Category: Rain

A day in Glasgow – 17 December 2024

Posted on by Zogman

We agreed that we both needed to buy some things and Glasgow was the obvious choice.

I quite fancied having another go at oil painting after watching some short tutorial videos on Sky Arts. I’ve got the basic materials, but I need to get some solvent. Turps is frowned upon now because of the smell and the dangerous fumes. I was looking for a solvent called Sansodor (Franglais for Without Smell) and Cass Art in Glasgow has it. Scamp was looking for a few little somethings for Christmas.

We drove in to Glasgow and parked in Buchanan Galleries and went for a wander around the shops inside the galleries because it was raining heavily. I wanted a replacement foil for my electric razor and luckily I found one in Boots in the galleries. Eventually we had to go outside and we gravitated to Nero and shared an Italian Cream Bun. Then it was out into the rain again.

We walked down Queen Street and I got PoD which was a strip of red and white sparkling baubles outside an Italian restaurant. Lots of wee water drops on the shining balls had caught my eye. I got the solvent and a sketch book too in Cass Art and then we headed up to Sauchiehall Street which is still a disaster area and will probably stay that way for a good part of next year. I was looking for a book and Scamp was looking for something else, unstated. I didn’t find any books that interested me, but Scamp had a fairly well filled bag when we met up again. The rain was getting heavier, so we chose to leave shopping for the day and go home and have lunch.

I tried the foil on my razor and discovered that, although the razor is a Braun series 5 and the replacement was a Braun series 5, they were completely different from each other. No way would that foil fit my razor. I’d have to take it back to Boots in Cumbersheugh to get a replacement. Meanwhile, Scamp had been having problems with her phone. It looked to me as if it was an early warning that her storage was almost full, so I volunteered to get a new SD card while I was out. Getting my money back for the razor foil was no problem, but after wandering around three different phone shops I still hadn’t found anywhere that sold micro SD cards. Hardly anyone uses them now. Most phones have built-in storage. When I got home, disillusioned and wet, I asked Mr Bezos if he had any cards, and of course he did. It’s due to arrive tomorrow.

We watched, horrified as one of the three finalists for Portrait of the Year proceeded to paint caricatures of a posed couple, and, you guessed it … He won!
I dread to think what he’ll do to the final portrait which will be of Lorraine Kelly. They really need to weed out those who cannot paint, at the early stages instead of making a mockery of what is a great show.

I’ve another early rise tomorrow because the engineer is coming to service the boiler between 9am and 12noon.

Shopping in the rain – 24 September 2024

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We haven’t had very much rain for weeks, but when Scamp risked shopping wearing a hoodie but no raincoat or brolly, it was a day too far.

We’d been to Tesco in the afternoon. I was wearing my famous blue raincoat, not my new rainproof jacket, but Scamp had decided it wasn’t going to rain and it didn’t … At least, not until we were coming out of the shop with a trolley full of groceries. Then the rain started and unfortunately Scamp got wet.

It was really just a shower, but a lengthy one and quite heavy for a while. I used that time to wax my boots, something I’d been intending to do for about a month or more. When the rain dragged itself away to annoy someone else, I put on my new green jacket and my freshly waxed boots and went for a walk in St Mo’s. I didn’t get much, although the light was really bright and clear. Then when I was halfway round I took one photo of a low hanging Hazel branch and saw the “No Room To Save” message. The SD card was full. That was when I realised my spare SD cards were in my other camera bag, back at the house. Oops. Time to go home.

On the way home I was walking on a path between trees and the low afternoon light was gorgeous, so I just had to stop and admire it and to remember I had my phone with me and the phone could save in RAW format. That saved the day and gave me today’s PoD. Always remember, the best camera in the world is the one in your pocket!

I must make a note to self: Buy more SD cards. Just a couple to keep one in each of my camera bags.

Dinner was a mix and match Chilli Non Carne made from a recipe I got from a bloke I met at a retreat years and years ago. It’s scribbled down in a scrapbook with limited details, but it works every time. Thank you, whoever you are.

Hazy: We watched the first episode of The Great British Bakeoff. Just the usual mix of serious bakers, no hopers and loonies.

Hoping to meet Alex tomorrow for a photo walk, probably in Glasgow.

A busy day – 10 September 2024

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I was meeting Val and John for coffee and a blether today.

Val was the first to arrive and once we’d rearranged the furniture and got the coffees sorted we had a blether, just the two of us. Then John joined us and I went to get his coffee while he and Val had a chin way. They worked in the same school for a few years and knew a lot more folk than I did. After that it was a free for all. I’d forgotten that Val used to work in Jersey and actually had lived just round the corner from the hotel we were staying in. I wish I’d spoken to him before we went away, because he could have told me what other interesting places were available to us.

After a couple of hours Val’s wife joined us and of course the conversation turned to doctors and the lack of them in the surgeries we all attend. It’s a constant complaint that you can’t get to see a doctor these days. Their get-out clause is to get you to photograph that part of your body you want to talk to them about. That’s not the way to run a practice.

When we split up to go our separate ways, I went with John through the Antonine centre and Val and his wife went the other way. John went on to drive home and I got some fruit in Tesco and then drove up to GO Outdoors with a new list of criteria to apply to the jackets there. So far it’s come down to three possible jackets. No real front runners yet.

PoD was grabbed at the back door of the house. Just some Bizzie Lizzies in a hanging basket in the rain. Seemed a good title for a busy day.

Rain – 25 August 2024

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It rained today from early morning until late at night.

Actually it did stop around 6pm when, for an hour, the rain stopped, the sun shone and I managed to get a handful of photos of flowers in the garden. After that the rain returned as heavy as ever and I think it’s still raining. Usually I say that the gardens need it, but the gardens are fed up with it too and just want some late season warmth and sunshine. An Indian summer we used to call it.

In a way, the rain was a blessing. It forced us to start tidying things up. Making bundles and packing those bundles away for better days to come, but first there were some messages to get.

Normally Monday is the shopping day, but we’d meant to do it yesterday, then yesterday slipped from our grasp and it turned into today. We couldn’t let it go any further or else there would be no food in the house, so we braced ourselves and drove to Tesco to buy some much needed supplies. Just the essentials today. Fruit, veg, milk and some sausages. No wine, no beer, just the bare necessities.

Then just as quickly as we finished our lunch, and read a few chapters in our books and played the occasional game of Angry Birds or finished a jigsaw for some, it was almost dinner time.

Just before dinner was when I got the PoD. It’s a bunch of Japanese Anemones with a bit of bokeh in the background courtesy of a hand made steel Allium that holds the raindrops beautifully. Thanks again for that Hazy.

Also around that time we found a PDF of the Holiday Recipes had arrived in the WhatsApp mailbox. Thank you for that Neil. Very well presented. It’s now downloaded and will be printed off tomorrow.

Spoke to Jamie later and agreed that stripping paint is not the most pleasant of ways to use your weekend, but sometimes it just has to be done. If we could string a few dry days together here, I’d like to give the window sills a fresh coat of paint, but if present weather systems are anything to go by, it would need to very quick drying paint!

I have an appointment with the nurse tomorrow to review a possible change in my meds. Hope it’s not as wet as today.

Wet – 5 August 2024

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It seems like only the other day we were pleading for rain so we wouldn’t have to water the garden. Today we got our wish.

It started off dull with the clouds sliding down over the Campsie Fells. It had rained all night and we said “Thank you” for some rain at last. Today we were looking for the tap to turn it off again. I think it was the lack of light that was getting us down more.

We drove to Tesco for the normal Monday shop and I bumped into Fred. Haven’t seen him for ages and that’s probably because he hasn’t been out much. He did have a wee prezzy for me, a pack of acrylic paint pens. The colours are a bit lurid, but they might be interesting to mess around with. I think we’ll try to arrange a coffee for Fred, Val and I with maybe the chance of coercing Colin to join us. If nothing else it would be a chance to do a book exchange.

Shopping done, we drove home, still in the rain and packed all the stuff away, then had lunch. I had a sandwich with cold meat that had been in the fridge. Later I wasn’t feeling well and I’m thinking that cold meat might have been the culprit. It’s now in the bin.

I did get out for a while in the back garden, when Scamp was risking the rain to prune her newly transplanted Candelabra Primulas. I was more interested in the Japanese Anemones and sheltered under the rowan tree and got a few shots of them. One of the shots got PoD.

On Saturday we had walked in the sunshine past the Mausoleum in Hamilton and through the underpass below the M74. The photo of the underpass with some silhouetted figures got Explore this morning. That was a nice surprise, I wasn’t expecting it. I was hoping my photo of the Dent sheep would Explore, but interest in it has fizzled out.

Scamp was determined to Dyson the living room today and I helped out, moving stuff around and doing a bit of dusting round the window sills … inside, of course. After that I felt a bit dodgy and almost fell asleep on the sofa, so I took myself up to bed for an hour. I think that helped, but what helped more was Scamp making an excellent vegetable omelette for dinner. Such a pity, her’s wasn’t a patch on the one she made me!

Watched a bit of the indoor cycling at the Olympics and it was passably interesting. I think I might have an early night tonight. Just finished The Long Drop by Denise Mina. Based on a true story about Peter Manuel a serial killer back in 1958. I remember walking to school and everyone saying that Manuel had been hanged and being shocked. It wasn’t the best book I’ve read, but parts of it were very well written. 3/5 on Goodreads.

No plans yet for tomorrow, but the weather looks hopeful.

Mirror, Mirror, on the wall – 10 June 2024

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Today we went out looking for a new mirror. A full length one.

We have an old mirror that probably came from Scamp’s mum’s house many years ago. It’s still good, but it’s very heavy. She was looking for a slightly smaller one and definitely a lighter one.

We drove over to Falkirk and were disappointed with the selection in the first of the two shops that would sell mirrors. The ones they had were almost all fancy shaped or had really heavy surrounds or frames and that, really was what we wanted to replace. Scamp was disappointed, but what she did see was a couple of lovely rugs, the bigger one almost deserving the name Carpet. I liked them too, especially the big one. Rich, deep colours and a pile to match. Not too pricey either. Photographed them to remember the names and sizes and put them on the back burner for now.

The second shop had more sensible ‘using’ mirrors, and after some soul searching Scamp finally chose a lighter one with ’distressed’ white frame. You know what I mean. Painted white and then it looked as if the painter got fed up sanding it down and just left it. Saying that, it looked good in the bedroom and it fitted the brief. It also fitted the back seat of the car, just fitted! Lunch was calling and we couldn’t decide what to have, but we got some cold meat in the Falkirk Tesco an Lo and Behold, they had rolls. Big chunky Scottish Breakfast Rolls. How did Falkirk manage to get them when Cumbersheugh couldn’t? Questions will be asked in the house!!

Back home, fed and watered, I knew I needed to get a photo taken. I’d watched the rain clouds roll past, dropping their contents as they went, but imagined I could get out and get some photos in between showers. It wasn’t to be. I was halfway over to St Mo’s when the heavens opened. Luckily I found some shelter under a tree and waited the fifteen minutes or so for the cloud to empty and move on. So did I, move on, that is!

PoD went to a wee snail just starting to form its shell. Apparently it’s an Amber Snail. It was sliming its way down a grass stem and I thought it looked perfect for today’s PoD. It was almost beaten to the line by a stem of grass that had collected a fair amount of rainwater from the shower. Its common name is Cat Grass, because cats like to eat it. There, that’s something you probably didn’t know.

Dinner turned out to be a Margherita pizza with some anchovies sprinkled on top to add some flavour. We watched the first episode of Bake Off: The Professionals. It’s amazing what these people can create in a really tight timescale. Always worth watching.

We had watched an interesting Canadian F1 GP in the morning with so many changes of position in the rain, it was hard to keep track. Just good clean fun, most of it.

Tomorrow we are hoping to go out to lunch in Glasgow.

Today the rains came – 22 May 2024

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One of those days when you knew the weather had indeed turned for the worse.

Well, I guess the plants don’t see it that way, They are desperate for some fresh water even if it’s at the loss of some of the heat they’ve become used to.

<Technospeak>
Scamp had been complaining for a while that her watch wasn’t synchronising with her phone. We tried a few of the tricks resetting the phone and the watch we even did a soft reset of the watch. Nothing seemed to work. Eventually we did a factory reset of the watch and installed a new update that seemed to clear everything. It only took about three hours to work out the best way forward, with a stop for lunch in the middle. However, we did get it going in the end, but sometimes you just have to rely on your instinct rather than the wahoos who claim to be gurus.
</Technospeak> (Not seen that warning in a long time Jamie)

The next thing to do was investigate the situation with a new laptop for Scamp. Her storage is being eaten away and the battery is failing, so a new machine is on the cards. We thought we’d found an ideal solution in the HP Shop. But then we checked them on Trustpilot and it looks like they are going through a rough patch. Lots of complaints of punters paying for goods that just don’t appear. HP claim a delivery within 2 working days, but 2 weeks seems to be the norm. After another look round the stores, we decided that the HP store are a bit too risky

We’d had some spits and spots of rain during the day, but then the rain got heavier and heavier. I stood at the back door to shelter and took today’s PoD of wet roses in the rain. The title was “Raindrops on Roses. No Whiskers on Kittens.”

Not long after that the distant rumble of thunder came from the east and it rolled along the valley heading west. I didn’t actually see any lightning, but there was plenty of thunder.

When the rain finally abated, I drove down to Tesco to get a bag full of veg to make a stir-fry for dinner. Usually I buy an M&S set of protein, veg, noodles and stir-fry sauce, but today everything was either from the store cupboard or bought fresh or as fresh as Tesco veg is. It wasn’t the best stir-fry, but bits of it were good. Good enough to try again another day.

Today’s prompt was A Staircase.
My sketch was Just an attempt at a sort of perspective view of a dangerous looking open plan staircase. No handrail! No balustrade! No soft fluffy cushions to break your fall. It was a Health & Safety nightmare. Should have a warning “Do not ascend after drinking alcohol.” Parachutes an optional extra.

No dance class tonight.  We’re not sure why. Maybe too many people called off because of the weather. Maybe something came up and Kirsty wasn’t able to run the class. I’m sure we’ll find out in due course.

Tomorrow, perhaps the search for the world’s best laptop will continue.

 

An early rise – 13 April 2024

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Not an enforced wakening, just neither of us could fall back asleep, so we agreed to have and early breakfast instead.

We were up and dressed just after 8am on a day that seemed to throw everything at us. Rain, hail, sunshine and a strong wind were the main factors in our weather and they cycled throughout the day.

We chose to drive to Stirling to go to Waitrose for ‘The Messages’. Maybe an odd thing to do on a Saturday, but we needed some essentials and we were fed up with Tesco, so Waitrose was probably a better option, besides, they do a good, fairly cheap packet of tea. We had half intended going for a coffee in Stirling, but the opportunity didn’t arise, so after we’d packed all the bags into the car, we just drove home, unloaded them and had lunch.

After lunch, inevitably it was time to empty the wardrobe. I hadn’t realised I had so many pairs of jogging bottoms. ‘Athleisure’ I’m told is the modern description. I knew I could probably hire a stall in The Barras Market to sell all the surplus tee shirts I have and also sweat shirts with stains on the front, but Joggy bottoms? Some of them, possibly all of them, have to go. Once I’d helped Scamp clear out the clothes, I started looking through the old record of work books from a pre 2014 life, knowing they would not be looked at again until the next spring clear out. Instead, I pre-empted that next clear out by getting rid of most of them today.. Not everything that came out of the wardrobe would be finding its way back in. The same would be true of my chest of drawers and various other glory holes in our room. Phase 2 was complete.

By the end of the afternoon the remainder of the storage areas had been emptied, or checked to see if they could simply be moved without emptying. When we were satisfied that we were organised, Scamp went downstairs for a coffee and I put on my walking boots and went for a walk in St Mo’s. It was still a wild day with strong winds and the occasional sharp shower. I went for a walk in the woods, but after seeing how many big strong trees had recently blown down I thought it wasn’t the most sensible place to go for a walk. However, I got a few shots of some Horse Chestnut trees opening up their buds to expose their big leaves and some had the candelabras of flower buds ready to open. One of those shots got PoD.

Back home the oven was on, ready to take a Charlie Bigham Tikka Masala curry we’d bought in Waitrose in the morning. It was a surprisingly filling dinner.

There was nothing worth watching on TV, so Scamp and I sat and read for a while and I had another of the instant whiskey cocktails Jamie and Simonne had given me. Tonight’s offering was Whiskey Sour which is basically Bourbon and Lime Juice over ice. Very refreshing.

Tomorrow we are intending starting Phase 3 of the grand plan, painting the remaining walls.

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.

It rained… – 5 April 2024

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It rained all day. There was maybe a ten minute break for the rain clouds to catch a breath, but almost definitely not any more than that.

Scamp was out for the morning. Out for 10am to go to her FitSteps class, which was in a new (to her) venue in The Link which has been in Cumbersheugh since we’ve been there. She thinks it’s a great improvement on The Legion.

From The Link she went down to the Village to pick up Isobel and take her to Calders for coffee and an hour or so’s blether. No plants for either of them today, but Scamp drove Isobel home. After that she came home after about three hours off the leash.

While she was out I’d some computer stuff to tidy up, then I made good on my promise to wash up the pots and pans after decanting the oil from yesterday’s Fish ’n’ Chips. With my jobs done, I took the A6500 over to St Mo’s in teeming rain and got today’s PoD which is a bunch of yesterday’s weeds dripping in the rain. Best of a bad lot. Scamp had returned when I got back and we had a coffee before we went out to lunch.

We walked up to Brodens (in the rain) for lunch. Mac ’n’ Cheese for Scamp with a shovel full of skinny chips and Fish ’n’ Chips for me with the fish sitting on a raft of hand cut chips. Glass of wine for Scamp, pint of Guinness for me. That signed the deal. I couldn’t drive anywhere for the rest of the day because of that pint of Guinness! We walked back home and, of course, it was raining.

I started a book Fred had given me and found it was a bit more interesting than I’d thought. A strange vampire book: Masters of Death by Olivie Blake, in case you’re interested, Hazy. Don’t think it will interest Neil or your brother, but who knows!

Tonight we watched Series 1 – Episode 3 of Death in Paradise. So much more interesting than the drivel of Series 10. Of course, it’s the same format, but I think the acting is one notch more interesting, just one, but it makes a difference. The music is better too, although I’m sure Simonne would say that’s not a real Caribbean accent!

Tomorrow we are hoping to have a decent long lie in the morning as we’ve decided to forego the dance class. We may go to the evening monthly dance.