Category: St Mo’s

Tipping – 31 May 2026

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Not the tip you hope to get for work well done, more the tip that you put the old, broken and useless stuff in.

I drove over to the council tip an waited in the queue of cars for my turn to drop off our old Dyson carpet sweeper, drove round to the other side of the tip and loaded everything else into the waiting maws of the compactor, then drove home.

After lunch and after watching Laura Kuenssberg finding holes in Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that “She knew noting” about her husband’s alleged crimes, I pulled my boots on and went out for a walk, only to find Jackie walking up to the step. She was staying with us for the next few days.

I walked over to St Mo’s and found some Red Campion flowers that were growing by the side of the path. They provided a PoD and a last photo for May 2026. I wandered on past the yellow Irises that I’d photographed yesterday and bought some milk in M&S and some Jelly Babies in Iceland. On the way I found the new path that had been made to connect the retail park to the path to the football park. It’s taken the council at least two years to create that new path, but I shouldn’t complain, at least we got the path.

Dinner tonight was Roasted Chicken and Peas. A staple in this house and one that seemed to go down well with Jackie too. Her and Scamp had a chance to peruse the thirty odd photos we’d put together from old and very old photos we’d found in Paul’s house. Interesting stuff there.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard about their plans for coming up to Scotland soon. Looking forward to that.

Tomorrow looks wet, but I’m hoping to get the car through the car wash then drive a full car load over to say goodbye to Paul.

Ladybird – 28 May 2026

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It was a cloudy morning but it did eventually clear to another bright day.

After we’d had lunch we went to pick up Shona and drove to the Co-op for her to see Paul. Such a busy place.

We all drove back to Tesco in the town centre and came back to the car with some stuff. Well, it was Thursday with all that entails and traditions have to be kept.

Back home I went for a walk in St Mo’s and got a few photos of an 18 spot ladybird that seemed to be reluctant to leave its perch on the wild flower it had found. It would open its wing covers and close them again as if it was practicing for flying off. That made PoD.

Shona was staying with us tonight, but she had left her washing out at her house, so she and Scamp went back to collect it. That left me some time to post the ladybird photo.

Dinner tonight was another of the large pizzas. A bit heavy, but decent enough and it filled a wee space as we say, with an ice lolly each to finish it off.

Although it will probably rain overnight or maybe tomorrow, we watered the garden tonight. We just used the watering can. One of us going clockwise and the other going anti-clockwise. I’m sure the plants will appreciate it.

No plans for tomorrow, but the weather fairies all agree that the temperature will have dropped and there will be the chance of rain.

More carpets, more cleaning – 27 May 2026

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Yesterday we started the big clean-up. Today we finished the ground floor.

We were a bit more organised today, dividing the work between us. Also we found some of the details in the cleaner itself and that made things a lot easier. Probably the toughest part was the hall, which hadn’t been cleaned for a long time. The last item on today’s list was the carpet in the kitchen. Neither of us can remember when it was last cleaned, so just for fun, I cleaned half of the carpet and admired the difference between the newly cleaned, wet part and the dry area. I wish, now, that I’d photographed the two halves, just for the record!

After lunch we admired our work then Scamp went out to cut the grass in the back garden, while I went for a walk in St Mo’s. There were a few more damselflies overflying the pond. A couple of Common Blue damsels and a lesser number of Large Reds. No dragonflies yet, but maybe I’m asking for too much. Maybe by mid June, all being well, we’ll see these aerial acrobats. For today I was happy enough to capture the Large Red as PoD.

When I came back we sat and read for an hour or so. Scamp had a Pimm’s and I had a can of Brewdog Black Heart stout. Unfortunately it will be the last from that company which has now gone into liquidation. A great loss. No more Elvis Juice either, for the same reason.

It was another lovely warm day, but the temperature is dropping. There is a cool west wind blowing as I’m writing this and tomorrow may be the last day of this warm spell. Rain predicted for the next week. I suppose it is a good thing, because we won’t need to water the plants if things go the way the weather fairies predict.

I think we may have some family business to deal with tomorrow.

Off to Brookfield for a dance class – 23May2026

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This may possibly be the last dance class for a whole month. The teachers are off on two different cruises. I won’t say I am disappointed, but I’m not.

We got a great surprise when we headed over to Brookfield and were allowed to travel faster than 40mph. The 40mph ban had been lifted and we were driving at normal motorway speeds. Even better, the roads were only partly full. We usually watch for one of the big ‘out of town’ parking areas to whizz past on the left, only half full. Today it was almost totally full. Finally we reached Brookfield, about fifteen minutes quicker than usual. That’s the difference the 40mph ban makes.

Today was a high energy dance class. It started with the Electric Slide which only about fifty percent of of the class seemed comfortable with. I was just lost – thinking it was The House of Bamboo with different music. Then we were into the ‘meat’ of today’s class with “Celia’s American Smooth Waltz”. Every time I start this dance, I think I’ve got it sorted in my head, then it falls to pieces. Today if took me a couple of rounds of the floor before I managed to join all the units together correctly.

A couple of sequence dances came next to give us a bit of relaxation, then it was time for another of Stewart and Jane’s less complicated dances and we finally ended up with another exhausting sequence dance that left most of the senior dancers gasping for breath.

We walked out of the hall into sunshine. It was such a beautiful day. We drove home in very light traffic for a Saturday. We even had enough time to go to M&S for some messages.

After lunch, Scamp wanted to work in the garden and I wanted to go out to St Mo’s in the hope of finding a damselfly ,,, and there it was, a Common Blue damselfly. It was very agitated and kept flying away. Eventually it settled down and I got a clear, if distant, view of the insect. The first damselfly this year for me! That became the PoD.

Tomorrow I have no plans.

Photobombed – 21 May 2026

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A lazy start to a day that seemed to be constantly threatening rain.

The result was that I didn’t do much, although I did plant out a couple of flowers that had come in a bundle of dried flowers for my birthday. Most of the flowers were desiccated and didn’t show any way of producing roots or leaves, but a couple of them did manage to produce a coil of roots, so I gave them a chance and potted them up. They are now soaking up water in the bird bath. I’m sure the birds won’t mind.

I went for a walk after lunch and was just lining up on a string of cygnets that have appeared in St Mo’s pond when I was photobombed by a couple of Mallards, one male and one female. It’s something to do with the time of year. Spring is busting out all over and that sort of thing. I kept the shot and liked the way all the birds and reflections lined up nicely. That became PoD.

Dinner tonight was half a home-made Quiche for Scamp. The second half of the quiche she’d made yesterday. My dinner was Mince ’n’ Tatties. Again it was half a dinner Scamp had made for my yesterday because I hadn’t told her I was dining out with Alex yesterday. I think it was probably better today.

We had a meeting with Shona and the Celebrant in the evening. The celebrant that Shona had chosen was the same one that spoke at her mother’s funeral and he was really good. I think we were all impressed with the way he collected information and collated it in such a way that you would have believed he knew the person he was talking about. After an hour or so he had all the information he needed, but told Shona that she could contact him at any time to add more information if she wanted.

When he left we sat with a cup of tea and talked with Shona for a while. I think we’re all feeling the pressure now, but Shona is feeling it more than most of us.

Thanks for your message Jamie. I’d forgotten about Val’s massive antenna.

Tomorrow we’re planning on going to Paisley for lunch.

One of those days … – 12 May 2026

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… when you feel your feet are spinning and you’re getting nowhere. That was today.

In the morning, I drove over to Larky to pick up my new computer glasses. They weren’t high tech ones, just much more comfortable for working on laptops and desktops without being too close or too far away. Goldilocks glasses, in other words. That was the morning dealt with.

Next was a quick lunch followed then a change of clothes into something more suitable, to drive over to the funeral parlour. We wanted to listen to what the the funeral arranger had to say. Neither Scamp nor I had much to add to the discussion, we were just there for Shona. When we came away an hour later we had a much better idea of what was going to happen.

To allow everyone to talk about the decisions that were made, we went for a cup of tea in a local pub. That allowed us to breath more easily and to compare all our thoughts on the last hour. There is so much to discuss and so many questions. I’m sure we’ll have even more in the coming weeks. The funeral arranger had been very good and didn’t pressurise anyone into making a hasty decision, which was good.

After the discussion group broke up, two driving to Warrington, one going home and us returning to ‘the real world’ and heading to Tesco for The Messages!

Back home, it was my turn to make the dinner which was to be Cod and Prawns with Fennel and White Wine. It sounds very grand, but is a fairly easy dinner to make as long as you plan well ahead, which I rarely do.

PoD today was a flower by the wayside.

Now I’m intending to do two sketches (one for yesterday and one for today) and finish the blog. Wish me luck.

Dentist – 11 May 2026

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I had an appointment with the dentist this morning.

Thankfully it was a painless one. One gentle scrub with the dental grinding wheel to take the roughness off one of my front teeth and I was done until nearly the end of the year. No fillings today mum!

Back in time for lunch, then an almighty struggle with MacOS and Microsoft to transfer half a dozen photos from Mac to a Microsoft computer. Eventually I managed it by copying the Mac OS file on to an old SD card formatted to MS-DOS (FAT32) the lowest version that works with Mac OS and Microsoft. Why do different operating systems have to be so bloody minded.
The files copied easily to the SD card and transferred to the Microsoft computer.

I went out for a walk after that. Just one circuit of St Mo’s, but failed to find anything interesting for PoD. That went to a photo from the garden of a Dodecathon ‘Shooting Star’. A beautiful short lived flower whose origin is in the US, but which grows well in the UK and comes back every year (So far!).

We were dancing in Kirsty’s class this evening, our first time in about three weeks. Tonight it was Foxtrot which she had chopped into three parts. We managed to complete part one tonight with the possibility of more next week.

We’ve some family business tomorrow, but other than that, our dance card if empty.

Lazy Sunday – 10 May 2026

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Breakfast in bed on a Sunday morning. Nothing to beat it!

In the morning we watched Laura Kuenssberg doing her usual Mrs Nasty impersonation and trying to keep those excitable politicians in line. It was a tough job today. Some were bemoaning their losses and others were just their usual smug selves. Wouldn’t you just hate to be a politician? No matter what you do there is bound to be someone who wants to burst your balloon.

It was such a lovely morning we walked down to the shops to get stuff for lunch and dinner. Scamp had it all planned out.

Lunch was our usual fried offering black pudding and / or haggis, with an egg for Scamp and some tinned tomatoes for me.

After lunch I went over to St Mo’s to walk off the excesses. The warm air from the morning was beginning to cool down and I was glad I’d taken my Rab jacket with me. PoD was a grab shot of a head-on shot of a bunch of Larch needles. From a distance I was sure I could see two eyes and a furry nose looking at me, but maybe I was mistaken!

Dinner was Prawn Cocktail followed by Jersey Royal potatoes, Sea Bream and Griddled Red Pepper as the main.
Then Fresh Fruit Salad chopped up neatly by Scamp.

Spoke to Jamie later and got the itinerary for their intended visit north in a few weeks. We also saw some of Simonne’s beautiful photos from their recent holiday. Made us jealous.

Tomorrow I have a visit to the dentist to look forward to.

A busy day – 6May 2026

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A sad day too

Scamp was out at the dentist in the morning for her six month checkup then after a quick lunch we drove over to Falkirk for the funeral of a friend and workmate who had passed away recently. She met a couple of work colleagues after the service, but didn’t stay for the tea afterwards. Instead we drove home and dropped another of her colleagues off near her home. When we got home, there was a box of flowers on our doorstep from my brother. What a thoughtful thing to do on a day like today.

The sun had been shining all day and it didn’t let us down in the late afternoon. I went for a walk with a couple of lenses in my new bag. Just a walk over to St Mo’s, not expecting much. Then I spotted a wee fly sitting on top of a wild iris spike, and after three or four shots I had a potential PoD.

I walked over the hill and through the trees on a path that would take me to the new(ish) retail park. Brought back a few things including an enormous slab pizza. I had my doubts about it at a knock-down price, but it was actually a lovely soft dinner. I’d buy one again.

Back home I sketched a fairly representative single decker bus, the prompt being “A means of public transportation.” A nice easy sketch, especially if there is no paint involved. That is planned for next week!

Tomorrow I’m off to see the optician for my annual checkup. Well, if Scamp can survive the dentist’s probing, surely I can manage to find time for the optician.

Covid Jag – 5 May 2026

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Drove over to Muirhead to get my Covid booster.

I wasn’t looking forward to it, but in the end it was quite painless.

While I was in Muirhead I thought I might drop in to Collins the butcher in the town and came home with a big bag of meat, fish and a bag of potato scones, plus a Cornish Pastie which halved would make a decent lunch with enough left over to cover tomorrow, hopefully.

After lunch, Scamp started to cut the back grass. It was getting a bit like a jungle and you never knew what might be lurking in the long grass, so all the grass got a short back and sides. While Scamp was religiously cleaning the mower, I plugged the strimmer into the power box and began cutting carefully around the crocuses that hadn’t flowered this year. That should give them time to wilt away naturally and improve the quality of the bulbs underground. A few folk scratched their heads and wondered what I was doing, but I think it will work. We will wait and see.

After the strimmer and the mower were deemed clean enough to be put away, I went for a walk over St Mo’s. I was toting a 70-180mm Tamron lens with a backup of my 24-105mm Sony lens. Both were used. Not a lot to see, but PoD was a bunch of Marsh Marigolds pushing their heads through a field of Water Horsetails.

I’ve started working on my sketches of EDiM (Every Day in May) and actually enjoying it. I may strip down the old computer and start painting for a change. It’s a long time since I did any painting.

Dinner tonight was Cabbage with Potatoes and Bacon. The veg was fine, but the bacon was a bit strange tasting. I’m not sure I like it.

Tomorrow we’re intending going to the funeral of one of Scamp’s old friends from work.