Author: Zogman

Little bits of snow on the breeze – 7 February 2021

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Not real snow. Not flakes of snow or blizzards, but what my mum used to call ‘Piling Snow’.

Piling snow is more like hail than snow. It’s usually the precursor to ‘real’ snow, but not today. Today it was just piling snow all day. Like little soft pills of snow. Not hard like hail, but soft and spongy like those little expanded polystyrene balls that get everywhere. Piling snow gets everywhere too, probably because it’s solid enough to bounce off the leaves of plants and soft enough not to break up when it lands. Strange stuff and it was there on the wind almost all day.

I eventually bowed to the inevitable and went for a walk in St Mo’s, but not before I made my bread from the Bread Baking Club, a present from my son and his wife. This bread was “Honey Wheat Baguettes”. Strange dough made from two types of flour, chocolate powder, coffee powder, dark brown sugar, honey, salt, butter and yeast. With it mixed, kneaded and proving I set off, wrapped up like Nanook of the North. I’d not idea what I was going to photograph today. With a cold east wind and the snow piling around me I did my best to find something interesting, but the best I could find was a little blob of moss on a tree trunk. I liked the colour and the detail in the tiny baby flowers. I also found an almost abstract collection of snow and ice on another bit of moss. The tree trunk moss won PoD the other is on Flickr if you’re interested.

Back home I baked the bread rolls in the oven once the chicken was roasted. The chicken looked delicious and it was. The nascent bread looked disgusting. I won’t tell you what it looked like! However, miracles do happen. They did happen in this case and the batch of rolls turned out very nice. Good texture and interesting taste. Even Scamp agreed and she doesn’t like honey.

Dancing class tonight was Mambo, Rumba and Jive with a bit of sequence Quickstep thrown in for good measure. Not bad in sixty minutes! We did a lot better this week, evidence that practise pays off, as does patience from Scamp. Thank you dear!

Spoke to JIC later on the phone and heard about his long term plans which sound interesting to say the least. Also, it’s even colder down south than up here.

Sketch for today was “Fishing Boat”. I’m not a very nautical person. The nearest I’ve come to a fishing boat was cod fishing on a wee boat from Troon many, many years ago. However thanks to Wikipedia image searches, I present to you the good ship INK 1125 sailing from a port near you … wherever you are.

That was about it for today. Hopefully the weather will get its act together by tomorrow and decide if it’s going to snow or not. Personally I’d prefer Not, but I don’t get to choose. We’ll take what we get.

An improving picture – 6 February 2021

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It was actually dry when we woke today.

We’ve had so much rain recently, it was quite a surprise to look out of a window without raindrops on it. Even when Scamp announced she was going to walk down to the shops to get tonight’s dinner, it was still dry. I wasn’t going. I was staying to work on tonight’s sketch which involved people, or at least a person and I really need the practise in people drawing. When she returned, she reported that there was a bit of rain in the wind, but nothing like the last few days.

After lunch I went for a walk round St Mo’s. ‘Round the Policies’ as Colin would say. Just checking out the usual photo spots to see if there was anything worthwhile. I did see a crocodile, actually a log lying low in the water with two branch stubs that looked like eyes. Well, it looked like that to me. I thought it might make PoD, but a bit of chimping dispelled that thought. No, PoD went to some green blobs. Fruiting bodies of moss. I can’t remember when I first saw the ‘Green Blobs’, but it was many years ago and they were growing on a low tree branch. They are the most remarkable things and only really visible when you look carefully and it helps to be looking through a macro lens. With a potential PoD and a crocodile, it was time to head home.

Dinner tonight turned out to be, not the chicken that Scamp had lugged up from the shops, but a veg curry made from a Spice Tailor kit. It tasted brilliant, really superb. Scamp made it, that’s why.

With that done and the PoD sorted, I started making more detailed preparatory drawings for “Dance”. Finally got one I liked and laid on a few washes. It started to come together and that’s what went on display around the world on Facebook tonight. I know it’s not perfect, but it gives the feeling of movement, I think. That’s what I was aiming for.

Well, it stayed dry almost all day today but it’s to be much colder tomorrow if the weather fairies are to be believed. We’ll wait and wonder.

Rain again – 5 February 2021

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We went for a walk anyway. Just a fairly short walk, because the rain got heavier and more persistent.

It was just a walk around St Mo’s pond …in the rain. However, we are lucky, as Scamp keeps telling me, to have the opportunity to walk somewhere nearby with a different view from the one out of our windows. Just once round today was enough because in that time we were soaked and I’d a few things to do. I took a photo in the pouring rain and that became PoD, mainly because it was the only PoD! I did a bit of editing to it before I deemed it good enough for public consumption. Little things, like changing the sky and adding digital rain to the sky. Little things!

I had meant to write to Margie after our phone conversation the other day, so I made time for that after lunch and sent her copies of the first four sketches of the February series. Then I doodled my thoughts on today’s prompt which was “Under Water”. None of them really looked worth progressing with. Then I tried the same idea from a different viewpoint and that was a much better picture. As usually happens, that rough pencil sketch got ink added and then some watercolour and it became the finished article. Yes, I know it’s still a bit rough, but l prefer that look, rather than yesterday’s overworked sketch. Loose, that’s the word I’m looking for.

I recently bought a DTP program and yesterday I downloaded an update for it which had a few neat tricks added, so I watched a video on how to do mail merge using it. Dearie me, that must have been the least clear, most complicated tutorial I’ve ever seen. I came away knowing less than I did when I started. I even watched it again after I’d had a cup of strong coffee, but it made no difference. It was as if I was watching a technical explanation in a different language. Worse still, the video was out of sync with the soundtrack, so it was difficult to see exactly what the disinterested lady was talking about. Great program, poor tutorial.

That was about it for today. Hoping the weather improves a bit tomorrow so we can get out somewhere for a walk in the dry.

How much more rain is up there – 4 February 2021

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I don’t know how much more there is in the clouds, but a lot of it fell today. All day!

It just never stopped today. Rain, rain and more rain. We spoke to Hazy on the phone for half an hour in the morning. Found out, among other things, that Neil D was doing a virtual parents night last night and has another one tonight. Tonight’s one has every slot filled. So that’s probably about two hours of non-stop talk. Rather him than me.

I was just getting ready to brave the elements and go out to shops after lunch when Fred phoned. I realise now I should have just gone and chatted with him on my rainy walk, but I’m an auld guy and I despise these youngsters who wander around shouting at the top of their voices, apparently to nobody. Maybe they are talking on their phones through the tiny mike on their headphones, maybe they are just pretending they have friends when they have none. It’s even harder to decide what’s going on when they’re wearing ‘Real’ wireless headphones that dangle like little white earrings and have no white cord connecting them to a phone. Anyway, you weren’t going to catch me doing that sort of thing, so I told him I’d phone him back.

Actually it wasn’t too bad walking in the rain. I quite enjoyed it, although I didn’t have a chance to take any photos. I did try, but it was impossible. Tomorrow’s prompt for EDiF is “Underwater” and that’s what today’s PoD would have been if I’d taken anything. As it was, I chose to walk home and photograph something at home. That something turned out to be a Delphinium flower. One of many in the bouquet we got on Saturday. I quite liked it and thought it looked like a nursery rhyme flower fairy. Scamp saw a unicorn in it. I wonder what you’ll see.

I did phone Fred, but he was busy at the time and didn’t pick up. He phoned back later in the evening and we had a good natter about painting and Landscape Artist of the Year with judges that were basically talking out of their collective backsides, although Fred used more pointed language!

I was late starting today’s sketch although I’d worked it out in my head before I started, The topic was ‘Winter’. I think it looks a bit twee, but some of the painting is ok. It’s done and posted in time and that’s the main thing. Tomorrow I’ll start early and get the drawing/painting done in daylight. That’s what I said I’d do today, but there just wasn’t enough daylight to draw by!

More rain and snow forecast for tomorrow. After that it dries up a bit, but it gets a lot colder too. You just can’t win at this time of year.

Paid back – 3 February 2021

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Yet another dull day, but no snow, well not yet anyway.

My task for today apart from painting grapes for EDiF and 28DL was to spend £25 of my first £50 on food for the food bank in Tesco. We had both agreed at the start of the Covid survey that half our ‘payment’ for doing the survey would go to buying food for a food bank. The easiest way to do that was to buy food with the voucher in Tesco and put it into the in-store box for the local food bank. It makes sense to us.

So before lunch, I drove up to Tesco to spend some money. I managed to spend almost exactly the value of the voucher. It felt good to just lift some essentials and put them in on side of the trolley while my own shopping went in the other half. As well as essentials I put in some other wee things too, like a bottle of HP Sauce and a bag of coconut snowballs. Man cannot live by bread alone, and neither can families. I think I surprised the lady at the checkout by dumping almost all the food in my trolley into the food bank box after I’d paid for them. She shouted after me “Thank you! Thank you very much!” That made the day feel better, that and having done it. Spending money that I’d decided wasn’t mine to keep.

Back home, lunch was a bowl of soup and a “Fish Finger Sandwich”. A delight I’ve only recently discovered. Two fish fingers in a sandwich with tomato ketchup! If you haven’t tried it, you don’t know what you’re missing! Put fish fingers and plain bread on your shopping list. You won’t regret it.

Our appointment for the Covid survey today, our last weekly one, was for 3.30pm and after a long phone call with Margie who is a member of Gems and a fellow painter (can a lady be a ’fellow’?). Anyway after the phone call I put my boots on and walked out into the rain to see what St Mo’s had to offer. Not a lot actually, but I got a weird photo of a beer can fixed on a tree branch. Why would anyone do that? I know it’s just plain vandalism, but if this were in an exhibition in the GOMA it would be called an installation and be praised by those who also praised the Emperor’s New Clothes. Anyway, it made a ‘different’ PoD.

After dinner which was a new take on Fish ’n’ Chips, Scamp’s version, sautéed potatoes instead of chips, probably healthier and certainly just as tasty after this meal I started on today’s prompt. At Tesco this morning I’d bought a bunch … or two (just in case), one red and one green. The green grapes won, mainly because the red grapes were sweeter and are now nearly all gone. That’s why I like painting fruit, you can eat the evidence.

No plans for tomorrow. The weather fairies seem undecided as to whether we’re getting snow or rain. It will probably be that delightful mixture, sleet. If it’s dry we’ll probably go out for a walk. If not we won’t. Isn’t life delightfully simple sometimes.

A stay at home day – 2 February 2021

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It started as a dry day, but that didn’t last too long.

The rain started about 11am and never really went away all day. A cold wind was building from the east and we made the decision to stay at home today.

After lunch I made a pot of soup and against Scamp’s better judgment, added a tin of mixed salad beans to it. She had wanted Canellini beans instead, but it was too late, the beans had been cast (into the soup). As it turned out, the salad beans were a bit tough, but worked out well. They provided texture and a little extra fibre.

Today’s sketch request for ‘Every Day in February’ was Black Cat and I thought I’d found a decent photo of one on Wikipedia, but then I remembered I had a photo of the cat that lived with Hazy and Neil D, Brandy. Found the photo and decided that it would do nicely. I didn’t have a PoD either, but I didn’t want to do another flower photo, so instead it would have to be The Weemen. This time it was a return to the jungle with the Professor and, because the Munky is now lost, it was the turn of the Pandy to become the star. That’s what the PoD is all about!

It was getting late when I started the painting of Brandy and although I got a fair likeness, I wasn’t happy with it, so I started again with a pencil sketch. Halfway through it was going well, so I added some pencil shading to finish it. I was quite pleased with it and it got Scamp’s approval too. More importantly it got Hazy’s seal of approval.

We had a quick practise of the rumba routine and fitted it to the tune we’d been learning it from after Stewart sent us the music. I won’t say we were perfect, but we were a lot better than on Sunday.

Later we reminisced over cruise photos from 2010 on the Thomson Dream. It wasn’t the prettiest ship, but for the most part we had a good time on it. It’s now gone to meet its maker I believe.

The wind is getting up now and it’s still raining on and off. Warnings of snow tomorrow. Nic the Chick is hinting that schools may restart after the end of this month. I’m sure that will be a relief to many parents and all teachers.

I don’t know what we’ll wake to tomorrow, rain or snow, but we have our last weekly test booked for tomorrow afternoon, so walks, photos and sketches will have to be planned round that.

Pencils, paints and brushes – 1 February 2021

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February and two sketching challenges begin today.

Another day in the frozen north. No snow, just frost on the cars. We didn’t need to go out, so we stayed in until we were sure that things were warming up, then we made our move.

We were heading down and round Broadwood today. The main paths were mostly clear and thawing nicely, but in the shade of the trees round the boardwalk at Broadwood the ice was as treacherous as usual. Today’s PoD was taken from there. It looks like the whole loch is just one big sheet of ice, but five minutes away, round the corner it’s open water. Strange. We watched a Goosander slipping and sliding on the ice trying to grab what appeared to be a piece of lemon.  It eventually gave up and went back to fishing. Thankfully round the corner the paths were much clearer. We walked our usual route round the end of the loch and on over the dam then down near Blackwood and back up to the stadium. That took us neatly to the shops. I was the only one carrying money, so I got to go to M&S to get veg for tonight’s dinner and a loaf.

Back home and after lunch I got a call from Colin to reassure me that he was keeping fine, with a bit of a chest infection, but definitely ONLY a chest infection. He’d been to see two doctors on Zoom or something like it and they had prescribed an antibiotic which he says is working. It must be cold today because he said he was going to work in his big heated greenhouse, but ended up coming back into the house for a heat. While we were talking he was watching his wife going for her second circuit with the dog “Round the Policies” as he puts it. A walk round his enormous garden. We chatted for a while about things in general and commiserated with each other for holidays lost and cancelled and agreed to keep in touch.

Ray was the only one of the Auld Guys who still hadn’t replied to my email from last week, so I phoned him, or tried to. The phone rang for about seven rings then stopped and a lady’s voice told me “Thank you. GOODBYE!” As abruptly as that. No chance to leave a message. Strange. I checked on the computer if I had the correct number, but it was. I thought I’d leave it for a while and phone later.

Dinner tonight was Chicken stuffed with spinach and wrapped in Parma Ham with oven roasted chips (home made). A Scamp creation which went down very nicely. Pudding was Cherry Crumble. Again, from Scamp’s fair hands. Equally delicious. Then the phone rang. It was Ray. Great to hear his voice. We discussed phones, RSPB Garden Bird Watch and how boring life is now. He’s a bit put out, because Nic hasn’t sent him a letter with his vaccine appointment yet and I’ve got mine (strangely the same day as Colin’s wife’s – but in a different town). I suggested the lack of letter might have been down to him being English. He just harrumphed! We also agreed to keep in touch.

In the afternoon I put on the heater in my room and started on the first prompt for Every Day in February and 28 Drawings Later. The prompt was “Coffee”. I managed that, as you can see. Not my best, but I’m a bit rusty and also I couldn’t find my favourite ‘Sword Brush’. I’ve found it now buried under a pile of papers on the dining table. I’m hoping for a better result from tomorrow’s prompt.

That’s about it for today. A day with a walk, two contacts made and a coffee cup painted, not to mention that chicken with parma ham.

Tomorrow we have no plans, but snow is forecast for during the night, so we will be at the mercy of the elements again.

A day for recharging batteries – 31 January 2021

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After the biz of yesterday, we both agreed we needed a slower pace today.

We did think of going out for a walk in the morning, but although it was bright enough, it was cold and there was a scattering of snow on  the ground, so we talked ourselves out of it. I think I might have eaten just a little too much yesterday, so a light lunch was called for. On Friday I’d bought half a sourdough loaf I don’t really like sourdough bread to eat on its own, but toasted it is delicious, so we had scrambled egg on toast.

Feeling a lot better, I settled down to documenting yesterday’s highlights. My usual readers will probably have read all about it by now. Scamp was pruning the greenery that was covering some of the blooms we got yesterday and that made the display look even better. With photos and blog posted, I decided it was safe to go for a walk in St Mo’s. Nobody had moved from their parking spot today and I was loathe to give up my space and have to park by the side of the road when I got back from somewhere more interesting than St Mo’s. Besides, I’d left it a bit late and the light was already fading.

<Technospeak>
I walked round the pond, then out through the woodland looking for likely subjects. I wanted to try out a new focusing method on the Sony, called “Back Button Focusing”. I’d read about it before, but it seemed a bit complicated to set up although most photogs seem happy with the results. Basically, you nominate a button to be your focusing button and remove the shutter button’s ability to refresh focus. Then you can take your time focusing using the back button and when you’re happy, press the shutter to take the photo. It only took me about ten minutes to set it up and it did seem to work as described. I took some photos using it, but couldn’t work out how to return the setup to the camera default where a half press on the shutter sets focus. I decided the light was fading too much and I was almost sure I had at least one shot on the card that would make PoD, so I set off for home.  It had indeed worked. Most of the photos I’d take were solidly in focus. After re-reading the instructions I found the magic button on the camera that would not only return it to normal service, but could be used to switch on the Back Button Focusing again. PoD turned out to be a monochrome leaf dangling pitifully from a branch with new buds starting to form. The old and the new.
</Technospeak>

After yesterday’s overindulgence, tonight’s dinner was a much pared down affair. A simple Spaghetti a la Carbonara. It might have been even better if I’d cooked the spaghetti properly, but it was edible.

Dancing class tonight centred on the rumba routine we’d been learning and I’d been dreading. We had a practise before the class and it was going fine until the music started, then it went to pot. However by the end of the lesson it was looking and feeling much better. I actually enjoyed it.

Spoke to JIC and found out that Vixen now has an injured shoulder, caused, according to JIC, by her having two speeds, Full Ahead and Stop. After being out walks with her I can understand that.

A gentler G&T each tonight and an early(ish) bed again. Temperature is already heading towards zero. More snow predicted for tomorrow, the first day of February and the start of the 28 Drawings Later challenge on FB.

50 – 30 January 2021

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Today it’s exactly 50 years since we first met at our friends’ engagement party. That was a Saturday too!

It was cold and frosty with just the thinnest covering of snow, so it was boots and YakTrax just in case. Not a long walk today, just a couple of circuits of St Mo’s pond. I took the Sony plus kit lens and my old Sigma 105mm macro on the adapter. The Samyang 18mm is always in the bag. That covered all the necessary bases. Two circuits was what we predicted and that’s what we did. Cold, but not absolutely freezing. Most of the photography was of landscapes with the macro lens providing some arty-farty close ups. After lunch it was time for me to give a cursory glance at the photos and for us both to begin to prepared dinner and tidy up a bit.

Later in the afternoon a knock at the door signalled the arrival of a large box of beautiful flowers from Hazy, JIC, Neil D and Sim. (Alphabetical arrangements are always safest). To say we were taken by surprise is an understatement. It’s rarely Scamp or I are lost for words, but we were today. Thank you, you lovely people.

Dinner was a sit at the table affair and a full three course meal. We decided it would be appropriate to celebrate the fifty years since we met with a glass (or two) of Prosecco before dinner.

It began with a seafood starter. Mine being Prawn Cocktail and Scamp’s was Seared Scallops. Mains were Lightly Smoked Trout for Scamp and Sirloin Steak for me, served with potatoes. Dessert was Eve’s Pudding. All washed down with a very nice red wine. Music just had to be Songs of Leonard Cohen.

Later we tasted a bottle of Dark Matter (not the whole bottle, not yet anyway!). I had a small glass, neat and Scamp had her traditional Coke with her’s. Interesting taste of spice, something hot and treacle. We may need to try some more tomorrow, just to be sure. While sampling we watched a bit of TV and decided an early night would be best before the room started spinning too fast for us to find the door.

PoD was a landscape from the morning’s photo shoot.

Tomorrow will be the day of reckoning, I’m sure.

This, inevitably, is the catch-up write up.

The Golden Hour – 29 January 2021

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We were waiting for a parcel, a parcel for Scamp this morning. That and the fact it was raining meant we simply HAD to stay in.

Once the parcel had arrived, just after 11.30 we could safely have lunch without worrying about going to the door, with clown red mouth, to collect the parcel from the DPD, because it was tomato soup for lunch and it always gives me a clown red mouth. With the parcel safely delivered, opened and the contents tested (moisturiser and girlie stuff) and with lunch over, Scamp went out to post a letter while I footered about on the computer before getting my boots ready and going for carnivore food for tomorrow’s dinner. The pescatarian was having fish, of course. We almost passed like ships in the night, me going, her returning at the door. I took a detour and walked round the back of St Mo’s school on my way to the shops, hoping for something interesting to cross my path, but I came home with wet feet, two bags of messages and half a dozen uninteresting photos. However …

However, as I was coming home the sky was clearing and the rain had definitely stopped, so I quickly changed sox and boots and lenses and went out again with the short lens setup. Sigma 10-20mm on an adapter, standard kit lens and Samyang 18mm. The light responded happily to my change of kit. The low sun was shiny and gold and it was lighting up the trees beautifully. I took the shot, but knew it wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted a bit more drama and the best way to get it is to shoot into the sun. Forget the rule that says you should always have sun over your left shoulder. Rules were made for folk to break them. I chose a spot on the boardwalk that allowed me to shoot in to the sun and get a bit of reflection from the sky on the clear channels around the pond’s edge. About twenty photos later I came home much happier than I’d been coming home from the shops.

Photos roughly processed and favourites earmarked for further tweaking, I started the dinner. Dinner itself was easy, it was just a case of reheating yesterday’s curry, warming up the flatbread dough that was left over from last night and cooking the rice. We’d decided to have pakora as well as the curry, as a kind of starter. The last time I made it, I made too much and we ended up the starter became the dinner. Not so this time. Four mushroom pakora to share and about ten cauliflower pakora to share, not too big pieces either. It actually turned out quite good. I’ll never be able to make that batter again, because it was a bit of this, a bit of that and just enough sparkling water to make it sticky without being stodgy or runny. It was voted a success. A wee glass of cheap red afterwards sealed the meal.

Later in the evening a G&T while we watched the comedy show pretending to be a whodunnit called Death in Paradise. Worth watching just for the tropical views.

The picture of the Golden Hour (the hour just before the sun sets) got PoD. Old glass on a new camera.

Tomorrow we’re planning to go for a walk and later have a posh dinner in.