Category: against the light

Cold and dull – 29 November 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Struggled to find the word in Wordle and didn’t finish the Spelling Bee. Such is life.

However, I put that disappointment behind me and started thinking about tonight’s dinner, which was going to be Spag Bol for me with chopped up chicken livers for extra meatiness. That meant I had to be on the ball, getting the meats out of the freezer to defrost. The mince had been chilling away in there since April! Scamp was having cauliflower cheese, so no early prep was necessary there.

With that done, we started packing a parcel to go down south. Then we realised that it should really have gone yesterday to avoid getting caught up in more postal strikes that start this week. Not to worry, we could send it with DPD which is usually pretty good at getting things done on time … touch wood! Even better, we could send the parcel from Matalan which is virtually on our doorstep. Drove down to the shops and sent the parcel on its way.

Two things done. The next thing to do was finish the backup for the newly refurbished and SSD powered iMac. A walk in St Mo’s got me a PoD which wasn’t looking very hopeful to start with, mainly because it was so dull and it looked like being a 3pm sunset, but after dunking it in Lightroom, scrubbing it and hanging it out to dry, it looked far more interesting.

The walk also cemented the backup strategy in my head and when I came back I got started on moving things around between the SSDs. An hour later the job was done and the photo was ready to post on Flickr. It’s a trio of bramble leaves shining brightly against a grim looking St Mo’s sunset. I liked it. Three tasks completed!

My Spag Bol turned out reasonable tonight, but probably needs more basil and oregano to brighten it up tomorrow. I think I might try some tagliatelle instead of spaghetti too. Scamp’s cauliflower cheese looked lovely by comparison.

Oh yes, I nearly forgot.  Yesterday I had washed the car just as it was getting dark.  Today when I was driving down to the shops, I found loads of mucky bits I’d missed.  I may have to take it through the car wash now!

Tomorrow I’m told we may need some shopping.

Just a normal Sunday – 20 November 2022

Posted on by Zogman

It was raining and it looked like it may keep raining all day.

A lazy Sunday, because almost for all of the rest of the week one of us was going to be busy. The usual start to the day with Wordle completed and then the Pangram found in Spelling Bee. I thought it might be a good idea to make a loaf and got started on that.

After lunch the clouds parted and the sun shone. Scamp was intending to make chicken soup for dinner and she needed some veg for it, so she was off to the shops. I stayed home and messed about with the computer. When she came home, I got dressed and went for a walk in St Mo’s. It seems that my guess about the swan was right, it was dead. Now it’s up to NLC to do something about it.

A walk into the woods gave me today’s PoD. It’s just a few leaves caught between two mossy trees, but a bit of backlighting made the leaves glow. There wasn’t much else to photograph and the temperature was dropping so I walked home. On the way I chanced upon a dozen or so joggers, each one dressed up. It must have been a charity run or maybe the aftermath of a stag do. Anyway, it brightened the day because the sun was sliding towards the horizon.

Scamp was organised today, because as well as making the soup, she also baked a Dutch Apple Sponge. After it came out of the oven it was time for mine to go in, except the second prove wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped and the loaf was a bit floppy. I transferred it into a lined loaf tin and allowed it a quarter of an hour to perk up in the warm oven above the main one. After that, I reckoned it was as risen as it was going to get and put it in the main oven. Like Scamp’s cake, it turned out fine. So we had Chicken Soup with Home Baked Bread for a main and Dutch Apple Sponge with custard for a pudding.

Spoke to Jamie for just over ten minutes tonight. We had no news and he had very little. We are hoping the plumber will fix the kitchen taps tomorrow and they had just had their boiler serviced. Just a usual week.

Tomorrow Scamp is taking Isobel out for coffee and I’m staying in to supervise the plumbing.

The rain came back – 15 November 2022

Posted on by Zogman

We had two days of glorious sunshine. It was inevitable the rain would return.

It was a “chucking it down” kind of rain. Straight down, no messing rain that wasn’t going off any time soon. In fact it stayed with us until about 4 o’clock.

Scamp was out for coffee with Annette this morning. I was staying in, not just because it was raining, but also because Mr Bezos was sending me a shiny new SSD, yes, another one. This one will be a swapping drive to allow me to make a running copy of my Big Sur operating system, built using the latest method. It looks and feels faster than the first build I made. Also it was half price as Amazon have now extended Black Friday to November. I’d been sent an email to say that it would be delivered today before 9pm. Not a very exact time slot, but Mr Bezos is a busy man! It arrived just after 6pm.

Left to my own devices, I decided it was time to pick all the remaining chilli peppers and prune the plant back a bit. ‘Experts’ opinions vary on how fierce that prune should be. Some say cut about 25% from the bush. Others say cut it right back to the ground, it will regrow next year. I chose the middle ground and cut off about 50% of the green stuff after I’d removed all the ‘fruit’. I was being careful to work around the nettle that has taken root in the pot. The sting I got from it the last time I was removing chillies took a couple of days to go away. It’s done now and I think it looks a lot healthier after its trim. We’ll wait and see if it needs another chop.

The next thing to do was to phone the plumber to come and fix the kitchen tap. He’s promised to come on Friday morning. We’ll wait and hope that he’ll know how to fix it, or just replace it, whichever is easiest … and cheapest!

Lunch today was soup. It’s a long lasting soup that one, and there’s even a splash or two left for tomorrow. With that done I took a walk over to the butcher’s in Condorrat in the rain and on the way back got today’s PoD. It probably looks faked, but the only fakery in it is the removal of a couple of street lights that were spoiling the view. That misty spray from the cars on the motorway and the colour are just as it came out of the camera. It’s the low sun pushing its way through the clouds that colours the spray to the sepia hue. That’s why they call it the hour just before sunset, ‘The Golden Hour’.

I got another couple of photos in St Mo’s, because the clouds lifted, the rain stopped and the sun shone for about half an hour before it dipped back into the clouds again.

We heard from Neil that his check-up today went well with nothing untoward to report. Photo looks good Neil. They haven’t spoiled your good looks with the ’Nose Job!’ ?. Nurse Hazy must be working hard.

Tomorrow looks like the best day of the week, but we’ll be staying at home waiting for Scamp’s new dance trainers. Hope they come before 9pm!

Summer has officially ended – 30 October 2022

Posted on by Zogman

At 2am the clocks went back. I never saw them do it, but I’m happy to believe they did.

We got an extra hour in bed, sleeping through that amazing happening at 2am. However, in my sleep I must have been worrying through the Continuous Hover Cross, so much so that I wanted to see if I could manage to get through it solo. I did the count that Jane had done and lo and behold it worked. Not the first time, nor the second, but by the fourth or fifth attempt the steps worked. Now all I had to do was fit it into the routine that Scamp was doing, because unlike most ballroom routines, the Lead and the Follower are doing completely different steps, while almost being joined at the hip. Again, not at the first attempt, but at the third or fourth we were dancing the CHC. Hooray! A milestone had been reached! On to the Telemark Turn.

We spent some more time dissecting the next part of the routine and that’s where iMovie came to the rescue again. In that clumsy bit of software it is possible to speed up or slow down a video. We did the slowing down to about 70% normal speed. The really clever part is that you can force the pitch of music or speech to stay the same and not slow down with the visuals. That gave us another weapon to use in the final part of the ‘back end’ of the Foxtrot.

We needed something for tonight’s dinner, so once the rain had stopped we put the computer away and walked down to the shops. We came home with a chicken, some veg and a pudding plus other odds and sods that would do for lunch during the week. We wouldn’t starve.

When we got back, I grabbed a camera and went for a walk in St Mo’s.  According to my weather app, there was a one hour window before the next rain shower blew in and we’d already used up about half an hour of that walking down to the shops and back! There wasn’t much to see over the road, but there was just occasionally some sunshine through the trees. The sun gave a bit of back lighting to a leaf that had become entangled in some weeds. That made PoD after some restorative work in a couple of post-processing apps. Yes, the weather fairies had it down perfectly.  I was back in the house about ten minutes when the first raindrops met the window.

Dinner was roast chicken with baked potatoes and roasted veg. All done in the oven. The kitchen was toasty hot for the rest of the day as a result.

Spoke to Jamie later and found out about his forthcoming work trip to Switzerland, famous of course for it’s clocks and WATCHES.  DId I say WATCHES?  But of course he wouldn’t be interested in such things, would he?  Sounds like they were getting some much needed rain these past few days.

The prompt for today was ‘Gear’. Would I do meshing gear wheels? Nah! The thought of drawing all those gear teeth with involutes and pitch circles. No chance. I thought of drawing camera gear, but somebody had already drawn that. I settled, finally, on my painting gear and that’s what you see here. I thought it was only right and proper to give them a chance in the limelight.

No plans for tomorrow. Possibly another practise of the Gershwin Foxtrot. I don’t think Alex is fit enough for a photo walk yet.

Pencil to paper – 20 September 2022

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It should have been brush to paper, but I didn’t get that far.

Scamp was out to meet Annette this morning, but for tea, not coffee because Calders has the reputation of serving the worst coffee in the world, so tea is a safer option. I had the morning to myself and started on a sketch I’d been meaning to get down on paper for months. It’s just a house and garden and it should have been easy, but in the past I just couldn’t get the perspective right. Today was no exception, at least until I tried using a grid. It’s a trick that I’ve seen others use and have scoffed at. I actually taught it as a means of scaling up a drawing for a while. Now I taught myself how to use it, and it worked. Admittedly, now I have the grid lines to cover up, so the painting that I anticipated being a watercolour may turn out to be an acrylic. Today, I’m just happy with the sketch.

After I ‘finished’ the sketch – you never really finish a drawing or a painting, you just reach a point where, as Whistler is alleged to have said, “I do not intend to do any more to it”. When I reached that point, I left the sketch unfinished for the day and decided to do something useful instead, so I cleaned the shower. It’s a dirty job, but somebody has to do it. That’s probably a quote too. I’m sure I’ve heard it somewhere before! With my good deed done for the day I waited to see if Scamp was coming home today, or perhaps waiting until tomorrow. She arrived bearing rolls! And not just any rolls, ‘Well Fired Rolls’. Crisp, crunchy rolls. I forgave her late arrival.

After lunch which was filled rolls for two, we went for a walk to the shops. We needed milk. We didn’t need Chocolate Cookies or a Bakewell Tart, but we got them anyway. When we got home I saw the red Californian Poppies that nod their head in the border looking bright and cheerful in the sunshine. The first shot went a bit bonkers because the camera decided that 1/800th of a second was a reasonable shutter speed rather than the 1/125th I’d asked it to use. That turned the bright red poppy into a dull dark red blob … however, maybe if I did a bit of jiggery pokery in Lightroom … ?
So that’s what I did. A bit of jiggery pokery in Lightroom, then in ON1 2022 and then back in Lightroom again for a final sprucing up and I had a PoD!

While I was engrossed in the post processing, Scamp was having a field day, digging up plants. Unfortunately she dug up what must be a long time favourite of mine whose real name is Astilbe but my mum always called it Spirea, because the man who gave her the first plant called it that. Strangely, one name for it is False Spirea. Thank you Mr Nelson. Anyway they are now all dug up although Scamp did spare one plant which is now in a pot. Yes, I know they were invasive. Every year we cut them back, only for them to return the next year, but they had pretty pink flowers. I’m sure they will come back again … twice as strong.

The uprooting caused a bit of an argument and I went out for a walk to cool down. When I returned I got stuck in to making the dinner which was Haddock & Prawns with Fennel. It’s meant to be Cod, not Haddock, but it tastes equally good with either. One of the best ones I’ve made. It must have been the anger that concentrated the taste.

Later we agreed to differ on the Astilbe question and watched The Hotel and were amazed at the mess people leave in their hotel rooms We were equally shocked at the hours the staff work. It might make me more forgiving when we go on holiday and don’t get five star service in a four star hotel.

No plans for tomorrow. No painting and no digging plants up.

Autumnal – 16 September 2022

Posted on by Zogman

This is the first day this year I’ve really felt the autumn chill in the air.

Scamp was going out to her FitSteps class this morning and I cleared up yesterday’s dinner dishes. After that I put on my hoodie and with the A7 and the macro lens in my bag I went for a midday walk in St Mo’s. The weather was beautiful to look at, bright sun and blue skies with a few clouds scudding past. The temperature was a bit low though, not very deep into the double figures. It had been in single figures when I was making the breakfast.

The sun must have been warming up the boardwalk round the pond, because the air was full of little red dragonflies that I think were male Common Darters with a couple of Small Black darters too. One of the common darters made PoD. I’d hoped to get some photos of bees feeding on the blue Scabious flowers, but there were none to be seen today. Perhaps they all had the day off.

By the time I got back, Scamp had returned from her class. We discussed going out for lunch, but finally agreed we couldn’t be bothered and settled for a home lunch.

After lunch, Scamp planted two gigantic bulbs of Crown Imperial which is a , one at the front of the house and one at the back. She also planted some small Globe Alliums. Finally, because the sun was warm as long as you stayed where it was shining, we pruned the apple tree to reduce the amount of fruit the poor thing has to carry. We both agree that it will probably need staking in the spring to give it some extra support.

Dinner was provided by Golden Bowl and I volunteered to walk over to Condorrat to collect it. It was getting quite chilly when I was coming back. I think we’ll be looking at single figures again tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow we’ve an early shift at the dance class. Stewart wants class to start at 10am rather than our usual 11am. That will mean getting up at about 8.30am. On a Saturday!

Dancin’ – 30 June 2022

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Out dancing in Paisley

We drove over to Paisley just after midday for today’s tea dance. Got there late as usual. My fault again, as usual. Danced the afternoon away. We didn’t dance the Tango because we were too busy talking and we didn’t dance the Quickstep, because we can’t remember any of the steps Michael taught us and we never get a straight run at it with Stewart and Jane because we’re off visiting somewhere. One of these times we’ll get a chance for a private lesson and begin to dance the Quickstep. Everything else, Waltz, Social Foxtrot, Rumba and Cha-Cha plus innumerable sequence dances. It was a great way of adding to our step count and must have done us some good, because we were both exhausted when the ‘Last Waltz’ was called.

When the dancing was done, I gave Stewart the painting he’d asked me for back in February. It’s not the exact one he saw on Facebook, but a very good copy, and a larger copy too. I think it’s going to an 80 year old lady who simply loves ‘Green Door’ by Shakin Stevens and that’s what’s in the painting, my version of Green Door. I told him that I hoped it would exorcise that song which constantly runs through my head. I catch myself singing it at odd times through the day. It must be some kind of strange disease, because I hate that song!

As we were driving home I kept watching the great black clouds that were gathering in front of us and remembered the warning ‘Alexa’ gave this morning for thunderstorms. However, we got home without getting wet. The car took a bit of a soaking, but we were dry. Scamp’s washing that she’d left out also got an extra rinse from the rain, but the sun was warm and there was a gentle breeze, so most of them were drying. Despite that, she decided it was time to take them in and it was a good choice, because not long after that, the rain came.

I couldn’t be bothered going over to St Mo’s after the rain stopped. Instead I took some photos in and around the garden, but they weren’t that good. Despite my best efforts, I just couldn’t make a silk purse out of that sow’s ear. It was after our, Bacon and Borlotti Beans, dinner when I took a look outside and saw the light shining through the rain and the roses that grow round the back door. That’s where today’s PoD came from. Roses in the rain.

For once, I enjoyed the tea dance. I felt at home with most of the dances, even the social foxtrot which we’ve never managed, we did quite well today. It wasn’t full of fancy moves, it was just moving to the music, but that’s what dancing is, isn’t it?

Absolutely no plans for tomorrow, but there will be something, you can bet your boots on that.