Category: St Mo’s

Tesco, Coots and Curry – 13 April 2019

Posted on by Zogman

Some days are filled with surprises and action. Today wasn’t one of those.

Today we went to Tesco to get the makings of tonight’s dinner. I fancied making another slow cooker curry, a vegetarian one for a change. That was one of the highlights of the day.

Later in the afternoon I went for a walk over St Mo’s.  In the sunshine it was lovely and warm, but the wind was decidedly cold, coming from the Baltic the weather fairies say and I believe them. Today’s PoD was another shot of a coot sitting on its nest of twigs on the floating pontoon of horsetails. I walked on down to the BP garage to get some sparkling water to give a lift to the pakora I was planning on making for a starter for the dinner. Found a wee boy, maybe about 12yrs being questioned by a couple of women. He looked completely out of it and to start with I thought he’d been in a fight or had been climbing trees and had fallen, but it turned out he’d had a few sherbets and was just the far side of sober, or so they suspected. He did look a funny colour and they were looking after him and giving him sips of water while his mum was contacted. Me? I’d have been a bit more circumspect about getting involved. These days it’s a minefield being a good Samaritan.

In the evening I sorted out the last of the email realignment and I think I now have a fully functioning website on a new server. This week I intend to back up the files from the old server before I clear out the server, and probably also back up the files from the new one too – Belts & Braces.
I really can’t thank Hazy enough for the research she’s done for me, not only searching out the best hosting company to go with, but also finding answers and help pages to keep me on the right lines, and then checking that her dad had pressed the right buttons in the right order and not broken anything. Couldn’t have done it without you love. You are a real gem.

The curry was a hit and a miss. Scamp didn’t like it, but I did. Such a pity, but the cauliflower pakora was a great hit with Scamp. I wasn’t so keen on it. Like I say, Hit and a Miss.

That was about it for today. Went to bed early because I hadn’t been sleeping well these last few days, so the blog was posted on Sunday!

Gardening – 5 April 2019

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It’s that time of year again when we buy plants that die a few weeks later in a late frost. Next month we buy the plants that will grow.

Hopefully that won’t be the case now that we can put them in the wee poly greenhouse to harden off.

We’ve got a new garden centre in the town. It used to be Dobbies, then Dobbies was taken over by the mighty Tesco and that started a downward trend. They still traded under the Dobbies name, but only the larger outlets flourished, if you excuse the pun. The little centres were just left to rot. That was certainly the case for Cumbersheugh Dobbies. It got so bad that it was better to buy your plants in B&Q or Homebase. Nothing looked as if it was being cared for, neither the plants nor the buildings. Eventually I stopped going and by the look of the car park, so did most people. Now it’s been taken off Tesco’s hands by Calders, who started up in Kirkintilloch and have made a good go of things so far. I visited the new Calders yesterday to get the Rhubarb and the Calabrese. Today we went back to get compost and also picked up a little golden leafed plant who’s name escapes me at the moment. It’s a little bit of winter colour. We were both impressed with the change, and the car park was full, but it’s early days yet.

Did a bit of digging for Scamp’s new regime in the garden. Simple stuff like spreading old compost over some of the beds and getting tubs ready for new arrivals. Some pruning noted as needing done. If we get a few warm, dry days next week we’ll get some more things done.

Scamp fancied a recipe for Chicken Curry that used the slow cooker to do the hard work and I’m all for that. It tasted really good, but we both agreed that there was too much liquid in the sauce, so we’re intending to have another go on Sunday. I like the idea that you stick everything in the slow cooker and leave it to get on with it for four hours.

PoD is a set of camper van planters seen at the aforementioned garden centre.  Very tempting, but nowhere to show them off.

Tomorrow we may go in to Glasgow on the bus.

A free afternoon – 4 April 2019

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Scamp was out at a Gems gig this afternoon, so I had time to do as I pleased.

As usual with a free afternoon, I did what I usually do and frittered most of it away. I’d intended doing a bit more painting, but I didn’t. I was going to read a bit more in my most recent book, a true story about a forensic pathologist, but I didn’t. I did sit at the computer for a while, but ended up not doing anything constructive or creative.

Eventually got out and bought a rhubarb plant because the old one looks as if it’s dead. I think we’ve had it for a few years now and it’s been producing some stalks every year, but even after a mild winter it’s not waking up for spring. Bought another one anyway. You can’t have too many rhubarb plants. Got some Calabrese which is Italian or Green sprouting broccoli. Too early to plant it out yet (it was only 4ºc this morning) but it can harden off in the little greenhouse.

Took the cameras for a walk in St Mo’s and got today’s PoD of a coot sitting on its nest in the pond. The coot makes the nest in exactly the same place every year. Literally a creature of habit. I also got a ‘fun’ shot of half a bottle of cola of indeterminate vintage. Called the photo ‘Ginger’, remembering the Robbie Coltrane video of the same name. Watched part 1 of Tutti Frutti last night and that must have been what put it into my head.

Tomorrow I might have an hour free in the morning because Scamp has the dentist. Don’t have plans for the rest of the day, but next week I must take Hazy’s advice and get my new home for my blog sorted out.

Hamilton – 30 March 2019

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The curry capital of South Lanarkshire.

Scamp wanted to go out to lunch today, but we couldn’t decide whether to go to Stirling (curry) or Hamilton (curry). Can you see a pattern here? We eventually decided on Hamilton.

We got a table without any problem, but as we were sitting there, more and more people came piling in. I honestly don’t know where they were putting them. The seats at the bar were all taken and I’m sure all the cupboards must have been full too, but still they came in. Scamp had her usual Cauliflower Shimla Bhaji and just for a change I chose the Chicken Syrah which turned out to be quite hot, but also tasty. I’d try it again. When we left, I’m sure there would be a fight to get our table for two.

I’d intended to leave the car at the retail park and go for a look at the art shop. It’s an independent shop and there aren’t many of them left these days. Unfortunately everyone else wanted to go to the retail park too, so we just headed for home.

Scamp wanted to work in the garden when we got home, nothing to do with the fact that our new neighbours next door were building a decking area in their back garden. Honest she didn’t want to see what it looked like. I went for a walk over in St Mo’s and got a couple of shots of two ladybirds which turned out to be the invasive Harlequins. Also got a shot of a black moth, at least I think it is a moth. That got PoD.

That was about all the excitement for the day.

No dancing tomorrow and it’s Mother’s Day, so I’m doing breakfast.

The highlight today was lunch – 19 March 2019

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Some days are simply filled with fun and frolics. Some days are filled with work, work, work. Today was neither.

We couldn’t decide whether to go to Stirling or Glasgow today. Instead, we settled for Cumbersheugh. We didn’t need much, but we did need some shopping. Not ‘messages’, but ‘shopping’ there’s a difference, but much too subtle to try to explain here. After the shopping was completed successfully, we came home to rest from our labours before heading out to Milano’s for lunch. Started was Pollo Fritto for both of us and Pizza for me, Pollo a la Fiorintina for Scamp. Because she was driving, I had a half pint of Tennents. My food was fine, but Scamp’s rice was decidedly stodgy, almost like sticky rice.

After we got back I went for a walk to Condorrat with a slight detour round St Mo’s. Spotted a male goosander in among the tufted ducks and the mallards. Managed a few shots of it and it became PoD, even although the shot was taken at a fairly high ISO rating.

Dull day, and when I was coming back, all the cars had their lights on. Such a difference yesterday’s sunshine. It was cold too. Spring one day, winter the next.

Tomorrow it might be summer! Well, there’s always a chance with the spring equinox.

Just another Sunday

Posted on by Zogman

No breakfast in bed this morning. There was an F1 GP to be watched.

Up and having breakfast in the living room just after 8am. Interesting GP, slightly spoiled by the fact that Leclerc wasn’t allowed to race against Vettel. Come on Ferrari, it’s called a ‘Race’. If you keep protecting spoilt child Vettel, he’ll actually believe he’s number 1 driver. Be afraid Seb, the Russians are coming in the shape of Kvyat. I’m pretty sure he’ll have you in his sights and team orders won’t mean much then. Still a pretty good race.

Spent most of the afternoon making preparations for the mid-week, then got fed up and went for a walk in the sunshine in St Mo’s. Got a glimpse of three deer, but not before they saw me. I got a few shots of them, but nothing worth PoD. That went to a shot of the male and female flowers on a larch. Such a pretty thing and I only noticed it for the first time last year.

We went to the last ever Sunday Social at La Rambla in Paisley. Great food again. Black Pudding with Chorizo in a Red Wine Sauce was the star. Second was the Patatas Gradtinatas. Like I said yesterday, I’ll miss the food, but not the service. Really, four people working the bar with only one customer. One person took the order, passed it over to another who worked the till (after a long consultation with the menu). Meanwhile the first person poured the drinks and the second person took the money. What were the other two doing? It was anyone’s guess. It’s closing soon, no surprise to us.

Salsa was well run as usual by Shannon. I must say that for her, she works hard at providing social salsa dancing in and around Glasgow. It wasn’t as busy as we thought it would be, but we did manage a couple of hours dancing which was fine for us.

Gems day tomorrow, so I’ll get out of the way.

Oh no! Snow! – 16 March 2019

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We were promised snow today, and we got it.

For about an hour it snowed this morning, then the snow turned to sleet, and later to rain. It didn’t keep us in, we’d already agreed we weren’t going out today, so the snow, sleet, rain didn’t change things.

Like a dug wi’ a burst ba’ I continued on my project to get Linux on to the Linx. Eventually I had to agree with the experts who said it couldn’t be done. It can’t. The dug has finally buried the burst ba’. Well, maybe, but it knows where it buried it and it can dig it up again later for another go.

To take my mind off the ba’, I restarted my apple a day project with a painting on expensive Waterford 140lb NOT watercolour paper (NOT stands for Not Hot Pressed, i.e. not perfectly smooth). It was good to paint on paper that doesn’t soak up the paint right away and also doesn’t rub through at the slightest pressure from the brush. I found the paper in a drawer in the painting room. It must be well over twenty years old!

I finally dragged myself out later in the afternoon to plod over to Condorrat because we’d run out of milk and bread. I returned with the aforementioned staples plus chocolate, fudge, a pineapple cake and a rhubarb pie. Equally essential staples! So far we’ve still got the chocolate, but the rest are gone, apart from the bread and milk of course, we’re still working our way through them.

Today’s PoD was taken in St Mo’s, a short diversion from the road back from the shops. It looks like a log jam, but it’s fallen horsetails, one of the oldest groups of grasses. The genus can be traced back 250 million years.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to go to Salsa in Paisley. The last La Rambla salsa social because the restaurant is being taken over by the next door sushi restaurant and salsa isn’t a very Japanese dance. I’ll miss the food, but I won’t miss the terrible service.

Lunch, Linx and Linux – 15 March 2019

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We were up and about early this morning to make sure Jackie got her taxi on time to take her in to Glasgow.

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After our visitor had left I settled down to a relaxing hour of Sudoku wrangling while Scamp played Spider on her tablet. While I was sudoku solving I got the idea that I should maybe try putting Linux into the old Linx tablet. Maybe that would stop the continuous annoying demands that I update Windows 10 on it. I needed to download the Linux file on a PC, which was when I discovered that the modem driver on the Linux was screwed. In fact it was so seriously screwed that Windows couldn’t fix it. What it did tell me was to go online and search for a solution there. That would be difficult with no internet connection because of the fault. Eventually I gave up and just restored the entire OS from a backup. Long story – short, I wasted the entire morning fixing Windows problems and didn’t even get the Linux installed. Maybe tomorrow?!
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Drove out to The Smiddy for lunch. Mac ’n’ Cheese for Scamp and Chicken, Chorizo, Tomato and Beans for me. Bought a chump chop (lamb) which might possibly be tomorrow’s dinner for me and also a chunk of Blue Murder cheese which is a very nice blue cheese. Didn’t buy the aptly named “Minger” cheese which tasted just as it’s name would suggest. Drove home through the wild winds, driving sleet and blinding sunshine! Welcome to Scotland!

When we got home the rain and sleet halted, but the winds and the sunshine persisted, so I grabbed my boots and went for a walk in St Mo’s looking for a decent picture. I think I got one and that’s it at the top of the page. The tree that was swaying dangerously in the wind the other day was still there, still swaying. Bumped into Susan Greenshields on my way home and she was as grumpy as ever. Nice to see that some things and some people never change.

Made some more pakora in the evening and it tasted quite good again, but still needed something else. Don’t know what. Had another half hearted try at the Linux thing later and eventually found that it can’t be done. Something about a 64 bit processor and a 32bit BIOS that isn’t really a BIOS, but an EFI. It’s an EFFING pain in the arse if you ask me.

Tomorrow snow is forecast, so we won’t be going far.

Gareth blows in – 12 March 2019

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Storm Gareth has been rumbling around all day.

The highlight of the day was going for the ’messages’. We only went as far as Tesco, but it was far enough with the high winds and the driving rain. Thankfully there wasn’t any snow, just some sleet.

I did a bit of painting using the Inktense sticks to get some interesting colours in the sky. Also, because the sticks are actually solid ink, it’s possible to layer colours without disrupting the original layers. That’s something you can’t do with watercolour paints. It’s still been a bit messy and will take a while to get to grips with.

After lunch I thought I should go out and get some photos in the spells of sunshine we were having. I walked over to St Mo’s and got a shot of some daffys growing on the banking at the side of the M80 slip road. The daffodils are one of the few things that the Development Corporation got right in Cumbersheugh. However NLC undid all the good work when they dug up the flowers on Central Way to leave the banking clear for the £0.5m ‘waves’ that now grace the dual carriageway.
I stood for a while just in the treeline at St Mo’s listening to and watching the big Scots Pines bending in the wind. One of them was bending so much that you could see the roots rising out of the peat. I didn’t stay there too long. I must check tomorrow to see if it’s still standing.

Came home and made Butternut Squash soup and Scamp made Potatoes and Cabbage with the addition of bacon for me. An ideal meal for such a cold windy day.

Tomorrow we may be dancing. It depends on what Gareth says.

Just dancing once today – 27 February 2019

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Just Michael’s class today, but that was enough for me.

Scamp was out for coffee with Annette this morning. Before she went she noticed we’d missed a phone call from Hazy yesterday, so I phoned her back and we had a long chat about stuff, just stuff, families and friends. For once we didn’t talk about books, so just incase you were wondering Hazy, I’m trying desperately to finish All The Birds In The Sky I notice you gave it four stars on Goodreads. I’m afraid my rating will be considerably lower!

Next on the list of To Do tasks was to get started on today’s sketch while the house was quiet. After a couple of false starts, I did achieve a likeness of an apple and that’s what you can see here. I decided to stick to a monochrome pencil sketch. I used a nice cheap school pencil. It’s an Impega No 2.5 HB. Just goes to show that the quality of the equipment has less of a bearing on the finished article than you’d imagine. I really need to practise these simple objects. Curved objects. I’m happy with my ability to draw objects with straight lines. Curves are the killer.

When Scamp came back we had lunch and drove in to Glasgow to Michael’s class. Jive was not a problem apart from a bit of brain fade by me. Rumba I will never get used to. The nonsense of not using beat one, starting on beat two instead is beyond me. Why make it more difficult than it needs to be? I’m sure some people will just smile and say it makes perfect sense (eh Scamp?), but I don’t hold with that belief. Beat one is there for a reason. Use it! Cha-Cha? Just Rumba with a wee shuffle in the middle. Equally pointless. You can see this is going downhill now, can’t you? You’d be right. We’d practised Quickstep at home last night and we’d practised it again today while the advanced Jivers were doing their stuff. When we were asked to do it on the dance floor it was a disaster. We didn’t even get as far as the running step, the fishtails which had worked so well half an hour before were more like fish paste! Back to the drawing board for quickstep. Maybe next week …

Coffee and a visit to CassArt put a smile back on my face.  After that we drove home and I managed an hour in St Mo’s to get today’s PoD which took a fair bit of post-processing.  Dinner tonight was roast veg risotto and it was lovely.  I squirted some lemon juice in at the end with a bit of lemon rind too and it lifted it.

No dancing tonight because the lady ‘teacher’ was reputedly taking the class!

Tomorrow is free, the last day of 28 Drawings Later.  Such a pity, it’s been a PITA and it’s been fun too.