Category: Deer

Walking in the Sunshine – 5 April 2016

Posted on by Zogman

combo bScamp had Elevenses booked with her sister and Lunch booked with a friend today, so I had the day to myself.

After a wee natter with Hazy on the phone, learning more about my latest apps (Thanks for the links the first one especially is just what I was looking for), I took myself off to buy my dinner (Steak pie) from the butchers.

With the sun coming and going when I got back, I thought it would be a shame to not take advantage of the light and went for a walk along the railway line. I’d really intended to take the Nikon, but forgot that I’d put the Oly in the car when I went to find my dinner, I only noticed when I got to Auchinstarry and thought that if two heads are better than one, then two cameras would be too, so I stuck the Oly in my jacket pocket (a tight squeeze with the 45-200mm lens on) and off I went, but not before getting a 15min sketch done of a strange wee house near the canal.  It wasn’t quite in the open air, I was sitting in the car, but I timed it and it wasn’t done from a photo or a tablet screen.

The weather was much kinder than it had looked with a bit of a breeze, but nice warm sun. The breeze was helping the clouds to scud across the hills and I got some record shots to be the basis of some possible paintings later. I liked the light on the robin which was sitting on a branch across the burn from me, at least 4m away and the picture above is a severe crop to the centre of the frame. The blossom is a bit of a cheat. The branch was actually hanging vertically downwards and I rotated it when I cropped it in Lightroom. That gave me a diagonal composition and also helped remove some extraneous branches that were getting in the way. Not a big cheat, but a cheat none the less.

That’s about it really. A pleasant walk along the railway to Dumbreck and back. Saw a couple of deer feeding, but they were in the middle of a little stand of trees and I couldn’t get a clean shot. I tried of course, but the results weren’t all that inspiring, so they went in the bin. I’m being a bit more ruthless with my thinning out these days. The external drives fill up at an alarming rate otherwise.

Madness in Perth – 25 March 2016

Posted on by Zogman

combo bToday we went to Perth.  It as a plan.  Today, Good Friday, was forecast to be the best day of the holiday weekend.  I needed coffee and Perth is where my preferred coffee bean shop is.  It was also announced last night on the news that Scamp’s favourite ladies wear shop, McEwan’s of Perth had gone into administration and was opening today for the start of the closing down sale.  Soooo, we were off to Perth today.

The road was busy on the way north and every time the traffic started to jam up, I said “Oh, oh!  This is where the queue for McEwan’s starts.”  Actually, the road wasn’t all that busy, considering it was the start of the Easter holidays and it was a sunny day.   But every car seemed to have bikes on the back or a Thule style rack on the roof.  It looked like everyone seemed to want to get out of Glasgow and Edinburgh and head north to the great wide open.  Maybe that was the plan, but it looked like the ‘great wide open’ was going to be closed by the time they all got there.  When we arrived at Perth, there were roadworks on the road into the city.  Like a few others, I bit the bullet and headed back to the swimming pool and parked there, despite the signs saying that these parking spaces were for ‘users of the facilities only.’  I wasn’t sure what the ‘facilites’ were, but I was using the facilities of Perth itself, so I felt secure in my decision to park there.

When we wandered round Perth after getting the essential coffee beans, we found the real queue for McEwan’s.  Apparently it was estimated that over 400 people were waiting to get in through the doors and because the company had paid off more than half its staff with immediate effect last night, only 20 customers at a time were being allowed in.  There were going to be a lot of long faces in Perth tonight.

After our return from Perth, I managed an hour in St Mo’s in a biting north wind.  Got a few photos of some deer and I fed the ducks.  So, that was Good Friday.  Not so good for the hundred odd McEwan’s staff without jobs after this week.

Auld claes and purrich – 13 March 2016

Posted on by Zogman

combo bBack to life, back to reality.  Maybe Fuerteventura was cold and dull by Canaries standards, but the light was bright compared with a Scottish late winter/early spring.  It was a sea change being back home with ISO ratings back in four figures again, but it was also good to be back home.

This being the second Sunday in the month, there was no Sunday Social to brighten our day, but also no need to rush around getting things done with a 4.00pm cut off as happens on SS days.  Like most things, it was a double edged sword.

The furthest we went as Tesco on a shopping expedition and then I went to Condorrat via St Mo’s to get some Soda Water because we had decided to have one more Mojito each before the diet and withdrawal of alcohol started.  Seemed like a good move – the Mojitos, not the withdrawal of another innocent pleasure.

It looks like a decent day tomorrow.  May go the the gym and may go cycling.  Whatever we choose, it will involve some exercise.  It must.

White Rabbits (x3) – 1 February 2016

Posted on by Zogman

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe traditional greeting for the first day of the month.  It’s meant to bring you good luck or something.  Let’s hope it breaks the seemingly endless chain of storms that are sweeping Scotland.  Today it was Storm Henry’s turn to wreak devastation.  Henry is quite a noisy and blustery storm, he’s still rumbling around outside as I write this and will be there tomorrow to catch the unwary so we are told.  Some businesses in Glasgow let their workers go home early because of him.  They probably had their hours cut though.  Charity stops at the office.

Didn’t see any rabbits today, white, brown or striped red and yellow.  I did see three deer though.  The were feeding in a public park near the path to Condorrat, right next to a swing park.  They saw me, but pretended they didn’t and seemed quite unconcerned.  I could almost hear them saying “Oh, it’s just another old codger taking photos.  Ignore him and he’ll go away after he’s got his shots.”  So I did get the shots and they did ignore me and I went away.

“Gems” had invaded the house by the time I got back so I took the car out for a run and tried for some photos down by the Luggie, but there was nothing stirring and it was getting really dull so I headed home with an empty SD card.

Went to the Bachata class again tonight and although it was the fat bloke, he was much, much better than last week’s wannabe.  “Junior Instructor my sharny arse” as DCI Steel would say in the latest Stuart MacBride book.  Books are a real pain.  Did you know the pages don’t light up?  You have to physically turn the pages too.  The pages don’t turn when you touch the right hand side of them.  How old-school is that?  If you want  to look up a word you have to use a special app called a Dictionary you can’t just ‘long press’ the word.  Worse still, the Dictionary app is a book too.  I think there’s a conspiracy here by the book makers who are trying to get you to but even more books.  It won’t work though.  There will always be a place for a Kindle.

I saw the sun today – 20 December 2015

Posted on by Zogman

combo bToday we woke to sunshine.  Real sunshine from a blue sky with little pink clouds.  After half an hour, the pink clouds had turned gold as the sun rose a bit higher in the sky.  Amazing.  It didn’t last of course.  An hour later the rain was torrential – but the sun was still shining!  It wasn’t a sun shower though, the rain went of for a full 15minutes without relenting and the sun still shone.  Then, just as the sun disappeared behind the grey clouds we’ve become accostomed to, the rain stopped.  Strange weather.  At least the rain stayed off for most of the day after that although the clouds stayed, always threatening more of the wet stuff.

Since Scamp had done most of the cooking yesterday for J&M, I though it was only fitting for me to ‘recycle the dishes’ as they used to say in the Fairy advert (other washing up liquids are available).  Most of the heavy lifting had been done last night by the dishwasher, it was just the garlic encrusted pans and trays and the bowl that had contained the marinade (garlic) that formed the bigger part of today’s work.  It didn’t take that long really and I felt better for doing it.

After lunch I made the decision to risk getting soaked in the hope of getting some photos over by St Mo’s.  I was just walking over to the pond when heard a loud croaking above me, and there was my old friend Mr Grey, flying in for his own lunch.  I stalked him for a few shots from the relative cover of the Scots Pine wood, but I really wanted to get some photos of him taking off and soon I got my chance.  I thought I’d got some decent shots, so set off to annoy the deer.  The deer must have heard me coming because they were all hiding.  I did find some deer hair on the ground.  I remember deer hair from using it to tie fishing flies – many moons ago.  No blood, so are the deer moulting, casting, whatever it’s called when they lose their winter coats in this strange warm, dull, damp climate we live in now.

Daylight was fading so it was time to head for home.  At the wee pond, there was Mr Grey again, so I got a few more shots of him flying off to the middle of the big pond where he knew he would be safe from my depredations.

Such a (Mr) Grey day.