Blog

Out walking with my brother – 6 October 2021

Posted on by Zogman

My choice of venue today and I chose Chatelherault, because I can spell it without having to look it up!

Drove to pick up Alex in Motherwell and ended up sitting talking to him and Carol about lots of things, but most of all nothing to do with photography! Their grandson, Jack had been sick all night last night and was a bit disappointed he could come and meet me just in case he passed on his bug. Maybe next time. After an hour or so, Alex and I left to drive to the Chatelherault estate. It’s centered on a big house that stands on a hill looking over a great avenue of trees to the town of Hamilton. In fact it looks straight down to the mausoleum where the Duke of Hamilton, who owned the house, is buried. What a strange thing to do on a bright sunny summer morning, to look over where you know you will be interred!

It was the big house itself that was our first target and we took a few shots of it under a clear blue sky. Then some shots of the avenue with Hamilton in the background. Thanks to the amount of rain we’ve had recently the atmosphere was clear and cool with no mist of haze to spoil the distant view of Ben Lomond and The Cobbler. From the house we walked down to the Avon Bridge and what did I see there, but a kingfisher. Just a tiny wee spot, and just as I pointed it out, it flew off downstream. We both saw it and it couldn’t have been anything else. That bright iridescent blue is unmistakeable. We waited to see if it would return, but it never did. Such a shame. Too far away to get a photo, but we saw it, both of us saw it. First time ever for Alex and first time in about ten years for me.

We turned and walked back to the centre along the river walkway, swapping cameras as we walked. Alex got a chance to try out the full frame sensor of the A7 and also the neatness of the A6000.
Lots of folk running and cycling along the path and lots of things to photograph. Then it was a tough climb up never-ending steps to bring us back to the grassy banks of the estate.

Had lunch at the centre and then went for walk over The Duke’s Bridge to see the Cadzow Oaks. Ancient trees that have survived for thousands of years only to be burned by some morons. Such a shame. Then it was back to the big house for a last few shots in much better light than those we’d taken in the morning.

We both agreed that the next visit will be Alex’s choice and it looks like it will be in a couple of weeks and will be to Kelvinbrige in Glasgow, maybe with a visit to the Kibble Palace.

Scamp had been busy while I was away, planting Snowdrops and raking the grass at the front of the house. She’d also gone for a walk in the town centre and it confirmed her fears that it is falling into disuse. Plenty of nail bars and charity shops, but little else. A common complaint in Scotland.

Dinner was Giant Fish Fingers, Chips and Beetroot. Lovely food and just what I needed.

PoD was a picture of the big house and the formal garden framed by two giant yew trees with their strange red fruit looking like soft plastic or red pitted olives if such a thing exists. Sketch for today was Spirit, and I was thinking more about the alcoholic liquid spirit than the Woooo! kind.

Tomorrow we’re intending to go to another tea dance. Same venue as a fortnight ago. I did enjoy it, I just don’t know if my back will!

 

I’m late, I’m late – 5 October 2021

Posted on by Zogman

For a very important date!

We got a phone call when we were less than halfway to Falkirk, just checking that we were coming to the meeting with Andrew at 10am (it was now 10.05!). Scamp apologised and said we had thought the meeting was at 10.30. However, all the traffic lights we met, every one was at green, so we weren’t extremely late, but we were profuse in our apologies when we got to the office. We spent about an hour with Andrew and learned a lot about the state of global finances and although a lot of it went over my head I enjoyed his view on the state of the parties, political and otherwise. As we left, the great man asked if we were to spend some money in local businesses and we agreed that we were.

The business we went to was Torwood Garden Centre which is in Falkirk and therefore local. We had a quick lunch there and then went looking at plants. We were actually looking for Snowdrop bulbs for Scamp to plant in the front garden, but apparently the transport problems had reached as far as snowdrops bulbs according to the lady at the information desk. That’s the same story we heard at Calder’s last week too. Scamp did manage to find a geranium plant that she could find a place for and a new light ball to hang on the tree. We had done as Andrew had asked.

Back home I checked with Alex that tomorrow was still ok and it looks like it is. Later in the afternoon I took the A7m2 with the 50mm macro lens out to St Mo’s to look for mushrooms. I found a few likely subjects, but none that I hadn’t seen before. What I did find was a very furry caterpillar and that made PoD. Then, as I was heading home, I spotted a green and brown spotted dragonfly laying eggs in St Mo’s pond. Surprisingly it then started laying eggs on part submerged tree branches and also on the stonework of a little outfall from the pond. Later I identified it as a Southern Hawker. Apparently they are making their way further north these days. Another sign of Global Warming.

Dinner was Chicken Ramen with Rice Noodles. Quite tasty, quick and easy. Later we watched a Jamie Oliver program on a new way of making a quiche. We might just have a go at that.

Inktober prompt for today was “Raven”. It took me a long time to settle on a suitable sketch, but eventually I managed it with the help of a pencil, a fountain pen, a fineliner, a brush pen, a paintbrush and some black paint. A lot of tools for a simple sketch. Overkill I’d say.

Tomorrow I’m hoping for some decent sunshine to go taking photos at Chatelherault in Hamilton with Alex.

Choosing Shoes – 4 October 2021

Posted on by Zogman

“Bright shoes, white shoes, Dandy-dance-by-night shoes, Perhaps-a-little-tight shoes, Like some? So would I.”

Today we were driving to Rutherglen to get Scamp a new pair of dance shoes, or maybe a couple of pairs or maybe …

I had sent the directions to the Blue car last night and today, when we switched on the ignition it appeared to be there. However it was the directions to our house, from our house. That’s the thing about Nissan electronics. It’s actually Renault electronics and they are probably the worst in the world. So we found a place to park, put the postcode of the shop in manually and it grudgingly gave us directions. After that it got us right to the door of the shop, but there was nowhere to park, so I dropped Scamp off and went to park the car. Then see what the lady in the shop had found to show the dancer. Half an hour later we came out with two pink bags containing three pairs of shoes, all ladies shoes, all dance shoes and all with enough sparkles to light up a Christmas tree. She also had a big beaming smile.

We drove home because I just knew she would want to try them out, all three pairs, one at a time. I was thinking more about lunch. Yesterday’s shepherd’s pie leftovers reheated in the microwave fitted the bill. Then as Scamp went to start the ironing, I took my camera and drove to Fannyside Moor via Tesco where I got the essentials like milk and bread, also Boots where I picked up my meds.

The clouds were low when I got to Fannyside and a strong wind was tearing at them and driving them across the landscape. The afternoon sun was shining through the gaps in the clouds and lighting up areas of the fields and hills. My target for today was an old fencepost covered in Cladonia lichen which I’d photographed before. I took a few shots of it in flat lighting, but had to wait about half an hour before some glancing light added a bit to drama and form to the proceedings and that gave me my PoD.

On the way home my phone pinged a message from Alex confirming that Chatelherault on Wednesday would be a good choice, however his suggestion of meeting at around 10.30am was a little early for me, so I might have to discuss this with him.

Inktober prompt for today was ‘Knot’. A few thing had run through my head, but nothing had stayed for long. Then I had an idea of a piece of string tied round a finger as a reminder of ‘something’, yes, that would do. As it happened it was trickier to draw that I though it should be, but it’s done and in its place now.

Tomorrow we are intending to drive to Falkirk to see Andrew. A very clever man who wears the brightest of shirts and even gaudier socks. He works magic with graphs and numbers. I suppose he is a sort of magician.

The poem was by Frida Wolfe and I’m sure at least a couple of my readers will remember it.

Getting back to normal – 3 October 2021

Posted on by Zogman

After yesterday’s Dance Class, Cookery Class and late night, today was a chance to get back to normal.

A normal Sunday with sunshine to start with but we weren’t fooled. We knew it wouldn’t last and that rain would be on its way, sooner or later. It turned out to be later, much later and by that time Scamp had hung out some washing. She should have known that was the signal for the rain to start. Thankfully it didn’t last and the clothes just got an extra rinse … to two.

After lunch and with the weekend Sudoku done I doodled the Inktober sketch for today whose prompt was “Vessel”. With a few possible sketches done and now that the rain was tapering off to very occasional showers, I got booted up and went for a walk in St Mo’s. As I suspected, there were not many insects looking for a portrait session, but in the woods I did find quite a few bunches of fungi in a variety of forms, sizes and colours. They would have made PoD, but my eye and camera were drawn to a sprinkling of light across the pond and without the wherewithal to take a wide angle shot which would include some lovely clouds, I did what I usually do and hammered off six shots which I later got Lightroom to build into a decent vertical panorama, technically a Vertorama. That did win PoD.  With a little time to spare I drew the submission piece for Inktober ’21

Dinner tonight was Shepherd’s Pie. It’s ok, the shepherd doesn’t know we have it. They weren’t traditional shepherd’s pies either. Scamp’s was a purely vegetarian one with brown lentils taking the place of meat and mine was made with last week’s mince which had been chilling in the freezer and since it was beef mince, it wasn’t the traditional lamb for the pie. All that aside, we had two decent main courses preceded by Haggis Bonbons. Very cheffy and fairly easy to construct according to Scamp. Pudding was Ice Cream with Meringue Nests and Blackcurrant Syrup. A decent Sunday dinner almost all made from leftovers. Just shows what you can do when you have an imagination, especially an imagination like Scamp’s.

Spoke to Jamie later and found that the fuel embargo is beginning to lift down their way. Supplies are getting through and the tanks of cars are being filled again. No more news for there.

Tomorrow we may be going to Rutherglen to find at least one pair of lady’s dance shoes. No men’s shoes are required at this stage.

Tango and Rain – 2 October 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Dancing the Living Room Tango in a hall.

Dance class in Bridge of Weir this morning. Drive to the hall was easy peasy. No real traffic to speak of apart from one numpty who tried to overtake me on the inside and got quite upset when he found I wasn’t going to let him, and he had to pull in behind. I don’t think he was a happy driver.

We started with easy stuff, just to get our feet tuned in again after a week’s lay off. Then we began the Tango we’d learned from the Zoom classes. We did really well and we both agreed about that, even the teachers made very few changes to the way we were dancing it. The strange thing about it was in Lockdown we danced half of it up the living room, then half back down again. Today the teachers sort of unfolded it so we danced it as it should be danced, in a straight line. Then we had a break for a sequence dance that Scamp and I can do, but which evaded us, and a few others, before it all came flooding back. Next was Waltz and we did make a few mistakes in it. Most of the mistakes were mine. Forgetting to do heel leads when going forward and losing “The Frame”. If you watch Strictly, you’ll hear that referred to all the time. Another sequence dance to finish and we were allowed to go home … in the rain. A rain that didn’t stop until about 5pm.

I spent most of the afternoon doing Sudoku and playing catchup with Flickr and the blog. Finally the sun came out and I prepared to go for a walk. I was spraying some beastie repellant on my boots and trousers when I must have turned the wrong way and got a sharp pain in my back. I thought the walk would help work it out, but for once it didn’t seem to help. A hot shower and a couple of paracetamol did and I felt better after that. But it returned later in the evening. I’m hoping a hot shower and another couple of paracetamol will help me get a decent night’s sleep. PoD was an Osteospermum from the front garden covered in little water drops.

Tomorrow looks like being much the same as today. I’m hoping for a little bit more sunshine.

It’s all about the timing – 1 October 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Today we were cooking for our guests.

It seemed to take up almost all of the day. I was making mushroom soup and also tear and share bread. Scamp was in charge of the main which was spicy chicken, Swiss Roll and also ice cream. A bit of imbalance there, I know, but I didn’t mind doing all the difficult stuff. I was trying to get two things at the same time and that means two timers going at the same time. While they were ticking away, I was showering and shaving and almost managed to get that done before the timers ran out. Almost, but not quite. However both the bread and the soup worked fine and I didn’t cut myself shaving!

Scamp on the other hand seemed to float through the entire day. No panics, no problems with the timing, just cooking. That’s the difference between us as far as this is concerned. I’m firmly stuck in the “Time and Temperature” method, Scamp cooks by intuition and that’s a much more flexible way to do it.

The guests arrived just after seven and the food went down well, especially the Tear and Share and Swiss Roll. Then we had a few drinks and sat and talked all night.

In between the different cooking sessions I managed to get some photos in St Mo’s, but the light levels were low again. PoD was macro of a dandelion with the new lens. Nice detail, but very little shaping. Maybe we’ll get some sun tomorrow.

As you can imagine we didn’t get the dish washer loaded until so late it was early, so this is a catch up. Tomorrow is Saturday so that’s Dance Class.

 

 

 

Coffee at last – 30 September 2021

Posted on by Zogman

We were taking Isobel with us to Costa

Picked up Isobel in the village and drove to Costa where I met Val. Surprise, Surprise, Costa had coffee. Real coffee, not instant and not filter, but barista made coffee. Conversation between Val and I ranged over the usual wide range of subjects, tech subjects and photography subjects admittedly, but what else would you expect from us?

During the discussions I must have missed the email that had arrived to tell me when DPD were delivering my parcel. We drove Isobel home, Val was meeting his wife at Tesco, and then Scamp and I went to Calders to get some snowdrop bulbs. Unluckily for us the HGV drivers hadn’t been to Calders and there were no snowdrop bulbs to be had. I think half of Cumbersheugh must have been panic buying them during the week. It was while we were at Calders that I found the email and the second one to say that they hadn’t been able to deliver it because there was nobody in! I wasn’t in the best mood after that, but we drove to Tesco to get food for tonight and tomorrow’s dinner.

Drove home and went in the huff for most of the afternoon. The only thing that brightened my afternoon and brought me out from under my black cloud was a phone call from Hazy. Found out about the goings on down Epsom way. Good to hear that Grannie is in much better spirits, and yes, I will try to get the recipe for the bread to you soon. By the way, I don’t know if I said Hazy, but I used a credit from Audible to download Entangled Life and am quite addicted to Mr Sheldrake’s soporific voice reading his book to me. Also it means I don’t have to try to work out how to pronounce those big sciency words! I like that it’s a Jamie and Hazy collaboration.

After we’d finished talking to Hazy I discovered that my phone had received a message to say that I could now collect my DPD parcel from Matalan at The Shops. Jacket on, because it had been raining on and off all day, made sure I had the QR code on my phone screen and that I had photo ID. I’m going to a shop. I have to wear a face mask in a shop. What good is photo ID? They can only really see my bloodshot eyes! Anyway, I picked up then parcel containing a Sony 50mm f2.8 macro lens that weighs about a third of the weight of the Sigma 105mm f2.8 macro lens I’ve already got. There was almost no useful light to test it with tonight, but the few photos I took look like it was worth the money … and the wait.

Scamp was busy all afternoon making ice cream and yet another Swiss Roll. The ice cream is now in the freezer and the Swiss Roll has its chocolate ganache coat on and is in the fridge.

Today’s PoD is one of Scamp’s Lisianthus cut flowers, not to be confused with Lissajous which is a figure I met on an oscilloscope many years ago and nothing like the flower.

Tomorrow we are having Crawford and Nancy for dinner, so lots of prep to be done, which probably explains the ice cream and Swiss Roll.

Somewhere we hadn’t been for a while – 29 September 2021

Posted on by Zogman

That was what I said yesterday and that’s where we went today.

We left early and drove by M80, M8, M77 then off the motorway on to Nitshill Road to Rouken Glen.

We parked and went for a walk, but half the park seemed to be cordoned off with great barriers either being put up or taken down, it wasn’t clear until we read a notice that Boy George, Nile Rodgers and some other has-been pop stars had been performing at the park at the weekend. It even gave a timescale for the removal of the stages and the barriers. Now we understood why there was a covid rapid testing bus just outside the car park. Oh well, at least we didn’t come on Saturday and have to endure that noise!

We found or way around to the Meadows which is really just a big park with rough cut grass and some craggy boulders. Wild but in a ‘contained’ way. It’s always good to find a path you haven’t been on before and that’s what we found. The path took us around the perimeter of the park on the border between park and golf course. I found a few chessies that I’ll plant in a pot full of dry compost and leave them to overwinter in the greenhouse. By the spring they should hopefully be ready to plant out properly and hopefully some of Glasgow will grow in Cumbersheugh.

The path didn’t look as if it was taking us anywhere interesting, so we took a side path, there are lots of side paths to explore. Our path took us beside a burn and eventually brought us out at the waterfall. The water from the falls drops about five or six meters and flows out through a bridge under the path. The bridge had been plagued by padlocks for years, but was now clear with signs warning that padlocks would be removed and destroyed. However, the thoughtful council had built a “Padlock Wall” for people to put the locks on and still display their everlasting love for all to see. There must have been hundreds, if not thousands of padlocks of all shapes, sizes and colours. That photo made PoD.

Further on we found the boating pond with the Boathouse Cafe on the far side. That was our lunch venue. Two Fish Finger Sandwiches, one each. And there was that strange warning that they had no machine coffee, only filter! Why are coffee machines breaking down everywhere? I think the real reason is that you put a fair few spoonfuls of coffee into a filter machine fill it up with water and set it going. You can get a three or four times more cups of dodgy filter coffee from the the same amount of coffee beans that would produce one cup of barista produced espresso. It’s a fiddle and I blame Brexit.

After lunch with tea to wash the sandwiches down, we headed back to the car via the “Garden Centre” which was already “Beginning to look a lot like Christmas”. Heavens, we’ve not even had Halloween yet. In fact it’s only September!

Back home I took the bull by the horns and phoned EE. Was offered 2GB data for £9. Told them I could do better with Tesco. I got the usual spiel about Tesco being a supermarket and so on. He asked me what the Tesco deal was and when I told him he said he could better that. Long story short, I got a 12month contract for 11GB for £10, plus unlimited text and calls. Thought about it for a while then phoned back and sealed the deal. I could probably have held out for more, but why? I’ve not really had much bother with EE and I don’t need the faff of moving my number. Happy Bunny.

Scamp had closed one of our dormant bank accounts yesterday and in doing so lost her breakdown cover. Tonight she booked and 18 month cover with RAC. Cheaper than AA and not the same strings attached as with some of the cheaper companies. Happy Bunny.

Tomorrow we’re both intending to go out for coffee at Costa. Scamp with Isobel and me with Val. Parcel due for me from DPD tomorrow too. Hope it doesn’t clash, with the coffee and hope they actually have coffee!

A change of scenery – 28 September 2021

Posted on by Zogman

This was a lazy day and a wet one too.

Scamp was out meeting Annette for a coffee and I put some washing in the machine and set it to work while I worked upstairs. I removed the part finished pastel painting I’d been working on, because I wasn’t going to take it any further. It’s now pinned on the wall for appraisal.

Next task was to get my pens washed and primed ready for Inktober which is fast approaching. It’s a footery job. First you have to soak the nibs in a cleaning solution that has cleaned so many pens that it’s become 75% ink itself. Next that solution has to be washed out and the nibs dried. Finally I filled the pens with Higgins black fountain pen ink. My favourite drawing ink. Three pens are now ready to produce some excellent artworks, or failing that, my usual clumsy attempt at ink sketches.

The last task on my list was to produce a photo for the title page of this year’s Inktober group. The photography took about fifteen minutes, but trying to import the shot into Flickr is a nightmare. It tells you to drag the picture to your chosen position, but you can’t drag it. Actually it was fine where I’d put it, then when you save it, it changes the whole format of the title. It’s no use complaining to the staff on their badly named “Help” page. All they say is try to find a workaround. Excuse me, I’m paying for the privilege of finding my own workaround. That doesn’t seem like a good deal from my point of view. I get that the staff are actually unpaid volunteers, but who, then is collecting my subs every year? And what are they doing for that payment?
Answers, as always, on a postcard.

Maybe I was just in a bad mood because I found a tick on my arm this morning. A tiny little one that’s now a lot flatter than it was earlier on. I hate ticks.

With the pens washed, the title page finished and my anger abating, I hung out the washing and that was when Scamp returned. When we were having lunch some workies, who had erected scaffolding yesterday at a house across the road started stripping the roughcast off its gable end. The noise really got on my nerves, so I suggested we go out for a walk, and then noticed it was raining. Should I take the washing in, or let it have an extra rinse. “Leave it”, was Scamp’s suggestion as she started moving the furniture around. That’s the signal for a dance practise and that’s what we did for about half an hour, maybe not as long as that. It took my mind off the rain and the incessant hammering. Then the sun came out, so I got the Big Dog and a couple of lenses and went to take some photos down at Broadwood Loch. That’s where today’s PoD came from.

When I came home I made Carrot and Orange soup which was nowhere near as delightful as it sounds. Neither of us could agree on what was wrong with it, but we did agree that it wasn’t nice. Back to the drawing board. I’m thinking Carrot and Ginger or Carrot and Apple for tomorrow, perhaps.

Tomorrow we may go for a run somewhere we haven’t been for a long time. That’s all I’m saying just now.

I think it’s raining – 27 September 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Every time we looked out the window we said that.

I’d kind of thought of stripping out the old sealant from the shower cabinet and redoing it, but it might take a few days to get that done, so maybe next week.

Instead we say and watched the showers blowing in from the west, then the sun would come out for a short spell before the next wave descended. It seemed to go on like that all morning and into the afternoon. We needed milk, so necessity meant we needed to face the elements and walk down to the shops. That’s what we did and on the way back I took the diversion through St Mo’s while Scamp continued on to the house.

There wasn’t much going on in the park. Two folk were spinning for pike in the pond and catching nothing by the looks of things. I was taking some moody shots of cow parsley and tangles of weeds when the sun shone enough to illuminate them. I eventually settled on a plant of the pea family with one of its tendrils firmly attached to an old russet colour dried up weed. It was fascinating the complicated knot it had made to grip the weed. That became PoD. Actually it’s two shots blended in Photoshop to get sharp seed pods on the right and keep the weed on the left in focus. You don’t shot photos, you make them.

I’d been out for about an hour all in, Scamp a little bit less and it hadn’t rained in all that time. However I’d hardly sat down with a cup of coffee when the raindrops were hitting the window. Maybe we were just lucky today

I bought myself a new, well second hand, short macro lens. It won’t be the same quality as the big heavy Sigma lens, but it will be so much lighter that it will entice me to carry it about with me. It should work well with the light little Sony A6000.

Scamp’s hoping to go out for coffee (if there is any) tomorrow with Annette. I may stay in and watch the rain.