Category: Stirling

Going for the messages – 19 October 2022

Posted on by Zogman

It was a bit dull this morning. In fact it was a lot dull this morning, so we postponed our visit to the Far East again and went shopping instead.

We went to Waitrose in Stirling. Not quite so glamorous or as interesting as our intended destination, but a more practical one. As usual we parked in the Waitrose car park and walked up to the town. I wanted to have a look in Waterstones for a book. The one I’m reading feels like it was written by a twelve year old. Scamp wanted to exchange a top she’d bought in M&S in Inverness. We went our separate ways and I didn’t find any books that interested me, or that I was willing to part with £18 for. £18 for a book? And that was after four quid off. That would make it £22 for a book I’d probably read in just over a week. No thank you. I’ll buy it in Tesco for £10 and get more enjoyment out of it because I got it cheap. Scamp met me at the book shop, quite happy because she’d exchanged her top for a cardigan with stars on it. We went to Costa for coffee and shared a pastry, then went back to get the messages.

On the way to the town I had taken some photos of wild flowers growing unkempt and uncared for in two planters behind the multi-storey car park. They had been planted there some time ago and then forgotten about. There were red poppies, blue cornflowers and a yellow flower I didn’t recognise. Red, Blue and Yellow the three primaries! I wasn’t totally happy with my photos, so on the way back to Waitrose I took some more, being a bit careful this time with the focus and composition. The second lot were definitely better.

We bought loads more stuff that we’d intended, but that’s often the way, especially if it’s a shop you don’t visit every day. Tesco is an expedition every day or two and definitely at least once a week. We both get to know were everything is, so we don’t look too hard at other things. Anyway, loaded the car and drove home for lunch.

The dull morning had turned into a dull afternoon. I was processing the morning’s photos when I noticed a message from Adobe to the effect that there were new versions of all my software, BUT they were not compatible with the version of my operating system. I knew this was coming, but didn’t realise it was coming so soon. A check with Apple confirmed that support for Catalina (my OS) would terminate in November 2022. That would mean I’d have to upgrade both laptop and desktop to continue getting updates. That’s a big job.

<Technospeak>
Tonight I installed the upgrade onto a bootable SSD backup of my system and about half an hour later I had a shiny new machine. It’s always a good idea to test a new OS by installing it in an external drive, preferably a fast one like and SSD. That way you can play test it and see if there are any problems. So far it seems to work, but it will need some further investigations before I do the full upgrade.
</Technospeak>

The prompt for today was a fairly simple “Ponytail”.  Rather than overthink it, I took it at face value and drew a ponytail.  Nothing clever, just a line drawing in ink of a picture I found on Google Images.  NOTE: No ponies or their tails were injured in the making  of this sketch.

That was about it for today. No dance class in Cumbersheugh this week because Kirsty, the teacher, was ill. Hoping to go to a tea dance (a REAL tea dance with tea and cake) tomorrow.

Shopping – 13 July 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Out on the road again, this time to get the messages at Waitrose in Stirling.

Just a wee bit of a drizzle as we were leaving the house, but it didn’t last. We got a fairly load of messages at Waitrose. We’d originally thought we might split it between Waitrose and Morrisons, because I wanted a box of Estrella beer in Morrisons, because Waitrose didn’t have it the last time we were there. However, the extra trip wasn’t necessary because not only did Waitrose have the beer, but it was discounted too, a bonus!It was a heavy car on the way back to Cumbersheugh, plus we were fighting a strong headwind.

After unpacking and after lunch, started it raining. Just gentle rain to start with, then it got heavier and heavier. It lasted for about half an hour. I was glad to see it, it meant we wouldn’t need to water the garden tonight.

Later I went for a walk round St Mo’s and from there down behind St Mo’s school because I’d an idea in my head. There’s a group on Flickr called Flickr Friday where they set a weekly topic to photograph. This week the topic is ‘Field’. Behind the school they are creating an activities area, part of which has been sown with grass seed for football pitches. The last time I was there the place was covered with wild flowers as well as grass. My idea was to use the wide angle lens to make the football pitch look like a field of wild flowers.

When I got there today’s wild flowers were Chamomile plants. Lovely white petals with a bright yellow centre. I got two or three shots then a fly kept buzzing round me. Next thing I felt was a nip, just at my watch strap. A cleg bite. I hope it enjoyed its last meal, because it won’t be dancing with the Bolshoi again. It really stung, and of course my first aid kit with Piriton was in my other camera bag. Note to Self: Buy a cheap bag and fill it with plasters and pills then keep it in the sling camera bag and keep the other one in the rucksack. Most importantly, I got the photo and it became PoD. I was nearly at the shops, so I bought some ice lollies, and took them home for us to share. Dosed myself with Piriton and slapped on some Anthisan when I got home.

Dinner was easy fish and chips. ‘Easy’ because it was oven chips and the fish was baked in the oven too. Chips were fine, but the fish was a bit tasteless with a heavy batter and breadcrumbs coating. I don’t think we’ll have that again.

That was about it for today. Scamp got a cleg bite on Sunday and I just wanted to be up sides with her, so I got one today! Scamp’s bit is looking a lot less fiery and the swelling has gone well down. Mine looks ok tonight.

Hazy, I thought you’d like to know I finally got round to reading The Galaxy, and the Ground Within. It’s been sitting on my Kindle for over a month now. Only just started it today. Needed something different after reading almost end to end Scottish crime fiction.

Scamp is out for coffee tomorrow morning and I have the free run of the house. I’ve got no plans yet.

 

Just out for a curry – 10 June 2022

Posted on by Zogman

We couldn’t decide where to go today.

Bright sunshine in the morning, but heavy showers blown along on a strong wind. I suggested we drive to Hamilton for a curry. Scamp favoured Glasgow on the bus. We settled for a curry in Stirling with the chance to do some food shopping in Waitrose.

We’ve been going to the Indian Cottage in Stirling for many years and the food is always good. Not so good today. My meal was just as good as it usually is Chicken Tikka Chilli Boonah never fails to hit the mark. Scamp’s Vegetable Dhansak, however fell short of excellent. She said the sauce was fine, but the vegetables felt a little ‘old’, and the sample I had did fit her description. She summed it up by saying that the veg tasted like frozen veg flung into the curry sauce before serving. We both agreed that what was promised as a ‘well done naan’ was nothing like a naan. Flat, tasteless with no ghee or oil to soften the bread, it was awful. I realise that restaurants have to ‘cut their cloth’ these days, but they also have to serve the food that people want to eat.

We walked back to Waitrose and bought a fair amount of food. Mainly things that we can’t get in Tesco or Morrisons. Fruit, veg, fish and meat. That about summed it up. Scamp used up a Covid voucher for a few bottles of wine too

Drove back home without meeting any of the heavy showers we’d seen in the morning, but we weren’t in the house for long before one descended on us. Others followed later in the day. I was tempted to go over to St Mo’s, but instead I sat in the garden in the sunshine watching the bees feeding on the Honeybells. I also took a few shots of them. One of those shots made PoD.

I think we’re turning the corner on foreign travel. Scamp had a look at some 7 day cruises, but it was difficult to determine if any flights were available from Glasgow. Maybe we need a visit to some travel agents to get a clearer picture of what’s actually available. Another hour out of our lives that we won’t get back.

Tomorrow looks wet and maybe that trip to Glasgow on the bus might materialise.

Back and Forth – 11 May 2022

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After yesterday’s strange behaviour of the Blue car, I was hoping for some resolution, or at least an explanation.

Before that could happen, there was some coffee to be drunk and some stories to be told. Before even that, Scamp was out to get her hair cut. With that done successfully, we headed hesitantly to the Costa in the Town Centre. Nothing untoward happened and the blue car behaved very well.

I met Val and we had Flat Whites and a cake each. He was telling me he’d had a fall and showed me the bruises to prove it. He has been renovating a 1946 radio. Val loves a challenge and this was certainly that. Of course, something of that age doesn’t have transistors inside, it runs on valves. Glass valves with all sorts of coils and things inside them and a multitude of pins protruding from the base. I told him I remember my dad taking the valves out of our old radio and cleaning all those fine pins with emery paper, dusting them off and carefully putting them back in place. It was a wonderful thing when he could tune into radio stations in faraway places and hear folk talking in foreign languages. Nowadays we just take without thinking that you can see and hear what’s happening all over the globe, instantly on TV or on your phone even. I admire Val’s ability to rebuild these old devices.  I showed him the photos in a photobook Scamp and I had had printed of our long weekend in Old Newton.  Jamie and Simonne, he was very impressed with the house and garden, as was Isobel when she saw the book.

I had a word with Isobel who was with Sheila in a different part of Costa’s. She looks so much younger now that she doesn’t need glasses after her cataract surgery. A very independent woman she delighted in telling me that she manages to put her drops in by herself.

I drove Val home because he’s feeling a bit stiff after his fall and also because he’s lost a bit of his confidence. Then I went and filled up the blue car before picking up Scamp and Isobel then took the lady with the new all seeing eye back to the Village.

Drove to Stirling, ready for a fight, as Scamp described it. The young bloke on the desk listened to my story and started telling me they didn’t have any free appointments today, then when I said I needed the car for next week he relented and managed to get me a slot at 4pm today. I thanked him and we drove home, had a bit of lunch before hoovering up all the sticky tree buds that always appear at this time of year. When I thought the car was looking at least a bit tidier than it had been I drove to Stirling again. Dropped off the keys and sat down to read my Kindle which I’d been bright enough to bring with me. Just over an hour later the young bloke came over and showed me the printout from the computer the blue car had been connected to. He agreed that there half a dozen different failures the test had thrown up. The mechanic had cleared all the fails and re-tested the car and it came up clean, so it was safe to drive. I thanked him for getting me the slot and for dealing with it so promptly, and I was on my way back home, through the rush hour traffic. I’d hate to have to drive through that every day. Fish and chips for dinner. Just what I needed after a stressful day.

The weather today was wild! Gusty wind blowing in heavy rain showers and then blowing them away again to let the sun shine though. PoD was a shot taken in the garden. It’s an azalea that lives in a sheltered corner of the garden and is flowering beautifully just now.

Tomorrow we are hoping for a more relaxing day, although it looks like rain for at least some of it.

I have good news – 6 April 2022

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… and I have bad news.

We drove to Stirling today. We had a baby present to buy, for a baby, strangely enough. Just to make it more interesting, I took us up the Tak Ma Doon road past Carron Bridge and on to a wee draw-in near Loch Coulter. Well, the ‘draw-in’ was actually the entrance to the Loch Coulter fishery and there were signs that may have read NO PARKING but I didn’t see them. It is so quiet up there on the high moorland, I could hear a lark then we saw two curlews and a very low rainbow, scraping over the hills. Just so good, especially at this time of year. As I was taking the first photo, a bunch of rooks lifted off from the tree near the farm. I thought I’d caught them, but I missed. While I was in the middle of photographing the landscape, I got the phone call from the garage to say that the car was ready to pick up. We drove on to Stirling.

When we parked at Waitrose in Stirling, I checked my mpg as I usually do and found I had a new best mileage of 82.2mpg! My previous best was 66.6mpg. The secret, I think, was that we had a strong tailwind from Loch Coulter all the way to Stirling and the road surface was quite poor, so my speed wasn’t very fast. Still, it’s now saved into the display and I doubt I’ll ever beat it.

M&S in Stirling provided the baby present then the shop also provided a new dress for Scamp. When we were done, Cafe Nero provided lunch for us. We walked back to Waitrose and bought a few quids worth of messages to pay for our free parking at Waitrose and we drove home. All good.

Parked at the shops in Cumbersheugh and walked down to the garage. Before we paid for the repair, the boss of the garage told us the bad news. The wee Red car is on its last legs. To pass its MOT in November it will need two new shock absorbers and a serious amount of welding on the chassis. He suggested that we need to start looking for a replacement by the end of the summer. Strangely enough we had been talking about exactly that scenario, just the other day. It was bad news, but in our heart of hearts we knew this day would come. So, it was a day of mixed fortunes.

PoD was that photo of the farm up on the moor above Stirling. After I came home and looked at the photos, I found that in two of the later shots I HAD managed to capture the wheeling rooks. It was a fairly simple procedure to cut them out in Potatoshop and paste them into the landscape. You might not be able to see them here, but they will be more visible on Flickr.

Tomorrow we may be going to a tea dance in Paisley.

What a wet day – 9 October 2021

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We’d already agreed to go to Stirling for some light shopping and the possibility of a coffee.

Basically, we did exactly what we’d agreed. Driving through torrential rain and blinding spray in to Stirling. We parked in the big cheap carpark just outside the town centre proper. It was even cheaper today, in fact it was free for some reason. All the ticket machines were covered, maybe to protect them from the rain. Who cares, we didn’t even have to pay the usual cheap price of £2 per day.

We walked in to the town and found a new cycle shop where the owner was repairing, of all things, a Clavinova. Scamp’s Clavinova has a dodgy key and I’ve been telling for ages to get it fixed. The bloke listened to her explanation of the problem, then told her what was causing it, and more importantly, that it could be fixed. No estimate of the cost until he sees the piano. She got his card and will probably phone him to get him to have a look at it.

From there we walked past The Gallery, an art shop we always stop to look in, but sadly is now closing. Stirling won’t be the same without it. Then, down through the Thistle Centre which is the Stirling version of a mall. Brilliant lego fantasy creatures in the mall. The Griffin was exceptional. Coffee in Nero and a few pies bought from the farmers market then that shopping in Waitrose before the drive home into the rain that seems to linger around Cumbersheugh on these damp days. Drizzle elsewhere, rain in Cumbersheugh.

That, I’m afraid was about it for today’s excursion. PoD was taken in the garden when the rain had reverted to dismal drizzle.  It’s what’s left of the geranium flower Rozanne after  the wind and rain have blown away all its petals.  It’s posted on Flickr as Rozanne naked ☺️. Prompt for today was Pressure. I chose to do some lateral thinking and my offering is the difference between high pressure and low pressure as far as weather is concerned. I was going to draw a pressure cooker, but this was better fun.

We have no plans for tomorrow. Weather looks a bit better than today. We’ll, believe it when we see it.

Out early again – 30 August 2021

Posted on by Zogman

It’s becoming a habit, this up and out early.

The reason for today’s early rise was to take the Blue Micra to Stirling for its first service. I’ve not been too impressed with their service in the past, but was willing to give them another chance, better the devil you know … We were there early and sat for five minutes or so before we went in to hand over the keys. Once we’d signed the car over to their safe keeping we were told it would be ready “mid afternoon”. Hmm, obviously they hadn’t read the email they sent us telling us it would be ready by 12.30pm which is hardly mid afternoon. To give the young service assistant his due, he consulted with one of the more senior assistants and came back to say they could indeed have the car ready for 12.30pm. I handed over the keys and we left to find a bus to take us to Stirling itself, the dealership being on the outskirts of the city of Stirling.

Basically, we’d missed the bus and there wasn’t another one for 30 minutes. Mr Google said it would take us 20 minutes to walk into the city centre. This is beginning to sound a bit silly. Stirling is legally a City, but in reality it’s a big town with ideas above its station. From now on in today’s blog, it’s a town, with a town centre. Right? Good, let’s get on.

Mr Google was right on the money. Twenty minutes later we were walking into the town centre. We were going to got to Nero for a morning coffee, except the shop was experiencing a bit of a coffee rush and was queued out the door, so we went to a wee independent we’d been to before. It sold decent coffee and probably had cakes too.

While Scamp secured us a seat, I ordered two coffees and the slice of cake that Scamp had pointed to and watched the bloke at the counter note them down on his pad using a kind of shorthand. However when I chose an Eiffel Tower (two layers of sponge with cream in the middle and the whole thing covered with strawberry jelly and desiccated coconut) I noticed he spelled Eiffel with an “A” maybe it wasn’t an A at all, maybe it was a little drawing of an Eiffel Tower. Whatever, the coffee was weak, but the ET was excellent and he’d given me something to think about that would stay with me all day!

We walked round the Thistle Centre which used to be a thriving arcade with no empty shop fronts. Now there seemed to me more boarded up ex-shops than those open for business. It’s a terrible sight that’s becoming more and more common these days.

The garage phoned at about 11.30 to say that the car was ready to collect. We walked back the same way we’d come and picked up the keys, collected the paperwork and paid for an hour’s work, and drove home.

After lunch Scamp cleaned the downstairs toilet and I did the upstairs bathroom. With that done I felt I’d contributed something and went for a walk while she did the ironing. I’m not good at ironing. I put more creases in than I take out. I walked down and round the boardwalk at Broadwood for a change. I saw two ladies seemingly feeding the ducks from the boardwalk and commented on it, but was told they were feeding the fish. Sure enough the little fish were gathering to feed on the fish food they were throwing down to them. Now that’s something I’ve never seen in Cumbersheugh before. I walked round the loch a bit and included them in a photo of the loch.

No plans for tomorrow. It will be a surprise!

 

Going to the dancing – 7 August 2021

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At 10.45am!

Ballroom dancing class in Johnstone, the posh end of Paisley. The class started with a fairly relaxed Tina Tango just to get us going, then we segued into the Foxtrot which we made a decent enough job of, we thought. We got round the floor without too many mistakes and increased our confidence in dancing around people. I picked up a couple of tips from Stewart about posture and its benefits and also how to better direct my partner by using my hand on her shoulder blade. Jane ironed out a flaw in Scamp’s Heel Turn that had been bothering her. Finished off with a Rumba One.

Next was the Sweetheart Cha Cha, the one we’ve been trying to get to grips with this week. It was much better than last week’s disaster. We’ve managed the first part of it (the Front End). The Back End is still a mystery to me, but Scamp will sort it out. We also filmed some of the demos the teachers did and we can work with them once we slow them down and cut them into manageable chunks.

We had a bit of rain going to the class and a heavier bit coming home. The road was really busy coming home. We just dumped our stuff and headed off again, this time to Stirling to go to Waitrose. We got a fair amount of things. Mainly things you can’t get in Tesco or Morrisons. I got a couple of lamb chops that are earmarked for dinner tomorrow and Scamp got some fish, also probably for tomorrow. Didn’t go in to Stirling proper, just came home because it looked as if the town was busy.

Later in the afternoon I went for a walk in St Mo’s, in the rain. PoD came from there. Dandelion clocks are a bit of a cliché, but if they get wet they hold little beads of rainwater and become a bit bedraggled too which makes them more interesting, I think. There wasn’t much else that came from the walk.

Dinner tonight was a Charlie Bigham Thai Green Curry which was plenty hot and really good. Expensive, but worth it, because it is Saturday and neither of us wanted to cook.

I think I might have pulled a muscle in my arm. I didn’t get much sleep last night and I’ve been dosing myself up with paracetamol all day. I’ve also used some Ralgex tonight. I don’t think it does much good. I’m pretty sure the massaging it in does more to encourage blood flow, but it’s worth trying.

We had some thunder again today and a few heavy rain showers. More of the same predicted for tomorrow, so I doubt if we’ll be going far. Maybe a bit of dance practise.

A dull day – 21 May 2021

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It rained. Nice weather for ducks and also swans.

Spoke to Hazy in the morning and got a low down on weather in Epsom, which sounded exactly the same as it was here. Wild and wet. Found about their trip to Wales and pleased that Neil D is expecting to return to work on Monday. A nice rambling conversation that brightened our day.

We drove to Stirling after the phone call mainly to visit Lakeland, but also to get out of the house for a while. No point in attempting a walk the rain stopped that idea. We went to the mini shopping centre that holds Lakeland and Dobbies, one of the last Dobbies after the business was chopped up and sold off. It still holds the Dobbies name, but who knows which conglomerate owns it now. The big “D” was once a garden centre, but now it’s become more of a department store with various different enterprises under its roof. Strangely, it’s possible to walk through from Lakeland to Dobbies although they are separate businesses and don’t share the tills. Scamp wanted a new cling film dispenser in Lakeland and I wanted some proofing wax or cream for my new boots. We got both, but also an assortment of other useful things, plus tonight’s dinner and a couple of plants. I took some photos of the Wallace Monument while we were there. It was a bit distant, but it was sitting under a glowering, but interesting sky. It made PoD. We drove home with a pizza for lunch from Sainsburys and tonight’s dinner from Cook. All from under that same Dobbies umbrella.

When we got home and after lunch, Scamp started the ironing and, as the rain had stopped and the clouds had lifted a bit, I went for a walk in St Mo’s, sticking strictly to the paths. Not much to photograph or to challenge the Wallace Monument for PoD, although I did laugh at the two resident swans out swimming with their seven, yes, SEVEN cygnets. Initially Mrs Swan was trailing three of them and Mr Swan escorted the other four. Then after some unseen signal the two groups of cygnets merged and created a convoy with mum at the front and dad at the back. Then off they paddled to the nest on the island. A photo is on Flickr.

We had a curry from Cook for dinner. Scamp had Chickpea Curry and I had Chicken Jalfrezi. Scamp complained that her’s wasn’t spicy enough. I had to add some yogurt to mine to cool it down. Maybe we should have mixed them for a medium hot curry. Still, it was as good as an M&S curry, but with a bit more flavour. I think we’d try it again.

I bit the bullet today and signed up for the subscription deal with Adobe. So far it’s working really well. It runs faultlessly on both machines and although it’s more expensive than other photo processors, it’s the one I know best. Some of it is pretty useless to me, but that’s always going to be the case. I’ll check it for the fourteen days I’m allowed before I need to buy it and then I’ll decide.

No sketch done today. Too much nonsense to get cleared away. I’ll do a catch up tomorrow.

No real plans for Saturday, but we might go out somewhere for a walk. It’s forecast to be a brighter, but colder day than today.

 

Rebels without a clue – 10 March 2021

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We broke the law today! I hope you’re reading this Queen Nic!

Just to be clear, we were driving to Stirling, which is outwith our region of North Lanarkshire, but the horn had stopped working on my car. For some reason, the garage wouldn’t come to me, so I had to drive there. Still, technically we were breaking the rules. We were being rebels. ‘Rebels without a clue’ as Tom Petty sang.

The car was only in the garage for about 45minutes in which time they fixed the horn (loose connection) gave it a full checkup, counted the wheels, then washed it and sanitised it too. I think I may loosen another wire in a few weeks time, nothing too serious or dangerous and take it in again to get it fixed and hope it will be washed again. There’s a Scottish expression, “Why have a dug and bark yersel’ ?” In other words, If someone is willing to do the work for you, why should you do it?

Since we felt we had good reason to be in Stirling and since we’d be passing Waitrose on our way home, it would have been foolish not to take the opportunity to visit, just for a few minutes. So, a ‘few minutes’ later and a fair few quid lighter we drove home with three very full bags of ‘essentials’. We were just discussing our visit on the way home and we reckon it might be about six months since we’ve been to Stirling! Hopefully we’ll get back soon.

After lunch I cooked some stew that had been in the freezer for far too long, added a three pork sausages and two chopped onions to the mix and poured in half a bottle of Newcastle Brown. Brought the whole thing to the boil then set it to simmer gently for as long as it takes. Scamp was staying home being sensible because it was getting a bit wet outside, but I took the Sony with the long Tamron zoom and went over to St Mo’s to bother the frogs, probably for one last time. It was actually a chance to test out the lens in manual focus mode and it worked quite well. That’s why there’s another frog photo in this blog. This time it’s the PoD.

That was about all we did today. Stew was ok, but the meat was a bit stringy and tough in places. Scamp says it was just the cut of beef that was at fault, not my cooking. I’m happy to take her word for it.

By the way, Hazy.  Fred was quite dismissive about the actual Beverly Brook.  Here’s his reply “Donald it looks a bit shallow, if you look at the banks it could put a couple of feet on it.”  Some people have no sense of the magic of a place!

The wind is returning again and driving more rain into the front window. It’s supposed to get worse in the early hours of Thursday before it calm down a bit during the day. We might just manage a dry spell when we can go out for a walk.