Category: St Mo’s

Both of us out today – 26 June 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Life is getting back to normal at last and Scamp’s ankles are thinning down again. Mine are still a bit fat, although yesterday’s dance class helped them slim down a bit. Also a cooler temperature here also made a difference.

Hazy phoned in the morning and we talked for a while about holidays. Our’s is just over and their’s is still to come. Also good that they now have a firm date for their new boiler installation.

Scamp was out at midday for lunch with Mags. I dropped her off at the town centre, then drove to Hamilton through torrential rain to hand over a retirement present for Marion who becomes a free agent tomorrow. Coffee with John and a chance to talk about our holiday and to find out their plans for the next few weeks. Apparently his boss will be talking to my boss to decide on a suitable date for us to go to theirs for dinner/lunch.

Back home I took a walk round St Mo’s and although it was bright sunshine now that the rain clouds have moved on, there wasn’t much to photograph until I saw this bloke sitting fishing. PoD grabbed.

No plans for tomorrow

The Lawnmower Man – 5 June 2023

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Scamp was out this morning to meet June for coffee. I thought I’d cut the grass.

It’s a long job, cutting the grass. Not as bad as some folk who have enormous lawns that need a petrol driven mower, but who secretly hanker for a ride-on mower! Ours is just a wee pocket hankie by comparison, but there’s a bit of preparation needed before you get started, pots to shift and then shift back once the first cut is taken. Squirting WD40 into the squeaky rear wheel, that screeching was putting my teeth on edge.

After I’d done our wee square, I thought it would be the right thing to do to cut Bobby Flavel’s grass too. I know my method is very rough and ready compared to Bobby’s straight lines, but at least it’s done and tidy. I hope you were sitting up there watching me struggle with the mower at the end of its lead, Bobby, just managing to get the furthest edge cut. Angela was the first person to cut Bobby’s grass after he passed away and we all agreed that we should take it in turns to cut his grass. For that reason and also because she doesn’t have much free time to mow her own grass, I cut Angela’s pocket hankie too. My good deeds for the day.

If the preparations before starting are a pain, the cleaning of that mower are even more of a drag. However, Scamp maintains it well and I think my cleaning routine was almost as good as her’s. I gave the blade a squirt of WD40 and then gave the squeaky wheel the grease it wanted. Done!

I’d just finished when Scamp arrived home. Piece ’n’ Cheese for her lunch and a slice of buttered bread covered in the remains of yesterday’s stew for mine. By then the sun had made an appearance and after some dithering, I took the A7 and the big heavy macro lens out to St Mo’s looking for damselflies, only to find that the dragonflies had taken over the ponds. There were dozens of them fighting and gatecrashing each other’s parties. Just like the unruly teenagers we get in the same neck of the woods with their ghetto blasters later in the summer. At least the dragonflies were just “doing the what comes naturally” and weren’t hyped up on Buckfast!

I couldn’t get as close as I wanted to the dragonflies, so I got as good a shot as was possible and enlarged it in ON1 software at home and produces what you see here. It’s a four spot chaser.

On the way home I had to check out the work being done by the council road repairers. They’d closed off part of our street to repair a section of the road. It has been crumbling away for years and a month or so ago they patched the bits that were easy to do. This, though, was a major bit of work with the tarmac being scraped back to the hardcore base and fresh tarmac replacing it. It was supposed to take two days, but it looks like it’s finished tonight.

Another end of day seat in the sun with Scamp. Both of us reading with a glass of something to keep us from drying out in this sunshine!

No plans for tomorrow, at least not at present.

 

Driving everywhere – 3 June 2023

Posted on by Zogman

The dance class for today was cancelled due to too few numbers, so we used the daw wisely by tidying up loose ends.

We drove to The Fort in about 23ºc of heat with the intention of getting a pair of Crocs for me and a pair of shorts for Scamp. Neither of us achieved our goals and we went for lunch at Wagamama to console ourselves. Prawn raisukaree for Scamp and Chicken raisukaree for me (raisukaree = curry) with Ebi Katsu to share (butterflied prawns coated in panko and deep fried)

Fed and watered we next drove to B&Q to get an adapter that would allow the hose to be used from the kitchen tap without the use of a great deal of swearing and fountains of water. I think we got the right adapter this time, but I believe we may be testing tomorrow.

I fancied getting a hat (Hazy, similar to Neil’s) and that meant a trip further into darkest Coatbridge, but with the satnav to help us, we found Go Outdoors. There they had the hat I wanted in a size that fitted but at a price that was a little more than I’d intended paying. However, if you bought a discount card for £5 we got roughly £15 off the price and a further 20% off the remainder. That brought it down to what I’d call a reasonable price!! Pity they didn’t have Crocs!

We drove back to Cumbersheugh, trusting the satnav to get us back to ‘civilisation’ and I finally snagged myself a pair of Crocs to replace my ancient and crumbling pair I bought in Fuerteventura many, many years ago. Just a bit annoyed that I had to pay full price for them! Scamp also managed to get herself a pair of shorts and we drove home slightly emptier of pocket, but with new purchases.

Back home it was still hot, so to cool down I changed into shorts and went for a walk in St Mo’s. Managed to capture my first damselfly of the year, an Emerald. Also photographed a wee fly, looking a bit like a robber fly sitting on a buttercup. The robber fly got PoD. On the way back home I dropped in at the chip shop in Condorrat for a Special Fish Supper to share with Scamp. Sat for a while in the garden reading, watching the birds queue up to get some water from the birdbath.

We watched a fairly interesting Spanish GP tonight, with a few drivers demonstrating their off-road skills, but thankfully no crashes.

Got a message from Jamie to say their new boiler has been installed. Hot and cold running water is a great thing, isn’t it. That and a real shower! We know how you pair feel.

No plans for tomorrow, although we may water the garden, hopefully without flooding the kitchen!

Dancin’ with strangers – 1 June 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Today we drove over to Glenburn community centre for the tea dance and there were two strangers there!

We did have a quick practise in the morning just to make sure we could actually do the devious “Outside Spin” where I have to must my right knee to push Scamp round. That could be a dangerous manoeuvre at the best of times, but in a living room and on a carpet it’s a recipe for disaster, except, it seemed to work.

I had hoped that the roadworks that had caused a lot of congestion a fortnight ago would be gone by today, but they were if anything, worse today. We really need to find a way round them. I might have found that way. We need to turn left at the busy roundabout then turn right at the end of that road. This will bring us out past the roadworks. I know this means nothing to you, but hopefully I’ll read this in a fortnight or so’s time and see how clever I was to put this reminder in. Coming from Glenburn to the M77 will be the reverse of going in true Haynes manual fashion. If that too means nothing to you, you’ve never stripped down the front wheel bearing of a Reliant Regal using Haynes Manual.

So, after arriving a good twenty minutes late, we tried a bit of Social Foxtrot and even a Quickstep with ad-lib additions by me which worked some of the time. I’d like to say ‘most’ of the time, but Scamp will read this and say “Oh no they didn’t.” There was a very small class today, only seven couples I think and one of the couples wasn’t from our class. Two asian dancers were in a category above the most of the usual couples and stratospherically higher than us … except when it came to Sequence Dances. That’s where our stepping is just so much better. Dancing in a circle and being able to follow the couple in front (unless it’s John). Never follow John I was told. He never sticks to the sequence and puts everyone who follows him off. I actually felt sorry for the asian couple. Everybody seemed to avoid them. “Who do they think they are? Coming to OUR tea dance?” Scamp went and talked to them, of course, and I was proud of her for doing so.

As usual we left early to avoid the extra busy traffic, but again the roadworks on the other side of the dual carriageway caused problems and we took about an hour to get home.

Back home, I went for a walk round St Mo’s and down to the Shops. Well, it is Thursday with all that entails. I was looking for damselflies beside the pond in St Mo’s, but there were none to be found, just a single dragonfly that was scudding around the pond at high speed looking for a mate, no doubt. Too fast for the kit lens I had on the A7. Instead PoD was a close up shot of a Marsh Horsetail. The Buttercup of the wetlands. Impossible to get rid off, according to my brother. It was sitting in a little bit of sunshine and looked translucent in the light.

Watched the final of Masterchef tonight and thought the person who won was an excellent choice. No spoilers here.

Tomorrow might be a busy day for Scamp. Dentist in the morning and optician in the afternoon is what is planned, hopefully it will work out for her. I have plans for things to photograph in Larky.

Water, water, everywhere – 28 May 2023

Posted on by Zogman

We’d been promising ourselves for over a week that we’d water the garden. Today we did … and a little bit more besides.

Spoke to Hazy before we got started and we were pleased to hear that Penny was no worse for her op and was making good progress, despite having a blue lampshade on her head. Heard too about their progress with getting a new boiler installed.  I asked her about a book I’m reading The Left-Handed Booksellers of London and she laughed, because she’s presently re-reading it! How strange is that?!

The hose was unrolled and the tap adapter fitted in place, but this was a fairly new tap and the adapter didn’t fit very securely, but it would do, or so I thought. Scamp started on the front garden while I kept an eye on the adapter. I went to check that the pressure was suiting Scamp when I heard the splash. The adapter had worked loose, but was still connected to the tap and sending a fountain of water over the kitchen window. I turned the tap off and fixed the adapter again, this time tightening it was a pair of mole grip pliers and turned the water on again. This time it seemed more secure so I removed everything from the kitchen sink area and wiped the window and the sill down. I was just about to tell Scamp to keep the water flowing when she was finished and to tell me, because the back pressure would blow the connection again, when the same thing happened again. She hadn’t turned the water off, but a kink in the hose had done the same thing and stopped the water flowing and the back pressure had washed the windows again. A few expletives later we were back in business with a reduced water pressure this time.
I watered the back garden and as Scamp said, you could almost hear the plants sighing after their fairly lengthy drink.

With the watering done and the kitchen back to normal again we had lunch and I went out for a walk with a different lens combination: Wide angle, 50mm macro and LensBaby 50mm and +1 diopter CU lens.  That should cover all eventualities!  I was looking for a little bluebell I’d seen yesterday and I reckoned the LensBaby and CU lens combo would give me the effect I was looking for.  However, despite having the correct tools for the job, the light just wasn’t right. I took some photos, of course, but they just weren’t what I’d intended. Then I saw the bright yellow splash of colour. At first I thought it was a Brimstone Butterfly before I got close enough to see that it was a moth, not a butterfly. Later research discovered it’s true identity. It was a Brimstone Moth. I’d never heard of such a thing before, but Google Image Search confirmed it. That was PoD sorted.

Plodded home, happy for once that I’d seen something new in St Mo’s woods.  Scamp was reading in the back garden when I got back with a glass of wine, so I thought a bottle of beer for me was in order.  Later Scamp went to prepare dinner which was Caprese Salad for starter followed by Prawn Salad as a main and Apple Pie for dessert.  Thoroughly enjoyable and while we were eating, Tubular Bells was playing in the background. Isn’t it strange to think that Tubular Bells is 50 years old this year!!

We’d just finished when Jamie phoned to tell us about the Open Gardens project they are taking part in this year and that Their boiler might, just might be being fitted quicker than they’d thought.  Keeping our fingers crossed for you both.

Today’s prompt was A Tin Opener.

The only one we had in the kitchen drawer was a clumsy plastic scissor action tin opener, then my wife suggested. this one.
It was sold to us a long time ago as a Baby Can Opener. it’s only 50mm (2″) long which probably accounts for the name.

We did a lot of Youth Hostelling in our younger days and this tool was ideal. It took up very little space in a rucksack and could open tins and bottles, plus it was much cleaner and sharper than the “Bonzer” can openers the hostels supplied. They had been clean once, I believe, but one look at their fearsome blade was enough for me to reach for our Baby can opener instead.

Since it is such a tiny little tool I thought I’d be generous and sketch it open and closed!

We watched an interesting and crash happy Monaco GP.  Wildest Monaco GP we’ve seen for years.  It even rained, which is strange.

Tomorrow we may go in to Glasgow.

Intense – 27 May 2023

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Drove through some fairly heavy traffic to get to dance class and it was hard work, the driving and the class!

The traffic was heavier than normal for a Saturday morning, but we managed to pass the slower traffic and ended up in Brookfield earlier than I anticipated. The class started with a Foxtrot. We’d expected Joy’s Waltz v2 and had practised it last night, but after a few dummy runs, our foxtrot was decent enough. No fancy rise and fall, just the basic routine but smoother than it sometimes is. It took me a while to fall into the order of the steps, but by the end we were looking quite good, and able to finish the routine and start again without stopping.

That foxtrot took us and the teachers a lot longer than they had intended, but the next one, Queen of Hearts Rumba was new to us, well it certainly was new to me. It’s a sequence dance, and after a couple of walk throughs, I was getting it right most of the time.

Third was Joy’s Waltz v2 and that v2 made a big difference. None of that complicated foot entanglement we had two weeks ago. That didn’t mean it was easy. Both of us found that we were turning the wrong way, but with a few helpful shoves from Jane I got the idea of the correct way to go.

A couple of sequence dances to lighten the mood and to bring us up to the end of the class. One, of course to Scamp’s favourite ‘Shivers’, and Stewart’s favourite ‘Green Door’.

The traffic going home is always terrible, but today for some reason it was fairly light and although we went the M74 route, we could almost have made good time crossing the Kingston Bridge instead.

I went out for an hour when we came home, but didn’t get anything startling. PoD turned out to be a buttercup flower which I liked.

The prompt for today was Your Favourite Game. Mine was Wordle

For the past year or so, since Scamp found this addictive game on a friend’s page on Facebook, we have struggled to complete it every day.
Like all good games, it’s the simplicity that makes it addictive. Six tries to find the hidden five letter word with minimal clues.

One of the best things about it is that you can only play one game a day, so you have to make the most of it, but it doesn’t take up all your day. Unlike Angry Birds which is my second favourite.

One of the worst things about it is that you need an internet connection to play it. That means if you are flying or on holiday in some remote place you can’t complete the game and if you can’t complete it, you lose all the points you’ve gained. That is maddening!

Dinner tonight came from Bombay Dreams and it was a shade poorer than is usual from them. Scamp had her usual Mushroom Paneer and I ordered a Special Handhi. I’m not sure that’s what I got, because there was no mention of a tomato sauce in the menu and there were none of the onions that were advertised. However the bread was good, Tandoor Roti. Best bread we’ve had from there.

There had been a sprinkling of rain today during the morning and afternoon, but nothing serious. We may water the garden tomorrow. Apart from that, no plans.

Where did the sun go again! – 23 May 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Yesterday we sat in the garden in the sunshine.

To risk that today would have been foolhardy in extreme. Cold wind from the west, although Scamp said it was just cool, not cold. The furthest we got today was the Tuesday shopping run to Tesco.

In the morning I finished Jimi Hendrix Live In Lviv. I put a review of it in Goodreads and just in case you were thinking or reading it, I’ll warn you that my review has spoilers. Rated it at 3.5/5

Later in the afternoon I took the A7iii for a walk in St Mo’s and captured a photo of three snails climbing a dried up weed by the edge of the path. After a fair bit of post processing I came up with a mono version of it that looked better than the original colour one.

Dinner was my version of Amatriciana, perhaps with too much chilli flakes.

The prompt today asked for The Contents of a Drawer.
You don’t really want to see the contents of my drawers, do you? You certainly don’t want me to sketch them, because that could take until next week to accomplish. What I have given you instead is a sample of the contents of my acrylic paint drawer in my useful IKEA cabinet. I don’t know if the contents of any of these tubes is still liquid, because the last time I painted with acrylic must be pre-covid, maybe even pre-historic! Anyway, it fulfils the brief.

No plans for tomorrow.

The gardens needed it – 8 May 2023

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Today was wet. It went from drizzle to full on downpour, but it was wet all day!

We weren’t going far today anyway. I might have gone in to Glasgow to get myself a new suit, a dark suit, both my other suits are light grey and a dark one would be a change. Also, only one of my suits actually fits me, the other one fits like a sugar bag. Not a good look. Anyway, that decision was taken away from me with one look at the weather. The furthest we were going today was Tesco.

Just a normal Monday shopping trip. Nothing exciting unless you class short dated tomatoes, carrots and onions as exciting. Three bags full it was today, all bundled into the boot and drove home.

What we did do was give our plants a bit of a soaking in the rainwater. My two chilli plants seemed to come to no harm in it and Scamp’s Cerinthe seedlings seemed to grow even taller after being in the downpours.

After lunch I gave in, put on my boots and my walking trousers and went out looking for a photo that would become PoD. It was really wet wherever I went and after about half an hour I was sure I could feel that squidgy sensation that you only get when you’ve got a leaky boot. But I was out in the middle of the park when it made itself known and I still hadn’t got that magic PoD. Then it appeared. It was a water droplet hanging from a larch needle. I took my time and eventually shot half a dozen frames of it. One of which I deemed sharp enough to become the PoD for today. Then, and only then, I squidged my way home. The sock on my right foot told the tale. There was a leak and it looks like there is a crack in the tread of my boot and that’s where the water is getting in. It might be a cut, not a crack, but the result is the same. I wouldn’t think it’s repairable, although someone on YouTube will know different, I’m sure. I might need to shell out for a new pair of boots now.

Today’s EDiM asked for An Ant. I originally thought of drawing a couple of Leaf Cutter Ants, but couldn’t find a clear enough photo to draw them from. I finally settled for a Flying Ant. There were a lot of these scary looking beasties flying around last year, I seem to remember. Apparently there is an actual Flying Ant Day. In the UK it seems to be around the 17th July. It all depends on the temperature and windspeed. There, I bet you didn’t know that!

Tomorrow we’re booked for lunch with Shona. Not sure yet where we’ll be going. Like the Flying Ants, it depends on the weather!

A dull day with bright intervals – 3 May 2023

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Not all days are filled with sunshine.  A little goes a long way.

The weather fairies got it right for once. They predicted a dull day with occasional showers, and that’s what we got.

We had half intended to visit the Japanese garden today, but the weather kind of put paid to that idea. It was just dull and dreary. But it did brighten up by midday and the clouds seemed to hold the heat in, so I gave the Skye chilli plant an afternoon in the garden where it could soak up the warmth, if not the sun.

Scamp was determined to give the grass a second cut and with the mower this time, unlike yesterday’s strim of the back grass. That necessitated moving all the pots onto the paths, cutting the grass and then moving them all back again. Of course, as chief pot shifter I managed to put them back in the wrong places and that would never do now, would it. Scamp followed me round putting them and me in our place. We had just finished cleaning the mower when the rain started. A few minutes earlier and it would have been a rush to get everything in before the mini deluge.

The next task was to drive to Tesco to post a parcel and get one or two things we needed for lunch and dinner. Those “one or two things” filled a trolley by the time we were finished and cost a lot more than we’d intended.

After lunch, the rain went off and the sun shone. Today’s prompt was for Dandelions or whatever was in bloom. I thought I’d take a walk in St Mo’s and grab some photos of likely candidates for the Dandelion painting you can see here. There were quite a few as you can imagine and I soon had enough material to work with. None of the dandelion photos were really any use for Flickr photos, but I found a little fern ‘crozier’ that looked interesting and a branch of Hawthorn flower buds just ready to open. Both of them found their way into Flickr and PoD went to the hawthorn buds.

Dinner was a Tesco stir-fry. If you ever get the chance of one, don’t take it. Old tough cabbage and a handful of bean sprouts and carrots do not a stir-fry make. I’ll stick to M&S in future. Cheap sometimes is nasty.

Tomorrow I’ve the dentist in the morning, but the rest of the day is free … so far.

The Messages – 22 April 2023

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According to the weather fairies, it was going to rain today. They were right, but only just.

The morning was lovely, well, again it was lovely to look out at it. However, it was still cold outside. We had agreed last night that we’d go shopping today. Not Tesco or Lidl, we’d been there during the week. Instead, we were going to Stirling – to Waitrose. Waitrose just sucks you in and makes you spend more than you’d intended to. Whereas, in Tesco and to a certain extent, Lidl you know where everything is and you can buy the things you need, rather than what you want.

When we got home there was a cardboard box that had dropped through our letterbox. Inside were six little plant plug plants, Busy Lizzies. Tiny little plants that are now in the greenhouse until they get strong enough to be planted out in the garden. Strange to think that delicate little plug plants are delivered by post.

Scamp found a suitable hanger to hold a fuchsia and it’s now hanging on a hook in the back garden. While she was gardening, I took the Sony A7 out with a couple of lenses for a walk in St Mo’s. PoD turned out to be a close up of some larch needles positively glowing in the afternoon sunshine.

By the time I got home the clouds were beginning to mass and as I’m writing this, the first rain in a week or so has been falling.

Dinner tonight was a Veg Lasagne by Charlie Bigham. This is the third one we’ve had (not tonight, we’re not that greedy!) and they have all been exceptionally good.

Tomorrow we are expecting more rain and cold winds from the north. Brrr!