Category: Sketching

Kirkby Stephen on our own – 14 September 2020

Posted on by Zogman

The other two were off climbing mountains, we were being tourists, in the sun.

Parked at the car park JIC had used on Saturday and then headed along the main street, which didn’t take very long. There wasn’t much to see. Walked back and had a look through the Cloisters, went through and had a look at the old church behind them. Took the path round the lawn and then exited on to the path that took us over Frank’s Bridge. Don’t know who Frank was, but he made a good job of the bridge. The air was full of the buzzing of bees in the bushes beside the bridge. A few butterflies too. Lots of ducks swimming in the River Eden underneath, but we didn’t have time for ducks. Instead we were following the path we’d travelled a couple of days before, except …

Except, instead of turning right after crossing a bridge over a stream and climbing up, up, up, we turned left and followed the stream past pretty houses whose gardens ran right down to the stream. How brilliant that would be to have a stream at the end of your garden, until it floods, then it might be a different story. We walked on and took a left turn at what seemed to be the end of the village. That eventually took us round past the cricket ground back to Frank’s Bridge. Took some photos of the ducks in the river under the bridge and watched a dog called Betty charging into the water and scaring the living daylights out of the ducks. I know this is boring, and means nothing to you, but remember whose blog this is!

Back in the town again it looked like there had been a funeral because lots of people dressed in black and the men with black ties had commandeered all the tables in the café Scamp wanted to have lunch in. Instead, we had a lunch in a Costa across the street. After a toastie and a coffee for me and a millionaire’s shortbread and latte for Scamp we crossed the road again. Scamp bought a sieve for fishing out poached eggs (that’s the best description I can muster) from an ironmongers. Then we found a deli where I got some marmalade that didn’t taste as home-made as it was advertised and a couple of russets, plus some veg for tonight’s risotto. Walked to the car, drove to the Coop and got some nice beer Lost Lager, plus other stuff, as usual when in foreign climes.

Drove home, to our home for the week. I’d bought a sim card for my old iPhone and spent a lost half an hour trying to get it to accept my credit card details to top-up Eventually I got exasperated and after checking with my bank that I hadn’t been spoofed out of my worldly goods, I shut the phone down. Thank you ‘Kenneth’ from O2 customer help who did his level best to get me sorted out. Went outside into the sunshine and while Scamp read, I sketched Pinfold Cottage where we are staying.

Dinner tonight was Prawn & Pea Risotto, cooked by Scamp.

Tomorrow we are hoping to go back to the waterfall, but this time we’re taking the more leisurely route.

A Sunny Spell – 24 August 2020

Posted on by Zogman

Neither of us expected such a sunny day today, but we took it gladly.

Scamp was out this morning for coffee with her sister and her cousin. While they were out I completed my thumbnail sketch for my architectural painting and then worked on the light pencil sketch. None of the chunky sketch work of the Palomino Blackwing pencil, this was all done with a 0.7mm mechanical pencil. The groundwork is now almost finished, I just have to convince myself that the perspective at the front of the building is true. Once that’s done I can go on to the ink work. Phoned John and had a chat with him about the joys of retirement. Managed to finalise a date for them to come over for dinner. The last date was rather spoiled by a lockdown some time in March.

When Scamp returned with two plants from Isobel, we had lunch. After that we did a bit of gardening. Heavy duty pruning for me, using the loppers to get stuck into the big climbing rose at the back door. It’s now chopped down to head height and a bit straggly in places, but we’ll leave that until later in the year before we do the final tidying up, all being well. Scamp was finding places for the new plants to go.

Later in the warm afternoon we went for a walk round St Mo’s pond. Found two relaxed dragonflies and got a few shots. It turned out they were Common Darters, one male and one female. Just for future references, the male is smaller and red, the female is yellow ochre with red stripes down her back. They didn’t get PoD though. That went to a Harvestman which is not a spider although it looks like one. It’s in the order Opiliones and joins the spiders in the Arachnid group. It’s amazing what you learn. If you look closely you’ll notice that it only has seven legs. It appears it sacrificed one, probably to save its life.

Dinner was chicken curry made from a Holy Cow mix and half the left over chicken from last night. It was hot, but tasty. Excellent flatbread, even if I say so myself with the additional secret ingredient of two dollops of coconut yogurt.

Tomorrow I’m intending meeting Val for coffee. Tried to phone Colin but it went to voicemail and Val hasn’t managed to get a reply from Fred.

Out to Lunch – 14 August 2020

Posted on by Zogman

Today we were booked for lunch at The Cotton House. Note the capitalised ‘The’. Not just any Cotton House, but The Cotton House!

Drove there and arrive just in time after a quick return to the house “Did I switch off the computer”. Yes, I had switched it off! When we got there, and got parked in an actual space, an event in itself, the restaurant wasn’t even open. Five minutes later the sign on the door was switched from Closed to Open and we were not quite first in the queue, but nearly first. Got a table and were told it was a one hour time slot. No problem. We could scoff anything they’d put down to us in an hour. Scamp went for her usual TCH standard: Thai Spring Rolls followed by Chicken Chow Mein. I decided to be adventurous and had Thai Spring Rolls (I usually have Chicken Noodle Soup) and Salt & Chilli Chicken, rather than the usual Chow Mein. Both starters were fine, although I’d have the soup next time. Scamp’s main was just as good as it usually is. I can vouch for it because she let me have some to taste. I’d definitely order my Salt & Chilli again, we both agreed the chicken was excellent (yes, I did let her have a piece to see what she was missing!) Neither of us was really bothered about tea or coffee and we just paid and left, feeling bad because we had no ‘real’ money to leave a tip and there was no facility in the card machine to do it digitally. They used to bring a wee dish of jelly beans with the bill and I was thinking that in these post Covid days that might pose a problem, but someone was thinking about that and there was a wee plastic disposable tub of multicoloured sugar-heavy sweeties with the bill. Great idea!

We left Longcroft and headed for Glasgow. I wanted to have a look at a camera in JL (no surprise there, say some) and we both wanted a wander round town. It was a great day for it. This morning it had been heavy cloud, but on the way to Glasgow the clouds lifted and the sun shone. We wandered round JL. I had a look at cameras, but the one I was looking for wasn’t there (surprise, surprise.) I heard one of the ‘partners’ (i.e. sales assistants) say to a couple of prospective customers that they “don’t have their full stock in the stores yet.” He added that they were hoping to have it in ‘soon’. That seems to be a problem these days everywhere.

Walked down Bucky Street which is where I got today’s PoD. It’s actually a cut and paste of two images, but Lightroom is so good at this stuff, it would take and expert to see the join. If you are an expert and you can see the join, keep it to yourself. Nobody likes a smarty pants.

After a coffee in Nero – I’m getting like Scamp and beginning to despise disposable cups – we headed up to the car, stopping to allow Scamp a retail opportunity in the Pandora shop. I think she deserved it for surviving Lockdown with me moaning at her about everything I could think of.

Back home and the sun was still shining. I did think of going over to St Mo’s to annoy some beasties, but I had a decent PoD and it was a rather warm and sunny afternoon so I planked myself in the garden along side an already ensconced Scamp and listened to some music. I even did a wee painting that’s available for your perusal on Instagram. I think I’ve inflicted enough pain on friends on Facebook! I also had a beer to accompany Scamp’s Pimms.

Tonight we travelled back a year and a few hundred miles to Venice to remember a sail-in we won’t forget in a long, long time.

Our WiFi died about half an hour ago, so this blog is getting posted late. Checked the state of the connection with Virgin and was given the surprising news that our modem is being upgraded!!! After umpteen phone calls and emails with no response, suddenly out of the blue they say we’re getting a new hub! I’ll believe it when I see it. Of course the signal came back, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this.

No plans for tomorrow and it’s too late to book another lunch out. Hoping for more sunshine. That will do instead.

Off the leash – 28 July 2020

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was off to a Witches housewarming and I was off the leash for a couple of hours.

Did a bit of shopping while Scamp was getting ready. Just the usual essentials, bottle of Prosecco, box of chocolates and a box of fancy biscuits, oh yes, and a box of Wheetabix, that was for me. The rest, or at least part of it was to go to the Witches party. Lunch for me was one of yesterday’s rolls with some cooked ham. Ham was lovely, roll was dry and cheuch (that means tough). Scamp was off to afternoon tea and Champagne. How the other half live, eh?

When Scamp was safely driven off to the party I settled down to clear up the painting room again. Hoovered most of the scraps of cloth from the floor, picked up all the little bits of black thread that get everywhere. Read a painting book to give me some inspiration – that didn’t help. Put away the sewing machine, started filling a bag with rubbish. I just couldn’t settle down to do anything. Finally gave up and went downstairs to fight with Luminar 4, a piece of software that’s main claim to fame is that it can fake a sky into a picture to persuade all but the most ardent pixel peepers that it’s real. Well, that’s what it did up until the last update. Now it’s become an expert beachball spinner. In other words, as usually happens with clever apps and even clever app designers, it has become top heavy in bloat and can produce really good effects if you’ve got the time to sit and watch the pointer turn into a spinning beach ball for five minutes every time you move the mouse. I’d have thought it would be easy to uninstall it and just reinstall the previous version, but apparently you can’t do that losing all your previous work. Emailing Tech Support doesn’t help, perhaps because they’re inundated with emails from people like me disgruntled at this ill thought out upgrade.

Now there’s a thing. The word ‘disgruntled’. The ’dis’ part usually means ’the opposite of’ as in disassembled or disagree. If that’s the case, is ‘gruntled’ the opposite of ’disgruntled’? Answers on a postcard please to the usual address.

Eventually I had to drag myself away from the computer and go for tonight’s dinner requirements. Walked down to the shops after leaving Scamp a message. Hoping afterwards that here eyesight wouldn’t have been too seriously damaged by a surfeit of champagne and cocktails to be able to read it. It wasn’t, she was back when I returned. Back with stories of the beautiful house with carefully colour matched walls, carpets, curtains and dog. If she changes the colour scheme for the house will she need to change the dog too, I wondered. Dinner was Chicken and Chorizo Jambalaya and it was good!

Actually did a fifteen minute sketch of a guy we used to meet at Salsa. Pencil sketch which was deemed pretty good by Scamp. PoD was a bunch of rowan berries on the back door tree.

Tomorrow looks like a reasonable day, so we may go somewhere interesting.

The Grass Hoover – 22 July 2020

Posted on by Zogman

It was an uninspiring day. It rained from morning until night.  A day for clearing up loose ends.

We had decided yesterday that if today was as bad as predicted, we’d go and look for a new grass hoover. You know, one of those things that you run over your grass, it cuts it, then hoovers it all up. Some call it a lawn mower. We don’t have a lawn, we have grass, that’s why we need a grass hoover

Drove up to B&Q. They had the model Scamp was interested in, but only on display. No big boxes with the real thing in them. Nearest B&Q that had them was in Coatbridge. Just for fun I set the satnav to take us to Coatbridge. Firstly it got lost. It took us along the M80, then told us to take a slip road and go back the way we’d come. I ignored it. It could have taken us off at the next but one turn off , but no, it knew a better way. We went the scenic route via Hamilton. A seven mile trip that ended up consuming about 20 miles of road. It did find B&Q though.

Thankfully they did have the big orange box with the grass hoover in it. We wandered around and around the grass cutting toys, but we couldn’t decide which one to get. Eventually Scamp chose the one we’d been looking for from the start. It went into the Juke’s vast storage space easily and we drove home … my way. Took about half the time the satnav had wasted getting there.

The rain had not let up all day, so there was no point in unboxing the grass hoover, it wasn’t going to hoover up any grass today. It’s still sitting in the hall, sleeping in its box.

In the afternoon I grabbed a few shots in the garden during a dry spell. That’s where today’s PoD came from. It’s raindrops on the seed head of an Allium. With one in the bag I could relax a bit. Next was dinner prep. Today we were having a Chilli non-carne, in other veg chilli and I was chef. While I was making it, Scamp was trying to do a deal with Vodafone to get an upgrade to her four year old Samsung phone. She was unsuccessful. So, it looks like she’ll be leaving Vodafone. Well, it did until she found that she can get a better deal by leaving Vodafone with her PAK code and going to Carphone Warehouse and getting them to give her a deal with … Vodafone for about a fiver a month cheaper than Vodafone were offering. Are you still with me? I’m not sure I am.

Today was number 100 of the Lockdown Library on Instagram and Facebook. Since one hundred was a nice round number, I thought I’d finish the Library there. That does not mean the drawings and paintings will cease. Oh no, you don’t get away that easily.

We think Isobel is coming to lunch tomorrow, so there will be a fair bit of tidying, polishing and hoovering (not grass) tomorrow morning. Let’s hope it’s a better day than today so she can have a look round the garden.

A day at the seaside – 20 July 2020

Posted on by Zogman

We were up and out early because the sun was shining. No time for coffee today, we were going to the seaside.

Drove down the M77 to Troon and parked near the harbour at the parking place where the crashing waves blow in from Arran and Ailsa Craig. It was a fairly heavy and grey sea out there, but not as bad as we’ve seen it. Still, as first Ailsa Craig, then Arran disappeared into the rain clouds, we decided it might be a good idea to wait a while before venturing out for a walk.

Once that shower passed, we did go out walking. Up and over the Ballast Bank, built in the 1800s to protect the new port, and partly constructed from ballast from merchant ships and partly from the dredging operations at the new port. It’s always a lot breezier on the top with the prevailing wind coming straight off the sea. There’s a lower level path too, but it’s only really for one person at a time with very few passing places. On rough sea days it can be a bit wet and slippery. We chose the high road today.

Walked on along the esplanade and were both surprised at the number of folk stravaigin along the front. We walked on the sand about half way along the sand dunes and then turned and came back along the path. Climbing through the sand dunes we spotted a wee lizard sunning (?) itself on a patch of sand. I suppose it was quite sheltered there and would catch the occasional spot of sunshine.

Walked back to the car. Normally we’d have gone for a coffee at least and possibly a bite to eat, but we’re still not totally comfortable with eating out in these early days of freedom.

Drove back home through Dundonald then on to a busier than normal M77. Busier than a weekday, that is. But as Scamp had remembered earlier, today was ‘Glasgow Fair Monday’. It used to be a big local holiday, but even without the disruption caused by Covid-19, it’s hardly remarked upon these days.

A few choices for PoD, but I chose the one of the two boys with their surfboards, splashing in the waves. They must have been freezing, because this was not Surfin’ USA.

Two sketches going up on Instagram. One of Kilmuir Free Church, drawn from a Google Street View and one of my completed Monday Sudoku. If I get them posted, that will be us up to date.

No plans for tomorrow.

Burnin’ a hole in ma’ pocket – 16 July 2020

Posted on by Zogman

Since early April I’ve had a gift card that’s been “burning a hole in my pocket.” My son and daughter collaborated and gave me the card as part of my birthday presents intending it to be used to pay for an espresso machine to replace my old and failing Gaggia. Unfortunately just after they bought it, Covid-19 took over the world and all the shops closed. Of course I could have used it on-line, but being an auld guy, I like to see and touch what I’m buying, so I waited and waited and I pondered. I changed my mind umpteen times, but in the end I got it down to two machines. Today I chose the De Longhi and it’s lovely. So small, so compact and yet so versatile. Starts in a flash and produces good, strong coffee. It was worth the wait to have a second birthday three months after the first! Thank you again Hazy, JIC, Neil-D and Sim (alphabetical is the fairest way!).

We’d driven in to Glasgow in the morning to have a look in John Lewis although I knew they didn’t have any in stock, because I’d checked before we went out, and so hadn’t brought the gift card. They lied. Not one, but two boxed machines sitting there large as life. Still the visit wasn’t wasted because Scamp managed to buy ‘a few things’ in JL. She went in to Lakeland to buy cling film and came out with a skillet (fancy name for a frying pan) too. We drove home. After lunch I made my decision, grabbed the gift card, drove back to JL and bought the machine before anyone else could deprive me of it.

Spent what was left of the afternoon building it up and making a mess of coffee all over the kitchen. The De Longhi is a bit more complicated to work than the old Gaggia. I imagine once you’ve got it set up to your specification, all will be well. I’ve had over ten years of adjustments incorporated into the Gaggia and when it’s on song, it produces good coffee. I’ve yet to hit that sweet spot with the DL. It’ll come. We just have to discuss things, DL and I and come to an agreement. A meeting of minds, coffee minds.

I’d grabbed a picture of a Grey Glasgow from the Buchanan Galleries bridge, but realised it was almost an exact copy of one I’d taken before at least twice. It just like the front cover of Deacon Blue’s ’Raintown’. Dull, dull, dull. When I was puzzling over the instructions of the DL for the umpteenth time, I notice two of Scamp’s roses glowing in the sunshine which was streaming in the window in one of the few dry spells of the day. Grabbed a couple of shots and one of them made PoD. Sketch of the Day just had to be the New Toy.

Tomorrow we have no plans although Shona might be coming for lunch. Ben’s off on holiday at his dad’s and Shona’s got ‘an empty’!

The wrong day for a walk round a pond – 10 July 2020

Posted on by Zogman

We drove to Coatbridge to go for a walk. So did half of central Scotland.

In the morning Scamp drove to Tesco to get a couple of cards. I stayed home and footered. Footering is a great occupation. Basically it’s time-wasting on an Olympic scale. Today’s footering involved making an ear protector for a mask, any mask. The mask the girl next door, Lucy, made is a bit skimpy on elastic, so it tugs at my ears when I wear it. I thought I could use one of Hazy’s ideas and make a mask extender and ear protector all in one. It involved sewing up a strip of cloth, then stitching and cutting a button hole and lastly sewing on a button. After a lot of huffing and puffing, a fair bit of swearing and surprisingly, not stabbing myself with the needle I had a working prototype. It works, it’s not elegant, but it does show that may head does indeed “button up the back.” That will only mean anything to the higher echelons of UK inhabitants, i.e. those from Scotland.

Scamp drove us through one of those “passing showers” to Drumpellier park today so we could walk round the pond. When we were struggling to find a space to park the Micra we decided that the park was full. Full to overflowing might have been a more apt description. We could have found a space, but then we’d have needed to find a space in the crowd to go for a walk. You know how it was before Lockdown when you funnel into a queue to get a space on an escalator? That’s what it would have been like finding a space in the slow moving queue of people walking round the pond. I’ve never seen it so busy. Drove home again.

We were going to have a pizza for dinner tonight, so I made up some dough and set it to prove. Scamp wanted to post a card, so we got ourselves organised and started to walk over to Condorrat. Then she decided to move her car from the top of the road down to nearer the house and I was given the duty of posting the card. Found a happy crowd of folk at what was The Masonic in Condorrat drinking beer outside, legally, for the first time in months. Walked back through St Mo’s and caught a couple of Soldier Beetles in flagrante. I think that’s the default position for soldier beetles, hence their nickname Bonking Beetles. That became PoD.

Ok admission time. I admit I was a bit down last night and decided to stop the Lockdown Library. For whatever reason, it’s been reinstated as part of my daily routine again, for a while at least. Today’s offering as well as yesterday’s (yes, I did one yesterday) is up on Instagram.

No plans for tomorrow, and yes, the pizza was lovely. Pizza Napolitana on on half and Pizza Napolitana without olives on the other half.

halves two of day A – 8 July 2020

Posted on by Zogman

In other words, just the same as yesterday, except the other way round. The morning was bright and shiny today and got progressively duller and wetter as time went on.

Spoke to Hazy in the morning and caught up on all things around and about Epsom. Glad to hear that they, like us are getting out again, even if it is only a run in the car. Later, after morning coffee and a first go at today’s ‘Fiendish’ Sudoku, we revised our plans for the day. We’d initially though about driving somewhere scenic and going for a walk, but the weather was already deteriorating and the sun had disappeared. We decided to have lunch and see if there was an improvement in the situation.

Scamp had been bitten on our walk yesterday and it looked to me like a cleg bite. She’d taken Piriton last night and again this morning. She’d also applied some Anthisan antihistamine and the combination seemed to work. After lunch she took the same medicine before we went out for a walk round Broadwood. Bumped into Glenda Begg  halfway round. She is a Special Needs teacher at the new Academy and had just finished her volunteer shift supervising kids at Broadwood Stadium which is the local ‘Hub’ where school age kids can go during the summer holidays. She was telling us that today there were three volunteers to 130 weans (I refuse to use the children-and-young-people ‘word’ that the Scottish Government use for ‘weans’). That’s a 40:1 ratio. NLC are happy because they don’t have to pay anyone and can brag about how they are making provision for under 18s.

Walked back past the shops and bought the makings for tonight’s dinner. I was ‘chef’. It turned out quite well. Baked Haddock and Cabbage Risotto. Dead easy because the oven does all the hard work.

PoD was a close up of a Honeysuckle flower we saw on our walk. Sketch was a pencil sketch of a beer can (unopened)!

Watched two excellent short videos today, Fatbaws and Larchview. Both are parts of the Scenes for Survival series from BBC Scotland. Google them, they are excellent and there’s a lot more where they came from. Really short, around 20 minutes long and some are a lot shorter. So far they all seem to be monologues. Those with little time for reading could always play them in their new car on the way to work! 😉

The weather for tomorrow seems to be much like today was, i.e. better early than late. We may go for that longer walk if we get the chance.

A day of two halves – 7 July 2020

Posted on by Zogman

The first half, the morning half we dithered for a while before deciding that it was only threatening. It wasn’t going to rain. Wrong.

We intended to drive to Drumpellier park for a walk round the loch if it wasn’t too busy. Before we were even out of the estate there were raindrops on the windscreen. By the time we were joining the M73 it was coming down in buckets. Decided we’d probably go to The Fort instead to get some more fabric to make us some new masks and a new sketch book for me.

We sat in the car, waiting for the rain to go off. It did lessen a bit and that was good enough for us. There was a queue, but then there is a queue everywhere now. Eventually we got in and got the fabric and the book. By the time we came out the rain had stopped and all the folk who had been waiting in their cars were now wandering around the shops. Too busy, we decided and headed for home. One last discussion before we reached the T junction. Right would take us to Drumpellier and left would take us home. We decided on Left. As we were driving along, we could see the Campsie Fells in the distance with the sun glancing off them. Maybe we’d made the wrong choice. Doesn’t matter, the die had been cast and we were going home for lunch.

After lunch Scamp walked down to the shops to get the makings of today’s dinner. I stayed home and started to make the new mask she wanted. I was just getting to the sewing up stage as she was returning.

Later, since the day had improved greatly from this morning’s heavy rain, we went for a walk round St Mo’s and didn’t even wear a raincoat.  Went round the pond twice and that’s where today’s PoD came from. It’s a hover fly, but I can’t make up my mind which one. Hopefully someone on Flickr will know.

Dinner was an excellent Scamp meal of flattened chicken in panko breadcrumbs. There’s probably a fancy French name for ‘flattened chicken’, but that’s what it is. It was really lovely. My turn to cook tomorrow and my mind is empty. Something will float into that void before tomorrow, I hope.

Tonight’s sketch changed from a pencil sketch to a painting. It’s a house across the road from Isobel in the Village. It’s been empty for a few years and is getting really dilapidated now. Water stains all down the walls and paint daubed all over the plywood covering the walls. I liked the desolation of it and enjoyed the exercise. I was painting on slippery HP (Hot Pressed) paper that doesn’t absorb the paint as much as NOT (Not Hot Pressed) paper.  I don’t use it much, but it’s sitting in a drawer and should be used up.  I must get my new paints unwrapped an put to good use. May do that this week if I get a chance. Don’t know what we’re doing tomorrow. It depends a lot on the weather.