Category: Macro

An injured dog – 3 July 2022

Posted on by Zogman

This morning, Scamp suggested a walk along the Forth & Clyde Canal. I agreed.

We drove to Auchinstarry and got what was probably the last space in the car park. I’d decided to bring two cameras with me, one with a macro lens and one with a medium long zoom, to reduce the need to change lenses out in the wild. That meant I needed the new rucksack. Actually, it worked out quite well, because although there were patches of blue sky, there were also a lot of heavy looking rain clouds. Having the rucksack meant I could carry my rain jacket but be free to walk with just a jersey and trousers. Boots, of course were mandatory for both of us and of course, Scamp chose to wear her rain jacket, just to make sure it wouldn’t rain.

Lots of folk walking dogs or walking in family groups and loads of cyclists. I couldn’t blame them, it was a lovely morning. I’d only seen a couple of hover flies in St Mo’s during the last few weeks, but there were literally clouds of them along the canal. I think the reason for that is the cow parsley and hogweed flowers are out along the side of the towpath and those flowers are very attractive to hover flies. I’d put the 50mm macro lens on the A7, but it was having a hard time focusing on the insects because there was a stiff breeze which made the big flower head bob about a lot. I wished I’d packed the long, heavy 105mm macro instead. But I carried on regardless and did manage a couple of shots that were sharp enough to keep.

We walked as far as Twechar where we left the canal tow path and crossed the road on to the old railway line and walked it. There are some lovely landscape shots to be had there and I decided I’d remove the macro lens and stick on the kit lens instead. I was half way through the transfer when a cyclist appeared heading the way we’d come. He said he thought I’d an injured dog when he saw the brown and dull green rucksack. Scamp told him “No, it’s just a man who always needs to change things!” He laughed and said that was perfectly all right! I apologised and we went our separate ways after I’d taken a few landscape photos.

For the last four or five years a great amount of work has been going on to improve the flow or the Garrel Burn. It’s finally finished and although the path I used to walk has not seen a great improvement, it would appear that the burn now meanders rather than flows through the wetland. We walked part of it on our way back to the car. Maybe next time we’ll take the Wibbly Wobbly Way and see what improvements there are.

We went home via Lidl to get a chicken for dinner and came home with about £50 worth of chicken, bread, cherries, kitchen scales and a bottle of gin. How I wish we had a Lidl rather than a manky Aldi in Cumbersheugh.

We watched an action packed British F1 GP with dangerous looking crashes and the lead changing hands with every second that passed. Glad to see that Max isn’t having things all his own way.

Spoke to Jamie and heard how the roof problem is still on hold until the bats survey is complete. Glad we don’t have bats in our belfry. Also got advice on completing the mandatory LF test for boarding the ship. Thanks for that Jamie.

PoD was a picture of an, as yet unknown bright pink plant growing by the side of the railway path. If anyone recognises it, an ID would be appreciated.

Tomorrow we have no plans.

 

 

Squaring the circle – 29 June 2022

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Today we were in the market for some supports to help stop the sag.

We drove to Torwood and argued about discussed the various options for a support for at least one of Scamp’s roses. They really are massive and a bit lanky. Eventually we settled on two different, totally different support systems. One was interlocking metal rods that create a pentagonal frame for a basically round bush in a square pot. The other was three bamboo hoops, so essentially six legs, again supporting a round bush in a square pot with the addition of some coarse garden twine. We’ll see how they survive the summer into the autumn.

With the roses now better supported and feeling uplifted ourselves we drove back via Tesco for some real essentials. Just stuff for dinner which would be the leftover curry from yesterday with the addition of one of those ‘real essentials’, decent Garam Masala. The stuff we’d been using was 90% cinnamon and 10% floor sweepings. Not good. On the way out I spotted Fred buying some flowers for Mrs Fred and we had a wee blether for a while, comparing books we’d lent each other. I knew Scamp would be waiting patiently in the car for me, but I made my excuse and left agreeing to phone Fred later in the week.

After we’d both cut ourselves to ribbons squeezing the rose bushes into their new cordons, Scamp pruned some of the plants that were running to seed and I pruned the highest of the roses that were also going over.

With the garden work done just in time to avoid a heavy shower, we waited a while for the sun to come out and went our usual ways. Scamp went to do more rearranging of plants in the garden and I went for a quick walk round St Mo’s. Two circuits gave me what I thought was a skinny little flying ant, but what turned out to be a Sabre Wasp. That became PoD.

I’d a painting to do today for one of our dance teachers. It’s been promised since March and I kept putting it off to do other ones. Today I finished it, mounted it and framed it. We’re intending to go to a Tea Dance tomorrow, so I can deliver it to him then. Hope he likes it.

Later we watched the Sewing Bee and Scamp correctly predicted the winner. Because the SB was on at the same time as Andy Murray’s second round match, we missed the thrilling second half, having watched the first half earlier. If you don’t want to know the score, look away now …

Right we’re back again. Since anyone who was interested, already knows who won and the rest of you aren’t interested, I’m not going to tell you.

Scamp was really pleased that one of the plants she’d been given when we were down at Jamie and Simonne’s was flowering. It’s a little pink geranium. She sent them a picture of it and also a picture of a rose called “Simply the Best” that looks quite startling just now. Of course she got good comments on both and she deserves them.

Tomorrow, as I said, we’re hoping to go dancing at Paisley. Other than that, nothing much planned.

Showers – 28 June 2022

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It rained today, not all day, but occasional heavy showers all day.

We spent the morning looking for a pair of glasses. My glasses. My good glasses, not the cheapo readers I use most of the time, the ones I’m wearing now. No, they were the much more expensive ones I got from the opticians and the ones that, I now realise, don’t give me eye strain. We searched high and low for them, literally. We searched up on the top of cupboards and down under the settee in the living room. We looked in the kitchen, in the toilet, in the bathroom and worst of all in ‘my’ room where strange things are buried under more strange things. Eventually we gave up and had a cup of coffee each and didn’t speak about where they could be or where we hadn’t looked yet. For about half an hour we tried to put the glasses out of our heads instead of on our heads. Finally I frisked the bed for the second, or was that the third time? There, in the middle of the bed I felt a bump that shouldn’t be there. That bump was my glasses. They had been playing ‘hide and seek’ with me, and had chosen a smart hiding place, where I’d left them after I was finished reading in bed this morning. It only took us about three hours to find them. The good thing about the search was that it vastly increased my step count for the day. So, if I found my glasses, why am I wearing readers? Because the ‘lost’ pair had been bad and have been shut in the bedroom all day as a punishment. Furthermore, they have been warned that if they try that ‘hide and seek’ game again, they will be banished to ‘my’ room with all the terrors it contains!

After a lovely lunch of fried potatoes and the leftover chicken goujons from Sunday, Scamp declared that rather than go for a walk round St Mo’s, she’d rather do the ironing. I chose St Mo’s and took the Sony with its big, heavy macro lens, hoping for some wet weather shots taken in the sun during one of the dry spells. The dry spells occurred, but the sun was absent today. Instead I found a Ringlet butterfly, some more spider nests and best of all, a Plume Moth. So small and insignificant you’d pass it by, but if you look closely at this insect you will see its wings are far to narrow to carry it aloft. The reason is that when it lands, it doesn’t fold its wings along its body as most moths do, it rolls them up neatly and holds them out at its side, making a sort of cross shape.

Two of the great things about the Sony A7iii are Silent Shooting and Continuous Shooting. I won’t make Jamie yawn by explaining what they mean, although you can probably guess, I’ll just say that it means you can take lots of pictures in a very short time if you keep the shutter pressed. I managed to take about 200 shots of the Plume Moth in about two minutes. That meant I had 200 shots to look through when I got home.

After I’d done the first cull and got rid of about 150 of them, I started making tonight’s dinner which was Carrot and Lentil Curry. An old favourite and although it wasn’t as good as Scamp’s version, it filled a wee space.

PoD went to the Plume Moth.

Almost felt sorry for Serena Williams getting beat in the first round at Wimbledon. That must be a tough fall from grace.

No plans for tomorrow yet. Weather looks similar to today with perhaps less rain.

 

 

Coffee in Costa – 23 June 2022

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We were booked to meet Isobel for coffee in Costa.

The two ladies didn’t have coffee, they each had a latte, which is coffee for those who don’t like coffee. I had a cortado which is coffee for those who like cups without handles. I still can’t get used to seeing Isobel without her glasses on. Since she’s had a cataract removed, she doesn’t seem to need glasses. It’s still strange to me. Scamp had driven to the Town Centre in her car, and she drove all three of us down to the Village with me sitting like Lord Muck in the back!

With Isobel saved a walk to the bus stop and then a walk through the Village to her house, we two drove on to the Garden Centre because Scamp wanted a pair of semi-circular metal supports for her roses, to keep the heavy flower heads from falling down. We couldn’t find any. I suggested we try B&Q. They did have what we were looking for, but they weren’t nearly strong enough looking, so we went home via Tesco of course.

After lunch I thought I’d better wash the car, because I’m taking Scamp and Jeanette for afternoon refreshments at Moira’s house, to christen her new summerhouse. I couldn’t have Jeanette sitting in a mucky car, certainly not one covered in seagull crap. That spent a good half hour and gave me a chance to listen to the end of ‘Baggage’ Alan Cumming’s excellent autobiography.

With the wee Blue car glistening in occasional glimpses of sunshine, I went over to St Mo’s with two cameras. One had the long, heavy macro lens and the other had the short, but still heavy Lensbaby 35 attached. Found today’s PoD which I think is either a trap for unwary insects or more likely a nest for mummy spider’s spiderlings when they hatch from their eggs. Either way it made a strange abstract looking object that could actually be a design for a post-modern building! Or am I dreaming?

A seat in the sun in the  garden was calling to us after a fairly successful chicken stir-fry I managed to make. No drinks were drunk this time, just tea for me and coffee for Scamp. Tomorrow may be different for at least one of us.

I watched the first episode of Slough House. Hazy, you can tell Neil that I completely agree. The typecasting of Lamb is perfect. So too was River Cartwright, exactly what I thought he would look like. Roddy Ho is the only one who wasn’t quite spot on, IMHO. Brilliant television.

Tomorrow I’m booked to Scamp and Jeanette and James will bring them back. That leaves me with a free afternoon which would be great but it looks like rain, I’m afraid!

Gardener, Electrician, Bin Man – 21 June 2022

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A few tasks to complete today, but nothing onerous.

First thing to do was to remove the old solar powered lights from the tree and the fence. The tree lights were easy to strip out, but I was a bit concerned when I tried to remove the staples that held the fence lights in place because I found the cable had been cut. Can’t really see how anyone could reach into cut it, so for now I’m keeping an open mind on it. I tried stripping back the insulation on the wires and joining up the copper wire inside, but the lights still won’t work. Cheap and cheerful describes them perfectly.

The new, much shorter set was fairly easy to install and, once Scamp had shown me where she wanted them, they were quickly stapled in place. It’s still not dark enough just now at just after 10.30pm for the sensor to switch from collecting light from the sky to giving out light from the little LED lights.

Next on the list was lunch and after that I’d a trip to the skips to do. One bag of Small Electrical, one big bag of Household, one bag of magazines and a little bag of dead or dying batteries. All done and dusted in ten minutes, plus travelling time of course.

Drove back to see Fred who was cutting his grass with his new battery powered mower. We had a blether for a while and I gave him the latest Slow Horses book I’d finished this morning and he gave me three in return, all by authors I’d read but the book titles were new to me. I think I won in that exchange.

Went home via Tesco for ‘real’ essentials, bread and potatoes but also with a punnet of strawberries and one of raspberries too. Took the Sony and the big macro lens over to St Mo’s and got a few photos of a Common Blue damselfly. That was the only decent photo I got and it automatically became PoD.

It was warm enough to sit in the garden before and after dinner which was the leftovers from Sunday’s dinner, reheated.

We got a letter from the bank, addressed to The Manager of a group Scamp used to run. She’s tried to write, phone, email them to say the group was disbanded about fifteen years ago and even then she was no longer involved in it. Still we get the letters once or twice a year. I thought I’d try a little humour (With a bank? I hear you say!). This is the returned letter that will go in the post tomorrow.

Speaking about tomorrow. It looks like being a decent enough day with the chance of dry weather. I think we should take it while it’s on offer. Other than that, we have no plans.

Walking in the woods – 15 June 2022

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We went out early, because the sun was shining. A good decision.

Spoke to Hazy first thing and heard about the predicted temperature down south. I don’t think I’d like to live in that sort of heat. Ok to have it on holiday, but not all the time. However, things seem to be ticking along nicely there and Neil is feeling a bit better.

We were lucky that the DPD man arrived fairly early to pick up a parcel, going to Jamie & Simonne, then Scamp chose today’s destination which was Drumpellier Park. A walk in the woods and an ice cream cone at the finish. It was a lovely morning walking through the trees. Didn’t see any deer today, but lots of squirrels. Lovely light through the trees for me to photograph and the 99 cones were welcome after the walk.

Drove home for lunch and a chance for me to process the morning’s photos, before heading out again to get some more and hopefully a dragonfly or two in St Mo’s. As it happened, a Common Blue damselfly was the best I could find.

Back home, Scamp had cut the front grass while I was off on my safari, and was relaxing in the garden. I decided to join her, she with a Pimms and me with a bottle of beer. Sat and read for an hour or so before processing today’s second lot of photos.

Dinner tonight was a decent paella. I don’t know what I did different this time other than use both green and red peppers instead of just red, but it was that little bit better than my usual version.

PoD was a little Speedwell flower.

Maybe going in to Glasgow tomorrow. Scamp has lunch booked with her pal.

 

We shall go to the ball – 11 June 2022

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And the balcony too!

Scamp was on the computer first thing this morning. Her flying fingers quickly netted us a week (hopefully) in the sun, sailing round the Adriatic again. What a clever girl she is. I know I couldn’t have done that in such a short time. A wee while to wait, but that’s sometimes a good thing. No rush, and time to look forward to the experience.

With the technical and financial details completed, we sat back and dug deep into our memories of strange sounding names of places far away. We did notice the rain falling, but felt obliged to ignore it, because it looks like we’ll be going abroad this year after a long wait.

Ah, but back to reality. It was raining. The wind was blowing a hoolie, and we didn’t have anything planned for dinner. Scamp had hung some washing out to dry (or blow away) and we walked down to the shops to get some chicken for the dinner which would be Butter Chicken from an easy cook-in sauce mix. Back home we had judged it perfectly, because within half an hour it was bucketing with rain. We got the clothes in just before the rain started. Then Scamp made the marinade for the chicken and started ironing while I made some flat bread for the dinner. After that I made myself scarce and took the Sony A7 with the big macro lens to St Mo’s to annoy some insects.

Found a bit fat spider on a thistle and a lot of little flies on grass flowers, then got PoD, a plantain, not a Caribbean plantain, but a little weed you see every day, but don’t realise is a wild flower. I also found a wild orchid. Not as pretty perhaps as the ones we saw on Skye, but nicely detailed. Both are on Flickr.

Watched Maleficent which we both thought we’d seen before, but agreed we hadn’t after the first fifteen minutes. It might have been Maleficent2 or 3 or however many there have been. Anyway, it filled in an hour and a half of innocent fun with a few ‘funnies’ thrown in to lighten the dark gloom of the story.

The Butter Chicken was disappointing, we both agreed. No real flavour in the chicken sauce, despite being marinaded. Not a kit we’d use again. The flatbreads too, fell rather flat. ‘Could do better’ was the comment from both of us.

Well done to Scamp this morning for knowing when and how much to push!

No plans for tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a less windy and drier day.

 

The day that the rains came down – 8 June 2022

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And stayed all day.

I decided that I’d let the day simmer along and hopefully the rain would stop or maybe I’d find something useful to do. The latter came first, but ultimately the former happened.

I had at least half a dozen boxes of bread ingredients that have been sitting on a unit in the living room for, well, ages. I picked the bottom one and started mixing up a loaf. The actual loaf was a Swiss Farmer’s Loaf and it started out as a sticky dough and ended up looking nothing like the picture in the booklet said it would. I think this is only the second failure I’ve had. I say failure, but it was perfectly edible, it just didn’t look like the book said. Probably my fault more than theirs. It was a good way to while away an hour or so of a day when I’d no intention of going out anyway, so no real loss.

After lunch it began to look as if the sun might just make an appearance, but there were no guarantees. Scamp had started making a couple of sultana cakes. She was halfway through the process when the mixer made a strange noise. When we let it cool for a while and tried again, the problem was still there. Another one with no user serviceable parts inside, so it was down to hand beating the mixture. Of course, I couldn’t do that, so Scamp did it all by herself. Probably better really. I’d just have made a mess.

I went out for a walk in the drizzle with the Sony. Thankfully the rain soon dried up and left behind clouds of little flies that got in my eyes up my nose and into my mouth when I was walking. I did get a photo of a much less invasive fly. It just sat on top of a desiccated weed and allowed me to photograph it. It also gave me a chance to use some of the more esoteric functions of the camera. Only available if the correct buttons are pressed in the correct order. That’s the Sony way! The fly became PoD. It was really tiny, about 3mm long. Got home to find Scamp’s bread coming out of the oven, smelling lovely.

Dinner tonight was Fish ’n’ Oven Chips. So much easier than deep frying and almost as good.

It was really dull for most of the day, but tomorrow looks a bit better. Hopefully I’m taking Scamp’s wee red car down to the village to get a new exhaust, then we’re booked for taking Shona to Falkirk. That’s where the planning ends. We’ll see what happens.

Maybe one more good day – 6 June 2022

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We went for the messages and I posted a parcel. Those were the highlights of another sunny, warm day.

I phoned Jim Dickson’s garage first thing this morning and Scamp’s wee red car goes in to the car hospital on Thursday to have its rear box replaced. No, that’s not a euphemism, it’s the last part of the exhaust system. The bit furthest from the engine. It’s hanging on by a thread at present, so hopefully after Thursday it will be a quieter wee red car.

With that done we drove to Tesco to get the messages. Just the usual things plus a bottle of wine and a bottle of gin. While Scamp was filling the trolley, I paid for, and posted a parcel to Hazy. We piled all the messages into the boot of my car and drove off to Calders garden centre to get some compost. We were also going to get some chopped bark to act as a mulch on the plant pots. The bark forms a layer that stops the water evaporating in the warm sun we’re expecting to stay with us for months, well, weeks. Or to be more realistic, a few days. It didn’t matter, anyway, because they only had a massive bale of the stuff. We bought the compost and left the bark.

Back home and after lunch Scamp was working in the garden and I went out in the car to get some photos up on Fannyside Moor. Unfortunately my parking space had been taken over by two workies lorries because they were repairing a damaged power line. It looked as if they were going to be there all day, so I changed my destination to the Luggie, but I’d forgotten that part of the road was being resurfaced and there was a diversion. As usual with NLC there was one sign pointing left before the roadworks with a bit sign “DIVERSION”. After that, nothing. No indication of how to get where you wanted to go. No more diversion signs. They should have put up one big one that said

YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN NOW MATE!!

Finally found my way to the station car park at Greenfaulds, got parked and went for a walk along the Luggie Water. Every year at this time some trees beside the water get covered in creepy looking webs, not spider webs, but ones created by Ermine Moth caterpillars. I remember that name because when I used to fish on the Clyde and a hatch of Ermine Moths came on, the fish wouldn’t look at anything other than that particular insect. The Netherburn folk used to call them Herman Mofs. More like Herman Munster!

It wasn’t the caterpillars that got PoD, it was a quick shot of a couple of ants crawling over an unlucky Water Avens wildflower. It’s the wild version of a Geum.

The other remarkable thing was a bright red railway engine, stuck at a signal just before Greenfaulds Station. It had a nameplate that read “Christine” and a message “Hans-Georg Werner – Thank you & Good Luck” After some research I found out that this was a retrial present for Hans-Georg after he left his post as CEO of DB Cargo UK, and Christine is his wife. The engine was covered in pictures of gliders, apparently he is a glider pilot in his spare time. It’s amazing what you find after one chance photo.

I suggested we water the garden because it was such a warm day and the flowers, especially, need the extra moisture. It’s quite a relaxing thing to do on a warm evening.

Tonight we had a traditional Monday dinner of pasta with tomato sauce. I had the basic pasta dinner, but Scamp had some salmon left over from yesterday, so she used that with the pasta. I had some anchovies with just a little bit of Scamp’s salmon.

Maybe we’ll manage just one more warm day before the weather breaks. Scamp is booked for coffee tomorrow morning and we’re both visiting Margie for more of her stories in the afternoon.

Finally getting my hands dirty – 3 June 2022

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About time too!

Went out this morning to get some bread from Tesco and hopefully post some photos to Hazy. The bread was no problem, but the post office was shut, as was the local one in Condorrat. Don’t blame me, blame Mrs McQueen and her Platignum Jubbly holiday. Ok, if I’d posted the parcel yesterday it wouldn’t have been a problem, but I didn’t. I still blame Mrs McQueen for it. If not her, then Boris. That’s the obvious fall back, Blame Boris.

Came home with the beautifully wrapped parcel and a loaf plus a couple of bars of chocolate for being a good boy. With that done, and not done, we started in the garden. I found a single pea had germinated from the five I’d planted in the raised bed, so I carefully dug it out and put it aside. Then I added some compost to the raised bed to replace all the stuff I’d dug out since the end of last years growing season. After that, this year’s planting could begin.

I planted four peas, plus the pea I’d recovered earlier in the back row of the raised bed. Next line was four curly kale plants. While I was planting them, I found what looked like another kale plant left over from last year. It turned out to be a piece of kale stem with a little green leaf sprouting from the middle of it. There was no sign of any root on what you might call a cutting, but the leaf looked healthy. Just for luck, I planted it with the rest of the kale. Next line was four leeks and that was the raised bed about full.

I’d five leeks left, so I emptied out last year’s plant pot that held about six leeks. Chucked half of the compost away and all the leek roots. Mixed what was left with some fresh composts and refilled the pot, then planted the remaining five leeks in the pot. Watered everything in as all the gardening programmes say you should and left then to sink or swim. Meanwhile, Scamp was potting up her new hydrangea and rearranging other plants to give them a better chance of catching some sunshine.

At that point, I felt I’d done more than enough gardening, so I grabbed a camera and a 105mm macro and went over to St Mo’s hoping to see a dragonfly I’d seen yesterday. I didn’t find it, but what I did find was a lazy Large Red damselfly which was compliant enough to sit there while I took a few photos of it. One of them made PoD.

Dinner tonight was a pizza we bought in Sainsbury’s yesterday and very nice it was too. Sainsbury’s always have produced good pizzas.

We may be dancing tomorrow or we may not. It seems there are only two couples definitely going to class. Hopefully we’ll find out in the morning. Mrs McQueen has a lot to answer for, I’ll tell you that, her and her Platignum Jubbly celebration.