October 2016 – Page 2 – My Photo Blog

A Good Day in the Toon – 21 October 2016

Posted on October 21, 2016October 21, 2016 by Zogman

It was Scamp’s suggestion that today we should travel in to Glasgow on the bus and then take the subway (AKA the underground, definitely NOT AKA the tube) to the West End. From there, I could choose between the Botanic Gardens and the Art Gallery or to give it it’s posh name, The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. I chose the latter.

Walked to Condorrat to get a fast(er) bus into the Toon. Coffee first (in Cafe Nero of course), then the subway out to Kelvin Hall which is about half a mile from the actual Kelvin Hall, but who cares. We walked along to the Art Gallery, although we always called it the Art Galleries and I suppose we always will, and entered this grand space. I remember my dad and my Uncle Jack taking me to this place and amazing me with all the things to see in it. My Uncle Jack as well as being a mine of information about Glasgow in general, was very knowledgable about painters and paintings. He would tell me the back stories of the paintings in the gallery and explain what the painter was trying to say. My dad was from a mining family and he would show me the models of coal mines and explain in detail what all the parts pit head buildings did.

Scamp was delighted to find that the organ recital was at 1pm and it was now 12.45pm. I was delighted because I knew where she’d be while I searched out a piece of armour to sketch. I’d seen a TV program a couple of years ago where they literally took apart a suit of armour and explained what each part did and how the pieces were put together by the armourer and the blacksmith. Since then I’ve intended sketching armour and this was the ideal opportunity.

Once the sketch and the recital was complete, we met up again. Scamp had enjoyed the recital and had found out that they did tours of the organ. She’d like to go, but not today. Next thing, she’s following an information assistant through a side door and motioning me to follow her. Climbed a couple of flights of stairs, through a wrought iron gate along a passage way and ended up in the small balcony where the organist was demonstrating how the organ was played. It’s a massive beast of an instrument when you’re up close. The organist was really great, explaining what all the stops did an the multitude of pedals. The only thing he didn’t do was give her a shot at playing Vidor’s Toccata or something although I could see she was itching to have a go. Yes, yes, Scamp, I know it should be Widor’s Toccata, but that just doesn’t look right and it’s my blog, remember. I took the chance to get some shots from a viewpoint I probably wouldn’t be in again and it was quite a remarkable half an hour.

Anything else would have been a disappointment after that, so we headed for lunch which was in a wee Indian tapas restaurant we had been to before at the bottom of Byres Road. The food was excellent. Fish Pakora and Buttered Chicken were the stars for me. Lovely light nan, but it had cooled just a little bit too much for us. Still delicious.

Walked up Byres Road and had a beer for me, 3 Hop Edinburgh Lager (Poor, very poor) and a G&T for Scamp in Oran Mor. We even sat outside and drank them. It was that sort of day. The sort of day to just take your time and enjoy life.

Subway back to Glasgow City and the bus home. Job done. Had a great time. Brilliant idea Scamp. Let’s do it again some time soon.

Today’s Inktober sketch is of a knight’s helmet from c1620 (which is twenty past four in the afternoon for those who don’t understand the 24 hour clock!) It amazes me that people could not only wear one of these medieval crash helmets, but they could ride into battle in them. They could fight in them. Many of them could die in them. If they were knocked from their horse in a battle, what chance did they have of standing up again? Having said all that, when you examine these pieces of armour, they are beautifully made and the attention to detail is fascinating. Little bits of brass (surely not gold) worked to look like rope that adorned the edges of the eye slit and the neck piece. Exquisite workmanship, and it’s safe to say workmanship, because all the armourers were men.

The remainder of the photos were taken in or around the Art Galleries. If you’ve never been, or if it’s a long time since you’ve been. Go and get some culture for a change instead of wandering down Bucky Street, along Sausage Roll Street or dodging the jakies in Argyll Street. Have a curry in that wee curry shop, it’s called Usha’s at the bottom of Byres Road. Don’t bother with the 3 Hop Lager. It’s basically Heineken who own Caledonian who make 3 Hop Lager, strangely enough. Head back in to town and have a draught Bitter & Twisted in The Horseshoe. That’s the makings of a ‘Good Day in the Toon’

Write and Post the same day – 20 October 2016

Posted on October 20, 2016October 20, 2016 by Zogman

That is today’s target.

Yesterday, or to be more exact, early this morning I was still writing the blog just before 1am. That’s what happens when you try to cram in 1 hour’s driving 2 hours of Salsa, a pen sketch, photo processing, posting to the now despicable Flickr and blog writing into six hours. It just doesn’t work. I must try to clean up my workflow on Mondays and Wednesdays. Thursdays? They’re not so bad. Still bad, just not so bad as Mon and Wed.

Today we went to the leisure centre in the early afternoon. Me to gym and swim, Scamp to swim. It was very pleasant. Gym wasn’t busy and neither was the pool. That’s because we are in the middle of half-term week, so loads of families are off grabbing some last minute foreign sun. I’m not complaining, just explaining. After a late lunch I went to find some photos and if possible find something to sketch. “Nights are fair drawing in now” as Billy Connolly said and it’s true. The sun is setting sooner these evenings, so although it provided me with some lovely sunset shots, it also cancelled out any opportunity for sketching in the wild.

Earlier in my driving around I spotted some strange looking clouds. I thought it was the end of the world, such strange shapes. It turned out to be Cumulonimbus incus. Google it. It’s a classic anvil shaped thundercloud. Luckily they sidled off westward before they could drop their thunderbolts and the inevitable rain. The sunset really was lovely. I don’t usually shoot sunsets because you get suckered in by the colour contrasts and just shoot wildly, but this time I planned the shot with the old tree and fencepost in the middle distance to hold the viewer’s eye while allowing them to appreciate the colours in the sunset.

I was stuck for an Inktober shot tonight and it defaulted to my glasses on the coffee table. That meant I couldn’t wear them and that’s my excuse for poor proportions. That coffee table is almost forty years old, an antique. It was my second year project at college and it’s still standing.

Well, that’s it. I’m hoping to get to bed the same day I woke up. It may happen.

Coffee and Swapshop – 19 October 2016

Posted on October 19, 2016October 20, 2016 by Zogman

I used to say that people who wanted to drink coffee should go to Costa and the rest should go to Starbucks, because Costa serve coffee and Starbucks serve Starbucks. I think that is no longer the case. Recently I’ve been going to Cafe Nero rather than go to Costa. The quality of coffee in Costa has plummeted recently in my opinion and is now almost as bad as Starbucks. Unfortunately, we don’t have a Cafe Nero in Cumbersheugh, only Costa.

Today the three Auld Guys, Fred, Val and I met to exchange goodies. Fred brought music. Music in a variety of formats, MP3 predominantly, but also FLAC and WMA . Val and I both got some. Val brought books which we accepted with grateful thanks. I also brought books which were shared out between the other two. We also shared jokes stories and the other two critiqued my Inktober sketches. It was a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours with good friends and bad coffee. The meetings of the full Auld Guys contingent is a much better affair with plenty of sarcasm, wit and good beer, but these fortnightly meetings are good too. They have their place in our ‘busy’ lives.

When I got back I went for a cold walk round St Mo’s. Attempted a couple of landscape shots, but the light wasn’t conducive to decent photography. I think I just left it too late and the light quality was too poor. I did like the PoD at the top of the page. I like the graphic quality of monochrome, especially Black & White and I’m always amazed at the work the spiders put in to decorate these dried plants. You don’t notice these things until you look and that’s what photography is all about, looking.

Salsa tonight was interesting. It was Jamie G’s last lesson with his beginners class and I felt sorry for him saying goodbye to them because they are joining a class with another teacher next week. I know how he feels. I felt the same when I lost one of my classes at the end of the year. But that was long ago now, in the dim mists of time.

I’d thought long and hard about today’s Inktober sketch and attempted a couple of setups before I settled on A Pair of Pears. I quite like it. Not the best I’ve done, but better than what went before it tonight.

Fish – 18 October 2016

Posted on October 18, 2016October 20, 2016 by Zogman

This morning we drove to Linlithgow to get some fish. It was either Linlithgow (which has an actual fishmongers) or Morrisons in Falkirk (which has a good fish counter – no, he doesn’t actually count the little fishes, it’s not that sort of counter). We opted for Linlithgow because it’s quite scenic, if a little twee and I might just find something to photograph. It was a bad move.

I’d forgotten that Linlithgow actually welcomes people to park cars, vans and lorries at the side of the narrow road. It also encourages farmers to drive their massive pumped up tractors and slurry tanks at full legal tilt down the congested main street. Today, just to confuse the unwary and annoy me in particular, they also decided to start roadworks at the three way roundabout at the end of the town with three way traffic lights to raise the blood pressure of all and sundry. This meant a crawl behind a snaking caterpillar (is that mixed metaphors?) of cars, vans and buses through this historic town. We did eventually get to the carpark and the fishmongers and get the fish, but I couldn’t be bothered going to get some photos and end up getting mired in more traffic chaos to get back out of the town. I wanted to get the dinner on by about 5pm and it was already after 1pm. I wasn’t sure we’d get out of the congestion by 5. As it happened, the traffic heading west was easy peasy and we scooted home in double quick time.

When I took the shopping bag with the fish out of the boot there was a decidedly fishy smell coming from it, but hey, there WERE fish in the bag, what do you expect. It wasn’t until we were unloading the shopping bag that we noticed a few of the individual bags were leaking fishy juices into the shopper. Oops, straight into the washing machine with that then.

Since we’d made such good time coming home, I thought I’d take myself off for a walk before dinner and I’d drive down to Auchinstarry for a change. Dumped my camera bag in the boot – fishy smell still there, and off I went. Got to Auchinstarry and while retrieving my camera bag I spied the culprit. The lining of my lightweight rainproof jacket was soaked with fishy goodness. That explained the smell. Hmm, straight into the washing machine with that too when I get back.

Today’s photos:

Young deer hiding in dried reeds. It didn’t run because it knew there was a 3m drop and a 5m wide torrent to cross before I’d be anywhere near.
Two young horsewomen riding through the trees. Incongruously, one of them was smoking a fag (cigarette to any American readers who may be conjuring up very strange images 🙂 )
Bramble leaves soaked with sugar (that’s what makes the colour). I promised myself that I wouldn’t photograph leaves this autumn. That didn’t last long.
Abandoned farmhouse on the Campsie Fells. Lovely warm textures from the glancing sunlight attracted me.
Crows and pigeons rising from their late afternoon feed in the corn field. A bit of fakery in this shot to lighten the corn without lightening the trees too much in the background.

Today’s Inktober is an old house near the railway walk. In real life, it’s gloomier than this sketch shows, but it’s a fair representation of this old and rather sinister looking house. It sits behind a wood and from the path you are looking through the trees at it. I only managed a quick, twenty minute max, sketch before the midgies really got to me and I had to move on.

So, back to the house and dump that waterproof jacket in the washing machine. Thankfully it’s made of nylon, so I’m hoping:

It will still be waterproof
The smell won’t he stuck in the fibres

I’ll find out tomorrow when it’s dry again.

Tonight’s dinner was Simple Fish Stew which came from BBC Good Food. Recipe here.

More sunny spells expected tomorrow. Viva the Jet Stream!

PS To those who didn’t get the photos, but presumably have them now, the WiFi died last night and didn’t come on again until this morning. Virgin Media apologises for the lack of connectivity – Aye Right!

Back in harness – 17 October 2016

Posted on October 17, 2016October 17, 2016 by Zogman

Today I returned to the gym for the first time in months. I took it easy, not wanting to undo all the good the physio had done. I did my 10 mins on the recumbent bike and 10 mins on the treadmill, although I did up the incline and the speed to get my heart rate up a bit. I also did one of the arm machines and one of the leg machines, so not too much yet. I even managed a swim as the pool was nearly empty. Unfortunately, Mondays are busy days and I had to get back home to get the dinner made. Then it was off to Kizomba and Salsa.

Kizomba was quite stressful for me as we had to work on foot moves and arm moves too on Saida and Cross Step. If I continue with the class, as seems likely just now, and if I look back at these posts (DV), the Saida and Cross Step will seem very tame, I’m sure, but tonight they were tough. Salsa was frantic as usual and also very enjoyable. Nice to see Catherine Mc back.

Today’s photo was of the peanut thief caught raiding the bird feeder again this morning. The Inktober sketch is of Scamp’s Venetian mask. It was a bit out of my comfort zone because of the amount of curves in it and the fact that there was light and shade to deal with on those curved surfaces. Still, it’s a fair representation of the article. What will tomorrow’s be?

Don’t know what the weather is going to do tomorrow. The majority of the votes are for some sunny periods but with the chance of rain and some strong winds. That about sums up any day in Scotland.

The Weather Fairies Lied – 16 October 2016

Posted on October 16, 2016 by Zogman

They promised us sunshine. I think they must have had their fingers crossed behind their backs.

It started off dull, but we were expecting that. We knew it would brighten up around midday. However, when the wee hand was at 12 and the big hand was also at 12, the weather was much the same. It stayed that way with the occasional bright spell through the afternoon. I risked a half hour walk later in the afternoon and got a fairly decent portrait of a swan and a shot of a ‘Black Panther’ salute from a bush before the rain put an end to play.

Drove in to Glasgow in bright sunshine, but the sun was low and distracting. One of those days where you wish it was dull like in the morning. It might be boring, but at least there’s nothing to blind you. Salsa was very energetic and very, very enjoyable. I think Scamp was wondering what was coming next a few times when I started to string two or even three half moves together in a sequence. It must be really hard being a follower at times.

Tonight’s Inktober sketch is of some Lisianthus flowers in a vase on the table. I keep wanting to call them Lissajous which are a totally different kettle of fish. As far as I can remember, they were produced on an oscilloscope when we were studying AC current at college, back last century some time. Google it, that’s the best idea. Anyway ‘flooers’ as I call them are sometimes a picture of last resort, but these ones were quite a challenge. Pen was a blue Linc Saffron from the Pound Shop. Quite high quality rollerball pen, made in India. It has a tendency to smudge when wet, but dries to a water resisting finish, at least the black does. I’ve been using them for years now. If you see them on sale, buy a pack. A pound well spent. Paper was my favourite Pink Pig sketching book.

Not sure what to expect from the weather tomorrow, but hopefully it will be better than today.

Rain and Sunsets – 15 October 2016

Posted on October 15, 2016October 15, 2016 by Zogman

The weather fairies were predicting a good day for tomorrow, with blue skies all around, but for today they were predicting blue as in the colour of water everywhere. I don’t know about tomorrow, but they were dead right about today. Scamp’s phone predicted that it would dry up around 4pm and it did.

Needless to say, there was very little chance of photos during the bulk of the day and no chance of any sketches, even with permanent markers.

We went to Stirling, because:

It’s fairly near – This wasn’t a day for driving far.
It’s cheap to park if you know where to go – £1.40 a day v £2 an hour in Glasgow.
It’s still got a good curry shop.

Sorted then. Had a curry in the Indian Cottage and a quick wander round the shops. Coffee in Cafe Nero and then a browse through the gallery in Port Street then got tomorrow’s dinner in Waitrose on the way back to the car. It wasn’t a brilliant day, but the curries were tasty and mine was super hot with loads of fresh green chillies.

Although the clouds were lifting and the rain was becoming more hit and miss, there still wasn’t a case for getting the sketchbook or the camera out of the bag. It would have been a bit dangerous and maybe even illegal to do a sketch while I was driving anyway. Just another of the restrictions being put in place by the Scottish government. Can’t drink and drive and now you can’t draw and drive. Whatever next? They’ll be telling us we can’t use our phones while we’re driving! Only joking, they’d never be able to police that, would they?

I started to get twitchy once we got home. The rain was off, the clouds were lifting and there was a wee bit of light getting through, so I grabbed my jacket and ‘the big dog’, the Nikon and headed out. I didn’t really want to go to St Mo’s because I knew the light direction wouldn’t make for a good sunset shot, so instead I took the longer walk to Broadwood Loch. It’s not really a loch, it’s a big pond – manmade by ‘the cooncil’ who flooded a boggy chunk of land they couldn’t sell to house builders or to the industrial sector. That’s all they did really. They built a turf dam at one end and let the water level rise. Initially there was talk of a sailing club and game fishing, but as usual, these ideas were shelved by ‘the cooncil’ as it would cost too much outside the limits of Motherwell, so we must consider ourselves lucky to have a path round the pond and some distance markers. Compare and contrast with Strathclyde Loch with its Olympic rowing lanes, its sailing club, cycle track, multiple carparks … need I go on? It couldn’t have anything to do with its close proximity to Motherwell, the centre of North Lanarkshire. I digress – as usual. I got a few decent sunset shots using the 10 – 20mm Sigma lens which is simply ideal for this type of shot. I had something in the bag at last.

Today is ‘hump day’ for Inktober, 15 days in. Pass this and you’re on the home stretch. I chose one of my old shoes for today’s sketch and since a lot of people are photographing their pens with their sketches, I thought I’d do the same. Today’s drawing was completed on 110gsm Fabriano Sketch using a 0.3 Micron.

Lets hope the weather fairies are as correct in their prediction for tomorrow as they were today.

Sketching in Town – 14 October 2016

Posted on October 14, 2016 by Zogman

We took the bus in to the town today and then went our different ways for an hour and a half. Me to do my sketch of the day and Scamp to wander round the shops. Yesterday I had a bit of a hiding place, ensconced beside a wall in the church yard of the old church, you could even say I was hiding, but today was drawing in the middle of Glasgow. No walls, no church yards to hide behind, just me, a sketch book and about half a dozen pens. I got some strange looks, but nobody stopped to ask what I was doing, which was a great relief. I suppose I did have one hiding place, one wall, the wall and hiding place of Inktober which I guess I could use as an explanation for sketching in the open air in Glasgow. Either that or a daft auld bastard with too much time on his hands. Yes, that would work too. Sketch wasn’t as good as I had hoped it would be, but I’ll keep trying. Another sketching day beckons tomorrow.

Today’s photo is of a wee lane just off Queen Street. I think it unlikely that Nicola had ever seen this lane, let alone stayed in it. Such is the hyperbole in Glasgow at the moment. I’ve taken this shot before, but this is a different crop to remove the two windows above this one and exaggerate the squalor of Queen Nicola’s Lane.

Lunch, when we met up again, was at Paesano Pizza in Miller Street again. Excellent pizzas. When we left there, the rain was on. Up until then it had been dry and fairly bright. Like I said at the start, we’d travelled on the bus today and on the road home I was pleased that we had. Traffic was backed up and hardly moving as we crossed the bridge where I would have been exiting the M80. I’d have been caught up in at least three miles of standing traffic. Not a good way to end the day. In addition, I had the opportunity to have a glass of wine with my pizza. You can’t risk that if you’re driving these days.

Altogether a worthwhile day.

The Sound of Silence – 13 October 2016

Posted on October 13, 2016October 13, 2016 by Zogman

He came! He actually came and within twenty minutes the aerial was down and dismantled. The aerial man gave us back the sound of silence. To paraphrase Stuart MacBride’s heroine Detective Chief Inspector Steel, “Seventy five quid plus VAT? My sharny ¹ arse!” This guy did the job and we thank him very much … we did pay him too.

Earlier in the day, Scamp met her aunt and managed to establish the identity of a great many people in a sixty year old wedding photo. It made me think that in today’s world where so many of our photos, even wedding photos are not printed, how will we perform a similar task in the future. Will we still be able to view those videos on their lovely shiny DVDs engraved with the movie highlights of today’s wedding groups? Will the photos that are printed using ink on ‘archival’ paper last for sixty years? Will the resolution of the full frame CCD be as good as the old fashioned 6×6 TLR? Not a chance. The other thing we need is to record the names and fit them to the faces of the people in those photos. I realised too late, after my father died, that I’d lost touch with all those people whose faces I saw in the old photos. They were also dead, but they had also taken their identities with them. What I urge you to do is to record, preferably in ink and on paper, the names of the faces in your old photos, and if you don’t have physical photos, print them out on the best quality paper you can afford. It’s not for you, it’s for the ones who come after you. They are the ones who will be left scratching their heads after you can’t be relied upon to enlighten them.

Today’s PoD was taken on the east of Fannyside Moor looking towards Slamannan. It’s a great place for Big Skies and this certainly was a big sky. I like it because it’s a place where you can just watch the clouds rolling past without cars constantly zipping past. The only traffic today was a lady on a bike who was riding a tail-wind. I hope she had already cycled the head-wind part of the route and was on her way home.

Today’s Inktober drawing was of the church in Cumbernauld Village and is a building I’ve been meaning to draw for some time. It really is the most awkward shape with bits apparently added on at different times in its history. The windows, especially seem to have been placed wherever the builder found a space for them. Only the tops of the upper windows line up properly and some have lots of small panes of glass while others have fewer, larger panes. In all, I was pleased with the finished sketch, probably even more so because I sketched it in the open air. I’m not French, so why should I call it en plein air. That’s just being a poser, or should that be poseur?

Tomorrow is unplanned as yet, but it will not include listening to the crows landing on that aerial or dreading the screech of it rotating in its rusty bracket. The bracket is gone, the pole that held the aerial has been recycled and the aerial itself is in a skip. I love the sound of silence.

Befouled with dung. Merriam-Webster ↩

Another day waiting for the aerial man – 12 October 2016

Posted on October 12, 2016October 12, 2016 by Zogman

The bloke who was going to take down that bloody aerial failed to turn up today. Different bloke from the last time, different day, same result. Now he says he’ll be here tomorrow. Do we believe him?

Went out early for some photos in the sunshine in St Mo’s. Got one of Mr Grey preening. Unless he’s lost a lot of weight, I don’t think this is the real Mr Grey, more likely it’s a body double. The real Mr Grey has probably flown south for the winter and he’s arranged this substitute to make it look as if he’s still here. The body double probably even collects the real Mr Grey’s Giro. Yes, I know that we don’t do Giros any more, but unemployed bird still use them, because they don’t do internet banking. Anyway, the green leaves were growing from a storm felled tree. There must have been enough continuity between trunk and roots to keep the transfer of sugars and starches. The landscape is from St Mo’s and is of clouds breaking over the Meikle Bin above and beyond Kilsyth. The wee spider was climbing a tree and if you look closely at the Flickr version, you will notice that he’s got his safety rope securely fixed to a branch. Even spiders have to be careful these days.

I’ve been following “The Constant Doodler” and today’s Inktober sketch is my first attempt at his signature One Line drawing where his pen never leaves the paper until the drawing is finished. It’s much more difficult than it looks. Try it sometime and you’ll discover just how much planning is required before you start.

Other than that, it was another dull day after the promise of the morning’s weather. There was a bit of rain in the evening and more if forecast tomorrow. Maybe that will give the aerial man another excuse to avoid the demolition of the bloody aerial. But then you never know. Maybe tomorrow we’ll be celebrating the removal of this piece of roof architecture.