Category: weather

Another really cold morning – 4 January 2026

Posted on by Zogman

The temperature when we woke this morning was -5.7ºc which is brrrrr very cold!

We decided we’d wait a wee bit before we began taking down the decorations and lights, just to make sure everything was packed away before Twelfth Night which will be on Monday. It’s deemed unlucky to have your decorations up after then. But first, there was coffee to make and puzzles to complete and anyway, we weren’t in a hurry because we weren’t going anywhere special.

Once Scamp started to remove the decorations, I followed suit and volunteered to remove the outside lights on the fence and Jamie’s Tree. Both of them had performed really well in the freezing cold weather of the past week. The next task was to remove the indoor lights and sort the batteries into ‘Still Good’ and ’Not Worth Keeping’. Meanwhile Scamp was in charge of dismantling the Christmas Tree and packing it away for another year, and my next task was untangling the cables for the inside and outside lights. By lunch time we were almost there. I’m glad I wrote this because I just realised I’d left out a wee Christmas Tree Scamp gave me a few years before I retired. Couldn’t leave the poor wee thing out. It’s safely tucked away in a drawer in my room.

I got today’s PoD in the garden. The water buckets were full and now frozen solid, and yesterday I thought I might bring Katy back and give her a chance to do some skating on the frozen ice of the buckets. She performed perfectly and still looks good!

I went for a walk after lunch, just my usual tramp across St Mo’s and back again. However I wondered if I could get a shot of that damselfly shuck I found yesterday. I knew it was a needle in a haystack and didn’t really think I’d ever find it among the withered wind flower husks, but there it was! I took some photos and recorded the GPS position of it just in case I chance to go looking for it again.

Dinner was a rather tough beef stew for me and finely sliced potatoes and fennel bulb baked in the oven with cream and cheese for Scamp. It sounded wonderful and the smell from it was equally good, but Scamp wasn’t impressed with the outcome. I think she may attempt it again fairly soon.

Spoke to Jamie and heard all about their working fortnight in Trinidad, securing Jaime’s house and getting money sorted out for when the house goes onto the renting market. It all sounds like a nightmare, but it looks like the hard work has been done. I hope so for everyone’s sake.

Tomorrow I’m off to the dentist to have an impression of one my teeth taken for a crown. Doesn’t that sound like fun?

Finding my feet again – 3 January 2026

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Today was more like ‘normal’ whatever that is.

In the morning we de-iced the car and drove to Tesco to get some food to put in the new freezer. Oops, I forgot to tell you about the new acquisition. Last Tuesday Scamp sat me down and together we went through all the different combinations of under-counter freezers. Although we have a fairly big fridge-freezer, it doesn’t hold as much as we’d hoped, so we’d each of us mumbled about needing more storage. That problem was solved today. We ordered a medium priced under-counter freezer from John Lewis. Everything done, sight unseen, online. It was delivered yesterday, Friday. It’s so hard to keep track of days, what with Christmas, New Year, Twelfth Night and stuff.

The freezer had to sit for four hours for the refrigerant to settle in the complex of pipes, then it had to be plugged in and told to freeze, as an afterthought, we could just have left it outside, it was plenty cold there!

Today Scamp gave it some fish, prawns and ice cream to work its subzero magic on them. It’s very quiet and fits in perfectly. Not a snore or a grunt from it at all. I think I have been allocated the bottom drawer for my meat and coffee beans.

I went for a walk in the afternoon. It was really cold, just above zero, but not by much. PoD was a Knapweed plant just about ready to release its seeds to the four winds. Also if you have good eyesight, you might catch a glimpse of the skin (or Shuck) of a damsel fly up close to the head of the main flower.

Dinner tonight was Fish Fingers, Egg and Spaghetti. A firm favourite at this time of year.

We have no plans for tomorrow.

We were promised snow (and photos!) – 1 January 2026

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The forecasters were terrifying us with threats of snow, but none appeared. I don’t know what the reason was, none was given. You can never tell with weather forecasters. I think they are taught to lie.

I did go out for a walk in the afternoon and came back with a few photos. Mostly taken with an old, ancient even, Olympus E-PL5 with a Panasonic 30mm f2.8 macro lens. The photos this combination managed to produce were excellent. It just shows that an old guy with an even older camera/lens combo can produce the goods when he needs to.

Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to see those pictures, because I was trying to get Lightroom to work with me and release its grip on last year’s catalog without breaking everything in the process.

Finally just before midnight I read two articles that explained how to achieve this trick. It was much simpler than I thought. I may try it tomorrow. I’m off to bed now.

I think I’ve seen the future … and it works!

Over to Fife – 30 December 2025

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We got the bus to the town centre and another bus to Dunfermline. We were off to Fife!

We woke to a fairly heavy frost. The poor wee bluetits were having a hard time getting through the ice on the bird bath. It didn’t seem as if there would be much bathing there today. We were running just a wee bit too late to catch the early bus to the Town Centre, but we waited and caught the next one. I wasn’t going to drive today, thank you very much! Another wait in Cumbersheugh bus station where the temperature was slightly higher than the 0ºc temperature outside in the stance. On other days I’d have said it was freezing, but that one degree or so of warmth inside the waiting room made all the difference. The bus arrived right on time and we were off to Dunfermline.

First stop was for a coffee in Nero. For the second time recently I had a decent cup of coffee. Coffee that tasted as strong as it should have. Not watery, not lacking crema. Just coffee as it should be. Two wee cakes to keep the wolves from the door and we were ready to go for a walk in Pittencrieff Park.

We walked over to the park, but alas the door to the glasshouses was locked and a sign saying essential maintenance was underway. For once, it did look as if there was work being done, so we continued round behind the rose beds and over the hill that would take us back in to the town.

I wanted some cloth to make a couple of bow ties. I knew there was a fabric shop on the Main Street and found it quite easily. The girl who served me was really helpful and almost talked me into buying a pattern for a man’s necktie, but since neither she nor I could work out what some of the terms were, I decided to shelf it until I had a better idea what it was going to look like. Instead, I got two pieces of fabric to make a couple of bow ties. That’s not to say that I’ve given up the idea of making a normal tie, it’s just that it’s on the back burner for now!

Neither of us could really commit ourselves to lunch, so we went looking for a yearly wall calendar for Scamp and a book for me, but we could find neither of these objects, so we headed home and arrived at the bus station in Dunfermline just in time to catch the Glasgow Express. Even better, the X3 was due in five minutes back in Cumbersheugh and we hopped on.

Back home, dinner was a plate of Minestrone soup courtesy of John next door. They have both been good at feeding us soup lately. Maybe we’re looking too thin and they’re trying to feed us up? I really don’t think we need it.

PoD was a photo of Pittencrieff House looking splendid in the sunshine. I almost included a couple of photos taken with an Olympus E-PL5, an ancient camera from around 2012 vintage. A lovely wee camera. It still works!

Tomorrow is the last day of 2025 and the weather looks even colder. It’s -3.7ºc just now!

A very dull day – 28 December 2025

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The sun just didn’t want to take part in today’s photos. I don’t know why. Maybe he/she had a hard night yesterday and was resting.

It certainly was a dull day. We didn’t even leave the house, but we did go for a wander in the garden, seeing some evidence of plants showing their green spikes here and there.

After lunch, I forced myself to go for a walk round the pond. Plenty of folk out fishing. They didn’t look as if they had caught much of anything, but they had plenty of tackle with them and they weren’t doing anybody any harm. I left them to their pursuits.

One and a half times round the pond was enough to tell me I was fighting a losing battle and I went home, not exactly empty handed, but with only a very few shots in the bag. Then I found that the bag itself had a tear in the zip and wouldn’t close. Not a good end to a dull day.

Dinner was a baked potato each with different toppings for both of us. A glass of Port later gave us a little bit of brightness and an ice lolly each cemented the good feeling.

We watched an absolutely awful “Two Doors Down”. It was awful. It was like a kids program with too much swearing. I will not watch that program again. Not quite so bad, but still in the Awful category was a Christmas edition of Death In Paradise. Another hour of my life I won’t ever get back. Thank goodness for Celebrity University Challenge. At least someone makes good TV.

PoD was a walker, just visible mid, left walking round St Mo’s pond. Now you see what I meant with “A very dull day.”

Right, that’s grump over. Tomorrow I believe we may be going shopping.

Walking in the woods – 27 December 2025

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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.

Christmas – 25 December 2025

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A chance to catch up with friends and family.

It was just the two of us this year, but with Jamie and Hazy setting things up we had a three way connection over WhatsApp. One pair in Trinidad, one pair in London and one pair in Scotland. We had a good half hour or so chatting away to each other, then it was time to say goodbyes and sign out. Isn’t technology wonderful when it works.

It was still dry at home, so we went for a fairly long walk round Broadwood Loch, but Scamp didn’t have boots with her, so it was the shorter walk rather than the longer version she would have preferred. I got a few photos, but not very many. It wasn’t really cold out, but not very welcoming either with a damp feeling in the air. We passed a few folk out walking and exchanged the usual “Merry Christmas” greetings.

Back home, lunch was Scrambled Eggs on Toast with Smoked Salmon. A posh lunch for a special day. Later in the afternoon and while the chicken was roasting in the oven, I took two cameras out for a walk in St Mo’s. Why two cameras? I have no idea. I looked in my bag and there were two cameras there and it seemed a shame not to take both.

I got a few photos, but the light was poor. Then as I was walking round the pond the sun shone for a few minutes and I got the shot I was hoping for with the light just touching the tops of the reeds. One in the bag and a keeper to boot!. The rest of the walk was less productive because by that time the sun had sunk below the treelike and darkness wouldn’t be far away.

By the time I got back to the house, cooking was in full swing. I’d completely forgotten that I was to bake bread today and the chicken was still in the oven, so regretfully I left the loaf until tomorrow.

The chicken when it came out from its tinfoil cover smelled exactly like a chicken should, but had to wait another half hour before Scamp would deem it safe to eat.

So, Starter was fresh Prawn Cocktail followed by Breast of Chicken for Scamp and a portion of breast for me with a Drumstick as well. Both were served with Potatoes, Brussel Sprouts and Buttered Carrots. Dessert was a lovely trifle.

We watched a silly little Sewing Bee spin off. Nothing worth watching. Then the final, final of Strictly which I didn’t watch because I was working on today’s PoD. Any excuse to avoid the nonsense.

No plans for tomorrow. Maybe another walk if the weather holds, but nothing grand. Boxing Day is another day for relaxation.

The Winter Solstice – 21 December 2025

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The sun will shine twice as bright tomorrow.

Nobody was moving outside today. No cars seemed to move, including our’s, for the entire day. Even Laura Kuenssberg took the day off. Just a lazy Sunday.

I went for a walk in St Mo’s during the afternoon, but didn’t find much. I chopped up some soft apples and left them for the birds. I eventually settled on a photo of some thorns and seed heads on a gorse bush to be PoD and prepare us for the beginning of lighter and longer days to come. I was only out for about an hour and a half. I suppose I could have stayed until 3.03pm to complete the worship of the coming of the longer days, but I was feeling the cold and to be honest a warm house was more enticing than a Solstice.

Annette came to visit not long after I arrived back. A surprise visit that delighted Scamp. Not wishing to get in the way, I took myself upstairs to read a couple of articles about the new camera and its complicated adjustment system. Eventually I decided it wasn’t worth the effort and set everything back to the way it was. One day I’ll work it out. Annette had been on a flight to Miami, but wasn’t really impressed with it,

It was Charlie Bigham’s Roasted Veg Lasagne for dinner tonight and it was well worth waiting the 40 minutes cooking time for it to be ready to eat. Mince pies and custard for dessert was ok, just ok, although Scamp thought it was lovely.

We watched the Royal Variety Performance which was an hour and a bit of my life I won’t get back again. Camera work was awful as were most of the acts. The exception was a Japanese dance group, Airfootworks. Fantastic!

Tomorrow Scamp needs to pick up her meds and I may go for a drive later.

 

Dancin’ – 18 December 2025

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The Last Dance.

The final dance class of the year no matter what dance class you are in. How will we survive for three weeks without a Chassis or a Spin Turn? Maybe we’ll just have to talk to each other.

I was out fairly early this morning going for petrol to make sure we’d have enough to get us to Glenburn and back again. Thankfully almost all of the petrol machines were working which is a change for Tesco. I had a wander round the Tesco shop too, but didn’t find anything interesting, so I just came home again.

I struggled through Wordle and Strands, then flung a few, almost random suggestions into Connections and lo and behold, I got all four groups correct. Even the Mini crossword was solved in double quick time with a little help from Scamp on a musical question. Not bad though for a bear with a sore head, because I wasn’t at my best today for no reason.

Soon it was time to get dressed for the last Tea Dance of the year. We drove over to Glenburn and danced almost all of the ballroom and sequence dances that were on Stewart’s list. I actually enjoyed the whole afternoon and we stayed just a little bit longer than usual and danced to the end of the class.

We usually leave the class about half an hour before the hall closes, and now I know why. Long lines of cars where there are usually three or four on a bad day. Today we were crawling up to the nightmare roundabout that just seems to hold everyone back. We finally arrived home after about an hour. Much later than we usually are. I think it was partly due to the rain and driving in the darkness, but maybe some folk were leaving work early, it being nearly Christmas. Whatever, that extra half hour made all the difference between a fairly easy drive and a drudge.

Dinner tonight was Bacon, Potatoes and Cabbage. Actually it was Cavolo Nero rather than cabbage. I think I prefer cabbage. Still, Scamp had fried the streaky bacon until it was crisp and lovely. Probably not good for you, but very crunchy!

PoD was the third indoor photo for December and was the Fairy on the Tree. We think the fairy is about fifty years old. It’s quite amazing to look back at how the world was then. We didn’t have a car. No Internet. No colour TV, but we did have our own house. It was a different world then, but just the same too.

Tomorrow, Scamp wants a walk around Glasgow. Not looking for anything special, just stravaiging.

Wet, wet, wet – 17 December 2025

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Not the group, just the weather forecast. It rained all the day I think. What a change from yesterday.

In the morning, Hazy phoned to ask if we were free for a chat, and we were. It gave us a chance to pause in our attempts to put parcels into a box that was never made for them. We seemed to be getting nowhere, and a wee blether with Hazy helped clear our heads. We heard about Neil changing has church, I don’t think he’d been happy with the other one for a long time. It must be strange to be a parishioner for a change. I hope he enjoys his time in the new church. Hazy has given me a couple of new books to have a look at. I’ll have a look at them this week, H. Scamp and Hazy discussed the online meeting she is booked for in the new year with the group in Dundee.
In general, it was a very good catch-up today.

We went back to our parcel packing refreshed, and I volunteered to drive up to Tesco to get a sensibly sized sealable plastic bag that would hold the parcels, but one that wouldn’t need miles and miles of Sellotape to secure it. Tesco didn’t have any, but thankfully Home Bargains came to the rescue with an A4 sized bag. The Goldilocks solution: Not too big. Not too small. Just Right! Drove home through more torrential rain. While I was in Tesco I managed to dive into Boots and explain that I was running low on eye drops and was told they will be in with my January meds. That was all I wanted to know.

Then after lunch I walked over to St Mo’s through the quagmire the builders have made of what was a fairly tidy path over to Condorrat. Now the green grass is a brown/grey slippery mudhole. They are supposed to be putting up new lighting standards to replace the old ones. With the amount of slurry that’s been dug up, scraped up and spread everywhere, it will be a miracle if the lights don’t fuse the first time they’re switched on. Got the parcel sorted and posted and was heading home when the rain came on again, heavier this time, if that was possible. Now I have three jackets drip drying in the boiler cupboard. At least they should dry quite quickly there.

Scamp was putting marzipan on the Christmas cakes, plural, in the afternoon, because we will hopefully start on the first one on Christmas Day, but keep the other one, because Scamp says they will keep for some time. Not if I get my hands on them first!!

Dinner was a variation on Tuna Pasta. Again it came from ’Home at 7 Dinner at 8’. Some strange combinations in that book. I’d never have thought of cooking the pasta with Balsamic Vinegar and definitely not with added sugar! But it worked. I wonder what we’ll make next.

PoD was another Christmas tradition. This time it was ‘Fairy Nuff’ the slightly aloof bear that sits on the front of the tree. As you can see, she takes her position very seriously.

If you’re reading this Jamie, hope and Simonne are enjoying the weather!!

Tomorrow we’re hoping to go to the last Tea Dance of the year in Glenburn, just outside Paisley. I hope it’s a lot dryer than it was today.