Category: photography

A bunch of flowers – 12 November 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Off to see the doc, bright and early.

I was out early, well, early for me. Just before 9am, in the midst of the school run. Spoke to the doc who explained that my bloods results were normal, as were was my PSA test and my Iron levels. I asked her about my painful nether regions and she did a quick exam of my egg shaped ‘dangly bits’ then checked my stomach too and said there was nothing to worry about. I had been worried, I admit, but she seemed sure everything was ok. Possibly the result of a fall I’d had last week, thankfully a fall onto soft, wet, mucky grass. It made a mess of my Rab jacket which I’ll need to wash now, sometime soon. Just to check everything, she gave me a prescription for a week’s supply of something unpronounceable and with far too many letters. Take one, three times a day. I left with a smile on my face.

Back home and after Scamp and I had completed most of the daily puzzles, we drove over to Waitrose in Stirling where Scamp got lots of fish and I got lots of meat and then, basically we bought the whole shop. That’s the way it seemed when we left and piled everything into the wee Blue car. As we were getting in to the car, I’m sure I heard it say “One at a time, please!!” Drove home and picked up the aforementioned prescription. Then we unpacked the car and there was a great sigh from it as I locked its door.

We’ve had problems either with squirrels or magpies, coming into the garden and searching Scamp’s pots for spring bulbs. I think between us we’ve blocked them for now, but magpies and especially squirrels are devious bugg@rs and will find a way in. Just to make it even more interesting, I sprinkled the top of the soil with Cayenne pepper and Hot Chilli pepper. That should tinkle the squirrel’s nose for a while!

Tonight’s dinner was mixed pasta with a tomato sauce and a generous handful of spinach which apparently is great for building up the iron reserves. Popeye swears by it, I’m told.

Today’s PoD was a vase with a selection of flowers. Dried flowers that open out when you put them in water. Quite magical to watch. It took me ages to get it set up the way I wanted it and Scamp was a great help, finding big white boards that had been hidden behind a cupboard.

Tomorrow is Scamp’s turn to visit the doc. This time in Coatbridge.

Chasing the squirrels – 10 November 2025

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Annoying little “rats with furry tails”.

When I was making the breakfast I spied a grey squirrel walking vertically down the fence and investigating the pot that Scamp had planted some of her bulbs in. Usually I just open the kitchen window and that’s enough to scare them away. Not this one. It just looked up at me and I swear it grinned. Rattling the back door had no effect on it either. It wasn’t until I’d opened the back door and started to walk across the garden that it decided a few bulbs weren’t worth the bother and scampered away. I know it’ll be back, but before it does, I’ll lay down some hot pepper. My mum used to swear by it for chasing away cats and other creatures from her garden.

It was a fairly decent day, although my weather app on my phone was warning about heavy rain coming tomorrow, so I kept that in mind. However, nothing much came of it today.

Scamp went out to get some bread and something to put between the slices for lunch. Afterwards I drove over to the town centre. What a sad looking place it is now. All the upper shopping area is boarded up, the ‘going down’ escalator is boarded up too, although the ‘going up’ side is still struggling along. For how long, is hard to say. I was looking for a hard drive for my computer and did find one there that did the job, even if it cost about twice what my old, full one, did.

I drove back via the east end of Broadwood Loch. I was fairly sure there would be some gulls preening on the outfall of the loch and I wasn’t disappointed. Lighting could have been better, but “Beggars and Choosers …” I managed to get a few decent shots, enough to make it worthwhile. Enough to make one of them PoD..

Back home it was time to get ready to go to Kirsty’s class. A disappointing class tonight. Only two couples and one girl without a partner. Scamp and I were agreed that Kirsty just wasn’t prepared for tonight’s class and was trying to ‘wing it’. I’ve tried that myself in the past and it rarely works out well. So it was tonight. Maybe she just had a bad night. We’ll give her another chance next week. It must be soul destroying teaching to five people.

Back home we had a slice of Focaccia which was ok, just ok. I think I could have made better, but at least the one we had was just ready to heat in the oven. A real focaccia takes ages to make. We watched the trilogy of Monday game shows we usually watch. Very informative and we even got some right!

Tomorrow we might head east,

 

 

Getting Closer – 6 October 2025

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I always get edgy as we get nearer to the day we fly. This was no exception.

Were my cameras packed properly? Was the batteries charged? Was my checklist ok? Did I have enough warm clothes, because, despite what Scamp never tired of telling me, it wasn’t going to be all that warm where we were going.

Eventually I bit the bullet and went for a walk in St Mo’s. Taking photos is what I do to calm down and it worked. Not a lot of photos, but enough to take my mind off the possibilities of things that might go wrong and concentrate on taking some photos of the autumn leaves. Do they have autumn in Palma?

But first, another chance to worry. Would the taxi arrive on time. It did. I was soooo glad that I’d agreed with Scamp that we wouldn’t take our car, because the poor taxi driver had to manage the lane changes that were needed to get us through the roadworks that will be with us until May 2026, or so we’re told. We got to the airport just a little later than he’d predicted, paid him and walked over to dump our cases in the check-in hall. With the cases gone, my stress levels started to decrease. A glass of beer with a glass of expensive wine for Scamp and I was beginning to believe we could do this. Heavens, it sound like we’re a pair of bank robbers instead of just a couple of oldies going on holiday.

I knew we wouldn’t sleep much but we set our watches and phones anyway, and we did begin to drift away ………..

Tomorrow would come in its own sweet time.

Still fighting Amy – 4 October 2025

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Storm Amy, the first named storm of the season was still clinging on to Scotland today. I don’t know who named her, but she wasn’t behaving in a ladylike manner. Gale force winds and heavy rain battered the west of the country. Although there were some respites, it wasn’t a great day to go out anywhere.

Scamp and I had a couple of exchanges to make in M&S, so we drove there. There were a few trees blown down on our route to The Fort in the east of Glasgow, but nothing we couldn’t handle. We debated whether to have lunch in Glasgow or to just head for home. A splashy rain shower settled that discussion and we drove home.

Lunch was tea and sandwiches as we watched the weather systems come and go across the Campsie Fells from the comfort of the house. No sense in going out in the squalls that were coming in the western winds. Later in the afternoon I did give in and took the A7c out for a walk to St Mo’s with the intention of getting a fish supper for two at the local chip shop. I wasn’t long out when I wished I’d taken a warmer jacket. The wind was icy cold.

I did manage to get a couple of decent photos of reflections in a pool that had been a path a couple of days ago. The water in the big pond was a lot deeper too. The swans and cygnets were drinking clean water for the first time in a long while. The flooded path became PoD.

I walked over to the chip shop and was heading home with two fish suppers in a bag when I turned a corner and found the path blocked by a couple of big trees. At first I thought I could walk round them, bus soon realise that wasn’t going to work so I headed back the way I’d come and found a path that would take me by a slightly longer road to miss the trees. It only took a few minutes, but saved me a long walk round the park. The fish and chips were still hot when I got home.

We got some sad news this morning. Anju, a long time salsa dancer from our classes in Glasgow when they were run by Jamie Gallagher had died last night. Anju was a lovely Indian lady with a wicked sense of humour, and great fun to dance with. We’ll both miss her, even although we haven’t seen her for a while. We’re hoping we’ll be able to say goodbye to her properly this month.

Tomorrow we intend to tie up loose ends and check everything twice.

 

Wild Windy Weather – 3 October 2025

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It all started out so calmly too!

It was a lovely morning. Cool and a bit damp, but nothing to worry us. I dropped Scamp off at the town centre to go for coffee with Shona. I had intended driving to The Fort to exchange a belt that was far too small for me, but by the look of the weather and the warnings on the radio, it looked like a stay at home day, so I drove home and parked.

Scamp arrived back home around 2pm wet, despite her Berghaus jacket, after a short walk from the shops. Then the rain came on more seriously and it brought wind to the party too. For most of the afternoon, the wind got stronger and stronger. It felt like the front windows were going to blow in. About 6pm things started to calm down. Now at just about 11pm it’s becoming calmer still. Hopefully by morning we’ll be able to go out and retrieve the bins that are lying around the garden.

I wasn’t going to risk life and limb going over to St Mo’s today to get blown all over the place just to get a PoD, so the one you see here is a tabletop setup. It’s a selection of the ‘Coral’ we picked up at Coral Beach in Skye, many, many moons ago.
Despite its appearance, its Maerl is a type of algae, not true coral, which are animals. The meal extracts calcium carbonate from seawater to build a hard, white outer skeleton. So says Google and Google is never wrong.

Tomorrow if the weather is in a better mood we may go shopping.

Dancin’ – 2 October 2025

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It was another wet autumn morning with a loads of clouds.

Spoke to Hazy in the morning and found out what’s going on down south, or “Dahn Sarf” as my old pal Ray would say. We talked for a while and never once mentioned books! That’s a bit strange, but here is what I was going to tell you Hazy. I’ve must started ‘Babycakes’ by Armistead Maupin. Not very far into it yet, but enjoying (maybe that’s the wrong word) it so far. It’s a long time since I’ve read his books. Just thought I should mention that. After we had finished blethering and said our ‘Cheerios’I took a drive up to the doc’s.

I had to drop some samples off and arrange a blood test. Then I drove home via M&S to get some sweet things for Scamp. She got a Raspberry Cheesecake Cookie and I had a Chocolate and Hazelnut Cookie. Actually both of them survived until we returned from Tea Dance! Sorry Hazy, I’d imagine they both had eggs and other contraindicated things in them.

We were almost late getting to Glenburn for the Tea Dance. Pesky roadworks again. No diversion signs, just ROAD CLOSED. Not the most helpful signs. We did find our way round the labyrinth that encloses Glenburn by following our noses. A much bigger group today. Lots of ‘Weel Kent Faces’. Ones who we hadn’t seen since the spring. All coming back because the heating was on in the hall perhaps?

It was a bit of a lacklustre dance. Not quite as good as we were hoping for, but Scamp sat and talked to Carol and I sat and talked to David, her husband. We did dance almost all the dances that were thrown at us, some of them were variations on the real dances, but they were close to what we were trying to do. We left just a wee bit early hoping to miss the traffic jams getting out through Glasgow, but I chose the wrong lane and we ended up taking almost an hour to crawl over the Kingston Bridge and eventually got out of first and second gear.

That was about it for today. Driving through the rain was the theme. I didn’t really get a chance to take any photos. PoD went to Mrs Salt & Mr Pepper who were sitting on the table looking a bit lost. I think getting their photos taken brightened their day.

I might have to take some ill fitting clothes back to M&S at The Fort tomorrow and Scamp may meet Shona for a blether.

It rained – 1 October 2025

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Nearly all day!

I think it’s still raining. Maybe it will tire itself out soon, but after listening to the weather forecast after dinner, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. We’ll just have to wait and see. High winds forecast for the weekend.

Scamp was out in the morning getting her nails done – professionally. I sometimes do a bit of nail painting for her, but I can’t claim to be as neat and tidy as those who do this sort of thing for a living.

I kept myself busy clearing up the back bedroom and finding places to put all the stuff. After lunch I began collecting things that I’d need in the coming weeks, finding things that I really didn’t need and remembering things that I should have added to my list weeks ago. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow or the next day, or the …

I managed to do a backup of the September photos using Microsoft NTFS for Tuxera. A bit slower than the more expensive versions, but the fast iMac balances it out. As I’ve probably mentioned before, Apple software can read an NTFS formatted disk/SD card, but can’t save to that same format. With NTFS for Tuxera it can. Fiddly to start with, but after a bit of tweaking it worked.

Late in the afternoon I grew tired of organisation and went for a walk in St Mo’s. I took the A7c and a 16-35mm f4 lens. I tried and failed to get those low down to the ground shots that the folk on Facebook seem to be able to create. I think I just need some practise. What I did get was a decent shot of a snail sheltering under the seed head of a cow parsley plant. That became my PoD.

Dinner was potato, cabbage and egg for Scamp and if you substitute bacon for the egg you get what I had.

Tomorrow I believe we may be going to a Tea Dance.

More Shopping – 30 September 2025

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I don’t really enjoy shopping, especially for clothes. You guessed it, today we were shopping for clothes.

We drove in to The Fort on the outskirts of Glasgow. I admit that my trousers and sweatshirts are getting worse for wear. Some have holes in them, but that simply gives them character, I think. Some are stained, but again, that increases their ‘lived in’ appearance, at least in my opinion they do. Alas, not in Scamp’s opinion. I came out of M&S with two new pairs of trousers, one pair will be going back, too big. Then I was enticed into NEXT and managed to please Scamp by finding a short sleeved shirt going for a song, and a blue tie which didn’t match the shirt, but just because I liked it. This shopping thing can be fun.

We had coffee and a cake in Tinderbox which is not a patch on the old Tinderbox that used to be in Buchanan Street in Glasgow. Watery coffee, but the Pastel de nata made up for it. Another book plus an interesting one added to my book list and we headed for home.

Back home I set to and cut out the fabric for a bow tie I’ve been promising to make for over a year now. I bought the fabric in Jersey last September and then got some interfacing in Dunfermline a month or so later. A photo of the composite became PoD. That was lucky, because the rain appeared just as I was starting the construction and looked like it was staying for the rest of he day, so no outside photography today.

We watched the Bake Off and were disappointed that the person who left just seemed to be having a bad day. Felt it was a pity.

Not a lot else to say about today. Scamp is intending to have her nails done tomorrow. I won’t have mine done, I might take my baggy trousers back instead.

Fantasy Land – 29 September 2025

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Today we drove into Glasgow to do some shopping, but when we turned the corner in what was George Square we were transported to the late 1800s

I get really fed up with the media moguls attempting to make Glasgow look like something else. Something American. Why don’t they make their fantasy America in America? Why choose a Scottish city? Half the centre of the city is being dug up or pulled down, now they want to rebuild it as something it isn’t. Grrr!

We walked down to M&S looking for a pair of trousers for me and some other things for Scamp. When we came out it was raining. This was September Weekend, a Scottish holiday, so you expect the rain. I remember my mum and dad taking me to Ayr on September weekend one day a long time ago. I needed a slide rule for going to college and I was sure I could get one in a big shop in Ayr. There wasn’t such a thing as a calculator in those days, let alone a laptop. I still have that slide rule somewhere. I must look for it some day, although I don’t think I could work out how to use it now.

Anyway, back in 2025, we walked along to Waterstones on Argyle Street where I used up a book token I’d had since Christmas and got the latest Slow Horses book. We had lunch there too, because Scamp remembered the toasted sandwiches were very good. Then we fought our way into an HSBC bank at the bottom of Buchanan Street. I thought I had been spirited away to the far east, because almost everyone in the queue was either Japanese, Chinese or Korean and to paraphrase Tom Waits “… and no one speaks English …”. Then Scamp explained that as well as being September Weekend, it was also the start of the University intake. Suddenly all was clear.

We drove home, still in the rain and I grabbed a few shots in the garden to supplement the couple I’d taken in Glasgow, but it was one of the Glasgow photos that got PoD. It’s a hand cart pretending it’s from the late 1800s.

We went dancing in Kirsty’s class, Waltz for a change. Only Andy and his wife plus us, so not a gigantic class. For the third, or is the fourth time recently, I thoroughly enjoyed waltzing round the floor. Great fun Kirsty, all is forgiven.

No plans for tomorrow yet.

 

Another lazy Sunday – 28 September 2025

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We didn’t do very much today. More tidying up than anything else.

Over lunch, (always a late lunch on a Sunday) we watched Keir Starmer squirm under Laura Kuenssberg’s gaze with his usual rabbit in the headlights look and James Cleverly talk for half an hour or so without actually saying anything. And these are our leaders or would-be leaders? Oh yes, and Greta Thunberg. Thankfully we couldn’t hear her due to sound problems … or something.

I did some reorganisation in my room, hoping to find something useful there. Eventually discovered the sheet of paper I was looking for and taped it to the bedroom door.

Later in the afternoon I went for a walk in St Mo’s. There wasn’t much to write home about, so I won’t, except, as I was heading home a tree cast some beautiful shadows towards me across the grass. That became PoD.

While I was off galavanting with my camera, Scamp was busy making dinner in the house. Beef olives with potatoes for me and a lentil stew for Scamp. However the star of the dinner was an Eve’s Pudding Scamp made with our own apples. Absolutely delicious.

Spoke to Jamie in the evening and heard more about their Welsh adventures. Out walking every day after worrying that the rain that came on day 1 would last all week. No need to worry the landscape photos they sent were lovely.

Tomorrow we may go in to Glasgow for some shopping.