Category: photography

Tidying up loose ends – 16 May 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Lots of stuff to do yet, but it’s getting clearer what’s needed and what’s not.

It was a wet morning and Scamp was out to Tesco, which gave me a chance to tidy up the back bedroom and clear a space to work on. When she came back the settee was cleared and ready.

To save time we just drove to The Fort. We were parked right next to another blue Micra. Exactly the same model and style. Twins! I wanted a book at Waterstones and she was looking for cards and gift boxes for yesterday’s gifts. I hate that work, ‘gift’. It’s so lacking in definition and emotion. I’d much rather say ‘Prezzy’, but I don’t suppose you can go into a shop and ask “Where do you keep the Prezzy boxes, please?” So that vanilla word, ‘gift’ will have to do. In Waterstones I managed to find both the books I was considering, sitting on the rack next to one another, so I bought both. One with a gift voucher (there’s that word again. I’ll call it a book token next time) and one with real money. The books were “May God Forgive” and “Bad Actors”. Met Scamp on the way back from the book shop and we drove home.

Back home it was lunch time and also time for a couple of chapters in my new Robert Pobi book “Under Pressure”which looks like another page turner. (Hazy, I don’t know if Neil has read this one, it’s the next in the sequence after “City of Windows”. Maybe you could mention to him.) I gave myself a limit of reading until 2.30 and then I had to start sorting things out after. I ended up with the settee covered again with clothes ready to go into cases. After I’d done all I could do, I grabbed a camera and two lenses and walked over to St Mo’s, hoping for some damselflies again, but there were none. The rain from the morning had disappeared and it was actually quite warm. Much warmer that the 10ºc we had going in to The Fort. I did find a big spider tending its web just by the side of the boardwalk and it became PoD. Not much light though, because those heavy rain bearing clouds were still hung overhead, so I took that as a sign to take my lucky spider shots and go home.

Dinner tonight was a bit of a mix up. Boiled some spaghetti, then cut some shallots and red pepper thin and fried them in some oil before adding some passata. While it was cooking through, griddled some slices of courgettes, aubergines and mushrooms in my ribbed pan. When the pasta was cooked I added it to the sauce and served the veg as a side. It was different and it seemed to work. This chapter is a reminder to me of how I made it.

We had a quick refresher of the “Baby” waltz, the Sweetheart Cha-Cha and the Fishtails from the quickstep.

Tomorrow is the last day of the short salsa class in Bishopbriggs. Who knows what Jamie Gal will throw into the mix!

Back and Forth – 11 May 2022

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After yesterday’s strange behaviour of the Blue car, I was hoping for some resolution, or at least an explanation.

Before that could happen, there was some coffee to be drunk and some stories to be told. Before even that, Scamp was out to get her hair cut. With that done successfully, we headed hesitantly to the Costa in the Town Centre. Nothing untoward happened and the blue car behaved very well.

I met Val and we had Flat Whites and a cake each. He was telling me he’d had a fall and showed me the bruises to prove it. He has been renovating a 1946 radio. Val loves a challenge and this was certainly that. Of course, something of that age doesn’t have transistors inside, it runs on valves. Glass valves with all sorts of coils and things inside them and a multitude of pins protruding from the base. I told him I remember my dad taking the valves out of our old radio and cleaning all those fine pins with emery paper, dusting them off and carefully putting them back in place. It was a wonderful thing when he could tune into radio stations in faraway places and hear folk talking in foreign languages. Nowadays we just take without thinking that you can see and hear what’s happening all over the globe, instantly on TV or on your phone even. I admire Val’s ability to rebuild these old devices.  I showed him the photos in a photobook Scamp and I had had printed of our long weekend in Old Newton.  Jamie and Simonne, he was very impressed with the house and garden, as was Isobel when she saw the book.

I had a word with Isobel who was with Sheila in a different part of Costa’s. She looks so much younger now that she doesn’t need glasses after her cataract surgery. A very independent woman she delighted in telling me that she manages to put her drops in by herself.

I drove Val home because he’s feeling a bit stiff after his fall and also because he’s lost a bit of his confidence. Then I went and filled up the blue car before picking up Scamp and Isobel then took the lady with the new all seeing eye back to the Village.

Drove to Stirling, ready for a fight, as Scamp described it. The young bloke on the desk listened to my story and started telling me they didn’t have any free appointments today, then when I said I needed the car for next week he relented and managed to get me a slot at 4pm today. I thanked him and we drove home, had a bit of lunch before hoovering up all the sticky tree buds that always appear at this time of year. When I thought the car was looking at least a bit tidier than it had been I drove to Stirling again. Dropped off the keys and sat down to read my Kindle which I’d been bright enough to bring with me. Just over an hour later the young bloke came over and showed me the printout from the computer the blue car had been connected to. He agreed that there half a dozen different failures the test had thrown up. The mechanic had cleared all the fails and re-tested the car and it came up clean, so it was safe to drive. I thanked him for getting me the slot and for dealing with it so promptly, and I was on my way back home, through the rush hour traffic. I’d hate to have to drive through that every day. Fish and chips for dinner. Just what I needed after a stressful day.

The weather today was wild! Gusty wind blowing in heavy rain showers and then blowing them away again to let the sun shine though. PoD was a shot taken in the garden. It’s an azalea that lives in a sheltered corner of the garden and is flowering beautifully just now.

Tomorrow we are hoping for a more relaxing day, although it looks like rain for at least some of it.

Dancin’, Drivin’ and Helensburgh – 7 May 2022

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That was the day in three words. Sorry about the last sweary word, Jamie!

Drove to Brookfield today and found that instead of the quickstep we’d been practising, we were dancing a Foxtrot, a Tango Serida, a <spit> Cha-Cha, a ‘Baby’ Waltz and as many sequence dances as they could cram in. I actually enjoyed the Foxtrot. Quite an elegant dance. The tango serida was just a bit of meaningless fluff. Instantly forgettable. The cha-cha I almost managed and the ‘baby’ waltz is just a waltz we’ve been messing about with for weeks now. Could be useful for dances if nobody knows what it should REALLY look like! Thankfully there weren’t too many sequence dances to fit in as time was tight. All in all, not as bad as it could have been.

<Warning DON’T read this Jamie>
It had been a 20mph drag getting through the roadworks on the M8 this morning and I’d no intention of facing them again on the way back, so I suggested we go for a drive to Helensburgh. When we got there, OH NO! The carpark was gone. The big carpark with a million space and no charge for parking was gone. In its place was a steel and glass featureless lump. Apparently it is a Leisure Centre. A Leisure Centre in Helensburgh is a bit pointless. Most of the inhabitants are well over 80 and the rest are sailors who work at the naval base a few miles up the estuary and who have their own free (I guess) leisure centre at the base. Finally found a place to park, and had to pay! For the first time in Helensburgh, we had to pay! What is the world coming to. Even worse, the pizza shop was closed. We walked along the esplanade and I took a few photos of wee dinghies sailing and trying to race in an almost complete calm. Had a coffee and a panini each in a busy little Costa off the main road. Scamp found another clothes shop and bought a dress. Further on she found a matching fascinator that didn’t look like a black widow spider! My purchases of the day were a few slices of black pudding, two lamb and sausage meat patties and two Italian sausages that smelled strongly of garlic. We drove back home with out touching the roadworks on the M8.
<OK Jamie. It’s safe to come back>

That was about it for the day. A photo of the wee dinghies trying to race became PoD. Dinner was Chicken Pasta in a Tomato Ragu. More a Monday dinner than a Saturday, but it filled a wee space.

Tomorrow I must go out and take some meaningful photos. I just feel I’m treading water these days and need to get out and take photos of things that interest me. Also I really need to do something about my phone. It’s beginning to fail in quite a few ways. Any suggestions or recommendations would be welcome.

Last full day – 18 April 2022

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Our last full day at the house and we wanted to cram everything we could into those 12 waking hours.

It started off with a walk round the garden and the outside of this remarkable house and also some time for interior shots. I was glad I’d brought along the 18mm wide angle lens. Really useful for showing off the odd shaped rooms. Flowers, oh yes, lots of photos of flowers, but also photos of plants in Jamie’s greenhouse. Not just the immediate environs either, but also the church next door, St Mary’s. A few shots of that too. I’d thought I might get a last walk through it and down to the wee bridge, but there just wasn’t enough time.

Jamie drove us to look for some plants at a garden centre. The first place we went to had some plants they wanted and bought, but no compost which they needed. The second one was more like a retirement home for ill and dying plants. Not worth the name of a garden centre. The third one did have plants, compost and seeds. They didn’t want the seeds, but we did. I wanted Teasel seeds, but I also grabbed Yellow Rattle, Basil and Rocket micro greens. Scamp bought me a packet of Ammi majus which look like Cow Parsley, so hopefully I can have some in the garden, to save me walking to St Mo’s to capture hoverflies in the summer. Thanks Scamp!

Then we were off again, being driven to Bury St Edmonds to go for a walk through the Abbey gardens. Clever planting in the gardens with good colour combinations. We took more photos of the ruins in the gardens, but time constraints didn’t allow us a chance to visit the actual abbey. Maybe another time, if we’re allowed back. Outside the big ornate front entrance to the gardens there were a bollard and a post box that had been yarn bombed. I don’t know what I liked best, the Easter bunny or the flower garden with the bee. Both fun additions to the street furniture.

We had a rather high cholesterol lunch in Cafe Nero. My favourite being a Chouxnut which Jamie called a Croconut because that’s what they are called in the US where he’d seen them first. It is a soft choux pastry filled with white chocolate mousse topped with caramel biscuit fondant and crushed biscuits. Delicious and very fattening, but who’s counting when you’re on your holidays! I haven’t seen them up north, but maybe that’s a good thing.

Then we were driven back to the house, because Jamie wanted to show off his latest acquisition, a petrol driven lawn mower. Not a ride-on one, although that may come. Scamp was the first to try it out and found it a little bit more demanding than she’d anticipated. I have a video! I was a bit more cautious, since I’d had a chance to watch Scamp’s antics and realise that you don’t just go full speed all the time. I don’t do the ‘grass hoovering’ at home, but I can see how much of a boon this must be when you have such a big lawn on a slope.

Jamie wanted a head and shoulders shot for his profile page and I took a few shots when we were finished playing with the new toy. After a bit of cosmetic adjustments in Lightroom he was satisfied with the result.

After that it was time to start stuffing all our clothes into our bags, and for me, finding places to store cameras, lenses and all the assorted paraphernalia that photogs carry about with them. We had a final drink and then it was time for bed.

PoD was an ingenious lock on a little shed which holds the gas canisters that provide the means of cooking in the house.

Tomorrow is the long journey home.

Motherwell – 11 April 2022

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Off to Tesco first for expensive alcohol. Petrol type alcohol.

A lazy start to the day, but then off to Tesco for food and petrol, except everyone else wanted petrol too. I was heading to Motherwell in the afternoon and I knew I’d also need some later in the week, but all the pumps were full and queued too, so with the milk and bread and a bottle of wine or two, we headed home, feeling sure that I’d get some later.

After lunch I loaded the car with what I was taking to my brother’s which was really parcels for Ollie, and went back to Tesco. Slightly better, but the only pumps I could get near were out of E10 and I had to use the E5 or risk being late getting to Motherwell. The price of E5 is really prohibitive now. I thought E10 was bad! Anyway, I needed the fuel, so needs must. Put in £20 worth and told the Blue car to make the most of the posh petrol. It may be a while before it gets any more.

Drove up to my brother’s and after consoling Carol on her really sore looking new knee, Alex and I had a good blether about lenses and cameras. It’s one of those situations when you talk to each other using letters and numbers but actual words are few and far between. He does have a lovely set of lenses, but he doesn’t have a LensBaby. Well, not yet anyway. I took a few random shots with some of his hardware just so I could pixel-peep when I came home. They really were as good as they looked. Every one sharp right across the frame and even down to the corners. That’s the place you must look with a lens. The corner is the farthest point from the centre. The centre is always the sharpest, the edges annd the corners are the weakest. Not so with these lenses. Well chosen glass, Alex.

We agreed that we’d go out for a photo walk soon, hopefully next week and also that we’d all go to visit the Kelpies too, but only once Carol’s leg has healed. Drove home and thought about using a vase of cut flowers for today’s PoD. I didn’t want to go over to St Mo’s today. I need a break from it although I might have got another shot of that duck with the chestnut brown head, which is definitely a Widgeon. Maybe just passing through, because I don’t think it stayed long last year.

I wish now I’d taken the shots when the sun was higher in the afternoon, but I left it until after dinner and by then the light was fading, but the LensBaby did a good job of blurring out the edges of the frame and creating the nice soft image I was looking for. One of those tabletop shots got PoD.

That was about it for the day. A trip to Motherwell, expensive petrol and ‘flooers’ again.

No plans for tomorrow, apart from a bit of forward planning.

I’m busy doing nothing – 28 March 2022

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That’s how today felt.

Scamp was out to lunch with Nancy today which left me the run of the house.

It was a beautiful day again, possibly the last really warm day for a while, so after I’d changed the battery in the solar powered light ball that hangs on the tree in the garden, I went and sat on the front step and read my new book for a while, until lunch time, in fact. After lunch which was a chicken, mushroom and red pepper omelette, I continued my sunbathing and reading, although I did change to shorts and a tee shirt because it was really quite warm. I got a warning from Scott the taxi driver that I should have sun cream on and thought that was a wise precaution, so I went in search of sun cream. Finally found some, slapped it on and grabbed a beanie hat to complete my rig out. Possibly not the most elegantly dressed gent in the estate, but certainly the most comfortable, because now I’d taken a folding chair out. You can only sit for so long on a step before your bum starts to complain. I know I should have been sanding down the woodwork of the bin shed, but you can’t put a good book down! The book was All That Lives by James Oswald, in case you’re interested.

When Scamp returned I thought I’d give her some space and too the camera and the Lensbaby out to get some photos of the flowering cherry that grows in the depths of St Mo’s woodland. I got a few shots of it and am beginning to come to terms with this strange contraption. It does produce some very arty effects, almost painterly. That’s what produced today’s PoD of the flowering cherry tree.

That was about it for today. My work on the light ball lit up tonight and is now off again. The little Ni Mh battery does a good job and gives two or three hours of light. I’m hoping there will be enough sun tomorrow to charge it up again. Apparently it’s going to get a lot colder in the next few days with a wind from the north and talk of that white fluffy stuff falling from the sky!

One more thing.  I made Pasta Carbonara tonight for dinner, with a difference.  Two kinds of cheese, Pecarino and Parmigiano-Reggiano and NO CREAM!  Instead I tried Val’s recipe with an extra egg yolk instead of cream and it did taste better.  Must try it again some time.

Tomorrow Scamp is out again. This time it’s coffee with Shona. I’ll hope for a morning of sunshine.

 

Coffee – 16 March 2022

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Yesterday I got a box of coffee. This morning I was drinking it.

Unfortunately it was Costa coffee I was drinking, but the company made up for it. John, Val and I were the trio of Auld Guys today. We just sat and talked for an hour and a half, mainly about folk we knew and worked beside. We also heard about John’s trip to Keswick for Big Ross’s stag party. A relaxed hour and a half for me at least. Eventually we’d talked ourselves out and it was time to go.

I was heading over to Abronhill and Val accepted a lift with me. I think his leg were giving him problems today and he was happy to be driven home on a dull day. I dropped him at his house and headed back to the recycling centre. The reason I was going to Abronhill was to take a DVD player and a bag of other bits and pieces to the skips. For once the recycling centre was fairly quiet and everything got dumped without any problem.

From there I drove up to Fannyside to see if the wee brown ladybird was still there. I though it might have been hibernating, but apparently not, because it was nowhere to be seen. I did find loads of lichen, Stag’s Horn and Cladonia and they kept me busy for a while. Switched to the 18mm wide angle and got some landscapes. Light wasn’t really very good. Quite flat and uninteresting, as were most of the photos. PoD went to a blob of moss with some fruiting bodies on top. Looked like a little green hill.

While I was driving home I got a notion to make Minestrone for dinner. I found the recipe in an old cook book and between us, Scamp and I worked out what we needed to augment the veg we had in the fridge. Then we walked down to the shops and bought just that and nothing that we didn’t need, not even a bottle of gin! We were very good today.

Spent a good hour or so while the soup was simmering away, trying to find a solution to a problem with the 18mm lens. There’s a blue cast at the edges of the frame and although I can fix it quite easily, it shouldn’t be there. After some research, I found out that it’s quite common to have a colour cast on ultra-wide lenses. It’s just something you have to put up with, but there is a fix and it’s built into Lightroom and it’s in the Library module. It’s called ‘Flat-Field Correction’. Google those words and you’ll find directions. Some preparation work needs to be done first before it will work.
Dear readers, that last paragraph was an aide mémoire for me in the future to remind me how to fix the problem of the blue cast.

Hoping to go to see Margie tomorrow and hear more of her madcap stories. I must take my concertina sketch book with me. Other than that, not a lot planned, although weather looks like it’s improving. Sub-zero tonight predicted.

Doing the housework – 14 March 2022

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Scamp was off to meet Isobel for coffee and I was staying home to brush the stairs.

I can see why Scamp didn’t want to do the job because all the dust might irritate her recently operated on eyes. There was quite a load of dust, dirt and general detritus lodged in the folds of the stair carpet and she was correct, the best way of tackling it was to get down on my knees and brush it out with a stiff brush. It took a lot longer than I anticipated and eventually I gave up using the shovel to hold all the grit and just brushed it into the middle of each tread, then used the portable Dyson to sook it all up. Then I started on the landing using the same technique, but it was much easier. No need to climb the north face of the Eiger as you scrub. Much easier on the flat. Soon it was all done.  One of the most delightful things today was walking barefoot up the stairs after they had been brushed and Dysoned.  The treads felt so soft and springy, it was worth all that work.

After that, and before Scamp returned, I started collecting the bits and pieces to go in the box with the Sony A7ii camera that was going to MPB. That’s the original Sony I bought in October 2020. It’s going to MPB to help pay for its younger brother who is working very hard for me every day. So many different cables, adapters, chargers and a massive brick of a manual that tells you nothing, but takes a long time to do it. Finally got everything collected and fitted into the box, just as Scamp came home and the rain came on.

After we had lunch and after I’d struggled with today’ Wordle puzzle, I was hoping to go out and find something other than frogs to photograph, but the rain stayed on. All afternoon it stayed on and eventually I put my boots on and went out for a walk. Knowing that I’d find something interesting … and I did. I was walking through a bit of mixed woodland behind St Mo’s park when I found a flower on a tree, then another couple. Not missing an opportunity like that I took a few shots. Then I saw what looked like a whole tree covered in white flowers. I think it’s either apple blossom or wild cherry (Gean) coming out a bit early. After about a dozen different photos I went for a walk down the avenue of trees and found a neat little larch flower with raindrops on it. Took a few photos of that too. That’s when the rain came on. It just got heavier and heavier. By the time I’d reached home I was ‘drookit’.

Scamp suggested Amatriciana which is Tomatoes, Bacon, Pinch of Chilli flakes, Onions and Pecarino cheese. It sounded like a plan and that’s what I made for dinner, served with Spaghetti. Long time since we’ve had that, but I hope it won’t be that long until we have it again.

After dinner while Scamp was reading I finished packing up the camera for the DPD driver to collect tomorrow. Wrote an email to Alex and confirmed Wednesday as a coffee meet-up with some of the Auld Guys.

PoD was a branch of those white Gean flowers that Scamp described as a flight of butterflies. I understand exactly what she means

Tea and coffee incoming tomorrow and cameras outgoing. Other than that, nothing planned, but I’m sure a walk will be squeezed in somewhere, possibly with photos.

Going for the messages – 9 March 2022

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Some days are filled with sunshine.  Other days are dull.  Today was dull and the highlight was going for the messages.

Scamp drove us to The Fort today, or to be more precise, she drove us to Morrisons at The Fort.  We needed some messages and it was a dull day.  Also the wee Red car needed a run to charge its battery and to get its wheels moving again.  Scamp doesn’t like the twisty roads I drive on to The Fort and also there were roadworks on part of that route that were predicted to last for months and months, so we went by an alternative route.  It took us through Stepps, Ruchazie, Garthamlock and finally Provanhall, not Easterhouse, Provanhall.  There is a difference. I admit I was lost for most of the journey after Stepps.  There page markers had nearly all disappeared.  Where was the Golfers Rest?  Where was the bit of the canal that used to run parallel to the road. The Monkland Canal.  Gone was the answer.  Then as Scamp recited the names of places as we drove past, bits of it came back.  All things change.

We missed a turning at The Fort and drove on to Morrisons.  The order we visited them in was unimportant.  We bought some messages, but the main thing that Scamp had come for Branston Fruity Sauce was unavailable.  It wasn’t until we came home and I did a bit of internet digging that we discovered that Rich and Fruity Sauce, had been added to the list of over 400 products have been recalled after they were found to contain the carcinogen Sudan 1.  This was a bit surprising and worrying as the recall happened in 2005 and we still have an ‘in date’ bottle of the sauce in the cupboard!  I blame Brexit.

On the way back we did stop at The Fort.  Scamp wanted to go to M&S and I wanted to look for a book in Waterstones.  Both of us came back empty handed.  Scamp couldn’t find anything that suited her and I refused to pay £16 for a book I could get for £9 in Amazon.  She drove us home and I managed to find some of the places that I’d lost on the way in, or to be more correct I managed to find a school where the Golfers Rest used to be and a motorway slip road that was the Monkland Canal.

In the morning I found today’s photo in the bathroom.  It’s a close up of Scamp’s swimming goggles that she wears to prevent soap from getting in her eyes when she’s washing her hair.  I liked the water droplets on the goggles and the shine on the chrome tap.  There’s a group on Flickr where some of my photos land, called The Monochrome Mind.  For the first time in ages, I saw this photo in Black & White, not colour.  It went in to that group today.  A wee abstract for a change.

We had fish ’n’ chips tonight for dinner.  Smoked haddock and chips to be more precise.  Best bit of fish I’ve had for ages.  Beautifully cooked by Scamp.

Tomorrow it’s sequins and dance shoes.  We’re hoping to go to a tea dance in Paisley.

Off exploring – 8 March 2022

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This looked like the last good day for a while, so we went walking again.

We were off to East Kilbride today to Calderglen Country Park. One of EK’s best kept secrets. I think they just want it kept neat and tidy with none of the scruff from Glasgow and North Lanarkshire allowed access. But the reckoned without us. We’d been there before, when there were signs showing where it was and how to get in, so we got in!

It really is a lovely park with walks through steep sided glens and bridges across rushing streams. Well, actually it’s just bridges across the same rushing stream, but who’s counting. Most of the paths were in good nick, but there were a few places that could perhaps have done with a fence to prevent the unwary from taking a tumble. We didn’t take a tumble, but the opportunity was there. Light was lovely, especially since the trees are still bare, allowing it to shine through the branches and cast long shadows on the ground.

As we walked, we both remembered different bits of the path as we reached them. I’m not sure we had walked the full circuit we did today, the last time we were there, but certainly bits of it were familiar. I made a few miscalculations photographically speaking. I was finding it difficult to get focus on a big patch of snowdrops through the tracery of tree branches and set the camera to manual focus just to check that I was controlling it, not the other way round. It was only after taking a good dozen photos, I realised I hadn’t set it back to automatic. Luckily nobody but me would notice the difference! In fact the PoD was one of the slightly out of focus shots.

Lots of folk with lots of dogs. I think we only passed two people who didn’t have a four legged animal trotting along beside them. Most of the folk were friendly with a smile and a “Morning!” However, there were some who didn’t recognise our faces and just KNEW we were outsiders. Maybe Glasgow ‘Keelies’ or worse still, North Lanarkshire Louts, here to steal our scenery or leave litter everywhere. They were the ones who didn’t speak.

We had hoped to have a seat, a coffee and a bite to eat at the end of our walk, but there was a 20 – 30min wait for a table at the cafe and food was going to take between 15 and 20mins. Gone were my chances of a roll ’n’ sausage with fried onions. Instead we both settled for a flat white and slice of tipsy cake to eat in the car. Eat in the car, because there was a really cold wind getting up and we didn’t want to sit on the wooden benches in the outside courtyard chittering. Drove home afterwards with half the tipsy cake to eat later.

That was about it for the day. Dinner tonight was Muttar Paneer (Peas and Indian cheese) for dinner. Scamp made the dinner, I made the flat bread.

Happy 8th Wedding Anniversary to Jamie and Sim. Hope you had a great day.

Tomorrow looks wet, in fact I do believe the weather is practising as I write! Maybe another bread kit tomorrow.