Category: Wild flowers

Wedding – 21 May 2022

Posted on by Zogman

The wedding wasn’t until 3pm, so we had a whole morning to fill.

We drove up to the tiny little parking place above what I heard a guide describe as “the healing spring”. We’d walked this path a few years ago, but it obviously didn’t make a great impression on me, because I couldn’t remember anything about it. It was a pleasant wee walk down around some hawthorn bushes and we did take a short detour that led us into a whole host of wild orchids. One of them made PoD. We thought the path would take us down to the shore, but it ended quite abruptly at a strange wee lochan of perfectly clear water. It was almost turquoise in colour. On reading about it later, it turned out that was the ‘healing waters’ and people would travel from far and wide to bathe in it and drink the waters, although there was no record of it having any medicinal properties. We chose not to bathe in or drink the waters and anyway we’d forgot our swimming costumes. There didn’t seem to be any way down from the lochan to the shore, so we walked back up the path we’d just come down, almost just in time to get back to the car before the rain started. Yes, we did get soaked.

We’d a couple of hours to have a quick lunch before we needed to get dressed for the wedding. The car was to pick us up at 2pm to be at the site for the wedding. June and Ian were to go first and then the driver would come back for us. That rain that started when we were waking back to the car had continued and got heavier when we were back at he house. Scamp and I were dressed when the car arrived to for J&I and Scamp went out in the rain to help June into the car. After that we had a while to wait before it was our turn. Eventually the driver arrived for us and just as we were setting off, I realised I didn’t know where I’d put the house key. Not having pockets in my kilt, and all the pockets in my dress jacket being sewn up still, I couldn’t think where the key would be. Eventually I found it had dropped in between my jacket and my waistcoat. It must have landed there when I was putting on my seatbelt.

So, we got to the wedding which was indeed in a barn, but what a barn. Carpets on the floor and seats arranged in rows. Family members at the front and also-rans at the back. Decorated with tassels, hundreds of them, hanging from strings on the rafters. A humanist ceremony with a Celebrant rather than a minister or an official at a registry office. This was much more relaxed and personal. I liked it.

From the barn we walked down a path lit with fairy lights to the marquee, in the sunshine. There we met with the new Mr & Mrs Macdonald who had gone on ahead. We were also able to have a glass of Prosecco and Canapés before being seated in the marquee. I had Scotch Broth with Texel lamb, peas and barley while Scamp had Artichoke & Spring vegetable soup, both served with sourdough rolls.
Our main courses were Curried lentil, sweet potato and spinach pie for Scamp and Moroccan spiced mutton & apricot pie for me with various sided dishes Boston style baked beans, Rosemary and sea salt potato wedges and Sautéed spring veg. Dessert, if you had room for it, was Four different types of donuts. I made room! Food fit for a special wedding.

After a decent time, the four piece band of fiddle, accordion, keyboard and drums got us all on the dance floor. Scamp and I did a few of the country dances, but as the night got older, the length and speed of the dances seemed to increase and we saw watching rather than taking part. June and Ian left around 10.30pm, but we stayed and even managed a very badly danced salsa when the band were on their break. After their break, the band continued, but the pace was now frantic. Soon, too soon, we were at the last dance which was an Orcadian Strip the Willow which must have been the longest, fastest and most out of control of the night. We had no wish to be part of it, but Scamp’s younger sister was keen to join in. Well done to her. A rousing rendition of Loch Lomond signalled the end to the festivities for most of us.

So, it was now time to go. Time to pack up and make our way through the dark (there are no streetlights here ) and in the rain to try to find our taxi which we were assured would be waiting for us. We missed it, but caught it again when it was climbing the hill with the Gillies family in it. We eventually got back to the house about 1am. I took the opportunity to download my photos to the laptop and have a browse through them while having a final G ’n’ T with Scamp. Got to bed just before 2am, so as you will already have gathered, this is a catch up.

Tomorrow (today) we will be recovering.

 

The runaway wean – 15 May 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Today we went for a walk round Chatelherault park in Hamilton.

It was my choice to go there today. We could have gone to Drumpellier, but Sundays are really busy there, even if you avoid the ‘conveyer belt’ and walk into the woods. Besides, it’s been a while since Scamp and I have been out for a walk in Chatelherault. Then I found out that there was a Craft & Design fair there today. That would make it a bit busier, I thought, but we’d still manage a walk round the many miles of paths in the park.

A Sunday morning drive and a walk in the park. That would be good. When we got there it became obvious that the C&D fair was a bit attraction because the main car park was almost completely full, but we knew of a better and much quieter parking area and it was almost deserted by comparison. Parked and walked up to the ‘Big House’, and I was right, the place was jumping. Lots of stalls and hundreds of people. Scamp found the stall she was looking for and they had the exact things she was looking for. With the deal sealed, we stood and talked the the husband and wife who run the stall and who make most of the articles themselves. We’ve known them for years and always catch up, finding out how their families are doing and updating them on how ours is getting on. We said our goodbyes to allow them the space to bring in more customers and I suggested a walk down past the steel sculptures my brother photographs so well. From there I was fairly sure we could do a circular walk to bring us back to the Big House again.

We walked down the path to the sculptures and passed a couple with a little girl on what looked like her first two wheeler bike with stabilisers. She was having a bit of bother getting the bike to stay on the path and the dad was giving instructions while he worked with his phone. When we were about half way down I could hear the mother shouting at the girl to slow down, but with the rattling of the stabilisers, it seemed that the wee girl was accelerating. There was no way she knew how to stop, she was just hanging on and she was going at quite a speed. I reckoned I could stop her without tipping her over the bars, so I stood right in her path and grabbed the handlebars as she rode right into me. Got her stopped and asked her if she was OK. She said yes! The mother was racing down the hill and caught up with us, out of breath. She apologised and just kept thanking me. The bloke was still standing at the top of the hill, still reading something on his phone. He said nothing except “You should have pulled the brake”. Some folk shouldn’t be allowed to have weans.

We got some photos of the sculptures, of David Livingstone, William Wallace and Robert Owen. Impressive looking chunks of rusted steel, but the numpty who decided they should put a seat behind them and spoil the effect was obviously not a photographer or an artist.

As I suspected, there was a circular path that took us back to the Big House and it was a lovely walk through bluebell woods. I took a few photos of the bluebells, but it was a single Celandine growing out of the path that got PoD.

When we got back to the Big House it was Scamp who found another line of stalls, but there was nothing there to interest her. We bought a couple of coffees from a van with a proper coffee machine installed and while I was waiting for them, Scamp bought a couple of pieces of fish from another van. Drove home with the air-con on full for the first time this year, I think.

Stornoway Black Pudding and an egg each for lunch, then I gave the car its first wash for ages. I used a spray to remove seagull crap and it worked a treat. Then a quick soapy wash and a rinse with water from Bobby’s outside tap.

My dinner had been defrosting since we went out this morning. It was 500g of really nice stewing steak, Scamp had brought back From St Andrews. Carefully cooked it under Scamp’s instructions while she did the washing and hung it out to dry. It was a strange day. It was really quite warm, but occasionally there would be a sprinkling of rain that never really got anywhere.

Dinner was lovely. Scamp was going to have some of the fish, but settled for Ratatouille instead. My stew was maybe a bit over cooked, but still tasted like the quality meat it was.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard all about their walking holiday in Yorkshire. It did sound interesting, but quite strenuous too. Another big week for him this coming week.

No great plans for tomorrow. Not intending to catch any runaway weans!

 

Gardening – 8 May 2022

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Scamp wanted to get the grass cut before the rains came. I wanted to plant some seeds.

Before that, Scamp started off de-icing the freezer. It’s a thankless task, so we split the job between us. Scamp started with a scraper tool and bowls of hot water to start the thaw and I took over with an assortment of kitchen tools plus knives and scrapers from my art supplies. Between us we got the job done fairly quickly.

Lunch was next and after that we started on the gardening. After a lot of huffing and puffing, we did manage to get both of these tasks completed, although I must admit that Scamp’s was by far the more energy sapping of the two. She cut the front grass, strimmed the edges and used her mighty blower to get rid of the loose cuttings. I attempted to dig into the skim of soil that covers a pile of rubble at the end of the garden and planted a row of Ammi majus, the cow parsley look-alike next to the old buddleia just to see if it would grow in such poor soil. Then I planted some Ambassador peas in a tray in the greenhouse and also a line of four of the same peas in the raised bed.

As I was working round the raised bed I saw a little daisy flower sitting in the shade with its flower head in the sun. That seemed like a good subject for the new Lensbaby Sweet 35 optic. It turned out so good, it made PoD.

While Scamp rested her back, I walked mine over to St Mo’s and got a few more with the Sweet 35. It seems a bit more extreme than the Sweet 50. The distortion is much more pronounced, which was the reason I bought it in the first place.

I was having the Lamb Flank Parcel I’d bought yesterday, for my dinner and Scamp was having a chicken pastie. Both with potatoes and carrots. Her’s seemed fine, but my lamb was fatty and probably undercooked. An hour and a half roasting in the oven at Gas 5 is nowhere nearly enough. Just a note to self for when I get round to cooking the other one that’s now in the much cleaner freezer. The other note to self is not to buy Salt & Chilli Wings from Tesco. Took far longer than the stated time and didn’t look anything like wings. Not a good impulse buy. Scamp had made a fruit salad for dessert with apples, oranges and pineapple, plus a tablespoon of Cointreau. Again, not nearly enough Cointreau, but a refreshing end to the meal.

Spoke to Jamie for a while over a very dodgy WiFi connection. Good to see them getting a bit of ‘me time’, or is that ‘us time’? Doing a bit of walking in the Lake District. Heard about plans for the future.

That was about it, except about fifteen minutes ago a tiny little tick appeared on my wrist, just crawling out from under my watch strap. It was quickly despatched before it could get stuck into my heavily medicated blood. First one I’ve seen for ages. On the subject of ‘first one I’ve seen for ages’, yesterday I saw my first swallow this year. They do say that one swallow doesn’t make a summer, but I saw three. Does that make a summer then?

Maybe going looking for a pair of good sturdy brogues tomorrow as an alternative to kilt shoes. Dark brown for preference, although my fashion guru says that won’t go with the rest of the outfit.

Stuff – 3 May 2022

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Stuff was due to arrive today.

A parcel from Amazon was due and another from the Bean Shop in Perth.

Unusually for both, the parcel from Amazon was arriving just after midday and the Bean Shop parcel wasn’t coming until around 7pm. Usually they are the other way round! Oh well, we’d be out dancing or is that teaching dancing when the coffee from Perth was due and as it was coming DPD, I could arrange for it to be left in the bin shed, or “The cupboard beside the front door” as it was phrased on the instructions to DPD.

The parcel from Amazon arrived right on time. It contained a ‘new’ camera bag in the shape of a rucksack. A very versatile one according to all the reviews. It was disappointing then to find that, although the cardboard box was intact, the seal on the polythene bag holding the rucksack had been broken. Even worse, inside one of the pockets of the camera bag was a birthday card! Obviously, the rucksack had been been an unwanted birthday prezzy for someone who then returned it to Amazon and then it was sent on to me without being checked. It was going back again, with the birthday card in the pocket.

Actually, the procedure for returning unwanted goods to Amazon is very, very simple and straightforward. Fill in an online form, get a QR code in an email from Amazon. Parcel up the package and take it to a Post Office. At the PO, they weigh the package, scan your QR code and print a sticky label which they stick on the package and give you a proof of postage note. Very impressed with that.

Walked home via St Mo’s and took some photos mainly of plants and flowers, then went home to find Scamp deep in conversation about weddings and planning with her wee sister. That gave me a chance to have a look at the photos while the sisters blethered away in the background.  The dandelion clock won PoD.

After a quick dinner of ravioli, we drove over to Bishopbriggs to ‘help with the beginners’ again. Tonight the ‘helpers’ almost outnumbered the beginners, but that meant we were getting more stuff done than we’d managed last week. After we drove back, Scamp was off to choir to give June some vocal support. She has just arrived back and apparently almost the entire choir needs some vocal support. Jamie, she said she bumped into Mrs Dunn the teacher when she was there and she was asking after you.

While Scamp was out, I took the opportunity to watch the first episode of Life After Life, Hazy. Confusing at first, but by the end, bits of the story were falling into place again. It seems an awful long time since I read that book.  Also, I started a new jug of cold brew coffee.  I’m hoping I have the proportions of coffee to water right this time.  It’s also been an awful long time since I last tried to make some, but since then I’ve discovered the delights of Café Freddo.

I’ve ordered the camera bag tonight from WEX who I’ve dealt with before. It’s an updated (and up-priced, of course) model, but the improvements will be worth it, I hope. It will be delivered to their Glasgow shop in a couple of days.

No firm plans for tomorrow as yet, although a ‘Fascinator’ may be required by someone for one of the weddings.

Change of plan

Posted on by Zogman

Driving to Perth for coffee. But …

I intended driving up to Perth today to get some coffee from my favourite tea and coffee shop, but on the way there I was calculating how much petrol I’d use and how much the drive would cost me. When I worked it out, it would be way cheaper to just order it online and pay the £3 delivery charge. So I changed my destination to Kincardine. At least I could get a walk and some different photos, plus free parking. The weather wasn’t great, with the rain clouds building from the west, but I got some interesting views, well, I think so anyway. The rain was just starting when I was halfway home, it hasn’t stopped. Kincardine did, however, provide today’s PoD.

I came home via Tesco to get something for lunch and some milk. No alcohol today. Now, I’m not saying that’s because Scamp isn’t at home this weekend, that’s purely coincidental!

Struggled with my Sudoku after the late lunch but it still remains unsolved until tomorrow. Couldn’t quite decide what would be dinner tonight. Would it be home made pizza or Golden Bowl. I eventually gave in and had Golden Bowl make me a fairly decadent Sweet and Sour Chicken Balls with Fried Rice. My only complaint was the fried rice was a bit soggy, but the sweet and sour was delicious. I know I’ll suffer for it tonight, but I don’t really care.

Finally finished Amongst Our Weapons. The little short story at the end was confusing, but added to the title, I felt.

I’ve just finished a photo swap with Alex showing our favourite photos from the last week or so. Really good to have someone to bounce ideas off.

Jamie sent some cracking photos of his day off in NYC. Beautiful skyline behind him on the boat. I really hope Time Square is equally good. You deserve it Jamie.

That’s it for today. Now I need to go and get the house looking more like a home than a student flat!

Tomorrow Scamp returns and expects everything to be just like she left it! It might be!

Tying up loose ends – 25 April 2022

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Scamp was out this morning to have coffee with her big sister. I got the free run of the house.

A wee bit of painting started the day. I think it was seeing Fred’s latest painting that encouraged me. He paints with the strangest equipment. Today’s picture was sketched on the back of an old canvas, then painted using emulsion paint, and just to make it even odder, he didn’t use brushes, but chose to use wooden coffee stirrers like the ones you get with a take-away coffee. Then for the fine detail, he used cocktail sticks to “move the paint around.” I, on the other hand used watercolours an brushes on a sketch book. That almost felt like cheating by comparison!

With my painting drying, I made up my mind to check off some other things that had been bugging me, or things I was delaying until “tomorrow”, although tomorrow never comes, we know that.
Well, today I was going to go and get lunch. To do that I’d need to drive Scamp’s Wee Red Car up to Tesco. The brakes had been repaired, but Scamp didn’t feel they were as positive as they used to be. A test drive had been on the cards for weeks now. Time it was done.
While I was at Tesco I was going to ask the pharmacist for something to deal with sores that had appeared on my leg. Much quicker to ask the pharmacist than to wade through the telephone conversations explaining the problem to a doc. Once, that is, you finally get to talk to a doc or a nurse.
The third thing on the list was to go up and have a chin wag with Fred and hand over some books he showed an interest in.
So in one fell swoop I drove the car and the brakes, although a bit softer than previously were ok. I got some cream from the chemist for mild eczema which is what the rash is, and I delivered the books to Fred and heard all about his problems with NHS. Everyone has a story to tell about the NHS and doctors these days. Back with rolls and a roll ’n’ sausage was on the menu for lunch. Scamp had a roll ’n’ egg instead.

It was colder than normal today and cloudy. In fact both of us had had a little rain shower while we were out. Nothing to be bothered about, but good to know there is still some water up in them clouds.

Later in the afternoon I got dressed for the wild woods and went off in search of, what I thought might be a Shamrock. It turned out to be a Wood Sorrel which is just as good. I’d seen it yesterday when I was out, but didn’t have the correct lens. Today I had the right lens and got the shot. Nice little bit of light too from a break in the clouds too. That became PoD.

Standard Monday dinner today. Red Pasta. A bit posher than normal pasta, the sauce started off with shallots chopped fine and half a tin of anchovies, both being fried in the oil from the anchovies. Next, half a tin of good chopped tomatoes and a large dollop of good tomato concentrate. All this done while the pasta was cooking for 14mins after the water had returned to the boil. Pasta water added as was required to the sauce. Heaped into bowls with three little anchovies sitting on top. Delicious!

Watched another episode of The Split, and thought the title of Saturday’s PoD was quite apt: “Oh what a tangled web we weave. When first we practice to deceive”

Tomorrow we may be travelling in the Glasgow to look for dresses fit for a wedding. My heavy tartan skirt is hanging up in the back bedroom!

Recovery – 20 April 2022

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Today was a getting back to normal day. Auld Claes and Purrich.

We went for the messages in the morning. Just the usual things and a wander round Tesco with a trolley. Not a lot of fun, but it has to be done.

Later, after lunch, Scamp was working in the garden, cutting the front grass and feeling grateful that we don’t have an enormous lawn, so do not need a petrol driven mower that just runs away with you. I too the Sony over to St Mo’s and set it loose taking photos of the whin bushes that are in full golden bloom just now. Basically that was it for the day. One of the pictures of the whin bushes got PoD.

Tomorrow we may be going dancing in Paisley.

Walking the dog – 15 April 2022

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A bit of freedom for Vixen.

In the morning, after breakfast and a cup of Jamie’s coffee from his posh Sage coffee machine, we went for a walk round the garden, a conducted tour, in fact. The garden covers half an acre. I don’t know how big that is, but it is a fair swathe of grass with a veg area purely for Jamie and lots of island areas of flowers that are Simonne’s area. Best of all, he has a greenhouse, a real glass glazed one, not a little plastic one like ours. Lots of potential there.

After the tour, Jamie drove us to a dog walking field where Vixen could run as far as she wanted without fear of meeting any other four legged friends (or enemies). We spent about an hour wandering round three fields of different shapes and sizes. Vixen may have been the reason we were there, but I was searching the trees and hedges for photo opportunities. Almost right away I saw a Bee Fly, but of course my camera was still in the bag, but my phone was handy and was sure I could grab a snap with it. Next time I’ll buy a mobile with a macro facility. Missed the Bee Fly, but at least I saw one.

What I did find was an almost totally brown Shield Bug and I did get two photos of it. There were apple trees in one of the field hedges and they were still holding their blossom and one of the Lensbaby shots of the blossom was in for PoD. With Vixen exhausted and my Lensbaby having captured a potential PoD, Jamie drove us back home for lunch.

After lunch the other three went to do some gentle work in the garden and I took my camera for a walk past the old church and down the hill to the dried up stream bed at the bottom. I turned right before the bridge over the stream bed and walked for about half a mile to another bridge over the same stream bed, crossed the bridge, turned left and found my way back to the house. I was passing between two fields. One with what looked like beans and the other with some form of corn or maize. The soil was interspersed with big chunks of flint.

By the time I got back, there was just enough time to have a beer in The Gallery before dinner.

PoD did indeed go to the apple blossom.

Tomorrow we’re off to Bury St Edmonds for lunch.

Dancin’ – 9 April 2022

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It was back to reality this morning with a bump.

Up fairly early. Washed, shaved, dressed and ready to face the day. Scamp skipped the shaving.

We were off to Brookfield to take a few more faltering steps on the way to being dancers. Today started with a fairly easy Valentino Jive which even Stewart, the teacher, got wrong to start with. We got it right most of the time, especially on the second track. Then we were straight into the Quickstep. As is usual, the teachers walked through the full routine, then danced it through at full speed, to music and we thought No Way! Heavens, there are Fishtails in it. Fishtails have been my nemesis for years now. Even when we tried the first few steps, I was just making things up until we got pulled up for it. We got pulled up quite quickly and it was Stewart who explained in simple terms what we were being asked to do. Could it really be that easy? Well, actually it could. After half an hour I was getting most of the footwork correct. After about forty five minutes I was adding in Fishtails, correctly danced for once. Of course we made mistakes, but not nearly as many as I thought we would. Needs practise, and needs practise in a big room.

Next was a short interlude of Mambo Marina sequence dance before we went back to last week’s Cha-Cha. It’s not quite as bad as it was. We have been practising it at home and I’m beginning to think I might be able to dance this some day. Maybe not some day soon, but some day. The teachers were adding some more advanced steps to fill out the dance, but we didn’t really take much notice. Best to get the basics right before we go on to advanced steps.

Driving home wasn’t as stressful as it was on Thursday, mainly because we didn’t try to cross the Kingston Bridge, but took the M74 instead. It’s a few miles longer, but at least you can travel at the legal limit all the way and not be in a start-stop line of cars with the other lanes always travelling faster than you. We may do that again.

We had picked up a lot of free food at Brookfield with a couple of loafs, half a dozen eggs and some potatoes filling our bags as we left. Such a shame that the food is being thrown away otherwise.

Scamp and I went a walk down to the shops in the afternoon and got a few things, then on the walk back, I took a detour round St Mo’s. Saw a hoverfly, first this year, sitting on some whin bushes. A bright whin flower got PoD, narrowly beating another branch of blossom.

Dinner tonight was provided by Bombay Dreams. We both ate half of our portion, leaving the other half for tomorrow’s lunch or dinner.

Got a message from Hazy to say that Neil still wasn’t getting rid of his chest infection and his dad was driving him to A&E. Message later to say that he had had tests done and he is just slowly recovering and there is nothing to worry about, thankfully.

Spent the evening catching up on yesterday’s blog post, but if I get this posted soon I will be all caught up!

With that in mind, I’m off to bed. I might read another chapter of my book James Oswald’s “All That Lives”. It’s a bit formulaic. It feels like he’s in a writing rut. Shame, because his early books were really good.

No plans for tomorrow. Hopefully it will be another beautiful day like today.

Solo – 4 April 2022

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Scamp was out driving the Blue car by herself today.

Before that, she drove me up to Tesco partly to get some messages, but also partly to assure herself that she can drive the newer version of her own Red car.

When we returned after the shopping, I took the wheel of the blue car and drove down to the shops were I parked at the far end of the car park and walked over to the repair garage and explained the problem with the red car. The bloke there said it was most likely to be binding breaks or a failing wheel bearing. I have to bring the car down tomorrow and then we’ll find out.

When I got back, and after lunch, Scamp was off again, driving solo this time. She was going to Calders garden centre for coffee and a cake with the now disbanded ‘Gems’. I left before her to post a couple of cards and also to get some photos. It was a fairly dull day with very little directional light, but with the help of the Lensbaby, I did get some useable shots. Not great shot, but useable.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon writing a fairly long email to Alex with some photos to keep his mind of all the things he has to do this coming week. No more word from him about the three generations of the family currently under “doctor’s orders”. No news is good news.

PoD was chosen by Scamp. It’s a wild currant flower. One of loads that are showing over in St Mo’s just now. A picture of a bright yellow whin flower took second place. You may know it as a gorse flower.

We watched the final of this year’s University Challenge and although there wasn’t a Scottish team in the final, at least the winners did have a Scottish captain.

It rained a bit today.  Just soft wetting rain that will refresh the plants in the garden.  More rain is predicted for the next few days and the gardens really need it.  Strange to say that we’re welcoming the rain!

Tomorrow it’s an early rise. The alarm has been set for 7.30am. We’re intending to drive the Red car down to garage and walk back to have an earlier than usual breakfast. Then we may go for coffee with Isobel.