Category: weather

Coffee for three – 14 November 2023

Posted on by Zogman

We met Shona for coffee and lots of blethering today.

We drove up to the fairly new Costa drive-through, but didn’t drive through. Instead, we parked in the area near Wetherspoons where it looks as if they just dumped a lorry load of old asphalt and left it to set. Council couldn’t afford to rent a roller, because it’s just Cumbersheugh and nobody cares.
(Rant over).

The coffee was the usual tasteless Costa brown liquid, but we weren’t there for that, we were there to hear how Shona was and also to hear what she and Ben had been up to recently. Apparently it had been a busy few weeks for her with a trip to Blackpool, a home visit in the middle of the night by some ‘hunky firemen’ (her words, not mine!) and Ben’s attempt at flooding a caravan. Too much to go into here, but it made great entertainment for us. After an hour or so of exchanging stories we left to get the makings of dinner and Shona went to get some messages. Costa’s coffee might be dire, but the Christmas Cake Slice is lovely.

We drove home via M&S and picked up some veg, prawns a sauce and a box of noodles that would turn into a very nice stir-fry later. It had been raining all morning, but by the time we got home the sky was clearing and it was looking a lot better.

After lunch Scamp started making this year’s Christmas Cake. Not being satisfied with one and having enough rum soaked fruit anyway, she managed to make three cakes. One to eat reasonably soon. One to become the Christmas cake and one to be left for later in the year, or maybe even until next year. The smell in the kitchen was a delight.

I’d been messing around with my SSD collection, chopping bits out and moving other bits around to generate some useful space. It all became such a guddle, I eventually shut the computer down and went for a walk. Just as I left the house, the first raindrops returned. Two circuits of St Mo’s pond left me with about fourteen images and a sodden jacket, but because it was a Berghaus, it was only the outer skin that got wet. I didn’t. The rain hadn’t stopped since I left the house. It had got heavier and lessened, but it hadn’t gone away. Still, a walk in the rain is always good for the soul, as long as you have a good jacket!

The photos weren’t all that great, but my favourite was one of an old hawthorn bush covered in lichen and moss and with a few bunches of red hawthorn berries hanging from it. Most of them with raindrops clinging. That made PoD.

After a lovely stir-fry for dinner, I set to and did some more pruning of the SSDs I think I have a much neater collection now and there is room for all the backups I need.

We may go in to Glasgow tomorrow if it’s not too wet and dreich.

 

 

 

Auld Claes and Purrich – 13 November 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Back to normality whatever that is.

A sleep in your own bed is a wonderful thing, as is not lacing up the dance shoes every day. Some of the glitz and glamour had gone, though, and even I missed that, but it’s good to get back to the grind too … for a while.

My first appointment today was with writing up the blog posts for the past three days before the small details vanish from my head. I know I won’t remember everything with complete clarity, but if I get most of the things down on digital paper, hopefully some time in the future I’ll read a blog written today and say “Oh, yes! I remember that.” And then the Tony Buzan hooks will connect with other memories of that day in the past and another light will come on. It works for me, every time I read last year’s blog.

I had Friday finished and Saturday well on its way when I had to stop to go for my blood-letting appointment. Blood samples for my annual medical review. Or “CHRONIC disease review” as our Medical Centre calls it. I hate the stigma of chronic disease and especially the screaming all caps. Is that really necessary? It feels so dirty, and I do believe they do it to frighten the unwary. Not the nicest medical centre and certainly not the most caring.

I’d been asked to bring back a loaf on the way home and I also got some blueberries, but that was almost all the fruit that was available at Tesco. It was blueberries and that was it. I drove back home in an improving weather picture. The clouds were breaking and the torrential rain we had in the morning had stopped, thankfully.

After lunch which was a piece ’n’ bacon and a piece ’n’ jam (so main course and dessert!) I settled down to finish off Saturday.

By 2.30pm the light from earlier was fading and I thought that if I was going to get any PoDs today I’d have to get my boots on and go soon. So that’s what I did. The PoD was one of the last shots of the day. Half a dozen Canada geese were joined by a Coot in a new extension of the pond at St Mo’s. This new quiet section seems to be attracting a lot of attention in the latter part of the year. That’s good to see.

Tomorrow, Scamp is booked for coffee with Shona. I’m not sure what I’m doing, but I do have a bit computer reorganising to do.

Heading home – 12 November 2023

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But before we were released, we had one more hour of dancing.

We went for a walk again in the morning after breakfast and watched the pipers leading the armed forces and junior sections to church for the Armistice ceremony. At the rear were a group of men, I think it was all men, no women, but I could be wrong. All were dressed in black and wearing top hats, carrying ceremonial batons. They had insignia on their right lapel and some displayed medals on the other. I grabbed three photos, two of which were blurred but the sharp shot showed I’d been spotted and given a steely stare from one man. Later, after a bit of research I discovered they were all members of the Society of High Constables. That one sharp photo became PoD.

Another walk round the town that seemed to be a lot busier than it had been on the previous days, then it was time to go back and face the music, so to speak.

More sequence dances and with a much quieter dance floor, a chance to attempt a foxtrot plus a final Ria Bachata before it gets put back in its box. We had already put most of the heavy bags into the boot of the car, so it was the shoe bags and my camera that we carried back after saying a thank you to Stewart and Jane, because they did a lot of work in arranging the weekend and keeping it running smoothly throughout the mornings, afternoon sessions and evenings.

We drove back home via M&S in Dunblane where we picked up food for tonight, because neither of us really wanted to cook. So tonight’s dinner was King Prawn Curry and rice x 2 followed by Eve’s Pudding. It looked like the fog we’d left on the road to Stirling had stayed in Cumbersheugh all weekend. I’m glad it did, because we had some glorious weather.

We watched Strictly and were disappointed that this week’s loser wouldn’t make it to Blackpool next week (or whenever it’s filmed). We’re in agreement that there are too many actors and singers in Strictly. It seem unfair because they have almost all had some dance training, meaning they have less to learn that those who are meeting this for the first time.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard how the new roof is progressing and also about some of the more challenging tasks he’ll have on his plate this coming week at work.

One last word of thanks to Scamp for the help she’s given me this weekend and continues to give, translating the sometime archaic dance terminology into understandable english and also into the movements I need to make. This dance stuff is great when it works, but can be a nightmare to understand at times. I really do appreciate it, even although it might not seem like it sometimes.

Tomorrow, some blood-letting is required.

More of the same … – 11 November 2023

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Another day of dance dawns.

Downstairs for breakfast. It’s nice to have somebody to make your breakfast for you, even if it does contain more than the the recommended amount of saturated fats, but to offset that, I had porridge to start with! The healthy option.

We were expected to attend the morning session which as always was a dance lesson. However, before that we had an hour or so of freedom to wander through the park again. It was a bit cool, but the sun was shining brightly, so we made the most of the walk along the banks of the Tay.

Back on the dance floor we started the lesson, the Ria Bachata. Like I said last week, this was just a piece of fluff designed to cause as much confusion to those who had never seen it before and give everyone a laugh. Thankfully the Brookfield lot had been given a couple of weeks to take onboard the tricky footwork of the bachata that never was. After an hour most folk had learned it and the lesson was over. We were free to roam again until the grand ball at 6.30pm.

I wanted coffee and tea in the Bean Shop in Perth and also we dropped off some books in the Salvation Army charity shop. Scamp went for a browse while I walked down to ’The Ship’ to get some more photos looking over the river to the posh houses on the far side.

We chose to drive out to Scone Palace. It looked easy on paper, but navigating Perth’s traffic system made it more like driving in a maze. Maybe it’s something in the genes of the Perth folk. The hotel was definitely designed as a labyrinth and the road from the carpark to Scone which is about two miles away was equally convoluted. But we made it to the grand palace which was closed for the winter, but the tea shop was open and the carpark was free. Beautiful scenery with extensive views over the valley to the mountains to the north. Scamp found the kitchen garden and we wandered round that for a while, wondering why someone had planted what looked like bunches of privet at opposite corners of the beds. Many of the beds were empty but we were both impressed with the size of the leeks all neatly labeled and the amount of herbs that seemed to take over about half of the garden.

We walked back to the house itself and had coffee and scone in the tea shop. I thought it was funny to have a scone in Scone with both words being spelled the same but pronounced differently. No wonder Americans think english is a stupid language.

PoD went to the Palace Chapel with its sword in the stone and bell that was rung to signal that a new law had been passed. Also, a neatly camouflaged peacock. Scamp chased an albino peacock for a while and eventually got a photo of it.

When we drove back to Perth we passed two of the dancers walking back. We offered them a lift, but they said they would enjoy the walk back, but thanked us for stopping. Thankfully, the road back was much easier to navigate than the one coming and we took a detour up to the carpark on Kinnoull Hill I’d been trying to find a month or so ago. I’d forgotten my boots, so we didn’t stop, but marked it as a place to come back to some time.

Soon it was time to get ready for the Grand Ball. Food was better in general this time but my prawn cocktail starter “that I could have made and I can’t cook” to paraphrase the late Albert Collins. had a few cardboard prawns in a Marie Rose sauce with some stringy lettuce. It had a load of allergens in it, but unfortunately they had forgotten to put any taste in it. The breast of chicken stuffed with haggis I had for my main must have been made by the chef, because it definitely had taste added to it as well as more allergens. Scamp had vegetable lasagne which looked good and apparently tasted good too. She had prawn cocktail with real prawns too. Maybe she’s just lucky.

The dancing, as the title of this blog explains, was more of the same. No “getting to know you” this time round, but there were a couple of rounds of Ria Bachata, on to real bachata rhythm and one to a jazzy, fast beat. There was an Aberdonian contingent and they taught all and sundry their dance. I don’t remember it having a name, but it was fun to dance to after a beer or two. Eventually after about two and a half hours, tiredness set in and I declared myself ‘danced out’. Scamp’s feet were aching so we said our goodbyes to anyone who would listen and we climbed the wooden mountain and fell asleep almost immediately.

Yet more of the same tomorrow is on the cards.

Heading North – 10 November 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Packing bags, repacking bags and suspicions.

We were off to Perth today for a dance weekend if the fog that was blanketing Cumbersheugh would lift. Scamp had decided to forego her FitSteps class because she had lots to do, choices to make, dresses to pack. Then, what and how many pairs of dance shoes would she need? I, on the other hand, had a couple of shirts, a couple of pairs of trousers and a jersey sorted out and waiting to go in the bag. The important stuff, like what camera and what lenses I’d need took a lot longer to sort out.

With most of my packing done, I sat down to read my emails and noticed a strange WhatsApp message. I’d had one a week ago on Facebook and was suspicious. You’ve probably been warned about the plague of “Hi mum. I’ve lost my phone and this is a temporary replacement. Please phone me back on 07654321123 etc.”. I’d guessed the FB message was one of those and ignored it. Both seemed to come from my niece who I hadn’t spoken to in years. I thought I should phone my brother and ask him to give me the last three digits of his daughter’s phone. He did and it checked out. He also told me she was probably going to invite us to her wedding next August. After a couple of WhatsApp exchanges, she emailed us the RSVP form and we duly accepted . So now we have a wedding to look forward to in Jersey next year! From suspicions to delight on a foggy, busy morning!

I wasn’t looking forward to the dance weekend. It’s something in my psyche, I don’t like being out of my routine. The older I get, the worse it becomes, but I knew I’d enjoy the drive up and I knew the fog would lift as soon as we were out of Cumbersheugh. As it turned out I was right. The fog lifted as we climbed up the M80 heading for Stirling and soon we were parked in the Canal Street carpark after a drive through the hills in glorious sunshine.

Our room at The Salutation Hotel was better than the poky hole we were in last time. We even had a shower with water! We went for a walk around Perth and noticed right away that ‘The Ship’, the cantilevered viewing gallery, out over the River Tay was blocked by the massive flood gates. It appears that Perth council were taking no chances after their disastrous decision not to close the flood gates a month ago! A walk through the park and then back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

PoD was a sculpture called “Eagle of Perth III”, but it looks like a fat seagull to me and is one of Shona Kinloch’s humorous sculptures at the entrance to the park.

Dinner was a carvery and I chose roast pork. Once I’d tasted it I wished I’d asked for two slices. Then I could have resoled both my boots! I’m not saying it was tough, but my knife was blunt by the time I’d cut through this ‘delicious’ meat. Scamp had the much nicer vegetarian option of Sweet and Sour Vegetables. I might remember for next time, if we go back.

The dance was the usual format. A ‘getting to know you’ changing partners dance to start with then the first waltz saw 80 folk trying desperately to find a space to dance in … mostly unsuccessfully. We danced for about three hours, attempting most of the dances we knew.

Exhausted, and with burning feet, we climbed the stairs in the labyrinth that is The Salutation for a well earned rest.

Tomorrow we get to do it all again, plus we’re hoping to get out for a drive to Scone Palace.

A day in the Toon – 9 November 2023

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A spot of lunch turned into a photowalk. What a surprise!

In the morning I had my annual retinopathy check at the health centre and thankfully the girl doing the technical stuff didn’t think I needed drops and I breathed a sigh of relief. I hate being blind for an hour afterwards and having to wear sunglasses in November. I nearly needed them Today anyway, because the sun was shining from a cloudless sky. I got the bus back home because Scamp was using the car. A quick cup of coffee and a challenging Wordle, then Scamp returned to pick me up and drop me at the station to get the train in to Glasgow to meet Alex.

I found him waiting for me at the bus station after I’d walked up from the train station. We took a few shots of the Pavilion Theatre and then went for coffee in an absolutely stowed Nero and made rough plans for the day. It was also a chance to pick Alex’s brains about a standard zoom lens for the A6500. As I thought, he picked my favoured lens as the one with the best results in his opinion and confirmed my thoughts on the cheaper one with the widest range as not worth considering. So, it looks like I’ll be asking Santa for a Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN lens. He used to have that lens and only parted with it to concentrate of prime lenses, ie. not zooms.

With the technical stuff discussed, we went for a walk along Ingram street following the good light, but never quite reaching it. It felt like when you see a rainbow and the nearer you get to it, the further away it goes! Eventually we tired of this game and went Paesano for a pizza lunch. That will be the third pizza lunch I’ve had this week. I was hoping I was hoping to continue my recent weigh loss success, but that looks unlikely now!

After lunch we continued to search for the good light eventually managed to track it down to Argyle Street. By then the light had lost a considerable amount of its former brightness and we started making our way back towards the bus station and home, but not before we had another coffee and then a walk around the Christmas market and entertainments that were being assembled in St Enoch’s square.

PoD was a photo opportunity I say on Sauchiehall Street (AKA Sausage Roll Street). A lovely bit of bright light on the girl and after swapping the bloke’s head for a better one, we had a conversation in progress. It’s now on Flickr as is my second choice of a view of a girl having alfresco lunch on the steps of the Royal Concert Hall looking down Buchanan Street (AKA Bucky Street).

I took the slow X3 bus home and was entertained by Kevin Bridges “We Need to Talk About . . . Kevin Bridges”. Absolutely brilliant! Thank you Jamie for the recommendation.

Tomorrow I’ve loads to do because I couldn’t be bothered to do it today. The story of my life.

A little visitor – 8 November 2023

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Just nibbling away at our recyclable food bags.

Scamp was off in the morning to meet Isobel for coffee. While she was out I was about to replace the food bin bag when I noticed the confetti of scraps of the bags in the cupboard. As I took the roll of bags out of the rack they almost fell apart in my hands. Aha! I think we have a little mouse trying to take the Mickey. Strangely, only the food bags had been chewed. What could have attracted them, I don’t know. I emptied the cupboard and couldn’t find a hole big enough for a mouse to squeeze through, but just in case I’ve set a trap tonight with some peanut butter as an attraction. I hope we don’t hear a clunk in the night. I feel so sorry for the wee rodents, but it’s a health problem that has to be dealt with.

The rest of the morning I spent reading when I should have been out enjoying the unexpected bright sunshine. But I did manage to warm up the remainder of yesterday’s pizza dough to make a lunchtime pizza, baked in the oven as all good pizzas should be. It wasn’t as good as yesterday’s prize winner, but was deemed good enough to satisfy our lunchtime appetites.

I did go out late in the afternoon, but by then the light had disappeared and it was a cold looking sky. There wasn’t much to see by then and I had to be satisfied with some shots of silhouetted Alder catkins agains the sky. Not very interesting and to be honest, not a very good photo. Must do better!

Wednesday is midweek dance night and tonight we were covering the technical second half of the quickstep routine and to start with I was a bit flummoxed. However after watching others making light of the steps, I managed to put most of the bits into the right place and finish were I was meant to be. How I actually got there was a question waiting to be answered. I think I cheated more than once. Still now I have twelve videos of the different parts and surely I’ll be able to work out which foot goes where after I’ve viewed them a few times. To finish up, Kirsty put us through our Tango paces and again there were a few missteps, but most of it worked. After three or four tracks I was back in the swing of it again.

Tomorrow I’m off to get my annual retinopathy check and I’m hoping against hope that I don’t need drops because I’m meeting Alex for lunch and we will probably be taking photos as well. Scamp is booked to get her hair cut at the same time.

Talking to the Ombudsman – 3 November 2023

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Or to be more precise, the Ombudsman’s lady accomplice.

It was all quite down to earth. She, Amy, asked a few questions for confirmation and Scamp gave her the gist of the problem and what our expected outcome would be. Amy agreed to take on the case on our behalf and would expect to take two weeks to investigate the case and speak to British Gas then if there is no resolution it might take another four weeks, just in time for Christmas! She did seem quite confident of finding a solution. All done in about fifteen minutes. That left Scamp enough time to get to her FitSteps class and for me to get out into today’s sunshine to grab some photos.

Actually I already had a few photos. We were parked up at the car park at the top of the hill and I offered to bring the car down to our usual spot. When I got out I spotted movement on the roof of the car and found a tiny wee spider, not 3mm long wandering around. It was an agile wee thing, running around and then stopping and standing up on its long spindly legs. I’m guessing this was defence tactic “Don’t mess with ME. I’m big and strong”. Spider version of squaring up to a foe. I finally had to wave “goodbye”, because I was freezing, standing there in the cold east wind.

Once Scamp had gone to FitSteps, I bundled up and put my boots on for a walk in St Mo’s. I was hoping to get some photos of the big chestnut tree in the woods, or failing that, some chestnuts lying on the ground, but no leaves left on the tree and no chestnuts to be seen. BUT, I got the lovely PoD a few yards away in a splash of sunlight. Hard to believe that just over the fence there is a two lane motorway.

When Scamp returned we decided to walk over to Brodens for lunch. It’s the restaurant part of what was The Masonic Arms in Condorrat. Steak pie for me with a glass of Guinness and Mac ’n’ Cheese with a glass of wine for Scamp. Food was lovely, as was my Guinness. When we got home we booked lunch tomorrow at Mango in Longcroft. It saves wear and tear on the dishwasher is our argument!

The spider and the PoD feature in today’s Flickr submission.

We’re intending to drive to Brookfield tomorrow to get the last class before Perth.

What a fun day! – 1 November 2023

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Yes, sarcasm again.

Today was dull, wet and occasionally windy. A good day to spend almost all the morning planning what I was going to do with the iMac and almost all of the afternoon finding the plan didn’t work. Macs big selling point has always been that they are really easy to work with and forgiving. Not mine. It simply refused to boot and came up with a friendly message telling me that it had restarted because of a problem and that I should press a key, any key to get it to do it again. If it wasn’t for the fact that it’s made of aluminium, I think I’d have set it on fire. However, it wasn’t as if I was going anywhere with rain lashing the windows, so I had a plate of Scamp’s excellent Potato and Leek soup.

I did wander out into the garden for the few minutes it was dry in the afternoon and grabbed a few shots of leaves and the flowers that are still growing in the garden. When the rain restarted, (just like the computer) I came back in and rejoined the fight against technology. I reread my notes on how to boot an iMac using an SSD and then watched the video by Andrew Tsai again to find where I’d made my mistake. Found it and dealt with it with just enough time to drive up to the British Legion for tonight’s dance class which would include Tango and Quickstep with the possibility of a Waltz thrown in. We actually did quite well in the tango thanks in no small part to Scamp’s lesson in the late afternoon. So well, in fact that Kirsty, who runs the class, praised us in front of the whole class on the way we synchronised our kicks and flicks! Embarrassing, but in a good way. We managed the simple steps of the quickstep and also added in the optional fancy steps. We didn’t really get a chance to dance the waltz, but we did a couple of rounds of the floor when the rest of the folk were putting their jackets on.

Back home I followed most of Mr Tsai’s instructions to the letter and surprisingly it worked. It took about two hours to go from a black screen to a colourful screen showing Elgol in all its glory and most of the software back in place. Thank goodness. I was really starting to believe it was a goner this time.

PoD was one of the five photos I took today and it’s a leaf from a Gooseberry. Bush. No sketches, because Inktober is over for another year.

Tomorrow more rain is forecast but we may go for a drive somewhere in Paisley and with a bit of luck there will be tea and teabread!

October’s almost over – 31 October 2023

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Another bright morning and a cold day to follow it.

I think we just sat in the warm living room and looked out at the world outside for a while. We also stood at the back window and watched the antics of a couple of magpies struggling to find a way to get at the fat in half a coconut shell that’s hanging on the rowan tree.  It’s a cheap bird feeder I bought intending it for the bluetits to feed on.  However one of the wily magpies found a way to hook the string that holds the coconut with its claw and pull it close, meaning it could plunder the contents in comfort.  The others were still flying up, taking a peck and falling back down.  I think they expended more energy than they gained from the fat.

Scamp wrote a letter to the Gas Ombudsman, complaining about the terrible wait we’ve had to get a gas bill.  Nobody seems to know why we’ve not had a bill and any correspondence we get for British Gas is basically a photocopy with the date changed from the last one.  The smart meter is working for the electricity bill, but not for the gas!  Maybe we need someone to come out and read the meter! We’ll see what the Ombudsman can do to jolly them along.

After lunch we walked down to the shops for the makings of a stir-fry and some potatoes to make Potato and Leek soup.  There were a group of ‘workies’ cutting back the bushes at the front of the house.  I didn’t envy them their work in the cold breeze that was blowing.  We felt it too on our fifteen minute walk to the shops.  I’d intended leaving the bags with Scamp on the way back and going for a walk in St Mo’s, but they were quite heavy, so I walked home with her and then went out again to see what I could find. Not a lot was the answer, although I did startle a deer in the woods. It saw/smelled/heard me long before I noticed it and it was away like the wind.  I tried taking photos of some fungi but few of them were interesting, then I found a curvy looking flat topped mushroom just as the sun shone through the trees on it.  I think I missed the best of that light, but was happy with the image I did get.  That became PoD.

Back home the workies had finished and I could smell soup, so the potatoes had been used! I made a cup of coffee and uploaded today’s photos then worked on them for a while.  Then I remembered, or was reminded by the computer that there was an update to the iMac’s OS, so I put it in.  About an hour later I was walking past the computer and noticed the screen was still black with a white progress line half way along its slot.  Not long after an error message flashed on the screen.  The update had failed for some reason. On a normal week, I’d already have made a backup of the OS and would just have overwritten the OS with a new one, but I hadn’t made a backup and I didn’t want to risk losing the data as well as the operating system.  I tried a Safe Mode start and everything was still there, but I decided I’d wait until tomorrow to do a backup and then replace the OS.  Computers are a pain some times. Dinner was the stir-fry and it was quite good, but nothing special. Soup was kept for tomorrow.

Today was the last sketch in Inktober for this year.  The prompt was Fire. Instead of an actual fire I chose to sketch the vehicle that hopefully would be responsible for stopping a fire. It’s based on a Dennis F8 Fire Engine 1955. The group this year with a couple of headbanger exceptions has been really good and well behaved.  That made my life a lot easier!

I think a dance practise will be called for tomorrow.  Other than that, we may well be sheltering from the predicted rain!