Category: weather

Out for a walk – 12 October 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Out walking round Dalzell Estate with my brother.

The weather fairies were convinced that the weather today would start our wet in the morning, but would clear for the afternoon. I wasn’t so sure, but that’s exactly the way it turned out.

I sat and talked to Carol and Fiona and Ollie. Ollie didn’t say much, at least not much that I could understand, probably because he is only about 7months old, but he smiled a lot and made noises which is the best kind of talking.

Alex and I said goodbye to everyone and we headed off to Dalzell Estate and went for a walk in the woods. Some folk were having a picnic in a clearing. I don’t know what that was all about, but they didn’t invite us to join them so we walked on. From one of the bird hides we watched a flight of geese, some swans and a host of lapwings. I haven’t seen any lapwings (or ‘peeweeps’ as we call them on account of their call) for years. One of the serious bird photographers arrived and I think we were crowding his hide so we left to find a temple Alex wanted to show me. It was a fairly long walk, but one I remember going with him a year ago. Eventually we found the temple, but it wasn’t the one I was thinking about. After looking at a map tonight, I think I might have confused it with a mausoleum which is in the estate.

Anyway, we walked back to the car from there after admiring the “Big House”. It’s an impressive building with centuries of additions to the old part of it, but the land in front of the building has been turned into a car park which spoils the look completely. We stopped once more at the Japanese Garden where I got some decent shots of the maples. I also got a bruise on my bum when I slipped on the slimy steps up to the garden.

With some of the day left, we drove to Chatelherault in the outskirts of Hamilton and had a coffee in the cafe there, then went a walk down the broad avenue of trees that stretches for a mile or so to Hamilton itself. Walked further down to the Avon Water which was still in spate after last week’s rain. Back at the Chatelherault House itself I got PoD which is a view down the narrow avenue.

Drove home and dropped Alex at the house, then drove home for dinner before I changed from my waking gear into my dancing trousers and drove to the British Legion in Cumbersheugh for an hour long dance class. I wasn’t impressed with the first half which was Tango Serida. Not my favourite sequence dance. The second half was more interesting, but there were too many clowns in the class, every one a comic.  Let’s hope they calm down next week.

Today’s prompt was one of the vague ones, ‘Forget’. After a fair bit of soul searching, I decide on the one you see here: a note pinned to a wall.  I am a master of forgetful. My mum used to say “You’d lose yer heid if it wasn’t sewn on!” She was probably right. I haven’t lost my heid yet, but I’ve forgotten much more than I’ve remembered. Now what was I saying???

That was about it for a busy day. Tomorrow Scamp is hoping to get to Inverness for lunch with her sister. An early rise to get the train that will take her in to Glasgow and then a walk to the bus station to get the bus. Rather her than me.

Tidying up loose ends – 11 October 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Lots of little things to do after yesterday’s big sale.

The morning was dry but a bit dull. We’d half intended to go down to Auchinstarry and walk along the canal, but maybe we left it too long and the clouds got heavier and the the dull got duller and when I put some washing in the machine we decided to just switch it on and wait until that was done before we went out. Coffee time, then hanging up the washing and it was lunch time.

After lunch I got a message from the DVLA to say that the red car was officially off my hands and was now tender care of a member of the motor trade. That had been worrying me, but the bloke who did the paperwork was as good as his word.

We had received our covid survey boxes last week and today we were going through the usual procedure of sticking things down our throats and then up our noses. Actually, that procedure isn’t all that painful. The pain comes when you have to fill in the online form. It’s so stilted in its language and clumsy in its operation. I understand that it’s an important document, but it have to be so dull and does it have to offer to give the instructions in Welsh on almost every page? What about Gaelic speakers? Don’t they get an option too? Anyway, the physical bit was done and the online bit was completed too. So we just needed to post the box.

Scamp wanted to get a birthday card for Margie, so we headed off to Condorrat to post the boxes and get a card. We walked a long way back because, although the day had held on to that white Scottish sky, it was still dry ( I almost pressed the “S” key instead of the “W” key when I was typing ‘white’ – honest, it was an accident!). We walked the long way home and it gave us both an opportunity to stretch our legs.

I came home and changed my trainers for a pair of boots and went off to find something that wanted to be PoD. I found a little mushroom growing out of a tree stump and with a bit of jiggery pokery it became PoD.

Dinner tonight was an old favourite. Ham, cabbage and potatoes. We were discussing this and it’s never ‘bacon’, it’s always ‘ham’. Both our mums called it ‘ham’, never bacon, except if it came from Ayrshire, because that was posh and it was Ayrshire Bacon. Anyway Ham, Cabbage and Potatoes was lovely.

The prompt for today was ‘Eagle’. Now the Bald Eagle might be more common across the pond, but here in Scotland the leading raptor is the Golden Eagle. I’ve only seen one once in the wild and that was in the north of Skye. When you see one, you know it’s an eagle. It just couldn’t be anything else.

By the way, I kept forgetting to tell you, we had a duck in the sink the other day.  Honestly, a duck in the sink.  I took a few photos before it disappeared.  No photoshop, no fiddling about, just a quick (or should that be a ‘quack’) snap.  Amazing the things you see in the sink!

Tomorrow I’m probably going over to Motherwell to meet up with Alex. If the weather is fair, we’ll go for a photo walk. If it’s raining we might go for coffee and a blether. Scamp is intending to do some ‘tidying up’. That sounds ominous.

Off to see a man about a car – 10 October 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Today we sold Scamp’s wee red car

The MOT on Scamp’s car was coming up fast and for weeks we’ve had long discussions about whether to keep it or sell it, and if we sell it, who to? We eventually agreed in the middle of last week to sell it. Actually it was Scamp herself who pushed for selling it, I wanted to put it through a pre-MOT and see what the outcome of that would be although we knew it would need some work done. Anyway, after searching around to see which of the snake oil salesmen was the least dodgy, we finally agreed on We Buy Any Car. Got a price that was far in excess of what it was worth and organised a day to have it surveyed. That day was today and after less than half an hour we walked away without the old red Micra, but with a few quid in the bank, although a good bit less than the first fantasy price we got. We were both fairly happy with the whole procedure. It was as painless as it could be. It is a bit strange looking out the window at the car park and not seeing that wee red motor, but that would have happened sooner or later, anyway.

A coffee and a light lunch to settle us down and reflect on what we’d done. It was the right thing to do and the right time to do it. The rest of the day was waiting for us and it was keeping to the weather fairies promise of a dry day for a change.

We drove to Drumpellier and went for a walk in the trees. It was a bit breezy, but the light was good and lots of folk were out enjoying this little bit of sunshine. Deep in the woods of Drumpellier we came upon a tree with layers of golden leaves. The light was almost perfect and the wide angle lens managed to capture most of the scene, even if it was tearing the image a bit at the edges. I had a PoD. Usually we have an ice cream cone from a van at the park, but there was no van today. That was because, despite the sun, it was quite cold. No, a coffee in the cafe was more realistic today. After that we drove home.

Prompt for today was ‘Crabby’, or to put it into Scots, ‘Crabbit’. I searched Google and found this image, or something like it. It just said “Crabby” to me. Some days it’s just not worth getting up. You just know it’s not going to be sunshine and fun. It’s going to be furballs and frustration. Today was one of those days for Crabby Cat!

Tomorrow may be the second dry day in October, if that’s not pushing it. If it turns out as the weather fairies say, we may go for a walk.

Heading East – 8 October 2022

Posted on by Zogman

We were determined to get out somewhere today. I chose East.

<Hazy-warning>
We drove to Culross and we were better than half way there when I remembered I was going to bring my walking boots and they were still I the cupboard they live it back at the house. But we were half way there and although it was raining, the sky was clearing the further east we went. Trainers would be fine.

When we got to the quaint wee village of Culross which Hazy hates with a vengeance, we had just parked when the rain came on much heavier so we sat in the car for a while. To make sure we stayed there, a bus parked behind us, blocking in at least half a dozen cars. Admittedly there aren’t very many place to park a bus in Culross and at least the driver stayed in the bus while he waited for his time slot to go, or maybe he was having his lunch. Culross must be one of the few places where a bus is allowed to block in six cars, legally parked in a car park. That’s the Fife mentality.

Eventually the rain eased and we got out for a walk beside the railway that has no traffic now that Longannet has been demolished. The railway used to carry slag from the power station to dump it on some reclaimed land on the east end of the town. The railway runs alongside the Firth of Forth, so we were on the path beside the railway beside the sea.

I wouldn’t say the weather was brilliant, but there were bright spells and the rain although always there wasn’t heavy. We walked a path we hadn’t been on for years. A path that zig zagged between the edge of a wood and some boggy looking grassland. A couple ahead of us had an excitable collie that kept running into the long grass and on one of its runs it spooked a deer. I don’t know who got the bigger fright, the dog or the deer. Once the dog had recovered, it seemed to think this was a great game, running into the grass to see what else it could find. The deer just ran away until it was half way across the field where it felt safe enough to start grazing again. The dog was called back and put on a leash for the rest of the walk.

We eventually found the end of the path where it rejoined the main walkway through the woods, but it was a long way round the main walk which would take us round the edge of the reclaimed land and eventually back to the car park. I suggested we take the other direction and walk the main path back to the railway walk. That’s what we did and just as we were about 100m from the car the rain came down in torrents. Just as I was framing up a couple of photos. I managed to get one of the and that made PoD. It’s the new pier at Culross with a lion rampant on a flagpole. The girl standing there was a ‘lucky’. Scamp was wet, I was soaked. We had intended going for a late lunch at Torwood garden centre, but we agreed we were both too wet for that and went home for a late lunch of tea and toast.
</Hazy-warning>

Later in the afternoon I walked down to the shops to get an M&S curry for each of us for dinner. We ate it while we watched the qualifying for the Japanese GP. It looks like a wet race tomorrow which always makes for interesting driving.

Today’s prompt was ‘Match’. Nobody believed that the newly married Mr and Mrs Match would ever settle down. In fact most of their friends said that a couple of hot-heads like these would end up in an almighty flaming row. However they proved to be the perfect match for each other.

No plans as yet for tomorrow.  Probably there will be more rain falling from the sky, but if there isn’t, there might be the chance of a walk.

 

Caught out – 7 October 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Slept late today. Must have needed the rest with all the walking and exercise recently (I don’t think!)

Scamp was out in the morning for her FitSteps class. I loaded the washing machine before she left and put it on for its hour long wash. Managed to collect the first of my six active hours. It should have been eight, but six out of eight is a good start. There was blue sky and sunshine when I came back from my morning stroll round the policies as Colin would say, and the washing was done. I decided it would stay dry for a while, so I hung out the washing. Ten minutes later the rain came on. Should I take the washing in or should I risk leaving it out. A quick look to the west confirmed my suspicions that bring it in would be the smartest thing to do. It was indeed the sensible thing to do, because as soon as Scamp came in from her class there was an almighty cloudburst.

Earlier in the morning we’d considered going out to lunch if the weather held, but that wasn’t going to happen. Instead we had a banana sandwich each and watched the rain falling. We needed vegetables and some fruit so we went on a trip to Tesco to get the messages. It was still raining a bit, but the cloudburst had gone east to dampen someone else’s day. We loaded up the car with bags and drove home.

To brighten our spirits, Scamp suggested fish suppers for dinner and I readily agreed. It was while I was walking over to Condorrat that I got a couple of photos, in the gloaming, that could be blended together to make PoD. For me it kind of summed up the grim week of weather we’d had. A queue of cars heading to Glasgow, while another string of headlights heads towards Cumbersheugh on the other lane of the motorway. Meanwhile a quite surprising and colourful sunset appears above the trees. That’s Scotland for you!

The prompt for today was ‘Trip’. Various possibilities went through my head as solutions to this request, but the one that worked best, and my first thought actually was the one you see here. The poor bloke is falling, but I’m not sure if that’s a precipice or a grassy knoll or maybe a busy road. I leave it up to you, my dear readers to decide the final outcome for yourselves! It could be titled “Did you bring me a stalk of rock?” (From your trip!)

Tomorrow looks like the best day of the week. For* ‘best’* read ‘least worst’. I think we’re intending going out somewhere … anywhere.

Even more rain – 6 October 2022

Posted on by Zogman

I walked down to the shops and I do believe I saw a man building a big boat and looking for pairs of animals.

We slept a bit longer than we should have this morning and it was raining. Eventually we did get up and load up the dish washer. Hazy phoned and we talked to her for a while, talking about mortgages and Capital Gains Tax and other things related to house buying. I’m sure it will be a long winded exchange of letters between solicitors, but it will be worth it in the end. Good to hear you sounding so well Hazy. I had a look at the new Mur Lafferty book. I couldn’t remember what was special about her series, but they were the Shambling Guides, weren’t they! Travel guides for zombies.

Once we’d said “cheerio”, Scamp and I had our usual competition with Wordle (She 3 – Me 6) and then for the longest word in Spelling Bee (draw at 10 letters). By that time lunch was on the horizon. I’d offered to make paella for dinner and that meant we needed some stuff, so it was boots on and raincoat on before I headed out into the deluge. Actually it was fairly dry when I was out. Just one circuit of St Mo’s then I walked down to the shops, bought the essentials and walked back. That was when deluge two arrived. Even with boots and my Goretex jacket, I was decidedly wet when I got home. Thankfully the top half of me was still dry, although I think the jacket is still dripping as are my jeans, but my socks were dry. Good boots saved the day again. While I was in St Mo’s I got my PoD which is red hawthorn berries, haws as we used to call them.

Today’s Inktober prompt was ‘Bouquet’. I was constantly tempted, with this sketch, to add just a wee bit of colour, but I steadfastly refused. A little bit of colour here and another bit of green for the leaves would have led to a watercolour sketch in no time at all and that’s not what Inktober is about! Some people in the group are taking liberties with ’sketches’ that are really just paintings. A little bit of colour is ok, but not an entire painted sketch with no signs of ink. My group, my rules.

We watched the first Portrait Artist of the Year tonight and, as usual, we were impressed with some and dismissive of others. “You can please some the people some of the time …”

It’s still raining. It hasn’t really stopped all day. We’re hoping for a drier day tomorrow so we can go out somewhere that’s not Cumbersheugh.

Rain and Jags – 4 October 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was out for coffee this morning with Isobel. I did some rearranging of the ‘painting room’.

The rain during the night and this morning was torrential. When Scamp left to pick up Isobel, the rain was lessening and I thought I might manage a short walk. Five minutes later it was torrential. A real downpour. Short walk cancelled!

I resigned myself to starting to tidy up the back bedroom – the painting room. What I really needed was a skip to lob in all the broken or useless, or pointless things I have stashed in that room. It’s going to come to that some time soon, but for today I did fill a bag and I’ll fill another one tomorrow I hope. Realistically I need about 23 more bags and the incentive to fill them, but one step at a time.

After a wet Scamp returned with a bag of rolls, we had lunch and hoped that the rain would go away. It did, but it took a long time about it. Scamp was supposed to be meeting her sister on Thursday, but she got a text to say that Jackie was cancelling as she was needed at work this week. That was a pity because Scamp was looking forward to the visit and a loooong blether with her sister. They’ve rescheduled for next week and the tickets are booked.

I got my second box of coffee in two days. This one from The Bean Shop in Perth. Just two packets of coffee and two packets of tea. The coffee is almost superfluous because I got a delivery from Rave yesterday with five bags of the lovely beans. Jamie, if you haven’t tried The Italian Job yet, do yourself a favour and get a bag!

Just after my Bean Shop delivery we had to drive up to the Town Centre and it wasn’t raining! We were going for our Autumn Covid booster and for our flu jag. One in one arm and one in the other. No queues today. In and out in jig time. No reaction to speak off as yet.

It was still dry when we got back and as the sun was coming out, it was coat and boots on and off to St Mo’s for some photos. Got a nice grab shot on the boardwalk of a bloke walking his dog. I don’t know who he is, but I was just wishing someone would come along and give me something to hang this landscape shot on. Turned round and there he was! Thank you mister! However, PoD came from the path at the back of the house. It’s a bunch of berries from our Rowan tree. The tree is being pillaged by starlings this week and this one must have fallen. I liked the colour and the way it stood out from the background.

Prompt for today was ‘Scallop’. Now I can’t eat scallops or any other bivalve molluscs because I’m allergic to them, but Scamp loves them, but that doesn’t stop me sketching them. Today’s sketch was fairly small and rough, but it fits the prompt.

Tomorrow looks a bit wild with strong winds and heavy rain predicted. Oh what fun!

The Elephant on the path – 2 October 2022

Posted on by Zogman

We went for a walk and saw an elephant.

We did Wordle (Me 5, Scamp 3). We did Spelling Bee (Me 2 words, Scamp 1). I messed about with settings on the phone again and finally found a way of deleting all the annoying nonsense jokes and funny stories one of my pals dumps on me every day. Basically we just sat there wasting time while it was beautiful sunshine outside. Eventually one of Scamp’s “I’m fed up” sighs prompted me to ask “Should we go out for a walk?” Of course that was what the big sigh was for, so Scamp promptly agreed.

We walked out along the path to Broadwood and over the rickety bridge. Some idiot thought it would be a good idea to make a boardwalk out over part of Broadwood Loch, but make it out of plastic, presumably because it was cheaper and the plastic wouldn’t rot. It wouldn’t rot, but its not strong enough to hold lots of people either. NLC. Numpty Labour Council. Anyway we survived the Wibbly, Wobbly Way and walked on, over the dam down behind it and along past the exercise machines. Back up the hill and into then out of M&S with a bag full of messages.

It was when we were walking up the path to the house, I saw what I thought was a big fat slug on the kerb. On closer inspection, its skin was dry and not at all like a slugs slime. I tried to take some photos with my camera, but it wouldn’t focus close enough. My phone did, though. Back home I did a bit of research and found that it was in fact an Elephant Hawk-moth caterpillar. Like the ugly duckling, it turns into a beautifully colourful moth. You didn’t think it was a real Elephant, did you. Come on, it’s Cumbersheugh. Somebody would have taken it home and hidden it in their bedroom. Ah, but that’s a different story that I might tell you some time. The photo of the Elephant Hawk-moth caterpillar is on Flickr if you’re interested.

I started my dinner early. It was Stew and it needed a long time to cook, so I fried off the meat and dumped it with a chopped up onion, a couple of rubbery carrots and half a can of Guinness in the slow cooker and left it to slow cook for a couple of hours. Then I went for a walk in St Mo’s. It was still a lovely day but I found very little to photograph. I eventually settled for a single dandelion gone to seed. That became PoD.

The stew wasn’t great, because it wasn’t cooked for long enough. Scamp’s salmon was overcooked and the skin wouldn’t come off. Somewhere between those two extremes was the perfect dinner. Maybe tomorrow. Homemade Apple Sponge for dessert was perfect! Our apples too!

The prompt was ‘Scurry’? Well, it just had to be a mouse and cartoon mice are easier to draw than real live furry ones, so that was it settled. A cartoon mouse it was.

Spoke to Jamie later and we discussed phones and the difficulties of working with the Samsung website. Also on the discussion table was vegetable gardening. Glad he’s getting some decent tomatoes after a bit of a problem earlier in the year.

Hoping for a good day tomorrow. The weather fairies say don’t bother.

 

White Rabbits (x3) – 1 October 2022

Posted on by Zogman

A new day, but the same weather. No wind today, but heavy rain.

We couldn’t decide what to do with today. Neither of us really wanted to go for a walk, because the dry spells were short and the rain, when it came was heavy and lasted for ages. Eventually we agreed that we’d stay at home. No sense in getting soaked for no real reason.

I offered to make pizzas for dinner and that was agreed. Lunch was a sandwich each and a cup of tea. My tea was normal Ceylon tea and Scamp’s was white tea ie hot water.

Last night I’d struggled with WhatsApp. Today I fixed it properly. It now has all my ‘Chats’ transferred over from the old phone. The camera in the new phone is quite amazing compared to the one I had before. Battery life which had been criticised in every review I’d read is fine. Storage is adequate. It’s much faster than the old phone and it doesn’t take ‘blackouts’ like the old one did. Recently it’s been going through the motions of shutting down, as if it has run out of power, when there’s about 25% left in it. Sometimes it just refused to power up. Lots of little things. Maybe it had just had enough of being in my pocket.

We didn’t get out a walk, but I did go for one circuit of St Mo’s pond then found a little dandelion growing out of the gap between two bricks on the way home and that became PoD.

I did make pizzas for dinner, but they weren’t the best I’ve ever made. Scamp put on a brave face and ate all of hers, but I know it was tough going. More practise needed.

Today was the first day of Inktober and the prompt was ‘Gargoyle’. I chose the Alien gargoyle up high on the roof of Paisley Abbey. The abbey dates back to the 12th century, but around 1990 when some renovations were being done, it was discovered that some of the gargoyles were in very poor condition. So poor that only one of them could be saved. An Edinburgh stone masons company was drafted in to design and carve new gargoyles. It seems that one of the masons had an affection for the 1979 film.
I’ve seen the gargoyle, but not up close. Too scary!

We’re not making plans for tomorrow. Whisper it. There is no rain in the forecast. Pass it on!

Entertained by Margie – 28 September 2022

Posted on by Zogman

This afternoon we went to visit Margie.

Margie is one of Scamps friends. She is a ray of sunshine on a dull day, and today was a dull day. As usual our conversation ranged over may subjects, taking in, on the way: The difference between a Carry-out and a Take-away, what a Boogie is and how you’d draw one and the horrors of hospital food, especially Gravel Hotpot. No, not Gravy, Gravel, apparently that’s what it looked like! Three hours gone in a flash. What an entertainer. She’d have made an excellent stand-up comedian when she was younger.

We drove home and we should have stopped at the shops to get some spinach to add body to the pesto I was going to make for dinner. If we had, I might have remembered to get some pine nuts, because there were none in the cupboard. But we didn’t and the pesto tasted fine with the spaghetti without the spinach and the pine nuts.

I spent most of the evening wrestling with, and swearing at, the Samsung website. Badly written and riddled with error codes. I eventually gave up when it crashed just as I was about to buy my new Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus phone after struggling, and failing to get the 0% finance deal for some undisclosed reason. Your code worked perfectly, Jamie, as did trading in Scamp’s old unused Huawei phone for a healthy discount. I tried talking to ‘helpers’ on Chat, but they were as useless as the website. I think it might have been an omen. Keep the phone you’ve got. You don’t need a new one.

Today’s PoD was a grab shot of some carnations sitting on the kitchen window ledge. It was dull and gloomy by the time I was taking the photos and the final result was a grainy as a sand dune, but thankfully ON1 came to the rescue and removed all the digital noise without altering the flowers too much. At least something worked today.

Off in to Glasgow tomorrow to meet Alex, hopefully and talk some technospeak with him.