Category: Wild flowers

Snow – 14 March 2023

Posted on by Zogman

We woke to an unusual brightness. The snow that arrived during the night was reflecting the sunshine.

After breakfast, Scamp and Jackie were going to investigate the ‘new’ shops. While they were out I took the A7 and a couple of lenses over to St Mo’s to get some snowy pictures. But there was almost no snow. Whether that was to do with an over energetic sun or maybe the tall trees over there were sheltering it from the worst of the snow, I couldn’t tell. As usual, I worked with what I had and today’s PoD became a strange flower that I haven’t managed to ID. It flowers late into the autumn with fluffy looking pink flower. The stem and leaves look a bit like brambles, but the flowers are very different. Google images thinks it’s a carnation and I can see why. I had to cut my photo wanderings early because the snow came on again while I was out and I headed home.

I was home before the two ladies and made myself some coffee. We all had a light lunch after that and it was almost time for Scamp and I to get dressed for Bobby Flavell’s funeral. It seemed to have been agreed that the cars would leave from the house, so we all waited until the hearse and the family car moved off before we followed on behind. Quite a long service at Daldowie led by a Humanist speaker. He covered a long life well lived. Who knew that that wee quiet man was once a drummer for Linda Ronstadt on an American tour? But it was the wee quiet man who cut folk’s grass for them and who brought the empty bins back that we will miss, not the drummer.

After we returned, we changed into different clothes to go for a belated anniversary dinner arranged by Jackie and June at the Red Deer. Taxi to the restaurant whose boiler wasn’t working, so we had to make do with the wood burning fire and blower heaters. June and Ian were already there and there was a surprise for us. A brilliant anniversary cake with Scamp and I as ballroom dancers. Oh, if only I was as elegant as the man who was dancing on that cake! Having said that, he did look very like me! Both the sisters and Shona had a hand in the creation of this cake. Thank you all for such a clever idea.

For a starter, June had Duo of Pâté and the rest of us shared Stone-Baked Flatbread with garlic butter. For a main, Scamp had Fish & Chips, Jackie and I had Gammon Steak, June and Ian had Beef & Chianti Casserole. We all had a glass or two from a bottle of Prosecco and Ian and I had a beer each while the ladies scoffed a bottle of white wine.

The only fly in the ointment was that the taxi taking us home was almost half an hour late. June and Ian went home with it after we had been dropped off at the house. More drink was taken and we set the world to rights after a long, busy day.

A few plans for tomorrow, but they are all weather-dependent.

Oh No! It’s Snow! – 8 March 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Just a scraping at around 9pm tonight, but it was real fluffy snowflakes that were falling for a while.

You’d never have guessed this morning that we’d have snow tonight. That is if you hadn’t looked at the thermometer. It was -3ºc this morning when we woke and the sun was shining brightly from a clear blue sky. Unfortunately, we had both looked at that thermometer and decided to take it easy for a while. There were puzzles to be done and books to be read. I for one was happy to struggle through them, rather than face the cold world outside.

We watched some tree surgeons performing fairly invasive surgery on some trees across the road and wondered when they’d get round to the poor Ash tree outside our window. It’s been failing for a while now, but it’s been there for longer than we’ve been in Cumbersheugh. I remember the three girls who stayed round the corner swinging on its branches when they were wee. They were wild!

Lunch was Scamp’s ‘Just Soup’ and it was fine. Scamp made her usual deprecating noises about the carrots being too tough and I did comment that it might need a bit of salt, but as a lunch it was fine with a slice of bread.

After lunch Scamp was charging round mopping floors, hoovering carpets and moving furniture around while I eventually dragged myself out to St Mo’s to get some photos. There weren’t a lot of interesting shots today. That’s been the way of things lately. I’m finding it hard to generate some interest in things photographic and I’m getting the impression that Alex is finding that too. PoD went to a row of Salmonberry flowers I spotted by the outfall of the pond. I think they may be last year’s blooms, because this years are still in the pods.

Dinner was a main of soup with rice pudding to follow. I think there will be just enough soup for tomorrow’s lunch.

Today was Jamie and Simonne’s anniversary. Congratulations to them both. Nine years ago we were at the wedding in Trinidad. That was a wonderful wedding, as all our family weddings have been.

Tonight we had snow. The weather warnings have been out all week and finally we got our first taste of the white stuff for a while. Not much, but a warning that winter isn’t gone yet.

Tomorrow, if the roads are clear, we’re hoping to go Tea Dancing.

A lovely Spring day – 6 March 2023

Posted on by Zogman

But with a bitingly cold wind.

Scamp had the dentist in the morning and had intended to go out for lunch with her pal, but she had phoned to say she wasn’t well and was having a day in bed. That meant that after the dentist, we had a free day and a sunny day too. I suggested Gouldings on Clydeside and that’s where we went.

A pleasant drive through a countryside that hasn’t quite woken up after the long winter. Maybe just as well, because there’s snow forecast before the end of the week. Probably because we were fairly early and probably because it was Monday, we got our choice of window seats. Scamp had her usual Mac ’n’ Cheese and I had my first burger in a long time. I don’t think I’ve had one this year. Both were deemed good and we had coffee and a cake each afterwards.

Now that we’d been fed and watered, we had a look round the garden centre part of Gouldings. Scamp was looking for a photo frame that would take one of our photos from holiday. They all seemed overpriced for what they were and none had the right size of mat for our photo, so we left it for another day.

Although the sun was shining and we weren’t in a rush, neither of us could think of somewhere else to go, so we drove in the general direction of home. Still thinking about the photo frame I suggested we might try TJ Hughes which has a wide range of things like photo frames. So that’s where we pointed the blue car, but just as we were approaching the town centre we both spotted B&M. Equally cheap and usually with loads to choose from. That’s where we found a photo frame that would hold the photo and even better, there was a mat in it that was the right size.

Scamp also found a mirror she quite liked and also said she wanted the pipes in the toilet boxed in. B&M didn’t have anything that would do that, but B&Q might, so onward to B&Q. No, they didn’t. They didn’t have any decent mirrors, either.

Back home I needed a PoD and took the A7 out for a walk to see what I could find. PoD was a bunch of catkins backlit by the late afternoon sun.

The photo is in its frame and it looks good. I’ve a feeling we may be going looking for a mirror soon and that toilet will still need its pipes boxed in. Somebody is going to be busy!

No plans for tomorrow yet, but something will probably fill that space!

A sunshiny day – 5 March 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Went to bed too late last night, hence had a later than normal surfacing today.

Woke late. Almost afternoon, Scamp said. That’s the price you pay for a getting to bed too late, or too early in the morning as it was yesterday.

After a coffee and a struggle to get Wordle, the world looked a bit better. Lunch was beckoning and in the style of Neil, my breakfast was half of Scamp’s Prawn Bhuna from last night, quickly reheated in the microwave. Unhealthy? Probably. Delicious? Definitely! That completed the rebooting of my system.

We got a WhatsApp message from Jamie from Port of Spain in Trinidad with a photo of Jaime, Simonne and Scamp’s favourite dog Ori. Scamp was delighted.

Scamp had decided to sacrifice the rest of today on the altar of ‘Ironing’. Her argument was that it needed to be done and once it was done, then the rest of the week was her own. My case was similar, but not so well presented. I needed a walk to clear my head and also to get a PoD if any presented themselves.

As it happened, it was the 35mm LensBaby that produced today’s PoD. There was a lot of lovely sunshine creating nice sparkles on the Whin bushes and that in turn created some lovely bokeh (hate that word) in the out-of-focus areas. It also gave a good contrast with the sharply focused subject which was the bright yellow flowers.

Dinner tonight was Chicken Milanese, or chicken that’s been bashed with a rolling pin, dunked in eggy mix and finally dredged in bread crumbs before being pan fried. Scamp made it and served it with ‘rats’ (AKA ratatouille) and potatoes.

We watched an interesting F1 GP from Bahrain with all the usual ducking and diving from the hopeful beginners and the slightly more sensible driving from the old hands. As usual, Scamp predicted the winner.

That was about it for the day and I’m off to my bed now, hopefully before midnight.

Good Dancin’ – 9 February 2023

Posted on by Zogman

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!

Another Scottish Day – 5 February 2023

Posted on by Zogman

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.

A late start and a lovely day – 25 January 2023

Posted on by Zogman

I must have been tired, because it was well past 9am when I woke today.

Scamp was already awake and reading her Kindle. She too must have had a good night’s sleep. It’s good to see her beginning to improve.

I though we might go for a walk today because it was a bright winter’s day. Scamp said we needed some shopping, so I suggested we drive to Lidl in Kilsyth to get the shopping then go for a walk along the canal. Just a short walk along the canal cross over the Plantation and back along the old mineral line. That would cover both options. So that’s what we did, kind of!

We drove to Lidl and got the messages as usual and also as usual we bought more than was absolutely necessary. We even found they had Neapolitan ice cream wafers! Sharp eyed Scamp spotted them in a freezer. When we came out Scamp asked if we could go to Colzium instead of the canal. The suited me too, so we drove in to the parking area that has more craters than the moon (I’ve never been to the moon, but I’ve seen pictures and Colzium wins on crater count). Parking was easy, it was just the driving that was dangerous!

We walked a slightly shortened version of our usual exhausting climb along the banks of the Colzium Burn and Scamp managed it easily. I got lots of photos, from little pockets of snowdrops to rushing waterfalls the burn was tumbling through. PoD was a 15 frame panorama that was eventually cropped down to a 12 frame. I felt the sky was a bit bland, although it was a beautiful blue, so I slipped in another one, one of my own from a few months ago. It seemed to suit the picture. It’s a view across the farmland of the Colzium Estate.

Back home it was Haggis, Neeps and Tatties, because it was Burns Night tonight and Haggis, mashed Turnip (Neeps) and mashed Potatoes (Tatties) is traditional. It was absolutely lovely and as Scamp herself remarked perfectly portioned. Not too much of any of the constituent parts.

I forgot to mention that my new driving license dropped through the letterbox this morning. Once you reach 70 you have to update your driving license every three years. My update is now almost complete. I still have to post off my previous license which I have cut in half as required by the DVLA. Scamp got her first one a week ago.

Tomorrow we may be driving to the Fort to visit M&S and Waterstones. I’ll let you guess who goes where!

 

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.

 

The day that never really got started – 3 October 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Just one of those lazy days.

A typical Monday. The furthest we went today was Condorrat to post two cards. One was a birthday card and one was an anniversary card. Both cards going to the same address. On the way home I took the usual diversion round St Mo’s while Scamp went straight home.

I might as well have gone straight home too. There was nothing to see in St Mo’s, well nothing interesting anyway. A couple of photos of spiders that didn’t quite make the grade, but a pretty little Purple Vetch did get PoD. It’s a member of the pea family, but don’t be tempted to eat the peas, they’re poisonous.

Today the prompt asked for ‘Bat’, singular. Being a generous kind of person I thought I’d draw two different bats, one of the flying variety and one of the baseball persuasion. Mostly drawing in ink with an underlay of pencil lines and a little bit of watercolour to, well, add some colour I suppose!

We’re hoping for a better day tomorrow. A little splash of sunshine would be nice, but rain is more likely. Scamp has an appointment in the morning with Isobel and both Scamp and I have an appointment later with a needle!

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.