Category: weather

Quandry – 19 April 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Quandary: “a state of not being able to decide what to do about a situation in which you are involved”

We were in a quandary today. Should we go out for lunch or go for a walk. Eventually we came up with the elegant solution to do both, but not at the same time. But first Scamp went out to her Fitsteps class and I set about excising some useless parts of my 512GB SSD. It wasn’t a surgical gloves and a scalpel type of excision, just a heart in the mouth, digital one.

One of the nice things about third party software is that it allows you to search the hidden parts of a Mac that Apple don’t like you poking your nose into. The software I was using was Daisy Disk. A clever little program that shows you where all your junk is stored in your computer. It was only recently I discovered that you can search deeper in to the all the Ones and Zeros that hold Apple’s secrets. To do that you have to make a request to Apple, through Daisy Disk. Then you are given a code that will open up restricted areas on the drive. This isn’t the Dark Web, just a little bit of poking around where we shouldn’t be. The problem was that my 512GB SSD was almost full, because it had 150GB of Apple backups stuffed away in a corner, but with a bit of careful digging around, I could get rid of it and free up an additional 30% of space. That space was being used to produce a backup of the operating system that I didn’t know about until recently and didn’t need, as I do my own backups ever week. Apple, like Mickysoft are devious.

When Scamp came home, I had performed the surgery and the drive was looking healthy again. I’d suggested we go to Hamilton for a curry, but neither of us could be bothered driving there, so instead, at Scamp’s suggestion we went to Mango in Haggs. It’s an Indian and Italian restaurant where you can mix and match your starters and main courses between the two culinary areas. As it was, we both stuck to Indian today:

Vegetable Pakora and Vegetable Boona with Rice for Scamp
Chicken Pakora and Chicken Rogan Josh with Rice for me.
We had a plain Naan to share.

Most of the food was fine, but Scamp reckoned that her pakora was made with plain flour, not Garam Flour. And we both agreed that the naan bread tasted more like a flatbread. Foodies!

Instead of driving home, we took a wee single track road that led us down to the Forth & Clyde canal. Where we walked west towards Auchinstarry, but turned when we were at the first lock on the canal and walked back to the car. Lots to see today. A big bunch of yellow Celandine growing in the crotch of a tree and more on the ground. Some white Wood Anemone close by. I also saw and photographed a Dark-Edged Bee-Fly which I’ve never seen before in Scotland. Another sign of Global Warming perhaps? None of these got PoD. That went to a bunch of dandelions growing from the cobbles at the canal lock.

We drove home on a beautiful spring day with sunshine and blue skies, but with a cold wind from the east. I just knew that Scamp would be desperate to get back to get her grass cut. The first cut of the year. My job was to lift the heavy plant pots out of the way so she could strim behind them and then to replace the strimmer cord when it broke, before replacing the pots again.

Not a bad day. I really enjoyed the walk, but I think I’d go back to Hamilton rather than Mango next time, if only for the naan bread!

Tomorrow we may take the bus somewhere interesting.

 

Dentist – 18 April 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Not for me, thankfully, but for Scamp.

We did very little in the morning, just attempted to solve Wordle ( I did eventually find it, but it took a while) and I’m still looking for today’s pangram. It’s probably under a cushion somewhere.

At midday Scamp got ready to have her temporary tooth remove then the old molar from the back of her mouth extracted. Next she had an x-ray taken, and a new temporary tooth rebuilt. That was a lot of work and a lot of anaesthetics to deal with, but she came back with a smile on her face, as always. Brave girl.

It does look as if most of my seeds have now sprouted although some took a lot longer than others. Still no sign of potatoes in the fancy double skinned bucket, but it has been unseasonable cold. There’s time yet for them.

After lunch, and after Scamp was safely ensconced on the couch, I took the A7 for a walk in St Mo’s in the drizzly rain. Not much to see today, but I did get one decent shot of a fern unfurling its leaves. Like my seedlings, it’s a bit late, but getting there. I extended my walk down to the Shops to get some flowers for Scamp and some sweeties for me. Well, it is Thursday for me as well as Scamp.

Dinner tonight was Haddock Risotto, the easy one, made in the oven. By that time Scamp was able to eat again and her tongue had done one or two circuits of the new mouth and tooth.

We watched the final of The Apprentice even although there was no doubting who was going to win. I’ve said this before, and I’ll probably say it again. The program needs a revamp. A replacement for Lord Sugar. He’s becoming repetitive. Oh yes, and a new scriptwriter to put the jokes back in the crackers.

The fern was the PoD. Not the best shot, but it’s in and posted. Got myself another ‘Explore’ for the view looking up the South Tower of Bothwell Castle. That was a brightener.

No plans for tomorrow, but I really must tidy up the back bedroom soon.

 

Off the leash – 16 April 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Up fairly early to taxi Scamp up to the town centre.

I drove Scamp up to the town centre this morning to meet her sister and catch the bus that would take them to meet the third sister in Inverness. It would be a long journey for all of them. Four hours for the pair from Cumbersheugh. After that, I was on my own for the day. However, there were tasks waiting for me.

The first task was to have breakfast and that wasn’t even on the list. So, the first real task was to vacuum pack a venison burger and three slices of lamb’s liver and get them all into the freezer. That was easy. Next I had two bags of tee shirts that really needed to become one bag of tee shirts I’d actually wear! That took a lot longer than I’d anticipated, but after some shuffling the Keepers and the Chuckers, I came to an agreement with myself that I could live with and two became one. I know I’ll relent and put stuff back in the wardrobe, but only one or two.

I had decided last night that if the weather was decent (and it was) I’d go to Bothwell Castle and see what it looked like inside those ancient sandstone walls. It was a beautiful day. Blue sky with white fluffy clouds, cold, but the sun would warm the place up.

Last week I drove to Bothwell Castle on a dull day and didn’t have my entrance card for the castle, so came home with some poor shots and a bad mood. Today I was kitted out with cameras and lenses and a raincoat (just in case) and my Historic Scotland card. Followed the satnav which took me by a strange route to the castle. Different from the route I’d driven last week. I think this one was better, certainly quicker.

Inside the curtain wall of the castle the the ancient sandstone really glowed in today’s sunshine and gave the place a warm feeling. You have to use a great deal of imagination if you want to ‘see’ what this building was like when it was built centuries ago. The scaffolding and barriers that are all around it don’t help, but if you imagine the cost of keeping a crumbling edifice like this safe, you understand that some restrictions are necessary.

I spent an hour or so wandering round the castle and I think the strangest thing and the thing that impressed me was the amount of graffiti that abounded. Not your normal tags and gang names, but folk’s names carved into the sandstone. Some of it very carefully done with great skill and some just scribbles, and so much of it. I’m grateful that HS had the foresight to keep it untouched.

Driving home through Uddingston and stopped at traffic lights I saw Laura and Ross (big Ross) crossing the road with Ross pushing the pram with their new baby girl. If Scamp had been in the car she’d have been out and across the road to see the baby, but she missed that trick, because she was still in Inverness.

Dinner for me was then other venison steak and a couple of baked potatoes. Very nice too.

Later, much later, I got the call to say the long distance travellers we’re just leaving Stirling on the way home. Drove up to the bus station and picked up Scamp. Her sister refused a lift and phoned a taxi instead. Scamp was complaining that the bus was cold, but a basin of hot water to heat up her feet and a cup of Ovaltine warmed her up.

I’d say a good time was had by all. We all in our own way were “off the leash” today.

PoD was a view up the South Tower of the castle.

Tomorrow I’m hopefully taking Alex out to lunch.

Shoes and Greece – 15 April 2024

Posted on by Zogman

How the other half live!

So, the story of the shoes:
Scamp bought a pair of dance shoes back in November last year. She wore them once to the gala ball in Perth, but found they hurt her foot. She changed the shoes midway through the evening and though no more about it. Recently she tried wearing them again and felt a sharp pain in her toe. When I had a look at the shoes and probed the sole with my finger I could feel something like the sharp end of a staple. Presumably that was the source of the pain she felt.

Long story short, she sent a message to the lady who owns the shop where she bought the shoes and today we took them in to the shop in Rutherglen for inspection. The owner recognised Scamp because we’ve both bought shoes from her in the past and agreed that a badly placed metal staple was the problem. She apologised and is intending to replace the shoes once her stock comes in.

We bought some fruit and bread, some solar powered lights and a new frying pan in a big Tesco not 100m from the dance shop then drove home in the rain. The fruit was for Scamp and June to have some refreshments on the four hour journey to Inverness, tomorrow. The frying pan was because we needed one and it was a bargain. £22 marked down to £8. Couldn’t resist a bargain. The lights were also cheap and Scamp has been talking about getting them for a long while. The only problem might be they need 48 hours of sunshine to charge them.  I don’t think we’ve had 48 hours os sunshine this year!

After lunch I went out for a drive, but couldn’t get parked in my usual spot at Fannyside because someone had dumped a big tractor there. Farmers! They think they own the place and can just park anywhere! Couldn’t find anything to interest me enough to take the camera out of the bag, so I just drove home. It was just one of those days!

When the rain went off about half an hour later, I went for a walk in St Mo’s and got a couple of decent shots. PoD was a bunch of daisies growing beside the path that leads to St Mo’s. The grass looks good and lush, but underneath it’s like a swamp. I fully expected a crocodile to be crawling through it. Everywhere seems like a swamp this year. Scotland seems to be getting the worst of the weather and to rub it in, the dance teachers keep sending photos of the wonderful places they are visiting. Today it was Rhodes in the Greek islands, and by the look of the photos, it wasn’t raining there.

Tomorrow we’ll have to be up early because I’m driving Scamp up to the bus station in the Town Centre. June has booked a taxi for herself. I have the rest of the day to myself, I hope, before picking Scamp up about 9pm.

An early rise – 13 April 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Not an enforced wakening, just neither of us could fall back asleep, so we agreed to have and early breakfast instead.

We were up and dressed just after 8am on a day that seemed to throw everything at us. Rain, hail, sunshine and a strong wind were the main factors in our weather and they cycled throughout the day.

We chose to drive to Stirling to go to Waitrose for ‘The Messages’. Maybe an odd thing to do on a Saturday, but we needed some essentials and we were fed up with Tesco, so Waitrose was probably a better option, besides, they do a good, fairly cheap packet of tea. We had half intended going for a coffee in Stirling, but the opportunity didn’t arise, so after we’d packed all the bags into the car, we just drove home, unloaded them and had lunch.

After lunch, inevitably it was time to empty the wardrobe. I hadn’t realised I had so many pairs of jogging bottoms. ‘Athleisure’ I’m told is the modern description. I knew I could probably hire a stall in The Barras Market to sell all the surplus tee shirts I have and also sweat shirts with stains on the front, but Joggy bottoms? Some of them, possibly all of them, have to go. Once I’d helped Scamp clear out the clothes, I started looking through the old record of work books from a pre 2014 life, knowing they would not be looked at again until the next spring clear out. Instead, I pre-empted that next clear out by getting rid of most of them today.. Not everything that came out of the wardrobe would be finding its way back in. The same would be true of my chest of drawers and various other glory holes in our room. Phase 2 was complete.

By the end of the afternoon the remainder of the storage areas had been emptied, or checked to see if they could simply be moved without emptying. When we were satisfied that we were organised, Scamp went downstairs for a coffee and I put on my walking boots and went for a walk in St Mo’s. It was still a wild day with strong winds and the occasional sharp shower. I went for a walk in the woods, but after seeing how many big strong trees had recently blown down I thought it wasn’t the most sensible place to go for a walk. However, I got a few shots of some Horse Chestnut trees opening up their buds to expose their big leaves and some had the candelabras of flower buds ready to open. One of those shots got PoD.

Back home the oven was on, ready to take a Charlie Bigham Tikka Masala curry we’d bought in Waitrose in the morning. It was a surprisingly filling dinner.

There was nothing worth watching on TV, so Scamp and I sat and read for a while and I had another of the instant whiskey cocktails Jamie and Simonne had given me. Tonight’s offering was Whiskey Sour which is basically Bourbon and Lime Juice over ice. Very refreshing.

Tomorrow we are intending starting Phase 3 of the grand plan, painting the remaining walls.

Artists at work – 12 April 2024

Posted on by Zogman

It’s a long while since we did any painting, so I thought we’d attempt one today.

Not a very artistic painting, but a strenuous one. One coat of Melon Sorbet on the back wall of the bedroom and one on the wall opposite the windows. It’s quite a congested room, the bedroom. A cupboard, a book case, a chest of drawers or three plus a big wardrobe and odds and ends of storage areas, plus, of course the bed itself. So the room had to be done in two phases and today was phase 1. On Tuesday Scamp cleared the bookcase and I emptied one of the chests of drawers Today we moved the other two chests of drawers to be clear of the painting area and moved the empty chest of drawers away from the wall with the the bookcase joining it. Then we moved the bed out of the way of the paint. All the prep done, the only thing left to do was slap some green paint on the walls.

I worked from one corner and did the high bits with the big roller while Scamp started from the diagonally opposite corner and did the lower bits with the small roller. An hour or so later, when Scamp had completed both her walls, I had one and a half walls finished. We stopped for lunch. After lunch Scamp went out to post a card and purchase dinner which was to be pizza, while I finished off and started snagging, then tidied away the rollers and brushes and closed the door on the room to allow it to dry.

Just before dinner we had a look and although there were a few bits that would benefit from a second coat, it looked quite decent. Later we put the furniture back in place, made the bed and it looked less like a shambles. Tomorrow or Sunday, hopefully we will do the other half.

The rain that had been on and off all afternoon disappeared before dinner time and I took the opportunity to take the A7 out for a walk in St Mo’s where I found some patches of Cowslips waving their green heads in the breeze. Some even had their yellow flowers showing. One of them made PoD. When I was on my way home, I sent Scamp a text as instructed to give her time to fire up the oven.

Dinner was a pizza and we both enjoyed it. I think Scamp had the harder day of the two of us. She’d been to FitSteps in the morning while I was searching out brushes and rollers and paint trays and having a coffee too, of course. But I think we both worked hard today and that’s one of the reasons we’re enjoying a G ’n’ T tonight.

Tomorrow there’s no dance class because the teachers are off on another cruise. There’s a rumour we may be going shopping.

 

Embra – 11 April 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Today Scamp suggested we get the train to Embra which I thought was an excellent idea given that the sun was shining and it wasn’t raining.

We drove to the station and along with half of Cumbersheugh got on the train to Embra (the other half were getting the train to Glasgow!). We were lucky and managed to get a seat across the passage way from each other. A family outing filled the other seats. I was sitting with the three kids who were all on iPhones and Scamp was with the mums and a bloke who, like us, was not in the family group. Scamp seemed to be enjoying being in charge of passing sweets from the mums to the kids and back again. I was listening to an interesting podcast about Mozart, the boy genius. With serious discussion and David O’Doherty providing the light entertainment. It passed the half an hour the journey took.

We did our usual walk up the hill from Haymarket and through Ladyfield to Nero for a coffee and a pastry. Then, instead of heading up and over to the Grassmarket, we went downhill and along to Princes Street Gardens. Walked round a display of high resolution photos about Space and listened to a piper who could play! I didn’t know that pipers could actually hold a tune for a whole series of for more than one piece of music. Thankfully he didn’t play The Sound of Silence. If that means nothing to you, see Monday’s blog.

We walked up through St Andrew’s Square and into the strange new shopping mall. We had a look at the tech in JL and came out without seeing anything we’d put money down for. Walked along George Street and down Rose Street to the end where Scamp was sure she knew where Whighams restaurant was. She was right and I’m glad she found it. It must be about five years since we’ve walked down the stairs to this restaurant, but it’s changed little in that time. Lovely lunch. Scamp had Goan vegan curry of cauliflower, butternut squash and chickpeas. I had tomato and prawn linguini. She had a glass of wine and I stuck to water. Even the coffee was good!

We walked back to the station via Waterstones, but I didn’t see anything that tempted me. Just managed to get the train back to Croy with minutes to spare and again, we got a seat across the passage from an american woman, a Scottish man, presumably her husband and two obnoxious children.

Drove home via Calders for Scamp to get a pot to plant out her newest acquisitions. Little pink flowers she’ll tell me the name of, and a bunch of pansies.

PoD was an arty photo taken from Ladyfield looking out over Embra with the curve of a concrete balcony sweeping overhead. Like I say, arty!

Watched the penultimate Apprentice, the interviews and found it less than riveting.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending to go to FitSteps and I may just relax for an hour and read.

A Dull Day in Scotland – 10 April 2024

Posted on by Zogman

This is getting boring and repetitive, but … it rained all day today. There, it’s said. I didn’t even attempt a walk, it was so bad.

Instead of a walk, we cleared another corner of the bedroom which will allow us to slide the bed forward and get the back wall and the wall facing the window painted on the next wet day, which looks like it will be Friday if the weather fairies are correct and tomorrow if they are not.

Because of the weather, I did some catching up with correspondence and then had a look inside the laptop I’m typing on. When I say “inside”, I’m talking digitally, using a piece of software called Daisy Disk which scans my MacBook and finds how much space I have left and where the biggest pieces of clutter are. The SSD that is the storage for my Mac is nominally 512GB and Daisy Disk found that I’ve got just over 50GB free. That’s roughly a tenth of the total free space. That’s not good. A sensible size is around 25% of the total space. My SSD needs to go on a a diet and fast. Work starts next week.

I managed to get out and grab a few shots of the Pieris in the garden, in the rain. Its full name is Pieris Forest Flame and it is living up to that name this year. Last year we thought we’d lost it when it suffered badly during the two weeks we were on a cruise and no rain fell for all of that fortnight. We often complain about the amount of rain we get in Scotland, but it’s better than dying of thirst. Good to see it’s back to full strength. What looks like red petals are actually young leaves. The flowers are inconspicuous little waxy white flowers that look like Lily of the Valley. Just the leaves made PoD.

Dancing in Kirsty’s class was Tango. We had a new couple in the class, one English and one Scottish. Maybe a little younger than us. I couldn’t fathom the tango moves at all to start with, then muscle memory came in to play and things fitted together again. I think it’s doable. It’s just a lot faster than we are used to. Love all the flicks and kicks!

Drove home through torrential rain and our entertainment tonight was Glow Up, where the MUAs (Make Up Artists) compete to produce the most ridiculous make up. Just a bit of fluff.

Hoping to get out somewhere tomorrow in the dry. A little bit of sunshine wouldn’t go amiss too. Hope you’re listening, weather fairies.

Here and there – 9 April 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Just a normal Tuesday. Shopping and photos, but not at the same time. Oh yes, and a little bit of gentle gardening.

Shopping was just a bit of wandering around Tesco with a shopping list while Scamp blethered with a woman she used to work with, but hadn’t seen for ages. I didn’t mind at all. It gave me a chance to wander round the isles playing “Where have they put the peanut butter this week”. I got most of the things on the list although I’m sure Scamp would have done it in half the time.

Lunch was beans on toast. A bit of a come-down from yesterday’s Japanese extravaganza. ‘Auld claes and purrich’ as my dad used to say, but it was fine.

Scamp wanted to do a deep clean of the fridge after lunch. I started planting some seeds. So now we have two pots of Sweet Basil (do you think they have Sour Basil?), two pots of Sunflowers (two different kinds) and three pots of chilli peppers. The chilli seeds came from a chilli we’d brought from Portree of all places, two years ago. It grew well for two years, then died away. I harvested the pods and dried them. Today I cut one open and out came about fifteen chilli seeds. They’ve now been planted and I’m hoping I’ll get at least one plant from each pot. We’ll have to wait and see. I’d like to say that all the planting was done outside, but it wasn’t because the rain was pelting down, so it was all done in the back bedroom on my dad’s old card table with an IKEA bag on top to easily remove any mess. All the pots are now on window sills in the bedrooms and all are labelled. I’m going to restart my planting spreadsheet tomorrow, hopefully.

By the time I was finished, Scamp was too and the rain was getting lighter until eventually it stopped. I took the opportunity to go for a walk over to St Mo’s and got today’s PoD which is a fern crozier just unrolling. It’s called a crozier because it looks like a bishop’s crook.

Dinner was an old favourite we got from Jamie. Bacon & Borlotti Beans. Oops, I just realised, beans for lunch and beans for dinner. Hope the methane levels aren’t too high tomorrow.

And as far as tomorrow goes, we have no plans, I’m led to believe.

Happy Birthday to Me! – 8 April 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Another year older and deeper in debt.

Well, another year older at least. Not a bad day, though. Sunshine in the morning shading to clouds later and finally rain at night. Still, let’s start with the first word, Sunshine … for a while.

We took the X3 in to Glasgow and although I didn’t think it possible, it took even longer to travel the route. Due to some roadworks the bus was forced to perform an almost complete circuit of Moodiesburn, then manoeuvre itself around a country road between Moodiesburn and Muirhead before taking another detour through the delights of the Muirhead housing estates and finally returning to the normal route. For once I felt sorry for bus drivers.

In Glasgow we walked down West Nile Street and out on to Buchanan Street, then into the Apple shop where I wanted to look at the new iMacs, because this seven year old iMac I’m typing on is running on borrowed time now, I think. That doesn’t mean I’m expecting it to croak any time soon, but I’m just thinking ahead. It no longer runs on its internal hard drive, but does all its work on a couple of SSDs and I knew they won’t last forever. We had a look at the specifications of the shiny new plastic things and they look possible, but looking deeper told a different tale, like the additional price for greater storage and the exorbitant price for more memory. I put them on the back burner for now … and turned the burner off!

We went for lunch at Wagamama and had a feast!
Starters to share were: Pork + Panko apple Bau Buns, Bang Bang Cauliflower and Ebi Katsu Butterflied Prawns.
Mains were Shirodashi Pork Belly Ramen for me and Prawn Raisukaree for Scamp. All were scoffed in double quick time and were as delicious as usual.

We walked down Buchanan Street listened to a bloke playing Despacito on one of those strange violins with a metal cone that gave the music a strange old fashioned sound. We walked on to Argyll Street and heard a man and a boy playing The Sound of Silence on real violins. I don’t approve of kids busking in the street. Let them be kids for a while. They will grow up soon enough and won’t have happy memories of their earlier life when they grow older. We walked along to M&S, but couldn’t see anything interesting to buy so we wandered back to Nero entertained by The Sound of Silence. In Nero I grabbed a shot of a Chihuahua sitting on a seat in front of us. It became PoD.
When we left Nero, about 20 minutes later The Sound of Silence was just finishing again. We guessed at that point that it was the only tune the two could play. Further up Buchanan Street, the man with the trumpet violin was starting what must be his umpteenth Despacito. So that’s what they do. They only play one tune. People are not stopping to listen, they just walk on and throw a coin in the hat. By the time the audience has passed on, the fiddler can start the same tune again to a new stream of people, and so it goes on all day. One tune, one backing track and some money made.

First Bus tried to completely spoil our day when we got to the bus station. When we got there, the bus and a fair crowd of folk were waiting for us. But then a driver got in and drove the bus away and parked it. 20 minutes until the next one. No explanation. And the bus companies wonder why folk aren’t using public transport.

Instead we got a bus from the other side of the bus station that took us up to Cumbersheugh, almost non-stop. Got off and went through the underpass and got the grumpiest driver I’ve ever had who took us past our stop and dumped us at the shops. Walked back and moaned about the state of the bus companies until we realised nobody was listening.

A large glass of wine later and we were both a lot happier and planning our next outing together.

Spoke to Jamie later and we had a laugh about birthdays.

That’s enough for now. “I’m tired and I want to go to bed” as a very old song goes.

No plans for tomorrow when it will be some other lucky person’s birthday.