Category: Rain

It rained – 10 April 2023

Posted on by Zogman

As predicted by the weather fairies, Monday morning was wet.

Instead of sitting at home, Jamie drove us to a garden centre fairly nearby. I really think this was a trial for Scamp because, while Jamie and Simonne were loading plants into the boot of the car, Scamp had to accept that live plants wouldn’t survive a five hour plus rail journey with two changes on what was going to be busy trains. We had lunch in a wee cafe at the garden centre and Scamp did get some seeds to take back. Not quite the same as live plants, but the consolation prize.

In the afternoon the clouds lifted, the skies cleared and the sun shone, so we all went for a walk. Much the same route as my walk yesterday, but much longer and covering different areas of the nearby countryside. With my ultra-wide angle lens on the A7 I got some quite excellent landscape shots and some pretty shots of daffodils in the churchyard of the church next door to the house. The landscape got PoD.

Unfortunately we were going home tomorrow, so after dinner we were packing bags and taking more last photos. Then Jamie came in to the living room and said “There’s a kestrel in the front garden.” My cameras were packed away, but I did manage to get two fairly decent shots of the young bird before it flew off on those narrow wings.

We watched the final episode of the strange South African film and were left wondering what to think about the even stranger ending. I won’t say any more, just in case you ever watch it.

Tomorrow we make the trek up north.

Rain, Rain, Go Away – 5 April 2023

Posted on by Zogman

It rained today. In fact it rained all day and it’s still raining.

We had Easter cards to write and then post, which was good, because we were going to Tesco anyway and could post them there. It was just a bit of light shopping, bread, a bag of rolls and a carton of milk. Oh yes, and two bottles of wine plus two cans of G&T. Like I said, light shopping. Just for a change, Scamp drove us there and back.

Back home and after lunch we started throwing things into bags. Counting in the socks and underwear then adding another one or two for luck. It looked like the rain was getting a bit lighter and there was just the chance of some sunshine too, but it was just a ruse by the weather fairies. The rain strengthened and the sunshine went to some other boys and girls. I’d thought of taking some indoor ‘flower’ shots, but risked it with a few shots of Scamp’s Helebores that sit by the back steps. Their full name is Heleborus Orientalis Lenten Rose. The ‘Lenten’ part is to signify that their flowering period roughly covers Lent.

Dinner was paella which I thought was nice and dry, but Scamp thought it was just too dry. We never can agree on food and cooking. However it tasted fine and used up some chicken thighs that had been languishing in the freezer for a long time.

In the evening I threw more things into a big red bag and I’ve just remembered I have to add the Gorilla Pod.

I think that’s us about done. Early rise tomorrow. Hope the rain has stopped by then!

Up in the sky – 20 March 2023

Posted on by Zogman

We didn’t quite make it up above the clouds where there is always a blue sky, but we were close.

Today we were going for lunch in Glasgow. We walked to Condorrat to get the bus, because drink would be taken.

It was good to get someone else to do the driving, even if it was a ramshackle bus we were on. Every few stops it would give itself a shrug and I was wondering if it would get going again, but it did and it got us in to town a lot quicker than the sluggish X3 would.

It was a dismal day and we were heading out to alongside the River Clyde on an X19. Another case of the “X” not meaning eXpress, but it was an interesting journey, especially when the bus changed lanes going over the “Squinty Bridge”. Oh, it was strange to be driving on the right hand lane and then crossing back to the left lane when we were across. It was also a pain, because we’d missed our stop and had to walk back of the Squinty Bridge in the rain to find our destination. Thankfully we didn’t have to change lanes.

We walked straight in to the Red elevator of the Radisson Red boutique hotel and took it up to the 9th floor and got a table. It wasn’t right at the window, but we still had a decent view. Scamp had booked it a few weeks ago and we were both impressed with the food and drink, although I only had a beer. Scamp had Strawberry Fields Forever which was a take on a Strawberry Daiquiri. Maybe just a bit too sweet. For food we shared Salmon Teriyaki, Spicy Chicken Bao Buns and Cauliflower Pakora which had the strangest sour coriander dip. Strange but absolutely lovely. I didn’t like the salmon, but that’s just me. Scamp said the spicy chicken was too strong for her taste, but we both agreed the cauliflower pakora was excellent. The view was great, but it would have been so much better if the drizzle hadn’t dulled everything down. There was no attempt to rush us through our lunch and we both had coffee afterwards. It was a lovely lunch and I think we’ll be back, but only if it’s another “buy one, get one free” offer.

We walked back to the bus stop and got an X19 back into town. Scamp and I both had things we were looking for. I was looking for water soluble graphite pencils to try on watercolour paper. Scamp was buying prezzies.

We got the X3 back home because although it’s slow, we don’t have to walk too far to get home.

PoD was a two frame panorama created in Lightroom and tweaked in Photoshop.

We had a really good day. Good food, interesting food too and great company. It will be better in the summer I’m sure.

We have no plans as yet for tomorrow.

A long day – 17 March 2023

Posted on by Zogman

A day that would last until tomorrow.

In the morning, Scamp went to FitSteps class and I had promised myself a day painting, but that didn’t happen. Instead I spent most of the morning trying unsuccessfully to understand how to reissue my SSL certificate. Namecheap must have the most user unfriendly ‘help’ files I’ve ever come across. It feels as if it was designed as instructions for a professional programmer, which I am not. If any “Webmonkeys” out there hear this plea and can help, I’d appreciate it. I gave up not long before Scamp returned.

By then it was lunch time and after that I took the A7 with the 105mm macro lens out for a walk in St Mo’s to see if the four frogs from yesterday had managed to find any like minded amphibians to join their orgy. Where the had been four frogs yesterday, there must have been a hundred today. The water was literally boiling with ripples and the rafts of frogspawn now stretched right round the pond. I took a few photos and then the rain that had been threatening all day called a halt to photography for the day. One long shot of a pensive looking frog made PoD.

Back home, Scamp read while I did the post-processing of the frog photos, mainly to waste time until we got ready to drive over to Larky for dinner with Crawford & Nancy.

We had a great night, as we usually do. Good food, good company and lots of jokes. Crawford and I had a jam session with Crawford on ukulele and me on guitar. I won’t say the singing or my playing was world class, but we had a good time. We left just before midnight and drove through some torrential rain. I got to bed just before 1am although Scamp was there before me. PoD to post and lots of other folks photos to look through in Flickr. Of course, this is a catch-up. You knew that.

Tomorrow we’re off to Brookfield and I’m sure the morning will come too quickly.

Dancin’ workout – 11 February 2023

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Today was a dancin’ day and no mistake. No respite either!

The warmup today was a the Cameron Quickstep. That’s almost half a circuit of the floor, even before the teachers begin to make additions. Apparently it’s really a sequence dance! I can’t see many Tea Dancers doing this one without a defibrillator nearby. We tried it slow – a walk through and it was achievable. Then the teachers turned the music on and it was chaos. What comes next?? Is it the Zig Zag or is it the Chair? Nobody seemed to know or care. It was that old joke, all the moves were there, just not in the right order. Eventually, and I mean eventually we worked out where we were, what comes next and where we were meant to be. After half an hour we were exhausted, well, at least I was. I had to have a wee sit down to get my breathing back to normal.

We left the quickstep behind and did a wee relaxing Bossa Nova to cool us down before we entered the next 30min class on Foxtrot. I thought we had this in the bag, but it was in the wrong bag, not the one I’d brought. After some corrections from Jane and then Stewart, we began to find the dance we’d practised for a couple of turns round the living room. The living room Foxtrot bore some resemblance to the Brookfield (big hall) version, but only an expert could see it. Again, eventually, we managed to put all the pieces together and it began to sort of flow.

Another break and it was time for the third half hour which would be Tango. We can do a fairly representative tango, but then the teachers decided to add in another part that was new to us. It wasn’t difficult, in fact it was similar to another part of the routine and that’s what made it difficult. It was similar, but not the same, possibly too similar. In time we’ll either work it in properly or erase it from our memory – probably the latter.

Just to keep our heart rate up it was a couple of Midnight Jives to finish. I’m not sure whether that was a dance class or a workout. It was good and we learned a lot, but I was exhausted by the time we were walking out into the drizzly rain.

Drove home again via the M8/M74 route and stopped for rolls and a Danish pastry at the shops on the way home. I was so knackered, I went for a 45min snooze in the afternoon. By then it was dinner time and we’d agreed on a fish supper each for dinner. I walked to Condorrat and was back in about 15 mins. Record time. On the way there in the gathering gloom I got today’s PoD which was taken in the Adventure Playground in the park on the path to Condorrat. Lurking around in a kids playpark after dark! That sounds dodgy, but I love these rough cut balancing toys they look so graphic.

Today’s prompt was The Big Blue. Not only had I not seen this film, I’d never even heard of it. The only Big Blue I was aware of was IBM! However, I went with the flow (no pun intended) and watched the previews on YouTube. Still it meant very little to me.
The deepest I’ve dived, personally, was 2m in the swimming pool at Butlins, or was it Pontins? I can’t remember. But I do remember it didn’t give me the urge to go any deeper. However, I do remember you needed flippers, and a mask better than the ones you got in Woolworths, so that’s what I’ve sketched and painted today. I like the mask. It’s quite manic looking. Like a Japanese Daruma with both eyes painted in!

Tomorrow we may be resting our weary limbs. We might walk to the shops if we can summon the energy!

It was a dull day again – 24 January 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Worse than that, it was a dull day with rain. Never a good combination.

Scamp’s cough wasn’t abating and by the time I’d showered and shaved, she was just ending a call to the doc’s and had been given an appointment with the nurse for mid afternoon.

It hadn’t looked as if we would be going anywhere anyway, and as the cough had been there since Friday, it was time to let a professional have a look at it. I was planning on making a pot of soup in the new magic pot. This was to be Minestrone, but a different recipe from our usual one. Some unusual ingredients like courgette in the recipe would be interesting.

We drove up to the surgery. I dropped Scamp there and then went to Tesco to get the extra ingredients for the soup. I also managed to get a bottle of Benylin, Red Benylin no less. This is the most sought after medicine of the moment and here was a bottle sitting on a shelf, the last one again. Yesterday’s bottle of Benylin had been the wrong one, but it too had been the last one on the shelf. Drove back to the surgery and was just parking when Scamp appeared from the chemist and we drove home. She was told to take 8 steroid pills a day for five days and was also give a five day course of antibiotics. Shake her and she’ll rattle! but they seem to work because she’s not coughing quite as much.

I chopped the veg and made the soup and it tasted really too thick and quite bitter. A generous pinch of sugar helped with the bitter taste and after decanting a bowl full of concentrated tomato soup and replacing it with a bowl full of hot water, then giving it another 3min pressure cook, we had a decent minestrone. Still not as good as the original, but the courgette worked well in the mixture of veg. My only mistake was channeling my Simon & Garfunkel when I bought my herbs. I bought Sage and it should have been Thyme. Parsley would have been good too, but Rosemary would have been overpowering. You can have too much of a good thing!!

We watched an episode of Silent Witness, but the shock factor is being overplayed now and it’s becoming difficult to see where the past ends and the present begins. We both agreed after the first episode that it’s time to put it to bed, so the entire series was deleted. Thankfully you can do that with just one button now on Virgin.

I’d decided when we came back from the doc’s that I wasn’t going out in the drizzly rain to take photos I wasn’t really interested in. That’s why today’s PoD is cut flowers. Usually a photo of flowers is a last resort for me, but today’s were planned and I knew Scamp was just waiting for an opportunity to throw some of the wilting flowers out and the wilting ones are my favourites. I could have used more interesting lighting, but I was happy with my Yellow Lilies. They became PoD.

Tomorrow is to be a better day than today. We might just manage a short walk if Scamp is up to it. We’ll wait and see.

 

Dancin’ … badly – 12 January 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Today was the first Tea Dance of the year.

It was raining when we woke, which wasn’t surprising because it had been raining all night after a beautifully clear day yesterday. When I was opening the curtains this morning I was drawn to the distortion caused by raindrops running down the window. I thought the two geranium plants made a good foreground and trusting my new phone, I took some shots as ‘bankers’, just in case I didn’t get a chance to get some with my ‘real’ camera. That was a good move, as it turned out, because the rain just kept coming all day.

By midday we were almost ready to drive to Glenburn, south of Paisley for the tea dance. A much smaller group than normal today which was a double edged sword. More room to practise the moves we had sort of forgotten, but on the other hand, nowhere to hide when we made mistakes, and we did make mistakes, both of us. I was the worst though, I’ll admit it. Even dancing the two simple waltzes we know I still managed to make a load of mistakes. Sequence dances I could handle, but it’s the repetition that cements the steps and of course the ‘sequence’ of those steps. The other plus for sequence dances is that they are danced in a circle, so most of the time there’s someone in front of you to watch and learn from. Waltz, Foxtrot and Quickstep are a different kettle of fish. You’re out on a limb with them. If you do find yourself making mistakes or if you lose the sequence of the steps, your partner is going to give you THAT STARE! I know, I’ve been there. Having said all that, we had a great time. Almost two hours of dancing that passed in a flash. We sat with Barry and Cath and the conversation was good.

Drove home through more lashing rain and went the ‘long way’ down the M74 and the M73 and continued on to Tesco to post a birthday card to one of Scamp’s pals and get some Thursday stuff. You know what I mean. Thursday is still ‘Prize day’.

Dinner was a fall back, Fish Fingers, Egg and Spaghetti (it has to be tinned spaghetti). The fish fingers went between two pieces of butter bread and became a Fish Finger Sandwich. Delicious.

Remember those photos I took in the morning? One of them became PoD. I’d shot them in RAW format. Very few phone cameras will record in RAW which is an uncompressed, unprocessed, literally raw image file. Usually it takes up a lot more space in the phone’s memory, but the excellent quality makes up for that. I dumped them into Lightroom and after half an hour of tweaking it looked presentable, so that’s what you see here.

Tomorrow is a busy day. Scamp’s intending to go out to FitSteps class in the morning and I’m hoping to start by making the dough for the night’s bread. John & Marion are coming to dinner. First time they’ve been here for ages. Looking forward to it.

Wet! – 10 January 2023

Posted on by Zogman

It was raining when I went to make breakfast and it’s still raining tonight. It hasn’t stopped!

Scamp was feeling better this morning. Sometimes a bit dizzy, but not nearly as bad as yesterday. As the day progressed and it looked like we wouldn’t have been going anywhere anyway because of the weather we settled down to regroup and relax.

Lunch was scrambled eggs for Scamp which I messed up the first time. “How can you mess up scrambled eggs?” I hear you ask? I mean, the word ‘Scrambled’ in the name describes it perfectly. My excuse is that I added water to the eggs before I beat them, it should have been milk. Scamp corrected me and watched over me as I made this culinary delight, especially delightful if you’ve a dodgy stomach. I had the much more rustic piece ’n’ square sausage cooked medium rare, just the way I like it.

After lunch and after being assured that she was fighting fit, Scamp started the ironing and I parcelled up Hazy’s calendar then drove up to Tesco to post it. Drove back home in torrential rain again and not long after that, Hazy herself phoned. She’d read the blog and wanted to know how the patient was. I think she was relieved to hear the Scamp was feeling a lot better. We talked for a while about holidays to come and problems with planes, Neil’s surgery, which seems to be healing well and also cats with heart problems. All in all we covered a fair bit of ground.

Dinner was just a plate of the tomato soup we’d put in the freezer last week. It was ideal for today. Easy to thaw out and reheat, and gentle on the stomach. I do think that soup brightened the invalid up, because she was back to her old self after that.

I still hadn’t a photo of the day and it was a tube of Rowntrees Pastilles that gave me the idea, that and a torch I’d been playing with all afternoon. It’s a set of traffic lights made with the new Rowantrees Illuminated Pastilles which missed the Christmas shelves due to the train strike or the postal strike or any other strike you care to mention. It doesn’t matter, they’re fictitious anyway!

Tomorrow, Scamp is going for coffee with Isobel and June. I’m sure I could come too, but not when there are three women all talking at the same time. I don’t think I’d fit in, nor would I be able to get a word in. Anyway I have work to do at home that will keep me occupied for an hour or so. If possible I’d like a dry half hour some time before the sun sets.

What a delightful day – 5 January 2023

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Yes, that was sarcasm!

Dry early in the morning, but after that the rain came and forgot to leave. Also the rain slid in quite quietly, but got stronger and heavier as the day progressed.

I suggested that we go to The Bothy near Stirling for lunch and Scamp readily agreed. It’s a nice wee cafe/restaurant at the foot of the Ochil Hills. We’d been there before and I had great memories of the Sri Lankan Lamb Curry. Maybe I’d have something different this time.

The place was busy when we arrived and they were handing out buzzers which isn’t really a good sign. We were told a wait time of about fifteen minutes. Half an hour later our buzzer buzzed and we were shown to our table for two. A quick glance at the menu while Scamp was looking for her glasses confirmed my choice. There it was on the menu Sri Lankan Lamb Curry. My day was going to be fine and hang the bad weather. Scamp chose Mac ’n’ Cheese, her second favourite on the menu. We weren’t disappointed.

After our I grabbed a few photos of the Ochils with the rain clouds misting them and a massive flock of geese in the field at the bottom. A panorama made in Lightroom from three of the frames got PoD. I had another try at photo of the Wallace Monument without the irritating electricity lines catching the eye, but it didn’t work, so I went with the geese on the grass at the foot of the hills. Then it was time to drive through Stirling because Scamp wanted to visit Dobbies. However, the shop was doing its Twelfth Night changeover from Christmas to Valentine’s Day, so it was, in a word, shambolic. We drove home.

For a three cylinder car the Micra fought its way through torrential rain and standing water to get us home safely and in good time. We stopped off at Tesco for a bunch of flowers for Scamp (it was Thursday, remember) and to see if the rum tanker had made it through. Flowers were bought, but no sign of the rum yet.

We watched the first episode of The Apprentice tonight, but it was more of an advert for Antigua than the usual contest, but the usual n-hopers were there and one of them got fired.

It’s a windy night tonight, but it might be a dry afternoon tomorrow.

Standing water – 30 December 2022

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Scamp was going to have coffee with Shona today.

I drove Scamp up to Costa in the town centre. What should have been a quick journey turned out to be a bit fraught. I thought I’d be smart and take the shortcut through Condorrat. Alas the sign saying No Road On Right had fallen down. I hadn’t noticed it at the time, but once on to the closed road there was nowhere to go but back again. Still stuck on the idea that this was a shortcut, I carried on round the Condorrat ring road. Then I was stuck in a queue because the road was flooded almost right across the road and cars were taking turns to drive through it. We did eventually get through the flooded stretch, but it was deeper than I’d first thought.

I came home the normal way and went to get my meds, then went next door to Tesco and got some fish because I was making a fish risotto for dinner. I also got a vanilla pod to use for Sunday’s dessert. Almost six quid for one vanilla pod? Somebody’s having a joke here. The reason the road was flooded this morning was because it had rained incessantly through the night, but when I came out of Tesco the sky was clear and the sun was shining. Where did all the rain go? Not a cloud to be seen!

I drove home, dumped the stuff and grabbed my camera bag and went over to St Mo’s. Of course, as soon as I left the house the sun disappeared and the first spots of rain appeared. Undeterred I carried on and got some photos of the flooded pond. Not the most interesting photos and by this time the white cloud had covered the sky, so there was no texture from that either. Still, I had a photo or five and an hour ago I didn’t think I was going to get any.

I walked home and just as I got in, my phone rang. Scamp’s bus from the town centre hadn’t appeared. I drove up to the town centre and picked her up. I made sure I came home the long, but unfolded way.

After lunch which was yesterday’s soup with croutons, or fried bread if you prefer, I settled down to write to Peter Hayward who I used to work beside. I’d only just got started when two cards dropped through the letter box. One for Scamp and one for me from Peter. After reading it I felt even worse for not writing sooner. But the letter was finished and in with the belated Christmas card then I walked over and found I’d just missed today’s collection. Never mind, it wouldn’t have been going anywhere until Monday or Tuesday anyway. After dropping it in the post box I felt a lot happier.

Back home again I started the dinner. It was Leek and Haddock with Cabbage. The cabbage wasn’t really meant to go in the risotto, but it was languishing in the chiller drawer of the fridge and it seemed a shame no to use it. Apparently that was a really good risotto. I don’t know what I did differently, but I too liked it.

The photo you see here as PoD has a more interesting sky than when the shot was taken. I don’t consider that cheating because I took the photo of the sky months ago and just got an app to insert it, and its reflection into the picture. By the way, its title was Porcupine, because that’s what I thought of when I first saw this big clump of reeds!

Tomorrow there’s talk that it may, just may, be dry. If that’s the case we might go for a walk. Drumpellier has been mentioned.