Another day, another lunch – 7 June 2024

This time we were meeting June and Ian at Nonna’s Kitchen in Dullatur Golf Course.

After a wee problem with the lifts, all four of us sat down to lunch. I ordered Lentil Soup with Pancetta Scamp had Mussels, June and Ian had Arancini. A bit of a wait, but all fine, except that mine had a whole pot of pepper in it. A longer wait, about 25 mins this time, brought us Mains which were Pasta Al Forno for June, Ian and me and Pan Fried Seabass Fillet with Asparagus and Red Onion with Pea Puree and Candied Pancetta. The Pasta may have been a mistake because it was pretty tasteless except for the Italian sausage. I ate less than half of mine. My American coffee was lovely, but Scamp said her latte was more. Baby chino than latte. Would I go back? Probably, but with better choices this time. Great views over the golf course if that’s your thing, but with the room less than half full the noise level from folk just chatting was overpowering. Some soft furnishings needed to dampen down the sound. You may remember the location from a wedding party almost ten years ago now, Jamie!

After getting June and Ian safely down to ground level in the lift, we parted company. They were waiting for a taxi and we were driving down to Lidl to get a bottle of Hortus Gin and some strawberries. Then it was back up the road in a surprise torrent of rain.

The rain soon disappeared and I went out for a walk. Took far more photos in St Mo’s than I did all day in Glasgow yesterday! That was mainly caused by having the camera on ‘motorwind’ mode, 25 shots at a time, to try to capture bees on the brambles again. They didn’t make PoD. That went to a family of ducks out for a paddle with mum. Eight mallard ducklings and mother duck. Daddy must have gone A – Hunting!

That was about it for Friday. We’re intending to go dancing tomorrow. Quite a small class, so there won’t be anywhere to hide!

Computers, Bah! – 5 June 2024

This morning and some of the afternoon was spent wrestling with Outlook and Windows 11. Now I know why Alex rejected Outlook in favour of Yahoo.com.

It was a simple thing to do. Create a set of photos of the garden, reduce their size in Lightroom and link them to some descriptions, but Outlook didn’t seem to know what to do with the fourteen images. The old Window 10 mail app could do it and I’m sure Alex’s Yahoo could do it too, but I couldn’t find a way to get Outlook to download the photos into a folder. Eventually I found a clumsy solution. I did the resizing in Lightroom on my MacBook Pro and then copied the photos onto an SSD. Sneakernetted it (physically took the SSD) to Scamp’s new Windows 11 machine and plugged it in there, then dumped the folder of files into the on-board storage, avoiding OneDrive like the plague that it is. From there Scamp was able to link the text to the photos and send the file to Hazy, where it just worked! Hooray! We did it …eventually. Maybe some clever person can now explain what went wrong with saving fourteen photos that Outlook couldn’t separate, only download them as a fourteen photos chunk. The instructions said to find the down pointing arrow and click on it, but there wasn’t any $%&*@ arrow!!

Ahem. Now for the rest of the news.

We drove to Tesco to get some stuff for tonight’s dinner which was to be Cabbage, Bacon and Potatoes. Sounds boring, tastes great. Drove home, thankfully missing another rain shower. We had a few today. Heavy rain showers blown along on a cold north wind. Flaming June!?

I walked over to St Mo’s to get a few photos and found the bees were busy in a sheltered bit of the park, feeding on nectar from the Bramble flowers and collection pollen to pollenate other flowers in the process. That’s the way the world goes around. That’s where today’s PoD came from.

Dance class tonight was a bit shambolic. Disorganised and stop-start. Neither of us were really sure whether we were doing the units properly or not. I did take a few videos, so maybe they will make things clearer. Perhaps Kirsty was also having a bad day.

I’m booked for a photo walk with Alex tomorrow. Hope the rain stays off long enough for us to get some photos.

Lunch with Shona – 4 June 2024

We were out to lunch at La Bella with Shona today.

Shona was running a bit late today, which was just as well, really because the roundabout at Broadwood had ground to a halt, simply because one of the lanes was coned off for grass cutting and the ‘Smart’ traffic lights weren’t smart enough to deal with two lanes trying to merge into one. This left us about fifteen minutes late, but Shona was late too, so nobody moaned. Nobody except me, that is!

Food in the restaurant was good. Starters were: Mussels for Scamp, Chicken liver pate for Shona and Arancini for me. Mains: Penne Amatriciana for me Mushroom Risotto for Scamp and Lasagne for Shona. Dessert was Tiramisu for all.
Like I said, food was good but I simply ate too much and am suffering for it now. Only myself to blame.

When we were done, Shona was going to get a new cover for her phone and, as we were already at the town centre, she walked there. We drove home.

The weather was strange today and it was all the fault of the jet stream again, according to the weather fairies. That and a cold front that was bringing in cold, gusty winds from the direction of Greenland. The sun when it shone was warm and comfortable, but then that cold north wind stole all the heat away.

I decided I’d take a risk and went for a walk in St Mo’s, well bundled up with a hoodie and a raincoat, just in case. The rain did come, but didn’t last long, thankfully and I was glad of the hoodie. PoD was a weather related landscape shot across the pond towards the hills in the north with what might be that cold front blowing in.

I think Scamp and I spent most of the evening trying to work out how to extricate a dozen photos from the clutches of Outlook. Wouldn’t it be great if two operating systems would talk to each other, but it will never happen I fear. Maybe tomorrow we’ll come up with a solution.

It’s been a long day and I’m off to bed. We had some rain today and we’re hoping for some more tomorrow, or else the hose will need to come out.

 

Dancin’ – 1 June 2024

This morning we were off on the road again to Brookfield on a beautiful day.

Today we started with Midnight Jive which was ok. I think everything started going wrong after that. The teachers were concentrating on refreshing our memory of dances for the summer Gala Ball in a couple of weeks and they started with Cha-Cha. I don’t like Cha-Cha. I never have and I doubt if I ever will. I knew the dance we were being taught, and we had done it many times before, but I just clumsily bungled my way through it, despite Scamp’s best efforts. I was just glad when that section came to an end.

Next up was a Foxtrot, but to make the dance simpler and easier to dance, they chopped it in half. I don’t really think it made the dance any easier, in fact it became a bit disjointed. I would agree, however that it would be easier to dance on a crowded floor, because it was so short, but it just lacked the flow that the full length dance had. Nothing to do with the fact that it had become one of my favourite dances. Lovely smooth lines that went together well. They did go well before it was made ‘easier’. After a couple of sequence dances we were set free. Maybe I was just clumsy today and that made me grumpy too. Maybe it will all work out next week. I hope so for Scamp’s sake.

Drove home, still in brilliant sunshine and stopped at M&S for bread and cooked chicken. Today’s dinner was to be a salad made to one of Neil’s recipes and the chicken is one of the main constituents.

Lunch was cold ham for me and cheese for Scamp. After lunch we went for a walk in St Mo’s where a Common Blue damselfly made PoD. I was using the A6500 with a lens from the A7iii. A strange combination that didn’t work for me the last time I tried it, but which produced some lovely images today.

A seat in the garden with a glass of wine and a book after the walk was the order of the day. It really did feel like summer which it is today. Meteorological summer starts today.

Scamp turned a chicken breast into a lovely dinner tonight. The mix of dressings made it extra special. Perfect food for such a lovely day.

A bunch of photos had arrived on our phones this morning from Jamie and Sim on holiday in Suffolk. Looks lovely, but I think we have better weather! Enjoy it. I’m sure you will have found some interesting walks there.

No plans as yet for tomorrow.

The end of May – 31 May 2024

Also the end of Spring and the end of EDiM (Every Day in May).

Was it a good month? No, not particularly good. We got a week and a bit of sunshine, warm sunshine, but also a bit of thunder and torrential rain. Damselflies appeared fairly early and a couple of hardy dragonflies arrived very early. Scamp got a new computer after a dodgy one and I got Excel and OneDrive. Lots of flower photos, and a fair selection of architecture photos, but not a lot of landscapes.

This morning Scamp was off to FitSteps and then she went for coffee with Isobel. By the time she came home I’d finished my sketch of a Portuguese Man of War jellyfish to cover today’s prompt of a Jellyfish or an Octopus. Her response to the picture was an indifferent “Meh”. I had to agree and we had lunch.

After lunch I did a rethink and found a photo of an octopus to sketch and paint. Although it was far more complicated to draw than the PMoW, it had enough room in it to add shadows that would create the 3D effect the jellyfish lacked. That got a better response from Scamp.

Leaving it to dry, I went for a walk in St Mo’s and found today’s PoD almost right away. I saw the man sitting on his chair throwing balls for his dogs and I liked the contrast between his jacket and the trees in the background. He did spot me photographing him, but I just held out until he looked down at the dogs and took the ‘keeper’.
If this was you, I apologise!

While I was out I phoned Scamp to ask if I should bring home a Special Fish Supper for dinner. A Special, in case you don’t know is two slices of breaded haddock. Much lighter and with better flavour than an ordinary battered fish. She agreed and I dropped in at the chip shop on the way home. The chips were a bit cool, but the fish was excellent.

The sun had passed the house and was shining in the garden, so we sat and read for a while. Next door were having a family gathering, so after a while I retired to the quiet of the house and posted today’s PoD, the Octopus and a wee extra shot of my relatively tidy painting desk. Relatively tidy FOR ME, that is.

Some folk have commented on my list of ‘Tools’, so I thought that, as this is the last one in EDiM 2024, I should give the Tools a spot in the limelight to take a bow. Without them I wouldn’t have been able to produce the 31 sketches.

We watched Rebus, a new BBC series. I recommend it to all the Scottish contingent if you are wearying for home after talk of Special Fish Suppers. WARNING It does contain lots of sweary words and a fair bit of violence.

We’re intending to go to dance class tomorrow, but no more plans.

 

The constant gardener – 29 May 2024

A little bit of tidying up of the garden in the morning. Then a lot more.

I’ve had seven little pots in our overcrowded greenhouse, hardening off before I planted them out. Actually I’d almost forgotten about them. Today I was going to plant them in the real world. The post held sprouting sunflowers. Their cotyledon leaves had now been replaced by their ‘real leaves’ and it really was time to plant them in the raised bed, except I’d been using the soil from the raised bed to bank up the potatoes. This was a shambles. I admit I wasn’t really dedicated to this gardening lark, but something had to be done. I decided the thing to do was have lunch!

After lunch the job started properly. Scamp was intending moving troughs with old daffodils in them from the front garden to the back to get them to dry out so she could gather the bulbs for planting next year, all being well. I felt ashamed that all I did was lug the planters about and not do anything creative, so I emptied all the pots and old plants from the raised bed, pulled up all the weeds I could reach and then used a bag of cheap compost to fill in the holes I’d been creating in the bed over the past months. I planted all seven sunflower seedlings. I also planted about ten leeks that were languishing in their plastic trays. Next I replanted two strawberry plants that were looking sorry for themselves and finally dug up and planted what might be a tree. I think one of our friendly birds planted it for us, but now it’s growing in a proper pot. I’ll be interested in seeing if it flowers and what fruit it bears.

Scamp planted up her new trough with Violas, Lobelia, two Heucheras and a Geranium. The trough is long and narrow and holds a fair amount of compost. It’s a heavy thing to carry through the house. She also did some general tidying up and kept an eye on me to make sure I wasn’t damaging any of her plants. As if I’d dare.

When we’d finished we drove to Tesco for some shopping that should have been done on Monday, or Tuesday, but was completed on Wednesday!

I made a fairly decent chilli non-carne for dinner, assisted by my commis chef. It wasn’t very hot, but I’m loathe to put more chilli powder in it, because chilli non-carne or chilli con carne have a reputation of becoming much hotter on the second day.

Five couples were getting in each other’s way tonight at dance class, but we did get round the floor and joined the first part of the waltz to the second part seamlessly after Kirsty supplied the middle section. It wasn’t perfect, but I’m sure, by next week we’ll have it working perfectly, DV.

Before I started making the chilli, I went for a walk in St Mo’s. Not a lot of interest there, but PoD became an Aquilegia flower I saw on the walk home. I think their season is drawing to a close, so I’m making the most of them while they are still here.

Today’s prompt has been completed, but it’s still soaking wet after I tried a very watery ink and wash technique. I’m sure it will be dry for tomorrow.

<Update> And here it is: Today’s prompt asked for a Turtle. The only ones I’ve seen live were the small freshwater turtles, but the images I found were of their bigger cousins, the sea turtles, so a Sea Turtle it was.
Just for fun, I painted it wet in wet. It seemed to suit the subject.

Tea Dance tomorrow. We may even attempt the, as yet, unnamed waltz if everything goes according to plan.

Dancin’ – 25 May 2024

Back to the grind again, driving over to Brookfield for an hour and a half of dancing.

It started with Mayfair Quickstep danced to a new piece of music which didn’t really fit the dance I thought, but what do I know. The next one also the Mayfair was to the traditional tune and it worked fine.

Next up was a Rumba which we’d dance a couple of weeks ago. Most of it came back to me after a couple of tracks, but then Jane added in some pointers to make it look a bit smoother and although I’m not always a fan of her additions, the Ball Flat she taught, where you step on the ball of your foot before you drop on to your heel, did make the dance much smoother and quieter!

The next dance was what’s now called the Four Seasons Waltz. At last we have settled on a name that works in any season of the year! It worked well. We both kind of knew it, but again the emphasis was on teaching us the techniques. In particular it was the ‘Sway’ which is a big part of waltz. I found that quite difficult. I could do the correct steps but not the sway or I could do the sway and forget what the next step was. I think that requires some practise.

We finished with a Bellissima Cha Cha which was less than bellissima from my point of view. It was one we’d learned years ago during lockdown. It was another one that came together after a few runs through.

After that we were set free again to drive back home through some folk’s panic to get to a football match between Glasgow Rangers and Celtic.

Back home, a chicken and potato omelette brought me back to normal after the drive and the dancing. I went out for a walk and wandered around St Mo’s for a while. That’s where today’s PoD came from. It’s some Speedwell flowers. Not as good as the photos Jamie sent of his Bee Orchids growing in the garden.

Today’s prompt was Towel Day (Hitch hiker’s guide to the Galaxy) or a Walnut. I’ve drawn a towel before for the Douglas Adams tribute, but this year I opted for a Walnut instead. I don’t think Douglas would have minded. Complicated things walnuts, the fruit reminded me of a human brain with all its whorls and symmetries.

Scamp is looking through photos on her new laptop that seems to be going well. I might have a wee dram before I go to bed. It’s been a tiring day.

Definitely no plans for tomorrow.

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting – 24 May 2024

For the DPD man to call.

Scamp’s new laptop was due to arrive today, but eventually we got the message that it would arrive just after 1pm and as usual with DPD, it was right on time.

I’d forgotten how many times you have to sign your life away when you’re setting up a PC. Macs seem to be much easier and lighter on the crap that comes with the computer and nobody really wants. Eventually it did its inevitable updates and restarted four or five times, then we finally got to play with it, well, Scamp did. I was Tech Support today. The lady in the shop where we didn’t buy the laptop told it was easy to get the files and data from the old computer and on to the new one, but then she told us that anti-virus software was desperately important and that McAfee wouldn’t slow the system. I just shook my head and smiled. I knew she was lying, because her lips were moving. The in-store sales team will tell you anything to get your money and get you out of the store. We had gone by the short cut and ordered online from JL. No lies to listen to, just pay the money and wait for it to arrive.

Setting up the machine was fairly easy, but getting it to load the data and files from the old one took a good 2 – 3 hours. First it wanted to load all that data on to One Drive, got stuck and told us that we’d need a bigger One Drive. That’s when I got hot under the collar and removed One Drive, then put the data back old style by copying it from the backup I’d made in the morning. Now, only about 8 hours after we started it’s beginning to look like a real computer. It’s actually got a nice clear screen and the sound from the B&O speakers impressed Scamp’s musical ear. We’ll see how easy it is to work with after a few days.

I did manage a quick walk in the afternoon after waiting for a downpour to clear. Just a few minutes of really good light, but it cheered me up from the struggle with Mickysoft. PoD was a low level shot of dandelions with their bad hair day look after that rain.

Dinner was Fish Fingers, Egg and Spaghetti (from a tin). Just what I needed.

Today’s prompt was A Tree. This is a tree across the corner from me. Like many of the trees this year, it had no leaves until the beginning of May, then tree and leaf growth went into overdrive. I think it was the warm weather coming after a decidedly wet and dull spell of weather. All the trees around seemed eager to be out in leaf. The lightly sketched car is intended to give an idea of scale.

I’ve just discovered what a good, comfortable chair the Poang from Ikea is. I’d a sore back after all that peering over the laptop keyboard. An hour with Angry Birds on the Poang relieved the pain.

The teachers are back from their latest voyage and I think we may go to dance class tomorrow to demonstrate all the things we’ve forgotten!

 

Raining again – 23 May 2024

Just light rain early in the morning, but it got heavier later in the day. I think it’s time for the clouds to turn the tap off now.

We had another discussion this morning and decided to order the laptop from John Lewis.

  • Same price as everywhere else
  • They had them in stock (not display models)
  • They do next day delivery
  • Two years warranty

No brainer.

I drove over to Tesco to get some missing elements for tonight’s dinner which was Lemon & Turmeric Chicken. It was the second one this week to turn out ‘ok’, just ok. It might have been tough chicken thighs or maybe it needed to be cooked for longer. Neither of us was all that impressed. HOWEVER! The Rhubarb & Custard Pie that Scamp made was excellent, I thought. Scamp wasn’t all that complimentary about it. It’s a bit of a faff to make, but I’d say it was worth the effort. Plenty left for tomorrow.

While I was in Tesco I bumped into Fred and we had a blether for about 20 mins with topics covering: Chemists, Surgeries and Painting we also discussed Rishi Sunak standing in pouring rain, with no shelter or umbrella, announcing that the General Election will take place on the 4th of July. Why?

When I got back and after lunch Scamp had started making the aforementioned Rhubarb & Custard Pie and I went for a walk in St Mo’s just as the rain started, but unlike Rainman, I had a raincoat on. One decent photo of a field of buttercups. That became PoD.

Today’s prompt was for a Gift Loop or a Gift Bow. Since I had no idea what a Gift Loop was, I chose a bow instead. It eventually morphed into a red bow on a green box which probably held a gift or maybe it would be a Jack in the Box. That would probably have been funnier, but it’s done and dusted now and cannot be changed. My drawing – My rules. The judge’s decision is final.

Hopefully if DPD are as efficient as they usually are, they should deliver a big box tomorrow. Not too early I hope, but not too late either.

Off the leash again! – 19 May 2024

Scamp was off at midday. Going to see the Strictly Professionals in the Armadillo.

Before she left we had a phone chat with Hazel and heard that things are returning to normal again after Rita’s funeral. I think it has taken more out of then than they had anticipated. I’m sure the mid-term break and the thoughts of the holiday will give them something to look forward to.

I dropped Scamp off at the British Legion, where she joined in with the rest of the FitSteps ladies who were going. No men appeared to be interested. My duty done, I drove out to Westway Retail Park where I was intending to buy some bags of compost … but not today! There were crowds of folk coming and going from the Home Bargains store which was where Scamp told me the best bargains in compost were. I’m sure there were bargains to be had, but there were no spaces in the carpark, and I do mean NONE. If that’s how busy it was outside, what was it going to be like inside. I drove home via Tesco and bought a loaf to take home.

It was a cloudy day. Lots of high white cloud that the sun couldn’t penetrate, so I got the grass cutter out and chopped the grass in the back garden, shifting all the pots as I went to avoid having to use the strimmer. It didn’t take very long to hover mow the grass, but it did take easily twice as long to clean the mower afterwards. By the time I had finished and put the mower back in its place, the sun was starting to cut through the cloud and the place was getting that little bit brighter. I dug out some compost from the raised bed and used it to earth up the two potato bags and the potato pot. That was the extent of today’s gardening.

After a cup of tea the sun was indeed shining and it was warm enough to take out a garden chair and read in the sun. The Black Dog by Kevin Bridges was today’s book. A bit of a scrambled start, but then the real story had started. I don’t know if it’s been part ghost written, but the language seems quite flowery for Mr B, in places. I’ll see how it settles down.

Later in the afternoon I thought I’d go over to St Mo’s to see if there were any damselflies or dragonflies. There were both, but the damselflies were busy making more damselflies while the single dragonfly seemed to flying circuits round the pond. Eventually it rested on a horsetail, quite near to the boardwalk and I managed to get a few (about 30) shots of it. One of which got PoD.

Dinner for me was some of yesterday’s chicken with potatoes, chives and tomatoes and it was almost as good as yesterday’s.

Just before 8pm I got a text from Scamp asking to be picked up from the rooftop restaurant in the town centre. It seemed that the show was a success, although it wasn’t exactly what she’s been expecting.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard about their garden. What was growing and what was not. Simonne is off on her travels again, this time in England.

Today’s prompt asked for a Ball of Wool. This is not an exact spherical ball, more a disjointed cylindrical woollen object with hemispherical ends. So, to my eyes it’s a ball of wool, but I’m sure my daughter will correct me and tell me it’s yarn, not wool. It is what it is, and it was easier than I thought to draw.

We may go looking for compost again tomorrow, hoping to find a quieter time.