Dull, dull, dull – 13 May 2021

White sky this morning. No texture in the clouds, just milky white

At least it was dry and it remained so all day. The furthest we got was a walk down to the shops and back. Apart from the ‘messages’, Scamp got some Bizzy Lizzies for her Wanderella planter that hangs by the back door. She did get some last week too, but they turned out to be too big for the holes in the planter and were used up elsewhere. These ones were much smaller and fitted perfectly. I got some chocolate limes to which I’m addicted. Tonight I divided them up into bags of five. When I go out for a walk I allow myself one bag. When they’re done, that’s it until the next day. If I put ten in the bag, I’d just eat them all without thinking about it, that’s why I limit myself to five. Not much chance of a walk in St Mo’s today though.

Last night I found a tick. First one for ages. Today I found another. That’s the walk in the woods at St Mo’s off the list until the first hard frost, because the ticks don’t seem to like the cold. Neither do I, but I hate ticks and that makes the cold bearable.

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Apart from slapping Germoline and TCP on the tick bites, I found time to delve into the old NAS drive’s hard drive. I found that if I booted from a Linux distro (a live Linux installation on a USB stick) on the Mac, I could access the drive. All the files are still there on the hard drive, but the drive is formatted to Linux and can’t be read on a Mac or PC. What I didn’t know was that I could drag the files from the old NAS drive on to an NTFS (PC) formatted memory stick and load them on to the Mac. I wanted Office 11 for Mac and that was in the downloads I’d stored on the old NAS. It worked! Well, it almost worked. The new Mac is running Catalina and it doesn’t allow you to open any 32 bit apps. Office 11 is a 32 bit app. Game Over. Apparently I can still get Office for free by connecting to iCloud. A bit cumbersome, but it might work.
</Technospeak>

In the afternoon I did a bit of photography in the garden and that’s where today’s PoD came from. It’s a Strawberry & Cream Aquilegia with a Spirea bush behind. That was in the hour or so of sunshine we had today. I managed to get a few shots of plants just coming in to flower. Good to see it.

Today’s sketch was to be A Close Up View of Something. I chose the pliers of the multi-tool I drew earlier in the week. Lots of lovely detail in the mechanics of the tool which allows the jaws to open and close, but to fold away again when you’re finished. Cleverly designed.

I forgot to post a photo of the Challah bread I made. As you can see we really needed to test it, even before I could get the photo taken. It’s just as nice today.

No plans for tomorrow. Scamp and Veronica are out in the morning, so I might get some painting done.

 

The Fort and the Vogon – 12 May 2021

This morning we were off to the great shopping extravaganza that goes by the name of The Fort. Before we went I started today’s bread of which more later.

We were out to get a new duvet. One for the spare bedroom. We had taken a few of them away to the skips some weeks ago. This one would replace them. I let Scamp do the choosing because she had a better idea of what she wanted. It was quickly chosen and I volunteered to wait in the queue to pay for it while she went to peruse what was available for the woman about town these days. It’s just so strange to be able to go in to an actual shop and touch things again, rather than page through a listing on a computer screen seeing things in 2D but not being able to imagine what they really look like.

I dumped the duvet in the car and went for a browse in Waterstones. I saw a few books by authors I like, but have missed on shelves in stores that have been boarded up for six months or more. I felt like I’d been marooned on a desert island since some time last year. I didn’t buy anything, but added a few names to my wish lists. We were both window shopping today, I think.

I did buy something in Boots, eventually. I needed a new cutter for my electric razor. I found it without any problem, but when I went to pay it was a different story. After I scanned the offending article and placed it in what I thought was the out tray the computer voice told me to place it in the correct area. So which one is the correct area? Neither of them were marked IN or OUT. I assumed the wrong tray, but without any hint from the machine how was I to know? When I tried to pay I was told to wait for an assistant. The bloke behind me was the assistant and he told me he had to sign me off because the thing I’d bought was a “restricted item”. I asked him why and he told me it was because it was a razor. I tried to complain that it was an electric razor, but to no avail. “Resistance is Useless” as Douglas Adams’ Vogon Captain said! He then took the razor head away to remove the security tag. I told him to be careful he didn’t cut himself but all I got was a blank look. Now he might have been smiling behind the mask, but I don’t think he’d been on the “Smile at the customer” course yet. Boots used to be a good place, now the machines are against you and the assistant don’t assist with a smile.

Back home for lunch. We’d intended going to Costa, but the queue was far too long. Heavens, there was even a queue for Starbucks and they don’t even sell coffee, they sell Starbucks and you probably don’t want to know what’s in that. After lunch Scamp went to post another birthday card. I stayed home and struggled with another hard Sudoku after that, the rain came on. That gave me the incentive to finish this month’s bread which was Challah. It was lovely tasting bread, but oh what a faff to make. Dough was made from flour, yeast, sugar, salt, vegetable oil, two eggs, milk and water. Try kneading that for ten minutes. It’s a tough job being a baker. Anyway, the hard part was still to come. The dough had to be cut into six equal parts and each part was to be rolled out until it was 45cm long. It felt as if it was made of rubber. As soon as I’d stretched it and rolled it out, it shrank back to about half its size. Then the six sausages had to be plaited into a loaf. Mine looked ok, as long as you didn’t look too carefully. I allowed it to rise, then baked it after a final wash with beaten egg. It looked and tasted lovely when it came out he oven. I was impressed.

Went over to St Mo’s to unwind and see if there was anything interesting. PoD finally went to a dandelion trio. One bald one with all the ‘parachutes’ blown away. One with the ‘Dandelion Clock’ still intact and one bright yellow flower still to go through the metamorphosis. A picture of a neat little hoverfly, the first one I’ve captured this year almost made it, but not quite.

Sketch of the day was a pile of dishes which was what the prompt asked for. I was quite pleased with the result.

Tomorrow we have no plans, although the weather looks wet.

A day in the Toon – 28 April 2021

We finally got to go into a shop that wasn’t M&S, Iceland or Tesco.

We drove in to Glasgow and walked around JL. Well, where else would we go as our first stop. Saw a lovely MacBook Pro 13”, i5 processor, 16GB memory and 512GB SSD storage. All for a mere £1,555! However I’d prefer the Space Grey version with 1TB storage for £1 short of Two Thousand Quid! I looked, smiled and walked away. I did look at reasonably priced used PCs, but that would be a backward step too far. I’ll buy a lottery ticket this weekend instead.

From there we walked down Bucky Street, staring in admiration at the tough nuts who were sitting outside a restaurant drinking champagne. It was 6ºc today, but they do say champagne should be served chilled! Apple were obviously doing good business with queues both sides of the door and two security staff keeping out the riff-raff. We walked on.

‘Every Day in May’ is about to start on Saturday and I treated myself to a box of watercolour tubes and a watercolour palette. When I came out of the art shop Scamp was waiting for me and she suggested we try to get a seat in Paesano for a first sit-down pizza this year. Surprisingly we got a seat right away and Scamp had her favourite No1 – Tomato sugo no garlic, oregano and rocket. As you can see she had to get a photograph of it on Facebook right away. I had a No 5 Prosciutto cotto (Italian cooked ham) with mushrooms, tomato sugo and mozzarella. No photograph! Just as filling and delicious as usual.

After an early lunch we walked down Miller Street to shake our heads in amazement at the folk queueing along Argyle Street and up Miller Street patiently waiting for a chance to enter the hallowed halls of Primark. I have never understood the attraction of Primark, although I did buy a baseball cap there a long time ago and it’s still wearable yet!

We walked back up Bucky Street and drove home. When we got in there was a Blue Envelope waiting for Scamp. That’s the envelope that gives you the date and place for your vaccination. This was Scamp’s second jag. The date was 3rd May, the time was 2.15pm, the place was East Kilbride!!! She went ballistic. It’s not often I’d describe her like that, but she was. We tried to go online to change the appointment to somewhere sensible, but there were no appointments available anywhere else … in the world, I think. Eventually we agreed that we’d just keep it at East Kilbride. Later in the afternoon I went through the whole shouting match again, this time with Fred who was also going to East Kilbride for his jag. He had found the same wasteland of “No Appointments” online, but he’d tried phoning. He got through to the appointment office and got a message “You have reached the vaccination appointment office. The mailbox is full. Goodbye.” This is the caring face of NHS Lanarkshire. I don’t know how you could get from Cumbersheugh to East Kilbride if you don’t have a car. You’d definitely have to take a flask and pieces!

PoD was a picture of Glasgow under a lovely cloudscape, taken from the JL bridge. It was an interesting, but at the same time disturbing visit to Glasgow. Interesting because it was good to see life beginning to return to normal, that much misused word. Disturbing because many of the shops are closed, some for good. Debenhams was the most disturbing because I’ve never been to Glasgow and not seen someone coming or going through those doors. The doors that are now locked. But nothing stays the same forever. Things will change. Places will open again. Someone, somewhere is planning right now to fill one of those empty spaces.

I’m writing this on my old MBP which seems to be happily running MacOS Mojave which it legally can’t do, but it does! That brings a smile to my face! Tomorrow, Scamp is hoping to go for coffee with Annette who has just returned from her first visit to her caravan this year. I may get started with those new paints.

New Boots & Panties – 2 April 2021

I said I’d do it and I did.

Out fairly early and drove in to Glasgow. Parked at Tiso and found the boot shop in this open plan shop. There was a family already being served. A noisy family. Actually, the family weren’t all noisy. The ‘son’, I presume it was their son, but he could have been their grandson, was the one who was buying the boots and he said very little. The mother/gran had the most cutting and loud voice I’ve heard in a long time. The father/grandfather was the ‘comic’. He kept on making sarcastic comments about the boy while he was trying to lace up the boots. I felt really sorry for the boy and almost left, but thankfully they gave up with the snide remarks after a while and they all left to pay for the boots. Some people shouldn’t be allowed to take children out without a certificate of competence.
With the annoying couple out of the way, I got a sensible bloke who fixed me up with a pair of leather boots with decent soles and comfortable too. I could have said “comfortable to boot”, but that would have been a step too far!! He even stretched them slightly to improve the fit. I’ve never seen that done before and apparently it only works on leather boots. Leather, Goretex upper and Vibram sole. Happy (Easter) bunny. So happy in fact that I also bought a pair of lined walking trousers.

Just to make the most of the visit I took a look upstairs at the bikes. I saw a lot of shiny coloured biked, but nothing that I’d like to part with cash for and nothing I’d like to part with my Dewdrop for. I’d initially been looking at E-bikes and foldable, but there wasn’t a big range of E-bikes and no folding bikes. I was a bit concerned at the weight of the E-bikes. Maybe in a year or two … DV.

Stopped on the way home, hoping to get some stew at the butchers in Moorhead, but then realised the queue went all the way down the street. At least ten people in the queue. Well, I might get some stew, but not today.

Drove home by the back road and saw the potential for a panorama picture. Lovely light on the hills and hardly a cloud in the sky. A beautiful spring day. Hard to believe that snow, even to low levels is forecast for Sunday.

After showing off my new purchases and having giant fish fingers with an egg for lunch, we went for a walk in St Mo’s to see if the Fairy Garden was still there. Contrary to my fears, it was and I’m almost sure some additions had been made. A better view of the fairy washing line made today’s PoD.

Thanks to Ian Dury and The Blockheads for the title of today’s blog.  New boots and not quite panties, but trousers covers the same area.  I suppose I could have called it Baggy Trousers by Madness!!

We almost had enough warmth today to sit outside for a while. Almost, but not quite. Tomorrow looks set to be even better. We may go for a walk, somewhere local. Well, I’ve got walking boots now. I need to use them. By the way, the annoying couple in Tiso were english. Just saying!

 

Huntigowk – 1 April 2021

Or April Fool’s day if you’re not Scottish.

We had a late rise today, because although the weather looked good, it might be trying to fool us into going out and getting wet. Just to be sure, we had an extra lazier morning than usual. However I did manage to get Thursday’s Sudoku completed. I also kneaded some dough for a loaf, so maybe not all that lazy after all.

As lunchtime approached Scamp volunteered to drive down to the shops to get some ‘messages’. While she was out I backed up the nearly five hundred photos I’d taken in March, and that was after I’d culled an extra three hundred! Belts and braces style, they are backed up twice in two different drives, so this took quite a while. When Scamp arrived home, in addition to the usual stuff, she also brought a chicken. So that was tonight’s dinner sorted.

After lunch, Scamp wanted to get started again in the garden. Especially she wanted to plant some flower seeds and chop out a chunk of the Astilbe plant that grows beside the kitchen steps. I like the plant, she doesn’t, but I allowed her to chop out a section to give to Isobel who doesn’t have one in her garden. It’s a pretty plant to my eyes, but I agree it does spread quite aggressively. I hope she warns Isobel about that.

While she was working on the planting table in the back garden potting up flowers I got ready to go for a walk. I’ve been waiting for weeks for Tiso to open because I really need a new, decent pair of boots. I checked on line to see when they would be allowed to open and found to my surprise they had been open since 1st March! Just to be sure I was right, I phoned the shop and sure enough, they were open from 9am to 5pm all week. I think there is a loophole here. Cycle shops have been allowed to open for some time and Tiso has a large bike shop in their building. Whatever the reason, I’m intending going in to visit them tomorrow to get the aforementioned new pair of boots.

Walked over to St Mo’s and expected to see the tribes of braves and squaws slugging their firewater and practising swearing at each other, BUT… Instead of tribes of marauding teenagers, I found a neatly stencilled sign announcing a Pop-Up Fairy Garden. Behind the sign, and around all the trees were fairies, fairy doors, magic treasure chests and even a fairy washing line. Absolutely gobsmackingly brilliant. It must have been a lot of work by someone. I had to take some photos of it, because it was a Pop-Up and because it was done by fairies, I knew it might not be there tomorrow. My favourite was the fairy washing line and it made PoD. Thank you, whoever you are.

After the photoshoot at the Fairy Garden I went for a short walk in the woods, found the Larch Pineapple and got a few shots of it in a gentle breeze. Much easier than trying to hold the branch still in a gale with one hand while operating the camera with the other. Happier with this photo. It’s on Flickr too.

The bread was baked in the oven and when it came out, the chicken replaced it. As usual, it was delicious served with broccoli and rustic chips.

A parcel arrived by DPD from Perth. I ordered coffee on Tuesday night and it arrived today. That is consistently good service and consistently great coffee.

Quick practise of the Telemark Turn in Tango. It took a few tries to get that spin to work again, but we haven’t practised for a few days. I have to keep working at these things otherwise the muscle memory fades.

Tomorrow, hopefully, a visit to a cycle shop for a new pair of walking boots.

 

 

 

Such a dull day – 28 March 2021

We went out to the shops and that was the extent of the outside ventures today.

We wouldn’t even have gone out if we hadn’t needed milk and some fruit. That’s how bad a day it was. It started raining as we were coming home and then, just as we got in, the rain came down in torrents. It stayed almost all afternoon, only getting lighter later in the day. By then the light was failing anyway, which made a walk pointless. Instead I resorted to a flower picture. Just to make it more interesting, I did a macro of one of the fading Alstroemeria in Scamp’s vase. They actually looked better earlier in the week, but I didn’t have time to photograph them properly. Today I did have that time to be more careful with exposure and focus. I also chose to keep some colour in the background, using some carnations that were sitting on the window sill. All in all, quite happy with the result.

Dancing tonight was difficult. I think we’re fairly competent with the Rumba, but I wasn’t looking forward to the Telemark Turn in Tango. I thought it was something to do with skiing and actually it did look like I was skiing when I was dancing it. After the class was over and I had a chance to look at the video tutorial for the tango, I found where I was going wrong and I think we now look as if we are dancing, not skiing!

Spoke to JIC as we cooled down after that hot tango and got an update on life in the south with the prospect of a heat wave while we struggle to get up into the low teens.

Watched the first F1 GP of 2021 and watched the ‘delusional’ Vettel drive into Esteban Ocon’s car. Not my words, but David Coulthard’s. It looks like Vettel’s going to continue the Wacky Races style of F1 driving he started last year.

Tonight, high winds and rain made a wild and wet end to a dull day. Hopefully tomorrow will be calmer if not drier.

Round a different pond – 5 March 2021

… and into the woods as well.

It was dry in the morning, but cold. Scamp’s wee red car needed a run to warm it up, charge the battery and get the wheels moving, so she got to choose the destination. She chose Drumpellier. It being a Friday, lots of folk were off work and lots of folk had chosen Drumpellier as a place to walk with their pals or push a pram, some even joined the two together and went for a walk with their pal while pushing a pram. Multitasking. Even worse, half the car park was cordoned off to allow the Council workies to get their machines out and lay new footpaths. Spaces in the car park were at a premium, but Scamp found one and just drove into it and we were there.

We walk counterclockwise round the loch. It’s really too big to be a pond. Counterclockwise was not the correct way. Almost everyone else was walking clockwise. Almost everyone else was walking round the loch too on the main path. Scamp doesn’t do that. She likes to leave the main path and take the roads less travelled. That isn’t a metaphor for anything, she just likes the less busy paths. With all that in mind, we took the first available turning away from the main path and discovered the woods. Oak and beech woodlands in Coatbridge isn’t what I was expecting, nor were the deer we saw in bit of bogland between the wooded paths. We only took two paths and easy ones at that, but we both agreed that we’d go back again some time, all being well. We’d also take the path less walked and avoid the conveyer belt everyone else was travelling on. At the end of the path we walked through the Peace Garden and bumped into two guys, one in a wheelchair and one walking. Both retired, the one in the wheelchair hadn’t been out of the house since November. I’m glad he and his pal, both photogs, got a dry day, even if it was cold.

In the afternoon, after lunch I went for a walk in St Mo’s on my way to the shops, but nothing I saw replaced the PoD I’d taken at Drumpellier. It was a wee child’s toy sitting on a stubby branch of a tree . Hopefully whoever lost it will find it again some day soon.

Don’t have any plans for tomorrow. It may involve another walk and then again it might not. It all adds to the mystery of life.

Just one of those days – 3 March 2021

They say they come in threes.

Woke to the sound of something trying to find a way into the loft from the roof! I suspected a bird, but it could have been something more sinister like the squirrel that tormented us for weeks over a year ago. I’d boxes to put up in the loft anyway, so it was up, shower then grab a torch and a facemask. The facemasks we all have to wear these days are great for using if I have to go up into our loft and don’t want to breathe in the fibreglass fibres I usually disturb. The rat trap we had used against the squirrel was still there and still empty but there was definite activity and it seemed to be between the sarking and the roof tiles and it was definitely a bird. That means it has found an access hole in the gable end of the house. There is no way I’m going up onto the roof to fix it. That’s a job for a roofer. That was problem one.

The rest of the day went reasonably well. I sawed up the old steel clothes pole from the back garden. I used to be able to wield a hacksaw for hours of metalwork at work. Today I was knackered after sawing through an old, rusty hollow steel pole about 70mm diameter. Put the pole and a host of other clutter Scamp had found in a cupboard in the car and took it all away to the council skips.

After lunch I made a pot of soup for dinner and with it simmering away I went for a walk in St Mo’s and although the light was poor, I got a few photos. Certainly enough to create a PoD from. It’s a sepia toned shot of some moss fruiting bodies taken with the kit lens. Weather was mild, but when I was heading home it turned into a damp cold smirr.

After dinner we were just settling down to watch the final of Landscape Artist of the Year when the phone rang. It was my niece phoning to say that she and her son were locked out of the bathroom and could I open a padlock. I’ll explain. Her son, has learning difficulties and has a habit of sneaking into the bathroom and filling the bath which sometimes overflows and runs down into the person below’s flat. To stop this I put a hasp and staple on the top of the door and locked it with a padlock. Somehow the keys had gone missing tonight and her son needed to use the toilet. Could I help. Problem two. So I drove up to the house and unscrewed the staple from the door jamb. The easiest thing to do. Drove home. Accidentally pressed on the horn and no sound. Tried it again intentionally and still no sound. Problem three. I’ll check again tomorrow, but I think this will require a trip to the garage in Stirling.

Like I said at the start: They say they come in threes. I hope I’ve had mine for the month! Don’t know what we’re doing tomorrow. We’ll need to wait and see.

A day of sunshine – 1 March 2021

Just for a change!

Rather a late start, but that was because of a late night and a small dram of Tamnavulin last night. Just to help me in finishing off the last drawing of the February challenge.

It was a foggy start too, but you just knew the sun would burn it off if you gave it a chance. We gave it a chance and soon the sky was clear and there were only a few clouds sliding across it, however it was cold outside because the sun in early spring in Scotland takes a while to get it’s furnace pumped up to full heat. Sitting in the living room with the sun shining in, the light was wonderful. I used that light to illuminate what became today’s PoD which was a wilting tulip. Flowers are often more interesting when they are just past their display best, I think. I took a few, well, a couple of dozen photos of the tulips and hyacinths in that lovely directional light. While I was processing the results, Scamp went for a walk to the shops to get lunch.

After lunch we drove down to see Isobel who has a great wee sun trap at the side of her house. She had been out working in the garden and we sat for a while and exchanged books before we headed back home with some detailed instruction on when and what to prune in the garden.

Just for a laugh we put the gingerbread house out in the back garden for the birds to eat. It was much later, while I was getting ready to make dinner that I noticed a movement in among the pots. At first I thought it was a dunnock (small brown bird that forages around the pots), but it was a wee mouse. It looked smaller than a house mouse, but the same colour. It seemed interested in the house or perhaps the smells coming from it. I don’t think we really want rodents in the garden, no matter what size they are, or how cute. I think I know where it/they are coming from. The old clothes pole I cut down last year is lying behind the pots. I’d forgotten all about it, but it would be a perfect home for a rodent family. Tomorrow I’ll saw it into manageable pieces and take it off to the tip.

It seems a bit strange to be sitting writing the blog without having to do a sketch too, but February is past and I need a rest from daily drawing for a while. Maybe later in the year, all being well.

Weather looks colder for the next few days. Today was just like a spring day, let’s hope the rest of the week remembers that it is meteorological spring. No plans for tomorrow.

The end of the feast – 3 January 2021

One step on the scales told me the feast was over.

Two kilograms heavier than the last time I stood on the scales catalogs the amount I’ve eaten and drunk in the last two or three weeks. It has to stop and it has to stop tonight. One more day of debauchery, then it’s back to sackcloth and ashes, or as my dad used to say “Auld claes and purrich.” I already have the ‘purrich’ (porridge) for breakfast every second day. Now it will have to be every day until that extra 2kg has been removed. Oh well, it was good while it lasted.

It was also a day with a return to rain instead of ice and snow and what a relief that was. I did go out for a walk without the Yak Trax and although there were patches of slippery ice, there were a lot more areas of black tarmac that gave a good grip to my boots. I walked round the back of St Mo’s and down to the shops, hoping to see some deer behind the school, but they were somewhere else today. Maybe joining yesterday’s ducks on a trip to a warm place. I did spot Mr Grey hunched in a tree looking as disgruntled as I was. I took his photo then left him to his lofty isolation.

I was heading to the shops for today’s dinner and also some lemons. Scamp had given me the makings of a bottle of Limoncello, but a couple of the lemons had turned musty in the week since the parcel had been opened. So, I was looking for three or four unwaxed lemons, a chicken and some potatoes, plus a carton of milk. It was a heavy bag to lug up the hill to the house, but at least I had managed to get a photo of Mr Grey that might make a PoD.

Back home I prepared the chicken as per Scamp’s instructions and that gave me enough time check the photos. None of them looked like a PoD, in fact very few of them realistically would make the cull. I had just enough time left to set up a tabletop of a Christmas Cactus upstairs in the photo room. It’s amazing how easy it is to produce a white backdrop with a drawing board on an old card table as a base. A piece of hardboard clamped to the card table frame with cheap plastic clips and an A1 sheet of cartridge paper to give the shadowless backdrop. Five minutes work if all the things are to hand.

Just in time I finished and went down to check the chicken and put the veg into a roasting tray beneath it. Scamp checked the chicken and said it was looking good and needed about another hour. Plenty time to take the shots. They looked fine. Heavy tripod, low ISO and deep depth of field. All photogs words that mean it was going to be a fine grained image with plenty of detail. Mr Grey would need to be ready for his closeup another day.

Soup as starter. Chicken was great. Beautifully cooked, even if I say so myself. One glass of wine each and no pudding. We watched the second half of Jools Holland’s Hootenanny with a 2016 performance of ‘Tilted’ by Christine and the Queens, followed by a 2021 duet with Jools and Rick Wakeman on nested grand pianos. Brilliant!

Spoke to JIC for a while after that.  We weren’t really expecting the call, but it was welcome as usual.  Good to hear that all is well down Cambridge way.

Christmas Rose (Schlumbergera buckleyi) made PoD.

Tomorrow, it’s Auld Claes and Purrich. Hopefully with a walk thrown in for good measure.