Category: insects

Mojitos & Earwigging – 9 November 2016

Posted on by Zogman

9-nov

This being our last full day in Lanzarote 2016, we took our time and made the most of it, but took it easy too.

We sat by the pool for a while after breakfast because it was very warm, possibly the warmest of the days, but a cooling breeze kept the temperature within a reasonable range.  We stayed there until after lunch when we walked along in the direction of the airport, with the task of finding a coloured strap for Scamp’s case to make it easier to find on the carousel at Glasgow … when the moving belt eventually squeaks into life.  After selecting a suitable strap we settled in a bar with two mojitos.  Real ones, not the pre-made, out-of-a-bottle ones they ply the unwary with at the hotel, topped up with a teaspoon of their watered down ‘local’ rum.  These weren’t the strongest mojitos we’ve had, but they were very tasty and went down a treat.

While we were there we were earwigging a scam being played out by an old white haired bloke with a beard and his wife behind us.  Scamp was shocked at the length of the claws his wife had, you couldn’t call them nails, these were full-on talons.  Anyway the old beardy had got wind of the fact that a bloke who owned a bar in Arrecife had a backup battery for his own bar that he didn’t need and wanted rid of.  According to his electrician friend, the bloke in Arrecife didn’t know what it was worth and would be happy to sell it on for a fraction of what it was worth.  OK?  The scene has been set.
So, old beardy bloke and Eagle Claw are plotting their pitch to Mr Arrecife.  They decide that they’ll tell the bloke they are interested in his backup battery to use to keep their two fishtanks running when there is a power outage.  The electrician has already told them that this battery will run all the electrical requirements for a bar; fridge, freezer, air-con, pumps, lighting, the lot for 10 hours, and they’re going to tell the bloke that they want it to power their fish tanks.  It made we wonder just how bit these fish tanks were, or how ingenuous they thought Mr Arrecife was.  Beardy thought they could get the battery for under €400.  The phone call was duly made and either the electrician was playing both sides against one another, or Mr Arrecife wasn’t as stupid as Beardy thought, because a figure of €1500 was being bandied about.  The call ended with Beardy telling Eagle Claw that he could probably beat him down to around the €400.  I hope he’s got a good baseball bat to beat him with, either that or he’ll have to threaten Mr A with Eagle Claw.  We’ll never know the outcome.

We walked back to the hotel and while Scamp went for to grab some more rays, I went for a last walk over the lava rocks.  Now, not all of the wilderness is rocky, there are dried up riverbeds, Arroyos that occasionally carry enough water to allow plants to survive and it was one of those areas that gave me the little green leaves.  Like I found in Fuerteventura there are lots of shells here, embedded in the soft dry clay and the lowering light brought out their textures.  At last, I found myself a dragonfly.  Apart from the unlucky pair laying eggs in a swimming pool, this was the first dragon I’d seen.  It was very delicate and thin, not like the big bruisers we get in Scotland.  However, the light was getting poor and I grabbed a couple of shots and then headed back to the hotel.

It was a Rock Show in the theater and it wasn’t quite dire, but it wasn’t all that good either.  There was a lot of shouting, enthusiastic applause and whistling coming from about four folk at the back of the audience, quite near us.  It was totally unwarranted and I have to admit, I think they were ‘Rent-a-mob’, bought in to encourage some interest in the miming and aping on stage.

That was it, apart from a G&T on the balcony to finish the bottle and the initial packing.  Another holiday draws to a close.

Lazy day / Dancing night – 7 November 2016

Posted on by Zogman

7 Nov

After the long walks these last two days, we both settled down to a sunbathing day today.  The furthest we were going to go was the pool, or should I say the pools.  The pool with the bar in it, yes in it, not just next to it, but in the img_3545-2-flickr-2pool itself, which means that you can swim up to the pool, have a drink and swim away again.  Sounds like a recipe for disaster, but it all went ‘swimmingly’ today Winking smile   Both Scamp and I had a swim in the pool and when we both tired of this aquatic activity, we baked in the sun for a while more.  It was while Scamp was swimming she shouted to me that there was a dragonfly dipping into the pool.  It was actually a mating pair that was laying eggs in the swimming pool.  I don’t think there is much chance of those eggs hatching any time soon.  If the chlorine doesn’t kill them, the filters will grind them to a pulp.  Such a waste of time.  I got a fairly decent ink sketch done while we were sitting by the pool

We had booked for the Asian restaurant tonight and so we settled for a light lunch to protect our appetite.  After lunch it was back to the hard work of sunbathing again.

Later in the afternoon the sun had moved round and our sunbeds  were in shadow so we went back to the room and sat on the balcony for a while.  I got itchy feet and headed over to the lava rocks to see if I could capture any photos of  butterflies.  I managed a couple and that was my lot.

The Asian meal was delicious although it was a buffet and Scamp’s not keen on food that’s not piping hot, so she was a bit disappointed.  I thought it was all lovely.  My favourite was deep fried Dim Sum.  Scamp’s fave was the Tuna – no surprise there.  We had intended going for a walk and possibly a drink after the meal, but when we left the restaurant we could hear a violin playing.  At first we thought it was piped music, but it turned out to be a live musician playing an electronic violin.  Very clever stuff and of course that put paid to any chances of a walk, so it was ‘cooncil cocktails’ tonight.  Like I said, the bloke was really good, playing classical, pop and jazz.  We listened for his full set.

After the violinist had left, we went to hear the duo singing.  Different duo tonight, different songs, slightly better mumbled English lyrics, but best of all, we got to dance!  We did one Bachata and one Salsa.  Not our finest, but better than nothing.  There was a German (?) couple a bit older than us sitting in front of us and they seemed to think we had done alright.  They seemed to dance Ceroc rather than salsa.

We actually watched the full show tonight – Best of Shows it was called.  More like Least Worst in my opinion.  Blokes with balloons up their jumpers seem to get a great laugh here.  Possibly a Teutonic sense of humour.  I think it was the show that put the tin lid on things.  We went back to the room and off to sleep.  No nightcap on the balcony tonight because we were both tired out after such a lazy day!

First Full Day – 4 November 2016

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4 Nov2

A more relaxed morning than yesterday!  Unfortunately it was still raining.  Just a shower we told ourselves but the sky gave a lie to that.  Breakfast was the usual holiday hotel fare and of course we had too much of everything.  Notables were the big slab of butter you could cut for yourself to spread on the bread you also cut for yourself.  Butter was white and unsalted and also quite delicious. 

After breakfast the rain was going off so we waited a while and then headed off in the direction of Puerto del Carmen.  It’s a fairly long walk and the weather was improving so we took our time.  Our objective today was to find the cheapest bottles of Gin and Tonic.  Although we are all inclusive, it doesn’t go wrong to have the makings of a G&T for sitting on the balcony watching the world go by.  The hotel provides us with as much drinking water as we want, free of charge, which is an improvement on some places we’ve been to.  WiFi is also free, but only in the reception and only for two devices at any one time.  Not a real drawback.  To get back to the walk, we wandered down the road checking prices as we went.  Stopped for a beer in a wee roadside bar.  Checked that a really good Asian restaurant we’d been to was still there.  Usual holiday stuff.  Then we walked back, and it was getting real holiday hot now.  Forgot to get the gin and were appalled at the price they wanted for it in Hyperdino (usually the cheapest, so we hadn’t checked it).  I volunteered to walk back to the cheapest shop to get some and also some tonic.  Finally arrived back, just in time for lunch.  We were a bit more modest in our lunch selection, really just a salad.

After lunch, Scamp went to sunbathe and I went for a walk over the rough lava rocks to get some photos.

Booked dinner in the Asian restaurant in the hotel for Monday as Saturday and Sunday were fully booked.  At night we waited for a while for the Flamenco show to start, but gave up on it after a while.  Had a drink in the lounge and then went back to try again.  The show is supposed to start at 21.30.  At 21.45 they started the presentation of the awards of the day for the Kiddies Club.  That was supposed to happen at 20.30, so it looked like they were running at least an hour behind.  We, or to be more exact, I couldn’t be bothered waiting that long, so we headed for bed.  Scamp was keen to demonstrate that she, as Genghis Pathfinder had discovered a faster way to get from the main building to the room and, for once, she was right.  Full marks for Pathfinding, Scamp.

Less food tomorrow and hopefully some sunbathing with the possibility of a swim too.

Nursing – 25 October 2016

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25-oct

It could have been my chosen career, but I chose a different path.  That, by itself saved the populace from a bad case of genocide.  Scamp has the cold and I’ve been doing my best be head cook and bottle washer.

As part of the nursing program, I was also the driver who took us to Costa Robroyston for a cup of brown water and a spot of Costa lunch.  Can’t say I was any more impressed with the coffee, but served as a skinny cappuccino, it’s almost palatable.  Hark at me, “Skinny Cappuccino” no less!  Quite the man about town.

After we came back I went out to get some photos and maybe, just maybe, a sketch.  The sketch didn’t happen, what I did do was get some photos of underpasses, of which we have quite a few here, to sketch from the computer later.  It’s a bit of a cop out, but it sounded feasible.  I took the shots and they looked ok.  I took some spiders’ pictures too in St Mo’s.  They seemed quite pleased that I was showing an interest in their web building and posed happily while I snapped away.  Mr Grey was sulking in the cold water of St Mo’s pond.  Do birds have nerve endings in their feet, I wonder.  I also wonder if there should have been a question mark at the end of the previous sentence.  That’s the sort of thing that I would know if I had been paying attention in English back in Larkhall Academy, but I didn’t and I don’t, know that is.  Strangely, my English teacher was a Mr Grey too!  I took this Mr Grey’s photo because of the reflection in the murky waters of the pond.

While I was taking my research photos of underpasses for the proposed sketch (it didn’t happen either), I turned a corner and almost bumped into a guy lurking in the darkness of the underpass.  At first I was a bit concerned, then I realised he was just a schoolboy, presumably from St Mo’s, also presumably ‘dogging it’.  In other words he was ‘bunking off’ school.  What we, in the trade, called a ‘school refuser’ and what the pupils called a ‘dogger’.  That has nothing at all to do with dogs and also nothing to do with secluded carparks after dark.  Or so I’ve been told!! Ahem, I’ve also been told that when one is in a hole one should stop digging, so I’m laying the spade down now.  Anyway, I marched through the underpass and got the shot from the opposite side once the boy had scuttled away in the general direction of the school.  He obviously hadn’t, to quote Guy Garvey, “perfected that simian stroll”.  What he should have done was amble on in the general direction of the school with that look that said “It’s alright mate, I’m just on my way back from an appointment with my dentist / my doctor / my social worker” (delete as appropriate).  Instead he just looked like he was a rabbit caught in the headlights.  Maybe it was the first time he’d done it.  Maybe he had a good reason.  Maybe he’s on the path to become a repeat offender.  That made me think of another musical reference:  “Razzle in my Pocket” – Ian Dury.  Listen and you’ll see what I mean.

img_3471-flickrAnyway, photos took and still no sketch for the day, because the underpasses hadn’t fired my imagination.  Also, I don’t like sketching from photos now.  They seem to lack the vitality of sketching from life.  After washing up, I took a cup of good coffee upstairs to read while Scamp was watching her Tuesday soap, and there it was, today’s sketch.  It’s a bit cheeky to title it as the First Coffee.  It was hardly the first coffee of the day as I’d had my Sudoku Cup at about 11am and you can’t count Costa brown water.  It was the last cup of the day though and, like the spiders, it posed very patiently for me.  It wasn’t even cold when I’d finished.  Success.  Just in case you’re interested the paper is 110gsm Fabriano Sketch and pen is a Micron 0.3 with a bit of shading from a pale grey brush pen.

Tomorrow?  It depends on how Scamp is feeling.  Maybe the gym for me, but we’ll wait and see how the invalid is.

Clingfilm – 11 October 2016

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11-oct-3

A strange title, but hopefully all will become clear – like the clingfilm 😉

Lazy start to the day, but that usually happens on a Tuesday after a busy Monday with two hours of dancing and an hour of driving, then preparing the photos, posting them and then blog writing.  I’m not moaning about, just explaining why we almost broke our self imposed rule of Up By Ten.  The light seemed to be improving in the morning and I grabbed a few shots of the Gazanias in the hanging basket with their covering of raindrops from the showers during the night.

What to do with the rest of the day?  We couldn’t decide where to go, because we had decided we’d go out.  Dinner was sorted and we needed nothing extra for that.  It was finally settled when Scamp said we didn’t have any cling film and that called for a visit to Lakeland.  Scamp also wanted to get some flowers to plant in my raised bed for some winter colour.  We could achieve both aims with a visit to Lakeland and Dobbies just outside Stirling.  What exciting lives we lead when our day revolves around Clingfilm and Pansies!

We came back from Stirling over the Tak ma Doon road.  Usually it’s a scenic road with plenty of opportunities for big-sky landscapes.  Today heavy clouds had rolled in and everywhere was dull.  Oh well, I still had the pics of the Gazanias to fall back on.  Just to make sure, I went out to bother the wildlife in St Mo’s when we got back.  Just missed Mr Grey, but he saw me and was off like as shot.  More snails up trees.  It seems that they favour Ash trees.  Disturbed a couple of deer and this time I got a shot I liked. One young doe ran when she saw me, then turned and watched to make sure I wasn’t following, giving me the chance I needed to take the shot.  I don’t know what kind of fly was on the tree in the other shot.  It looked a bit like a mosquito, but on closer examination, the head looks more like a Jenny Long Legs (Crane Fly).  Don’t know.

Today’s Inktober (Number 11) is of Monday’s Daily Sudoku which was completed yesterday (Monday) and was img_3436-flickrlying on the coffee table in front of me, so, like the hand yesterday, it wasn’t going to go anywhere.  Fred P can do quick portraits or caricatures of people sitting near him in Costa and they always look like the subject.  I just can’t draw fast enough to grab a likeness.  It’s all about confidence I think.  Anyway, I’m happy enough with today’s quick sketch.  Made some more fruit scones tonight.  I did think of sketching one of them, but they move off the plate too quickly.

Don’t know what’s happening tomorrow because we’ve got clingfilm now, so possibly no need to go out.  Jamie G our Salsa teacher is off on business tomorrow, and we don’t know who will be taking the class.  It’s not worth driving for an hour through Glasgow’s Wednesday evening traffic only to find it’s a, how shall I put this, less entertaining teacher.  Maybe we’ll stay in and watch a film instead!

The End of Summer – 17 September 2016

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17-septv2

Wandering around my own favourite wilderness and noticing the skies are empty of swallows. If it takes more than one swallow to make a summer, does a lack of them mean the end? I think it does. Then I spot a dragon. Is that the contradiction?We had intended going to Embra today, but it looked like being a nice day and I didn’t want to spend the day in a train or wandering around the shops. Too good a day for that and if the first paragraph is correct, we should make the most of the good days now. The upshot was that as usual, Scamp was in the garden and I did a wee bit of painting and grubbing around in WordPress without any great success in either. Eventually, I decided that the weather was settled enough for shorts and tee shirt cycling and went out to get some photos and also some brambles if there were any left.There were brambles a-plenty and I got just over 600g which is not too bad. Just over a pound in old money, or is that me mixing my metaphors or something? The sun was warm and although there were no swallows, there was a dragon later in the afternoon. I got some photos, but knew that if I went closer, my shadow would encroach on the insect and it would fly away. Dragonflies seem to be very sensitive to changes in light, or maybe they just don’t want anyone stealing their sun. I also grabbed a few shots of spiders, sorry arachnophobes, look away now. It’s the transparency of the body that I like about spiders, especially contré jour. I just had to experiment a bit more with the pinhole effect and got a shot of the Three Amigos with the camera sitting on a fencepost. The last shot was as I was coming home and the light was warming up. It took me some time to find the best VP for the shot of the hay bales, but I’m happy with this one. There was a fair bit of post-processing done to get it just the way I wanted it, balancing the light and dark areas of the photo without falsifying it too much.Came home and dinner was courtesy of Bombay Dreams. Great online ordering system and way too much for one meal. The rest for lunch on Sunday.Weather on the turn for Sunday with lots of widespread rain forecast.

[]: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ztf/

Sunny Sunday – 11 September 2016

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11-septWe went to Glasgow today. Since the buses run to their own timetable on Sundays, we drove in. It was a lovely morning and Scamp thought we might manage to have a coffee outside, but by the time we’d finished shopping, the wind was becoming a bit gusty and we settled for a coffee inside.

Dinner for me was a repeat of yesterday’s, Lamb, Chorizo and Puy Lentil Casserole, but this time made at home. It turned out as good as the Loch Leven Larder’s, if not better. Who am I kidding? Of course it was better! Slow cooked for six hours, it was great. Plenty left over for tomorrow’s dinner and maybe some for lunch later in the week.

I went for a walk to St Mo’s in the late afternoon and got a few shots, but the light was poor by that time and that resulted in a lot of digital noise which you can remove quite easily with Lightroom, but the price you pay is a loss of definition, so it’s a double edged sword. I did see a strange pink blossom at completely the wrong time of year. There were thorns on the stems and on the back of the leaves which look like bramble leaves. The plant seemed to be behaving like a bramble by climbing round other tree branches. Couldn’t believe this was flowering in September in Scotland!

No plans for tomorrow, because like most Mondays it’s eaten up with Gems in the afternoon and salsa at night. Might get some painting done. If not on canvas, then at least on the outside window ledges.

Loch Leven – 10 September 2016

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10-septWe’re sitting in the cafe at Loch Leven’s Larder. Been for a walk along the lochside and are both now ready for lunch.

Well the lunch was delicious. Mine was a Lamb, Chorizo and Puy Lentil Casserole. Scamp’s was a Smoked Haddock Quiche.

We had decided in the morning that it would be a sin to waste a good, clear sunny day like this, especially after yesterday’s rain, by wandering round the shops. We got the map out on the laptop and chose Loch Leven as the place to go today. It was a good decision. We parked at our usual place and walked clockwise round part of the lochside path. Walked a mile or two, had a seat, then walked back to the car. I managed to get a few photos of the corn fields on our way round the path. Scamp thought we might manage to get all the way to LLL, but it was way too far. Enjoyed the walk more than our usual anti-clockwise walk. Saw a powered glider. Not like a Grob, but with an engine on a pylon above the wing. Wish I’d got the registration letter, then I’d be able to look it up on the net

Drove home over the Forth Bridge and got a good look at the new bridge. I wonder what it’s name will be. Not the official name, but the one it will be known by, it’s Real name.

El Cap seems to be behaving itself much better than I’d anticipated. Got up this morning just before 6am and sorted the problem with the email not being recognised. Then I went back to bed. So far, touch wood, the new OS seems quite stable. Glad I did the upgrade.

Some say rain tomorrow. Some say sun. I’m voting for sun. Just like today.

Coffee, Dragons and Vitamin D – 25 August 2016

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E8251411- flickr--238On a cloudy day, I went for a coffee with Fred in the morning and we set the world to rights again.

Met Scamp afterwards and sorted out our winter, week-long Vitamin D supplement, sometimes known as a week-in-the-sun. For once the process of booking was much easier than it could have been, and has been in the past.

After that, the sun came out, and I took a walk as usual around St Mo’s. Still a few dragons flying around. None of them breathed fire, but I managed to get a shot of one, despite having completely the wrong settings on the camera. I don’t know what I did, but I was using ISO 100 with an aperture setting of f10 which produced a shutter speed of 1/40th. Luckily I set the camera down on the boardwalk to take a low level shot and this meant I had a really steady support, otherwise the shot would have been as shaky as the other 7 I took today. That’s what happens when you assume you have the normal settings and don’t check the info on the screen. Numpty. Still, it’s a good shot.

Physio to look forward to tomorrow :-/ Then maybe lunch out would be good. We’ll see tomorrow.

Birds and the Bees (and a Spider) – 22 August 2016

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22 augToday I did some gardening.

This is an example of forward thinking by Scamp:

  1. The weather forecast for tomorrow is rain, a few dry spells and then more rain, followed by rain.
  2. We have a bag of stone chips that we are going to put down beside the new tall fence to complete this area.  The stones when they are washed are basically a golden yellow, but with other colours through them, quite pretty.  In the bag they still retain the abrasive mix that they are tumbled with and are a claggy yellow ochre.

If you add these two things in the correct order, Scamp postulates that it would be good to lay the chips down today and then tomorrow’s rain will wash the claggy yellow ochre coating off them and reveal their true colour.  That’s why it was boots on, riggers gloves on and get yourself mucky laying down the chips.  Fine.  If only it ended there.  Scamp said: “Could we pot up this Hebe using the compost from the potatoes we lifted a week or so ago?”  Followed by: “We really need to prune the rose round the back door.” and “Maybe if we ….”  Oh, if you can’t beat them, then join them.  I volunteered to repot a wee rose that was being completely swamped by some wee blue bell-shaped flowers, that might be Campanula.  That’s as far as I went though.  This gardening can be quite addictive I’m told.  I’ll take their word for it, thanks.

Grabbed an hour and a camera and a new album from the latest John Connolly book and took them for a walk to St Mo’s.  I met a heron as I was walking over.  I’m not sure if it was Mr Grey or not.  It seemed a bit small for him, but I’ve only once seen him out of the water, so it could be.  He posed for some photos, then disappeared in a great flapping of wings.  The rest of the photos were bees and hover flies.  Hence the title of today’s epistle.  Birds and Bees and a Spider.  The John Connolly album was interesting as it always is.  Very atmospheric and all by artists I’d never heard of.

With Hazy’s help, we got Netflix to work tonight and after salsa class, settled down and watched A Royal Night Out.  Harmless fun.  Better than watching the highlights of this year’s Olympic Games.  Princess Margaret is a hoot!

Rain forecast all day tomorrow.  Hope it washes the stone chips clean again.