Category: weather

Rain, Rain, Go Away – 5 April 2023

Posted on by Zogman

It rained today. In fact it rained all day and it’s still raining.

We had Easter cards to write and then post, which was good, because we were going to Tesco anyway and could post them there. It was just a bit of light shopping, bread, a bag of rolls and a carton of milk. Oh yes, and two bottles of wine plus two cans of G&T. Like I said, light shopping. Just for a change, Scamp drove us there and back.

Back home and after lunch we started throwing things into bags. Counting in the socks and underwear then adding another one or two for luck. It looked like the rain was getting a bit lighter and there was just the chance of some sunshine too, but it was just a ruse by the weather fairies. The rain strengthened and the sunshine went to some other boys and girls. I’d thought of taking some indoor ‘flower’ shots, but risked it with a few shots of Scamp’s Helebores that sit by the back steps. Their full name is Heleborus Orientalis Lenten Rose. The ‘Lenten’ part is to signify that their flowering period roughly covers Lent.

Dinner was paella which I thought was nice and dry, but Scamp thought it was just too dry. We never can agree on food and cooking. However it tasted fine and used up some chicken thighs that had been languishing in the freezer for a long time.

In the evening I threw more things into a big red bag and I’ve just remembered I have to add the Gorilla Pod.

I think that’s us about done. Early rise tomorrow. Hope the rain has stopped by then!

Out on the moor – 4 April 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was off having lunch with Mags today. I was going to Fannyside Moor.

Scamp had a lunch booked with Mags at Wetherspoons. She had other things to do, (unspecified) and as you can only park for 3 hours anywhere in Cumbersheugh, I offered her a lift, with the added benefit that I’d pick her up once she was finished. I dropped her at the restaurant and drove off to the council tip to ditch some old garden things and a load of cardboard. After that, I was free.

I drove up to Fannyside Moor hoping for some decent light. I’d just parked when the light appeared and lit up the landscape down as far as the old ruined farm at Jawhill. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to get the camera out of the car before the light was gone. I took a walk along the road, but that light didn’t come back. I did get some photos of a couple of fence posts covered in lichen, then walked back to the car to photograph some sheep huddled together because it was a really cold west wind. Such a change from yesterday’s balmy weather with hardly a breath of wind. That photo eventually made PoD after a fair bit of editing and re-editing. Drove home after that and tea and toast for lunch. Nothing like Scamp’s lunch of Fish & Chips which she described as “mmmm lovely”. Some of us just have to make do with what we have.

I’d almost finished the re-editing of the sheep photo when my phone rang once and stopped, then the house phone (old tech, but reliable) rang. It was Scamp asking for a run home because she’d forgotten her bus pass. I didn’t mind at all because it gave me a reason to turn the computer off.

I went for a walk in St Mo’s late in the afternoon, but I took completely the wrong set of lenses. I don’t know what I was thinking. Unless I was thinking how good I was to get an “Explore” which is a First Prize from Flickr for the Horse Chestnut bud from the other day. That’s the second one this year.

I think that was about the end of our galavanting for the day. Dinner for me was Baked Potato and a portion of stew from the freezer. Scamp added to her lunch with a baked potato. We watched another episode of Death in Paradise, series 1 tonight and although we’d seen it before, it was better than the last series, series 10..

Tomorrow is going to be busy shopping, cards to post and arrangements to be made.

Out for a walk – 3 April 2023

Posted on by Zogman

We said it it was a good day, we’d go for a walk and we did.

I’d like to say that we were up early and out walking, but in reality it was nearer 11am before we got on the road. We drove to Chatelherault just outside Hamilton and left for a walk to the Green Bridge. It’s still a bridge, but as I’ve mentioned before in these pages, it’s not been green for a long time. We started off looking over the Duke’s Bridge to Cadzow Castle where some of the trees have been chopped down and the view of the castle is improved, even if there is only part of one wall remaining intact. There were actually people working on the site which was good to see, but I’ve no idea what they were doing. “Making it safe” was Scamp’s guess and that could be the case. We walked over the Duke’s Bridge that crosses the Avon water and then the climb started.

We took the easier route round the south side of the castle but the workmen had disappeared for their lunch. We headed left after the initial climb and walked past the ancient Cadzow Oaks which probably date from the 1400s. They are absolutely huge chunks of wood and could have been where Tolkien got the idea for Ents if he’d ever been to Scotland.

Further on, with blue sky above us, birds singing in the trees and the occasional fluffy cloud passing overhead it was an ideal day for a walk in the countryside. Newborn baby lambs in the field beside the path added to the picture, but oh, we’re not as fit as we used to be and after an hour and a bit of following the wandering path we were beginning to tire of the up hill and down dale route of the path. After we checked our progress on the phone and found that we weren’t even near the half way point, we decided to cut our losses and head back the way we had come. There wasn’t another path anyway! Next time we’ll walk the route in a clockwise direction, with options for alternative shortcuts back. Next time! There will be a next time.

But this time we still had to navigate the up hill and down dale switchback path. Although we had the benefit of being almost at the path’s highest point when we turned back, so we were heading downhill all the way to the Visitor Centre.

The information page on Chatelherault says the Oaks Café has “healthy snacks and tasty treats on the menu suit all culinary requirements.” I don’t think the person who wrote that had been in the Oaks Café. I asked for Peppermint tea for Scamp, but after having a look at the packets the server’s reply was a Larky “Nane!” So it was a latte then. My Americano was perfect, I have no complaints there, but I looked in vain for the “tasty treats” Instead there were anaemic sponge cakes with white icing, and various dull looking slabs of pastry. Maybe the “tasty treats” had all been sold or maybe there were “Nane”. At least the coffee was good.

We drove back home and Scamp went out to work in the garden in the sunshine. I dumped the photos on the computer and found that half of them were out of focus. Of the ones that were left, I chose a view of Cadzow Castle to be PoD.

It was a good day. We both really need to get up and go out earlier and more often to get back into shape, especially if dancing is going to be limited for the next month.

Tomorrow Scamp is booked for lunch with Mags and I’m at a loose end. I’ll find something to do, I’m sure

Gardening – 2 April 2023

Posted on by Zogman

An hour in the garden for me. More for Scamp.

We hadn’t got to bed until about 1am yesterday and our ‘little nightcap’ worked well, so we didn’t wake until well past breakfast time. By the time I was stumbling out of bed it was getting nearer lunchtime than breakfast. We both avoided the news in the morning, not wanting to know the result of the Australian GP which we’d watch while having lunch at midday. Instead, we solved Wordle and Spelling Bee.

Scamp described the end of the F1 GP as “Carnage” and she was right. “Shambles” is another word to describe it. Two restarts after the race had been ‘red flagged’ which means that the cars had to return to the pit lane to allow the debris of two big crashes to be cleared up. It was a bit over cautious on the part of the race officials. It could all have been handled much better in our opinion under a ‘Safety Car’. In the end it was a carnage and a shambles that did nothing but take away from what could have been a good race. Questions will be asked of the officials before the next race in Baku in four weeks time. Could this be connected in any way with the fact that the dance class is also off for about four weeks? Just asking.

With lunch past and the entertainment finished for the day, Scamp was looking to the garden to see what she could cut down, chop up or repot. I was called out on the pretext that my opinion was needed on what to keep and what to chop. I was also asked what I was going to do about the raised bed. I muttered something about taking down the pea frame and sloped off to charge the power drill that I’d need to remove the rusted screws. Actually, once I’d removed the six rusted screws with the power screwdriver, the fate of the raised bed was resolved when part of the back wall of the bed came clean away with the pea frame. The whole thing needs to be taken apart before it comes apart of its own volition. But that was a task for another day. Instead I took the pea frame apart, retained the uprights to become apple tree supports and chucked everything else in the bin. Then went to prepare my dinner which would be slow cooked lamb shoulder shank, done in the Instant Pot. Then I gathered my lenses for today’s expedition to St Mo’s.

It was actually quite mild today, much warmer than yesterday and with no wind, that warmth was getting through.

PoD was an update on the Horse Chestnut bud from a week ago today.

Tomorrow if the weather is as predicted, reasonably sunny, we may go for a walk.

The last day in March – 31 March 2023

Posted on by Zogman

And so March draws to a close with another dull, cold day.

Scamp went out to FitSteps in the morning and I didn’t do all that much. Come to think of it we didn’t do much in the afternoon either! After some discussion we opted to go to Tesco for our shopping. We could have gone to Waitrose in Stirling, but it seemed pointless to travel the extra distance for a slightly wider choice of groceries and since neither of us was all that bothered, we chose the closer to home option. You know it makes sense!

Back home we had a late lunch and then with Scamp settled on the sofa, I put my old Bergy jacket on and took the A7 with the 50mm macro out to see what I could find in St Mo’s. A little Salmonberry flower caught my eye and its image was promptly sucked into the camera and on to the SD card. I got some gritty looking lichen photos too and they got even more grungy in Lightroom. Both images are now on Flickr, but the Salmonberry flower got PoD.

We’d got a Charlie Bigham curry & rice from Tesco in the afternoon and that became tonight’s dinner. Spicy without being too hot, it was bolstered by some home made flatbreads which went well with it. We ate it while watching Series 1 – Episode 1 of Death in Paradise on iPlayer. Neither of us could remember watching this episode, but it was head and shoulders better than the drivel that’s being foisted on us these days in Series 10. Plus, the music is so much better in the original.

Another practise of the quickstep for tomorrow’s class and that was the day done, well, almost done, because the blog isn’t finished yet.

Tomorrow is Dancing Day. Class in the morning, back home for lunch and maybe dinner then out again to the monthly dance. Ok, that’s it done now. The blog is finished.

Coffee with John – 28 March 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was out for coffee with Isobel. I went over to John’s for coffee too.

Scamp was intending to meet Isobel for coffee at their usual haunt that is the Costa near TJ Hughes. Isobel caused confusion by phoning me to ask where Scamp was. When I told her, she should be at Costa by then. That’s when I got worried. Was the car giving trouble? Had she broken down somewhere? I phoned her and she replied that she was in Costa as agreed, but couldn’t see Isobel. Another call to Isobel cleared things up. She was at the other Costa (we’ve got two Costas in the Antonine Centre! Lucky us) at the other end of the centre. Long story short, they met up at the Costa near Tesco. Phew!

When she returned I had a quick cup of coffee and a cold meat sandwich then headed off to see John and hand over two parcels for Marion. We had a coffee and discussed the way the world was going wrong and how we’d have put it right if they’d only asked. It had been raining when I left the house and the clouds were getting lower. In Hamilton the skies were noticeable lighter and the clouds higher, plus it wasn’t raining. You see, that’s what happens when you live in South Lanarkshire. You pay a bit more council tax, but you get better weather. As if to prove this hypothesis, when I was driving home later, the rain started again just as I was leaving the boundaries of Hamilton. It continued to rain for the rest of the day and may be raining now. I rest my case Your Honour!

My camera hadn’t been out of the bag all day, but I still needed a photo for PoD. I turned to flowers, as I usually do in such times, and today’s PoD is a bunch of yellow Alstroemeria with some Sweet William and a bunch of Stocks as supporting actors. All shot on the tabletop with the A7iii + LensBaby Sweet 50 lens to blur out the edges.

Scamp’s turn to make dinner and it was a chicken stir-fry and although it was a bit dry it’s taste made up for that.

No plans for tomorrow. We’ll see what happens, but it might involve a Quickstep practise.

 

Off to the east – 27 March 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Not the Far East, just following the Forth.

It was a lovely day. In fact it was just as the weather fairies had predicted, bright, clear and cold. Just 0.2ºc above zero when Scamp was making the breakfast.

We decided we wouldn’t waste any time, we just drove over to Aberdour in Fife. The last time we’d been there was in January last year and it had been bright, clear and cold then too. After a bit of indecision Scamp remembered the street we needed to go down that would take us to the Silver Sands that Aberdour is famous for. I remembered the big, almost empty car park that those in the know use. We parked there and walked down to the sandy beach.

Scamp had been intending to walk the shore path to Burntisland, but instead we found ourselves following our noses and discovered not one, but two lighthouses, what looked like a gun emplacement from WW1 or WW2 we weren’t sure. The other thing we found was a memorial to Wee Alfy. Not much more information, except a plaque with “In Loving Memory of Wee Alfy 1986-2004” and an engraved picture of a leaping fish. It was on a sturdy table that looked as if it had been used for a barbecue and was built on a concrete and steel frame.

We walked back to the path that would take us to Burntisland. It was a decent path we were on with a plenty of climbs and then slopes down the other side. Well used too by walkers, joggers and cyclists. Everyone out to make the best of this spring day that was warming up nicely. Well, the path would have taken us to Burntisland if we’d had the time, but after walking for about an hour we stopped for a seat and made the decision to go back, because our destination wasn’t getting any nearer. The path was just as interesting on the way back. We were getting hungry by then and waited in the queue to get a table for lunch at the cafe. Scamp had Tuna & Cheese sandwiches and I had a burger. A bacon and cheese burger. It was truly the worst burger I’ve ever had. The meat itself had been reheated a few times before it came to me. The bacon had been fried to within an inch of its life and the cheese. I hate to think to the torture that had been inflicted on that oily orange slab of bubbling something. Take heed, if you are ever in the Sands Cafe, do yourself a favour. Eat one of your shoes rather than risk the burger. Your stomach will thank you for it. The slice of tomato was the best bit and the chips were excellent. We walked back to the car and realised why it might be worth the £2 to park on the lower car park. That is one long, steep and twisty bit of road.

We drove home via Tesco for milk and bread. Then Scamp wanted to do some deadheading that progressed into pruning and then there were plans to be made for the new peony rose we bought. Later, when the gardening work had been completed we used some of the straw that came with a Golden Anniversary rose to stuff a bird feeder and hung it on the tree in the garden. It was Scamp’s idea after I saw a blackbird with a beak full of twigs and leaves, presumably for nest building. Let’s hope some of the birds can use some of that straw.

PoD turned out to be a landscape shot taken on our walk to Burntisland.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending to have coffee with Isobel and as it’s forecast for rain, I may stay home and do that painting I’ve been dreaming about.

 

Today the clocks went forward – 26 March 2023

Posted on by Zogman

So it must be summer.

It was actually a nice sunny day in the morning and it stayed like that for most of the day. Friday was frantic. Saturday was exhausting. Sunday was going to be relaxing … if we could manage that.

It looked a nice sunny, but the weather app told a different story. Temperature started at 5.3ºc at 9am and didn’t rise much throughout the day.

After our normal Sunday fry-up I took the A7 with the long 105mm macro lens and the strange looking LensBaby. My idea was to go for my normal walk, only using the macro lens. Then change lenses and on the walk back I’d use the macro. As it happened, both lenses worked well with different subjects. PoD went to some wild cherry blossoms that only appeared a day or two ago. It was taken with the LensBaby. The lens has a built in distortion element which creates the swirly pattern round the sharp central area. There, I knew you were dying to know how it was done!

When I came home we shared the last scone with jam and clotted cream. Absolutely delicious, but it’s giving me heartburn now. If that’s the price I’ve got to pay, I’ll buy another bottle of Gaviscon!

Dinner tonight was yesterday’s cooked chicken marinated in its own juices and added to a Tarka Daal from theSpice Tailor range. It wasn’t very filling and it just didn’t work. I don’t think we’ll have it again. We will, however have more scones with jam and clotted cream! Thank you Canute.

Tomorrow we might have to go shopping.

 

Happy Birthday Scamp – 24 March 2023

Posted on by Zogman

A busy day, but a great one.

Today was Scamp’s birthday, a big birthday. It started with breakfast in bed as befitted the Birthday Girl. Then it was time to get dressed and face the day.

There were cards to open and parcels to unpack. I became doorman and brought in the parcels that delivery men asked me to sign for, lots of them. Most amazing being an enormous bouquet of flowers. I do believe the birthday girl was overwhelmed by it all. There was paper and cardboard boxes everywhere. Eventually everything calmed down and we went out to lunch.

It wasn’t a posh lunch, just a normal(ish) Friday afternoon outing to The Cotton House, or go-to Chinese/Thai restaurant a couple of miles down the road. Typically, we had our usual choices from the menu. Scamp had Thai Spring Rolls, followed by Chicken Chow Mein. I had Chicken Noodle Soup and Salt & Chilli Chicken with Noodles. No tea or coffee, just the bill, please. Food was just as lovely as usual.

Instead of driving home, we travelled on to Torwood Garden Centre to get some solar powered lights for the garden. Scamp had said a few weeks ago that she’d like garden lights as a birthday present, so today she got to choose them. We also got a new watering can and a peony rose for me.

Since we were only halfway to the Kelpies, it seemed like a good idea to just drive there so Scamp could tell them all about her birthday so far. We took a rather strange route to get there, but in the end we found Helix Park where the Kelpies live. As usual, I took loads of photos and one of them got PoD. It was a lovely day with blue skies, but later as we were just deciding to go to the cafe for a coffee, there was a sharp shower of rain. After coffee and more photos, we said cheerio to Baron and Duke and drove back home, just managing to avoid the worst of the rush hour.

There was a card on the mat when we got home to say that a parcel was waiting for Scamp at the Post Office. I checked the time it closed and I had just enough time to go there and collect the parcel. Of course it was another birthday parcel.

Later in the evening we had a three way Zoom call from Hazel, Jamie and Neil. Simonne had been in hospital to get her tonsils removed and Jamie was waiting to see if she would get out tonight or not. It was a good call, even if Simonne was absent. Lots of stuff talked about and plans were made for later in the year. Hey, but you know all this. We used up almost our whole hour of air time. Thank you all for organising that.

Tonight (or should I say yesterday night, since you’ll know this was a catch-up) we had an early night. Too much excitement and planning for two bears of little brain.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to dance in the morning and relax for the rest of the day.

 

Dancin’ – 23 March 2023

Posted on by Zogman

We went dancin’ today.

Drove through torrential rain to get to the wee hall in the south of Paisley.

There was a good mix of music, as usual and dancing started as usual, with a Waltz. Actually we did quite well with it. I don’t know why, perhaps it was because we were relaxed and weren’t out to prove anything. Of course I made mistakes, but not too many. We danced a few sequence dances, it took me a while to get to grips with a couple of the less common ones, but Scamp was there whispering the next steps. We danced a Social Foxtrot a Cha-Cha a Line Dance and a couple of Quicksteps. We also managed to dance the quickstep for almost a full track.

As usual, we left fairly early, just after 3pm and it was an easy run home, taking the longer but easier M74 option. So nice to always be moving from entering the M77 to leaving the M73.

I dropped Scamp off and then drove to Tesco to try to get grapefruit for Scamp and get petrol for the blue car. I didn’t get the grapefruit and I was driving out of Tesco when I realised that I hadn’t got the petrol. Parking is getting tight again in our street and it was good to park the car and then get my camera and go for a walk. I walked round St Mo’s and took some boring shots of a fence post with nails hammered into it. Then I crossed the road and found out that M&S didn’t have grapefruit either. Luckily Aldi did and I got two then walked back home in the gathering gloom. That’s where I saw the daffodils. They made such a bright spot in a, now, dull day. It wasn’t until I started processing them that I noticed the amount of grit and dust on them. That’s what you get when you try to grow flowers beside a busy road.

We may go for lunch tomorrow.