Category: Family

Walking in sunshine! – 9 November 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Out photographing with Alex.

I’d watched the weather predictions for this week and Tuesday looked like the best day. Alex and I agreed that we’d go and walk round Baron’s Haugh which is another name for the Dalzell estate on the outskirts of Motherwell. It dates from around 840 when it was a Royal Hunting Forest. Today it’s a maze of roads and paths with lots of odd buildings dotted around the grounds. We walked round the south side of the park, taking the path between the wildlife pond and the River Clyde. Lots of evidence of flooding with the path having been swept away recently.

After we reached the end of the path and after Alex had consulted his Photographer’s Ephemeris app, he decided that the light would be just right for some decent photos of the Big Hoose, Dalzell House. On the way we passed the Japanese garden and made a mental not to go back and photograph the Japanese maples there after we’d photographed the house. We did get a few shots of the house, trying for the best angle to capture the light on the building, but lose the cars in the carpark. We were just finishing when a bloke came out of one of the cars with a tall monopod with what looked like a GoPro on top. It was a telescopic monopod, as most of them are, but this one extended to about 15m! Although there was very little breeze today, there was enough to cause a bit of a sway at the top. He seemed to be using a phone to control the camera. I hoped he had set a fast shutter!

We walked on because the best of the light had left the building and we walked back to the Japanese garden. Talked to one of the gardners who was sweeping up those red maple leaves. It turned out he was in charge of a group of volunteers who were cleaning up the garden and the burn that runs through it. He was happy for us to photograph the trees gave us free rein to take photos.

By the time we had finished there and said goodbye to the gardener, the light was definitely on the way to the horizon and it was time to go. Dropped Alex off at his house and drove home with really dark clouds ahead of me and the prospect of rain that didn’t appear.

While I was out with Alex, Scamp was out for coffee with Shona so she could hand over our house warming present. Yes, Jamie, it was towels!

Dinner tonight was Scampi chips and tomatoes. Scampi, which was baked in the oven, we agreed was just ok. Not sure we’d have it again.

PoD was one of the views of the Big Hoose after some delicate Lightroom work to remove offending cars.

Tomorrow looks a bit like today as far as the weather is concerned. Perhaps not quite as much sunshine.

Yet another wet one – 8 November 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Out fairly early to take Isobel for coffee. I got styrofoam coffee.

Isobel demanded that she pay and there was no swaying her. I don’t know what the girl did to the skinny cappuccino, but the milk went quite gluey. I’ve never seen that before and I hope I don’t see it again. I suppose I should have taken it back and told her it wasn’t a skinny cap, but it was more fun listening to Isobel’s stories. Always interesting and always irreverent. After she’d found out all Scamp’s news and we were up to date on her Hazel’s escapades, we went our separate ways and Scamp and I headed in to Glasgow in torrential rain, hopefully to get a new pair of winter walking trousers for me with just the outside chance of a new jacket for Scamp.

We both came out of Tiso empty handed. The bloke I asked about the trousers couldn’t be bothered because they were cheap and he wouldn’t get any brownie points for selling a pair. At least, that was the impression I got. He told me they didn’t have them and they wouldn’t have any online. Which is strange because I’ve just had an email to say I can pick up my order at the shop in a few days. Scamp was also unburdened by a new jacket. £350 for a new jacket wasn’t quite in the price range she was considering.

After a bit of indecision we chose to go home for lunch, via Currys at Bishopbriggs to buy the tablet I should have bought yesterday and a replacement coffee grinder too. Except, they had the tablet, but only a Sage coffee grinder for £165. Just a little bit more than I wanted to pay and the thing was so big I don’t think we could have found a space for it on the kitchen worktop. Ordered it from Amazon when we got home.

The rain hadn’t abated any since we drove in to Glasgow earlier in the day, in fact it was getting worse as we headed towards Cumbersheugh. The prospect of no photograph of the day was looming large. About 5pm the rain stopped for a while. There was no light then, so it was going to be an inside shot today.

Clever Scamp suggested a ‘Weemen’ picture because it had been ages since I’d done one. I wasn’t won over right away, then an idea formed and that’s what you see here as PoD. A wee bit of Glasgow humour.

Tomorrow it still looks like a decent day, so I’m hoping Alex and I get out for some photo opportunities and a bit of techy conversation. Scamp may visit Shona.

 

 

Tablet, but not Mrs Tilly’s – 7 November 2021

Posted on by Zogman

It was a better day that it looked in the forecast.

According to the weather fairies we were to have a blusterous day with scattered showers. I’ll agree with the ‘blusterous’ part, but there really weren’t many showers, a few, but nothing to get upset about. After fiddling around doing basically nothing as you do on a Sunday morning, I decided to go and get ‘hands on’ with a tablet. Instead of depressing Coatbridge, we went to almost equally bad, Bishopbriggs. I did get the chance to try out a few and although the 10” iPad was lovely, I was looking for a small, probably 8” tablet that I could use as a Kindle reader. A Kindle reader with the added attraction of a games player for when the words get all mixed up, as they sometimes do, especially when reading a book with big words. I still wasn’t sure, so left empty handed again, however I did get some help from an assistant who obviously hadn’t been through the training centre at Currys, and actually ‘assisted’ this customer. He’ll learn that’s not the way it’s done.

After lunch and more faffing around, I finally decided the light was looking good enough for me to go and find a PoD. Lots of lovely low sunlight and that produced today’s PoD which was a fern leaf shot against the light. The leaf was almost transparent and you could see the shape of the spores against the bright green leaves. I quite liked the effect. There wasn’t much else to photograph today. Some fungi and more fallen leaves, but no deer or anything like that.

Scamp was in charge of dinner and we had the soup she’d made yesterday. It was maybe a bit spicier than she’d anticipated and the addition of three slices of red chilli on top just about set the roof of my mouth on fire. However, I survived after a cup of milk. She’d put a single slice of chilli on top of her soup, but after my reaction, it was promptly removed. The actual soup was quite delicious with just enough crunch in the kale to make it interesting without it overpowering the rest of the soup. Main was yesterday’s chicken served with potatoes and her signature mix of carrots, turnip and onions. I don’t know if that mixture has a name, but it’s absolutely brilliant. I made the pudding which was a steamed pudding served with a Morello cherry sauce. I say ‘made’, but that means I took them out of the packet and microwaved them for exactly the right time! I believe I may be allowed to make that again.

Spoke to Jamie later and found out that the news is there is almost no news. Things seem to move very slowly in Engerland! Most of the news was Scamp’s with her mixed up last few days.

Tomorrow looks wet, certainly a fair bit wetter than today. That will decide what we do.

Cavalcade – 1 November 2021

Posted on by Zogman

How the other half travel

Today we were going for the messages and we thought we’d go to Waitrose in Stirling for a change. While we were driving there I noticed a line of motorbikes heading west on the opposite carriageway. There seemed to be no reason for them unless they were escorting an X36 bus, but that wasn’t likely, they were going far too fast. A few minutes later we found the reason. About a dozen outriders on motorbikes with blue lights flashing then the line of heavy duty black cars with tinted windows swept past, and they were flying. Last were the tail gunners, also on motorbikes. I wonder how they square all that petrol and diesel consumption and excess carbon release with the Global Warming conference they were heading for to spout more hot air at. How do the other half live with themselves?

When we got to the shop we had to wait while some american (you know the rules. Lower case for zoomers) dimwit decided whether to buy a piece of tuna or not ”It has to be Sushi Grade”. After checking with his phone for the umpteenth time he settled instead for four sea bream fillets, then almost caused the fishmonger to have a ‘hairy fit’ by asking him if he could have the skin removed! americans, you can’t take them everywhere twice – second time to apologise. Scamp and I had a good laugh about it. We bought some fish, then we bought Waitrose. I really did feel sorry for that poor fishmonger.

With a ton of stuff in the boot of the Blue car, we headed off to speak to a man about an upgrade. I’ve dealt with Azam for years, more years than I care to remember. After a fair bit of discussion about my gradually slowing down computer, we said the easiest thing would be for him to send me a quote. It’s a big job taking an iMac to bits, changing the memory and the hard drive and I knew it wouldn’t be cheap, but neither would a new iMac. I how have the quote. It’s roughly what I thought it would be.

Scamp was meeting June in the afternoon at Tim Hortons, so off she went after lunch. I stayed home and explained to the iMac what would be involved in the operation and that I trusted the surgeon. I think it’s going to be ok with what we’ve discussed. After that I did my usual ‘first day of the month’ tasks of backing up the photos, deleting all the rejected ones and building a new screensaver from last month’s photos. With that done I was off to St Mo’s on a very dull afternoon to see what I could find. There wasn’t much to see or photograph today, but I did find a wee park bench that became PoD. Best of all, there was no prompt today. No last minute sketching. No photographing it and squaring it up and posting it for two people to ‘like’ and fewer to comment on. Inktober 2021? Glad it’s over for another year.

No plans for tomorrow.

Another early one – 28 October 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Taking the wee red car to get its yearly checkup. Always a case for heart in the mouth.

Drove down to the garage and waited. It was supposed to open at 9am, and although one of the mechanics appeared, it was still locked up. Eventually we left the car key with him and just at that moment someone arrived with the key to the garage, so we headed off home for breakfast, stopping at Tesco on the way for milk and bread. Unfortunately it was still before 10am so the other essential (alcoholic beverages) weren’t available.

A while after breakfast I eventually decided that it was dry enough to risk a walk in St Mo’s to get some photos. If the day brightened up later I’d get some more, but that looked unlikely to say the least. I did get some photos, but none of them were really contenders for the PoD.

Came home and we had lunch. Finished today’s Sudoku and started investigating the possibility of getting my phone to get itself an upgrade. I’d put a dodgy piece of software in it about a year ago that would prevent Samsung doing upgrades every second day. Now that software had disappeared, but its effect was still there. Eventually after consulting with the inter web I found that it hadn’t really gone. It was just hiding deep in the settings. When I too the plunge and switched it off the updates screen lit up. BUT I needed the phone because that was the number I’d given the garage, but once I got the word that the car was ready to pick up, I’d start the installation.

Hazy phoned not long after and she and Scamp had a long discussion about dresses for weddings. You will notice that the ‘wedding’ word is in the plural and it’s no surprise then to discover that the ‘dress’ word is also in its plural form. After the fashionistas had completed their discussion I managed to get involved in the conversation too. We talked for a while about family stuff, just catching up, really. Then my phone rang. The car had passed and been serviced, so was ready to collect. We talked to Hazy for a while longer then said our “cheerios”. Drove to the garage, paid our dues and drove home.

When I was driving back, the sky was definitely clearing from the west. By the time I got home blue sky was visible. I waited for Scamp to return then took my camera for its second walk today in St Mo’s. It was quite warm with beautiful light and I did manage to get a PoD. It was just a little weed that had been washed for days by the torrential rain and all its neighbours had been washed clean at the same time. They really sparkled in the late afternoon sun.

Dinner was Bubble ’n’ Squeak, a long time favourite of mine, but something I haven’t had for years. I even learned to make it myself a long time ago. I may have to relearn it.

The prompt for today asked for ‘Crispy’. I gave them a Crispy Cake. Made with Corn Flakes or Rice Krispies, it fits the bill for me. One of the few cakes Hazy can eat. It mush have been your phone call that put it in my head.

Tomorrow I go to see the health centre vampires who will want to take some of my blood. It’s almost Halloween, so it’s quite fitting.

Out West – 20 October 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Today I was meeting Alex at the Art Galleries in Glasgow’s West End.

Scamp gave me a run up to the station and I trained it in to Glasgow. The light was beautiful when I came out of Queen Street station, so I grabbed a few shots of the buildings and one sneaky wee shot of a bloke leaning in a doorway where they were ripping out the inside of a shop to make it into another shop that would last a year or so before going to the wall and needing another makeover. “It all makes work for the working man to do” as Flanders and Swan sang many years ago. I walked through a lane to Buchanan Street and got the subway from there to Kelvin Hall and walked from there to the Art Galleries, or Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum to give it its proper title. On the way I passed what used to be one of our favourite restaurants, Usha’s. A vegetarian Indian restaurant. Now it’s a German Doner Kebab place. Possibly the exact opposite of an Indian vegetarian restaurant!

I took some photos outside Kelvingrove while I waited for Alex. A bus was parked outside the galleries and a group of drivers were being photographed. I don’t know what it was all about, but presume it was some new service that Glasgow Council have dreamed up. We walked round the museum part of the building and I took a few photos of the main hall with its pipe organ. Sadly no organ recitals today, probably something to do with Covid. Alex took some shots of the stuffed animals with his new acquisition, a Sony A6000 with a Zeiss standard zoom. Very nice! He’d kept quiet about that! After we’d had our fill of the stuffed animals and the beautiful Spitfire that hangs from the roof we went for lunch in the restaurant.

From there we made our way up to Glasgow Uni which was where Alex wanted to go today. Amazingly, I’d never been through it and was surprised that proles like me were actually allowed in. Light was fantastic today. My favourite place was the east quadrangle with a beautiful beech tree place, not in the middle, but towards one corner of the lawn. Alex wanted to visit the chapel and I did like the stained glass windows at each end and the lovely warmth of the wooden pews. I must go back again some day and have a second look at the Uni.

After a bit of shilly shallying I worked out how we should go to the Botanic Gardens, but by the time we got there, the good light had gone, so we headed back down Great Western Road to Kelvinbridge and the subway back to town, but before that there were street art paintings for Alex to photograph while I was amazed to see a bloke in a kayak shooting the rapids of the fast flowing River Kelvin. He seemed to be struggling against a fearsome current, but enjoying every minute of it. One of those shots made PoD.  Today’s prompt was ‘Sprout’ and I made up a bit of a fairytale about a boy who sold a cow for some seeds …  You’ve maybe heard it before.

Subway back to Glasgow and a cup of coffee before we split up to go our separate ways, vowing to do it all again in a couple of weeks. By that time he will have mastered his new camera and amassed a bag of lenses, no doubt. I got the bus home, just managing to get it before it left the stance.

Dinner tonight was beef olives for me and mixed veg and potatoes for Scamp.

Tomorrow we may go dancing in Paisley.

A relaxing Friday? – 8 October 2021

Posted on by Zogman

Nothing really to do and nowhere really to go. The rain continuing, so no incentive to go out. A relaxing day. Well, that is how it started.

I drove up to Tesco to get some stuff for tonight’s dinner and also because the Blue Micra was getting thirsty and needed some of that E10 fuel. Scamp stayed at home because there wasn’t really any need for both of us to go out.

Back home with the messages and we’d just finishing our lunch when Shona phoned to ask if she could “get the use of our car.” Well, actually the use of the car and a driver, please. She had to hand back the keys to the flat today by 4pm and now, at about 1pm she had some stuff still to move to the new house. I suggested to Scamp that two cars would be better than one and if only one was needed, then the other could return home. As it happened, we needed both cars, both of them stowed to the roof almost with bags and boxes filled with some things she hadn’t been able to pack until this morning. We got the two cars filled. Boot, back seat and front seat in my case and just enough room for Shona to fit into the passenger seat in Scamp’s car. Thankfully Shona’s new house is that, a house, not a flat. That meant we didn’t have to carry those bags and boxes up two flights of stairs.

Her new house is really nice. It’s an end house of a block with front, side and back gardens. The whole house had that new house smell when we went in. New carpet on the stairs and I think it’s had a skim coat of plaster and definitely a coat of paint. A fresh start to someone who really deserves it.

By the time we got home we were both exhausted, but the exercise seemed to have eased the pain in my back rather than exacerbate it. The rain that had been falling incessantly all day eased for a while and I did manage to get over to St Mo’s for a walk with a camera. Lots of spiders stocking up their larders for the winter, but not much else. Thankfully the rain had stopped and the sun was trying to shine. It was a spider picture that got PoD. The sketch of the day was what the prompt said, a Watch. My old analog Timex watch.

Dinner tonight was “Just Soup”. Nothing fancy. Literally, just soup. Tasted good to me but Scamp said it needed more salt. Lots more for tomorrow if needed.

Ah, tomorrow. Maybe we’ll go shopping somewhere other than Cumbersheugh.

Out walking with my brother – 6 October 2021

Posted on by Zogman

My choice of venue today and I chose Chatelherault, because I can spell it without having to look it up!

Drove to pick up Alex in Motherwell and ended up sitting talking to him and Carol about lots of things, but most of all nothing to do with photography! Their grandson, Jack had been sick all night last night and was a bit disappointed he could come and meet me just in case he passed on his bug. Maybe next time. After an hour or so, Alex and I left to drive to the Chatelherault estate. It’s centered on a big house that stands on a hill looking over a great avenue of trees to the town of Hamilton. In fact it looks straight down to the mausoleum where the Duke of Hamilton, who owned the house, is buried. What a strange thing to do on a bright sunny summer morning, to look over where you know you will be interred!

It was the big house itself that was our first target and we took a few shots of it under a clear blue sky. Then some shots of the avenue with Hamilton in the background. Thanks to the amount of rain we’ve had recently the atmosphere was clear and cool with no mist of haze to spoil the distant view of Ben Lomond and The Cobbler. From the house we walked down to the Avon Bridge and what did I see there, but a kingfisher. Just a tiny wee spot, and just as I pointed it out, it flew off downstream. We both saw it and it couldn’t have been anything else. That bright iridescent blue is unmistakeable. We waited to see if it would return, but it never did. Such a shame. Too far away to get a photo, but we saw it, both of us saw it. First time ever for Alex and first time in about ten years for me.

We turned and walked back to the centre along the river walkway, swapping cameras as we walked. Alex got a chance to try out the full frame sensor of the A7 and also the neatness of the A6000.
Lots of folk running and cycling along the path and lots of things to photograph. Then it was a tough climb up never-ending steps to bring us back to the grassy banks of the estate.

Had lunch at the centre and then went for walk over The Duke’s Bridge to see the Cadzow Oaks. Ancient trees that have survived for thousands of years only to be burned by some morons. Such a shame. Then it was back to the big house for a last few shots in much better light than those we’d taken in the morning.

We both agreed that the next visit will be Alex’s choice and it looks like it will be in a couple of weeks and will be to Kelvinbrige in Glasgow, maybe with a visit to the Kibble Palace.

Scamp had been busy while I was away, planting Snowdrops and raking the grass at the front of the house. She’d also gone for a walk in the town centre and it confirmed her fears that it is falling into disuse. Plenty of nail bars and charity shops, but little else. A common complaint in Scotland.

Dinner was Giant Fish Fingers, Chips and Beetroot. Lovely food and just what I needed.

PoD was a picture of the big house and the formal garden framed by two giant yew trees with their strange red fruit looking like soft plastic or red pitted olives if such a thing exists. Sketch for today was Spirit, and I was thinking more about the alcoholic liquid spirit than the Woooo! kind.

Tomorrow we’re intending to go to another tea dance. Same venue as a fortnight ago. I did enjoy it, I just don’t know if my back will!

 

Getting back to normal – 3 October 2021

Posted on by Zogman

After yesterday’s Dance Class, Cookery Class and late night, today was a chance to get back to normal.

A normal Sunday with sunshine to start with but we weren’t fooled. We knew it wouldn’t last and that rain would be on its way, sooner or later. It turned out to be later, much later and by that time Scamp had hung out some washing. She should have known that was the signal for the rain to start. Thankfully it didn’t last and the clothes just got an extra rinse … to two.

After lunch and with the weekend Sudoku done I doodled the Inktober sketch for today whose prompt was “Vessel”. With a few possible sketches done and now that the rain was tapering off to very occasional showers, I got booted up and went for a walk in St Mo’s. As I suspected, there were not many insects looking for a portrait session, but in the woods I did find quite a few bunches of fungi in a variety of forms, sizes and colours. They would have made PoD, but my eye and camera were drawn to a sprinkling of light across the pond and without the wherewithal to take a wide angle shot which would include some lovely clouds, I did what I usually do and hammered off six shots which I later got Lightroom to build into a decent vertical panorama, technically a Vertorama. That did win PoD.  With a little time to spare I drew the submission piece for Inktober ’21

Dinner tonight was Shepherd’s Pie. It’s ok, the shepherd doesn’t know we have it. They weren’t traditional shepherd’s pies either. Scamp’s was a purely vegetarian one with brown lentils taking the place of meat and mine was made with last week’s mince which had been chilling in the freezer and since it was beef mince, it wasn’t the traditional lamb for the pie. All that aside, we had two decent main courses preceded by Haggis Bonbons. Very cheffy and fairly easy to construct according to Scamp. Pudding was Ice Cream with Meringue Nests and Blackcurrant Syrup. A decent Sunday dinner almost all made from leftovers. Just shows what you can do when you have an imagination, especially an imagination like Scamp’s.

Spoke to Jamie later and found that the fuel embargo is beginning to lift down their way. Supplies are getting through and the tanks of cars are being filled again. No more news for there.

Tomorrow we may be going to Rutherglen to find at least one pair of lady’s dance shoes. No men’s shoes are required at this stage.

Coffee at last – 30 September 2021

Posted on by Zogman

We were taking Isobel with us to Costa

Picked up Isobel in the village and drove to Costa where I met Val. Surprise, Surprise, Costa had coffee. Real coffee, not instant and not filter, but barista made coffee. Conversation between Val and I ranged over the usual wide range of subjects, tech subjects and photography subjects admittedly, but what else would you expect from us?

During the discussions I must have missed the email that had arrived to tell me when DPD were delivering my parcel. We drove Isobel home, Val was meeting his wife at Tesco, and then Scamp and I went to Calders to get some snowdrop bulbs. Unluckily for us the HGV drivers hadn’t been to Calders and there were no snowdrop bulbs to be had. I think half of Cumbersheugh must have been panic buying them during the week. It was while we were at Calders that I found the email and the second one to say that they hadn’t been able to deliver it because there was nobody in! I wasn’t in the best mood after that, but we drove to Tesco to get food for tonight and tomorrow’s dinner.

Drove home and went in the huff for most of the afternoon. The only thing that brightened my afternoon and brought me out from under my black cloud was a phone call from Hazy. Found out about the goings on down Epsom way. Good to hear that Grannie is in much better spirits, and yes, I will try to get the recipe for the bread to you soon. By the way, I don’t know if I said Hazy, but I used a credit from Audible to download Entangled Life and am quite addicted to Mr Sheldrake’s soporific voice reading his book to me. Also it means I don’t have to try to work out how to pronounce those big sciency words! I like that it’s a Jamie and Hazy collaboration.

After we’d finished talking to Hazy I discovered that my phone had received a message to say that I could now collect my DPD parcel from Matalan at The Shops. Jacket on, because it had been raining on and off all day, made sure I had the QR code on my phone screen and that I had photo ID. I’m going to a shop. I have to wear a face mask in a shop. What good is photo ID? They can only really see my bloodshot eyes! Anyway, I picked up then parcel containing a Sony 50mm f2.8 macro lens that weighs about a third of the weight of the Sigma 105mm f2.8 macro lens I’ve already got. There was almost no useful light to test it with tonight, but the few photos I took look like it was worth the money … and the wait.

Scamp was busy all afternoon making ice cream and yet another Swiss Roll. The ice cream is now in the freezer and the Swiss Roll has its chocolate ganache coat on and is in the fridge.

Today’s PoD is one of Scamp’s Lisianthus cut flowers, not to be confused with Lissajous which is a figure I met on an oscilloscope many years ago and nothing like the flower.

Tomorrow we are having Crawford and Nancy for dinner, so lots of prep to be done, which probably explains the ice cream and Swiss Roll.