Category: landscape

First sketch of 2017 – 3 January 2017

Posted on by Zogman

Ordered a sewing machine last week to progress my dressmaking skills. Ordered it from John Lewis in Emba because the Glasgow shop didn’t have it.  I thought it could be delivered to the Glasgow store and I could pick it up from there.  No, they couldn’t do that because the machine was in the Embra shop, not in a warehouse (?)  Maybe that’s a logical reason to JL, but it made no sense to me.  Anyway I wasn’t in a rush to get it and there was no way I was going to drive through Embra to pick it up.  I was told it would be delivered within five working days.  I phoned the Embra shop this morning to find out which day it would be delivered.  Here is a synopsis of the conversation after I’d explained that I wanted to know which day it would arrive:

“It will be delivered within five working days”
“Could you be more precise” I asked?
“Eh no.  We don’t actually deliver it.  Because it’s a small article, it will be delivered by a carrier.” *
“So will I get a phone call or an email to tell me which day it will be delivered?”
*“No, but it will be delivered either today, tomorrow or the next day”
Now surprising as it might seem, I can count to five and then add on the extra days for weekends and holidays.
“So you’re telling me that in a company as large as John Lewis, and in this day and age, you can’t tell me the DAY that my sewing machine will be delivered?”
”Yes, that’s correct.”
“Well, that wasn’t very helpful at all.”

Now, remind me.  This is the 21st century, isn’t it?  Imagine if I was working and had to take five days off my work on the off chance that my sewing machine was going to be delivered that day.  I’ve bought a lot of stuff from JL in  the past, but I’m afraid those days are now in the past.  I had thought of buying an iMac from them because they offer an extra year’s warranty, but as their delivery methods are so archaic, I think I’ll shop elsewhere.

Out at lunchtime for coffee with Fred.  No Val today as he was otherwise engaged.  Good natter with lots of laughter.

Walked over to St Mo’s when I came back and got the first sketch of 2017 completed in about 15 minutes.  I keep meaning to time my sketches.  Must do it with the next one.  Two wee boys were passing St Mo’s when I was sketching.  I heard them laughing and looked up to see one of them posing for me.  I laughed and so did they.  Just wee boys.  An old man passed behind me soon after and he seemed to be struggling along with a stick.  He seemed bemused and looked as if he was wondering what I’d found to draw in this urban landscape.  But that’s it.  It’s Urban Sketching.

I got some sunset shots with the Oly 5 and processed them according to Laura Shoe’s video  and was quite impressed with the effect.  I’ll use that method of combining basic adjustments with an overlay of graduated filter.

June came over for dinner tonight and she and Scamp had a good gossip about everything and anything.

Tomorrow?  Don’t know.  Haven’t seen the weather.

Ne’erday – 1 January 2017

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Ne’erday to Scots, New Year’s Day to the rest of the world.

Made some bread in the morning and left it to rise while we went for our traditional walk around Broadwood Loch.  It was a bright morning and the sun was quite blinding, reflecting on the water of the loch.  Got some photos of the gulls sitting on the fence at the outfall of the loch.  We used to call them seagulls when I was young, but these birds have never seen the sea, far less paddled in it.  The furthest they get is foraging in the various landfills around the country.

Further around I got some shots of cormorants stretching their wings to dry.  It appears that these birds have also rejected the maritime life for the more sheltered inland waters.

Lots of people taking the opportunity of getting out in the sun, even if it was cold like today.  Allegedly 5ºc, but a cold 5º.  There was a bit of a breeze which probably made it feel even colder.  However, when you’re walking and talking you don’t feel the cold so much.

When I looked at the photos once we got back, I wasn’t impressed, so I grabbed my camera and headed out again, alone this time, to St Mo’s.  Scamp was more interested in watching the ballet on telly.  Got some landscapes taken with the Oly 5 and some more burds had their photo taken with the Nikon.  I managed just over an hour out before the light started to fade, but at least I got some better shots this time.

Dinner tonight was roast chicken with roast potatoes and mixed leaves.  Very nice.  Pudding was panna cotta with crushed raspberries.

Struggled to understand the latest Sherlock while I struggled to understand the first Sudoku of the new calendar.  Eventually solved the Sudoku but got lost somewhere in Sherlock.  Nothing strange there.

May go out somewhere tomorrow, maybe not.  It depends on the weather.

A Day in the Trossachs – 27 December 2016

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After the last two days, we decided to get out and about today and that is what we did.  We agreed on Loch Lubnaig as the destination.

It was a pleasant drive along from Stirling to Callander and on to the loch itself.  We’d decided to park at the big car park.  We were pretty sure the cafe wouldn’t be open, but when we got there, we found the car park was locked up too.  Barrier down and padlocked.  What pinhead in the quango that owns this car park decided it would be a good idea to lock up it up during the Christmas holidays?  Don’t they want to encourage tourism?  Probably not.  So, having been baulked by our first attempt, we went back to the smaller parking place, where you are also expected to pay to park 366 days a year and what do you get for your £1.40 per two hours?  Well, you get a hard standing and … Well, that’s it really.  No toilets. No cafe.  No shelters.  You do get picnic benches and BBQ holders.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have a BBQ, or a picnic, or £1.40.  Actually we did have the £1.40, but that had been pre-allocated for parking at the big car park which does have all the aforementioned facilities.  We were rebels!  We didn’t pay the parking fee.  So, Mr Car Park, “I don’t want to park with you no more, you empty-headed animal food trough wiper! I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!”

I took some photos of the hills around Lubnaig from CP2 and then we drove down to the hedonism of Callander itself.  This time we did pay for parking, like good little tourists.  The River Teith was just about bursting its banks with all the rain that’s fallen in  the last few days and the car park is right down next to the river, but Callander isn’t a very big (or interesting) place, so I didn’t reckon we’d be there long enough to get flooded.  We walked down one side of the main street.  At first I thought everything was closed.  I was half right.  All the shops were closed, it was the cafes and tea shops that were open.  We eventually chose a dingy little cafe.  All we wanted was a coffee and a bowl of soup or a sandwich.  I finally settled for an Award Winning Pie (which was actually very good!) and Scamp had a vastly overpriced bowl of soup.  We also had two cups of brown water.  At first I thought it was just straight out of the river, but then I realised that the river water was darker than this stuff.  It was meant to be Americano, but I think they were cutting corners and just steeping the beans in the cup without grinding them first.  I can honestly say it was the worst cup of ‘coffee’ I’ve ever tasted.  Even Starbucks would be better than that.  No, wait, that’s taking things a bit too far.  At least I could drink this dishwater.  It didn’t taste of anything but nobody asked my name so they could write it on the cup.  I don’t think they do that any more in Starbucks for obvious reasons.  “Hugh Jars.   Your americano’s ready!”

Got some pics of Goosanders on the river and of some neat yarnbombing going on in the town before waving goodbye to great pies and boggin’ coffee and heading for home.  On the way we stopped off to see David Stirling the hardest man in Stirlingshire.  His statue stands on a wee hill overlooking the snowy hills of Perthshire.  Then it was back to motorway driving all the way home.

That was a beautiful day and I think Scamp enjoyed it as much as me.

Tomorrow?  No plans as yet.

Waiting for Barbara – 22 December 2016

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Yesterday we got a Christmas card from my cousin, Barbara.  I haven’t seen Barbara in years.  Tomorrow we’re going to meet another Barbara – the second storm of the year.  Definitely a different Barbara.  Today we got a taste of Barbara – the storm.

We drove to Currys at Bishopbriggs because they had the printer cartridges for my Canon printer.  I did think about buying a new printer because the Canon, whilst it still works, is getting old, but I’m still not settled on a make or model.  I really only use the printer at Christmas to print my annual calendar.  The rest of the time I just steal a couple of prints from Scamp’s printer.  Once I’ve got the calendar printed and out of the way, I’ll decide on the long term future of the IP4500.

After we came back and had some lunch, I went out in the torrential rain to get some photos.  One great benefit of the 365 is it forces me out to get some photos.  Some days I admit that I use the flowers or weemen to get something to post, but I personally see them as stopgaps at best and failures at worst.  Today I waited until the rain had passed and headed up to the Antonine Wall to get some atmospheric shots of the landscape after the rain.  Unfortunately, because of the gale force winds, the next blash (another Scottish word that describes a sudden downpour perfectly) of rain came battering down as I was setting the camera and tripod down.  However, the lighting was good and the clouds were exactly where I wanted them, so I carried on and got the shots.  There wasn’t much colour in the scene and what was there didn’t add anything, so I reduced both shots to monochrome in Lightroom.  Now I’ve got the camera and lens drying out in the warm living room hoping that there is no moisture in the innards of the lens.

We’d intended to go to Barca tonight, but the weather was against us, so we left it for another, drier day.

Tomorrow?  Let’s see what Barbara brings to the party.

Golden Light – 19 December 2016

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Today dawned, like the rest with a dull, grey cloudy sky.  It didn’t look as if it was going to get any better and it lived up to that promise, in fact it got worse.  A heavy mist came down obliterating any view that had been there.

I decided to make the best of the day and print off a first copy of my 2017 calendar.  Unfortunately, El Capitan doesn’t want to work with my Canon ip4500 printer.  Canon don’t want to supply a driver and Apple don’t care about any hardware more than seven years old as I already know.  A quick search of the internet confirmed my suspicions that there is no workaround for the problem, apart from buying a new printer.  I did manage to get the calendar printed by converting my Pages file into a PDF and using this to print it off on my old Tosh laptop.  A laptop much more than seven years old.  Despite my disappointment, or maybe because of it, I drove in to Glasgow hoping that Staples could supply me with a magenta cartridge for my ancient printer.  They could at £16.95.  Rather expensive when you find that Amazon can supply a three cart set for £26.  So Stalples is going out of business?  I think I can see why.  I didn’t buy their overpriced cart.  One interesting thing I found out is that Epson sell a 3 in 1 printer for £189, complete with two years’ worth of ink  No more dinky ink cartridges, this thing works with bottles of ink.  It sounds like a good investment as long as Apple don’t make it obsolete halfway through my second or third bottle of ink.  I’m really beginning to become pissed off with Apple’s devotion to designed obsolescence.  I may bite the bullet and go back to Mickysoft.  It’s slow and sluggish, but at least the OS just works.  Something I used to say about Apple, but not any longer.

When I was driving home my mood was lifted by the golden light making everything glow.  Now, that’s more like it.  The clouds had blown away, the mist had lifted and the sun was setting with a beautiful glancing light.  Instead of heading straight home, I took the road less travelled and with better views of the landscape.  That’s where the photo of the trees came from.  Even the mist earlier in the day had produced the water beads on the car roof and gave me one shot in the bag before I left for Glasgow.

Salsa tonight was a Christmas Extravaganza, one of JamieGal’s specialities with dancing, games, glow-sticks, silly hats and prizes.  He’d previously issued an open invitation to dancers past and present, from our school and from any other and none and there was a great party spirit.  Fun for all, that’s just his way.  Brilliant.  One of the best teachers I’ve had the pleasure to meet.

Tomorrow?  Maybe a swim.

Walking through the Gloaming – 15 December 2016

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I’ve started a bad habit of allowing the blog to get away from me.  These last couple of days have seen me in the morning playing catch-up to get the blog posted, yesterday’s blog that is.  Today I’m finishing today’s blog today.

Not a lot of work done this morning.  Scamp was hard at work buying Tesco again and cooking all day for the Witches Christmas Party while I farted about.  There, that’s the honest truth, well, almost the truth.  I did get my 2017 calendar sorted out, so that’s one thing done.

I went for more ‘messages’ – you remember what messages are, don’t you – after lunch and took Scamp’s advice to carry ONE camera with me.  I chose the E-M5 with a short zoom lens and no EVF (Electronic View Finder).  Very pocketable.   I walked the short walk round the railway walk, across the tree plantation and back along the canal while the light changed from blue to a glorious orange gloaming.  Some beautiful lighting on the hills, but the short lens was struggling to make anything of it.  By comparison, the short focal length lens made the skies look good.

Since Tesco was now closed for restocking, after Scamp had bought everything it had, I went to Kilsyth to Lidl to get some odds and ends there and in B&M (my new favourite shop).  Bought far more than I intended to, so Scamp’s enthusiasm must be catching.  When I got home and after dinner, I started on my part of tomorrows banquet.  Now, at 10.30pm I’ve done my bit too.  The pudding is setting in the fridge and the bread is proving in the kitchen.  Some more work to be done tomorrow, but less frantic I hope.

I’m intending giving the WCP a body swerve tomorrow.  I’m booked for coffee and a chat with Fred and Val tomorrow midday and after that, well as Del Boy said, “The world’s my lobster”.

Fish Suppers – 13 December 2016

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Didn’t feel too good when I got up and so we didn’t go to the pool for a swim as expected.  I blamed it on eating all the leftovers from Scamp’s party.  I should know better, but I just had to have one more rum ball, even though they aren’t truly round and had never been near a bottle of rum.  One day I may learn.

There was still a lot of things could have been doing, but I skilfully managed to sidestep them all.  It takes years of selfless dedication to achieve my high level of work avoidance.  I’ve learned from quite a few masters of the art in my working life and now I am benefitting from those years of study.  Finally got caught and put to work wrapping parcels.  With two of us on the task it didn’t take that long and the boxes are now filled and ready to go to Santa.  Post strike permitting.

Had a quick waltz round St Mo’s later, but had managed to miss the best of the light although there were a wide spectrum of colours in the sky, so that became my subject in the late afternoon light.  After that it was time to pick up Jackie from the station and go for tonight’s dinner which was fish suppers all round.  Had to wait for the fish and the chips, but that meant they were very fresh and really lovely.  Didn’t even suffer any after effects which shows how fresh they were.

Tomorrow?  It looks like rain and Scamp is going in to town to meet up with one of her friends for lunch and Jackie goes back up north.  I may paint for a time.

Cycling – 11 December 2016

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It was a decent temperature today, mild at 10ºc for December, so I thought I’d take my bike out for a winter run.

I’d some housekeeping to do first as Scamp’s sister was coming to stay for a few days and the ‘painting room’ was more like a pigsty.  It took longer than I’d intended to get the room looking nearly ship-shape.  This was partly due to me getting sidetracked into adding details to my most recent painting, but after an hour or so it was reasonable.

After lunch which was last night’s curry reheated, I got the bike out and pumped up the tyres a bit and I was good to go.  Cycled my short course which is only about 6 miles, but included a lot of climbs and descents, as well as a fair bit of off-road rutted tracks.  A good run for a re-start to my cycling.  It felt a bit cooler than the recorded 10º, but that might have been the wind chill and it might have been because I’ve not cycled since the end of the summer.  There were lots of geese flying south today.  That may be a sign of the weather getting more wintry in the next week or so.  One skein of geese flew directly overhead and the noise they made was deafening.  I’m guessing they were discussing the best place to roost for the night.  Night was indeed coming on fast, so I took their advice and headed for my roost for the night.

Salsa Ball tonight, so it will be a late start tomorrow, but Scamp has a party planned for ‘Gems’, so we won’t want to leave it too late.

Perf – 8 December 2016

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8 Dec

Today we went to Perth.  We drove there this time.  I needed coffee, it seems like I always need coffee.  I’ve got the blending bug and am happy to mix and match my beans, sometimes coming up something that tastes better than the constituent parts … sometimes.

We’d booked a table at Cafe Tabou for 12.30 but because we were a bit late getting out this morning, we were running a bit behind schedule and didn’t have time for a coffee on arrival, but the other side of the coin was that we didn’t have as long to wait for lunch!  Speaking of lunch, it was:

Scamp

Starter:  Mussels with smoked haddock and leek in a mustard sauce

Main:  Baked cod steak with leek and smoked salmon risotto with hazelnut butter

Me

Starter:  Seasonal salad leaves with beef cheek, roast beetroot, giant cous cous, croutons and garlic dressing

Main:  Pan fried venison escalope served with braised red cabbage, potato gratin and bramble jus

Both were delicious.

The rest of the day was spent wandering round the shops.  Obviously for my core readers, the actual shops and shopping must remain redacted.

Driving home the sunset was building all the way.  I stopped off in my favourite place and got a load of shots, the best of which form today’s mosaic.

We had intended to go in to Glasgow tonight to dance at Barca, but after a long day in Perth, we decided not to bother.  Maybe next week.

Tomorrow we are expecting a day of rain, so I may go to wander the streets of Glasgow to source even more prezzies or I may just stay in and paint.

St Andy’s Day – 30 November 2016

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30-nov

Gym and Swim in the late morning and guess what?  They were still repairing the sauna and the steam room, but the jacuzzi was working, well, it was working until I got in and was then told by some dick with an ipad (have ipads replaced clipboards now?) that they were just about to drain it.  I complained that the sauna was close, the steam room was closed and now the jacuzzi was being closed.  What was going to be next?  The pool?  He said that the repairs to the sauna and the steam room were now complete and they were just about to open them again.  For once they were as good as their word and the hot rooms were hot.  In the case of the steam room, very hot.  Steaming hot in fact.  Tested all three facilities and they passed muster.

Home to a lunch of three-day-old soup which didn’t taste that bad, but oh dear what a dull day.  Dreich in extremis.  It felt like the sun had forgotten to get out of bed today.  I went to get new wiper blades for the car and some much needed screen wash too.  After that I drove to Auchinstarry and got a few sunset shots, but I was glad I’d kept the new wee tripod in the car, because I really needed it today to support the camera with the slow shutter speed that was necessary to get the ISO down.  It was supposed to be 9.7ºc today, but the wind-chill must have dropped that temperature down by 10º.  It was baltic.  Shots in the bag, I headed for home and a hot cup of tea.  Fish ’n’ Chips for dinner with an egg thrown in for good measure.  That put a smile on my face for a while.  We should have been going to salsa tonight but it looked like Jamie Gal was still in Bristol by mid afternoon, so the likelihood of ’the other teacher’ (Nudge, Nudge – Wink, Wink) taking the class was quite high and also the fact that I wasn’t feeling all that great meant that we stayed home tonight.  I’d rather be there, but the thought of driving through the usual Wednesday football traffic just to find that we were doing “Oo la la” ’styling’ when I’m not feeling at my freshest didn’t appeal.  I might have a hot toddy and head off for an early bed tonight.  Maybe I’ll read another chapter of Ben Aaronovitch’s “The Hanging Tree” (Peter Grant Book 6) and further eke it out.  This is book 2 of my must-read trilogy, the third being the latest of Ian Rankin’s or John Rebus’s books (I’m never sure exactly who it is who writes them or who is real and who is merely a character).  After those three, the first being A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers, I’m in no-man’s land.  Need to go looking!

Hoping for a better day and a better attitude tomorrow.  May go and do some urban sketching ‘In the Toon.’  Some sunshine would be nice.