Category: Rain

Walking in the rain – 11 February 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was entertaining Shona today and I was meeting Alex.

Scamp gave me a lift to the station and I had only a few minutes to wait before our train came which was handy because the rain was tipping down. In Glasgow the weather was just the same and I walked up Buchanan Street then parked myself in the bus station. For once I’d forgotten my headphones, but I didn’t have to wait too long for Alex to appear. I explained to him that I was on a timer. I had to be back in Cumbersheugh by 3.15pm at the latest to get my bloods taken.

As usual we walked down to the nearest Nero and had a coffee. I told Alex about yesterday’s disaster and he suggested some remedies I hadn’t thought of, but none of them were really practical and I think he knew that, he was just trying to help. I showed him the A7iii and explained what was wrong, but when he pressed the shutter button the lens worked. No screech from the internals, it just took the photo. Now, remember we were in a fairly noisy cafe and it could just have been that noise that was covering up the sound of the screech, but the more I tried to make it screech, the quieter it became. Neither of us could understand it. Maybe my brother is a magician, but don’t tell him I know that!

We wandered into Princes Square, partly to be out of the rain and partly to see what was new on their displays. There wasn’t much, so we decided to have an early lunch. Round to Paesano and I volunteered to pay. More discussions about cameras and the reason for the recent failure, but still without a sensible answer. Paesano was really quiet. Usually around midday it’s just a wall of noise with everybody shouting to be heard and making the noise even louder. Today it was half empty. Maybe it was a holiday week for the school kids. Holidays in teeming rain. Yes, that sounds like Scotland.

Outside we walked into the GoMA (Gallery of Modern Art). Only one or two new displays, nothing interesting again. It was nearly time up when we came out and we both walked up to the station. I had about fifteen minutes to spare before my train was due and Alex was going for another walk in the incessant rain. We said our goodbyes, he went for a walk and I got on the express train then phoned Scamp to tell her I was on my way home.

I dropped Scamp at the house and drove to the medical centre. After cruising round and round the lines of cars, I finally got parked, got my blood taken and went home.

Dinner tonight was tomato soup, home made, of course. Watched a bit of the Winter Olympics from somewhere in Italy where the UK went from being second to being seventh in a matter of minutes. I don’t think they like us much, these Olympians!

That was my stunning day. I got home and the camera had started making its scratchy noise again. I have a Sony 16-35mm f4 lens which I was going to sell just before Christmas, but it started the squeaky noises and I put it on the back burner. Today it’s been working brilliantly. Not a cheep out of it. I just can’t make head nor tail of these big lenses these days.

PoD was a cheeky we grab photo of a lady admiring some photos in the GoMA.

Tomorrow we’re intending going to John & Marion’s for lunch tomorrow. Haven’t been to Hamilton for ages.

 

 

Dancin’ – 22 January 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Today was Thursday and every second Thursday we go dancing in the afternoon if we can manage it.

We drove through the rain today to get to Glenburn and were surprised to see a lot of empty tables. We knew that David and Carol wouldn’t be there, but hoped that more would be coming, and they were coming. In their dribs and drabs they filed in, paid their entrance fee, had a word with Stewart or Jane and found a spare seat to change their shoes to dance shoes and join in the conversation. I think it’s the camaraderie I like best about dancing, especially dancing in Glenburn. There are no airs and graces, everybody talks to everybody else, plus there is always some Tea Loaf to go round at half time!

Today we hardly missed a dance. Sometimes one of us would get it a bit wrong, but nobody notices or sometimes just pretends not to notice and the dance goes on. Some ballroom dances today but lots of sequence dances. Most people gravitate to one or other, other just dance. The time seemed to pass very quickly today and then it was time for the Tea part of the tea dance. After the tea drinking and the chat, we started again. The second half of the afternoon is usually all sequence and it’s a shorter half than the first half. We’re usually in a rush to get out before the schools come out, because the roads get busy then, with the homeward rush beginning. We just took it easy today and drove the M8/M73 route with is longer in miles travelled, but usually faster than the stop/start on the Kingston Bridge. In the end, there’s very little difference between both routes.

Dinner tonight was a chicken curry, made from an easy recipe that provides all the spices for you, leaving you to supply your own meat, fish or veg. It’s one of our favourite dinners and this one was no exception.

We watched another episode of Landscape Artist of theYear. They, the experts picked the wrong person this week. They need a good talking to these folk. Too busy spouting nonsense and then picking a numpty as this week’s winner. Bah!

Since it was dark by the time we got back from Glenburn, PoD was an inside shoot. It turned out to be three miniatures of whisky on a white ground. “Getting ready for Burns Night on Sunday” the story said!

Tomorrow I think Scamp may be going Fit Stepping in the morning. If it’s dry, I may go over the road for a walk. If it’s wet, I’ll probably start filling a black bag with rubbish to go to the skips.

A fairly lazy day … for me – 16 January 2026

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The furthest I went today was a short trip up to the town centre to drop Scamp off at her FitSteps class. She was meeting Isobel after that for a blether. I was going home.

I’d half intended going for a run up to Fannyside to get some landscape shots, but it was drizzling and it was cold and I like my creature comforts, so I drove home instead, knowing that Scamp wouldn’t be back for a couple of hours and I’d a couple of things I wanted to fix in the house.

It was one of those silly things, a misaligned toilet seat that should have been easy to do. A five minute job. We’ve all made that mistake. I firmly believe there is no such thing as a ‘Five Minute Job’.

I got my socket set out and started finding which of the sockets would fit. They are in such an awkward position, the nuts that hold the seat, but I couldn’t find the socket I needed and was beginning to wish I’d never started the job. Then I realised none of the sockets would work because the nut holding the seat wasn’t the normal hexagonal one. Then I remembered that there was a special plastic one I’d used when I fitted the seat before. After that it was easy to loosen one nut, tighten the other one and then tighten the original one again. All in all, that five minute job took almost an hour.

The rest of my time was taken up with the beginnings of a tidying up of my room. I’d an old briefcase that I wasn’t ever going to use again. It took a while for me to empty it of old papers and note, odds and ends and basically rubbish. The next one to go will probably be my ancient Black & Decker boxed drill with its totally useless battery pack. Why I keep these things, I do not know.

By the time I was finished, Scamp had returned and we had lunch. I’d missed an hour or so of decent weather and now it was raining again. I decided that PoD was likely to be a photo I’d taken yesterday of a wee bear ornament. I used a neat little app I’d bought years ago to change the creation date from yesterday to today and it looked genuine. Isn’t it great when you realise you bought an app years ago that adapted perfectly to work on today’s PoD. Sometimes plans do come together.

Dinner was Fish Risotto baked in the oven. Later we watched the first episode of Landscape Artist of the Year with a new presenter. Then we watched The Great Pottery Throwdown which is just Bakeoff with a twist. They make things out of clay, rather than flour. Even the presentation of it is too much like Bakeoff.

I think we have a quorum for dance class tomorrow.

A disturbed night for Scamp – 27 November 2025

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When Scamp woke this morning she told me about the wild night she had last night. It seemed to be caused by strange dreams, presumably brought on by the new meds the consultant gave her. Once she woke completely, she was fine, but it was a strange morning. But all was not lost, because I managed to sell some of the meds outside the ‘Masonic’ in Condorrat Main Street for a few quid each and we have just less than a hundred of the little pills! Just joking!!
Scamp phoned the consultant’s office to be told that she was on holiday this week, but the secretary she spoke to said she would pass the message on when the consultant returned next week.

We were up fairly early in the morning with quite a few things needing done:

  1. Drove to Boots for more (normal) meds.
  2. Tesco for milk, and wrapping paper I can’t divulge why we needed wrapping paper.
  3. Drove over to the Town Centre and wandered down the ramps that took us down into the bowels of what used to be Phase 4. It’s now just Argos and not much more. We were buying a replacement one-cup water boiler. The one we have has now developed Alzheimer’s, poor thing and can’t remember if it’s switched the hot water off or not and fills a second cup just in case.
  4. Drove from the Town Centre to M&S for lunch stuff and jam doughnuts for me.
  5. Finally we drove home and decanted all the stuff we’d bought.

After lunch I walked over to St Mo’s. It was dark and gloomy there by 3pm. It was wet and windy. Strong winds and heavy showers. A typical dreich Scottish day. I came home with a view across St Mo’s pond that ended up heavily processed, but reasonable looking PoD.

The final annoyance was discovering that the Virgin Media box wasn’t working. It’s not the modem it’s definitely the box. I’ve spent the last couple of hours ‘talking’ to the bots that are rapidly becoming the worst invention this century. You can’t even swear at them!

Tomorrow Scamp is intending meeting Isobel for coffee and a blether. I’m hoping to get this Virgin debacle sorted out and then make some soup.

A different Doc – 13 November 2025

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This time it was Scamp who was going to the doc’s. I was just there to listen and to contribute a little.

In the morning I went to put some petrol in the Blue car, always useful. To get some chicken for lunch and some flowers to brighten up the house again because the last ones were beginning to wilt.

After lunch we just wasted time, really waiting for the clock to say it was time for us to go to the hospital in Coatbridge for Scamp’s meeting with the consultant. The weather was terrible, with torrential showers. but I’d set up a Google sat nav that told me where to turn right and where to turn left. So much better than the Nissan’s sat nav. We reached the hospital a lot quicker than the last time when we went on a tour round half of North Lanarkshire.

The meeting, this time was a fairly short session. Just going over what we’d discussed at the last meeting and confirming that Scamp was interested in finding out more about the Deep Brain Stimulation. That was all that was needed to set the ball rolling. The consultant also changed some of Scamp’s meds and that might reduce the tremor in the short term. Now we have to wait and see.

Drove home by a different and even better still route on roads we already knew, although we’d never driven them in the dark. Back home, lo and behold there was space to reverse into. You people with your own parking places don’t know how lucky you are.

We watched another Portrait Artist tonight and just like the last one this one was full of corruption. I think we need a someone to come out from Virgin to diagnose the problem.

PoD was a last minute photo of a Toblerone triangle with a wee daft story attached.

Tomorrow we’re hoping for better weather. I’m intending meeting Alex in the morning to talk about cameras. Hopefully we’ll get home before dark!!

The wind and the rain are still with us – 31 October 2025

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I’d hoped for a dry day after yesterday, but it was not to be.

Instead we had rain. Almost continuous rain all today, the last day of October 2025. I did manage to get out to snap a few flowers in the garden. The winner was three Osteospermum flowers in the garden. One going over, one in full bloom and one that might, just might open to reveal its flower if the rain stops and the sun shines.

Hoping for some better weather in November.

Dentist and Jag – 5 November 2025

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For Scamp, I hasten to add. I’ve had my two jags and am looking forward to a new crown. Will that make me a king?

So Scamp was out in the morning to have her six monthly checkup at the dentist. Conveniently, she was to have her Flu jag later today. However, she asked if it would be possible to have the Flu jag after her checkup and was told that would be easy to arrange. She came back looking pleased with herself.

It was a terrible morning after yesterday’s perfect autumnal day. Drizzly rain in the morning that gradually increased to heavy rain by midday. We needed to get some odds and ends in Tesco. I’d already looked for the Araldite I needed in our local Tesco and Scamp needed some meds, so I headed for the better equipped Town Centre Tesco.

Surprisingly, after lunch the rain decreased and I got out for a walk round St Mo’s with a detour to the shops hoping to get some plasticine to act as a prop while I glued a fridge magnet. I couldn’t get plasticine anywhere, so I had to resort to Blu Tack instead. Hope it holds long enough for the glue to set.

Four tiny feathers look like being the PoD for today. They’ve been hanging on grimly to a grimy kitchen window. Must clean it soon!

Tomorrow I’ve been asked to be Good Samaritan to drive Fred to Stirling to get his car back from the garage.

Still fighting Amy – 4 October 2025

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Storm Amy, the first named storm of the season was still clinging on to Scotland today. I don’t know who named her, but she wasn’t behaving in a ladylike manner. Gale force winds and heavy rain battered the west of the country. Although there were some respites, it wasn’t a great day to go out anywhere.

Scamp and I had a couple of exchanges to make in M&S, so we drove there. There were a few trees blown down on our route to The Fort in the east of Glasgow, but nothing we couldn’t handle. We debated whether to have lunch in Glasgow or to just head for home. A splashy rain shower settled that discussion and we drove home.

Lunch was tea and sandwiches as we watched the weather systems come and go across the Campsie Fells from the comfort of the house. No sense in going out in the squalls that were coming in the western winds. Later in the afternoon I did give in and took the A7c out for a walk to St Mo’s with the intention of getting a fish supper for two at the local chip shop. I wasn’t long out when I wished I’d taken a warmer jacket. The wind was icy cold.

I did manage to get a couple of decent photos of reflections in a pool that had been a path a couple of days ago. The water in the big pond was a lot deeper too. The swans and cygnets were drinking clean water for the first time in a long while. The flooded path became PoD.

I walked over to the chip shop and was heading home with two fish suppers in a bag when I turned a corner and found the path blocked by a couple of big trees. At first I thought I could walk round them, bus soon realise that wasn’t going to work so I headed back the way I’d come and found a path that would take me by a slightly longer road to miss the trees. It only took a few minutes, but saved me a long walk round the park. The fish and chips were still hot when I got home.

We got some sad news this morning. Anju, a long time salsa dancer from our classes in Glasgow when they were run by Jamie Gallagher had died last night. Anju was a lovely Indian lady with a wicked sense of humour, and great fun to dance with. We’ll both miss her, even although we haven’t seen her for a while. We’re hoping we’ll be able to say goodbye to her properly this month.

Tomorrow we intend to tie up loose ends and check everything twice.

 

Wild Windy Weather – 3 October 2025

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It all started out so calmly too!

It was a lovely morning. Cool and a bit damp, but nothing to worry us. I dropped Scamp off at the town centre to go for coffee with Shona. I had intended driving to The Fort to exchange a belt that was far too small for me, but by the look of the weather and the warnings on the radio, it looked like a stay at home day, so I drove home and parked.

Scamp arrived back home around 2pm wet, despite her Berghaus jacket, after a short walk from the shops. Then the rain came on more seriously and it brought wind to the party too. For most of the afternoon, the wind got stronger and stronger. It felt like the front windows were going to blow in. About 6pm things started to calm down. Now at just about 11pm it’s becoming calmer still. Hopefully by morning we’ll be able to go out and retrieve the bins that are lying around the garden.

I wasn’t going to risk life and limb going over to St Mo’s today to get blown all over the place just to get a PoD, so the one you see here is a tabletop setup. It’s a selection of the ‘Coral’ we picked up at Coral Beach in Skye, many, many moons ago.
Despite its appearance, its Maerl is a type of algae, not true coral, which are animals. The meal extracts calcium carbonate from seawater to build a hard, white outer skeleton. So says Google and Google is never wrong.

Tomorrow if the weather is in a better mood we may go shopping.

A busy Monday – 11 August 2025

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The big van arrived right on time at 9.30am and we were waiting for it.

John Lewis were delivering our new fridge/freezer today. It arrived right on time and the first thing the guy said was “It’s going to be a tight squeeze, through the front door.” I was prepared for that with my trusty Stanley cross-head screwdriver I removed the retaining bolts from the front door and that let me take off the outside handle and the inside one too, plus the big square section key.

That made all the difference and about fifteen minutes later the JL guys were back in their van after getting the new addition into place and removing the old one. One in and One out. Then they were off to another customer. I reassembled the front door and Scamp plugged the new fridge in and we left it to rest for four hours just as the driver had told us to do.

Next stop for me was the dentist for my annual checkup. Apparently my teeth are in good condition, but I’ve a filling to look forward to next week. I think I got off lightly.

After gazing admiringly at this big white box for four hours, we were ready to switch it on for the first time. Again, Scamp had the honour of switching the the fridge/freezer on for the first time. It started making an alarm noise, but we shushed it and told it to go to sleep for a few hours and it settled down.

We walked down to the shops to get some milk and bread and blueberries. I bumped into the guy who used to be the ‘Janny’ at the school, but who is now an assistant manager for the schools in the area. Glad to see him getting on in the world.

By the time we’d exchanged reminiscences and set the world to rights, Scamp was off, carrying the shopping. Despite my argument that it was really my job to carry heavy things, she chased me away and told me to go and take some photos.
That’s what I did and the PoD is a dandelion or a near relative at least, after the morning’s showers.

Tonight’s dance class with Kirsty was Rumba. We managed to get it working quite well, but not every time. Kirsty was happily teaching Scamp how to do the body sways that are such an integral part of Rumba. I just tried to remember the steps in the right order.

When we got back the new fridge/freezer was working silently in the kitchen. Scamp declares that she liked it. That’s good enough for me.

I think we’re maybe going in to Glasgow tomorrow, but for a change, I do’t think we won’t be visiting the Apple shop!