Category: landscape

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.

Looking for the Capitan – 31 July 2016

Posted on by Zogman

31 July

<Technospeak>
The Capitan in question was operating system OSX 10.11 for the Mac. Apparently, it will be the last Mac operating system named OSX. The next one will be ‘macOS’. For me it lacks a little something. I presume it will be operating system eleven and OSXI didn’t look as good as OSX. Even worse, the next operating system, codename Sierra will not work in my 2009 Mac Book Pro. My old HP netbook of 2004 vintage will (un)happily run Windows 10, the latest Mickysoft offering. It works on it, very slowly granted, but it does work. Apple are far too sneaky to allow that on their ‘puters and phones. I’m not sure whether it’s a good idea or not. Certainly it exemplifies all that’s bad in Built-In Obsolescence, but what’s the point of installing an OS that will be up to date, but will make your computer run like a slug. Also, at least Apple allow you to download and install each new OS free of charge until you reach the limit of your hardware, something that Mickysoft has only just cottoned on to.

Sooo, last week I downloaded the latest OS for my 2009 MBP, El Capitan. For those without an interest in geography, El Capitan is a mountain in Yosemite National Park. Yosemite was also a recent Mac OS. Sierra, the next OS probably refers to the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Are we sensing the thread of a theme here? The names may sound tacky, but don’t they sound much more interesting than Windows 8.1 (codename “Lemon”) or Windows 10 (codename “A slight improvement”). But I digress.
Like I said earlier, last week I downloaded my installer for OSX10.11 and today after struggling with bootable USB drives, re-partitioned external hard drives and a whole lot of other jargon, about four hours later, I had a working, easily removable installation of the eponymous El Capitan. It was OK. That’s about it. No great flaws, no great improvements over the OSX10.8 I’ve been running for the last couple of years. I’ve tried it now. If the time comes when I have to run it, I’ll not be too fussed about installing it properly, but for now 10.8 does everything I need, and more. The best thing about it is that I know a lot of tweaks and ‘John Wayne Dance Steps‘ to quote Tom Paxton. I have no need to upgrade to the latest and greatest. Thanks for the free upgrade Apple, but not for me at the present time.
</Technospeak>

Didn’t do much else today, well, four hours of the day had gone and I hadn’t even been past the door. I did go for a walk round St Mo’s to get some beastie photos – that may sound rude and a bit dodgy, but basically they are photos of insects, macros, close-ups. Like the wasp in the mosaic above (click it to link to the photos in Flickr). While I was walking I was watching the light glancing off the Campsie Fells. That little spot of light really lit up the hills that can look great one minute and quite foreboding the next.

Dinner for me tonight was a home made burger, made from scratch. Minced the beef myself and made the burger from that. It wasn’t the best. It needs some tweaking. More chillies and more egg to bind it. A pinch more salt and maybe, just maybe, a drop or two of Trinny Pepper Sauce. That will give it a bite. It’s a work in progress, but the basics are there.

No plans for tomorrow. If it’s sunny I’ll maybe cycle. If it’s not, I’ll maybe paint.

Stupid O’ Clock – 7 July 2016

Posted on by Zogman

7 JulyWoke at 6am and couldn’t get back to sleep again, so it was off again to Auchinstarry to walk along the canal to Twechar and then back along the railway to Auchinstarry again and then drive home for breakfast.  That’s twice this week I’ve needlessly woken and walked in the middle of the night, well, almost in the middle of the night!  The walk along the canal, although interesting wasn’t as good as Tuesday’s one along the railway.  Yes, the birds were singing and the smell of the flowers was great, but it was a lot cloudier today and the light wasn’t as good as Tuesday’s.  That said, I did manage to get a photo of a deer racing up towards Barr Hill and a nice wee peaceful shot of the canal at Smithstone.  Smithstone was a wee hamlet near Auchinstarry in the early 1900s.  My dad told me about it, but he pronounced it ‘Smeeston‘.  Now Smithstone is a new housing estate in Cumbernauld.

After breakfast, I took the car down to get expert opinion on a leaky gasket on the offside drive shaft.  It goes in tomorrow to get it fixed.  Apparently it’s a known problem with Renaults, but more of a problem with Corsas.  Why don’t manufacturers act on the information they are getting from dealers and redesign these things before they become a bigger problem.  That’s what turns people away from British and European cars.  I think our next car will be a Nissan, a Honda or a Kia.

We went to Vecchia Bologna for lunch and although it wasn’t the best I’ve had there, it was most enjoyable.
So tomorrow will be another enforced early rise to get a new gaiter fitted to the Megane.  What we do with the rest of the day will depend on the weather.  After a fairly decent day, it’s raining now, and is forecast to rain all night, but tomorrow is supposed to be fair.  Saturday is set fair too.  Sunday?  Oh dear, I think I’ll stay in bed all day on Sunday!

Walking in the Sunshine – 22 May 2016

Posted on by Zogman

22may bIt’s a sunny Sunday and after breakfast we headed off over the fields and far away.  Luckily Sim is friendly with the farmer and we got permission to walk through the horses’ fields to the right-of-way.  I’m not that happy walking in fields with actual horses in them.  Sim calls them ‘ponies’, but these aren’t anything like the ‘My Little Pony’ my daughter had when she was wee.  These are big brown monsters, much bigger than me, but I treated them like I treat anyone bigger than me – don’t make eye contact, pretend they’re not there and everything will be fine.  I did, and it was.  we reached the relative safety of the road.  Relative safety because this is a narrow single track road, but the drivers seem to think it’s their own personal autobahn.  In other words, they think there is no speed limit.  That said, we survived the killer ponies and the madskull drivers and started on our walk proper.  Like yesterday it was mainly between fields of wheat and also yellow rapeseed.  I synched the camera with my iPhone to allow me to geotag the photos.  I knew it would only work with the ’10 and not the ‘5, but that wouldn’t matter because at least I’d have a record of the walk that I could plot on a map when I got back home.  Checked the first one and all seemed to be well.  We walked for an hour or so.  Probably more than an hour because although JIC and Scamp were charging on ahead, Sim and I were constantly stopping to get some photos.

When we got to the top of one of the hills, gentle hills. This is Engerland, not mountainous Scottishland remember.  They don’t do real hills here.  Anyway, when we got to the main road at the top of one of the hills, there was a debate as to whether we should return by the same route or do a round trip.  The round trip would mean walking on the grass verge at the side of the road and, since we’d already seen the stock car racing that was being done on the narrow road, we didn’t fancy our chances on the main road, so it was back the way we’d come.

On the way back we got a really good view of the ‘Chicken Prison’ or battery hen farm.  If you’ve seen one of these travesties you will know why Scamp won’t but the cheapest chicken, but rather the free range ones.  At least they had a slightly better life.  We also got to see how a lovely vista across the green fields is destroyed by a solar panel farm.  Just to complete the trilogy, there was a wind farm behind us.  I’m all for being ‘green’, but just how efficient are these blots on the landscape?  Wind farm windmills are white (white = pure) and generally now they are painted green at the bottom (green = natural).  It’s all colour psychology, or kidology might be a more accurate description.  During the first two weeks in April in Scotland almost no wind energy was generated as the wind wasn’t strong enough.  It is not a viable alternative to traditional methods of generating electricity.  Enough of the rant.

Back home after passing the demon ponies again, we had ice lollies and Pimms for lunch, then watched JIC starting the barbecue that would provide our supper.  What a supper.  Chicken kebabs for Scamp. Pork burger and sausages for the carnivores.

Dumped my photos and oh, oh, it looked like only one photo had been geotagged!  Bummer.  Then when I got them all in there were 40 tagged photos.  Only one session, but forty photos in the session.  All was good.  Just as a finale, a woodpecker arrived at the bird table.  I’ve never managed to get a photo of one.  This one was a bit twitchy.  Every time I went near the window, it went and hid in the big tree at the side of the garden.  However, I managed about four good shots from a sitting position on the couch!

Back home tomorrow.  I’d love to have stayed longer, but all good things must come to an end.  We had an excellent day and an excellent break.  Three days with Hazy and N D’Ag and three days with Sim and JIC.

Sunny Saturday – 21 May 2016

Posted on by Zogman

21May bSo today is Saturday it’s a bit cloudy today with the threat of rain later.  We went into Baldock with Jamie to the butchers, where else? Got the usual suspects, viz:

  • A couple of dinosaur bones (AKA short ribs)
  • Four sausages
  • Four slices of black pudding
  • Two pork and apple burgers
  • Just for something new, Chicken and Chickpea curry

JIC was buying in for a siege (his expression) and for a barbecue in the garden tomorrow.  When we went back to the house, JIC took us for a walk through the wheat fields and up to the road.  One of his walks with Vixen.  While we were walking, Sim was riding Valioso.  Having a dog is quite tying we always feel, but having a horse must be so much more restricting.

After lunch we went to meet Vixen.  She was much more friendly than I had anticipated and her agility is something to be admired.  Who would have thought that a solid looking dog could jump so high.  We walked her round a dog walking field with JIC throwing tennis balls for her and Sim getting them back from her.  An hour passed really too quickly.  When it was time to leave, I felt really sorry for her.  It was almost like we were abandoning this beautifully coloured bundle of energy – Vixen that is 😉 .  Looking forward to seeing how she accepts us when we are in HER house, not kennels.  No matter how luxurious they are, they are still kennels.

For dinner, JIC drove us to a Thai restaurant in a gastro-pub called the Navigator.  Food was absolutely brilliant.  JIC and I had Duck Green Curry with sticky rice.  Hot, but not unbearably so.  Scamp had Sweet and Sour Chicken and Sim had the biggest seabass I’ve ever seen – a whole one complete with head!  We all had a sort of combo starter to share.  Quite the best meal I’ve had for a long time.  Sorry, Jimmy Spice’s, this was better.

Birds of a Feather in Kingston – 18 May 2016

Posted on by Zogman

birdsTook the bus into Kingston from Chessington railway station, it was almost taking time to rain. Absolutely pelting down. Still marvelling at a joined up travel system. Obviously designed with joined up thinking. Spoke to an old guy, like me in Marks. He was buying a hat to protect his new hearing aids from the torrential rain. Hope they did the trick. Coffee in Nero, then a walk round the shops. By the time we came out the rain had stopped so we wandered down to the river. There was a swan sitting on eggs and a heron fishing. We also saw a cormorant fishing and it looked like it had successfully captured a large eel, but was having a problem swallowing the catch. It struggled with the fish for a full ten minutes before it swam off gulping the fish tail down its throat. We watched this battle with an old man who showed us his photos of the swan’s eggs. He seemed quite interested in the birds on the river. For some reason I felt quite sorry for him. Is this me in the future?

Scamp and I walked along the riverside walk, inspecting the unusual boats that were moored along the towpath. Most had ‘notice to quit’ letters attached to them. It seemed a shame, but I suppose it’s necessary to free up moorings.

Lunch for me was a chicken wrap from a Dominican Republic stall in the market and for Scamp it was a chicken wrap. Birds of a feather!

Went to Canute and Deliah’s for dinner and for the boys to watch football while we oldies sat talking. It was also the first time for Scamp and I to see Marcie. Scamp even got a chance to hold her.

Heading in to Lundinium tomorrow.