Category: photography

Recovery – 7 April 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Long day yesterday and a late night, so today would be recovery.

Late night yesterday after a lot of dancing, so today we would need some time to recover. Also there was a blog to write and post before I could get round to writing this. That’s what happens when you miss a day. So, here goes.

It was wet again this morning, in fact it was the rain on the window that woke me about 7am, then I went back to sleep! Dithered about in the morning solving Wordle and not getting a Pangram. Lunch was an omelette for Scamp and a slice of liver with an egg for me.

Then we watched another F1 GP from Suzuka in Japan. Horrible looking crash right at the start. I’m always amazed and impressed to see the drivers walk away from what looks like a scrap yard that used to be a couple of million pound racing cars. From then on it was a bit of a war of attrition. With the weak falling by the wayside. Glad to see Leclerc being bested again by Sainz. It begs the question again, why are Ferrari ditching Sainz in favour of far less skilled loser Leclerc? Answers on a postcard please.

Scamp wanted to hoover the living room and I just wanted out. I offered her a walk in St Mo’s but she declined. I took the A6500 with the weird looking LensBaby to get some unusual photos of anything that came to mind. What came to mind was a bunch of dandelions at the side of the path. Then I found a moth, a Welsh Wave (Venusia cambrica), I think, camouflaged on a tree. Both are on Flickr. But when I got home I saw the PoD. Today’s occasional bright sunshine encouraged the split rock, know as Terry, to display his orange flower!

Spoke to Jamie in the evening and heard about his map reading course in the wilds of the Lakes, and also about the progress being made with the house. Hopefully it will be ready soon, after a long wait.

Hoping for a dry day for a trip into Glasgow for lunch.

Out on the town – 4 April 2024

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Not me, this time, but Scamp. Off into Glasgow by herself!

I drove Scamp to the train station and then came home. I was going to have a photography day out, but before that, there was work to do. I started to tidy up the back bedroom to give us more space to decant the contents of the cupboards and bookcases from our bedroom in preparation for the decorating.

It was still a beautiful morning when I was finished, so I packed the camera bags and my boots into the car and drove over to Bothwell to take some photos of Bothwell Castle. Well, that was the plan. Just as I was passing the slip road to the eastbound M8 all the traffic slowed to a crawl. Two lanes of it. I knew I could take the outside lane and drive to the castle on the A road rather than the clogged motorway. I’d just made my move as many others now had when the overhead gantry demanded I return to the original road. Then what was a five lane motorway became a two lane motorway and that’s when I knew something serious was going on. Long story short, an articulated lorry had ended up on its side on the ‘alternative’ road I was hoping to take and all five lanes of traffic was being funnelled into the two lanes heading for Hamilton. I joined the queue and an hour and a half later did find Bothwell Castle.

I took some photos, but they weren’t inspiring. Too many barriers at the front and an incredibly complicated scaffolding creation was shoring up the back of the building. I only stayed for about half an hour and then headed for home. It took another hour to get back, partly due to my sat nav packing in on me and partly due to the increased traffic load. Eventually got back, not long after Scamp.

A couple of slices of toast and a cup of tea and I had a look at the photos and wasn’t impressed. Instead I took a camera over to St Mo’s to bolster the photos of the castle. Found an old bike that had been lobbed into the nettles and brambles by the side of the path to Condorrat. Took two photos of it and knew the second one was PoD. I was right. I took some more photos, but they weren’t very good. Just a bad day with one and eventually two good photos. I thought myself lucky, because there was a lorry driver somewhere who had a worse day than me. I checked tonight and he survived the crash and was taken to hospital. It didn’t even make the Scottish News!

We’d had a clear out of the freezer earlier in the week. Some food went in the bin. Too old or didn’t look right. Of the remainder, some went back in and some went into the fridge to defrost slowly. We had those for our dinner tonight. Chicken and Chips! What’s not to like?

Tomorrow Scamp is hoping to get back to FitSteps, then visit Isobel, and for the second day in a row, I have a free morning. Maybe lunch at Brodens for us afterwards? We’ll see.

Just walkin’ in the rain – 3 April 2024

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We did stuff today, both of us doing different stuff for a change.

We were both sitting around for most of the morning, doing Wordle and complaining about the stupid pangrams on Spelling Bee, then Scamp made the statement that was in both our heads. She said she didn’t know if she wanted to go to the Tea Dance in Motherwell. I asked her why and she gave the same reason that was in my head. The woman who runs the dance has already admitted that she’s not a teacher and that she isn’t registered. She charges more for the dance than our dance teachers charge for theirs and a lot more than Kirsty charges for an hour long dance class. Also, if she’s not certified, does she have insurance? That hasn’t been made clear. We agreed that we’d give up on that Tea Dance and support Stewart & Jane’s, as we’ve been doing, instead. Also, Scamp was waiting for a dress to be delivered and it looked like it would be coming in the afternoon. Another reason, if it was needed to cancel the Motherwell dance.

The decision made and the air in the room cleared a little. That left the afternoon free. After lunch we started doing some cleaning up. Mine was computer based. I cleared out the old catalog that had become borked and replaced it with the one I’d downloaded with Carbon Copier from my ‘Snapshots’. It only covered March, but it worked and that meant I now had January to March in the catalog. Then I added in the first two days of April and that meant the catalog was up to date. I know that means nothing to anyone but me but it’s a reminder to me of how to repair a catalog if/when I need to do that. Relieved!

While I was doing virtual cleaning, Scamp was upstairs tackling the bookcase in our room, clearing it out shelf by shelf and keeping the articles in different named big Tesco bags. When she’s finished, it means we’ll be able to move the bookcase when we start painting the room. The first step on the upstairs redecorating. As I write, the bookcase is empty and the bags are filling up the upstairs small bedroom.

Although Scamp’s work had been mainly physical, mine, being computer based, meant a lot of sitting down, waiting for complete their transition between disk drives. By the time I’d finished I was getting grouchy and sore from sitting around for so long, so despite the fact that it was still raining – did I mention it’s been raining all day? – I put on my big Belky jacket and took the A6500 out for a walk in the rain. I did get a few shots, but really photography was a secondary consideration today. I just wanted to get out of the house for a while. I came home wet, but happier. Walking in the rain is good for the soul, as long as you’ve got dry clothes to change into! PoD was a photo looking across the pond in the rain with Alder seedheads in the foreground, one with an orange water drop! What created it I do not know.

Kirsty’s class was a bit of a shambles for me tonight. The dance floor really is too small and people kept getting in others way and that was with just three couples. I really need to do more practise in Foxtrot.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending going into Glasgow by herself on a secret mission. I think I’m might go out somewhere too if I can find a dry hour or two.

What did we do today? – 2 April 2024

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Sometimes I have to ask myself that question, because I can’t remember doing anything interesting or important that day. The answer to the above question today was “Not very much”.

We did do some stuff. We made a decision about Scamp’s ageing computer. I thought we were going to JL and maybe Currys to try out the computers, but Scamp convinced me that we didn’t need to go out. We’d already looked at the JL offerings last week and really, they all looked the same. The specs were pretty similar too and worst of all, they were all the same boring shade of grey. We know what we’re looking for. We know how much we’re willing to spend on a new laptop, so why wander round stores looking at the same slabs of plastic when we can order one online and buy one from HP. Not on the HP, but from HP and get it delivered. The decision was made and we could stay in, in the dry (did I mention that it rained almost all day? Well, it did) and that’s what we did. Neither of us is in a great rush to splash the cash, so some time soon, probably.

We spent another hour working out what we’d transfer from the old machine to the new machine and what we might need to buy. Scamp’s MS Office 7 might not work on a shiny Windows 11 machine but very little else would be needed. Really what she needs is more space for her files and we should manage that. An hour or two well spent.

After lunch we drove to Tesco in the rain and got a load of veg and fruit, milk and breakfast cereals. The usual everyday necessities. There were lengthy queues at the roundabout at Broadwood. We skirted them on the way to Tesco, but the traffic was flowing freely on the way back, at least on our side it was. The reason for the holdup was the inevitable roadworks. Two or three unlucky blokes wearing high vis jackets were digging a trench with shoves in the pouring rain for a fence to be erected round the roundabout. My heart did go out to them. Digging a trench by hand in this day and age is just ridiculous. Poor souls.

Tesco was as far as we ventured out today. PoD was a still life of my new Split Rock that Hazy has named “Terry” it’s a Pleiospilos nelii. Strange looking plant and very slow growing.

Maybe we didn’t do much today, but we achieved a lot!

Tomorrow we may go dancing if we can drive through all the puddles that will be everywhere.

Huntigowk – 1 April 2024

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We had to be on our guard today, at least until midday when Huntigowk ended.

I didn’t see any gowks and didn’t end up as one … at least as far as I know. Scamp did get involved in one, though. In her word puzzle on the tablet she had to type the answers in backwards. Quite a clever catch. Wordle had nothing like that, neither did Spelling Bee. Maybe Americans don’t know what a gowk is …!

I did my usual clean up of the computer this morning, only to find out that Lightroom had got itself in a bit of fix with the photo files being in the correct folder, and the catalog being updated, but the files themselves were invisible. It’s still not fixed properly, but I think I may have a solution. Not an elegant solution, but it might work. I’m going to sleep on it and test it tomorrow. I’m just thinking, maybe Americans do Huntigowk after all.

After a couple of lovely warm days, we came down to reality with a bump today. Cloudy with the constant threat of rain. We didn’t bother going out because it appears the weather profile spreads right across Scotland and down into the north of England too. No chance to drive through it into sunshine.

We had a serious look online at a replacement laptop for Scamp’s ageing HP this afternoon. JL wanted serious money and Currys was just a shambles. Eventually found what looks like a reasonably priced laptop with a decent spec on the HP site. We’re maybe going in to Glasgow tomorrow now that the Easter holiday is over (for adults at least), to get a hands-on with the machines in JL or maybe Currys. At least that will give us an idea what we’re getting for our money.

I waxed my boots later and went for a walk which I knew would make them mucky again, but at least I’d know they started out clean. Again it was the second shot I took that became PoD. It’s the view down that lane through the avenue of trees with a couple and their dog. It’s one of my clichés, I know, but I like the composition.

Dinner was pasta with mushrooms, peppers, onion, chicken, spinach and half a tin of tomatoes. A kind of “what have we got in the fridge” pasta, but it worked. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t.

Tomorrow, as I say we may go laptop hunting.

The beginning of Summer – 31 March 2024

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Allegedly the beginning of British Summer Time. I’ll believe it when I see it.

Having said that, today was a lovely day if you were in the sun and out of the wind. Unluckily for us, we were working in the back garden which is still in the shade and in the canyon the wind whistles through. Today’s task was to clean out the wee plastic greenhouse, clean and de-gunk the things that were going back in and to bundle up the pots and things that were going out. I spent most of the time scrubbing and cleaning the tools and the ‘keeper’ pots. I ended up smelling of Jeyes fluid. But as Scamp said, the greenhouse, which doubles as a shed, was looking a lot better. How long it will stay that way I wouldn’t like to say.

We started just after lunch and were finished much quicker than I’d anticipated. With the changing of the clocks very early this morning we ‘lost’ an hour, but had a lot more light in the early evening. It’s good to see the evenings lengthening, especially if we get some sun too. Scamp was delighted to see that some of her fritillaries in the front garden had flowers. We grew them some years ago, but couldn’t sustain them over the winter. Hopefully we’ll have more luck with these ones. I need to get some stakes cut to help prop up the old apple tree in the back garden. We found some likely pieces of wood today that might be strong enough for the job. Probably two will be enough to take the load, especially once the fruit starts to set.

I took a walk to St Mo’s later in the afternoon and one of the first shots I took got PoD. I thought it was just a big bud on a branch of a tree, but later noticed the telltale sign shaped like a horses hoof that tells you it’s a Horse Chestnut. Quite chuffed to find that there’s a horse chestnut tree nearby. Something to watch out for in a few months. When I was on my way back home I spotted two butterflies, probably Peacocks. Another sign that things are warming up.

Dinner tonight was Chicken Curry made with the leftovers from yesterday’s chicken and a Spice Tailor kit. Quite rich tasting with just enough spice to brighten it up.

Spoke to Jamie and heard that they now have a prospective date for the works to be completed around the middle of April. Glad they’re having a short holiday in the Lakes and using half of the time to go on a map reading course. Sounds interesting and very useful for the pair of adventurers and mountaineers.

Both Scamp and I are feeling better rested now even if we were working in the afternoon. We’re still a bit drained with all that has been going on at the weekend. Hopefully a ‘normal’ week will put us back on track to be ready for summer!

Good Friday in the Toon – 29 March 2024

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After sitting around completing Wordle and finding one pangram in Spelling Bee, we decided to take the train to Glasgow.

Got on a busy train in to The Town. Coffee in Nero and walked up to Buchanan Galleries but really only interested in JL. We are kind of looking for a new freezer and possibly a new fridge. A combined fridge/freezer might be a viable alternative to singles. We did find a few that were in our budget and also would fit in the available space. No definite front runners yet. Simply keeping our options open.

Three floors up in JL is the “Toy Shop”. Scamp’s laptop is getting old and a bit tired. It’s also holding a lot of files, mainly photos and videos in its 128GB SSD. That means there’s not a lot of space left, which is the reason it’s getting tired. The “Toy Shop” is where all the laptops live in JL and while Scamp would like a new laptop, she can’t be bothered looking at all the numbers and abbreviations. I suppose that’s my job. We looked at a few that, like the fridge/freezers, were within our budget and surprisingly there were more than I’d thought there might be. Again, this was just an initial investigation of what was out there. No decisions made.

We had a quick wander round the town, but this was Good Friday, so there were loads of folk doing the same thing. I had a look in Cass Art but wasn’t really looking for anything. While I was looking at paint and things, Scamp was looking at dresses for a wedding later in the year. We met up again later and walked back to JL again, in the rain that had descended on us, for a spot of lunch. Italian Deli roll for Scamp New York Deli roll for me. Both fine for a decent lunch with a cup of tea. Walked back to the station and caught the train back, then drove home through torrential rain again for the second time in two days. April showers come early?

PoD was a shot looking down Buchanan Galleries from the Benugo cafe where we had our lunch. Quite a risky shot to take as the guards who prowl the floors are quick to tell you that photography is banned in the galleries, although neither my brother nor I have seen any notice confirming this. Maybe I was just lucky today.

Drove over to Larky for dinner at Crawford and Nancy’s. Great fun as usual. I did take my Spanish guitar and we played and sang as a foursome after dinner. Scamp on piano, Nancy and Crawford on ukulele and me on guitar. Everyone pitching in with vocals as required. Ollie the dog retired to the kitchen and I’m sure lay there with his paws over his ears!

Drove home and amazingly managed to get a parking space! Finally got to bed just before 1am. A long day, but a good one. I think I may practise more on the ukulele for our next foursome, all being well. It’s easier for the chord changes.

No plans for tomorrow other than to be up and out by 10:15 to drive to Brookfield!

Downpours and Landscapes – 28 March 2024

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The downpours came first and the Landscapes survived them.

It was a dull start to the day, but about an hour after we woke the rain started lightly at first but soon it became heavier and heavier until it was thumping down so heavily, it was creating a mist when it hit the pavement. It didn’t last all that long, but it was longer than a usual downpour, but it did stop eventually. As we watched the weather forecast on TV where they claimed that the clouds would roll away we were a bit disbelieving. However, an hour later the clouds broke and the sun shone and I went out with a camera.

I’d bought a plant last week from Amazon and it was delivered yesterday, unfortunately in two pieces. I think the roots were meant to be connected to the stem and the leaves, but that was not the case. I found out the company who were selling the plant through Amazon were five miles or so down the M73. I phoned them and then emailed a photo of the decapitated plant as requested by the lady I spoke to. She replied asking if I wanted a replacement or my money back. I opted for the replacement and that was where I was heading with the intention of collecting the plant and then driving to Fannyside to grab some landscape photos.

After collecting a healthy looking plant and some apologies from the garden centre I headed over to Fannyside, only to find that some electricity blokes had parked their 4×4 in MY parking space while they repaired some overhead cables. Disgruntled, I drove past through some deep puddles and found an alternative view of a fairly new house that stands at the top of a steep hill, accessed by a rutted gravel path with grass tufts down the middle, where the tyres don’t go. The house is pure white against a dark sky. Stopped on the single track road, grabbed five photos at various settings and drove on before an irate farmer in a tractor saw me blocking the road. Prepared myself for the rattling climb up the hill and past the house, but the road had been repaired with a layer of tarmac! In retrospect, it has lost a lot of its character, but it is so much easier to drive up.

After cresting the hill, it was an easy downhill drive through the wee village of Arns and I only had one car in far distance in front of me. Then I noticed the plumes of what looked like smoke coming from both sides of the car in front. Then it happened again. It wasn’t smoke, it was a deep, long puddle, caused by that downpour in the morning. I took a more cautious approach, dropped down a gear, but still managed to make a decent bow wave through the puddle. It wasn’t as dramatic as the one Jamie saw last month, but it was deep enough. Got home without further incident and one the White House photos made PoD.

Dinner tonight was a Charlie Bigham’s Thai Green Curry. Delicious! Scamp was not so complimentary about it, so I don’t think we’ll have that again. Pity.

Some shopping to do tomorrow.

Dancin’ – 21 March 2024

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After a lazy morning we were pitched into another day of dancing.

Drove to Glenburn for today’s tea dance. Horrible day, rained all the way there, but we got to sit at a great table and the weather was forgotten. I missed the first two dances, both waltzes because I had something in my shoe or in my sock. It took me two dance tracks to fix it, I wasn’t avoiding the dance … honest. I knew I’d have another opportunity to dance the waltz after tea or find something else in my shoe if necessary.

Next was foxtrot which I staggered through with Scamp’s helpful comments like “Where are you going?” ringing in my ears. On a positive note, we danced an almost perfect Ballroom Rumba and Ria Bachata.

Good to sit and talk to folk the same or similar age as us and hear their plans for the year. Also good to see the floor full for most of the dances.  Even better, was for me to win a chocolate egg in the Easter raffle!  Thank you Stewart & Jane!

Drove home through more, even heavier rain on the M74 and kept the wheels turning. We’d never have managed that on the Kingston Bridge which is just a slowly moving carpark until about 8pm on any day of the working week.

Dinner, after some discussion was Chicken Thighs with Leeks and Peas. Brilliant recipe where the oven does all the work. Lovely crunchy skin on the chicken and the crisped up leeks are great too.

Speaking about Leeks, today’s PoD  was another experiment. I cut off the bottom 20mm of a leek and set it to float in a container of water. That was a few weeks ago. Now it has grown and been tidied up a bit and I’m hoping to plant it in a pot in the greenhouse and see if I can grow a leek from a leek! I have Hazy to thank for the inspiration.

Tomorrow, the plan is to drive to some B&Q that actually has paint to sell of the exact colour we’re looking for for the next stage in Project Spring Clean the House!

Admiring my handiwork – 19 March 2024

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Surprisingly, no aches and pains, no pulled muscles either from yesterday’s tentative return to home decorating.

In fact, we drove up to the local B&Q to see if they had the paint we’re intending to use in the front bedroom. They didn’t have it in stock. It wasn’t a great surprise, they never have what you need in this store. Scamp agreed and said that you don’t see crowds of people shopping for anything in this store. It’s usually joiners and builders we see in this B&Q. I’m guessing they get a good trade discount, paid for through the full price the general public have to fork out. I’m amazed it’s still in business.

So, it was in and out again as quick as possible today and then on to Tesco for the weekly shop. No problem with the general public there. Tuesdays are usually busy and the shelves are usually full. We avoid Mondays when the bakery department seem to take the day off en masse.

Back home and after lunch I had a quick discussion with my brother on WhatsApp about where we’d go this week. I put up a good case for Stirling which has architecture and the occasional grand church which he likes and what can be gorgeous view along the carse to the Lomond hills which suits me.

With that settled I went out for a walk in St Mo’s, but I could just have returned home after a five minutes walk because I found today’s PoD not a hundred metres from our front door. Just a wee daisy that had made its home in a crack in the pavement next to an inspection plug for the wireless cable. A shot in the bag is always a great thing.

Wandered round St Mo’s anyway since the photowalk is not just about taking photos, but also about keeping moving, getting some exercise and increasing my daily step count.

When I got home, I was just going through today’s 17 photos when Scamp started cheering. I thought we’d won the lottery before I remembered we had just torn up Saturday’s failed chance to become a millionaire. No, it was the early arrival of Laura & (Big)Ross’s baby girl and John & Marion’s first grandchild. Three weeks early. Good luck to them all.

Dinner tonight was Paella a family favourite that I hadn’t made for months, and it showed. A bit soggy, but apart from that it was fine. It filled a space as we say.

Tomorrow Alex and I are off to terrorise Stirling. Scamp has nothing planned apart from cleaning and ironing.