Category: Weeds

It rained… – 5 April 2024

Posted on by Zogman

It rained all day. There was maybe a ten minute break for the rain clouds to catch a breath, but almost definitely not any more than that.

Scamp was out for the morning. Out for 10am to go to her FitSteps class, which was in a new (to her) venue in The Link which has been in Cumbersheugh since we’ve been there. She thinks it’s a great improvement on The Legion.

From The Link she went down to the Village to pick up Isobel and take her to Calders for coffee and an hour or so’s blether. No plants for either of them today, but Scamp drove Isobel home. After that she came home after about three hours off the leash.

While she was out I’d some computer stuff to tidy up, then I made good on my promise to wash up the pots and pans after decanting the oil from yesterday’s Fish ’n’ Chips. With my jobs done, I took the A6500 over to St Mo’s in teeming rain and got today’s PoD which is a bunch of yesterday’s weeds dripping in the rain. Best of a bad lot. Scamp had returned when I got back and we had a coffee before we went out to lunch.

We walked up to Brodens (in the rain) for lunch. Mac ’n’ Cheese for Scamp with a shovel full of skinny chips and Fish ’n’ Chips for me with the fish sitting on a raft of hand cut chips. Glass of wine for Scamp, pint of Guinness for me. That signed the deal. I couldn’t drive anywhere for the rest of the day because of that pint of Guinness! We walked back home and, of course, it was raining.

I started a book Fred had given me and found it was a bit more interesting than I’d thought. A strange vampire book: Masters of Death by Olivie Blake, in case you’re interested, Hazy. Don’t think it will interest Neil or your brother, but who knows!

Tonight we watched Series 1 – Episode 3 of Death in Paradise. So much more interesting than the drivel of Series 10. Of course, it’s the same format, but I think the acting is one notch more interesting, just one, but it makes a difference. The music is better too, although I’m sure Simonne would say that’s not a real Caribbean accent!

Tomorrow we are hoping to have a decent long lie in the morning as we’ve decided to forego the dance class. We may go to the evening monthly dance.

 

Admiring my handiwork – 19 March 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Surprisingly, no aches and pains, no pulled muscles either from yesterday’s tentative return to home decorating.

In fact, we drove up to the local B&Q to see if they had the paint we’re intending to use in the front bedroom. They didn’t have it in stock. It wasn’t a great surprise, they never have what you need in this store. Scamp agreed and said that you don’t see crowds of people shopping for anything in this store. It’s usually joiners and builders we see in this B&Q. I’m guessing they get a good trade discount, paid for through the full price the general public have to fork out. I’m amazed it’s still in business.

So, it was in and out again as quick as possible today and then on to Tesco for the weekly shop. No problem with the general public there. Tuesdays are usually busy and the shelves are usually full. We avoid Mondays when the bakery department seem to take the day off en masse.

Back home and after lunch I had a quick discussion with my brother on WhatsApp about where we’d go this week. I put up a good case for Stirling which has architecture and the occasional grand church which he likes and what can be gorgeous view along the carse to the Lomond hills which suits me.

With that settled I went out for a walk in St Mo’s, but I could just have returned home after a five minutes walk because I found today’s PoD not a hundred metres from our front door. Just a wee daisy that had made its home in a crack in the pavement next to an inspection plug for the wireless cable. A shot in the bag is always a great thing.

Wandered round St Mo’s anyway since the photowalk is not just about taking photos, but also about keeping moving, getting some exercise and increasing my daily step count.

When I got home, I was just going through today’s 17 photos when Scamp started cheering. I thought we’d won the lottery before I remembered we had just torn up Saturday’s failed chance to become a millionaire. No, it was the early arrival of Laura & (Big)Ross’s baby girl and John & Marion’s first grandchild. Three weeks early. Good luck to them all.

Dinner tonight was Paella a family favourite that I hadn’t made for months, and it showed. A bit soggy, but apart from that it was fine. It filled a space as we say.

Tomorrow Alex and I are off to terrorise Stirling. Scamp has nothing planned apart from cleaning and ironing.

Wilderness – 6 March 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Today I walked in the wilderness. My name for the sandy desert just south of the hotel. Nothing much to see here unless you take the time to look hard.

I saw a Snowy Egret and a further on a Little Egret. I was hoping to see a Shrike because I’d seen one a few years ago in this place, and there it was. Away in the distance, a single Shrike sitting on the top of a thorny bush. I was kicking myself that I hadn’t brought the 210mm long zoom lens. The little 50mm is a great go-to lens, but it’s struggling with distant objects..

When I came back we sat in the sun for a while, just taking in some rays!

After dinner and the now mandatory coffee in the upstairs bar we had our second visit to the kids club. More families had arrived during the day so there were more kids in the club and more parents too. Pepe was just as entertaining as the first night.

There was no other entertainment for us tonight, so we took a G&T and a Rum ’n’ Coke up to the room and enjoyed the sound of the waves crashing on the shore.

PoD was a bunch of weeds growing at the side of the dusty track through the wilderness. They made me think of yellow jelly beans!

Hoping to go to Puerto del Rosario tomorrow.

Dentist – 20 December 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Today I had an appointment with the dentist and Scamp had a lunch appointment with the other Witches.

My appointment with the dentist was in the morning. The easy part of it was the replacement of a filling that was coming loose, but I wanted her opinion on the big tusk at the back of my mouth that was giving me toothache. She checked it by tapping it with her scraper tool and also by scooting cold water on it and it passed the tests. Just to be sure she did an X-Ray and it came up clean, no sign of an abscess. Scamp thought it was the Edinburgh rock I’m addicted to and that a bit of sugar from it had got into the tooth. The dentist said Scamp is probably right, because teeth are porous (didn’t know that) and the sugar could pass through and cause the pain if it reached the nerve. She put some varnish on it and set it with an ultra-violet light thing. I’ll keep a watchful eye on it for a few days until I forget and go looking for that bag of Edinburgh rock again!

The filling was easily removed and replaced with a shiny new one that I’m hoping to keep for a while and not go poking at. It seem that the NHS are now recommending annual dental checks, not biannual as they were last time I had one. It’s just a cost saving exercise, I know, but at least Scamp and I are on the NHS list, rather than paying the full price as a lot of folk are.

By the time I got home, Scamp was ready to get a lift from Jeanette to Calders where they had a table booked. I had a couple of hours to myself, so I added another wash to the painting I’d been doing. What I SHOULD have done was check what that wash was supposed to do. That way I might have avoided the mess that resulted from adding paint where it shouldn’t go. Not to worry, it was a first attempt and I learned something. I think I now know what I’m meant to do with this second stage, so I might try again tomorrow on a clean sheet.

I decided lunch was on the menu and today it was going to he a Larky favourite of an egg poached in mince. Sounds disgusting? Try it before you condemn it. It’s delicious, especially served on buttered bread.

I thought I’d just enough time for a walk round St Mo’s pond before I lost the light entirely and that was how it turned out. Today’s PoD was a fairly close-up shot of a St John’s Wort plant that’s been growing quite happily through the summer, the rain of autumn and the frost and snow of early winter. I’m surprised that those big flat green leaves didn’t collapse under the weight of the snow last month, but there it is with them and the flowers still intact.

Walked back and hadn’t even taken my boots off when Scamp arrived in Annette’s car. Spoke to Annette about her fairly new hybrid Toyota and she told me she wasn’t impressed with it. Mpg is good, but not brilliant and it’s a bit sluggish on hills. However, we agreed on one thing. It’s much better than the Juke she had before. I think we’ll keep to the Micra for the foreseeable future.

I was just heading out to post the last two Christmas cards and I suggested I might bring back a fish supper for dinner. Scamp agree and that’s what we had. A lazy dinner for a change.

Tomorrow we’re intending to go to the last tea dance of the year. Let’s hope Storm Pia isn’t as bad as predicted.

 

 

Dancin’ with strangers – 1 June 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Today we drove over to Glenburn community centre for the tea dance and there were two strangers there!

We did have a quick practise in the morning just to make sure we could actually do the devious “Outside Spin” where I have to must my right knee to push Scamp round. That could be a dangerous manoeuvre at the best of times, but in a living room and on a carpet it’s a recipe for disaster, except, it seemed to work.

I had hoped that the roadworks that had caused a lot of congestion a fortnight ago would be gone by today, but they were if anything, worse today. We really need to find a way round them. I might have found that way. We need to turn left at the busy roundabout then turn right at the end of that road. This will bring us out past the roadworks. I know this means nothing to you, but hopefully I’ll read this in a fortnight or so’s time and see how clever I was to put this reminder in. Coming from Glenburn to the M77 will be the reverse of going in true Haynes manual fashion. If that too means nothing to you, you’ve never stripped down the front wheel bearing of a Reliant Regal using Haynes Manual.

So, after arriving a good twenty minutes late, we tried a bit of Social Foxtrot and even a Quickstep with ad-lib additions by me which worked some of the time. I’d like to say ‘most’ of the time, but Scamp will read this and say “Oh no they didn’t.” There was a very small class today, only seven couples I think and one of the couples wasn’t from our class. Two asian dancers were in a category above the most of the usual couples and stratospherically higher than us … except when it came to Sequence Dances. That’s where our stepping is just so much better. Dancing in a circle and being able to follow the couple in front (unless it’s John). Never follow John I was told. He never sticks to the sequence and puts everyone who follows him off. I actually felt sorry for the asian couple. Everybody seemed to avoid them. “Who do they think they are? Coming to OUR tea dance?” Scamp went and talked to them, of course, and I was proud of her for doing so.

As usual we left early to avoid the extra busy traffic, but again the roadworks on the other side of the dual carriageway caused problems and we took about an hour to get home.

Back home, I went for a walk round St Mo’s and down to the Shops. Well, it is Thursday with all that entails. I was looking for damselflies beside the pond in St Mo’s, but there were none to be found, just a single dragonfly that was scudding around the pond at high speed looking for a mate, no doubt. Too fast for the kit lens I had on the A7. Instead PoD was a close up shot of a Marsh Horsetail. The Buttercup of the wetlands. Impossible to get rid off, according to my brother. It was sitting in a little bit of sunshine and looked translucent in the light.

Watched the final of Masterchef tonight and thought the person who won was an excellent choice. No spoilers here.

Tomorrow might be a busy day for Scamp. Dentist in the morning and optician in the afternoon is what is planned, hopefully it will work out for her. I have plans for things to photograph in Larky.

New Technology – Old Recipe – 26 December 2022

Posted on by Zogman

We had a new bit of technology to play with. Foodie technology.

First we had Wordle and Spelling Bee to complete and I scored a scary Last Chance Saloon ‘6’ in Wordle. Scamp phoned her sister in Eastfield and I adjourned to the ‘Painting Room’ to read my photo mag.

Later I washed out the pot with detergent, as directed, and dried it, then reassembled the whole thing, checked that there were no more bits of paper or sticky reminders in the main pot and we measured 750ml of cold water into the pot and plugged the beast in. When we put on the lid it caught us by surprise and played a little tune. Apparently it was an ascending scale it was playing. We followed the instructions to the letter and the whole thing began to heat. A few minutes later, the pot lid sealed itself and the countdown started until the water boiled five minutes later. We had boiled 750ml of water automatically. When we released the pressure on the pot and opened the lid it played the same tune again but it was a descending scale. A kettle would have done it in about the same time, but now with the same panache!

It was still dry, so Scamp went over to meet June for a longer chat and I went for a walk in St Mo’s and got today’s photo of a really pretty weed. This is a macro picture which means a really close-up shot. That little weed was about 60mm high. Millimetres, not Centimeteres! I also managed to get soaked getting it when the hail that had been threatening turned to sleet and started hammering down. I really need to get my Bergy jacket proofed again.

Back home, Scamp had managed to miss most of the shower but was quite wet too. We had lunch and looked at that big black pot again. The plan was to make some ‘Just Soup’. A real world test of its capabilities. Another part of the learning curve. I chopped the veg and Scamp sautéd them in the pot then we added the stock, put the lid on and set it to cook for 3 minutes. Three minutes to make soup from vegetables? Our mums would never have believed us! But the proof of the soup was in the eating. Would it taste like ‘Just Soup’? It did.

We also managed to work out why my Fitbit would record my walk to St Mo’s, but Scamp’s much more modern and fancier Fitbit wouldn’t. Eventually, after an exasperating hour and a bit of reading suggestions on the web and fiddling with settings, we finally found he missing switch and it started looking for the GPS signal which, of course, it wouldn’t find in the house, but we’re confident it will find outside, possibly tomorrow.

Dinner was high tech soup and it did taste good. It maybe needed a pinch of salt, but that’s easily done. Later we watched a rather tedious Death in Paradise, which is still a home for retired actors.

No real plans for tomorrow. Possibly a walk, possible a trip in to Glasgow. It snowed here tonight, so maybe the weather will be our guide.