Category: #inktober

Dancin’ and Drivin’ – 7 October 2021

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Not both at the same time though!

Drove our way to the tea dance, not the way the satnav wanted, but I wanted to make sure I could correct the mistake I made the last time. It took us about 40 minutes which was about the same as the satnav’s preferred route. Weather was the opposite of yesterday. Heavy cloud and lashing rain that would fade to a fine drizzle before returning again as a deluge.

Dancing was good with lots of people there, much more than a fortnight ago. We got up for most of the dances although we got in a bit of a fankle with the Social Foxtrot. It’s actually a lot easier than the Ballroom version, but you’d never guess from our ham fisted attempt at it. Still, the tea was good and so was the cake that Jane allegedly bakes. It’s almost like dumpling. Quite heavy, but I didn’t mind because it tasted good. Stewart announced that the dance weekend in Perth was fully booked now (we are in) and they were now taking bookings for a May weekend in 2022. Of all the dates they could have chosen, they picked the on of Wee Jak’s wedding in Skye!

By the time we left my little brain was full of ballroom, sequence and Scottish Country dances. I even did a line dance!! Me? A line dancer? I’ll never live that down. It was still raining when we left and fought our way through Paisley, more or less ignoring the satnav’s pleas to go a different way. Eventually we reached the M8 and after a couple of miles everything ground to a halt. An articulated lorry had broken down on the M74 and the traffic was backed up onto the M8 leaving it as very slow moving conga line in all the lanes. About an hour and a half later we got home, and it was still raining.

My feeble attempt at a PoD was a macro shot of some rose stems in a glass vase. I liked the distortion the glass and water gave those jaggy stems. Sketch for today was Fan. I chose to draw and paint two of Scamp’s favourite fans. The blue one is embroidered cloth and the red one is lacquered strips of wood. I got fed up just using ink, so that’s why the watercolour appeared.

Tomorrow we might go out somewhere to get some petrol and I’ll perhaps get a more interesting and challenging PoD.

Out walking with my brother – 6 October 2021

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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!

 

I’m late, I’m late – 5 October 2021

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For a very important date!

We got a phone call when we were less than halfway to Falkirk, just checking that we were coming to the meeting with Andrew at 10am (it was now 10.05!). Scamp apologised and said we had thought the meeting was at 10.30. However, all the traffic lights we met, every one was at green, so we weren’t extremely late, but we were profuse in our apologies when we got to the office. We spent about an hour with Andrew and learned a lot about the state of global finances and although a lot of it went over my head I enjoyed his view on the state of the parties, political and otherwise. As we left, the great man asked if we were to spend some money in local businesses and we agreed that we were.

The business we went to was Torwood Garden Centre which is in Falkirk and therefore local. We had a quick lunch there and then went looking at plants. We were actually looking for Snowdrop bulbs for Scamp to plant in the front garden, but apparently the transport problems had reached as far as snowdrops bulbs according to the lady at the information desk. That’s the same story we heard at Calder’s last week too. Scamp did manage to find a geranium plant that she could find a place for and a new light ball to hang on the tree. We had done as Andrew had asked.

Back home I checked with Alex that tomorrow was still ok and it looks like it is. Later in the afternoon I took the A7m2 with the 50mm macro lens out to St Mo’s to look for mushrooms. I found a few likely subjects, but none that I hadn’t seen before. What I did find was a very furry caterpillar and that made PoD. Then, as I was heading home, I spotted a green and brown spotted dragonfly laying eggs in St Mo’s pond. Surprisingly it then started laying eggs on part submerged tree branches and also on the stonework of a little outfall from the pond. Later I identified it as a Southern Hawker. Apparently they are making their way further north these days. Another sign of Global Warming.

Dinner was Chicken Ramen with Rice Noodles. Quite tasty, quick and easy. Later we watched a Jamie Oliver program on a new way of making a quiche. We might just have a go at that.

Inktober prompt for today was “Raven”. It took me a long time to settle on a suitable sketch, but eventually I managed it with the help of a pencil, a fountain pen, a fineliner, a brush pen, a paintbrush and some black paint. A lot of tools for a simple sketch. Overkill I’d say.

Tomorrow I’m hoping for some decent sunshine to go taking photos at Chatelherault in Hamilton with Alex.

Choosing Shoes – 4 October 2021

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“Bright shoes, white shoes, Dandy-dance-by-night shoes, Perhaps-a-little-tight shoes, Like some? So would I.”

Today we were driving to Rutherglen to get Scamp a new pair of dance shoes, or maybe a couple of pairs or maybe …

I had sent the directions to the Blue car last night and today, when we switched on the ignition it appeared to be there. However it was the directions to our house, from our house. That’s the thing about Nissan electronics. It’s actually Renault electronics and they are probably the worst in the world. So we found a place to park, put the postcode of the shop in manually and it grudgingly gave us directions. After that it got us right to the door of the shop, but there was nowhere to park, so I dropped Scamp off and went to park the car. Then see what the lady in the shop had found to show the dancer. Half an hour later we came out with two pink bags containing three pairs of shoes, all ladies shoes, all dance shoes and all with enough sparkles to light up a Christmas tree. She also had a big beaming smile.

We drove home because I just knew she would want to try them out, all three pairs, one at a time. I was thinking more about lunch. Yesterday’s shepherd’s pie leftovers reheated in the microwave fitted the bill. Then as Scamp went to start the ironing, I took my camera and drove to Fannyside Moor via Tesco where I got the essentials like milk and bread, also Boots where I picked up my meds.

The clouds were low when I got to Fannyside and a strong wind was tearing at them and driving them across the landscape. The afternoon sun was shining through the gaps in the clouds and lighting up areas of the fields and hills. My target for today was an old fencepost covered in Cladonia lichen which I’d photographed before. I took a few shots of it in flat lighting, but had to wait about half an hour before some glancing light added a bit to drama and form to the proceedings and that gave me my PoD.

On the way home my phone pinged a message from Alex confirming that Chatelherault on Wednesday would be a good choice, however his suggestion of meeting at around 10.30am was a little early for me, so I might have to discuss this with him.

Inktober prompt for today was ‘Knot’. A few thing had run through my head, but nothing had stayed for long. Then I had an idea of a piece of string tied round a finger as a reminder of ‘something’, yes, that would do. As it happened it was trickier to draw that I though it should be, but it’s done and in its place now.

Tomorrow we are intending to drive to Falkirk to see Andrew. A very clever man who wears the brightest of shirts and even gaudier socks. He works magic with graphs and numbers. I suppose he is a sort of magician.

The poem was by Frida Wolfe and I’m sure at least a couple of my readers will remember it.

Getting back to normal – 3 October 2021

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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.

Rain, wind and the Craigmarloch Stormie – 31 October 2020

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Today was wild. High winds, rain and a stormtrooper.

The winds started last night and continued for most of the day. It wasn’t just the winds that were wild, it was the gusts and the way they blew the rain right into the front windows. Double glazing is worth every penny you pay for it, believe me.

This wasn’t a day for going out if you didn’t need to. We did need to. Somebody needed to go out to get our meds from Boots and I volunteered. Drove up to Craigmarloch and did a double take at the roundabout. Was that an Imperial Stormtrooper standing there? You know that thing you get when you get a half second glimpse of something and you’re not sure if you really saw it? That’s how it was for me. I shook my head and continued in to Tesco, well, to Boots which is just next to Tesco. On the way home I checked. Nope, no Stormies to be seen. Aha, but we’ve got dash cams in our cars. I checked the film when I got back and sure enough, there he is (or SHE is) standing waiting at the roundabout. I’ve even got photo evidence.

Back home and after lunch I took a couple of sketch books upstairs and sketched out yesterday’s and then today’s Inktober offerings. The last ones this year. The first one is my take on Ominous. If they insist on giving us vague, vacuous prompts I think it only fit to give them irreverent drawings. Today’s was a bit more serious attempt at a lateral thinking answer to Crawl. I was impressed with the lifework in it. It was drawn straight with a fountain pen I’ve had for years. It’s comfortable to use and it’s drawn so many sketches and doodles, it does them of its own volition now. I liked it, can you tell?

PoD went to the last of the Habanero fruits on the last of the plants. They’ve been over-run with whitefly and greenfly this year and I don’t know how to deal with them. Answers on a postcard please.

That about wraps it up for today. Boris bumbled his way through his lockdown decision for England. If he was half the man he should have been he’d have laid it out plain and simple and told them what his decision was. But he isn’t and he hadn’t and he didn’t. Why? Because he’s Bumbling Boris and he’s out of his depth. Poor man.

Tomorrow we’re hoping for at least some dry hours with just the hint of sun. We may be lucky.

Old Tech meets New Tech – 29 October 2020

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It was obvious from early morning that today was going to be wet.

Another of those days when the rain was heavy and continuous. There was no point in going out, far less travelling a distance. We just contented ourselves with staying at home, but were buoyed by the news that Nick the Chick wasn’t going to put us in Level 4 which is almost a total lockdown. It appeared at first that we’d be allowed the right to roam across all the Level 3 regions, i.e. all of Central Scotland. Now it looks like we will be restricted to travel in North Lanarkshire. That wasn’t in the original bill, but that’s what it is now. She, the witch, is also warning that all of Scotland may go back into lockdown. Isn’t she just a bundle of fun?

The furthest I got today was down to the shops for stuff to make tonight’s Thai Fishcakes. I’d intended walking down, but swiftly changed my mind when I met the wall of water falling from the sky. That’s what we buy a car for, to drive to the shops in, instead of getting soaked. So it was down to the shops, get the essentials (and a bottle of wine) and get home.

The Amazon man had been when I was out for that 15 minute jaunt and he’d brought me another adapter. This one takes old M42 (i.e. ancient) lenses and allows them to work on the Sony A7. The lens in question is a Helios 58mm f2 that used to be on the front of a Zenit EM that may or may not have belonged to JIC. If it was yours JIC, I hope you don’t mind me borrowing it. This adapter cost half the price of the Nikon adapter and feels a lot more solid. I used it to take today’s PoD which is the last of Scamp’s Lady Emma Hamilton’s from the back garden. I was amazed at the quality of this camera / lens combination. Old Tech meets New Tech, indeed.

Thanks for the email JIC. The video on the website was just at my level. No big words, lots of easy to understand graphics and nice colours. I approve. Just a pity you didn’t get a mention.

Message for Hazy. The Big Scottish Book Club, has guests including Neil Gaiman who will be discussing The Graveyard Book. (Sunday 1st November 10pm BBC Scotland. Also available on iPlayer) If you can’t get it, let me know and I’ll try to ‘obtain’ a copy.

Today’s prompt for Inktober was Shoes. I decided to rebel and sketch boots instead, my Merrell Moab boots. Like I said on Flickr:

Ok, they’re boots, not shoes, but arguing about that is just splitting hairs. Merrell Moab boots. Really comfortable and as waterproof as blotting paper. Goretex? Don’t make me laugh Merrell.

Tonight it’s getting a bit windy, as was predicted by the weather fairies. However, the wind is supposed to blow away most of the rain over the night, leaving us a clear, dry day tomorrow. Then more wet stuff arrives on Saturday. Hoping to get out somewhere (in North Lanarkshire only ;o) for a wee run.

Christmas Prezzies … already – 28 October 2020

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Today we were off to collect some Christmas Prezzies that Scamp had ordered.

I usually complain about the condensing of the year. You know the sort of thing. After the schools go back in August the first Xmas cards start appearing. We’ve hardly got Christmas and New Year out of the way and the Easter Eggs are on the shelves. However, Christmas prezzies in October is just good planning, Scamp says. We found the place, just a normal house in an everyday street where the maker lived. That’s the way things are now. Ideas are seen online. Discussions are done and prices agreed on Messenger. Purchases are made online and items are collected from the maker’s home. I suppose it’s better than using Amazon, and at least we are supporting small businesses, which is a good thing.

With that done we drove up to a retail park in Bishopbriggs. Probably as close as you could get to the diametric opposite of the small business we had just left. I attempted some visual retail therapy in Currys, which was a waste of time because there were so few pieces of tech on the shelves. Another loser to the online market place. The problem with that approach is where to you find someone to advise you on a purchase? Where is there a salesperson you can trust to give you sound advice? The other question you should ask yourself is “Would I buy my item from that salesperson, knowing that I can get a better deal by logging on to Amazon?” It’s the old chicken and egg quandary. Scamp got what she wanted. I got what I deserved. Then we went for coffee in Costa and drove home after using up our allocation of 30 mins.

Soup for lunch, then I went out to St Mo’s to get some photos in the two hour window the weather app said I’d get. The sun almost came out and the Larches shone in the unexpected light. They surprise me every year with their bright yellow needles. I also has that strange vision of snowflakes, walking down the avenue of trees with the yellow needles blowing in the wind and looking just like snow. A branch of a larch with its bright needles still attached and a pinecone too made PoD.

Just before dinner while I was working on the PoD and Scamp was reading, someone knocked on the door. It was the Tesco delivery! We’d completely forgotten about it. Rushed to empty the crates and let the driver get on his way. Dinner was one of Scamp’s specialities, Stir-fry. This was a Chicken Stir-fry with all the fancy veg. Quite delicious.

Sketch of the day was Float. I’d decided about a week ago that today’s drawing centre around a fishing float. It looked a bit dull, just a view of a fishing float from below, so I searched for sort of cartoon drawings of fish and adapted one of them to add to the sketch, then added a few rocks and sand on the bottom of the water. That brightened it up. I’m happy with it.

That was about it for the day. These autumn days are so short now. We really should get up and out early to make the most of them. We watched the first episode of Roadkill. We’re both still undecided about it. We’ve another episode recorded and we may watch it tomorrow. Tomorrow however we are booked for a full day of wind and rain, which seems to happen about every second day just now.

A stinker of a day – 27 October 2020

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Not the best, but probably nearly the wettest of days.

It was dry in the morning, but not for long. Every time it teased us with the possibility that it was drying up, it started as soon as it heard the key turn in the lock. By the time we were outside, it was on full again. No respite all day.

Scamp was out with Annette whose turn it was to wait for her car to pass MOT today. I moped around the house deciding, will I, won’t I go out and get wet? Eventually I settled for NO, I won’t. I tried to get today’s sketch out of my head, but that didn’t materialise until much later. I tried reading a book that John had given me but gave up. I’m almost halfway through it, but I just can’t follow, or be bothered to follow, the plots. Too many words and too little going on. Thankfully Hazy agreed with me when she phoned later in the day. Life’s too short to waste it on poorly written books.

Finally gave in and took Blue out to Muirhead to get some carnivore food at the butchers. Hoped I’d see something worth photographing on what’s usually the scenic route home. Today everything was grey and wet and boring, so I didn’t even stop to say hello to the horses in the field. They looked as fed up as I felt. However, at least I’d done something constructive.

The next constructive thing to do was make some soup. Using Scamp’s (and my mum’s) method of a handful of this and a pinch of that, but with slightly more veg that I intended, the soup was simmering away quietly when Scamp arrived home. At least she’d had a decent day and kept Annette company while her car was undergoing its examination. It passed, but it’s a Juke and only about four years old, not like Scamp’s red OAP.

Spoke to Hazy about this and that. Heard her good news. New cars are always good news. Got a recommendation for a new book and warned her off my half finished effort.

In between rain showers I managed to grab today’s PoD which turned out to be two nasturtiums growing in a pot at the back door. They’ve flowered all summer long and are now flowering into autumn. No variation in colour. They’ve all been yellow, but at least they bring a bit of colour to dull days like today.

Finally settled on a sketch for today’s prompt, Music. It’s my old MiniDisk recorder/player. Brilliant machine that’s about 25 years old now and still works a treat. The disks hardly ever jump and the music sounds as clear today as when it was recorded. I’m sure you remember a certain choral concert at the Royal Albert Hall, Hazy!

That was about it for the day. The soup was good, thick, but good. It will probably be better with some water to thin it down. As far as tomorrow goes, hopefully it won’t feel the need for more water. I think it had enough today. We’re hoping to go for a drive tomorrow.

MOT – 26 October 2020

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The red car lives to fight another day!

Out at 8am to take the Red Micro to the garage for MOT. Since we’d driven down to the garage, and had nothing else planned for the rest of the day, we went for a walk, since it was such a clear, dry morning. We walked down and round the stadium, then back home for breakfast. Like Scamp said while we were out, we should do this more often. Lie in bed reading on the cold, wet mornings, but on decent days we should be out and enjoying what little sunshine we get now that the days are shorter. It’s a plan. Whether it turns into action is still to be seen.

After breakfast we did sit around for a while and basically ‘footered’ for what was left of the morning. Just after lunch we got a call from the garage to say that the car had failed MOT because of a broken coil spring on the driver’s side. I’d guessed that might be the case, because I’d noticed during the week that it seemed to be listing a bit to that side, and said as much to JIC yesterday. Not too expensive to fix and they had one in stock, so it would be done today. With that dealt with we went for a walk around St Mo’s with a bit of a spring in our steps. Because the light was good and also because the car would be fixed today, we went round the pond twice! On the way back I grabbed today’s PoD of leaves beside the path to the Adventure Playground. Later in the afternoon we paid our dues and picked up the car. MOT’d, repaired and serviced. Scamp had a smile on her face. We drove home in the dark. First time driving in the dark since about February!!

Sketch topic today was “Hide”. I was tempted to put in a signed blank page to the effect that everyone was hiding, so I couldn’t draw them. Instead I drew a bit of a face peering round an open door. The ‘Hide’ part of Hide ’n’ Seek.

Scamp cut the last of her roses today and they were sitting in a vase on the coffee table. With such good light streaming in the window I couldn’t resist the opportunity. Look on Flickr and you’ll see them.

Tomorrow Scamp is meeting Annette who is coming to Cumbersheugh to get her Juke MOT’d. How is that for synchronicity? I may go for a walk.