Category: photography

Goodbye 2024 – 31 December 2024

Posted on by Zogman

A bit wet and windy for the last day in 2024.

The morning was devoted to cleaning up the dining room table and it did look better for a while before I messed it up again, but I did get two of my three targets on my To Do list ticks off and another one partially ticked off. It’s an on going list of shortcuts to use in Lightroom.

It wasn’t a day for going out anywhere, even if it was the last day of 2024, but of course I managed an hour out in the park, because that’s what I do. Managed to get two half decent photos, one of which with a bit of jiggery pokery became PoD. It’s a view down that path I’m addicted to. This time it’s sepia toned with a couple of spots of colour to catch the eye.

I bumped into an old friend from school in the park and we walked around St Mo’s discussing the world and our various aches and pains. It’s been ages since I’ve seen her and I thought she was looking a lot older – she probably thought the same of me. We said our goodbyes as the light was failing, she headed back to the park to walk her dog and I plodded off home. Hope you get better soon Susan.

Dinner tonight was a pizza from M&S that was getting near its use by date, but a tin of anchovies on it cheered it up nicely.

I think that is as much as I’m going to do tonight. I might read another chapter of the book Hazy gave me. Really enjoying it H. You always pick such good books. Strange, but interesting too.

We might treat ourselves to a glass of something to see in the bells. I pity the poor folk in Edinburgh who have had their fireworks display cancelled at the last minute because of the high winds and torrential rain that’s predicted for tonight. Or the Australian couple we met on that ill fated train on Friday who were going to Edinburgh hoping to travel to Inverness for “The Bells”. Hope you managed to get there in all the snow, rain, thunder and gusty winds.

That’s about it for now. Hope all our lot and anyone else who reads my ramblings are well and have a Happy and Healthy New Year.

 

Sweeties – 30 December 2024

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A day of blog writing and posting as well as Flickr posting, but almost up to date now … I hope!

Another windy day with bins blown over and rain lashing the windows. Definitely not a for going out anywhere. That’s probably why I sacrificed it to the great god Catch-Up. Four photos posted on Flickr and about the same number of blogs written and posted.

Because of the weather, it was a still life photo for today. A tub of Jelly Beans produced the subject and a small sherry glass was the support. Lighting was courtesy of a small COB (Chip On Board) light. An old piece of velvet covered the parts I didn’t want anyone to see and eight photos and just over half an hour later I had today’s PoD. I actually like it.

Scamp and I had Chicken and Pea Traybake for dinner. A very easy dinner that works well, because everything is cooked in the oven with minimal fuss.

In the late afternoon the wind died away and so did the rain, although more rain is predicted for tomorrow, but thankfully the snow warning has been removed for our area.

We watched a woeful special Christmas episode of Death in Paradise. I could just hear Simonne cringing at the accents.

Maybe we’ll get out for a walk tomorrow, just because it’s the last day of 2024.

Not your normal journey home – 27 December 2024

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Last night the bags were packed and we were ready to leave.

This a long story, so get comfortable and listen.

Today after breakfast we did a quick once over to make sure we hadn’t left anything behind and said our goodbyes to Simonne and got in Jamie’s car and were driven to Stowmarket for the first stage of our journey home. Said our goodbyes to Jamie and thanked him for the last week and walked over to the platform to wait for the train.

The platform was a lot busier than we’d expected, given that Christmas two days past. We were crammed into the vestibule of the train after using sharp elbows to make sure we would get in, even if we didn’t get a seat. We were the lucky ones. Others were left on the platform.

We both finally got a seat on the train, but it was an uncomfortable journey to Peterborough. I was beginning to worry that we wouldn’t make the connection, but when we got to Peterborough we found out that the Edinburgh train was running six minutes late. The six minutes eventually turned to 28 minutes, but we did get into the shelter as people who were heading for other destinations left its warmth for their trains.

Finally the train arrived and we were in the first class carriage, only to find that two folk were in our seats. Luckily an assistant was on our coach and the two chancers were ejected and we had seats and on our way. All the seats were taken on our coach and some folk were standing in the vestibule. We did manage to get a cup of coffee, a glass of red wine and Scamp had two buttered crumpets and I had a soggy microwaved veg sausage roll cold on the outside and hot as hell inside. My, First Class standards were falling. But worse was to come.

At the next stop the carriage became a lot busier with folk standing in the aisles and by the time we reached Doncaster there was no room to move in the carriage.

At the staff changeover at Newcastle, the crowding was a bit less and Scamp asked one of the attendants if she could please have a bottle of water and got the reply of “NO! I’m far too busy!” Standards certainly are slipping!

A family of four were taking up some empty seats as the crowding reduced. One of them went looking for water, but got the same reply from the harridan. Eventually after others were asking too, she relented and gave out water, but point blank refused to hand out beer or wine. I think a letter of complaint will be heading to LNER.

We were running 2 hours late by the time we eventually reached Edinburgh and just missed our connection to Croy. Then there was an automatic alarm telling everyone to evacuate the station immediately. Not knowing how long we’d have to get back in and what state the trains would be in, I suggested we walk down to the bus station and get the bus to Glasgow and a taxi home from there. Scamp agreed and we picked up another woman who had the same idea but didn’t know how to get to the bus station, so we three found the entrance went our separate ways to our buses.

We reached Buchanan Street without further problems just as the X3 arrived. So instead of getting a taxi, we chose the X3 to make sure we did actually get home after such an eventful and avoidable day.

PoD was a lovely sunset as we crossed the River Tyne at Newcastle.

Things I’ll remember for a long time:

  • Crammed in a train that was 100% full.
  • The arrogance of the Harridan.
  • The lack of inspectors or staff on the train.
  • A long, long way home.

Tomorrow will hopefully be a day of relaxation.

 

’Twas the night before Christmas – 24 December 2024

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And all through the house folk were doing things. Mainly cooking things because lots of prep was needed for the big day.

In the morning, Simonne and Jamie took Vixen to a Run Free field a few miles away where the dog could run through the mud and the bushes without fear of other dogs getting in the way. It sounds like great fun as long as you discount the cleaning up afterwards.

We stayed home to make sure nobody ran away with the house or the food that was being prepared for tomorrow. All was not sweetness and light, however. Scamp had picked up a nasty little sickness bug and had been up all night. She took the sensible approach and had lots to drink and nothing to eat for most of the day and was feeling a bit better as evening approached.

I was a bit like a knotless thread. My First Aid training didn’t really cover sickness and vomiting, but I was pretty sure I could make a decent hand bandage if anyone cut themselves. Thankfully they didn’t so I didn’t have to test those skills.

When the Run Free folk returned I did go for a walk while Scamp was resting. Just a short walk, across the road, up past the school and into one of those strange fields that just sort of blend into the road. No fences, no gates to open, just fields that become tarmac roads. I’d been watching the sun gradually sliding towards evening and wanted a few shots of a line of trees that I presume followed a real fence, dividing up two fields. One of the few that I took got PoD. I also took some shots of the house we were staying in looking quite resplendent with its new dormer windows and straighter roof. Not completely straight though, but just enough to make it practical without losing the 16th century look. A fine line to tread.

After dinner, Scamp was feeling a bit better and ready to face the day when Santa would come to all good boys and girls. I wasn’t holding out much hope for my chances of anything other than a lump of coal.

Things I’ll remember:

  • Being nurse for a day.
  • The relief when Scamp said she was feeling better.
  • Vixen energised after her free running at Run Free.
  • Jamie, practical as always – getting things done.
  • Being impressed by the new dormer windows. So much better that the strangely named ‘Catslide’ dormers.
  • That ‘nearly’ sunset

Tomorrow we’ll be looking out for Santa!

At the seaside – 23 December 2024

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Jamie had organised a walk on the beach, twice today.

Simonne was working today, but Jamie had a plan. He drove us to Southwold and we had a walk along the long promenade. We didn’t go on to the pier, but I got a few shots of the pier with some interesting clouds as a backdrop, while Jamie and Scamp walked on. We passed a long line of painted beach huts. Loads of photo opportunities, but eventually we came to the end and turned back, then we headed into the shopping area. No boarded up shops here and no Poundstretchers.

Jamie knew of a good ice cream shop. Ice cream on a day when the mercury was in the lower single figures. But, he was right. Lovely ice cream cones and coffee afterwards. We walked round the town, although it was more of a large village, A busy place though. Plenty of folk out getting last minute prezzies. It has a lighthouse in the middle of the town/village though which prompted another photoshoot.

That was the first part of the seaside visit. Jamie drove us in a bit semicircular path to Dunwich, another beach. This one was almost the complete opposite of Southwold. The beach was half sand and half shingle. Steep cliffs rising behind the beach. We passed one man fishing from a wee black tent with a beach caster rod. I haven’t seen a beach caster for years. I didn’t envy him because the wind was even colder here, but he did seem to be well sheltered.

We passed two couples on our walk along the beach, but decided it would be better to turn around after about a mile and headed for a pub next to the car park for lunch which was soup for Scamp and me and a ploughman’s platter for Jamie, but he kindly gave me a large slice of his sausage roll.

Jamie drove us home by a different route from the way we’d come and by the time we got back to the house it was quite dark.

In the evening, Jamie took us all to The Ship pub in Levington. The pub was fairly full and a bit noisy. Food was good and so was the drink, but not for Jamie because he was driving.

PoD was a beautiful cloud bank behind the pier at Southwold.

Went to bed fairly early after a very interesting and busy day. We may go for a walk tomorrow, all being well.

Things I’ll remember:

Southwold
– The model boat pond – no boats today!
– Beach huts in Southwold.
– Ice cream on a cold day.
– Black recycled coffee cups – might try to source them.
– Lovely wild sky.

Dunwich
– Beachcaster on the shore.
– Picking pretty stones from the shingle.
– Food and beer in the pub.
– Cold wind

The Ship Pub
– Noisy locals.
– ‘Terry’ just a bloke one of the locals fancied.
– Terry’s wee dog wanting to get out of the pub.
– Us being called back because the waitress had messed up the bill.

Coffee with Fred – 21 December 2024

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I’d a bag of books either owing to him or ones I had read and thought he might appreciate. Coffee at Tesco was the halfway house for both of us.

It had been a dreich day. Sometimes sunny, then it all clouded over. You didn’t know whether to go out for a walk with the risk of getting soaked or stay in and mope about the house wishing you’d gone out after all. As it happened, that halfway house was the ideal solution. We met at 2pm and I had been asked by Scamp to bring home half a dozen eggs and a pizza.

As usual with Fred, talk was one sided. His side. I shouldn’t complain because when I’m out with Alex, I always feel I’m hogging the conversation. Maybe it’s just the same with Fred. We discussed the new Portrait champion of 2024. His merits and his faults. I was surprised at how accommodating Fred was about this young artist, but we were in agreement that he had been tutored or at least assisted by other artists. In a way I felt sorry for him, that he’d landed a big commission, but had he peaked too soon? Only time will tell.
After a flat white each, we both agreed we’d had quite enough poor coffee, worse than Costa and that is a real slur, so we parted ways with an apology from me for forgetting his and Margo’s Christmas card which I’d left at home.

By the time I got home the sun had gone to bed and it was pointless trying for an outside photo. Instead I photographed the wee bear that sits on the Christmas tree. It’s a Christmas tradition to have a photo of Fairy Nuff in her rightful place. A bit like the Royal Family, but more important! That made PoD.

Dinner was the pizza which I did remember to bring (I also remembered to get the eggs too!). For a shop-bought pizza it was very nice. Mozzarella and sun dried tomatoes with a tin of anchovies for extra flavour.

We watched Landward while we were having dinner, and were entranced by tractors somewhere cutting rectangular furrows perfectly straight ones. Fascinating 🤪 ! Then an hour and a half of twenty years of Strictly. I think I preferred the tractors.

Tomorrow we may go out somewhere just for the fun of it and because the days will be getting longer. Today is the shortest day.

 

The Fort – 20 December 2024

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A lazy start to the day. It rained for most of the morning, but cleared away completely in the afternoon.

We drove to The Fort for some odds and ends and I finally got a shaver. Not the Braun I was looking for, but a Philips rotary shaver which seems to do what it’s meant to do and is much quieter than the Braun that’s going in the bin. The parking was fairly decent, although we did have to cruise around for a while before we found one.

While Scamp went off to find those odds and ends, I went for a browse in Waterstones and came out with another book. That makes it three in the same week and I’ve another one on the go just now that came from Fred. I was looking for something to photograph and saw the three “Easy Deer”. Easy, because they never run away. That’s probably due to them being cast in bronze. Got a view looking over their heads from behind, as you can see, as if they were watching the people rushing madly about. It wasn’t such a madhouse as Glasgow the other day, but I think everyone was in the new Primark.

When we were sure we had everything we came for, we drove home. A more pleasant drive that coming as the sun was now at our back. Some lovely landscape shots were passing beside the north facing side window, but as usual there were no places to stop and take a photo.

Dinner was a stir-fry made by Scamp an it was lovely. That was part of the ‘odds and ends’ Scamp was looking for at The Fort.

I watched a Kevin Bridges film in the evening: The Overdue Catch-Up. If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favour and watch an hour and a half of Kevin. Just brilliant. After that, Scamp watched The Quartet. I think I’ve seen it before, but it was worth watching again.

Other than that, I tested the shaver and found it comfortable to use, no nicks! I think Scamp is now sorted for Christmas. We’ve had a glass of wine or two and we’ve watched the obligatory sickly sweet Nigella Lawson trying to pretend she has friends who come to her dinner parties. Aye right!

We’re hoping the promised incoming storm won’t be as bad as the weather fairies predict.

The gas man cometh – 18 December 2024

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Today we were waiting in for the boiler engineer to come and sign off our water boiler for another year.

Thankfully he didn’t arrive dead on 9am but knocked on the door an hour later when we were properly awake. He didn’t take long to clean out the boiler and certify it until next year, all being well.

That left Scamp me just enough time to run Scamp up to the town centre under a clearing sky to meet Isobel. While they were having coffee and a blether, I started putting everything back into the boiler cupboard. We’d decided that there were too many jackets hanging behind the cupboard door and we had to dispose of some and put others in long term storage, which is almost the same as disposing of them. I’d visited Tesco on my way home and brought home some essentials like milk and bread.

Scamp arrived not long after I’d finished and we had some lunch. I was about to dig out my boots and go for a walk but Hazy phoned and I wanted to speak to her, so delayed my walk. Scamp spent a while talking to her about her travels to Manchester and faulty buses. I asked her about the difficulties of moving Android data to iPhones. We were both glad that Neil is finally getting recognition for the work he does outside school hours.

There was just enough light left to take some photos over at St Mo’s pond and I’d brought some cabbage leaves to feed the waterfowl. Well, attempting to feed them. apparently they hadn’t had the memo about green leaf veg being good for them. They sailed past along to a bloke who was feeding them bread.You’ll regret this later waterfowl! A low level shot of the mixture of birds on the pond today made PoD.

It took me about an hour, probably more to copy the data from an almost full micro SD and paste it into a shiny new and much larger one Mr Bezos was kind enough to send us by Royal Mail, free of charge. Hopefully that’s the last of the computer work I’ll have to do for a while.

We watched the finale of the Portrait Artist of the Year and watched Brogan Bertie paint his version of Lorraine Kelly. It wasn’t the worst painting I’ve seen on this program, but it wasn’t great either. So different, it was from his work in the heats, I began to wonder if there was a ghost painter somewhere. Just thinking out loud. I must ask Fred for his opinion.

Tomorrow Scamp is OUT AGAIN. This time she’s intending meeting her pal Mags for lunch. I might go looking for a new shaver.

A day to relax – 16 December 2024

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Both of us used today as a recovery day after yesterday’s dramas. If that means nothing to you, read yesterday’s blog.

I noticed today that the sun hardly rose behind the houses facing us. In all the years we’ve lived in this house, this is the first time I’ve noticed it. Maybe it’s me who is shrinking. That’s the only logical way to explain it.

In the afternoon I went for a walk round St Mo’s, but by the time I’d completed one circuit, the light was visibly low in the sky and the camera had to be put away after taking just three shots!

I walked down to the shops to get some Basil because neither of us could find the full jar that’s somewhere in the house. Of course, I bought a lot more things as well. I bought a glass jar of dried basil in M&S for around £1.25 and then noticed a similar quantity of basil in a not so posh looking glass jar in Life for 65p. Almost half the price of M&S. Now, basil is basil. I don’t believe there is much difference in quality and no difference in quantity. It’s just something you sprinkle on pasta. I might need to put my Captain Clipboard hat on and query the price difference, doing blind taste tests and maybe even buy a microscope to compare samples. I might even know someone who has access to all that equipment. I might have to speak to him.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard about their plans for next week. A walk along the sea shore sounds good on your day off. Glad he’s got his door finished and painted at last. Hope his Captain Clipboard approves of the correct shade of white!

The previous part of the blog was written hours before this next part.

Scamp had started to download the photos of her Manchester trip into OneDrive when it all went a bit tricky. Only a fraction of the photos made it from her phone to the computer. We both worked on it and eventually, after a couple of hours managed to tease out the knots in this problem. Just after midnight we had three different folders on a memory stick and they held most, if not all of the photos. It still amazes me how a simple slip of a finger can cause so much mayhem, but it all worked out in the end. That is the reason you didn’t have a blog to read this morning. Sorry. To think that I started writin this blog with “A day to relax”! Little did I know.

PoD was a drab looking photo of St Mo’s that mirrored a drab day. It’s Scotland, what did you expect.

Tomorrow we might go in to Glasgow.

 

Off the leash – 14 December 2024

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An early rise for me. 6.30am is definitely early for me, very early. I was up at that ungodly hour to drive Scamp the Condorrat, there another driver would take her with the rest of the Witches to Glasgow. And from there down the M74 and the M6 for miles and miles and miles.

They were all off on a short ‘Jolly’ down to Manchester to experience the Trafford Centre. Tomorrow, hopefully, a Christmas Market awaits them, also in Manchester. Then back up north to a place called Reality!

That left me off the leash for a whole day and a half. What would I do with all that free time? I would do this, and that, and that other thing I’ve been meaning to do for ages … but in the end, I sat and read for half the morning. Then went to Tesco looking for something that wasn’t there. I did grab myself a pizza for dinner and a bag of Jelly Babies, two bags, actually and came home. That’s the trouble with having plenty of time. I just never ever use it properly. I just fritter it away, and before you know it, the sun is setting and I’ve not taken a photo yet.

Well, I did have a photo. Admittedly I’ve shot that same scene at least ten times, each one similar to but not the same as the last. It’s That Lane. Usually it begins to look a bit sinister after I’ve boiled it in Lightroom and Photoshop, then washed it out in ON1. Still, it’s done and I like its sinister aura “a’ roon” to quote Billy Connolly.

I watched another couple of painting tutorials. Little half hour slots with known faces, painting faces. They always amaze me how simple their structure is, simple and perfectly formed. I nearly always try to do as they say and end up putting it in the bin.

As you’ve gathered, I didn’t get up to much today, but I did go for a walk and achieved what Garmin says is a decent score.

Scamp is due home tomorrow evening and this time I’m chauffeur. After that, life will return to normal I hope!