Category: landscape

Windy & Bright – 22 September 2016

Posted on by Zogman

img_3401-blog

Sitting in the Coffin House in Skye. Having coffee, eating a brownie and gazing at a wide, wide landscape. Scamp is eating something unpronounceable (Pear and Almond Streusel I’m reliably informed!) with coffee. What a place to build your house! Just imagine waking to this view every morning!

At least, that’s where we were. Now we’re in Cafe Arriba in Portree. Globetrotters that’s us.

Or at least we were.  Now the big hand’s almost at 6 and the little hand is heading rapidly towards 12, that’s 12pm!  It’s been a lovely day and I’m trying to catalog it before it becomes tomorrow.

22-sept

After we left the Coffin House or Turf House to give it its proper name  and to be absolutely perjinct, the house is called the Turf House, but we were in the adjoining coffee shop and its proper name is Single Track.  It’s in Kilmaluig on Skye.  It was Murd who christened it the Coffin House because of the elongated hexagonal plan view of the house itself, although the coffee shop is actually in what is the studio of the house, not the house itself.  They tried to name it Turf House, but to the locals it will always be the Coffin House.  Inside the cafe it’s warm and quite spacious with that wonderful view out to the sea.  I went there hoping to see some of Wil Freeborn’s watercolour paintings, but they were almost all sold.  Only one left and priced at £90 was outwith my pocket money.  I wasn’t all that impressed with it either.  The two ladies who run the cafe were very forthcoming about Wil and told me that the paintings had almost sold out within a week of opening.  His stuff is good, well, I like it.

After Coffin Coffee we went on a run to Aird.  We’d been there in March?  The last time we’d been on the island anyway and found a fairly sheltered parking place out of the worst of the wind and sat there watching the world go by.  Scamp wanted to go there again today and we spent another hour and a big bit watching the world go by again.  I got a fairly decent watercolour done of the wee white house in the mosaic above.  I’d painted it the last time we were there too and I don’t think today’s effort was better.  Only had one interruption by a bloke wanting to get directions to Flodigarry.  We sent him in roughly the right direction, hoping he’d bump into someone who would give him a more accurate road.

When we left Aird, we headed south to Portree for more high jinx trying to second guess what the stupid motorists would do before they did it.  You can never tell when some people want to drive at 10mph through the town, signal left then go right while others are trying to perform a 93 point turn in the middle of the main street with a camper van.  I really do despair of the intelligence of these drivers.  I’m sure they’re the ones who voted Out at the EU referendum.

Lunch was at Café Arriba in Portree and I’m suffering for it tonight.  I don’t want to tell you how many times I’ve been to the toilet.  Maybe the last time for this lunch venue.

After lunch we went to Braes which is out on a headland just south of Portree.  We managed to go on another new road!  Got some photos and came back by a really dodgy under maintained road.  Not very funny at all.  However, we didn’t meet any of the stupids this time … thankfully.

Coming back north we stopped at Storr Lochs and grabbed a few more shots before dropping Scamp off at Burnside and heading down to the shore to get the last few shots of the day.  Saw a strange looking lorry down at the slip with a wide door in the side and what looked like a stage or a catwalk extending from it.  A mobile theatre perhaps?  On Skye??  Got a few shots of Staffin Island and then the rain came on, right on the forecast time.

Tomorrow looks like rain all day.

On the Isle – 20 September 2016

Posted on by Zogman

20-septHere we are on Skye after a 240(ish) mile journey which took the nominal 7 hours which equates to around 34 mph average.  Of course that doesn’t take into account stops to take on food and water or to ahem, remove the byproducts from the system.  Real average speed was nearer 45 mph.  That’s still slow by today’s standard, but given the traffic and the roads we were travelling on, was quite good going.

It was a beautiful morning when we left home and pointed the car roughly north, and the weather stayed that way all the way to Skye.  We’d been warned that there were a lot of visitors on the island, but we weren’t really ready for the amount of tour buses and mobile homes we encountered on the journey.  In Sligachan campsite alone, we counted 15 of these pantechnicons cluttering up the place.  Really, people do you NEED to take absolutely everything with you when you go on hols?  My brother-in-law was an HGV driver and was telling us tonight that he had to sit a second test to be able to drive heavy lorries, yes most of these ugly homes-on-wheels are driven by amateurs with the road sense of a chimpanzee.  I’m sure most of the vehicles are capable of speeds in excess of 70mph, but the trained chimps seem to be determined to make the most of first and second gear to the exclusion of all others.  “Fifteen miles an hour is good enough for anyone” seems to be their mantra.  I hate them.  They are almost as bad as caravans.  Don’t get me started on caravans.

Despite the moving road blocks that are houses on wheels, we had a great run up.  Weather was good.  Company was good.  Music was good.  Chocolate Limes were in plentiful supply.  What (apart from the obvious) was not to like?  Stupid tourists, that’s the answer.  We stopped at the Commando memorial at Spean Bridge for coffee and lunch.  With what is usually a lovely view of the mountains to look at.  Unfortunately, some refugees from a bus tour stood in a group eating icecream and watching us.  Maybe they were jealous that we were eating real food and drinking coffee when all they had was rapidly melting icecream.  I took their photo, just so they wouldn’t feel left out.  It was like watching sad old zoo animals.  I felt sorry for them when they were herded back into their bus to be taken somewhere else.  I’ll post the picture tomorrow.

Once we got to Burnside, we felt refreshed, as we always do.  Good food, banter and a wee dram or two helped as it always does.

Don’t know where we’re going tomorrow, but probably we’ll try to go on at least one new road.  That’s the plan.

The End of Summer – 17 September 2016

Posted on by Zogman

17-septv2

Wandering around my own favourite wilderness and noticing the skies are empty of swallows. If it takes more than one swallow to make a summer, does a lack of them mean the end? I think it does. Then I spot a dragon. Is that the contradiction?We had intended going to Embra today, but it looked like being a nice day and I didn’t want to spend the day in a train or wandering around the shops. Too good a day for that and if the first paragraph is correct, we should make the most of the good days now. The upshot was that as usual, Scamp was in the garden and I did a wee bit of painting and grubbing around in WordPress without any great success in either. Eventually, I decided that the weather was settled enough for shorts and tee shirt cycling and went out to get some photos and also some brambles if there were any left.There were brambles a-plenty and I got just over 600g which is not too bad. Just over a pound in old money, or is that me mixing my metaphors or something? The sun was warm and although there were no swallows, there was a dragon later in the afternoon. I got some photos, but knew that if I went closer, my shadow would encroach on the insect and it would fly away. Dragonflies seem to be very sensitive to changes in light, or maybe they just don’t want anyone stealing their sun. I also grabbed a few shots of spiders, sorry arachnophobes, look away now. It’s the transparency of the body that I like about spiders, especially contré jour. I just had to experiment a bit more with the pinhole effect and got a shot of the Three Amigos with the camera sitting on a fencepost. The last shot was as I was coming home and the light was warming up. It took me some time to find the best VP for the shot of the hay bales, but I’m happy with this one. There was a fair bit of post-processing done to get it just the way I wanted it, balancing the light and dark areas of the photo without falsifying it too much.Came home and dinner was courtesy of Bombay Dreams. Great online ordering system and way too much for one meal. The rest for lunch on Sunday.Weather on the turn for Sunday with lots of widespread rain forecast.

[]: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ztf/

Loch Leven – 10 September 2016

Posted on by Zogman

10-septWe’re sitting in the cafe at Loch Leven’s Larder. Been for a walk along the lochside and are both now ready for lunch.

Well the lunch was delicious. Mine was a Lamb, Chorizo and Puy Lentil Casserole. Scamp’s was a Smoked Haddock Quiche.

We had decided in the morning that it would be a sin to waste a good, clear sunny day like this, especially after yesterday’s rain, by wandering round the shops. We got the map out on the laptop and chose Loch Leven as the place to go today. It was a good decision. We parked at our usual place and walked clockwise round part of the lochside path. Walked a mile or two, had a seat, then walked back to the car. I managed to get a few photos of the corn fields on our way round the path. Scamp thought we might manage to get all the way to LLL, but it was way too far. Enjoyed the walk more than our usual anti-clockwise walk. Saw a powered glider. Not like a Grob, but with an engine on a pylon above the wing. Wish I’d got the registration letter, then I’d be able to look it up on the net

Drove home over the Forth Bridge and got a good look at the new bridge. I wonder what it’s name will be. Not the official name, but the one it will be known by, it’s Real name.

El Cap seems to be behaving itself much better than I’d anticipated. Got up this morning just before 6am and sorted the problem with the email not being recognised. Then I went back to bed. So far, touch wood, the new OS seems quite stable. Glad I did the upgrade.

Some say rain tomorrow. Some say sun. I’m voting for sun. Just like today.

The Accidental Selfie – 7 September 2016

Posted on by Zogman

7-septSorry JIC, but we went to Helensburgh today. I thought it was only fair since we went to your sister’s least favourite place last week, we should go to your LFP this week.

It’s not my favourite place to drive to because it always seems such a dreary journey. Nothing much to see until you get past Dumbarton. As an aside, this is another Scottish anomaly. The town of Dumbarton is the county town of Dunbartonshire. That’s not a typo, Dunbartonshire with an ‘n’ and Dumbarton with an ‘m’. Why? Because that’s the way it is. Back to the story. Once you get past Dumbarton the scenery gets a bit more interesting with great views across the Clyde estuary to Greenock and Port Glasgow. Before then, it’s just motorway. Helensburgh is a very run-down looking version of its former self. Too many shops closed or in the process of closing on the main street to impress any passing tourists and although the front has undergone a bit of tidying up, it’s not the place it used to be. We walked along the front and I took some photos because the light is usually good there with the estuary and the hills in the background. After we walked back, we had chips and a pizza. Even the pizza wasn’t as good as it used to be. A sad state of affairs.

When we had stopped at the carpark there was a bus parked there with its engine chug, chugging away. It’s driver reading the paper Three hours later when we left, it was still chug, chugging away and he was still reading the paper. He must have been a very slow reader. Wasn’t there a law passed recently that banned drivers from having the engine running while the vehicle was stationary. Probably doesn’t apply to bus drivers. Either that or he hadn’t managed to finish reading that whole memo.

Helensburgh pier used to be a great place for sea fishing. I’ve fished there myself a few times. Like the town itself, the pier is looking a bit worse for wear now with more bits cordoned off or barricaded off than are actually useable. There were very few fishermen on it today, it seemed to be attracting more jakies than fishers.

The titular photo was indeed an accident. I was in the process of taking off the 9mm fisheye and had the 12-32mm zoom ready to go on when I inadvertently pressed the shutter. I like the finished article. It would be useful for keeping the weans away from the fire, if we had any weans or a fire, that is.

Went to Salsa at night. One class of sort-of advanced and one beginners. Great exercise. Bummer of a drive home. Motorway closed right through Glasgow. No warnings. No diversions. Just find your own way out, we’re not helping you. It took almost an hour to find our way home. A journey that should take 15 minutes.

Rain forecast for tomorrow. Don’t mind because today the weather was lovely, if a bit too warm for September.

Groundhog Day – 3 September 2016

Posted on by Zogman

3 septToday we were planning to go to Dundee to the Flower Show. We’d been there long ago, maybe ten of fifteen years ago to be a bit more accurate, but when we looked out the back window this morning, the hills had gone. That’s an indication of low cloud and therefore a good chance of rain. The streets were wet although there was no rain falling at the time.   So, it had been raining, and it would be raining again. This was the hiatus between showers (or longer periods of rain). The upshot was we decided not to go to Dundee. Instead, we went to Vecchia Bologna for lunch and afterwards wandered round Dobbies in Stirling and came away with an armful of plants to provide some autumn colour. The place was undergoing a bit of a tidy up with great areas of empty space. Surely they’re not getting ready to put out the (whisper it) Christmas stuff already. Could be!

From Dobbies we went on a mystery tour to find something decent for me to photograph and I thought I’d found it when I saw a sign for the Sauchie Tower. We never found it. The signs just sort of faded out. We did see the ruined tower of a windmill on top of a hill that might have been it, but some eejit had allowed the area around it to be built up with a new housing estate that had masses of traffic calming ‘street furniture‘ and nowhere to park. Who employs these pinheads? When we got to Alloa we saw a sign for the Alloa Tower, but weren’t taken in by the direction post. We knew it was another wild goose chase. It might as well have had a red fish of the herring persuasion nailed to it. Instead we headed for Kincardine and went for a walk along the Riverside Walk out to the old pier. Got some photos there and that was it for today’s outing.

It was only as we got near to Cumbersheugh that the first spots of rain splashed on the windscreen. Typical, we could have been to Dundee flower show.  It just seemed like re-run of yesterday’s indecision that led to the failure to go to Ayr Airshow.

Tomorrow, we’re going in to Glasgow to see the start of the Tour of Britain. What will we do if it’s raining? We’ll go and get wet.

Any comments on the new galleries, anyone?

The last day of summer? – 30 August 2016

Posted on by Zogman

30 AugIt looks from the weather forecast that it will rain later tonight, so this may be the last day of summer. Who can tell?

Day two of the new early rising regime and resolve is flagging already, but at least I didn’t stay in bed all morning. Scamp, on the other hand, was showing how it should be done and was up and working before I’d switched the shower on.

Went out in the afternoon, equipped with a tripod to get some more photos of the mini toadstools I’d seen on Friday, but when I got there, the toadstools were gone. There were some slug trails, but not enough to explain the complete decimation of the toadstool forest. I knew they had a short life-span, but I didn’t think it was that short. Disappointed, I looked for other photo opportunities, but none were to be found. It seemed too good a day to waste by going home early, so I went for a walk over the grassland of the dump, but there were no deer, not even a rabbit. The closest I got to a decent photo was on the way home when I took the shot of the corn field with the nice wee sinusoidal path. When I got home I found that I’d dropped my designer green glasses somewhere on the road or the paths. Must go back and find them soon.

Made some Tiger Bread today. Attempt 1 is not too successful. The actual bread is fine, but the Tiger part is too thick. More testing required.

Finally got photo galleries to work on my newly themed blog. This time they are totally within WordPress and not using the Galleria widget, thingy. It was proving just too clumsy and untrustworthy. To be honest, the basic ‘Classic’ theme worked fine except for the black background, but the paid-for ‘Twelve’ theme wouldn’t cooperate at all, so I used a much simpler WordPress plugin that did the trick for now. May revisit them later.

Beer with the Old Guys tomorrow. Usually a good laugh.

Don’t Look Hazy, Just Don’t! – 29 August 2016

Posted on by Zogman

29 AugWe decided at the weekend that we need to get out more. In the winter it’s ok to lie in bed longer than is good for us, but in these late summer days, we should be out getting some good fresh air into our lungs. With that in mind, we set ourselves the target of being out by 10am. Today we managed that, just!

Drove to the petrol station which was buzzing with police and ambulances, then got into an argument with a dumbo driving a tank, you know what I mean, great big gas guzzler and a tiny wee brain behind the wheel. There he was sitting looking smug, at least a metre away from the pumps while his wife filled the tank. I tried to park beside him, but it was an impossible situation, so I drove out and back in to a different pump, but not before mouthing to him “Prick!” While I was filling my own tank he came out of his pride and joy and said “Can I help you?” I smiled at him and said “Well, you can pay for my petrol if you want.” A smile and an unexpected reply usually baffles the dumbo. “Oh, I thought you needed something from me” he said after he had thought for a while. “Well, a bit of space would have been nice.” I said and walked away. This did not compute. CPU overload. Dumbo had to get back in the tank and plug his brain into the USB socket. I paid for the petrol and when I came back out, there he was again, brain freshly rebooted. “I don’t usually drive this car.” was his starting gambit, followed by “I wasn’t doing it to be ignorant. I had to do a very tight turn.” This is what always happens when you reboot a computer, it does random things. It looked like his CPU was still in the process of rebooting and was making his mouth spout rubbish. He should remember ‘Engage brain before opening mouth’. Not a big shouting match, but it started the day well, outwitting a dumbo. When we drove out he was still trying to remember how to start the tank. Then we saw the reason for the heavy police presence. A Post Office van had embedded itself in the wall of the garage!
We drove to Culross, parked in the carpark and walked along the coastal path in the general direction of Torryburn until we came to what on Google Maps on the phone looked like a path, but in reality was a pair of overgrown tractor ruts. We headed back and found another path that, according to Google again, would take us back to the main coastal path. It did, and was much more interesting from a photographic point of view. We sat for a while and watched the world and a few boats go by then walked back to the town, but called in at the Red Lion pub for lunch on the way. Lunch was a shared Chicken Salsa Wrap with Chips and a Salad and two cups of coffee. Oh, it was hot, and so was the weather. In Scotland we moan about the weather. If it’s cold we moan. If it’s hot we moan. If it’s windy we moan. If it’s not we moan. Never satisfied, that’s us. I got a few shots of the new pier and then we went home

Salsa tonight was interesting, fast and painful for me. My shoulder complained from start to finish, but we’re home now and I’m sitting upstairs in the front bedroom avoiding the Three Sisters below. There’s a mountain range up north called the Five Sisters of Kintail. This is the Three Sisters of Cumbernauld.

More journeyings tomorrow if the weather is good. If not, I may go a-hunting the Bramble! It’s that time of year.

Did you remember to bring the coconuts? – 24 August 2016

Posted on by Zogman

24 aug b2Last night we made plans to go down to Ayr, or Troon, or Largs, or Millport today. Definitely somewhere west or south west, because that’s where the best weather was to be. Today we went east, well, east (ish). Sort of north east. Not west.

We made sandwiches (pieces) and filled a flask and we left. We headed in the morning sunshine in the general direction of Stirling and thence to Callander which we hoped would be free from blue-rinsed drivers on this, our midweek journey. They usually only come out in their hordes on Sundays. Despite being in a long line of traffic behind an articulated lorry we had a fairly pleasant run through Callander and on to Lubnaig. It was Scamp’s idea to stop at the loch for a coffee. I wasn’t too sure about it to start with, but when I saw the reflections on the loch, I just knew I wanted to stop. When we stopped, we discovered that a Rabbies minibus had just arrived and there were tourists everywhere. We’re not tourists, we’re Scottish.

After coffee and fifty odd photos, we headed further up the loch and across on to the Loch Earn road. I’d half intended to drive to the end of the Loch Earn road and then drive back down the other side of the loch. I also wanted to find out where the ‘reflective man’ was. It’s a statue of a man covered in mirror tiles and it stands in the water. I knew it was on the north side of the loch, just off the road. I found it, but there were too many tourists near it. I’m not a tourist, I’m a photographer. I didn’t stop. I didn’t take the south road either, I just drove on. And on and on and on.

We passed through twee little Comrie but didn’t want to go all the way to Perth, so we turned right and pointed the car at the Braco road. We climbed up one side of a hill, across the top and down the other side, and eventually we found Braco. Braco has a main street and a shop called, conveniently, the Braco Shop. From there a signpost pointed to Stirling and we followed it and put Braco and the Braco Shop behind us. Instead of continuing to Stirling, we diverted to Doune to eat our ‘pieces’ and drink our coffee in Doune Castle, and that’s what we did.

Doune Castle is where bits of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” was filmed. One of the great scenes in the film is where the knights pretend to ride horses while their pages click coconut shells together to simulate the sound of the horses hooves. Part of that scene was filmed around the castle. A few years ago when we were at Doune Castle an American boy pulled a couple of coconut shell halves from his bag and proceeded to clip-clop around the internal square of the castle while his mother filmed him. Like I say, he was American. When we were sitting in that same internal square today, Scamp asked me “Did you remember to bring the coconuts?” Had you worked out the cryptic clue Hazy?

While we were there, I got a sketch done of the castle tower. It’s only when you sit and study these old castles, you realise how different they are from todays buildings All the windows are different sizes and shapes, as are the doors. You can see where bits have been added, bits removed holes have been cut in the walls, only to find that they are in the wrong place, so the holes are bricked up and covered over. Just like Cumbersheugh Town Centre in fact. History repeats itself. However, the castle was much more fun to sketch than CTC.

When we got home, Scamp suggested we walk to the local pub for fish and chips and a pint. I thought it was a wonderful idea. A great end to a great day.

The Lodge – 13 August 2016

Posted on by Zogman

13 AugToday was to be dry, and so it dawned. Dry with a little sprinkling of sun – even better. The weather fairies had been telling the truth for once. That said, we took ourselves off to the wild highlands or at least the Trossachs which is a sort of tame wild highlands. We were pointing the car at David Marshall Lodge or DML for short. Instead of our usual route through Thornhill to Aberfoyle and up the Duke’s Pass to DML, we rebels took the alternative way through blue-rinse Callander and over the other side of the Duke’s Pass to DML. Callander is usually a bottleneck on this drive and so it was today, but the bottleneck was caused by two of the boys in blue (with yellow hi-vis jackets and a speed gun) checking the speed of anyone wishing to venture in to the town from the general direction of Stirling. Not that we had much chance of raising our speed above jogging pace because some numpty at the front had forgotten to bring the red flag with him to indicate that a motor vehicle was approaching. That’s the way it seemed anyway. We passed the polis quietly, sedately and well under the speed limit. The drive up the Duke’s Pass was uneventful and terminally boring. It’s strange that when driving some roads, the scenery is much better in one direction than in the other. I hadn’t noticed how little of interest passed the car as we travelled along this road until today. We arrived at DML only to find that, Shock! Horror! they’ve changed the name to “The Lodge”. Now to someone born and brought up in Larkhall, The Lodge is synonymous with either Lambeg drums, Orange sashes and flute bands or groups of men congregating in a hall with a builder’s square and a pair of dividers over the door. I’d never been involved in any way with either group but that is what The Lodge means to me. Orange or Masonic, these are the only Lodges I’ve known about and this was neither. No sashes of any hue, no aprons and no rolled up trouser legs – do they really do that? What happened to David Marshall? Was he ex-communicated? Did he retire? Was he sacked? Maybe they found out that he didn’t belong to either Lodge, and he had to go. We’ll never know, I guess. However, like the Clyde Arc will always be the Squinty Bridge and the Tradeston Bridge will always be called the Squiggly Bridge, so The Lodge at Aberfoyle will alway be DML to us.

We paid our £3 for a day’s parking and headed off to get some foties and to walk the paths. Set up my tripod below the waterfall and waited until the lighting was right. Took a couple of test shots to get the shutter speed and the exposure right before starting the long exposure shots to get the water looking fluid. Then some prick, sorry if you’re offended by the description, but that’s what he was, walks right in front of me just as I’m taking the first exposure. Photobombed by a moron. Really, they walk among us. I wasn’t for moving, despite the midgies which were clouding round me. He proceeded to clamber up and over some rocks. Maybe he thought he was a rock climber. Nah, you need to have a brain for that. I was waiting for him to fall in, that would have made a good shot. I took a few shots with him in different positions to make sure I could easily edit him out later. When I was happy with what I’d got I walked back to Scamp who was standing near his keeper (who was quite apologetic) and said to her, “Don’t worry, the monkey won’t be in the final shot.” Some folk shouldn’t be allowed out, even with their keeper.

After that, we had to cut our walk short as I was getting eaten alive by midgies. We had a quick lunch at the cafe. Scones are good and coffee is brown(ish) water. Don’t risk it if you like your coffee to taste of coffee. If you normally have your caffeine hit in Starbucks, you probably won’t notice any difference. After that we drove down the other side of the Duke’s Pass and on to the Loch Ard road which is a dead end road after about 20 miles or so. We didn’t venture that far. We stopped in a parking place and Scamp opted to stay in the car while I went looking for more photo opportunities without idiot photobombers. Met a group of mallard ducks that seemed quite happy to pose for me until it became obvious that I had nothing worth eating with me, then they went off in search of better feeders. Photographed some wee sailing dinghies on the loch, passed an outdoor wedding reception in full swing (hope they had lots of DEET spray) and drove back home. Bypassed Callandar just in case the polis hadn’t filled their quota of speed merchants.

Dinner was yesterday’s curries reheated and served with rice and home made flatbreads. I think they tasted even better than yesterday. Maybe it was just that we’d been out in the fresh air. Looking for similar weather tomorrow. That would be nice.