Category: #inktober

Rain and Jags – 4 October 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was out for coffee this morning with Isobel. I did some rearranging of the ‘painting room’.

The rain during the night and this morning was torrential. When Scamp left to pick up Isobel, the rain was lessening and I thought I might manage a short walk. Five minutes later it was torrential. A real downpour. Short walk cancelled!

I resigned myself to starting to tidy up the back bedroom – the painting room. What I really needed was a skip to lob in all the broken or useless, or pointless things I have stashed in that room. It’s going to come to that some time soon, but for today I did fill a bag and I’ll fill another one tomorrow I hope. Realistically I need about 23 more bags and the incentive to fill them, but one step at a time.

After a wet Scamp returned with a bag of rolls, we had lunch and hoped that the rain would go away. It did, but it took a long time about it. Scamp was supposed to be meeting her sister on Thursday, but she got a text to say that Jackie was cancelling as she was needed at work this week. That was a pity because Scamp was looking forward to the visit and a loooong blether with her sister. They’ve rescheduled for next week and the tickets are booked.

I got my second box of coffee in two days. This one from The Bean Shop in Perth. Just two packets of coffee and two packets of tea. The coffee is almost superfluous because I got a delivery from Rave yesterday with five bags of the lovely beans. Jamie, if you haven’t tried The Italian Job yet, do yourself a favour and get a bag!

Just after my Bean Shop delivery we had to drive up to the Town Centre and it wasn’t raining! We were going for our Autumn Covid booster and for our flu jag. One in one arm and one in the other. No queues today. In and out in jig time. No reaction to speak off as yet.

It was still dry when we got back and as the sun was coming out, it was coat and boots on and off to St Mo’s for some photos. Got a nice grab shot on the boardwalk of a bloke walking his dog. I don’t know who he is, but I was just wishing someone would come along and give me something to hang this landscape shot on. Turned round and there he was! Thank you mister! However, PoD came from the path at the back of the house. It’s a bunch of berries from our Rowan tree. The tree is being pillaged by starlings this week and this one must have fallen. I liked the colour and the way it stood out from the background.

Prompt for today was ‘Scallop’. Now I can’t eat scallops or any other bivalve molluscs because I’m allergic to them, but Scamp loves them, but that doesn’t stop me sketching them. Today’s sketch was fairly small and rough, but it fits the prompt.

Tomorrow looks a bit wild with strong winds and heavy rain predicted. Oh what fun!

The day that never really got started – 3 October 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Just one of those lazy days.

A typical Monday. The furthest we went today was Condorrat to post two cards. One was a birthday card and one was an anniversary card. Both cards going to the same address. On the way home I took the usual diversion round St Mo’s while Scamp went straight home.

I might as well have gone straight home too. There was nothing to see in St Mo’s, well nothing interesting anyway. A couple of photos of spiders that didn’t quite make the grade, but a pretty little Purple Vetch did get PoD. It’s a member of the pea family, but don’t be tempted to eat the peas, they’re poisonous.

Today the prompt asked for ‘Bat’, singular. Being a generous kind of person I thought I’d draw two different bats, one of the flying variety and one of the baseball persuasion. Mostly drawing in ink with an underlay of pencil lines and a little bit of watercolour to, well, add some colour I suppose!

We’re hoping for a better day tomorrow. A little splash of sunshine would be nice, but rain is more likely. Scamp has an appointment in the morning with Isobel and both Scamp and I have an appointment later with a needle!

White Rabbits (x3) – 1 October 2022

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A new day, but the same weather. No wind today, but heavy rain.

We couldn’t decide what to do with today. Neither of us really wanted to go for a walk, because the dry spells were short and the rain, when it came was heavy and lasted for ages. Eventually we agreed that we’d stay at home. No sense in getting soaked for no real reason.

I offered to make pizzas for dinner and that was agreed. Lunch was a sandwich each and a cup of tea. My tea was normal Ceylon tea and Scamp’s was white tea ie hot water.

Last night I’d struggled with WhatsApp. Today I fixed it properly. It now has all my ‘Chats’ transferred over from the old phone. The camera in the new phone is quite amazing compared to the one I had before. Battery life which had been criticised in every review I’d read is fine. Storage is adequate. It’s much faster than the old phone and it doesn’t take ‘blackouts’ like the old one did. Recently it’s been going through the motions of shutting down, as if it has run out of power, when there’s about 25% left in it. Sometimes it just refused to power up. Lots of little things. Maybe it had just had enough of being in my pocket.

We didn’t get out a walk, but I did go for one circuit of St Mo’s pond then found a little dandelion growing out of the gap between two bricks on the way home and that became PoD.

I did make pizzas for dinner, but they weren’t the best I’ve ever made. Scamp put on a brave face and ate all of hers, but I know it was tough going. More practise needed.

Today was the first day of Inktober and the prompt was ‘Gargoyle’. I chose the Alien gargoyle up high on the roof of Paisley Abbey. The abbey dates back to the 12th century, but around 1990 when some renovations were being done, it was discovered that some of the gargoyles were in very poor condition. So poor that only one of them could be saved. An Edinburgh stone masons company was drafted in to design and carve new gargoyles. It seems that one of the masons had an affection for the 1979 film.
I’ve seen the gargoyle, but not up close. Too scary!

We’re not making plans for tomorrow. Whisper it. There is no rain in the forecast. Pass it on!

The end of October – 31 October 2021

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Halloween and the day the clocks went back to GMT, plus the end of Inktober 2021.

All that and it was still raining!

The only useful thing we did today was to walk to the shops to get some veg for me to make a veggie chilli. For something that changes every time I make it, I was surprised when it actually turned out quite well today. One courgette, one Red Pepper, half a Red Chilli and Onion (chopped fine), a Red Onion (quartered), a large Tomato chopped, a tin of Kidney Beans and half a tin of chopped tomatoes. The veg fried for five minute or so then the rest tossed in along with a teaspoon of cocoa powder (thank you Aunt Belle). Brought to the boil then simmered for about half an hour. Served with rice and pitta bread if you have any. It wasn’t blindingly hot, just hot enough, but Scamp’s Lime Cheesecake finished things off and performed any cooling action that was required.

After we returned from the shops and before the culinary skills were on show, I went for a walk in St Mo’s and got today’s PoD which was a tree sapling growing from a stump of a tree. I just liked the idea of a tree growing in a tree. Sketch of the day was for the final prompt of Inktober 2021, ‘Risk’, and was a glass of whiskey, half finished with a set of car keys beside it. We all take risks. Sometimes the benefits mean the risks are worth it. Sometimes they’re not. I’m not making judgements here, just drawing an ink sketch. Strangest thing though, when I was walking upstairs to photograph the sketch for posting. I always do it under my daylight bulb, anyway I was singing a line from a Roger Waters song ‘Four Minutes’. Listen to it and you’ll see why I mention it.

I’m rushing to get this posted before the month changes …

… It’s posted with less than a minute to spare, now I can finish it.  The day did brighten up a bit and later in the evening I went to the door and stars where shining in an almost clear sky.  I don’t think it will last, more clouds, more rain predicted for tomorrow.  I think tomorrow we might go shopping in the morning and Scamp has plans to have coffee with June in the afternoon.  I have a final sendoff planned for Inktober 2021.  It wasn’t my favourite Inktober, but I got all 31 sketches done in time.  That’s good enough for me.

Jagging in the Rain – 30 October 2021

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Scamp’s turn this time.

Drove up to The Link and Scamp joined the queue that took her through the different stages of the procedure for getting your booster jag and her flu jag. An experience we’ve both been through a couple of times now. She hadn’t been feeling brilliant earlier in the morning, but after the magic jags she was a lot better and improved throughout the day. It might be her new meds that don’t agree with her.

Of course it was raining all morning, but as we were driving home it did appear that the clouds were breaking and there was blue sky up there. After a light lunch I volunteered to go out and get dinner. Go out with a camera and get dinner, that is. I drove up to Fannyside and gawped at the colours and sharpness of everything. That’s what happens when you have three or four days of heavy rain, light rain and drizzle to wash the landscape clean. Not just the landscape, the sky too seems to get a wash down. All the dust in the atmosphere gets removed and you can see for miles. Late afternoon sunshine does help too, as do the scattered clouds being blown along by a strong, cold, western wind. It’s holes in those clouds that create little spots of sunshine on the land and give it texture. That’s what I was hoping for and that’s what I got today. It was a photo of an old ruined farmhouse on a hillock that got PoD, or rather, it was the lighting on the landscape that got PoD. The hillock and the old ruined farm were just props in the picture. “It’s all about the light”, someone once said.

When I got home, Scamp was feeling better, certainly well enough to enjoy a Bigham’s Fish Pie. I had a Lasagne. Both of them are expensive for what they are, but they’re worth it for the taste.

Watched another episode of Shetland and the plot thickens. After that it was time for Strictly, and as we hadn’t been able to get to the dance class today, this was our dance fix. I couldn’t be bothered with it after a while and gave up to write this and think about what today’s sketch, the second last one for this year’s Inktober, would be. I also listened to a track from A Momentary Lapse of Reason by Pink Floyd. Superb, although I never really understood what it was all about.

Tonight, the penultimate prompt in Inktober 2021 was ‘Slither’. I chose a snail as my muse. In the past month I’ve resorted to Google for some of my images, but this was one of my own photos, for a change.

Tomorrow I’m told we may be going for the messages. I’m hoping for some sun, I’m always looking for some sun or at least decent light, but I’ll settle for ‘dry’.

It rained again – 29 October 2021

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And again and again and eventually it did dry up for a while. That is the end of the weather report.

Really dull day again with no sign of the rain stopping. We had intended to go out for lunch, but that never happened. Eventually we settled on scrambled egg on toast. Hardly what we’d thought we’d have, but it was just that sort of day, the sort of day that drags you down. There must be an end to these constant deluges, but it wasn’t today.

Eventually I did manage to go out for a walk with the camera, over to St Mo’s when the rain lessened sufficiently to allow me to take some photos. Of course those photos centred around RAIN. My favourite and PoD was another amalgamation of two shots. Technically it’s called ‘Focus Stacking’. The front leaf was in focus in one picture and the rest was in focus in the other. Load them into Potatoshop and you can make them both be in focus. A little cheat that sound much better when you call it Focus Stacking!

We watched another episode of the Portrait Artist of the Year. It’s always amazing to me to see how these people can slap paint on a canvas and then pull an image from the resulting mess. It’s like the sculptors who chip away at a block of marble to reveal the head and shoulders of a person that they knew was there all the time. As usual, neither Scamp nor I agreed with any of the judges decisions.

I struggled for an idea that would solve today’s prompt ‘Patch’. Lots of ‘patches’ were considered and rejected. My aunties had a dog called Patch that I was allowed to take out for a walk when we visited them. I like him, he was a scruffy little mongrel, but really obedient. I could do a patch on a pair of jeans. I’ve patched a few. A patch on a bike tyre, or a bike repair kit with its patches? All were rejected for one reason or another. I finally chose an eye patch as the most interesting. It’s really just a prop on a portrait of some bloke who doesn’t look like me, but it was interesting to draw.

I eventually wandered off to bed about midnight, without having written this blog, so today is a catch up. I hope the rain stops and the sun shines, so we can go out for a while.

Another early one – 28 October 2021

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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.

Another wet one – 27 October 2021

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Where is all this rain coming from?

The rain seems never ending these days. If it doesn’t rain in the morning, it rains in the afternoon. If it doesn’t rain in the morning or the afternoon it’s a miracle. We haven’t had any miracles for a while. But we shouldn’t complain because some places in Southern Scotland have a prediction for 200mm of rain in a day. Thankfully, this far, we haven’t had that amount, but we have two water buckets and a watering can in the back garden. The smaller of the two water buckets has been overflowing for days now, the other bucket is three quarters full and the watering can will be full by now. Then the weather fairies have the cheek to give us more rain tomorrow.

I did nip out with the Sony and the big macro lens in one of the spells of drizzle to get some photos. The best one of the lot was the fuchsia that hangs from a hook on the fence. At least that wee flower has a chance to discard its excess water, the ones on the ground are now waterlogged. The fuchsia got PoD.

That was about the extent of my walk today. A wander round the garden (like a teddy bear) and a walk up to the corner to put the bin out.

Today’s prompt was “Spark”. What do you draw for that? I chose a spark plug. Without these little wonders of technology our petrol driven cars wouldn’t work. I did try to add a spark, but it didn’t look right, so I removed it.

Well, sorry people, that was it for today. Not a day for going out and not a lot that I wanted to do in the house either. Scamp made soup, so at least we’ll have something to eat tomorrow.

Out early tomorrow to take the Wee Red Car for its MOT. Then we’ll wander round the house with our fingers crossed until we get the phone call.

Life in the twilight zone – 26 October 2021

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Not the scary one, just the one where the sun never seems to rise.

Scamp was out early to go to the Post Office in Eastfield which is where she’d been told there was a parcel waiting for her, the one she’d missed yesterday. When she got there the woman in the PO said she didn’t have it or couldn’t find it, but would have another look and would phone her to update her. We didn’t hold out much hope for that happening. We’ve not had a great deal of success with Parcelforce.

Scamp was going out to lunch with the witches later, and I was off the leash. Yesterday I’d a couple of things in mind for today. I was intending to fix a grip on the cooker top and maybe get round to taking up my walking trousers, because they are way too long. If time and weather permitted I thought I might go up to the Carron reservoir to get some photos and some fresh air. One look out the window in the morning put paid to that last idea. Time might have permitted, but the weather certainly wouldn’t. It really looked like the sun had forgotten to rise. The other ideas would be the fallbacks.

When Scamp had left for lunch with Jeanette, I drove down to Wardpark to book Scamp’s car in for MOT. I drove rather than phoned because the sky might have brightened up and I might manage to get some photos, but it didn’t and I didn’t. I just drove home again and started cutting up my walking trousers. It sounds a bit drastic, but it really wasn’t. I had a plan and it involved sewing and cutting and pressing and it worked. The trousers are now a good 40mm shorter than they were and don’t get caught in the heels of my boots. By the time I’d done that and cleared up the back bedroom a bit, because that’s where I draw at night in October and also where I photograph the drawings to go in the blog and on Flickr. Even I get fed up with tripping over cables, although Scamp won’t believe that. I was just finishing and making a late lunch when Scamp reappeared. I hadn’t noticed the time, but two and a half hours had passed since she left.

When I got back from the garage, there was a note to say that a parcel weIt was in the bin store. I wasn’t sure if it was for me or her, but was pretty sure this was the missing one. It was for me, and it was a bottle of the hand wash that I’d been raving about after we left Bombay Cottage last week, or was that the week before? Anyway, here was the very bottle and it was just the same perfume. That was a brilliant surprise! Thank you, Scamp. I’m still not all that clear on the details of the travels of this parcel, but all’s well that ends well.

PoD turned out to be a detail from a vase of flowers that I sat on the worktop in the kitchen, catching what light was available at the time. It needed 20 seconds of exposure to get the shot, but it was worth it.

Sketch prompt was ‘Connect’. Have you ever stopped to count all the different cables and connectors you have? I don’t have the time to do it, but there must be close on a hundred different pieces of wire and plastic that connect something to something else in the house. Then there are all the duplicates and triplicates and … ! These are some of mine.

No plans for tomorrow because the weather fairies are predicting that tomorrow will be episode two of Life In The Twilight Zone

 

Dancing Central – 25 October 2021

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But first the doc’s.

Drove Scamp to her appointment with the doc. The doc shook her hand, gave her a prescription for some pills and said she hoped Scamp would feel better. It was a blustery day with occasional rain showers that came thumping down, seemingly from nowhere. We drove to the chemist which is conveniently next to Tesco and while she was in the chemist, I went to get some messages then we drove home and it was just after 10am! Unluckily for Scamp she had just missed the Parcelforce man who was supposed to be delivering a parcel today. Now she’ll have to wait until tomorrow.

We had a late breakfast and I messed about with the computer for a while, bought The Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker. Yes, Hazy, you talked me into it and I needed something well written after having ploughed through the latest John Connolly. I used to like his stories, but too much padding, too much history and too little story in this one. After that we watched yesterday’s F1 GP from Austin. Quite and exciting race for once with lots of action and a good finish.

After lunch it was a case of pack up your dance shoes and drive to another tea dance. This one was in Falkirk, in Central Region, hence the cryptic title to this blog. We’d been to a tea dance in Falkirk before the first lockdown, but only one, then everything shut down. That one had been in the Council Offices, but today’s was in a church hall in the centre of Falkirk. Lovely looking church with a reasonably sized hall but the bonus was the live music. A bloke playing an organ, not a keyboard, but an organ with foot pedals and stuff. Apparently he’s an opera singer, but makes a bob or two running tea dances in local churches. He was good, but hadn’t quite got the mark of the clientele. Twice he tried to get people up to dance Scottish country dance tunes. Once couple got up for the first one, but nobody did for the second! Just a bit embarrassing. We did all the dances that I was sure I knew and one or two that I was a bit rust on. Big bonus of this tea dance was that they actually had tea. Gorbals didn’t and that was a black mark against them. Extra big bonus, they had Tunnocks Caramel Wafers and also Snowballs. Scamp was peeved that she didn’t get a snowball. The company was a lot less friendly than other places we’ve been too. Insular or maybe inbred, difficult to tell, but none of the dancers spoke to us. Black mark against them, then.

We had got soaked walking from the carpark to the church, but when we came out the sun was shining. Not so shiny was Falkirk Main Street. If this had been America, there would have been tumbleweed rolling down the streets. Shop after shop was closed and boarded up. These days you only need one or two big shops to close and you’ve started on the slippery slope. It was really depressing. There were a lot of smaller shops on some of the streets off the main street, but some of them were almost certainly on a short let. The only shop that was busy was the big party shop. People were queueing all the way down its frontage, almost all with children in tow, desperate to get their Halloween costumes. We drove home and agreed that we’d go back to the next tea dance in the church, all being well.

Back home there was just enough light to allow a safari to St Mo’s. I got today’s PoD of a spider there. I think that was the last of the light just disappearing.

Dinner was Saturday’s soup with croutons and a pizza to follow. Today’s prompt was ’Splat’. My sketch of a splatted egg got Scamp’s approval with a couple of suggestions that I agree with, but by then it was too late to change things. The sketch this time is drawn on an A2 sheet of cartridge paper. A bit bigger than my usual A5! No eggs were harmed in making this sketch, only virtual ones!

Tomorrow Scamp is booked with the Witches for lunch. I have a few jobs to do in the house and also a prospective drive into the country if weather permits.