Category: landscape

Drive to the end of the road and turn left – 6 April 2017

Posted on by Zogman

As usual, on the first day of our stay on Skye, we drove round the top end of the island.  Up to Uig and then round to Portree.

Stopped off at Duntulm to take what is an iconic photo of the telephone box there.  After that, I walked out to the ruin of Duntulm Castle.  It’s a ruin and there’s a warning at the padlocked gate to say “We advise you not to come any closer”.  It’s a bit like the warning on iPlayer that asks you “Do you have a TV licence?”  Easy to lie, easy to ignore.  Just do it.  I’d walked for 15-20 minutes in a bitterly cold wind to reach this ridiculous sign, so I just turned around and went back to the car.  AYE RIGHT!  It’s an interesting place, really remote on this finger of land that sticks out into the Minch.  Although the castle is a ruin now, the solid walls really protect you from the worst of the wind that blows in from the sea.  Took a few photos and then went back to the warmth of the car.

We drove in to Uig, but there was nothing interesting to see, so we headed on to Portree.  Lunch was in Jan’s Vans which is, for want of a better description, a gigantic hardware store.  Scamp browsed the ‘toys off the rack’ and eventually settled on a plant for the garden, but I’m pretty sure she has a list of things that we’ll be bringing back with us.

We tried to park in Portree itself, but all the carparks were full, so we drove back to Staffin and sat and watched the waves for a while.  After that I drove Scamp back to the house and I went to take some more photos.  Initially up to the wee lochan up at Floddigarry and then back down the slip again.  Saw the wee Captain model firmly glued to a boathouse there.  Went for a walk along the rocks and when I got back it was time for dinner, and a wee dram.  A fine way to end a fine day.

Tomorrow?  Probably more of the same!

Happy Birthday Scamp – 24 March 2017

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Today is Scamp’s birthday.  She had chosen to go to see the live sized portrait of Graham Norton by Gareth Reid in Cass Art and then go for lunch at Vecchia Bologna, so we set off on the round trip after parcels and cards had been opened.  Also after we had a Skype call with Hazy.

As well as visiting the portrait artist’s exhibition, Scamp did a bit of shopping and we had a coffee before returning along the M80 to Bridge of Allan to Vecchia.  Unfortunately, when we arrived the usual waiter came to meet us and tell us that the kitchen had closed early and they were not taking any more diners.  Oh well, there was nothing for it but to head back along the M80 again because Scamp had chosen Milano as her second choice of lunch venue.  Almost as good as Vecchia, but not quite.

When we got home, I helped her out of her massive crepe bandage and got her settled and headed off to St Mo’s while she was on the phone to Jackie.  Got a few macro shots of larch flowers, looking like miniature pineapples.  Also took a four shot vertorama ( vertical panorama ) which I later merged together in Autopano.

Tonight being Red Nose Day, we chose a film from Netflix, only to find that the internet connection was flaky and we had to give up on it.  Ended up watching Steve Jobs from DVD instead.

Overall, not a bad day.  Not as good as it could be, but sometimes life is like that.

Deepan’ Crispan’ Deevan’ – 21 March 2017

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It’s snow, of course and that’s what we woke to today.  Not that deep and not that crisp as the temperature was three above zero and very uneven.  In fact it was just a scraping of show, but then, as I was making the breakfast, the snow returned, blown along by Windy Willie’s wild westerly wind.  Now, that’s what you call alliteration!

Once we realised that we wouldn’t be snowed in any time soon, we decided to go to Falkirk to retrieve a ring, a substitute wedding ring, that Scamp had handed in last week for repair.  Not long after I retired we went to Ayr and Scamp tripped and damaged her hand.  I thought her finger was broken, but it was just badly staved.  So badly staved that the wedding ring had to be cut off because it was restricting the blood supply to her finger.  That was almost three years ago.  It took a long time to get the ring repaired, but today we picked it up from the jeweller looking as good as new.  Driving home was a challenge with torrential rain, hail and sleet driving straight towards us.

When we got home and had lunch, the wet stuff had stopped and the sun had come out again, so it was boots on and out to St Mo’s.  I took the Big Dog with the macro lens and the E-PL5 with a 20mm lens.  A nice combo.  Just waked into the woods and saw two deer grazing down the path.  They were crosswind to me, so didn’t sniff my deodorant I crept down the path walking on the grass, not on the broken twigs, so they didn’t hear me either.  It would have been better to have brought the 300mm Tamron, but the macro gives such good quality results that I wasn’t all that worried.  The landscape is from the 20mm lens, another good quality lens.

Got home and did a bit of messing around painting the hills with snow on them.  Four miniatures in different colour schemes and another four ready for finishing tomorrow.

Tomorrow?  Not got a clue.  According to the weatherman, the snow will be gone and the weather is set fine.  As usual, we’ll see.

Deer, Deer, Deer – 15 March 2017

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Drove Scamp in to Falkirk this morning. Went to the bookshop, but didn’t see anything of note. Had lunch in Tea Jenny’s. Does everyone have to have a tattoo and/or piercings before they can work in this place? I’ve yet to see anyone male or female in this otherwise old-fashioned tea shop who doesn’t have inking or stapling of some sort in a prominent place. I began to feel quite inadequate and not properly dressed as I looked around.

Back home, the weather wasn’t too inviting looking, but I needed something for the 365, so I drove down to Auchinstarry and walked along the railway. I spotted a group of about five deer quite far away on a little rise and tried to get some shots of them, but I couldn’t get close enough and there was too little cover to hide my approach. I was so intent on the deer I didn’t notice a cock pheasant right in front of me and only grabbed one shot as it glided away into the bushes. At that, I gave up and headed home.

I’d spent half the afternoon tracking that group of deer and still hadn’t got a decent shot of them. Then, walking home three deer appeared from the undergrowth and proceeded to walk along in front of me! I got four or five shots before they decided I just might be a threat and ran off.

Salsa tonight was a bit of a let down. Jamie G should have had a beginners class and we were half intending to help out. Only three people, not couples, people turned up. I felt really sorry for him. I felt even sorrier for myself when I had to help out with an improvers class. Not a lot of fun. Our own class was good. Doing Malecon which is an old move we learned two or three years ago.

Scamp’s singing with Gems tomorrow afternoon, so I may slip the leash for a wee while!

Heady Heights – 6 March 2017

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Today, while Scamp was enjoying the prodding, lazeringand manipulation that is physiotherapy, I was putting the finishing touches to a painting.  With that done, I started into the dishes that were left over from last night’s dinner.  I imagine all painters have this dichotomy in their lives.  After that, I faked yesterday’s blog – sorry.  Sometimes even pensioners don’t have enough time to complete their commitments.

After lunch and while Gems were congregating, I headed off to scale the heights of Cumbersheugh Town Centre, to seek out the mysteries of the Library.  I couldn’t tell you the last time I darkened its doors, but today I rolled away the stone blocking access and entered this eyrie on top of Cumbrsheugh’s monstrous TC.  It was much airier than I remember it and much friendlier.  I was looking for a book by Ann Blockley and, there it was on the shelf!  I’d thought of buying it, but decided that it would be much more sensible to rent it from the library instead.  Then it was back to the deadends and blocked passages of the TC.  I was just thinking that it would be an excellent place to film a zombie apocalypse horror.  You wouldn’t even need to employ any actors as the zombies who inhabit this building would be perfect for the roles.

With the book firmly in my hot little hand, I got back to the car safely without any problems from the zombies.  I thought I might get some big sky shots up near Fannyside Loch – a name that seems to create gales of laughter from anyone you talk to.  It was indeed a good sky and one of my shots of it are above.  The air must be really clean on this open moorland, because there are many patches of clean, fresh looking moss and lichen, both indicators of air quality and they make up the other shots from today.

We made great time getting in to Glasgow for Salsa classes tonight, with CITRAC reporting 19mins to the airport.  Typically on a Wednesday, it’s 29 or even 39minutes for the same journey.  Tonight the moves to torture us were El Nino and Cubaanse (a lengthy 11 bar monster).  Still good fun.

Perth tomorrow, hopefully – tea and coffee capital of Scotland.

Dorothy – 25 February 2017

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Today we drove down to see Dorothy.  She was looking well, although her leg seemed to be giving her bother and her hand looked as if she was suffering a bit from rheumatics.  Still, she was sharp as a tack and quick to tell Colin off if he strayed too far in his stories.  A pleasant wee hour although I felt bad that we hadn’t been to see her for a long while, but there was nothing we could do about it, either Colin was busy or we were.  A case of life getting in the way again.

Stopped at Waitrose on the way home to buy a chicken and ended up with two bags full of other stuff as well as the chicken.  We were shocked that Waitrose, in addition to allowing Neds into their stores are now stooping to this gutter humour to advertise their mugs.  What is the retail sector coming to.  (No, it wasn’t me who did it, I just photographed it.)

When we got home, the daylight was still there, so I grabbed the chance of an hour in St Mo’s.  Startled a couple of deer, but chose not to pursue them because they were on the motorway side of the fence and I didn’t want to be the reason for them running across the carriageway and causing an accident.  Other than the deer and the ever present buzzards, there wasn’t much of interest.  The overnight rain had increased the water level in the pond and part of the boardwalk was under water, so that, at least, made an interesting shot with the 9mm lens.

A curry from Bombay Dreams provided dinner because neither of us could be bothered cooking and today’s sketch was a disappointing pencil drawing of my mouse.  I like the curves and lines of the mouse and felt the pencil rendered it well, but it’s a bit of a stopgap really.  Not the most interesting drawing I’ve done in the month.  Only three more sketches to go in the 28 Drawings Later challenge.  Like the Inktober challenge, I’ll miss it when it’s finished.

Tomorrow looks wet.  At least we had some sun and blue skies today.

“Excuse me …” – 20 January 2017

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Earlier today:
I’m sitting alone watching and listening to the films of the people’s stories in the Disappearing Glasgow exhibition in the Lighthouse. I’ve just had to shut up a couple of wahoos who were pontificating loudly about the photography round the walls.  I just got madder and madder with them and eventually turned round and called across the room “Excuse me. Do you mind if I listen to this?” That did the trick.  My seven days beard growth and my old battered and torn Bergy jacket probably helped.  They shut up then left … quietly.  They were english, so they didn’t know how to behave.

Later today:
When I eventually rose to leave, about twenty minutes later, there were six other people sitting around me.  I hadn’t noticed them arriving.  They hadn’t said a word throughout the films.  They were Scottish.  Brought up properly.
Definitely an exhibition worth seeing and hearing if you get the chance.

Glasgow was dull today with one of those milky white skies that simply drag you further down.  A January Sky.  No directional light, so no shadows.  I couldn’t see anything I wanted to photograph, so I got the train back home.

Stepped off the train at Croy and realised that it was only just coming up to 2pm.  It seemed a shame to just drive home and stare at a glowing screen for an hour or two, so I decided to travel east in the hope of finding some brighter skies in Stirling and also hoping that Tiso would still be in business there and would have a pair of the excellent Bergy gloves in a small size to fit Scamp, and that is what I did.

I didn’t get the brighter skies, but I did get a couple of photos.  One of the Wallace Monument through the mist and another of a closed down pub.  I also got the gloves.  I considered stopping for a coffee, but then decided I’d rather be on my way home before rush hour, because rush hour on the M9/M80 is a nightmare of drivers changing lanes, changing back, cutting in, cutting out. Just a situation to be avoided, and that is what I did.

I don’t know what we’re doing tomorrow.  The weather fairies say it will be fine with sunshine.

AirTable v Bento – 16 January 2017

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Another aimless day mostly spent under grey skies with the occasional shower of rain falling to give a bit of variety.

I spent most of the morning working with and learning to use AirTable, a multi-platform database that Hazy alerted me to.  Up until recently I’d used Bento,  the delightfully simple database for IOS and OSX.  I don’t use it much on the Mac, but it’s always there on my phone, especially the books database.  If I’m browsing in Waterstones and see a new book I like the look of, I type its name into my Bento Books Database, along with the author.  Then, when I have the time, I look it up on Amazon to see a price I’m willing to pay.  More recently, I have started looking in my local library e-book list to see if there is anything there.  Unfortunately, NLC library don’t have a great deal of e-books in THEIR database yet, but it’s always worth a look.  Once I’ve borrowed or bought a book, I tick it off as ‘Checked Out’ then later when I’ve read it or junked it I mark it either ‘Keep’ or ‘Drop’.  All done on Bento.  Unfortunately, Bento was itself ‘Dropped’ by Filemaker for reasons best known to themselves in 2013 (ish) and users were encouraged to replace it with Filemaker Go which is free, but really requires Filemaker Pro which costs around £170.  A hefty price to pay for a book database.  Enter AirTable which seems to fit the bill of price (free for non-commercial) and power.  I had a bit of a problem getting my Bento database into it, but with some HazyHelp, it worked a treat.  The main problem was that Bento on the phone wouldn’t sync with Bento on the Mac.  I gave up looking for a solution and in the end, just typed in the details I was missing.  Not comes the big test, when I take it out in the wild tomorrow to see if it cuts the mustard!

Went for a walk down the Luggie Water in the later afternoon, while Gems were invading the house, but saw very little apart from the ‘Ripples’ shot.  Drove up to Hulks Road, a wild bit of country road on the outskirts of Cumbersheugh, and got some lovely light on the landscape after such a dull day.  That’s where the rest of the shots came from.

Salsa tonight was a disaster.  I couldn’t remember the move we did last week, despite having watched our record of it before we went out.  Worse still, we did Chi-wa-wa (sic) which I know and like, and I couldn’t get that either.  I must have been one of the few leaders who actually knew the move, but was the only one who couldn’t get it right.  Embarrassing?  Just a little.  Lots of folk there tonight who hadn’t been to class for ages.  Good to see.  Scamp and I went for a coffee and a soft drink with Catherine and Linda after class to catch up with everybody’s news.

Tomorrow we may go to Perth for coffee and the run.  Weather looks as if it will cooperate.

Geese – 15 January 2017

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Half past one in the afternoon and I’m standing in the middle of an old coup that was previously a spoil tip for a coal mine. Now it’s just wilderness and I’m watching and listening to skein after skein of geese flying overhead heading north. What do they know that we don’t?

That was written much earlier in the day.  I’d cycled to the tip and by the time I was heading for home, an hour and a half later, the skeins were flying west, south and occasionally north, but not east.  By that time the light was failing and I imagine that these birds had been flying since first light some eight hours earlier and are now looking for somewhere to roost for the night.  There are quite a few fields around Cumbersheugh where geese feed and then roost.  That would explain the apparently contradictory flight paths.  It was great listening to the skeins as they ‘talked’ to each other.  Some will say that’s not true, that they don’t communicate, but if you listen, it does sound like they are sharing information with each other.

While I was walking around the tip, I got a few shots of folk on top of the Kirkie Volcano.  It’s really a pit bing (spoil heap), but from this angle it looks just like a volcano.  One day I’m going to walk up it and take some photos from the top.  East Dunbarton Council should really make it into a visitor attraction with a wee coffee shop at the top.  It would make a fortune.  I may suggest it to them.

It was a lovely day today with a few showers of rain, but the temperature was decent, very decent for the time of year with highs of just over 10ºc.  Not quite shorts and tee shirts weather, but not far off it.  I did wander around in my shorts for a while, but it was too cool to cycle in them.  I saw the moss fruiting bodies (Green Blobs) when I was putting my cycling ‘longs’ (the opposite of shorts) back on and was quite impressed with the colour the camera caught.

Tomorrow is back to Gems in the afternoon, so I need somewhere to go.  Not sure where yet.  😉

Bow Tie – 14 January 2017

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Firstly, you will have noticed that there is no photo of the bow tie.  That’s because it’s not quite finished yet.  It’s a prototype, made from a pillowslip, not something you’d expect to wear to a posh do, but essential as a practise piece.  I learned a lot from making it and I made it exactly as if it was made from the finest silk.  I stuck closely to the instructions and followed every step.  I made mistakes along the way, but hopefully I have learned from them.  Tomorrow I hope to iron (yes, along the way I’ve also learned how to iron) the prototype and finish off the sewing.  I might even try to tie it.  Every day’s a school day.

After the sewing session, we drove to Vecchia Bologna for lunch.  The place was mobbed, Scamp said it was the end of an Itison voucher offer.  We had to wait a little longer than usual for the food, but when it came, it was as good as ever.  Neither of us wanted or particularly needed anything in Stirling, so we just drove home and I went out for a walk through the ice and snow to St Mo’s.  Managed to surprise two deer, but the quality was so poor, they didn’t get published.  I did, however like the shots from the Oly 5 with the 9mm lens and that’s what you see above.

Tonight, I made some scones and have bread proving as I write this hoping to get it baked later.  Baking scones, baking bread, sewing and ironing.  Don’t tell me I’m not in touch with my feminine side!

As a bit of serendipity, you should read what I wrote last year on the 14th of January.  There should be a link to ‘A Year Ago Today’ at the bottom of the right hand column.  Navigate to the 14th from there.  Amazing synchronicity!