Category: St Mo’s

A dull day with a walk through – 19 December 2021

Posted on by Zogman

It didn’t really rain today. It felt like it couldn’t be bothered, so it just smirred all day.

We were having lunch when Scamp realised that we hadn’t recorded The Andrew Marr Show. We watch it religiously every week, hardly ever missing an episode of his highly entertaining current affairs program. It’s not really meant to be entertainment, but watching him baiting politicians of all parties is simply excellent viewing. We missed it today because we’d forgotten to add it to the recording schedule. Worst of all, it was his last show because he leaves to host a new politics show on another channel. We needn’t have worried because with the miracles of a new set top box and iPlayer, it was already there for our edutainment.

So, we did get to watch him achieve the impossible by getting Sadiq Khan to answer ‘Yes’ to a question. Brave man Mr Khan having the courage to answer a question so clearly. Sajid Javid was a much slippier customer and manage to complete the ‘Yes – No interlude’ easily (too long ago for most of you to remember. Google Take Your Pick.) I’ll miss watching Andrew Marr on a Sunday morning.

After that I fitted the fully charged battery to the wee Red car. It now starts, or at least it did this afternoon without a problem but the radio still has the Wait 1 Hour message that its had since we tried the wrong pin months ago. How many hours do we have to wait?

Finally I went for a walk and got today’s PoD. A spider web with some water droplets hanging from it. Not startling, but at least it’s a photo and it’s in. It was just miserable out and that constant smirr was in the air all the time.

Talked to Jamie and he gave us a virtual conducted tour of the inside of THEIR new house. Quite a difference from the last time we saw it. It just looks like a home now with their own furniture in it. I know that Scamp is desperate to see it properly, but with the best will in the world, it won’t be until about next March, all being well. That’s a long time to wait, but better to be safe than sorry.

Scamp is booked for coffee tomorrow morning and I’m waiting for the DPD driver to come and collect a parcel. After that, the lady with the swabs and the questions is coming to see us. Busy day.

Back at the Fort – 16 December 2021

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Feeling a bit flat today.

No, it wasn’t the tyres. We were going in Scamp’s car today except I was driving, but when I turned the key, nothing! The battery was flat. Possibly there is an earth leak somewhere or perhaps that cold snap dragged the battery down because it had only been run once in the last month and that was a fairly short run. Whatever, it was my car that I drove to the Fort.

Scamp was going to Next, M&S and Boots. But she had to score Boots off the list because they were counting them in and counting them out today. That’s not supposed to happen until Saturday, so maybe the staff were getting some practise in before the big day, or maybe they were just doing it to screw up the punters day. It didn’t seem to bother the folk who were queueing all the way along the frontage of Boots shop and that’s a really long front.

I was lucky, I was going for two sheets of thin neoprene and a roll of sticky backed velcro. Found both and waited about five minutes to pay. Heaven knows how long the punters outside Boots would have waited for their goods.

Drove home and after peering at the sky, decided I’d go for a walk first to grab some of the available light before it all disappeared. A walk in the woods at St Mo’s got me the PoD. It was an oak leaf with raindrops on it. The detail in the leaf really impressed me as did the colours that were there. No fancy filters or presets were used in it, just an adjustment to the levels (tones) and a bit of judicious cropping. Otherwise it was SOOC or Straight Out Of Camera. Walked down to the shops and felt a bit nervous about being in a crowd of people. I’d felt the same in Glasgow earlier and I did the same thing again, I put my mask on, at least until I was out of the crowds. How the media hype things up makes you think and act defensively at times.

Back home we hadn’t long to wait for the man from Virgin. This one was on the ball. No delving into the innards of the modem, he just tried twice then deemed that the modem was at fault. He put a new one in and it worked right away. All the websites we couldn’t reach without a VPN were now right there. Poor bloke had been working from 7am and didn’t finish today until 8pm. That’s a long shift. He gets 10/10 for everything in the evaluation email that’s coming soon.

Scamp’s been labouring all evening trying to fit a quart into a pint pot. I swear when one of the recipients of a Christmas parcel cuts the tape the contents will expand to fill the room. You have been warned!!

I think that’s the day covered. Scamp has a booking with the Witches for a Christmas lunch tomorrow. I have things to do and a Tesco delivery to find places for until someone tells me where they should all go.

Encouraged – 6 December 2021

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Woke to rain, heavy rain, thumping down.

This wasn’t going to be a good photographing day by the looks of things. Sat down and got started on yesterday’s unfinished sudoku. There are six sudoku puzzles a week in the Times daily block. Five weekday puzzles were Monday is the easiest and Friday is really hard. You get two days to solve one weekend puzzle which is at times diabolical. On Saturday I started what looked like a remarkably easy one, but I wasn’t fooled. Last night I was still struggling with it. As sometimes happens, when I look at it afresh, like today, it just falls into place. Easy! With that done and after a false start, I got today’s done. That took me to coffee time. By the time I’d finished my coffee the sun had come out properly and the rain had stopped. That’s when I was ’encouraged’ by Scamp to go for a walk while the sun was out.

This was a two camera day. I thought I might get some decent light and with the kit lens on the big camera and the macro on the other one, I was ready for most things. I saw my first opportunity when I was walking up the path to the ’venchie. That was the abbreviated version of Adventure Playground. It’s a bit more upmarket than the one that two of my readers would remember, but is just as well used. By kids in the daylight hours and neds in the evenings. You don’t want to know what goes on in there after dark. You might think you know, but it will always be worse. Anyway, it was just a photo of a leaf and it was just to get the ball rolling so to speak. Next I found an old scarf tied to a tree branch. It has been there for years and is now growing all sorts of fungi and a nicely sprouting hummock of moss on top. Quite photogenic to a photog.

Walked over to St Mo’s where everyone but me had a dog. Dog walkers look at you kind of strange if you’re walking alone and without a dog on a string. Why? Dog-walkers, on the end of that bit of string is a creature that is one stage away from a carnivorous wild animal. And you think I’m strange? Some of them even have two or three of the things. Each of them capable of communicating with each other and planning your demise in a language no translator will be able to understand. I walked on.

I took photos of Cladonia lichen which I love and besides it looks as if I’m photographing a rock. Sometime I talk to myself while I’m doing it. That really spooks the dog-walkers. You can see them pulling their pooches away from the obviously deranged man in the old dirty jacket. You see how photogs get a bad name now? PoD ended up being a monochrome shot of a park bench in St Mo’s. The scarf came a close second and in third place was a rather limp nettle. All can be seen on Flickr.

After lunch I spent the rest of the afternoon trying and failing to avoid writing Christmas cards until dinner time. Spaghetti Carbonara followed by panna cotta.

A strange thing happend last night, just as I was locking up before going to bed.  There was what looked like an envelope lying in the garden.  I went out to have a look and it was indeed an envelope.  No address on the front, just a message Merry Christmas.  Inside was a Christmas card with a message “To you Stranger.  Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year”.  A random act of kindness perhaps?  Scamp suggested we put it in the window in the kitchen.  Hopefully someone will see that it was delivered and read.  There are good people out there.

Tomorrow Scamp has an appointment with the dentist and I’m taxi driver.

 

 

Feeding the Jucks – 3 December 2021

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Feeding the jucks with the wrong food, apparently.

It was a lazy start to the day. Not really cold, dull and cloudy with the occasional burst of sunshine. Not enough sunshine and not really warm enough to encourage me to leave the comfort of the house though. It wasn’t until after lunch that I took that step. Scamp wasn’t really interested in going for a walk, and I didn’t blame her.

The temperature was cooling down when I finally took the steps that led me outside. Toting both cameras again. A6000 with the macro lens and A7m2 with the standard lens for a change. I also had a loaf of green speckled bread under my arm to feed the ever hungry ducks and swans. That was my first task, to feed those hungry beaks.

A great way to start a food fight is to chuck a slice of bread into St Mo’s pond. Gulls, ducks, swans, coots and geese all diving in as if they’d never been fed for weeks. More like minutes, actually. With all the bread gone and the big daddy swan hissing his discontent at me, I emptied all the crumbs from the paper and went on my way.

I met a bloke who told me I shouldn’t really be feeding the birds with bread, because it’s not good for them. He wasn’t quite as confrontational as that, nor was he as blunt, but I got his message. I asked him what I should be giving them and he replied, sweetcorn. Apparently the enjoy sweetcorn and it’s good for them. Easily digested, he said. Then we discussed the age of the swans and how they live in different ponds, the same way we go visiting relatives and friends in other parts of the country. He did seem to know a fair bit about them and was happy to share his knowledge without making a nuisance of himself.

While I was walking round the pond thinking about what he’d said, I spotted some Canada geese in one of the quieter and deeper parts of the pond. Canada geese sometimes overwinter at the pond, but get a hard time from the resident two swans who are forever hustling them about. I took a few photos with the 6000 and the birds didn’t immediately fly away. In fact they swam a bit closer. I took some more shots with the A7 and the sun came out, lighting the trees on the far side of the pond. Potential PoD in the bag.

I was heading for the rough ground behind the pond hoping for a similar shot to yesterday’s with the low sun giving some warm light. I was much too early, probably an hour too early. I did get an interesting shot with decent light of a single cow parsley stem holding water drops in its claw-like seed heads. Another possible PoD.

After processing at home it was the geese that won the day, but the cow parsley shot is in Flickr for your perusal. Not a bad day’s photography, and a bit of information on feeding the swans stored away.

Dinner tonight was Chicken Biriyani. Spicy hot and not really a great taste. Apparently it can do some damage to your liver too. Don’t think we’ll be eating enough of it to do that much damage.

Tomorrow we may be going to dance class. To that end, Scamp and I had a quick practise of the Christmas Pudding Rock. Just a made up Christmas sequence dance. A bit of fun. Other than that, not much planned.

 

A birthday and going for the messages – 2 December 2021

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Just a normal shopping day at Tesco, after the singing.

The singing was done in text format over WhatsApp to Hazy and went along the lines of:
“Happy Birthday to you”

I drove us to Tesco and Scamp consulted her Little List as the basis of the shopping. While we were wandering around the aisles I bumped into Fred and found out that things are looking up now at home. Glad to hear that. We’ve agreed to have a coffee sometime soon. The list had about ten items on it and we left an hour or so later with four big bags full of groceries. Drove home in time for a cup of coffee before lunch.

After lunch Hazy sent a message to ask if we wanted to do a Zoom call. Of course we did. Scamp sang “Happy Birthday” to Hazy. I was out of the room at the time, but that was probably for the best. Singing is not my forté I’m afraid. We sat and talked for a quite a while. It was good to speak face to face, even a virtual face to face after such a long time. So much has happened since our family holiday in Cumbria back in July.

After we said our goodbyes and closed down the computer the light had almost disappeared, then the sun broke out through the clouds and all was well again. I grabbed both cameras and headed out looking for deer. I didn’t find any deer. I did find an interesting sky that might make it to Flickr once I get it looking at its best. PoD, however, went to a spear of whin with a strip of sunset orange below it. I liked the picture when I saw it through the viewfinder, but even better for me, was the format. The long narrow strip fitted the subject perfectly in my eyes.

Smoked haddock and cabbage risotto for dinner cooked in the oven. It doesn’t sound very appetising, but you’d be wrong for rejecting it just because of its ingredients. It was lovely, and best of all, no standing stirring the rice for twenty minutes. Just let the oven do the hard work.

I hope you had a lovely day Hazy.

I don’t really know what we’re doing tomorrow. Nothing planned yet.

 

The lights came on – 30 November 2021

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The sun didn’t want to come out to play today, except for about ten seconds in the morning.

I had a gossip with Fred in the morning. It’s ages since I’ve spoken to him and I had really intended phoning him last week. I really enjoyed his patter. Nothing is sacrosanct with Fred and everything is criticised mercilessly. I spent a good three quarters of an hour being entertained, and we did get round to serious topics too, like painting. Glad to hear that he’s framed his latest extended portrait landscape and hung it in the hall. Had to cut short our conversation when my phone told me it was running low on power, so I said my goodbyes and plugged it into the charger. It might have charged quicker if I’d switched the charger on, but I’m not sure. I did switch it on an hour later when the phone was completely dead for some reason!

I drove up to Tesco to get some stuff for the dinner just after lunch. I’d intended collecting my meds from Boots at the same time, but the queue was about six or seven deep outside the shop, so I decided another day would be better. The queue in Tesco for the Post Office was even longer, and I was glad that we’d decided to send a parcel down to Epsom way by DPD instead. It should be picked up tomorrow for next day delivery, Hazy!

When I got back into the car, the headlights came on automatically. It was that sort of day. Like I said at the start, I missed the ten seconds of good daylight in the late morning. But there is a 365 to be done and it needs a photo, so I drove home, parked the car, took the messages in and then went back out to see what the world had to offer. By ‘world’, I mean St Mo’s. I was heading over there just after 4pm and it was almost dark. It was a photo of an old tree that got PoD. I’ve photographed in bright sun, rain and snow. I just love the shape of the trunk. It looks as if it’s been in the wars and it’s survived the storms earlier in the week, I’m glad to say.

Thankfully there were no problems with the SD card today and although the photos weren’t earth shattering, the PoD completed number 334 of this year’s 365. That makes it photo 3256 since I started burdening myself with a 365, over 9 years ago.

Tomorrow we are hoping to receive one parcel and also for the DPD person to uplift another. We’re just keeping the wheels of industry turning. It looks like a cold, but brighter day. Maybe more than ten seconds of good light.

 

 

Arwen Arrives – 26 November 2021

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A wild lady is Arwen.

Named after the Lady of Rivendell, Arwen is a storm that started battering the east of the UK this afternoon. I’d gone out in the early afternoon before she could swoop over us and it was bitter cold just about 4ºc which with windchill reduced to approximately -267ºc or thereabouts. At least that’s how it felt. However, I did get some photos and my favourite was the one you see above. It’s the pond at St Mo’s with Deone’s butterfly seat in the distance.

One circuit of the pond was enough for me today. The wind was beginning to rise as I was coming home and I was glad I’d my Bergy jacket with its fleece lining to keep out the worst of the weather.

Earlier, in the morning I’d washed the downstairs windows, but that only gave Scamp the opportunity to change the curtains. I did the taking down of the curtains, Scamp did the changeover and then I put the new ones up. Yes, she was right, they did need changing.

Earlier still, we spoke to Hazy and found what was happening down Epsom way. Lots of interesting things going on down there and we now have a singing school teacher in the family!

All that and a phone call from Margie to tell Scamp about her trips to hospital and the swearing from some Larky folk who were in the ward with her. I’d could have told her, that’s not swearing, it’s just the way they talk. The sweary words are just used as punctuation!

Storm Arwen has been making a nuisance of itself for some time now, since about 3pm, and is still roaming around the houses here.  It’s been gathering all the leaves from around the estate and dumping them on our front garden, then clattering them off our front window.  The storm doesn’t seem to be lessening  and it will be here for most of the night and some of tomorrow it seems. I don’t know how much sleep we’ll get, but it will soon be time to find out.

Tomorrow I’m intending cooking a roast chicken for dinner. I’m sure I’ll need some assistance from Scamp, but maybe not too much. I don’t think we’ll be going far until Arwen heads off south.

An improving picture – 20 November 2021

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A very dull start to the day, but the weather improved as the day went on.

Not the most interesting of days. A bit dull to start with, but that was before the rain came and dampened our spirits even more. I messed around with the new external SSD drive (which is bad English, because the ‘D’ in SSD actually stand for Drive, so what I’ve written in Solid State Drive drive which is nonsense and a wasteful use of the word ‘drive’. The pedant’s pedant, that’s me). I copied X-Plane to it and then ran it from there rather than from the computer’s hard disk. The difference in speed was appreciable. Loading took about a quarter the time. Clever little bit of kit, the SSD.

In the afternoon, once the sun had found a way to shine out through the cloud layer, I took the Sony out for a walk in St Mo’s. I found a little Garden Cross spider that now has a place on Flickr, but PoD was really the sky. As I came out of the woods on to the boardwalk, and I saw the sky, I knew that would be PoD. It took me quite a while to find the right spot, angle and lens for the photo. Even then I dithered for a while choosing from two different trees. I finally chose the fragile looking birch to be the focus. Hardly any post processing for once.

Back home we decided on Fish ’n’ Chips for dinner. I walked over to Condorrat about half past four and by the time I was coming back it was almost totally dark. I noticed the moon rising over the town centre and it looked like a full moon, but apparently that was last night. Still, it was glowing well over the Thunder Dome as John used to call it.

We watched the qualifying for the Quatar GP, but I’m growing tired with the politics and general bad feeling between the leaders. I’ll still watch it to see who wins, but Verstappen’s constant flouting of the rules and Hamilton’s aggression is putting me off. It’s come down to a two horse race and I wouldn’t back either of them.

Tomorrow looks better than today, so maybe we will get out for a walk. If not, a wee dance practise wouldn’t do any harm.

Not enough milk bottles – 18 November 2021

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We were waiting for the call to tell us that Scamp’s glasses were ready. It never came, and neither did they.

Scamp had been told that the glasses would be at the opticians today by around 1.30pm. When no phone call came, she left it a while, then phoned them. She was told that the glasses hadn’t been delivered, but she’d contact the supplier and find out what had gone wrong. Then she would phone us back. An hour later and still no phone call, she phoned the optician again and was told that they were being tracked. Who was doing the tracking, and where the glasses were, she wasn’t saying. We’re guessing that their top sleuths are on the case with specialised glasses sniffing dogs and a police helicopter is standing by in case it is needed. Then again, it might just be a case of not enough milk bottles. We’ll see what happens tomorrow and hopefully Scamp will see too!

With the excitement over and a disappointed Scamp, I gave her some space and went for the messages. It had been suggested that paella might be a good dinner tonight, so I was heading off to get some chicken. Of course I took a camera although the sun was setting and I went via St Mo’s, just in case. As I turned a corner and came out of some overhanging trees, I spooked a group of mallards in the pond. They started squawking their warning cry and I knew they were going to do their vertical take-off trick. I had the wrong lens on the camera and the wrong settings too, but I had no choice. I got three shots before they disappeared. One of those three got PoD.

We did a tiny little bit of dancing today. Just a quick run through of the New Vogue Waltz. Just to refresh my memory. If we have enough time tomorrow I’ll get Scamp to take me through it in more detail.

Autumn days are so short, especially on dull days. If you don’t go out early or when there is the slightest break in the clouds, you’re fighting to get enough light to get a decent photo. Must take my own advice and do that tomorrow.

Otherwise, I hope we are going to Larkhall, although my faith in Simpson Opticians is becoming very tarnished.

Coffee with Val – 17 November 2021

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Out with Val to hear his news and pick his brains.

First time for ages I’ve met Val for a coffee and a chat. Drinking Costa’s version of coffee and trying not to compare it with real coffee. We spent a good hour and a half comparing each other’s technology and being amazed at the advances in computing that have become par for the course these days. He showed me a photo of his latest microcomputer the size of a postage stamp and I discussed with him the challenges of upgrading an iMac with more memory and a 1TB SSD.  Did manage to get Val to give me his opinion on the SSD as a replacement for the HDD in the iMac.  That previous sentence wouldn’t have meant a thing to most people, because, like almost everything we said today, it was in the form of numbers or letters with only a smattering of words to leaven it. So you see, Jamie, you are not alone in being a technophobe.

Back home for lunch and then later in the afternoon I went for a walk in the woods of St Mo’s looking for Stag’s Horn fungi. Managed to find one I’d been unsuccessful in photographing on Monday. Today’s shot was better, but still not great. PoD is a Sycamore seed with a wing that looks almost like windsurfer sail. The seed is caught in the the fork of a tree, maybe a sycamore itself!

Dinner was disappointing ravioli from Waitrose. Quite tasteless. It didn’t help that dinner was interrupted when the kitchen tap started running and wouldn’t stop. After struggling with it for about fifteen minutes, it stopped by itself. I still don’t know what caused it or what made it stop. Maybe it just felt it wanted a bit more attention than I was giving it.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to pick up Scamp’s new glasses which should be ready in the afternoon. If they’re not ready, Scamp will be reading the riot act!