Friends – Page 29 – My Photo Blog

Just another Sunday – 05 February 2017

Posted on February 5, 2017February 6, 2017 by Zogman

Scamp went to church with M&J in the morning and I stayed home to clean up the blog and hopefully get some photos, but the rain came on. In fact, the rain came straight down. Ori (the dog) and I looked at one another and the silent message passed between us “I’m not going out in that!” So we waited and eventually the rain abated and became a drizzle, a warm drizzle that dried on you almost immediately. Also, the rain that had fallen had dried up too. Five minutes later the sun came out, but didn’t stay long because more heavy clouds came in. I gave up and sat watching the birds having their early morning bath. We really must get a bird bath for the garden at home.

When the promised rain failed to appear I changed into swimming trunks (they dry quicker than shorts) and went for a walk in the garden. Found an empty shell of a wasp’s nest and marvelled at the construction. Entrance / exit tunnel and all those little identical hexagonal cells, and all made from something as thin as paper. Amazing. I found a shield bug on a leaf looking like it was guarding its eggs. Even saw a little orange dragonfly, but it was far too quick for me. Gardens are wonderful places if you just have time to look.

Scamp returned with M&J bearing Doubles. Doubles are two squares of thin fried dough, wrapping up a paste of chickpeas, onions, pepper and spices. Apparently it used to be considered poor man’s food, but we all agreed it was delicious. By then the sun had come out and it was hot, so it was time to get some serious sketching done. So I put on my sketching hat, some sun cream and some insect repellent and went in search of a suitable subject. I finally settled on some plant pots hiding away at the back of the garden. I had a reasonable rendering of them when Scamp came to tell me it was lunch time. Lunch was a pork chop for the carnivores and salmon for Scamp the pescatarian with cassava root. We’d never had cassava before, but it was really tasty. Scamp described it well, as a nutty potato. We must search it out and try cooking it some time soon. Definitely on our to-do list. With lunch out of the way, I found a new subject. One that could be drawn from the comfort of the veranda. I chose Next Door’s Utility room with its big square plant pots on the roof. Both pots overflowing with roses. It was basically architectural with strong perspective, a happy marriage for me. I even added a wee touch of colour to add a wee bit of brightness. I liked it. Still do.

Remembered to take the photos of the wasp’s nest and got it done along with the flower photos before it got totally dark. Haven’t posted them on Flickr because it went into one of its ‘Bad Panda’ strunts again. Why do these things always happen on weekends? Because Yahoo don’t employ enough people to fix it. They want rid of Flickr which is becoming a money pit for them.

The remainder of the day was spent packing. Off on our travels again tomorrow with a bit of luck.

The not so Common Market – 04 February 2017

Posted on February 4, 2017February 5, 2017 by Zogman

Madeleine found one of the ‘singing frogs’ in the shower this morning and managed to capture it in a jar. It’s a tiny wee thing, no bigger than my thumb nail and that’s it fully grown. After its photo call we let it go back to rejoin its midnight choir.

Just a coffee for breakfast this morning because we were going to the Green Market and Madeleine said we would get something to eat there.

I didn’t realise it was so far away, almost halfway to Yves’ house, or so it seemed. When we got there the market was in full swing and there was lots for these Scottish visitors to gawp at. Dasheen, Yams, Cassava and real live cocoa pods. An amazing variety of fruit and veg that we had only heard about or read about in books sitting on benches right there in front of us. After a quick walk through, we went looking for that breakfast. We all had Empanadas – that’s fried corn bread ‘rolls’ with a variety of fillings. I had beef, Scamp had chicken, Jaime had pork and Madeleine had cheese. While we were sitting there stuffing our faces with these fatty foods, a lady from a local surgery was explaining how high cholesterol, diabetes and hypertension are all caused by obesity and too much fatty foods. I don’t think this was the best place to be putting out that message – or maybe it was! I was amazed to find Ortaniques (a cross between and orange and a tangerine) for sale on one of the stalls. I remember getting them in Larkhall away back in the 1960s. I haven’t seen them for years. Three for a pound was a bargain too good to pass up. Another stall was selling juices and they were lovely. Scamp had a mixture of ginger, melon and coconut water. I had passion fruit.

When we were done there, it was back in to town and a visit to another market. This one called the Up Market. It was a sports hall filled with stalls selling lots of different crafts. I bought myself a copper bracelet to ward off rheumatism and Scamp got a pair of maracas to use with Gems!

After that it was time to go home. Nobody really wanted lunch, but there was a good selection of fruit so we had that. You see, maybe that lady’s talk did sink in after all. After the fruit fest, Scamp went out to read in the garden and I staked my claim on a place to sketch Jaime’s hut. Possibly the neatest hut ever. Madeleine says it’s not so neat inside. I’m not sure I believe her. Anyway, this was a pencil sketch for a change. Unfortunately my Staedtler pencil was loaded with 2H lead, not 2B so tone was difficult to achieve. But, like yesterday’s, it’s done.

Tonight J&M took us out to a Chinese restaurant for a meal. The meal was delicious, but the way it was organized with veg being ordered separately from the meat was very strange. Good food and good company. You can’t beat it!

Easy Deer and Witches – 16 December 2016

Posted on December 16, 2016December 16, 2016 by Zogman

Busy morning with bread to bake and tidying up to do. Then it was out for coffee with Val and Fred P.

Bread baked and the living room looking less like a bomb site, I headed out to meet Val and Fred. Val needed a standard lens for his DSLR and I had a spare that I wasn’t using, so it made sense to pass it on. Fred has been supplying me with good music all year, so now was time for me to redress the balance with some CDs. That with some coffee and a lot of good humour took up most of the afternoon. Fred showed me some photos he’d taken of an artwork at the dreadfully dull out of town shopping centre that is Glasgow Fort. It’s been built at Easterhouse and in the past, a fort was indeed what that area of Glasgow needed, Fort Apace. I decided that I’d go and see what the Fort now had to offer in the way of photographic opportunities. It turned out it was indeed an interesting and entertaining array of street art. Just what the Fort needed. The other thing it needed was a bookshop to replace the greatly missed Borders that closed its doors almost exactly seven years ago. Waterstones has moved in to fill that space and although it isn’t officially open until tomorrow, it’s looking good and will be an oasis of calm for the guys who are dragged there by their spouses.

When I got home, Scamp’s annual Witches Christmas Party was in full swing, so after a word or two to all the guests, I removed myself to the ‘Painting Room’ for a bit of peace and quiet. Both ‘Peace’ and ‘Quiet’ were achieved with the use of a pair of Panasonic over-ear headphones while playing Dylan’s 1966 Albert Hall Concert at full volume. I also got the crumbs from the Rich Wo(Man’s) Table in the form of Crab Cakes, Lentil Soup and Chicken Pithivier. Not exactly crumbs either as there were copious amounts of all but the crab cakes.

I lived in the little back room working on a ringtone for my brother-in-law (why do Apple make such a simple task so difficult and convoluted?) before it was time for the merry witches to be on their way back to their respective homes.

It only happens once a year and they all enjoy it. I have to admit that I do too, but don’t tell them that.

Tomorrow? We may be heading for the second capital city of Scotland, but I dare not say its name for fear we will once again be forced to postpone.

Coffee and a couple of jags – 7 December 2016

Posted on December 7, 2016December 7, 2016 by Zogman

Yesterday, the plan for today was for me to head off to meet Val and Fred at 12noon and set the Scottish education on its path to previous glory over a cup or two of coffee, then for Scamp to meet me at about 1.45pm with the stuff the nurse was going to inject us with to stop us getting some exotic infection when we were off in foreign climes. I’d then drop her off at the station so she could get the train in to Glasgow to get even more Christmas shopping, leaving me the rest of the day free. That was scrapped after an early morning phone call. The nurse wanted the afternoon off, so could we come for our jags earlier, at 12noon. (not jabs you’ll notice, we’re Scottish. We get jags. Much nastier – there was even a sign in the surgery advertising Flu JAGS. Scamp wanted me to photograph it to prove to English people what the word should be). Anyway, we agreed and changed the schedule for the day accordingly.

After the jags, I drove Scamp to the bus stop – it’s almost as quick on the fast bus as it is on the train and then went for coffee with the other two. We solved the problem as I knew we would in double quick time. It’s simple when you’re an outsider. This is all you need to do:

Start teaching the ‘3Rs’ again in primary school although Val tried to muddy the water by saying that it was actually two Rs and an A. Objection noted.
Get rid of Curriculum for Excrement. That’s the core of the problem
Sack Swinney and pay us the exorbitant salaries to run the whole system.

After that we discussed Celtic’s glorious exit from the European Cup to Fred’s delight and the new ‘Stones album which is actually very good. Also discussed were “Landscape painting with felt” What the hell is that all about. Last night’s documentary about the Italian artist who tried to steal another artist’s work and pass it off as his own.

After that we left and I gave Val a run home. By this time (2pm) the automatic headlights came on in the car. It was another dull day, but I had previously decided on today’s PoD and it’s almost exactly as you see it above. The other big thing today was the arrival of the new battery for my MacBook. It was fitted in jig time (That means quickly, Englanders) and gave just over 3.5 hours of service today from an initial 75% charge, out of the box. It’s now charging for the recommended 12 hours after which it must be run down to 7% again before repeating the exercise. One of the best bits of the experience was finding that the touchpad on the mac was working again. I’d read that if the bottom left corner switch on the touchpad stops working, it could be because the battery was beginning to swell and press on it. It seems that was the case for me. We’ll see what tomorrow brings in battery land.

Hoping for a better day weatherwise tomorrow. Intending to go to Perth.

Santas on Parade – 4 December 2016

Posted on December 4, 2016December 5, 2016 by Zogman

We were driving into Glasgow when we saw a sign: “Warning! Santas Running” Hmm. Looks like a Santa run. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity of a PoD and that’s how it turned out.

After checking with the NLC volunteers, it turned out that the fun run had just started, but as we were about halfway round the course, we had a while to wait before the first runner, oops, Santas arrived. These aren’t the real Santas by the way, but are some of his fleet footed assistants. Having said that, Santa was only a few miles away in Falkirk yesterday, so I wouldn’t put it past the old fella to have sneaked in to the fun-run. We watched for a while and Scamp got into the spirit of things and was happily cheering them on their way, while secretly wishing she’d heard about it earlier and had managed to wangle a Santa suit and an entrance number for herself. Me? I’d hold the jackets. Lots more Santa pics on my Flickr page.

Once I’d got a few photos and was sure I had at least one contender for PoD, we drove the rest of the way in to Glasgow. Scamp had the bright idea of parking at Cowcaddens and getting the Subway to St Enoch’s. A stormer of an idea as it turned out when we saw the queues for different parking places around the town. Just to clarify, Glasgow is a city, but it’s always been known as The Town or more likely, The Toon. After we’d wandered round what is, apparently, the Medieval Part of Glasgow, down by Clyde Street and I’d taken some photos of extremely non-Medieval buildings, we had a coffee and headed for home. Glasgow on a Sunday in December is no fun. It’s full of shoppers and disappointed looking foreigners hoping to see men in kilts everywhere. Thankfully the ‘Bastard Drummers’ were nowhere to be seen or heard. Not even the mad “Bowie & Bolan” bloke who neither sounds nor looks like Bowie or Bolan was in evidence. Thankfully again.

Came home and relaxed for a while before getting ready for the Sunday Social. The highlight of the week for us. Had a great time as usual and met an old friend (Kul) there, once we managed to get parked – nightmare during panto season – and basically that was it for Sunday. Beautiful day with plenty of sunshine, although a bit cold. Currently 0.3ºc with snow forecast.

Tomorrow is Monday with all the hustle and bustle that Mondays bring.

Visitors – 26 November 2016

Posted on November 26, 2016November 27, 2016 by Zogman

Out before 10 this morning, just before 10, but not before I’d made some bread to have with today’s dinner. Drove in to Glasgow to get some early Chrissy Prezzies and for me to return my Perspective book. Didn’t even have time to drop in for a coffee before we headed back home, because there was more work to be done, preparing for our visitors. I did manage to get a few shots with my 9mm Body Cap lens.

When we came home, Scamp started back on her part of the preparations and I kept out of the way, drove to Auchinstarry and walked along part of the canal hoping to see the secretive Kingfisher again, but no show. Crossed over to the railway path and walked a bit further along it before doubling back and heading for the car. Found a leaf embedded in a slab of ice and managed to balance it on a frosted fence post to get a few shots of it.

Came back to the organised chaos that is the preparation for visitors. I did help a bit, but as usual, Scamp was fully in charge of the situation.

The night went well, the pudding I’d made (Creme Caramel) was excellent and a good time was had by all. Now we just have the clearing up to do. Half of it is in the dishwasher and the rest can wait until morning.

Good Fun, Good Food and Good Friends.

An Early Rise – 25 November 2016

Posted on November 25, 2016November 25, 2016 by Zogman

Up and out of bed before 8.00 this morning, but it wasn’t the desire to take photos in the frost that was sparkling in the morning air that got me up, it was someone knocking the front door. It turned out to be the wrong address. The gas man was actually looking for the bloke next door. However, it did get me up and that led to me achieving yesterday’s target.

Walked through St Mo’s and got a few photos, some of which are in the matrix above. There was quite thick fog when I left the house with a temperature of -5.6ºc, but when I reached St Mo’s a few minutes later, the fog had gone, taking with it my chance of some ethereal early morning shots. I did see a deer, but it was far to far away and moving like the wind.

By the time I got home, Scamp was scraping her car and since I was meeting Fred for coffee later, I decided to clean mine too. The joker who lives a couple of doors down had parked next to me last night and left my car in the shade of the early morning sun that I’d hoped would have thawed it out. People should think before they park next to me. So it was frozen hands for me before lunch, but at least the windscreen was clear.

Met Fred for coffee and swap shop. 2 CDs from him to me. 1CD from me to him. Not a lot to discuss today and I think the cold is getting to all of us. He’d done some sketches of course and so had I, but not as many from each of us as we’d had in the past.

Fred had to leave early so I did too. I walked along the Luggie again and, probably with the thought of sketching in my head, got a quick sketch of a bridge done. Not the most beautiful structure, but architecturally interesting and demanding from a perspective viewpoint. It’s not quite finished, but it was quite cold and my fingers were getting numb and I’d got a likeness of it. I had my leather gloves with me, the expensive ones. Two pairs for a fiver in Perth one year! I should have worn the fingerless gloves Hazy gave me to keep my hands warm but my fingers free. They’re not just for FOTO GRA4s! (in joke). They’re going in my jacket pocket tonight. I got some photos down the Luggie too.

From the 44 photos I took today, I whittled them down to 14 and from that I chose my 5 favourites. That’s what you see above in the matrix.

Be careful how you touch the blog today as it might still be a bit greasy, that’s because dinner was a small fish supper for Scamp and a special fish supper for me (fish in breadcrumbs) eaten with the fingers of course. I was feeling generous, so I shared my special fish with Scamp.

Looks like it won’t be quite as cold tomorrow. Ice is nice as long as it doesn’t stay too long.

Another day on Planet Ice – 24 November 2016

Posted on November 24, 2016 by Zogman

Temperature this morning at 8.30 was -4.7ºc. That’s cold when you’ve come down stairs to the cold kitchen without your slippers. Frozen tootsies.

I thought that by the time I was going out around 11.30 to meet Val that the car would have thawed a little. I forgot that where I’d parked it last night would remain in the sun’s shadow all day, so no luck with the auto-defrost. It was down to manual scraping of the windscreen. Then by the time I got in the car and turned on the ignition, there was a new film of ice on the glass. Finally got it defrosted and headed for the town centre. One great thing about this car is the air-con, which in the winter defrosts the windows PDQ.

Over coffee, our conversation ranged through the usual topics of computers, cameras, more computers and moans about everything else. Along the way I picked up some useful tips from the computer genius. Really, that’s not sarcasm. What Val doesn’t know about computer hardware and low level programming in DOS is not worth knowing. I learned a lot about his experience of external hard drives and gave him some pointers on camera lenses. As usual I gained more than I gave back.

After we we had had our caffein hit for the day we parted company. Him to wander round the shops and me to get some photos. Today’s walk through the winter wonderland was along the Luggie Water, part of which was frozen white and part was steaming away nicely in the warmth of the sun. Got a barrel load of photos and reduced them down nine and from those nine, I chose my favourite six. I’m really trying to reduce the photo overload these days. It’s all right to take lots of photos, in fact I recommend that you do, but it’s also essential that you store only the ones that are worth storing. I have to be more brutal or I’ll be filling the house with storage disks, even more than I do already.

By the time I was getting back to the car, the light was fading rapidly and it was time to head for home. You forget just how short the winter days are, so it’s really important to make the most of the good light.

My maxim for the week is get out early and get the shots in the good light, even if it 4.7 degrees below zero. Let’s see how long that one lasts!

A Busy Day – 2 November 2016

Posted on November 2, 2016 by Zogman

Some days there are loads of things to write about and some days, like today, are busy, but nothing all that interesting is happening.

Out this morning to meet Fred and Val for a coffee and a catch up. We were all pressed for time for different reasons and had to rush more than normal. Still a good sharing of minds 😉

From there I drove back home to pick up Scamp and drive to Falkirk. We were running a bit behind time and perhaps that’s why we didn’t notice the ‘Road Closed’ sign. We did notice the barrier across the road a mile or so further on. The only way I was sure we could use was back a couple of miles at the roundabout and that’s where we went. We managed to get to the office just in time. Thankfully this was good news again and to celebrate we went for a coffee in a new cafe just down the lane from Andrew’s office. The decor was good with guitars and mandolins hanging on all the walls, the coffee not so good. Maybe it will improve with age.

Drove back and dropped Scamp off at the house where she had some work to do. Drove up to Argos to get myself a 32Gb SD card to replace the 64Gb one I had bought from 7 Dayshop. It was a good price for 64Gb, but the speed was dire. Nice surprise when I went to pay for the 32Gb as it had 1/3rd off. Glad I went there. Managed to grab a couple of sunset shots at Broadwood Loch on the way home.

Back home had birds to feed because the greedy things have eaten all the peanuts already. Hopefully this lot will last a little longer. It’s an expensive hobby feeding all these feathered friends.

Tomorrow? Who knows.

Coffee and Swapshop – 19 October 2016

Posted on October 19, 2016October 20, 2016 by Zogman

I used to say that people who wanted to drink coffee should go to Costa and the rest should go to Starbucks, because Costa serve coffee and Starbucks serve Starbucks. I think that is no longer the case. Recently I’ve been going to Cafe Nero rather than go to Costa. The quality of coffee in Costa has plummeted recently in my opinion and is now almost as bad as Starbucks. Unfortunately, we don’t have a Cafe Nero in Cumbersheugh, only Costa.

Today the three Auld Guys, Fred, Val and I met to exchange goodies. Fred brought music. Music in a variety of formats, MP3 predominantly, but also FLAC and WMA . Val and I both got some. Val brought books which we accepted with grateful thanks. I also brought books which were shared out between the other two. We also shared jokes stories and the other two critiqued my Inktober sketches. It was a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours with good friends and bad coffee. The meetings of the full Auld Guys contingent is a much better affair with plenty of sarcasm, wit and good beer, but these fortnightly meetings are good too. They have their place in our ‘busy’ lives.

When I got back I went for a cold walk round St Mo’s. Attempted a couple of landscape shots, but the light wasn’t conducive to decent photography. I think I just left it too late and the light quality was too poor. I did like the PoD at the top of the page. I like the graphic quality of monochrome, especially Black & White and I’m always amazed at the work the spiders put in to decorate these dried plants. You don’t notice these things until you look and that’s what photography is all about, looking.

Salsa tonight was interesting. It was Jamie G’s last lesson with his beginners class and I felt sorry for him saying goodbye to them because they are joining a class with another teacher next week. I know how he feels. I felt the same when I lost one of my classes at the end of the year. But that was long ago now, in the dim mists of time.

I’d thought long and hard about today’s Inktober sketch and attempted a couple of setups before I settled on A Pair of Pears. I quite like it. Not the best I’ve done, but better than what went before it tonight.