Category: Plants

Out to lunch – 29 October 2024

Posted on by Zogman

I’d said we might go out somewhere today and we did.

It wasn’t quite the place I was thinking about. Instead of driving, we got the bus to the town centre and from there another bus to Dunfermline. After a coffee in Nero, we had a walk around Pittencrief Park and spent a good half hour or more in the glasshouses. Actually it’s one big glasshouse that’s divided into three spaces. Despite the time of year and the cold outside, the plants were mostly all growing well and the carp in the pond were getting even bigger than the last time we had been there.

I took 48 photos, 46 of them in the glasshouses and two outside. There were quite a few exotic specimens inside. A purple/blue Brazilian Spider Flower which does actually look like a spider. A Japanese Lantern Plant, and PoD, a pair of tiny little parachutes like the feathery dandelion clock seeds, but with a spiral tail. Have a look and you’ll see what I mean.

Eventually we went for a walk around the formal gardens. All the rose bushes are untouched still, I expected to see them cut down to the ground. But very few flowers to be seen. Just one or two around the paths.

From there we walked up through the town and had lunch in Wetherspoons. Not the best we’ve ever had, but it filled a space. I ordered Roasted Cauliflower and Spinach for Scamp and Chicken Jalfrezi for me. What came was Chicken, presumably Jalfrezi, for Scamp and probably Beef Madras for me. We should have sent them back, but had started them before we noticed. I must say that is the first time I’ve had a poor meal in Wetherspoons. Scamp has complained about it when she has been in the Cumbersheugh Wetherspoons with her pal Mags, but my food has always been fine. Must be more careful and critical in future.

We walked back to the bus station via M&S and arrived at the stance about two minutes late. Didn’t even see the bus leaving. That meant a half hour wait for the next bus. Lovely scenery going back. Beautiful light on the hills and I was in a bus, so couldn’t stop to take photos. Never mind, I was sure I had loads on my card, and I was right.

Watched Bake Off tonight and didn’t get the result we were hoping for. I suppose that’s life.

While we were out, I got a call from Val. I don’t think he’s keeping very well. I might go and see him this week or next.

Today’s prompt was Navigator. I sketched a Silva Compass, just like the broken one I’ve got in a drawer in my room. The design hasn’t changed much in the fifty odd years since I bought it … the price has!

No big plans for tomorrow. I might make a bow tie for Saturday.

Chiffchaff – 4 August 2024

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That’s what I saw this morning, although it might have been a Willow Warbler.

It was when I had filled up the birdbath in the garden that I noticed some small birds using it for their morning shower. Sparrows, Dunnocks and this other smaller pale yellow bird with a dark streak of feathers across its eye. I knew I’d seen it last year about this time and was certain it was a Willow Warbler. I grabbed the first camera I saw and put the Tamron lens on it. By the time I got back to the kitchen window it had disappeared, but the other birds were still there, having a great time splashing in the water. I took a few shots of them, but kept one eye open for the new bird. It appeared working its way along the rail of the fence and behind the Rowan tree. I’m not usually the most patient person, but I waited until I had a clear view of it and then rattled off four or five shots, one of which became PoD. One in the bag before lunch! That’s not bad going.

After lunch I processed the pictures and indeed I had a fairly clear view of the new bird. It was clear enough and that meant I didn’t have to go for a walk today, which was good because it wasn’t the most inspiring day with a featureless white sky and no sign of the sun shining through. Instead I started cooking today’s dinner which was diced steak that had been lingering in the freezer for quite some time. Just for a change I made it in the Instant Pot using a version of a recipe I’d found online. After a dodgy start where the meat had to be eased off the bottom of the pot, I set it to ‘Slow Cooker’ mode. I set for two hours, with half a bottle of beer to give it something to absorb while it was cooking.

Meanwhile, Scamp was in the garden chopping up a yellow Candelabra Primula into three separate pieces and then potted the pieces up into three separate pots because it was definitely restricted in the original one. After that she walked down to the shops to get some things for tonight’s dinner.

As the afternoon progressed, it seemed to get darker and the clouds got heavier, but the rain held off until much later.

The Instant Pot chimed to tell me that it was finished cooking and I set it to ‘Keep Warm’, which it did until dinner time. The stew was served with potatoes and was very good indeed. Scamp’s dinner was Ratatouille with potatoes. Dessert was Tiramisu which was delightful. Not long after that the rain arrived, which is good, because we don’t need to water the garden!!

Spoke to Jamie and he seems to have his week planned out with a day’s holiday and two days working from home. Good to hear that his garden is doing well, even if his tomato plants seem to have picked up blight from somewhere.

It’s still raining here and tomorrow looks wet too. The bird has been ID’d by a birder on Flickr as a Chiffchaff. Thanks for that Andrew.

The Fox and the Blackbird – 30 June 2024

Posted on by Zogman

The latest bout of Buyers Remorse came about as a result of a Fox on the 3rd of June this year and came to an end with a Blackbird this morning.

I watched a fox watching me while I was out at Fannyside taking photos on the 3rd of this month. I took a few photos, but knew it would have been better to have had a longer lens at hand. That started a month long search for such a lens at a price I was willing to pay. I found one about a fortnight ago and swithered for a week and a half about purchasing it. I finally bought the lens yesterday but the first shots I took with it were lacklustre at best. This morning while waiting for my coffee to cool, I watched a blackbird having its morning splash in the birdbath. I grabbed my camera with the new lens and took a few shots with it. A quick chimp 1 I knew the lens was a ‘keeper.’ The fox started it and the blackbird finished it. The Fox and Blackbird would make a good name for a pub, and probably has!

Before lunch we went shopping for food and came back from Tesco with three big bags full, just like Baa Baa Black Sheep if you can think back that far!

After lunch and after listening to Laura Kuenssberg admonishing Sunak for his criticism of the opposition. It felt like she was going to give him a verbal warning before ordering him out of the studio. Must be nice to have the power to kick out the Prime Minister!

Next task for Scamp was more pruning of the roses and finding the name of a little red flower that came from Jamie’s garden (no the ones in the picture, those are Geums) and had appeared in the back garden. It was a Common Rock Rose!
While she was doing her tidying up, I was potting up some basil plants I’d grown from seed. A horticultural afternoon.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard about their invitation to a neighbours’ barbecue. Our weather has been a bit dull to attempt a barbecue any time soon.

PoD was the bathing blackbird, of course.

No real plans for tomorrow.

 

  1. (Chimp – Photographer’s speak for checking the photo on the back screen of the camera, usually constantly!) ↩

A dull morning that became a dull day – 24 June 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Another white sky day. I spent most of the morning writing the catch-up blog for yesterday. While I was doing that, Scamp drove to Tesco to get the messages and by the time she came back, I had almost finished yesterday’s story. I helped bring in the messages and then realised I’d forgotten to tell her to get porridge. Finished the blog and posted it, and then it was lunch time.

Lunch was a dodgy bake-at-home pizza from the Pizza Express range. This one was a BBQ Chicken flavour. If you ever see it, pretend you didn’t and walk on. Probably the worst pizza I’ve eaten for many a long year.

After I got the taste of it out of my mouth, I went for a walk in St Mo’s. The weather was really muggy and uncomfortably warm. As I was walking over I did feel a couple of spots of rain, but it didn’t come to anything so I just continued on. I was carrying the A7 with the heavy 105mm macro lens bolted to it. That meant the most comfortable way to carry it was in my rucksack. Having the rucksack meant I could carry my raincoat too, just in case. However, I didn’t really need it a few spots now and again was all that troubled me.

No wildlife around in St Mo’s not even a few damselflies. The nearest I got to something interesting was a black and white Pellucid Hoverfly. I don’t remember ever seeing one before and I only found out what it was, by copying one of my photos of it into Google Images and discovering it that way. The PoD went to a plant I see quite a lot of in St Mo’s in the boggy areas beside the boardwalk. Quite a pretty plant, but decidedly difficult today when a bit of a breeze got up.and the whole thing started to gyrate.

John, next door had watered the garden on Friday, or was it Saturday night. Anyway, it was our turn to return the compliment. I fitted the hose for the first time this year and doused both our front gardens, then finished off by watering the back garden, I think that’s one of the problems with plants in pots, as opposed to in the ground. It takes longer to get round all the different pots and check that you haven’t missed any.

After that, and with the hose and connector put away for another week or so it Monday and my turn to cook. I made White Pasta or Pasta Carbonara to give it its proper name. I thought the sauce was too watery, but Scamp said it was fine.

Wrote to Alex and arranged a photo walk for this coming week.

No plans for tomorrow yet.

Change of plan – 21 May 2024

Posted on by Zogman

We’d planned to go somewhere today on the train, but it looked like the weather was changing and there was just the chance of rain.

Scamp was the one who suggested we should take the train down to Largs on the west coast and from there we could catch the ferry to Millport, a town on the island of Great Cumbrae which is in the Clyde Estuary. However, looking out the window this morning it looked like we wouldn’t see much sun today, so we changed our plans.

Instead, we decided to go out looking for a particular plant trough to replace one Scamp wants to put into summer storage. It has held daffodil bulbs for the last six months. The flowers have now gone over and the plants need to be allowed to rest and rebuild their strength for next year. So we need a new trough to fill their space in the front garden. We drove to Klondyke Garden Centre, expecting to find one there, but they didn’t seem to stock that style. They did, however have hundreds, perhaps thousands of new plants, and we couldn’t leave without buying a few. We had a coffee first and a cake each to give us thinking time in the slowest cafe I’ve ever been in. The cakes were good, though!

Scamp eventually settled on a box of Violas and another of Lobelia, plus I got a pot of Marguerites, what my mum called Big Daisies. Marguerites always remind me of her. We drove home, but stopped at Calder’s Garden Centre, still looking for that trough. They had one that was almost a match, but was really too big to fit in the space. I suggested we try Home Bargains where we’d tried last week and were unsuccessful. Hopefully they would have restocked their shelves and have the troughs. Our luck was in. They had one left. It left with us. Scamp had also bought a pair of sandals in Klondyke and they went into the trough along with the plants which made it much easier to carry them into the house … just as the rain started. The temperature had been dropping when we reached Klondyke, and the clouds were massing, but now it was looking like we’d made the right decision, leaving Millport for another day.

I hadn’t taken a single photo all day, so I grabbed the A7 and took a few of daisies, ordinary daisies in the back garden. One of them made PoD. Just as well, because the rain continued all evening.

Dinner tonight was Pea and Lemon Risotto. An interesting mixture which Scamp made. We both liked it, but commented that there wasn’t enough to make a main meal. We’ll alter the quantities and try again some time because the flavour was good.

Today’s prompt asked for A Bicycle. This is my Kona Dewdrop. It was a great bike in its day, but now, like me it is retired. It doesn’t get out much, mainly because I don’t like riding it on the busy road around where I live and I don’t have a bike carrier for my car. I really should make the effort and take it off-road some day now that the weather is getting warmer. Maybe I will do that this year.

Watched the first Sewing Bee of the year later and both agreed on the person who left.

No plans for tomorrow, but we need to practise the Waltz.

 

Planting – 16 May 2024

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It was a dull morning with one of those depressing white skies.

According to Scamp it was likely to brighten up in the afternoon. I liked her confidence and hoped it wasn’t misplaced. My first task was to split up my five dwarf sunflower seedlings in their tiny wee pot and two gangly mixed sunflowers in their pot, then repot them all into slightly bigger, individual pots. I built up the wooden garden table and got to work. They split easily and all had good root systems. I was about halfway through the seven seedlings when the first spots of rain started falling. I hoped it was just a shower, but as it got heavier, I adjourned to the kitchen and worked on the draining board. I did get them all potted up neatly. Then Scamp took over and was doing the same thing with her Calendula plants. The difference was I had seven plants, but Scamp was thinning out what must have been a hundred wee green plants. By the time we were finished, the rain had stopped. We watered the plants and they went to live in the greenhouse.

The postman brought a surprise letter for me which had my new Travel Card in it. That was pretty good delivery time by the robotic sounding AI voice I was ordering it from last week. I can go on a bus again with a clear conscience.

For lunch we went to Torwood Garden Centre. I had a quiche which tasted ok, but wasn’t, because I could feel it wasn’t happy in my stomach all the way home. It was a dodgy egg mix, I think. We did get some flowers, though. Carnations, leeks, rhubarb and geums to name about half of them. They all fitted nicely into the boot of the car. Drove home and unpacked. Then Scamp started organising them into the places they were going to live, while I went for a walk in St Mo’s. Today’s PoD was a Dogrose that had just flowered today. Two days ago it was wrapped up tight as a bud and today it was soaking up the sun that had appeared while we were in Torwood.

Dinner tonight was a slice of Salmon with Jersey Royal potatoes and a wee salad. I didn’t really want anything because of my dodgy quiche, but I was glad I did, because everything on the plate was lovely.

Today’s prompt was A Sunhat or A Pair of Sunglasses. The sunhat was the easy one. Sunglasses are the most awkward things to sketch. I sketched my Tilley Sunhat. Probably the most comfortable hat I’ve worn. It’s usually quite expensive, but I got it for less than half price after applying two discounts!
It keeps me cool in the summer and, because my hair is thinning on top, prevents me getting sunstroke in foreign climes!. One of the best things about it is it’s ability to be folded into a tiny space and when needed it pops out without a single crease.

PS. I’m not affiliated to Tilley, I just like things like this that simply work!

Tomorrow Scamp is hoping to go to FitSteps after missing out last week. Other than that, we have no plans.

Dentist – 18 April 2024

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Not for me, thankfully, but for Scamp.

We did very little in the morning, just attempted to solve Wordle ( I did eventually find it, but it took a while) and I’m still looking for today’s pangram. It’s probably under a cushion somewhere.

At midday Scamp got ready to have her temporary tooth remove then the old molar from the back of her mouth extracted. Next she had an x-ray taken, and a new temporary tooth rebuilt. That was a lot of work and a lot of anaesthetics to deal with, but she came back with a smile on her face, as always. Brave girl.

It does look as if most of my seeds have now sprouted although some took a lot longer than others. Still no sign of potatoes in the fancy double skinned bucket, but it has been unseasonable cold. There’s time yet for them.

After lunch, and after Scamp was safely ensconced on the couch, I took the A7 for a walk in St Mo’s in the drizzly rain. Not much to see today, but I did get one decent shot of a fern unfurling its leaves. Like my seedlings, it’s a bit late, but getting there. I extended my walk down to the Shops to get some flowers for Scamp and some sweeties for me. Well, it is Thursday for me as well as Scamp.

Dinner tonight was Haddock Risotto, the easy one, made in the oven. By that time Scamp was able to eat again and her tongue had done one or two circuits of the new mouth and tooth.

We watched the final of The Apprentice even although there was no doubting who was going to win. I’ve said this before, and I’ll probably say it again. The program needs a revamp. A replacement for Lord Sugar. He’s becoming repetitive. Oh yes, and a new scriptwriter to put the jokes back in the crackers.

The fern was the PoD. Not the best shot, but it’s in and posted. Got myself another ‘Explore’ for the view looking up the South Tower of Bothwell Castle. That was a brightener.

No plans for tomorrow, but I really must tidy up the back bedroom soon.

 

A Dull Day in Scotland – 10 April 2024

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This is getting boring and repetitive, but … it rained all day today. There, it’s said. I didn’t even attempt a walk, it was so bad.

Instead of a walk, we cleared another corner of the bedroom which will allow us to slide the bed forward and get the back wall and the wall facing the window painted on the next wet day, which looks like it will be Friday if the weather fairies are correct and tomorrow if they are not.

Because of the weather, I did some catching up with correspondence and then had a look inside the laptop I’m typing on. When I say “inside”, I’m talking digitally, using a piece of software called Daisy Disk which scans my MacBook and finds how much space I have left and where the biggest pieces of clutter are. The SSD that is the storage for my Mac is nominally 512GB and Daisy Disk found that I’ve got just over 50GB free. That’s roughly a tenth of the total free space. That’s not good. A sensible size is around 25% of the total space. My SSD needs to go on a a diet and fast. Work starts next week.

I managed to get out and grab a few shots of the Pieris in the garden, in the rain. Its full name is Pieris Forest Flame and it is living up to that name this year. Last year we thought we’d lost it when it suffered badly during the two weeks we were on a cruise and no rain fell for all of that fortnight. We often complain about the amount of rain we get in Scotland, but it’s better than dying of thirst. Good to see it’s back to full strength. What looks like red petals are actually young leaves. The flowers are inconspicuous little waxy white flowers that look like Lily of the Valley. Just the leaves made PoD.

Dancing in Kirsty’s class was Tango. We had a new couple in the class, one English and one Scottish. Maybe a little younger than us. I couldn’t fathom the tango moves at all to start with, then muscle memory came in to play and things fitted together again. I think it’s doable. It’s just a lot faster than we are used to. Love all the flicks and kicks!

Drove home through torrential rain and our entertainment tonight was Glow Up, where the MUAs (Make Up Artists) compete to produce the most ridiculous make up. Just a bit of fluff.

Hoping to get out somewhere tomorrow in the dry. A little bit of sunshine wouldn’t go amiss too. Hope you’re listening, weather fairies.

What did we do today? – 2 April 2024

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Sometimes I have to ask myself that question, because I can’t remember doing anything interesting or important that day. The answer to the above question today was “Not very much”.

We did do some stuff. We made a decision about Scamp’s ageing computer. I thought we were going to JL and maybe Currys to try out the computers, but Scamp convinced me that we didn’t need to go out. We’d already looked at the JL offerings last week and really, they all looked the same. The specs were pretty similar too and worst of all, they were all the same boring shade of grey. We know what we’re looking for. We know how much we’re willing to spend on a new laptop, so why wander round stores looking at the same slabs of plastic when we can order one online and buy one from HP. Not on the HP, but from HP and get it delivered. The decision was made and we could stay in, in the dry (did I mention that it rained almost all day? Well, it did) and that’s what we did. Neither of us is in a great rush to splash the cash, so some time soon, probably.

We spent another hour working out what we’d transfer from the old machine to the new machine and what we might need to buy. Scamp’s MS Office 7 might not work on a shiny Windows 11 machine but very little else would be needed. Really what she needs is more space for her files and we should manage that. An hour or two well spent.

After lunch we drove to Tesco in the rain and got a load of veg and fruit, milk and breakfast cereals. The usual everyday necessities. There were lengthy queues at the roundabout at Broadwood. We skirted them on the way to Tesco, but the traffic was flowing freely on the way back, at least on our side it was. The reason for the holdup was the inevitable roadworks. Two or three unlucky blokes wearing high vis jackets were digging a trench with shoves in the pouring rain for a fence to be erected round the roundabout. My heart did go out to them. Digging a trench by hand in this day and age is just ridiculous. Poor souls.

Tesco was as far as we ventured out today. PoD was a still life of my new Split Rock that Hazy has named “Terry” it’s a Pleiospilos nelii. Strange looking plant and very slow growing.

Maybe we didn’t do much today, but we achieved a lot!

Tomorrow we may go dancing if we can drive through all the puddles that will be everywhere.

Late night – Early morning – 30 March 2024

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Never a good combination!

It’s not a good combination. Got to bed about 1am this morning after an interesting jam session with Scamp, Nancy and Crawford. Up at our usual time. Showered, dressed and off to dance class.

The bowling club, where we hold our dance class, was having an Easter Egg hunt and some of the children seemed to think they had free rein to charge through the hall. A few sharp words from the dance teachers to the parents made sure it only happened once.

We started with the Valentino Jive which seems to have nothing to do with Rudolph and even less to do with Jiving! Never mind, it got us all on the floor and moving. Next we went into the Spring Waltz with the “Spitfire Arms” we learned about last week and with the addition of CBM (Contra Body Movement) which basically means when your foot goes in one direction, your body turns in the opposite direction. We thought the Spitfire was difficult, but a quick explanation this morning simplified it. We are still wondering how to do the CBM. It looks so simple and obvious when the teachers are demonstrating it, but it’s not so simple or obvious when we tried to dance it. However we struggled on and have almost mastered the Spitfire now.

To break up the tension from CBM and Spitfires, we danced a couple of tracks of sequence dances, then we were into Jive. Jiving is fairly easy and the individual parts are quite easy to pick up. It’s the putting together of those individual parts that’s the difficult bit. I admit, I was lost after a while and couldn’t even remember the routines we learned last week and there were only two of them!
A couple of tracks of Tina Tango finished off our dance class for the day.

While we were driving home we passed a sign on the M8 that told us it was 10min to the Kingston Bridge. Usually it’s at least 15min. Could that mean we could shave about 10min off the homeward journey if we risked the M8/M80 instead of the M74/M73? Worth a try. For the first time in a long time we crossed the Kingston Bridge at an amazing 50mph and were back home with 15mins to spare. Fantastic! And all because everyone else was heading in the opposite direction, going to the west coast. Hundreds of them in a gigantic traffic jam while we tootled along at a pleasant pace.

After lunch I went out for a walk in St Mo’s and got today’s PoD which is a scruffy looking catkin. Not brilliant, but it ticks a box. It was very cloudy today with the occasional heavy shower. While I was out, Scamp was busy planting her new birthday azelea.

Dinner was roast chicken with roast veg and potatoes. Ate it while we watched Gardener’s World whilst almost falling asleep. Late night last night, an exhausting dance class, physically and mentally today then the realisation that we’d lose an hour’s sleep as we enter British Summer Time tomorrow meant an early bed for both of us. That’s where I’m off to now.

Tomorrow is earmarked for recovery.