Perf (in the rain) – 10 August 2016

10 aug bWe intended going to Perf on the bus, but after a slight misunderstanding about bus times, we discovered that we’d just missed the connecting bus, so I drove us instead.

We had just arrived in Perf when the rain came on.  It had been threatening all the way up the road, but now the threat became a reality.  I’d only really come to Perf to get my coffee and tea supplies.  After I’d got those necessities, Perf (in the rain) was our oyster.  I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Perf (in the rain), but it’s not exactly the entertainment centre of the universe.  Once you’ve been round the shops and the St John’s centre, there’s not much more to do.  That was it today.  If we’d gone on the bus, we’d probably have had to wait an hour (in the rain) at the Perf bus station which makes the rest of Perf look like Las Vegas.  Now we could drive home whenever we were ready.  Maybe it was a good idea to drive after all.

The rain didn’t really stop all the way home and so it continued after we got back to Cumbersheugh.  Today’s shots were just grab shots.  One taken in the front garden braced against the window sill and the other taken from the back window in the living room.  Sometimes it’s the grab shots that are the best ones.

Looks like more rain again tomorrow, even for Perf.

A New Start – 8 August 2016

8 augToday we returned to the gym after a couple of months lay off.  Hopefully it will be a return to fitness for us with our stated intention of having two days a week at the gym and pool.  Well, the weans will be back at school next week, so there should be fewer of them in the pool.  It was good to get back to a bit of exercise.

In the afternoon I went for a walk along the railway and got some good shots of a couple of Red Admiral butterflies as well as some abstract looking photos of translucent seed pods on the gorse bushes.  It was a lovely day when I was out, but half an hour earlier it had been heavy rain.  I wasn’t complaining, because the sun shone all the time I was out.

To complete our ‘new start’, Scamp started back at salsa class tonight and her shoulder held up with very little pain or awkwardness.  Tomorrow will be a better test to see how successful it was.

Off to Larkhall tomorrow for eye checks for us both.

Pins & Needles – 7 August 2016

7 aug2We had already been warned by the BBC that today we would have abnormally, unseasonably high winds. They arrived during the night and stayed most of the day. Apparently we are to have more of the same tomorrow. This was not going to be a cycling day. The high point for me today was going to the physio.

I arrived early and got the paperwork done while he was attending to another patient. Then it was time for my assessment. After he’d poked and prodded and moved my arms in all the different directions they could and couldn’t go, he told me that I’d injured the muscles surrounding my shoulder joint and that it was not as serious as I’d thought. All it needed was a bit of gentle pushing in the right direction. He also suggested that he could use acupuncture to stimulate some regeneration in the muscle tissue. He certainly did a fair bit of manipulation and I could feel the effects of it. Then he took three needles and poked them in. I felt the muscle spasm after the first one, but nothing from the next two. Once he was satisfied with the position of the needles he left me to relax for about half an hour. I had had acupuncture before and knew that it worked. This time it took away a lot of the ache he had put into the muscles and I felt quite relaxed when he came back. After he removed the needles he did some more manipulation and then showed me a few exercises to do between now and my next appointment on Friday. Overall, I felt quite a bit of benefit from the work he had done and will have a go at trying the exercises before Friday.

Scamp was also feeling fitter from her shoulder injury (two old crocks!) and was keen to go to the Sunday Social in Glasgow. It had been a long time since we’d tried to dance on a Sunday and this was to be a test to see how much we could do. Some of the moves were more successful for me and some were more successful for Scamp. Between us we covered most of our repertoire of favourite and not so favourite moves. Enough to say that we could quite happily dance as well as most of them.

Driving home was a bit hairy at times with very strong winds and heavy rain.  As usual, the new section of the M80 did a less than exemplary job of draining away the surface water.  Why don’t the road designers take these things into account when designing motorways in a country where heavy rain is a fact of life, not an occasional hazard.

Two quick shots today taken with the macro lens on the Nikon. I’d seen the water beads on the Gazania when we came home and of course, you can always rely on one of the pink roses to look good in the rain. Hoping for some dry weather tomorrow and a bit less wind. Hoping, too, to get to the gym to begin the process of getting in shape again with some treadmill, some bike work and a swim.  We’re both banned from the weight machines for now. Holiday is over, there’s work needing done.

An Afternoon with the Beastie Boys (and Girls) – 4 August 2016

4 augNow that was a much better day, wasn’t it. The answer here was a resounding Yes! Spent the afternoon finishing off my latest read, Cloud Atlas. Not the best book I’ve ever read. Five or six disparate stories that were tenuously linked. I’d previously read The Bone Clocks and enjoyed it tremendously, but apart from the cloned server, I didn’t like any of the subjects. Maybe I wasn’t concentrating enough, but I just couldn’t see the point of the whole thing. I’d made the mistake of buying the book – physical book, from a bookshop – without even flicking through it. It was a fairly substantial paperback, but when I opened it, my heart sank. Such a small font. It made it really difficult to read, even with my best reading glasses on. That and the silly phonetic spelling made we want to give up before I’d begun. However, Kindle to the rescue, I downloaded an e-book version and at least I was able to change the font size, if not the irritating attempt at an 18th century dialogue. It’s finished. I gave it only one star on Amazon and will do the same in Goodreads. I’m glad I didn’t read it before Bone Clocks because I would have missed out on an interesting and thought provoking novel. Sorry Hazy.

Today! Scamp was out in the morning having coffee with family. After finishing CA, I set to, to hoover, or to be more exact, Dyson the downstairs. That done and Facebook checked out, I attempted today’s Hard sudoku. It was certainly hard. Just after 10pm tonight I finished it using more than a few ‘hints’ from Enjoy Sudoku on my phone.  Anyway, it too is done. As you can imagine, I called a halt to the number crunching earlier, in time for lunch. Afterwards, the weather was still holding up so I went out on my bike, looking for beasties. Hoped to find some dragonflies in far flung places, but none were to be found. Instead, I found a couple of hover flies, a hungry damselfly, a crane fly AKA Jenny Longlegs and a Burnet Moth. I’ve not seen any Burnet Moths for the last couple of years and it was a pleasure to find a couple of photogenic ones today. It was a pleasant day for cycling. Not much wind, warm without being hot and with just a few rain showers to cool a lazy cyclist down without getting too wet.

Tomorrow will be a busy day, so I’m glad I got some relaxation time today.

Rain – 3 August 2016

DSC_6063- flickr--216It rained today. After that it rained again. Later on it rained. There was no point in waiting for it to go off. It was on for the day.

What I did do was finish off the painting I was doing.  I’ll try to remember to photograph it for tomorrows blog.  All I did today was add a couple of bits of dark shade to the farm buildings and then some darker areas to the windows.  The trick with painting is knowing when to stop.  I stopped early.  Next painting is going to be an acrylic of maybe oils.  It’s too easy to get locked into adding too much detail in a watercolour.  This isn’t colouring in, it’s creating an impression of the scene.  I don’t really like the ultra-realist styles.  I admire the skill in them, but I don’t like the paintings as such.  Photographs can do the exact same thing with much less effort and of course much less skill.  Yes, acrylic or oils next, on a big canvas.

Maybe tomorrow will be a better day for weather, but I wouldn’t bank on it. The poor gazania at the back door doesn’t understand this Scottish weather. I’m not sure I do either.

Flooers, Painting and Salsa – 1 August 2016

1 AugYesterday you were subjected to a lengthy story about my problems with computer technology. Today I tackled another lengthy computer technology problem, but before you switch off, I’m just mentioning it for my record, because you will remember that this blog is as much for me as it is for you. With that in mind, all I’m going to say is that making a bootable USB drive is a minefield and I’m going to leave it at that. I may leave the USB drive at that too.

It was another lovely day and, I wasted some of it staying inside when I should have been out walking or cycling. I did get a painting started and it’s beginning to look ok. Maybe better than ok. I’ll know better when I finish it.

I got some more beastie pictures at St Mo’s. I also got some flower shots. I like what the ‘cooncil’ have done with the wild flower area. Maybe they will think about looking after it this time and not allowing it go to thistles and grass like they did with the other areas in the past few years. They’ve also pulled out the plug with an exceptional effort at producing an adventure playground that weans actually want to play in. It looks brilliant NLC. Pity you couldn’t have made a better job of grassing the hilly parts.

Salsa tonight was difficult. Two weeks off and I’d forgotten every move I’ve learned this year. The old moves, I can remember, the new ones are still ‘new’ every week. It’s the Goldfish Syndrome. I really must make a commitment to learning a new move every second week at least.

I was thinking about yesterday’s landscape shot. It was the way the lighting illuminated the textures and the way the highlights and shadows created a three dimensional feel of the hills that I liked. I saw it again tonight as I was driving home from Glasgow. The glancing rays from the setting sun created that 3D feel again. I didn’t have a camera, but I knew it wouldn’t last long enough for me to get off the motorway and grab a shot even if I’d had a camera. It was good enough just to see it.

Painting and cycling are on the agenda for tomorrow with a bit of luck.

A day less wet – 28 July 2016

E7281082- flickr--210-1We went for a drive today to Oakwood garden centre for lunch, a light lunch and a great cafetieres of coffee. The garden centre is pretty good too and Scamp can never resist some pretty plants. We ended up with some Big Daisies, a berberis and something unpronounceable with lovely big red flowers. We also had a great lunch. Honest, this isn’t an advert, other garden centres are available, but they just aren’t as good as this one.

When we got home, I finally got the bike out and cycled for a few miles … in the rain. Rain isn’t so bad, even when you’re cycling. My uncle Wullie Hutchens was a great hill walker and I remember him telling me that the best way to dress in Scotland in the summer was to wear as little as possible, because when you got wet, it didn’t take long to dry again. Partly due to the Scottish weather’s ability to produce four seasons in an hour, never mind a day. Remember, that only applies in the Scottish summer, NOT the winter. Two seasons in a day in winter: Wet winter and Cold winter. Anyway, I dressed for the climate. The outside thermometer read 19ºc, so it was boots on the feet, cycling top and cycling shorts. To those in southern climes this might seem a bit risky. Anything below 25ºc requires at least a jacket and longs, not shorts. Just in case, I added a nylon rain jacket. Dressed.

Crossed the dam at Broadwood and spotted a great crested grebe, and got a few shots of it as it went fishing for its supper in the shallows. Didn’t see much else all the way out and back. It did rain, so it was a good idea to pack the rain jacket, if only to stop myself getting wet. The rain only got me wet, not cold. Maybe that’s because I’m Scottish and Scottish rain is wet, but warm for both the months of summer, June and July. Don’t let them kid you, August is Autumn.

Hoping for more sun tomorrow.

The phone was there all the time – 27 July 2016

27 JulyScamp phoned up about the replacement phone for the one with the broken seal. For once she got a Scottish voice. She started to explain the saga when the guy broke into the stream of consciousness and asked “Samsung?” When she agreed, it was a Samsung, he told her that it happens all the time. Allegedly Samsung do open the boxes to make sure that the Samsung phone in the box is up to scratch (and has no actual scratches). It’s their version of Quality Control. Why then don’t they seal the boxes back up? Dunno, neither did he. He did however assure her that the phone was legal and ok to use. Why couldn’t the other three duffers have told her so in the first place, causing her untold stress and a needless 48 hour wait before she got the phone working? Vodafone. I think that’s the answer. The company that doesn’t know its arse from its elbow. I’m going to take the assistant at Vodafone Glasgow’s advice and go with Tesco next time. In fact, I may take Fred P’s advice and buy a phone and just do Pay as You Go next time. For all the call time I use and the minimal amount of text I send, I could survive on PaYG, with a decent amount of download time.

That started the day off a lot better than yesterday. The sun came out too for a while, so we went to sunny Falkirk to get some fish for the tea. Seabass en Papillote, just like I made for us and Hazy last week. I hope I spelt it right, but I can’t be bothered looking it up!

Went on an expedition to St Mo’s later to get some photos. Found lots of hoverflies. Always like taking their photos. There are such a variety of them around at this time of year. Also lots of Soldier Beetles AKA Bonking Beetles for obvious reasons!

Finally I tried getting Annette’s Nexus 7 to work again using yet another hopeful sounding ‘solution’ from an ‘expert’ on the net. It didn’t work, but it did kill it completely this time. Now it won’t charge either. I think I may have eventually ‘bricked’ it. Good riddance.

Hopefully another dry day tomorrow when we can go out and I can get a couple of landscapes photographed if not painted. We’ll see, it’s all in the lap of the weather fairies.

One of those days – 26 July 2016

E7261053- flickr--208Today was one of those days where nothing went right. Nothing went particularly wrong either, just nothing worked out as planned and that’s all I can say about it. Still no response about Scamp’s phone, but I didn’t really expect it. Just as I was getting ready to go out for a walk, the rain came on. The furthest we went was Muirhead, and all this with a black cloud hanging over me. I must admit, it lifted a bit when we left the outskirts of Cumbersheugh, so maybe it’s the Cumbernauld Cloud that Scamp talks about. Tomorrow will be better.

A busking bear to give you a smile.

Drip, Drip – 25 July 2016

25 July b

The title refers, of course to the weather.  Yet another rainy day, but as I write this in the back bedroom while Scamp watches Celebrity Masterchef (boak!), there is blue sky with some clouds of course, but blue sky nevertheless and the promise of a better day tomorrow.  Hope it’s a better day for Scamp too.

Scamp’s new phone was due to arrive this morning between 9.12am and 10.12am.  I just love DPD’s accurate time intervals.  Anyway, it arrived just around 9.15am and as she opened the parcel and then the box the phone was in, I noticed that the seal was broken on the box, the bit that says “If the seal is broken reject the phone, blah blah”.  I carefully took the phone out of the box and noticed there were finger prints on the protective plastic cover.  The cover itself looked as if it had been removed and replaced.  You know how it looks when that’s been done, the bubbles and the edges not quite right.  Now it might be my paranoia, but in these days of heightened cyber security fears, that sort of thing shouldn’t happen.  We eventually agreed that she should phone Vodafone and request a replacement in a sealed box.  It took three phone calls and finally a post on Facebook to get the thing almost sorted.  I say ‘almost’ because she now has to wait 48 hours to get approval to get the replacement from a Vodafone shop.  Neither of us can understand why she has to wait that amount of time and neither of us is happy with the result.  Customer service from Vodafone has been shocking for both of us now and I don’t think either of us will be renewing our current contracts.

I’ve been painting experimentally today, using cling film to create interesting effects in watercolour.  I tried doing the same thing with acrylic, but it wasn’t as successful.  The next thing is to try it on a real painting, and on a larger piece of paper.

Neither of us went to salsa tonight.  Me because I couldn’t really be bothered and Scamp because her shoulder is still giving her some pain.

Did you know if you overwater a spider plant, the plant gets rid of the excess through the leaves?  That’s where today’s photos come from.  It’s amazing what you find out.  Every day’s a school day.  I never thought I’d say that again after June 2014.

Better weather forecast for tomorrow.  Let’s hope they aren’t lying.