Category: Close-up

Another beautiful day – 21 March 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Almost wall to wall sunshine today, although the old weather station in the living room and also my little weather device in my alarm clock were both predicting rain that never came.

It was very relaxing, doing today’s Wordle and catching up with my Sudoku and reading, with sunshine streaming in the front windows. In fact it was so relaxing, neither of us wanted to do very much at all until lunch time.

After that, Scamp went off to the shops to get some oranges and apples and I eventually got my act together and went looking for photos in St Mo’s. I managed to capture my first fly of the year and my first spider. Both separated by a couple of meters, so no insects were injured as part of the photography process. However, with a little bit of back lighting, it was a couple of leaves from a Dogwood bush that got PoD. I just liked the colours in the translucent leaves (which are really shields for the flower buds) and the textures in the background. While I was away, Scamp had returned and couldn’t just sit around, so she strimmed the grass in the front garden.

I also brought back a tick. The first this year. It is now much flatter than it was when I found it and also much deader. That’s what happens when you ignore the obvious fact that you have to keep using preventative measures. I’ll order some Smidge tonight.

Not long after I came back, the clouds started to gather and it looked like the weather stations would be right after all, but it didn’t happen. It was just a bit of light cloud the weather man said. His idea of light and mine don’t quite line up I think. These were big clumsy looking clouds, but it seems they’ve passed by now.

Tonight’s dinner was the remainder of yesterday’s veggie chilli. Scamp had added some more chilli powder and it had a better kick today. Still the best veggie chilli ever, I think.

That was our lazy day. Not a lot done, but sometimes you don’t need to do a lot. Tomorrow Scamp has an appointment with the dentist in the afternoon. Our morning is might be free.

A busy musical day – 11 March 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Music rarely has a place in the blog, but it has today.

The day started with Scamp driving us to Tesco. Just a usual Friday shop. Basics and a bottle of wine. Unfortunately, the wine wasn’t for us but for friends we were visiting later.

Back home I started making dough for a loaf. I usually take a loaf to Crawford and Nancy in Larky. Scamp reckoned a small loaf would be enough for four of us and small loaves are easier to hand knead, so that’s what I did.

After lunch I went out for a walk and a hope for more frog photos, if they were still there. They were, and the photos were taken. They were taken with my big clunky Tamron 70-300mm lens. It was a great lens some years ago when I first bought it for my Nikon D7000, then things started going wrong. The Vibration Control would sometimes take a day off and just refuse to work. Focusing too was a hit and a miss. I got it repaired, and it worked for a while after that, but it really wasn’t to be trusted. Now I’ve got a Sony and a Nikon adapter which allows the lens to work in manual mode only and without VC. I don’t use a long lens very much and this one covers the times when I need a lens that’s longer than 105mm.

By the time I came back the dough had risen quite well and was ready to go into the little cane basket for its second prove as I looked through the photos from today’s shoot. Surprisingly, some were better than I’d expected. In fact one of the m made PoD.

That had given the bread time to puff up a bit and I bunged it in the oven for the required 25 mins. It came out almost as flat as a pancake. I decided we’d try it tomorrow, but there was no way it was going to Larky.

Time was getting on and it was nearly time to drive over to the the Town Behind the Wall. I was taking a ukulele and a steel strung guitar, because Crawford wanted to have a jam session with him playing uke and me playing guitar. I wasn’t looking forward to it all that much, but it was a really great evening. Both instruments were tuned together and we ran through many of his old favourites, but songs I hadn’t expected. I was very rough to start with, but as the night progressed, I started to settle in to the chord sequences. What I did find was that the finger tips of my left hand were painfully tingling. It’s been a long time since I’ve sat for an hour and a half playing a guitar.  While we were singing and playing, the ladies were in the sitting room blethering.

We left just after midnight, so as you will have guessed by now, this is a catch-up. A small glass of rum as a nightcap because I was driving to dance class in the morning, then it was off to bed.

Tomorrow we’re going to the first dance class in about five weeks. Hope we can remember which foot goes first!

 

Round the pond

Posted on by Zogman

And into the bog.

It was a beautiful morning with blue skies and light fluffy clouds. The only problem was we had no destination in mind to view this wonderful day from. After a lot of procrastination we finally settled on Broadwood Loch with the added extension of the walk through the woods. So, booted up, we set off into the morning.

I’m not that keen on the walk round Broadwood. Apart from the resident swans and the cormorants there’s not much of interest to see there, but the extension into the woodland does sometimes spring a few surprises, like the occasional deer which seem to view humans as a necessary part of the landscape and nothing to get fussed about. There were no deer today though. What we did find was a fir tree with Christmas baubles hanging from its branches. We had no idea why someone would provide this entertainment for people visiting the woodland, but it created a photo opportunity.

Further into the woods, we came to the part that’s usually flooded and that was the state of it today. I went first as Genghis Pathfinder trying to find the best way through the mud and murky water. I picked the wrong route and sank ankle deep in the mud, backtracked and discovered the water was only half as deep. As I led Scamp through the water which barely covered the rubber soles of her boots, a bloke coming the opposite way decided that it would be safer to go back the way he had come than to risk his new trainers getting dirty or wet. Actually both of us got through with dry feet. More a testament to the construction of our footwear than to my navigation skills.

We were past the worst of the wetland and walked on round the remainder of the loch and then past the exercise machines to the shops. Curry for dinner and ice cream for afters was the reason for the visit and we headed for home feeling so much better for the walk.

After lunch I decided I needed more photos to bolster my small collection from the morning’s walk. I brushed off most of the mud from my jeans and put my boots back on then carrying the 105mm macro lens on my Sony A7, I walked over to St Mo’s. I missed a deer on the other side of the road, deep in the woods, but got a few shots of Cladonia lichen in a nice little bit of afternoon light in the boggy area near the motorway slip road. Quite happy with the afternoon’s haul, I headed back over St Mo’s park and found that some kind soul had planted some crocuses into the grass. Nice little splash of blue/purple and those were the last shots today, but they didn’t quite make the cut.

M&S curry for dinner. Chicken for me and Veg for Scamp with ice cream to follow. I actually sat and read for a while tonight after the photos were posted on Flickr. The book was The Second Cut by Louise Welsh . Good story, but better read as the sequel to The Cutting Room which I read 20 years ago! TWENTY YEARS AGO!! PoD was one of the Cladonia pictures. The Christmas tree in Broadwood is on Flickr too.

We have no plans for tomorrow, but the weather looks good.

 

Off to Bombay – 2 March 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Not the hot place, but the place in Hamilton where they make the hot stuff.

It was a dull and wet day in the morning and we couldn’t decide where to go. I think it was me who suggested Bombay Cottage in Hamilton where they make good curries and great big naan bread that is baked to order. Scamp wanted our plain naan ‘well done’ and when it came it was indeed singed beautifully. My curry which was a Chicken Salsa-Syrah was a bit tasteless but hot. Scamp had her usual Cauliflower Shimla Bhaji which was fine, but the sauce was a bit thin. However, it’s the naan and the ice cream that are the stars in this curry house. There is nothing much to see in Hamilton now, so we just drove home.

In the afternoon I went out for a photo walk and brought back one decent shot of a sycamore seed sprouting in the leaf litter and another of a man walking down the much photographed lane between Condorrat and the new shops. This truly is the path that keeps giving. After some consideration, the sprouting baby tree got PoD.

When I came home there was Scamp with a big smile and an equally big bunch of flowers that had come from John & Marion with a card that said “Hope you’re recovering well after your operation”. Isn’t that nice.

I’d intended going out with Alex for a walk and a blether on Friday because the weather seemed to be picking up for the weekend. However, today it looks like Friday will be dull and wet, so he’s suggested we call off until next week. I think it’s a good idea too. We might go for a coffee in Hamilton or Motherwell, if the weather is too bad for a walk. I just want to lust after his new camera which is almost as good as mine, just almost.

Tomorrow also looks wet. We haven’t got any definite plans, but if there’s a dry spell we may risk a walk.

Here’s a thought. I was just browsing on the ‘net and found the Berghaus page. Did you know that they’ll repair any jacket, trousers or boots free of charge. That’s their commitment to Reuse – Repair – Recycle. Wouldn’t it be good if more places did that. I don’t see Apple or Dell doing it though!

Hoping for a dry hour tomorrow.

 

Woke at 7am – 25 February 2022

Posted on by Zogman

I hadn’t intended waking at 7am.

I was just so tired last night I forgot to cancel the alarm on my watch. It’s cancelled now. Oh yes it’s been warned that if it does that again it’s going out the window. If I’m feeling generous I might even open the window first.

I got a message from Jamie asking how the patient was and telling me that there was a parcel arriving here between 11am and 2.30pm. I reckoned I could keep a secret for a few hours. It was a lovely bright morning. Cold but the sun was shining. We watched one of our neighbours nearly take a tumble on the ice sheet that had appeared overnight on the path outside. That meant we weren’t going anywhere soon, which meant I didn’t have to tell too many lied keep Scamp at home until the parcel arrived. We did go out to have a look round the front garden and that was where I found today’s PoD. One little yellow crocus flower poking its head out above the grass. I’d initially taken it just because it looked good, shining in the morning sun. It turned out to be almost the one picture I took today.

It was after lunch before the parcel arrived. Scamp answered the door and carried in a big blue box with ‘Moonpig’ written in pink. No guesses who had sent this one. Inside was a big bottle of sparkling rosé wine and a box of posh chocolates. They have now been sampled and found to be just as good as you’d expect. Scamp very kindly allowed me to help her test them! Nice card. We both laughed.  We both appreciated these gifts.  You are all lovely people.

After an exchange of messages we went for a walk round St Mo’s and then on to the shops to get a Friday Pizza. It’s going back to the old Friday tradition, I think! We also got a box of ice cream, just in case the pizza, wine and chocolates didn’t fill us up entirely and we were peckish later.

After dinner which was pizza, of course, we watched another uninspired episode of Death In Paradise. As Scamp says, we only watch it for the music and the scenery which is lucky, because the acting is stilted and the plots are terrible.

Yesterday’s prompt was Black & White. I chose a piano keyboard as the typical case of black and white. I know I should have looked more deeply at this subject and researched the hidden meanings in the Michael Jackson song, but sometimes the literal answer is the best one. This is version 3 of the drawing. The first one is generally the best with me, but it was just too rough and version 2 which drawn using a ruler and a 0.7 pencil was too neat and tidy, although the perspective was much more accurate. The ‘Goldilocks Version’ you see here was just right to my eyes and was drawn today, because yesterday had been a long day that started about 6am and finished after midnight. Something had to give and, unfortunately, it was the sketch.

Today’s prompt was The Love Cats.
I don’t really love cats and I’m not a great fan of The Cure either. Having said that, I’d much rather have a cat in the house than a dog, just not this particular cat. This is not a ‘puddy tat’. This is a true Scottish Wildcat and it would do you up a treat, mate, given half a chance. There’s not much love in those eyes. Getting rare now in Scotland and reduced to a few mating pairs in the highlands. Still a fearsome creature to meet on a dark night. This was drawn from a photograph I took in 2005 and I still love that look. So, I suppose, in a way it IS a Love Cat!

Tomorrow we’re hoping to get out for a longer walk.

Lost and Found – 23 January 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Another dull day with a little bit of sunshine.

Not a lot to report today. Scamp didn’t go out at all today, I think we were still recovering from the excesses of Friday. Also the exercise that was the dance class on Saturday morning after a late night the day before must have contributed to our ‘rather relaxed’ Sunday.

I did push myself to get out and take some photos in the afternoon, but the light wasn’t all that good. I really should have gone out in the morning. Maybe tomorrow. But back to today. I did a walk around St Mo’s and got a few shots, one of which became PoD. Earlier in the week I lost the lens hood from my little 18mm Samyang lens. Just like the skip on a cap stops the sun from shining in your eyes, a lens hood keeps the sun from shining on to the camera lens and causing light coloured blobs on the photo. They don’t look good. The lens hood I’d lost is called a ‘petal’ hood, because it looks like the petals on a flower and it’s quite small, and it’s lost!

For three days now I’ve walked the route I took round the back of St Mo’s and couldn’t find it. I was pretty sure I knew where I’d lost it, but today I tried a different tack. Instead of following the route I took, today I walked it in the other direction and surprise, surprise I found it, intact and nowhere near the spot I was sure I dropped it. It probable needs a good wash now, but apart from a little bit of dirt it’s fine. Isn’t it a great feeling when you find something you thought you’d lost.

Dinner for Scamp was two veggie sausages with potatoes and beans and for me was a burger made by my own fair hands with potatoes and beans. We both had sticky toffee pudding for dessert. Now I’ve got heartburn caused with far too much fatty meaty stuff and then an overload of sugar. It was almost worth it though.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard about a new short term trouble shooting position in the Big Apple and a 4am taxi ride to the airport tomorrow morning. Such a jet setter life style he leads!

PoD was a shot of three little seed heads from a Silver Birch. Sitting on top of the one on the right is a little spider. I only spotted it after it was loaded into the computer and viewed full size. Spiders do get everywhere.

Scamp is off to a Witches lunch in Dennyloanhead tomorrow, not as glamorous as NY, but no need for a 4am rise either!

A bit of woodwork – 18 January 2022

Posted on by Zogman

But first a return to the abysmal B&Q.

I decided I’d have another look for the correct screws for the pedestal I was making to hold the new TiVo box. I found them in the place I’d been looking. I remembered that the staff don’t to bother where they put some of the boxes and bags of screws and applied that logic to finding the right size of screws. They were in a box labeled 4mm x 25mm, but the actual screws were 3.5mm diameter x 30mm. It doesn’t help when the bag containing the corner blocks states that you need number 6 gauge screws and that nomenclature was changed around the late 1990s to the much more sensible metric measurement. B&Q living in the past. I got the screws and drove home.

Before lunch I managed to get all the wood cut to size and had a freshly charge battery in the drill. The hardest bit, apart from decoding B&Q’s filing system, was sawing the wood I’d drawn the elevation and end elevation of the pedestal and added all the required dimensions, so it would be as simple as I could make it before I put saw to wood. After lunch it was just a case of assembling the structure and, for once, it was done with the minimum of swearing!

The completed support passed muster with Scamp and looked reasonable in its place under the TV. It also fulfilled its secondary purpose of disguising the rats maze of cables that run between the modem, the TiVo, the Hive controller and the TV itself. Job done.

After hoovering the back room and putting all the tools away, I put my boots on and took the new Sony to meet the wildlife in St Mo’s. I got a picture of the little orange ladybird, still hibernating. However it was after I lost my Samyang’s lens hood and was retracing my steps to find it (it’s still lost), I noticed the Dragon Tree. It’s a rotten old fallen tree, but doesn’t that look like a dragon’s head? Or do I have to decrease my gin intake? Anyway, it got PoD.

Tonight’s dinner was potatoes and cabbage for Scamp. I usually have mine with the addition of bacon, but tonight I had the remains of my roast lamb shoulder. I think it tasted even better tonight than on Sunday. It’s all gone now!

We watched the first episode of The Tourist, but neither of us was convinced by it. If you can’t relate to the actors, (I think empathise is the word) then it’s a hard ask to keep watching it. I may give it one more chance, or maybe not. Much more entertaining and just downright watchable is Around the World in 80 Days. Just good fun.

Bloke came to encourage us to push probes down our throats and up our noses. He had a good sense of humour, despite having to stand in the bucketing rain. I suppose you need a GSOH for that job.

Well, it looks like the dance classes will be free to start again after the weekend. That is good news. Most of the restrictions have been released, and not before time, say we.

Tomorrow I’m booked for coffee with Val. Scamp is intending to do some more tidying up.

Snow there anymore – 8 January 2022

Posted on by Zogman

The snow had almost gone when we woke today.

It was raining and the rain seemed to persist all day. On and off with little respite from it. We didn’t need to go out anywhere, so we didn’t. But that’s not true, we did go out, making the excuse that we needed milk, but that was in the afternoon. We just sat and read the news in the morning.

Eventually it seemed like a good idea, after lunch to go for a walk, more for the exercise than to get photos or to buy some milk. Two circuits of St Mo’s provided enough photographic evidence for today’s PoD which is an amalgam of two photos. Most of the leaf was sharp and detailed in the first shot, but the little curl at the top left of the leaf was sharper in the second. I used Affinity Photo, a much maligned, but very useful photo app to carefully glue the two images together to get the best of both world. Then it was back to Photoshop to deal with the ‘grain like golfballs’ that the process creates. There is no point in having two spectacularly useful apps and relying only on one. An Ansel Adams quote springs to mind: “You don’t take a photograph, you make it.”

After walking round St Mo’s pond twice, once clockwise and once anti-clockwise, we continued down to the shops just as the rain started, and split up. Scamp to go to M&S while I went to Home Bargains. We met up again as the rain was tailing off and walked home.

Dinner tonight, we’d agreed would be courtesy of Golden Bowl. One Chicken Chop Suey with Fried Rice and one Special Chow Mein. I walked over to Condorrat to get them around 5pm and the paths were treacherous. Neither gritted nor snowploughed, they were one long sheet of ice. Luckily the grass on the verges was walkable with care, but there were a few dicey moments. I should really have worn my Yak Trax.

We watched some silly TV, including the first (and hopefully last) Masked Singer. Death in Paradise, after that was a serious manhunt by comparison.

Tomorrow it looks like more rain is forecast in the morning but with the hopes of a brighter and drier afternoon.

Johnny Frosty – 4 January 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Some folk have Jack Frost, but my mum always called him Johnny Frosty, pronounced “Joanny Froasty”

Joanny Froasty definitely was about this morning. He’d been up early to cover the cars with a crisp white coating. The temperature was still sub-zero when Scamp went to make breakfast. It was her turn. We chose not to rush to get up because it was warm in bed and we both had good books to read. Let those who wanted to go to work, go. We’d stay and mind the house.

We did eventually get up and since it was such a lovely crisp morning, I suggested a walk. Maybe just a short one around St Mo’s pond. Scamp wasn’t sure. She’s not too keen on walking when it’s icy and we were pretty sure it was going to be icy. It was. We had to walk on the grass most of the way over to the park and then again on the grass until we were up the hill and under the cover of the trees where there isn’t ever much standing water to turn into ice. The rest of the fairly recently laid tarmac was an ice rink. A sloping ice rink that threatened to slide you down into the pond itself. Luckily the grass was still boggy and gave a better grip. Next time, if it’s still icy, we’ll dig out the Yak Trax. I was just reading last years blog yesterday about how we could crunch across the icy paths with these steel shod feet. What clever folk Mr Yak and Mrs Trax were.

I took some photos as we walked round the pond and they looked good on the camera screen, so I was content to limit our walk to just the one circuit. Scamp agreed and we walked back, sticking to the grass where we could.

After lunch it was time to take down the decorations, the cards and the tree. Now they are all bagged and boxed and waiting for me to put them in the loft until next year. The place did look a bit bare, but not for long.

I wasn’t impressed with the photos taken in St Mo’s once I’d downloaded them from the camera and decided there was just enough time to grab some more before the sun set. It was much colder than when we had our walk this morning. The sun was low now and not nearly as warming as it had been, however I did get some shots I liked and was heading home when I saw three different skeins of geese all travelling west. Probably heading for a grassy field not far away which seems to support many groups of geese on their journey south. It’s great to watch these flights of birds and even better to listen to them calling to each other. I often wonder what they are saying. But the cold was beginning to bite now and I headed home.

These photos were much better and I actually got three good enough to go on Flickr. My favourite, and PoD was the one you see here of the weed with the ice melt forming balls of water, with setting sun behind them.

My next task was to find out how much MPB would give me for my hardly used Oly E-M1 Mk2. The good thing about selling through them is that you get an instant quote, based on your estimated condition for the camera. I was happy with the quoted price and downloaded the form which never prints properly the first time. I finally got it printed, filled in and signed. Then I had to find all the bits and pieces that had to go in the box along with the camera. With it all boxed up it was time for dinner. Scamp was making a J&S speciality, Bacon and Borlotti Beans. Great recipe, beautifully cooked.

Last thing to do was to wrap up the parcel to be uplifted by DPD tomorrow. I was a wee bit sad to be sending that lovely camera away, but I hadn’t used it for months and it seemed a shame to just have it sitting there when I could get some money from it. Of course I have a way for that money to go!

Tomorrow I’d like to get some photo paper and we need a wall calendar too. Scamp has volunteered to wait in for the parcel.

Longing to get past the shortest day

Posted on by Zogman

Another day with almost no daylight.

It becomes tedious. Day after day with no directional light. On Friday I drove to Fife and spent half an hour there in glorious sunshine. I might have to head east again to get another dose of vitamin D. Today was so dull, I swear the sun didn’t rise above the ground at all.

Scamp drove away to meet her big sister for a coffee. She told me she was going to take the long way round to the town centre, just to give the Wee Red Car a good chance to fully charge its battery and basically get everything moving again. It seemed to work, because when she came back she was smiling. It’s good to be independent and not rely on others. I’m just glad the battery held its charge, but I think it’s just the cold weather and Scamp not being able to drive for a month that allowed the battery to discharge. Or it could be that the wee car is getting fed up with all those dull cloudy days too.

While she was out, I started the tidying up of the back bedroom. It’s going to take more than a morning’s work to get it back in business, but today was a start. The sofa is almost cleared and the table too. I chopped up that enormous packing box from last week. We eventually found we could do without it. There are a couple of fairly large expanses of corrugated card that might hold a coat of gesso and fit on a drawing board, so I could paint on them. The rest of them will go into the paper shredder at the skips. If I get things sorted I can maybe get my sewing machine out and take up the second pair of lined walking trousers. Maybe!

When Scamp returned she brought me a bottle of gin, a present from June. A birthday present for my 70th last year! Typical June. When she says she’s going to do something, she does it. Maybe not right away, but it’s there in her head and she is a determined lady when she puts her mind to it. Scamp even sang Happy Birthday to me from June. What a lovely surprise.

We’d a lot going on today. Your parcel was picked up right when DPD said it would be and it’s now winging its way to you, pair, Hazy and Neil. The lady who does the Covid survey was coming in the afternoon to take samples and ask us questions. A mysterious parcel was dropped at the door by the Amazon man, but now it’s disappeared! With all that going on and with the lack of light, I’d no real opportunity to get out for a walk and some photos. Instead, I got the Benbo tripod out of the car and took some photos in the garden. That way I could use as slow a shutter speed as I wanted to get the low ISO number that would ensure I didn’t have ’grain the size of golf balls’ as we used to say back it the ‘wet film’ days. The best one, and PoD, was a low level shot of a Christmas rose, one of Scamp’s favourites called Christmas Carol. There are others too on Flickr.

I toasted June with a G ’n’ T tonight and Scamp had a glass of wine. Well, it may be dull, but it’s nearly Christmas.

Tomorrow we may go out somewhere for a walk or maybe a stroll round Glasgow.