Category: A Walk

Cramond – 28 December 2015

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combo wToday we took JIC and Sim to Cramond. The weather was dry and we had a gentle walk along the the Almond to the waterfall. We agreed that beyond that, the path would get too muddy and slippery for those without boots, i.e. all of us. To waste some time we watched a red rubber ball trying unsuccessfully to escape the eddy below the waterfall. (You probably had to be there!) We walked back and had coffee and a scone at the quite excellent Falls Cafe before walking down to the estuary and deciding it was just too late to attempt the crossing to the island in the shadow of the ‘toblerones’.  If you haven’t seen them, it will mean nothing to you. They were anti-submarine defences from WW2.

After that we drove home because Sim and JIC were meeting Scott for a liquid lunch and a catch up after twenty odd years.

While I made dinner, Scamp injected profiteroles with cream (more successfully than I did last week). Later JIC and Sim returned with the aforementioned (I like that word, did you guess?) Scott with his wife and wee girl. Scott hadn’t changed a bit.  It was almost as if he had left out house the day before, rather than twenty odd years before.  They stayed, reminiscing about exotic dancing and other escapades from the past and then it was time for dinner.

I’d already booked The Legend of Barney Thompson to watch after dinner. Oh dear, I wish now I hadn’t. It was the most dire film I’ve seen this year, or probably in any year. Whatever you do, don’t watch it. Absolute Crap! The book, well the first book anyway, was funny. The rest had nothing at all to recommend them. The book was just a ‘British Film’. Rubbish.

Don’t know what tomorrow will bring, we’ll let the fates decide.

An Uplifting Day – 27 December 2015

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combo bWe woke to sunshine.  Real, unabated sunshine with drying streets too.  Scamp needed to go shopping, so we had to risk driving out to Tesco with no hope of getting a parking space when we got back.  When we got back after an altercation with a total prick in the carpark. – As an aside, I’d like to say that one of the great benefits of having your own little slice of webspace it that you can say what you really feel without fear of having it redacted by some pinhead admin.  I am the admin so I’ll say what I like. –   Anyway, the prick took umbrage at me bumping a car’s wing mirror (not even his car) with my trolley.  After emptying my trolley, I just gave him a smile as I walked as slowly as I could in front of his car.  One of the great benefits of being old is that you can do things like that.  If the aforementioned prick wants to scream and shout at you, all you do is grab your chest and stagger around a bit and watch the colour drain from his face.  Then you smile again, stick your tongue out and walk away.  It’s a brilliant windup.  Yes, I know ‘boy’, ‘crying’, ‘wolf’ etc. Until then it’s still great fun and to be recommended for dealing with angry pricks.

Got back to find that there was a wedding stretch limo reversing tentatively up the hill near our house.  To accommodate it, I had to park miles from the house and carry the bags down the hill.  Is that what they call ‘Karma’?

After a cup of coffee I went for a walk to St Mo’s armed with the Nikon and 70-300 and also the old E-PL1 with 9mm.  Got a few shots, but for once the 9mm failed to perform.  Don’t know the reason why.  It might have been too slow a shutter speed because there was a considerable blur in the images, but this is the first time I’ve used that camera/lens combination.  Maybe I’ve gotten so used to the remarkable E-PL5 that I’d forgotten how limiting the ‘1’ is.  Must do some more tests before I can make a reasoned judgement.

After that we were waiting for JIC and Sim to arrive from ‘darn sarf’.  They made really good time and were great company tonight.  Let’s hope the weather holds out for tomorrow, because it’s been a great day today, weatherwise and a very entertaining one too.

Happy Christlefridge – 25 December 2015

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comboChristlefridge, as far as I can remember was a give away game at Christmas for the Sinclair Spectrum, round about 1980 something.  I remember it was a good fun game, but can find no reference to it on the internet.  Maybe my memory is playing tricks again.  “So”, as John Lennon said, “this is Christmas, and what have you done?”  I usually ask this question at New Year, but Christmas is as good a time as any.  So what have you done?  What good?  What not so good?  Possibly more important, what are you going to do about the latter?  Think about it.

Why does everyone say “Merry Christmas”?  It must be the only day in the year when we use the ‘Merry’ word.  Merry usually means drunk, so are we wishing (hoping) that everyone is drunk at Christmas? The SNP won’t like that.  Wee Mooth, AKA Nick the Chick, AKA Nicola Sturgeon won’t like that.  It goes completely against their Calvanist policies.  You’ll all go to Hell, you know and Nick the Chick will be standing there with the pitchfork.

Today we went for our usual Christmas walk around, not St Mo’s for a change, but Broadwood Loch.  Not a real loch, but manmade about twenty odd years ago.  Not a very interesting walk, but one we always indulge in at this time of year.  Saw some gulls, some cormorants, some geese and hunners of swans.  That was about it.  No herons and definitely no deer.  Dull, dull, dull.

After the walk, we had lunch and then settled down to watch tv for an hour or so before we started to make dinner.  Ate and drank too much as usual and are now resting while watching the Titchfield Thunderbold (c1953, although it could just as well be 1593).  Totally innocent fun, but in colour.  Isn’t that what Christmas is all about?

Today is Fred P’s birthday.  His reply to my birthday wish text was:
“Many thanks, Fred (or as others have said ‘Oh Christ it’s him’)”

Hope my readers have had a happy Christmas, or even a merry one if you’ve been living dangerously.

Don’t cross your legs – 24 December 2015

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DSC_4649- blog--358Scamp thought I wanted to go in to Glasgow today and I thought she wanted to go in. It wasn’t until we were walking down Bucky Street that the crossed wires became untangled. We had travelled in on the bus and had just been to John Lewis where I showed Scamp the toy I’d like in my Christmas stocking, an Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II. Apparently Santa may not have any left as a lot of boys and girls have asked for that self same thing. Oh well, never mind, I’ll just have to wait until it turns up on MBP, second hand.

Went and had coffee in Cafe Nero at St Enoch’s, then headed back up to Sauchiehall Street. Blacks were having a closing down sale and I managed to snag myself a new Berghaus jacket. Maybe not as good as an Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II, but a lot more practical.

Just missed the bus home, but that’s about par for the course at the bus station and got talking to a wee visually impaired man who told me you should never sit with your legs crossed because it restricts your circulation. You won’t feel it at the time, he said, but it will get you later. I don’t know where he got that information from, but he was quite adamant about it.

Weather was mixed. Beautiful bright sun one minute, torrential rain and hail the next. Scamp says we have to blame Storm Eva for that. When I got home I slapped some paint on a canvas while I waited out the hail storm that was battering the window and then went out for a walk around St Mo’s. It didn’t rain, but the sun didn’t shine either. Managed one shot of a confused wee green shoot that thinks it’s spring. I think there are more cold winds, hail showers and possibly sunny intervals between now and then. Keep your fingers crossed ….. but not your legs!

The Shortest Day – 22 December 2015

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combo b“Maybe we spend too much time looking at glowing screens.” I heard this while I was listening to a podcast coming back from another walk to Dumbreck Marshes.  I couldn’t agree more.  We all spend far too much time in this virtual reality we live so much of our lives in.

Before my Damascene revelation today, we went to Stirling, to shop and stock up for Christmas at Waitrose.  It was just in case the snow comes in great drifts in the next few days and we can’t struggle our way across the tundra to Condorrat to buy the last loaf of bread in the bakers.  Yes, I know the temperature is almost in double figures today, but you never know, do you?

On the way back we stopped at Halfords to get the headlight bulb replaced in my car.  I could have done it myself, but I couldn’t remember the sequence for removing the clips and bolts, well, that’s my excuse.

After we got back, I went out to have my religious conversion and Scamp went to do more shopping, this time in Glasgow.  When I got back, I stared at these ‘glowing screens’ again to get the photos downloaded and processed and then get this blog written.  We need the glowing screens, but I dare say we could use them a little less.

A Better Day – 18 December 2015

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combo wAh, this was a better day, relatively speaking.

Added another layer of acrylic to my painting while Scamp went shopping this morning.

After lunch, she went swimming and I went for a walk which almost turned out to be swimming as I waded through enough puddles to test my new boots to destruction, but thankfully they (and I) survived unscathed.  It rained all the way on my walk from Auchinstarry to Dumbreck and back along the canal.  There was very little to see today on either path, but I did catch an interesting conversation near Auchinstarry Marina that could easily have been misconstrued from the evidence of a single still photo!

When I got back and had dried out I added some more daubs to the now overloaded canvas, but I’m getting the feel for where I’m going with it now.  Impasto with acrylic paint is great fun to apply, but the very devil to remove.  I think I’d rather just chuck the canvas away rather than try to scrub it down.  It reminds me of colourful artex!

I’m hoping to have a go at the first draft of my 2016 calendar tonight.

I think it’s still raining.

Hard Travelling – 15 December 2015

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combo bOut to the doc’s just after 9.00 this morning, then off to Larky to get my glasses fixed after they broke last week. It was no fun driving through about 10 miles of motorway roadworks. I’d hate to have to drive this twice a day, five days a week. It’s never ending too. I think it’s been going on for about a year now and it looks like it will go on for at least another year.

Larky hadn’t changed much, but I did see a strange sight. There was a flock of birds circling round the railway station. At first I thought they were rooks or crows, but then I noticed gulls, starlings and pigeons in the flock too. So strange to see such a mixture of different raucous birds.

Drove back through the same roadworks (there’s almost no way to avoid them) on the way home. I did take one diversion to pick up some icecream from Souave’s in Muirhead, and Edinburgh Rock too, of course.

There was just enough light left when I got home to get out with my new boots and get them dirty, or at least wet – and maybe get some photos. I walked along the railway walk and got what I thought were some good shots of an old twisted tree. When I got back, I realised that it just didn’t work. That’s how it goes sometimes. The boots survived the trip. I managed to get them wet and dirty, but my feet stayed dry. Success!

Cold and Frosty – 13 December 2015

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combo bOut just after 10.00 this morning to make the most of the bright light, blue sky and ground frost.  Just a quick trip to St Mo’s to see if there were any deer around (there were) and if there were any photo opportunities to be had (there were).

I had hoped that Mr Grey would be out near the shore fishing for food, but as I was walking across the road, he was flying above me in the opposite direction.  I did get a shot of two one-footed coots on the icy pond.  I guess it doesn’t hurt so much if you only stand on one foot, because only one foot freezes at a time.  I walked down through the deciduous woods without a sign of any deer, then when I was almost at the small pond, two of them ran across my path about 100metres away.  I walked on a bit and startled another group of five or six younger animals who sped away fast.  I didn’t attempt to photograph them, it was just good to see them run.

Walked on over the hill at the road and got a few more shots of frozen leaves and dried thistles.  The stuff most photogs like me take.  My kind of photos, Scamp calls them.  I liked the light on the pine trees beside the path from the boardwalk and got some good directional light on them.  After that, it was back home for tea and toast.

Didn’t do much else other than make some bread and cook the venison I got yesterday for my dinner.

At night it was the Salsa Christmas Ball.  I think we both had a ball, despite the floor being sticky with something unmentionable and there being very little room to dance when it seemed that everyone was on the floor at the same time.  Because neither of us had work in the morning, we could stay as long as we liked.  We liked midnight as a time to stay until.  By then I’d danced with seven girls which must be a record for me.  Still to see the Photo Booth photos, but I’m sure they will be hilarious.  Great time with great people.

Perf – 9 December 2015

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combo bToday we went to Perth. Not Perth, Australia, but Perth, Scotland. Rather than drive there, or bus there, we decided to train. It was a lousy day. Dull, wet and windy. The train seemed to be a great idea and the trip north was very comfortable. I don’t know why they built the railway station so far out of town. Maybe the town centre was meant to be near the bus and rail station, but someone decided that a mile or so further down the road was a much more sensible situation for a town centre. Not to worry, the walk would do us good.

The main reason for the trip was to get more coffee and a Chrissy Prezzy for me. I was allowed to choose it, but after we got home it had to go to Santa until the 25th. After the purchases we went to The George for lunch: Fish & Chips (x2). It was lovely. By the time we came out it was just after 1.00pm and you could already see it was getting dark. I got some photos of some statuary near the river. After that we fought through the wind and rain on our way back to the station, only to find out we had a 45min wait for the train. A 45min wait on a metal seat next to a couple of joiners who were building a wooden box about two metres long by one meter wide by two metres high. I think it may be a waiting room, a new concept in Perth Railway Station. Even the dismal 1950s bus station waiting room is luxurious compared to Perth Railway Station’s waiting facilities: a metal bench that seats four. Food for those waiting is catered for by a drinks vending machine and a chocolate vending machine – superb! The station does have a sign saying ‘Welcome’, but that’s where the welcome ends.

Thankfully the journey home was quite excellent. Just under an hour for the entire journey from Perth Railway Station to Home. Scary though. Not the journey, but the amount of water that was passing by the windows of the train. So much water. Flooding everywhere from Perth to Stirling. It’s then you realise how lucky we are to live on a hill.

Here comes the sun – 6 December 2015

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combo bToday announced itself with sun coming through the window, no wind and no rain. What a difference from last night.

After tidying up after yesterday and Friday, Scamp settled down to catch up on the TV she’d missed and I pulled on my boots and went out for a walk in this welcome break from the stormy (I’m not going to mention ‘D’ – You know who) weather. Got a walk along the old railway. The Kelvin Burn which becomes the River Kelvin a few miles downstream was very high, as you might imagine after the unremitting deluge of the past week or so. Unlike the last time the burn was high, this time I chose my route with care and avoided wet feet.

At Dumbreck Marshes I managed a pen and ink sketch of a farm a far distance away. While I was attempting to get a record shot of the farm and was watching the light change on it and the field in front, I caught sight of a cock pheasant gliding over the field. I just managed to grab one shot of it and not the best view of the bird either. By the time I reacted it had passed into the area in direct sunlight. Also, as the sun was low, the light was and orange/brown colour and the combination of the two meant the colour was all but drained from the shot. Such a pity.

Walked back to the car, passing a group of ‘real’ walkers, complete with nice clean jackets, rucksacks, walking poles, expensive boots and even gaiters. Oh I wish I was a real walker.