Category: Close-up

At last, a pineapple – 29 March 2021

Posted on by Zogman

It was a windy old day today and a lady arrived and asked us to stick something down our throat and then up our nose. What a fun day.

We’ll get to that in a minute, but before that I cleared my painting table and put the potting tray on it along with four flower pots and one of those plug trays that look like the inside of a chocolate box, vacuum formed for those who used to teach about such things. A bag of that disgusting peat-free compost and a trowel completed the inside gardening accoutrements. I already had the seeds in the room and I proceeded to fill the pots with compost and sow Yellow Aquilegia, Strawberry Aquilegia and plain old natural Purple Aquilegia. Next was the plug tray. It too was filled with the same compost and into it was planted peas that I’d harvested last year with this exact purpose in mind. Two peas to each compartment. They might be Boogie or Ambassador or some other pea, I’m not sure. I took everything back down to that windy garden and watered all the seeds with pure rainwater and put them in the greenhouse and zipped it up to keep out the wind and hopefully to capture some of the sun’s warmth. Let’s see what appears.

The lady arrived, an Australian lady this time. Strange, it’s always been a lady who brings these instruments of torture and asks us questions. This time she was offering another year of tests although we are only part way through this year’s lot. The next tests are blood tests and I don’t think we’ll be taking them. I don’t mind the questions and the swabs, once you’ve done them a few times aren’t really all that bad. However, we were discussing the blood tests and assume we’d wouldn’t be able to do them in the kitchen. If that’s the case, then we might have to travel to Motherwell to the big ‘Tumbling Dominoes’ centre to get the blood taken. In summer it’s an ok drive, but a waste of a morning or afternoon, but in the winter it’s a different story. We’ll wait to see if we get offered them and what the procedure will be, but I think we’re thinking we’re doing enough.

Just after she left our Tesco order arrived with a substitution of Kinder Eggs for the Cadbury’s Cream Eggs Scamp had ordered. This was a surprise to me because I didn’t remember ordering them. Scamp was annoyed because it was meant to be a surprise for me, a good surprise. So the Tesco delivery man is in the same bad books as Alexa, who divulged the content of the delivery that was to be a Scamp’s birthday surprise.

I went for a walk later in the afternoon when the wind was calming down a bit and the rain that had been on all day had stopped. I wanted to see if I could find some Larch Pineapples, also called Larch Roses apparently. I couldn’t find any although the pollen dispensers were there in their hundreds, then, high up in the tree I saw what looked like a ‘pineapple’. I walked round to the windward side of the tree and finally found a couple of ‘pineapples’ just above head height. The wind was gusting strongly on this side of the tree and out of the five shots I took, the one you see was the only survivor of the cull when I got back home, and by virtue of that, the PoD. You can see how the shape of the pine cone is already there in the petals of this flower, because that is what it will turn into, a pine cone.

Hoping for a better day tomorrow. Today was wild and wet, but warmer than it’s been of late. Tomorrow will be cooler as the wind turns more northerly, but hopefully we’ll manage a walk.

Another lovely spring day – 18 March 2021

Posted on by Zogman

A bit of scattered cloud in the morning, but that soon burned off.

It was a lazy start to the day for me, but Scamp had done a load of washing ready for hanging it out to dry. I was just messing around with the iMac. It’s getting to the time when I have to upgrade the OS. There are fewer and fewer updates for my apps that will work on Sierra which I’ve been running since I got this computer. I think I’m ready now in my head for a jump up to Mojave. It’s a big jump because even the format of the hard drive will change. I think tomorrow may be the day.

Scamp was going out with Veronica for a walk around Broadwood are, but no all the way round the loch. I was staying in. I was intending starting a painting, but instead I began finding out what was causing two of Scamp’s light balls to stop working. The light balls are roughly spherical shapes made from a spiral of steel with a line of tiny white LEDs wound round them. They are connected to a solar cell which should power them during the day and turn them on at night, except they are not turning on. The first one was easy. The NiCad battery in it was dead. I thought we had a spare, but couldn’t find one. I fitted a standard Duracell and it worked fine, so the ‘tronics were ok. We just need to get a couple of cheap NiCad batteries somewhere. The second ball was different. It had a similar type of battery, but in a smaller size. I did have a spare for that. The problem with this light was water ingress. Scamp reckons it’s due to all that snow in January. I replaced the battery and the light winked of then wouldn’t light again. Getting a bit of external light on the problem and with a magnifier I discovered the problem. A small chip had come loose from the circuit board. I guessed I could solder it back on until I found that the metal conduction tracks were coming away from the fibre substrate. In technical terms it was gubbed. No point in wasting any time on it. Put it in the bin.

By then I’d found two problems and solved none. I went out for a walk to Condorrat to get chicken for dinner which would be Neil’s Italian Chicken. So called because it’s got the colours of the Italian flag, Green, White and Red. Green is Pesto. White is Mozzarella. Red is Marinara sauce. It’s Neil’s because he was the first one to cook it for us. Got the chicken, some mince and some beef olives at the butchers. Put them in the freezer and went out to get photos.

Bumped into Scamp on the way to St Mo’s, then carried on to see what photo opportunities were in the park. There were lots of ‘tribes’ wandering round the pond. Some of the male persuasion and some of the female. All dressed for the warm weather and all with their ghetto blasters (yes, we still have them up here in the north) turned up to the max. They were out celebrating the start of the Easter holidays, although:

  1. The holidays don’t actually start for another week and a half.
  2. They haven’t been to school for months now.

Still, any excuse for a party and a battle with another ‘tribe’.

PoD turned out to be a pretty wee pink flower. I must try to find out what it is. It looked as if it was just unwrapping itself in the sunshine and the out of focus ’bokeh’ in the background was a bonus.

Back home Scamp and I put our heads together and decided what changes need to made to the back garden. Just now it’s a bit of a mess. We are in agreement that we need to have a clear out of old and failing plants and that creates space for new ones. We start tomorrow with the first stages of that.

So, if tomorrow is as good as today, a day in the garden is called for.

Off to the Capital City – 15 March 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Today we were off to the capital city of North Lanarkshire. Motherwell.

Another bright morning encouraged us to get up and go. This time we were going to see where the ‘Supercentre’ for vaccination in North Lanarkshire was and how long it would take to get there. I used to work near where this giant sports centre is now. Then it was a massive steelworks, the biggest steel mill in Europe. On cold mornings in winter, in a cold bus and latterly on my motorbike travelling up Newarthill Road I could look over to ‘The Craig” and see the wagons tipping red hot slag into the slag heaps. It looked like lava coming from a volcano and actually lit up the sky. I wish I’d taken the time to grab some photos of that, but never did. Now it’s been razed to the ground and houses are being built on it. I wonder if the house owners know what chemicals lie under their new homes. This is where NHS Lanarkshire have sited their ‘Supercentre’. It is the strangest looking building. From outside it looks exactly like a stack of partly tumbled dominoes. We just drove past today, but lots of people were there and the car park looked pretty full. We just turned at the end of the road and drove home. Fifty minute round trip with sourdough toast and beans as lunch when we got home.

I was expecting a delivery from Amazon on Wednesday, but after lunch that little spoiler, Alexa reported that a delivery was arriving today. No idea when. Also we had a Tesco delivery scheduled for today, but no notification from them about a delivery time. Unusual for Tesco – par for the course with Amazon. To give me something to do, I used my blower brush to remove the last little bit of dust from the camera’s sensor. Yes, I know it won’t be the last, but I felt better for getting rid of it.

The postman dropped a blue box through the letterbox. My latest Baking Club kit. This one is for Cheese & Garlic Tear and Share. Sounds good and a bit less complicated than the last one. Thanks again JIC & Sim.

The Tesco delivery arrived about halfway through their promised delivery window, immediately followed by the Amazon man. He was delivering patches to repair my Goretex jackets, both of which have a few rips now. Looks simple enough to fix, but we’ll see how long they last. That left just enough sunlight to get half an hour in St Mo’s for some photos before it got too dark.

Today’s PoD came from that visit to St Mo’s. A little spider with his dinner wrapped up neatly, ready for the larder. I had gone looking for Larch Pineapples which are actually called Larch Roses. I thought I’d seen some yesterday, but what I’d seen were the male flowers, the Pollen Cones. Must go back next week to see if any of the female flowers, which will hopefully turn into pine cones, have appeared.

Watched another in the series of Drawers Off. For some reason they have at least four artists who know which end of the paintbrush to use. Not like the last lot. They were only interested in getting their faces seen on the telly. This is only the first of the week, there’s plenty of time for them to screw up.

Felt sorry for Strathclyde Uni just not quite good enough to get through to the semifinals of University Challenge. Maybe next year.

Tomorrow looks like a decent day, so we may go for a longer walk somewhere.

Sunshine in small doses – 9 March 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Sunshine in more ways than one.  Then wind and rain later. Typical Scottish weather.

The day was calm for most of the time, but this evening there’s a wind howling around the house. But there was a little sunshine in the afternoon, when Her Majesty the Nicola made her proclamation that groups of four people two households may meet in the open from Friday. Why do we have to wait until Friday? Because Nicola says so, of course!

We didn’t have much to do today and although it was fairly dry there was just the hint that drizzly rain would catch you if you went out. I went out in the afternoon to go for a circuit or two of St Mo’s and then extend the walk in the direction of the shops to get some veg for tonight’s dinner.

I had read some suggestions for the Tamron long zoom’s problems. It appears the drive motor in the camera may be failing, which would account for the squeal that comes from it when I switch on. I’m not sure if that’s the reason or not. I’m thinking it might be more a fault in the adapter. It was a real cheapo one and not very well quoted. However, another old lens I have, a Sigma works quite happily with the adapter. Also, and probably the most telling, is the number of repair tutorials on YouTube for that lens. My plan now is to visit Val and get him to try it on the old Nikon D70 he has. If the lens works on that, it’s the adapter that’s at fault and I can happily sell it. If it doesn’t work on the D70 it’s probably the lens that’s at fault and I might as well bin it. It’s costing me nothing just now, so I’ll leave it be for a while.

So, off I went to visit the frogs again today armed with the new Sigma macro which worked quite well yesterday, but as backup I carried my old Oly M1 with a 200mm lens. I got a few shots of the cavorting frogs with both cameras. In the end it was a picture of some Cladonia lichen that got PoD, but because you are such patient and devoted readers, here’s my favourite frog pic of the day. I called it “The Voyeurs.”

Dinner tonight was a stir fry and I enjoyed it, but it had egg noodles in it and Scamp doesn’t like noodles, preferring rice. My fault. I bought the noodles.

We watched another excruciating episode of Drawers Off tonight. I may have to give up on this week’s episodes. None of the participants have the faintest idea how structure a painting. I realise it’s ‘edutainment’, but it should have at least one foot in reality.

Tomorrow we have an early(ish) rise because we’re off, illegally crossing county boundaries so I can hopefully get the horn on my car fixed at the Nissan garage, with the possibility of a little drop-in at Waitrose on the way home, because we’re almost there anyway.

A day of sunshine – 1 March 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Just for a change!

Rather a late start, but that was because of a late night and a small dram of Tamnavulin last night. Just to help me in finishing off the last drawing of the February challenge.

It was a foggy start too, but you just knew the sun would burn it off if you gave it a chance. We gave it a chance and soon the sky was clear and there were only a few clouds sliding across it, however it was cold outside because the sun in early spring in Scotland takes a while to get it’s furnace pumped up to full heat. Sitting in the living room with the sun shining in, the light was wonderful. I used that light to illuminate what became today’s PoD which was a wilting tulip. Flowers are often more interesting when they are just past their display best, I think. I took a few, well, a couple of dozen photos of the tulips and hyacinths in that lovely directional light. While I was processing the results, Scamp went for a walk to the shops to get lunch.

After lunch we drove down to see Isobel who has a great wee sun trap at the side of her house. She had been out working in the garden and we sat for a while and exchanged books before we headed back home with some detailed instruction on when and what to prune in the garden.

Just for a laugh we put the gingerbread house out in the back garden for the birds to eat. It was much later, while I was getting ready to make dinner that I noticed a movement in among the pots. At first I thought it was a dunnock (small brown bird that forages around the pots), but it was a wee mouse. It looked smaller than a house mouse, but the same colour. It seemed interested in the house or perhaps the smells coming from it. I don’t think we really want rodents in the garden, no matter what size they are, or how cute. I think I know where it/they are coming from. The old clothes pole I cut down last year is lying behind the pots. I’d forgotten all about it, but it would be a perfect home for a rodent family. Tomorrow I’ll saw it into manageable pieces and take it off to the tip.

It seems a bit strange to be sitting writing the blog without having to do a sketch too, but February is past and I need a rest from daily drawing for a while. Maybe later in the year, all being well.

Weather looks colder for the next few days. Today was just like a spring day, let’s hope the rest of the week remembers that it is meteorological spring. No plans for tomorrow.

Dances with Wolves – 25 February 2021

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Honestly, it will all become clear

It was a lovely morning which we kind of wasted by sitting inside. We had a webinar booked with the man from Falkirk. There is the risk that listening to someone who is so steeped in his subject may turn out to be heavy in jargon and ultimately tedious. No fear of that with this twosome. Both he and his sidekick explained the intricacies of the financial world in simple terms, leavened with a fair amount of humour. He and his female counterpart would make excellent teachers.

By the time we were through and had returned to the here and now, it was almost lunchtime so we had our toasted cheese and listened to Nic the Chick twisting and turning, trying to make everyone believe she’s squeaky clean. Now I much prefer the Sturgeon to the Salmond, but neither of them are to be believed. As my pal John would say, “You know they’re lying because their lips are moving.” That sums up politics and politicians as far as I’m concerned. To clear our heads we went for a walk.

We needed food for dinner, so we walked down to the shops, via St Mo’s because the weather was still good, if not as bright as it had been earlier. Came home laden with more than we had intended getting, but who’s counting how many cakes we need?

Today’s prompt was “Wolf” and since there are no wolves near where we live, I resorted to Google to find some likely subjects. With half a dozen chosen I dumped them into Google Drive and sat down to finish today’s Sudoku. Then I dumped some kidney beans, some chilli paste and a few hot peppers in yesterday’s bolognese and voila we have a chilli for tonight’s dinner. Scamp was having fish with veg and rice, so we agreed to half the rice between us and dinner was sorted. Mine was a bit tasteless, but boy it was hot. Wish I’d bought some sour cream at the shops.

After dinner had slid down, we attempted Stewart and Jane’s waltz Spin Turn. I tried it in my dancing shoes, but the didn’t slide enough on the carpet. I tried it in my sox, but the gripped the carpet too. I didn’t trust my bare feet to Scamp’s dancing shoes, but the most help was Scamp’s count of the beats and also slowing down Stewart and Jane’s tutorial video to 75%. I even found how to use iMovie to slow the video but not distort the speech. Perfect. Well, as close to perfect as we were going to get tonight.

I’d already sorted out PoD which is some Cladonia lichen with a little moss tree making a macro garden of sorts. Looks totally alien to me as most macro shots do. It’s a miniature world of its own. Time to tackle that wolf. I glanced at some tutorials on YouTube that promised methods for drawing realistic wolf heads, but most of them were from influencers who just shout at you and then stumble through 25 minutes of ‘tutorial’ with about 5 minutes of content. After suffering a few of these, I took my sketchpad and pencils up stairs, turned the heater on low and had a good look at the wolf pictures I’d found on Google. From them I built up a framework of a dog-like head and from there stretched out some parts and reduced others until a lupine head appeared. A little bit of yellow watercolour for the eye and we were done.

Tomorrow the weather looks settled, so I think we’ll try a drive somewhere with a flask of coffee and a couple of pieces. A February picnic.

 

Snow management – 11 February 2021

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Another day removing the snow from the paths and from the cars.

Scamp started the effort by brushing the snow from the roof of her car. Then while I got rid of the rest of the snow on mine and ran the engine for a while to get rid of the condensation that gathers on all the glass surfaces, Scamp started to get rid of the snow that had accumulated on the path in to our house and the next door neighbour’s. Most of it was wind blown snow, but a small amount was fresh snow. When she was finished and the car was dry inside, I used up almost all of our remaining white salt to make sure the path stayed clear of snow and hopefully of ice.

After lunch we went for a walk down to the shops, more for the exercise than for any great shopping expedition. I think we bought more food for the birds than for ourselves. The plan was for Scamp to walk back with the bags and I would go for a walk in St Mo’s. I changed it slightly to walk up the path behind St Mo’s school and along a path that I’ve walked many times, but today I was wearing wellies and I could just wade through the areas that I usually have to avoid because they’re too deep for my leaky boots. It was like a whole new landscape with hardly any landmarks because everything was covered in a white duvet of snow.

Went for a walk in St Mo’s and followed some deer tracks for a while, but never saw the maker of the tracks. The tracks looked fresh, but either they were hiding somewhere or were just over the next hill, or the next one again. PoD was a whin bush covered in a shiny ice crown. Shot into the sun it really sparkled. Everything else I took was just a cliché snow picture.

By the time I was coming home it was chilling down again and the temperature when I got to the house was -0.5ºc and it felt about a degree below that. We had bought some fat balls for the birds, so I put three of them on a tray in the back garden. An hour later they were all gone. I suspect it may have been a big black crow or a magpie that was the culprit. Even a flock of starlings wouldn’t devour three fat balls that quickly.

Yesterday’s sketch, posted today was the beach at Pigeon Point in Tobago. If you’re going to draw and paint a beach, make it a peach of a beach. Pigeon Point fits the bill.

Today’s sketch is a strange one. The prompt was ‘Draw’. What I drew was my right hand holding a graphite stick. If my right hand was the model, then my left hand was the one that drew the sketch. It’s harder than you think drawing with your left hand. Even knowing exactly where you want the lines to go, doesn’t mean that your muscle control will ensure it goes where you intended. A worthwhile exercise.

Tomorrow I might manage to get my car out for a drive. Today I got it to move, but not far. Scamp may have to wait until the mountain that’s in front of her’s has melted away a bit before she is mobile again. Other than that, it’s wait and see what the weather brings us.

Planning is everything – 18 January 2021

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Making a plan is just the start. Sticking to it is everything.

Today I had a plan. Things to do. I didn’t make a big long list and attempt to tick them all off. I know I’d cherry pick, choosing the ones I wanted to do and getting them done, leaving the rest for tomorrow or the next day. Much easier to make a short list of a few things and get them done. Three is a good number to start with. Odd numbers are good. More interesting.
Today’s list:
1. Go for a walk.
2. Get a photo.
3. Write a letter.
If I can achieve a task while engaged in another, that’s a bonus, but doesn’t leave space for an additional task. No, it leaves space for free time e.g. To play Angry Birds!

It was dry in the morning and we couldn’t decide it it was going to stay dry for long enough to go for a walk, but we both wanted to get out in the open air for a while so we went. As soon as we left the house the rain came on, as usual. We were out now and we were already wet, so we might as well go for a short walk round St Mo’s, maybe twice round.

The rain just kept coming. Sometimes light and sometimes heavy, but always there. We both knew that if we couldn’t feel it on our faces and we put our hoods down, it would start again, but we played its game anyway. We went round the pond twice. Once anti-clockwise and once clockwise. Didn’t see anything that encouraged me to take a camera out of the bag. We came home and had soup for lunch, Scamp’s “Just Soup”, good and thick.

Following its usual pattern, the rain went off, the clouds parted and the sun shone. I put my boots back on to fool it and went out into the garden instead to get a photo. The rain came back on, but I got half a dozen photos of buds on the rhododendron in the back garden. I loaded them into the computer and while Scamp talked to her wee sister on the phone, I went upstairs to write that letter. Three tasks completed.

Tonight’s dinner was more Just Soup and then Pasta a la Carbonara and a really good one too, even if I say so myself.

Today’s PoD was one of those six photos of the rhododendron buds.

Tomorrow’s list is almost full, and it looks as if the best time for a walk will be in the morning. Possibility of some snow tomorrow or Wednesday night.

Another cold morning – 6 January 2021

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Another day for the YakTrax.

It was a lovely bright morning, but cold. Temperature was around -2ºc and we were daft enough to go out in it, and BEFORE COFFEE TOO! What were we thinking. Well, the weather machine in the house was predicting snow and it made sense to us to go out in the morning, even if it was cold. It would be much more sensible to go walking in the cold rather than in the snow. That was the logic. It made sense to me. It was bright enough to get some decent images without having to hike up the ISO too much. After struggling with dust bunnies last night, I just wanted to take some photos today.

Scamp suggested we go round Broadwood because the paths there would have more footfall and therefore be a bit cleared than the ice rink that is St Mo’s. I agreed. Broadwood would make a change too. She also suggested that it would not be a good idea to try to cross the Broadwood boardwalk which is made of plastic panels and doesn’t give you much confidence or a decent grip when it’s covered in ice. Again, I agreed. I’d agree to anything if it gets us out of the house these days and with the added benefit of a chance to take some photos.

Most of the paths were, indeed, free from ice and walking was easy. We did try one of the less travelled paths, but it was low lying and prone to flooding. Today that flood had converted to solid ice. No grip. No chance. We chose to go back the way we’d come, then extended it round Broadwood Stadium. There were a few people out walking this morning. I think most were like us, just wanting to get out somewhere in the sunshine. There’s no point in complaining about the dull days and then staying inside on the bright ones.

Back home and after lunch I was all set to make some Limoncello. As a Christmas present, Scamp had given me four lemons, a bag of sugar, a bottle of vodka and a set of instructions for making Limoncello. Today I’d decided to make it, but first I wanted to sketch and paint the two remaining lemons, the other two having succumbed to mould in this warm house. I promptly got a sketch done and started laying down washes using the strange paper pads of paint Hazy had given me for Christmas. Such strange colours which, when dry bear no resemblance to colours when wet. There’s an intense blue which looks purple with a copper sheen when dry. The warm yellow turned to quite an acid yellow on the painting. Intriguing. They mixed beautifully, so beautifully I got a bit carried away and ended up with a multicoloured mess. A most enjoyable mess, though! I’ll try again tomorrow, hopefully.

When I was setting out the two lemons for painting, I discovered that one had a big mould spot on it. It had to join the others in the bin. Luckily I’d bought some lemons at the weekend and started to pare the rind off with a potato peeler which is ideal for the task. The lemon peel went into a kilner jar and as per the instructions, I poured the bottle of vodka over them, clipped on the lid and gave it a good shake. It’s now in the drinks cupboard and has to stay there for a week before it gets its sugar added. The little bare lemons look exactly like little sheep after they’ve been shorn of their wooden coats in the summer. I may take a photo of them tomorrow, huddled together.

I wasn’t satisfied with the morning’s shots, so I went out again in the afternoon and got a shot of a rare form of ice called Hair Ice. I’ve only seen it once before, over a year ago, in fact it might be the same bit of wood it’s growing on. Google it and be amazed at what nature can produce. By the time I was leaving St Mo’s a freezing fog had descended and I was glad to be on my way home to a warm house.

Dinner tonight was lentil soup and Savoury Slice. Another of Sim’s recipes that Scamp’s adopted and adapted. She wasn’t happy with the results, but I thought it was fine. I was even more pleased with the coffee cake she made. Quite delicious.

The Hair Ice didn’t get PoD. Scamp liked a morning shot of the bench in its frosty coat and that became the winner.

Snow forecast for tomorrow from very early morning until early afternoon. We are having a visitor tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll be able to tell you more about it tomorrow.

The end of the feast – 3 January 2021

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One step on the scales told me the feast was over.

Two kilograms heavier than the last time I stood on the scales catalogs the amount I’ve eaten and drunk in the last two or three weeks. It has to stop and it has to stop tonight. One more day of debauchery, then it’s back to sackcloth and ashes, or as my dad used to say “Auld claes and purrich.” I already have the ‘purrich’ (porridge) for breakfast every second day. Now it will have to be every day until that extra 2kg has been removed. Oh well, it was good while it lasted.

It was also a day with a return to rain instead of ice and snow and what a relief that was. I did go out for a walk without the Yak Trax and although there were patches of slippery ice, there were a lot more areas of black tarmac that gave a good grip to my boots. I walked round the back of St Mo’s and down to the shops, hoping to see some deer behind the school, but they were somewhere else today. Maybe joining yesterday’s ducks on a trip to a warm place. I did spot Mr Grey hunched in a tree looking as disgruntled as I was. I took his photo then left him to his lofty isolation.

I was heading to the shops for today’s dinner and also some lemons. Scamp had given me the makings of a bottle of Limoncello, but a couple of the lemons had turned musty in the week since the parcel had been opened. So, I was looking for three or four unwaxed lemons, a chicken and some potatoes, plus a carton of milk. It was a heavy bag to lug up the hill to the house, but at least I had managed to get a photo of Mr Grey that might make a PoD.

Back home I prepared the chicken as per Scamp’s instructions and that gave me enough time check the photos. None of them looked like a PoD, in fact very few of them realistically would make the cull. I had just enough time left to set up a tabletop of a Christmas Cactus upstairs in the photo room. It’s amazing how easy it is to produce a white backdrop with a drawing board on an old card table as a base. A piece of hardboard clamped to the card table frame with cheap plastic clips and an A1 sheet of cartridge paper to give the shadowless backdrop. Five minutes work if all the things are to hand.

Just in time I finished and went down to check the chicken and put the veg into a roasting tray beneath it. Scamp checked the chicken and said it was looking good and needed about another hour. Plenty time to take the shots. They looked fine. Heavy tripod, low ISO and deep depth of field. All photogs words that mean it was going to be a fine grained image with plenty of detail. Mr Grey would need to be ready for his closeup another day.

Soup as starter. Chicken was great. Beautifully cooked, even if I say so myself. One glass of wine each and no pudding. We watched the second half of Jools Holland’s Hootenanny with a 2016 performance of ‘Tilted’ by Christine and the Queens, followed by a 2021 duet with Jools and Rick Wakeman on nested grand pianos. Brilliant!

Spoke to JIC for a while after that.  We weren’t really expecting the call, but it was welcome as usual.  Good to hear that all is well down Cambridge way.

Christmas Rose (Schlumbergera buckleyi) made PoD.

Tomorrow, it’s Auld Claes and Purrich. Hopefully with a walk thrown in for good measure.