Category: St Mo’s

Feeling better – 25 March 2025

Posted on by Zogman

A good night’s sleep works wonders.

As I’ve said before, I usually deal with a cold by having a morning or sometimes a whole day in bed. The next day I’m usually as right as rain. Not this time. Today was the first day I felt human when I woke. The cough was still there, but it wasn’t as annoying as it had been a few days ago. I suggested it was the “Hot Toddy” with honey, lemon juice, a good glug of whisky all topped up with hot water that cured it. Scamp said it was more likely the Paracetamol and Benylin that were the real fixers. She had been my nurse this week, so I have to agree with her.

I didn’t do much in the morning, but in the afternoon while Scamp was out tending her flowers, I set to and went through the instructions to Reissue and Reinstall a bit of software on the computer. I’d been putting it off for too long and it had to be done. I think I followed all the instructions from my provider and after a long wait, I got the “Good to go” message that told all was the installation was done. It only took about an hour all in from start to finish with everything double checked.

I went for a walk around St Mo’s later in the afternoon and was lucky enough to be overtaken by a jogger. I struggled to release my camera from its bag and got two shots of her/him before they were out of sight. In retrospect, a longer lens would have been better, but better still is the camera in your hand. PoD ticked off.

I was cooking tonight. Scamp had made dinner for about a week now and I thought it was about time I took charge in the kitchen. It was a ‘chuck it all in’ Tuna Pasta dish. Quite a few herbs and veg in the mix and it turned out great.

Hoping to get out somewhere interesting tomorrow if the weather holds.

Happy Birthday Scamp – 24 March 2025

Posted on by Zogman

I think you had a good day today. Birthday breakfast in bed with all your cards and prezzies around you. Yes, you had a decent day.

I was feeling better today. The combination of Paracetamol, Benylin and the strange squirty up the nose thing is beginning to work. I’m still hanging on grimly to the cough, just to prove to any of the disbelievers out there that I really am not well!

I didn’t do very much today, apart from read a few more chapters in my book, drink tea and eat toast. Eventually Scamp enticed me out into the real world to walk halfway to the shops. While she continued on to shops, I took a detour round St Mo’s with a camera. I got a few shots, but again, nothing all that interesting. I liked the PoD which was a couple of beech leaves dangling from a branch.

Scamp requested Fish & Chips for dinner tonight and I went off to find some. I actually enjoyed that meal. I think I’d lost some of my sense of taste to the lurgi, but the sharp taste of vinegar and salt brought it back.

Spoke to Hazy in the morning and heard about all the goings on down south and got an explanation for a wicked looking short sword that came in the post. It does work well, I’m told. Scamp is delighted with it. Great for digging up dandelions I’m told. Likewise, she was taken by the Stiletto heeled shoe masquerading as a perfume bottle!!

I think I may have an early night tonight, after I take my pills and squirt the seawater up my nose. No real plans for tomorrow.

A morning in bed – 23 March 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Sometimes it works for me. Today it didn’t.

I woke with the same stinker of a cold that Scamp had last week. Usually I just have the morning in bed and when I get up in the early afternoon everything fits back into place again. Unfortunately that didn’t work today. I got up and just mooched around the house. Scamp went out to get me some more Benylin and a big packet of Paracetamol plus a strange looking Sea Salt Spray which the pharmacist recommended. Then she fed me the pills and a spoonful of Benylin and I squirted the salt spray up my nostrils. It was a strange feeling but it did seem to clear my nasal passages. I’ll try it again tonight before I go to bed.
The combination of Benylin and Paracetamol seem to be doing what they were designed for.

Scamp suggested that we cancel the trip to Oban we’d planned for Tuesday. I agreed, because I didn’t fancy getting the train to Oban if this cold/flu was hanging over me. Luck was on our side for once and I cancelled the hotel booking without having to pay out a penalty. Scamp managed to cancel the rail tickets with only £5 admin costs. I felt a fair bit relieved that we weren’t asked to pay to cancel the hotel and the train. We’re intending to re-schedule the Oban trip later in the year.

We watched a fairly lacklustre Chinese F1 GP in the afternoon. Just as I said before, it was only cars going round in circles … fast!

I went for a quick walk over St Mo’s and got some photos of apple blossom on one of the trees. That got PoD.

Scamp made dinner tonight. It was chicken soup made from two chicken thighs, pulled apart after they’d been boiled to make the soup, then chopped veg to fill it out a bit. The main course was three roasted chicken wings with potatoes, and broccoli. A variation on my chicken thighs, leeks and peas.

Spoke to Jamie and heard that they are getting some decent weather to go for a walk, even if Vixen wasn’t invited and heard about a forthcoming visit to London to a team building course. It might be fun.

Well, I’ve doped my self up with Paracetamol and Benylin and I’m looking forward to squirting some salt water up my nose! 😝

No plans for tomorrow. It depends on how “the Heid is”.

 

Just the two of us – 22 March 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Today was Saturday which usually means we are on our way to Brookfield for dance class, but not today.

In the morning, Scamp’s sister was getting a taxi to Glasgow to catch the bus back home to Skye. About a six hour journey. We said goodbye to her and thanked her for coming, then it was just the two of us. The house seemed awfully empty after she had gone.

Not long after she left, a knock at the door signalled the postman bringing a parcel addressed to Scamp. A parcel that mysteriously disappeared almost as it left the postman’s hands. That’s a clever trick, I thought! Not long afterwards, the same postman returned with a long cardboard box, also addressed to Scamp. This one didn’t perform the previous trick. It was a box of flowers for Scamp. She unpacked it carefully and put them in water in a vase in the living room. Some flowers from my brother and his wife for us with a note. Thank you, Alex and Carol. That was very thoughtful.

I went out for a walk later just to clear my head and maybe get some photos. Some workmen had cut up the fallen trees from about a month ago an cleared a path round the pond. That made access a lot easier. I got a PoD almost right away. It’s a Flowering Currant. Its deep pink flowers are another sign of spring.

I was feeling a bit more human today. Not coughing quite as much, but just feeling drained. In the afternoon we watched the Chinese F1 GP, but I wasn’t really interested in it. Just cars going round in circles, really.

Scamp encouraged me to go out for a walk to the shops with her later and although I wasn’t feeling like another walk, I did agree to go, but grumpily. But only as I’m writing this did I realise I’d forgotten to get the crunchy peanut butter for my porridge. I must remember to get some tomorrow. I’m addicted to it now!

We got some rain today. It must be almost a month since the last time it rained. Such a strange thing to say in Scotland. The garden definitely needed it. I think we’re due some more for the rest of the week. That will please Scamp!

Apart from peanut butter, nothing planned for tomorrow!

I think that was summer! – 19 March 2025

Posted on by Zogman

A beautiful morning with sun streaming in the window.

It did just entice me to get up, but one look out the window confirmed my suspicion that there was ice on the birdbath. Too cold for an early morning walk. I keep thinking I should get up early and go for a walk, an take some photos, but I never really get round to it.

After breakfast I drove Scamp and Jackie over to The Fort and set them loose on that big avenue of retail therapy. I drove home. I thought I might drive up to Fannyside to get some landscapes, but instead, I dug out Scamp’s kneeling device and tried to make myself comfortable, stuck between the bins, but couldn’t settle. So it was back to the old trusted fold down canvas seat.

Strangely, tucked between the bins, I was almost invisible to folk passing by. I sat there for almost an hour with my new book “Paperboy”, written in broad Glaswegian. After that I made myself a cup of coffee and returned to the bins … and the book.

Eventually I had to stretch my legs and go for a walk into St Mo’s. Only managed one decent photo, but I liked it. A Coltsfoot Daisy. That was my dad’s favourite wild flower.

When Scamp and Jackie returned, I volunteered to walk over to Golden Bowl for tonight’s dinner Chicken Chow Mein for two and Chicken Chop Suey with fried rice for Scamp.

Tomorrow there may not be a blog post. We’ll see how things work out.

 

Exchange & Mart – 18 March 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Bought a lens on Friday. Sold it back on Tuesday.

It was a very poor quality lens that I could have updated using an app I’ve had for years, but it wasn’t worth the money or the time it would have taken me to do the upgrade. I wish now that I’d have kept the original that I sold at a loss a few years ago. However, I do have an equally good lens with less artefacts for a little bit more. Winners and losers, that’s what life is about.

We drove in to Glasgow to do the exchange. Scamp suggested parking at Cowcaddens carpark. From there, she could go for a coffee and a cake in Waterstones while I went to do the handover. The exchange only took a few minutes and then I was back on Sauchiehall Street and heading for a Flat White and a cake while Scamp was almost finished.

Drove home, but I didn’t feel all that great. Feeling dizzy and aching all over. It felt that I had picked up Scamp’s cold. A vitamin-c tablet and a couple of paracetamol sorted things. Then Scamp’s suggestion (demand) that I have a wee snooze in the afternoon seemed to hit the mark.

She woke me a few hours later with a cup of tea and I realised I’d caught myself snoring on the bed, after I’d been criticising other people for doing the same thing. Of course, I was ill and the other person was only snoring. There is a difference!

I took my second lot of pills and Vit-C and went for a quick walk round St Mo’s and got at least one good shot of the late afternoon sun shining through the trees and that made PoD. By the time I got home Jackie was almost in Glasgow and I was ’encouraged’ to allow her to take the bus back to Cumbersheugh.

Scamp made her delicious Prawn & Pea Risotto for dinner tonight and as usual it was perfect. As she says, it’s one of the few dishes I’ll eat with loads of lemon in it.

Tomorrow the ladies might be going for a walk around The Fort, but it won’t be an early rise, I’m sure.

 

Another sunny day – 17 March 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp suggested we go out for lunch somewhere today. I agreed.

We drove out past Stirling to The Smiddy, not the seedy wee pub in Cumbersheugh, but the cafe / deli / restaurant near Doune. We go there quite often and the food is always good, especially the ‘specials’. I had a Venison Burger with all the trimmings and delicious chips. Scamp had Posh Fish Pie. Both were lovely and tasted just as good as they looked.

We drove home via the conjoined Dobbies and Lakeland. Their adjoining shutter door was having a bad day which separated the two stores. Scamp almost got a pair of black shoes to fit her in Moshulu, but came home with a scrubbing brush from Lakeland instead. I also took a detour past B&Q to look at power drills. My old Black & Decker with its NiCad batteries just won’t hold the power these days, but then they are ancient now. I had a look, but need to have a word with Crawford to see what he recommends I should buy.

Finally back home, I took the A7iii out for a walk and tried the Samyang lens and wasn’t impressed with the results. I think it may go back. Too much colour fringing and vignettes. Maybe I can fix it with an upgrade, but I doubt it. I did get a close-up of some of the thorns of a hawthorn bush and that became PoD.

That was about it for today. Hoping for more good weather tomorrow, but Scamp wants to “do some tidying up”. That doesn’t sound much like fun!

First F1 GP of the year – 16 March 2025

Posted on by Zogman

We just had to watch it.

We’d recorded it, and I had avoided looking too carefully at the BBC news on my phone this morning just in case I saw the result before I watched the race. I had to wait Scamp had finished watching Laura Kuenssberg tearing into some politicians. Usually it’s interesting, but really, this isn’t politics, it’s much more important. This is Formula One. The first race of the season!
Yes, I know I’ll suffer for that … later!

Anyway I ate my lunch while the politics thing was on, then I had a couple of hours of entertainment as cars went skidding this way and that. Even the big names were sliding across the Melbourne grass, and that was before the rain came! For once there was fun, frolics and broken cars in F1. Thankfully there were no serious injuries.

With that done, I wrote out a shopping list under Scamp’s dictation and went shopping. I found out where the Paracetamol and the Ibuprofen were kept, they were in a different Tesco. The main Tesco seems to get all the goodies while our skimpy one gets the leftovers. I’ve suspected it for ages, but I prove it to myself today.

Back home with ticks in all my shopping boxes, I prepared my Breast of Lamb for the oven, then with a host of herbs adorning it, I bunged it in the oven at about Gas Mark three and a bit for a couple of hours and went for a walk in St Mo’s. There wasn’t much to see until I was heading home and the sun came out from behind the clouds. That gave me two possible PoDs. The winner was a landscape looking across the pond to two individuals who appeared to be looking for the frogs that had been there last week.

Back home the lamb was halfway through its allotted time, so I gave it a shake and a turn, then it went back into the oven to finish off.

It actually turned out fine. Perhaps a bit overcooked, but it tasted fine. Scamp had a lovely big thick fillet of salmon which also looked good.

Spoke to Jamie and heard that Simonne is labouring under the same symptoms as Scamp. Sore throat, runny nose and an awful cough. I think Scamp felt better after that.

We have no real plans for tomorrow. It depends on how Scamp is feeling. Both of us have been sitting here having a sniffing competition!

Another sunny morning – 14 March 2025

Posted on by Zogman

A sunny morning that deserved a walk or something active, but instead we stayed home and just enjoyed the sunshine.

Scamp had woken with a stinker of a cold. I had had some business in the village but was given a list of medicines we needed in the house, but Benylin Original was high on the list for Scamp. I managed to source the Benylin easily, but Paracetamol and Ibuprofen were more problematic. However I had found a couple of the meds and that meant I wasn’t going home empty handed.

Back home, I found the final photos I needed to finalise the Order of Service booklet and sent them off through the ether to the Funeral director. She got back to me fairly quickly, confirming that everything had been received. That meant my work was done. The photos for the screening were with the funeral people, as were the Order of Service photos.

Meanwhile Scamp cleared the bed and was ready to rotate the mattress. A monthly process where we either rotate the mattress of we flip fit over. It weighs half a ton, so the word ‘flip’ is rather flippant for turning over such a heavy load!

We decided we deserved a day out for lunch, and after some discussion, settled on The Riverhouse in Stirling. We drove to find that the carpark was completely full, not even a space to squeeze a little BMX bike far less a car. We couldn’t think where else we’d find a decent restaurant on a Friday afternoon, so we drove home.

I went for a walk in St Mo’s and got a nice bit of ‘Bokeh’ (out of focus highlights) with the sun setting behind some Gorse flowers. That easily made PoD.

I made a mess of the pizza I’d bought on the way home, forgetting to put it on a tray in the oven which led to the centre of the pizza falling through onto the empty tray beneath. Some days I just can’t do anything right!

The Benylin and the paracetamol plus the ibuprofen seemed to work on Scamp’s cough and her cold, I’m glad to say.

I’m hoping to pick up my new lens tomorrow. Scamp’s looking for a new vase for her flowers. Maybe we can achieve both. That would be nice!

Another beautiful morning – 13 March 2025

Posted on by Zogman

A beautiful morning when you were in the sun, but not so good when you were outside. Thankfully I wasn’t.

Scamp was out early to go the the hairdresser in Condorrat, while I struggled with Wordle which is now installed in the iPhone.

After she returned, she headed off again, this time to meet Isobel for coffee. Stayed home just in case I was needed for anything (which I wasn’t) and watched the world go by. I bought an 18mm wide angle lens that would work on both the big camera and the wee one too. Second hand, of course. I also found time to make my lunch.

Scamp returned from her blether with Isobel and we made ready to visit the Celebrant. A fairly young man who made himself at ease in Paul’s house. He asked us all a multitude of questions. Some obvious ones, like getting names right and family connections. Some less obvious, like what was June’s favourite colour! It took us some time to work out what he was doing, but we realised he was just trying to get a feel for June. He explained that he also liked to wear a tie the same colour as his subject would wear. I liked that.

After an hour of questioning that felt more like a comfortable chat, he had most of the information he needed and had filled many pages in his well worn book and took his leave and we knew we were in safe hands.

We drove home via Tesco to get some ingredients for tonight’s dinner and some bulbs for Scamp to plant.

I went for a walk over to St Mo’s and today’s PoD was lichen covered hawthorn branch with two bright red berries on it.

We watched a depressing episode of The Apprentice but we couldn’t generate much interest in it. Too repetitive.

Tomorrow we may go out for lunch. It depends on the weather.