Category: St Mo’s

Out to Lunch – 23 February 2024

Posted on by Zogman

We were booked for lunch today with June and Ian.

A coffee in the morning to wake me up and for some reason I didn’t feel as good as I had. No reason, I just didn’t. I was messing around with stuff on the computer and then realised I’d been awarded Explore for a B&W photo looking down the boardwalk at St Mo’s. That brightened things up.

Before we knew it, it was time to get the heavy coats on and head off to Brodens for lunch. June and Ian were already there. Scamp ordered Mac ’n’ Cheese with a side of skinny fries and a glass of red. June and Ian had Fish ’n’ Chips with a lager shandy. I had Steak Pie with mash and my usual pint of Guinness. We had long ranging discussions about family and friends. I found out that Ian had tried for Glasgow School of Art when he was much younger, but didn’t get in. Who knew that? Certainly not me. We must have sat there blethering, eating and drinking for two hours at least, probably nearer three. That’s the great thing about having a local restaurant, there is no “We need the table back in 90 minutes.” You can relax in a local place.

As usual Scamp and I walked back home. She went straight home, but I went for a walk in St Mo’s hoping for some decent photos. The first shot I took was today’s PoD. Lovely light on the Campsie Fells with the Meikle Bin just showing white through the trees. The snow must have come when we were in Brodens. We were too busy to see it. Not much else worth posting, but the lighting on the hills and the clouds made one shot good enough.

When I got home Scamp said she didn’t think I was fit to go to dance class tomorrow and I had to agree. Yesterday I’d have said I was fine, but not today. I feel better now, but I didn’t when we discussed it. It’s a strange thing this cold/flu. It really gets a hold on you. Scamp did the needful and wrote the apology to S&J. Sorry we’re not going to make it tomorrow.

The prompt for today was Khaki. That’s an old man’s colour. But I have to remember … So I drew a portly gentleman wearing a pair of khaki shorts. Knee length!
It’s what the well dressed man is wearing to the beach this year. Generously cut to allow for air circulation and enough pockets to carry insect repellent, sun cream and and perhaps a small bottle each of Burgundy and Chartreuse. Or maybe a refreshingTangerine or some Plums. This well tailored garment lends itself to all tastes.
If you’ve been following the sketches you’ll understand the meaning.

Tomorrow we have no plans. Maybe we’ll drive somewhere nice. Don’t know where. Scamp fancies a pair of sandals, but hasn’t seen any yet.

Another improving day – 22 February 2024

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Me, that is, as well as the weather

A fairly late rise, but I didn’t, in my heart of hearts think I was fit enough to go dancing today. Not for myself, but I didn’t want to spread it to all the other dancers at the tea dance. So it was decided the we wouldn’t grace the dance floor today. I think we were both in agreement about that.

We had a morning call from Hazy and talked about Jamie’s house improvements as well as Neil’s antibiotics and of course the Ninja Tilly who ambushes ‘monsters’ in the bedroom. Good job Hazy hadn’t realised that Scamp and I were still in bed, tucked up and warm without an attack cat anywhere nearby.

I spent most of the morning writing up yesterday’s blog post which I chose to forego yesterday to get a good night’s sleep instead. I’d left myself a list of bullet points that would help me to flesh out yesterday’s wee stories.

I took a walk round St Mo’s in the afternoon and spooked a deer again. I’ve a feeling they are going to start banning me from walking through the woods. Or accuse me of being a stalker – a deer stalker, or is that something different? I also stalked a couple of innocent swans in the pond and one of the shots got PoD.

It was cold again outside with temperatures dropping down to single figures. I was really glad to get back to the house for a heat.

Dinner tonight was my all time favourite – Mince ’n’ Tatties. Scamp made it and there’s some left for, probably Saturday, when I’m hoping to make it into Spaghetti Bolognese (without the tatties, obviously.)

I made a decision on ON1 Photo RAW 2024 tonight. It has to go. There are only minor improvements compared with last year’s 2023 version. The examples and tutorials use carefully selected photos that work well with ON1. Real world examples fail miserably. I’ve issued my request to be refunded the cost of the software well within the required 30 days. I almost feel like Alex with his changing camera collection. Sorry Alex!

Today’s prompt was Chestnut and I used an old (2018) photo of mine with a couple of chestnuts in it. Not just one chestnut either. Instead I give you two. One still hiding in its shell and one that has extricated itself from the spiny green cover. I used to love chestnuts or ‘Chessies’ when I was wee. Baking them in the oven after soaking them overnight in vinegar which allegedly made them invincible. Don’t try it, it doesn’t work. Carefully drilling a hole through the middle and passing a string through, knotting it at both ends to keep it secure. Then the excitement of smashing the opposition’s ‘chessie’ with yours. However, it was usually my specially hardened chessie that cracked first. Great fun when you’re six or seven.
Now I keep them over winter in our cold greenhouse and plant them in the parks in the spring to grow into chestnut trees.

Watched The Apprentice later. Is that program meant to be real or a comedy? Where one contestant couldn’t work out how to use a measuring tape.

Best Wishes to Simonne who is travelling to Trinidad tomorrow to visit her dad. Say Hello to Jaime for me please, Simonne. Hope your sister untangles the red tape.

We might do lunch tomorrow with June and Ian.

Feeling better – 21 February 2024

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A hot shower this morning definitely helped dispel the blues this cold was bringing down on me.

The shower combined with a dose of cough medicine and a couple of paracetamol brought me back to life again, almost ready to face the day ahead, despite the rain outside. I think it had been raining all night and it wasn’t due to disappear until at least midday. For once they got it almost perfectly right. As the morning wore on, the rain became lighter and then traces of blue sky could be seen. The day was improving.

In the afternoon, after lunch, Scamp was on the phone to her sister in Skye hearing that the weather was just February dull there. That gave me the chance for a walk in St Mo’s with the possibility of some photos in the sunshine. I did get a few, but I think the land is waiting for a week on Friday when Spring will arrive. Meteorological Spring at least, but we’ll take that as SPRING!!
Probably the best picture I took was one looking along the boardwalk into the sun with a big threatening bank of dark cloud looming overhead. It became PoD.

It may have been bright today, but it was certainly cold and the breeze from the west was cooling things down a fair bit. I didn’t notice until I came back home and felt my cheeks chilling in the warm air of the hall.

Scamp suggested Fish Risotto for dinner and I agreed to make it. The simplest risotto ever because the oven does most of the hard work and a couple of spoonfuls of crème fraîche adds the creaminess that would otherwise be lost.

We watched Landscape Artist of the Year semi-final tonight but were both disappointed with the overall quality of the work and certainly with work of the chosen three who will go on to the final. It left us wondering what they would produce in the final!

Today’s prompt was Chocolate.
However it would appear that the pristine bar of Choco chocolate has been investigated and partly digested by a Turquoise Tortoise. I didn’t know tortoises ate chocolate! To understand the story you had to have seen yesterday’s prompt.
Not a drawing or a painting I was particularly proud of, but it fitted the prompt and it didn’t take too long to do.

I was struggling to get the photos and the sketch finished tonight. Too much time reading tutorials on ON1 2024, that might go back within the 30 day cut off time. Not sure it really works for me. Anyway, that’s why this is a catch-up.

Tomorrow we may be going dancing at the Glenburn Tea Dance.

The morning that disappeared – 20 February 2024

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Woke this morning after a restless night with a sore throat and a head full of cotton wool. No, I hadn’t been on a bender. I had a stinker of a cold.

We were booked for lunch in Glasgow this afternoon, but that wasn’t going to happen. Scamp took one look at me and asked if she should try to reschedule the lunch appointment. At first I said no, but then thought it was the best way to deal with the situation. Luckily Scamp got the reservation changed to next week and all was well again. I went back to bed and slept for another two or three hours, I can’t remember which. I finally got up about 1pm and had tea and toast for my lunch along with a couple of vitamin c tablets and two paracetamol.

Once that lot were in my system I felt a bit better. The weather was drying up and I suggested Scamp and I should go for a walk to St Mo’s to see the Fairy Trail, because she hadn’t seen it yet and we reckoned it would be magicked away some time soon. So that’s what we did. I got a few more photos of the fairy houses with the washing lines, but PoD was a shot of St Mo’s pond across the reed beds shining in the sun. Once round the pond was enough for me today and we walked home to coffee (for me) and Ovaltine (for Scamp).

I struggled in the rest of the afternoon with the awkward way ON1 2024 has for making and saving presets. Nowhere near as simple as Lightroom. I’m still undecided whether to keep it or get a refund. I’ve got a week to decide.

Dinner was Mac ’n’ Cheese with bacon strips for extra flavour. Made by Scamp of course.

Today’s prompt was Turquoise.
Yet another boring rather than challenging subject. I could have drawn and painted a necklace or a charm, but instead I drew a tortoise and painted it turquoise. Turquoise is a really awkward colour to mix using water colours, easier, I believe in oils. The way I mixed it was with a sap green and sky blue with the magic ingredient, White Gouache which gave the opaque white I needed to take away the greyness the other two colours made by themselves. I think Tommy the Turquoise liked his pink toenails!

This was always going to be a fairly short blog post, because I’m off to make myself a hot toddy and go to bed.

No plans for tomorrow, but I’m definitely feeling better tonight.

No fillings yet … – 19 February 2024

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Just before 9am Scamp booked an emergency appointment for this afternoon to let the dentist assess the problem with her old broken molar.

Ten minutes later she got a phone call to ask if she could come in at 11am instead. Even better. That was us up and getting the day started. I drove her up to Condorrat and then went for a walk in St Mo’s. I’d hardly walked down to the pond when the heavens opened and I went back to the car. I waited out the rain and then risked another walk, but Scamp beat me to it and told me she was ready to come home.

The dentist didn’t want to extract the tooth, but suggested a silver cap instead. She had the option to pay more and get a white cap, but since the tooth is right at the back of her mouth, nobody is ever going to see it anyway. She hasn’t made a firm commitment to the silver cap yet, but the dentist had put a synthetic cover over the tooth and Scamp is happy with it.

Instead of driving straight home, we went to B&Q to get some paint testers to see what would be best for the bedroom and the downstairs hall. We decided last week that we’d repaint both areas. We came home with a cream, a pink and a yellow and neither of us like any of them. Not quite back to stage one, we did find a big tub of what is probably Magnolia. The ultimate no-nonsense, slap it on anywhere, inoffensive paint everyone uses at one time or another. It has been ear marked for the bedroom.

Back home via Tesco for bread and blueberries and stuff for lunch. Then I went out for a walk in the wintry wind. It wasn’t really all that cold as long as you kept walking, but stand too long in that cold south westerly wind and you felt it. No frogs today, or if they were there, they were hiding. However there were bird feeders in the fairy dell now. Home made ones created from pine cones stuffed with lard and coated in bird seed. It looks like this is an ongoing project.

I spooked two deer in the woods, but they had seen me long before I saw them and all I was was their white tails bouncing away into the bushes. PoD turned out to be an old worn fencepost with barbed wire wrapped round it. Just enough interest to find a place in Flickr.

Today’s prompt was Straw. I edited it to Straw Man.
I saw a few straw figures in farmers fields across the country. Some were rude, some were political, but all were funny and they were all made from straw and silage that was rolled up in black plastic. When I saw today’s prompt I wondered what it would look like if the wrapping was removed and the Straw Men could stand there naked as nature intended. They would certainly be impressive and slightly scary figures. I think there would be more than a touch of The Wicker Man about them.

That’s about it. I’m heading for bed early tonight with a couple of paracetamol to give me a night’s sleep. I do believe I have the cold. Scamp should sleep better tonight after a stressful day.

The Frogs and Fairies Return

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Around about this time of year the frogs return to the pond to mate.

Also around this time some of the local fairies dress up the woodland area of St Mo’s to look like a fairy dell. Today they outdid themselves. Not only little tree houses with tiny wee washing lines complete with pegs and clothes, but also a competition to see how many new red and white toadstools you could find among the trees. I lost count at ten, but I’m sure there were a lot more I couldn’t find. I did take some pictures, though. The last surprise was the cache of ‘Jewels’ hidden among the trees. I chose not to take anything, because you can’t always trust the tricky fairies! We had missed the fairy garden last year because we were on holiday. I’m glad we didn’t miss it this year.

The frogs are back! It’s that time of year again when the frogs start to congregate in the ponds to search for a mate. This one was the first I’ve seen this year, I’m guessing it got there early to check out the venue and the competition. It easily got PoD. This is the first time I’ve used On1 Photo Raw 2024 in earnest. I used the Brilliance filter and then toned it down a bit to retain some detail in the highlights. Most impressed with the result.

Today’s prompt was Champagne
It’s not my usual drink of choice, but it was what was asked for. As usual I started off with a rough sketch to get the proportions and angles and stuff, just drawn on A4 bank with a Pigma micron 02 black pen. Once I was happy with everything I started the ‘good’ sketch on better paper. It looked too clean and tidy and some of the angles were plain wrong. So I retrieved my rough and splashed on some colour and that looked so much better. The moral is Never throw away your rough sketch until you are sure the ‘good’ sketch works.
Note to self: Learn how to sketch running water (or champagne!)

Spoke to Jamie and discussed the videos he sent. Nothing to do with the house this time, just views of the flooded road beside his house. Lucky for them, for once, to have a house, built on a hill and also high above the road. Others weren’t so lucky and the videos of nutters driving full tilt into the floods makes you wonder for their mentality.

Tomorrow Scamp is hoping to see the dentist to get an assessment of the damage to a big old back tooth, now missing its filling.

Cormorant – 15 February 2024

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It was a wet day today. Nothing really to recommend it, except that there was no mist today, unlike yesterday.

After a lazy start and a light lunch, we drove up to Tesco in the town centre to get some messages. As I’ve said before, there is more of a choice there and why stint yourself when you can add five minutes to your drive and get a far better choice. We bumped into Shona there and remarked on her new hair colour. Then we drove home. Some days are full of exciting surprises and some are days like today.

I went for a walk round St Mo’s because the rain had stopped for a while and I wanted to get out. Scamp was busy booking a hair appointment for tomorrow. Not hair colouring, just hair cutting. Occasionally a Cormorant visits the pond in St Mo’s and it was standing there today holding its wings out to dry. It would take quite a while for them to dry today because although it was mild, the wind had disappeared with the rain. As I said, it was drying its wings, but it kept turning round to see what I was up to behind it and one of those times I managed to get a full face to face shot. Quite pleased with it. PoD done and dusted.

Dinner tonight was roast chicken and it was done perfectly. I also roasted some beetroot we’d bought at the weekend and it will probably go into a salad or on a piece of bread tomorrow. I cut the tops off carefully, Hazy, and they are now sitting in their water bath on the kitchen window sill. The garlic and spring onion were getting leggy so they are now planted in soil in the greenhouse.

I found today’s prompt, Chartreuse, one of the most restrictive this year in EDiF.
Chartreuse is an alcohol based herbal liqueur made by monks in southern France to a secret recipe. It sounded to me like an upmarket Buckfast, also made by monks to a secret recipe. The two main differences are the cost and the colour. Chartreuse is green or yellow and Buckfast is brown with red tinges (or so I’m told). I liked the idea of green wine, but not the cost.

The clock is in the picture because the first time I heard the word Chartreuse was in the track “Clockwork Chartreuse” on the Loudon Wainwright III album “Attempted Mustache” back in the early ’70s. The lyrics are fairly violent and probably wouldn’t be allowed in these PC days.

Scamp is booked to get her hair cut tomorrow morning and I might cut mine in the afternoon. Twins!

Going for the messages – 12 February 2024

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Just going for the Monday shop.

In the morning we drove over in sunshine to Tesco and bought some essentials. Monday is for essentials like milk and bread, except they had no filtered milk. None at all. There is something screwed with our local Tesco just now. Usually it’s no bread on a Monday or no rolls. It’s like the local Tesco is the second class citizen to the ‘Big’ Tesco at the town centre. No filtered milk was a new one on us though. They actually had bread, and rolls for once, but we didn’t want them!

Back home, after lunch, we watched the big black clouds come rolling in from the north west … and just roll past. Then the sun shone again. I could wait no longer, I put my boots on and went for a walk in St Mo’s with the A7. It had clouded over again by the time I got there, but a strong wind was breaking up the clouds quite efficiently and just for a minute the sun shone on the reed beds out in the pond and lit them up beautifully. I got two shots before the clouds closed the good light down again. I was happy with my shot which was just as well, because the sun didn’t come back again until I was home.

Dinner tonight was a plate of Giovanni Rana mushroom tortelloni, and very nice it was too, served with butter and grated parmesan. I’d a bit of work to do with the sewing machine after dinner and after a couple of silly mistakes everything worked out fine. Still some stuff to do to it, but it should be ready for next week.

I didn’t quite get round to sketching the bottle of Burgundy that was requested in the prompt. Instead I splash some paint on an ink sketch of a wine glass, forgetting the ink was water soluble and it all went a bit tricky, but there was no saving it, so instead I spattered more red paint on it and I quite liked the effect. Hopefully you’ll get to see it tomorrow.

PoD was indeed the light on the reeds in the pond and it looks quite good after being in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Hoping to meet Alex tomorrow for a photo walk, maybe in Paisley with the option of going to Bowling for some boat photos some time soon. Scamp has herself a free day to do with as she wishes. I’m intending to travel by bus.

Recipe from the past – 11 February 2024

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A dull misty day with occasional rain showers. Oh for some sun!

After a lazy start to the day, and after watching Laura Kuenssberg ripping into more politicians, I decided to go out in the early afternoon and get some photos taken, even if it was raining, but first there was a lamb breast to prepare and put in the oven

I’d found the recipe in my blog for just over a year ago and it had worked then, so it would work again. I had recorded the gas settings and the timings, so I stuck strictly to them. With it safely in the oven, I left Scamp in charge and walked across to St Mo’s

I did the circular tour of the pond and did manage to get some decent photos for a change. Of course it was when I was walking home that the really good light appeared and by that time I’d almost filled the 16GB card that was my self-imposed limit for the day. I did manage to squeeze another couple of shot in just to make the most of the light. As it happened, the PoD turned out to be one of the first shots I’d taken of a group of Cladonia lichen. I didn’t quit manage to get all of it in focus with a single shot, so did the next best thing and took one shot focusing on the nearest stalk and another of the further away one, then blended the two in Affinity Photo which is downright brilliant at this trick.

The prompt today asked for Olive. I did think of painting a picture of Olive Oyl, but I’d painted that lady some time ago in response for another prompt. So instead I tried the easy answer and drew some Kalamata olives in a wee bowl. I love olives of whatever variety, but have to be careful not to eat too many, if you understand what I mean. Luckily for me I didn’t have any in the house, so the temptation did not arise.

The lamb was quite excellent and just as good as I remembered it from a year ago. Served with potatoes, carrots, turnip and cabbage. Scamp, of course, only had the veg.

Spoke to Jamie and heard about his calamitous week with Simonne falling off her skittish horse, but no bones broken, just a bit painful. The latest setback is that there may be a problem with the new dormer windows. All to do with one member of the council being off ill, so no decisions can be made until they return. Really? If this was a company they’d all be sacked and replaced long ago. If it wasn’t for bad luck Jamie and Simonne wouldn’t have any luck at all.

We watched a comedy tonight. It was called Death in Paradise. It’s becoming more of a farce every week. Every ‘actor’ more wooden than the last.

Apparently we need MORE messages tomorrow. I thought we’d bought enough last week and on Saturday, but it appears I’m wrong and we’re probably going shopping again tomorrow.

 

 

Just for a change, the sun shone for a while this morning – 10 February 2024

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It didn’t last, but it was a sign of things to come, hopefully.

We managed to get out early today, well, early for us at least. I suggested Stirling as the place to go and off we went. I’d checked the battery in the A6500 and it was in fairly good order. I checked the SD card and formatted it. Then we left for Stirling and halfway down the motorway I realised I’d left the camera bag (with camera) on the sofa in the house! Never mind. I had my phone with me that would see me through the amount of photos I’d take.

After cruising around a busy Waitrose car park we finally chanced upon a space and squeezed ourselves into it then we went for a walk round Stirling. We both wandered round our own collection of shops and agreed to meet up later, which we did. Scamp suggested an M&S curry deal for dinner and I agreed. Dinner bought we asked each other, did we really want to go for a coffee? Neither of us were all that interested, so we walked back to the car and dumped the dinner in the boot then went to see what we could find in Waitrose. I got a rolled breast of lamb that will hopefully become my dinner tomorrow and Scamp got a couple of nice pieces of fish. Paid and added the takings to the growing pile in the boot, then made someone’s day bay nudging forward into the long, long queue of folk cruising round looking for a free space. A delighted looking woman in a van was happy to take ours and we drove home.

It’s funny the way weather works. When we were driving towards Stirling the sky ahead of us was much lighter than that behind us. When we were driving home in the early afternoon, the light ahead of us was much lighter than that behind us again! How does that happen?

Back home I went for a walk in St Mo’s WITH the camera this time, but got nothing interesting, so I walked down through the muddy wilderness behind St Mo’s to the shops and bought a load of stuff we didn’t need, but which was well received when I got home.

PoD was a quick phone shot in Stirling of three folk sitting on a bench, each texting on their phones. It’s entitled “Happy Tappers”.

Today’s prompt was “Ash”. This tree might soon be a thing of the past with Ash dieback being so rife these days. In my own street about half a dozen trees were felled in autumn last year. Some of them weren’t even ash trees, which brings into question the integrity of some of the tree fellers the council employs.

Today’s prompt was ‘Ash’. I always liked playing with the ash seeds when I was younger. We never called them Keys, we called them ‘propellers’ because of their shape and also because of the way they spun when they fell from the trees. Let’s hope some clever folk can devise a way to save the trees and staunch the damage done by the disease.

Dinner was that curry and it still looks like the lamb breast will be tomorrow’s dinner for me at least.

No real plans for tomorrow. Maybe Glasgow Green.