Category: insects

A day of comings and goings – 13 February 2023

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Messages were flying this morning.

Message from my brother to say he can’t manage a photo-walk tomorrow. Bummer. Cryptic message from John saying “Will you be in between 12noon and 1pm”. Another cryptic message from Hazy that just read “We’re off!” And all of this before breakfast.

After I’d replied to Alex saying tomorrow was going to be tight for me anyway, so not to worry. Then replying to Hazy to say “Enjoy the short break.” After these replies I began to wonder what John’s message meant. I’d a fair idea what it was and decided to keep it a surprise for Scamp. Next message was for Scamp. It was a phone call from Nancy wanting to arrange a date for us to go to their’s for dinner. Scamp got that sorted. I was hoping there would be a lull in the message exchanges just for a short while to allow us to get Wordle and Spelling Bee done and dusted.

Well, we did manage to get the essential puzzles completed and later in the morning Scamp said “Annette’s coming over to see me about 12 o’clock”. Oh oh! Now I’d need to say that someone else was coming over about midday too and, of course had to reveal John’s message. As it happened, Scamp managed to reschedule Annette’s visit to tomorrow and John was just dropping off a parcel and a card before he and Marion drove off. By now it was lunch time and then we were off to Falkirk to see the man who talks in £s and $s and occasionally €s.

Arrived in Falkirk right on the dot of 2pm. Andrew talked us through the money markets as he sees them with lots of interesting asides to keep us interested. We had some questions for him and he gave us good advice on how to deal with upcoming problems. We left after an hour bamboozled, but feeling more upbeat than I thought we would.

Back home I got a photo of a crocus flowering in the front garden and that became PoD. Just a lone yellow flower against a green background.

Today’s prompt was The Sting. I didn’t relish the challenge of sketching Robert Redford or Paul Newman, so I chose another Sting expert as my challenge. Wasps can be vicious insects. Unlike honey bees they can sting you more than once if they choose to do so. That has never stopped me from photographing them, but I tend to more than a little cautious when they’re around.

Tomorrow I’ve promised myself I’ll get my hair cut. I was going to do it myself, but better to get someone who knows what they’re doing to do it.

Tesco, Ice Trees and a Trio – 17 January 2023

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We went for messages today. Lots of messages.

Scamp was out first, clearing the frost from the windscreen of the Micra. I locked up and then sat in the passenger’s seat for our run up to Tesco on another lovely bright, but cold day. A waltz round the shop, just normal food shopping. So good to be able to walk around without folk barging past to grab stuff off the shelves like they did pre-Christmas. Today was relaxed shopping. Scamp drove us back and we had lunch. It was good being a passenger.

After lunch I had a headache and thought a walk with a camera would ease the pain, so I wrapped up well and walked over to St Mo’s to see if the ladybird was still in its hibernation hideaway. It was, then I noticed there were three more on a nearby tree. A trio of ladybirds of different sizes tucked under a lump in the tree. This time I’d come prepared. I screwed the camera onto the Gorilla Pod I’d brought along for taking low down shots of Cladonia and pressed two of its legs on to the tree trunk just below the trio. That allowed me to angle the camera to get quite close to the ladybirds and get a few shake-free shots. The ladybirds were about two metres above ground level, so hand holding the camera would almost certainly have induces camera shake.

I didn’t find any Cladonia today, but the wee pond gave me the opportunity to do my ‘Camera On Ice’ trick and get some low level shots by resting the camera on the ice (once I’d tested its thickness) and pressing the shutter. It gives a totally different perspective on the pond. Lots of little bundles of ice crystals growing round the rushes that protruded from the pond like little frozen trees. By that time, the sun was beginning to set, so I walked back to the path by the shortest route to get a few landscape shots before the orange ball of the sun dipped behind the trees.

When I got home, the delicious smell of mince cooking reminded me that tonight was going to be Mince, Potatoes and Cabbage. Just the food you need on a cold winter’s day. Before that, though, I had a cup of hot chocolate and discovered that my headache was gone.

So, tonight’s dinner was indeed Mince, Tatties and Cabbage for me and Bubble ’n’ Squeak for Scamp. Basically the same as mine but without the mince.

Tomorrow doesn’t look as clear as today and there’s snow on the forecast for tonight. What we do tomorrow depends on the weather.

Autumnal – 16 September 2022

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This is the first day this year I’ve really felt the autumn chill in the air.

Scamp was going out to her FitSteps class this morning and I cleared up yesterday’s dinner dishes. After that I put on my hoodie and with the A7 and the macro lens in my bag I went for a midday walk in St Mo’s. The weather was beautiful to look at, bright sun and blue skies with a few clouds scudding past. The temperature was a bit low though, not very deep into the double figures. It had been in single figures when I was making the breakfast.

The sun must have been warming up the boardwalk round the pond, because the air was full of little red dragonflies that I think were male Common Darters with a couple of Small Black darters too. One of the common darters made PoD. I’d hoped to get some photos of bees feeding on the blue Scabious flowers, but there were none to be seen today. Perhaps they all had the day off.

By the time I got back, Scamp had returned from her class. We discussed going out for lunch, but finally agreed we couldn’t be bothered and settled for a home lunch.

After lunch, Scamp planted two gigantic bulbs of Crown Imperial which is a , one at the front of the house and one at the back. She also planted some small Globe Alliums. Finally, because the sun was warm as long as you stayed where it was shining, we pruned the apple tree to reduce the amount of fruit the poor thing has to carry. We both agree that it will probably need staking in the spring to give it some extra support.

Dinner was provided by Golden Bowl and I volunteered to walk over to Condorrat to collect it. It was getting quite chilly when I was coming back. I think we’ll be looking at single figures again tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow we’ve an early shift at the dance class. Stewart wants class to start at 10am rather than our usual 11am. That will mean getting up at about 8.30am. On a Saturday!

An early rise – 15 September 2022

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A voluntary one.

I’d had breakfast, but couldn’t find a book I wanted to read. The sun was shining although the temperature was just crawling into double figures, but I made up my mind to head out to get a photo of a climbing frame in a children’s adventure nearby. The reason for the photo was this week’s Flickr Friday requested a photo of a “Tower”. There is a tower, a rope climbing net and a slide on the climbing frame, so I reckoned it fitted the bill. There was also a lot of graffiti and a telephone number from an eighteen year old girl who was desperate for love. She must have been desperate, because there was a 17 scored out and replaced by the 18!

I took a few photos with the ultra-wide lens to accentuate the height of the structure, but wasn’t happy with it. To give the sun time to clear the surrounding trees, I took a walk in St Mo’s. There wasn’t much to see. The sun hadn’t cleared the trees here either so the cold blooded dragonflies would need to wait a while for it to warm their bodies and wings before they could fly properly. By the time I’d walked back to the ‘tower’, the sun was warming its eastern face and I got today’s PoD.

While I was doing some post processing of the PoD, Scamp left to meet June and Isobel. After I was satisfied with the photo and posted it on Flickr, I planted some basil seeds. Our basil plants are looking a bit straggly and will need replaced soon. Why buy basil plants from the supermarket when you can grow them right through the winter in the house?

Lunch today was a piece ’n’ banana for Scamp and a Cornish pastie for me. It was Thursday and Scamp had said she wanted some pansies to replace the violas that had flowered non-stop all summer, so I drove to Calders to get some for her. There was only one tray of Peach Pansies left in the garden centre, so I took them. Apparently Christmas is just around the corner. It looked like an articulated lorry had dumped all of its load at the garden centre. Boxes of jolly Santas, cheeky elves and reindeer, so many reindeer! That’s not to mention the lights and decorations, so I won’t mention them. Heavens, it’s the middle of September and we’re being suckered into buying Xmas tat already!

I drove home and made easy haddock risotto. Easy because the oven does all the hard work and as usual it worked perfectly. Nothing to do with me, I just follow the recipe and it works every time.

Tonight we had another dance practise.  A more in-depth one that the last two.  Trying to get the ‘slows’ and the ‘quicks’ in the right places and at the right time.  This ballroom dancing is not anywhere as easy as it looks on TV.

Miles and miles of folk queueing to get in to see the Queen’s coffin lying in state in London. Three miles, possibly four waiting to file past. If it brings the some solace then it’s a good thing.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending going to exercise class in the morning. I’ll exercise my right to stay at home.

Going for the messages – 12 September 2022

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Just the run of the mill shopping run.

Scamp accepts that Tesco deliveries are a lifesaver at times, but prefers to see what she’s buying, and I have to agree with her. We did a fairly big shop and while we were going round I bumped into Fred and had a wee blether with him. He gave his apologies for not being able to get to the “Beer in the Toon” tomorrow and I understand the pressures he’s facing with his and his wife’s health. Hopefully some day soon we’ll be able to have that beer.

After we’d got through the tills and paid for the messages we trundled them to the car and found that there was nowhere to put them in the back seat because the bag of bottles we took for a trip to Tesco last week were still there taking up space. After a few grumps from me followed by an icy silence, Scamp drove straight to the council skips and we dumped the bottles into the overflowing plastic skips. One job done.

Back home lunch was a roll filled with cheese for me and one filled with Dairylea for Scamp. Honestly I didn’t think they made those Dairylea triangles any more, but it looks like they do. A second roll filled with jam became the lunchtime dessert.

After that we just lounged about for a while doing nothing in particular. Then I took the camera out for a walk in St Mo’s and got today’s PoD which was a little furry hoverfly sitting on a Scabious flower. Nice bit of sunshine on the background created some lovely patterns from the leaves of the bushes. While I was out, Scamp was picking the remainder of the James Grieve apples and beginning to prune the tree into a better shape. I had one of those home grown apples after dinner and it was a bit sharp, but perfectly edible.

Dinner tonight was Carbonara made the proper Italian way without cream, but with an extra egg yolk instead. It worked well.

That was about it for a cool day that was beginning to look like autumn was just around the corner.

Tomorrow I’m intending to head in to Glasgow and Samp is out to lunch with Mags.

Dancin’ – 10 September 2022

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We drove over to Brookfield in beautiful sunshine.

We arrived early, mainly because there were no football matches on today as a mark of respect for the death of the queen, so the road was fairly clear.

First today was a reprise and a cleaning up of the Charnwood Cha-Cha, which we managed fairly well. Next was a new Foxtrot routine. We only did about half of it, but it was looking quite good. A lot more technical than the older foxtrot we learned earlier in the year. After that, things started to go downhill rapidly for me. Stewart announced that we were going to learn a new sequence dance called there Balmoral Blues, and nodded to us, because we’d attempted it on Thursday by watching what others were doing and following them. Today was different. Today we were learning the proper version and it seemed to have many more steps than Thursday’s version. Jane said she hated this dance and by the end of the lesson I fully agreed with her. None of the figures seemed to gel with each other. It just looked like a hodge-podge of moves. Lastly was the waltz we’d been learning. I think my brain had shut down after the Bloody Balmoral Blues. I’d had enough. I just couldn’t figure out where we were and what came next. I apologised to Scamp and sat out the last five or ten minutes and watched other suffer.

We drove home by our alternative route through the Clyde Tunnel which cuts out the dastardly Kingston Bridge. It worked its magic again and we only had about five minutes of queueing on the other side.

Back home, Scamp went out to get chicken for tonight’s dinner and told me to get up and go out for a walk in the sunshine to brighten my mood. I took her at her word, but it wasn’t until she came back that I was kitted out to go for a walk in St Mo’s. Lots of butterflies, Peacocks, Red Admirals and maybe a Tortoiseshell. Lots of bees and hoverflies on the Scabious flowers too. PoD is a Common Carder Bee. Ended my walk by going down to M&S and sourcing a fish pie for tomorrow’s dinner.

I’m still searching for my next phone. I did think about an iPhone 13, but after some good advice from Hazy, I may review the Samsung again. Now it’s your turn Jamie and Simonne. I’m looking at either an iPhone 13 or a Samsung S22+ with 128GB. Hoping it will give me a decent camera and enough storage space for my needs. Do you pair have any suggestions?

Tomorrow is the Cumbernauld 10K.  We may go and cheer the runners on if it’s not raining and if we’re up in time.  We will not be running!

Coffee with Isobel and a question answered – 30 August 2022

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We were out this morning for coffee with Isobel at Costa, so almost coffee.

As usual Isobel was an entertainment. Full of stories of a visit to see the wreck of the Sugar Boat on an afternoon cruise from Greenock. The ship, the MV Captayannis was loaded with raw east African sugar for the Tate & Lyle refinery in Greenock. It was deliberately run aground to prevent it sinking after a collision with another ship during a storm in the Clyde in 1974. Apparently the remains of the ship can still be seen from the esplanade at Helensburgh, but Isobel’s trip started across the Clyde estuary in Greenock. I must admit, this is the first I’ve heard of the Sugar Boat and its story. We must go and have a look for it the next time we’re in Helensburgh. It’s actually visible on Google Maps about halfway between Helensburgh and Greenock.

Scamp was showing Isobel some of our holiday photos and then chanced upon a picture on her phone of a mystery flower that’s growing well in our garden. She showed it to Isobel who immediately recognised it as a Japanese Anemone, and to be honest, it does look like a very large anemone. We’ve been puzzling over that flower for well over a month now, but now Isobel has solved the problem.

We came home via the village to drop Isobel off at her house and then via Tesco to get some messages. Dinner tonight was to be Paella and we needed chicken thighs for that. Of course we bough a lot more besides the chicken. Back home and after lunch I struggled with today’s Wordle and was getting nowhere with it, so I did what I usually do and put it aside and went for a walk in St Mo’s. Not a lot of activity today, but I did get an animated looking group of dandelion seeds. They look as if they’re dancing in the breeze, but actually they’re caught in a spider web. I took a few insect photos too, but nothing spectacular, so the dandelion seeds got PoD.

Paella was ok, but the chicken thighs were a bit cheugh (chewy). Maybe my cooking or maybe not Tesco’s finest. Whatever, it filled a wee space.

We watched a fairly interesting program on the history of University Challenge which is 60 years old this year. I didn’t realise it had been going for such a long time. It was only fairly interesting because there was really far too much padding in it. A 30 minute program made to fit a 60 minute time slot.

I’ve talked Alex into going to the Kelpies tomorrow, rather than Glasgow again. If time permits, we might even get a half hour in Culross.

Dancing, Dodgy Cars and Coast – 27 August 2022

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Drove to Brookfield for dance class, but with half an eye on lunch at Coast!

The traffic was fairly heavy going both ways on the M8, but we had left slightly earlier than usual and had time to spare. Car did a strange thing, it beeped three rapid beeps then the engine appeared to turn off and immediately on again. That’s a bit disconcerting and something I’ll add to my growing list of problems when I take it in for service next month.

Dancing was almost all about ballroom today. I think the teachers are aware that we haven’t had much actual teaching recently and were attempting to fill that gap. We started with the Vogue Waltz which we originally learned at the Perth weekend, so it was really a reprise for us. Next was the Charnwood Cha-Cha which we kind of knew. By “kind of” I mean that Scamp kind of knew it, but I was floundering! Finally we did the Jet Lag Waltz which was totally new for us at least, although some of the others seemed to know it. That’s a lot of different dances to get through in an hour and a half, but we were able to film the Jet Lag Waltz and hopefully Scamp will be able to decode it, chop it into manageable pieces and feed it back to me. I hope so, because next week the teachers are off to Tenerife for a week.

After a Midnight Jive to finish today’s session we were driving to Langbank to have lunch in Coast. That’s when I found out that half my stored destinations had disappeared from the memory of the sat nav. I’m beginning to think that the glitch in the morning caused that information to disappear. This really is the craziest car I’ve ever had the misfortune to drive. We did eventually get a route to the restaurant, but it was a different one from the route the Nissan app had given us yesterday!

The restaurant was fairly busy, but not too busy. My main course was the same as I’d had the last time I was there, Spicy Sausage Rigatoni Ragu with Penne pasta replacing the Rigatoni (a sign of the times). Scamp had Smoked Haddock and Salmon Gratin which she had had at the sister restaurant in Falkirk. We are creatures of habit. Both meals were declared excellent.

We drove over the Erskine bridge then through Bearsden and Kirkintilloch to get home avoiding a third day of the misery of the Kingston Bridge. It probably took longer, but we were travelling all the time. One little misfire from the blue car on the way home.

Back home I took the opportunity of some sunshine to take some more dragonfly photos in St Mo’s, but PoD went to a hoverfly feeding on a wild Scabious flower.

Watched a fairly boring Belgian GP Qualifying and later caught up with Shetland!

No plans for tomorrow. Maybe a day of not driving?

Dinner in Hamilton – 26 August 2022

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Scamp was out in the morning and I was off the leash.

Scamp was out at her FitSteps class in the morning and I had the morning at least to myself, to do with as I wished. The trouble was I didn’t have anything in mind to do. I watered the chilli plants and checked on their condition. Both the old Jalapeño plant and the new hot looking thin chillies were doing fine. The old plant has two Jalapeños which are fattening up nicely but the chilli plant I brought back from Jans Vans in Skye are producing either long, thin, straight chillies or a strange corkscrew variety, both on the same plant. The Jalapeños are staying green as Jalapeños usually do, but the Skye chillies are starting to turn red. I’m not sure what’s stronger, the red or the green. I must try them some day, to compare and contrast.

I spoke to Ray while he was making his lunch and caught up with all that’s happening in his world.  I’d hoped that he would agree to join the Auld Guys for a beer or two in Glasgow, but he carefully avoided the subject.  However it was good to keep in touch.

In the afternoon I took a camera out to see what I could find in St Mo’s. Lots of dragonflies about, but the PoD went to a little grey and black spider on its web, just sitting beside the boardwalk.

In the evening we got dressed to go out to John & Marion’s in Hamilton. It’s ages since we’ve been together with Covid, holidays and weddings we’ve passed like ships in the night. All the talk tonight was of weddings and photo albums and catching up with what the families are doing now. While Scamp and Marion were discussing the photos and the weddings, John and I were planning a day with the Auld Guys in Glasgow. Hopefully that will come to pass soon.

We eventually left around 11pm and were home and parked just before the witching hour.  I got a surprise present from Marion.  A wee bottle of Limoncello!  All the way from Sorrento.  How nice was that!

Early(ish) rise tomorrow to drive to Brookfield for dance class, but with the sweetener of lunch booked at Coast in Langbank.

Dancin’ – 25 August 2022

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Tea dance. The first one in ages.

An accident on the M8 set us back by at least 20mins on our way to the first tea dance in at least a couple of months. We shouldn’t have complained, the poor soul(s) in the badly bashed red car on the hard shoulder were having a far worse day than us.

We drove on and ignored the route the sat nav was giving us and instead we forged our own route, one the sat nav had given us months ago. Why it changed its mind on the best route to the outskirts of Paisley is anyone’s guess. It was a good day for a drive round the motorways of Glasgow, even if some idiot towing a caravan almost forced us off the road. Some folk don’t realise that sitting a driving test before you take a car on the road is not an option, it’s the law. Maybe he just forgot he was towing a massive big white brick behind him. Maybe he was a moron. Probably all three.

We danced a decent waltz today, especially as it’s been so long since we’ve danced among so many people. Yes, we danced on the cruise, but that was in a tiny little elliptical floor. No room to show off our catalog of mistakes. Today we had the whole room to impress with our footwork. We even managed a reasonable Social Foxtrot as well, but we did stumble a bit in the rumba. More practise needed there to smarten up the routine. Lots of sequence dances in between and most of them I got right.

We left early to try to avoid the traffic on the Kingston Bridge. Scamp thought the traffic was lighter than yesterday, but I’m not so sure. In retrospect, I should have taken the M74 rather than the M8. Short term pain for long term gain.

I went for a walk in St Mo’s later and found a compliant dragonfly that sat very patiently for me to get some ‘head on’ shots of it. It almost feels like dragonflies, and damselflies too, are studying you while you’re studying them. The head to head shot got PoD, but a close second was a little hoverfly pretending it was a bee on a wild Scabious flower. The wee thing was completely covered in pollen and you could actually see the pollen on the stamens of the flower. That’s how pollination works and that’s why we need insects, even if some of them are a bit of a pain, literally!

One of Scamp’s specialities for dinner today, Potatoes with Cabbage and Bacon. Scamp going for the vegetarian version without the bacon. It’s one of those meals that doesn’t sound as if it works, but it does.

Tomorrow, Scamp is heading for her FitSteps class. I’ve got a couple of phone calls to make.