Month: September 2023

Out early to beat the rain – 20 September 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Today Scamp convinced me it would be a good idea to go out early and grab some photos while the sun was shining. That sounded like a plan.

I wore my boots, because it was going to be mucky out there. It was a bit wet underfoot, but there were some interesting cloud shapes and also some blue sky  and some glorious sunshine. I took a quite a few photos with the A6500  and the Pentax 50mm while I walked round the pond.  It’s a new steep learning curve, taking photos without autofocus and without really being sure your aperture setting is what you think it is.  I don’t know how I managed before digital.  At the halfway point I found an empty can of Irn Bru sitting on the wooden seat that appeared a couple of years ago, probably more, actually.  I took a few shots with the Pentax and then swapped the combo to the A7 and my 16-35mm lens.  Sitting there I had a good view over the pond to the pines behind and that, not the Irn Bru can, made PoD.

As I was walking back the clouds got heavier, the blue skies less and the sunshine almost gone.  I’d got my photos and as I was walking home I could feel the first spits and spots of rain.

Back home it was lunch time and I tested out a packet of sausages I’d bought in Waitrose.  They were boggin’.  I could smell the preservative from them and the skins were thick and rubbery.  I survived them, but the remainder went in the food bin.  Now I know why they were half price! Then the rain that had threatened did appear and it was heavy for a while.

Decided I’d finish off the photos I’d started to process and then saw that there were no folders or files on the desktop.  Usually a quick restart fixes things like that, but not today.  I began to think that I’d been hacked.  The folders had gone.  They weren’t simple hidden.  Everything else was as normal and I couldn’t understand it.  Then I remembered I’d been messing about with Hazel, not you Hazy, but Hazel the app.  I checked and there was the culprit.  It had tried to backup the entire contents of the desktop to the NAS drive.  Thankfully I make an automatic backup every week to a removable drive and managed to get everything (and more) back from last week’s backup. We had a quick practise later in the afternoon and it was a shambles.  I seem to have forgotten everything overnight. Too much computer nonsense in my head.

By then I’d scoffed dinner and Scamp was ready to go dancin’. At the hall, I think I was still trying to process exactly what had gone wrong and wondering if some of the folders were recoverable from the NAS, so that’s my excuse for not being able to put a foot right all night.  With that said, in the few glances I had at the other couples, we were actually doing not too bad.  We did manage to finish the routine almost perfectly a couple of times.

Drove home and after reassuring myself that it was ‘Pilot Error’, we had another practise for the tea dance tomorrow.  This time I listened to Scamp, remembered what teacher Kirsty had said and concentrated on where my left foot and my right were going.  I think we might be ok for tomorrow.

Only plan for tomorrow is to go to the tea dance and introduce them to Kirsty’s Waltz. That’s the plan.  Whether it comes to fruition or not is a different matter.

Testing, Testing – 19 September 2023

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Testing yesterday’s purchase and the other acquisition.

I drove over to Alex’s to borrow his K mount adapter so I could test the ‘new’ lens. New, is a bit of a misnomer as it’s at least second hand and maybe has passed through a great many more hands since it was really New. Last night I’d found a tiny bit of mould in one of the internal elements. Nothing that would have a detrimental effect on any of the shots I was hoping to take with this piece of ‘Old Glass’. I also found a few fine scratches on the rear element, but again, they wouldn’t make any difference to the photos. Sat and talked about family and stuff with Alex and Carol and I’m sure the two cats were listening too. Pretty wee things that reminded me of Tibby.

After an hour or so I drove home and took a detour in the direction of Lenzie to a wee draw in by the side of the road to get some test photos taken of a bit of farm land that looked like a promising photo opportunity. As it happened, the light wasn’t quite as good as I thought, but it did give me a chance to test out the Pentax 50mm f2 lens I’d splashed out some money on yesterday. I was surprised at the quality of what is really a kit lens, and not really all that well rated. Last night I was having ‘buyers remorse’, but today I was delighted. It’s circa 1995 vintage, so it’s manual focus, but I knew that and it’s also very compact, especially when it’s bolted onto the Sony A7. One of the Pentax’s shots became PoD. The storm clouds you can see from the PoD followed me home and didn’t drop any rain until I was safely in the house. Sitting in the living room I took a few shots of the raindrops on the leaves of Alec’s Red and they looked good too.

Scamp had roasted a chicken for dinner with roast potatoes and cabbage to go with it. It truly was the best chicken I’ve eaten for a long time. The pudding was rhubarb and apple crumble using our own rhubarb and apples. It too was delicious. Then it was time for the test. It was time to pack the dishwasher, slide in the washer tablet, choose the program and press the start button. Like new parents we watched the counter light up and listened to the water trickling into the reservoir, then it was off and running. We could leave it to do what it was bought for. An hour and a bit later it had washed all the dishes and they were drying. A sigh or relief all round!

We had a longer practise session than I’d intended tonight, but there were rough corners to rub off the new waltz and it’s dance night tomorrow, so Kirsty will be looking for mistakes, I’m sure. Finally I got a grip on things and worked out where I was and what came next. I think most of it was muscle memory, but internal clues helped too. Not least in the help category were Scamp’s whispered prompts. We might need a reminder tomorrow, but I think we’re good to go.

No plans for tomorrow. The weather fairies are warning of heavy rain and strong winds tonight and tomorrow morning.

Up Early – 18 September 2023

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The new dishwasher was being delivered today.

We got a message yesterday to confirm that the dishwasher would be delivered between 06:35 and 09:05 today. At 06:49 I got a phone call from the delivery guys to say that they’d be arriving in about 10 minutes. The removal of the old dishwasher and the connection of the new one took less than 15 minutes, and that included a short demo and a test of the water feed and the drainage. We were the first delivery for these guys and they’d another 27 to get through today, and today was fairly light day apparently.

With the new machine working we could settle down to breakfast. Then a quick wash of a few cups, plates and cutlery. The big bonus of this washer was the countdown timer. No more having to guess how long it had been on and how long we’d need to wait before the red light went out. The down side ( there’s always a down side, isn’t there) was that the baskets that hold the plates are quite flimsy. Swings and Roundabouts.

Fed, watered and with Wordle and Spelling Bee done, we were looking at a miserable day and no idea what we were going to fill it with. Scamp said we needed Messages and I suggested Stirling, rather than Tesco. That’s where we went.

The further north-east we went the better the weather looked. In fact the woman on the checkout in Waitrose was voicing lyrical about the sun shining and wished us a good day in the sun. We’d parked at Waitrose and walked in to Stirling town. Scamp was looking for a birthday present and I was just looking for lunch. She found what she was looking for and in the same shop I found an Aladdin’s Cave. Three big display shelves filled with old cameras, lenses and projectors, all for sale. Talk about “a wean in a sweetie shop!” I didn’t know where to look first. I did see one standout piece of old glass. It was a Pentax 50mm f2 K mount lens. I didn’t have a K mount adapter to allow it to fit on a Sony camera, but when I was crowing to Alex about this find, he casually mentioned that he had what I was looking for, so I’m hoping to drive over to Motherwell tomorrow to borrow it. It seems that the whole photographic collection belonged to one man. I don’t know what the back story is, but I’m looking forward to finding out.

We filled a trolley in Waitrose and packed all the bags into the boot of the wee Blue car, then drove back through the wild weather to Cumbersheugh. I hadn’t found a PoD today in Stirling, but I thought I’d manage to get some shots down by the Luggie Water and that’s where today’s PoD came from. It’s the old railway bridge over the Luggie. Still carrying the Glasgow bound railway.

Scamp picked the rest of the apples from the James Grieve tree and we now have a fair supply of them in the fridge and in a big stainless steel bowl. I’m not sure what her plans are for them, but I’m sure she will have something organised.

We had a quick dance practise tonight and managed to get through the entire waltz from Kirsty’s class. Hope it stays in my head until Wednesday.

Tomorrow I may drive over to see Alex, but it depends on the weather.

What a glorious day! – 17 September 2023

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Yes, that was meant to be sarcastic. The rain started this morning, an extension of yesterday’s deluge and forgot to stop, it seemed.

The furthest I went was a drive to the shops, not even a walk. There wouldn’t have been any joy in a walk and no point from a photographic point of view.

Toast and beans for lunch and dinner was an oven baked fish risotto, the drive to the shops was to get the fish. The good thing is that the oven does all the work, as I’ve said before.

We watched what turned out to be a quite exciting Singapore GP and that was NOT meant to be sarcastic. The race kept us in suspense right up to the end, a tension only released when George Russell crashed out on the last lap. Oh dear, what a shame (back to sarcasm!)

Jamie phoned just as the race finished and we talked about their holiday in Wales. Hope they have some decent weather for that.

I did manage to get a PoD. It was taken in the rain and is a Fuchsia, a purple and white one tucked away in a corner of the garden.

Hopefully our dishwasher will be delivered tomorrow. But the message from Currys is that it will be delivered and fitted between 6.35 and 9.05AM tomorrow. I can’t remember when we last had to be up at 6.35am. Probably the last time we went on a cruise, many months ago!

Other than overseeing the installation, we have no plans for tomorrow, although the weather looks better than today.

Old Glass and the Owl Woman – 16 September 2023

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Today we drove over to Klondyke at Falkirk for the worst lunch in living memory.

Actually the garden centre is really good. Plants all look good and are reasonably priced, but we thought we’d try their lunches. Scamp ordered her favourite test piece, Mac ’n’ Cheese. I wasn’t all that hungry (for once) and ordered Home made Pork & Leek Sausage Roll. What arrived after about half an hour was a sloppy looking macaroni in a tasteless white sauce and a giant sausage roll that had been microwaved. I’m the first person to say that I’m not a chef, but I know you don’t microwave flaky pastry. It just isn’t flaky after that kind of treatment, but obviously the ‘chef’ was oblivious to that. The ‘meat’ inside the inedible wrapping was almost as bad. My advice if you fancy stopping there for lunch? Don’t, just don’t. If you want some plants, fine, just don’t eat there. You’ll only regret it.

We did buy a couple of plants, because it only seems to be the restaurant that’s affected by the lack of culinary knowledge. The plants are fine. We took away a batch of pansies and a new Japanese Anemone and since the Kelpies are nearby, we went there for our second, and edible, lunch. A scone each and two coffees with a view out at the horses looking sparkling in the sunshine. A walk around the Kelpies and a few photos taken. One with old glass, the eleven year old E-PL5 with the squeaky 20mm Panasonic lens. One with the cantankerous 28-70mm kit lens on the A7iii. Nothing is perfect in my photographic repertoire! The Old Glass shot of pansies taken at Klondyke won the day and that became the PoD.

We finished off our lunch with an ice cream ‘Boat’. A plastic boat with two servings of Mr Whippy ice cream and one chocolate flake to share. While we were consuming this dessert, a man and a lady walked past and the lady had an owl on her arm. A real owl clasping the gauntlet on her hand. It was interesting to watch the looks on folks faces as they did the ‘second look’ thing and then turned to look at a woman with an owl on her arm. We just spent a few minutes trying to outdo each other with jokes about the “Owl woman”. Which, if you’re Scottish (or Irish) translates as “Old Woman”. Oh what childish fun we had at her expense. Of course, all the time she was preening herself for being the centre of attention, while the owl just looked superior and blinked … as owls do. Said goodbye for a while to the big horses and drove home.

Back home, Scamp was deadheading more of the flowers while I repotted the sad looking Berberis plants that were looking a bit sad.

Dinner tonight was a Spice Tailor almost instant Goan prawn curry which no doubt Delia would say was nothing like what a Goan curry would taste like. It was certainly better than a dodgy Mac ’n’ Cheese or a nuked sausage roll.

Watched an ‘interesting’ Singapore GP where neither of the Red Bull cars made it to Qualifying 3. That means they’ll be in he middle of the pack and will have to prove their prowess. Some folk are just getting too big for their boots. The signs that Xmas is on the way is that the days are getting shorter, the temperature is dropping and Strictly is starting its annual run. Tonight was that night. Oh what fun it was to see all the hopefuls finding who their dance partners would be. I wonder who’ll be first to go.

We have no plans for tomorrow. It took a long time for the sun to come out of hiding today and it might take longer tomorrow. Some rain predicted.

Two new cameras – 15 September 2023

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Well, not exactly new, but not been used in a very long time, so maybe nearly new.

<Technospeak>
Scamp was out keeping fit in her FitSteps class and I was looking for an SSD I’d misplaced. I eventually found it, but not where I thought it would be, and in the process I came upon two old cameras I hadn’t used in a very long time. One, the E-PL1 is really ancient at 13 years old and beginning to show its age. The other, the E-PL5 is 11 years old and still going strong. Both are based on the four thirds system where the proportions of the length to the height of the images is in 4:3. Both have much smaller sensors than my full frame camera, and for that matter my APS-C camera, but today I got them both working and producing some decent images. The E-PL5, especially, would make a decent pocket camera with a couple of compact lenses. I was quite chuffed with that Friday morning’s work. Not sure Scamp agreed. She’d much rather they were consigned to the bin, but she doesn’t get a vote in the photography stakes!
</Technospeak>

Lunch was a Piece ’n’ Banana each, then I went out to get the makings of tonight’s dinner which turned out to be a disaster. We’d made it last week and it ended up a claggy mess. Tonight the result was the same although we had the correct ‘Skin on – Bone in’ chicken thighs and were using paella rice instead of orzo. We hardly ate any of it and settled for a bag of M&S puffy crisps instead. I think we’ll just cut that page out of the magazine and burn it. Such a waste of good ingredients.

While I was waiting for the oven to warm up so that I could start the Disaster Dinner, I watched two blackbirds and a starling stripping the rowan berries from the tree in the back garden. What was I thinking? I had no PoD and here was not one, but two perfect subjects. But alas and alack, when I returned with the camera, they had gone. I waited a while and when they didn’t return I put the chicken in the oven to roast. Then I saw a thrush wandering around the garden, possibly scrounging the rowan berries the other birds left behind. I didn’t think twice and took a series of shots on an old manual focus Tamron 70-300mm (that’s long) lens and with a bit of work in Photoshop, ON1 2023 and Lightroom that became PoD.

After we shared the washing up we discussed plans for tomorrow because it’s a Saturday without an early rise to drive to Brookfield. As usual if and where we go will depend on the weather. I might even take one of my new cameras!

An hour on the moor – 14 September 2023

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Scamp was off to meet Mags today for lunch and I chose to go to Fannyside to check for swallows.

As I’m sure I’ve said before on the blog, it’s easy to tell when the first swallows arrive in my neck of the woods, but it’s far more difficult to remember when the last swallow left for warmer climes. Fannyside is a great place for birdwatching and I did see one swallow or maybe a swift, it was quite far away and travelling fast. Anyway it was one of those two, I’m sure. Just one swallow. It doesn’t make a summer.

The weather was not very summer like either. Strong west wind buffeting the clouds around and drawing the occasion rain shower from them too. I parked in my usual place and took a walk up to East Fannyside farm where today’s PoD came from. As usual, it’s a combination of two images. One for the sky and one for the landscape, merged in Photoshop. Not too difficult. Levels and toning done in Lightroom afterwards.

On that subject there is a new version of Photoshop just being advertised in the last few days with built in Generative Fill which is Adobe’s attempt at AI. It allows you not only to edit images, but to ‘paste in’ images from an Adobe database. You can even write a script explaining what you want to add and where. I can’t see me using this AI tool, but I’ve said that before about other innovations and had to eat my words later and adopt them. I’ll wait and see.

We did have a short practise tonight. Mainly the last section of the dance that we finished last night. The videos we took are a boon to working your way through the dance language and finding out what exactly is going on. Watching Kirsty’s demonstrations makes the dance look really strange, but once we partner up it all makes much more sense. It is such a pity that Kirsty doesn’t have a permanent dance partner like Stewart & Jane do.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending going to FitSteps. I may practise some drawing.

Lucky 13th – 13 September 2023

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Not very lucky, though!

The Dishwasher Man arrived right on time and started by asking when we last cleaned the dishwasher. I told him we’d run the cleaner just the other day, but then he cut me off and showed us the muck that had gathered round the seals, especially at the bottom. This he said was the probable cause of our problem. And, give him his due, he got down to it with a scrubbing brush and a bucket of water and by the time he was finished the inside of the dishwasher was shining. He pressed the start button and after about five seconds the “Check Water” light came on. An hour and a half later he admitted defeat and told us the problem was most likely in the PCB at the head of the machine and that meant it was time to replace rather than repair. We paid him his call-out fee and I knew Scamp was aware of the path this conversation was taking and had been teaching for prices for a new dishwasher.

Also, while the work was going on, Hazel had phoned and was waiting for a call back to say we were free again. We spoke for a while and heard about the decision Neil and her had taken about the Deaconship. Probably now what either of them had wanted, but they were being realistic about the situation and giving up the plans for the deaconship was the sensible solution. We also talked about weddings and the need for a new dress and shoes. I say ‘We’, but I mean Scamp and Hazel, of course.

After we’d put the kitchen back together again, we drove over to Coatbridge to see what Currys had on offer. Not a lot was the answer. They had three slimline dishwashers that would fit into our tight little kitchen, with prices ranging from around £250 to over £500. We’d hoped for a better selection, so drove over to Bishopbriggs. After driving through the stupidest signage ever at roadworks we found that we had four choices with roughly the same price range. After a coffee and a bite to eat in Costa that served as lunch we came to the final decision that was a Hotpoint. Not the cheapest, but certainly not the dearest! Hopefully it will arrive some time on Monday. Until then it’s basins and soapy hands!

Tonight was the new dancing night and I was actually looking forward to it. The practise sessions at home over the last week had helped greatly. Before we got started a girl came over and said “It is you!” She had worked at the office in the school and for some reason, her name jumped into my head. We talked about folk we had known, some good ones, some not so good.
The dancing tonight was the final part of the four week set of Waltz Nioli and with at least one tricky bit, may need more ‘home schooling’ to get it polished up for next week.

I didn’t have very much chance to take photos today, so today’s offering of PoD was a sunflower growing in a pot in the back garden and living up to its name!

Tomorrow Scamp is meeting Mags for lunch and I’m hoping it stays dry enough for me to get some decent photos.

The Black Dragon – 12 September 2023

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After yesterday’s adventures in Glasgow, today was quite relaxed.

Quite relaxed, that is until the dishwasher started acting up again with the water problems we had last week. I phoned the dishwasher repair man and got a call back from his partner to say he could come out to have a look at the machine tomorrow morning. That was better than I’d expected and I quickly agreed.

Scamp and I signed an agreement with Andrew, the man from Falkirk and she went out to post it while I hoovered the living room. That took us up to lunch which was bread and cheese.

After lunch I restarted work on Inktober 2023. The prompts for which are now available online. Nothing greatly exciting this time, and some vague ones, but I’ll try to get by with some lateral thinking.

More washing was hung out to dry in a quite warm gentle breeze. The temperature when I was making breakfast in the morning was 10.1ºc, but the afternoon sun had lifted that a fair bit, but nowhere near last week’s heights.

I took the A7 out with the heavy 105mm macro lens to see if there were any interesting insects about. I did manage to capture a Black Darter dragonfly which was a bit skittish to begin with, but settled down on an old tree branch that had been stripped of its bark. That gave it the chance to heat up in the sun and thereby producing a source of heat for the dragonfly to soak up. One shot of the black darter became PoD. It’s an enlarged image, something that ON1 2023 does very well. I liked the way the insect’s distorted shadow draped over the old tree branch. I don’t know if you can see, but the forewing nearest the camera has a big chunk ripped out of it, possibly the result of a fight.

Another short practise to try to hammer the new Wednesday Waltz into my head.  The more of these short sessions the better.  Too much just seems to prevent it from sticking.

That was about it for a normal Tuesday. Now we’ll need to wait and see how much the dishwasher repair is going to cost us.

Out on the town – 11 September 2023

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We were going in to Glasgow today for lunch.

Scamp had given me an Itison voucher a week or so ago, and today we were using it to have lunch in Cafe Andaluz in St Vincent Place. There was no way I was driving in today, and we weren’t taking the X3 either. Instead we got the number 435 Canavan’s bus from outside St Mo’s school to Croy station, then caught the train in to Glasgow. Scamp wanted to get vacuum seal bags from a shop in the town and I wanted to get new pens to encourage me to prepare for Inktober. We ended up getting a few more things, but we did get the bags. Then we walked down to Argyle Street to get the morning coffee in Nero. While we were in there I saw a print on the wall of a mechanical technical drawing, a stepped section, it’s called too awkward to explain and of little interest except to me who had to teach folk how to draw it, but more important, how to visualise it. High flown stuff for a Monday morning.

We wandered round M&S with Scamp trying to encourage me to get a new jersey, but nothing took my fancy. Walked up Queen Street and, while Scamp went looking for shower gel and fancy chocolates, I bought a couple of Tombow Fudenosuke brush pens and a book about sketching architecture from Cass Art. Then we met up again in Buchanan Street and wandered around Buchanan Galleries until it was time to go the Cafe Andaluz.

We had a glass of Sangria each as a starter. The food was lovely 5 tapas dishes to share, I think my favourite was the prawns that Scamp ordered, my next best favourite was Albondigas, which is spiced pork & beef meatballs in a tomato sauce. Unfortunately the Spanish black pudding with apple chutney we were both going to have was finished. However we did enjoy the meal and then Scamp noticed two mojitos going out to a table and decided she’d have one. I asked if they could make a barraquito and the girl taking the order just said “Yes!” Would it be the same as I’d had in Tenerife, I asked myself as I waited. It certainly was, in fact it was in a bigger glass and tasted even better. It’s an alcoholic drink made with layers of Condensed Milk, Licor 43, Espresso and Foamed Milk with a sprinkling of cinnamon on top. It honestly seems a shame to stir it up and drink it. Scamp’s Mojito seemed a bit of a disappointment, being not as alcoholic as some she’s had.

We walked back to the station and realised we’d just missed the train home, but Scamp sat and waited while I went out to take some photos. As I was walking out of the station a woman stopped to ask me what the building was in the square and I explained it was Glasgow City Chambers and told her my brother says it’s beautiful inside and if she gets a chance to visit it, she should. She and her friend were going on a Hop On – Hop Off bus the next day and she said she’d ask the driver. That was my good deed for the day. PoD turned out to be a photo of the inside of the busy station which might have taken a long to build, but is so much lighter and airier than its predecessor.

We got the fast train to Croy, walked across the road and got the bus back to St Mo’s school then walked the rest of the way. 10,171 steps so far today and counting. For some reason, typing doesn’t generate steps. The old Fitbit did record key presses as steps!  We did record some steps in the evening with a practise session of the new Wednesday night waltz. Mystifying and confusing steps for me. Apparently devised by an Australian, which might explain everything.

That was a quite excellent day in Glasgow. It did rain today, but not very heavy rain and thankfully it waited until we were in the restaurant.

We have no real plans for tomorrow, but apparently hoovering may be on the cards.