Category: weather

Walking with the crowds – 18 February 2023

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After sitting in the sun in the morning we walked down steps to the coastal walk and went left.

It was a bit dull today as the PoD shows. It seems that in the morning the sky is clear and the sun shines, but in the afternoon the clouds roll down from the mountains and it all gets a bit tricky. Later in the afternoon, as the sun is sinking, the clouds clear away again. That’s been the general run of weather so far.

We walked, with everyone else it seemed, as far as Puerto Colon which probably sounds good in Spanish, but has a different meaning in English! We were looking for somewhere to have a quiet lunch with no football on a giant tv. We both agreed on a pizza for lunch. Lots of restaurants and cafes with photos of pizzas, but were any of them capable of making a decent one? Eventually we found what looked like an authentic Italian restaurant called Amalfi which had a sea view but no TV, and we both had a pizza. Scamp had margarita and I had anchovy and olive. Scamp said her pizza had too much cheese, but mine was perfect with a good base and plenty of salty anchovies. We took our time walking back to relieve the pressure on Scamp’s knee and also just to enjoy the place.

We danced tonight to brilliant singer, Beatriz Lopez, who brought along her fan club. Where we’d been dancing with about three or four couples for the past few days, tonight there were about three times that, mostly women, but some men too. I could understand why, because she was charismatic and could follow the mood of the room and work with that. Unlike yesterday’s ‘entertainer’

 

 

5.05am wake up call – 16 February 2023

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Today it was a quick cup of tea and then off.

The bags were packed yesterday which only left a morning drive to Glasgow Airport and the usual nail biting passage through security, although this time an organised approach and copious amounts of Tesco’s finest clear resealable plastic bags made light work of getting through unscathed.

The usual overpriced breakfast in Frankie and Benny’s and it was almost time to fly through the air in an armchair in an aluminium tube for four hours, listening to three tubes in front of us on their way to a 60th party bash. Thankfully they weren’t going to our hotel.

After we landed we had the mile long walk through the labyrinth to be inspected by the polis and have our passport stamped then the interminable wait for bags before we walked out into the sunshine and the heat. Clever Scamp had organised a personal transfer to the hotel rather than sitting in a bus that took another hour or so to drop off passengers at their hotels. Been there, did that, didn’t enjoy it one little bit. Paying the extra was worth every penny. Our driver came from Cuba and was happy to recommend the best Salsa club to go to in Tenerife. He seemed a genuinely nice bloke and reminded me of the constable in Death in Paradise. Must have been the accent.
Booked in at the hotel, but our room wouldn’t be ready for another half and hour, so we had lunch and our first Holiday Beer.

Once we got rid of the cases and got changed into tee shirt and shorts we went for a walk in the sunshine. We walked down to the front and turned left past all the cafes and restaurants. It looked fairly familiar, although bits of it had changed and there was a lot of new accommodation everywhere. We walked for miles and I foolishly hadn’t brought a hat. A lesson learned.

After dinner we went to see what entertainment was available. We danced an embarrassingly bad salsa. Don’t drink and dance – it’s not a good image. We quickly decided to stick to soft drinks for a while and sobered up enough to dance much better, later. The girl singer was good and there were quite a few people dancing.

What they call ‘local spirits’ in the hotel are free to all inclusive guests , but are just not worth drinking. We agreed we’d buy a bottle for the room tomorrow.

PoD was a shot of Adeje, looking back from Puerto Colon.

Fairly early bed, after a long day.

A dull day – 14 February 2023

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Not a lot to say about today other than I got my hair cut at last.

I had intended to cut my hair myself with help from Scamp for the bits I can’t reach or see, but things got in the way and instead I earmarked today for the great shearing.

Scamp was staying in to meet up with Annette, so I drove to the station and left the car there and got the train in. So much easier and less stressful than driving in to Glasgow when the schools are on February holiday. Unfortunately, the train was full of Grans and Granpas with loads of weans, trying to keep them amused for the three extra days they’re on holiday – the weans that is, not the grandparents. They’re on duty every day, it seems. Glad we’re not in that subset of humanity. Also, and even more unfortunately, I’d left my earbuds at home. Noisy weans and no ear defenders is no fun for anyone.

For once there was a queue for the barbers, but I didn’t need to wait long before the Big Grumpy Guy invited me to take a seat. He’s cut my hair the last twice I’ve been in The Nile Barber’s. The last twice he’s been fine, the first time he just grumped all the time. His style is a bit rough and ready, but he’s quick and very little chat, which suits me.

With that done I walked up to JL to get some stuff for Scamp and while I was there I had a spot of lunch in the cafe. Lovely chunk of sourdough bread stuffed with tomatoes, peppers, roast broccoli and pickled cucumber. Strange mixture but it tasted fine. That and a cup of coffee that tasted of coffee, which is a bonus.

Took a walk down Buchanan Street and was heading for HMV to see if they had cheap cordless earbuds or an adapter for the S22+ and got sidetracked walked back along towards Waterstones before I remembered I didn’t have a voucher for another ‘real’ book. Decided to cut my losses and come home.

As the train slowed into Croy I could see I could see the layer effect of mist on the Campsie Fells, but by the time I got to my favourite place to photograph it the mist was receding but the sky had added a new dimension to the scene. You lose some, you win some. Actually that’s a lie. The mist was receding, but the sky was featureless, so I pasted in one of my own and that looked more like the view I’d seen from the train.

Came home to Mac ’n’ Cheese ’n’ Bacon. Delicious, especially with a blob of Fruity Brown Sauce! Thank you Scamp.

Today’s prompt was The Green Card. We don’t have Green Cards in the UK, at least not yet. So I thought I’d try an alternative solution, as I usually do.  Three playing cards, all aces (it’s an unwritten compositional rule that you should always have an odd number of objects. It just works) then I invented the Green Card, the Ace of Shamrocks. A lucky card. The Ace of Shamrocks trumps all. Why not? I wasn’t going to attempt to sketch Gérard Depardieu or Andie MacDowell and as I’ve never watched the film, I couldn’t select a scene from it. This is more fun. I like inventing things.

Tomorrow we’re both going to be busy all day with lots of little things to remember.

Still recovering from yesterday – 12 February 2023

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It’s Sunday. It’s ok to lounge about on a Sunday.

Basically that’s what we did. We lounged about the living room. We watched Laura Kuenssberg savage another politician and when they’d dragged his bleeding body away, it was lunch time. We had two rolls left over from yesterday’s lunch, so that’s what we had. Scamp had an Omelette on a roll and I had Bacon ’n’ Egg on a roll. Neither of them looked very appetising, but that’s not the point. The point is to use up what’s in the fridge and that’s what we did. Actually mine was really good and I didn’t hear any complaints from Scamp.

In the afternoon Scamp walked down to the shops to get some bits and pieces for tonight’s dinner which was to be Fennel with Cod and Prawns. Another case of using up what’s in the fridge and freezer. Fennel from the fridge, Cod and Prawns from the freezer. Every little helps.

When she came back, I went out for a walk in St Mo’s. It was lighter than I thought outside and the reason was the clouds ,that seem always to be there these days, were just that little bit higher. High pressure is in charge according to the weather fairies. Buds were bursting in the trees and I did photograph some, but it was a splash of bright yellow lichen on a park bench that got Pod. In case you’re interested, it was a Xanthoria parietina. The strange thing about it was that the park bench was made entirely from recycled plastic. I wonder where the lichen gets its nutrients from. I know that some lichen have been known to digest plastic, but not this common and garden variety. Unless it’s learning! Thoughts of “The Trouble With Lichen (John Wyndham) spring to mind. Anyway, that was a bright splash of colour that got PoD.

Spoke to Jamie later had heard that Simonne is halfway on her trip to Japan. Stopover in Kuwait and onward and eastward tomorrow. We talked a while about meet-ups in the spring. Where and when are not agreed yet and will need all three parts of the family to agree on dates and place. I meant to tell you Jamie that I’ve signed myself up to Audible today. Two free books for the first month. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Today’s prompt was The Graduate. The Graduate is one of the films I have seen a few times. I liked the music and I liked his sports car. I wasn’t enthralled by the story, but everyone said you had to go and watch it because of ‘the scenes’. I preferred to watch ‘the scenes’ of Dustin Hoffman driving that red Alfa Spider across the bridge and thinking “one day, maybe …”

Tomorrow we’re hoping to go to see Andrew in Falkirk, but we’ll be going in a blue car.

 

Stitchin’ and Snowdrops – 10 February 2023

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In the morning, Scamp was off at her FitSteps class while I dragged out the sewing machine.

My task for today was to patch my torn jeans. I found a piece of fabric (Coffee beans – Hazy!) to do the reinforcement and struggled to pin it in place on the inside of the tear. Then I further struggled to get the jeans into the place to do the sewing. With the patch in place I could sew two runs of stitches, one down each end of the patch. Ideally I wanted to be able to stitch along all four sides of the patch and possibly another few runs in the middle. It couldn’t be done with the standard foot and although I had an embroidery foot for the machine, I hadn’t used it before, but after a bit of poking around the working parts of the sewing machine I worked out how to remove the standard foot and fit the embroidery foot. All I needed to do then was to cover the ‘dogs’ that pull fabric through the bit with the needle. With that done, it was a five minute job to fill in the patch with with an abstract pattern of stitches that held everything together and another five to return the machine to its standard setting. It probably sounds very complicated, but the embroidery foot is my magic solution to lots of my stitching repairs from now on. By the time I was finished, Scamp had returned with lunch that was heating in the oven.

Spoke to Hazy and discussed holidays and house improvements also Canute & Delia’s final closure of the shop.  Big change for them.  Glad things are going to plan for the early spring break for you and for ‘the fluffies’.  What will you do without your feline hot water bottle?!

After lunch Jackie phoned and I went out into the dull monochrome garden to look for something to photograph. I found some snowdrops and one of them got PoD. By the time I came back in and the phone call had ended, so had the light.

That was about the extent of a dull day. Paella for dinner tonight was fine, but not nearly as good as the stir fry Scamp made yesterday and I forgot to give her a mention for. My apologies, chef.

Today’s prompt was Chocolat. Apparently I had watched the film some years ago, but, obviously, it didn’t make a big impression on me. Toblerone on the other hand, does make a big impression on me (and me on it.!) Big chunks of chocolate with nuts and chewy bits. Delicious straight out of the fridge, just don’t break a tooth biting into it. I thought this Swiss delight deserved a splash of watercolour today.
I really like drawing food, because you can eat the evidence afterwards!

Hopefully we’re going dancing tomorrow, unlike last week when the class was cancelled at the last minute. Fingers crossed.

 

Good Dancin’ – 9 February 2023

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We drove to Glenburn today to get some dancin’ done.

We were driving in bright sunshine today. I could have been photographing things instead of driving through roadworks to get to two hours of dancing, but hopefully there would be sunshine when we got home, providing we got back before sunset!

We were a bit late getting to the hall, but we weren’t the only ones. Actually we danced well today. Quickstep was our star turn. We managed to finish one full set and continue on to the next which is a bit step forward for me. Scamp was guiding, of course, gently reminding me what was coming next and it helped build the picture of the routine in my head. That may sound strange, probably it is, but it’s the way my brain works. We’d practised the Waltz in the morning. Just a short dance round the living room, but very useful for keeping the steps alive for me.

As usual we left the hall early in the hopes that we’d be able to avoid the crowds of school kids and also the inevitable roadworks, but for once there were no gangs of school weans and even more surprising, we seemed to avoid the roadworks. We went with the M77/M74 route and it worked a treat. Yes!, we did get back before sunset and Yes!, there was still sunshine. Not a lot, I grant you, but enough photons were flying about to allow me to capture them on whatever magic flypaper is in the back of the A6000. Today’s PoD was a couple of catkins hanging from a tree in St Mo’s.

Today’s prompt was White Nights. I watched a bit of the film, couldn’t make head nor tail of any of it, so did a bit of alphabetical “jiggery pokery”. That’s a technical term that would take too long to explain.
Basically, I took the trailing ‘s’ from the title, then found an almost brand new ‘K’ in my pocket, so I added it to the start. “Fair exchange is no robbery”, they say. So here I present to you my interpretation of White Knight. Simples!

Tomorrow Scamp is intending to go to her FitSteps class and I’m hoping put some ‘scintillating stitches’ in my jeans to prevent a little tear becoming a big rip!

Ice Cold with Alex – 8 February 2023

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Alex and I were meeting up to drive to The Kelpies today

It was a bit cold when I left the house to pick up Alex from the train station. By the time we got to Helix Park where the Kelpies live, it was ‘Baltic’. The wind was getting up and the temperature was going down. To start with it was fine, we even got in free because the car park is unsupervised between September and March, or thereabouts. We took some photos of the unicorn at the entrance to the car park. It’s made from woven strips of willow, we think on an armature of either copper tubes or maybe just cleverly jointed willow. I imagine it looked good through Alex’s new glass, a 70-350mm APSC lens. It wouldn’t work on my Full Frame camera or I’d have taken some shots. It’s also too expensive and too niche for me.

The main subject of the day was to be the kelpies themselves, so we walked down the long avenue to have a look at them. Alex wanted to photograph them from a hill above the car park and I wanted much the same viewpoint, but looking through some ornamental grass, rather than over it. Once I’d taken them I wasn’t impressed with the results. We walked on the meet the beasts.

I’ve been to the kelpies many times now because they are one of Scamp’s favourite sculptures and mine too, I must admit, but I wanted to try some different views. With that in mind, while Alex was photographing the 1/10th scale maquettes outside the cafe, I wandered along beside the canal under the motorway flyover and got some different perspectives on the monster horses. One I haven’t worked on yet on the computer was taken with Baron the ‘head up’ Kelpie rearing over the motorway. Different because you don’t see his body, just from the neck up.

I took a few more, but after we met up again, we went for coffee and a sandwich. The heat when we entered the cafe was a delight. You don’t realise how cold you are until you come in to the warm. Fed and watered, we left to face that wind that seemed to be getting stronger. I took a few shots of the maquettes with the wee 1/10th scale man beside them, helping to give a sense of scale. After a fair bit of work, that became PoD. A few photos later we agreed to call it a day. Windchill was getting to my face and fingers and to Alex to I imaging because he was the one who suggested we head for home.

A total of 93 photos taken with 8 of those rejected. Alex had taken 99. We had both taken a lot of ‘doublers’, but you’ve got to do that sometimes to cover all bases.

I dropped him back at the station and then realised when I got home that his woolly bonnet was in the foot well of the car. A good day, even if it was very cold.

Today’s prompt was ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’. I started out intending to sketch the moon reflecting on a river, because Moon River was the most famous song in the film, but a doodle of Audrey Hepburn quickly took shape instead. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow, but not the Moon River flow in this case!

Tomorrow we’re hoping to go the a tea dance, but first I think we might need some practise time.

A cancellation – 7 February 2023

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The plans had changed.

Yesterday Isobel phoned to ask us both to come to the house. This morning she phoned to cancel because she was suffering from a bad cold. We know what that’s like, having suffered from it ourselves lately and postponing was the right thing to do.

Instead of visiting Isobel, we we went to Tesco. Scamp had accrued quite a few vouchers and I had a couple from our Covid surveys. I checked them this morning just to see that they were still valid and was relieved to find that they were. Our trolley was fairly full when we reached the checkout, with about half going to the Foodbank and half coming home with us. A fair split, we thought.

Lunch for Scamp was sourdough bread with cheese. Mine was sliced rolled lamb from Sunday followed by sourdough toast. I don’t really like sourdough bread in its raw state, but toasted it’s a whole new ball game. Delicious and light.

In the afternoon Scamp was doing ironing and I was going out to walk in the little bit of sunshine that had appeared. It actually stayed for almost an hour and PoD was a view across the wee pond with a threatening black sky and the dark waters of the pond sandwiching a glowing golden strip where the sun lit up the dead grass of the park. I liked it right away.

Dinner tonight was Cauliflower with Cheese Sauce served with Potato Wedges. I added the last of my lamb to it after frying it off in the pan. I think I used up most of the good stuff in that piece of meat. I’ll be on the lookout for more from the same source the next time we’re in Waitrose.

After dinner Scamp suggested a dance practise.  It’s amazing how much you forget in a fortnight.  Everything had gone from my head.  Baby Waltz, Quickstep and Foxtrot.  I could remember all the start moves, but after that was a blur.  Thankfully Scamp knew what went where and when and we did eventually manage to put a shortened version of the routine together.  Whether it will still be there tomorrow remains to be seen!

Today’s prompt was The Pink Panther. Some prompts require a lot of thinking and planning then you get a fairly easy one. This was an easy one. I couldn’t say I’d never seen this film, or the cartoon series. The films are classics and the cartoons are too. I chose the easiest route possible and went for the pink cartoon animal.

Tomorrow Alex and I are hoping to go to the Kelpies. He’s coming to Cumbersheugh on the train and I’m picking him up at the station, then we’ll drive to Grangemouth where the Kelpies live, but I’ve another idea that might just work out well to test his new long lens. It depends on the weather.

So, tomorrow Scamp is intending to meet the rest of the witches for lunch and Alex and I intend to go somewhere to take photos!

Preparing for Spring – 6 February 2023

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Scamp wanted seeds and seed compost. Spring is in the air.

We drove to Torwood at lunch time to get the seeds and seed compost. Scamp also wanted a one tonne bag of general purpose compost. Ok, it maybe didn’t weight a tonne, but it certainly felt it. It was probably full of water because it just kept twisting and turning when I tried to lift it. Why don’t they make bags with handles on them that you can at least get a grip on?

Anyway. We dumped the bag in the blue car’s boot and went for lunch. The place seemed to be full of old folk. I know I’m a member of that illustrious community, but these folk seemed a lot older than me. I ordered a Cajun Chicken Wrap and Scamp had a bowl of chips. I also got a mug of burnt water pretending to be coffee while Scamp went the sensible route and had peppermint tea. I really think, in retrospect, that I was served filter coffee ‘by mistake’. It was brown, had no crema and tasted of nothing. Two sachets of sugar and a fair dollop of milk made no difference to the taste. It was absorbed by the burnt water. I’ll follow Scamp next time and have what she’s having.

Drove home and yes, the sky did seem to be lightening, but only slightly. In the east, the area we were leaving, the sun was definitely breaking through. After I’d humphed the one tonne bag of compost through the house to the back garden, the clouds were closing in again and I knew if I was going to get any photos today I’d have to move soon. The PoD was a snowdrop, flowering in a pot of bare stem roses. To isolate it from its neighbours I used a sheet of matt black neoprene. Not real neoprene, but something that looks and feels like it. It’s great at creating a black backdrop for photographing flowers. Photos taken, PoD on the way.

While I was doing that, Scamp was busy at the kitchen sink, the draining board of which she’d covered with a plastic tablecloth. This gave her a neat worktop to use for taking cuttings of Geraniums. A sensible arrangement, because it was getting cold outside. She has also planted some Sweet Pea seeds. I didn’t get round to planting my kale seeds today, but I will soon. Honest!

Dinner tonight was a “What’s in the fridge that needs used” type of dinner. Basically it was half a tin on chopped tomatoes, a slice of bacon sliced fine, some capers that needed to be used and some penne. It all worked well, for a change.

What I did next was plan out my sketch to meet today’s prompt of The Fast and The Furious. I’ve never seen this film, one of many I’ve never seen, but for some reason an image came into my head of a Reliant Regal 3/30, a three-wheeler I had many moons ago. In fact it was my first car and I could legally drive it on a motorcycle license. It was a great car which carried us all round Scotland for years. Just for the fun factor, I gave the sketch a snail to speed past the Reliant. The driver of the Reliant was Furious to be passed by a super Fast snail.

Tomorrow, Isobel requests our company. No reasons given. It’ll be a surprise.

 

Another Scottish Day – 5 February 2023

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It was a bright start to the day, but then it faltered.

After lunch Scamp walked down to the shops to get some stuff for dinner. While she was out I started on my dinner which was to be Rolled Breast of Lamb. Actually it was already rolled. All I needed to do was preheat the oven to Gas 4 and sear the rolled lamb in a pot, then put the lamb into a pre-warmed roasting tin and deglaze the pot with some wine. Next I’d to pour the sticky wine over the lamb, wrap it in foil and bung it in to the oven for four hours. I was just finishing when Scamp arrived back.

She wanted to start cleaning out the greenhouse and after she’d laid the contents of our tiny wee plastic greenhouse, I was called upon to choose what I wanted to keep, which wasn’t much. With that done, I left her to it while I walked aimlessly around St Mo’s for an hour. There wasn’t much to photograph, especially as the morning sun had now long disappeared and was getting ready for bed if the amber light on the horizon was anything to go by. I did get a couple of photos of some gorse flowers which I’d say were flowering far too early, but they don’t listen to me, they just do as they like. One of them became PoD.

Today’s prompt was “National Velvet”, an ancient ‘horsy’ film with Elizabeth Taylor. I made no attempt to sketch Elizabeth Taylor. Instead I drew one of the ladies I saw at the Christmas Fair last December in Glasgow, enjoying a ride on the carousel horses, which don’t look anything like The Piebald in the film. Also, the woman I saw on the horse looked nothing like the person illustrated here. I hope that clarifies everything. I liked the painting of the horse, but the proportions were all wrong. Carol commented that the woman looked like Mickey Rooney. I said it was probably the lady’s five o’ clock shadow that gave that impression!

The roast lamb was, even if I say so myself, absolutely beautiful. The crunchy bits, especially so. I’ll look for that in Waitrose the next time we’re there. Scamp’s lightly smoked salmon could have been lighter still, she said. Foodies! What can you do with them?

Spoke to Jamie later and heard more of the details of Simonne’s trip to Kobe in Japan. Long way for a two day conference, but that’s the way the world turns these days.

I finished Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir today, a Christmas prezzy from Neil and Hazy.  A great story, well told. Ok, maybe a bit heavy on padding in places but really thought provoking and well researched. At 465pages it was a bit of a mammoth tome for me, but really worth reading.

Tomorrow I was hoping to get out with Alex to take some photos and to see his new Sony 70-350mm f4.5-6.3 G OSS lens, but I’ve heard nothing from him, so maybe not. In that event, Scamp wants a trip to a garden centre, probably Torwood to get some seeds and some fresh seed compost.