Category: Light

Dancin’ Class – 23 March 2024

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For four couples!

Only four couples dancing the Valentino Jive, Spring Waltz, Mayfair Quickstep, Jive and Tina Tango (to Shivers by Ed Sheehan, of course). Four couples and five routines, but, for me it was the Spring Waltz, or more correctly it was the details in the Spring Waltz we learned today that made me think for an hour I was “Dancing”. Both Stewart and Jane demonstrated the ’Sway’ technique that took the waltz from a walk round the floor to moving through the dance. It’s difficult to explain and will probably need a fair bit of rehearsing for us to get it right, but that simple technique took the waltz to another level. I’m really glad we went to today’s class.

Drove home and stopped at the shops to get the makings of tomorrow’s dinner which will be a reprise of Thursday’s Chicken Thighs with Leeks and Peas. M&S had no Skin-On, Bone-In Chicken Thighs but Aldi did.

After lunch I took a camera for a walk round Cumbersheugh and actually found a new vantage point to photograph the Campsies in some lovely light. The weather is best described as ‘changeable’. Rain one minute, brilliant sunshine the next, constantly changing. As well as that I also managed to get …

This section of the blog has been redacted due to the sensitive nature of the subject matter. Friends and family will understand why this decision has been taken. It may be released at a future date.

With that completed, I drove back home in time to take Scamp to The Link for her final Shingles injection. She had her first one eight weeks ago and it was a dull dark night. Today the sun was shining. What a difference a couple of months makes.

She had requested Fish ’n’ Chips for dinner and we stopped at Condorrat on the way home to get some. Nice fresh fish and freshly fried chips too. Perfect for a Saturday dinner.

We watched a recording of Rocky Horror Picture Show we’d made around about Christmas. I think we both had forgotten just how funny it was.

Preparations are in place for tomorrow, bus some are still to be finalised. That’s where I’m going now.

Disaaaaaaaster Day – 24 November 2023

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Do you know those days when nothing goes right? That was me today.

It started when the phone rang about 9:30. The surgery calling to ask me to get my bloods done (I had them done yesterday). When I told them that, the lady on the other end rambled on about they needed them done again, then proceeded to give me a date on the day I’m supposed to get my results! Eventually she gave in and said the sister could take my bloods then! What? After I’ve had the results, of the bloods I’ve still to get taken? I’m beginning to lose faith in this surgery.

I put it to the back of my head and when Scamp was off to her FitSteps class, I started making the tomato and red pepper soup which was the starter for todays dinner with our friends from Hamilton. Once the soup was simmering I left it and started to wash the inside of the front windows which were really needing done. Halfway through, I accidentally bumped over the water bucket which, thankfully, was only about a quarter full and washed the rug in the living room as well as the windows. Two towels and the hairdryer got rid of most of the wet stuff and the windows were clean!

By then the soup was cooked and I allowed it to cool for a while. I had a cup of coffee to recover then started blitzing the soup, only for a cup full to spray over the cooker.

They do say bad things come in threes. I think I got my three today.

Just to put the morning behind me, I went for a walk over St Mo’s and got today’s PoD which I’ve photographed quite a few times, but it was the shadows stretching out along the path, rather than the trees that made today’s version special.

Dinner went well with Tomato Soup as a starter and Apricot Glazed Chicken and Lentil Traybake for the main followed by Toffee Apple Treat for dessert. Lots of stories told about holidays and folk we know and we eventually got to bed just before 1am. Very late for us.

Tomorrow is forecast to be cold. We only might go out. It depends on how brave we feel.

Out on the town – 22 November 2023

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Up fairly early and heading for Glasgow.

Meeting Alex an hour early at 11:00. That gave us time to have a cup of coffee and plan our day. The weather wasn’t looking very promising, but Alex had some places he wanted to go and I was happy to comply.

First stop was Princes Square which was decorated like the big day had arrived and Santa was whizzing around the world on his sleigh pulled by reindeer. It was all jolly and happy and expensive as most things are in Princes Square. I’m not complaining. This was my first stop to get a chance of a photo or five of the fancy wrought iron railings on the stairs. Alex had photographed them a few months ago, but I got the shot with the fake Christmas tree branches and the sparkly lights. One of those photos made PoD. It’s glitzy and twee and I’m quite delighted with it.

St Enoch’s Square was next, because we knew the amusements were there and the Christmas Market. Again, all sparkly lights but with pretend chalets where Welsh folk were selling Xmas tat from old French Citroen vans. A veritable community of nations. Also there were the usual rides, German beer, German sausage and German Bratwurst whatever that is. So really it wasn’t a Christmas market, more a German market with some Welsh folk in old French vans. Anyway, we wandered round taking a few photos, but knowing that at about midday on dull wet day we weren’t going to get many keepers.

We walked down to Clyde Street and took a few photos of the graffiti on the Clyde Walkway. It’s a constantly changing blackboard for these skilled and not so skilled artists. Always worth a look.

Hunger pangs were telling us that Paesano should be our next port of call and that’s where we headed. Alex for a number 5 (no cheese) and me for a number 3 (just as it comes).

We had a quick look at George Square where the Christmas lights were lit, but the Christmas Village was still being constructed, decided it was a lost cause and instead headed back to Clyde Street and followed the Clyde downstream to the financial district knowing in our heart of hearts that it was a lost cause. The good light had gone and wasn’t coming back until tomorrow … maybe.

We found a different Nero from the morning and each had a coffee before plodding our weary way back up to the bus station where my X3 was patiently waiting for me, while Alex headed back to Motherwell. Next photo walk is loosely booked for two weeks hence, all being well.

Back home, Scamp had returned from her lunch and after filling her in on our day and finding about her’s, it was almost time to go dancing at Kirsty’s dance class. It was Quickstep today and although I though I’d mastered the steps last night in the living room, I’d forgotten just how Quick the Steps were. My feet got into a terrible fankle trying to extricate myself from the Twinkle. Nine times out of ten I used the wrong foot to start the move and so ended up in a mess. I do know how to do it, but my feet don’t. It’s their fault, not mine!

Tomorrow we are planning on going for the messages.

Back in the old regime – 14 October 2023

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Driving to Brookfield today for the first class in ages.

Ah, but what a pleasant drive it was. No 40mph stretches of the motorway and no restricted lanes. What a delight that was, but how long will it last before the next phase starts? It doesn’t matter, because at least we had a stressless drive for once.

Not stressless in Brookfield. We started with the Charnwood Cha-Cha which Scamp was at pains to tell me that we’d done it before. I did remember bits of it and eventually it began to flow as it should.

Next was a new dance that was called the Ria Bachata. It was familiar up to a point. The steps were bachata steps, but the speed of the music was far too fast. It was more like a cha-cha bachata. I wasn’t impressed, but apparently we’ll be dancing it at the next ball in November, so we better start practising.

Next up today was the Tango which we learned years ago on Zoom during lockdown. This version was different, much more precise than our simple tango. Also there was a new step to master before the final “X Line” splits! Neither of us can remember its name, but I think we’ll be leaving it out of our tango version.

Finally there was the Foxtrot which I was quite confident at dancing until I came to the Continuous Hover Cross. Despite Stewart demonstrating it with Scamp and Jane dancing it with me, it felt different again from what we learned a couple of years ago. Maybe I just need to go back to those old videos and try to find our version of it. I remember it took me a long time to master it and I don’t want to go through that again.

That may be the last lesson for some time as it seems unlikely that we’ll be going to the next class and the class the week after that has been cancelled because the hall committee are putting up decorations for Halloween.

We drove home and quite a while after lunch I went out to get some photos. Nothing really seemed to be working, but then I saw a man out walking two dogs and managed to frame him between two trees and Bingo! I hd a picture of the day. On the way back from my photo walk I dropped in at Golden Bowl and brought back a Chicken Chop Suey with Fried Rice for Scamp and a Special Chow Mein for me. Both of us agreed that was a good move.

Prompt for the day was Castle. I thought of drawing a real castle, but realistically, the Rook from a chess set would fit the bill as its alternative name is Castle. I drew it while half watching Strictly and that accounts for the poor symmetry of the castle.

Tomorrow it looks like it will be cold as it’s just above 0ºc just now. We might go out for a walk in Colzium to see the colours of the Acers.

Out for a walk – 26 September 2023

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A walk between the showers.

But first, there was work to be done in the morning. I decided that I’d make some soup for lunch. Not one of Scamp’s ‘Just Soups’, but more a ‘What have we got in the fridge’ soup. What I found was some carrots, a leek, a red pepper, a slice of bacon, a couple of kale leaves and in the cupboard a tub of broth mix. That should be enough to make a pot of soup, with some boiling water and a couple of stock cubes. After chopping the veg and grating one of the carrots, I brought the lot to the boil and then let it simmer for about an hour. It looked like soup and it smelled like soup, so it was soup. That was lunch sorted, and the rain was on. I chose to drive down to the shops to get some bread while the soup was simmering. I drove to the shops because the rain was getting heavier, straight down rain.

The soup made a fairly filling lunch and the rain went off. I was thinking I might chance a walk in St Mo’s, but a quick look over the Campsies told me that although the sun was shining and the streets were drying, it wouldn’t be long before the rain would return … and I was right. However, Scamp and I did get out later in the afternoon for a walk once round the pond at St Mo’s in sunshine. I almost managed to grab a shot of a dragonfly, only one shot before it flew off and that was out of focus. Such a pity. On the way back home I got a few shots of a bloke waking home along the path through the trees and that made PoD. It’s heavily edited, but I quite like the warm light and the streaks of light across the path. The light on the path is real, but the warm light is just pure Lightroom!

The rain didn’t return for a few hours, but when it came it was torrential again. We’re expecting more rain tomorrow and strong winds too when Storm Agnes visits us. I do hope the two who are holidaying in Wales don’t suffer too much from the stormy weather.

Another short practise tonight to rub more rough edges off the waltz and it’s beginning to look like it will actually be danceable soon.

No plans for tomorrow. Just making the most of a wild day, I think.

Heading North – 30 August 2023

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Both of us heading north, just not together

Scamp was going to Pitlochry with the rest of the witches on the bus and I was driving to Perth to get coffee, tea, lunch and Coltsfoot Rock. The only place I know I can get the rock is in a wee herbalist shop in Perth.

It was a fairly pleasant run up until I reached the roadworks. The works have been advertised for sometime, but were describes as being at Broxden. I assumed they were at Broxden roundabout. Not so, they were for a long stretch of the road before the roundabout and in actual fact, the roundabout was clear of any an all works. It was a 30mph speed limit on the single carriage way through the roadworks and the person in front, whoever they were was holding exactly to the speed limit. I’m guessing they were running on cruise control. It didn’t bother me because I wasn’t in a rush.

Parked at the multi-storey where we park when we’re going to the dance weekends and took too heavy bags of books to the Oxfam shop. Next stop was the coffee shop for beans and tea, then over to Nero for lunch which was a roll ’n’ sausage and a cup of decent coffee. Final task was to get the Coltsfoot rock and thankfully the shop had plenty. With that done, I managed to sneak in to the 1 hour parking category and happily paid my £1.49! At the coffee shop I’d made enquiries of the best way to drive to Kinnoull Hill which I thought I might just conquer in the afternoon.

I found the road up the hill using the directions one of the girls in the shop had given me and parked in a convenient parking place. It was a steep climb and I then realised that my troubled cycling the other day hadn’t been an isolated incident. This hill just got steeper and steeper and soon I had to stop to take a breath. That gave me a chance to check how far I’d walked and how much further I had to go. The answer was depressing. Surely I must be further on than that? But no. The OS map on my phone confirmed what Mr Google said and I’d a long way to climb yet. I thought I could remember driving along what turned out to be a private road with Scamp and both of us walking through some woods to the viewpoint. This was nothing like that path. Eventually I gave up and walked back in the direction of the car. I did find some brambles though. Nice big black fruit that’s now taking up 100g worth of space in the freezer. Back at the car I followed my nose and found my way back through Perth town onto the notorious A9 and after driving through two torrential showers, arrived back home. Conquer Kinnoull Hill in an afternoon? Who was I kidding!

I stopped in Condorrat for 500g of mince and 500g of stew. I vacuum packed the stew and half of the mince to put in the freezer. The remaining mince I turned into a bolognese sauce an ate half of it with spaghetti for dinner.

Not long after that I got the call to say that Scamp and Co were leaving Stirling and I drove up through the rain to pick them up.

It seemed that there wasn’t much to see in Pitlochry, however they had a posh lunch and enjoyed the walk around the town, window shopping. My lunch was basic, but was what I was looking for and I’d ticked off all my boxes apart from climbing Kinnoull Hill. Ill leave that for another day when I’m fitter, or more likely when I find that road we drove up the last time!

No real plans for tomorrow. The wee car is feeling a bit thirsty, so I might put some petrol in its tank.

A mixed up day – 9 May 2023

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One of those days when one thing changed everything.

We were supposed to be going to lunch with Shona, but after a flurry of emails between her and us about a problem getting Ben to go to school meant that we had to reschedule to next week. It was disappointing for all of us, but I think it was the best thing to do in the circumstances. We’ll hope that Ben is more amenable next week.

That left us with a day to fill. I’d called off a photo walk with Alex on Wednesday because I’d planned to go into Glasgow to look for a suit. Maybe if we went to Glasgow today instead, I could speak nice to Alex and we could get that photo walk on Wednesday after all.

So that’s what we did. Scamp confirmed a date with Shona for lunch next week, I sent Alex a text explaining that a slot had opened on Wednesday for a walk and a blether. I’d one more call to make and that was to the electrician who fixed our dodgy wiring a couple of months ago and got him to give me a call with a suitable date to come and fit a new distribution board. All done we headed over to Glasgow.

We went to Slaters, as more than half of Glasgow do when they need a new suit. Service was as smart as ever and we left a few quid lighter but with a suit, a shirt and two ties. Scamp had her eye on something in M&S and while she went there, I walked up to leave the suit bag in the car at Buchanan Galleries carpark. As I was walking across the JL bridge I looked out over Glasgow as I usually do and the rain was bucketing down, but the sky was brightening, highlighting the rain against the dark of Queen Street Station. That made a PoD photo, for sure.

If you read yesterday’s blog you might remember that I found a cut in the tread of my boots and I said “I wouldn’t think it’s repairable, although someone on YouTube will know different”. Well, someone did and I’ve possibly found a solution. It’s a tube of repair glue stuff that might stop the leak for a while. Thankfully Tiso on Buchanan Street had it in stock, so I bought a tube. Now I need a wee drop of Isopropyl alcohol to clean the tear. I bought a bottle of Surgical Spirit today that might do the job, but now that I think about it, I’m sure the liquid I use to clean the camera sensor it indeed Isopropyl alcohol. I’ll check tomorrow.

Just as I was leaving Tiso, Scamp phoned to ask where I was, we met up and went to Paesano for lunch. We were served by a grumpy looking waitress who was maybe just having as bad a day as Shona.

Scamp had bought rather a pretty dress in M&S for a lot less than my outfit cost. But in my defence, it must be nearly nine years since I bought a suit.

The photo of ‘Raintown’ did indeed make PoD and it was also my 10,000th photo on Flickr!

Today’s prompt was for “A Rock or A Stone”.
I thought long and hard about this prompt considering and rejecting an actual rock (boring), Edinburgh Rock (porous soft multicoloured sweets), Edinburgh Castle Rock (the rock the actual castle stands on) and the Bass Rock which is a gannet sanctuary in the Firth of Forth. I finally settled on a stick (or a stalk) of seaside rock.
Probably a British tradition, it’s a hard, slightly porous candy stick with letters formed into it that run all the way along its length. Traditionally white with pink writing inside a shiny pink shell. Delicious and deadly for teeth!

Tomorrow with the agreement made that we intend going for a photo walk, I’m hoping to meet Alex in Glasgow.

 

Relaxing – 16 April 2023

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Woke with a cough and a sore throat again.

Since Thursday I’ve been plagued with a cough and a sore throat. Today I was just feeling yuk for most of the day. I’m guessing I picked up somebody’s Lurgy on the train coming up from down south. The carriage we were in from Peterborough to Edinburgh was stowed, so it’s a fair bet that’s where it came from. I’d felt better last night and hoped that today would bring even more improvement, but it didn’t. It looks like I’ll just have to ride it out Thankfully Scamp seems to be free of the effects of whatever it was.

With that in mind I decided to have a lazy day, not doing much at all. More or less the story of my life if I can get away with it! However, while Scamp walked down to the shops to get some fish for tonight’s Cabbage and Smoked Haddock Risotto, I did some swift reorganisation of the living room with boxes piled on the coffee table and the Sarracenia pitcher plant balanced on top to give me the image that became PoD. Beautiful colours and patterns on the pitcher plant, but it does look like a triffid. Then I managed to put everything back in its rightful place before Scamp returned … just!

Later we did some gentle gardening. Scamp looked a bit disappointed to find a single stem of Astilbe growing where a forest had been last year. Me? I was quite happy to see one strand had survived the shock and awe attack. You just can’t keep Astilbe down. We replanted the astilbe and transplanted what we think are Candelabra Primula from where a single plant grew in the wilderness last year to a more easily seen spot beside the steps. I chopped up the remaining kale plants, collecting a few leaves from them to freeze for use later in the year. I think if we remove the top planks from the failing raised bed we can grow some kale and maybe some leeks in it for another year. After that we can make a decision on its long term viability, all being well.

Spoke to Jamie after dinner to hear how things were now that we are out of their hair. It seemed like they were doing today what we’d been doing yesterday. Told him the coffee tub for storing coffee was a clever design that works well. Forgot to tell him that I liked the coffee that came with it. So: Thank you Jamie for the coffee it tastes good now that I’ve got the grind right again!

Sent Hazy a movie I’d made demonstrating the brilliant design of the herb stripper she gave me for my birthday. I’d never seen anything like this before. Three different sized holes in a ceramic dish strip the leaves from the stem of herbs like Thyme much quicker and more efficiently than doing it by hand. Such a clever girl for finding these things.

Such clever folk we have as family. We should be and are grateful to all of you.

No plans for tomorrow. I’m going to dope myself up with a wee hot toddy tonight then go to bed to read a (relatively) new Carl Hiaasen book, Squeeze Me, hoping the cough will have abated by morning. Backlog from my blog gone when I post this!

Looking at Planes – 16 January 2023

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Yesterday my first box of coffee arrived. Today my next box was due.

I was expecting a delivery of coffee from Rave Coffee and it was being delivered by Royal Mail, who apparently weren’t on strike today! I wasn’t entirely hopeful, although Royal Mail are slightly better than their other half, Parcel Force. We should really have gone out for a walk earlier, but we waited to see if the temperature would rise above zero first. It did finally stagger above 0ºc and began to melt the snow that had appeared during the night. Scamp offered to stay at home in case the parcel came early, so dressed appropriately I took a camera, three lenses and a Gorilla Pod tripod to St Mo’s to photograph the snow. It was just the thinnest scraping of snow, but it changed the look of the park completely.

I walked into the woods and got a few shots. No deer today. Must be their day off. I did find an old oak leaf worn almost transparent, looking very nice with the sun shining behind it. A gang of Cladonia and a single pine cone on a branch vied with it for PoD, but the oak leaf won in the end. As I was walking home I got an email to say the coffee had been delivered. They had been as good as their word.

After lunch we drove to the Town Centre and headed for Barrhead Travel to see if they could magic some seats on a plane to somewhere warm, but there was a queue at Barrhead Travel and instead we went to Hays Travel over the bridge and down into the depths of Phase 4. The manky and run-down oldest part of the centre. We sat for almost an hour with Sandra who tried her best to get us a cruise that wouldn’t mean taking out a second mortgage. We looked at P&O, NCL, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean and although some of their prices were in our range, none of them had flights from Glasgow or Edinburgh. Seats on the planes were the problem. Apparently we were just too late thinking about it for this year. Finally the poor woman, almost apologetically, offered Marlella as an alternative. They used to be called Thompson and their cruises covered the ports we were interested in.

Long story short, almost two hours after we walked through her door, we had a cruise booked. Not on P&O or any of the other big companies, but with Marella, a smaller company and on a smaller ship with new ports to look forward to exploring and some old favourites we haven’t been to for a few years. Not in August because it’s just too hot for us delicate flowers, but in the early summer. Best of all, we have flights from Glasgow! That was a struggle, but I’m glad we’re settled now. Scamp did all the research as usual and we’d actually looked at Marella last week. I couldn’t have done that amount of research without loosing the rag, so thank you Scamp for making it so easy. We’ve a few things still to do, but time to do them.

Tomorrow it’s back to reality and shopping in Tesco!

 

At last, a walk in the sunshine – 6 January 2023

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Today we managed to go for a walk. It was cold, but it didn’t rain.

We drove to Drumpellier and went for a walk through the woods. Lots of folk out doing just the same thing, although to be honest most of the folk were doing circuits of the pond. Not our idea of fun, now that we’ve discovered the variety of paths through the woodland. Some are official paths, but there are a lot more that are just paths trodden by walking feet and although many are mucky and slippery, they are more interesting than the official paths.

I took a few photos in the woodland, but the best by far was just where we were parked. It was the Whale’s Tail with two gulls landing and one just taking off. Another two gulls were taxiing before take off. The low sun you get at this time of year helped add a bit of contrast to the scene. The finished shot was almost as it came out of the camera.

We need a large wall calendar for the kitchen and when we left Drumpellier we drove to The Fort to see if we could find one. But we came home empty handed. I’ve an idea where we might find one tomorrow.

Back home I was trying to work out how to use mail merging in MS Word to create a Word document from an Excel sheet. I’d already tried to do the same thing on Pages in the Mac, but it’s really just a toy. Very little practical use. I’m still trying to do it and it still evades me. I know I used to do it regularly in school, but then I was using a PC every day. Macs in general aren’t used for this sort of thing. I found the Avery app really useful for it last year, but that facility is no longer in the app or is so deeply buried that it would take me too long to find it. I’ll keep looking, it’s in there somewhere.

Scamp was ploughing through the holiday companies on the computer looking for somewhere warm for February. After a fair bit of searching and evaluating, I think we can say that we may be going to somewhere warm for a week, all being well. Still nothing booked for the summer, but we have a few possibilities that just need some things confirmed before we make a final decision.

Dinner tonight was a half a pizza each. Actually it was more like two thirds for me and just a third for Scamp. It was washed down with a nice glass of red. Dessert was Scottish Tablet Ice Cream!

Tonight looks wet, but tomorrow, for the most part may remain dry during daylight hours. That’s the best you can ask for. It was good to be out in the sunshine today somewhere that isn’t Cumbersheugh!