Category: St Mo’s

Another dreich day to begin with – 13 October 2024

Posted on by Zogman

I think the temperature was around 3ºc when I was making breakfast, but that was from reading the temperature directly from the sensor at the outside of the back door.

Something had gone awry with the wireless connection between the sensor and the display. The sensor hangs on the door jamb at the back of the house and the display lives in the nice warm house itself. The sensor seemed to be reading, but the display wasn’t receiving. The repair is simple. It’s just a case of removing the old batteries and replacing them with new ones. The calibration isn’t so easy, although we’ve done it many times since we bought this usually trustworthy bit of kit about 30 years ago(?). A long time ago, anyway. After reading the instructions carefully, it all came flooding back and, as we watched the temperature drop outside the back door, the internal display followed it. Success!

Shocked to hear that Alex Salmond had died yesterday. Sixty nine is no age at all these days. I never really liked him, but he did seem to have the best interests of the nation at his heart. Such a shame.

I was staring into space after fixing the temperature gauge when I noticed the sun had crept round to light up the sunflowers Scamp had arranged in a vase. They really glowed in the sunlight, so I grabbed the A7 and took half a dozen, ok, nearer a dozen photos. One of them made PoD. Nice to see a bit of sunshine to brighten our day.

After an elegant lunch of fried cloutie dumpling, fried bacon and a fried egg I girded my loins and put on my boots, fleece and gloves and marched into the garden to do battle with the Teasels and Buddleia, then chopped them into easily transportable chunks that I could bag ready to go into the skips tomorrow. It really was cold and the spines in the teasels would have ripped my hands to pieces were it not for the gloves.

Jackie phoned Scamp just as I was debating a walk in St Mo’s just in case the sunflower photos wouldn’t quite cut the mustard once they’d been processed. I was halfway round St Mo’s when I realised I didn’t have my phone. It’s so strange and disconcerting when you realise you don’t have your phone with you. I just feel so disconnected from everything just because my lump of plastic, glass and some ’tronics isn’t in my pocket. I walked back and heard all about the goings on with the “Gorgeous wee baby” up in Skye.

Dinner tonight was Burrata and Tomatoes with Basil as a starter, followed by leftover Chicken breast and Spinach made into a pie with Potatoes on the side. Dessert was Apple slices in pastry. I thought it was lovely. Scamp wasn’t impressed with her work. Never satisfied!

Spoke to Jamie later and heard his planned holidays climbing mountains in Arran and later in 2025 a wedding in the highlands. We’d been planning holidays too. Some time in the new year hopefully, a week or so in the Canaries would be nice.

PoD was indeed,  the sunflower in the sun. Today’s prompt for Inktober was another uninspiring “Horizon”. What is the horizon, but a curved line that the human eye sees as a straight line. I gave a simplistic answer to a simple prompt, as you see here. The prompts this year are tedious.

I think I may be taking some garden refuse over to the skips tomorrow if the weather is good.

 

Off to Spain – 5 October 2024

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Now don’t get excited, we were just outside Paisley, but we were dancing Paso La Paz like Spaniards!

Well, Scamp was dancing it like a Spaniard, I was plodding along in her wake, more like a Spaniel than a Spaniard. It’s the fast and furious Spanish bullfighter’s dance that we started last week. It’s really too fast for me and my old dance shoes. They are struggling to keep up with Rumba One (in joke), far less do the heel stomps and the toe taps and the arm across the chest. I struggled with this last week and this week I think I was worse. Heaven knows how I’ll get on with the full strength Paso Doble the teachers are talking about!

The Paso La Paz was actually the last routine we did. The first one was the Queen of Hearts rumba which was our warm up. It too was a mystery until the second track when muscle memory took over and pushed me in the right direction. It’s been years since we originally learned this sequence dance and that’s my excuse for getting it wrong through most of the first track.

The second dance was the Viennese Waltz. It looks fairly easy when you’re watching it on Strictly, but don’t be fooled there are fast passages in this too. Natural Turns (clockwise) and Reverse Turns (anti-clockwise) plus Half Natural and Half Reverse. By the time we got to the end of the second track I couldn’t remember if I was coming or going.

Next was the Paso La Paz, but you’ve heard all about that already, so I won’t go into it again. We finished off with two tracks of a Midnight Jive which is a simple sequence dance that is extremely exhausting. I think Stewart just chose it out of badness!

We drove home and had a restful afternoon lunch. Couldn’t decide what we were going to have for dinner and eventually settled on a microwaveable curry from M&S washed down with half a bottle of Barossa Ink.

Later we watched tonight’s Strictly and wondered what Toyah Willcox was doing on this show, apart from a bit of self promotion. I don’t know how much she paid to be on the show, but it’s definitely not enough.

Today’s PoD was a branch of Berberis we passed on the way to the shops. Beautiful bright red and orange leaves.

Today’s prompt was Binoculars which is what I drew. These are a pair of Nikon binoculars I got for a song in John Lewis a couple of years ago. Light, bright and with a good magnification they are almost always in my case when we go on holiday.

Tomorrow we may go looking for tree lights to brighten up the Rowan tree in the back garden.

We went shopping – 3 October 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Today we went for the messages, in Waitrose in Stirling.

We drove to Waitrose in Stirling for the run and to get some messages. Not a lot said Scamp. About an hour later we returned to the car with three bags full (a bit like Baa Baa Black Sheep!). We’d intended to go into Stirling for a coffee, but instead Scamp wanted to go home, so that’s what we did.

Scamp is very organised and today as we unpacked the bags in the kitchen, she built three piles of messages. One pile for those that were going into the cupboard upstairs. Another pile for those that were going into the fridge and a final pile for the items that were going into the freezer. You see what I mean? Organised.
I have to admit, it did make storing a lot easier. One day I’ll be organised like Scamp. Ha Ha, No Chance!

Later in what was now mid afternoon I took the A7 out for a walk with me and took just over thirty photos. I only meant to take about twenty, but I’m guessing my finger kept finding the shutter button on the camera and because I was using Silent Shutter Mode, I didn’t hear myself taking photos as I was walking. It wasn’t until I got home and downloaded the photos that I found the dozen or so blurred photos of leaves, the path I was walking on and some beautiful concentric circles. I have no idea where I got that last one. PoD was an actual shot that I knowingly took. It’s a view through the trees and along the boardwalk at St Mo’s. The light shining through the trees is real, not faked for once.

Today’s prompt for Inktober was ‘Boots’ and I drew my old comfortable walking boots. A fair amount of folk are still pretending to sketch, but are really using AI of one kind or another to produce a sketch. I tried it myself today and created a much better version of the Discovery space shuttle than I could ever draw and if I hadn’t known it was created in Photoshop using AI, I’d have thought it was drawn.

Today we had a Charlie Bigham Lasagne for dinner. It was lovely!

As promised, I had a rummage around the computer folders and found the last two sketches. One of a rocket ship and one of a pair of boots. I hope you can tell which is which.

Tomorrow I’m hoping to drop off the blue car for its annual service in Glasgow while Scamp will have to get the bus to FitSteps.

New Tyres – 2 October 2024

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Scamp was out this morning for coffee with Shona. I was left at home.

Another beautiful looking day. Bright sun, but not all that much warmth was getting through. While the coffee drinkers were out, I posted today’s sketch, whose prompt asked for Discover and if you read yesterday’s blog you’ll know that with a ‘Y’ tacked on to the end, Discover became Discovery which was the name of one of the first Space Shuttle orbiters. I seem to remember seeing a plane with a retired Space Shuttle riding piggyback on it flying around Glasgow. It was while I was at Jordanhill and it caused a great stir. Anyway, The Space Shuttle was posted today and I started sketch 3 for Inktober, since I had some peace. The prompt asked for Boots and I gave it a sketch of my solid leather walking boots. Like most of the sketches, it’s not perfect, but looks like a pair of boots. It’s good being able to keep one step ahead of the required sketches. Here is the first sketch. I’m going to rummage through the computer to find today’s!

When Scamp returned, I missed lunch and drove down to Jim Dickson’s to get four new tyres on the blue car. It seemed a shame to wait in the ‘office’ of the garage, so I handed in my keys and went for a walk round The Village. Isobel had told us that a voluntary group was cleaning up the village cemetery and I went to have a look. Thankfully they hadn’t cut all the grass or scrubbed away the moss on the old headstones, but still put their stamp on it, so folk would know that work had been done. From there I walked round the rest of the village and found my way back at the garage to be told that they were almost finished and would I like to settle up? It was exactly what I’d been told yesterday and I was happy to pay for the work done. It’s good to support local business.

Back home with four shiny new tyres, I was ready for a filled roll with cold meat. Then I had time for a quick walk round St Mo’s and got today’s PoD on the way home. A low viewpoint shot of the path to St Mo’s with a bit of warm late afternoon sunshine coming through the trees.

Dinner was paella and it wasn’t my best. It ended up a bit claggy and soggy. My excuse is that it’s ages since the last time I made it.

Just finished dinner and it was time to get ready for Kirsty’s dance class. Again not our best. We are both agreed that the floor is simply too small for four couples to dance in. Also when she’s demonstrating, Kirsty is dancing almost round in a circle, so it’s difficult to visualise how that dance would look on a ballroom floor where it would be danced in a straight line. Both of us lost our tempers during tonight’s class. We must do some prep before next week’s class.

We have no plans for tomorrow, but shopping has been mentioned.

A busy day – 1 October 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Lots done today, but lots more still to do.

Today was the first day of October and that usually means a lot of work. When you add in a hundred odd beginner sketchers trying to post their pictures in Inktober 2024 that starts today too, it becomes a bit hectic.

After I’d read the first few comments and fixed some Inktober problems, then had time to look at the sketches it was time to drive up to Jim Dickson’s garage to get someone to have a look at the blue car’s tyres and give me a price for them. I agreed the price and was told the tyres would be with me tomorrow (Wednesday). I’d already dropped Scamp off at the town centre where she was going to have coffee with Isobel. That left me some time on my own. I used that time to post my first Inktober 2024 sketch and to tidy up some of the problems that had cropped up with people lost as to how to post etc.

I got a message that Scamp was ready to come home and picked her up at the town centre where she won a prize by getting a bag of rolls and also well fired ones to boot. That was lunch sorted.

I like to be ahead of the game with Inktober and knew I had a busy month ahead, so I started investigating the possible solutions for day 2. I couldn’t decide what to do with the prompt, which was ‘Discover’, but if I added a ‘y’ to the end and made it Discovery, that was the name of one of the first Space Shuttle orbiters that NASA built. All I had to do was to find a decent photo of it on Google and fifteen minutes later I had a rough sketch completed and day 2 was in the bag.

The sun was still shining but the temperature was low, so I wrapped up well and went for a walk in St Mo’s. Just walking past our row of houses I saw it. Three sparrows sat evenly spaced on the fence of the corner house. The second of two shots was the PoD. I still went for a walk and got some more shots that looked great in the viewfinder, but were poor once I’d enlarged them on the computer. The sparrows were the definite winners.

Dinner was a ‘what have we got in the fridge’ stirfry. Scamp is the past master at making this and sails through it without any problems, while I always forget one ingredient or another and have to search the shelf while the veg is burning. Oh to be organised!

Fairly early up and out tomorrow. Scamp may be meeting Shona for coffee and I’m hoping to drop the car off for its ’new boots’.

The end of September – 30 September 2024

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Well, this shouldn’t take too long.

In the morning I drove down to the Village to see if Jim Dickson’s garage was open to get a booking for a couple of tyres. Because this is September Weekend, a Scottish holiday I wasn’t really expecting it to be open and it wasn’t. The garage was shuttered and shut.

I was just reaching the garage when my phone jingled into life. It was Hazy testing a WhatsApp multi-person call, the multi-persons being Scamp and me. I was confused at first, then I realised what was going on and told Hazy I’d catch up with her when I got home. I caught the tail end of the call when I got home. Incredible house prices down south. The asking price for the house next door to Hazy and Neil is £700,000 for a three bedroom bungalow! Crazy money.

I went out later, once the call was finished, to put some air in the tyres because they were a bit low. Hopefully I’ll get to speak to Jim tomorrow to get the front tyres replaced.

Later in the afternoon I put on my new wet weather jacket, because the rain was coming and going, and got a few photos over in St Mo’s. Spiders were the topic today, and one of them got PoD.

I believe that’s about all I can say about today. Hoping the weather fairies have got it right with their predictions of a few dry days to take us up to the weekend.

If I remember to switch it on, Inktober 2024 will light up the Interweb at midnight.

The Bunny – 29 September 2024

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A lazy day. At least, for me it was. Scamp was dividing plants in the garden.

Scamp was dividing a Candelabra Primula. One mature plant made an extra three plants. The original plant went back into the hole it came from and the three divisions went around it. Hopefully all four will survive the winter. I’m pretty sure she did some pruning as well. She just loves pruning plants to make them nice and tidy.

After the gardening, it was lunch time and of course we watched Laura Kuenssberg interrogating two Conservative hopefuls for the top job. Why anyone would want a job where apparently everyone hates you, I’ll never know. An easy life and a lazy Sunday is more my expectation these days. In fact, why restrict it to Sundays? Let’s make it any day with a “Y” in it. There, that’s something to strive for.

Next for me was a walk in St Mo’s for a few photos. Not a lot going on over the road today. A few shots of a dark red dragonfly and another couple of a pigeon surveying the pond, but the PoD went to a bunch of Michaelmas Daisies. I thought it was fitting that these flowers should find their way into Flickr on the 29th of September, the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel.

Spoke to Jamie later and found that he’s having to deal with problems at work that he hadn’t expected. Life isn’t easy sometimes. I felt really sorry for him. On a brighter note, it seems he’s going to have a new back door some time soon. One that fits the frame this time.

I was standing at the window this morning looking at nothing when I noticed a movement on the path. It was a rabbit, munching away at the weeds on the far side of the path. I pointed it out to Scamp who thought it might be a pet rabbit that had escaped from its owners. It certainly didn’t look as skittish as wild rabbits usually are and seemed quite happy to have found some new free food. We watched it on and off for about half an hour before it disappeared. Must keep an eye out for it in the next few days.

I’m intending going down to the village tomorrow to price four new tyres for the blue car.

Strictly! – 28 September 2024

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We’re sitting watching a recording of tonight’s Strictly, but this morning we did our own Strictly!

We drove to Brookfield in the morning with me in my usual Saturday morning grumpy “I don’t want to go” mood. The nearer we got to the dance class, the lighter my mood got. Don’t know why. I don’t ask the questions, and I don’t try to answer them. I just go with what my inner ‘Black Monkey’ says.

So today’s dance lesson started with Blue Angel Rumba which was a quite simple and fairly easy sequence dance. Then everything changed and the first dance they wanted us to do was the Viennese Waltz. Lots of turning and lots of simple change of place, but all done in a very strict tempo. Most of it worked for us without thinking, because we were working to carefully choreographed moves. Thankfully we didn’t have to do too many spins, because Scamp didn’t have her sticky out multi-layered petticoat on and I’d forgotten my evening dress and tails. Other than that it was a success.

Next dance was Paso La Paz. Lots of stamping of feet and pretending to hold a beachball between us as we strutted round the floor. We did toe taps and matador stances waving our imaginary capes in front of us. Apparently the foot stamps and the toe taps are to clean the blood and sand from our shoes while we are in the bullring and after the bull has been despatched! Who knew? Neither of these were the Foxtrot or the Four Seasons Waltz we’d been expecting. Interesting though!

A couple of tracks of the Midnight Jive brought us back down to earth again and then it was time to head home again. Actually a really interesting and thought provoking couple of dances. I won’t criticise Strictly again. Well, actually I will, but I’ll be a bit more sympathetic with the poor folk having to learn these dances that look so easy, but are not.

I took the A7 our for a walk later with the Tamron lens for company. There wasn’t much to see but it rained while I was out and I got a chance to see the raindrops beading and dripping from my new rain jacket. PoD turned out to be a robin singing its little heart out from the top of a Hawthorn bush. Quite impressed with the quality.

I came home via the chip shop with a Special Fish Supper (two fish in breadcrumbs and chips). After that we watched the ‘other’ strictly. Not nearly as good or as difficult as our morning dances!

No plans for tomorrow. I wonder if Scamp would notice if I cut a rose, and gripping it securely in my teeth while I stamped my feet, stood with my head back and one arm across my chest and the other behind my back in classic Matador’s stance, as I made breakfast tomorrow morning?

Shopping in the rain – 24 September 2024

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We haven’t had very much rain for weeks, but when Scamp risked shopping wearing a hoodie but no raincoat or brolly, it was a day too far.

We’d been to Tesco in the afternoon. I was wearing my famous blue raincoat, not my new rainproof jacket, but Scamp had decided it wasn’t going to rain and it didn’t … At least, not until we were coming out of the shop with a trolley full of groceries. Then the rain started and unfortunately Scamp got wet.

It was really just a shower, but a lengthy one and quite heavy for a while. I used that time to wax my boots, something I’d been intending to do for about a month or more. When the rain dragged itself away to annoy someone else, I put on my new green jacket and my freshly waxed boots and went for a walk in St Mo’s. I didn’t get much, although the light was really bright and clear. Then when I was halfway round I took one photo of a low hanging Hazel branch and saw the “No Room To Save” message. The SD card was full. That was when I realised my spare SD cards were in my other camera bag, back at the house. Oops. Time to go home.

On the way home I was walking on a path between trees and the low afternoon light was gorgeous, so I just had to stop and admire it and to remember I had my phone with me and the phone could save in RAW format. That saved the day and gave me today’s PoD. Always remember, the best camera in the world is the one in your pocket!

I must make a note to self: Buy more SD cards. Just a couple to keep one in each of my camera bags.

Dinner was a mix and match Chilli Non Carne made from a recipe I got from a bloke I met at a retreat years and years ago. It’s scribbled down in a scrapbook with limited details, but it works every time. Thank you, whoever you are.

Hazy: We watched the first episode of The Great British Bakeoff. Just the usual mix of serious bakers, no hopers and loonies.

Hoping to meet Alex tomorrow for a photo walk, probably in Glasgow.

A lazy day – 22 September 2024

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We’d agreed on a lazy day today.

No dinner parties. No evening dances. Just a lazy day, perhaps with a walk if the weather was agreeable. That’s almost exactly what we did.

After catching up with yesterday’s blog we settled on doing as little as possible today. The weather was dry, but cold. The wind especially was bitter cold at times. However, I did take myself off with a nice heavy jacket and a camera to grab some photos. Scamp gave me a large polythene bag, just in case I came upon more brambles that we could freeze. That was useful, because I was sure I’d find some of the black fruit. Came home with a PoD, 220g of brambles and purple hands from the juice of the fruit.

PoD turned out to be a photo of a bloke walking his dog down a local lane. I’ve always liked that view through the trees to the mysterious opening at the end of the path. The autumn colours helped too, even if they are totally fictitious … as is the man. I blame AI!

Came home to a table set for dinner, thankfully just for the two of us. Dinner was a steak (Medium rare) for me and a salmon fillet for Scamp. Both with veg and potatoes. The remains of Friday’s Tiramisu for dessert.

We watched a recording of the Singapore F1 GP and later spoke to Jamie. Just catching up on what’s happening down south. More stories about the diabolical deeds of British Telecom. Not the best communication company in the UK by all accounts. Thankfully we are now rid of them for good.

Tomorrow we are hoping to go to Larky. Scamp has an appointment for an eye test and I need a new pair of reading glasses. I might take a camera with me!