Category: weather

Damsel Day – 6 May 2017

Posted on by Zogman

After yesterday’s peregrinations across the breadth of Scotland, we had decided to have a day at home.

While Scamp went out to search for provisions, I made myself a cup of coffee and sat on the front step in the sun.  While I was sitting, I spotted this week’s potential sketch.  It’s just the house across the road.  Nothing special about it, just a corner house with some trees in front and some scrubby bushes.  Sometimes you miss what’s right in front of your face.

After lunch we went our separate ways.  Scamp to cut the grass and plant out some alpines and me to cycle, hoping for a few damselflies to photograph.  It seemed such a lovely day, it was a shame to waste it sitting around on the step or even worse still, moping around the house.

With a couple of squirts of WD 40 on the bike we were ready for the off.  The outward leg was so very easy, I knew it was a bad sign.  It was a tailwind.  The wind was from the east and also stronger than it was in the morning.  That meant it would be a headwind on the way home.  However, after wandering around for a while without any signs of insect life, I caught a few shots of a hoverfly sitting on my bike jacket.  A nice little one, with bright yellow stripes.  Maybe someone on Flickr will ID it for me.  Then I saw a little red damsel.  The first I’ve seen in Scotland this year.  I saw some in Tobago in February, but that’s a different world.  Here we don’t usually see damsels until the end of May or the beginning of June.  Early May is very unusual.  Got a few shots of it, then started to plan them a bit better, trying to get at 90º to its long body to keep as much as possible in sharp focus.  Almost impossible with the extension tubes and the very narrow depth of field.  Still, got a few ‘keepers’.  Nice colour on the body and thorax.

As I predicted, the homeward leg was a struggle with a gusty eastern wind.  Bag was heavy too with a couple of rocks to create perches for the smaller birds in the birdbath.

Dinner was the second attempt at Spanish Rice (just as good as the first.)  While I was making it, Scamp was sunning herself with a Pimms for company in the back garden.  Yes, she did have her sun cream on.

Watched the BFG on Amazon Prime tonight.  Great escapist fun.

Tomorrow?  Probably dancing in the afternoon, the rest is up for grabs.

Cross Country – 5 May 2017

Posted on by Zogman

Woke about 7am and couldn’t get back to sleep.

It was just too warm.  Not a complaint we usually have in Scotland in May, but there it is.  Decided I wasn’t going to get back to sleep any time soon, so got dressed and took the ‘Big Dog’ for a walk through St Mo’s woods.  That’s where I found Robin singing his wee heart out and a bit further on I saw the green shoots appearing everywhere like little Bonsai trees.  Lovely light early in the morning when other folk are rushing to get to work.

Came back and processed the photos, then had a shower and breakfast in that order.  Always do the photos first.  Got an email from Hazy suggesting I look to Argos for an Amazon Fire Stick.  Logged on and ordered on in less than a minute.  Job done.  Thanks Hazy.

We couldn’t decide where to go on such a lovely day until I suggested Dunfermline and that became the chosen place.  Also decided to go on the bus all the way, stopping off in Cumbersheugh town centre to pick up the Fire Stick.  I’ve worked out why they are in such short supply.  I think it’s the Cumbersheugh Villagers who are buying them, thinking they will produce fire.  Somebody should tell them about disposable lighters.

Got a shoogly bus to Dunfermline and walked down the depressing main street after a coffee and a bun in Nero.  The park was full of weans, and I mean full.  There must have been about a dozen schools involved in an orienteering competition.  It was mayhem with weans running everywhere.  We wandered round the formal gardens because the glasshouse closed early on a Friday.  The place was looking a bit untidy with a lot of weeding needing to be done.  Not that I was volunteering to do any, I’ve done my bit for the week.  Walked back and had a beer (or a Rum ’n’ Coke) outside.  OUTSIDE, in the sun!  Then Scamp suggested that we just get the bus back to Glasgow as there were some things I needed to start my mammoth sewing adventure.  I needed tracing paper to trace the pattern.  I also wanted some Indian ink for sketching.  So it seemed like a good idea.

Got the bus back to Glasgow and once I’d got the tracing paper, we went to Paesano for a late pizza lunch before getting yet another shoogly bus home, setting up the Amazon Fire Stick (which doesn’t produce fire, by the way) and watching another episode of Lucifer in beautiful HD.  After that we found a video about a salsa competition that was ‘enlightening’.  I’d seen the lifts on Strictly, but they were child’s play compared to what these nutters were doing.  So far we’re both impressed with what this forty quid black box can do.

Tomorrow may be a stay at home day with a bit of light gardening for Scamp with some Pims as a refreshment and some cycling for me if the weather holds.

Piper at the gates of dawn – 4 May 2017

Posted on by Zogman


Trying to keep up the musical lyrics theme, today we went to Stirling, all should become clear.

It was another bright day with a cold easterly wind.  We had decided to complete yesterday’s tasks with a visit to the travel agent in Stirling to see what they could offer for our summer cruise.  When we were walking through the centre of Stirling there was a bloke, a piper, with the obligatory £20 kilt on making the most awful racket outside the Stirling Tourist Office.  Just as we drew level with him, two officials came from the office, walked over and uttered the termination introduction; “Before you get started again mate …”  As we walked down the street, I noted that there was no skirl of the pipes from behind us, so I presume he had been sent on his way with a flea in his ear (and a stopper in his drones.)

After about an hour in the travel agents where we had set out our initial requirements:

  1. Cruise
  2. Eastern Med
  3. June – July

Later we added almost as an afterthought:

  • Not an inside cabin
  • Not on a low deck
  • Not Greece
  • Flying from Glasgow
  • Not more than £xxxx each
  • Not an old ship

It’s amazing just how many requirements we have after our initial ones.  That said, the bloke in the shop was very patient, but I’m sure he’d heard all these lists before and knew the initial requirements are only ever sketchy and will be firmed up and filled out later.  We left the shop with a couple of possibles and after a coffee and a bog awful Goat’s cheese an beetroot panini for me and an excellent (I’m told) Mushroom Toastie for Scamp we had chosen the front runner.  Back to the shop and confirmed the booking.  We’re off on a cruise in the summer, DV.

Thought I’d get an Amazon Fire Stick to stick in the (not so) smart TV with which to watch some extra content.  Y’see that’s what happens when you visit the weans and find they’ve got access to a world of entertainment you haven’t dreamed of.  Cruised round all the electrical retailers in Cumbersheugh, but nobody had one.  Bummer.  Scamp did manage to get some solar powered lights from B&M though, but only after a bum steer when we found the box that allegedly contained six lights only had four in it.  Typical Cumbersheugh thievery.

Dinner tonight was another ND recipe.  Chicken with Rice using a very tasty pre-roasted chicken.  Again, thank you Masterchef Neil.

Today’s grab shot is of Marguerites in the garden.  They were enjoying the sun too.  Also, I’ve just checked and all six solar powered lights are shining brightly.

Today’s title, comes from Pink Floyd’s first studio album, of course.

Tomorrow?  The search for an Amazon Fire Stick continues.  Maybe JL will have one.  Failing that, I’m sure Amazon will have it in stock.

Another airport, another flight – 1 May 2017

Posted on by Zogman

In the morning, we went for a walk round the golf course along from the house.  It was raining on and off as we walked through the woodland, but because we were walking through trees, there were plenty of places to shelter.  Labyrinth again became the word of the day.  There are so many paths through the woodland all crossing and re-crossing, it’s difficult to work out where you are going and where you’ve been.  We got ourselves lost a couple of times, but then Genghis Pathfinder chose a path I wouldn’t have chosen, but it lead back to the golf clubhouse.  Unfortunately, by the time we got there the rain was fairly heavy and there was no point in stopping for a coffee as all the inside seats were taken and not even the hardiest of smokers was risking the downpour at the outside seating.  We found our way back to the road and from there, back to the house.

ND suggested that we all go to a garden centre for lunch.  I didn’t recognise the route, but I did recognise the pizza stand and remembered that the pizzas were good indeed, but the waiting time was 25 mins and that was too long.  I chose instead to have sausage and beans with potato wedges.  It was an excellent choice.  Got some kale seeds and some spinach.  Scamp got a square of washable table cover.

All too soon, it was time it go.  Just had time to repack the bags and case and we were off to the airport again.  Seems like only yesterday we were getting picked up there.  Poor ND had to drive through torrential rain to get there, but as usual, he didn’t complain.

Case has now been dropped off and we’re through security although they did want to search my tablet separately.  I don’t know what was wrong with it.  Now I’m sitting in the departures lounge writing this up and whiling away the couple of hours until we go in the big metal tube in the sky.

Child Minding – 30 April 2017

Posted on by Zogman

We didn’t do much in the morning.  ND was at church and the weather wasn’t too good.  We all sat and talked for a while.  The PoD is of the dried up hollyhocks in Hazy’s front garden.

When ND returned, we got ready and went to Canute and Delia’s for lunch.  After being ‘welcomed’ the two chihuahuas, Basil and Molly, we sat down to the biggest lunch I’ve seen in a long time.  Potato Salad, Green Salad, Channa Daal, Chicken Curry, the list goes on and on.  Then there was pudding afterwards!  All the time we were being entertained by Marcie, Joey and Jess’s daughter.  Not two years old yet, but ruling the roost in the house.

Suitably fed and entertained, we left later in the afternoon and went back to the house.  Sat and watched StarWars VII and again marvelled at the CGI until we just accepted it as real.

This week’s sketch was actually done earlier in the week at the Old Naval College in Greenwich.  As with most sketches, it’s not quite true to life, but hopefully it gives the idea of the building and I liked the quality of the line.  The building did look good that day with the sun shining on it.  I’d like to draw it again, maybe if I had somewhere to sit!  Drawing while standing is sore on the back!
Back up north tomorrow.

Train Talk – 27 April 2017

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Footered around in the morning and packed our bags.  Got the bus to Glasgow and onward on the airport bus to the airport – obviously!  Got through all the technicalities and security then went for a late lunch which was a Fish Finger Sandwich and chips (shared) beer for me and a glass of red for Scamp.  All of this was done under a blue sky with fluffy white clouds.  Footered about again and then on the plane and off slightly earlier than expected into that blue sky and through the fluffy white clouds.

An hour later and we were on approach to Heathrow and there was rain streaking the windows and the clouds were grey.  This wasn’t what we had ordered.  We were expecting sunshine!  We were promised jetpacks!  Theresa had said it would be sunny, although Nick the Chick had warned us that if we went to england it would rain.  Stay in Sunny Scotland she’d said.  I wish we had listened to her now.  Never mind, we caught the little monorail to the South Terminal and from there got the train to Clapham and that’s where the Train Talk started.  It came from an opinionated teenager who apparently could have been a nuclear physicist and also a Nobel Prize winning biologist, but she had foregone all that to concentrate on sexual politics.   I was amazed to find that there weren’t just Ls and Bs and Gs and Ts, but there were also Polys, although that might have been Pollys, it wasn’t all that clear.  Also, you could get wristband and bracelets to denote which you were.  She described herself as like ‘Sadness’ “because I’m short and round.”  So, not just fat then?  All this information came in an almost no-stop flow of consciousness with the occasional interjection from one of her two train companions when they woke up.  The interjections also gave her time to breath.  Thankfully, we soon arrived at Clapham and she went further on her merry way and we went ours.

ND met us at the station and we were soon at the house.  Dinner was chicken salad and it was well received.  Fairly early to bed tonight, because it had been a long day.  I think Ms LGBTP will still be talking and talking and talking!

Probably Greenwich tomorrow.

One Swallow – 24 April 2017

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I started early this morning, going to the library then taking a walk down the Luggie.

Today’s PoD was taken on the walk to the library.  It proves that the sun can make even the ugliest building look good, not great, just good.  Let’s not get carried away here. It’s still a pretty ugly piece of concrete.

Didn’t get much along the Luggie, mainly because it was just too cold.

After lunch I went for a walk along the canal from Auchinstarry and got caught in a hailstorm blowing down from the north.  Not many photos there either.  However, despite the biting wind and the driving hail, I saw two swallows.  Now, as we all know, one swallow doesn’t make a summer, but do two swallows make a decent spring?  I think that maybe they do.  On the way back along the railway path I saw about a dozen of the birds flying low over a pond.  Low flying swallows means poor weather coming, but at least they are here, just a day later than last year.

Scamp wanted to get in two salsa classes tonight and I was happy to comply.  By the end of the two hours I was dead beat, but according to my Fitbit, I’ve taken just over 19,000 steps today.  That must be a record.

This is a short blog entry because I’m trying desperately to get to bed the same day I woke up.  I might even achieve it.

Tomorrow?  Haircut probably.  It’s getting like a ‘pure afro.’

A day at the Toblerones – 22 April 2017

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Not real Toblerones, just my nickname for the anti-submarine defences on the Forth at Cramond.

We walked up the path beside the River Almond past the ruins of the old mill, or should I say through the ruins because the walls are still there with archways and window spaces, but the roof is long gone.  We didn’t get much further past the dam because the path has been closed off by the council as being in a dangerous state.  Such a shame as it’s only a very short stretch of path that’s been condemned, about 3 or 4 metres really.  It appears from the maps that have been posted that beyond that it’s fine.  Anyway, that was the end of our riverside walk.  Saw a Japanese bloke on our way down the river kitted out in chest-high waders and with a fly rod.  I didn’t think he’d get anything today, then a couple of mayflies flew past, so the flies are emerging in the warm weather we’ve been having and he might have caught something after all.

We stopped for lunch at the wee cafe at the Mill House.  My lentil soup and toastie was great, but Scamp’s poached egg on avocado and sourdough bread looked a bit insipid and underdone.  She wasn’t impressed and told the owner so.  The cheese scone she received to replace the poached egg was too hard for her taste.  She really is spoilt after having tasted my scones 😉

After our aborted lunch we walked down and had a Mr Whippy ice cream each!  There were no words of dissent!  To walk them off, we strode out along the esplanade watching weans on bikes, neds on bikes, weans on scooters, dugs (not on bikes or scooters) folk in paddling!  It really is a bit early for paddling.  Yes, we did it in January, but that was in Trinidad!  Walked for about a mile or so and turned back to the car and drove home.  Lovely day, walking in the sunshine in good company.

Eventually relented and found a human in Currys and got the keyboard I wanted.  Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet.  Scamp says it’s about not cutting off your nose to spite your face, or am I mixing my metaphors now?

Before we went out, I got a book delivered, a painting book.  I’d borrowed it from the library and it was worth buying.  Unfortunately, it was out of print but available for a few quid second hand.  It almost cost as much to post as to buy, but it was in almost perfect condition.  I’d consider this option in future.  Maybe I’ve just been lucky today or maybe second hand books, like second hand cameras are worth looking at.

Tomorrow?  Maybe a walk down the green to collect more steps, miles and maybe even stairs climbed.

The man who worked in the garden … 20 April 2017

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Another early rise this morning to go, not for a walk over St Mo’s this time, but to Tesco for muesli which I fancied for my breakfast.  A lovely morning with bright sunshine although the weather fairies depressingly predicted clouds drifting in from the north.

After that bout of energy, and after breakfast, Hazy Skyped for a while.  By then it was about lunchtime, or should that be ’dinner time’ (all will be explained later 1 ).

After dinner oops, lunch, I settled down to watch episode 1 of Lucifer.  Brilliant.  Such deadpan humour.  I might even extend Prime, just to watch it.  Thank you for the heads-up Hazy.

Then the man came with the greenhouse.  It was a dawdle to set up and it was soon in its place in the garden after digging up the roots of an old bush and levelling the ground again to move the magnolia tree.  It’s not an enormous greenhouse, but it is green and has a ridged roof, like a house, so it’s a green-house and now has a few plants in it.  Planted seeds of  English basil, and some English peas.  Still to plant the English beetroot.

To ensure we did have even more plants, we went to B&Q and bought some seedtrays and a pot of flowers.  While we were there, I went to Currys.  I’d been last week to see if they had cheap bluetooth keyboards to use with my Linx 10 tablet.  They did have, but when I took it to the till, two assistants were serving one customer while a queue formed.  The store manager seemed to be enjoying berating a junior employee quite loudly in the middle of the store.  I got fed up and went to return the keyboard when he said “I’ll take that over at the other till sir.”  I told him he was too late, but he didn’t seem concerned.
Today, I relented and decided that last week was a one off and went back to Currys to get the keyboard.  This time when I took it to the till, the assistant was on the phone trying to get some issue for a customer cleared up.  Again a ‘manager’ was standing in the middle of the store, this time watching a video on a man’s laptop.  It did not appear that this was a problem he was solving, in fact it looked like a couple of friends discussing something.  Again, I gave up after a few minutes.  Walked past the ‘manager’, yes, he did have a badge on with his title, put the keyboard back and walked out.  Not a word was spoken this time.  Don’t they want sales in this shop?  Harrumph!

Went to St Mo’s when I came back.  Got a few macros and that was it.

Tomorrow is Friday and that might mean a day In The Toon.  Perhaps.

  1. In the children’s tv program Bill an Ben, the mysterious gardener goes for his dinner in the middle of the day, not lunch, dinner.  This allows the Flowerpot Men and Little Weed to get up to mischief.  The show ends when ‘The man who worked in the garden had finished his dinner and was coming down the garden path!’
    For a much deeper social commentary on ‘The man who …’, go here.  Who knew there was such a deep undercurrent of social division in this children’s programme? ↩

Started early – Didn’t take my dog – 19 April 2017

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Woke early and couldn’t get back to sleep.

Eventually I gave up and went out for a walk to St Mo’s to see if the deer were awake.  Of course they were and they were way ahead of me on this dull drizzly morning.  Actually it wasn’t a drizzle, it was a smir.  That typically Scottish word that describes what rain is when it isn’t actually raining.  It was as if the rain thought it should be doing its work, but just couldn’t be bothered.  I couldn’t see much worth photographing, so I headed for home and breakfast, then I saw the yellow flowers.  I couldn’t remember their name, but the colours were interesting.  Took a few shots using the spot metering again on  the Nikon.  Almost home, I remembered they were Cowslips.

The plan for today was to buy the materials for the duckboarding we were going to use to replace the old flower box at the back door.  After breakfast, I was just thinking I should get going to B&Q when it appeared the rain had decided to fulfil its task and started to move from smir to drizzle with the possibility of actually raining some time soon.  No point in getting the materials and then having to leave them out in the garden, so I left it until later and went to finish a sketch I’d started down at JIC’s.  Finished the sketch and didn’t like what I saw, but the rain had stopped, so I drove to B&Q and got the wood.  Even sawed it to size and realised I didn’t have nearly enough, so it’s back to B&Q tomorrow for more decking timber.  It’s a work in progress, that’s all.  Not a big deal.  Now, years ago I’d have drawn the whole thing out in AutoCad or Inventor and modelled it and that would have taken a couple of days getting it just right.  Much quicker and easier to cut a mock up and decide if that will do the job.  Maybe I’m learning, but I doubt it.

We both went to salsa tonight and thankfully it was Jamie Gal and not Colin.  The class was interesting and full of humour, as it should be.  Unfortunately there were quite a few missing because of Colin’s Cha-Cha class last week.  Such a pity.

I’ve been trying out Spotify, finding lots of music I’d forgotten about.  It might be a strong contender to replace iTunes, especially if Apple really are phasing out iTunes.  It wouldn’t be a bad thing in my opinion because that bloat monster is becoming worse with every new version.

Tomorrow the mini greenhouse is due to land on our doorstep.  Let’s hope Scamp can put her jigsaw solving skills to the test in building it.

Blog title refers to a book by Kate Atkinson