Category: Public Art

Out on the town – 22 November 2023

Posted on by Zogman

 

Up fairly early and heading for Glasgow.

Meeting Alex an hour early at 11:00. That gave us time to have a cup of coffee and plan our day. The weather wasn’t looking very promising, but Alex had some places he wanted to go and I was happy to comply.

First stop was Princes Square which was decorated like the big day had arrived and Santa was whizzing around the world on his sleigh pulled by reindeer. It was all jolly and happy and expensive as most things are in Princes Square. I’m not complaining. This was my first stop to get a chance of a photo or five of the fancy wrought iron railings on the stairs. Alex had photographed them a few months ago, but I got the shot with the fake Christmas tree branches and the sparkly lights. One of those photos made PoD. It’s glitzy and twee and I’m quite delighted with it.

St Enoch’s Square was next, because we knew the amusements were there and the Christmas Market. Again, all sparkly lights but with pretend chalets where Welsh folk were selling Xmas tat from old French Citroen vans. A veritable community of nations. Also there were the usual rides, German beer, German sausage and German Bratwurst whatever that is. So really it wasn’t a Christmas market, more a German market with some Welsh folk in old French vans. Anyway, we wandered round taking a few photos, but knowing that at about midday on dull wet day we weren’t going to get many keepers.

We walked down to Clyde Street and took a few photos of the graffiti on the Clyde Walkway. It’s a constantly changing blackboard for these skilled and not so skilled artists. Always worth a look.

Hunger pangs were telling us that Paesano should be our next port of call and that’s where we headed. Alex for a number 5 (no cheese) and me for a number 3 (just as it comes).

We had a quick look at George Square where the Christmas lights were lit, but the Christmas Village was still being constructed, decided it was a lost cause and instead headed back to Clyde Street and followed the Clyde downstream to the financial district knowing in our heart of hearts that it was a lost cause. The good light had gone and wasn’t coming back until tomorrow … maybe.

We found a different Nero from the morning and each had a coffee before plodding our weary way back up to the bus station where my X3 was patiently waiting for me, while Alex headed back to Motherwell. Next photo walk is loosely booked for two weeks hence, all being well.

Back home, Scamp had returned from her lunch and after filling her in on our day and finding about her’s, it was almost time to go dancing at Kirsty’s dance class. It was Quickstep today and although I though I’d mastered the steps last night in the living room, I’d forgotten just how Quick the Steps were. My feet got into a terrible fankle trying to extricate myself from the Twinkle. Nine times out of ten I used the wrong foot to start the move and so ended up in a mess. I do know how to do it, but my feet don’t. It’s their fault, not mine!

Tomorrow we are planning on going for the messages.

Outside toilet – 1 May 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Today the weather fairies got it wrong. They predicted a dull day and it turned out bright and sunny.

I have a lot to do on the first day of the month. Screensavers to be created, files and folders to be moved, folders of pictures to be backed up and then rejected photos to be deleted. Today was no different. Eventually, when all was running normally again, we decided we’d better go out and make the best of the day before it all slipped away.

Scamp wanted to go to Drumpellier for a walk through the woods, and so did an awful lot of folk on this surprisingly sunny May Day. All around us seemed to be dark and cloudy, but for once we were sitting in the sweet spot, at least we were when we finally found a parking place.

Off we trudged on the conveyer belt with all the other folk walking round this big pond. But we knew we could get off the travelator and into the woods. It’s good to see the colour returning to the trees after so many weeks of bare branches. There were a lot fewer folk on these paths through the woods and at times we seemed to be the only people walking these pathways. Eventually we found our way back to the main circuit at the far end of the loch. I had taken a few shots in the woods, but not very many. We walked round to the ice cream van and had a cone each. With raspberry, but without a flake. Scamp was quite firm about that. No 99s today, even if it is a bank holiday.

We sat on a bench, eating our cones and watching an asian bloke with two little girls in tow, in tow, but not under control. Poor man was run ragged chasing one then the other to keep them from falling into the loch while the girls just seemed to ignore him, so that they could throw stones in the water. Just weans having fun and taking more than a little leeway with their dad.

As we were walking back to the car I saw a photo opportunity with three gulls on the big Whale’s Tail sculpture that sits out in the water. I climbed over a couple of rocks and sat down on one to get a nice low viewpoint for the shot across the water, when I heard a woman’s voice behind me saying “What’s he doing?” Another woman answered, “I think he’s doing the toilet!” Then a man’s voice said “He’s taking photographs!” Oh, the ignominy of it. To be thought to be performing your bodily functions outside in Coatbridge. I’d never live it down! However, it did make me smile. “Doing the toilet”, indeed! No wonder photogs get a bad reputation.

We drove home before the polis came. After a late lunch and after checking that I did indeed have a PoD, I set to work on the first sketch for a long while for Every Day in May, or EDiM for short. The first one is complete and can be seen on Flickr and Facebook. It was tough going. This was the best of three attempts.

Today’s prompt was A Waffle.
I don’t eat waffles as a rule, although I can be enticed into having one when we’re on holiday.
Today’s sketch was of what I would have if I did eat waffles. My toppings would be blueberries and strawberries, plus maybe some melted chocolate, just to make it little bit less healthy!

Some interesting topics this time round.

Hoping for some more bright sunny weather tomorrow to get out and about in.

Postman and Driving Mayhem – 22 December 2022

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Off to hand deliver a Christmas card and then driving to the Fort.

I’d left it too late for Elizabeth Gough’s card to be delivered by Christmas, but as I was going to be passing her house on my way to the last purchases at The Fort, I dropped it through her letter box. I was caught in the act by her daughter and then all three of us had a blether at her front door. I was invited in for coffee, but I declined as I knew it would be difficult to park at the Fort and if I’d accepted, I would have been there for an hour at least. It must be well over a year since I’ve met the pair of them and we had a lot to catch up on. Eventually I took my leave and headed back on the road to Easterhouse.

The parking was worse than I’d anticipated, much worse. There must have been about a hundred cars circling the gigantic parking areas and nobody was finding any spaces. I eventually had to give up and I thought I’d head out towards Drumpellier park and from there to Currys at Coatbridge to get some photo paper for the calendars. When I got near Drumpellier I could see there was low lying mist over the loch and, as I did have a camera with me today I drove in to the park. The light was lovely and the mist gave a great backdrop. Even better still, the car park was running at about a quarter capacity. I got a few photos and then headed back to see if Scamp wanted to go fro a walk. I wasn’t in a rush to get the photo paper anyway.

Instead of a walk we had lunch. Scamp wasn’t feeling too good and thought she had a wee infection. She had phoned the doc’s and was waiting for a call back from the nurse. The call eventually came about 5pm and the nurse said she’d leave a prescription at the surgery reception. I drove over there, picked it up and got it filled at the chemist, next door to the surgery. Then came drove home. It was getting cold by the time I was leaving the house and colder on the way home. I’m expecting the temperature will be below zero tonight, although it’s just about 4ºc just now.

I made celeriac soup for dinner. Thick and warming, but not getting much of the celeriac taste from it. Anyway that and some toast with a half a pizza later was a substantial mid-week dinner.

Good to hear that you’ve got your heating fixed, even if it is only short time, Hazel. Good advice from your mum to get a few local quotes too. Remember that the firms like our Scottish Gas like to put doubts in your head, saying that it’s difficult to get the parts now for older boilers. Sometimes that’s just to scare you.

PoD was a photo of four gulls sitting on the ‘Whale Tail’ in Drumpellier park. The sculpture was created in 1989 by artist Neil McLeod and entitled ‘Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea’.

No plans to go anywhere special tomorrow and definitely no driving to shops if today’s experience is anything to go by. We’ll probably do some local shopping.

Fort Apache, Glasgow – 8 December 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Today Scamp wanted to go to The Fort today.

Before we went I added some air to the Blue car’s tyres. They’d all been down by about 4psi. Strange that they should all be down by exactly the same amount. It makes me think that all the tyres had their pressure reduced during their service in September. I hadn’t checked, but who checks the pressure in their tyres unless they look a bit flat and mine didn’t, but I felt the steering was a bit heavy last week and noticed the drop. Thankfully Scamp had a fairly new automatic inflater and it didn’t take long to get them up to snuff.

Drove to The Fort and Scamp masked up and walked into M&S while I went for a walk along the curving frontage of the retail park, looking for Paperchase or any shop that sold pens. No Paperchase and not much luck finding a pen. Does nobody write any more? Oh dear, that makes me sound so old ?. Plenty of clothes shops and if you’re looking for a pair of trainers you’d be well catered for, but no pen shops. I walked back empty handed. Met Scamp in Waterstones then we went to NEXT and Boots then I was dismissed to go to Costa and get the coffees in. As we were walking to the car after the coffee, I saw this sign with part of it obliterated by a parked car. I laughed, glad that I’d pocketed the A6000 before we left the house. We also saw the bronze deer statues and one of them with raindrops became PoD.

Back home and after lunch I got my boots on and grabbed the big camera, then went for a walk round part of St Mo’s, took a few photos, knowing that they’d have to be good to beat the ones from The Fort. Then I waked to Condorrat to post the 25 cards we’d written and stamped at a ridiculous cost. When I was buying the 25 stamps at the post office I laughingly complained that they cost almost 10 times what the cards had cost. The lady behind the counter replied “But they have to go a long way”. That got me thinking what would the total mileage all those 25 cards travelled? Thought for the day!

Dinner was slow cooked Prawn & Pea Risotto. Done the proper way in a pot with loads of butter and a great deal of care. Not like my usual method of letting the oven do the hard work. Tasted good though, so worth the care and attention.

Tomorrow we’re off to Hairmyres early in the morning. Hoping to get some answers to questions that have been buzzing round both of our heads for over a month now.

 

Away to meet Silvanus – 12 April 2021

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It was a lovely day and we had already decided we’d go for a walk up Croy Hill.

Croy Hill is the easier of the two local hills. Bar Hill is a longer slog and nowhere near as dry underfoot as Croy Hill. Both of them were the sites of forts in Roman times. Little remains of the fort on Croy Hill, but on Bar Hill the remains are much more obvious. The initial climb was hard work, but then we’d a gentle rise up to the gate that leads on to the hill proper.

The hill was hoachin’ with walkers. Families, couples and solo walkers too, all headed up and over the hill from both east and west directions. I think one thing was attracting them. Rumour had it that there was a new occupant of the hill. He was over 6m tall and a bit of a hard man. Some called him Silvanus, the Roman’s spirit of the fields, but to me he was Heavy Heid. We were expecting to see him just outside Croy village, but there was no sign of the giant man. It wasn’t until we were walking down the other side towards Dullatur that we got our first sighting of Heavy Heid. He’s quite an impressive sight, looking out to the north and the wild tribes he was helping to protect the civilised southerners from. He was designed by Svetlana Kondakova and really looks the part of a roman centurion.

We took some photos of Heavy Heid, one of which became PoD and then headed back to the car by a lower path that turned out to be the track of an old mineral railway that carried the coal from a colliery near Auchinstarry to the steel making plants of Glasgow and the rest of the central belt. Found some Wood Sorrel plants which are related to Oxalis. Signage on the path could have been better, but luckily there were some walkers out today and they helped us by giving exact directions to get back to Auchinstarry.

Back home in time for lunch. It was an interesting walk. Strenuous climbs in places and then quiet walks through the woods beside the canal. A round trip too, which is always a good thing. I hate going for a walk and then having to come back along the same path. Much more satisfying to find a different way home.

Scamp was eager to get the front grass cut and she wanted the cutter raised on the mower. That change of height of only about 10mm made all the difference it seemed. She did the mowing, I did the strimming. It did look better when we were finished, even if I beheaded one of the daffs when I was strimming.

Tomorrow, Scamp is booked for a walk round St Mo’s with Veronica. I might finally do some painting. I’ll also need to have a look at the iMac which seemed to have a hissy fit tonight.

 

Quarterly blood letting – 27 January 2020

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Some days have a wall. Something that has to be surmounted. Today it was bloodletting at midday.

Today it was time for my quarterly blood test. I felt a bit like Hancock when he hears that he has to give “a whole pint”. As the nurse counted out the four sample tubes and gaily filled them with my vital fluid, I wondered if I had any left in my body. When I got back home I found out that I did have and some of it was leaking past the plaster she’d stuck on. Not a lot, just a dribble, but you can’t go losing blood like that. I need all mine. Now I’ve just to wait until the end of the week to see if I need to meet the nurse to discuss the results or if it’s just an OK over the phone. Expecting the former, hoping for the latter.

After getting past the wall I relaxed a bit. Went out to post my old driving licence back to the DVLA, get my old dance shoes re-soled and heeled and get some more black ink to use with the adapter, or converter to use the correct term, for my collection of Lamy pens. At present the Fisk black ink is winning. It’s permanent, but doesn’t seem to have any shellac in its composition, so doesn’t clog the nib of the fountain pen. Still one more to check and that’s the W&N one I was going to get today in Hobbycraft. Almost got the full set done. Forgot to post the licence, but got the shoes booked in and I got the ink too. Bought myself an LED daylight bulb for use in a lamp in the back bedroom while I was in Hobbycraft.

While I was out I took the chance of dropping in at Drumpellier to grab a photo of some of the waterbirds on the loch. That’s where today’s PoD came from. Entitled “A Tall Tail” it’s a sculpture in the middle of the loch that makes a great perch for the gulls. I think I entertained a couple sitting having coffee in their car. They couldn’t understand what the hell I was doing, apparently taking photos of, well, nothing much. Obviously didn’t understand that that’s what photogs do most of the time with the sole purpose of puzzling the Muggles.

Back home, Gems were gone, leaving only their dirty tea cups and a few uneaten biscuits. Not long after I got there, Scamp returned from dropping them off. Sat for a while tweaking the aforementioned PoD and then we had half the dinner – soup. The other half we’d have when we returned from dance class.

I must admit, although I miss salsa on a Monday night, I don’t miss the drive in to Glasgow or back out again, especially when Rangers are playing and half of Scotland squeezes on to the M8 in front of me. We had been practising the Waltz all week and do you know, the teacher didn’t even ask us to show off our prowess at that dance. However, we have now mastered the first half of the Foxtrot routine and have a fair understanding of how the second half works. We can also Saunter Together quite adequately. Next week we add both halves of that dance together to make our first real sequence dance! The new black and white dance shoes seem to work. We only stayed for an hour tonight, but may try another hour on a Wednesday when she starts another new class in Condorrat.

Just before I started this, the snow began. It was fairly heavy for a while, but it’s just light now and although the temperature is just above freezing, I don’t think it will last until morning. That’s a pity because I could take some snowy pictures.

Tomorrow Scamp is booked for lunch with Mags and I’m determined to post that DVLA letter. Whether I manage that or not is the question!

Kelpied – 24 September 2019

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Today we were all Kelpied!

Today dawned dry but a bit dreary. However, it soon brightened up and we thought we’d risk a run to the Kelpies. It all went well until we were almost at the M9 then the car seemed to be misfiring, which is strange because it had been running so well since its last service. I hadn’t bought petrol from anywhere other than my usual two petrol stations and I hadn’t run the level down until the red light came on. So that should rule out the possibility of a little bit of dirt getting in to the carburettor or the jets, whatever it is the Juke has. Made the decision to detour via the Nissan garage in Stirling, where the service manager came to see what the problem was. He gave it a fair run through the gears, fierce acceleration and gentle driving, but could not replicate the problem. There was little more the poor man could do, but he took it in to the service bay, put it on the computer and pronounced it clean. No problems listed. Finally he suggested we drive off and if the problem reared its head again, we should book it in for a full day check. Clive and I were puzzled. We couldn’t agree on a possible cause and he knows a lot more about cars than me. It ran perfectly for the rest of the day.

Got to the Kelpies and wandered round them just taking them in. Glad to see that Clive was equally entranced with these beautiful equine sculptures. We both took lots of photos of them from different angles and in different lighting conditions. Scamp was also taking photos, but I think we were the subjects. People are more important than places to her and that’s probably her greatest photographic strength. She captures people very much better than me.

From Grangemouth, we said goodbye to the Kelpies and headed round the outskirts of Falkirk to The Falkirk Wheel. The giant boat lift was one of the things that Clive had wanted to see and we arrived just as it was doing a lift, so he got to see it in action right away. I took the car away to park it and met them in the shadow of the great wheel where we discussed the mechanics of this modern wonder. We waited for another boat to be lifted and after a swift look in the visitor centre, I found the one ticket machine that was working and paid for our parking. For a visitor centre which was meant to show this wonder of engineering design, there were a host of machines with OUT OF ORDER signs on them. Almost nothing of any note was working. Poor show Falkirk. Drove home and arrived just as the rain was starting.

PoD was a view of the Kelpies reflected in the turning pool of the canal.

Tomorrow we may go to Glasgow, but it depends on the weather.

Heraklion – The Wee Train – 6 August 2019

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It’s fascinating watching other people work, especially when you’re on holiday.

In the morning I watched a crane with grab loading scrap metal on to a ship. Maybe it’s a ‘man thing’, but I just found it fascinating. It wasn’t just the amount of scrap they dumped at a time, but also the delicate precision with which they could pick out a car tyre from the load that was dumped on the quayside and put it into another pile. Like I say, maybe it’s a ‘man thing’.

We walked in to to town of Heraklion, or rather, the Old Town. It didn’t seem like Rhodes, the other walled town we’d seen. This one seemed a bit more run-down.

After walking for what felt like miles we found a little train, a trolly train I think it’s called and it took us round the walls, in and out of most of the city gates, because it is a city, not a town.
It was quite dilapidated in places furthest from the sea. Lots of old crumbling buildings and football pitches with knee high grass.

We got off at the wrong stop which was supposed to be for a shopping centre. It didn’t look like one, it didn’t even look as if there had ever been one there, and had to walk for a bit in the hot sun. What we did find was an Italian cafe where we had an overpriced latte for Scamp and cafe freddo for me.

Walked round some ruined buildings with a new church in their midst and eventually found the town centre exactly where we’d got on train.
I got a tee shirt, probably the best one I’ve got so far
Scamp found an M&S! Demanded she have her photo taken outside it! She never asks for her photo to be taken outside Marks in Stirling or Glasgow. Maybe it’s a ‘woman thing’!

Cafe Jardin at night (second formal night). We both had risotto which was absolutely beautiful. This was the second menu.

Danced for a while, then off to bed after a wee G ’n’ T on the balcony watching the stars.

PoD was a steel cube on a plinth in a sort of town hall building. Couldn’t understand the significance of it, but very elegant building.

Sea day tomorrow.

A day in the toon in the sunshine – 12 July 2019

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Today we’d decided to travel in to Glasgow on the bus and go to the Transport Museum on Riverside.

Got off the subway at Partick and walked along past the reconstruction that was going on by the Clyde until we came to the strange building that, from the air looks as if it’s been squeezed out of a toothpaste tube.  It looked very impressive with its glass frontage.  In the middle of July, it’s the middle of the Glasgow Beach.  Loads of weans building sand castles with pails and spaded on an area at the front of the building done up to look like a beach with tons of sand.  Everyone seemed to be having a great time, but we were itching to get in to see this wonderful new 21st century museum.

What a let down.  Yes, there were steam engines and tram cars, loads of tram cars and trolley buses too, but most of them were sealed off from the public by large perspex sheets.  This was a “Look, but don’t touch museum”.  One of the biggest selling points of the place, the revoloutionary Wall of Cars was the worst let-down.  Yes, there were a load of cars on shelves along a wall, like full size Dinky or Matchbox toys, but the problem was you couldn’t see into them.  They were too high up or too far away to see any of the detail.  The same was true for the Wall of Motorbikes.  Yes, they were there, but you could only see about two of the five layers of them. The rest were way up too high and you’d get a crick in your neck trying to see the details.  The bikes, especially seemed to be in a bit of a state.  Torn saddles and seats, suspensions not bolted to the frames.  It looked as if they’d just been placed there without any thought of restoration.  Worst of all were the cycles.  There they were, either sitting on or hanging upside down from a great circular wheel, hanging from the ceiling.  No description of what they were or why they were there.  Strangest exhibit was a Sinclair Cambridge Programmable Calculator.  I had one of those, away back in the 1980s.  At the time it was truly state of the art.  I bought it fully built and tested, but it was possible to buy it as a PCB with the components and build it yourself.  A friend of mine bought a Sinclair radio kit which was supposed to fit into a matchbox.  He got it built, but by the time he was finished it barely fitted into a suitcase.  But back to the Calculator.  Interesting though it was, what had it to do with Transport?

The building itself is striking, but there is a design theory that “Form Follow Function”.  In the case of this museum it’s more like “Function Follows Form”.  You get the feeling that they designed and built the building, then just stuffed everything they had into it.  Not impressed and wouldn’t go back.  Typical Council waste of money.

What I did get there was today’s PoD.  Probably the best, certainly the most detailed Oor Wullie I’ve seen so far.  You can get a better view on Flickr because by some miracle it managed to get into the site.  I personally think Flickr is now dead.  Today after half an hour of attempting to install the three images I’d uploaded, I got  the message that they had failed to upload.  Only to find out later that they had actually loaded successfully.  Since May, the site has been almost unusable.  Literally hundreds of complaints on the “official” help page and nothing being done about it.  I refuse to throw more money at such a failed excuse of a photo site.

Anyway, back home we got an hour in the sun in the back garden before I phoned Golden Bowl and uplifted a collection of Chicken Chop Suey & Fried Rice for Scamp and Special Chow Mein for me.  A good way to end a day in  the sun.

Tomorrow, strangely enough, we may go back to Partick again to go to a Farmers Market.

Dancing and The Wullies – 19 June 2019

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The dancing was in Glasgow and the Wullies were of the “Oor” variety and were everywhere in Glasgow.

Spent the morning making a set of Wales photos to go into a gallery on this website. They aren’t quit ready yet, but hopefully they will be soon. After lunch we drove in to Blackfriars for a torturing class of ballroom and jive.

It wasn’t that the moves were difficult, or even new. It was just that we’d had Wales and walks in our heads for the last week, with no time for dancing or dancing practise. Now it was all a blur again. At least that’s what it seemed like for me. Jive didn’t jell. Waltz didn’t flow as it should and although Quickstep was better than the other two, it too wasn’t “Our finest hour” as Scamp described it. A cup of coffee afterwards helped with the pain, but a lot of practise is needed before next week.

Then, there were the “Wullies”. They were everywhere we looked. They were painted “Oor Wullies”, made of fibreglass and larger than life size. After some research when we got home, I discovered there were 59 of them dotted around Glasgow and the West. The first one we saw, and my favourite so far is Oor Charles, modelled on Charles Rennie Macintosh. I got a few more, but Oor Charles got PoD. If this paragraph made no sense to you, then:

  1. You should read the Sunday Post, just the comics page though.
  2. Wait until we get to The Broons.

Salsa tonight for me was only about the 6.30 class. The 7.30 class was oversubscribed in leaders, so I was superfluous and took myself out to be doorkeeper. That’s where I wrote most of this blog. The Intermediate class at 6.30 were doing Pachangero which is one of Scamp’s favourite moves. They are a really good class and most of them are picking up the moves really quickly. Scamp drove tonight which made life a lot easier for me. Thanks S.

Tomorrow we have no plans. Maybe go for some messages!