Category: Spiders

Demolition Man – 19 June 2020

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Yesterday I was a joiner. Today I was a demolition expert.

I have a certain expertise in destroying things, but mostly it’s an accidental destruction. Today it was planned. Scamp and I had discussed removing the old clothes pole from the corner of the garden. It isn’t used much and it makes access to that corner of the garden difficult. Today she suggested that we might need to reorganise the garden and with that in mind, it would be a good idea to remove the clothes pole. I’d been expecting this and really didn’t think I was up to breaking up the great block of concrete that’s been holding it (nearly) vertical for the last thirty odd years. It was different when I was working and had access to a sledge hammer. I didn’t think the claw hammer and mole grips would be up to the job. What I did have as a nearly new hacksaw and a pack of blades. What if we just simply cut the pole down at or near ground level? Sounded like a plan, so I set to it there and then before I got to the what if’s. Cut halfway through the pole which was hollow, of course and released a flood of water, some of which was about thirty years old! You could actually see it squinting as it emerged into the sunlight. The second half should be a lot easier, but I didn’t want to cut that last five millimetres and have to shout TIMBER! so I hammered a couple of staples into the fence and tied it off to them to stop it falling. Just as I predicted, the second half was much easier than the first and with a new blade in the say, we made short work of the pole which is now having a wee lie down in the garden until we can cart it off to the skips. That corner looks so different now! With the demolition done, it was time for lunch and I felt I’d earned it.

After lunch, Scamp went for a walk round Broadwood and I settled fairly comfortably in the back room, put my feet up and proceeded to draw them, because today’s prompt said Draw Your Feet (with or without socks). I chose naked feet and that rough sketch made SoD.

PoD was found in St Mo’s because once Scamp had returned from her walk, I went over to walk round the pond and grab some macro action. What I found was a Wolf Spider and that was PoD.

Dinner tonight was two of the best pizzas I’ve made in a long time. Tuna ’n’ Sweetcorn for Scamp and Anchovy ’n’ Olive for me. Both made with well proved pizza dough and marinara sauce. Very nice. Just for the record, 20 mins at gas mark 9 on the pizza stone covered with semolina.

Rained heavily tonight, so no need to water the garden. Thunder storms predicted for during the night. If we have a decent day tomorrow we may go somewhere in direct contravention of Nick the Chick’s five mile mandate.

Another hot one – 28 May 2020

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Out for a walk, but only to the shops today.

Walked down to the shops to get tonight’s dinner and ended up with a fair bit more than that. That’s the problem with having to take a trolley (no baskets). There’s a tendency to lift more than you really need, and that’s what we did. Went to get a curry for dinner and came home with three bags full of stuff and a bunch of flowers. Wore our new facemasks in the shop. First thoughts are that the elastic is too tight and my mask is a bit small. Maybe I’ve just got a big head!

Listened with interest to Nick the Chick’s declaration about what phase 1 of the release from lockdown will mean. I like her delivery. It seems sensible, professional and calculated. Still don’t like her, but despite her small stature and big heels, she is head and shoulders above Bumbling Boris. Some nice little snipes from her about Dominic Cummings too. Nothing that could be seen as libel or slander, but quite pointed none the less.

Spent the afternoon trying to copy Lucy’s mask. I think I made a fair go of it, but I’m still not sure how to easily join the outside skin to the inside like she did. It’s definitely not as neat as her professional looking stitchery. May try a slightly different shape tomorrow.

Went for a walk in St Mo’s while Scamp soaked up the sun in the garden. She was well protected with factor 50, I know, I’m the one who has to rub it in to her back and today I dried my hands by rubbing the remainder into my face. Got some photos of a bright green spider. After some research I discovered it was a Cucumber Green Spider and fairly common. I’ve never seen one here before. Only one damselfly and it was far too skittish to get a decent shot of.

Sat in the garden after dinner which was actually quite good. For once I’d say it needed a bit of salt, but Scamp didn’t! Sat with a glass or red and took in some rays. Then went to do today’s sketch which is poor, very poor. The task was to sketch A Water Tap. I chose the plastic tap on the wash hand basin in the downstairs toilet, because I was fed up with drawing metal. The only good thing about drawing in a toilet is there is a place to sit!

Tomorrow! Tomorrow we will be allowed a tiny smidgin of our freedom back. We may go out for a run somewhere!

Big Al takes charge – 8 May 2020

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Bit the bullet and called in some help.

Phoned Wheelcraft this morning and spoke to Big Al. Told him what the problem was and he said to bring the wheel in. Once he’d stripped out the ball bearings and cleaned the grease out he spotted a crack in the hub cup. It’s going to need a new hub and the wheel rebuilt. About £50. It’s a good job I didn’t get the cone off, because I’d never have thought of looking for a crack in the cup. He’s just the same as the last time I was there. Social Distancing? I don’t think he’s been listening to Boris or Nick. Three people working in that pokey wee place. Still, he knows what he’s doing and is the only one I’d trust to repair my wheel, even if it’s going to cost a bit more than I’d expected.

Drove back from Clachan of Campsie in an improving day, although there were a few heavy looking clouds hanging around the Campsie Fells as we drove past them. The rain didn’t come, though and the Juke was driving well. It’s amazing that when you’ve been travelling at walking pace for the last four our five weeks, 40mph seem really fast!

Scamp went out to get some stuff for tonight’s dinner and I walked with her part of the way, then veered off to walk round St Mo’s. I was looking for pine cones, because we’ve found that a cat (?) has been crapping in the her sweet pea box and apparently one of the best preventative measures is to cover the box in pine cones because cats don’t like to walk on them. I suppose they are quite jaggy and would hurt the poor pussy’s feet. Me, I wanted to go for land mines, but Scamp wouldn’t have that as the box is too close to the wall of the house. We’ll see how the pine cones work first.

While I was out I got today’s PoD which is a spider wrapping up a little black fly. I felt sorry for the poor fly, but in another shot you can clearly see the hooked claws on its feet. Possibly a robber fly. There are a lot of them about in the late spring and early summer. Anyway of the two shots I kept out of the 14 I took, this was the best. Not the best of a bad lot, but not far off it.

I made Asparagus with Lemon Spaghetti and Peas for dinner and despite the fact that it was very lemony, I quite enjoyed it.

Tomorrow is Saturday, but that’s just a name now. Don’t have any plans

Mobile again on four wheels – 2 May 2020

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Driving again, but still the queues persist.

Tasks for the day:

  • Get some plywood to make painting boards
  • Fix up the sparkly new lights
  • Decide on dinner

Just to get it done, I fixed up the solar cell and then the two of us got the new lights fitted round the tree. It looks a bit untidy, but I think the effect will work when it gets dark. I still believe a rethink may be necessary, but they are unwound and in place for now.

After lunch we drove to B&Q to get the plywood. Saw the length of the queue to get in and drove back home. Got into our parking space again. Battery seems to be charging ok. No plywood, so instead I used a mini roller to put gesso on a couple of boards I’d found. Old Dalerboards that were probably meant for oil painting only, so I don’t know if the acrylic gesso will stick to them. I’m sure I’ll find out tonight or tomorrow.

I took the mandatory trip over to St Mo’s for today’s photo. PoD turned out to be of a spider apparently levitating in front of some whin bushes. I don’t know what happened to the GX 80 I was using, but every shot turned out with the whin flowers looking golden rather than the more acid yellow they really are. Something went wrong somewhere with its colour balance. However, that’s what we have Lightroom for. A little bit of sliding the sliders and all was well again. PoD nearly went to a photo of a girl bunny (not a bunny girl!) wearing sunglasses. I hope whoever lost it, finds it again.

Hearty Miso Ginger Chicken Soup was our dinner tonight and we both agreed it sort of worked, but not quite. Neither of us were all that keen on the miso soup, so we’d probably replace that with chicken stock. The chicken was fine. Cut into thin strips it cooks really quickly. We both liked the Pak Choi, but would reduce the amount of ginger as it seemed to take over. Not a complete rewrite of the recipe which stayed substantially the same, just tweaking. The one thing that worked for us was the bread. A dark mix of three types of flour, so I won’t be able to make that one again!

Well, it took a while for it to get dark enough for the lights to come on round the tree, but they are sparkling brightly now so Scamp’s happy with them.

Nothing planned for tomorrow, although it seems to be a little cooler than today.

Dull, Foggy and Wet – 24 November 2019

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Typical Sunday!

Drove to B&Q in the morning to get some Jeyes Fluid to clean our smelly dustbin. We’ve definitely got some. I know because I bought it last year. After spending about an hour searching everywhere it could have been we gave up and bit the bullet. I went to B&Q to spend £3.50 on a new bottle. Hardly worth the effort of searching every cupboard in the house, only to come up empty handed. It was just as I reached B&Q that I drove into the fog. The motorway had been misty, but B&Q’s microclimate turned that into thick fog. Drove back out of it on the way home and it remained misty here for the rest of the day.

Took a walk to St Mo’s in the afternoon to try for some moody shots in the rain. The light was a bit too low for the new Teazer2 to do its best work, but the Oly came up trumps and got the best shot of the day, the little spider on its wet web. That became PoD

Spoke to JIC in the evening and discussed managing people, Welsh folk with guns and sports massage! Watched another slow episode of His Dark Materials. It’s certainly dark, but does it have to be so slow? I don’t remember the book dragging on like this. It’s becoming too tedious to watch.

There wasn’t much more you could say about the day, in fact the title of the blog sort of summed it up. Dull, Foggy and Wet. These days, realistically, if you don’t get up and out by about 11am, you’re not going to get any worthwhile photos. That’s what I might do tomorrow.  One good thing that happened was Scamp making a lovely Coq au Vin for dinner.  We were very restrained and managed to keep some for tomorrow’s lunch.  A great sacrifice!

Gems tomorrow and hopefully dancing at night.

Time to get the big jacket out – 21 October 2019

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I went for a walk today when Gems were in. I was decidedly underdressed.

It’s not like I was wearing tee shirt and shorts, just my usual jeans shirt jersey and my blue windproof rainy coat, but the wind today was biting. I think it’s time to bow to the inevitable and bring out the big Bergy jacket with its heavy lining.

The cold didn’t stop me enjoying the walk and I got today’s PoD down by the Luggie. I don’t know where this spider was going, but it was on a mission. Clambering over the rough gravel path. Look at the size of those teeth, or are they fangs? I don’t know. I didn’t want to get too close.

After I got as far as the road bridge, I had to give up because I was only wearing trainers and while they are waterproof, they are not mud and glaur proof. ‘Glaur’ is an old Scots word for really sticky mud. At least that’s my excuse, but really I was getting chilled by the cold westerly wind and glad to turn my back to it.

Back home I spent a profitable 15 minutes drawing today’s sketch of a bag Scamp bought me. The words “I’m away for the messages” will be familiar to most Scots, but if you are not of a Scottish persuasion, this means “I’m going shopping” Not window shopping or lightweight shopping. No, this is heavy duty serious buying for the week ahead type shopping. Anyway, I like the bag, it’s cotton and feels good. I’ve not actually used it yet. I must do soon. I also liked the sketch. It seemed to flow, not like a few of my Inktober 2019 efforts.

Kept watching the new and old phones while I was making the dinner, but no amount of watching, waiting or wishing would make the phone number on the new phone magically turn into the old one that seems to be stuck firmly to the iPhone. PAC code has been issued and as far as I am told it’s been accepted, but even after we returned from Salsa, never the twain would meet. Will speak to the new provider tomorrow with a bit of luck.

Salsa was the usual stramash that results from Jamie G introducing a new move. The ‘New’ move this week was called DJ and it was really a rehash of something we’d done before. Scamp and I both agree on that. It was a good move, one I think I could dance ‘in the wild’.

Tomorrow we’re off to Falkirk to speak to a man from Yorkshire.

More brambles, more nettles and bread – 10 September 2019

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Spoke to Hazy in the morning and caught up with life down London way. Actually she phoned just as Scamp was beginning to defrost the freezer, so it gave her an excuse to leave that to itself for a while. And did you know Hazy that you phoned at 10:10 on the 10th of September. There, that’s a little bit of trivia for you!

I’d promised to bake another focaccia loaf today, before lunch I got it all organised and bunged it all in the mixer then left it to its magic for about 15 minutes. Paul Hollywood recommends that you knead it by hand, just to get the feel of a wet sticky dough. Aye Right, Paul, but whatever floats your boat, as they say. For me, a wet sticky dough is just what a food mixer is designed for.

After lunch, Scamp was off to the town centre just to wander round by herself for a while I think. I’m sure she told me the ‘reason’ for her trip, but I’ve forgotten. Meanwhile I got dressed for cycling and went out to get more brambles. You can never have too many of those little purple berries. I ignored the road closed signs and cycled down towards Drumgrew Bridge. I did manage to get a few handfuls of berries, but then when I turned the corner to head down to Sunday’s berry bushes, the road was closed off because great big lorries were unloading tons of asphalt on to it. Why didn’t they warn me? Oh, yes, they did. Ok, nothing for it but to cycle back up the hill and find some more. That’s when I remembered the old road covered by trees now that used to be a good spot for berries. Luckily it was still there hidden by a line of hawthorn hedges and there were loads of berries. Filled the bag with over 800g. Got soaked, of course because it was really wet underfoot and also got stung again by the late summer nettles that seem to have a lot more bite in their sting. On the plus side, I found today’s PoD which is a Metellina mengei spider. It took me over an hour when I got home to ID it on Google.

Back home Scamp had returned and the dough had completed its first prove (rise). Sorting it out was so easy last time. This time I’d to shout “Help!” to get Scamp to give me a hand with the unruly dough, but between us we got it under control. It was soon baked and even sooner consumed. It’s messy to make and used lots and lots of the EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil), but it’s worth it, just as long as you don’t hand knead it.

Tonight it’s raining and it’s going to go on all night with high winds too, but it’s forecast to clear up tomorrow. Let’s hope the weather fairies are right.