Category: Perth

Perth – 15 March 2023

Posted on by Zogman

We’d decided on two possible destination for today if the weather was decent and one if it was raining.

The weather seemed set fine, so we drove up to Perth for the day. It suited Scamp and Jackie because there were lots of shops to investigate and it suited me because I could buy some decent tea and coffee.

Lovely run up with the sun shining on and off on the snowy hills. Midweek is definitely the time to go because apart from the lines of artics, the traffic is light. We parked in a new to us parking place just behind the Salutation Hotel. At least you can still use cash to park and not have to rely on a dodgy app that everyone seems to despise, but which the councils seem to love. Money is changing hands there I presume. After we parked we went our different ways. The ladies went clothes shopping and I went to get some much needed tea and coffee. Unfortunately The Bean Shop didn’t have any Cuban coffee, so I had to make do with Dominican which is almost as good.

We’d agreed to meet at Nero at 12.30pm and we did, for once. Real Nero coffee, not like the brown water I was subjected to last week. The roll ’n’ sausage was a different matter. It may have been veggie sausages pretending they were real ones, or they may have actually been stuffed with sawdust. It made no difference. They were almost inedible. But the coffee WAS good.

Once lunch was over we split up again because I told Scamp how to find Bon Marché and that needed some serious investigation. This time we agreed to meet back at the car. I went to take some photos and my prime target was the modern sculpture of two bloke leaning on a massive ring. It stand in the middle of the High Street. I’d already taken a couple of shots of padlocks hanging on a railing, but I reckoned the sculpture was better. A quick look in the Oxfam book shop and a visit to the health shop for a 200g bag of Coltsfoot rock and I met up with the happy shoppers.

Drove home through fairly light traffic. Thankful that we’d been limited to three hours parking because we didn’t have any more loose change. That meant we were hitting all the traffic hot spots well before they got too busy.

Dinner tonight was paella and it tasted good. I wasn’t too happy with the last paella I’d made, but this one was almost perfect. A glass of wine with it and a G&T for the ladies and a whisky for me afterwards sealed a good day out.

The statues did in fact get PoD but one of the padlock shots got a good second place.

Jackie goes home tomorrow. We don’t have any plans as yet.

A full day – 5 November 2022

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It started about 9am. I’d slept fitfully because I’d galloping heartburn. Must have been that chilli!

I took a Nexium tablet to help with the heartburn and we went down to breakfast. Then I did one of those stupid things. I had a full breakfast. Egg, bacon, sausage and tomato, on top of a Nexium tablet that was fighting with my heartburn. Duh!

After that it was dance shoes on, new dance shoes. A short hour long class to break them in. Stewart and Jane demo’d the routine we were going to learn. It was a Quickstep sequence dance called Cameron Quickstep! Then we were all called on to the floorRoughly 80 people converged on the dance floor and attempted the first few steps. Surprisingly it was a Car Crash. Not the brightest idea Stewart. Sense prevailed though and he split the class into two sections and called one half on to the floor at a time, then the second half. I think it was then it dawned on him that it was going to take twice as long as normal to get through this, for us at least, complicated set of steps. Soooo instead of taking twice the time, he just taught it quicker! Well, what else would you do with a quickstep? The car crash became a shambles and after the hour that had been allocated, we knew the first section and very little else. We weren’t alone. There were a few mumbled voices about ‘not knowing what we were doing’, and ‘just not getting this.’ I was glad when the hour came to an end and we were released into the wide, wet world for the afternoon.

We went for a walk into the town. I was looking for two things.

  1. Coltsfoot Rock from a wee health shop.
  2. Coffee from The Bean Shop.

We set off to find what was available. Unfortunately the jar of Coltsfoot Rock in the shop was empty. It looks like the Coltsfoot Rock lorry had had a puncture or some other mishap. On the plus side, The Bean Shop was open and it had amongst its coffees, Cuba Turquino beans! Yes, two bags please and some tea and a bag of Christmas blend coffee beans.

I went off to put the coffee and tea into the boot of the car while Scamp went shopping. Back from storing the coffee I went shopping too and then we had lunch in the cafe of the recently refurbished Perth Theatre. It was quite noisy inside with teenager ‘lovies’ shouting and carrying on upstairs. The coffee in the cafe was a bit tasteless, worse than Costa and if that’s not damning enough, it also took ages to come. It’s an interesting place. Much more modern than it was, but it did take more than two years to complete the makeover. My final thought about it was “Style over Substance”.

Our lunch had given time for the rain to stop and now the clouds were clearing and it looked like we might actually get a walk, either in the gardens across the river or through the park. We chose the gardens after Scamp bought four sherry glasses in a charity shop for three quid. A real bargain. They went into the bag with the coffee in the boot of the car for safe keeping while we went for our walk. I took a few photos from the road bridge over the Tay, then we crossed the road and took the long slope down into the gardens. Too many junkies and ‘wideos’ hanging around under the bridge, so we went the other way and bumped into another bunch of dancers out for a walk who were also complaining about the lesson this morning. We walked on and they went the other way. We crossed back over the Smeaton’s Bridge where today’s PoD came from. From there it was a short walk to the Salutation Hotel.

Tonight was a ‘Black Tie’ event and we’d come prepared. We were cutting it fine for the drinks reception, but the food tonight was much better than yesterday. Scamp didn’t have a starter, but her main was Salmon and dessert was Cheesecake. I had Mackerel Pate to start then Chicken followed by ice cream, trying to put my stomach under less stress than last night. Dancing was good, but constant and exhausting with a break in the middle for two semi-professionals to strut their stuff to the amazement of all. That’s when you realise you’re only playing at this dancing thing. The ones who devote themselves to it are on a different plane.

We finally gave up about fifteen minutes from the end. I don’t think our feet could take much more. Tomorrow we have another ‘free’ hour’s dancing in the morning before we all head home.

 

Heading North – 4 November 2022

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A busy morning, then we’re off to Perth.

Scamp was out in the morning to her FitSteps class and I began my organisation. That meant I laid out the clothes I was taking, made sure I had all the camera gear I wanted and tried on my new dancing shoes for the first time. They fitted. That was a bonus!

Fairly clear in my head that I had everything sorted, I took the Sony A7 out for a walk in St Mo’s. Just for fun I took the Lensbaby 50mm lens and it did prove useful today. There was blue sky and the sun was shining. PoD became a low level shot of a couple of mushrooms poking through the larch needles.

By the time I got back Scamp had returned from her exercise class and we had lunch and got on our way. It was a beautiful day for a change with bright sunshine all the way up to Perth. Parked in the same place we used last year and booked in. Since we were on the third floor, the top floor, we took the lift. It sounded arthritic as it staggered its way down from the top and even worse on the way back up. I fully expected a pre-recorded voice to say “One at a time please!”. However it did get us to the top floor and thankfully our room was just across the corridor. Last year we almost needed a map to get from the stairs to the room and we found there was more than one way to get there. A bigger room than last year, but much the same quality of fixtures and fittings. But we didn’t come here for the view or the attractions of the room, we came to dance.

Tonight had a ‘smart casual’ dress code. We found our table and met our fellow dancers for the weekend, gave our names and instantly forgot theirs as I’m sure they did with ours. Four couples to a table, three of whom knew each other so we were left a bit out in the cold. This was going well!

Just as the food was being served, a lady at table 13 collapsed. The medics arrived promptly and although she was declared ok, she was taken to hospital for a full checkup. The food was ok, just ok, I thought. It was supposed to be a carvery, but ended up a ‘servery’. There were three items on the menu: Roast Pork, Pollock and Veg Chilli. Unfortunately when I got to the front of the queue, the roast pork had gone, one slice of the pollock was left, so it was veg chilli for us. I’d have chosen anything but veg chilli having had it three days this week already.

The dance floor was mobbed after the dinner tables and the serving areas had been cleared. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dance floor so full of folk determined to stake their claim on their square metre of wood. Too many people or too small a floor. After the first dance the floor got a bit less congested and we had our money’s worth of the dancing time. Ballroom, Latin and Sequence. I think we tried everything except Quickstep which we just haven’t mastered yet.

With sore feet we made our way up the wooden mountain to bed and slept like logs.

Tomorrow there will be a lesson or two and more dancing.

Change of plan

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Driving to Perth for coffee. But …

I intended driving up to Perth today to get some coffee from my favourite tea and coffee shop, but on the way there I was calculating how much petrol I’d use and how much the drive would cost me. When I worked it out, it would be way cheaper to just order it online and pay the £3 delivery charge. So I changed my destination to Kincardine. At least I could get a walk and some different photos, plus free parking. The weather wasn’t great, with the rain clouds building from the west, but I got some interesting views, well, I think so anyway. The rain was just starting when I was halfway home, it hasn’t stopped. Kincardine did, however, provide today’s PoD.

I came home via Tesco to get something for lunch and some milk. No alcohol today. Now, I’m not saying that’s because Scamp isn’t at home this weekend, that’s purely coincidental!

Struggled with my Sudoku after the late lunch but it still remains unsolved until tomorrow. Couldn’t quite decide what would be dinner tonight. Would it be home made pizza or Golden Bowl. I eventually gave in and had Golden Bowl make me a fairly decadent Sweet and Sour Chicken Balls with Fried Rice. My only complaint was the fried rice was a bit soggy, but the sweet and sour was delicious. I know I’ll suffer for it tonight, but I don’t really care.

Finally finished Amongst Our Weapons. The little short story at the end was confusing, but added to the title, I felt.

I’ve just finished a photo swap with Alex showing our favourite photos from the last week or so. Really good to have someone to bounce ideas off.

Jamie sent some cracking photos of his day off in NYC. Beautiful skyline behind him on the boat. I really hope Time Square is equally good. You deserve it Jamie.

That’s it for today. Now I need to go and get the house looking more like a home than a student flat!

Tomorrow Scamp returns and expects everything to be just like she left it! It might be!

Like being on holiday – 13 November 2021

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Back to our regular Saturday class, in a different venue.

Breakfast in the restaurant of the hotel. Just like being on holiday in Lanzarote or Fuerteventura, but just a tad cooler. Not self service either, but the same food choices. Tinned fruit cocktail for each of us, then a choice of eggs, sausage (veg and pork) hash browns, beans, tomatoes and bacon. I suppose you could have had all of the above if you wanted, but we restricted ourselves to what we felt was appropriate. Restaurant was busy, but we got the chance to share a table, strangely enough with two of the folk who had been at our table last night.

After breakfast, Scamp and I went for a walk through the town that was just waking up. Strange to see Perth at this early hour. We walked down to ‘The Ship’ which is really the viewing platform. A curved platform that cantilevers out over the river and gives you the feeling that you are indeed on a ship. Walked back to the hotel ready to start the class.

The lesson today was the Vogue Waltz. As usual, it looked impossible when the teachers danced it through. Then we had the step by step walk through and it began to look possible. Danced the whole thing and the individual figures began to fit together. The problem, as always would be when we tried to dance it again after an hour or so.

Afternoon was free time. We went for a coffee in Nero then walked over the middle bridge of the three over the river to the gardens on the other side. Bright sunny autumn day. Beautiful colours in the trees and we found a couple of ponds with great reflections of the church. Walked down as far as the railway bridge and then walked back through the gardens to the upstream bridge. Watched two punters, one in a kayak and the other on a paddle board making light work of the rapids below the bridge. Got some coffee, tea and a replacement plunger for my Aeropress at the Bean Shop. By then we decided it was lunch time and I suggested a pizza in Pizza Express. I had a pizza, Scamp had a chicken salad. Both filled a wee space! Time to go back and get ready.

Posh frock and suit for dinner. It was meant to be a black tie event. I had a black tie, but no black suit, so my dark grey one would have to do. Dinner was much the same as the yesterday’s. Service was even slower than usual. Waiter seemed to stomp of in the huff when a bloke at our table complained of a draught from the door into the kitchen. He didn’t seem to want to serve the coffee after the meal. Eventually Scamp had to ask for coffee and he did serve it, if reluctantly. You just can’t get the staff these days. We were a full complement at the table tonight with a couple from Dundee taking the last two seats. Bloke as a bit of a pain, complaining that they shouldn’t have same sex couples on Strictly and that they needed a man and a woman as presenters, not two women. His wife was extremely condescending and just wanted to talk about herself and her family. Nice dancers, nasty people. Glad when they had to leave early.

We danced all night, completing another two salsa routines with Peter and Gillian. Was that ‘completing’ or ‘competing’? I’m not too sure! It was fun whatever slant you take.

Dragged ourselves off to bed just after midnight.

Today’s PoD was that reflection of the church I mentioned.

Just an hour’s ‘tea dance without the tea’ tomorrow. Then it’s the long road home.

Strictly a dancing day – 12 November 2021

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But first a visit to the doc’s to hear the bad news.

I needn’t have worried. For the first time in years, there was no bad news from the nurse about my annual checkup. She went over my numbers and basically everything was fine. Ok, my weight was a bit higher than ideal, but as she said, “everyone has put on weight over the last year.” I left feeling much better than I had when I went in. Isn’t that what doctors surgeries are meant to do?

Next step was to collect together our latest ‘Small Electrical’ devices and take them on a one way trip to the skips. It was just small things like the old coffee grinder which would no longer switch on. Also my hard working Nexus 7 tablet. Nine years old and still working … well, it really depends what you expect from ‘working’. If you mean that you switch it on and it works, then it’s working. However those who want it to work about thirty seconds after pressing the power button and to keep working for at least five minutes after the screen appears, might be disappointed. I was one of the latter group. It had to go. It’s been replaced by a new Lenovo 8” tablet that is doing everything I expect from a tablet, except taste sugary, but that’s probably a different kind of tablet! The last thing to go was a half bottle of white spirit that I kept meaning to chuck out just for safety reasons. It, too, has now left the building. With all that done and after handing over an arm and a leg for a tank full of petrol, we were ready to go to Perth.

Drove up to a dull, dreich Perth, surely not how it was going to be this weekend? The hotel did nothing to lift my spirits. Allegedly the oldest established hotel in Scotland, it had hosted Bonnie Prince Charlie as a guest back in 1745 and I think it has been painted since then, maybe only once. Just a typical old, old hotel that’s like a maze inside. Ours was a tiny wee room with a lovely view of the carpark and the back of a tenement, but that wasn’t important. We were there to dance.

The was a table plan to consult as we went in to the ballroom and four dancers were already seated when we found our table. Standoffish? Just a bit. Condescending? Just a bit. Who cares, we were there to enjoy the dancing, not the company.

Dinner tonight was typical hotel food, I chose Melon with Midori as a starter, then Haggis Stuffed Chicken as my main course with Meringue and Fresh Fruit for pudding. Typical hotel food! Scamp’s starter was also Melon  but she had a main of Sweet & Sour Vegetables which apparently tasted brilliant. Pudding was a Sticky Toffee one.

With dinner over, dancing began and we threw ourselves in and had a great night. Not great dancing until the opportunity came for a bit of Salsa. Six of us could dance Cuban salsa and about six others who took to the floor danced ballroom salsa. I didn’t get a chance to see what their dancing was like, I was too busy dancing salsa.

By midnight I was totally beat, physically, as was Scamp, but we were both buzzing when we struggled through the maze to go to bed.

PoD was a photo taken in the afternoon, through the bedroom window of the backside of Perth!

Early start tomorrow for a dance lesson then an afternoon free before the formal dance at night.

Driving – 29 May 2021

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Another beautiful day dawned and we were going out.

The plan was to go to Perth. That was the focal point of the run, but there were lots of other places we could visit along the way, or afterwards. As Driver, I chose Amulree as a place to visit along the way. I’d been looking at some old photos on Flickr of the church at Amulree and fancied taking some photos of it with the newer technology I now had. We plumbed Amulree into the sat nav and off we went.

The sat nav took us by a strange route, away from the very busy motorway and up into the hills. Then a twisty turny series of direction changes through Crieff before exiting into the hills again. By then I was completely lost and was just following the route blindly. However, about half an hour after we left the motorway, we drove down into Amulree with the church looking resplendent in the sunshine.

Scamp chose to stay in the car while I plodded off with a camera and a tripod to see if the church looked the same. It did. It had been painted since the last time we’d been which had been a few years ago. Other than that, not much had changed in the church or the graveyard. I don’t like taking photos in a graveyard, even if the headstones are not my prime interest, but for some reason I don’t have a problem at Amulree. I took about forty pictures and two of my favourites are in Flickr. Hopefully I’ll get more posted in the next few days. My PoD was the landscape shot you see here. I had just finished when another four visitors arrived, not photogs, just tourists. They didn’t give me any bother and were just looking around. Saw a wee painted stone on the entrance to the Kirk. I think it was one of the painted stones that people left lying around to be found when Covid was at its peak last year. It was neatly tucked away waiting to be found.

We drove on and found that we were only about 20 minutes away from Perth. Ah! This was the road I remembered. This was the way we came the last times. Back on to the A9 and heading for Perth we joined the queue dragging its heels along at 40mph through five or six miles of roadworks. It felt like a lot longer than that! I eventually got fed up and took a slip road off the wagon trail and followed my nose until we arrived in Perth. Finally found that half the car park had been turned into a Covid-19 testing place. Not only that, the attendant’s box had been removed and replaced with four parking meters. Paid our money and went for a walk in the town. For many years the old church in the the town has been falling into rack and ruin. Only pigeons seemed to live in it. Then scaffolding was put in place and chain link fences closed it off. Now it’s been gutted, really gutted and is in the process of being turned into an open air market. Great idea. Although part of it seems to have been removed, the remainder has been consolidated and even the clock in the tower is at the right time. Got some coffee and some tea and also a loaf from the Italian bakery. Scamp got a tee shirt.

Next stop was Glendoick garden centre on the Dundee road. We got some Calendula plants, a Prima Ballerina rose, a Gypsophila plant and planter to put them in. Then we were on the way home again.

It was a beautiful day with really high temperatures. The thermometer in the car was reading 27c on the way home.

Dinner tonight was a slice of yesterday’s frittata with chips I got from the chip shop in Condorrat.

Today’s sketch was a stapler. I drew my staple gun. A heavy duty metal one that has served me well for years.

Tomorrow is forecast to be the same as today, if not hotter. We’ll believe it when we see it.

Up and out! – 29 August 2020

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Today Scamp was off early to her pal’s caravan in St Andy’s. Posh city. I was nominated driver

There are thing you can believe and trust in, and there’s satnavs. Ours took us through every small village in Fife and missed out none but added in a few small town to even up the score. How in the name of the wee man could this conceivably be the ‘Quickest Route’. An hour and a half to travel 60 miles? Surely that can’t be right. That would mean travelling at approximately 40mph. Any slower and we’d have needed a man (or woman) in front of us waving a red flag. All to go to the posh end of Fife. However, when we got there, the caravan park we were heading for wasn’t quite what I’d expected. This was indeed Posh City. Beautiful views across sandy beaches which, admittedly, did have temperatures just into double digits today. From the panoramic windows of the caravan they look beautiful though.

Stayed a while to see Scamp settled and took the obligatory group photos and then I headed north to Leuchers to see if there were any ‘airies’ to be seen. Leuchers is no longer an official RAF base, but as Lossiemouth is having its runway relaid, Leuchers is now a temporary base to RAF fighters and reconnaissance aircraft. Just as I neared the airfield the call had seemingly gone up and the crew or scanner holding photogs were racing along the side of a farmer’s field to find a space to photograph an aircraft landing. It was definitely military and it was big, which meant it wasn’t a fighter aircraft and therefore I wasn’t interested. Let them run about like ‘maddies’. I’d done my time at that sort of thing and now I’d grown up. At least that’s what I consoled myself with as I headed further north and over the Tay Road Bridge.

I skirted the city itself and stopped to grab a shot of the “Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay!” as McGonagall described it. It was indeed ’silvery’ today. Back on the road I stopped at Perth for coffee beans of the Cuban variety and also some of the Sumatran persuasion before pointing the Red Juke in the direction the satnav suggested which was back north. As it had actually found the caravan site, I trusted it knew where it was going and gave it its head. It did take me on to the south-bound motorway after a few circuitous routes. I can only hope that the Micra’s Tomtom satnav is more sensible in its choice of routes.

Back home I had a slice of pizza to stave off the hunger pangs before I walked down to the shops to buy tonight’s dinner (M&S Chicken Tikka Masala) and the makings of tomorrow’s dinner.  Walked back.  The brilliant blue skies of the morning had gone and were replaced by dirty white clouds.  However it was dry if not all that warm.

PoD was a shot I’d taken this morning before leaving of a Cranefly (Jenny Long Legs in Scotland), beating the Silvery Tay to second place.

Tomorrow I may go looking for brambles while Scamp heads home.

The test and the result – 8 August 2020

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If, like me, you can’t be bothered about the details of the test and just jump straight to the result, here is the test in that order.

I phoned The Man in Stirling about 4pm and confirmed that we’d like to take the “Power Blue” Nissan Micra, and if the one we’d test driven this morning was available, that would be just fine.  He agreed that the one we’d road tested was available and that the paperwork would be in our hands by Monday.  You’ll note that most of our responses were in the plural.  We both liked the car and when Scamp said, after we’d road tested it: “I like it”, the deal was all but sealed.  After about an hour of driving round Stirling, Scamp and I were happy with the Micra.  Scamp said she felt quite at home with it.  I was happy with it.  Maybe not as powerful as the Juke, but not as heavy on fuel either.  Lots of lovely stuff to play with and at last, a digital speedometer display on a Nissan!  Something I’d really missed when moving from the old Megane to the Juke.  Good sound from the radio courtesy of Bose speakers and less road noise, if a little more engine noise when travelling.  Overall, it’s a car that we can both drive with confidence, and that’s what I was looking for.  Sold!

After our stressful morning we left Stirling to drive to Perth in the Juke. It was a beautiful day for the drive up to Perth but  when we got the Fair City, we found that the carpark was now an online parking carpark run using the Ringo app.  I’d read a few scathing reviews of it and decided it wasn’t for me, so promptly exited and parked across the road in a pay (using coins) carpark.  That was much better.  Maybe Ringo has improved from where it was a year or so ago, but I’ll read a few reviews first. In Perth we had our second coffee in a coffee shop this week, Nero this time just to balance things out, then while Scamp went looking for trousers in M&S, I went to get some much needed coffee beans in The Bean Shop.  Nearly maxed out the £45 ‘touch’ card limit just managing to sneak under the line.  I felt it was needed because I’d been reduced to drinking decaf coffee for a few days.  Actually ‘good’ decaf isn’t all that bad.  Perfectly drinkable and it doesn’t give you that  ‘Buzzzz’.  Bad decaf is just awful.  “Death before Decaf.”  Never a truer word spoken, Hazy!  Scamp didn’t find the trousers she was looking for and I thought I’d get my hands on the Sony camera I’d been searching for, but the bloke in the camera shop only had one which was 1p away from £1000.  I said “No Thanks”.  He didn’t look all that interested and didn’t even try to interest me in the purchase.  Perhaps it’s getting near the end of the line for small independent shops.

Drove home through the same beautiful countryside under the same beautiful blue skies.  Back home, Scamp wanted to work in the garden.  I went for a walk in St Mo’s.  Lovely big blue dragonfly flying over the small pond, but not resting on anything.  Gave up on it.  Nothing else really interesting, so came home.  PoD turned out to be a pic on my phone taken in Perth outside a toy shop.  Good to see a bit of Covid-19 humour.  Dinner tonight was a salad which we ate outside in the sunshine.  Chicken and Prawn Salad.  All washed down with a glass for white.  What’s not to like.

So, the car problem looks as if it’s on the way to being solved and the sun was shining all day today.  It’s been a good day.  Let’s hope that’s a sign for  the future, for everyone.

 

 

 

Out for a run

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Up and out early today and off with a flask, some coffee and some biscuits. A day in the country.

Set off in sunshine and drove up to Perth, well actually we bypassed Perth and continued on in the general direction of Dundee until the satnav found our turnoff to Glendoick Garden Centre. Fairly large and bewildering labyrinth of interconnected buildings and a large area of plants. We were quite impressed with the range and quality of the plants. Only the roses looked like the runts of the litter. Some with no buds left to open, some with what looked like a bad case of mildew on the leaves. Maybe the good ones had been snapped up already, maybe they hadn’t received all their stock yet. The rest of the plants looked fine and Scamp picked a couple of Coreopsis plants, one for herself and one for a friend. I got a cheap bag of nearly out of date Earl Grey tea and also an equally old bag of coffee beans which surprisingly came from The Bean Shop.

We were looking for somewhere to sit and have a cup of coffee and a bite to eat, just a parking place really as we’d brought a flask and some biscuits ’n’ cheese. Found a parking place using the satnav and followed its directions up what turned out to be a narrow private road with speed bumps (and I mean ‘bumps’) every 10 metres! Eventually reached the top and there was the parking place. Just what I’d asked for. A parking place. No view, just a place to park. We had our coffee and biscuits and I guessed that if we continued along the road it would take us to Perth, and it did, on a real public road with no speed bumps.

After driving through Perth we started heading home and noted the heavy looking black clouds. One lot to the north and one lot to the west. We were heading south west and I didn’t think we were going to outrun both lots, because they seemed to he dropping a fair amount of rain in their wake. Sure enough about ten miles out of Perth the rain started and continued on and off for most of the journey.

We did arrive home dry, but after about an hour the rain reached us. I waited it out and went for a walk in St Mo’s. Nothing much moving, certainly nothing worth photographing apart from Mr Grey preening himself in a tree.

Today’s PoD is of a Tortoiseshell butterfly on some buddleia bushes we saw at Glendoick.

There is no Sketch of the Day. Lockdown has now been lifted and yesterday’s Lockdown Library No 86 will be the last. When you stop enjoying something that’s supposed to be fun, it’s time to call a halt.

Tomorrow we may drive somewhere local and go for a walk if he weather permits.