Category: weather

Heading west – 4 January 2020

Posted on by Zogman

Today we were heading for Helensburgh, despite the rain.

A day by the sea with a bracing walk along the prom would do the both of us a world of good. I’m sure some people would turn up their noses at the idea of Helensburgh (one in particular), but it has the best pizza shop outside of Glasgow. Not that that was an ulterior motive of mine!

Went by the scenic route through the wee villages of about five houses with their 30mph signs and the twisty turny roads. Driving through low clouds that seemed to think they were doing us a service by tipping their rain down on us. Reached Helensburgh without any great problem drove in to the carpark and saw a sign. New Carpark Charges. It had always been free. Surely they hadn’t put meters all over the place. Needn’t have worried, there was the sign behind the first one No Charge for cars, buses, lorries or motorcycles. Hmm it must only be the occasional tractor or helicopter or perhaps Jumbo Jet that needs to buy a ticket then.

We walked along the prom and that’s where I got my PoD. Somebody obviously thought the sunglasses were an optional extra today and left them, intending to pick them up again if the sun started blazing down later in the day. They were still there when we walked back again through the rain.

Walked round the shops which didn’t take all that long. This isn’t a shopping metropolis, just a run down wee town with more coffee shops and charity shops per head than anywhere we’ve been for a while. The pizza shop was open, but when we went in I noticed the pizza ovens were off. Was he doing pizzas today. “Not just now” was the reply. This must be the first time we’ve been to Helensburgh and been told “No!” Maybe the sign of things to come.

Had coffee and a bite to eat in Costa where the coffee wasn’t just drinkable, it was good. It must be the baristas or the coffee in Cumbersheugh that’s rubbish. It’s been good almost everywhere else, other than Falkirk where they teach bad coffee making to would-be Cumbersheugh baristas.

Bought some stew and some sausages in a butchers shop and we headed home via Waitrose to get tomorrow’s dinner. Decided to take the M8 road home and it was much more pleasant than the ‘scenic route’. Getting near Glasgow I could see the red brake lights in front and a sign announcing slow traffic ahead. It was a queue easily a mile long – I kid you not – to get into the retail park at Braehead. We changed lanes and avoided it, but as we passed the entrance, the single lane queue turned into a four lane traffic jam. The trouble is once you’re in that four lane queue, you’re committed and have to just follow it where it leads. Glad we hadn’t decided to go to Braehead!

Dinner tonight was a Spice Tailor curry which could have been better, the chicken being a bit tough. Scamp kindly said that it was probably tough chicken and not my cooking that was at fault. I knew the truth.

Tomorrow we may go dancing.

Out and about – 3 January 2020

Posted on by Zogman

It was bright and it was dry when I was making the breakfast. No lounging around today.

We made the excuse that we needed printer ink and that was why we were going to avoid the crowds by driving in to Glasgow early. We ended up on level 5 of the Buchanan Galleries carpark, partly by design and partly by necessity. We were going for printer ink and that’s on the “Toyshop” 1 level, level 5 of John Lewis. There might have been spaces on levels below that, but there were plenty to choose from on 5. We got the last bottles of ink, four of them: Blue, Pink, Yellow and Black, the last ones in the rack. Cost about £35 for the lot. It’s an absolute steal when you think that each bottle contains 70ml and an average ink cartridge holds about 10ml and costs the same as that bottle and you still need four of them!

I dumped the ink in the boot of the Juke and noted that in the 15 minutes or so we’d been in the shop the parking spaces on level 5 had almost all been taken. With the main reason for the visit ticked off, we went for a walk. Scamp suggested we walk round Glasgow Green and since it was still a bright dry day, that’s what we did. We walked down Bucky Street and along Argyle Street, then zig zagged down to the Green. Walked under the McLennan Arch which is where I got today’s PoD from. Well, almost. Because as usual, all is not as it seems. I had to do a bit of cut ’n’ paste to get the photo looking the way I saw it in the viewfinder, but that’s normal. Walked round to the suspension bridge and watched the rowers chasing each other’s tails up and down the river. Walked back past the now barricaded Wintergarden that Glasgow Council seem to want to pretend doesn’t exist any more and back into the city. Cup of coffee and a spot of lunch then home. Thought I might manage an hour in St Mo’s, but it wasn’t to be. We were hardly in the door when the rain started. By the time it went off, the best of the light had gone.

Dinner tonight was Braised Peas with Bacon, Lentils and Cod. It’s becoming a firm favourite with us. Quick to make and very tasty. Note: No Potatoes!

That was about it for the day. Much better day than yesterday, even managed my 10,000 steps, but not my 8 active hours.

Tomorrow we’re going to do the same thing in a different place. Rain or shine we’re going out, or so the plan reads tonight.

  1. So called because it’s the level with the technology ‘toys’ for sale. It’s a sort of creche where women leave their husbands to prowl and drool over the lovely toys in the glass cases. While they go and browse the sensible stuff like dresses and washing machines. ↩

The day that never started – 2 January 2020

Posted on by Zogman

Grey and almost dark when we woke and it stayed like that all day.

The only difference seemed to be that as the day progressed, it started raining too. After some discussion it was agreed that it would be foolish to go out when we didn’t need to, so it was a stay at home day.

After lunch I went on a food run to Tesco for bread and milk. The bare essentials. Scamp was making soup for dinner while I got the NAS drive to work with the MBP, then I removed the old hard drive from the case an remarked at the silent running of a purely digital storage drive. It’s not new, it’s a good four or five years old, but it’s been running in conjunction with the slow, noisy hard disk that sounds as if it’s been on its last legs for about four years. Now it’s been released from the computer. There’s not a great weight gain, but there is an increase in speed which is good news. I’ve got the bare essentials I need to use the MBP and if I get a decent battery into it, there could be the makings of a good second computer there. The next thing to do is decide what happens to the Linx which I’m thinking I’ll probably reset to factory settings and sell at CEX. I’m not expecting to get a lot for it, but I’ve had my fill of using a low spec machine struggling under Windows 10. I could of course turn it into a Hackintosh, but I want to use the hardware, not be constantly having to tinker with it. Did that in the past and wasted too much time on it, although it was fun when I did get a project working. No! I mustn’t think like that. Sell it and move on.

After dinner we watched The Thomas Crown Affair a 1968 film about a heist in the US. It was confusing at times with its use of multi-split screens, but a great wee bit of escapism.

The other films we watched today were black and white photos from the ’70s and early ‘80s. Most of them were taken in and around the houses in Larkhall and the stars were a boy and girl. I can remember taking some of them, but can’t remember scanning them. Found them on a partition on the NAS drive when I was looking for something else. Scamp and I spent a good hour reminiscing. I blame it on the time of year.

Today’s PoD is the little green shoots of my jalapeño plants. These are the most advanced ones with healthy looking ‘real leaves’. I’m thinking I should pot them up soon.

Both of us agreed that we are aching today from too much sitting around. We must get up and go somewhere tomorrow. Maybe to Glasgow to get ink for the printer. Just an excuse really to get out of the house.

What a dull day for the first day of the decade – 1 January 2020

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Dull, but at least it was dry.

As predicted, bedtime was early this morning rather than late last night, and drink was taken. Therefore, it was a late rise this morning. After that a rather lazy start to the day with no attempt to achieve the required 10,000 steps or even the 250 steps per hour. The fact that I was moving at all was an achievement in itself. Scamp, however, was much better today with very little sign of the pains that had been bothering her for the last couple of days.

After a frugal lunch (piece ’n’ bacon for me and a piece ’n’ egg for Scamp), we went for a leisurely walk around ‘easy’ St Mo’s. We stuck to the new path and I took a few photos, but only a few were worth considering as PoD. The best of a bad lot was the swan’s head. Even that was poor. Hopefully there will be better light tomorrow, but I’m not too confident about that.

<Technospeak>
On the computer front, the bastardised macOS Sierra was still working on the old MBP, but it took a terrible time to boot up and I’m still not sure what exactly that patched OS is doing in the background. With that in mind I decided to do a clean install of El Capitan and to remove the ancient hard drive that’s been draining the battery for years. The reset worked well and the boot time to El Capitan is much reduced from that of the slightly illegal Sierra.

My Lightroom 6 is an upgrade version and needs proof of purchase of a previous version to install. That proof is the serial number for the original version, in my case, version 1! Today I found it at the back of a cupboard, so I can have Lightroom on my old MBP and a legal version too, because Adobe are very aggressive in their searches for illegal software. That’s tomorrow’s job, as is what someone once called “the tracery of free and shareware programs that constantly run in the background”.
</Technospeak>

Dinner was a bit of a mishmash. My steak pie was overcooked because I forgot that the Le Creuset pot holds the heat and therefore keeps cooking long after the heat has been turned off. Still it was edible and we had a civilised dinner sitting at the table as befits a New Year’s Day dinner. Scamp’s salmon seemed to fair much better than my stew. We had a bottle of Prosecco courtesy of Clive back in September, and it was one of the best bottles of prosecco I’ve had.

Tomorrow we may go out somewhere for a walk or a look in the shops. It all depends on the weather. As usual.

Another year over – 31 December 2019

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And a new one about to begin.

Scamp was a bit better this morning which was a relief. She’s so rarely ill and it takes a lot to floor her, but she said she felt better. Not really well enough to get up and make breakfast, but I’ve got a tally of the number of days she’s been shirking.

It looked cold outside and the temperature was still below zero, so we weren’t in any sort of rush to go out. I did eventually go and bring the car down from where I’d parked it last night and we replaced the de-humidifier which now weighed about 400g more than when we’d put it in. That’s 400ml of water its absorbed over about six months. Actually it’s more than that. We’ve already removed about 200ml by heating it up on a radiator. I think the bag contains salt and clay. The salt being hygroscopic draws in the moisture and the clay prevents it from going back out again. Still, it works well in the wee Nissan. Mine has AC and that pumps out dry air summer and winter, so that dries the windscreen, but what is it about Japanese cars that makes them so susceptible to condensation?

We still needed some stuff for dinner tonight, so we walked down to the shops. Glad we did, because the road was just a carpark. Cars, buses and lorries all getting in each other’s way. It was traffic chaos. We found out why when we went in to M&S Food. People everywhere, probably all the ones who were causing all the road chaos. All madly grabbing things, any things, because haven’t you heard? The shops are all shut tomorrow!! Now these shops weren’t even there a few months ago and nobody died of starvation. Still we have to stockpile just in case they decide to shut the shops for two days. We got enough to make dinner. We didn’t need any more.

Walked back home and had lunch then went out to St Mo’s to take the last photos of 2019, the last photos of this 365 and the last photos of the decade. It was a lovely day. Good light again and a wee bit of frost too, just to add some sparkle. PoD was a picture of a curved grass stem with a water bead caught in a leaf joint.

Came home to find that Scamp was feeling a lot better and was making cakes for tonight. I set to and made the stew to fill tomorrow’s steak pie. A couple of weeks ago I made the prototype, this is the real deal. After that I got two of the apps I use a lot on the Mac installed, but one, the main one, Lightroom is installed, but not registered yet. I’m hoping the new year will bring me a brainwave and I’ll get it done. If not, there are always other ways round things, if you know what I mean.

That’s about it. I think we’re ready to face 2020 now the place has been hoovered, the toilet has been cleaned, the bathroom has too. I think we’re ready.

All The Best to all my readers. I hope 2020 is good to you whoever and wherever you are.

Tomorrow? Probably a late start after a late night tonight. Drink will be taken, I’m sure (it already has been!).

Sunshine! – 30 December 2019

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The sky was clearing when we woke, but it took a while for it to clear completely.

Scamp was feeling a lot better today. Good enough to go for the messages. Rather than face the crowds and the traffic jams, we chose to shop locally in Tesco. I think we nearly emptied the place, judging by the amount of stuff in the trolley we wheeled to Scamp’s car. She had decided to give the Juke the day off because it had worked hard these last few weeks.

After lunch I took the ‘old’ E-M1 out for a spin round St Mo’s and got some lovely light because the clouds had all cleared away and the low sun was warming everything up. Not actual temperature ‘warming’, but colour temperature warming. The Mired value, but you don’t need, or want to know that, do you? Let’s just say it was lovely light during what’s know to photogs as the Golden Hour. Today it was macros again and my favourite and therefore the PoD was one of some moss on the limb of a tree.

By the time I was heading home, Scamp was getting ready for a Gems Christmas/New Year party at Carol’s. A good name to have for this time of year. I wasn’t invited, of course as this was a girls only night, but I was the nominated driver for Scamp and Margie. I was even getting the privilege of driving Scamp’s car, probably to extend the Juke’s holiday. Dropped the ladies off and headed home to do battle with the MacBook Pro again.

This time I was ready. I’d read the script and the the different pieces of software. The first attempt didn’t work. Apparently the secret is to change the system date of the MBP to something about two years ago and try again. I did, and it worked. Panicked after that because although the screen looked right, I had no mouse, no keyboard and no way of progressing with the install. Back to the ‘big’ computer and read the ‘Problems’ section. It was a know problem with a solution. I did a reboot and edited one small tick box before I lost control and voila! MacOS Sierra running on a 2009 MBP. You PC owners may be saying “So?”, but this is a big deal. Apple control what can and can’t be installed on their hardware, but one clever bloke has stymied that. Well done to him. Tomorrow I’ll populate it.

Got the message just about 11pm that a taxi was required. Checked the temperature (actual temperature, not Mired!) and it was -1ºc. Had to scrape Scamp’s car, inside and out!!

When we got back, Scamp was feeling sick. I suspected self-inflicted alcohol induced poisoning, but she said that wasn’t the case. She did look a bit under the weather and went to bed just before midnight. Hope she feels better tomorrow.

If Scamp is feeling better I may go in to Glasgow tomorrow to source some ink for the printer, or then again, I may not. It’s that certain.

So this must be Sunday – 29 December 2019

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All day yesterday I though it was Sunday, but it turned out to be Saturday, so hopefully today will be Sunday. Oh for some structure to the week again!

Scamp was feeling better today, but still not back to her usual self. Another day’s rest wouldn’t hurt and would probably be a great help.

In the afternoon I laced up my boots and took the camera for a walk in St Mo’s. There wasn’t much to see and nobody wanted to walk there, which was a shame because it was blue skies all round with a few clouds to make it interesting. Walking up through the trees a deer crossed the path in front of me and didn’t even notice me. They really should obey the Green Cross Code and look left, look right and look right again before crossing. It didn’t, but there were no cars coming, because there wasn’t a road.

Most of today’s shots were of lichen and fungi on trees. Bracket fungi mainly. Must look them up on the Interweb and find out more about them. Lovely detail on the underside of the brackets, looking like little 3D mazes. PoD was a tangle of leaves and grasses caught in a tree. Don’t ask me why, but I liked it right away.

Walked on down to the shops and got the makings of tonight’s dinner. Roast Chicken with Jacket Potatoes.

Struggled for the rest of the afternoon trying to install a clean version of El Capitan into the MacBook Pro. For some reason it didn’t want to install. Finally gave up and cloned in the one I’d backed up about a week ago. Now I’ve found that you can put almost any version in, not Apple legal of course, but it can be done. May try it today. It’s hand grenade time again!

“What does this little pin do? What will happen if I pull this ring?????”

Tonight Scamp was looking and feeling a lot better. Tmorrow we must go for real messages. Planning a raid on Tesco.

The day after – 26 December 2019

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Drove down to meet H&N at Starbucks!!!!

I thought it was going to be lunch, but it was more like coffee and cake, or, considering this was Starbucks, Starbucks and cake. It ended up just being six people talking round a table and it was good. Lovely mural on the wall. At first I though it was a repeating pattern, but then realised there were no repeats. Yes, there were things that looked like repeats, but no actual tessellation. Then I noticed the signature and date and that confirmed that it wasn’t wallpaper, it was an artwork. Very nice. Remember I said that, it’s not often I say good things about Starbucks.After the hugs and goodbyes, we drove home and got ready for the outdoors. Graham Water was our destination and we were walking anti-clockwise this time … in the rain. It could have been a dreich walk across muddy grass and even muddier paths, but the scenery kept changing as we went through woodland, down dips, up hills and into little villages. Past strange cottages with gargoyles on the eaves and then dwarfed by fields of three metre high corn. Occasionally catching glimpses of the Water itself. Eventually we reached a place where the flood waters stretched right across the road and it wasn’t clear how deep it was. We’d done enough. We turned back and I got a chance to photograph the old church that became PoD, although it could have been the grass or the gargoyles that got that honour. No, it was the church.

Back home and drying out, dinner for Scamp was another whole sea bass and for the rest it was Wagyu steak. Extortionate price, but amazing taste and texture. I can’t remember what we had in accompaniment, the steak was the star. Tasting almost like fillet and almost like ham, but softer than both. Beautiful. I wonder if the butcher in Muirhead will have some? Finished off with Christmas Pudding and Brandy Cream. I may never eat again!

More TV at night and we decided to leave the packing until tomorrow. Tomorrow we must go back up north.

Watching the Airies – 23 December 2019

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Off on our travels again.

Apart from checking, re-checking and partly unpacking then repacking we didn’t do much. About 1pm we drove to the airport through the rain. For once I got through security without having my bags checked. Even walked through the metal detector with my belt still on and didn’t trigger the flashing lights!

Since we were kind of on holiday, I risked a half pint of Peroni at an extortionate price. Grabbed a PoD of the airport with one plane against a Glasgow sunset. It’s becoming a tradition when going on holiday. Soon we were called to the gate and then we were ‘flying through the air, sitting in armchairs at 35,000 feet’ as someone once said.

The bags came quickly at Stanstead and JIC was soon driving us through the English night. Nice car, but I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the heated seats! Would Vixen still remember us, or would there be a barking fit. Needn’t have worried, there she was, showing her excitement at seeing us again.

A glass or two of excellent wine, a lovely orzo salad (Orzo and Rice – hadn’t realised they went so well together), some catching up chat and a fairly early bed.

Tomorrow we may go for a walk

The Shortest Day – 22 December 2019

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And it felt like the shortest day too. Very little sunlight finding it’s way to the Scottish earth today.

Apart from having a lot to accomplish today, there wasn’t much incentive to get up and get started, but we did. Calendars to print. Doors to fix. Dinner (mine) to cook. Tidying up to be done. Just normal day to day stuff, but it all seems to mount up some days. Today was that day. Also, there was the usual photo to be taken in almost twilight.

I went to B&Q to get the stuff to fix the door. After lunch I started my dinner – Lamb Shoulder Shank, slow cooked. With that on its way, I went out and took some photos. Mostly macro photos and mostly macro photos of Cladonia lichen. Found some Cladonia Bellidiflora which are like normal green/blue cladonia but with red tips to the crown. Not particularly rare, but it’s a long time since I’ve seen any round here. That pic made PoD. Like I said, there wasn’t much light around and most of the pics were taken at ISO 3200. I know that sounds like technospeak, but to give an indication of the low light, normal photos for most of the year are taken at ISO 200 to 400. 3200 means that there is only about a 1/16th the light available at ISO 200. Dull, dull, dull. Yes, the maths is dull, but the light, more so.

To brighten up this shortest day we watched a BBC re-run of a re-run of a re-run of the five year old Penguins of Madagascar. Still as funny and still finding little quotes throughout the film.

Lamb was lovely and not too fatty. Scamp had salmon as usual. Both of us finished off a bottle of Barolo we’d started last night.

Spoke to JIC later in the evening and were pleased to hear that there wasn’t any serious flooding down by. Sorry to hear that Sim has to work on the 27th in her new job with no holiday allowance as yet.

Well, it was a dull day, but the good news is that after 2am on Monday, the days will start getting longer and Scamp will give a sigh of relief as her SAD husband starts to come out of the long winter tunnel.

No big plans for tomorrow.