Category: A Walk

Another day, another busy one – 7 February 2024

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It snowed during the night last night and it froze afterwards, so it was a photogs paradise.

We were going out just after midday, so I booted up and went for a walk around St Mo’s to see what I could find to fill the PoD gap. The place is totally different in the morning to the afternoon which is my usual hunting ground. Everything looks or seems fresher. The light is coming from the south east, not the south west so most of my subjects look very different. The PoD turned out to be a dried out Hogweed plant from last year with its star-like flower stems holding little beads of ice that had been snow that melted to water then froze into ice. I liked the way the warm background contrasted with the ice.

I had a few in the bag when I walked home, but the usually trustworty A7iii was misbehaving today. First it decided not to take photos, then it thought better of that and took a dozen or more in motor-wind mode and by then I’d had enough of its high jinks. I’d already tried switching it off and then on again but that didn’t work – it rarely does with modern electronics, so it was the nuclear option. I took out the battery, counted to five and put it back in again. That showed it who was boss! Or so I thought. The sneaky camera had taken 50 shots on motor-wind and loads more besides. I’m hoping to look into the issue tomorrow. No time today.

Back home we had time for a quick lunch and then we were off with our dancing shoes to Motherwell to a church hall for a new(!) Tea Dance. Strangely, it’s just along from Alex’s house. It was a bit stressful going to a new hall with new people and a new teacher, but we survived. More than that, we both enjoyed it. The folk were friendly and welcoming and the dances were ones we knew for the most part and any ones that we didn’t know, we were tutored in by the more experienced dancers. Tea and cakes at half time, then a class tutorial on the Ria Bachata which we knew almost better than the teachers. The music wasn’t as interesting as S&J’s, but you can’t have everything. We both thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon and would be happy to go back. We even got invites to other tea dances in the surrounding area.

We drove back and just as we came on to the motorway my phone rang. It was Alex saying “Did I just miss you at the Loaning?” I laughed out loud. He had just been coming back from a walk into Motherwell when he thought it was me driving past. How strange it that. I’ll have a lot of explaining to do at the next photo walk!
One of the best things about this new hall is that it’s motorway driving almost all the way and there’s no Kingston Bridge to crawl over on the way home! That, in itself is a delight.

The prompt for today was “Tangerine”. So, another fruity one. Just the one tangerine, because I thought I was being a bit generous yesterday with my two and a half plums. I tried the old trick of using salt to create the skin texture of the fruit, but for once it didn’t work. The salt was difficult to remove too, so if you think the sketch tastes a bit salty, you now know why.

Tomorrow Scamp is booked for coffee with Isobel and I’ve some work to do in the house. I also need to get a card for Alex and post it. The snow is gone for now, but we’re expecting it to return on Friday.

Mountain climbing and lunch with Shona – 6 February 2024

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Today we were taking Shona out to lunch.

Scamp and I had planned to take Shona to Cafe Bothy. It’s actually called Coffee Bothy now, but we prefer the original name. It’s a great wee restaurant in a place called Blairlogie in Clackmannanshire. Isobel was the first one who found it, being guided by her granddaughter and Isobel introduced us to it. Shona had never heard of it, which isn’t surprising as it’s in the middle of nowhere on a farm off a single track road. Shona had Fish ’n’ Chips, Scamp had Mac ’n’ Cheese and I had Mince ’n’ Tatties. All with the apostrophe correctly place before and after the n you’ll notice! That was the main course. We all opted for cakes rather than pudding afterwards and it was Strawberry Tart for Shona, Cream Doughnut for Scamp and a Gypsy Cream for me with coffees to follow of course.

Fed and watered, Scamp suggested we drive to Dollar park for a walk. Unfortunately we couldn’t find it and instead we drove up and up and up a steep single-track road to a car park for Castle Campbell instead. From there we walked up and up and up, then down the other side. We had walked up the hill many years ago, but we’d forgotten just how steep the climb is. The two ladies gave up, when it looked like we’d have to wade across a ford, but I was determined to get a photo on such a beautiful day. As it happened, I didn’t need to ford the burn because there was a bridge tucked away out of sight from the road. I did manage to get up to the top, and got the photo I was hoping for, but I was really knackered after it. The castle wasn’t open. It doesn’t open until April. We may go back then and if we can get parked again, we might take our time and go visit the castle properly.

I walked back down the hill from the castle then over the bridge and up the hill on the other side wondering all the time what kind of vehicle the custodians must have if they travel that road every day to open up. Whatever it is it most certainly isn’t a wee blue car! The drive home was scenic, but I didn’t see anything that was any better than a castle among the trees with a rushing burn beside it. Very ‘Outlander’.

We dropped Shona off at her house with time to spare before Ben came home from school. Driving into the sun was strenuous, not that I’m complaining because the sun was shining, far from it. But I decided I needed to clean the glass in the car inside and out. When I got the Juke I got a big bag of useless spray bottles as part of the ‘deal’. I used the Bug Remover spray and the Seagull Crap remover too, but I remembered as I was driving home, peering through a grey windscreen that there was Glass Cleaner in the bag. I found it when we got home and cleaned all the windows inside and out. I also cleaned the wing mirrors. Hopefully that should make driving less of a bind.

The prompt for today was “Plum”. Being a generous person I added a couple more plums to the singular fruit that was requested and just to be sure they were fresh, I ate half of one. That’s what you see here. Believe that and you’re softer than these plums look!!

Alex had to cancel our photo walk this week because he was needed at home. Hopefully we’ll get out next week. This week was tight anyway. Just one of these weeks when everything piles up.

Tomorrow we may be going dancing in Motherwell. Scamp has been talking about it for weeks and we really need to go there to see how good it is and if it’s an alternative to Glenburn.

Catching up – 4 February 2024

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I left myself with a bit of a backlog yesterday.

I needed to complete two sketches and write up two blogs today, but only after I’d had my morning coffee and solved Wordle. Wordle was just a whim, but the coffee was essential because I’d and idea to use the dried coffee residue in the cup to add some ‘real’ coffee colour to the paint I was intending to apply! The prompt was ‘Coffee’ as if you hadn’t guessed!

The coffee was drunk and the Wordle was solved, so no excuses for not putting pencil and brush to paper and getting on with things. The first sketch was fairly easy, but as this was only the third drawing I’d done since November ’23 it took me longer than I’d anticipated. Having said that, it looked not too bad at all. Pencil sketch and watercolour washes plus the coffee wash to the cup and the coffee beans. Yes, that worked.

The paper needed some time to dry out, so I started my next task. The wee Split Rock (Nelly) that Hazy had given me was needing potted up with proper succulent compost with a fair amount of grit and perlite added for drainage. Scamp had the great idea of covering the work surface with a plastic coated tablecloth that would be easier to clean afterwards than the work surface itself. That made things much easier. We’d bought some cactus and succulent compost last week and after carefully measuring out a small amount of it and adding the grit and perlite I could mix the whole thing on the tablecloth with (almost) no mess. The next stage, actually potting it up and getting the plant to sit up straight was the difficult bit, but eventually it settled into its new pot complete with matching saucer. A splash or two of water to encourage the roots to take hold in what is a very strange mixture of soil and stones and we were done. It’s now sitting back in its place looking out at the wild wind outside. Photo tomorrow Hazy.

It was wet and it was windy outside, but I was determined to go out for a while. There wasn’t much to photograph, but I did spot a crow high up on an alder tree and that became PoD.

Now that the PoD had been sorted out, Nelly was in her new pot and the first sketch had dried, I could start on the second one which was actually today’s prompt, ‘Lavender’. I struggled with a prop for the lavender and finally chose the wee frog I’ve used before. He didn’t seem to mind.

Spoke to Jamie after dinner and discussed a few photos he’d sent of the renovations this week to the house. It’s still a strange building with more questions than answers in its construction, however things are certainly moving along and the roof timbers are looking like real roof trusses now and the brickwork on the first chimney looks like brand new. Hopefully it won’t be long now.

It’s windy again tonight and it looks like more wind is forecast for tomorrow. I’ve an appointment with the nurse tomorrow morning to check my BP and then I’m booked to take Val out for coffee at midday. Another busy day for me. Not sure what Scamp is doing.

Broadwood Loch – 3 February 2024

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It was a much better day than we’d expected. Occasional threat of rain that never materialised.

Finally decide we needed some exercise and went for a walk round Broadwood Loch. As Scamp always says, there’s not much in it for me. It’s a big soulless manmade loch. Loads of swans and a good few geese, but that’s about it. Obviously the Smew that caused so much excitement last month had flown the coop, so to speak. We decided we could extend the walk into the woods and had to smile at the decoration on the ‘Christmas Tree’. Every year there are more tree decorations on it. I don’t know who does it, but they have to be congratulated. It’s always worth a photo.

Further into the woods a great deal of work had been done to improve the path and fill in the hollows that used to flood every year. It took a long time for the work to be completed, but for once it was worth the wait. I kept looking for the flooded part and was quite surprised when we arrived back on the main path.

We curtailed the part of the walk that usually takes us round the exercise machines and instead walked round to M&S for a pizza and some spicy hot chicken nuggets that are advertised as Chicken Pakora by someone who has never had pakora before. A loaf and two pineapple cakes from Iceland completed our purchases and we walked home. Four and a bit miles according to Scamp’s pedometer and just over 9200 steps according to my Fitbit.

Scamp had started to make some soup, before the walk so when we got back she turned it on again and added some more veg to the mix. The soup was intended for tonight’s dinner, but the chicken stuff and the pizza was more than enough.

We watched a film on iPlayer called The Good Liar. Part way into it I got the feeling I’d seen it before, but when Scamp said she thought so too, I knew I was right. However, we couldn’t remember how it finished! So we just watched it. Good acting by the cast and a good ending. A few sweary words in it, but nothing the good lady of the house hasn’t heard before.

I was getting tired when it finished and decided to leave the blog and the EDiF sketch until Sunday, so this is a catch-up as I’m sure you are aware.

The PoD is a Canada goose we saw on the pond. Not brilliant by any manner or means, but it ticks the PoD box.

Tomorrow looks wet. That’s all I’m going to say.

A blustery day again – 2 February 2024

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Very windy during the night, but it did calm down a bit in the afternoon.

I’ll admit it. It was a lazy day, although we did walk down to the shops to get some things for tonight’s dinner. I suppose it was a February day with wind, rain and overall, not that cold. I spent most of the morning backing up January’s photos onto a 4GB external drive and then finding that I didn’t have enough space on my 2GB drive to do the second BU. I’ll maybe need to get another external soon.

After lunch we walked down to the shops for potatoes, bread and pineapple tarts. A little Friday treat. We walked back up past St Mo’s school, then Scamp walked home while I went round the pond a couple of times. PoD was a gorse bush with a little wee yellow flower on the top. I hadn’t realised until recently that gorse bushes aren’t only evergreen, they also flower all year round. Dangerous looking sharp spikes on the bush.

Today’s prompt was ‘Copper’.
“Think out of the lines”, the lady admin said, so for once I did what I was told. Police (Polis in Scotland) are sometimes known as Cops or Coppers, so I chose a Scottish Polisman’s hat as my solution to today’s problem. Sketched in pencil and lined in with fountain pen and black ink then blocked in with a Pentel black brush pen before finishing off with a Posco white brush pen. I quite liked the monochrome effect.

I suppose that was about it for today. I’d intended writing to Alex, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

I don’t see us going far tomorrow, but you never know. The weather
may improve and pigs might fly.

 

 

A Day in the Toon – 30 January 2024

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Our ‘unofficial’ anniversary.

As planned it was going to be a wander round town and then lunch in Wagamama in West George Street. Before that there were prezzies and a card to give out, but I’d been wearing my prezzy for about a week already, a pair of photographer’s gloves with the tip of the index finger and thumb able to fold back to allow a better grip when focusing and also to ensure that the ‘shutter finger’ actually pressed the shutter! Scamp’s was jewellery, because I know she loves shiny things. She had to wait until today to get her’s!

We got the bus in to Glasgow and just wandered. Mostly window shopping although Scamp did manage to pick up a new dress for a bargain price. I got a paint brush, but not for painting. It’s going to be a sensor cleaner that can be charged up with an air blower and will pick up the tiny little bits of fluff that get caught in the corners of the sensor. It’s much smaller than my big sensor cleaner and will be perfect for what I’m looking for.

As usual, we started out in a Nero with a coffee, then down Buchanan Street along to Cass Art to get the brush then along to Jamaica Street which led us down to the Clyde. Next stop was on the Clyde Walkway for me to photograph the new graffiti that had appeared. This isn’t gang tags although there are some, this is artistic painting on a grand scale. A 10 foot high wall is covered with artwork. Always worth a look. We walked back towards St Enoch because Scamp thought she’d get a holiday bag there. She didn’t. What she did find was a dress shop called Klass which had been recommended by one of the Tea Dance ladies. That’s where the dress came from. We walked back on to Argyle Street and listened to a Rock ’n’ Roll trio called, ‘The Best Bad Influence’, playing in the street. They were good and Scamp put some money in their box.

I was heading for Waterstones to see what books were new. On the way I took some photos of reflections in a big puddle and the best one got PoD. A little bit of jiggery pokery needed, but it looked good when it was finished. From there it was up to West George Street for lunch in Wagamama. Starters were Bang Bang Cauliflower (lovely, but spicy!) and Ebi Katsu (Butterflied prawns coated in panko breadcrumbs and deep fried – delicious). Mains were Prawn Raisukaree (mild curry with prawns and veg with rice) for Scamp and Chicken and Prawn Yaki Soba (noodles with chicken, prawn, egg and peppers) for me. All washed down with a glass of wine each.

We walked up to The Counting House a Wetherspoons pub on George Square. G&T for two, then the X37 back to Condorrat and walked home.

Really a quite excellent day. The rain stayed off and the sun shone. Who could ask for more?

Tomorrow looks windy and wet. No plans for it so far.

Just a dump – 29 January 2024

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No, not Cumbersheugh this time, just a bit of clearing out.

Things that had outlived their usefulness or that no longer worked. They were going on a one way trip to the council skips.

But first there was shopping to be done. A long rambling walk round the aisles of Tesco collecting some things we don’t really need, but a lot of things we can’t do without. A Monday shop is really a necessity shop. No frills, just food shopping, mainly.

With that done it was time for lunch, then a gathering together of all the bags and buckets of stuff referred to earlier. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of things that we can fit into the boot of the blue car. When we got to the council tip, most of it went straight into “General Household” the cover-all description of the miscellaneous detritus that isn’t wholly metal, wood or rubble. I did have one or two items that went into the “Metal” skip and one that would have gone into “Small Electrical” if that skip had been there. Instead it went into “General …”

Now I reckoned I had an hour or so to go and get some photos. I chose the Forth & Clyde canal between Haggs and Allandale as my destination. After a being stopped at a few roadworks (February is the month for councils to ‘get rid’ of their unused money. If they don’t do that, their grant for the next year will be reduced) where unnecessary work was being done quite slowly. Eventually I reached the canal and got a few shots on the A6500 then headed for home.

Dinner tonight was pasta with mushrooms, bacon and chilli flakes in a tomato sauce, plus one special ingredient, Hazy. Finely chopped up greenery from a single stem of spring onion growing in a pot of water on the kitchen window sill! That just finished the sauce off perfectly.

PoD was a shot looking west from one of the locks on the canal with a nice little reflection of the trees.

We have plans for tomorrow. Hopefully they will be revealed in tomorrow’s blog.

A day on my tod – 27 January 2024

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Out about 9am (that’s earlier than a ‘normal’ Saturday when we’re going dancing) to drop Scamp off at Ian’s – June’s weekend retreat!

Scamp and June were off to Glasgow Royal Concert Hall to sing the Verdi Requiem with a few other singers. Originally it was expected that there would be about 600 voices. The final total for today was 804!! That’s a lot of noise. I wasn’t involved at all. All I did was drive Scamp to meet June at Ian’s. After that, my work was done and I could rest for the remainder of the day.

As it was, I must have wasted a good half hour of the day attempting to find where they hide the crunchy peanut butter in the Town Centre Tesco. They have the strangest idea of a logical pattern to their shelves, but eventually I did find this addictive breakfast necessity. It’s the closest thing I’ve found to the ‘Pease Brose’ my mum used to make. It was made from ground up dried peas, not peanuts, but strangely the processing was similar.

With the crunchy peanut butter jar in my pocket I could have my breakfast and then struggled with Wordle and gave up on Spelling Bee, then read a bit more of my latest book set in Skye. I kept waiting for the weather to decide what it was going to do, so that I could decide what I was going to do. Eventually I made the decision to drive to The Fort for a couple of things. One is still in abeyance and the other, a white nylon round paintbrush I was hoping to find in Hobbycraft, but there were none of any size in the shop. Lots of white nylon flat brushes, but I’ve already got one of those. I use these nylon brushes to pick dust spots off the sensors of my cameras. If you activate them with a blower brush first the nylon fibres generate a static charge and attract the little dust motes in the camera. The big flat works perfectly for a quick sweep over the sensor, but the small rounds get into the corners. I’m not a tidy or house proud person until it comes to the innards of my cameras! Disappointed I went to see if Waterstones had anything interesting to offer, but even they let me down. I drove home.

I drove home in a different direction than normal, because the light was just right to grab a photo of an old farm that sits on a hill above the motorway and I knew where I could abandon the car for the few minutes it would take. Half a dozen photos later I was heading homeward again. Parked and then took a walk to the shops for a ready meal of Prawn Bhuna for my dinner.

By the time I was coming home, the light was fading but I extended my walk because I’d been sitting for most of the afternoon and needed to stretch my legs. I also wanted to try out my new photographer’s gloves that Scamp had bought me. They worked really well with the little finger cover that you can sneak off so you can accurately press the shutter and not one of the plethora of other buttons on a camera, then you can cover up the finger again so you don’t get frostbite. Brilliant idea. Thanks Scamp.

Just as I was fiddling with the finger guard I registered a movement off to my right as a young buck wandered across the path and off into the woods. Not running just ambling along. I was so entranced with this deer that I didn’t have time to photograph it. Someone once said it’s better to watch something happening in front of you that waste your time trying to photograph it. I agree … sometimes!

Scamp got back just before 10pm still pumped up from being part of such a big choir. I imagine June would be the same. I wished I’d been there to feel the sound of 800 odd voices, but I don’t think I’d have enjoyed the music, so probably best to hear about it once removed.

The picture of the old farm made PoD. I liked the finished article, although it wasn’t quite what I set out to capture.

We have no plans for tomorrow. We’ll see what the weather brings.

 

 

Colzium and Brodens – 26 January 2024

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It was a lovely morning, too good to waste. To make the most of it we went for a walk.

We drove to Colzium Estate just outside Kilsyth. Lots of snowdrops just coming in to flower and lots more to look forward to in a couple of weeks. We walked up the road through the trees and crossed the bridge over the Colzium burn. When we stopped in the middle a robin flew down to see what we were up to. I thought it would fly away immediately, but I took my camera out of its bag anyway and there was this wee robin looking like it was posing for the camera. Scamp said it was asking which was its best side! I took a few shots then realised two things. Firstly it had a damaged claw on on foot and secondly we were in its way, because it was heading for a pile of birdseed that someone had left on the parapet of the bridge. I apologised to it and we left it to have its lunch. One of those shots made PoD.

We walked on, along the steep road that circles the Big House and its gardens. It used to be the entrance drive when the house was in its heyday. At the top we turned right and then took the even steeper path to the left that led us through the woods to the wee bridge over the Colzium Burn just downstream from the Tak ma Doon road. We crossed the bridge and headed down the quite slippery path on the other side of the burn. Scamp started searching through the fallen branches for a suitable stick to give her some support for walking down the path.

Halfway down we found a big fallen tree that turned out to be half a tree, It looked as if the tree had split in two in the past and this one half had been torn from the other one during last week’s storms. You don’t realise just how big trees are until you see one lying down. We get so used to see trees standing above us. We met a woman who said she didn’t know if it was safe to walk in the trees when it was windy. I hadn’t thought of that. You wouldn’t stand much of a chance if a tree fell on you. Scamp was a bit saddened to see the broken tree lying there and I could see how she’d feel that. We walked on down to the bridge again, having done a complete circuit of this part of the estate. The robin that we’d seen the last time we’d passed was still there eating the seeds. It must have been the same one. There can’t be two robins with a damaged claw in the same place, could there? To end the walk we walked past the old curling pond, now a duck pond and from there back to the car.

So, should we drive to The Fort to have lunch at Wagamama or should we dine locally at Brodens? We settled on Brodens. Scamp had breaded fish ’n’ chips with a glass of Malbec and I had steak pie with mash washed down with a pint of Guinness. After that we walked home.

We watched a strange pair of girls selling manufactured diamonds on Dragons Den. If you watch it, you’ll understand what I mean by strange. It’s not really the people who are strange, but their devious dealing.

Scamp has now packed her sandwiches and fruit into separate boxes and is ready to meet June tomorrow and get a taxi to Glasgow to sing the Verdi Requiem with about 600 other singers in the Royal Concert Hall. I’m not going, because she says I wouldn’t like it. Probably right.

A day at Kelvingrove – 24 January 2024

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It was another windy night last night. Maybe just marginally less disruptive than Monday into Tuesday, but now Jocelyn has joined Isha and good riddance to both of them.

Today I was meeting Alex in Glasgow and we were going to get the bus to Kelvingrove to take some photos and have some lunch. First I checked in with him to make sure he was good to go after last night’s wind. Of course he was, but it’s always good to check and not just assume all is well in the centre of North Lanarkshire. For once the bus was on time and I was away into Glasgow with Kevin Bridges in my ear, telling me some stories. I’m a fairly slow reader and I suppose I must he a slow listener too. I generally only listen to the Audible track when I’m on the bus by myself. That way I can concentrate on the story.

We met at the bus station and went for a coffee. Allegedly Nero’s dishwasher was broken, so they were using disposable cups. I wouldn’t mind that, but they put their usual amount of coffee into a big paper cup and then topped it up with way too much hot water. I go to Nero to get good strong coffee that tastes of coffee. If I wanted weak watery coffee I could go to Costa.

I struggled through the gallon cup of dirty water and then we headed off to the West End. The posh end of Glasgow, or at least it thinks it is. Noting that the scaffolding and plywood panels were still in place where they’d been for about six months now, we entered this otherwise beautiful building. I was delighted to see that the portrait of Ann Pavlova was back in its rightful place. Such an energetic looking portrait of the dancer.

We went up to the gallery to get some photos of the gigantic pipe organ an some of The Heads. Over 50 different grimacing and laughing heads hanging as an installation by Sophie Cave. One of them became the PoD after a fair bit of work to get it looking the way I wanted.

Lunch was next in the conservatory. We both had the same thing. Scottish Beef Burger on a bun with chips.

Another walk round the main ground floor and then we were off outside because the light on Glasgow Uni tower was really worth a few shots. I just missed a shot of a squirrel running in front of a burger van. Not the source of our burgers, though. I did get a shot of its fluffy tail (the squirrel’s, not the burger’s, you understand) sticking out from under the skirt of the van.

Waited ages for the bus back to the bus station and then we parted our ways and I listened to more of Kevin swearing through more stories.

I’d messaged Scamp on the way home that I wouldn’t need any dinner tonight and instead had a plate of soup. The last plate from the big pot. Watched Landscape Artist and correctly predicted two of the three finalists, but didn’t pick the winner.

A great day with my brother. Had a long discussion with him about the merits and demerits of the new lens, but finally decided to keep it. I was delighted with my 86 photos and only 9 of them rejected. That’s a good percentage. More will fall on the cutting room floor before the week is out, I’m sure.

I think we may go dancing at the tea dance tomorrow if the weather is kind to us.