Category: Trees

A leisurely day – 7 August 2026

Posted on by Zogman

We sort of had a long lie in today but managed to wake before 11am!

After breakfast we discussed what to do with the day. It was Scamp who suggested we drive to Hamilton for a curry in Bombay Cottage and that suited me too. So off we went to Hamilton. No problems with roadworks on the M74 down to Hamilton.

The food was good and the Naan Bread was really hot. Just out of the tandoor. I had Chicken Rogan Josh and Scamp had Vegetable Shimla Bhaji. Ice cream helped take the sting out of my Rogan Josh. We were both amazed that the same person who has always served us was still there doing the same job. He told us he’s been there for sixteen years, but is retiring this year. I don’t know if he will retire. I think he’s in with the bricks.

We discussed whether to go somewhere else or just go home afterwards, and settled for going home. Again, we were on the right road to just drive our normal route home without any roadworks, but many people seemed surprised that the road ahead was closed.

In the afternoon we went for a walk around the front garden. One of Scamp’s favourite rose bushes isn’t doing very well, We’re not sure what the root problem is, but a lot of the leaves are covered in big holes and others are discoloured. I think she might write to one of the companies that have supplied the bushes in the past and find out what we should do with it. For today, we cut the plant back by about a third in the hopes that it will give it a jolt. Also it is nearly time to give the roses a second feed. That may help too. If all else fails we’ll do a more drastic cut in the end of spring.

Today’s PoD really came from yesterday’s shots. It’s from an old broken wall across from the house with leaves hanging over the cracked brickwork.

Hope Jamie and Sim enjoy their friend’s wedding.

Tomorrow should be dance day. Hopefully it will be better than last week.

Not quite such a wet day – 12 June 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Driving round central Scotland looking for trainers unsuccessfully.

I got the message from Henry’s Coffee Company that a bag of coffee was ready to uplift. Drove to Falkirk, only to find that the shop was closed. A phone call sorted things out and the coffee would be delivered to our door today. That’s what makes Henry’s such a great company to work with.

We retraced our steps and drove to Go Outdoors next, looking for trainers. Not much luck. I saw one pair that were reasonably priced, but only one pair. We might go in to Glasgow tomorrow to see what Tiso has to offer. It all depends on whether Scotland win tonight. If they don’t, batten down the hatches and stay safe for a week or so.

Drove back home by the twisty backroads of Coatbridge and found the big orange parcel waiting for us in the usual place. Sent a thank-you message to the person who brought the coffee.

In the late afternoon I buckled up and went for a walk over to The Shops in and out of the rain all the time. Came home with another bag, sweeties this time. We watched a short episode of Hannah Fry explaining the benefits and pitfalls of AI. Quite interesting, and totally believable.

It had been a slightly better day than yesterday. A bit less rain and although there were a few times when the wind got bit high, at least the rain was lighter.

Hoping for a better weekend tomorrow. Also hoping that Scotland don’t do anything stupid.

A walk through the trees – 2 June 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Another day of mixed weather, but glad to see that a couple of other folk were out risking the rain.

Up fairly early to see Scamp’s sister off on her journey north. It had been good to see her for a few days, but we knew she was ready to go back home.

Just before she left, I found an old DVD drive that held a lot of memories for us all. Scamp was sure she had seen the disk in a cover fairly recently, but I wasn’t so sure. The ladies had a good half hour remembering where and when the different images came from. Scamp and I spent another two or three hours remembering those days now, well past. My next task now is to record the DVD on to another disk to send up to the north of Scotland soon. That will be a challenge.

Another find today was an old Sony F707 camera with one intact card. It took me a long time to find a charger that would fit the camera, but eventually I did find one and it’s still charging right beside me. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a card reader that would work with the camera. I might go in to Glasgow this week and see if I can find one in Jessops, failing that, it will be a case of checking Mr Bezos’s archive.

In the afternoon I went for a walk over to St Mo’s and managed to get a grab shot of two ladies walking down the avenue of trees, probably heading for the local shops. The lighting was just right with a little bit of warmth to give highlights and shadows from the sun shining through the branches. Just a perfect shot for me. Pod achieved!

Dinner tonight was Jersey Royal potatoes, carrots and bacon for me. Scamp had the vegetables only as she doesn’t eat meat. It was quite, quite delicious. Scamp did the cooking of course!

No plans for tomorrow, although Scamp has a dentist appointment to look forward to!

Out to lunch – 3 April 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Today Scamp and Shona met Isobel for a chat and a coffee. I stayed out of the way!

I met Scamp and Shona for lunch just after midday, at a new restaurant in Cumbersheugh, Bellissimo.
Scamp had Mussels for a starter and Seabass with Lemon sauce and mixed veg.
Shona had Italian Meatballs as a starter, with a main of Pollo Milanese.
My starter was Seasoned chicken strips in batter and my main was Penne Arrabiata.
All in all, a good meal although the food was slow in coming. We’d give it another shot, especially as our old faithful, Brodens is now gone.
We dropped Shona off at the Lidl store in the north of the town and then we drove home.

I took my Sony 24-105mm lens and the A7c out for a walk later in the afternoon. Gusty winds made photographing difficult, but not impossible. One of my favourite shots, a Horse Chestnut leaf just about to burst open, got PoD. It was another cold day and that gusty wind didn’t help.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to go to Edinburgh, but there have been a lot of high wind warnings in place, so we’ll check the weather before we make any rash decisions tomorrow morning.

Another cool grey day – 4 February 2026

Posted on by Zogman

I think we were both fed up with that same grey sky every day.

I’d had a message from the DVLA to say that my license needed to be upgraded, I knew it was coming. I also knew that Scamp had already completed the upgrade on her license and this was a complete overhaul of the DVLA procedure for us over 70s and I wasn’t looking forward to working through the questions and six digit numbers they wanted to see. Long story short, with Scamp’s instructions, the transition to the new world of digital was completed without too much swearing.

The next thing to do was to sort out the holiday. Again, Scamp took control while I worked at patching together the missing files on the Mac. Just over an hour later we were signed up to a short spring holiday in a resort we’d been to many times in the past. It felt like a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

After Scamp had returned and after lunch, I went for a walk in St Mo’s and got my PoD almost right away. I admit the sky is fake, borrowed from Photoshop, but quite believable. Photoshop is not one of my favourite apps, I prefer Lightroom, but I was impressed with how the new version of PS handled the sky in this cut ’n’ paste.

That was about it for a busy day, but between us we got a lot done.

Tomorrow looks like it may be a Dancin’ Day, partly to say ‘thanks’ to Scamp.

Walking in the woods – 27 December 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Another dull day. Not a lot of photogenic light, so I had to make do with what I had.

Scamp and I went for a walk to the shops in the late morning and came home with two big bags of stuff we thought we couldn’t do without. It wasn’t until we were walking home I realised just how heavy these shopping bags were. I know now! When we got home, the light hadn’t improved much, but just enough that would make it worthwhile to take a camera for a walk.

<Technospeak>
I brought my A7c with the intention of bolting on a 16-35mm lens, but instead I stuck with the 10-18mm I already had on the camera and one possibility after another made me appreciate that little lens more and more. It’s actually an APS-C lens, designed for use with a ‘crop sensor’ which means the camera wants to reduce the size of the image by ‘cropping’ the top, bottom and each side and throwing away all that useful image space. I read somewhere that occasionally an APS-C can almost cover the full frame sensor and this one certainly can. With care, you can get a decent shot from this little wonder lens. That’s what I did today.
</Technospeak>

My first target was the boardwalk over the pond, but the light just wasn’t great, so I wandered over to a fallen tree and shot a few frames before I saw the Dandelion sprawled over the roots and each ripped out when the tree was blown down earlier in the year. Another few shots and I was engrossed in taking different angles. Finally, I dragged myself away and looked for other topics, but happy with the photos I had.

I’d decided to make a loaf. A better one than yesterday’s. I checked with ’Numbers’ what the best proportions were and made a decent looking loaf. I kept it in the living room because the heat in there would help the dough ‘prove’ enough to make it expand and get the yeast working. After an hour it was looking pretty good. It’s so long since I’ve baked any bread, but Scamp asked me if I was using the ‘basket’ and I remembered the woven basket that you use to allow the bread to expand into. Long story short, the bread looks good, although I haven’t cut it open yet. I’ll leave it for breakfast tomorrow, if I can resist the smell of fresh bread long enough.

We watched a few things on catch-up, but there wasn’t all that much to whet our appetite, so I read for a while, checked out the photos and by then it as almost time to go to bed. That’s almost exactly where I am just now. I’m intending reading for an hour before I go to bed.

Hopefully we’ll have better weather tomorrow. Some sun would be good.

Driving and Phones – 14 November 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Friday’s used to be relaxing days. Not today.

Out just about 11am to meet my brother, Alex for a walk in Chatelherault park and a cup of coffee. We sat for an hour discussing the merits and demerits of two Sony cameras, an A7iii and an A7ii. Both were up for consideration by Alex as a replacement for his A6600 camera. Both the A7 series cameras were ‘Full Frame’ which means they produce better quality images than the A6 series. Alex was considering a giant leap in technology. I already had two A series cameras and am really happy with the quality they produce. Finally he agreed to borrow my A7iii for a week or so to decide if it was for him or not. I’ll leave him to decide for himself if the upgrade is worth the money.

To give us a better ‘hands-on’ with the camera we went for a walk across the “Duke’s Bridge’ which was built by the Duke of Hamilton many years ago. It used to be a private road, but now it is open to the public. Once we were over the bridge we visited the Cadzow Oaks, ancient oak trees, some of which are over 600 years old and still producing leaves and fruit.
While we were there a couple passed us riding one white horse and one brown horse. Just to show off, I think, they galloped along the path once we were behind them. Beautiful horses. We both wondered what the view must be like from that height.

Alex had only about two hours free, having to pick up his grandson from nursery, but we made good use of his time.

I drove him home and said our goodbyes. It wasn’t until I was nearly home I heard a strange ticking in the car. I had the radio on, and it wasn’t coming from that, but when it started again, I knew there was something wrong. I stopped at the shops near our house and found Alex’s phone wedged between the two seats!

When I got home, Scamp started investigating and found a message from Alex’s wife saying had I found Alex’s phone in the car? A few hasty emails later I confirmed that I had it and would bring it over.

Our relaxing day with a walk through the woods had become a bit of a nightmare, but Alex and his phone were reunited and all was well in the end.

Dinner tonight was home made Paella.

PoD was a reflection from the Duke’s Bridge of the trees at Chatelherault.

No plans for tomorrow. I hope Alex’s blood pressure is back to normal by now!

My good deed for the day – 6 November 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Just helping out a friend.

Fred’s car was in the garage getting a new clutch, but the garage was over fifteen miles away, so he had asked me to give him a lift to the garage. Actually, Scamp and I were intending to go dancing at an extra Tea Dance that had appeared on the listing. Thankfully Scamp sacrificed her tea dance for me to run Fred to the garage. It didn’t take long to drive there, only about 20 mins, but that would have taken about a good couple of hours travelling on public transport. Sometimes I ask myself if we really need a car or could we manage without one. I think I’ve been given the answer today.

On the way home I stopped off at Haggs and went for a walk along the path beside the Forth & Clyde canal, but the good light promptly disappeared. That didn’t stop me taking a load of photos, though.
I eventually gave up and drove home.

Dinner tonight was Chicken Cacciatore and it was very, very good. Fred phoned me in the afternoon to tell me that he was back home after the garage had lost his keys. It took them about an hour to find them. The paper tag on the keys had been accidentally torn off. He’s not had a great few days.

Scamp and I may go out somewhere for lunch tomorrow. Hope Fred has a better day.

Another lovely Sunny Sunday – 2 November 2025

Posted on by Zogman

The clocks went back an hour and for an hour after we got up, all the digital clocks and watches were frantically trying to keep up with what was happening. The analog clocks on the other hand were just taking things in their stride. After all, who cares if you’re an hour too early or an hour too late. Live life like and Italian and go with the flow. It may take me a few days to find all the clocks that need changing. I’ve just realised there’s another one that I’ve forgotten!

More autumnal weather. St Mo’s is just a small pond lined with rushes and some trees, but when the sun is fairly low in the late afternoon, those rushes and trees really shine for an hour or so, but not much longer than that. If you add in some dark clouds blowing past, you get a good tonal contrast That’s the story behind today’s PoD.

Scamp had been baking while I was out taking photos and there were two sultana cakes just out of the oven, smelling delicious when I came home. Our dinner tonight was a Greggs Chicken Bake with potatoes and veg, followed by a slice of Sultana Cake and Custard. What’s not to like!

Spoke to Jamie in the evening and he retold his mum about Ori’s resettlement in Canada and where Simonne was going this week.

Tomorrow we’re hoping for another day of reflections in St Mo’s pond.

Sunshine Sunday – 21 September 2025

Posted on by Zogman

A lovely morning with lovely sunshine pouring in the window while we had our usual fried breakfast (that’s really lunch) while we watched Laura Kuenssberg tearing strips of another political hopeful. She really is my hero. “Feart fae Nuthin’” as we say in Scotland.

Once that was past we settled down to read a book, play Angry Birds, read the BBC’s version of the news and avoid doing anything like work. With that said, Scamp and I did dig up our last potato bag which provided us with a lot more ‘tatties’ than we’d anticipated. Strangely, some of the strange blue skinned potatoes had some wee potatoes dangling from them. Possibly something to do with the hot weather and drought in late spring and early summer and the weeks long rain that followed as summer turned into autumn. Poor wee potatoes didn’t know what was happening and neither did we. Anyway, the larger ones were collected and became part of our Sunday dinner.

Scamp wasn’t at her best today. She’s had a sore throat for the past few days and now has a really painful sounding cough too. Hopefully, a couple of days of not doing much will get her back on her feet again. She made an apple pie for out dinner dessert, then complained bitterly that it wasn’t very good. I begged to differ, but was shot down in flames. I still say the sharp apples in the pie were perfect. Hopefully she won’t read this.

Later in the afternoon I went for a short walk around St Mo’s with two different lenses on the camera. Neither was completely successful, but they produced some pretty Bokeh, so I should be pleased. PoD went to a tree with multicoloured leaves. I have no idea what tree it was, but I think that autumn is coming in fast.

We watched a strange Azerbaijan GP. Not as bad as yesterday’s practice with cars crashing all around the circuit. This time it was stars who were making a mess of things. What is wrong with the teams this year?

No dance tomorrow. Apparently Kirsty is working at home all week.