Category: Painting

Was that summer? – 13 May 2023

Posted on by Zogman

A quite beautiful day of sunshine.

We drove to Brookside in the morning through the 40mph zone that wasn’t quite as bad as last week, although some folk were mistaking 40mph with 20mph, it seemed. We got to the class just in time. Just four couples including a decidedly pregnant Jasmine who, with her partner made light work of just about everything.

Started off with a couple of Mayfair Quickstep tracks to warm us up. The hall had a curtained off section today for some undisclosed reason, so we were dancing on what was virtually a square. After that, and after an explanation for those who hadn’t been there last week, the teachers launched into Joy’s Waltz. I thought we’d found a sneaky shortcut to get us through the Overturned Spin Turn, but was quickly shot down in flames by Jane who explained that although it did speed up the OST, it meant that when we came out of it we’d find our feet were tangled. Back to the drawing board then! I still can’t get the hang of the OST and I think I’ll resort to Scamp’s suggestion that we just fake that step and concentrate on getting the rest working.

Next we did the Sweetheart Cha-Cha with a few new adaptations just to make it more difficult, I think. Most of that went quite smoothly, even the new steps that they’d squeezed in. Thankfully Jasmine had filmed the new improved Sweetheart Cha-Cha and posted it to the group tonight.

Final dance steps were the Jive with American Spins, Alternative Stop & Go and Cha-Cha Walks. These words mean very little to me and will be forgotten by the time I finish the blog!

One last wee sequence dance, Rumba One to finish and that was us released to face the traffic going home. Overall, it was a good class, although the lady that Scamp has named Mrs Posh was being a bit of a know-all.

The drive home was easier than I expected, possibly because everyone was going to the seaside today to make the most of the sunshine. We just drove home and after lunch we worked in the garden. Scamp was chopping up a dying azalea and I was concentrating on potting up my sunflower seedlings and the wee rosemary bush we bought about a month ago.

I’d just finished doing my gardening and was putting the compost away when I felt a familiar sting on the back of my leg. I’d picked up a tick somewhere, possibly yesterday. First this year. Let’s hope it’s the last.

Dinner was a roast chicken and salad with a bottle of Prosecco to brighten it up even more.

PoD went to a purple aquilegia flower in the front garden.

Today’s prompt was An Elephant.
We don’t get many elephants roaming the hills in Scotland, and the only ones I’d photographed were either made from cast iron or paintings on billboards. However, Mr Google kindly supplied me with a model that fitted neatly on my A5 page.

I think the sky is clouding over as I write this and we’re expecting rain tomorrow. Let’s hope today wasn’t Summer! The weather will determine what we do tomorrow.

The gardens needed it – 8 May 2023

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Today was wet. It went from drizzle to full on downpour, but it was wet all day!

We weren’t going far today anyway. I might have gone in to Glasgow to get myself a new suit, a dark suit, both my other suits are light grey and a dark one would be a change. Also, only one of my suits actually fits me, the other one fits like a sugar bag. Not a good look. Anyway, that decision was taken away from me with one look at the weather. The furthest we were going today was Tesco.

Just a normal Monday shopping trip. Nothing exciting unless you class short dated tomatoes, carrots and onions as exciting. Three bags full it was today, all bundled into the boot and drove home.

What we did do was give our plants a bit of a soaking in the rainwater. My two chilli plants seemed to come to no harm in it and Scamp’s Cerinthe seedlings seemed to grow even taller after being in the downpours.

After lunch I gave in, put on my boots and my walking trousers and went out looking for a photo that would become PoD. It was really wet wherever I went and after about half an hour I was sure I could feel that squidgy sensation that you only get when you’ve got a leaky boot. But I was out in the middle of the park when it made itself known and I still hadn’t got that magic PoD. Then it appeared. It was a water droplet hanging from a larch needle. I took my time and eventually shot half a dozen frames of it. One of which I deemed sharp enough to become the PoD for today. Then, and only then, I squidged my way home. The sock on my right foot told the tale. There was a leak and it looks like there is a crack in the tread of my boot and that’s where the water is getting in. It might be a cut, not a crack, but the result is the same. I wouldn’t think it’s repairable, although someone on YouTube will know different, I’m sure. I might need to shell out for a new pair of boots now.

Today’s EDiM asked for An Ant. I originally thought of drawing a couple of Leaf Cutter Ants, but couldn’t find a clear enough photo to draw them from. I finally settled for a Flying Ant. There were a lot of these scary looking beasties flying around last year, I seem to remember. Apparently there is an actual Flying Ant Day. In the UK it seems to be around the 17th July. It all depends on the temperature and windspeed. There, I bet you didn’t know that!

Tomorrow we’re booked for lunch with Shona. Not sure yet where we’ll be going. Like the Flying Ants, it depends on the weather!

Down The Green – 7 May 2023

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It was a dry but cloudy morning and we were up and out early.

Scamp suggested we go down Glasgow Green for a walk. Why not, I thought. It’s been ages since we’d gone a walk down The Green on a Sunday morning and this one looked promising. No boots needed today because the sky was clearing and I was sure it was going to stay dry. It did.

The car park at the old Templeton’s building was busy, but there were spaces, not many, but we only needed one! Parked and walked down to the McLennan arch at the west end of the Green. We walked back along the banks of the Clyde, but not before I got some shots of the Albert bridge reflected in the almost still waters of the Clyde. I also got a caught a couple of squirrels climbing trees. Further on the old boathouse is now re-opened as a community hub and there were quite a few folk taking advantage of the brightening weather to prepare boats for rowing practise on the river. We walked on to the suspension bridge and watched the rowers going through their paces. That’s where I got the PoD which is a view from the suspension bridge, looking down towards the city.

We walked on as far as the bridge over to Richmond Park and then headed back to the car along the way we’d come. Lots more folk out today, some pushing prams, some running some cycling and some like us, just out for a morning walk.

There had been roadworks on the way through the east end to get to the park, so I decided to go back via the motorway. Little did I realise that there were even more roadworks in that direction. At first we thought they were removing the stupid cycle lane that nobody ever cycles on and we cheered. Then we realised they were removing the wee line on bumps that marked the width of the cycle only to replace them with a wider concrete kerb and still nobody will cycle in the lane. It will look good on the council’s propaganda, but that’s all. I really should just have gone back the way we’d come it would have been quicker. Hindsight is the only 20-20 vision.

Back home it was just past midday and the sun was shining (occasionally) . Scamp was delighted and for the first time this year she got the folding seat out and the Pimms and sat in the garden for an hour or so. While she was reading in the garden, I was drawing. Today’s prompt was A Chair or An Armchair. I’d already chosen what I was going to draw. It was a wood and leather chair I saw in the Burrell Collection in Glasgow recently. It was one of a pair and was extremely comfortable. It was also quite low, which made it difficult to get out of! It reminded me of a Gerrit Rietveld chair I made a copy of many, many years ago. I had a photograph of it and that’s what I drew it from, then splashed some paint on it. In the end I was quite pleased with the result.

Dinner was a beautiful fillet of Sea Bream perfectly cooked by Scamp so that the skin was crispy. Served with Jersey Royal potatoes and broccoli. Gone in minutes!

Spoke to Jamie later and heard his tale of woe. The cost for the new roof of the house has increased, Simonne’s car needs an expensive engine part and their boiler is dead and needs to be replaced. They won’t have heating for three months We were without heating for three days at the start of the year and we knew how hard that was. However they have an elegant solution to the problems of getting shower. If I could remember all the details I’d explain it to you! They can still smile though, so it’s not all bad news.

Tomorrow we might go shopping. It looks like it will be wet.

Driving the 40mph motorway – 6 May 2023

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That motorway is the M8. No sooner is one set of repairs finished than another set are announced. It seems that we drive more miles at 40mph than we drive at 70mph. PITA.

Yes, we were off to Brookfield this morning for the first dance class after a three week lie up. I thought the Charnwood Cha-Cha would be the end of me. It’s not good to spring things like that on us without warning, or access to a defibrillator. The only thing I can say is WOW, that was hard work. Thankfully we knew all of the steps and I had a rough idea of the order they should be danced in.

Next was a new one, a waltz this time and we both think we were guinea pigs here to see how quickly we’d pick it up. Not that easy was my answer. Thankfully we both filmed it so we could watch it at home and work out what was being described in the walk-through. The Charnwood was a workout for the body. Joy’s Waltz (named for a friend of Jane’s who died in January) was a workout for the brain. Eventually we got the hang of the first three sequences and after watching the videos this afternoon we’ve got an even better idea of the bits we’ve never done before.

The final workout was another quite fast one, a Jive routine this time. It had a few routines we have picked up along the way in the last few years from different teachers, so it wasn’t totally alien to us, and not so fast that we were too exhausted to fit in the final sequence dance of the hour and a half, a Mayfair Quickstep. Just a fairly easy dance to ease us down to drive through the 40mph zones again on the other side of the road.

Back home we had lunch and watched the pageantry unfold in London. I took myself off for most of it as I’d a sketch to complete for EDiM. I was doodling a sketch on a bit of backing paper and the picture came to me. It was a highland cow, but there was too much rubbish on the paper and I knew I’d need to redraw it, so I left the rough there and went to get a photo for today. As I was walking over towards Condorrat, I noticed a snail tucked into a corner of a fence and knew that was the PoD. Of the three photos I took, the one you see here is my favourite. I also got a shot of the inside of a dandelion puff ball. It’s like the highland cow in that it’s not the finished article, but it’s worth another try, possibly in an inside setting with a camera on a tripod. We’ll see.

When I got home, Scamp was whizzing through the recording of the actual Coronation. It is one mighty big and complex piece of organisation. How they worked out how to get all those people into the cathedral and how they covered the lawn of the palace with the thousands of army, navy, airforce personnel from almost every country was astounding. I wasn’t really all that interested in it, I was waiting for Zadok The Priest to be sung. When it was, it was a little disappointing. Scamp said it was too fast and I thought it was lacking in power. Had we been conducting, heads would have rolled.

Dinner was from Golden Bowl. Scamp had her usual Chicken Chop Suey with Fried Rice. I had a treat that I knew I’d suffer for later and had Sweet and Sour Pork Balls and Fried Rice. I did suffer for it, but it was worth it. Pure decadence.

I redrew the Highland Cow and it does look better than the original. I’m happy with it and Scamp laughed out loud when she saw it. That was enough of a stamp of approval for me.

We have no plans as yet for tomorrow and there have been no street parties in and around Cumbersheugh, I’m glad to say, so not many sore heads tomorrow morning. Well no more than usual!

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting

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For the parcel to appear.

The parcel was for Scamp and it was being delivered by Royal Mail. According to Royal Mail it would be delivered yesterday, and I quote: “Thursday 4th May 2023 by 3pm*” note the asterisk! The parcel didn’t appear. Today I got a message from Royal Mail to say: Your parcel will be delivered Today, Friday, 5 May 2023* Between 12:07pm and 2:07pm*. Again, note the asterisks. If you read the very small print on the email you discover a footnote that says: *Please be aware any time or date shown is not a guarantee. This is their Get Out Of Jail Free card. The parcel didn’t arrive until 3.15pm. Why bother to give an exact time slot when you can’t keep to it. This new time slot thing is something they’ve pinched from DPD and others, but the difference is that, at least in my experience, DPD stick to their time slots. For Royal Mail it’s just a fantasy.

Right, I’m glad I got that off my chest. At least the parcel did arrive. We’d decided on risotto for dinner, real risotto for a change, made in a pot with a lot of stirring with the fancy risotto paddle. Scamp plumped for Mushroom Risotto and we didn’t have any mushrooms, so I loaded a camera and a couple of lenses into the bag and walked down to the shops to get some. As usual I came back with more than I set out to get, but at least I did get mushrooms. I won’t list all the other things I got, because you’d only get jealous! On the way there I found a clump of daisies and grabbed some photos of them. On processing the shots, I wasn’t impressed, so went out again with the LensBaby Sweet 50 and a +1 diopter Close Up lens (Don’t worry Jamie – that information is for me in case I need it sometime). The resulting photos were much better with a lot of swirly distortion round a sharp central flower. In fact one of them became PoD.

It’s ages since I’ve had to hand make the risotto and it was a bit of a chore, but the finished article, while looking a bit like lumpy porridge, tasted fine.

Today’s prompt was for a Traffic Sign. Mine is one of those old signs that don’t get used much and therefore don’t get updated. It’s actually a warning sign (triangle) for a level crossing without a gate or barrier sign. It’s a bit confusing because it looks like warning, steam trains ahead.

I spoke to Val this morning.  He’s not in a very good way, physically and is considering getting a motorized wheelchair.  He’s having difficulty standing and can hardly walk unassisted.  Having said that, he’s cheerful enough and we had a good blether this morning.  I must go and see him soon.  He was asking after Alex because he’s still interested in radio and so is Alex. It’s just a reminder that we’re all getting older and less mobile than we used to be.

Well, it looks like the holiday is over. Tomorrow we may be heading for an hour and a half lesson on Charnwood Cha-Cha, a new Waltz and the Jive routine we started before the Teachers’ holiday. Back in the old routine as they say!

I have a cunning plan – 4 May 2023

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But first I have an appointment with the dentist.

No need to worry about it. I was only on the dentist’s chair for five minutes max. She recited all those mysterious letters and numbers that dentists shout to their assistants who record these codes. She seemed delighted with the state of my teeth and I was delighted that I got off so easily.

Back home Wordle was a bigger challenge than normal, but I did manage to complete it with a little help from Scamp at level 6. The Phew! level. Then it was time for lunch which was a pizza that had been languishing in the fridge for almost too long.

This is where my ‘plan’ comes into play. I usually leave my sketch and painting until the evening, but as artificial light is quite ‘warm’ and that affects the colour choices quite badly, so today I wanted to get the painting done in the afternoon when the light is more natural. Today was Star Wars Day, May the Fourth be with you. Usually the topic asks for something to do with Star Wars, but today there was an option to draw a Tea Bag! That was what I was painting. I had the composition in my head and it involved a cup and a wet, leaky tea bag. It turned out almost as I’d imagined it. It was scanned as soon as it was dry and posted right away. First part of the plan completed.

I went for a walk in the afternoon, partly to get some photos and partly to get a curry from M&S. The PoD is a young fern shot against the light in the woods at St Mo’s. I actually got a few flower photos today. Another sign that Spring has sprung. Photos now processed and posted on Flickr.  Part two of the plan completed.

Both curries were very good. Scamp’s was a Prawn Bhoona and mine was a Lamb Rogan Josh. Both large portions and both quite filling.

The blog is posted before 11pm.  The final part of the plan is complete.  How long it will continue is a matter for conjecture!

Tomorrow Scamp is Fit Stepping in the morning and the rest of the day, hopefully, is free.

 

Roaming with the Romans – 2 May 2023

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Walking in the footsteps of the Romans.

A man phoned from the Nissan garage today to ask if I’d considered what to do about the Micra.  He wasn’t due to phone until June, I now realise, but I agreed that we should meet to discuss ways forward now that the lease on the car is ending.  It might be an interesting conversation.  In fact I’m sure it will be enlightening, at least for one of us!

We went to the Fort later, ostensibly to get some milk and to get a birthday card for one of the witches and for me to find something to read in Waterstones. We achieved all but one of those targets, and the one that lost out wasn’t the book. Yes, you guessed it, we came home without the milk. So on the way home we stopped off at M&S for the missing milk and I also managed to pick up a cheese loaf which Scamp likes. Unfortunately there were no jam donuts, just boring ring donuts.

Back home Scamp got the strimmer going for the first time this year and massacred the back grass. It looked like a bad haircut when I was leaving the house to take some photos. Two weeks is all it takes …!

I was heading for what used to be a backroad to Banknock, not to be confused with Bangkok. I think it’s even further east than Banknock. Anyway, the road is blocked at a bridge over the railway that is a bit weak and can’t carry the weight of a car. Not the council’s fault say the council. Not the railway’s fault say the railways. The usual “It wisnae me” excuse by both parties. The roadblock means that there can be no through traffic and so very few folk us it any more, but it’s a great entrance place to the Antonine Wall which is where I was going. It’s one of the best places to see the actual turf and stone wall with the defensive ditch on the south side. There is an avenue of trees along the wall and a fairly well maintained path along it. The light was good when I set off, but as soon as I showed that I’d a camera with me, the sun disappeared. That said, it was a pleasant walk none the less and I did get a few photos. My favourite was a view over the fields to the Campsie Fells which did have some decent light on them. That became PoD.

Back home dinner was spaghetti alla matriciana which is Spaghetti with Bacon, chilli flakes, onions and cheese. It went down well, although Scamp is not a great lover of spaghetti, preferring pasta shapes.

Today’s prompt asked for “A Door”.
This is rather an old wooden, four panel door. The perspective is dodgy, something I hadn’t noticed until I scanned in the sketch. Never mind, it was just a sketch, not a masterpiece.

Tomorrow we have cards to write and post. Otherwise, no plans.

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.

Dancin’ workout – 11 February 2023

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Today was a dancin’ day and no mistake. No respite either!

The warmup today was a the Cameron Quickstep. That’s almost half a circuit of the floor, even before the teachers begin to make additions. Apparently it’s really a sequence dance! I can’t see many Tea Dancers doing this one without a defibrillator nearby. We tried it slow – a walk through and it was achievable. Then the teachers turned the music on and it was chaos. What comes next?? Is it the Zig Zag or is it the Chair? Nobody seemed to know or care. It was that old joke, all the moves were there, just not in the right order. Eventually, and I mean eventually we worked out where we were, what comes next and where we were meant to be. After half an hour we were exhausted, well, at least I was. I had to have a wee sit down to get my breathing back to normal.

We left the quickstep behind and did a wee relaxing Bossa Nova to cool us down before we entered the next 30min class on Foxtrot. I thought we had this in the bag, but it was in the wrong bag, not the one I’d brought. After some corrections from Jane and then Stewart, we began to find the dance we’d practised for a couple of turns round the living room. The living room Foxtrot bore some resemblance to the Brookfield (big hall) version, but only an expert could see it. Again, eventually, we managed to put all the pieces together and it began to sort of flow.

Another break and it was time for the third half hour which would be Tango. We can do a fairly representative tango, but then the teachers decided to add in another part that was new to us. It wasn’t difficult, in fact it was similar to another part of the routine and that’s what made it difficult. It was similar, but not the same, possibly too similar. In time we’ll either work it in properly or erase it from our memory – probably the latter.

Just to keep our heart rate up it was a couple of Midnight Jives to finish. I’m not sure whether that was a dance class or a workout. It was good and we learned a lot, but I was exhausted by the time we were walking out into the drizzly rain.

Drove home again via the M8/M74 route and stopped for rolls and a Danish pastry at the shops on the way home. I was so knackered, I went for a 45min snooze in the afternoon. By then it was dinner time and we’d agreed on a fish supper each for dinner. I walked to Condorrat and was back in about 15 mins. Record time. On the way there in the gathering gloom I got today’s PoD which was taken in the Adventure Playground in the park on the path to Condorrat. Lurking around in a kids playpark after dark! That sounds dodgy, but I love these rough cut balancing toys they look so graphic.

Today’s prompt was The Big Blue. Not only had I not seen this film, I’d never even heard of it. The only Big Blue I was aware of was IBM! However, I went with the flow (no pun intended) and watched the previews on YouTube. Still it meant very little to me.
The deepest I’ve dived, personally, was 2m in the swimming pool at Butlins, or was it Pontins? I can’t remember. But I do remember it didn’t give me the urge to go any deeper. However, I do remember you needed flippers, and a mask better than the ones you got in Woolworths, so that’s what I’ve sketched and painted today. I like the mask. It’s quite manic looking. Like a Japanese Daruma with both eyes painted in!

Tomorrow we may be resting our weary limbs. We might walk to the shops if we can summon the energy!

Stitchin’ and Snowdrops – 10 February 2023

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In the morning, Scamp was off at her FitSteps class while I dragged out the sewing machine.

My task for today was to patch my torn jeans. I found a piece of fabric (Coffee beans – Hazy!) to do the reinforcement and struggled to pin it in place on the inside of the tear. Then I further struggled to get the jeans into the place to do the sewing. With the patch in place I could sew two runs of stitches, one down each end of the patch. Ideally I wanted to be able to stitch along all four sides of the patch and possibly another few runs in the middle. It couldn’t be done with the standard foot and although I had an embroidery foot for the machine, I hadn’t used it before, but after a bit of poking around the working parts of the sewing machine I worked out how to remove the standard foot and fit the embroidery foot. All I needed to do then was to cover the ‘dogs’ that pull fabric through the bit with the needle. With that done, it was a five minute job to fill in the patch with with an abstract pattern of stitches that held everything together and another five to return the machine to its standard setting. It probably sounds very complicated, but the embroidery foot is my magic solution to lots of my stitching repairs from now on. By the time I was finished, Scamp had returned with lunch that was heating in the oven.

Spoke to Hazy and discussed holidays and house improvements also Canute & Delia’s final closure of the shop.  Big change for them.  Glad things are going to plan for the early spring break for you and for ‘the fluffies’.  What will you do without your feline hot water bottle?!

After lunch Jackie phoned and I went out into the dull monochrome garden to look for something to photograph. I found some snowdrops and one of them got PoD. By the time I came back in and the phone call had ended, so had the light.

That was about the extent of a dull day. Paella for dinner tonight was fine, but not nearly as good as the stir fry Scamp made yesterday and I forgot to give her a mention for. My apologies, chef.

Today’s prompt was Chocolat. Apparently I had watched the film some years ago, but, obviously, it didn’t make a big impression on me. Toblerone on the other hand, does make a big impression on me (and me on it.!) Big chunks of chocolate with nuts and chewy bits. Delicious straight out of the fridge, just don’t break a tooth biting into it. I thought this Swiss delight deserved a splash of watercolour today.
I really like drawing food, because you can eat the evidence afterwards!

Hopefully we’re going dancing tomorrow, unlike last week when the class was cancelled at the last minute. Fingers crossed.