Category: photography

Best laid plans – 4 August 2026

Posted on by Zogman

I had three things to do today:

  1. Drop off a sample at for the docs to poke and probe into.
  2. Book the MOT for the Blue car.
  3. Send a message to the Podiatrist.

I managed two of them, which is quite good for me. The first one was easy until I realised I’d left the sample pouch at home. Now, bear in mind that about half of the roads in Cumbersheugh just now are blocked for two weeks. I lied earlier in the week about it being three weeks. Well, what’s a week between friends? So now I had to drive through the a whole load of speed bumps to get back to the house to pick up a plastic bag. Then I had to drive round again and overt the bumps to deliver it to the sample box in Medical Centre. Task 1 completed.

Drove on to the very end of Cumbersheugh and booked the car in for MOT and promised it a scrub and polish if it behaved itself at the MOT place. That was easy!

Tried twice without success to describe a problem I’ve got on my left foot. It feels like I’m walking on broken glass, just like Annie Lennox if you remember her. I couldn’t just phone the podiatrist, because for this whole week they open at 9am and close at 1pm. There is only one podiatrist and there were already 7 people ahead of me in the queue. By the time I filled in the page explaining my problem it would be well into three figures. No, I decided to go the slow way, and type up my problem, except you only get one line to do the explanation. What am I going to say? “I HAVE A SORE FOOT THAT CRUNCHES WHEN I WAL” There is no room to finish the sentence! North Lanarkshire at its clumsy best!
I gave up. I may try again tomorrow. I might get lucky. Two out of three isn’t bad.

Really heavy rain shower in the afternoon, just as I was considering a walk in St Mo’s. It must have lasted about 20 minutes, then it tapered off and after a while, the sun shone. I did get out for a walk and grabbed today’s PoD which was a Valarian plant with a tiny little green spider dangling from it. I liked that one.

Scamp made Saag Paneer Kedgeree. Delicious, if a little bit hot. Needs some tweaking, but worth trying I can photocopy the instructions if anyone wants it. It’s got a sliced, boiled egg, Hazy, but that’s not a game changer. You could just miss it out, or Neil could.

No plans for tomorrow.

 

A Butterfly Day – 2 August 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Beautiful day for butterflies. I counted fifteen butterflies congregating on the buddleia bush in the garden.

The day actually started with some joker trying to reverse a lorry and connected ‘chipper’ along a path that was never meant to carry such a wide load. After a bit of an argument I convinced him to disconnect the ‘chipper’ and push it down to where it should have been and then drive the lorry round to the wider road further down the estate. Then we discussed how to repair the tree he had damaged. After that the ‘boss’ and I worked out that the best thing to do was to cut part of the tree branch down. With it done, we shook hands on it, but some of the minions were still making noises. Scamp and I went back to breakfast.

For the rest of the day, Scamp was happily working on the garden. She had a vision of what she wanted to happen and I was glad to let her get on with it. I must admit that she has made an excellent job of clearing up the garden. It’s not quite finished yet, but a lot of work went into making it look much better than before.

I was busy taking photos of the butterflies that had covered the buddleia bush. About half a dozen different types were flying round and through the buddleia flowers and my favourite was the Comma with its easily recognised ‘Cut out’ on its wing. The most amazing one was the Painted Lady which migrates from Africa and mainland Europe to the Uk, and in this case to Scotland. This is the first time I’ve seen one.

Spoke to Jamie later in the day and heard about the exorbitant price for their water bill. I’m glad we live in Scotland!

Tomorrow Scamp and I are probably going shopping. What fun!

Dancin’ – 1 August 2026

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On the first day of August

It was a busy morning with traffic on the road, probably from folk coming home from holiday and others on their way out. Once we got past Glasgow airport the traffic reduced. Today we were back in Brookfield and dancing old dances. Some were more successful than others. People, including us, were still having problems with Rona’s Rumba. Jane was making changes to the routine but, as someone said, there are too many turns both clockwise and anticlockwise. I can understand that Jane has devised the dance for a friend who passed away, but you sometimes have to stand back and look at the routine. That’s all I’ll say.

It wasn’t my best day. I was complaining about everything. I have no excuse for it, just one of those dance days when things get under my skin and I can’t do anything right. We danced quite a few routines that, normally we’d work our way through without any problems, but today they just didn’t work. Most of it was my fault. Probably best to forget today and come back fresh for the next dance.

For once we drove home over the Kingston Bridge and kept the wheels turning all the time. It’s not often I’ll say that. The weather was variable today. Cloudy one minute and in sunshine the next. Not to be trusted, though because Scamp was complaining about little showers of rain when she was working in the garden later. We both worked on an old tree that’s been growing next to the wall in the back garden and between us I think we’ve given it a good short back and sides today. Our ‘Brown Bin’, the garden waste bin was almost full with one bushy tree.

We had three butterflies changing places round the Buddleia bush in the garden. One of them, a Red Admiral, finally settled on a plant pot and I managed one photo of it before it flew off. That photo made PoD.

I spent some time rearranging my Lightroom catalog, something I’ve been meaning to do for months now. Hopefully it will be a more logical way of working this year.

Dinner tonight was Mac ’n’ Cheese and although it was a bit salty, it tasted great. Scamp was cooking, of course!

No plans for tomorrow so far.

Another warm day – 30 July 2026

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Scamp was taking Shona to have a tooth removed. Rather her than me

I took some time to myself and read a few more chapters of my latest book, The Midnight Train by Matt Haig. Strange book, but I’m only about a quarter way through it. I want to find out where it goes, but am not in a hurry.

When Scamp returned she started a conversation with Jackie and not wishing to earwig, I put on my rain jacket and put three new windscreen wipers on the blue car. What a difference that made. Wish I’d dine it weeks an ago. With that done, I drove up to my favourite photography spot to get some wild sky photos. It was quite cool up on the moors, but I did get a few photos I liked.

I drove home and after I’d been brought up to speed with Jackie’s comings and goings and Murdo’s possible need for a new cataract op Scamp made dinner. Salmon, Potatoes and Corn on the Cob. Very nice, I really enjoyed the salmon slice, Scamp.

Tomorrow I’m booked for my annual checkup and as usual, I’m not really looking forward to it. At least it’s going to be in my usual place and not in the main surgery.

We are hoping the wildfire down near Dunwich burns out soon, or the wind changes direction.

PoD went to a landscape that brightened up my day.

Oh yes, and Shona did get her tooth out without too much trouble.

 

Raindrops on Roses – 29 July 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Another of those days when the rain just forgets to turn off.

It started in the morning, just a drizzle that wouldn’t go away. As the day progressed, the rain got heavier and then it disappeared, but I knew it was just waiting for me to go out, then it would return again … and it did.

In a short dry spell we drove to Tesco, and found for some Peppadew spicy peppers. Next thing I needed was a set of windscreen wipers in Halfords. The last time I went looking there they had hardly any.Thankfully, they had all three in stock. When I came out Scamp was heading for Aldi where I got a packet of Butteries (also known as Rowies). I’m sure two of my readers remember them from their time in Aberdeen. Scamp got a couple of Carmel Custard Doughnuts.

On the way home there was a long, long queue to get round one of Cumbersheugh’s roundabouts and the reason was some roads were closed and those that weren’t were restricted to one lane. Scamp had noticed a warning when we were heading out that claimed the all the roads round the roundabouts would be close for three weeks THREE WEEKS! I can just imagine the chaos that will bring. Anyway, we did manage to get back home … just as the rain came on. I wasn’t going to get those windscreen wipers fitted today.

We put the Peppadew peppers into yesterday’s Carrot & Lentil Curry and that made it taste a lot better. Also, Scamp just had to test the custard doughnuts and I had to do a similar test on the butteries. Both passed with flying colours.

After dinner the clouds blew away and the sun shone and I got today’s PoD in the garden. A rose branch covered in water droplets.

Tomorrow, Scamp is intending to take Shona to the dentist to get a tooth removed. I hoping to stay well clear.

Raining – 28 July 2026

Posted on by Zogman

I know this will break the hearts of my readers “Dahn Sarf”, especially with another heat wave heading their way, but we had rain almost all day today. Sometimes heavy rain sometimes light, but always there. Hopefully those in the south of England will get their fair share of it too in the coming weeks and months.

I’m afraid there wasn’t much to report today. I walked down to the shops in the afternoon to get some ‘messages’, but other than that I hardly moved from the house.

I was duty chef today and I was making Carrot & Lentil Curry. It’s so long since I last made it, I completely forgot what the ingredients were. Then I remembered that the original was sealed into a double sided, clear plastic sheet. Find that and you find the recipe, and Scamp knew where the plastic sheet was. We almost had all the makings of the curry, but the local shops didn’t sell canned Pimentos. However, our version of it was good enough for today. Tomorrow I may drive to Tesco to get a new jar. Scamp says she was delighted with the cut down version. Happy Wife, Happy Life!

We thought we’d lost the chance to see who won Bakeoff The Professionals because, for some reason ITV were showing it on the wrong day, but Scamp managed to find it somewhere on ITV. I chose the wrong pair, but Scamp got it right. Brilliant program.

PoD went to a branch of Rowan berries from the back garden. They look like plump little oranges!

No plans for tomorrow, but it looks like the weather may improve. Probably not what you were wanting to hear if you live down south!

Back to normal – 27 July 2026

Posted on by Zogman

After the faded glamour and glitz of The Blackpool Tower Ballroom and the fun of Glasgow Merchant City Festival, today it was back to reality with a bump. Monday is ‘Messages’ day. A trip to Tesco was as far as we got.

After we emptied the car and put all the ‘messages’ away, we had lunch. Then Scamp decided she was going out to make some changes to the back garden. I let her get on with it and settled down to write some of the blog and put the rest of it back into the places it should have been in yesterday. Then Scamp explained what she wanted to change in the garden and where things were going to go.

Thankfully, it was around that time that Hazy phoned to see if we were busy. We talked about Blackpool and dancing and and dentists. Also, how the hats got on people. If that makes no sense, don’t worry. Books, as usual, were topics for discussion too. Good to hear that Neil is enjoying his school holidays.

After we had said our goodbyes, it was back to the back garden for more of Scamp’s ideas for its alterations. Actually it looks as if it will work quite well, but it will need quite a lot of changes.

It was a cool afternoon with the threat of rain always just there in the wind and very little sign of blue skies. I didn’t really want to go out to take photos, but I did get some photos of the bees on the Buddleja bush in the garden. They were Bombus pascuorum (Carder Bees). One of the shots made PoD.

It looks like we are going to have more rain tomorrow. That will be good for the garden. We’ve had a few showers, but we still need more to keep the plants healthy.

No plans for tomorrow.

Glasgow Merchant City Festival – 26 July 2026

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It being Sunday, we knew we’d get parked at Croy station and from there we would get a train to Glasgow. That sounded like a plan.

It was a very good plan, because although the train was a bit late, it was an express that didn’t stop after Croy. Unfortunately once we got to the Merchant City, there was very little to see. For once we were too early. We decided to walk round to a Nero and have a coffee. A cake would also be a good idea.

Scamp wanted to have a look in M&S for something for dinner, but she seemed to drawn to the dress department too. There is a wedding in the offing and I suppose she needed to see what was fashionable these days …
We did spot some things that would work well for dinner too and then we walked back to the Merchant City. In the time we had been wandering around M&S and having coffee, lots of stalls had popped up and the place looked much more lively. Two large balloon shaped people were running around the stalls. The Show was on.

Scamp stopped by one of her friends who was selling bangles and to quote her, “… one just jumped out at me!” So she bought it there and then. It looked good on her too.

We stayed for a while, watching a street artist hauling folk around on a long wooden rod (much more interesting than this description), listened for far too long to a tuneless jazz style band and a group called Brass Aye who could play proper, interesting music. PoD went to a group of ladies in yellow robes demonstrating why you can distort things with Chinese Whispers.

When we were finished, we went back to M&S, bought some food for tonight and got the train home.

I think we might go back again to the second Merchant City Festival next week, if we have the time.

Dancin’ in Blackpool – 25 July 2026

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Not your usual dancin’. This was dancin’ in Blackpool, not Brookside.

Taxi in the morning to Holiday Inn at Strathclyde Park. We met another dancer there. Natasha was the teacher for the first dance class we went to about twenty years ago! I wouldn’t have recognised her, but Scamp did. Twenty years? Who would have thought it!!

Picked up the minibus there that would take us from Strathclyde Park to Blackpool. A three hour drive with one stop for a ‘comfort break’ would bring us to Blackpool, right to the door of the Blackpool Tower Ballroom. The show was already in full swing, so we got our dance shoes on and watched the expert

Dancers of varying abilities were showing off their steps and we watched entranced for a while before we took the plunge and hit the floor. We had had no real chance to practice, but that wasn’t a problem, as two ladies took Scamp and me around the floor for the first time. Such a civilised way to start the day. After that, and when they were sure we could cope by ourselves, they left us to pick up another couple showing signs of having dancing problems.

After that, we danced our little feet off for over two hours. The building really is an amazing place, truly vast. It has a ground floor and two layers tiers above that. It also has a fully sprung floor that you don’t notice to begin with, then you feel the movement as you dance.

Eventually time was running out and we hadn’t really had anything to eat all day, so we left the dance hall and fought our way in a gale blowing in from the sea and found a Pizza restaurant with a space for us. By the time we left there we had just enough time for a quick walk along the prom before finding our minibus and the drive home.

A quick drink back at the Holiday Inn and then got the taxi back home.

It was an interesting experience. Would we do it again? I don’t think so. Blackpool is a poor looking place now. Very run down and a shadow of its former self. Also, six hours overall in a minibus isn’t good for the back. Not the most comfortable day we’ve had.

PoD was a shot of the the dance floor once most of the participants had left. An image of its former glory.

Tomorrow will be all about recovering.

 

A change in the weather – 24 July 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Much cooler today and it rained overnight. That will save us lugging watering cans around the garden! More forecast for tomorrow.

Scamp was out in the morning for coffee with Shona. I stayed home trying to make some sort of organisation into Lightroom Classic. It seems that as the catalog gets busier and busier, more errors creep in to Lightroom. Yes, it’s a really clever application, but it can be a pain in the backside sometimes. Probably a lot of the problems are human error, but not all.

While I was walking round the garden looking for some subjects to photograph I caught a glimpse of something zipping past the Buddleia bush. It stopped once and I realised it was a Humming Bird Hawk Moth. I’ve never, and I mean NEVER seen one in Scotland. My daughter in law got some photos of one in deepest England a year or so ago, but I never in my wildest dreams thought I’d see one in Scotland. By the time I got my phone camera out of my pocket it was gone. Amazing! I’ll be watching that bush for the next month until I get another chance like that!

When Scamp returned and I told her about the amazing visitor, I don’t think she believed me at first. Then when I laid siege to the buddleia bush she knew I wasn’t joking.

Not a lot other than that to speak of. Dinner was Fish ’n’ Chips from the chippy. PoD was a Japanese Anemone and I did eventually manage to get Lightroom Classic to do what it was meant to do.

I think an early bed tonight will be good. I’ve not been sleeping well, and maybe I just need an early night for once.