Category: St Mo’s

Wet – 18 April 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Not a very bright and cheery day.

Such a shame after yesterday which started out wet, but brightened as the day went on, today was just dull and wet all day. Plus, as I’m writing this, it’s still raining.

Scamp was out in the morning to have coffee and a blether with Isobel. I was back home trying to work out how approximately 100 pieces could fit into the Lego tree. It almost worked perfectly. Of the 100 odd pieces, only one disappeared somewhere. It may be lying on the carpet upstairs, but I don’t think so. Whoever designed this Thing must have had a very clever and very twisted mind. It all works exactly as the instructions describe, but why make it so complicated? Still, it’s fascinating!

By the time Scamp got back, I’d just finished the tree trunk section, complete with two flexible vines that twine round the tree, and was starting the table that holds the flower pot. Another hundred odd pieces! I think that’s all done now and the next stage is to create the ‘stones’ that fill the pot, then deciding whether it’s going to be a tree in leaf or one with blossom. I’ll probably make both, I think.

Scamp wanted a birthday card written and posted by 4pm and after sitting for at least two hours, I thought that might be a great opportunity to stretch my legs because it looked like there was a short dry spell coming.

I walked over to Condorrat and posted the card in the afternoon and as it was still dry, I walked round St Mo’s – just one circuit, not wanting to tempt fate. The weather stayed dry, but I wasn’t impressed with today’s photos once I got home. So, for the first time in ages, I kept today’s photos and instead, posted one of yesterday’s as PoD. It’s a shot looking up at the South Portland Street suspension bridge in Glasgow, with the sandstone entrance behind it and the ill fated Virgin Hotel in the background. Three photos for the price of one!

Later in the evening, I watched and actually enjoyed Gardners’ World. It’s sometimes a bit dull and has too many little video pieces made by folk who just want to tell you how wonderful their gardens are. Time wasters, that’s all most of them are. Today had only a few of those, with the presenters doing the interesting stuff.

Tomorrow is Saturday and we don’t have a dance class because the teachers are still off sunning themselves in some foreign clime. Instead, we’re hoping to do a bit of reading in bed. We don’t have any plans for the day as yet!

It rained – 14 April 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Today was a bit dull to start with, but so is going for the messages, and that’s what we were doing today.

The postman was early today and the post was coming through the letter box just as we were opening it to go to Tesco. Scamp’s appointment letter for her scan was amongst the junk that always arrives on a Monday, through the letter box. After a quick read through it, we felt a lot better. At last we had a date to work towards.

Drove over to Tesco and half filled a trolley with messages. Just the usual day to day shopping, like fruit, milk, bread and stuff. Nothing fancy, just the basics.

After lunch I wrote out a couple of cards, sympathy cards for Margaret from Warrington and another card for her to pass on to her daughter whose husband had died recently after a short illness. I put on my uncomfortable and expensive waterproof jacket and walked over to Condorrat to post the cards in the rain.

I had intended to walk down to the shops to get some veg to breathe a bit of life into our usual Monday Pasta dinner, but decided half way there that I’d just go home instead. The rain was getting heavier and it wasn’t a day for wandering around getting wet.

The Monday Pasta dinner wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be, in fact I was quite pleased with it. Another “What have we got in the fridge” dinner.

The PoD went to a little cluster of daisies on the football park behind St Mo’s school. All the wee flowers had closed up shop early because of the rain. I didn’t blame them. There’s another photo in Flickr of the bird feeder you sent me, Hazy. No takers from the bird yet. I think the Blackbirds in particular aren’t keen on eating above the ground, but it’s early days. An interesting idea. Thanks.

Tomorrow we’re intending taking Shona out to lunch. I’m hoping for a drier day!

 

Rain at last – 13 April 2025

Posted on by Zogman

We had been promised rain today and it actually came as predicted!

There wasn’t much rain, but enough to wet the ground and give the plants in the garden a drink.

Rather a changeable day which was mainly dry but with occasional heavy showers, especially later in the evening.

After tidying the kitchen and the living room after Saturday’s dinner guests, there wasn’t really much to do except, perhaps watch the water falling from the sky for a while.

Later in the day I took the A6500 out to St Mo’s to look for some photos. Yesterday, I’d set the aperture and shutter speed to manual and had forgotten to reset them. Today, for some reason, I set the ISO to 100. That meant that a lot of todays photos taken in between the rain shower and in bright sunlight were overexposed and too light. It took me about an hour after I got home to see how I’d done all that. Once all the settings were back to normal, Lightroom dealt with the overexposure quickly. The PoD was a bunch of flowering cherries and the overexposure coupled with a wide aperture accidentally provided exactly what I wanted in the flowers. Sometimes things just work.

Spoke to Jamie in the evening and told him the 3D jigsaw he and Simonne had given me for my birthday was underway. The base is now complete and ready for the tree to grow in it.

Watched the Bahrain F1 GP and apart from a few interesting passing manoeuvres, it was the same old, same old.

Tomorrow we may have shopping to do – just the essentials.

Another day in the sun – 11 April 2025

Posted on by Zogman

It won’t last. The weather fairies have spoken and rain is on the way for the weekend. Oh well, it was good while it lasted.

Scamp went out to FitSteps in the morning and I set up the workspace for the big build of the Lego Bonsai tree. Didn’t really get started, I think that will happen tomorrow, when I’ve more time to spare, at least in the morning. What I did do was contact Billy, a distant relation of mine who I’d promised to meet up some time in late February, or maybe March. It looks like we will eventually meet in April DV.

When she came home, Scamp made a list of shopping we needed for tomorrow. We walked down to M&S and found that we’d left the list at home. Then we were even more disappointed to find that the few things we could both remember weren’t available in the shop. M&S used to be a good shop with a decent range of goods, but the Cumbersheugh shop seems to have landed on hard times.
We walked back home and took the car to Tesco. Not the best food shop in the world, but at least they cover the bare essentials and a little more.

We sat out on the front garden and read for an hour or so after lunch. Then Scamp wanted to water the plants she’d recently planted and I was looking for some photos. My favourite of the day was a little pair of leaves poking up from the dry ground. I do hope we get that promised rain soon or these plants are going to struggle.

Back home it was pizza for dinner. It was a bit soft and wet in the middle, but it filled a space.

John & Marion are expected for dinner tomorrow, so there will be a lot of work to be done. Thankfully, most of my work will be done by the oven, hopefully!

Shopping – 10 April 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Today we went shopping in Stirling, just for a change.

Drove to Stirling and parked at Waitrose, then went for a walk through the town. Coffee and a wee bite to eat, plus we bought a couple of dresses for our friends’ one year old grandchild. After that we walked back to Waitrose and spent lots of money on some things we may never use, but a lot of the things we will definitely use and even more on things we’ll drink. I don’t need to go into details about what we bought, do we? If you really want to know, tough!

We drove home, and as the wee Blue car had been struggling in the heat of the sun, I turned the air-con into ‘Cool Mode’ and after a couple of misfires it kicked in and we weren’t melting in the sunshine anymore. So nice to have air-con when you really need it.

A cup of coffee and a piece ’n’ cheese and beetroot – possibly an acquired taste, but it works for me. Scamp had a piece ’n’ jam instead (and no beetroot!). Then the chairs came out and we sat and read for an hour in the front garden. I’m on page 58 in the book, Hazy. I can see what you meant when you said it was strange! The good weather isn’t meant to last past the weekend, unfortunately, but it we’ll make the best of it while it lasts.

I took myself off to St Mo’s later in the afternoon and walk round the back of St Mo’s School and on to the shops. We needed mushrooms for tonight’s dinner, which was Bacon & Borlotti Beans. It’s become a staple now, Jamie and Simonne! Scamp substituted Spinach for the recommended Kale, and it was fine.

Watched the semi-final of The Apprentice with its usual array of gormless would-be millionaires. It has become so formulaic now it’s lost a lot of its fun element. I’ll say it again “We may not watch it next year”, but we will, all things being equal.

PoD was a close-up of some Larch needles. The Larch being one of the few conifers that loses its needles in the winter.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending to go to FitSteps in the morning and I have some correspondence I may need to catch up with.

Rail cards and Butterflies – 9 April 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was trying unsuccessful to solve a rail card problem on a dull Wednesday morning. Dull? Is this the end of the good weather?

She had purchased mine, and thought she’d cleared the hurdles put in place by Railcard.co.uk, but they didn’t like the way she’d done it. Allegedly she could fix the problem at any rail station, but that would only get her a one year, paper card (is that an oxymoron?), not the two year one she’s always had. The person in the ticket office suggested she phone Customer Services. So not the easy fix she was promised. We drove over to Tesco and got bread and milk and some odds and ends.

Back home Scamp phoned Customer Services and had to answer all the questions she’d answered yesterday. Name, Date of Birth, Address, Size of big toe (LEFT FOOT). You know what it’s like, we’ve all been there. Then the person she was speaking to, possibly in a different country, had to go and check with “Her Team” (she didn’t say if they wore Green shirts or Blue ones). Five minutes later she returned to say she had to complete the questionnaire again to pass on to the “Team” and someone would contact her within the usual ‘Ten Working Days’. It was all a bit of a faff. Why is life never easy?

With all that done, it was lunch time and that meant half a Ginsters for me and a piece ’n’ egg for Scamp, and the sun had returned to a blue sky. Later Scamp decided the sun was warm enough in the corner of the garden to sit outside and read. I put on my boots and went over to St Mo’s looking for Flora, Fauna, Animal or Insect life. I found no fauna, a very few flowers, but there were animal tracks and there was a Peacock butterfly, sunning itself on a log. So that was one insect in the bag (digitally). I took that as a sign to head for home.

Quick and easy dinner was Giovanni Rana pasta with olive oil and grated Parmesan.

The following description is for my reference, but feel free to read it if you’re interested.

I needed to transfer some of my photo files from the iMac to hard disk (NTFS). My iMac won’t read or write NTFS drives now – don’t know why. The MBP can read and write to NTFS. Here’s how I managed to ‘easily’ copy the files from iMac to the NTFS drive.

  1. Power up the iMac the NTFS drive and the MBP
  2. Ensure that the MBP can ’see’ the iMac
  3. Connect the NTFS drive to the MBP.
  4. Search the iMac for the NTFS drive on the MBP.
  5. Drag the files that I’m looking for from the MBP to the NTFS drive

If all is well, the MBP becomes the conduit between the iMac and the NTFS drive. Today it worked perfectly. About 15GB of data copied in just over 9 minutes. Happy Bunny!

PoD was the Peacock butterfly.

Tomorrow, I’m informed that we may need some ‘Messages’!

 

 

Another beautiful day – 7 April 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp wanted compost and agricultural grit for the garden, so we went looking.

We drove to Torwood to see if we could find some. We found all the compost and the bags of grit, but Scamp wasn’t impressed with the price they wanted for delivering the heavy stuff. It would have cost more than the compost and grit combined. However, she did manage to get a few tubs of flowers, big and small with the possibility of getting the heavy stuff locally. We had lunch there too and I got a tray of leeks plants . They’ve come a long way from when we’d get a bunch of leeks wrapped up in wet newspaper from a couple of blokes who worked in the greenhouses along Clydeside. Changed days.

We drove home and stopped at Calder’s where Scamp got Vermiculite and Perlite. Both recommended as good drainage for young plants.

Scamp had been complaining about the length of the grass in the back garden, so I took out the strimmer and gave it all a fairly rough short back and sides. Maybe that should read … a very rough short back and sides. Still, after Scamp had raked it over it looked ok. It’ll need a proper cut in a week or two I think.

After that I went for a walk over St Mo’s while Scamp took a book and a seat into the garden. In St Mo’s I found a couple of clumps of Cowslips, another sign that Spring is Springing. One of them became PoD.

When I came home, Scamp was in the house, on the phone to Jackie, So I kept her seat warm in the front garden and watched the world go by for a while.

Soon it was time to get dressed for Kirsty’s class where we were dancing a Melody Foxtrot. We actually got to demonstrate it to the class because Kirsty had only learned it this afternoon and of course we are experienced dancers now.

One of those classes where time seems to disappear. Hopefully we’ll have two weeks off dancing now because the Brookfield teachers are off teaching on a cruise and the Link where Kirsty’s class runs is closed for two weeks at Easter.

Tomorrow we may go out to lunch in Glasgow.

Dentist and Wonky iPhones – 4 April 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was out early to go to FitSteps and I was left to my own devices for an hour or so, but with a reminder to phone the dentist and the optician.

I tried to phone the dentist first, but could hardly hear the assistant in the surgery. Tried three times with no success. I phoned Hazy to check that it wasn’t a problem associated with Cumbersheugh, but the same thing happened. I was about to restart the phone when Hazy phoned back to check that everything was ok. I told her about the phone problem and she made a few suggestions and said she’d look into it. This time I did restart the phone and just as it restarted I thought the problem might be something to do with my headphones. Sure enough, the headphones were on and sitting on the table at the other end of the room. Once I switched them off, everything went back to normal. That’s when Hazy messaged me to tell me to restart the iPhone with instructions for doing it. I phoned her back feeling a bit sheepish and explained about the headphones. See Technology? See Me?!

Next I’d to phone the dentist and apologise for the three silent calls, but Amy was very good, didn’t shout at me and got me an appointment for a dislodged filling for just after midday!

The next thing on my list was the optician. Got an appointment for the end of the month, just when my annual checkup was due. After a disastrous start, everything was beginning to fit into place.

I’m sure a card and a parcel arrived today, but strangely they both disappeared when I turned my back on them! Must be something to do with the weather.

The tooth filling only took about 15 minutes and it seems to be more solid and less intrusive than the one that it was replacing.

After Scamp returned, I drove to the shops to get lunch and came home with nine wee cupcakes, thin and thick sliced chicken, chocolate mini eggs a loaf and a bake in the oven curry for dinner. That’s what happens when you send me for the messages. I usually forget something, but then buy more than we really need. Anyway we didn’t starve!!

In the afternoon, I waited in for a delivery of coffee. 1 kilo of Blow Your Socks Off beans(strong coffee), 2 x 250g Cat’s Pyjamas coffee beans and 1 x Bag of Drinking Chocolate. You see what I mean about buying too much? I’m surprised Scamp allows me to go out myself!

The coffee was delivered early so I went for a walk in St Mo’s. I took my Rab jacket which was sensible, but I forgot my woolly bunnet. Not so clever. It was a bright day, but with a cutting cold east wind that reduced the temperature to just above zero.

The curry was delicious if a bit creamy and with very little spicy heat. It was meant to be Butter Chicken, but could have used more spice. Other than that it was fine. Pudding was yesterday’s rhubarb and pear pie with ice cream. The rhubarb was almost all from our garden with a smidgen from some Waitrose rhubarb. It was very well received!

Tomorrow I believe we may be going to dance class. The last one for three weeks. Oh dear, what a shame!

Coffee with Isobel and Shona – 1 April 2025

Posted on by Zogman

We were booked for coffee with Isobel and Shona today. Just the usual Costa in the town centre on a beautiful warm spring day.

The temperature was all set to reach 18ºc by afternoon and I’m sure it reached, if not exceeded that temperature. Shona was looking quite relaxed and seemed to be enjoying the benefits of not having to worry about Ben because he was being looked after by his minders. After a fairly interesting coffee chat, we went our separate ways and in our case, headed home.

Scamp was desperate to get back into the garden and tidy things up. I can see the difference she is making and am glad she’s enjoying seeing the growth coming in all her plants. In the afternoon she declared that she was going to sit in the sun. Not long after that I saw the thick black clouds of smoke that looked like something was burning fiercely on the far side of the motorway. I was intending going over to St Mo’s anyway, but I thought I’d have a look from the vantage point of the bridge over the motorway. The motorway was running normally, but the black clouds weren’t going away. If anything they were worse than they had been before I left. They were still too far away for me to see the source. Quite a few ambulances coming and going though.

I walked back and in to St Mo’s and with the help of my phone managed to work out the direction the smoke pall was coming from. It seemed to be near Greenfaulds School, although, maybe a bit beyond that. Later we heard on the news that it was a recycling unit that was burning and that Greenfaulds occupants were warned to keep their doors and windows shut.

I grabbed a few shots in St Mo’s and my favourite was the PoD, the Horse Chestnut buds unfolding. It was a tough decision if it was a sycamore leaf opening or the horse chestnut, but the horse chestnut won. Surprise of the day was a butterfly darting about under the trees. Couldn’t get a clear shot of it, but hopefully there will be other chances. Walked home and joined Scamp with a bottle of beer in the front garden.

Dinner tonight was fish ’n’ chips. Giant pieces of fish with baked chips. Really lovely with beetroot and tomato sauce! Scamp made it, of course.

Watched the final episode of Death in Paradise and it was just as bad as all the rest had been!

Tomorrow I’m hoping to meet Alex for a photo walk. Scamp, I’m sure, will be hoping to work more magic in the garden.

The last day of March – 31 March 2025

Posted on by Zogman

We went for a walk today. The options were Glasgow Green and Drumpellier Park. Drumpellier won for the simple reasons that it was closer and there was a good chance we’d find an ice cream van waiting at the end of our round trip.

It was a pleasant walk in and out of the trees and across the fields of this lovely park, especially as the trees were now beginning to show some of their greenery. A few of the older trees had been blown down in the gales, but a surprising amount of them were still standing. Possibly the amount of trees in the park protected them. About an hour long walk in total, and yes, the ice cream van was there! I don’t think I’ve seen ice cream vans on Glasgow Green, more’s the pity! Can you believe I didn’t take one photo in that hour long walk!

Drove home and had lunch before Scamp was starting on the back garden, cutting back, planting cuttings and generally tidying things up now that fresh growth was forming after the long winter we’ve had.

The good weather and sun from the morning was disappearing in the middle of the afternoon, so I wore my orange RAB jacket for a walk over to St Mo’s. On the way I bumped into our new next-door neighbours. Two women and maybe three girls. I’d bumped into them Thursday or Friday of last week and they were asking about the house and I told them I’d never been in it, but that it was almost exactly a mirror image of ours. They seem fine. Just wanting to get schools sorted out for the girls and eager to get furniture in. Scamp had bumped into them too while I was over in St Mo’s, and of course she found out names and a lot more than I did. I completely forget everyone’s names … except mine, or only sometimes does that happen.

Today’s PoD came from St Mo’s and was a shot of a dandelion. I had to scramble down a slippery banking to get that photo. Ended up muddier than I’d intended, but I got the shot.

Off to Kirsty’s Dance class for a lesson on Tina Tango. I can’t believe I’ve been dancing that sequence dance for years and only today I discovered I’d been doing bits of it wrong all along! Simple steps that I should have known, but didn’t. Anyway, I was dancing, not with Scamp who was dancing with Kirsty, but with Nicola who has been dancing since she was knee high I’m told, but she too was making a few mistakes … and I admit I trod on her toes, just like I do with Scamp. Scamp introduced Kirsty to Ed Sheeran’s Shivers. So much better than the old fashioned tango music she was playing. Next week it’s to be Melody Foxtrot to the tune of Go Gentle by Robbie Williams. That might be fun!

Possibly meeting Isobel for coffee tomorrow. Who will be the April Fool?