Category: St Mo’s

Grey Heron – 13 October 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Saw a Grey Heron hiding in the pond at St Mo’s.

I just missed a couple of heavy rain showers today. It was a rushed day. We drove to Falkirk to get a new carpet for the kitchen. That was the high point. Once Scamp had chosen the size, colour and pattern of the carpet, we paid for it and drove back home again. One new carpet in, as another went out. I don’t know how old that ancient carpet was, but it disappeared into the skip at the Council Tip today.

One brightener of the day was seeing a Grey Heron in the shallows of the pond at St Mo’s. I managed to get a few shots of the bird before it spotted me and flew off. The one shot I got was just a ‘lucky’. As it turned out, it was the only shot of the bird I got before it flew away. It’s a couple of years since I’ve seen a member of Mr Grey’s family. I hope I didn’t scare this one away completely and he/she returns to the pond soon. The heron made PoD.

We drove over for dinner with Crawford & Nancy in Larky. It’s been a long time since we could all meet together and we really enjoyed the blether. We talked so much we forgot about time and didn’t leave Larky until just before midnight. We’ll suffer for it tomorrow.

No plans for tomorrow.

What a dull day – 12 October 2026

Posted on by Zogman

I don’t believe the sun got out of bed today.

For once I was up fairly early today, waiting for The Gates of Midnight to land on the carpet. It actually did arrive quite soon afterwards. I was a bit disappointed at the state of this ‘new book’, but then, after some research, I found that the soft, seemingly hand cut look was what the author had intended. I’m glad I got the hardback version or I would have missed the hand-made effect! No, I haven’t started it yet, Hazy. I might start it later tonight.

Scamp had realised she’d forgotten to replant one of her Heuchera plant (Lime Marmalade) yesterday, so she managed to get it split into four parts and divided them up round the garden. I’m sure she felt better for that, especially because it didn’t rain while she was out. After that it was the usual start to the day with a cup of coffee and the puzzles, we had lunch which was toast and beans, mainly because the beans were just passed their sell-by date and it seemed a shame not to use them. Scamp had wanted to go for a walk in the morning, probably a walk round Colzium Estate, but on checking I realised the rain had started and neither of us wanted to go for a walk in the rain. The rain seemed to be on a start/stop routine, because it couldn’t decide whether to go for the full rain option or for the drizzle. It settled for the drizzle.

We eventually walked down to the Shops for bread and stuff. Just essentials, because we were walking, not driving. On the way back, Scamp took the shopping bag and told me to go and have a walk round St Mo’s and that’s what we did. I went for a walk round the pond and she carried the ‘Messages’ home.

PoD went to  spider looking for food to fill its larder.

There wasn’t much to see in St Mo’s today. The swans came over to see if I’d anything worth eating, and then left when they realised there was no food to be had. There were lots of spiders on all the trees and desiccated branches and one of them got PoD. After that I just made my way back home. By about 4pm, the little light there was had disappeared and we amused ourselves by searching for a new kitchen carpet to replace the old charred one that’s way past its useful date.

We may go looking for a replacement kitchen carpet tomorrow. That has to be a better plan than today’s.

Triffids – 9 October 2026

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A day of mixed weather, but mainly rain.

It seemed that every day I put my boots on to go for a walk, the clouds would be waiting, massing on the horizon go drop some water on me. Eventually I gave up and walked out anyway. But first I had a Pizza to make.

I’d promised to make the pizza halfway through the week, but I managed to avoid the work every day … until today. I had most of the ingredients already just waiting for a chance to make a mess. I used an old recipe I’d had for years. I carefully measured the Olive Oil, Flour, Salt and Water. According to the recipe it would take ten minutes to knead the dough, but for some reason mine took about twice that. It did look nicely smooth without lumps by the time I was finished. I left it to rise for the required hour and guessed that would give me just enough time to do a walk round St Mo’s. I was just finishing the walk and on the way home when the rain started. Nicely timed.

The dough was rising nicely when I got back and I flattened it down to clear the air bubbles and left it to do its second prove and got the topping sorted out. Just some tomatoes a handful of chopped chicken and some tuna, with a blob of Burrata cheese. Gas was on and heating to gas 7/8 and we were ready for assembly. I reckoned 10 minutes would be a good starting point for baking, with the possibility of another 10 mins if needed. In the end it took nearer 30 mins total to bake it enough.

Thankfully, although the base was a bit wet, it all held together and most important of all, it was edible!

Scamp says I should make a smaller one next week to see if that improves it! My response is “How can you improve on Perfection?”!

PoD went to an indoor shot as the weather wasn’t going to play nice, and it was a pair of Sarracenia plants, Pitcher Plants sitting in the kitchen before I started baking the pizza. Otherwise they would have swallowed the pizza whole. Very hungry plants. They are not called ’Triffids’ for nothing. Always count your fingers after touching them.

Tomorrow we may go out for lunch.

Today was a bright shiny day for a while – 7 October 2026

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Scamp was out for coffee with Isabel, but I had far too much to do to go waltzing over to Costa.

Today I’d set my target on getting the 2026 September photos sorted out. I wanted to make sure that each of the photos had a Yellow or Red or Grey Tag:

A Yellow tag (Yellow means OK, but not great.)
A Red Tag (Red means excellent.)
A Grey Tag (Grey means rejected.)

Some had, some hadn’t, but most had a tag of some colour.

Then I noticed that the 2026 August photos hadn’t been tagged, so I started from them and worked up to the September photos. Some of the August photos were a bit mixed up, but most of the September ones were in the correct place.

With that done, I could delete all the rejected photos and concentrate on getting the August and September lot into some form of order on my external SSD.

Big, Deep, Breath for the next stage which was to chuck out the 2025 photos which were languishing in a very large Cache on the SSD. I’d read a bit about it and it seemed that I could remove most of these old redundant files. Heart in mouth, I deleted one year’s photos … and nothing went bang!

It all worked. I thought it worked too simply, but after leaving it for a while and coming back to it. Everything I’d planned worked. I don’t know how that happened, but it did.

Success!

That probably means nothing to you, but it meant my SSD experiment worked.

I tried to explain what I’d done, when Scamp returned, but I did see the MEGO (My Eyes Glaze Over) effect on her face.

For the remainder of the day, we went shopping and I went for a walk in St Mo’s. That’s where I saw a yellow leaf trying to hide behind a tree and that fitted the PoD prompt right away.

I might go to bed early tonight. I’ve got a sore back, partly due to the stress of working my way through about 600 photos.

Slinky – 5 October 2026

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Slinky is watching you!

Another dull day. Grey skies in the morning with the chance of more grey skies in the afternoon. However, there’s just the chance of more grey skies later! Some days are just fun, fun, fun!

This afternoon Scamp and I tackled another cupboard. Not the most riveting task, but it needs to be done. In fact, it’s been needing done for years. So, just like the chipboard, everything in the towel cupboard had to be taken out into the bedroom and evaluated for:

  1. Must Keep.
  2. Might Be Useful.
  3. Must Go.

I think I filled a whole black bag all by myself. It was a host of jotters and record books. How we will get them all loaded into the wee Blue car I do not know. Meanwhile, Scamp was searching through piles of yellowed newspaper. That was a much more difficult task than mine, but we did find a lot of birthday cards, Christmas cards and other cards from family and friends. It’s hard doing this search and destroy, but it needs to be done.

I eventually gave up and told Scamp I was going to go for a walk. Partly to clear my head and partly to get away from the clutter. Scamp did the same.

My walk took me round St Mo’s and I managed to get a PoD for today. Nothing amazing, just a Slinky sprung child’s game with a pair of evil looking eyes, from the adventure playground.

I walked home with the clouds still looking broody, then the strangest thing. I was just sitting down in the house when the sun came out and there was a blue sky! It didn’t last long, but it was good to know there was light out there.

Tomorrow we may take a break from searching through the old newspapers, or we may go out for a spin somewhere.

Dancin’ – 3 October 2026

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It was Saturday and that means we’re probably dancing … somewhere.

We were off to Brookfield for our usual Saturday dance class. The first topic was Rhumbumbumba. It’s my least favourite stagger across the floor, tangle yourself in knots waste of time. I could give it the real description I use, but Scamp doesn’t like swearing! Suffice to say it’s absolute rubbish.

Next was the October Waltz. I’m not entirely sure we’ve done this one before, but Scamp likes it and I’m coming round to it now. After a few practices I think it and me could become friends. A fairly gentle waltz that glides along quite easily.

After the October Waltz was a Melody Foxtrot, just to loosen us up, or to be more precise, to loosen me up. Waltzes, especially fairly new ones make me tense and I end up leading with the wrong foot or even worse, standing on Scamp’s toes, but the Melody Foxtrot (which doesn’t have a Foxtrot in it) is an old friend. One that me and it get on well with.

The last part of today’s repertoire was a Butterfly Jive. I’ve never actually seen a butterfly jiving, but if I know the session is coming to an end, I’m quite happy to stagger round the dance floor copying those around me.

That should have been the end of today’s routines, but of course, Stewart was determined to squeeze in a final Rhumbumbumba. I noticed one of the men in the class was sitting it out. That was all the excuse I needed and I sat down facing him. Two old guys smiling at the antics of the dancers and not caring what they thought.

Drove home through a very quiet Glasgow on a Saturday afternoon. I think we only took about 40 minutes to get home. That must have been a new world record.

Scamp was tidying up the back garden when we got home, then Hazy phoned to ask me for some details that she needed for checking some come computer stuff. After a while I phoned her back with the numbers she wanted and she phoned back to confirm that the computer stuff checked out. A big thanks to you and Neil for clarifying that, Hazy. I was pretty sure I’d already checked it, but a second confirmation is never a bad thing. Next check is in April if all goes well!
If all that sounds a bit disjointed, don’t worry. It’s just computer talk 😉.

I went for a walk later and found the seed heads of the Yellow Flag Iris plants in St Mo’s were ripening and some of the seed pods had split open allowing the seeds to turn a rich brown. They appear every year around October in a variety of distorted shapes. That became PoD.

No real plans for tomorrow, at least not yet.

 

The last day of September – 30 September 2026

Posted on by Zogman

September turned out a fairly decent month. A fair mix of photos, but over run with flowers as usual. Must try harder to get a wider range of subjects.

Today was another day with good intentions that were never really fulfilled. I’d intended to drive over to the Council Tip to get rid of the collection of hardboard and chipboard we’d collected when we disassembled the cupboard in the corner. Unfortunately the rain stopped play and we had to wait too long a while, so the Council Tip will have to wait until tomorrow or maybe Friday before we completely clear that space. Scamp did sterling work clearing the dining table of the odds and ends that were still cluttering it up.

I spent over an hour struggling through all the complicated rules and regulations that made a once great hosting company almost impossible to navigate. It really is a pity when things like that happen. Thankfully I did get a lot of support from Hazy and Neil and there is now light at the end of the tunnel.

I did manage to get out for a walk in the afternoon, dodging the rain showers and the oppressive looking clouds, to find a Red Admiral sunning itself on a leaf next to the path. That was the PoD. The weather is forecast to cool down again as we enter October.

I won’t even get a chance to get out for a photowalk this week, so I’ll have to apologise to Alex and hope we can both get out next week.

Tonight’s dinner was a half and half event. Scamp made the first half of the dinner (Puttanesca Chicken Traybake) and I finished it. Not a great dinner, but interesting. I don’t know if I’d make it again.

We may go dancing tomorrow but only if the weather holds.

Back to the grind – 28 September 2026

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Back from a quick holiday to Jersey that we both enjoyed.

I made a suggestion to Scamp while we were on our short break. We really do need to do some tidying around the house, especially in the living room and we both agreed that it needs a fair bit of work. Today we took the first steps to do the first clean up.

I tackled a four shelf cupboard that has been sitting in a corner for almost as long as I can remember. It holds a load of stuff, but to be honest, has outlived its usefulness. Shelf one was the hard one. I knew it would be and most of it is now in a black bag ready to go to the skip.
Tomorrow we should be able to cut through the remainder of the clutter, and after that we just need to disassemble the frame. Some of the contents will stay, but not nearly as much as we had.

While I was starting to empty the cupboard, Scamp was working her way through music books galore, more cookery books than we have looked at in years and magazines, I was amazed at the amount of foody magazines that really should have gone ages ago. We were both working and making changes. It’s amazing just how much in this house is simply clutter.

I got out for a walk in the afternoon in the sunshine while Scamp was deciding what dinner was going to be. I got a few shots over at St Mo’s and the best one was a deep pink Antirrhinum trying to squeeze its way through a wooden fence. That was PoD.

Tomorrow will hopefully be much like today, but with a bit more effort from me at least. There are more plans for other areas on the ground floor that also need tidying!

Hazel Nuts – 20 September 2026

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Today it the first day I’ve seen Hazel Nuts on a tree, in Scotland.

Ignoring the “Fnarr, Fnarr – Oo er Matron!!” group, I’m talking about the seeds of the Hazel tree (Corylus avellana). We don’t get all that many growing around here, so this was a great surprise to me. Hopefully it’s the beginning of more trees round our local pond.

There wasn’t much to do today, with sunshine for a short while, closely followed by rain showers. We didn’t go far, and relied on getting things done at home.

I did manage to get a walk around the pond, and that was where I found the Hazel trees. A very few people out walking. Just a usual Sunday.

PoD went to the Hazel nuts.

Tomorrow I may go out and get my hair cut. That would at least mean I’d achieved something, if I’m successful …!

Seed Heads – 19 September 2026

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Cow Parsley seed heads I found on today’s walk around one of the Cumbersheugh ponds.

It was a dull day. Dull and windy too. We drove over to Brookfield for the Saturday dance class, only to find that the bowling club had the run of the place without mentioning to the time allocated to the dance class had been reduced by a third. It would have been helpful if the bowling club had the decency to tell us the class time had been reduced. Maybe we should have complained to the mayor or lord provost or some such personage. We dancers seem to lose our place against the might of Brookfield’s bowling club. They should be reminded that we, too have a right to use the facilities. We pay for them too!

Actually I quite enjoyed the early finish to the afternoon. I quite enjoy most of the dancing, but Bumbarumba or whatever it’s called isn’t my idea of a dance. It’s a bit of a shambles if you ask me. Most of the folk were struggling to keep in touch with this attempt at a dance. Too fast for some and not exciting enough for others. I’m with the ‘Too Fast’ group.

A quick reprise of the quickstep was very useful and we both managed it. I struggled, as usual, but Scamp just ran through it as if it wasn’t there. That’s the difference between her and me. I struggle to remember these dances, Scamp has them on-tap, so to speak.

We drove home choosing to take the Clyde Tunnel to avoid the delays that usually appear if we try the dreaded Kingston Bridge route. Today it was an easy rung home for a change. I don’t know if that was due to a lighter load of vehicles on the motorway or just a ‘Lucky’ with the extra half hour. Whatever, it worked!

Good to hear from Alex that Carol has arrived home again after her operation on her knee. Hope it sorts itself out quickly Carol.

Today’s PoD went to a Cow Parsley head I saw in St Mo’s. Just because it looked interesting.

Tomorrow we may be packing bags,