Category: photography

Mixed Messages – 13 June 2024

Posted on by Zogman

The second day when things didn’t go right.

I was on the phone, my phone, to Fred in the morning. He had some spare time while Margo was in at the doc’s and he thought we should have a chin wag. Then the house phone next to me started ringing with a mobile number. I was upstairs and knew that Scamp, downstairs, would answer it. After a while I noticed that the phone was still showing “Connected”, so broke off my call with Fred and went to see what was going on. Scamp had been talking to her pal, Mags who was wondering why Scamp wasn’t at Wetherspoons for lunch as agreed … except there hadn’t been an agreement!

Last week Scamp phoned Mags to find out if they were both meeting for lunch, only to discover that Mags was on holiday in Benidorm! After a bit of discussion they agreed that they’d meet when she and her husband came home. It would appear that Mags assumed they’d meet today and was waiting at Wetherspoons. To make things easier I drove her up to the town centre to meet up and everything turned out ok. Two days in a row when confusion reigned!

I dropped in at Tesco on the way home to get some chicken and veg for tonight’s paella. I intended using Orzo instead of rice, but once I got home I realised the recipe wasn’t as simple as I’d assumed, so I reverted to our usual paella rice base.

After lunch the rain appeared. It had been threatening all morning, but finally it got organised and decide it should be a wet day today. I still hadn’t a photo to turn into PoD, so I took some shots of a straggly Campanula plant with pretty lilac flowers in a hanging basket beside the back door. With a bit of editing it became PoD. It wasn’t a day for trailing over to St Mo’s getting wet for nothing, so, if all else fails, there’s always flowers.

When Scamp returned she explained what she thought had happened with the mixed messages that had crossed and recrossed the ether between her and Mags. Thankfully I’d got the right Messages in Tesco, even remembering to get yoghurt for Scamp!

The paella turned out fine and Scamp has the remains put aside in the fridge for tomorrow, maybe Arancini for lunch. Other than that, we have no plans for tomorrow. Scamp intends to go to FitSteps in the morning, but the weather looks like it will be another wet one.

Out to lunch again! – 11 June 2024

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This time we were going all posh with a lunch in the Citizen in Glasgow.

We got the bus in to Glasgow and were surprised when it took a different route than normal. It turned out that the westbound dual carriageway that leads to the motorway was being dug up and resurfaced. The work will until the end of this week. I’m assuming the eastbound carriageway will get the same treatment next week. Poor bus driver had a dreary long drive through the many traffic lights in to Glasgow.

The Citizen is an old established restaurant in Glasgow. It’s located in the old offices of The Glasgow Citizen Newspaper on St Vincent Place. Scamp had an Itison voucher for lunch for two. We got seated at the back of the restaurant, which is where most of the diners were.

Menus looked good and Scamp ordered Haggis Stack for her starter and Fish and Chips for her main. I had Mackerel Pate for starter and Steak Pie for main. Scamp’s haggis was lovely she said and I can verify that, having a wee fork full to taste. The batter on her fish, though, was a bit oily she said, and the chips appeared to be not twice cooked, but more like four or five times cooked. My starter was fine, although the mackerel pate had a bit too much cream in it, but the steak pie had been in the oven for too long and the meat was dry and hard. We had a cocktail as part of the deal and we both chose the gin version. They certainly weren’t stinting with the alcohol in the cocktail. Maybe a bit sweet, but certainly packing a punch.

All in all, we weren’t all that impressed with The Citizen. Oily batter and a pie that was baked to death are not what you expect to get in such an illustrious restaurant. We’ve had better examples of both food choices in Brodens in Condorrat. Maybe it was because we were on a voucher meal, but that shouldn’t matter. We were still paying customers. I don’t think we’ll be back.

I’d noticed the photos on the wall when we went in, lots of them and I recognised the work as being from Charles Hamilton’s camera. We correspond quite often on Flickr and I remembered that I’d read that he had been asked to produce a set of Glasgow Faces for the restaurant. Good to see that they are still there.

We had a walk around Glasgow. Up Sauchiehall Street to see the renovations being done there. Scamp laughed at a sign that advertised the shops that would be “Coming Soon” to the street. Among them was Watt Brothers which closed about three years ago!

Got the bus back home and thankfully it was just the normal route. Later we watched the second episode of Bake Off: The Professionals. Just as good as the first one.

PoD was a shot I took outside the GOMA of two ladies having a laugh. I don’t think they knew each other, or even spoke each other’s language fluently, but a joke is a joke in everyone’s language.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending to go to see Annette’s granddaughter’s dance show, so she has given her apologies to Kirsty. I was half intending to go to Kirsty’s class by myself, but someone must have warned them and it seems like everyone is giving it a body swerve. Am I really that bad? NO! Don’t answer that question!!

 

More Food – 9 June 2024

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No, that’s not a hungry mouth you’re looking at! It’s just that Scamp has been doing a grand job of cooking this weekend and it continued today.

Breakfast was just breakfast, but even then Scamp was the one who made it. Two Weetabix with Rasps and Blueberries for me and Bran Flakes and Rasps for Scamp. No milk for either of us.
Just kidding, of course we had milk!

Lunch was Healthy Shakshuka which is basically “What you’ve got in the fridge” with a tin of tomatoes and sweet and smoky paprika with a couple of eggs cooked in the mix. I’d seen the recipes for it many times, but never quite got round to making it. I can assure you I missed a trick there! It was absolutely brilliant. We ate it watching Laura Kuenssberg getting ripped into politicians of various stripes. A fearsome lady is Laura.

We spent most of the afternoon trying to get OneDrive to share a folder between Scamp and me. According to the cartoons on the Mickeysoft site it was simplicity itself, but unfortunately it didn’t work. I thought it might be because one of us was using a PC and the other was using a Mac, but I don’t think that was the root of the problem. I think it’s just that Mickysoft just doesn’t know how to play nice. Eventually we did get it working, but the road to success was a rough one with may potholes and dead ends.

By ’… most of the afternoon …’ I meant a couple of hours, although it felt like more than that. To give me a break from all the tech stuff, I took a walk in the garden and took a few close-up photos of the Foxglove flowers that are in full bloom just now. One of them got PoD. I thought it looked like Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors, or maybe it was Laura Kuenssberg! I also potted up some chilli plants I’ve been growing from the seeds of last year’s or maybe two years ago’s chillies. They’ve been a bit mollycoddled, living in the warmth of the south facing window of the spare room. Tonight they are in the, not so warm, plastic covered greenhouse. I’m sure they’ll be tough enough for it.

While I was pottering and potting, Scamp was cutting away dead flower heads and then pruning back the overgrown vegetation in the back garden. When she was finished it just looked like the plants had been given a really neat haircut. She’s getting good at this sort of thing.

Spoke to Jamie tonight and heard all about their holiday on the coast.  Sounds like a lovely place to relax for a week.  He put us right on how to share folders and told us that the method we were using was almost the same as his at work.  Good to know that we’re on the right track with some things!

For dinner tonight, Scamp took charge again and made a stir-fry. I feel like a ‘kept man’ tonight! I’ve done little or nothing all weekend apart from drive us to and from dancing class yesterday and then moan about it.

Tomorrow we may go out some where and I’m hoping to make dinner. I’m the pasta cook and Monday is Pasta Day!

 

 

Another day, another lunch – 7 June 2024

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This time we were meeting June and Ian at Nonna’s Kitchen in Dullatur Golf Course.

After a wee problem with the lifts, all four of us sat down to lunch. I ordered Lentil Soup with Pancetta Scamp had Mussels, June and Ian had Arancini. A bit of a wait, but all fine, except that mine had a whole pot of pepper in it. A longer wait, about 25 mins this time, brought us Mains which were Pasta Al Forno for June, Ian and me and Pan Fried Seabass Fillet with Asparagus and Red Onion with Pea Puree and Candied Pancetta. The Pasta may have been a mistake because it was pretty tasteless except for the Italian sausage. I ate less than half of mine. My American coffee was lovely, but Scamp said her latte was more. Baby chino than latte. Would I go back? Probably, but with better choices this time. Great views over the golf course if that’s your thing, but with the room less than half full the noise level from folk just chatting was overpowering. Some soft furnishings needed to dampen down the sound. You may remember the location from a wedding party almost ten years ago now, Jamie!

After getting June and Ian safely down to ground level in the lift, we parted company. They were waiting for a taxi and we were driving down to Lidl to get a bottle of Hortus Gin and some strawberries. Then it was back up the road in a surprise torrent of rain.

The rain soon disappeared and I went out for a walk. Took far more photos in St Mo’s than I did all day in Glasgow yesterday! That was mainly caused by having the camera on ‘motorwind’ mode, 25 shots at a time, to try to capture bees on the brambles again. They didn’t make PoD. That went to a family of ducks out for a paddle with mum. Eight mallard ducklings and mother duck. Daddy must have gone A – Hunting!

That was about it for Friday. We’re intending to go dancing tomorrow. Quite a small class, so there won’t be anywhere to hide!

A day in the Town – 6 June 2024

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I met Alex in Glasgow as usual at midday.

After a coffee we agreed that Kelvingrove Art Galleries would be the best place to go as the weather was far from settled. Sunny one minute and raining the next. Just short, sharp showers. We arrived just after 12:30 as the organist was getting things in order for the daily recital. After a few shots inside, Alex suggested we go for lunch.

We got a seat in the conservatory, and both of us settled for sandwiches for lunch. The building was quite crowded today, mainly due to a number of school trips being bussed in, and also a few sightseeing trip buses arriving. I suppose we have to accept that at this time of year. We usually visit in the winter or the early spring when it’s quieter.

We went back to the main building to get some more photos. Lots of opportunities to people-watch. Alex was off looking for new angles on the “Hanging Heids” in one hall, while I was looking for perspective shots down the long corridors. I found a model of an ancient glider hanging above the Spitfire in one of the halls. I had never seen that glider before in all the times I’ve been in the building. PoD went to one of the long corridor shots.

We did consider taking a walk up to Glasgow Uni to get some photos in the cloisters, but something was said or we turned a different way and both of us forgot to go back. Maybe another day. Instead, we got the bus back in to Glasgow, got off at the top of Sauchiehall Street and I manage to coerce Alex into walking to the WEX camera shop where I wanted to take a look at a couple of lenses. Both more expensive than I wanted, but worth a look. Came away without a front runner. One looked quality, but didn’t quite deliver. The other looked a bit cheap but produced better images. Both are on the back burner for now.

Walked down the shambles that is Sauchiehall Street now. Roads being dug up all the way down almost to Buchanan Street. What must visitors think when they see this level of disruption in what was once the second best street in Glasgow, now a building site?

A coffee in Waterstones cafe and then we were on our way to the bus station. We agreed the next photo walk will be in about 2 weeks, all being well. I got an email from Alex later to say he’d taken about 250 photos. I’d taken 55! Of those 55, 19 were test shots with the lenses in WEX. So, in reality, 36 photos taken!!

Scamp and I watched another Rebus episode an I agree with what you both said about it Hazy. That’s not Rebus. His voice isn’t born and bred Edinburgh. He doesn’t have the east coast lilt, and the Siobhan in the books was nothing like the poor wee girl in the series. Maybe she’ll toughen up in later episodes. I do like Cafferty, though!

I think we may be going out for lunch for the second time this week, tomorrow. Out with June and Ian.

 

 

Water – 3 June 2024

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Today, for the first time this year, we watered the garden this evening.

Yes, we had splashed some water on the plants before, like when we had planted them out, but this was the first time the front and back gardens had been given a good soak.  For weeks we’ve been told to expect rain and none came.  Now that we’ve taken the bull by the horns and used the watering can on all the plants, it will probably rain tomorrow.  For today, though, it’s been watered.

In the afternoon I gathered a few bags of stuff that either wasn’t working or had been gathering dust and took it all up to the skips to be disposed of.  As always, there was a constant flow of folk bringing similar car loads of garden refuse, electrical equipment and what is generically known as “General Household” to these great big bins and the crushers were there working their magic to reduce what was once a carefully assembled chest of drawers to matchstick.  That must be a satisfying job.  I saw the delight in one woman’s face as she tipped a two layer glass TV stand into one empty General Household skip.  It made a lovely crashing sound as it disappears into thousands of little chips of broken safety glass.

I drove out of the council tip and up to Fannyside.  It was a lovely day until I opened the car door and it almost blew shut again.  Fannyside is quite exposed and the gusty west wind was stronger than I’d anticipated.  I was hoping to see some dragonflies, but not today, not in that wind.  I did see some swallows, though. I stopped to watch them and a Stonechat which I’d heard of but never seen before. Then I listened to a skylark singing as it rose, and there it was, watching me from the the field. A Fox. It just sat there on its haunches, in the long grass, looking at me.  Not fazed at all but the human with the big black tube pointed at it.  When I turned to walk away, it did too.  I had one last look at it, but it didn’t turn back, it just walked into the water weeds that surround a bog in the field. I did get half a dozen or so photos of it.  This is one of the best.  I’d been thinking of buying a longer lens for photographing wildlife and birds. Maybe this was the signal that it might be a good idea.

Back home Scamp was reading in the garden, so I brought a bottle of beer out with me and joined her.  For some reason the weather fairies didn’t like my interruption and clouds began to roll in and the wind became gustier until I was forced to go in to make the dinner.

I think we may be going out to lunch tomorrow with Shona. Her treat this time.

Dancin’ – 1 June 2024

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This morning we were off on the road again to Brookfield on a beautiful day.

Today we started with Midnight Jive which was ok. I think everything started going wrong after that. The teachers were concentrating on refreshing our memory of dances for the summer Gala Ball in a couple of weeks and they started with Cha-Cha. I don’t like Cha-Cha. I never have and I doubt if I ever will. I knew the dance we were being taught, and we had done it many times before, but I just clumsily bungled my way through it, despite Scamp’s best efforts. I was just glad when that section came to an end.

Next up was a Foxtrot, but to make the dance simpler and easier to dance, they chopped it in half. I don’t really think it made the dance any easier, in fact it became a bit disjointed. I would agree, however that it would be easier to dance on a crowded floor, because it was so short, but it just lacked the flow that the full length dance had. Nothing to do with the fact that it had become one of my favourite dances. Lovely smooth lines that went together well. They did go well before it was made ‘easier’. After a couple of sequence dances we were set free. Maybe I was just clumsy today and that made me grumpy too. Maybe it will all work out next week. I hope so for Scamp’s sake.

Drove home, still in brilliant sunshine and stopped at M&S for bread and cooked chicken. Today’s dinner was to be a salad made to one of Neil’s recipes and the chicken is one of the main constituents.

Lunch was cold ham for me and cheese for Scamp. After lunch we went for a walk in St Mo’s where a Common Blue damselfly made PoD. I was using the A6500 with a lens from the A7iii. A strange combination that didn’t work for me the last time I tried it, but which produced some lovely images today.

A seat in the garden with a glass of wine and a book after the walk was the order of the day. It really did feel like summer which it is today. Meteorological summer starts today.

Scamp turned a chicken breast into a lovely dinner tonight. The mix of dressings made it extra special. Perfect food for such a lovely day.

A bunch of photos had arrived on our phones this morning from Jamie and Sim on holiday in Suffolk. Looks lovely, but I think we have better weather! Enjoy it. I’m sure you will have found some interesting walks there.

No plans as yet for tomorrow.

The end of May – 31 May 2024

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Also the end of Spring and the end of EDiM (Every Day in May).

Was it a good month? No, not particularly good. We got a week and a bit of sunshine, warm sunshine, but also a bit of thunder and torrential rain. Damselflies appeared fairly early and a couple of hardy dragonflies arrived very early. Scamp got a new computer after a dodgy one and I got Excel and OneDrive. Lots of flower photos, and a fair selection of architecture photos, but not a lot of landscapes.

This morning Scamp was off to FitSteps and then she went for coffee with Isobel. By the time she came home I’d finished my sketch of a Portuguese Man of War jellyfish to cover today’s prompt of a Jellyfish or an Octopus. Her response to the picture was an indifferent “Meh”. I had to agree and we had lunch.

After lunch I did a rethink and found a photo of an octopus to sketch and paint. Although it was far more complicated to draw than the PMoW, it had enough room in it to add shadows that would create the 3D effect the jellyfish lacked. That got a better response from Scamp.

Leaving it to dry, I went for a walk in St Mo’s and found today’s PoD almost right away. I saw the man sitting on his chair throwing balls for his dogs and I liked the contrast between his jacket and the trees in the background. He did spot me photographing him, but I just held out until he looked down at the dogs and took the ‘keeper’.
If this was you, I apologise!

While I was out I phoned Scamp to ask if I should bring home a Special Fish Supper for dinner. A Special, in case you don’t know is two slices of breaded haddock. Much lighter and with better flavour than an ordinary battered fish. She agreed and I dropped in at the chip shop on the way home. The chips were a bit cool, but the fish was excellent.

The sun had passed the house and was shining in the garden, so we sat and read for a while. Next door were having a family gathering, so after a while I retired to the quiet of the house and posted today’s PoD, the Octopus and a wee extra shot of my relatively tidy painting desk. Relatively tidy FOR ME, that is.

Some folk have commented on my list of ‘Tools’, so I thought that, as this is the last one in EDiM 2024, I should give the Tools a spot in the limelight to take a bow. Without them I wouldn’t have been able to produce the 31 sketches.

We watched Rebus, a new BBC series. I recommend it to all the Scottish contingent if you are wearying for home after talk of Special Fish Suppers. WARNING It does contain lots of sweary words and a fair bit of violence.

We’re intending to go to dance class tomorrow, but no more plans.

 

Gardening again – 20 May 2024

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Quite a busy day. Lots done for a change.

Today started with a visit to the doc’s, well to the practice nurse who confirmed what my optician had suspected, that my sugar levels were high. Not enormously high. A reading of 87- 88 is considered safe. My reading of 89 is considered high. One point over the limit and you are caught out! That doesn’t seem fair to me. However she was quite nice about it and gave me three months to put my house in order, with lots of sensible food suggestions. Unfortunately Jam Doughnuts weren’t to be seen anywhere in that list.

Back home and after lunch we drove up to Home Bargains and got two 50L bags of fairly decent compost. Drove home and started filling a tub for the new rhubarb plant, Victoria, with the sodden compost. I think they must have had it soaking in a paddling pool before the put it out for sale. I used Monty Don’s technique for repotting where he puts the plant, in its old pot, into the new pot, fills the compost around the pot, almost burying, it then removes it, takes the plant it out of its original pot and puts it into the cavity he’s created in the new pot, of course, it fits perfectly. Really smart Mr D. Even although the compost had been wet, I gave the plant a good soaking.

While I was doing that, Scamp was pruning some tangled weeds and roses from under the apple tree. She’s determined that she will limit it to two fruits on each branch this year to reduce the strain on this old tree.

It was too good a day to waste, so we sat in the sun for a few hours, reading and drinking lemonade (no additional sugar lemonade.) Dinner was the remains of Saturday’s chicken with pasta and a rich tomato sauce. Dinner was a bit later than normal because we both had good books to read and the sun was lovely and warm.

PoD was taken in the garden and is a Primula Japonica which is a candelabra style Primula with concentric rings of white flowers running up the stem. How many rings? I’ll tell you when it stops producing them.
I just photograph them, Scamp is the one who grows them.

Today’s prompt was for A Cloudy Sky. We have our fair share of cloudy skies in Scotland, but thankfully for the past week it’s all been blue skies and fluffy clouds. However, the weather folk are telling us to be prepared for wet weather and strong winds from Wednesday. If it comes, I’ll console myself with the knowledge that the garden will love the rain.

We do have some plans for tomorrow, but it depends on whether the weather holds.

Change in the weather – 13 May 2024

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We woke to white skies all around. No sign of the blue skies we’d been enjoying last week.

I was out in the morning to get bloods taken at the health centre. Two chatty nurses kept me talking after the bloodletting had finished. I though at first it was my magnetic personality and my scintillating conversation that was dazzling them. Then I realised they were just making sure this auld guy had been sitting in the chair for the mandatory five or ten minutes, whatever it was, before releasing me into the wild world outside.

I’d got out early and decided I’d pick up a loaf and some fruit, plus Scamp’s meds on the way home. With all the warm weather we’ve had, the trees have been dropping their sap on the cars, and mine felt like the bonnet was covered in sandpaper, so a trip to the carwash would be a good idea … except, it seemed that everyone else in Cumbersheugh had the same idea, so instead I drove home.

Back home Scamp was edging the concrete slabs we have spread across the grass at the back of the house. If you don’t keep cutting the grass back it attempts to cover the slabs. Scamp was doing a good job of disabusing it of that idea.

After lunch she started cleaning up what we laughingly call a patio. It’s just a load of badly laid concrete slabs placed end to end, but we did make some wooden duckboard plates to allow some air in under the plants, but other forms of detritus had found its way in too. Between us we managed to sweep it up and add it to the compost bin.

I took some time out from the garden to sketch today’s topic which was A Songbird. The Blackbird is our finest and most easily recognised songbird. Years ago you could hear Larks and the occasional Song Thrush, but the urbanizing of our countryside has ousted them all, that and the seagulls and magpies. I’m just happy to listen to the blackbirds singing in the morning and in the evening.
We try to encourage them into our small garden, leaving chopped up apples for them to tear apart as repayment for their song.

After that, I took the A7 over to St Mo’s and got some decent photos. It was a toss up whether PoD went to Mrs Wolf Spider hauling her egg sac behind her, or the wilderness garden with aquilegia, poppies and dandelions that has sprung up in the last two weeks at the end of our road. In the end Mrs W won out.

Dinner tonight was Red Pasta. That is a tomato based sauce. This time with Cirio concentrated tomato puree. We couldn’t get it anywhere, then a couple of weeks ago we found it on sale in Waitrose, so we got two packets. Lovely strong tomato flavour. Not a bad dinner with basil and spinach leaves too for more texture.

That was about it for today, except to say that it’s raining tonight, not torrential, just good soaking rain. Scamp had feared that we’d need to start watering the garden, but Mother Nature did it for us!

Busy tomorrow afternoon.