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April Showers in March – 27 March 2016

Posted on by Zogman

combo bI started writing this, sitting in the Winter Garden at the People’s Palace on Glasgow Green with Scamp, having a late breakfast on a sunny intervals day.   We’d agreed this morning that that we’d go for a walk along the Green on this, the first day of British Summertime.  There were a few hardy rowers on the Clyde, but they were few and far between.  I’m guessing that some were absolute beginners just deciding whether or not this was a sport for them.  If there was a day to test it out, a cold, windy one with a strong current would be a good one to dissuade the unsure.  Although there were many sunny intervals, there was also a cold wind and on the way home from the Green we drove through hail showers.  Having said that, the sunny intervals made up for the wetter, windier times.

When we got home, I went out for a walk in St Mo’s hoping for some more shots to bolster the ones from Glasgow Green and the People’s Palace.  I got not one photo, in fact the camera hardly came out of the bag, so all of today’s shots came from the earlier photo-fest in Glasgow.  The daffodils were from our front garden and I have no idea who the sleeping beauty is (bottom right).

It was good to have some longer periods of sunshine today after the clocks went forward, even if we did lose an hour of sleep last night.

Hoping for more sunny intervals and even some short April showers (in March) tomorrow.

I Think It’s Going To … 26 March 2016

Posted on by Zogman

combo b… Rain today.  Rained almost all day.  We went shopping.  Food shopping.  We could have gone to Tesco, but I thought it would be better to go to Stirling, even in the rain.  There’s a Waitrose there and I can usually pick up some nice meat there.  I also wanted a second look at a watercolour painting I’d seen in a gallery there a month or so ago.  Not to buy it of course, but to try out the effect the artist had achieved.  Thirdly, as usual I had a photograph in my head that I could take if the sun came out.  I didn’t get the meat I was looking for although I did get some kidney to make steak and kidney stew.  I didn’t get to see the painting either  because when we came out of Waitrose the rain had stopped, clouds were lightening and the sun was looking like it would start poking through so I went straight to option 3.

While we were driving to the location I’d picked, the sun did come out, but by the time I’d navigated Traffic Light City (do they really need all those red lights?) and found the spot, the good light had all but gone.  I did manage a couple of shots but without the light on the castle I wanted.  Actually there was no good light, but Lightroom is a brilliant piece of software that can spread sunlight where there is none and that is what I did.  Darkened down and texturised the sky with one graduated filter and brightened and warmed up the foreground with another.  That is how the top image and the bottom left image were faked created.  The image bottom right has only had minimal adjustments and show what the scene really looked like.

When we turned and headed for home after a disappointing stop, the rain started again, but not as heavily as it had earlier.

An excellent Chicken Curry tonight with my own version of a curry paste.  Feeling quite pleased with it.

Madness in Perth – 25 March 2016

Posted on by Zogman

combo bToday we went to Perth.  It as a plan.  Today, Good Friday, was forecast to be the best day of the holiday weekend.  I needed coffee and Perth is where my preferred coffee bean shop is.  It was also announced last night on the news that Scamp’s favourite ladies wear shop, McEwan’s of Perth had gone into administration and was opening today for the start of the closing down sale.  Soooo, we were off to Perth today.

The road was busy on the way north and every time the traffic started to jam up, I said “Oh, oh!  This is where the queue for McEwan’s starts.”  Actually, the road wasn’t all that busy, considering it was the start of the Easter holidays and it was a sunny day.   But every car seemed to have bikes on the back or a Thule style rack on the roof.  It looked like everyone seemed to want to get out of Glasgow and Edinburgh and head north to the great wide open.  Maybe that was the plan, but it looked like the ‘great wide open’ was going to be closed by the time they all got there.  When we arrived at Perth, there were roadworks on the road into the city.  Like a few others, I bit the bullet and headed back to the swimming pool and parked there, despite the signs saying that these parking spaces were for ‘users of the facilities only.’  I wasn’t sure what the ‘facilites’ were, but I was using the facilities of Perth itself, so I felt secure in my decision to park there.

When we wandered round Perth after getting the essential coffee beans, we found the real queue for McEwan’s.  Apparently it was estimated that over 400 people were waiting to get in through the doors and because the company had paid off more than half its staff with immediate effect last night, only 20 customers at a time were being allowed in.  There were going to be a lot of long faces in Perth tonight.

After our return from Perth, I managed an hour in St Mo’s in a biting north wind.  Got a few photos of some deer and I fed the ducks.  So, that was Good Friday.  Not so good for the hundred odd McEwan’s staff without jobs after this week.

A Lovely Lunch – 24 March 2016

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combo bToday is Scamp’s birthday and we headed in to town to celebrate.  Lunch was booked for 1.30pm in the Battlefield Rest in Battlefield, where else.  At 2.05 after 35 minutes waiting, we had still not had our starters and were getting a bit fractious.  Thankfully it wasn’t much later when Scamp’s Smoked Haddock and Spinach Crepe and my Haggis Polpette arrived and as anticipated, they were lovely!  Mains followed soon after the first plates were cleared away.  Scamp’s was Smoked Haddock Risotto, mine was Italian Sausage Stew.  If it was possible for the starters to be bettered, the mains did it.  We more or less forgave them the bad start.  Coffees were on the house when Scamp revealed that it was her birthday.  Overall, it was what we expected in the Battlefield Rest.  If you’re in a hurry, it’s not the place to eat, but the food is very, very good.

Stopped off in Glasgow City Centre on the way home and in the course of wandering around the shops, managed a few shots of the bloke with the beard playing the guitar.  That was about it.

When we got home I saw the raindrops on the flowers in the hanging basket and thought it might make an interesting shot.  Today we had the first rain in 14 days.  This must be a record in Scotland.

It’s been a good day today.  Let’s hope it’s a Good Friday tomorrow.

More bright intervals – 23 March 2016

Posted on by Zogman

combo bWent to the gym and then had a swim this morning, or to be more precise, we split it over midday.

After lunch we went different ways. Scamp stayed in and did the ironing, and I went a walk along the old railway. It seemed like a good idea as there were occasional breaks in he clouds and the sun was managing to shine through. Everybody and their dog was out walking today and I mean that literally everybody had at least one dog. Some had two, some had three. One woman went over the score and had five or six of the yappy wee things. I must get a dog. Everyone else has one. I hate to be left out (Joke!) I have no intention of saddling myself with a dog, cat, rabbit or budgie. I’ve got Scamp and me and that’s more than enough.

Today’s shots are all of weeds I saw on the walk.  To some they are just weeds, but when you look closely, there are so many little details in them that you miss if you see them as ‘just’ weeds  It’s that and the shapes they make and the hidden colours in them that I find interesting.  Well, they are to me.

There’s a sign halfway along the path I walk explaining that the path follows the route of an old mineral railway which linked various pits and quarries around Kilsyth and Twechar. The sign goes on to explain that the wagons were pulled by little engines called Pugs. I remember my dad telling me about the pugs that pulled the Hutches (small wagons) at the clay mine he worked at quite near Twechar. The sign always reminds me of my dad and his stories and the way he would kind of draw the scene in the air as he was talking Almost like his hand holding an imaginary pencil. Also the way he used to talk. The way he smacked his lips when he was really involved in his story. It’s when I take the time to remember these things that I can see him sitting there telling stories. He was a great story teller.

 

Searching for a solution – 22 March 2016

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P3220833- flickr--82Today we went to look for a ship. A ship that would take us on holiday to a sunny, warm place. Scamp has been looking for such a ship for some time, but today we were going to speak to some people in a travel agents and they were going to search for a ship for us. A cruise ship. They didn’t find one. We gave them lots of options, lots of dates, lots of itineraries (not itineries. I can’t stand people who mispronounce words. Misspelling is ok, it’s just a mistake and that can be corrected. Mispronunciation is simply laziness and that is more difficult to fix.) We also gave them free rein to suggest suitable companies. The first advisor we spoke to didn’t come up with any firm suggestions, but spoke very enthusiastically about his own recent cruise to the Caribbean on the brand new P&O ship Britannia. The second advisor tried very hard and finally offered two possibilities and one outsider with a good itinerary but with a stopover in Amsterdam. That’s the price you pay for living in Scotland apparently. I find it quite amazing that with such an open set of options we come down to only two possibilities and one wildcard.

Today’s shot is of today’s sudoku puzzle. Like today’s search for a cruise, you start with almost unlimited options, looking for a single solution. Sometimes you find that solution, sometimes you almost get to the end and then find you’ve made a mistake. Sort of typifies the day.

By the way, today’s puzzle was a ‘Medium’. That’s because you almost needed one to find the solution.

Not very bright intervals – 21 March 2016

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combo bWell, there were a few bright intervals today, but they were few and far between. Since Scamp was going for lunch with Gems, I got the bus in to Glasgow to get my hair cut and have a wander. The barber was a laugh. He was a political hot wire with an opinion and a conspiracy theory about everything. While I didn’t agree with everything, in fact with very little to be exact, it was a laugh and the time passed quite quickly.  He recommended the film Idiocracy which I might just look out for. Wandered round the town looking for inspiration but found none.

I’m on the bus home now earwigging other folk’s conversations. Well, if they don’t want other people to know about their Tesco “disciplinary” then they shouldn’t talk about it on a bus and they definitely should reduce the output volume.  It seems to be the case now that people talking on mobile phones in public assume that they are inaudible to all around them.  If they were speaking to an actual physical person in their vicinity would they speak as loudly? I sometimes wonder if there is anyone at the other end of the phone connection.

Went to salsa tonight and noticed when I was sticking the parking ticket on the windscreen that the time on it was wrong.  When I checked the time of issue, I found that it was almost an hour out.  I wrote a note to the blue meanies that the machine was issuing tickets with the wrong time.  I went back and photographed the display on the machine as the iphone would timestamp the image with the correct time.  What else can you do in such a situation?  If you don’t have evidence of the mistake, it’s your word against the blue meanies and we know who Glasgow Council will believe.  I’ll check the time on the machine next time, and every time for a few weeks at least.

For the umpteenth time and the first time this year, I got a sheep tick.  It appeared on my wrist underneath my watch.  It always seems to be when I’m wearing the same jacket.  I like it, but I think I may dispose of it now.  These things are a menace.

Two in a row – 20 March 2016

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combo bWow!  Two sunny days in a row.  Allegedly this is the first day of spring, but with two sunny days in a row, it could be summer.  Not the start of summer, but summer itself.  Equinox be damned.  Everything could go downhill from here.  Despite the fact that the days are getting longer and the nights shorter, if it’s not sunny tomorrow then it’s a case of “nights are fair drawing in”.  Still, in the spirit of spring, Scamp got the mower out and cut the front grass.  This was swiftly followed by George across the corner getting stuck in and cutting his grass too.  I think he was slightly miffed that Scamp had beaten him to it.  I’d have cut the grass myself, but I know Scamp likes it done to her own formula and if I’d have done it, the stripes on the front lawn wouldn’t have been perfectly parallel, so I let her have first dibs.  Such a gentleman me!

What I did do was take myself off to St Mo’s to revel in the inexplicable second day of sunshine.  There weren’t many creatures to photograph.  No deer, no Mr Grey, not even a frog pushing its head above the pond surface.  What I did have was some low angle light to play with, so I shouldn’t complain.  Took the “Big Dog” (Nikon) with me as Little Dogs (Olys) are getting tired of being the general ‘dogsbodies’.  Managed to get most of the photos taken with ISO settings of under 2000.  It’s amazing what you can do when you have directional sunlight.  I was a bit concerned by seeing what I think was another ‘photog’ walking along the boardwalk.  I don’t know who he or she was, or how they worked out where “St Mo’s” is, but they must know that St Mo’s is mine and mine alone.  Yes, I’m willing to share it with others, but only if they write to me asking for permission first.  So, if you are reading this, interloper, do the decent thing and ask permission before you trespass on my personal space.  You have been warned.

Looking forward to see what tomorrow will bring.  Hopefully more sunshine, I’m not greedy.  Just one more day would be good.

Sitting in the Sun – 19 March 2016

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combo bSitting in the sun for a couple of hours at Loch Lubnaig. Taking foties, doing sketches and  being amazed at the difference a day makes. Yesterday, all was grey, but today there’s blue sky all around.

We couldn’t decide where to go today and last night had almost settled on a trip round the shops in Stirling.  This morning when we saw the bright blue sky, we re-evaluated our options.  Finally we settled on Callander with the option of travelling on to Lubnaig if the weather permitted.  The weather did permit and we did take the Lubnaig option.  We drew in at the first of the new parking places which are so much better maintained than the old ones where the dobbers would overnight camp from Friday to Sunday.  Buckfast bottles and who knows what else left behind.  The only good thing about it was that it was free, but you didn’t wander far from your car in case it was propped up on bricks when you came back.  Those days are gone now, so are the dobbers and the Buckfast.  Now you’ve got to pay to park, but £1 for two hours is worthwhile for peace of mind.

I had hoped to see the seaplane land on the loch, but I think that company has now moved to Loch Lomond.  What we did see were mountain climbers on a ridge, canoeists on the loch and a beastie on my painting.  First time for a long while I’ve painted in public.  It wasn’t the best effort, but it was a sketch and it was in the open air – I won’t use that arty-farty French expression, but it was fun.

A grey day – 18 March 2016

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combo bIt started grey.  For a while around midday I thought it might manage to become a lighter grey, but I was wrong, it stayed grey.  Later in the afternoon it became grey.

I wasn’t impressed much with the day.  I took the car down to Auchinstarry and introduced the Oly to Dumbreck.  It wasn’t very impressed, but then it wasn’t an impressive day, just grey.

Maybe tomorrow will be more colourful, or even just less grey.