Category: photography

A deteriorating day – 18 June 2024

Posted on by Zogman

The morning promised so much with blue skies and fluffy white clouds, but then then it started to cloud over and the promise of the morning was gone.

It didn’t stop us from getting out in the garden and doing a bit of pruning of anything that looked as if it was struggling, straggling or had lost all its flower petals. Scamp did the low roses and I did the high up ones. I think we do need to more brutal with the pruning of the roses this autumn to try to force more growth from the lower branches. The flowers at the top of the rambling rose are almost reaching the upstairs windows.

There was some rearranging to be done too, especially on the Compte de Chambord. It was growing lop sided in its pot, with most of the buds facing a wall. I volunteered to pull it out of its place and turn it around so the rose buds got the benefit of the sunshine. It has the sharpest and shortest thorns in any rose I’ve seen. Some stems are completely covered in them.

In the afternoon, Scamp was about to head down to the shops when the rain started. It was a wise decision on her part to wait for the rain to go off, because it just seemed to get heavier and heavier for a couple of hours and then the rain clouds blew away and all was well again. Scamp got her walk to the shops and just after she returned, I went for a walk in the park. While we’d been pruning in the late morning, I grabbed some photos of the peony rose, Karl Rosenfield. It has only produced one flower this, its first year. Apparently that is quite common on Peonys and we’re hoping for more next year, all being well. Karl Rosenfield got PoD, but I got a couple of shots in St Mo’s, mainly wildflowers sprinkled with raindrops. Some are on Flickr.  Glad we did both go out for a walk, because later the rain returned.

We didn’t do much more today. I think the rain curtailed a lot of things. I messed around with the new version of ON 1 2024. It’s OK, but that’s all. Nothing like as good as the rave reviews the company were throwing around for the last couple of weeks. It’s really clumsy compared to Lightroom or Capture One. The only thing I use it for now its the excellent resizing app and its really fast denoising ability.

Hope you’re settling down now Hazy and hoping for a good resolution of the problems. BTW, Boozy Gladys was very, very nice. Lovely flavour. Tomorrow I’m intending to test Captain’s Grog!

 

Dentist – 17 June 2024

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Not for me, thankfully. It was for Scamp this time.

The nagging ache from the crown she had fitted a few weeks ago was keeping her awake at night, so this morning she phoned the dentist and got an appointment for 9:45 today. It didn’t take the dentist long to examine the tooth, but she explained that she couldn’t do anything other than look because her dentist chair had developed a fault and she was waiting for the engineer to arrive to fix it. She did say that it could be an infection and gave her a prescription for antibiotics.

We drove over to the chemist at Tesco and did our usual Monday shopping while we waited for the prescription to be filled. Back home with the messages, she took the first of four-a-day tablets and we had lunch.

One Thursday a couple of weeks ago Scamp got a box of solar powered lights, fifty of them. After lunch I was given the job of hanging them on the tall fence. Fifty seems an awful lot of lights, but it didn’t take long to clip them on to the fence and check that they worked. While I was doing that, Scamp was dead-heading the roses and pruning some of the plants in the back garden.

I’d no idea what I was going to photograph today, other than I wanted to use one of my less used lenses, an ultra-wide lens that gets some wonderful effects. Scamp was looking a bit down after getting the garden licked into shape again, so I suggested we drive somewhere for a walk. That seemed to brighten her up, so that’s what we did.

We drove over to Grangemouth and into Klondyke garden centre. The smile on her face when she saw all those flowers told me it was the right decision. We wandered round the roses and the flowers, before we settled on the Bargain Bench where we picked up a Foxglove and a Candelabra Primula for a fiver each. They’re a bit battered and bruised, but with Scamp’s green fingers they will come on a treat. She also got herself a couple of semi-circular metal plant supports that she has been looking for.

We stopped at the Kelpies on the way back and went for a walk round the Big Horses with a few hundred other folk. That gave me an ideal opportunity to use the ultra-wide lens to great effect. My favourite shot got PoD. I’d also picked up an ‘Explore’ award in Flickr this morning for the photo of the reflections of boats on the Water of Leith on Saturday.

The only down side to the day was driving home through the traffic jam that is the M876/M80 on the road home. I’d hate to have to drive those roads every day going and returning from work. Even when I was working, I was only fifteen minutes from my workplace.

Scamp said tonight that she thinks the meds are working. I hope they are and that she gets a good night’s sleep.

Tomorrow we may go out again if the weather fairies are correct and the skies are blue.

Fathers Day – 16 June 2024

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I remember complaining to my mum and dad that there were Fathers days and Mothers days, but when were the wee boy’s days. The answer came from both of them “Every day is wee boy’s day!” Funny how you remember these things.

Today Scamp was making breakfast in bed for me on Father’s Day. Tea, two Weetabix with blueberries and milk with a strawberry on top. Also on the tray was a glass of orange juice with a couple of carnations in a vase. Later in the morning I spoke to Hazy and thanked her for the prezzy which she always remembers and the card. I will enjoy some of the first packet tomorrow, hopefully, Hazy. We talked for a while about the books we’re reading and what’s coming up on our lists.

My father’s day present from Wordle was a score of 3. Best I’ve had for quite a while. I also managed to get one of the two available Pangrams which is also an achievement for me. Nice to know we fathers are appreciated by the New York Times!

The main task for me today was to repot my Venus Flytrap and my miniature Sarracenia pitcher plant. They’ve been waiting far too long for new compost and a wee bit of Sphagnum moss to retain the moisture. It didn’t take long and I’m sure they will both feel the benefit of getting their feet wet in now soil.

PoD was taken from just outside the back door, because the rain had been on from early this morning and looked as if it was going to continue for most of the day. I’ll admit to being lazy today and not venturing out into the wide world, but I’d no wish to get wet for no reason and today’s photo of a straggly Campanula fitted the bill perfectly.

Wrote to Alex who seems to have picked up another virus (not a computer one) just as Carol is beginning to improve. Hope you both feel better soon.

Dinner for Scamp was Salmon fillet with Ratatouille (AKA ‘Rats’) and potatoes. If you substitute a steak for the salmon fillet, you have my dinner. Dessert was the other half of yesterday’s Tiramisu from M&S.

Spoke to Jamie in the evening and thanked him for his card. It seems the doc is not sure whether it is Whooping Cough that Simonne has, but they are treating it as that for now, just in case. Hope you feel better soon Simonne. Jamie and I also discussed what books we’re getting through and as usual, I didn’t really enjoy some that he suggested and vice versa. I think that’s quite normal for us.

Well, that was a lovely Father’s Day. I thoroughly enjoyed being pampered for a day. Great cards and prezzies. Thank you all very much. I don’t deserve you.

Scamp is going to phone the dentist tomorrow to get her new crown investigated, because it’s becoming more painful. Hope it gets fixed soon S.

We wuz Robbed – 14 June 2024

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Scamp was off to FitSteps this morning I was staying home.

It wasn’t the brightest morning and it didn’t look as if the day would brighten much. However I was feeling quite happy. Yesterday, I’d ordered a two day rental of a lens, an expensive one, but after sleeping on it, I decided this morning it wasn’t for me. It wasn’t the cost of the lens so much as the weight of it. Approximately 840gms. That’s a heavy load to lug around along with a big camera and another lens. I was wondering how I was going to extricate myself from the trial, when I got an email from the company apologising that the lens couldn’t be delivered to me in time. I’d read somewhere that the lens was coming from Edinburgh, but it was actually coming from Vauxhall and would have taken two days to be delivered. Relieved, I enjoyed my coffee.

When Scamp returned from her class, she brought the rain with her and that rain stayed with us for the rest of the day. We had both considered going to Brodens for lunch, but neither of us were really all that bothered and instead had a light lunch at home.

During one of the lighter rain showers I strapped an old Nikon fit Tamron zoom to the A6500 with an adapter. Then shot some flowers in manual mode as neither the autofocus, nor the anti-shake work on the old Tamron now. One of the photos made PoD. It was the best shot of the dozen or so I took.

Dinner was Arancini which are little balls made from left over cooked rice ( we used yesterday’s paella),  coated in flour and dipped into beaten egg, then into breadcrumbs. They are left in the fridge for an hour or so before being deep fried.  Crunchy and delicious, they don’t last long.  We had ours with a home made tomato sauce.  Val assures me they should have a bit of mozzarella pushed into the rice balls before they are coated in flour.  We generally don’t bother.

Later in the evening we watched the buildup to the Euros football competition and weren’t surprised when Scotland were beaten 5-1 by Germany. Now I know next to nothing about football, be even I could see they were completely outclassed. I imagine there will be sore heads in Munich tonight.

No plans for tomorrow, but the weather looks as if it will be the same as today’s … wet!

Mixed Messages – 13 June 2024

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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.