Category: Kelpies

Coffee Time – 16 September 2024

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Out to Falkirk to collect some coffee beans.

We took a drive over to Falkirk to the Ironworks Business centre to pick up a kilo of Blow Your Socks Off coffee beans and 250g of the slightly milder Cat’s Pyjamas, also beans. It’s an awkward place to find, but I was sure I could navigate to it without using the sat nav. Of course, I was wrong and fell at the last fence by turning right instead of left. Come to think of it, I did the same thing last time! Maybe next time, all being well …

With the important stuff done, we drove on to The Kelpies. We were lucky to get a parking space because the place was mobbed. We guessed that today was a school holiday in Falkirk or somewhere nearby. We walked over the hill and down the other side to find there were even more folk than we’d imagined.

We walked round the horses in the sunshine and said “Hello”, then walked out to listen to the water pouring out of the canal and down into the River Carron which joins the River Forth further downstream. Got a few photos, then went to have a coffee, but when we saw the queue, we decided to have an ice cream cone instead. The ice cream van was advertising ‘Oysters’. Not the shellfish, but shell shaped cup with sweet sticky icing on one half and room for a big dollop of ice cream on the other. If you put both halves together it looks vaguely like an oyster. Unfortunately they had none in stock. Maybe a lucky break as it would have cost us £10 for two oysters!! I remember a time when …

After we said goodbye to the horses, we drove along to Klondyke Garden Centre where Scamp picked up a big tray of Violas and a wee blue grass plant in the bargain section I got a Cordyline palm for half price. Most, if not, all the violas are now planted and Scamp is investigating the compost we need for the two plants.

We drove home and while Scamp worked in the garden, I dumped the photos and chose my favourite for PoD, which was a view of the Kelpies from the top of a hill near the car park. The extra elevation gave us a view of the Ochil Hills in the background.

Tomorrow we may go wandering again, but this time travelling by bus.

Dentist – 17 June 2024

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Not for me, thankfully. It was for Scamp this time.

The nagging ache from the crown she had fitted a few weeks ago was keeping her awake at night, so this morning she phoned the dentist and got an appointment for 9:45 today. It didn’t take the dentist long to examine the tooth, but she explained that she couldn’t do anything other than look because her dentist chair had developed a fault and she was waiting for the engineer to arrive to fix it. She did say that it could be an infection and gave her a prescription for antibiotics.

We drove over to the chemist at Tesco and did our usual Monday shopping while we waited for the prescription to be filled. Back home with the messages, she took the first of four-a-day tablets and we had lunch.

One Thursday a couple of weeks ago Scamp got a box of solar powered lights, fifty of them. After lunch I was given the job of hanging them on the tall fence. Fifty seems an awful lot of lights, but it didn’t take long to clip them on to the fence and check that they worked. While I was doing that, Scamp was dead-heading the roses and pruning some of the plants in the back garden.

I’d no idea what I was going to photograph today, other than I wanted to use one of my less used lenses, an ultra-wide lens that gets some wonderful effects. Scamp was looking a bit down after getting the garden licked into shape again, so I suggested we drive somewhere for a walk. That seemed to brighten her up, so that’s what we did.

We drove over to Grangemouth and into Klondyke garden centre. The smile on her face when she saw all those flowers told me it was the right decision. We wandered round the roses and the flowers, before we settled on the Bargain Bench where we picked up a Foxglove and a Candelabra Primula for a fiver each. They’re a bit battered and bruised, but with Scamp’s green fingers they will come on a treat. She also got herself a couple of semi-circular metal plant supports that she has been looking for.

We stopped at the Kelpies on the way back and went for a walk round the Big Horses with a few hundred other folk. That gave me an ideal opportunity to use the ultra-wide lens to great effect. My favourite shot got PoD. I’d also picked up an ‘Explore’ award in Flickr this morning for the photo of the reflections of boats on the Water of Leith on Saturday.

The only down side to the day was driving home through the traffic jam that is the M876/M80 on the road home. I’d hate to have to drive those roads every day going and returning from work. Even when I was working, I was only fifteen minutes from my workplace.

Scamp said tonight that she thinks the meds are working. I hope they are and that she gets a good night’s sleep.

Tomorrow we may go out again if the weather fairies are correct and the skies are blue.

Talking to the big horses – 9 May 2024

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But earlier we were looking for fish.

We finally settled on what to make for tomorrow’s dinner for Crawford & Nancy For it we needed some cod with the skin on. To get fresh fish in Cumbersheugh is difficult, but we reckoned we could get what we were looking for at the fish van that hauls up just outside Calders garden centre. Yes, he had cod, but he’d just skinned it, because that’s what people want these days. However he said he was happy to bring us skin-on cod tomorrow. He took our name and email address and we bought, (well, Scamp bought) some crab meat for us and some veg. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll get the cod.

Drove back to Tesco and what did they have in their chiller cabinet? Cod with the skin on, but it wouldn’t be fresh, it would be deep frozen pre packed cod that had been thawed out. Fresh cod would be better. It was like a Monday shop on a Thursday but with some extra bottles of wine.

Once we’d unloaded the car, we drove over to Helix Park in Falkirk, which is where the Kelpies live. The weather was beautiful. Lovely blue skies and light fluffy clouds. We had a walk round the Kelpies and then went for lunch in the cafe. It was Mac ’n’ Cheese for Scamp and Lentil Soup for me. Good filling stodge. Then we went for another walk round the big horses and listened to the birds, probably nest building, inside them. An ice cream cone with a flake each rounded off our lunch and although there were hundreds, perhaps thousands of folk taking selfies and photos all around the Kelpies, they stayed serene and the background noises seemed to disappear. We just sat and watched. Of course I took some photos too. PoD went to a shot of Duke looking down at a couple who were photographing him.

We drove home and I started making tomorrow’s pudding which is Creme Caramel. It’s a bit of a faff to make, but not as much a faff as trying to type the Grave accent on a Mac keyboard. I think it’s made now, but the Grave accent still doesn’t work on my Mac keyboard.

Today’s prompt was Hippopotamus! Hard to spell, but almost impossible to sketch. I have a painting, but I’m not willing to make it public yet. Maybe tomorrow morning will be better.

Tomorrow it looks like we’ll be baking and cooking all day.

Off east to see the horses – 29 December 2023

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I’d promised Scamp an afternoon at the Kelpies and I hate to disappoint her.

So we drove over to Helix Park in Falkirk where the Kelpies live. It started off as a beautiful day, but by the time we got there, the clouds were rolling in. Paid for parking and walked over the canal bridge, then down the path beside the Forth & Clyde canal to admire the great beasts. I got a few photos as we were walking and we also passed the RE: Wild Thing which is an installation made from recycled bike parts made to represent the nature and wildflowers within the park. Very clever recycling (pun intended).

We crossed over the outfall of the canal and back to the main event, the Kelpies themselves. We both noticed that there were lights inside them today. I imagine they look quite impressive after nightfall. There was a small skating rink in the park, but I wasn’t intending going on the ice. I never did fancy ice skating. Thankfully there wasn’t much of a queue at the cafe and we could sit in relative comfort with our coffee and a scone, watching the folk taking selfies and group photos in front of the sculptures.

It was quite cold today and as the sky was clearing, it seemed to get even colder. Maybe that was because I knew the temperature was going to be sub zero tonight, or maybe the wind was stealing all the heat away.
We had one more walk round the horses and then walked back to the car, then drove home via Tesco for a couple of bags of messages. On the way back to the house I stopped at Fred’s house to hand in a Christmas/Birthday prezzy for him and a box of chocolates for Margo. Poor Fred’s birthday is on the 25th of December! He must have felt hard done by when he was younger, only getting one lot of prezzies!

We watched an entertaining Celebrity Masterchef. It’s not every day you’ll hear me saying that, but this one was special, because it was the food critics who were cooking for the previous winners of Masterchef. I don’t know how faked it was, but the celebs really did seem to be having a hard time getting things finished in the timescale. Worth looking for on iPlayer if only for the looks on the critics faces!

Dinner was a delicious Chicken Milanese. Chicken fillet battered flat with a rolling pin, coated in breadcrumbs and fried in the frying pan. Served with potatoes. A Scamp classic.

PoD was, of course The Kelpies, viewed from the other side of the canal from my usual place.

Tomorrow we might get some of the white stuff. Temperature is already -1ºc, right in the middle of the danger zone. Need to find our snow shovels perhaps.

Old Glass and the Owl Woman – 16 September 2023

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Today we drove over to Klondyke at Falkirk for the worst lunch in living memory.

Actually the garden centre is really good. Plants all look good and are reasonably priced, but we thought we’d try their lunches. Scamp ordered her favourite test piece, Mac ’n’ Cheese. I wasn’t all that hungry (for once) and ordered Home made Pork & Leek Sausage Roll. What arrived after about half an hour was a sloppy looking macaroni in a tasteless white sauce and a giant sausage roll that had been microwaved. I’m the first person to say that I’m not a chef, but I know you don’t microwave flaky pastry. It just isn’t flaky after that kind of treatment, but obviously the ‘chef’ was oblivious to that. The ‘meat’ inside the inedible wrapping was almost as bad. My advice if you fancy stopping there for lunch? Don’t, just don’t. If you want some plants, fine, just don’t eat there. You’ll only regret it.

We did buy a couple of plants, because it only seems to be the restaurant that’s affected by the lack of culinary knowledge. The plants are fine. We took away a batch of pansies and a new Japanese Anemone and since the Kelpies are nearby, we went there for our second, and edible, lunch. A scone each and two coffees with a view out at the horses looking sparkling in the sunshine. A walk around the Kelpies and a few photos taken. One with old glass, the eleven year old E-PL5 with the squeaky 20mm Panasonic lens. One with the cantankerous 28-70mm kit lens on the A7iii. Nothing is perfect in my photographic repertoire! The Old Glass shot of pansies taken at Klondyke won the day and that became the PoD.

We finished off our lunch with an ice cream ‘Boat’. A plastic boat with two servings of Mr Whippy ice cream and one chocolate flake to share. While we were consuming this dessert, a man and a lady walked past and the lady had an owl on her arm. A real owl clasping the gauntlet on her hand. It was interesting to watch the looks on folks faces as they did the ‘second look’ thing and then turned to look at a woman with an owl on her arm. We just spent a few minutes trying to outdo each other with jokes about the “Owl woman”. Which, if you’re Scottish (or Irish) translates as “Old Woman”. Oh what childish fun we had at her expense. Of course, all the time she was preening herself for being the centre of attention, while the owl just looked superior and blinked … as owls do. Said goodbye for a while to the big horses and drove home.

Back home, Scamp was deadheading more of the flowers while I repotted the sad looking Berberis plants that were looking a bit sad.

Dinner tonight was a Spice Tailor almost instant Goan prawn curry which no doubt Delia would say was nothing like what a Goan curry would taste like. It was certainly better than a dodgy Mac ’n’ Cheese or a nuked sausage roll.

Watched an ‘interesting’ Singapore GP where neither of the Red Bull cars made it to Qualifying 3. That means they’ll be in he middle of the pack and will have to prove their prowess. Some folk are just getting too big for their boots. The signs that Xmas is on the way is that the days are getting shorter, the temperature is dropping and Strictly is starting its annual run. Tonight was that night. Oh what fun it was to see all the hopefuls finding who their dance partners would be. I wonder who’ll be first to go.

We have no plans for tomorrow. It took a long time for the sun to come out of hiding today and it might take longer tomorrow. Some rain predicted.

A day at the horses – 31 August 2023

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Not the galloping kind, but really big horses.

It was a really beautiful morning with blue skies and fluffy white clouds. I kid you not, we do occasionally have good days up beyond Hadrian’s Wall. We discussed where we might go to enjoy this sudden change in the weather after yesterday’s sudden showers. Scamp’s first suggestion of Drumpellier didn’t really excite me and my first suggestion of the Kelpies was always going to be a winner with Scamp. So, we went off to see the big horses. We were so busy talking while I was driving, we missed the slip-road for Falkirk and were heading for Stirling. It didn’t matter, I knew we could turn off just outside Stirling and head along the M9 to Grangemouth and from there it was an easy road to Helix park where the horses live.

We paid for the luxury of parking near to the Kelpies, the giant horses we’d come to see. I’d been there just over a week before, but I didn’t mind going again. There is always something to photograph in the park. Today it was one of the canal boats that grabbed my attention, but the big horses got PoD. We had lunch outside the cafe because it seemed such a waste to sit in a hot cafe when we could enjoy the fresh air outside and look over the park. Just for fun, after our lunch we shared an ice cream boat. It’s a wee boat shaped dish made from thin plastic with two squirts of Mr Whippy ice cream, and a ’99’ with two spoons to share. Just for fun, like I said, but it felt so relaxing sitting in the sun having lunch. Sort of ‘Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe’. The Monet version, not the shocking nakedness of the Manet one!

Another walk round the horses to say goodbye and we walked over the canal and along the towpath to the carpark. I suggested we might go and visit Klondyke Garden Centre on our way home. It was a bit out of our way, but it would be a change from our usual plant specialists. Scamp was in her element. So much so, she couldn’t quite decide what she was going to bring home. In the end we bought a Chrysanthemum ball, a variegated Berberis, a Basil plant and a small ornamental grass. She also found a fruit stall in the centre and bought lots of interesting veg and fruit. An expensive visit, but very worthwhile. I think we may go back!

On the way home, I stopped at Tesco, terminated my connection to EE and joined Tesco Mobile. Not as good coverage as EE, but cheaper with more data allowance and the promise not to increase the price over 24 months. Just waiting now for my PAC code to complete its change over to Tesco. I’ve been meaning to do it for ages, and it was all completed in about ten minutes.

If you care to take a look at what was happening this day in 2022 and then go back a day (it’s easy), you might believe in synchronicity!  Carl Jung was a clever man!!

Tomorrow I think Scamp is intending to go to FitSteps and I’m going to do as little as possible!

 

Out to lunch – 15 May 2023

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We got the text just after 9am. Ben went to school!

That meant we were on track to take Ben’s mum, Shona to lunch. Picked her up just before midday and drove by the backroads to The Stables because it was such a lovely day. Shona was adamant that this was her treat. In fact this was her contribution to our Golden Wedding anniversary. When she told us that, how could we refuse. Scamp and Shona had a Fish Finger Sandwich each. Big chunks of fish in batter in a panini, with a cup of chips each. I had the meat eater’s version which was a slice of fillet steak cooked rare and also served on a panini and also with a cup of chips. Both lunch meals were delicious.

After lunch we went for a walk along the towpath of the Forth & Clyde canal which runs past the front of the restaurant. We walked for about a mile in the general direction of Glasgow before we turned back. Loads to see today. Butterflies all along the path, Peacock, Orange Tip and Cabbage Whites, mainly. Bluebells growing under the trees and a big Aquilegia growing wild in the hedgerow. Loads of people out on bikes making the most of an unexpectedly good day. There was even a canal boat chugging sedately heading for Glasgow, probably. It was the Yarrow Seagull and it got PoD with Scamp and Shona getting in on the photo too.

We dropped Shona off at her house and we drove home via Tesco. Back home, Scamp swithered, whether to cut the front grass or not. Eventually she decide she would and I was enlisted to lift the flower pots out of the way of the mower and replace them when she was finished.

Some of the roses needed a last trim before the flower buds appear and that was my job. I also pruned the Forsythia now that the flowers had gone over and before the leaves come fully out. My final job was to tie back the pink fluffy plant in the back garden. I can never remember its name. I know there are two of them, slightly different from each other but both are planted beside each other. The one I was working with today is really tall and although I’m sure it can stand up for itself, a bamboo stake and a couple of fairly loose cable ties wouldn’t do any harm to give it a little more support in today’s gusty breeze.

Today’s prompt asked for “Artwork you love”. Scamp and I both love the massive Kelpies. The 30m (100ft) high artwork was created by Scottish sculptor Andy Scott. They stand in Helix Park in Falkirk at the eastern end of the Forth & Clyde canal. They are made from steel and each one weighs over 300 tonnes. They were modelled on real Clydesdale horses Duke and Baron.

We’d ordered a pair of slipper shoes for Scamp at a fair discount last Friday. They were supposed to be delivered today, but the postcode was wrong. A mix up at the ordering stage. My fault for not checking properly. However when we got home the parcel was there waiting for us. One of the benefits of having the same postman all the time is that they get to know the names and addresses and don’t rely too much on postcodes.  And while I’m on the subject of shoes.  A big thank you to Scamp for sneakily getting my favourite black and white dance shoes soled and heeled for me.  I’ve been meaning to do it myself, I even bought Evostick glue to do it, but just never got round to doing it.  Sometimes you have to get the expert to do it properly, so thank you again, Scamp.

Tomorrow, unbelievably we’re hoping to go out for lunch again with Crawford & Nancy.

 

Happy Birthday Scamp – 24 March 2023

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A busy day, but a great one.

Today was Scamp’s birthday, a big birthday. It started with breakfast in bed as befitted the Birthday Girl. Then it was time to get dressed and face the day.

There were cards to open and parcels to unpack. I became doorman and brought in the parcels that delivery men asked me to sign for, lots of them. Most amazing being an enormous bouquet of flowers. I do believe the birthday girl was overwhelmed by it all. There was paper and cardboard boxes everywhere. Eventually everything calmed down and we went out to lunch.

It wasn’t a posh lunch, just a normal(ish) Friday afternoon outing to The Cotton House, or go-to Chinese/Thai restaurant a couple of miles down the road. Typically, we had our usual choices from the menu. Scamp had Thai Spring Rolls, followed by Chicken Chow Mein. I had Chicken Noodle Soup and Salt & Chilli Chicken with Noodles. No tea or coffee, just the bill, please. Food was just as lovely as usual.

Instead of driving home, we travelled on to Torwood Garden Centre to get some solar powered lights for the garden. Scamp had said a few weeks ago that she’d like garden lights as a birthday present, so today she got to choose them. We also got a new watering can and a peony rose for me.

Since we were only halfway to the Kelpies, it seemed like a good idea to just drive there so Scamp could tell them all about her birthday so far. We took a rather strange route to get there, but in the end we found Helix Park where the Kelpies live. As usual, I took loads of photos and one of them got PoD. It was a lovely day with blue skies, but later as we were just deciding to go to the cafe for a coffee, there was a sharp shower of rain. After coffee and more photos, we said cheerio to Baron and Duke and drove back home, just managing to avoid the worst of the rush hour.

There was a card on the mat when we got home to say that a parcel was waiting for Scamp at the Post Office. I checked the time it closed and I had just enough time to go there and collect the parcel. Of course it was another birthday parcel.

Later in the evening we had a three way Zoom call from Hazel, Jamie and Neil. Simonne had been in hospital to get her tonsils removed and Jamie was waiting to see if she would get out tonight or not. It was a good call, even if Simonne was absent. Lots of stuff talked about and plans were made for later in the year. Hey, but you know all this. We used up almost our whole hour of air time. Thank you all for organising that.

Tonight (or should I say yesterday night, since you’ll know this was a catch-up) we had an early night. Too much excitement and planning for two bears of little brain.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to dance in the morning and relax for the rest of the day.

 

Ice Cold with Alex – 8 February 2023

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Alex and I were meeting up to drive to The Kelpies today

It was a bit cold when I left the house to pick up Alex from the train station. By the time we got to Helix Park where the Kelpies live, it was ‘Baltic’. The wind was getting up and the temperature was going down. To start with it was fine, we even got in free because the car park is unsupervised between September and March, or thereabouts. We took some photos of the unicorn at the entrance to the car park. It’s made from woven strips of willow, we think on an armature of either copper tubes or maybe just cleverly jointed willow. I imagine it looked good through Alex’s new glass, a 70-350mm APSC lens. It wouldn’t work on my Full Frame camera or I’d have taken some shots. It’s also too expensive and too niche for me.

The main subject of the day was to be the kelpies themselves, so we walked down the long avenue to have a look at them. Alex wanted to photograph them from a hill above the car park and I wanted much the same viewpoint, but looking through some ornamental grass, rather than over it. Once I’d taken them I wasn’t impressed with the results. We walked on the meet the beasts.

I’ve been to the kelpies many times now because they are one of Scamp’s favourite sculptures and mine too, I must admit, but I wanted to try some different views. With that in mind, while Alex was photographing the 1/10th scale maquettes outside the cafe, I wandered along beside the canal under the motorway flyover and got some different perspectives on the monster horses. One I haven’t worked on yet on the computer was taken with Baron the ‘head up’ Kelpie rearing over the motorway. Different because you don’t see his body, just from the neck up.

I took a few more, but after we met up again, we went for coffee and a sandwich. The heat when we entered the cafe was a delight. You don’t realise how cold you are until you come in to the warm. Fed and watered, we left to face that wind that seemed to be getting stronger. I took a few shots of the maquettes with the wee 1/10th scale man beside them, helping to give a sense of scale. After a fair bit of work, that became PoD. A few photos later we agreed to call it a day. Windchill was getting to my face and fingers and to Alex to I imaging because he was the one who suggested we head for home.

A total of 93 photos taken with 8 of those rejected. Alex had taken 99. We had both taken a lot of ‘doublers’, but you’ve got to do that sometimes to cover all bases.

I dropped him back at the station and then realised when I got home that his woolly bonnet was in the foot well of the car. A good day, even if it was very cold.

Today’s prompt was ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’. I started out intending to sketch the moon reflecting on a river, because Moon River was the most famous song in the film, but a doodle of Audrey Hepburn quickly took shape instead. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow, but not the Moon River flow in this case!

Tomorrow we’re hoping to go the a tea dance, but first I think we might need some practise time.

Off to see the big horses – 14 November 2022

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Today we were heading to Falkirk to get a pair of trainers.

We went to Falkirk today, looking for a pair of dance trainers for Scamp. She only spent about fifteen minutes in the shop because they didn’t have her size, but at least she got to see them and find out if they were what she was looking for. Afterwards we went to Morrisons, basically to see if they had the Neapolitan ice cream wafers, but they didn’t. They did have bread and milk and chocolate button ice cream cones, so we didn’t come home empty handed. We had lunch there, but the place looked like a tip. Food left all over a table and on the floor beneath. One cleaner came to wipe down the table and take away some of the rubbish, but despite her calling on the tannoy for help, nobody came. I don’t think I’d go back to Morrisons cafe. If that is the state of the tables in the cafe, what is the kitchen like?

Afterwards we drove down to the Kelpies and they were looking really grand in the afternoon light. They always bring a smile to our faces. I got a few shots of the beasts from a slightly different angle that avoids the pylons and the power lines. Light was really lovely with just a hint of haze beginning to gather in the distant hollows. One of those photos made PoD. I watched a group of folk flying a drone and posing for photos with it. Photos you couldn’t take any other way. I hope the shots turned out. I’d like to play with a drone, but I doubt if I’d be happy with the quality of photos it would produce.

I think today was the last day of sunshine for a while. Tomorrow looks wet and it remains changeable for the remainder of the week.

Scamp didn’t get the trainers in the shop, but she did order them from Amazon tonight, for delivery tomorrow.

No plans for tomorrow, although I’m hoping for a dry hour some time in the daylight hours. Just a little window to take some photos. Scamp is off for coffee with Annette.