Category: Roses

Just a lazy Sunday – 28 August 2022

Posted on by Zogman

I’d thought we might drive down to Auchinstarry for a walk along the canal, but Scamp had other ideas.

After lunch, Scamp was looking longingly at the front grass and I could see her arguing with herself that it was a warm, dry day and the grass really did need cutting. I, on the other hand was going to make a Tagine with a couple of pieces of lamb neck I had taken out of the freezer last night. Decision made. Scamp would cut the front grass and I would make my tagine. There was no point in me doing the grass cutting, Scamp would only go and redo it … properly. Since I’m the meat-eater of the family, she was happy for me to cook my dinner.

That’s how it turned out. I let the slow cooker do the hard work of making the tagine after I’d filled it with chopped onions, fried lamb chunks, lots of different spices, chopped dates, chopped apricots and some orange juice. I took the slow cooker up to the back bedroom to bubble away to its heart’s content. That’s the great thing about slow cookers, you can dump them anywhere there’s a power socket. They don’t need to be taking up real estate on the kitchen worktop. Scamp was still grass cutting and trimming and blowing the cuttings away with the blower, so I wrote an email to Alex with some photos.

Speaking of photos, today’s PoD is a yellow rose that’s just “going over” to use the technical term for losing all its petals. Not my best work, but I couldn’t be bothered going anywhere today. Too much driving in the past few days and no real wish to go for yet another walk in St Mo’s.

A thin gin and tonic after we were both done made the slide from afternoon to early evening quite pleasant. Dinner was OK. Just OK. In retrospect, I’d have preferred potatoes or even rice with the tagine, but I’d opted for couscous. It was too dry and it didn’t really go with Scamp’s Ratatouille. I must make a note on my recipe not to use couscous. I’ve never really liked it anyway!

Watched an amazing drive by Verstappen coming from 14th on the grid (after losing his pole position because he’d used too many engine components) to win the Belgian GP. I almost felt sorry for Leclerc only able to achieve a 6th place after some startlingly poor tactical decisions by Ferrari. It would appear that the team have a death wish at present.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard about his troubles with squirrels or mice eating his big tomatoes, but leaving the small ones alone. It being a bank holiday tomorrow in England, he has an extra long weekend.

No plans as yet for tomorrow. We’ll take it as it comes.

Preparations – 27 May 2022

Posted on by Zogman

One day’s rest and back to preparations again.

More washing in the morning. Thankfully, Scamp took charge of that. Then a fruitless walk for her over to Condorrat looking for roses. We have our own roses, but they are either too big or not quite opened yet, so not suitable for today’s task. Finally gave in and had lunch. Scamp’s attempt at making Crimpets with plain brown bread was a bit of a disaster. Maybe they weren’t pressed enough. Maybe they don’t work with ordinary bread. Maybe there was just a little bit too much filling. Whatever the reason, the Crimpet came apart in the toaster and it took a bit of jiggery pokery with a knife (the toaster was unplugged) to get the remains of the Crimpet out. Inedible was the word that sprang to mind. Glad I had nothing to do with it this time.

After lunch Scamp started the ironing and the first item to receive a pressing was my kilt. A kilt is a heavy garment and it took two of us, one manoeuvring it around the ironing board and the other applying the steam iron to get the creases out from where they shouldn’t be while leaving the creases in where they should. It didn’t take that long and the result once she was finished was amazing. Then I spent half an hour trying to work out how and where to put the kilt pin. It’s a fiddly little thing with a lock that doesn’t lock. I think I’ve got it sorted with a tiny bit of black electrical tape. The whole thing looks so much better now.

While Scamp started on the bulk of the ironing, I took the camera for a walk around St Mo’s. Once round the pond and a wander into the woods before I took a walk down behind St Mo’s school and found today’s PoD which is a Flag Iris just about ready to burst into the sunlight. The real reason I was walking this path was to go to the shops looking for roses. White ones or pink ones were on today’s list, so I got both just in case I chose the wrong ones, as is my wont.

Back home it was time for dinner which today was Scamp’s macaroni cheese with streaky bacon on mine. Toasting hot and delicious as usual. The wind that had been gusting all day had calmed down by evening, thank goodness. This is really strange weather for May.

Tomorrow we’re intending to take a run to Hamilton and perhaps a little further.

Mothers Day – 27 March 2022

Posted on by Zogman

After the crowds and rushing about of yesterday we wanted a quieter day today.

A lazy morning, taking some photos in the garden. Completing today’s Sudoku and just generally chilling. That was the tone for today. Scamp spoke to Hazy in the morning, and found that Neil was feeling a lot better and talking about going back to work tomorrow after his Covid scare. Scamp too was in good spirits and seemed to be enjoying the good weather.

After lunch we went out and did a bit of gentle pruning of the Schoolgirl rose that grows up the trellis beside the front door. Last autumn we’d done some drastic pruning and cut it back quite hard. It seems that the brutality of the pruning has encouraged a fair amount of new growth and perhaps we can do even more cutting after the risk of frost is past.

With the work in the garden done, we went for a walk round St Mo’s. Just one circuit. I was going to go for a second round, but the light was fairly flat, even for a bright day and we both walked down to the shops to get milk and sweeties. No gin today. Back home, Scamp made herself a Pimms and I opened a cheap bottle of beer that tasted like a cheap bottle of beer. I don’t think I’ll buy another one of those, but I would definitely have another bottle or two of Wainwright. Cheap beer that tastes like good beer. We sat in the garden and had a wee drink and I took some more photos, but most of them failed the cut because of striping, something to do with the electronic shutter. Too technical for me, but annoying. PoD went to a shot from the morning of some lovely scarlet anemones. Taken with the new toy, the Lensbaby Sweet 50.

With the sun going down, the Pimms drained and the beer finished too, it was dinner time. The main constituent was there remains of yesterday’s chicken with potatoes and cauliflower. Dessert was ice cream with our new raspberry sauce which tastes a lot like the raspberry we used to get at the ice cream van when we were wee.

Later Scamp spoke to Jamie and heard about the problems of travelling to Trinidad and the difficulty of getting Covid tests in the correct time scale. Not for him, but for Sim. Also the joys of cutting an enormous lawn in the new house.

Tomorrow Scamp is booked for lunch with Nancy at The Fort. I think I may go down the Luggie to get some photos, all being well.

Off to Larky – 25 March 2022

Posted on by Zogman

To see the optician.

Thankfully I didn’t need new glasses, in fact, the optician said that my long vision had improved since my last visit! I have no idea how that happened. Scamp did need new reading glasses, but she’s getting Transition glasses which darken in sunlight. I know they’ve been out for some time, but these new ones darken much quicker than the older ones I had once upon a time. Hers will probably more akin to the ones Zaphod Beeblebrox had that darkened when danger threatened! When we walked back out into the Larky sunshine I needed sunglasses because of the drops the optician put in my eyes. Trust us to both go on the brightest and warmest day of the year so far!

We sat in the car for a while until I deemed it safe for me to drive. To drive to Gouldings on Clydeside for lunch. Being Friday, it could only be Fish ’n’ Chips. For dessert we had an enormous double meringue with four flakes sticking out of it and a strawberry on top. Slightly over the top, but we shared the load of eating it!

After that it was back home for Scamp to try out her new compost scoop tool to help her to plant her new roses. The scoop has been a great success, the gardener reported and it hold a lot of earth. Meanwhile I took the Sony A7iii out for a walk in St Mo’s and PoD was one of a deep pink wild flower. Actually, I took a picture of a flower that looks exactly the same, a week earlier in 2021. That just shows two things:
1. Wild plants follow exact cycles every year.
2. I’m becoming very insular. Photographing in the same locality too often.

That was about it for today. Lovely sunny day again. Tomorrow we may go further afield.

 

Waiting for a parcel – 22 March 2022

Posted on by Zogman

You wait all morning and then two come at once.

I got an email yesterday to say that a parcel would arrive for me today. It was a new, well, second hand, lens. Not your normal lens. It’s a bendy twisty turn round corners lens called a Lensbaby. It wasn’t too expensive in the camera lens terms. I ordered it last week and it was coming today! Also coming today was a birthday prezzy for Scamp. Scamp was going to the dentist today and I was hoping that her parcel would arrive while she was away. It didn’t happen.

After lunch and before she left for the dentist, the DPD man arrived with both parcels. I might still have got away with it, except as he was photographing it and signing it into his handheld device, he said “These David Austin roses are expensive, but they are good.” I knew then the game was up and brought both parcels into the living room where Scamp was laughing her head off. Well, it just extended the birthday celebrations I suppose. The rose I’d chosen was, thankfully, on her short list. It’s a Lady of Shalott.

After the excitement she came down to reality with a bump when she found out that she’d need a crown on her tooth. When she told how much it would cost, I thought it might be a real crown! Another long wait to get it done too. First appointment she was given was for mid June! Also, our dentist is retiring next week. He was good, well, I liked him anyway. So now we need to hope that the new lady dentist who is his replacement will take us both on as NHS patients and end the misery of me being NHS and Scamp being private.

I was just getting the mower out to cut the front grass when Scamp arrived back with her sorry tale about an expensive piece of porcelain. She told me to leave the grass cutting to her and go out an play with the new toy. I didn’t need told twice. I just laced up my boots and got on with the test.

It really is a weird piece of equipment. The body of the lens is in two parts, held together in a ball and socket joint. The lens itself fits into this contraption. There is no electronic connection to the camera itself an very little assistance to focusing the beast. The image in the viewfinder took a bit of getting used to, but I could see how the thing worked after I’d taken a few experimental shots. First thoughts are that it’s not a lens for everyday photography, but it does things I’ve never seen before from a lens. I’ll keep it for a while at least.

Today’s PoD wasn’t taken with it. That shot camera from a ‘normal’ Samyang 18mm lens. A bit of tweaking in Lightroom revealed the image you see of St Mo’s under a wonderful sky. The weird photos are on Flickr.

Tomorrow we may be going for a walk if the weather holds. If not, then it’s maybe a trip into Glasgow.