My Photo Blog

The Galleries and the Airies – 2 September 2016

Posted on September 2, 2016September 2, 2016 by Zogman

Scamp was out this morning having coffee with her niece. This gave me time to sit and swear at both WordPress and Galleria. WordPress provided the bad plugin I wrote about yesterday and Galleria is a gallery making piece of software I’ve use for a few years now. Galleria works well. WordPress works well. The problem is that they don’t work well together. This morning I made them both shake hands and play nice together. It took a lot of swearing and a fair bit of trial and error, but they did eventually produce a decent photo gallery in my WordPress blog. Like my pal Val says, it was “a wee challenge”. Now that I’ve managed to do it more than once, I’m quite happy to let it go and revert to the simple gallery I made last night. Time wasted? Yes, but a couple of lessons learned. You should learn something new every day.

In the afternoon, I started cutting down a rogue tree growing out of the wall at the corner of the back garden. Once I’d dumped the cuttings in the council dump, I went for a walk along the Luggie Water to find some photos. I had thought to go to the free day at the Scottish Airshow at Ayr, but it was the thought of standing in the rain watching for the ‘airies’ descending through the clouds and then disappearing again into them, wishing that it was a lovely sunny day with the ‘airies’ shining against a blue sky. It had rained on and off all day and there was no sign of a letup. With that said, we decided not to go. We should have, because at 4pm, the sky started to clear and the sun came out. Unfortunately the show was due to start at 5pm and it was too late for us to get ready and drive down to Ayr to see the ‘airies’. Oh well, a walk along the Luggie would have to do. I liked the light on the ‘Bucky’ bottle under the road bridge and with a bit of post processing the gigantic ‘rhubarb leaves’ looked quite impressive.

Don’t know what we’re doing tomorrow, because it looks like wall to wall rain.

Autumn – 1 September 2016

Posted on September 1, 2016 by Zogman

This is the meteorological first day of autumn, so the weather fairies say. Just thought you deserved that information. It was a bit cooler today, but not inordinately so.

On Saturday we had intended going to Tea Jenny’s for lunch, but for a variety of reasons, we didn’t manage it. Today, I suggested we remedy that and off we went to play the 500metre traffic light game and have our lunch in TJ’s. Luckily the traffic was a lot better today and we managed to pass the traffic light test quite quickly. Tea Jenny’s is simply a tea room in Falkirk, an old fashioned tea room with odd (as in random) china cups and teapots with hand knitted tea cosies. Although you can get a full lunch there, the main attractions are the soups and sandwiches, oh yes, and the gigantic meringues. None of these really hit it off for me. For me it has to be Stovies. If you don’t know what stovies are, then you almost certainly aren’t Scottish and will need to Google the word, because I’m not going to describe stovies. Everyone has their own version. Today’s stovies had potatoes, onion and sausage in it. It’s not as good as my mum made, nothing would be, but it ‘filled a wee space’ today. One of the attractions for us is the variety of tea cosies. Today’s candidates are shown above. The photo was taken by the best camera in the world, the one you have with you. In this case, my iPhone.

With my fingers firmly crossed, I’m going to say that I think I’ve solved the gallery problem. It looks like the problem was caused by a rogue plugin messing things up. The plugin has now been severely spoken to and has been banished to the ‘Deactivated’ box. It has also been grounded for the rest of the week.

Total abstinence is an impossibility – 31 August 2016

Posted on August 31, 2016 by Zogman

Not a lot to say about today, other than the six Auld Guys met up in the Horseshoe Bar for a few drinks, a cheap lunch, a few more drinks and a lot of good natured banter. It was great fun and for once there were no arguments, even when conversation turned to politics. The title of the blog post is one of the quotes painted, properly painted by a skilled signwriter on the inside of the gantry of the Horseshoe Bar. It’s attributed to Queen Victoria, but there is no proof that she drank in this pub.

From visiting one of the oldest pubs in Glasgow I had a look in one of the newest places, the Apple Shop in Buchanan Street. It only opened on Saturday after an eight month refit. It’s now much more open inside, but unfortunately they removed the glass staircase. Such a shame. It also looks as if they have removed the upper floor which housed the ‘Genius Bar’. That’s not such a big deal as I never actually found any ‘Geniuses’ there.

Only one photo today, there were more serious things on my mind today like a few drinks, a cheap lunch, a few more drinks and a lot of good natured banter. The building is the Premier Inn which, like the Apple shop was recently renovated. In my opinion they turned an ordinary building into a really ugly one. Kind of suits this area of Glasgow.

Don’t know what’s on the cards for tomorrow. It all depends on the weather.

The last day of summer? – 30 August 2016

Posted on August 30, 2016August 30, 2016 by Zogman

It looks from the weather forecast that it will rain later tonight, so this may be the last day of summer. Who can tell?

Day two of the new early rising regime and resolve is flagging already, but at least I didn’t stay in bed all morning. Scamp, on the other hand, was showing how it should be done and was up and working before I’d switched the shower on.

Went out in the afternoon, equipped with a tripod to get some more photos of the mini toadstools I’d seen on Friday, but when I got there, the toadstools were gone. There were some slug trails, but not enough to explain the complete decimation of the toadstool forest. I knew they had a short life-span, but I didn’t think it was that short. Disappointed, I looked for other photo opportunities, but none were to be found. It seemed too good a day to waste by going home early, so I went for a walk over the grassland of the dump, but there were no deer, not even a rabbit. The closest I got to a decent photo was on the way home when I took the shot of the corn field with the nice wee sinusoidal path. When I got home I found that I’d dropped my designer green glasses somewhere on the road or the paths. Must go back and find them soon.

Made some Tiger Bread today. Attempt 1 is not too successful. The actual bread is fine, but the Tiger part is too thick. More testing required.

Finally got photo galleries to work on my newly themed blog. This time they are totally within WordPress and not using the Galleria widget, thingy. It was proving just too clumsy and untrustworthy. To be honest, the basic ‘Classic’ theme worked fine except for the black background, but the paid-for ‘Twelve’ theme wouldn’t cooperate at all, so I used a much simpler WordPress plugin that did the trick for now. May revisit them later.

Beer with the Old Guys tomorrow. Usually a good laugh.

Don’t Look Hazy, Just Don’t! – 29 August 2016

Posted on August 29, 2016August 29, 2016 by Zogman

We decided at the weekend that we need to get out more. In the winter it’s ok to lie in bed longer than is good for us, but in these late summer days, we should be out getting some good fresh air into our lungs. With that in mind, we set ourselves the target of being out by 10am. Today we managed that, just!

Drove to the petrol station which was buzzing with police and ambulances, then got into an argument with a dumbo driving a tank, you know what I mean, great big gas guzzler and a tiny wee brain behind the wheel. There he was sitting looking smug, at least a metre away from the pumps while his wife filled the tank. I tried to park beside him, but it was an impossible situation, so I drove out and back in to a different pump, but not before mouthing to him “Prick!” While I was filling my own tank he came out of his pride and joy and said “Can I help you?” I smiled at him and said “Well, you can pay for my petrol if you want.” A smile and an unexpected reply usually baffles the dumbo. “Oh, I thought you needed something from me” he said after he had thought for a while. “Well, a bit of space would have been nice.” I said and walked away. This did not compute. CPU overload. Dumbo had to get back in the tank and plug his brain into the USB socket. I paid for the petrol and when I came back out, there he was again, brain freshly rebooted. “I don’t usually drive this car.” was his starting gambit, followed by “I wasn’t doing it to be ignorant. I had to do a very tight turn.” This is what always happens when you reboot a computer, it does random things. It looked like his CPU was still in the process of rebooting and was making his mouth spout rubbish. He should remember ‘Engage brain before opening mouth’. Not a big shouting match, but it started the day well, outwitting a dumbo. When we drove out he was still trying to remember how to start the tank. Then we saw the reason for the heavy police presence. A Post Office van had embedded itself in the wall of the garage!
We drove to Culross, parked in the carpark and walked along the coastal path in the general direction of Torryburn until we came to what on Google Maps on the phone looked like a path, but in reality was a pair of overgrown tractor ruts. We headed back and found another path that, according to Google again, would take us back to the main coastal path. It did, and was much more interesting from a photographic point of view. We sat for a while and watched the world and a few boats go by then walked back to the town, but called in at the Red Lion pub for lunch on the way. Lunch was a shared Chicken Salsa Wrap with Chips and a Salad and two cups of coffee. Oh, it was hot, and so was the weather. In Scotland we moan about the weather. If it’s cold we moan. If it’s hot we moan. If it’s windy we moan. If it’s not we moan. Never satisfied, that’s us. I got a few shots of the new pier and then we went home

Salsa tonight was interesting, fast and painful for me. My shoulder complained from start to finish, but we’re home now and I’m sitting upstairs in the front bedroom avoiding the Three Sisters below. There’s a mountain range up north called the Five Sisters of Kintail. This is the Three Sisters of Cumbernauld.

More journeyings tomorrow if the weather is good. If not, I may go a-hunting the Bramble! It’s that time of year.

A much more sedate day – 28 August 2016

Posted on August 28, 2016August 28, 2016 by Zogman

After yesterday’s frantic here and there, non-stop, things to do, today was a little respite. After a relaxing morning we watched the Belgian GP from Spa. Plenty of action in the first half, then the new Sky Sports channel seemed to get stuck and we had to go back to the C4 version with laconic David Coultard and the over-excited Ben Edwards to tell us just how exciting it was.

The rest of the afternoon was spent tweaking the gallery feature on the new theme of my blog. What Scamp christened The Summer Look. After getting frustrated with some things working and others not, I took myself off to St Mo’s for a look around. Scamp had meantime driven in to Glasgow to pick up her sister. I didn’t find any deer today and only got decent photos of some insects. Couldn’t get the camera to focus at first, and then realised that it was set on single point focus which is notoriously difficult to fix focus with, but once focus is set, it is really accurate. When I switched to a wider field of view, focusing worked a lot quicker. Hoping for some exercise tomorrow, either in the gym or on the bike, we’ll see which one wins. Like Scamp always says, it all depends on the weather.

Non-Stop – 27 August 2016

Posted on August 27, 2016 by Zogman

That’s how it felt today. From the minute I got up until now 9.30pm, it feels like I’ve been on the go all day. Here’s how it happened:

Went shopping with Scamp in the morning through the dreadful traffic in Falkirk. In less than five hundred metres there are no less than five different sets of traffic and pedestrian lights. Come on, this isn’t central London or even Glasgow city centre, this is a small town in the central belt. What’s the story? Were too many traffic lights made that year and they had to put them somewhere? Away back in the dim mists of time not long after the UK joined what was then the Common Market, there were stories in the press about Butter Mountains and Wine Lakes. Is this the result of a Traffic LIght Forest? Rant over.

After fighting my way through this no-man’s land of tailbacks, not once, but twice, we drove home and dumped the hard won food we’d sourced at Morrison’s, had a very quick lunch then drove to Muirhead to Colin’s Flower Show. It’s not actually Colin’s. True, he is on the committee and enters an amazing amount of stuff in it, but other folk do to. Today’s show wasn’t quite as grand as some I’ve seen there, but most of the flowers were spectacular, and the vegetables were mammoth. I don’t know how these folk do it.

We left the flower show and went for coffee, then bought even more food in Asda. Still not satisfied, we stopped at Tesco to get the things we’d still to check off our list. Well, at least we spread our money around all the local supermarkets! Finally we headed home to try to find places to put all these consumables.

By the time everything was packed away and the fridge door closed on the groaning shelves, it was time to make dinner. After dinner, once we had done the washing up, I set to, to make the paste for tomorrow’s Thai Green Curry.

With that made, I grabbed a cup of Earl Grey and went to read for an hour before starting to tidy the painting room (back bedroom) for tomorrow’s guest.

Now I’m writing the blog and submitting the photos to Flickr, after which I may have a small libation. I think I deserve it.

Tomorrow will not be as frantic – please!

Fungi, Physio and That Friday Feeling – 26 August 2016

Posted on August 26, 2016August 27, 2016 by Zogman

When I was making breakfast this morning I saw a coal tit having its breakfast of peanuts in the garden. Grabbed the Oly and got a dozen shots. Two of them were fairly sharp and showed a bit of detail in the bird.

Physio later in the morning and it looks like there is quite an improvement in my shoulder, but I’ve to keep doing the exercises and continue being a pincushion. I was amazed when the physio (David Brogan) showed me his cycling shoes, made from carbon fibre with dial-in adjusters to tighten them. I didn’t dare ask him how much they cost. It looks, JIC, as if his whole bike is carbon fibre. It’s a Wilier. A Beautiful machine, designed for racing and that’s what he does with it, I think.

After lunch I took the bike out. Poor wee thing had been languishing in the hall for so long, its computer had gone to sleep. Anyway, despite a fairly strong west wind, I headed out for a bit of exercise. Nothing too strenuous. Half an hour of cycling and then an hour or two searching out some interesting things to photograph. The Three Amigos were an easy candidate, but getting a decent viewpoint was a bit more demanding. I finally settled on leaning on the fence by the railway to get a usable shot without the intrusion of the overhead lines for the electrification of the line to Embra. Big push to get all the gantries and cables in place and then for some reason it’s going to take another seven or eight months before they will be used. That’s British efficiency for you. In my wanderings I found hundreds, perhaps thousands of tiny little toadstools on a rotting tree stump. I got a few shots of them, because fungi in general grow, seed and die in a very short time span. Better to get the shots when I can and hopefully get some more later when I’ve got the proper equipment (tripod) with me.

We had dinner booked at Cotton House for 6pm, so I took the shots I could get and headed home hoping for a tailwind and with thoughts of Chow Mein in my head. I got both. See, even when you’re retired, you can still have That Friday Feeling!

Colin’s flower show tomorrow.

Coffee, Dragons and Vitamin D – 25 August 2016

Posted on August 25, 2016August 26, 2016 by Zogman

On a cloudy day, I went for a coffee with Fred in the morning and we set the world to rights again.

Met Scamp afterwards and sorted out our winter, week-long Vitamin D supplement, sometimes known as a week-in-the-sun. For once the process of booking was much easier than it could have been, and has been in the past.

After that, the sun came out, and I took a walk as usual around St Mo’s. Still a few dragons flying around. None of them breathed fire, but I managed to get a shot of one, despite having completely the wrong settings on the camera. I don’t know what I did, but I was using ISO 100 with an aperture setting of f10 which produced a shutter speed of 1/40th. Luckily I set the camera down on the boardwalk to take a low level shot and this meant I had a really steady support, otherwise the shot would have been as shaky as the other 7 I took today. That’s what happens when you assume you have the normal settings and don’t check the info on the screen. Numpty. Still, it’s a good shot.

Physio to look forward to tomorrow :-/ Then maybe lunch out would be good. We’ll see tomorrow.

Did you remember to bring the coconuts? – 24 August 2016

Posted on August 24, 2016August 24, 2016 by Zogman

Last night we made plans to go down to Ayr, or Troon, or Largs, or Millport today. Definitely somewhere west or south west, because that’s where the best weather was to be. Today we went east, well, east (ish). Sort of north east. Not west.

We made sandwiches (pieces) and filled a flask and we left. We headed in the morning sunshine in the general direction of Stirling and thence to Callander which we hoped would be free from blue-rinsed drivers on this, our midweek journey. They usually only come out in their hordes on Sundays. Despite being in a long line of traffic behind an articulated lorry we had a fairly pleasant run through Callander and on to Lubnaig. It was Scamp’s idea to stop at the loch for a coffee. I wasn’t too sure about it to start with, but when I saw the reflections on the loch, I just knew I wanted to stop. When we stopped, we discovered that a Rabbies minibus had just arrived and there were tourists everywhere. We’re not tourists, we’re Scottish.

After coffee and fifty odd photos, we headed further up the loch and across on to the Loch Earn road. I’d half intended to drive to the end of the Loch Earn road and then drive back down the other side of the loch. I also wanted to find out where the ‘reflective man’ was. It’s a statue of a man covered in mirror tiles and it stands in the water. I knew it was on the north side of the loch, just off the road. I found it, but there were too many tourists near it. I’m not a tourist, I’m a photographer. I didn’t stop. I didn’t take the south road either, I just drove on. And on and on and on.

We passed through twee little Comrie but didn’t want to go all the way to Perth, so we turned right and pointed the car at the Braco road. We climbed up one side of a hill, across the top and down the other side, and eventually we found Braco. Braco has a main street and a shop called, conveniently, the Braco Shop. From there a signpost pointed to Stirling and we followed it and put Braco and the Braco Shop behind us. Instead of continuing to Stirling, we diverted to Doune to eat our ‘pieces’ and drink our coffee in Doune Castle, and that’s what we did.

Doune Castle is where bits of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” was filmed. One of the great scenes in the film is where the knights pretend to ride horses while their pages click coconut shells together to simulate the sound of the horses hooves. Part of that scene was filmed around the castle. A few years ago when we were at Doune Castle an American boy pulled a couple of coconut shell halves from his bag and proceeded to clip-clop around the internal square of the castle while his mother filmed him. Like I say, he was American. When we were sitting in that same internal square today, Scamp asked me “Did you remember to bring the coconuts?” Had you worked out the cryptic clue Hazy?

While we were there, I got a sketch done of the castle tower. It’s only when you sit and study these old castles, you realise how different they are from todays buildings All the windows are different sizes and shapes, as are the doors. You can see where bits have been added, bits removed holes have been cut in the walls, only to find that they are in the wrong place, so the holes are bricked up and covered over. Just like Cumbersheugh Town Centre in fact. History repeats itself. However, the castle was much more fun to sketch than CTC.

When we got home, Scamp suggested we walk to the local pub for fish and chips and a pint. I thought it was a wonderful idea. A great end to a great day.