dragonflies – Page 9 – My Photo Blog

The Hottest Day of the Year – 19 July 2016

Posted on July 19, 2016July 19, 2016 by Zogman

Yesterday was hot, but today, oh today was even hotter. Over 33ºc in some places. Heavens, even Scotland had over 25ºc. What is the world coming to?

Scamp had decided that she was going to sit in the garden all day. A sensible decision given that the sun was going mad. We sat in the garden for a while watching movement in the pond. We couldn’t decide whether it was frogs or newts. We settled on ‘Frewts’ as the most likely suspects.

After lunch we went for a walk along past the golf course and had a couple of drinks at the clubhouse. It doesn’t seem as if you have to be a member, just as long as you’ve got money. We had money and I sampled another of these English IPAs which are very nice.

After we got back, Scamp went for more sunbathing in the garden while I went back to the wild woods to try to photograph some butterflies. I managed to get a Small Heath and a Comma. We don’t get Commas in Scotland, but apparently they are moving further north as a result of global warming. I saw a deer, but it was too fast for me and was away into the tall grass before I could get the camera ready. Also saw the pale blue dragonfly that I saw earlier in the week, but again, it wasn’t landing, just cruising, looking for a mate.

Canute and Delia came over for dinner which was an Indian take-away. Very entertaining evening. Just hope I can get to sleep in this really hot night.

Back North tomorrow. Heavy rain forecast!

Open Heart Surgery – 17 July 2016

Posted on July 17, 2016July 17, 2016 by Zogman

The open-heart-surgery wasn’t on me, it was on my blog. Or to be more exact, it was on my website architecture, but more of that later.

Not such a lazy start to the day, by which I mean that I was up and having breakfast just after 9am. That’s early enough for me – on my holidays. After that, Scamp and I went for a walk through the woodland path near the house. Much better paths than back in Cumbersheugh. The managed woodland is wedged between two halves of a golf course and is wild enough to feel as if you are miles from anywhere, but with the knowledge that you are only a mile at most from civilization. I got a few photos, but on the way back, the battery on my ’10 packed in, so I swapped it out with the one in the ‘5 which is much more frugal with its energy. When I got back to the house I found I’d lost the battery cover for the ‘5. It’s the weakest part of the design of this camera and pivots on a flimsy plastic hinge, or doesn’t in this case. I reckoned it was lying on the path somewhere and as it was black and the path was hard packed black dirt among trees, there was little chance of recovering it. It was lost for good. Duct tape would make a reasonable substitute when I got home, until then I need to be careful.

For ages, Hazy has been promising she’d help me organise my website to make it more simple to navigate. Today we sat down and after backing everything up, we set about the open heart operation. Actually, the backing up was the hardest part. Once that was complete, the reorganising was pretty straight forward. Straight forward, that is if you have someone who knows what they are doing sitting right next to you, not on the other end of a phone line, or worse still, someone who had been sitting in their room in California six months ago writing a blog post telling a numpty like me how to do it. So, once again, thank you Hazy for not making a drama out of a crisis. You are a gem, and you know it.

After that scary thing, Scamp and I drove out to Tolworth to get dinner. This was another scary thing. Here I was driving in London, well, in the outskirts of London, but driving with the rest of the lunatics. My God, I thought I was impatient – I am impatient – but I have nothing on these folk that need to be everywhere, like, yesterday! The only thing to do is to join them and be as mental as them. Turn a rubber ear to all horns and turn your blind eye to the gesticulations. Fire a few well chosen Scottish sweary words back at them. They won’t understand the words, but they’ll get the gist. I’d hate to drive through this every day going to and coming back from work. I dare say you get used to it.

So, we reached M&S and got parked too. Almost as soon as the engine had stopped a bloke came over and offered to wash my car for a fiver. If I thought he could have removed the dried seagull crap from the back wing without steel wool, I’d have got him to do it! I saved him the trouble by saying “Thanks, but it’s ok as it is.” Had coffee after M&S to fire me up for the drive back, which incidentally was much more pleasant than the drive there. Maybe I have joined the lunatic fringe.

Scamp had already stated her intention to go and sit in the sun in the garden for the remains of the afternoon, but that battery flap was still bugging me, so I set off to see what I could see. I’d hardly walked for five minutes along the path when there it was! By luck it had fallen with the chrome inside facing up and glinting in the sun, completely confounding the Centre of Gravity theory that states that bread always falls butter side down. Too difficult to explain after a stressful day – Google it. Happy now, my step was a lot lighter as I retraced my steps of this morning and walked the wild woodland again. Saw a beautiful pale blue dragonfly, but it was too busy looking for another pale blue dragonfly to bother with the likes of me.

Dinner was Sea Bass en Papillote with new potatoes and broccoli. Followed by Apple Crumble with cream. Tonight’s film was the mystifying Now You See Me. Third success from Hazy.

Tomorrow we may be going to Hampton Court … on the bus. Enough driving excitement for me today.

A walk on the canal side – 31 May 2016

Posted on May 31, 2016 by Zogman

Scamp suggested a walk along the canal this morning. As it was so bright and sunny, it seemed a shame not to, so we drove down to Auchinstarry and headed off along the railway to Twechar. Maybe it’s because we were talking all the way and maybe it’s because we were marching along quite sharply at Scamp’s usual pace, but I didn’t take a single photo all the way there. Even on the way back I only grabbed two desultory shots of some backlit grasses, neither of which made the final cut. The word ‘desultory’ always makes me think of A Simple Desultory Philippic. It was a track on Simon & Garfunkel’s Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme album, and I never really understood it. Liked it, but never understood it. But to quote Dylan, “I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.” It was just after the grass photos that Scamp said that this was what retirement was for. It’s strange, but last Tuesday, a week ago, when I was out walking around St Mo’s about 5.30am I was thinking exactly the same thing.

Didn’t do much else when we got back other than cut front and back grass while Scamp went to a ‘Witches’ meeting. Don’t ask, it’s just an opportunity to gossip! No spells were cast. Later, when the light was better, I went for a walk in St Mo’s, being careful not to go in to the wild wood for fear of little beasties namely ticks which I seem to be very prone to. Got some decent shots of the baby coots and Mr Grey hiding in the reeds, pretending he wasn’t there. Then, in one of the smaller ponds, I spotted a dragonfly. It’s still May, ok the end of May, but still May and there are dragons out! Unheard of. I’d say that this might be summer starting, but I know from the weather forecasts that next week rain sweeps in. Still, we’ll take all the sun we’re offered and say thank you very much. This is what retirement is all about.

Formula 1 and a walk in the park – 23 August 2015

Posted on August 23, 2015August 23, 2015 by Zogman

If yesterday was a lazy day, today was even lazier. The ‘highlight’ of today was watching a boring Formula 1 race from Belgium. After that, I took a walk to St Mo’s where I startled a deer in the chest high grass, not two metres from me. Unfortunately it was a young deer and as the grass was thick as well as chest high, I couldn’t get a clear shot at it – with the camera. No animals were injured on this deer hunt. I walked to the small pond and found not one, but four common hawker dragonflies circling the pond edge and occasionally dogfighting above it. All were too quick to catch. Well, I did catch one on camera, on the wing, but the image just wasn’t good enough to post. I may go out tomorrow if the weather is good (unlikely it seems 🙁 ). I didn’t feel like chasing the deer today, so settled for a few flower shots and one of a hoverfly. Difficult shots to get as it was warm but very windy. More frames than normal ending up on the cutting room floor.

Dinner tonight was braised Short RIb. Similar to the Dinosaur bone and almost as tasty.

Lazy days are good too.

A little surprise for someone – 21 August 2015

Posted on August 21, 2015August 22, 2015 by Zogman

Just for a change I decided to go for a swim this morning. No gym, just a swim. Up and out early, just after 8.00. Got a few lengths in before the inevitible Waterbabies™ and their mummys (yummy or otherwise) and a token daddy or two arrived.
<oh, oh, I feel a rant coming on> After that the pool was cordoned off to allow the ‘little ones’ (how I hate that expression. We are Scottish. They are ‘weans’) to go through their swimming antics while we, the older and wiser ones have to put up with half the pool to actually swim in. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve not got a gripe with weans learning to swim. My concern is that the leisure complex is being paid by Waterbabies™ for the use of their pool to run these classes. The leisure company and Q Hotels lose nothing by it, but we, the paying customers are the ones that lose out. </oh, oh, I feel a rant coming on>

In the afternoon, I took the bike to Auchinstarry and did a round trip of Dumbreck Marshes, Queenzieburn (pronounced Queenieburn for some reason), Twechar, Smithston (pronounced Smeeston according to my dad), back to Dumbreck and then back to Auchinstarry. Got some lovely shots of a couple of dragonflies that were sitting on opposite sides of a bridge, just across from one another like a grumpy old couple who weren’t speaking. Next to them was a really nasty looking fly. To the casual observer it just looked like a black fly, but up close, the red eyes and that face looked quite evil. Evil or not, it got its photo took too. Previously I’d found the red flowers shown here. The Oly doesn’t handle reds very well. It seems to over saturate them and over expose them too, so some judicious downgrading had to be done in Lightroom.

When I got back to Auchinstarry, the old blokes were fishing again at the quarry. If you’ve been reading this, you’ll remember that I took some shots of them the last time I was there. I’d printed off one of the photos and recognised the angler in it, sitting on a bench watching one of the other old blokes casting. I walked over and asked him what they were fishing for. He gave a guarded reply that they “were only practising with different lines and techniques” I’m not sure I believed him. I asked him if he had been fishing there last week. He replied “No, not me, not last week.” “So this wouldn’t be you then?” I asked giving him the photo. “No, that’s no’ me.” Then “Fuck’s sake it is me. Fuck’s sake. Look at that, for fuck’s sake it IS me right enough. Who took that?” I told him that it was me and I hoped he didn’t mind. He certainly didn’t seem to and I left him to show off my work to his pals.

One small act of kindness.