Category: photography

It was Wet. – 18 November 2025

Posted on by Zogman

It was wet from start to finish today.

Sometimes heavy, sometimes light, always wet. Thankfully we weren’t going anywhere today. The furthest I got today was a quick trip to the tip to dump some of the odds and ends we’ve gathered in the past year and some that have been lingering in cupboards for a long while before that.

Other than that, I set up a still life of Alstroemeria flowers and that became the PoD. Not great, but it worked quite well on such a dull day.

Dinner was pasta with tomato sauce and spinach. It looks like becoming a favourite in the house.

For once I watched the World Cup 2026 qualifiers because Scotland were playing in it. I wasn’t expecting them to win against Denmark. Imagine my surprise when they not only won that match, but won by four goals to two. Amazing or lucky? I don’t think it matters to the Scotland fans, judging by the antics on the park after full time. Good Luck to them all.

No plans for tomorrow, but it would be nice if the rain would stop for a while.

A day on my own – 17 November 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp and Shona were booked on the train to Inverness today, but …

We were both up and dressed nice and early. I had warmed up the car and defrosted it, while Scamp was having a swift breakfast, then we drove off to pick up Shona at Paul’s house. That’s when things went wrong. Despite three phone calls and knocking on the door, there was no sign of Shona. We waited for a good four or five minutes, and Scamp was getting worried that we might miss the first train, the one that would take her to Stirling where she only had 5 minutes to catch the connection to Inverness.

I dropped Scamp at the station with enough time to spare to walk over the bridge to the far side to catch the Alloa train that would drop her at Stirling. Just to satisfy my nagging worry that Shona might be waiting at her own house, rather than Paul’s, I drove past her own house, but there was no sign of Shona. Knowing that we’d both done everything we could, I drove home and had my breakfast. No need to rush now. Scamp had sent a text to say she was now on the Inverness train. I thought I’d take my time and read a bit more of my latest book ’The Fathers’.

The plan for the rest of today was to put some air into the Blue car’s tyres. Then if time allowed, to take some clutter to the skips. The tyres had been gradually losing pressure for the last few months and needed it fixed. I remember when air was free at a petrol station as long as you were buying fuel, but not now. Thinking back on it, that was at least 20 years ago now! Anyway, I paid my quid and filled the tyres. I hadn’t realised just how low those tyre were. The car went skipping along now.

I checked the box with the stuff for the skip, but wasn’t certain I was looking at the correct box. Better to be safe than sorry, so I left it for another day. Instead I drove to Tesco for bread and a pizza which would be my dinner tonight.

Lunch time was coming up soon and that was going to be a ‘piece ’n’ banana’. Healthy and nutritious and, best of all, easy to make. Another nose dive into the book and it was time to go for a walk. Somewhere close to home, because light was fading again. The days are certainly getting shorter.

PoD came from that walk. The pond was frozen, really frozen, not like yesterday when there was a thin sheet of ice on the water. This ice was hard. I tapped it with my fingernail and it sounded hard. Time for one of my ‘Dangerous Dan’ ideas. Set the camera to the aperture and shutter speed you want and gently place it on the ice, holding on to the wrist strap, just in case! Gently press the shutter and get ready to swipe it off the ice at the first sign of a crack. Just as I was pressing the shutter button I saw the ice start to shift. It wasn’t as solid as I’d thought. Whipped the camera away, unharmed. It would have been a great shot, but maybe another day. The final photo was take from a slightly higher viewpoint and it looked almost as good as the photo that never was.

After my pizza dinner I got a message from Scamp to say she was on the Inverness train heading to Stirling. The next message a couple of hours later told me she was on the Glasgow train. I drove down to the station and parked just as the train came in.

That was a long day for Scamp and Jackie, but not for me. I just relaxed through the day. Shame about Shona missing the trip, but there will be other days.

Absolutely no plans for tomorrow.

Another bright, but cold day – 16 November 2025

Posted on by Zogman

The temperature when we woke this morning was 0.4ºc. At least it was still positive!

We both struggled with Wordle, but survived to tell the tale. Other puzzles were not as successful. It must have been the cold temperature that was doing it.

We didn’t actually do much and we certainly didn’t go far. The temperature did rise a bit in the afternoon, but not enough to entice us out, there was even some ice in the bird bath in the back garden. First time this season.

In the afternoon I managed a walk around St Mo’s to get some photos. The cloudscape was very nice, but by 4pm the sun was heading towards the horizon and the colours were changing. My favourite photo was another of the reflection shots I’ve become attached to. This time it was taken with the Sony 10-18mm lens. It’s really an APS-C lens, but it works magnificently on the full frame camera. It became PoD and was a shot looking across the flooded pond to a beautiful skyscape.

One circuit of St Mo’s pond was sufficient for me today, not because it was cold, although it still was, but because I was cooking a stubby short rib for my dinner. Scamp was having salmon. Her’s was cooked in about ten minutes while mine took three hours. Both were deemed lovely, but my short rib was a bit tough. It might have been left in the freezer just too long. I must go back to Muirhead to get another one, soon, and not keep it so long in the freezer this time.

We spoke to Jamie and heard about his plans for the next couple of months. It must be great to be going to warm places while we shiver, even if it’s not for the happiest or reasons. We also heard that he has a leak in roof somewhere. It’s in a place that wasn’t updated in his previous work. Thankfully he says it doesn’t look too serious.

Scamp and Shona are booked for on a one-day trip up north tomorrow. I hope the weather is kind to them. I might be taking some stuff to the skips.

Driving and Phones – 14 November 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Friday’s used to be relaxing days. Not today.

Out just about 11am to meet my brother, Alex for a walk in Chatelherault park and a cup of coffee. We sat for an hour discussing the merits and demerits of two Sony cameras, an A7iii and an A7ii. Both were up for consideration by Alex as a replacement for his A6600 camera. Both the A7 series cameras were ‘Full Frame’ which means they produce better quality images than the A6 series. Alex was considering a giant leap in technology. I already had two A series cameras and am really happy with the quality they produce. Finally he agreed to borrow my A7iii for a week or so to decide if it was for him or not. I’ll leave him to decide for himself if the upgrade is worth the money.

To give us a better ‘hands-on’ with the camera we went for a walk across the “Duke’s Bridge’ which was built by the Duke of Hamilton many years ago. It used to be a private road, but now it is open to the public. Once we were over the bridge we visited the Cadzow Oaks, ancient oak trees, some of which are over 600 years old and still producing leaves and fruit.
While we were there a couple passed us riding one white horse and one brown horse. Just to show off, I think, they galloped along the path once we were behind them. Beautiful horses. We both wondered what the view must be like from that height.

Alex had only about two hours free, having to pick up his grandson from nursery, but we made good use of his time.

I drove him home and said our goodbyes. It wasn’t until I was nearly home I heard a strange ticking in the car. I had the radio on, and it wasn’t coming from that, but when it started again, I knew there was something wrong. I stopped at the shops near our house and found Alex’s phone wedged between the two seats!

When I got home, Scamp started investigating and found a message from Alex’s wife saying had I found Alex’s phone in the car? A few hasty emails later I confirmed that I had it and would bring it over.

Our relaxing day with a walk through the woods had become a bit of a nightmare, but Alex and his phone were reunited and all was well in the end.

Dinner tonight was home made Paella.

PoD was a reflection from the Duke’s Bridge of the trees at Chatelherault.

No plans for tomorrow. I hope Alex’s blood pressure is back to normal by now!

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

Posted on by Zogman

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

Posted on by Zogman

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

Posted on by Zogman

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

Posted on by Zogman

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

Posted on by Zogman

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.