Category: photography

A dull day in Glasgow – 9 August 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Yesterday it was parking. Today my complaint was transport.

Scamp drove me down to the station this morning to catch the train to Glasgow to meet Alex. I just missed the train by seconds, and had to wait 20 mins for the next one which appeared on the board as the train I missed was disappearing around the bend. I wandered along the platform and back again then went for a seat in the waiting room because I’d decided to carry two cameras and three lenses. One each and an extra one if the need arose. Sat for a while then as the platform got busier, I walked back to see how long it was now before the train. Apparently it was on time at Falkirk, the previous stop to mine. Then things started to go wrong. Originally it was due in 14 minutes, then that changed to 16 minutes and then it just read DELAYED. Now we all know that if you remove the L the Y and the second E, the truth is there to read. This train was DEAD. The announcement came soon after that and it told us that the train was due at 11.24am. Amazingly it did arrive right at that time. Admittedly that doesn’t happen often, but it’s still annoying when it does.

Met Alex at the bus station after I walked up from the train station in Glasgow and we went for coffee. Our usual start to a day taking photos in Glasgow. I suggested we go down Buchanan Street through St Enoch’s an on to the Clyde Walkway where we can walk downstream to the Squinty Bridge. Hopefully the day would brighten up from its dull start and the sun would shine (Spoiler alert: It didn’t). I think I was surprised that he agreed right away, so that’s what we did.

We took some photos of the artwork that constantly changes on the concrete panels of the walkway. We took some shots. My out and out favourite was the chicken with the lip ring and the amazing reflections in its eyes. I don’t know how they achieved that. Such clever and artistic people doing graffiti nowadays. Take a look at it on Flickr if you get the chance. With that done we crossed the South Portland St Suspension Bridge. I don’t ever remember being on that bridge, but somehow it felt familiar. That’s where PoD came from. Taken from the Gorbals end of the bridge looking back to the city. A wee slightly wobbly man with a clinking poly bag told us we shouldn’t be taking photos of his pals down on the steps and when he realised we’d Scottish accents he smile and we were his pals. His passing remark was “Glasgow’s a lovely city”, and you know something? He was right!
We saw another two better dressed gents crossing the bridge looking like they’d been to a wedding or maybe a posh lunch walking with a man carrying an orange box filled with plants. It looked like they were together, but trying to deny it. Strange things happen on the south side of the Clyde

We turned right and walked along into what turned out to be the financial district. Lots and lots of new high rise office blocks. Most of them owned by or affiliated to Barclays. We walked on because we were beginning to feel hunger pangs. Crossed back over at the Squiggly Bridge and made our way back into the city.

We found a Nero on a street corner and lunch was BLT sandwich for Alex and mushroom Tostati for me. Not really a lunch, just something to keep the wolf from the door.

Walked back up Buchanan Street and caught our individual bus home, except, to keep things symmetrical, I just missed the X3 home and had to wait 20 minutes for the next one!

Dinner tonight was yesterday’s curry reheated but with fish instead of eggs. Still delicious, just different.

Tonight we had a quick rehearsal of Joy’s Waltz and the new Rumba because we may be going to a tea dance tomorrow.

Parking – 8 August 2023

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Parking was my problem today.

I’d intended to drive to the station, park there and get the train in to Glasgow to book my car in for service and MOT and then go and photograph the teams as they completed the time trial.

There was no room at all in the big carpark beside the station. Usually there are one or two places where you can find a space, but today it was wall to wall cars in the spaces, on the grass, in the flower beds even. There were two spaces with a SUV taking up more than its fair share of one space and that left none for anyone else. I gave up and tried the station itself, but that is always full, even on weekends when nobody is parking to travel to work. It was full, of course.

I decided I’d just have to drive in to Glasgow and park at the garage, book my slot and drive home. I got in an argument with a big black Mercedes taxi who wanted into my lane, and had to manoeuvre around him. Gave him a blast with the horn, but I don’t think he was all that bothered. I was getting hot and bothered. Finally got off the motorway, found the garage and parked. Big fancy reception are as they all are now. Booked a slot for next week and was back on the road again in ten minutes. I just drove home. At least one thing was done.

After tea and toast Scamp suggested the carpark might be less congested now and I might get a space, get the train in to Glasgow and still get to see the time trial. That sounded like a good idea, but my heart sank when I drove into the carpark. Still full. SUV still taking up two spaces. Gave up and drove on down to Auchinstarry when I got my first lucky break. Just as I was coming in to this carpark, someone else was leaving and I got her space!

I walked along the canal and got some photos including the photo of the old steel seat half way along the path to Twechar that became PoD. It was a beautiful afternoon and I managed one more shot of a Marmalade hoverfly on a knapweed flower.

Back at the car I drove down to Lidl in Kilsyth and got some messages and one of their low GI loaves. Then I drove home and sat in the garden with Scamp who had cut the grass while I was out. She with a sparkling water and lime juice and me with a bottle of Joke IPA. Listened to Winter’s Gifts by Ben Arronovitch and relaxed

Dinner was Egg and Lentil Curry which we sometimes change into Fish and Lentil, but today Scamp made it the traditional way with hard boiled eggs. Hard to believe we bought the cookbook from Woolworths so many years ago.

Tomorrow I’m meeting Alex in Glasgow for a walk and a blether.

Over 400 photos yesterday – 9 today – 7 August 2023

Posted on by Zogman

That’s the way it goes with photography sometimes.

Scamp went out in the morning to get us milk and bread and I stayed in because a parcel was arriving and also to organise some photos to send to Alex. I’d meant to do it last week, but life got in the way. It was a pleasant enough day in between the rain showers.

Later we went down to Calders because Scamp wanted a bag of compost to replant some pots. She needed a bit strong boy to carry the bag and since we couldn’t find one, I was the labourer today. For once, we went looking for compost and that’s what we came home with. No extra flowers or plants and no other paraphernalia. Amazing. We’re both a bit prone to adding things that we don’t need when we go to garden centres. Later in the afternoon, I was still working on yesterday’s photos after I’d emailed Alex’s photos and Scamp had finished repotting the plants and had just decided to take a walk over to the park to get some photos when the rain came on. So instead of a walk to the park, I grabbed some photos in the garden and that’s where today’s PoD came from it’s an unknown fly on an Astrantia flower. It’s amazingly sharp given that the breeze and rain were moving things around, and of course the insect was moving too. The anti-shake on this camera works.

That was about it for the day. Just a normal Monday with a bit of sun, a bit of wind and some rain.

Hoping to go in to Glasgow tomorrow to get some photos from the Time Trial while Scamp is off meeting June for coffee.

 

Bike Porn – 6 August 2023

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Scamp suggested we take the train in to Glasgow to watch the Elite Men’s Road Race circuit of Glasgow City Centre. I agreed to drive us to the station, but no further.

After all the driving yesterday, a leisurely trip into Glasgow would be most welcome. I hadn’t realised just how busy Glasgow would be. The first indication was how few seats there were on an eight carriage train. We both managed to get a seat, but there were very few left.

We waited in Queen Street station because we had a fairly good view out of the tinted window looking down on the circuit. Then, being Glasgow, it started raining, so best to keep dry for a while and watch the cyclists go past the window. I took a few trial shots but really wanted to get down and see the race proper, from street level once the rain had stopped. I’d two places kind of earmarked for useful shots. The first, looking back from the station entrance down George Street wasn’t very good, because there were lots of folk thinking the same thing and the sight line wasn’t the best, but I shot off a few frames there. My next destination was in front of the Tron Church where hopefully I’d get a straight view down George Street, but soon realised that was where one of the BBC camera men was, so instead I chose to stand at the tight bend where I guessed the cyclists would be clinging to the apex as they say in F1! I changed lenses to an ultra wide angle and rattled off a few more frames. Better, but thank goodness for motordrive. Hold the shutter button down and hope for the best. During a lull in the race when no team cars or motorcycles or cyclist were passing the volunteers who were in charge of the passing places kept us amused. Some were more entertaining than others. One in particular, a woman, seemed to be enjoying directing people to Buchanan Galleries and the train station and generally making folk smile.

After an hour or so Scamp thought she’d like a coffee and to be honest, I needed a walk, plus a coffee would be good. We walked up Sauchiehall Street and bumped into Fred Brown and Anne Muir who I used to work beside. Fred was keen to tell me he’d volunteered to go down to a four day week. I’m sure he’ll enjoy that little bit of ‘me time’. Anne has to wait a few years yet to get her freedom. They were off to see Oppenheimer in the GFT. We had coffee in the Black Sheep coffee shop and Scamp declared it very good.

On our way back to the station it started raining and we saw a Just Eat cyclist take a tumble on the slippery wet pedestrian precinct. I don’t think he’d survive long in the road race.

Just managed to catch the fast train home and again an almost full train.

Two fish suppers were our dinner tonight supplied by the Condorrat chip shop.

A shot of a few cyclists taking the straightest line through the chicane at the Tron got PoD. One of the best of the 419 shots taken!

No plans as yet for tomorrow.

Driving and dancing – 5 August 2023

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That’s all we seemed to do today.

Drove to Brookfield in the morning. It was a small group of only four couples, quite normal on a day with a dance in the evening. The floor in the room is still not quite right after a kids party with a bouncy castle inside about a month ago. My guess is that the bouncy castle scraped the floor and someone decide that polish or oil would repair the damage. It really won’t be properly fixed until footfall wears that skin off. So we had a shortened room again and also a shortened class time because the bowling club who use the hall were having an afternoon and needed time to set up. So a small class, a shortened floor space and fifteen minutes less time to dance.

We started with a sequence dance then went into the class proper with the new unnamed cha-cha routine which Scamp suggests should be the “Slippy Cha-Cha”! She should suggest it to the teachers. That was ok, but not wonderful, but much better than my attempt at Joy’s Waltz. Given that we hadn’t practised it since May, that wasn’t really surprising, and also, Jane did her usual and added in an extra feature, a Curved Feather. Were do they get these names from? Although they are much better than Michael’s dancing by numbers. At least Curved Feather give you a clue what shape you’re (supposed to be) making on the floor. I could hardly remember the start steps of the original waltz and had to rely on Scamp’s encyclopaedic knowledge of the dances. Even she was struggling with this one for a while. One more track of sequence and we handed the floor over to the eagerly waiting bowlers. They were like a well drilled army. Pulling out the tables and assembling them under the eagle eye of Mrs Sergeant Major who was in charge of the operation. We left them to it.

I made a bad decision on the way home and tried the route through the Clyde Tunnel, only to find, as many others did that there was NO THROUGH ROAD. Barriers and diversions everywhere. I eventually gave up and took the easy way out by driving back west along the M8 then the M77, took the first exit and joined the M77 again heading east this time. After that I just followed the car in front over the Kingston Bridge and home.

A roll ’n’ corned beef and another roll ’n’ fresh made bramble jam was lunch for us with Scamp substituting tomato for corned beef. While Scamp read, I took the A6500 out for a walk in St Mo’s and got PoD on the way home. It was a bunch of wild geranium flowers against the sky that caught my eye and my ultra-wide lens. Once the image had been dunked in Lightroom it looked quite the part!

Dinner was Chicken Milanese, then we sat and read for a short while before we got ready and headed off to the dance. Weather was the usual Scottish. Bright sunshine then immediately after that, torrential rain that changed back to sunshine again then the cycle repeated. I think the blue car now knows the way to Brookfield itself. Twice in one day is maybe too much, but there were extenuating circumstances today as there is no class next week because the hall will be being used for a village fete. Maybe the feet treading on the slippy floor will wear off the shine!

Sitting with Peter and Gillian, Naimat and Audrey and another couple whose names evade me as ours probably did to them. Good banter with Peter and Naimat, while Audrey, Gillian and Scamp did their best to add some decorum to the evening.
We danced all but one of the sequence dances and as many as we could, of the ballroom and latin dances. We really need to do more practise. We didn’t need to practise the salsa dances, they just came from muscle memory. We even got praise from Jane afterwards!

We stayed to the end and did a bit of cleaning up round our table then say our goodnights and drove home straight down the M8 to the M80 this time. No getting tangled up in Cycling World Championships that cause the earlier debacle. Even got parked right outside the house! A very good night.

Tomorrow we might go visit the cycling in Glasgow, but we’re hoping to get the train there. No road blocks on the railway we hope!

Coffee with Isobel – 2 August 2023

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We were out this morning to Costa to meet Isobel.

For once, I have to admit that the coffee I had tasted like real coffee. Usually it tastes of nothing, but on bad days it tastes and looks like dirty water. In answer to your unasked question, Yes I do know what dirty water tastes like. We sat for a while listening to Isobel’s account of her granddaughter, Teal’s graduation. She, Teal, is following in her mother’s footsteps into education, but into primary teaching, not secondary. Good luck to her, I hope she enjoys it. She showed us her photo book like any proud grandparent would.

Scamp showed her some of our photos from the cruise and elaborated on them with some stories. A usual with Isobel, she told stories too. That’s what makes her interesting to listen to. You think at first she’s making them up, then you realise she isn’t. Sharp as a tack is Isobel. She too had been dancing in the Tower Ballroom some years ago, but we all agreed that the dance floor was quite the best we’d seen and she would have seen a lot more than we had.

After an hour or so, she left to do her shopping and we drove home for lunch with rain threatening all the time. Scamp was making jam from brambles juice that had been in the freezer for about three years. When she was making it, we noticed that the jam thermometer we were using, which used to belong to my cousin in Ayrshire, seemed to have lost its red pigment and only a pale orange line remained. I think we might need to get a new one. However it was accurate enough to to get the jam to the right temperature. The jam is probably cooled by now and ready for its lids to go on. She got three jars worth of jam from the fruit juice.

I took a walk later in St Mo’s and brought back an assortment of photos, but none of them beat a shot I’d taken in the early afternoon of a Calla Lily which was sitting on a table in front of the TV. The unpowered TV provided a decent black background for the photo and a bit of jiggery pokery with Lightroom brought a black background that emphasised the colours of the lily. That was PoD, although it did look a bit like a multicoloured cormorant!  Scamp and I agreed on its similarity to a duck!

Dinner tonight was an old favourite.  Cabbage, Potatoes and Bacon.  It doesn’t sound very appetising, but it tastes great.  Scamp is the master at making it.

No plans for tomorrow, the weather looks like it might be dry, so we may get out somewhere.

One in – One out – 31 July 2023

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That was the rule we made. If one thing comes in, another one must go.

<Technospeak>
Last week the A6500 came in and today the A6000 had to go on a visit to Norwich to find a new owner. The A6000 was a decent camera, still is, but the a6500 was a big step up. The viewfinder is definitely clearer and the IBIS anti-shake is a boon with a small, fairly light camera. I’d had the A6000 for a couple of years and the one thing it taught me was that it was possible to go on holiday with one small camera and two lenses and not feel restricted. That combination weighed almost as much as my big A7iii alone. Admittedly the A6000 couldn’t produce the same quality as the A7iii, but for its size it punched above its weight, if you excuse the pun. I hope it teaches someone else that good things can come in small packages.
</Technospeak>

Spoke to Hazy after I came out of the shower this morning and we heard all about the preparations for the Welsh holiday with the family. Good to hear that Neil is coming out of ‘teacher mode’ and getting some ‘me time’, visiting galleries and wandering round London.

I drove up to Tesco in the town centre hoping to get a large sized plastic posting envelope. They didn’t have any plastic envelopes, just thin bubble wrap ones with a paper cover, you know the ones I mean. I went back to Tesco Craigmarloch and found a packet of them there. Sometimes the smaller stored trump the big ones. I wrecked the first bag trying to get the almost cubic box into it neatly. With Scamp’s help I did manage to get it in to the second bag and using her wrapping skills it was a neat package. That’s when she said “I thought you’d just use this one”, holding the brown cardboard box the A6500 came in. Of course! If the big box could hold the A6500, it would hold the slightly smaller A6000! Why didn’t I think of that. So the neatly wrapped up box went into the big box with its ‘sausage balloon’ cushions to keep it safe. I stuck down the labels and took it to the post office in Condorrat were it was scanned and went straight into the waiting post van with the other parcels, most of which were going to Amazon!

I walked back in the rain to St Mo’s and got PoD which was a Purple Vetch flower, a wild flower. Lots of it flowering beside the path. I also got a photo of a bent down grass stem, beaded with water. That was the extent of today’s photography.

Dinner tonight was Pasta Carbonara and was one of the best I’ve made for a while. Don’t know why, it just was.

Tomorrow Scamp is out for lunch with one of her ex workmates. If it’s good weather I may take some photos. If not I’ll do a bit of ‘open heart surgery’ on the iMac.

Lazy – 28 July 2023

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Today was the exact opposite of yesterday, thankfully.

Scamp was up and cleaning the pots and trays from last night’s dinner. I helped out and stacked away the plates. Then Scamp was off to FitSteps. The first class in more than a month. While she was away I scrubbed out the remaining pots and trays and then got on with yesterday’s blog which you regular readers will know happens a lot, especially after a late night.

After her exercise and my blogging we had pizza for lunch then some more reorganising, but gentle reorganising. I managed to find some of the stuff I stashed away yesterday. Some of it is still there and will be returned to the living room when I need it in an attempt to reduce the clutter.

All that done, the idea for today was to relax and I think we deserved it after yesterday’s cooking and baking. Dinner tonight ended up being Fish Fingers, Egg and Spaghetti with a couple of fried potatoes on the side. A bit different from last night.

PoD was a shot of a bunch of pansies growing in the back garden. I managed to get just one of them in sharp focus. Unfortunately that was simply luck. I’d like to say I did it on purpose, but it wasn’t! Maybe it’s just me, but I always think pansies and violas have human-like faces. These ones look fierce.

Hoping for a similarly lazy day with a bit of dancing thrown in.

A walk around Glasgow – 26 July 2023

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Today I was meeting Alex for a walk around Glasgow and Scamp was off meeting the rest of the Witches for coffee.

I took the bus in to Glasgow today. Scamp had suggested I drive to the station and get the train, but a leisurely trip on the bus with a lady telling me the story of the Sinister Booksellers of Bath via my headphones was ideal for today. I was brave and only took the new A6500 with a couple of spare lenses. No big heavy A7iii with its collection of heavyweight glass today.

We started a long rambling walk by going down to Cathedral Street to see the new murals that had appeared and the College of Building & Printing which is currently being demolished. On the way back in the general direction of the bus station we passed the metalwork that guards the Buchanan Galleries carpark. The shapes in the artwork always intrigue me and one shot of it made PoD. We walked up Sauchiehall Street to Charing Cross without seeing much worth photographing, but a visit to the Mitchell Library just over the M8 motorway gave us some interesting views up and down the staircase. It also gave us a new place for lunch in the airy ground floor. From there we walked on to take a look at the Sikh Gurdwara where I ran out of space on my card. Something that hasn’t happened to me for ages. Luckily I’d packed a spare.

We walked further on, but the light just wasn’t there today, so instead we turned and walked back into the city centre. A cup of coffee later and we were heading for the bus home. Our long rambling walk had taken about four hours and accrued just over 14,000 steps.

Back home Scamp and after dinner I started the preparations for tomorrows meal. I was in charge of cooking the 600g of stew. Browned in the Le Creuset and then transferred to the Instant Pot to slow cook for three hours. I’ll let it cool overnight and do the rest of the cooking tomorrow.

We’re expecting our visitor to arrive tomorrow afternoon, so the morning will probably be busy.

Lunch at the Bothy – 24 July 2023

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After Wordle and Spelling Bee were done, the day was our own.

But first, even before Wordle, there was a big cardboard box to open, and inside as … another big cardboard box. Inside that was the usual amount of bumf you get when you buy something fairly expensive. “READ ME FIRST” was on the first page, so that was put to the side to read later. Next the inevitable expanded polystyrene to unpack and crumble into the carpet, then more bumf to read at a later date and finally the food processor was revealed in all its shiny plastic glory. Oh yes, and we got a recipe book, not an app to download and install on our phone, but an honest to goodness recipe book and a hard back one to boot! We might read that later, mainly because it didn’t scream at us “READ ME FIRST”!

While Scamp went into the kitchen to wash all the bowls and the lethal looking cutters and slicers, I read through some of the paperwork and some of the recipes. It’s amazing the variety of breads, cakes and soups you can make in one of these clever devices. I may even attempt some of them sometime.

Satisfied that all the washable bits had been washed and dried and after reading the recipe book and completing Wordle and Spelling Bee, Scamp suggested we go out to lunch as we’d planned at The Bothy just outside Stirling. As usual these days we were handed a buzzer and told to browse round the shop. Not long afterwards our buzzer buzzed. I did quite fancy the Mushroom and Bacon Carbonara on the ‘specials’ board, but inevitably I ordered the Sri Lankan Lamb Curry and Scamp had Mac ’n’ Cheese as I suspected. Two coffees to wash it down and two ginormous Cream Donuts to take home in a box.

Scamp was looking for another rose, but not for us this time and she wanted a pot to replant “Harley” the Harlequin Berberis we thought we’d lost in the June heatwave. It’s not quite recovered its variegation yet, but maybe once it’s repotted it will regain its colour. We drove round the outskirts of Stirling to Dobbies, but they had none of the rose variety she was looking for. We did get a heather plant to replace one that had died in June, a pop-up bin for the garden and a packet of basil seeds for me to plant.

I thought there was just a chance that we’d find the rose in Calders in Cumbersheugh, so we went there on our way home. Scamp knows one of the gardeners and she asked him if he had any and thankfully he had. A bit of local knowledge goes a long way, and it’s a true saying “It’s now what you know, but who you know. A quick visit to Tesco on the way home and we were done, or nearly.

I hadn’t a photo of the day so far, so back home I got my boots out and took the A6500 out with the big clumsy 105mm macro lens and in about an hour I took 130 photos. Most were rubbish, but I did capture a male Common Darter dragonfly. I’ve been keeping a careful eye on the battery performance of the new camera and it’s actually almost within the parameters that are advertised for it, so not such a big problem as I initially thought.

That was a good day. Weather wasn’t all that good, but it stayed dry all day. Scamp’s off to get her nails done again. I’m hoping to do an Auld Guys coffee morning tomorrow with Val and Fred.