Category: photography

Another long lie in – 8 August 2026

Posted on by Zogman

This is becoming a habit.

Unfortunately today, when we should have been driving to Brookfield for another dance lesson, we were just breaking the surface. Personally I blame the cup of Hot Chocolate I had last night before I went to bed. It always makes me sleepy. The half a bottle of Piquito Jumito we’d enjoyed had nothing to do with it. No, nothing at all.

So, it being extremely unlikely that we were going to get to Brookfield in time, we had a leisurely breakfast and planned the rest of the day. Scamp suggested that, since I’d been talking about going to Dunfermline sometime soon, we should do just that and go. That sounded like a great idea.

So it was that we walked down to The Shops where we picked up the local bus that would take us to the Town Centre and from there we would get another bus to Dunfermline. Oh, if only it was that simple, but we just missed the bus at the Town Centre and Scamp found herself trying to avoid a conversation with an old guy who was sure I was gay because I was wearing an old pair of pink trousers. Thankfully the Dunfermline bus arrived on time and we got on while the old guy went on to talk to someone else. I did feel a bit sorry for him. As my pal, Colin says, “You don’t know what they go home to at night.” I always try to remember that.

The rest of the journey was going fine until we took a detour that added at least half an hour to our journey. Why is Scotland going through a renovation boom just now? And more importantly, where is all the money coming from? However, we did finally get to Dunfermline and had a coffee and a pastry to calm us down.

We walked down to Pittencrieff Park but found that the Greenhouse was closed because of problems with the glass roof. Instead we walked round the carefully laid out flower beds. It wasn’t until we arrived back home that we discovered that the fruits of those beds, they were related to Ricin! I still made the Castor Oil Plant PoD.

After we’d taken some photos of the plants, we adjourned to Wetherspoons for Fish ’n’ Chips with a glass of wine for Scamp and a pint of Tennants for me. Then we just missed the bus home.

We seemed to be having a “Just missed it” day today as we watched the X3 disappear from the Town Centre stance in Cumbersheugh.

Despite all that, we had a good day. I would go so far as to say that I had a great day. Just a relaxing day. Thank you Scamp.

A leisurely day – 7 August 2026

Posted on by Zogman

We sort of had a long lie in today but managed to wake before 11am!

After breakfast we discussed what to do with the day. It was Scamp who suggested we drive to Hamilton for a curry in Bombay Cottage and that suited me too. So off we went to Hamilton. No problems with roadworks on the M74 down to Hamilton.

The food was good and the Naan Bread was really hot. Just out of the tandoor. I had Chicken Rogan Josh and Scamp had Vegetable Shimla Bhaji. Ice cream helped take the sting out of my Rogan Josh. We were both amazed that the same person who has always served us was still there doing the same job. He told us he’s been there for sixteen years, but is retiring this year. I don’t know if he will retire. I think he’s in with the bricks.

We discussed whether to go somewhere else or just go home afterwards, and settled for going home. Again, we were on the right road to just drive our normal route home without any roadworks, but many people seemed surprised that the road ahead was closed.

In the afternoon we went for a walk around the front garden. One of Scamp’s favourite rose bushes isn’t doing very well, We’re not sure what the root problem is, but a lot of the leaves are covered in big holes and others are discoloured. I think she might write to one of the companies that have supplied the bushes in the past and find out what we should do with it. For today, we cut the plant back by about a third in the hopes that it will give it a jolt. Also it is nearly time to give the roses a second feed. That may help too. If all else fails we’ll do a more drastic cut in the end of spring.

Today’s PoD really came from yesterday’s shots. It’s from an old broken wall across from the house with leaves hanging over the cracked brickwork.

Hope Jamie and Sim enjoy their friend’s wedding.

Tomorrow should be dance day. Hopefully it will be better than last week.

A much cooler day – 6 August 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Today we were on our way to The Fort, well, it was actuallyMorrisons which is close to the fort itself.

We were going looking for Potatoes, because our last lot had far too many eyes (all the better to see you with). I think Scamp thought we could maybe have stopped at the fort to a coffee, but one look at the length of the queue to get a parking place put an end to that idea. So it was back home after Morrisons.

Back home, Scamp was determined to get the front grass cut. I didn’t think it was badly needing cut, but what do I know. I was the labourer, moving the pots around when needed and not a lot else. We both thought it was going to rain, all the signs were there, but for some reason the big black clouds passed us by.

Later in the afternoon I put my boots on and went over to the Shops looking for a bargain or two and came home with a few things. It was strange to see the crowds of folk all desperate to get a parking place at the fort, but back home there were hardly any queues. Scamp suggested it was because the kids would soon be going back to school and there would be a demand for new shoes, blazers and jerseys and our nearby shops didn’t sell much in that line.

Dinner tonight was yesterday’s Fish Risotto for Scamp with Mince ’n’ Tatties for me. Both food groups were being finished off to make room for fresh food and veg.

I did a bit of experimenting with a month’s lot of photos last night and found that I could get the screensaver to work properly again. Someone who had posted online suggested that maybe the screensavers were being hidden, ready to be removed in the next version of Adobe. This might indeed be true, because the software that controls the screensavers is buried deep in the bowels of Castle Adobe. That would be a sin. A bit more work today made it work the way it was supposed to, thankfully.

PoD today was a much worked photo of Geranium Rozanne after it had been dunked in various buckets of messy stuff. I quite liked the finished result.

No plans for tomorrow, but maybe lunch somewhere?

Overslept – 5 August 2026

Posted on by Zogman

I had decided to go to bed early last night. But that didn’t happen. We didn’t wake until well past 9am, and then we had a late breakfast, we didn’t really want to go anywhere. A cold wind was blowing along the back of the house and it wasn’t really making me want to go for a walk.

Instead of going for a walk, I had one last attempt at speaking to a human about my painful right foot. I was amazed when a lady answered my story, asked a few questions and said she had referred me to our local health centre to take it further. Hopefully I won’t have to wait long to have it looked at.

Although we hadn’t had much for lunch, I suggested could we have a Fish and Cabbage Risotto for dinner except we didn’t have any cabbages, so I grabbed a camera and my waterproof jacket, just in case and walked down to the shops. With the roads still being dug up, it was almost as quick to walk to the shops as to drive. Besides, I might have missed some beautiful butterflies, even on a blustery day. I didn’t, but I got the cabbage and some frozen spinach which we are beginning to enjoy and got a photo of a Cow Parsley seed head that became PoD.

Let me explain last night. Scamp had been watching a program about Geoff Hamilton who was a garden expert on TV about 30 years ago. I watched it for a while then went off to write the blog and the photos. I’d just finished when Scamp was talking about what was worth listening to on the BBC Proms. She said two things, ‘Respighi’ and ‘Pines of Rome’. I don’t know where I heard it first, but many years ago I was doing something in the house and half listening to the story of the Pines on the radio. Then when I heard it played by a full orchestra, I was hooked. The story is about the centurions returning, exhausted from a battle and arriving as heroes to Rome. It’s very etherial, almost ghostly music that builds and builds as you get dragged into it. That’s why we didn’t get to bed last night until about half past eleven. Fantastic music. I think Scamp thought I was taking the Mickey to begin with, but realised I did really like this music.

No plans for tomorrow. Not yet, anyway.

Best laid plans – 4 August 2026

Posted on by Zogman

I had three things to do today:

  1. Drop off a sample at for the docs to poke and probe into.
  2. Book the MOT for the Blue car.
  3. Send a message to the Podiatrist.

I managed two of them, which is quite good for me. The first one was easy until I realised I’d left the sample pouch at home. Now, bear in mind that about half of the roads in Cumbersheugh just now are blocked for two weeks. I lied earlier in the week about it being three weeks. Well, what’s a week between friends? So now I had to drive through the a whole load of speed bumps to get back to the house to pick up a plastic bag. Then I had to drive round again and overt the bumps to deliver it to the sample box in Medical Centre. Task 1 completed.

Drove on to the very end of Cumbersheugh and booked the car in for MOT and promised it a scrub and polish if it behaved itself at the MOT place. That was easy!

Tried twice without success to describe a problem I’ve got on my left foot. It feels like I’m walking on broken glass, just like Annie Lennox if you remember her. I couldn’t just phone the podiatrist, because for this whole week they open at 9am and close at 1pm. There is only one podiatrist and there were already 7 people ahead of me in the queue. By the time I filled in the page explaining my problem it would be well into three figures. No, I decided to go the slow way, and type up my problem, except you only get one line to do the explanation. What am I going to say? “I HAVE A SORE FOOT THAT CRUNCHES WHEN I WAL” There is no room to finish the sentence! North Lanarkshire at its clumsy best!
I gave up. I may try again tomorrow. I might get lucky. Two out of three isn’t bad.

Really heavy rain shower in the afternoon, just as I was considering a walk in St Mo’s. It must have lasted about 20 minutes, then it tapered off and after a while, the sun shone. I did get out for a walk and grabbed today’s PoD which was a Valarian plant with a tiny little green spider dangling from it. I liked that one.

Scamp made Saag Paneer Kedgeree. Delicious, if a little bit hot. Needs some tweaking, but worth trying I can photocopy the instructions if anyone wants it. It’s got a sliced, boiled egg, Hazy, but that’s not a game changer. You could just miss it out, or Neil could.

No plans for tomorrow.

 

A Butterfly Day – 2 August 2026

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Beautiful day for butterflies. I counted fifteen butterflies congregating on the buddleia bush in the garden.

The day actually started with some joker trying to reverse a lorry and connected ‘chipper’ along a path that was never meant to carry such a wide load. After a bit of an argument I convinced him to disconnect the ‘chipper’ and push it down to where it should have been and then drive the lorry round to the wider road further down the estate. Then we discussed how to repair the tree he had damaged. After that the ‘boss’ and I worked out that the best thing to do was to cut part of the tree branch down. With it done, we shook hands on it, but some of the minions were still making noises. Scamp and I went back to breakfast.

For the rest of the day, Scamp was happily working on the garden. She had a vision of what she wanted to happen and I was glad to let her get on with it. I must admit that she has made an excellent job of clearing up the garden. It’s not quite finished yet, but a lot of work went into making it look much better than before.

I was busy taking photos of the butterflies that had covered the buddleia bush. About half a dozen different types were flying round and through the buddleia flowers and my favourite was the Comma with its easily recognised ‘Cut out’ on its wing. The most amazing one was the Painted Lady which migrates from Africa and mainland Europe to the Uk, and in this case to Scotland. This is the first time I’ve seen one.

Spoke to Jamie later in the day and heard about the exorbitant price for their water bill. I’m glad we live in Scotland!

Tomorrow Scamp and I are probably going shopping. What fun!

Dancin’ – 1 August 2026

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On the first day of August

It was a busy morning with traffic on the road, probably from folk coming home from holiday and others on their way out. Once we got past Glasgow airport the traffic reduced. Today we were back in Brookfield and dancing old dances. Some were more successful than others. People, including us, were still having problems with Rona’s Rumba. Jane was making changes to the routine but, as someone said, there are too many turns both clockwise and anticlockwise. I can understand that Jane has devised the dance for a friend who passed away, but you sometimes have to stand back and look at the routine. That’s all I’ll say.

It wasn’t my best day. I was complaining about everything. I have no excuse for it, just one of those dance days when things get under my skin and I can’t do anything right. We danced quite a few routines that, normally we’d work our way through without any problems, but today they just didn’t work. Most of it was my fault. Probably best to forget today and come back fresh for the next dance.

For once we drove home over the Kingston Bridge and kept the wheels turning all the time. It’s not often I’ll say that. The weather was variable today. Cloudy one minute and in sunshine the next. Not to be trusted, though because Scamp was complaining about little showers of rain when she was working in the garden later. We both worked on an old tree that’s been growing next to the wall in the back garden and between us I think we’ve given it a good short back and sides today. Our ‘Brown Bin’, the garden waste bin was almost full with one bushy tree.

We had three butterflies changing places round the Buddleia bush in the garden. One of them, a Red Admiral, finally settled on a plant pot and I managed one photo of it before it flew off. That photo made PoD.

I spent some time rearranging my Lightroom catalog, something I’ve been meaning to do for months now. Hopefully it will be a more logical way of working this year.

Dinner tonight was Mac ’n’ Cheese and although it was a bit salty, it tasted great. Scamp was cooking, of course!

No plans for tomorrow so far.

Another warm day – 30 July 2026

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Scamp was taking Shona to have a tooth removed. Rather her than me

I took some time to myself and read a few more chapters of my latest book, The Midnight Train by Matt Haig. Strange book, but I’m only about a quarter way through it. I want to find out where it goes, but am not in a hurry.

When Scamp returned she started a conversation with Jackie and not wishing to earwig, I put on my rain jacket and put three new windscreen wipers on the blue car. What a difference that made. Wish I’d dine it weeks an ago. With that done, I drove up to my favourite photography spot to get some wild sky photos. It was quite cool up on the moors, but I did get a few photos I liked.

I drove home and after I’d been brought up to speed with Jackie’s comings and goings and Murdo’s possible need for a new cataract op Scamp made dinner. Salmon, Potatoes and Corn on the Cob. Very nice, I really enjoyed the salmon slice, Scamp.

Tomorrow I’m booked for my annual checkup and as usual, I’m not really looking forward to it. At least it’s going to be in my usual place and not in the main surgery.

We are hoping the wildfire down near Dunwich burns out soon, or the wind changes direction.

PoD went to a landscape that brightened up my day.

Oh yes, and Shona did get her tooth out without too much trouble.

 

Raindrops on Roses – 29 July 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Another of those days when the rain just forgets to turn off.

It started in the morning, just a drizzle that wouldn’t go away. As the day progressed, the rain got heavier and then it disappeared, but I knew it was just waiting for me to go out, then it would return again … and it did.

In a short dry spell we drove to Tesco, and found for some Peppadew spicy peppers. Next thing I needed was a set of windscreen wipers in Halfords. The last time I went looking there they had hardly any.Thankfully, they had all three in stock. When I came out Scamp was heading for Aldi where I got a packet of Butteries (also known as Rowies). I’m sure two of my readers remember them from their time in Aberdeen. Scamp got a couple of Carmel Custard Doughnuts.

On the way home there was a long, long queue to get round one of Cumbersheugh’s roundabouts and the reason was some roads were closed and those that weren’t were restricted to one lane. Scamp had noticed a warning when we were heading out that claimed the all the roads round the roundabouts would be close for three weeks THREE WEEKS! I can just imagine the chaos that will bring. Anyway, we did manage to get back home … just as the rain came on. I wasn’t going to get those windscreen wipers fitted today.

We put the Peppadew peppers into yesterday’s Carrot & Lentil Curry and that made it taste a lot better. Also, Scamp just had to test the custard doughnuts and I had to do a similar test on the butteries. Both passed with flying colours.

After dinner the clouds blew away and the sun shone and I got today’s PoD in the garden. A rose branch covered in water droplets.

Tomorrow, Scamp is intending to take Shona to the dentist to get a tooth removed. I hoping to stay well clear.

Raining – 28 July 2026

Posted on by Zogman

I know this will break the hearts of my readers “Dahn Sarf”, especially with another heat wave heading their way, but we had rain almost all day today. Sometimes heavy rain sometimes light, but always there. Hopefully those in the south of England will get their fair share of it too in the coming weeks and months.

I’m afraid there wasn’t much to report today. I walked down to the shops in the afternoon to get some ‘messages’, but other than that I hardly moved from the house.

I was duty chef today and I was making Carrot & Lentil Curry. It’s so long since I last made it, I completely forgot what the ingredients were. Then I remembered that the original was sealed into a double sided, clear plastic sheet. Find that and you find the recipe, and Scamp knew where the plastic sheet was. We almost had all the makings of the curry, but the local shops didn’t sell canned Pimentos. However, our version of it was good enough for today. Tomorrow I may drive to Tesco to get a new jar. Scamp says she was delighted with the cut down version. Happy Wife, Happy Life!

We thought we’d lost the chance to see who won Bakeoff The Professionals because, for some reason ITV were showing it on the wrong day, but Scamp managed to find it somewhere on ITV. I chose the wrong pair, but Scamp got it right. Brilliant program.

PoD went to a branch of Rowan berries from the back garden. They look like plump little oranges!

No plans for tomorrow, but it looks like the weather may improve. Probably not what you were wanting to hear if you live down south!