Category: landscape

Oh Summer’s gone – 25 October 2020

Posted on by Zogman

Early in the morning, too early for us to know about it, the clocks silently went back an hour. Summer’s gone and winter’s in the meadow.

Because we’d had an extra hour in sleep, we took the lazy approach to the day. So lazy that we did hardly anything. The furthest we went was a walk down to Broadwood Loch after lunch. We continued down to Blackwood and up past the stadium. Dropped in at the shops for essentials, milk, a bag of mixed veg, a packet of sticky buns, a box of Turkish delight (mine) and a bag of chocolate raisins. Essentials, like I said. By the time we were heading home it seemed to be growing dark and it was feeling a bit cold in the strong west wind, even with my big ‘Bergy’ jacket on.  Connolly was right. “Nights are fair drawing in.”

Spent an hour afterwards playing a brilliant new time waster I’ve found, called Numbers Game. Deceptively simple concept but totally engrossing. Lost a couple of hours already to it. After dragging myself away I worked on PoD which is a view across Broadwood Loch. This isn’t the photo that came out of the camera, it’s the view from my mind’s eye. I know it’s a bit fake, but I like the lighting.

Topic for sketching today was “Buddy”. I’d roughed out a face on portrait of Buddy Holly that looked ok. Today I inked it in and it looked, not quite as good as the rough pencil sketch, but Scamp said it was a decent likeness and that’s good enough for me.

Watched a boring first competitive episode of Strictly. Well, actually I watched half an episode before giving up and posting the photos for today. It really was that riveting.

Spoke to JIC and heard about chlorine in a hot tub and rodent saboteurs. Not both together. The mice weren’t in the hot tub, just in case you were wondering.

Tomorrow Scamp’s car goes for MOT, so it’s an early rise to drive down and either walk back (if it’s dry) or drive back in the more likely event that it’s raining. Then we have to wait for the phone call.

One of those mixed days – 23 October 2020

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A day that could have been lovely and one that could have been rained off. We took the chance.

Before anything else today I drew yesterday’s sketch which is now on yesterday’s post and I was happy with it. The theme was Chef, so the chef’s hat and knife are part and parcel of his or her trade.

If you just sit there and say “It might clear up”, it never will. We’ve learned that. Take the chance and seize the day. Scamp suggested we should go to Drumpellier and she was driving. It was the right thing to do. We had a walk round the loch. I think it’s big enough to call a loch, not a pond. Lots of people walking round the loch in ones and twos and even in groups of four, but we didn’t stop them to interview them on how many households were involved and was this their region. We leave that to the FM, should she dare to do such a thing. We must have been striding out at a fair pace, because we covered the distance in no time. We did stop a few times to watch the duck, geese and swans, oh yes and I took some photos too! Quite a few. There was nowhere to have a coffee or something to eat, because it’s Coatbridge and they don’t do hospitality. Everywhere was boarded up and barricaded. It’s a virus, not the return of the Visigoths! There was an ice cream van, but with a temperature hovering around 7ºc we passed on that option and Scamp drove us home.

Back home, after inspecting today’s photos and having lunch, I walked down to the shops to get some peas for tonight’s dinner via St Mo’s. Got another couple of decent shots there. Light was that lovely golden hour just before the sun truly sets. One of them almost made PoD, but it was beaten by a gull sitting on a sculpture of a whale’s tail, taken at Drumpellier.

After dinner we did a short ballroom practise ahead of tomorrows Zoom dance. We’re not absolutely certain sure that it’s going ahead, but it’s best to do a bit of practise just in case. We were both a bit rusty on the exact moves that were joined together to make the Waltz, but Scamp was on the button with the ‘ring a ring a roses’ dance she calls Sequence. We finished up with a fair chance of not making complete idiots of ourselves tomorrow, if the dance goes live.

Today’s sketch topic was Rip. I drew a pair of ripped jeans. Everyone has a pair, I think. They are usually the most comfortable pair you’ve ever worn and it’s not that you’re mean and don’t want to spend the money on a new pair. It’s just that it took you so long to get them as comfortable as this. They have character.
Fashionable ripped jeans are a totally different thing. Not worth talking about.

Tomorrow looks like rain. We may stay in at least in the morning.

Wet Ones – 21 October 2020

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That used to be the name of hand wipes. Now it seems an apt description of the days this week.

The sun was splitting the trees this morning and we took a chance on it staying with us when we drove over to Mugdock Park. It was a bad choice. At least, for the choice of weather it was a bad one. It rained on and off all the way there, but we’d come prepared with raincoats and boots. We needed them. It was just liquid air we were walking through for a while. Down past the old ruined ‘Big House’, then down the hill to the tree lined walk. Crossed the boardwalk over the bog to Mugdock Castle on the banks of Mugdock Loch. We were in and out of the trees all the way, but I did get a few shots through the trees and of the trees themselves. It was a bit dreich, but the colours were beautiful and the company was good. We continued round the loch in the hopes of getting a cup of coffee in one of the wee cafés, but one only had outdoor seating with no available umbrellas. One only had uncomfortable bar stools available and by that time the notion had left us. We changed our footwear and went home. Annoyingly, the closer we got to Cumbersheugh, the better the weather became and when we arrived home, blue sky was showing through the clouds.

After lunch Scamp drove to Halfords to get a rear wiper fitted. I told her I could do it. The biggest problem was taking the old one off and I’d done that at the weekend. Not without a fair bit of wrestling. With the wiper in place we tackled the scrubbing down of Scamp’s car. It needed it. One of our neighbours who was watching the action said “Oh, so it’s a Red car then!” That is its first wash this week. It’s going to need at least one more, probably in a carwash before it goes for MOT next week.

Dinner tonight was Chicken Tikka Masala and I was chef. It was a slightly less than successful curry. I don’t think I’ll be using that recipe again.

Today’s prompt was “Sleep”. Another vague request. Thinking along the lines of “Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?”, I asked the question:
“Do insomniac sheep dream of counting humans?”
Answers on a postcard please.

PoD was a grab shot walking through the avenue of trees at Mugdock. I don’t know who the bloke was wearing the red jacket, but thank you sir for providing my focal point. ARPS = A Red Point Somewhere!

Tomorrow we’re booked for breakfast at Calders with Isobel. Let’s hope the rest of the day is not another Wet One!

Just walkin’ in the rain – 20 October 2020

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Locked to the house again this sometimes sunny morning until yet another parcel arrived from Amazon.

After the wait and after lunch and after the sun had disappeared again we decided to go for a walk just to be out of the house. Of course it rained as soon as we closed the door, but we’d agreed we would just get wet. Drove to Auchinstarry and parked at the park. After we crossed the road the rain came down even heavier. Even so, walking through an archway of autumn coloured trees was very nice. I’d been dying to try out the new 18mm lens and this would have been a good place for it, but I’d the long lens on the camera and wasn’t going to change lenses in heavy rain. Got a few moody shots of wet weeds and a nice one of a thorny bramble stem, you can see it on Flickr.

I was keeping a weather eye on the time as I had an appointment at the makeshift clinic in the town hall at 4.30 for my flu jag. I thought we might manage to get along the old railway to Twechar and back along the canal towpath by about 4pm, but it didn’t happen. The pathway was blocked by by a fence and a council notice said no through road. Apparently they were rebuilding the pathways. Luckily we had the opportunity to cross over the plantation and back via the canal. That’s where I did manage to change lenses with only a single drip on the rear element of the new lens. It was quickly blotted off and we were in business. Took a few shots of the trees across the canal in their autumn garb and one of those became PoD. Then the rain came down again. I must go back soon on a dry day to get some quality shots of that avenue of trees.

Back home and just enough time to dump the photos before I went out to get my flu jag. Five booths operating and no waiting. In and out in a flash. Scamp made a veg stirfry for dinner and it was lovely.

Watched Bakeoff and sketched today’s prompt which was Coral. We’ve a few wee pieces of coral we picked up possibly in Tobago and possibly in Corralejo in Fuerteventura. Their source is immaterial, they were coral and that was good enough for me.

We’re hoping for a slightly drier day tomorrow and maybe the chance for a walk again.

Another up and out day – 16 October 2020

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Or maybe more of an ‘out and up’ day.

A more gentle start though. Spoke to Hazy who seemed impressed with yesterday’s Blog warning. First warning she’s had that there’s something she might not want to see. It’s usually JIC that gets the ‘Technospeak’ fake HTML meta text. We both enjoyed the wee chat this morning Hazy.

Today Scamp suggested we tackle Croy Hill. Not a great ascent, nor a very long one, but steep enough in places to challenge us ‘auld yins’. Stopped quite a few times to admire the view and the way the light was changing as it swept across the land. Good to see the colours in the trees turning golden brown and the low autumn light picking out the textures. While we were up at the site of the Roman fort, we could see the heavy grey clouds sliding in from the east and decided it would be a good move to make our way back down to the car. We still took our time, enjoying the scenery as we walk down.

By the time we got back to the car the clouds had indeed rolled in and banished the blue sky. As an introduction to walking in the hills (not hillwalking) it was fine. Not too demanding and the ascent and descent took about an hour and a half. It gave us the incentive to try another hill soon. It looks like we may try the new path up Bar Hill, which has a more complete looking ground plan of a Roman fort. I climbed it many years ago from the other, steeper side. The path from the Croy side looks a bit easier, but we’ll see.

Not much else of interest today. I raked the leaves from the back garden (these trees are SO untidy). Scamp made the dinner which was a Cauliflower and Potato Gratin. All her own design and it worked really well. Another to add to the recipe list.

PoD was a view from near the top of Croy Hill looking over to Bar Hill, probably our next target. It’s the only Bar in Central Scotland that’s open this month!

Today’s prompt was ‘Rocket’.  I could have drawn a spotty wee ned in a baseball cap shouting “Ha! Ya rocket!!”, but that would have required too much translation for anyone outside the Central Belt of Scotland.  For those outside that region, it means “Oh you stupid boy”.  There is a female form of ‘rocket’, but it would … require a Parental Advisory label. For those reasons, I chose to draw a cartoon rocket instead in the style of Hergé.  It’s so much easier to draw nouns than verbs or adjectives or transferred epithets (no, I don’t know what they are either). So my answer is a simple drawing for a simple request.

Tomorrow we might just be able to go for a walk again if our legs haven’t seized up with today’s ascent!

Up and out – 15 October 2020

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Today was a bit busy in places, so we had to take advantage of a couple of hours free time.

<Hazy-Warning>
Out just after 10am and pointed Blue to Fife. Oh dear, I think that may be outside “Our Area”, but there were no roadblocks. Not checking of licences plates. No NPR cameras flashing at us as we passed. All was well and arrived in Culross to a fairly calm Firth with the tide well out. We walked along the side of the old disused railway as far as Preston Island which isn’t an island any more since the Coal Board dumped the ash from Longannet power station there and reclaimed a fair acreage of land. Unfortunately Longannet is now in the stage of being decommissioned, so there will be no more landfilling at Preston Island. It’s lagoons will remain landlocked. It was a beautiful morning and we both thoroughly enjoyed the walk. By the time we got back to Culross the tide was almost fully in and that’s where I got today’s PoD. A view across the firth to Bo’ness. We passed a couple of folk busking beside the path on the way to the car. Woman playing fiddle and man playing guitar and singing. Older than the usual buskers, just a bit younger than us in fact. We had no money and they didn’t have a card machine, so we thanked them for the music and told them we’d enjoyed it. Maybe next time we’re out we’ll take some ready cash.
</Hazy-Warning>

I was expecting a delivery from DPD who always give you a one hour time slot for deliveries. I was buying a spare battery and charger for the Sony camera. It arrived dead on time as Scamp was raking the leaves from the front grass an giving it a good scratch too, to clear the moss. After that I went out for a walk with the Oly, just in case it felt a bit lonely sitting in the bag and not getting out to play. Got a few shots, but nothing to match the morning ones. While I was out, Scamp was off getting her flu jag. When I got back from the walk she was back home and none the worse for her ordeal. With the sun still shining I gave the car its first shampoo. It wasn’t as dirty as I thought, but it doesn’t do to let the bird crap sit on the paintwork. It’s quite acid and can cut through the gloss coat on the paint.

Job done, I started to make dinner and right in the middle of that, the Tesco order arrived. I told you it was a day that was busy in places. Now you know what I mean.

Today’s sketch was Outpost, which I presume is intended to be linked to the film of the same name. I don’t do films, so had to rely on Wikipedia for the information. I ignored it anyway and drew a sketch based on the folly on Kinnoull Hill just outside Perth.

Tomorrow we may go out for a walk if the weather is being sensible.

More bad news – 7 October 2020

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Nic the Chick gives us more grief.

Scamp was out for coffee this morning, she only had a few minutes to speak to Hazy, before she gave me a wave and was off. That left Hazy and me plenty of time to discuss books and life in general. Thanks for the website recommendations and and for jogging my memory about a missing book from my Becky Chambers collection. It’s now on my Kindle. Laughed out loud at the cat picture you posted on FB! Fair enjoyed our wee hour long chat.

After that, it was back to gathering together the stuff to go to the tip, after I’d tried and failed to kick my Iomega Zip drive back into life. My pal reckons it may be a dodgy power supply. Put back all the stuff I’d taken out of the cupboard in the room apart from the big heavy pile that was loitering in one of those enormous Ikea bags. That was going into the “Small Electrical” skip. The other smaller Tesco bag held the “Household Recycling” junk.

Had lunch when Scamp returned and then hauled the two bags off to the council skips. Drove up to Fannyside and parked in my usual place. Listened to Nic the Chick’s proposals to make our lives even more dull and uninteresting. Yes, I know she has our safety at heart, but this is not what you want to hear heading towards November. Pubs closed (doesn’t affect me). Restaurants closed (that does!). Recommended not to travel (won’t affect me). Went for a walk along the road and back again getting some fresh air and some lovely (for me) photos of the moody moor to match my mood. Drove over to Val’s and handed him a camera he has been wanting. Nice to feel you’re doing some good. I don’t use it and he will. That makes sense to me.

Came back home and then walked to the shops to get the makings of tonight’s dinner which was Bacon & Borlotti Beans, recipe courtesy of JIC and Sim. Scamp was chef tonight and she admits it wasn’t as good as the original, but it was close enough to be worth making again. Thank you pair for the recipe.

Today’s PoD was one of those moody moor shots, because I liked the sky. Today’s Inktober prompt was “Fancy” which I turned into “French Fancy”. I’m getting to like sketching on the Craft paper. It’s like using cheap pastel paper.

No plans for tomorrow. Scamp suggested we go to a pub before they all disappear for good. That’s perilously close to the truth.

Old Friends – 6 October 2020

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I’d barely started to clean up my room this morning when Scamp noticed that she had a missed call

Crawford & Nancy had phoned to suggest a meet up today on Clydeside. Beautiful day, far too good to be clearing out cupboards, so we phoned back and said “yes” then were off to Rosebank. We were there first, so we booked a table, collected a buzzer and messaged the other two that we were had arrived and a table was booked. We went for a browse round the tat that always seems to be on offer in these places. Inevitably nothing caught our eye and we soon recognised the other masked pair arriving. Stood talking and getting in everybody’s way for a quarter of an hour or so before our buzzer buzzed and we were shown to our table. Food was good, better than the standard garden centre fare. Scamp had Mac ’n’ Cheese and I had Scampi. Everyone had chips with their meals. For what must be the first time, I had a really decent Americano in a garden centre. Usually it’s a teaspoon of coffee in the portafilter and half a gallon of water. This was real coffee. As good as my coffee, well almost. After the meal we sat and talked for another couple of hours. Eventually we were all talked out and said our goodbyes. I’m really glad Scamp noticed she’d that missed call.

We stopped at Mauldsley on the way home so I could grab some shots of the bridge and the gatehouse, aways a favourite of mine. Unfortunately because of the recent flooding there were a lot of industrial protective barriers up and there was no chance of the shot I wanted from the edge of the river looking up at the bridge and the house, so I had to be content with a shot from just over the bridge looking back at the house. I was shooting into the light which wasn’t ideal, but managed use the foliage of the trees to shield the lens from the worst of the bright sunlight. I spoke to a couple of blokes packing up after fishing. Apparently today was the last day of the trout fishing season and the river wasn’t really ideal with heavy and dirty water, still running off a spate. Drove home and it looked as if we just missed a heavy shower when we were just past Hamilton services, so maybe that fifteen minutes or so at Mauldslie had been a good choice.

Back home the photos looked good enough. Started working out how to interpret today’s prompt of “Rodent”. The rodent I was thinking about was a mouse, or to be more accurate, a bluetooth mouse. After about an hour of work I gave up on it and copied a Mickey Mouse from a piece of cloth I had in my room. That eventually morphed into what you see here. It’s not perfect, but it fits the prompt and that’s all that matters.

That was a really good day. A few hours spent with old friends just shooting the breeze and catching up. Plus, Scampi ’n’ Chips & Mac ’n’ Chips. What’s not to like.

Scamp is booked tomorrow for coffee with Annette. I think I will be continuing the clean up / clear out of the painting room, all being well. We’ll be listening intently to Nick the Chick’s latest proposals for a Circuit Breaker to halt Covid and hoping it has no unwanted implications for travel.

The dream is gone – 5 October 2020

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If something looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Today I took back the Sony A7. It was so nearly perfect, except I have the feeling it might have been bashed about by a few people before it met me. Scratches on the baseplate. A deep scratch on the border of the back screen. I could have lived with those. There was nothing there that my own collection doesn’t have in some fashion, but it also had lots and lots, I mean LOTS of baked-in spots on the sensor that I couldn’t shift with sensor swabs and sensor cleaning liquid, that was the final straw. I couldn’t live with that. It’s only a bargain if it’s worth more than you paid for it. This one wasn’t. So with a heavy heart I took it back to JL today and got my money back. However, before I took it back I did find out what that APS-C switch did. It worked. It automatically cropped off the bits the lens couldn’t cover. Nice work Sony.

After driving back home on a beautiful day and having lunch, I did my Sudoku and eventually dragged myself off to St Mo’s to take some pictures with my ‘old’ cameras. The ones with the clean(ish) sensors and fewer scratches. There wasn’t much worth photographing today, because the clouds had rolled in and the light was decidedly dull. I watched Mr Grey stalking something deep in the reed beds, but he was too far away even for the zoom of the TZ90. I did grab a few shots using the post focus trick, but again, the light wasn’t directional enough to make anything worthwhile of them, but it’s still a clever trick.

Spent a profitable half an hour after dinner sketching tonight’s Inktober topic which was ‘Blade’. Mine is a fairly direct interpretation of the prompt, but the clever ones were Blade(runner) and Blade, the Wesley Snipes character. They probably took hours to get just right. Mine was the rough for a more detailed piece, but as it was progressing it got better and better and I just liked it. So did Scamp. She gave me the greatest praise by saying she was wondering who had drawn it!

PoD was a mediocre St Mo’s landscape. I should have taken some time out this morning in Glasgow and gone for a walk, but my heart just wasn’t in it.

I hope some of you recognised the title of this blog which is the second last line from “Comfortably Numb” by Gilmour & Waters. Possibly the best Pink Floyd track ever.

No plans for tomorrow.

Another beautiful day – 29 September 2020

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A day to go walking in the sunshine

But first there was the little matter of a bookcase to help tidy up my sketch books. We drove up to B&M and bagged the last grey bookcase on the rack for the princely sum of £18. I could have paid an extra £2 to get a veneered one, but the grey one was cheaper and nobody cares what it looks like, as long as it holds the books … more of which later.

Dropped off the bookcase and gathered a camera then off we went to Rouken Glen in the posh end of Glasgow. I can never remember which turnoff from the M77 takes us there and as a result I always come off too early and then have to navigate through the streets to find it again. This time the sat nav took me and I did what it told me and it worked. The last time we were there was in mid-March, just before things got crazy. Then the car park was empty. Today we were fighting for a space. We walked the park, from the north end all the way to the south gate and then down and round the boating pond.
What was it with boating on ponds in Glasgow in the past? Some stretches of water were for rowing boats like Rouken Glen and Hogganfield Loch and some were for model boats like Alexandra Park. Was it something to do with all the ship building going on along the banks of the Clyde?
Workies were cutting and trimming trees beside part of the pond so we had to take a diversion that brought us to the waterfall with its collection of padlocks locked onto the railings of the bridge carrying the path over the burn. We walked over and then out onto the rough area where the paths are just that, paths that have been trodden by hundreds, if not thousands of feet over the years. We followed our noses and finally came back to marked paths that took us back to the car park. A decent 7,000 odd steps to add to our total for the day. The tea shop in the Boathouse looked a bit busy and the service in the garden centre was hit and a miss last time, so we just came home and had a home lunch.

Spent the rest of the afternoon assembling the bookcase and filling it with sketchbooks. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite big enough to accommodate the A4 sketchbooks I’ve been using lately, so I may adapt it a bit to fit them or I may leave it as it is and store them on their long edges with the spines at the top. They are taking up the same amount of room as they would if they were stored like normal books. Too hard to explain in words. I’ll maybe take a photo tomorrow and save the thousand words for my stories.

Scamp made pancakes for dessert tonight with syrup and ice cream. Maple syrup for me! Delicious!!

Tomorrow looks wet. We may go out walking in the rain or we may go for lunch.