Category: photography

Just above zero – 3 December 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Not much above zero, but a move in the right direction.

This was another day for not straying far from the warm house. I did go out for a while, but only as far as the garden, wearing wellies. They are quicker to put on and take off than boots and although clumsy, you can tramp through lots more stuff without worrying about water or snow leaking into your socks!

The road outside is passable now, I think. It’s not the going down the hill that bothers me, it’s the coming back up again, especially if it’s icy. But even with that improvement it didn’t encourage me to walk over to St Mo’s just to see the same hard trodden snow and a few weeds fighting to rid themselves of the snowy covering. I suppose I could have taken a few ‘camera on the ice’ shots, but I’m always caution with these pictures. One crack in a thin bit of ice and I’d need a new camera and an almost equally expensive lens. All for a few shots that I’d probably discard in the first cull.

Instead I managed to get a few close ups of desiccated flowers and little bits of colour among the white of the snow. When you’ve been sitting in a warm room for almost two days, you forget just how bitingly cold it is outside. I managed to get three decent photos that would find a place on Flickr and my favourite, and PoD, was the wee bell shaped flowers. I say flowers, but I’m guessing they are really the sepals, that protect the flower buds. Anyway they looked too fragile to survive in this ‘real’ winter that’s suddenly descended on us.

Dinner tonight was Fishcakes for Scamp and Stew and Sausage for me Both served potatoes. The dessert was Scamp’s Christmas Sponge with Amaretto Mincemeat which sounds a strange concoction, but it really works.

A rather cobbled together Sunday Strictly. One person dropped out due to ‘injury’, so he forfeited his place. That meant they had about an hour to fill with anything they could get their hands on, because there was no voting nonsense tonight. It was really quite sad to watch. Too much waffle, too much junk. We turned it off.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard of their problems sleeping in a cold house with a steel roof and no upstairs heating or insulation. I do not envy them that. Jamie was also bemoaning the problems with more planned rail strikes. It’s the drivers this time and while I sympathise with their need for a decent wage for a decent day’s work, it seems that every month there is another group of rail workers going on strike. This seemingly continuous strike action won’t win them any sympathy from the travelling public.
End of rant!

Hoping to meet Fred for coffee and a blether in Tesco tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Hazy – 2 December 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Happy Birthday Hazy.

Unbeknown to us, during the night, Mother Nature had seen fit to dump at least 40mm of snow on us. We didn’t ask for it, but then again, we didn’t pay for it, but it would have been only polite to tell us that it was coming. Admittedly, the weather fairies had been telling us for a week or so that it was snow was on the way, but to paraphrase Lou Reed “You can’t alway believer your weather fairies.”

As well as that, it was Hazy’s birthday today. That gives me yet another chance to say Happy Birthday Hazy! As if I needed another opportunity for that. Once Scamp and I had sung the obligatory Happy Birthday song we had a chance to sit and talk to her. Our conversation covered many topics like Neil getting ready to go to a wedding and bow ties for koalas. Just don’t ask. It would take too long to explain it. That was a great way to start the day.

I was fairly eager to go out and get some photos in the snow. Only ’fairly’ because I was eager to take some photos, but the weather machine was predicting low temperatures. But I dressed for the season and even wore my knee length gaiters, as well as boots, lined walking trousers, thick cardigan and double layer Berghaus jacket. If you’ve got to face the frozen snowy wastes of Scotland, do it comfortably.

The road into St Mo’s hadn’t been ploughed or gritted and was treacherous to walk on, as was the norm. The paths with the less hard packed snow was easier to walk on and I love the Crump, Crump, Crump as the snow moves on the boardwalk. Three lenses with me. One long, one medium and one very short. All were used and over 70 photos taken. For once, not very many of them were rejected in the first cull, but I’m sure more will follow on the second run through. PoD went to a photo of a lone tree in a grassy area of St Mo’s. The tree has a lovely shape, bent and twisted, and it stood out well against the sky. It was a good walk, but even although I was well wrapped up, I was feeling the cold when I was walking home.

Two pieces ‘n’ flat sausage for lunch warmed me up and so did the big long radiator in the living room. Most of the afternoon was spent raking through the photos and finding a group of them good enough for Flickr. Eventually I settled of three.

Dinner tonight was re-heated chilli from Thursday. It tasted good, but I had to agree with Scamp that it lacked texture. Certainly worth trying again.

We watched ‘Strictly’ and, as usual, disagreed with panel’s votes.

Tomorrow if the roads are clear we may go out for a run somewhere. Somewhere not too snowy if that’s possible.

Another cold day – 30 November 2023

Posted on by Zogman

It was only just above zero when we woke, and then it cooled down!

Scamp was going out for lunch with her pal and I had a plan for some photos. I wanted to get out and find somewhere nearby that wasn’t St Mo’s. I gave Scamp a lift up to the cafe at Calders where they were meeting up and then I drove over to Fannyside after I’d bought an almost daylight bulb for my new lamp. It’s slightly warmer than my real one, but it’s got an Edison Screw fitting and the old one is bayonet, so at least it fits the lamp.

There wasn’t much to see at Fannyside. All the leaves have been blown away from the beech trees now and they just look bare. Five sheep, four ewes and a ram had a look at me and questioned what I was doing in their territory. The ladies were unsure whether or not to approach the man with the metal tube, but the ram was giving me the side eye and they all stayed away. I took their photo anyway, which was quite good, because that became PoD.

Not long after I came home and dumped the photos, Scamp phoned to say she was ready to come home too. I drove over to the village and picked her up then we went home via Tesco to get some veg and stuff to make a veggie chilli. We were driving out of Tesco when I saw a sunset building up. I drove round to the car park at the rear of the building and grabbed five shots before the sun completely disappeared. My favourite of the five is on Flickr. A Tesco Sunset.

I made the chilli in the Magic Pot and it turned out quite well, except it was meant to serve 4. It’s more like 400. I think most of it is going in the freezer for a quick meal some day.

We watched Masterchef tonight and I hate to say this, but I’m actually enjoying it. We also watched another Portrait Artist. The numbering of the individual episodes is chaotic. None of the numbers are correct as far as we can see.

Tomorrow Scamp is planning to go to FitSteps or I may drive her if the roads are dodgy. Hoping to get to Brodens for lunch. Steak pie for me, hopefully. Don’t know what Scamp will have.

Cold – 29 November 2023

Posted on by Zogman

The outside temperature this morning was two below zero.

Scamp was going out to meet Isobel and I was staying home with the intention of going over to St Mo’s to get some morning photos. I had a couple of ideas that I wanted to try.

I did get the photo I wanted, but, as usual it was a different one that got PoD. The winner was a photo of a piece of Oak Moss in a tree. I’t’s called Oak Moss, but it doesn’t just grow on Oak trees and it isn’t a moss. It’s a lichen. It was a once round the pond walk this morning, because the temperature hadn’t lifted by much and I was glad to get back to a warm house.

When Scamp arrived we had a plate of the lentil soup she made yesterday. We had bought rolls yesterday and hadn’t got round to eating any of them, so I had the idea of warming them up in the oven while the soup was warming in the pot. The heat from the oven did warm the rolls and also crisped up the outside skin of them.

We needed some fresh fish for tonight’s dinner and we also needed crème fraîche and white wine. The wine was for cooking with, I must stress that ;-). We walked to the shops to get the requirements and I was glad I’d got some photos in the morning and could just walk home. I was making Cod and Prawns with Fennel and White Wine. It’s a favourite in the house when we can get fennel, because it’s just not the same without its aniseed taste. Tonight it could have done with some extra salt I thought. Scamp said it was only the fish that needed salt. We can never agree with food!

Kirsty’s dance class was down to three couples or two and a half if we’re going to split hairs because one of the girls doesn’t have a partner but Kirsty stepped in to complete the three couples. We danced the Quickstep to begin with, breaking it down into three stages, then joined the three together to form the complete dance. Scamp had a bright idea of raising the tempo and we almost managed a full track at near typical Quickstep speed. I was impressed that I only really made one mistake.
Next was a reprise of the Tango and I know we’re going to argue a bit about the steps in this dance, but a variation that Kirsty put in seemed to simplify it. I could be wrong, and I usually am, but I’m sticking to what the teacher said!
Next was a simple new waltz that felt quite like our “Baby Waltz”. It was was easy and we managed it without difficulty, so we were told to do the Waltz Nioli instead. We finished up with Rumba One, a sequence dance we can do quite well. That was a full dance class today and a good reprise for those who are going to a ball at the weekend. We joined too late to get a ticket, but I don’t think either of us were all that interested.

Watched an episode of “Shetland” and became more confused about who was doing what to whom. Great series.

Tomorrow Scamp is booked for lunch, this time with Denise. Her son flies helicopters, real ones! I’m intending writing to Alex and hopefully to Val.

Glasgow again – 27 November 2023

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Today we drove in to Glasgow, just for a change.

Actually we drove to The Fort today, but couldn’t find what we were looking for there and the place was really quite busy for a Monday morning. Even the gigantic car park at The Fort was nearly full. So we changed our plans and drove down the M8 to Glasgow which was busy, but not as busy as The Fort.

We took a walk through the Buchanan Galleries and then down Buchanan Street before we went for a walk round the partly assembled Christmas market in George Square. Not nearly as many stalls as usual and an ice rink that is a ’work in progress’. That is, not quite finished yet. A bit disappointing, really. Coffee in the new Nero Coffee House which is unlike most Neros in that it is light and airy with none of the dark stained wood most of them have. Quite impressive! Scamp had her usual Single Shot, Extra Hot, Latte and I had an Americano with hot milk on the side. Unfortunately I also had the new Christmas blend which I found bitter an unpleasant. I won’t be having that again.

It was a lovely day with bright sky and a few clouds. On the walk back to the car I got today’s PoD which was a bunch of weeds growing out of a poorly maintained brick wall. I liked the limited sharpness of the picture thanks to the new lens’s wide aperture. It’s amazing the difference a decent lens makes.

There was just enough light when we got home to make me want to get another photo or two in St Mo’s, but by then the light was failing and it had started to rain. I gave it two circuits of the pond and walked home.

I was on dinner duty today and it was Pasta Carbonara tonight. I carefully separated one egg yolk from the white and then added another two full eggs to the cup before I accidentally tipped it over on the worktop! Surely this wasn’t going to be another Disaaaaster Day! I managed to save most of the eggs and got them back into the cup, but then I had the mess on the worktop to clean up and egg white is such a sticky horrible thing to clean up. But in the end the carbonara was ok, just ok, but edible and the kitchen was back to normal again.

None of the photos I took were really good, so the Urban Garden retained its PoD status. I’m still working on another shot from Glasgow that might make it into Flickr tomorrow.

I think between Hazy and Simonne we’ve managed to find and book a cottage for a week next summer. That’s another little brightener to give us all something to look forward to. Thank you very much ladies for all your research work.

No quickstep practise tonight, but maybe some tomorrow if we’re not too busy.

Other than that, no plans for tomorrow other than a bit of light shopping, all being well.

A quick visit to Glasgow – 25 November 2023

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It was just as cold as predicted with a temperature of minus 3ºc when we woke.

We were a bit late in waking this morning after a late night last night. Rather than sit about and have cup of coffee first, before driving in to Glasgow about mid afternoon, we decided to take the bull by the horns and just go out and get the X3. At least the bus was warm.

As usual, the bus crawled through Moodiesburn and Muirhead before entering the motorway and driving at a heady 50mph into town. We did some shopping in Buchanan Galleries and then had a coffee in a new Nero, Alex and I had spotted on Wednesday. Then we went to see if the Christmas Fair was open in George Square. It wasn’t, so we swithered about going back home on the train and getting a bus from there to take us home, or to get the tried and tested, but slow X3 back. The bus won. Cheaper and less hassle.

I’d grabbed a few shots in Glasgow of the mob of shoppers in Buchanan Street, and one of the Palestine Liberation Front, or the People’s Front of Judea or whatever they were, chanting around Donald Dewer’s statue outside the Royal Concert Hall. I wondered what my namesake would have made of the rabble. However, I thought there might still be a chance to add more photos to my SD card in St Mo and so it was that PoD went to frosted mare’s tail water weed in an icy St Mo’s pond. I didn’t risk my new lens by resting the camera on the ice. Maybe tomorrow if the ice is thicker … only maybe!

Dinner tonight was paella. A house speciality as neither of us wanted to venture out into the cold to collect a take-away. Scamp had made some syllabub for yesterday’s dinner party and we had a glass each tonight as a dessert. Lovely stuff!

The cold snap is set to continue for a few days according to the weather fairies. Some photo opportunities there perhaps.

Bloodletting again – 23 November 2023

Posted on by Zogman

The vampires weren’t happy with my last cup of blood and asked if I had any different flavours, so I had to donate some more today.

First there was shopping to do. Just a gentle amble around Tesco, filling a trolley. Nothing exotic, mainly food and some soft drinks. We were very restrained for a change.

Back home I exchanged my trainers for my boots and went for a short walk. Not a very inspiring landscape today, with very few trees holding onto their leaves in the recent strong winds. A total change from yesterday with its rain, but bright colourful Christmas decorations. However, I did get three shots that, bolted together in Lightroom, became a decent panorama and that became PoD. When I walked back, Scamp already had the remains of Tuesday’s mince heating nicely on the cooker for my lunch. I just had time to eat that before changing back to trainers to go and visit the vampires.

The bloodletting was almost painless and I was back quite quickly. I do hope they enjoy this latest special Xmas edition blood, but I can’t afford to keep feeding these people.

After post processing today’s meagre collection of photos, I started making dinner which tonight was fairly easy. It was Cod and Cabbage Risotto. All the hard work was taken out by baking the risotto in the oven, not standing for twenty minutes, stirring the thickening rice mix on the hob. If the easy way works, use it. That’s my maxim.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending going to FitSteps and I think I will be making tomato soup with tomatoes and peppers I roasted in the oven today. Again, do it the easy way. There will, of course, be hoovering and cleaning too and there’s no easy way to do that!

Out on the town – 22 November 2023

Posted on by Zogman

 

Up fairly early and heading for Glasgow.

Meeting Alex an hour early at 11:00. That gave us time to have a cup of coffee and plan our day. The weather wasn’t looking very promising, but Alex had some places he wanted to go and I was happy to comply.

First stop was Princes Square which was decorated like the big day had arrived and Santa was whizzing around the world on his sleigh pulled by reindeer. It was all jolly and happy and expensive as most things are in Princes Square. I’m not complaining. This was my first stop to get a chance of a photo or five of the fancy wrought iron railings on the stairs. Alex had photographed them a few months ago, but I got the shot with the fake Christmas tree branches and the sparkly lights. One of those photos made PoD. It’s glitzy and twee and I’m quite delighted with it.

St Enoch’s Square was next, because we knew the amusements were there and the Christmas Market. Again, all sparkly lights but with pretend chalets where Welsh folk were selling Xmas tat from old French Citroen vans. A veritable community of nations. Also there were the usual rides, German beer, German sausage and German Bratwurst whatever that is. So really it wasn’t a Christmas market, more a German market with some Welsh folk in old French vans. Anyway, we wandered round taking a few photos, but knowing that at about midday on dull wet day we weren’t going to get many keepers.

We walked down to Clyde Street and took a few photos of the graffiti on the Clyde Walkway. It’s a constantly changing blackboard for these skilled and not so skilled artists. Always worth a look.

Hunger pangs were telling us that Paesano should be our next port of call and that’s where we headed. Alex for a number 5 (no cheese) and me for a number 3 (just as it comes).

We had a quick look at George Square where the Christmas lights were lit, but the Christmas Village was still being constructed, decided it was a lost cause and instead headed back to Clyde Street and followed the Clyde downstream to the financial district knowing in our heart of hearts that it was a lost cause. The good light had gone and wasn’t coming back until tomorrow … maybe.

We found a different Nero from the morning and each had a coffee before plodding our weary way back up to the bus station where my X3 was patiently waiting for me, while Alex headed back to Motherwell. Next photo walk is loosely booked for two weeks hence, all being well.

Back home, Scamp had returned from her lunch and after filling her in on our day and finding about her’s, it was almost time to go dancing at Kirsty’s dance class. It was Quickstep today and although I though I’d mastered the steps last night in the living room, I’d forgotten just how Quick the Steps were. My feet got into a terrible fankle trying to extricate myself from the Twinkle. Nine times out of ten I used the wrong foot to start the move and so ended up in a mess. I do know how to do it, but my feet don’t. It’s their fault, not mine!

Tomorrow we are planning on going for the messages.

The yellow brick road – 20 November 2023

Posted on by Zogman

No Scarecrow. No Tin Man. No Cowardly Lion.

The yellow brick road is what we used to call IKEA when you had to follow the yellow arrows round the store. Now it’s arrows projected on the floor from above and not even yellow ones. Not nearly as much fun.

We were looking for a rug for the kitchen, a hanger for holding socks and pants on the whirly and maybe a replacement light for my room. What we came home with was:

  • Two boxes of sealable plastic bags, the ones IKEA do so well.
  • Half a dozen new dinner plates.
  • The hanger for the socks and pants.
  • A portable phone charger.
  • A toilet brush.
  • Three rolls of Christmas wrapping paper.
  • A bag of IKEA Swedish meatballs.
  • A box of alphabet biscuits.
  • The light for my room (but no bulb).

No rug because we couldn’t quite agree on which one we liked best. Quite a restrained set of purchases though, even if I say so myself.

Earlier in the morning we’d been to B&Q because their websites said they had two CO2 monitors in stock. They lied. Eventually got them in Screwfix for less than B&Q wanted for them, even if they had them.

Drove home via Costa in Robroyston for a cup of coffee and a bite to eat. Then continued on to Muirhead where I got today’s PoD which is a view over to the Campsie Fells with a lovely bit of golden sunshine lighting up the edge of the hills. The most amazing thing about it is that bit of sunshine is real! Not faked in Photoshop or ON1, although I admit there was some post-processing done on other parts of the picture, but that slice of golden light was real!

Dinner tonight for the first time in ages was pasta. My speciality, What’s In The Fridge pasta. Just using up odds and ends I found in the fridge.

<Technospeak>
One thing that’s been bugging me and I couldn’t solve was to create and install an SPF script into my email system. SPF is nothing to do with sun cream! Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is used to authenticate the sender of an email. I’ve struggled to complete the complex script that need to go deep into the email system to verify that an email I’ve sent to someone’s Gmail address is genuine and comes from me. Today I found a way to get that script written for me by the email system itself!
For my Webmonkey:
The answer was there all the time in Cpanel, and it was all done in less than a minute. I can now send emails to half the world without it bouncing back to me! I realise that now I’ve said that, the first email I send tomorrow will, indeed bounce! That’s just the way computers trip you up, isn’t it!
</Technospeak>

No plans for tomorrow, but the temperature is due to drop to near zero tonight! Brrr.

Rain, Rain, go away – 18 November 2023

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Come again another day (but not tomorrow).

As you will have gathered, it was a wet day.  Thankfully we didn’t need to drive out to Brookfield for the Saturday morning class because Stewart had cancelled it last night because there were only four of us were showing an interest.  Instead, we drove to Stirling in the horrible drizzly rain and filled a trolley in Waitrose.  We had hoped that the rain was localized and the rain clouds would lift when we left Cumbersheugh and we could walk into Stirling town for a coffee, but it was not to be.  The clouds followed us all the way to Stirling and then all the way back.  The rain got lighter later in the day, but only for a short time.  It’s raining heavily now.

It was so dismal that I didn’t even want to go over to St Mo’s to get some photos, so today’s PoD came from a table top setup in the back bedroom.  In fact it was more than a table that was holding up the subject.  The table had a drawing board with a paint pot on top, but that wasn’t tall enough, so I added a couple of thick books.  Still not high enough. Maybe one more book would do the trick, and it did … just. Sitting on top was an upsided down empty plant pot and the contents of the pot were balanced on top of this Tower of Babel.  I really should take a photo of my constructions for table top photos.  They are a bit like icebergs in that the bit you see is only around a tenth of the final structcture.  The photo is a collection of basil seedlings that never really managed to get beyond the seedling stage. I’ve changed the compost and watered them with plant food, but I now believe there just isn’t enough light these dull days in November.  They need to be grown in summer.

While I was on this gardening theme I gave my two chilli plants a fairly severe pruning. Last year I cut them down by about 25%.  This year it was more that 50%. I hope that might encourage some growth and bring us some more chillies next year, all being well.

Scamp has been in a long term battle with British Gas who don’t seem to be able to send us a bill. She eventually took the matter to the Energy Ombudsman and uploaded our case details and interactions with BG to the Ombudsman. On Thursday we received the reply from BG through the Ombudsman’s office.  Some truths and a lot of half truths from them. Surprisingly, on Thursday we also received our first bill from BG for a year! Now isn’t that a coincidence, however that bill only covers the outstanding amount up until June. They have admitted there is a fault in ‘The Flow‘ which we assume is the flow of information from our smart meter to their headquarters. They also admit that they now know where the flow stops, but don’t seem to have any idea of how to fix the problem.  Today we sent our reply to the Ombudsman pointing out the half truths in their story.  We await the outcome with bated breath!

Dinner tonight was a veggie lasagne from Waitrose.  I could almost agree to being vegetarian if the food was all as tasty as that.

No plans for tomorrow, except maybe to get a CO2 alarm somewhere, probably a real B&Q.