Category: St Mo’s

Another dull day – 26 May 2021

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However, brighter days are on the horizon, we’re told.

Scamp was off to Calder’s for lunch with Annette and I was left to my own devices. Always a dangerous thing to do. As it happened I didn’t really do much damage today. I hoovered the painting room because there was a lot of those sticky covers from the buds on the trees. They stick to you shoes and then transfer to the carpet later to be ground in. Luckily the Dyson knows how to deal with them. Didn’t do much else with my freedom, other than try to find a way to partition an NTFS drive on a Mac. Apparently it can’t be done without a lot of work and I wasn’t going to waste more time on trying.

Just before Scamp returned, I gave up and took the car out for a run with two cameras in the boot. I was hoping to give the Sony with the Sigma macro a chance to show what it could do with the new damselflies, except there didn’t seem to be any of the flying creatures around today. There were lots of Wolf Spiders wandering along the boardwalk. I chose to annoy them instead. Saw a spider on spider fight that was as good as anything Hollywood has to offer and probably more violent than is allowed on the BBC. These guys, and it was guys, were throwing everything into this battle. They actually rolled across the upstand of the boardwalk and fell off into the water of the pond. Can spiders swim? I hope so, or at least I hope they are quick learners. Soon more arrived to fill their place. It was mating time again I think. One lateral shot of a female wolf got PoD. Not the prettiest face I’ve seen, but beauty they say is in the eye of the spider who won the fight and learned to swim.

After the photo session I drove to Kilsyth, more exactly I drove to Lidl. Bought a lemon to replace the mouldy one at home. Then a host of more fattening things that took my eye. The lemon along with its other three yellow buddies is going to make Limoncello. Sugar, Vodka and the best lemons you can find. That’s all there is to it, that and a fair bit of work. Maybe tomorrow I’ll start the manufacturing process. It worked the last time and I’ve just finished the last bottle, so it’s time to start again.

Today’s prompt was Something You Collected Outside. I couldn’t think what to draw, but then I remembered I used to pick up old empty snail shells, especially small ones. They are so fine and delicate and to think that some creature creates this shelter for itself. What does it create it from? How does it form it? Probably, like so many things these days, the answer is but a click away. I’m talking here about land based snails, not cockles or winkles or any of the sea snails. Their heavy thick walled shells didn’t interest me.

Tomorrow we may go out for a run. Tesco are delivering tomorrow night, so we can’t be away too long. Of course, all of this is dependent on the weather fairies getting things right!

Dreary, wet and Foxtrot – 23 May 2021

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Another of those drizzly wet days.

There was little point in going far today. The forecast had been for rain in the morning and it appeared almost exactly on time. It gave me a chance to start today’s sketch which was A Treasure Chest. The sketch was done early, but the painting took a bit longer. Overall, I’m fairly happy with the result.

The rest of the morning was spent fixing all the little niggling bits and pieces that surround any big app. Moving bits of code and plugins that do all the heavy lifting in Lightroom and have to be slotted into their correct place by hand. I think most of it is done now. The actual program seems to run a lot faster than the old V6.14 I was using. It should do, this is Lightroom V10 I’m using now!

We did manage to get out for a walk in the late afternoon with only a light shower to dampen our waterproofs. Blustery wind and cold too. This doesn’t feel like May. I was watching an interview with a bird watcher the other day and he was saying that up until recently the seasons were predictable and stayed in their patterns. Now all that seems to have changed and the seasons appear to be more chaotic. He said it’s almost certainly down to Global Warming. He might be right.

Scamp made a lovely dinner tonight with grilled chicken that had been marinaded in ground cumin, ground coriander, chopped coriander and garlic. It was absolutely beautiful. Served with potatoes and roast veg.

PoD came from the walk to St Mo’s in the afternoon. It’s the unfurling crozier of a fern. I was impressed with the quality of it. Nothing to do with me, just a great camera and an excellent lens.

Dancing tonight centred around a Foxtrot. I think we did quite well with it, although Scamp reminded me that we’ve only been doing the easy part so far.

Spoke to JIC later and caught up with how things are down south. It seems that the weather we’ve been having has been pretty much universal. Rain and more rain.

Tomorrow we’re booked to meet Isobel for coffee at Costa.

Driving and meeting old friends – 22 May 2021

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We couldn’t decide what to do today. We did think about going up the east coast to Kirkcaldy, but then thought better of it because today was a Saturday it would be busy. Instead we waited for the postman.

The postman brought a big parcel for Scamp. She already knew it was coming so it was not a big surprise. Inside was a long green box with a recipe and ingredients to make a cake. JIC gave me the present of a bread making subscription for Christmas. It’s been great, encouraging me to bake breads I’d never have tried otherwise. Scamp’s green box contained a similar thing, but for cakes instead. I did think, after I bought it, that it was a bit cheeky, sending a brilliant baker like Scamp a baking kit, but I’m hoping that, like me she’ll discover interesting cakes to bake. Ones she’d never have considered without that little push. Also, hopefully, I get to taste the results!

With the parcel opened and the on-line signing up done we set off for Bishopbriggs to get another USB drive to back up my photos on. It’s part of my complicated back up regime for ‘easy’ retrieval. It always amazes me that every time I go to buy an external drive I can get twice the storage space for the same price I paid for the last one. It’s something akin to Moore’s Law (Google it).

It was at the retail park that we bumped into Mhairi and Robert who used to go to Salsa with us. We spent a good twenty minutes discussing the effect of the pandemic on small businesses like theirs, some good and some bad. Good to speak to folk we hadn’t seen for a long time, years, in fact.

On the way back we stopped at Lidl in Kirkintilloch, hoping to get a bottle of Hortus Gin. Unfortunately they only had the flavoured varieties and I wanted the plain and simple one. What amazed us when we arrived was the queue to get in to the drive-through at McDonalds. Who, in their right mind, would queue to get a hamburger that’s never seen any ham? Maybe the clue is in that phrase “in their right mind”. How many of them have actually tasted real meat? We drove on to Kilsyth where there were ample supplies of Hortus and no Mickey Ds. Obviously much more sophisticated tastes in Kilsyth

Back home we went for a walk in St Mo’s and just managed a glimpse of the new cygnets. They were off with mum and dad to get some food over in the reeds at the far side of the pond. I’m guessing it was their equivalent of a walk to the shops. I hadn’t really managed a decent shot today, so I bolted on the macro lens and photographed the Strawberries and Cream Aquilegia that sits at the front door. Beautiful flower. Instant PoD.

We had a practise of the Cha Cha tonight. Who knew it was so exhausting? Then to cool down we did a couple of Rumbas. Things fell apart and tempers frayed when we tried the waltz with its Stewart’s clumsy addition of a spin where there shouldn’t be one. We agreed to continue on to the Catherine Waltz. Then to save bloodshed we put the living room back into a living room again rather than a dance floor and a war zone!

Yesterday’s sketch has appeared and its title is Spice Jars. I don’t know where it could have been hiding 😉. Today’s prompt was Dice, so today’s sketch is titled Lucky Sixes!

Tomorrow looks wet. Some baking may be done by one or both of us.

Socks and a hot curry – 14 May 2021

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Scamp was off on a walk with Veronica and I was starting today’s painting early.

Scamp was booked for a walk with Veronica. Just a walk round Broadwood Loch. I was staying at home, hoping to get today’s sketch started early. Started, yes, finished, no. Today’s topic was A Pile of Socks. Not something I’d have chosen, but that’s what’s interesting about working your way through someone else’s list of topics. You don’t get the chance to draw and paint the easy stuff, you just do the best you can with what you’re offered. Sometimes it takes lateral thinking, sometimes there’s no way out, you just have to do it. I had a pile of socks to put away, so I used them as my starting point. Pencil sketch to start with, then some watercolour. That didn’t look quite right, so I added some watercolour pencil to it. That was better, but it still needed more. When Scamp came home from her walk, she suggested I add one of her socks to the mix. It couldn’t do any harm, so I added the yellow sock to the pile, partly tucked under another two. Yes, that altered the composition in a good way. You might recognise a bit of darning and Scamp’s sock, Hazy! I left it for a while and we had lunch.

Wednesday’s Challah bread was being cut down fast, but we both knew it wouldn’t stay fresh for much longer. The recipe that came with the ingredients said that the bread made great French Toast. That’s what we had for lunch. It was good, but the eggy mix didn’t really add anything to the bread. Also you expect French Toast to be savoury, but the bread is naturally sweet, so the tastes don’t really marry up.

After lunch and after hearing that Glasgow was likely to remain in Level 3 with rising cases of the Indian Variant, when almost the rest of Scotland would go to Level 2 on Monday, we rethought our plans for tomorrow. We’d considered going for a walk down Glasgow Green, but maybe that wouldn’t be such a good idea now. We decided we’d go for a walk today at least because the weather was pleasantly mild and we’d leave tomorrow until tomorrow. We walked round St Mo’s, twice round the pond. On the second circuit I was photographing a fly on a Marsh Marigold when I noticed on a flower nearby just the hint of a spider’s front legs. Sure enough, there was a spider dangling from one of the petals. I assume it was waiting for some unsuspecting fly to drop in for lunch, the spider’s lunch. The flies must all have seen this trick before, because they kept a good distance away from the secret spider which became PoD.

Back home we were planning our dinner and Scamp suggested a curry mix. We’d bought a Biryani kit the last time we were in Waitrose and that’s what we made. It was supposed to be a “Two Chilli” curry. I think the printer must have missed out the “Twenty” before the “Two”. Boy, it was hot. It was tasty too, but you’d have to take it down a few notches before you noticed the taste. Thank goodness for a tub of yoghurt to cool our mouths down.

It was now time to decide if the socks stayed as sketch of the day or if they were replaced with something better. I decided they stayed, dated and signed the sketch and we were done.

Tomorrow we may go for a walk somewhere that’s not running scared from the Indian Variant. I have an idea, but you’ll need to wait until tomorrow to find out where!

Rain – 10 May 2021

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That could have been the callsign for the day. Rain … Dry … Repeat!

In the morning, Scamp braved the rain and wind to go to Condorrat to post a birthday card for Moira. I stayed in and painted the first of two paintings to get my EDiM back on track. I also performed some open heart surgery on the new Oly which not only had a hair on the sensor, but also a tiny wee speck of something sticky too. It might have been a bit of sap from the trees in St Mo’s, or a bit of chewing gum (joke!). Whatever it was, it would need a wet clean to get rid of it. At the weekend I’d found an unopened pack containing three swabs and a tiny little bottle of expensive sensor cleaner. They were actually meant for an APS-C sensor, but I knew that the long edge of the MFT sensor is almost the same size as the short edge of an APS-C, so they would fit with a downward stroke on the Oly. I realise I should have put in a <Technospeak> warning before that explanation, but you’re a big boy now and can take the occasional bit of Technospeak, JIC.
Two wipes with the swab and it was done and I now have a clean, unsticky sensor again.

When Scamp returned, dry, from Condorrat we had lunch which was yesterday’s Chicken and Black Beans, and watched the rain for a while before I started on the second painting. I was almost finished when there was a knock at the door. I’d completely forgotten we were getting a Tesco order today, and here was the poor bloke standing in the rain with the baskets. Quickly got the baskets emptied and returned then stored the groceries in the appropriate racks. After that I finished off the painting while Scamp read.

After checking the weather, we decided we’d manage a walk in St Mo’s, maybe even a couple of circuits of the pond, and that’s what we did. I got my PoD which is a fern ‘crozier’. I also found a bramble bush with last year’s leaves still attached in their autumn colours. Autumn leaves in May! These particular leaves have survived the winter snow and winds and are still hanging in there.

Dinner was a lighter than normal tomato pasta because we’d had a fairly substantial lunch. Later we had a couple of runs through the Bellissimo Cha-Cha we’d started yesterday, a couple successful turns of Catherine Waltz and finished up with a Tango.

That was about it for a warm but wet Monday with temperature reaching 15º. Out to lunch tomorrow, with the chance of some landscape photography if the weather is obliging.

 

We needed some rain for the garden – 8 May 2021

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Today we got it.

We went out for a walk in the morning when it was just a drizzle that was falling from the sky. If we’d gone out half an hour earlier we’d have had a dry walk, but then again, if we’d gone out half an hour later we’d have been soaked. We just got a little bit wet. Came home, had a coffee and sat and watched the rain. I hadn’t taken one photo on the morning walk. I just hoped it would dry up later and I’d get the chance to capture some photons.

Lunch was Tortellini fairly fresh stuff, soft and tasty. Not like the dried pasta variety which never really softens properly until you boil it for ages, then you lose all the stuffing. Like most things, it’s worth the extra to get good pasta. Struggled with Lightroom after lunch. I don’t know what the problem is. I blamed the virus killer I installed, but now I’m thinking it’s the update to Mojave (MacOS 10.14) that Lightroom doesn’t like. There are some folk writing on the InterWeb about it and I’m beginning to think it’s true, because the new laptop is running Catalina (MacOS 10.15) and it just refuses to allow Lightroom to install on it. Perhaps Mojave was the thin end of the wedge and it just causes problems for my long in the tooth, old Lightroom. Such a pity, because up until now it has been bombproof. Still, nothing lasts for ever.

Finally I gave in. The birds were singing, which is usually a sign of a dry spell. I put my boots on and grabbed the camera. Scamp was hard at work preparing a rhubarb pie and a small apple pie to go with tonight’s dinner which was Giant Fish Fingers, New potatoes and Marrowfat Peas. I did get some photos on the new Oly. My favourites were the Cowslip flowers with the raindrops still fresh on them and one of them got PoD. Actually the rain was still falling, but I didn’t mind it much. I stood watching the swallows dive and spin around St Mo’s pond catching insects on the wing and occasionally just skimming across the surface of the pond, presumably catching them as they hatched and lay defenceless on the surface film. Fascinating to watch, but pointless to try to catch. That’s not to say I didn’t try.

Dinner was as excellent as I hoped it would be and, even better, there’s more rhubarb pie for tomorrow. The two of us scoffed the apple pie between us. Some of Scamp’s best pastry skills on show today with a light, crisp pie that tasted as good as it looked.

A short dance practise tonight just to make sure we can indeed perform the Catherine Waltz to music. I’m sure that’s my problem. Dancing it without music doesn’t seem to be a problem, it’s when we try to keep to the soundtrack that things go wrong. Hopefully tomorrow’s class will show us to be faultless.

Today’s topic for EDiM was Eyes, Ears, Nose, Hand or Feet. I chose Hand and made a mess of it. I know I left it too late, but I finally got the grip of it by making a fist of it!

Tomorrow, hopefully there will be less rain and it won’t stay all day. A little dry time would be good, weather fairies. If you’re listening.

 

Walking in the woods – 24 April 2021

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The woodlands of Coatbridge. Not the first thing that springs to mind when I think of Coatbridge.

Coatbridge used to be a centre for heavy industry with a dirty old dilapidated canal running through it. Now it’s cleaned itself up quite a lot and most of that dirty old canal has been drained or filled in and where that failed, it’s been gentrified. We used to restrict ourselves to a wet walk around the pond whose name is really Lochend Loch. The path was really a conveyer belt with people in both directions, keeping left and stubbornly completing their exercise for the day. It was only recently we discovered the paths into and around the woodland that covers the majority of the park. The forests are a mixture of deciduous and coniferous trees and the paths are wide and winding. Some gentle climbs and some slightly more demanding. All easy walking, really. It’s difficult to get lost with the park being bounded by a railway line, a road and the pond, oops Loch. Wandered round today and chose a new path we hadn’t travelled on before and found a cricket ground. A cricket ground in Coatbridge! Who knew? The walk finished with an ice cream cone which seems to be becoming the icon of this spring’s warm days.

Back home I fashioned the remains of yesterday’s pizza into another shared pizza. It wasn’t quite as memorable as yesterday’s, but it filled a wee space. After that and after a cup of coffee, Scamp seemed determined to tidy things up an I got my shorts and boots on and went for a walk in the woods of St Mo’s. I’d tried a few shots of blossom and horse chestnut flowers in Drumpellier, but I reckoned there was better to be found in St Mo’s. Actually it was the blossom from Coatbridge that got PoD and a little mini tree got second place. None of the chestnut tree pictures got a sniff at the place on Flickr. Maybe once the candelabra flowers open up they will get their place in the sun and on Flickr.

Dinner tonight was a disappointing curry from Bombay Dreams. Pakora was only just warm and my Chicken Tikka Bhoona had too much ghee and too little flavour. Scamp’s seemed to be a bit better. Not their best offering.

Tomorrow may be the last of the warm spring days and we might go for another walk somewhere interesting and not too far away.

 

A day of comings and goings – 20 April 2021

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Arrivals and departures.

First arrival was along thin cardboard box addressed to Scamp. The postman didn’t want to damage it by pushing it through the letterbox, so I took it from him at the door. It was the April delivery of flowers for Scamp. Part of her birthday prezzy from JIC and Sim. Just like last time the flowers looked dry and wilted but this time we had more faith in the clever preparation and packaging. Scamp also knew how to feed them and water them after the surprise of the last bunch. This one was a mix of Asters, Snapdragons (which my mum called Map Maps), Stock, Solidago and Bupleurum. The last two, we had never heard of before. They were all immediately trimmed, watered and fed and are standing proud in their place between the piano and the display cabinet. One very happy lady is Scamp!

Next visitor was the DPD man to pick up my box of lenses and a camera. Handed over the box, he stuck on a ticket and gave me the other half of the ticket as a receipt. They’re now on their way to Brighton.

Half an hour later the third visitor was a lady bearing another box, this time for me. On the strength of the offer from MPB I’d bought myself another camera. Not ‘YET’ another camera, JIC. One went out today and one came in. The camera mountain remains at the same height. This is the updated version of the camera which was travelling to Brighton. An amazing box of tricks it is too. It can do summersaults while juggling three balls and walking on a tightrope. I’m still working my way through the user’s manual, wishing it came as an audio book! By the way, I’m about two thirds of the way through What Abagail Did That Summer by Ben Aaronovitch. It’s read by Shvorne Marks. I’m getting to like the idea of someone telling me a story!

As well as all that, Scamp had been for a walk to Condorrat to post a birthday card. I’d dusted half the surfaces in the living room, taking great care to place all the Bus Stop Ladies back in their respective places and giving the wee green snake that hold my brushes a gentle rub over too. I’d also been for a walk in St Mo’s and got today’s PoD on the way back – taken with the new toy, of course.  I think it’s a Berberis thunbergii.  The leaves are beautiful in autumn. When I got back, Scamp had just finished clearing out the spice rack and had found jars in there dating back to 2005! Quite a lot of jars went in the bin today, as you can imagine.

Dinner tonight was a Scamp speciality, a prawn stir-fry. Nothing fancy, just things from the fridge and freezer that should be used up. That’s the best kind of meal. It was lovely.

We had a run through of the Bossa Nova tonight to ensure that I don’t make a complete fool of myself on Sunday. Although I wouldn’t say it was the smoothest practise we’ve had, it is beginning to flow a bit better now. Counting seems to help me. Just as long as I don’t do it out loud!

Tomorrow may be a better day than today which started wet and just became dull after that with the threat of more rain if we didn’t behave. If it’s good tomorrow we may go for a walk somewhere other than Cumbersheugh.

The Fish Van – 19 April 2021

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The fish van was coming today.

Actually it was the DPD van that was arriving today within a one hour slot around midday. It arrived and a lady delivered a big expanded polystyrene box which Scamp quickly opened and decanted the Haddock, Cod, Crab, Scallops and Smoked Haddock into the freezer while I played with the packets of dry ice they had been packed in. It’s amazing stuff and although I’ve seen it in stage shows and such, this was the first time I got to touch it. It was cold! Of course, once you read the warnings on the packet, you learn not to touch it with bare hands. But where’s the fun in reading instructions when you can be playing with the stuff. I got some amazing effects from dropping hot water on to the little pieces that were all that were left in the bags after their overnight journey from down in the depths of England. Little spheres of water would levitate above the solid CO₂ for long enough to photograph. I even got a CO₂ bubble to form with the gas swirling inside. Unfortunately it didn’t last long enough to get a photo. We must buy some more fish soon so I can be prepared this time and create some more special effects. Who knew science could be so much fun … as long as you read the instructions and warnings first!

It had been another beautiful morning with blue skies and bright sun as predicted by the weather fairies last night. By the time Scamp had put all the fish away and I’d finished playing experimenting, the clouds were encroaching on Cumbersheugh, also as predicted by the weather fairies. Scamp walked down to the shops in the morning while I removed the rear number plate which had been hanging on by one ‘Sticky Fixer’ for months.  I cleaned up the plate and the space on the car where it was to go and replaced it with three new stickies.  After that I took my trusty Sony with its heavy, but excellent quality macro lens for a walk in St Mo’s. Found a few things, but best shot of the day by far was the spider defending its territory on the boardwalk. That got PoD. If you view the bigger version on Flickr you’ll see that there’s a reflection of me in the spider’s large eyes.

Dinner tonight was supposed to be Spaghetti all’Amatriciana but it turned out more like a rather hot veggie chilli. Too much chilli flakes I fear. Scamp said she didn’t know how it tasted at first because her mouth was on fire. After a while it calmed down and she said it tasted ok, just too hot. Just a pinch of the fiery flakes next time, then.

Watched another Line of Duty tonight and it posed more questions than it answered. Who did what to whom and why didn’t anyone notice a gun battle? Or was that last week?

Spent an hour tonight checking that everything was packed in safely in the big box, then sealed it up and addressed it. DPD person will arrive tomorrow to take it away to give to some lucky girls and boys who, I hope will get as much enjoyment out of it as I did once they fork out some money to MPB. Hopefully the man at MPB will give me some money too for being so kind as to send him my camera and lenses.

Tomorrow doesn’t look as good as today, but that doesn’t matter really because the DPD pick up will be somewhere in the range 9am to 6pm. Hopefully we’re not waiting around for all of those nine hours! I’m sure there will be lots of other things to do.

 

 

Was that a drop of rain I saw? – 18 April 2021

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Indeed it was. When I was making breakfast this morning, I detected some ripples on the bird bath in the garden.

It was actually raining. The first rain we’ve had in weeks. It’s not often I get to say that. The rain stayed all day. Not constant, but just the occasional shower and not heavy either. Just a gentle dampening of the ground.

I spent most of the afternoon playing real live 3D Tetris, trying to fit six different shaped boxes into one larger box. It was one of those irritating puzzles that should be possible, but wasn’t. I think I’ve managed it now, but even Scamp who is excellent at fitting things into boxes to be posted south at Christmas couldn’t find a better use of space than I’d managed. One camera and five lenses off to find a new home somewhere, probable never to meet up again, ever. I felt quite sad.

With that done and most of the afternoon gone, I went for a quick walk in St Mo’s to see if there was anything worthwhile photographing with one of the remaining cameras. The best I could find was a couple of clumps of Cowslips, but one was past its best and the other had still to achieve full flowering. I didn’t come home empty handed, but close to it.

After dinner I grabbed a few shots of some cut flowers sitting on the kitchen window ledge. Just a few white Freesia and a red Carnation. Lovely looking texture in the freesia and the carnation added a much needed splash of colour. PoD nabbed, just before dance class started.

Dance class tonight was Bossa Nova. What my latin teacher at school delighted in telling us fourteen year old boys meant New Beat. He even asked us if we’d heard of the dance. The only dances we knew back in the early ‘60s were the Dashing White Sergeant and the Military Two Step and nobody would admit to knowing even them. Dancing was for girls and weddings. I do believe he was disappointed in our lack of enthusiasm.
My own enthusiasm for bossa nova is at the same level as it was in the (not so) Swinging Sixties. I struggled through it tonight and managed about two thirds of the routine. The final third is a mystery to me. We did an acceptable Tango and finished with the Valentino Jive and Rumba One both of the last two are sequence dances which I’ve grown to accept as worth learning.

Watched an interesting Italian GP with thrills and spills galore. It got even better when a full on fist fight looks as if it would develop. Spoke to JIC and heard more about their plans for houses and work. Good to see them getting on. They both deserve it because they both work hard.

Tomorrow we are hoping the DPD man will arrive with a box of fish for us. Dinner may still be spaghetti, but I’m willing to come and go on that score.