Beasties – Page 36 – My Photo Blog

Keep taking the tablets – 30 May 2016

Posted on May 30, 2016 by Zogman

We went in to Glasgow with the stated intention of getting a tablet/laptop. Apparently what I was looking for was a “2 in 1”, which I suppose describes it quite well.

Note to JIC.
Please feel free to ignore this part as it’s almost all technospeak.
First stop was Staples where I saw the cheapo looking Linx 10.1″ tablet with a clamshell keyboard/lid. Cheapo maybe, but it had 2 x USB3 ports and 1 x micro USB for power and doubling as a port if you have an OTG (On The Go) cable. Even better, it was at a bargain price of £149.99. Ok, one possible.
Ok, JIC, Technospeak over.

Next stop was John Lewis who on paper had a load of these 2 in 1s. Unfortunately, if we ignore the very expensive Mickysoft offerings, there were only two. One was an Acer with no price on it and no power in the battery, the other was an HP at £80 more than the cheapo Linx. The spec appeared to be almost the same, in fact it only had 1 x USB port and 1 x micro USB. So it looks like it’s back to Staples.

Before that, Scamp decided that lunch at Patisserie Valerie was in order. Since she prefers to eat inside, we got a table no bother because everyone wanted to sit outside in the sun. Had our order taken: Crayfish Salad for both of us and Apple Pie for after for Scamp, Pecan Pie for me. Tea for both.
The tea arrived, and so did the manager to apologise, but there was no Pecan Pie. No problem, I’d just have the Apple Pie. A little later he arrived back to say that sorry, there was no Crayfish Salad. He did offer alternatives. Scamp went for Chicken Caesar and I chose Chicken Brochette. We’d been sitting for 20 minutes by this time. Half an hour later and still nothing had arrived although the manager had floated past about 15 minutes before to say that my chicken was just going on the grill. I’d had enough. We offered to pay for the two teas, but the girl on the till would have nothing of it and told us the manager “should have been dealing with it.” If I’d had to speak to the manager himself, Begbie would have come out of the box again.

Back at Staples, I bought the Linx. Unfortunately, when I got it home, I found that it looked nothing like what I’d seen in the shop. Quick phone call and was told to bring it back and they’d exchange it for the correct one. I did, they did and this time I checked it before I left the shop. So far, it’s doing everything I expected it to do. Pity the same can’t be said for Patisserie Valerie.

More sun promised for tomorrow. Bring it on!

When is a laptop not a laptop – 28 May 2016

Posted on May 28, 2016May 28, 2016 by Zogman

We drove into Stirling today for lunch at the Indian and not a lot else. The lunch was good and instead of nan bread we had chapatis. Scamp and I don’t like this new idea of chopping up a nan bread and serving it in a basket. I suspected that unscrupulous restaurants could be collecting uneaten nan pieces from previous diners baskets and using them to pad out new ones. Just a suspicion, but Scamp agreed that it was an unsavoury possibility, so we decided it would be better to get chapatis which are served whole.

On the way to the restaurant, I dallied in Stirling’s computer shop. I’d been looking for a laptop to take on holiday and I’d had a few bargains in the past from Computer Depot. Years ago, Ali, the owner, sold me a little MP3 music player that has a massive 64MB memory and also took extra memory in the form of SmartMedia cards. This probably means nothing to most people these days, but back at the turn of the century (that sounds such a long time ago, doesn’t it) they were very high tech and could be had in sizes up to 128MB. With a 128MB card in the player, you could have almost 3 hours of music at your disposal. I still have the Diamond Rio music player, and occasionally it will work. Anyway, there were no laptops that were in my price range. What they did have was one of the new (well, new to me) 2 in 1 tablets with a clip on keyboard.

<TechnoSpeak>
It only 32GB storage and 2GB RAM, but the processor was a quad 1.33Mhz with the ability to run at 1.83Mhz in burst mode. It had one USB 3 port and a micro USB 2 which, as well as being used as a charging port, could double as an import/outport device with an On The Go (OTG) cable. It was running 32bit Windows 10 which is a lot better than I thought, now that I know how to ‘refresh’ the install. The 32 GB wouldn’t be nearly enough storage for holiday photos, but if I used the USB port to connect an external hard drive it would be a neat solution to the problem. Almost as neat as the old HP netbook but much faster. Certainly worth considering. I didn’t dive in and buy the one he had on offer, mainly because I couldn’t find any reviews of it on the net, but I’m looking at alternative versions. In the words of Facebook, “A lot has changed in laptops since you last looked.”
</TechnoSpeak>

Today was a good day weather-wise and tomorrow is meant to be even better. We’ll see.

Walking in the Sunshine – 22 May 2016

Posted on May 22, 2016May 24, 2016 by Zogman

It’s a sunny Sunday and after breakfast we headed off over the fields and far away. Luckily Sim is friendly with the farmer and we got permission to walk through the horses’ fields to the right-of-way. I’m not that happy walking in fields with actual horses in them. Sim calls them ‘ponies’, but these aren’t anything like the ‘My Little Pony’ my daughter had when she was wee. These are big brown monsters, much bigger than me, but I treated them like I treat anyone bigger than me – don’t make eye contact, pretend they’re not there and everything will be fine. I did, and it was. we reached the relative safety of the road. Relative safety because this is a narrow single track road, but the drivers seem to think it’s their own personal autobahn. In other words, they think there is no speed limit. That said, we survived the killer ponies and the madskull drivers and started on our walk proper. Like yesterday it was mainly between fields of wheat and also yellow rapeseed. I synched the camera with my iPhone to allow me to geotag the photos. I knew it would only work with the ’10 and not the ‘5, but that wouldn’t matter because at least I’d have a record of the walk that I could plot on a map when I got back home. Checked the first one and all seemed to be well. We walked for an hour or so. Probably more than an hour because although JIC and Scamp were charging on ahead, Sim and I were constantly stopping to get some photos.

When we got to the top of one of the hills, gentle hills. This is Engerland, not mountainous Scottishland remember. They don’t do real hills here. Anyway, when we got to the main road at the top of one of the hills, there was a debate as to whether we should return by the same route or do a round trip. The round trip would mean walking on the grass verge at the side of the road and, since we’d already seen the stock car racing that was being done on the narrow road, we didn’t fancy our chances on the main road, so it was back the way we’d come.

On the way back we got a really good view of the ‘Chicken Prison’ or battery hen farm. If you’ve seen one of these travesties you will know why Scamp won’t but the cheapest chicken, but rather the free range ones. At least they had a slightly better life. We also got to see how a lovely vista across the green fields is destroyed by a solar panel farm. Just to complete the trilogy, there was a wind farm behind us. I’m all for being ‘green’, but just how efficient are these blots on the landscape? Wind farm windmills are white (white = pure) and generally now they are painted green at the bottom (green = natural). It’s all colour psychology, or kidology might be a more accurate description. During the first two weeks in April in Scotland almost no wind energy was generated as the wind wasn’t strong enough. It is not a viable alternative to traditional methods of generating electricity. Enough of the rant.

Back home after passing the demon ponies again, we had ice lollies and Pimms for lunch, then watched JIC starting the barbecue that would provide our supper. What a supper. Chicken kebabs for Scamp. Pork burger and sausages for the carnivores.

Dumped my photos and oh, oh, it looked like only one photo had been geotagged! Bummer. Then when I got them all in there were 40 tagged photos. Only one session, but forty photos in the session. All was good. Just as a finale, a woodpecker arrived at the bird table. I’ve never managed to get a photo of one. This one was a bit twitchy. Every time I went near the window, it went and hid in the big tree at the side of the garden. However, I managed about four good shots from a sitting position on the couch!

Back home tomorrow. I’d love to have stayed longer, but all good things must come to an end. We had an excellent day and an excellent break. Three days with Hazy and N D’Ag and three days with Sim and JIC.

Slugs and Snails – 15 May 2016

Posted on May 15, 2016May 15, 2016 by Zogman

Yet another fine day, almost as good as yesterday. I’d said I would fix the fence between us and Scott to hopefully prevent his dog from bringing it down completely. Of course, he’s said he’s going to get a new fence, but while we’re waiting for this momentous construction to occur, a little DIY was needed. Got it sorted out in my head last night and today I put it into practise and, surprise, surprise it worked. I didn’t write it down with:

Problem
Specification
Investigation
Etc

I didn’t even do a drawing, I just cut up some wood, drilled it with approximately the correct drill and screwed the thing onto the existing fence. It seems to work because the dog hasn’t pulled it down yet. It won’t last forever, but I expect we’ll have our own fence / windbreak in place before the end of the summer DV.

After my Craft (without design) project, I cut the front grass and strimmed the back all as per Scamp’s instructions. Then after dropping my lunch off the table (don’t ask – the plate was too hot to handle) we sat down to watch the ‘Live’ Spanish GP. It was a very dull race after the gruesome twosome of Hamilton and Rosberg took each other out of the race. You can tell how dull a race has been by the number of times the commentators tell you what an exciting race it has been. “Er, we were watching it too mate. It was boring.” Well, as boring as it can be to watch twenty million pound cars travelling around a track at 200mph. Relatively boring then, yes, relatively boring. The ultimate disappointment was watching that gormless Max Verstappen winning. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so devoid of gorm in my life. If you’re reading this Max, you drove a very exciting race!

After the low point of the day, I went out to take some foties of snails of all things. I did startle a fox, but there was no way I was quick enough to get a photo of it. Snails are much more accommodating and these were not just ordinary snails, but the famous St Mo’s Tree Climbing Snails. One photo above shows just how high these snails will climb. I reckon the highest one was over 20 feet above ground, that’s around 6.5m in new money. I don’t know why they climb trees and neither does anyone I’ve spoken to. The Internet has lots of possible reasons, but none that make sense.
“They climb to get away from the high temperatures at the forest floor.”
It’s Scotland. We don’t get high temperatures … anywhere!
Whatever. It happens every year and if anyone has an opinion (even you Max, exciting race, by the way) reply using the box at the bottom and I’ll lambast you for it.

Other than that, it’s blood test day tomorrow – fasting test. I hate it. It’s not as if I really go mad at night and stuff my face with a pizza and a cream bun. It’s just the thought that once the big hand’s at twelve and the little hand’s at ten, I can’t have anything else to eat for twelve whole hours (at least eight of which I’ll be asleep).

Looking forward to food tomorrow. No, don’t think about it. It’s making me hungry already …… !

Of Books and Bookshops – 11 May 2016

Posted on May 11, 2016 by Zogman

A few years ago I bought a Kindle. Scamp thought I was mad. Then I bought her a Kindle and she realised the potential of this little slab of plastic and ‘tronics. Since then we’ve both had an on/off relationship with e-readers. Mostly on. I like the instant result from downloading a book. I like being able to carry a dozen books around with me on my slate. I like being able to read late at night by my illuminated screen without disturbing anyone. I like the novelty of having an on-board dictionary where I can discover, not only the meaning of a word, but also its derivation. We don’t have a bookshop in the town and I have to travel in to Glasgow or Stirling to peruse bookshelves. I could go to the library, but somehow that’s not as satisfying as handling and owning a new book, maybe it’s the owning part that’s the most important. If I didn’t have the money, I’d have to rely on our local library and maybe I should use it more, because if I don’t use it I could lose it, but mostly I’m sold on digital downloads.

Sometimes I deliberately buy a book, a physical book, just because I like the weight of it in my hand, or the tactile feel of turning a paper page, rather than the pretence of stroking a screen. Or sometimes, especially with a newly published book it’s actually cheaper to buy a book than a digital download. I have on occasion bought a non-fiction download, but I’ve never been totally satisfied with them even if I can search through them much more easily than with the printed article. There’s a place for books and equally there’s a place for Kindles.

I was thinking about this today when we were in Waterstones in Glasgow. I saw their Book of the Month and thought it looked interesting, then said to myself “I’ll add that to my Book LIst”. However, although I added it to the list I’ve got on my phone, I mentally added it to a paper book list, not an e-book list or just a must read list. Maybe some books are better read in printed form rather than electronically. For my birthday, Hazy gave me two paperback books and Scamp gave me a book token. Maybe that’s what’s reawakened my interest in printed media. I know I’ll probably take my Kindle on holiday with me, but I might just take a book too.

After we came back from Glasgow Scamp got settled in her chair at the front door. I took the shot of the disintegrating tulip. Tulips have no shame. They quite blatantly display their naughty parts for public gaze. With at least one decent photo in the bag, I got the bike rack out and took the bike down to Auchinstarry then cycled along the canal to Kirkintilloch. The only real reason anyone would go to Kirky is for the exercise of cycling along the canal tow path. Other than that, it has little to recommend it. On the way I saw the little pink blossom with its translucent green leaves beside the canal. Also, saw my first damselfly of the year. Not the best photo, but it was down in an overflow channel from the canal and I wasn’t going to go down to get a better shot. Turned at Kirky and came back, knowing that I’d be heading into that same east wind from yesterday and the day before. It was heavy going for a while, but quite exhilarating too. Got back and joined Scamp for a relaxing hour in the sun before dinner.

Another beautiful day. More of the same tomorrow? Yes please!

A really lovely day – 20 April 2016

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Zogman

Today was a lovely day from start to finish – unless you were a Rangers supporter because they were beaten 3 – 2 by Hibernian for some cup or league or other. Personally, I couldn’t care less.

Stayed in in the morning waiting for the postman to bring my second camera strap. This one destined for my E-PL5 or ‘5 as it’s now known. While I was waiting, I put my boots on and went and cut the front grass. It seemed a shame to just sit there on the step soaking up the rays when I could be doing some useful work and since Scamp had a muscle pain in her arm, the grass cutting would probably make it worse. Postman arrived just as I was finishing and he did indeed have the strap. A bit wider and more colourful than the previous black one. I’m quite impressed with the quality of these straps.

After a quick bite to eat I rolled the bike out and went for a run. The weather couldn’t have been better. Almost no wind and a blue dome above me. It’s a while since I’ve had a chance to wander over one of the wilderness walks and a bike is the only way to get there. No parking places nearby, so a bit of exploration and some exercise too. Didn’t do very many miles today, only about 6 miles all in, but hopefully I’ll get more done during the summer. I meant to mention in yesterday’s blog that I saw my first swallows yesterday. Three definite sightings.

As I was leaving, Scamp started painting an old orange box that will hopefully hold her sweet peas. The orange box must be over 30 years old and came from my mum and dad’s house. It’s wooden, probably beech and originated from Cyprus. It might have been my brother Alex’s toy box at one time. Notice the carefully mown lawn in the background!

While I was out I managed to get the shot of the spider hanging from its web. I liked the translucency of the body with the light shining through it.

Before I went out I took the preparatory shots for the Weemen picture and finished it off tonight in Comic Life via Photoshop. One more to go in the series.

Salsa tonight was easy as far as moves were concerned, but hard on the legs and feet. Scamp says it’s because of the concrete floor. I don’t know if that’s true, but it was sore on my wee feet.

May go in to Glasgow tomorrow if the weather holds.

Not very bright intervals – 21 March 2016

Posted on March 21, 2016March 21, 2017 by Zogman

Well, 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.

Sitting in the Sun – 19 March 2016

Posted on March 19, 2016March 19, 2016 by Zogman

Sitting 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.

An hour of good light – 9 February 2016

Posted on February 9, 2016 by Zogman

We had intended going to Ayr today, but the weather said NO! It rained all morning, then as predicted by the weather men (and ladies) it stopped at midday. Too late to go to Ayr, or anywhere else really, so we took some rubbish to the council tip. Hmm, not exactly exciting or scenic. However, it was worth a walk over to St Mo’s.

I spent an interesting and worthwhile hour in St Mo’s. The light was good, the ISO setting was reasonably low and I got quite a few shots. From the 70 odd shots I distilled the four above. Top left is a group of Cladonias lichen which will forever be called Green Trumpets by me. Top right is a wummin walkin’ her big dug. Try getting Google to translate that! Bottom right is a coot looking for some bread. I had none today. Bottom left is a rare Scottish Pink Haggis – the female of the species. It was grazing on grass near the old BMX track. They will feed on grass if there is no heather available.

Hoping for more sun tomorrow.

Monday Blues – 24 August 2015

Posted on August 24, 2015August 24, 2015 by Zogman

Have you ever had one of those days when you just don’t feel settled from the time you wake up? That’s how it was for me today. I just couldn’t settle down to do anything. I was a fidget!

Eventually I went out for a walk late in the afternoon and finally got some stuff done. It was still a bit breezy, but I got some insect pictures and some flower pics too. Instead of using the 70-300 lens, I used the much more reasonable and useful 105mm macro. Horses for courses, that’s what it’s all about.

Salsa as usual, but boring dance moves. Couldn’t get interested.

Tomorrow WILL be better