tea and out again to go to FitSteps class with a mouth just beginning to feel like her own again after the anaesthetic. When she returned we discussed our options for lunch and settled on Bombay Cottage in Hamilton. Lunch was Veg pakora for Scamp and Chicken pakora for me. In a break from tradition, I had Chicken Shimla while Scamp had her usual Vegetable Shimla Bhaji. I enjoyed the chicken shimla and would have it again, but it was a bit oily.

There’s not a lot to see in Hamilton now, so we drove home. I went out to get petrol after I’d dropped Scamp off and brought the car home intending to go for a walk in St Mo’s. I’d taken the receipt as usual and was glancing at it before I put it in the bin when I noticed that apparently I’d been charged £75 for 51.41 litres of DIESEL. Surely not! I was sure I’d lifted the green petrol gun. I went out and sniffed the filler and it was definitely petrol. Then while Scamp checked with her bank app and I checked the last four digits of the credit card on the receipt, we realised what had happened. The paper had become jammed in the machine and were dispensing the previous person’s receipt. Mine was for petrol and for almost half of the price of the diesel drivers fuel. Another panic over.

I did go for a walk in St Mo’s after that and I did get a PoD which is a Common Darter dragonfly resting on the warm boardwalk over at St Mo’s. A very patient dragonfly, or maybe just a very tired one.  Either way I liked the shot.  There is another shot that almost won the PoD it’s little dandelion parachutes looking like ballet dancers with their tutus!

It seems like the dance class is on tomorrow, so we’re intending to go to the class in the morning and then the dance in the evening. We might have time for a seat at home between the two.

Lunch at the Bothy – 24 July 2023

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After Wordle and Spelling Bee were done, the day was our own.

But first, even before Wordle, there was a big cardboard box to open, and inside as … another big cardboard box. Inside that was the usual amount of bumf you get when you buy something fairly expensive. “READ ME FIRST” was on the first page, so that was put to the side to read later. Next the inevitable expanded polystyrene to unpack and crumble into the carpet, then more bumf to read at a later date and finally the food processor was revealed in all its shiny plastic glory. Oh yes, and we got a recipe book, not an app to download and install on our phone, but an honest to goodness recipe book and a hard back one to boot! We might read that later, mainly because it didn’t scream at us “READ ME FIRST”!

While Scamp went into the kitchen to wash all the bowls and the lethal looking cutters and slicers, I read through some of the paperwork and some of the recipes. It’s amazing the variety of breads, cakes and soups you can make in one of these clever devices. I may even attempt some of them sometime.

Satisfied that all the washable bits had been washed and dried and after reading the recipe book and completing Wordle and Spelling Bee, Scamp suggested we go out to lunch as we’d planned at The Bothy just outside Stirling. As usual these days we were handed a buzzer and told to browse round the shop. Not long afterwards our buzzer buzzed. I did quite fancy the Mushroom and Bacon Carbonara on the ‘specials’ board, but inevitably I ordered the Sri Lankan Lamb Curry and Scamp had Mac ’n’ Cheese as I suspected. Two coffees to wash it down and two ginormous Cream Donuts to take home in a box.

Scamp was looking for another rose, but not for us this time and she wanted a pot to replant “Harley” the Harlequin Berberis we thought we’d lost in the June heatwave. It’s not quite recovered its variegation yet, but maybe once it’s repotted it will regain its colour. We drove round the outskirts of Stirling to Dobbies, but they had none of the rose variety she was looking for. We did get a heather plant to replace one that had died in June, a pop-up bin for the garden and a packet of basil seeds for me to plant.

I thought there was just a chance that we’d find the rose in Calders in Cumbersheugh, so we went there on our way home. Scamp knows one of the gardeners and she asked him if he had any and thankfully he had. A bit of local knowledge goes a long way, and it’s a true saying “It’s now what you know, but who you know. A quick visit to Tesco on the way home and we were done, or nearly.

I hadn’t a photo of the day so far, so back home I got my boots out and took the A6500 out with the big clumsy 105mm macro lens and in about an hour I took 130 photos. Most were rubbish, but I did capture a male Common Darter dragonfly. I’ve been keeping a careful eye on the battery performance of the new camera and it’s actually almost within the parameters that are advertised for it, so not such a big problem as I initially thought.

That was a good day. Weather wasn’t all that good, but it stayed dry all day. Scamp’s off to get her nails done again. I’m hoping to do an Auld Guys coffee morning tomorrow with Val and Fred.

Off to Hamilton – 20 July 2023

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… but not to “buy the wean a bell.” That cryptic message will be lost on almost everyone, but I’m not explaining it further!

After a lazy morning on what was a beautiful, almost totally dry day, we eventually went out and walked down to the shops. Scamp wanted something to take to John & Marion tonight, and also wanted a hanging basket for the back garden. We accomplished both in double quick time and walked back home.

A knock on the door heralded the arrival of the parcel Scamp was expecting earlier in the week. It was a surprise present for two of our friends, but we were both underwhelmed by it. It wasn’t quite what she was hoping for and her disappointment was obvious.

Later I took a walk over to St Mo’s to see what was worth photographing while Scamp started the ironing. It was St Mo’s that the PoD came from (not the ironing!). It is one of two real ‘keepers’ from a batch of about 50 I’d taken with the big camera on silent motor drive. A great way of filling up the SD card, but a trick that rarely seems to result in any good photos. Luckily for me today was one of those days when it worked. The ‘Marmalade’ hoverfly was the PoD. It was almost beaten by the result of another ‘blitz’ shot. This one was a lone soldier beetle testing the strength of a single strand of a spider web. Both are on Flickr.

By the time I got back from my St Mo’s Safari I just had time for a wash and brush up before we headed off to Hamilton for dinner with John & Marion. It’s ages since we’ve been there. We’ve both had such a busy year this year. Big birthdays for both Scamp and Marion. Retirement celebration for Marion and a Golden Wedding anniversary for us. Of course, she’s not really retired until the schools go back in August!

Back home late and for some reason there was a parking space just waiting for us back home. That was nice of someone to do that for us.

Tomorrow Scamp has the dentist first thing in the morning. Best time for it, I suppose. I’m waiting in, hopefully not in vain, for yet another parcel.

Rain, Sun and Wind – 2 July 2023

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Three words to sum up today as far as weather goes. There was rain. Sometimes heavy sometimes light, but always there on the horizon. Then there were occasions sunbursts, sometimes while the rain was falling, but welcome when they appeared. Lastly there was wind for the third day recently. Gusty wind blowing in from the west. Very unseasonable weather after a Flaming June.

Scamp was out planting her new flowers. They are a white Salvia and a white Penstemon. Both in the new pot she bought (but didn’t wear) yesterday. They are now ensconced in the front garden to strengthen the barrier and hopefully prevent the Scottish Terrier from round the corner from crapping in our front grass. If that doesn’t work, then we’ll have to resort to digging pits with sharpened spikes at the bottom, between the pots or the ‘nuclear option’ – Land Mines. Anyway, for now the flower pots are doing a good job of keeping Hamish at bay. In the afternoon I swear I saw Scamp out in the front garden watering the plants while the rain was tipping it down. I now have seriously concerns about her sanity.

Later in the afternoon I put my boots on and went for a walk in St Mo’s, hoping to get some photos of some yellow Flag Irises, but was disappointed to find that they were long gone. That spell of hot weather had forced the flowering of these elegant plants way ahead of their usual blooming time. What I did find was a couple of Batman hoverflies, so called because they have what looks like the Batman symbol on their thorax. Then a Five Spot Burnet moth feeding on its favourite knapweed flower. After some discussion with myself, the Burnet moth got PoD.

Watched a crazy Austrian GP with almost half the field succumbing to five second penalties for exceeding ’Track Limits’. For once, Charles Leclerc didn’t find the wall!

We don’t have any plans for tomorrow.

 

The Lawnmower Man – 5 June 2023

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Scamp was out this morning to meet June for coffee. I thought I’d cut the grass.

It’s a long job, cutting the grass. Not as bad as some folk who have enormous lawns that need a petrol driven mower, but who secretly hanker for a ride-on mower! Ours is just a wee pocket hankie by comparison, but there’s a bit of preparation needed before you get started, pots to shift and then shift back once the first cut is taken. Squirting WD40 into the squeaky rear wheel, that screeching was putting my teeth on edge.

After I’d done our wee square, I thought it would be the right thing to do to cut Bobby Flavel’s grass too. I know my method is very rough and ready compared to Bobby’s straight lines, but at least it’s done and tidy. I hope you were sitting up there watching me struggle with the mower at the end of its lead, Bobby, just managing to get the furthest edge cut. Angela was the first person to cut Bobby’s grass after he passed away and we all agreed that we should take it in turns to cut his grass. For that reason and also because she doesn’t have much free time to mow her own grass, I cut Angela’s pocket hankie too. My good deeds for the day.

If the preparations before starting are a pain, the cleaning of that mower are even more of a drag. However, Scamp maintains it well and I think my cleaning routine was almost as good as her’s. I gave the blade a squirt of WD40 and then gave the squeaky wheel the grease it wanted. Done!

I’d just finished when Scamp arrived home. Piece ’n’ Cheese for her lunch and a slice of buttered bread covered in the remains of yesterday’s stew for mine. By then the sun had made an appearance and after some dithering, I took the A7 and the big heavy macro lens out to St Mo’s looking for damselflies, only to find that the dragonflies had taken over the ponds. There were dozens of them fighting and gatecrashing each other’s parties. Just like the unruly teenagers we get in the same neck of the woods with their ghetto blasters later in the summer. At least the dragonflies were just “doing the what comes naturally” and weren’t hyped up on Buckfast!

I couldn’t get as close as I wanted to the dragonflies, so I got as good a shot as was possible and enlarged it in ON1 software at home and produces what you see here. It’s a four spot chaser.

On the way home I had to check out the work being done by the council road repairers. They’d closed off part of our street to repair a section of the road. It has been crumbling away for years and a month or so ago they patched the bits that were easy to do. This, though, was a major bit of work with the tarmac being scraped back to the hardcore base and fresh tarmac replacing it. It was supposed to take two days, but it looks like it’s finished tonight.

Another end of day seat in the sun with Scamp. Both of us reading with a glass of something to keep us from drying out in this sunshine!

No plans for tomorrow, at least not at present.

 

Driving everywhere – 3 June 2023

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The dance class for today was cancelled due to too few numbers, so we used the daw wisely by tidying up loose ends.

We drove to The Fort in about 23ºc of heat with the intention of getting a pair of Crocs for me and a pair of shorts for Scamp. Neither of us achieved our goals and we went for lunch at Wagamama to console ourselves. Prawn raisukaree for Scamp and Chicken raisukaree for me (raisukaree = curry) with Ebi Katsu to share (butterflied prawns coated in panko and deep fried)

Fed and watered we next drove to B&Q to get an adapter that would allow the hose to be used from the kitchen tap without the use of a great deal of swearing and fountains of water. I think we got the right adapter this time, but I believe we may be testing tomorrow.

I fancied getting a hat (Hazy, similar to Neil’s) and that meant a trip further into darkest Coatbridge, but with the satnav to help us, we found Go Outdoors. There they had the hat I wanted in a size that fitted but at a price that was a little more than I’d intended paying. However, if you bought a discount card for £5 we got roughly £15 off the price and a further 20% off the remainder. That brought it down to what I’d call a reasonable price!! Pity they didn’t have Crocs!

We drove back to Cumbersheugh, trusting the satnav to get us back to ‘civilisation’ and I finally snagged myself a pair of Crocs to replace my ancient and crumbling pair I bought in Fuerteventura many, many years ago. Just a bit annoyed that I had to pay full price for them! Scamp also managed to get herself a pair of shorts and we drove home slightly emptier of pocket, but with new purchases.

Back home it was still hot, so to cool down I changed into shorts and went for a walk in St Mo’s. Managed to capture my first damselfly of the year, an Emerald. Also photographed a wee fly, looking a bit like a robber fly sitting on a buttercup. The robber fly got PoD. On the way back home I dropped in at the chip shop in Condorrat for a Special Fish Supper to share with Scamp. Sat for a while in the garden reading, watching the birds queue up to get some water from the birdbath.

We watched a fairly interesting Spanish GP tonight, with a few drivers demonstrating their off-road skills, but thankfully no crashes.

Got a message from Jamie to say their new boiler has been installed. Hot and cold running water is a great thing, isn’t it. That and a real shower! We know how you pair feel.

No plans for tomorrow, although we may water the garden, hopefully without flooding the kitchen!

Another hot day – 30 May 2023

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Temperatures around 25ºc expected again today.

Scamp was supposed to be going for coffee with June, but she called off this morning with a dodgy stomach. I know how she feels.

That left us with a different shaped day. We did consider going for walk, but decided it was too hot for that today. Instead, Scamp went out to do some weeding and pruning. I was checking the roses and found a sticky residue on one of the buds, in fact, on more than one of them. I suspected aphids and was about to grab the bug killer spray when I noticed a little blob of orange on one of the rose leaves. It was a little sixteen spot ladybird, Halyzia sedecimguttata, orange with white spots. I put away the bug spray. The ladybird will hopefully deal with the aphids and get lunch along the way. Of course I took a fair amount of photos of the little orange killer. One of them got PoD.

We went to Tesco to do some shopping. We also had a fair load of stuff to go on the skips, so we split up. Scamp went to Tesco and I drove over to the skips to dump the old carpet tiles, the broken carpet sweeper and yet more Wii controllers. Hopefully they were the last of the Wii. While I was there I managed to grab a few shots of a Teddybear’s Tea Party.
Back at Tesco we met up just as Scamp was finishing the shopping and drove home to have a roll ’n’ banana for lunch.

In the afternoon, Scamp was going to do some more trimming and I was taking the A7 for a walk and to check out the graffiti on the Luggie because I’d promised Alex a walk there tomorrow. Unfortunately they hadn’t been improved since last time. Then I went for a walk in Fannyside, hoping to get another photo of the caterpillar I saw last week, but there was nothing interesting to be seen. I drove home and had a beer in the garden while Scamp had a Pimms.

Dinner was a Scamp speciality, Potatoes and Cabbage with an addition of fried bacon for me. Then I washed the dishes while Scamp grabbed a few more minutes in the sun in the garden.

Today’s prompt asked for A Guitar. This is my Spanish guitar It’s a fairly old instrument now and is a bit battered and bruised, but it’s had a hard life and still sounds good. It’s nylon strung and therefore it’s a bit easier to fret than a steel strung acoustic guitar.

Tomorrow I’m hoping to meet my brother for a walk around Glasgow and the chance of a coffee and a blether.