Category: weather

The last day of May – 31 May 2025

Posted on by Zogman

How quickly May disappeared!

Usually I’m sketching and painting in May for EDIM (Every Day In May), but this year was too complicated with many things going on. Too many things, so I decided to forego EDIM for a year and de-stress a bit. I think it worked. Looking forward now to June and hoping to get good weather like we did in May.

We were up early today, 8.30am is early for us! We were heading to Brookfield at the new time of 9.45am for the rest of the summer. It was allegedly to give us more time in the afternoon for something that wasn’t dancing. I wasn’t sure it was a good idea.
Also, it was a small class, only 3 couples including us and I wasn’t sure if that was a good idea too. However it did give the teachers a great opportunity to teach almost ‘one-to-one’ and that seemed to work. It also meant the teachers had their eagle eyes on us and, as I sometimes say, no room to hide.

We survived the first dance which was an old favourite, the Charnwood Cha Cha. Lots of little bits and pieces we’d forgotten. Hadn’t realised how long ago we learned this dance.

The next lesson was Rona’s Rumba. We’d learned it in Perth a couple of weeks ago, but today we began to put things in their correct place and it started to make more sense, but it’s still a bit complicated than our usual rumba.

Just to break things up and because there was nowhere to hide, the next track was House of Bamboo. I’ve never danced it apart from an aborted try about a month ago. I tried it again and although I did fill in some of the spaces I’d created in my last attempt, but I’m still not sold on it.

A chance to dance the new quickstep took us into the details of dancing a Fish Tail. The little details make this dance worth trying again and again. By the end of it, I was more secure in my dancing of this shape I’ve tried sometimes successfully and often unsuccessfully. It needs work.
A couple of sequence dances finished a strange morning at Brookfield.

Drove home half intending to go the M74/M73 route, but then decided Kingston Bridge would be more sensible. In the end, Kingston won, and it was the right answer.

The rest of the day can be summed up in two words “It Rained”. We had been warned by the weather fairies that there might be Thundery Rain. Although we didn’t see or hear any actual thunder, we did hear the rain and it was heavy.

In one of the dry spells I took the chance to shoot a couple of flowers. A bloom from Gertrude Jekyll got PoD, with my Peony Karl Rosenfield a close second. I had one flower from it last year, but this year I have at least five flower heads. A beautiful flower and one of my mum’s favourites. I hope she likes it.

No plans for tomorrow, but the weather doesn’t look promising.

Soaked – 27 May 2025

Posted on by Zogman

It was a wet day, a very wet day. Spring was giving in to the rain.

  • Stayed in the house and watched the rain for a while
  • Eventually Scamp and I got fed up and we decided to go for a walk.
  • We went across the road and found a path I’d walked five years ago, a different one from the other day.
  • The further we walked, the heavier the rain became and the more lost we got, although not entirely lost because we occasionally glimpsed the golf course we were crossing through.
  • We were looking for a cafe we knew was there somewhere, but eventually gave up and walked back to the main road. That’s when we saw the clubhouse and presumably the cafe.
  • By then we just wanted to get out of the rain, and I was beginning to think the clubhouse was a mirage anyway.
  • Aren’t mirages meant to be found in hot, dry, arid places like deserts?
  • Eventually soaked, we dried off.
  • Neil brought filled rolls from a bakers and a newspaper we could stuff into my leaky trainers and leave to dry out on the radiator. Thank you Neil.
  • Dinner was in an Italian restaurant with Canute, Delia, Hazel, Neil and us. Good food and a comedian of a waiter. Lots of laughing and some planning too.
  • Evening was spent packing our bags for the train home tomorrow.
  • PoD was a dragonfly carving we passed on our trudge through Horton Country Park

Hot again today – 21 May 2025

Posted on by Zogman

A day that started with 14ºc but which did have a few sprinkles of rain to cool us down.

It wasn’t a day for doing much or for going anywhere. Most of the work we were doing was in the house for a change, at least it was cool there. I couldn’t be bothered going over to St Mo’s for photos, so restricted myself to photos of the bees on the rhododendrons and a few from the aquilegia that are beginning to set seeds now, although there are plenty of flowers on them yet. Both the flowers and the seedheads are good subjects for photography.

In the afternoon, Scamp treated us to a glass of Pimms and dinner tonight was another variation on Neil’s Chicken Rice. This was the third meal we’ve had from the chicken we bought on Sunday!

The sprinkles of rain we got wasn’t as heavy, nor as long lasting as we’d hoped, but the weather fairies are adamant that there will be heavy and more prolonged rain next week. Let’s hope they have it right this time.

No real plans for tomorrow.

Back to the heat again – 20 May 2025

Posted on by Zogman

After a respite from the heat yesterday, today it was back to the heat again.

The weather fairies keep telling us that rain is coming and that temperatures will return to the May norms, but unfortunately nobody has told the weather itself, yet. Today was another hot one, but there were signs later in the day that a change is coming. Cooler than it has been in the early evenings and a few more heavy, possibly rain bearing clouds crossing the sky. We live in hope.

I spent most of the morning writing and posting the blogs I’d just finished, along with the ones I’d collected the bare bones of from the weekend. It’s only Tuesday, but the weekend feels like it was ages ago.

We went shopping in the afternoon, just getting the bare essentials, but Scamp remembered we needed a couple of bags of cheap(ish) compost to fill up the potato bags and bucket. The warm weather really brought them on. Also, I remembered that they are Arran Victory.

Shopping done and after lunch, I put on a pair of shorts and went for a walk over to St Mo’s. PoD came from that walk and it’s an upside down spider. Google Images thinks it’s a Tetragnatha extensa, but I’m not sure it is. When I got back, Scamp had made a jug of Pimms with some apples and oranges chopped into it. Very welcome. Dinner was Neil’s Chicken Rice. I don’t know what the proper name for it is, and I don’t think Scamp knows either. It was as delicious as it usually is.

We watered the garden using watering cans tonight. I think we felt guilty about using a hose. There isn’t a hosepipe ban in force here yet, but the news folk keep banging on about it, so this is our contribution to the crisis.

No plans for tomorrow, yet.

 

Perth – 17 May 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Drove to Perth in brilliant sunshine.

We set off at 9am and arrived at the car park neat The Salutation Hotel almost exactly an hour later. Parked on the ground floor for the first time ever and found our room was on the third floor. Scamp asked if there was a room on a lower floor. We’d been given a top floor room before and remembered the water dripping from the shower head when the shower was set to full. We didn’t want that again. Thankfully the girl on reception found us a smaller room on the ground floor. Great we shall be washed!

Met the rest of the dancers at our table, all of whom we’d met somewhere before and were introduced to our lesson for today, Rona’s Rumba. There were fewer dancers than there had been last year, although that was in November 2024 and this was a hot May 2025. The temperature was maybe the difference. In the bigger parties, the teachers usually split the class into two and teach the lesson to one half of the class at a time, then the groups are reversed. This time everyone was on the floor at the same time and it was a bit chaotic.

In the afternoon we bought some sandwiches and two wee bottles of orange juice then found a vacant bench in the park and had a picnic. It was great sitting in the sun watching the world go by.
Now that we’d been fed and watered, we went to the Bean Shop and I bought a couple of bags of coffee beans and a bag of Ceylon decaf tea. It’s the one decaf tea I can say honestly tastes like real tea.

It was so hot we had to stop and have drink before we went on to the creaky old Salutation and got dressed properly for the Dancin’.

Food was quite good in the hotel and although I did lose a knife somewhere, that was the only problem this time. It has been much worse in the past.

There was a little fly in the ointment. Obnoxious wee man tried to lower the tone of the night, but a few smiles between Scamp and I and some sarcastic comments by me were all that were needed for him to leave in a huff! I felt sorry for his wife, but now I know why she calls him Grumpy!

Danced to almost everything in the evening and lasted until the last two dances were called, then made our way back to the room.

PoD was a shot of four men. Two were real and two were manmade … or, was that an oxymoron? Actually the guitarist busker was really good, with a nice line in clever dialog. I gave him two quid!

Tomorrow we may be dancing again after breakfast. It’s a hard life, this dancing business.

 

A change of venue – 16 May 2025

Posted on by Zogman

A concert, not a dance.

We should have been driving to Perth this afternoon to the spring weekend dance class, but instead we were heading to Cumbersheugh Town Hall for a choir concert in memory of June. I’d been in two minds whether to go or not, I’m not a great fan of concerts and I could give good reasons for not going, but as always happens, heart wins over head and I agreed to go.

Earlier in the day, we had lunch in the newly upgraded Broadwood Farm. According to the menu the pizza was topped with mozzarella, but there is a difference between mozzarella and cheddar cheese and the frazzled topping was cheddar. Also, the batter on Scamp’s fish ’n’ chips was a bit oily. Other than that the lunch was fine. Not a great improvement on the original restaurant, but a step in the right direction.

The main event of the day was very well attended and we all had front row seats. It did get a bit emotional at times, but most of the songs were fine. A few of the solos were a bit ropey, but you have to remember that these people are amateurs and are giving up their time to produce these concerts.

I was parked a distance from the hall and offered to bring the car round to the front. Quite a few folk were also walking over to the main car park. We were about halfway there about 9.30pm when out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of a bright orange fireball dropping from the sky off to the north east. Another bloke walking in front of me saw it too and shouted “Great balls of fire!” I’m glad he was there or I’d have been doubting myself!

PoD was a bloke on his phone walking down a well trodden path.

Tomorrow we’ve planned an early rise to get to Perth in time to take part in a special Rumba for Rona who died recently after a short illness.

Flying Things – 15 May 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Another bright sunny morning, although the breeze was cold, despite the temperature being 13 point something degrees, according to the old thermometer in the house.

I just had enough time to tackle Wordle although Scamp had already started into the more complicate of the NYT puzzles. Then it was time to get dressed properly for the drive to Glenburn for today’s Tea Dance. A smaller than normal group with quite a few folk calling off, probably because of the good weather.

It was the usual fare, starting with a waltz. We tried hard to work out the steps of Waltz Nioli, but got as far as the first half dozen steps before it all fell to pieces. We eventually gave up and started a wee short nameless Waltz that Kirsty had taught the class fairly recently. That worked, but it was a lot shorter than Nioli.
Next Stewart called for a Jive routine, any jive routine. We danced the Seven Spins we’d learned with Michael, all those years ago – before Covid, that’s how long ago. A couple of sequence dances later and it was nearly tea time with a fairly lengthy chance for a blether.

Second half was more sequence than ballroom, with a few well known sequences and also a few we’d almost, but not quite forgotten. As the clock was just past 3pm we decided that if the next one was worth dancing, we do it, otherwise we’d drive home. The next one turned out to be the Ria Bachata, but not to real Bachata music, so we said our goodbyes and drove home.

An almost non-stop drive from Glenburn, over the Kingston Bridge and home. Not the best drive time we’ve had, but the wheels were turning all the way. That’s very unusual on a Thursday afternoon.

Back home, Scamp was having a rest in the garden and I was going over to St Mo’s to see if any of the dragonflies and damselflies were coming out to play. Well, the dragonflies were, but I only saw one damselfly and it was keeping a low profile in and out of the weeds by the side of the pond. Keeping out of reach of the dragonflies that were patrolling the pond looking for easy takings.

I walked round the pond then went back the other way. Sometimes that gives you a different view of the park. Today I followed a wee butterfly with strange markings and got a shot or three of it. Next a damselfly came past and attached itself to a nearby leaf. Another half a dozen frames made sure I’d a photo of that too. Finally as I was walking home I spotted a bedraggled Crane Fly (AKA Jenny Long Legs in Scotland) was dangling from a trio of Horsetails, the prehistoric perennial plants. That became PoD.

Dinner tonight, just for a change was pasta with a rich tomato sauce. Very nice it was too. I made it!

We watered the garden later when the sun was going down. Scamp did the front and I did the back, despite warnings on the BBC to the effect that water shortages may mean a hosepipe ban. It’s just meant to scare us and we’re not listening!

Tomorrow Scamp may go to FitSteps in the morning. I have no plans.

Where has the sun gone? – 14 May 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Woke this morning to grey skies and a mistiness all around. Wondering what suddenly happened to Spring.

Scamp was out in the morning for a catch-up with the rest of the witches. (For ‘catch-up’ read ‘blether’). That left me with a morning to fill.

A little reading filled part of the time and a bit of shopping filled another part. It had been recommended to me that I should perhaps get my hair cut, or tidy it up at least. I took these suggestions onboard and drove over to one of the many barbers. For the first time in ages I had to wait to get my locks shorn. Usually there are plenty of hairdressers lurking in the back shop, but not today. They must all have been making the most of the sunshine that had appeared around lunch time. Job done and £10 lighter of pocket I drove home.

Not long afterwards I got a call from Scamp to say that she was ready to be collected. I drove up to the new retail park and we went shopping there for some beer and cakes. I’d bought the sensible bread and bananas earlier for my lunch, but I didn’t complain about these extra essentials.

I couldn’t really be bothered with walking over to St Mo’s today, so took some photos in the garden. I pulled up the ‘whirly’ clothes pole and that gave me the much wider view of the garden I’d been looking for. Later, with the clothes pole replaced, I took some close-ups of the Golden Torch rhododendron flowers. Its name says “Golden Torch”, but it looks pink and white to me. Scamp tells me it will change from pink to yellow later in the flowering period. Those flowers got PoD.

Dinner tonight was pasta with the remainder of the orange and rhubarb jelly as dessert. Delicious with a dollop of ice cream. (The jelly, not the pasta).

Tomorrow we may be going to a tea dance.

A lazy start to the day – 13 May 2025

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A lazy start for me, that is. Scamp was already up and pouring her first coffee well before I broke surface.

It was another warm day. Quite breezy, and maybe that was what cleared the morning clouds away. It was just over 13ºc when I raised my weary head.

After lunch, Scamp started building a frame to encourage her sweet peas to start climbing. She has already planted out two areas of climbing frames for them. This one might be the final one for this year.

I went for a walk in the afternoon with the correct combination of camera and lens. I was hoping for some shots of damselflies. I had managed to capture one a few days ago and had seen some flying around the pond yesterday. However, there were only a very few in the air and those were in the centre of the pond and flying low. The reason soon appeared in the shape of a Four Spotted Chaser and it was living up to its name today, chasing every flying insect it could find. I admit, I went a bit over the top with almost 50 shots of the dragonflies taken. They were hacked down to a more realistic number in the first cull. I think the sun had gone to my head. Still, it was the first dragonfly of the year, that’s my excuse.

Dinner tonight was Fragrant Prawn Rice Noodle Salad. A bit of a mouthful and a bit tricky to scale down from four servings to two, but it tasted fine, but was a bit difficult to eat. I think we may have another try at it later in the summer all, being well. Orange and Rhubarb jelly for dessert and it was delicious.

After dinner I watered the veg in the garden. The kale looks a bit dried out and so do the leeks. I’m hoping to get started earlier to morrow and get the rest of the kale and leeks planted. Weather looks set fair for the next week at least. Great for sitting reading in the sun and for sunbathing, but the garden will be taking a beating unless we get rain soon.

By the way, Happy Birthday, Neil!

Tomorrow Scamp is intending to meet up with the other witches and I may be working in the garden.

A grey morning – 12 May 2025

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A dull start to the day with mist and cloud blocking the sun. Thankfully the mist and cloud disappeared later in the morning and the warmth was there again, but with a bit of a cool breeze.

We were going shopping today, just a usual Monday shop for essentials and a couple of bottles of wine to restock our cupboard. While Scamp started the shopping, I drove the car to the carwash next door and gave it a wax wash. It cost a few quid, but less than five minutes later I was driving out in a sparkling, shiny car. No sign of the sticky residue from the trees we park under.

A light lunch and then I intended to read a few pages in my new book, but time and a snooze got the better of me and an hour later I wondered where the time had gone.

Scamp was working in the back garden, but I hadn’t much to do there, although I might plant a few more leeks and maybe some more kale later in the week to fill up the raised bed. Instead I went over to St Mo’s with the A6500 and a short lens. Wrong choice today. Not only were there damselflies circling the pond, but there was a dragonfly sunning itself on one of the horsetails. Far too far away for my wee short lens. Should have taken the long Tamron instead.

I found a pair of ferns in under the trees that looked to me like a couple of old style boxers, squaring up to each other. That got PoD. Lots of ducklings in the pond, keeping well under cover on the edges of the water under Mummy Mallard’s careful scrutiny. The pond is certainly coming alive. Warm weather works wonders.

Off to Kirsty’s dance class in the early evening. Only three couples including us, but we’ve now got a fair grip on the Tango we’ve been learning. There is still a tendency for Kirsty to teach short, tight routines, not making enough use of the fairly large hall we have at our disposal. We both feel she could open up the dance floor a bit.

Watched the final of University Challenge and watched our favourite team win by five points. We were both delighted.

We may go out somewhere tomorrow, just to get away from Cumbersheugh for a while.