Category: photography

Down the Green – 18 September 2024

Posted on by Zogman

This morning dawned the same as all the other days this week, bright and sunny.

Scamp though we go somewhere to make the most of this Indian Summer and I had to agree. Her first suggestion was a walk down Glasgow Green. I fancied going to Strathaven. Scamp seemed to agree, but it was obvious her heart was set on the Green, so although we headed in the general direction of Strathaven, I relented and after some twists and turns through Gorbals, we arrived at the Green and we must have been meant to go there, because we got one of the remaining two parking places.

We walked down the park and out through the McLennan arch and on along Parnie Street to the cafe at the Tron for a coffee. The Americano was bitter, but the sun was shining in through the window so I didn’t mind. Then Scamp came up with the brilliant idea of walking along Argyle Street to M&S to get sandwiches to take to the park and have a sort of picnic. Excellent idea! I chose Chicken, Sweet Potato and Black Bean salad with a smoothie and Scamp had Italian Pasta & Spinach Salad with side of mixed fruit. We piled it all carefully into a new fold-up bag Scamp had bought at the market in Jersey and walked back to the Green.

It’s a busy place, Glasgow Green at lunchtime, so we had to walk a fair distance to find an empty bench to sit at. It’s hard to believe that a week ago we were down to single figure temperatures while today we were basking in wall to wall sunshine. After lunch we went for a walk over the suspension bridge, then walked back to the car.

I’d already taken what I considered to be the PoD. It was a couple sitting on a bench among the trees. It looked ok on the computer, but improved greatly when I turned it into monochrome and the deal was sealed. PoD.

Back home, Scamp was busy in the garden again potting up a wee blue leafed plant we’d saved from the ‘junk pile’ at Klondyke, and when that was done, just general garden maintenance. I went for a walk in St Mo’s to see if there was anything else worthy of a place in Flickr. There was, but the couple on the bench was still the winner of PoD.

Tonight was a busy night in the dance class. Four couples plus two men who were gooseberries, taking turns to dance with the teacher. There wasn’t a lot of space on that tiny postage stamp of a dance floor to dance the Foxtrot in, but we managed it after taking the dance apart and working out what it would look like in Stewart & Jane’s class. It might have been fairly simple, but it was the floor craft, the dancing around folk that made it difficult tonight.

Tomorrow, Scamp is intending to go on an expedition into Glasgow and I’m going shopping in the morning with the possibility of a coffee with Fred in the afternoon.

The Messages – 17 September 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Today we went for the messages, but just for a bit of fun, we went to Morrison’s in The Fort.

Before that, Scamp was out early checking on her roses and cut three flowers which are now sitting in front of me in a vase on the coffee table. With the light in the morning coming in the front window they were easily a possible PoD.

It’s surprising the difference in prices between Morrison’s and Tesco. It’s also surprising the different range of food and drink in the two. If we had the time, we could buy half our shopping in one store and half in another, but we’d probably spend more on petrol driving between them. We got a really cheerful checkout girl who managed to wangle a free bottle bag for us because we’d bought six bottles of various alcoholic beverages. Try getting that in Tesco!

We drove home and after a quick lunch, Scamp started cutting the grass in the back garden. I volunteered to cut the front grass, but forgot that I’d then have to clean the mower. A fly move by Scamp there. Before I got inveigled into doing any more gardening I went for a walk in St Mo’s.

About halfway round the circuit, I had a wee problem with the zoom lens. It had managed to put itself into manual mode ( it should have been in ‘autofocus’ mode). I couldn’t understand what I’d done wrong this time. There were no benches to sit on while I puzzled it out, and the big boulders beside the path aren’t the most comfortable seats, but I did resort to them for a while, but could find no solution. The standard lens was working fine and so was the camera, so the problem was with the zoom lens. When I got home and checked the settings, I found the solution to the problem. This next paragraph is for my benefit.

If the camera goes into Manual mode, move the zoom switch to No 3 position and hold the button down for 1 second. That should fix it. The No 3 position is programmed to switch between manual and auto and it requires a press of 1 second to switch between them. Now remember that for next time ya daftie!!!

There, that’s me telling myself off!

Back home Scamp was making dinner. Fried potatoes and fish. The fish had come from Morrison’s today and was lovely. Scamp had opened a bottle of wine so we had a glass each to go with our dinner. A glass of wine on a Tuesday? The sun must have gone to our heads.

PoD did turn out to be the three flowers. The pink one is Gertrude Jekyll the rose bud is the winter colour for Lady of Shalott and the warm yellow one is a fully out Lady of Shalott. They were too good to miss.

Tomorrow is to be as warm as today in the west, so we probably won’t be heading east, but we might go out for a spin.

 

 

Dancin’ ( or trying to) – 14 September 2024

Posted on by Zogman

We drove over to Brookfield for the first dance class in ages.

The first dance in the unheated Brookfield Hall was a sequence dance, the Melody Foxtrot. Two tracks to start with and an extra one for Peter and Gillian because they were late. Would they do an extra track for us or for Leslie & Gordon? Maybe not, but Peter and Gillian are friends of the teachers. Petty? Me? Oh yes, but if your face don’t fit here you don’t get privileges.

First dance was the Butterfly Jive. I’ve never really sorted this one out in my head. Too many things coming at you too quickly. Scamp seems ok with it, it’s just me who’s too slow.

The tempo slowed down for the next dance which was the Four Seasons Waltz which I thought I was dancing correctly, but Scamp kept telling me I was wrong. For once, I was sure I was right because muscle memory was telling me to do one thing and Scamp was telling me something else. Eventually, after calling the adjudicator, Jane, I was proven right. It’s nice to be right … sometimes. We’d danced this waltz on Thursday and most of it was encoded in my head, I just couldn’t play it back with confidence, but Scamp could. I can usually rely on her to keep me right.

The third ‘real’ dance was a Quickstep which may have a name, but I can’t remember it. It’s quite quick, but again, muscle memory came to my rescue and the entire first section just flowed perfectly. The next section we hadn’t practised, but struggled through. It might need some homework to get the footwork fitting in perfectly, but it was much better than I anticipated.

The torture finished with a Sally Anne Cha-Cha which is just a bit of noisy fun with hand claps and shouts of “OI!”. Then we left for a quick trip into Glasgow, or so I thought.

I was heading to WEX to drop off a lens I was selling. It should have been easy, but the sat nav had found a new way that didn’t allow for roadworks or diversions. After a good half hour of going the wrong way, we eventually found the carpark and dropped off the lens at the shop. We dropped in at Nevisport where we’d had a good chat last week with one of the sales guys. Not so today. Almost none of last week’s stock was there. It had been replaces with “SALES” stock. None of which was what I was looking for. We left to have a decent cup of coffee in Waterstones and drove home empty handed. Stopped at M&S in Cumbersheugh to get some fruit then went home.

In the fading light I got today’s PoD which was a James Grieve apple on our apple tree, viewed through a LensBaby distortion lens.

Dinner was a very spicy chicken curry with an ice lolly each to cool us down. Not a bad day as far as weather was concerned, but tomorrow looks better. We’ll see.

Wandering round Glasgow – 11 September 2024

Posted on by Zogman

I drove in to Glasgow today to meet my brother.

We had planned to visit the Transport Museum, or the Riverside Museum as it’s known these days, but it was a beautiful day and it did seem a shame when we could be wandering round the streets taking photos. Anyway, I never was a fan of the Riverside Museum. The old Transport Museum had character which the new one lacked and why stack loads of cars in a vast space where petrolheads can’t get near them to look inside and remember driving that classic car? Totally pointless. The outside of the new museum is much more interesting than the inside, and the only reason I’d go there.

So, instead we walked down Buchanan Street to take some photos and so that Alex could wander round a guitar shop, looking for a new amp for his guitar. I had an ulterior motive too. I was still looking for that jacket. The waterproof one I’ve been searching for all week. I’m beginning to think it doesn’t exist, but I’ll continue looking Dug wi’ a Burst Ba’ again. I didn’t find it today, but we’d both scratched our individual itches and come away with nothing, but we’d both looked and seen.

I suggested we adjourn to Paesano to see if a pizza each would give us time to think. After lunch we went for a walk round St Enoch’s square to take some photos. For once we both went separate ways and met up again after taking a few shots of different subjects. Then it was a walk down the Clyde Walkway to admire the graffiti, and there was an entire wall that had been covered with artwork since the last time we’d been down there.

Next we took some photos of St Andrews Cathedral and its reflections on the glass walled building next door. By that time the temperature was dropping and I was aware that it was getting towards late afternoon and I was going to dance class later.

We walked back up Buchanan Street before splitting up with Alex heading for the bus and me going for my car. Some good shots today and some good nonsense talked by both of us.

I got back in time to get ready for Kirsty’s dance class. Today it was a reprise of the Rumba she’d turned into a Cha-Cha. I admit, I was lost to begin with, but after a quick run through by Kirsty and Scamp, it began to fall into place again.

PoD went to a photo of the ‘Balloon Man’. He stands in Buchanan Street in Glasgow twisting balloons into the most intricate shapes to the delight of hundreds of children every week. I was lucky, the light was just right today.

Tomorrow Scamp would like to take me to a Tea Dance in Paisley. How could I say no?

 

The Morning After – 1 September 2024

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  • Woke not quite with a hangover, but feeling a bit sick
  • Life returned to a bit more like ‘normal’ after a shower and breakfast of Weetabix and milk and a slice or two of toast with ‘fishy jam’.
  • Scamp was fine with mixed fruit and a couple of slices of toast with jam.
  • It had been raining during the night.
  • Couldn’t decide where to go today so after some discussion, said we’d walk down to the bus station and get the first bus available. Except, no services were available. It seems buses almost shut down on Sundays.
  • However, on  the way I got a photo of an ancient camera and a stoneware bottle that held ink … once upon a time, in an old dusty shop window.
  • Walked through Liberty wharf instead to get photos I’d missed last Wednesday.
  • Walked to La Frégate Cafe which is like an upturned boat.
  • Leave it well alone. Food is poor but highly priced. Building looks good.
  • Watched the Amphibious Duckws driving along the path to Elizabeth Castle.
  • Only accessible for walking at low tide.
  • We walked along the breakwater instead and had a look at the posh boats.
  • Walked back into town and had a beer (me) and a G ’n’ T (Scamp) at a pub playing old style music
  • Went to El Gato Gordo (The Fat Cat) for an early dinner. Good food.
  • Bought some tonic and walked back to hotel.
  • Thunder storms forecast tonight.

The Wedding Day – 31 August 2024

Posted on by Zogman

As has become traditional when we’re away from home, the write-up is more of a place marker than anything else. With bullet points to keep the memories fresh without taking up too much writing time.

  • A walk through a different part of the town on a dull morning
  • Found a monument to Jersey Cows!
  • One calf had found a toad
  • Wandered round the indoor market
  • But soon it was time to get dressed to impress
  • Got a taxi to La Mare Vineyard
  • The weather had improved
  • It was time for Pimms on the lawn
  • More butterflies in the garden
  • Alex and family arrived later
  • Just in time to see the happy couple’s entrance
  • Saw some folk we hadn’t seen in years
  • The meal was delicious
  • The dancing was hilarious
  • I took over 300 photos here are some:

 

 

More good news – 26 August 2024

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Off to see the nurse this morning.

We drove up to the health centre where Scamp left to walk to the town centre to get some English notes at the bank, only to find that the bank was closed. Today was an English bank holiday, but not in Scotland according to NLC, but what do they know, they are only the council.

While Scamp was at the closed bank, I was getting some good news from the Nurse/Sister. I’ve been taken off another of my meds. The nurse took my BP both sitting and standing and was happy to take me off another pill I didn’t need. I’m still being monitored and have another appointment to attend in a month or so, but it’s another step in the right direction.

I drove up to the town centre to meet Scamp who had sent me a message about the bank and I had sent her a message to say I was on my way to meet her. Neither message reached its target. Maybe one of the masts was down or maybe it’s just Cumbersheugh. Anyway, when we got home the messages appeared and we had lunch.

Later in the afternoon, plans were made to lighten the loads I carry on my shoulder. Two cameras is just too much to carry with associated lenses. Just for a test I took only the A6500 with two light lenses and it was comfortable for a walk in St Mo’s. That’s actually lighter than one A7iii camera without a lens. I’m beginning to think I may have to reduce the load I’m carrying on my shoulder, although the quality of the final image will suffer. At present it’s just an idea, whether I can carry it through is another thing entirely

Today’s walk to St Mo’s got me a PoD I was happy with. It was a drone fly or maybe a large hover fly on a Scabious flower head. I quite liked it, I think because of the out of focus background. The weather wasn’t exactly warm, but it certainly wasn’t cold and thankfully it was dry. More rain forecast for tomorrow.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending getting her nails done and I’m still clearing up more stuff to go to the skips.

 

 

Rain – 25 August 2024

Posted on by Zogman

It rained today from early morning until late at night.

Actually it did stop around 6pm when, for an hour, the rain stopped, the sun shone and I managed to get a handful of photos of flowers in the garden. After that the rain returned as heavy as ever and I think it’s still raining. Usually I say that the gardens need it, but the gardens are fed up with it too and just want some late season warmth and sunshine. An Indian summer we used to call it.

In a way, the rain was a blessing. It forced us to start tidying things up. Making bundles and packing those bundles away for better days to come, but first there were some messages to get.

Normally Monday is the shopping day, but we’d meant to do it yesterday, then yesterday slipped from our grasp and it turned into today. We couldn’t let it go any further or else there would be no food in the house, so we braced ourselves and drove to Tesco to buy some much needed supplies. Just the essentials today. Fruit, veg, milk and some sausages. No wine, no beer, just the bare necessities.

Then just as quickly as we finished our lunch, and read a few chapters in our books and played the occasional game of Angry Birds or finished a jigsaw for some, it was almost dinner time.

Just before dinner was when I got the PoD. It’s a bunch of Japanese Anemones with a bit of bokeh in the background courtesy of a hand made steel Allium that holds the raindrops beautifully. Thanks again for that Hazy.

Also around that time we found a PDF of the Holiday Recipes had arrived in the WhatsApp mailbox. Thank you for that Neil. Very well presented. It’s now downloaded and will be printed off tomorrow.

Spoke to Jamie later and agreed that stripping paint is not the most pleasant of ways to use your weekend, but sometimes it just has to be done. If we could string a few dry days together here, I’d like to give the window sills a fresh coat of paint, but if present weather systems are anything to go by, it would need to very quick drying paint!

I have an appointment with the nurse tomorrow to review a possible change in my meds. Hope it’s not as wet as today.

Dancin’ – 24 August 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Today we drove to Brookfield for the first dance class in about three weeks.

It started well, with a Mayfair Quickstep which isn’t a quickstep, but that’s splitting hairs. Two tracks to make sure we were well warmed up, because it’s summer in Brookfield and they don’t have heating on in the morning until winter.

The first ‘real’ dance was a new Cha-Cha, new to us, anyway, but made up from figures we already knew. They were put together in different patterns, though. I thought I’d filmed it on my phone, but when I got home and looked at it, I’d a photo of Jane, the teacher, but no video. I really need to learn how to use this phone. I expect that someone, somewhere has a video of the new routine, but it’s not me!

Next up was a Viennese waltz. You see folk dancing this in Strictly and it seems to be all about blokes in evening suits and ladies with sticky out dresses ( that’s a technical description, by the way), twirling around on the floor, but it’s much more complicated than that. Oh boy, is it more complicated, and fast too. We did the baby steps quite well to start with, even that was difficult, but when they started mixing up Half Natural Turns and Half Reverse Turns with Full Natural and Full Reverse my brain sort of gave up and went to sleep. I don’t suppose we’ll ever go to Vienna and neither of us speak Viennese, so what’s the use of learning their dances? Huh?

The next one was more down to our earth. It was the Tina Tango danced to Ed Sheehan’s Shivers. I believe Scamp could dance this blindfold. I also believe that Scamp think I DO dance it blindfold which would account for stubbed toes for both of us. Anyway it was much easier that the Viennese waltz.

The final dance of the day was the Vogue Waltz. I can just remember dancing this on a Perth weekend. Bits of it were stuck in my memory slots, but other bits of it were Vague rather than Vogue, but we struggled on until I was almost fluent in it. Then they sprung a curve ball. We would only dance one round of the steps, then move on to a new partner. Woah! Chaos reigned for the three or four minutes this new routine was being danced. I’m so used to Scamp calling out instructions quietly in my ear that I though all the ladies did it. They didn’t, but a few of them laughed!! It was actually fun.

We drove home from Brookfield with our heads spinning with new and half remembered dance routines. We may try them out some time in the living room, just not today.

Lunch was a sandwich for both of us and we’d agreed that dinner would be provided by Golden Bowl.

Today’s PoD was a vase of flowers that sits on the kitchen window sill. Every time I’ve passed it for the last couple of weeks I’ve told myself I was going to photograph it, and today I was true to my word. I just liked the composition.

Tomorrow we are maybe going shopping.

Dancin’ – 22 August 2024

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Bright sunny day that developed the look of rain, which never appeared until evening.

We were going dancing today at Glenburn, but before that, Scamp went shopping for bread and milk, so that after lunch we could get changed into dancing clothes and go.

We didn’t dance as much as we’d thought we would because we were sitting with a couple from Largs. The lady struck up a conversation with Scamp while we men sat around and chipped in the occasional comment, as men do.

We did manage a fairly lengthy quickstep without making it too obvious that we were repeating a lot. I attempted Fishtails, but need a lot more practise on the actual strategy of fishtails before I can confidently insert them into full dance. There are lots of little steps like that we know and just need the confidence to add them to our short routine. Practise, that’s what we need the most. Anyway, it passed an afternoon that otherwise we’d have used up sitting around the house.

Drove home and had an M&S curry for dinner. For the first time I was distinctly unimpressed with the Chicken Tikka which was just bland with nothing to commend it in my opinion.

We watched episode 1 of a series called Vienna Blood, set in 1906 Vienna. I drew comparison immediately with The Turkish Detective which even with occasional subtitles was a much better series. Scamp took issue with the close-ups of staring eyes. Maybe episode 1 was a good place to stop.

The PoD was a robin that stopped for a quick splash in the birdbath in the afternoon. Another swimmer I saw today was a snail, complete with shell in an old mushroom tub sunk in the raised bed, I’d originally poured some no alcohol beer into it to see if the smell would attract slugs to drown in it, but they appeared uninterested in pretend beer. This snail, however wasn’t drowning in the now rainwater tub, it was actually swimming. I’ve once seen a big black slug paddling in puddles with its ‘head’ above water, but this snail seemed to be floating in the water. Maybe the shell holds enough air to make it buoyant. I must investigate that.

Tomorrow we may be going east in search of some sun.