Category: Sculptures

Heading North – 10 November 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Packing bags, repacking bags and suspicions.

We were off to Perth today for a dance weekend if the fog that was blanketing Cumbersheugh would lift. Scamp had decided to forego her FitSteps class because she had lots to do, choices to make, dresses to pack. Then, what and how many pairs of dance shoes would she need? I, on the other hand, had a couple of shirts, a couple of pairs of trousers and a jersey sorted out and waiting to go in the bag. The important stuff, like what camera and what lenses I’d need took a lot longer to sort out.

With most of my packing done, I sat down to read my emails and noticed a strange WhatsApp message. I’d had one a week ago on Facebook and was suspicious. You’ve probably been warned about the plague of “Hi mum. I’ve lost my phone and this is a temporary replacement. Please phone me back on 07654321123 etc.”. I’d guessed the FB message was one of those and ignored it. Both seemed to come from my niece who I hadn’t spoken to in years. I thought I should phone my brother and ask him to give me the last three digits of his daughter’s phone. He did and it checked out. He also told me she was probably going to invite us to her wedding next August. After a couple of WhatsApp exchanges, she emailed us the RSVP form and we duly accepted . So now we have a wedding to look forward to in Jersey next year! From suspicions to delight on a foggy, busy morning!

I wasn’t looking forward to the dance weekend. It’s something in my psyche, I don’t like being out of my routine. The older I get, the worse it becomes, but I knew I’d enjoy the drive up and I knew the fog would lift as soon as we were out of Cumbersheugh. As it turned out I was right. The fog lifted as we climbed up the M80 heading for Stirling and soon we were parked in the Canal Street carpark after a drive through the hills in glorious sunshine.

Our room at The Salutation Hotel was better than the poky hole we were in last time. We even had a shower with water! We went for a walk around Perth and noticed right away that ‘The Ship’, the cantilevered viewing gallery, out over the River Tay was blocked by the massive flood gates. It appears that Perth council were taking no chances after their disastrous decision not to close the flood gates a month ago! A walk through the park and then back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

PoD was a sculpture called “Eagle of Perth III”, but it looks like a fat seagull to me and is one of Shona Kinloch’s humorous sculptures at the entrance to the park.

Dinner was a carvery and I chose roast pork. Once I’d tasted it I wished I’d asked for two slices. Then I could have resoled both my boots! I’m not saying it was tough, but my knife was blunt by the time I’d cut through this ‘delicious’ meat. Scamp had the much nicer vegetarian option of Sweet and Sour Vegetables. I might remember for next time, if we go back.

The dance was the usual format. A ‘getting to know you’ changing partners dance to start with then the first waltz saw 80 folk trying desperately to find a space to dance in … mostly unsuccessfully. We danced for about three hours, attempting most of the dances we knew.

Exhausted, and with burning feet, we climbed the stairs in the labyrinth that is The Salutation for a well earned rest.

Tomorrow we get to do it all again, plus we’re hoping to get out for a drive to Scone Palace.

Old Glass and the Owl Woman – 16 September 2023

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Today we drove over to Klondyke at Falkirk for the worst lunch in living memory.

Actually the garden centre is really good. Plants all look good and are reasonably priced, but we thought we’d try their lunches. Scamp ordered her favourite test piece, Mac ’n’ Cheese. I wasn’t all that hungry (for once) and ordered Home made Pork & Leek Sausage Roll. What arrived after about half an hour was a sloppy looking macaroni in a tasteless white sauce and a giant sausage roll that had been microwaved. I’m the first person to say that I’m not a chef, but I know you don’t microwave flaky pastry. It just isn’t flaky after that kind of treatment, but obviously the ‘chef’ was oblivious to that. The ‘meat’ inside the inedible wrapping was almost as bad. My advice if you fancy stopping there for lunch? Don’t, just don’t. If you want some plants, fine, just don’t eat there. You’ll only regret it.

We did buy a couple of plants, because it only seems to be the restaurant that’s affected by the lack of culinary knowledge. The plants are fine. We took away a batch of pansies and a new Japanese Anemone and since the Kelpies are nearby, we went there for our second, and edible, lunch. A scone each and two coffees with a view out at the horses looking sparkling in the sunshine. A walk around the Kelpies and a few photos taken. One with old glass, the eleven year old E-PL5 with the squeaky 20mm Panasonic lens. One with the cantankerous 28-70mm kit lens on the A7iii. Nothing is perfect in my photographic repertoire! The Old Glass shot of pansies taken at Klondyke won the day and that became the PoD.

We finished off our lunch with an ice cream ‘Boat’. A plastic boat with two servings of Mr Whippy ice cream and one chocolate flake to share. While we were consuming this dessert, a man and a lady walked past and the lady had an owl on her arm. A real owl clasping the gauntlet on her hand. It was interesting to watch the looks on folks faces as they did the ‘second look’ thing and then turned to look at a woman with an owl on her arm. We just spent a few minutes trying to outdo each other with jokes about the “Owl woman”. Which, if you’re Scottish (or Irish) translates as “Old Woman”. Oh what childish fun we had at her expense. Of course, all the time she was preening herself for being the centre of attention, while the owl just looked superior and blinked … as owls do. Said goodbye for a while to the big horses and drove home.

Back home, Scamp was deadheading more of the flowers while I repotted the sad looking Berberis plants that were looking a bit sad.

Dinner tonight was a Spice Tailor almost instant Goan prawn curry which no doubt Delia would say was nothing like what a Goan curry would taste like. It was certainly better than a dodgy Mac ’n’ Cheese or a nuked sausage roll.

Watched an ‘interesting’ Singapore GP where neither of the Red Bull cars made it to Qualifying 3. That means they’ll be in he middle of the pack and will have to prove their prowess. Some folk are just getting too big for their boots. The signs that Xmas is on the way is that the days are getting shorter, the temperature is dropping and Strictly is starting its annual run. Tonight was that night. Oh what fun it was to see all the hopefuls finding who their dance partners would be. I wonder who’ll be first to go.

We have no plans for tomorrow. It took a long time for the sun to come out of hiding today and it might take longer tomorrow. Some rain predicted.

Curry – 12 May 2023

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Yesterday Scamp suggested Hamilton for lunch in the Bombay Cottage in Hamilton.

Scamp was out at FitSteps in the morning and I thought I’d spend that hour and a bit sketching today’s prompt which was “Your house or the neighbour’s house.” Surprisingly I got it finished just as she was coming through the front door. One tick in a box.

We drove to Hamilton and got parked fairly easily although the carpark was busy. Again we forgot that some people have to work all week and like to go in to town on the weekends. We used to be in that crowd, but thankfully we’ve seen the error of our ways and go midweek now. Food was just as good as usual, and the portions too, but really it’s the naan bread that makes us come back again and again. No chopped up dried out naan here. It’s light as a feather at one end and soft and pillowy at the other. Oh yes, and enormous!

After we’d had our three courses we paid and left, then drove down to the retail park. Scamp went and investigated the Home Bargains and Aldi while I walked over to what used to be the town square, but is now a building site, an untidy building site. I got the photo I wanted of the wee dog sitting on a seat, a statue by Shona Kinloch. That eventually made PoD. I also grabbed some shots of “The man with the rope” which is on Flickr now. Somebody decided he would look better with a traffic cone on his head, obviously not realising that joke had been done already a thousand times in Glasgow.

I walked back and found Scamp filling her basket in Aldi. We do have an Aldi in Cumbersheugh but we rarely visit it because it’s a shambles of a shop. Everything everywhere with nobody checking stock. At least it doesn’t smell so bad now as it did when it first opened and they didn’t realise they had to clean it every so often.

Drove home and the sun was shining brightly, but we didn’t sit out because it wasn’t really that warm. Cool breeze was blowing from the east and that’s never a good direction.

We did have a half hour practise of Joy’s Waltz. Once we got past the tricky “Overturned Turn”, the remainder of the waltz is quite doable. At least it was tonight. Whether it will continue in that vein tomorrow is still to be seen.

Tomorrow we are hoping to go to dance class in the morning and the rest of the day is set fine, according to the weather fairies.

Outside toilet – 1 May 2023

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Today the weather fairies got it wrong. They predicted a dull day and it turned out bright and sunny.

I have a lot to do on the first day of the month. Screensavers to be created, files and folders to be moved, folders of pictures to be backed up and then rejected photos to be deleted. Today was no different. Eventually, when all was running normally again, we decided we’d better go out and make the best of the day before it all slipped away.

Scamp wanted to go to Drumpellier for a walk through the woods, and so did an awful lot of folk on this surprisingly sunny May Day. All around us seemed to be dark and cloudy, but for once we were sitting in the sweet spot, at least we were when we finally found a parking place.

Off we trudged on the conveyer belt with all the other folk walking round this big pond. But we knew we could get off the travelator and into the woods. It’s good to see the colour returning to the trees after so many weeks of bare branches. There were a lot fewer folk on these paths through the woods and at times we seemed to be the only people walking these pathways. Eventually we found our way back to the main circuit at the far end of the loch. I had taken a few shots in the woods, but not very many. We walked round to the ice cream van and had a cone each. With raspberry, but without a flake. Scamp was quite firm about that. No 99s today, even if it is a bank holiday.

We sat on a bench, eating our cones and watching an asian bloke with two little girls in tow, in tow, but not under control. Poor man was run ragged chasing one then the other to keep them from falling into the loch while the girls just seemed to ignore him, so that they could throw stones in the water. Just weans having fun and taking more than a little leeway with their dad.

As we were walking back to the car I saw a photo opportunity with three gulls on the big Whale’s Tail sculpture that sits out in the water. I climbed over a couple of rocks and sat down on one to get a nice low viewpoint for the shot across the water, when I heard a woman’s voice behind me saying “What’s he doing?” Another woman answered, “I think he’s doing the toilet!” Then a man’s voice said “He’s taking photographs!” Oh, the ignominy of it. To be thought to be performing your bodily functions outside in Coatbridge. I’d never live it down! However, it did make me smile. “Doing the toilet”, indeed! No wonder photogs get a bad reputation.

We drove home before the polis came. After a late lunch and after checking that I did indeed have a PoD, I set to work on the first sketch for a long while for Every Day in May, or EDiM for short. The first one is complete and can be seen on Flickr and Facebook. It was tough going. This was the best of three attempts.

Today’s prompt was A Waffle.
I don’t eat waffles as a rule, although I can be enticed into having one when we’re on holiday.
Today’s sketch was of what I would have if I did eat waffles. My toppings would be blueberries and strawberries, plus maybe some melted chocolate, just to make it little bit less healthy!

Some interesting topics this time round.

Hoping for some more bright sunny weather tomorrow to get out and about in.

Off to the seaside – 7 April 2023

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A day at the beach was promised. A beach without sand? How does that work.

In the morning after breakfast, Jamie drove us all over to the Suffolk Dogs Run Free fields where we had an hour to let Vixen off the leash to do what it says on the tin. She didn’t run that far away, always keeping one of us in line of sight, but she DID run and so did Jamie and Simonne chasing her. I was glad I’d worn my boots because there were quite a few muddy puddles and we were slipping and sliding through some of them. After or allotted hour, we padlocked the gate and went back to the car then drove back to the house.

Giovanna Rana pasta. Veg for Scamp and meat filled for the carnivores, Never had the bolognese version before, but it’s not practical when one of us doesn’t eat meat and I’m happy eating the veg version. We both liked the thick grated ‘normal’ cheese on top, but missed the olive oil that we have.

Then it was time to lock Vixen in as house sitter while the gardener was working outside in the garden, because we four were going to the seaside at Aldeburgh. I’d never heard of it before, but I did know roughly where nearby Ipswitch was, and Sizewell Nuclear Powerstation and we were told it was near both.

It was a lengthy journey that would have taken a fraction of the time if we’d been crows and could have flown straight there. Or if we’d had jetpacks. We were promised jetpacks, weren’t we? A lengthy journey, but an interesting one passing between green fields that seemed to stretch to the horizon in all directions. Pretty little houses, the likes of which you see in story books. I dare say almost all of them are actually holiday homes, run through Airbnb!

We eventually arrived at Aldeburgh and Jamie found a place to park and then a place to buy a parking ticket, then we headed for the ‘beach’. The beach without any sand. Instead of sand the shore was covered in pebbles, worn round by the action of the sea. A great stainless steel scallop shell stands on the beach. It was designed as a tribute to Benjamin Britten who spent much of his life in Aldeburgh. Cut high into the sculpture’s upper edge is the line ‘I hear those voices that will not be drowned’ from Britten opera, Peter Grimes. You can find out more about it here:

 

We walked along the shingle heading into the town and Jamie bought some fish at a stall on the beach. Further on, we stopped beside a boating pond with lots of kids, mainly boys, sailing yachts. That brought back memories for Jamie and me. We all had ice cream cones at a convenient nearby shop and sat in an old seaside shelter which dated from 1911. Built to commemorate the coronation of George V. It was an excellent windbreak!

We had a quick walk through the town and Jamie stopped to buy some beer from an Adnams shop – the local brewery. Then we started the walk back to the car, walking on the road this time rather than the shingle that constantly moved under our feet. I was walking along beside Simonne when I spotted what looked like a tall windmill up above the trees in the distance, near the Sizewell reactor. It was really too far away to get a decent shot with any camera and I’d brought the smaller A6000 today. I googled it when we got back and found it was a water tower that is now a holiday home and is called The House in the Clouds. It has a really interesting history that you can read about here:

Just to fill the day up, when we got back I took some photos of the sunset over the  church next door.  Beautiful sunset.

Tomorrow is all about me – I wish!

Happy Birthday Scamp – 24 March 2023

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A busy day, but a great one.

Today was Scamp’s birthday, a big birthday. It started with breakfast in bed as befitted the Birthday Girl. Then it was time to get dressed and face the day.

There were cards to open and parcels to unpack. I became doorman and brought in the parcels that delivery men asked me to sign for, lots of them. Most amazing being an enormous bouquet of flowers. I do believe the birthday girl was overwhelmed by it all. There was paper and cardboard boxes everywhere. Eventually everything calmed down and we went out to lunch.

It wasn’t a posh lunch, just a normal(ish) Friday afternoon outing to The Cotton House, or go-to Chinese/Thai restaurant a couple of miles down the road. Typically, we had our usual choices from the menu. Scamp had Thai Spring Rolls, followed by Chicken Chow Mein. I had Chicken Noodle Soup and Salt & Chilli Chicken with Noodles. No tea or coffee, just the bill, please. Food was just as lovely as usual.

Instead of driving home, we travelled on to Torwood Garden Centre to get some solar powered lights for the garden. Scamp had said a few weeks ago that she’d like garden lights as a birthday present, so today she got to choose them. We also got a new watering can and a peony rose for me.

Since we were only halfway to the Kelpies, it seemed like a good idea to just drive there so Scamp could tell them all about her birthday so far. We took a rather strange route to get there, but in the end we found Helix Park where the Kelpies live. As usual, I took loads of photos and one of them got PoD. It was a lovely day with blue skies, but later as we were just deciding to go to the cafe for a coffee, there was a sharp shower of rain. After coffee and more photos, we said cheerio to Baron and Duke and drove back home, just managing to avoid the worst of the rush hour.

There was a card on the mat when we got home to say that a parcel was waiting for Scamp at the Post Office. I checked the time it closed and I had just enough time to go there and collect the parcel. Of course it was another birthday parcel.

Later in the evening we had a three way Zoom call from Hazel, Jamie and Neil. Simonne had been in hospital to get her tonsils removed and Jamie was waiting to see if she would get out tonight or not. It was a good call, even if Simonne was absent. Lots of stuff talked about and plans were made for later in the year. Hey, but you know all this. We used up almost our whole hour of air time. Thank you all for organising that.

Tonight (or should I say yesterday night, since you’ll know this was a catch-up) we had an early night. Too much excitement and planning for two bears of little brain.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to dance in the morning and relax for the rest of the day.

 

Perth – 15 March 2023

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We’d decided on two possible destination for today if the weather was decent and one if it was raining.

The weather seemed set fine, so we drove up to Perth for the day. It suited Scamp and Jackie because there were lots of shops to investigate and it suited me because I could buy some decent tea and coffee.

Lovely run up with the sun shining on and off on the snowy hills. Midweek is definitely the time to go because apart from the lines of artics, the traffic is light. We parked in a new to us parking place just behind the Salutation Hotel. At least you can still use cash to park and not have to rely on a dodgy app that everyone seems to despise, but which the councils seem to love. Money is changing hands there I presume. After we parked we went our different ways. The ladies went clothes shopping and I went to get some much needed tea and coffee. Unfortunately The Bean Shop didn’t have any Cuban coffee, so I had to make do with Dominican which is almost as good.

We’d agreed to meet at Nero at 12.30pm and we did, for once. Real Nero coffee, not like the brown water I was subjected to last week. The roll ’n’ sausage was a different matter. It may have been veggie sausages pretending they were real ones, or they may have actually been stuffed with sawdust. It made no difference. They were almost inedible. But the coffee WAS good.

Once lunch was over we split up again because I told Scamp how to find Bon Marché and that needed some serious investigation. This time we agreed to meet back at the car. I went to take some photos and my prime target was the modern sculpture of two bloke leaning on a massive ring. It stand in the middle of the High Street. I’d already taken a couple of shots of padlocks hanging on a railing, but I reckoned the sculpture was better. A quick look in the Oxfam book shop and a visit to the health shop for a 200g bag of Coltsfoot rock and I met up with the happy shoppers.

Drove home through fairly light traffic. Thankful that we’d been limited to three hours parking because we didn’t have any more loose change. That meant we were hitting all the traffic hot spots well before they got too busy.

Dinner tonight was paella and it tasted good. I wasn’t too happy with the last paella I’d made, but this one was almost perfect. A glass of wine with it and a G&T for the ladies and a whisky for me afterwards sealed a good day out.

The statues did in fact get PoD but one of the padlock shots got a good second place.

Jackie goes home tomorrow. We don’t have any plans as yet.

At last, a walk in the sunshine – 6 January 2023

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Today we managed to go for a walk. It was cold, but it didn’t rain.

We drove to Drumpellier and went for a walk through the woods. Lots of folk out doing just the same thing, although to be honest most of the folk were doing circuits of the pond. Not our idea of fun, now that we’ve discovered the variety of paths through the woodland. Some are official paths, but there are a lot more that are just paths trodden by walking feet and although many are mucky and slippery, they are more interesting than the official paths.

I took a few photos in the woodland, but the best by far was just where we were parked. It was the Whale’s Tail with two gulls landing and one just taking off. Another two gulls were taxiing before take off. The low sun you get at this time of year helped add a bit of contrast to the scene. The finished shot was almost as it came out of the camera.

We need a large wall calendar for the kitchen and when we left Drumpellier we drove to The Fort to see if we could find one. But we came home empty handed. I’ve an idea where we might find one tomorrow.

Back home I was trying to work out how to use mail merging in MS Word to create a Word document from an Excel sheet. I’d already tried to do the same thing on Pages in the Mac, but it’s really just a toy. Very little practical use. I’m still trying to do it and it still evades me. I know I used to do it regularly in school, but then I was using a PC every day. Macs in general aren’t used for this sort of thing. I found the Avery app really useful for it last year, but that facility is no longer in the app or is so deeply buried that it would take me too long to find it. I’ll keep looking, it’s in there somewhere.

Scamp was ploughing through the holiday companies on the computer looking for somewhere warm for February. After a fair bit of searching and evaluating, I think we can say that we may be going to somewhere warm for a week, all being well. Still nothing booked for the summer, but we have a few possibilities that just need some things confirmed before we make a final decision.

Dinner tonight was a half a pizza each. Actually it was more like two thirds for me and just a third for Scamp. It was washed down with a nice glass of red. Dessert was Scottish Tablet Ice Cream!

Tonight looks wet, but tomorrow, for the most part may remain dry during daylight hours. That’s the best you can ask for. It was good to be out in the sunshine today somewhere that isn’t Cumbersheugh!

Postman and Driving Mayhem – 22 December 2022

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Off to hand deliver a Christmas card and then driving to the Fort.

I’d left it too late for Elizabeth Gough’s card to be delivered by Christmas, but as I was going to be passing her house on my way to the last purchases at The Fort, I dropped it through her letter box. I was caught in the act by her daughter and then all three of us had a blether at her front door. I was invited in for coffee, but I declined as I knew it would be difficult to park at the Fort and if I’d accepted, I would have been there for an hour at least. It must be well over a year since I’ve met the pair of them and we had a lot to catch up on. Eventually I took my leave and headed back on the road to Easterhouse.

The parking was worse than I’d anticipated, much worse. There must have been about a hundred cars circling the gigantic parking areas and nobody was finding any spaces. I eventually had to give up and I thought I’d head out towards Drumpellier park and from there to Currys at Coatbridge to get some photo paper for the calendars. When I got near Drumpellier I could see there was low lying mist over the loch and, as I did have a camera with me today I drove in to the park. The light was lovely and the mist gave a great backdrop. Even better still, the car park was running at about a quarter capacity. I got a few photos and then headed back to see if Scamp wanted to go fro a walk. I wasn’t in a rush to get the photo paper anyway.

Instead of a walk we had lunch. Scamp wasn’t feeling too good and thought she had a wee infection. She had phoned the doc’s and was waiting for a call back from the nurse. The call eventually came about 5pm and the nurse said she’d leave a prescription at the surgery reception. I drove over there, picked it up and got it filled at the chemist, next door to the surgery. Then came drove home. It was getting cold by the time I was leaving the house and colder on the way home. I’m expecting the temperature will be below zero tonight, although it’s just about 4ºc just now.

I made celeriac soup for dinner. Thick and warming, but not getting much of the celeriac taste from it. Anyway that and some toast with a half a pizza later was a substantial mid-week dinner.

Good to hear that you’ve got your heating fixed, even if it is only short time, Hazel. Good advice from your mum to get a few local quotes too. Remember that the firms like our Scottish Gas like to put doubts in your head, saying that it’s difficult to get the parts now for older boilers. Sometimes that’s just to scare you.

PoD was a photo of four gulls sitting on the ‘Whale Tail’ in Drumpellier park. The sculpture was created in 1989 by artist Neil McLeod and entitled ‘Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea’.

No plans to go anywhere special tomorrow and definitely no driving to shops if today’s experience is anything to go by. We’ll probably do some local shopping.

Checking out the Humans – 25 November 2022

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Not an early start today, but I got a fair bit of work done once I was up.

Scamp was out at 11am for her FitSteps class and I began my cleanup of the back bedroom, my painting room. I managed to clear most of the chest of drawers. Some of the things I wanted to keep went into a drawer, most of it went into the bin. I even dusted the two bookcases in the room. It’s not nearly finished, but it’s started and that’s the main thing.

After lunch we drove over to The Fort and while Scamp went shopping, I went looking for photos of Provan Hall which I remember sketching about fifty years ago. I’ve still got that wee sketch somewhere. Drawn with a dipper pen in blue shellac based ink. Unfortunately once I’d battled through a rainstorm, I found that the 15th century building was getting a facelift and seemed to be in the middle of a building site. I did get a few photos, but they were more record shots than anything creative.

I walked back to the car in the gathering gloom looking for a last minute photo, then I remembered the three deer who are always ready for a photo opportunity. Instead of the usual face on view or the profile shot, I chose to shoot over their bronze heads as they checked out the Humans, and wondered what the glitz and jingle bells nonsense was all about. I used a wide aperture, meaning that the background of the shops in their festive splendour would be just a warm blur.

We drove home and Scamp wisely used the Hive app to turn the heating on for a half hour ‘boost’ when we were halfway home, ensuring we had a warm welcome when we arrived. It had been a cold, wet day and the house was indeed toasty when we got back.

Dinner tonight was Scamp’s veggie chilli and a baked potato. Like soup, the chilli tastes better the second day, or as was the case here, the third day.

Tonight we had a practise run through of the Cameron Quickstep and ironed out a few problems, then we did the same with the Gershwin Foxtrot, a lot of which had slipped my memory.

Both of these dances will be contenders for further changes and additions tomorrow at Brookfield.