Category: photography

Another dull day that got worse – 10 February 2026

Posted on by Zogman

A day with not a lot to recommend it.

I spent most of the afternoon setting up my Benbo tripod. It’s a really awkward device to use, but its one saving grace is its adaptability. It’s quite heavy for its size but that’s sometimes a benefit for stability. Anyway, I got it set up the way I wanted it and got a few photos, only to discover that the lens was set to manual focus which means that everything was blurred.

After lunch I started again, but the light just wasn’t as good then and although I did get the shot in focus, I wasn’t really satisfied with it so I tried again. That was when I heard a scratching noise from the camera when I pressed the shutter, and a screech. Something in the camera or the lens was making the noise. Either I’d a tiny bit of grit in the lens or in the camera itself. I checked both my cameras with ‘good’ lens and they were fine. The noise was coming from the 24-105mm lens, the one I use every day.

I did a bit of reading and it might be repairable, but first I tried a suggestion from one photographer online who suggested turning the camera off and racking the lens back and forward about seventy times to release whatever was making the noise. It did seem to help, but not fully. I also tried warming the lens barrel as this might soften the lubricants in the lens barrel and allow it to be released. If that doesn’t work I’ll have to get a quote for a repair.

PoD was one of the last photos taken with the dodgy lens.

Tomorrow I’m hoping to meet Alex for what will probably be a long blether, given the above. Then I intend to get back to Cumbersheugh for the vampires to take some of my blood.

An afternoon in the Toon – 9 February 2026

Posted on by Zogman

This afternoon we drove in to Glasgow, looking for a table cover.

Every time I drive in to Glasgow these days there is another road pattern to negotiate. Today was no exception. Where there had been two narrow lanes to reach Buchanan Galleries, today it was one single lane going downhill. How you get back up that hill is anybody’s guess.

I did get parked in the Buchanan Galleries and chose a suitable table cover to give our Christmas table cover a wee rest. I’m typing on the ‘Snowman’ table cover that’s been on the round living room table since mid December 2025. Hopefully we’ll replace it with the new one tomorrow.

With the table cover purchased, we went our separate ways. Scamp went to do some shopping in Glasgow and after dropping off the table cover I went to the Nile Barber to get my hair cut. We met up back in Buchanan Galleries and drove home.

I’d grabbed a couple of photos when I was walking back from the barber. One photo of some pink primulas became PoD. I was tempted to remove the photobomber who walked past the flowers just as I clicked, but then I realised he was part of the image and kept it in.

We went to Kirsty’s dance class in the early evening and found instead of six of us preparing for the Quickstep, there were five children of varying ages and two adults who seemed to have turned up out of the blue. I pitied Kirsty who had to teach six adults who were looking forward to the quickstep class and at the same time teach seven children and adults who looked as if they hadn’t danced in years. Hopefully everything will work out fine next week. I hope so.

We have no plans for tomorrow.

Green Shoots – 8 February 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Green shoots need water and they got plenty today.

We spent most of the morning working through the Wordle puzzles. Nothing difficult, but some of them made me smile. By the time we got through them, it was almost lunch time and that meant Laura Kuenssberg. Usually she can be relied upon to destroy any politician, but today she was up against an old hand at this politics lark, Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden, His calm style belies a very clever brain behind those eyes. Like him or loathe him, he’s a cool customer, rarely flustered.

After lunch I decided I could manage to get a few shots in the garden. My target for the day was a pot of deep chocolate brown Hellebores. However, almost every time I tried for a photo a rain shower would force me inside. Eventually I gave up and went upstairs where I knew there was a tray of recently emerged Antherinum seedlings. They became the PoD. Hopefully I’ll get the shot of the hellebores another day, a dry day perhaps.

Dinner tonight was an old favourite, Chicken and Pea Traybake. It takes a good hour to cook, but the oven does all the work

We spoke to Jamie later. Simonne is in Italy this week on a training course for her new job and Jamie is working from home, and looking after Vixen too.

Two guys knocked on the door in the evening, asking if we owned a taxi. I told them no and asked why. They said there was a taxi sitting across the road, up against a wall. As soon as I saw the taxi, I knew it belonged to one of our neighbours. He wasn’t too pleased when I told him, but he quickly got it back into place. Neither the two guys, nor our neighbour could come up with an explanation. Still, nobody was hurt and there was no damage done, but it’s a puzzle that will stay with everyone until it is solved.

The seedlings in an egg box was the PoD and collected a few comments.

Tomorrow I may go and book an appointment with the doc for a blood test and a check up. It’s almost due, so it has to be done.

Dancin’ – 7 February 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Out early as usual on a Saturday.

We drove over to Brookfield, a fairly easy drive to light traffic but clouds and occasional rain. What we’ve come to expect these wintry days.

The class started with a quickstep, but not one we already knew. Almost everyone else seemed to be happy with it and although we did bring this fact to the attention of the teachers, we didn’t get much instruction. Luckily I had Scamp to tell me what the teachers were doing and after I’d added in a few steps from Thursday’s Tea Dance, it began to come together, but teachers are there to teach, not to get partners to make up for their shortcomings. I don’t think Stewart believed we’d not done this dance before. For the first time in ages I wasn’t impressed with his teaching.

What I will say in his defence is that he did intersperse some units with a couple of sequence dances, mostly ones we knew. Given that we’d had a tough start to the day, I did actually enjoy most of the class I think Scamp did too.

We drove home with about a million others, all heading in the same direction as us at about 15 mph and in the rain again. It was a stop/start drive, but after half an hour or so the traffic picked up speed and thinned out. No rhyme nor reason to it. I’m sure you’ve all seen this feature of driving in the past. Nobody seems to be able to explain why the roads get snarled up and then just return to normal with nothing to explain it. I wish I could be in a helicopter to watch the changing traffic patterns from above. It would be an interesting thing to investigate.

I chose the M74/M73 again and everything went smoothly back to the house. Lunch was toast and beans. A simple menu that just hit the spot.

Later in the afternoon I went for a walk through St Mo’s and got a few photos, a very few. My favourite and PoD was two magpies discussing world problems in a tree. Magpies, the Darth Vaders of the Avian world.

We’d hoped to have a Chinese dinner, but Golden Bowl in Condorrat was closed until the 13th of the month, so it was Fish ’n’ Chips instead. Lovely fish, but too much chips. We watched the Olympic Snowboarding and Luge while we consumed our dinner, wondering why people put themselves through these dangerous looking games. Good fun to watch, but I can’t see it catching on in Cumbersheugh.

As far as tomorrow goes, we have no plans. Not ever Snowboarding.

Dundee – 2 February 2026

Posted on by Zogman

We got a taxi from the house to the bus station at the town centre, then the Ember bus to Dundee. It’s a very civilised way to travel and for oldies like us, an economical one too. Once there we went for a coffee and something to eat before we got the bus that would take us to Ninewells Hospital. It was a round trip on the bus. The journey to the hospital was a long trip all round the houses and the one back was a much shorter one.

The meeting went well. The doctor was really nice and went over what was going to happen in detail. Then he got Scamp to sit facing him with her hands, palms down, on her knees. Then he got her to lift her hands to about shoulder height, palms down again. Then she was to turn her hands, palm up and then hands at shoulder height, palms facing and finally with middle fingers touching.

Next he had her touch index finger to thumb with both hands, slowly at first, then faster and faster. Next test was touch her index finger to her nose with her left hand, then with her right hand. She had to do it a few times. Then he asked her to touch her outstretched index finger to his, once or twice with one hand then the other. Finally he asked her to open her mouth and close it two or three times.

He took her to another room, I wasn’t invited, and got her to walk a straight line in a corridor, then back again. Finally he got her to do the same thing, but this time doing ‘toe, heel’ like you see the cops do on the old films, and that was about it.

He seemed really surprised to discover that she only had the tremor on one hand, he was expecting to see evidence of it in her ‘good’ hand, but there was none.

He told us that he thinks Scamp would be a good subject for the ‘MRI Guided Focused Ultrasound Thalamotomy for Essential Tremor’, but she is unlikely to be put forward for Deep Brain Stimulation. He did say he may give her a course of Parkinson’s medication to see if that would reduce the effects of the tremor, but admitted it’s unlikely to work. It doesn’t look like she will get another appointment until the middle of next month at the earliest, but that would be a consultation with himself and the surgeon. She told him that we were hoping to go away for a couple of weeks in the summer and he said that wouldn’t be a problem.

All in all, we were happy with the meeting, although afterwards we remembered all the other questions we wanted answered, although he had covered most of them.

The day was horrible outside. By the time we were coming out of the bus from the hospital, it was cold, horizontal rain. We went into the V&A to be warm, and then walked back to get the bus home. We were both shattered by then. Maybe it would have been better to do an overnight in Dundee and come home refreshed next day, but I think Scamp just wanted to get back home.

Despite the weather, I did get a few photos taken. The best of them was a view through the archway under the V&A.

Tomorrow will probably be a day of working out what happened on Monday!

Chickens – 1 February 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Two Chickens had arrived in the garden.

There had been a ceramic chicken in the back garden for about six months. It was just a bit of fun we found in Torwood Garden Centre in one of those heady days of sunshine and warm sun. This was the ‘other chicken’ you heard about before my computer had a meltdown and messed up the tail end of January. It’s not quite fixed yet, but it’s getting there. Hopefully it will soon be back to full strength.

Anyway, on Sunday the chickens were united in the garden and Scamp was happy with the positioning of them.

In the afternoon I went for a walk in St Mo’s and managed to get a shot of a tiny little fungus, ball shaped and living a solo life on an old tree. I really must put a macro lens on the new Sony A7c and take some close-up shots of it, that is, if I can find it again. I’d forgotten to use the GPS setting on the camera to record its position. All I can remember is that it was in the woods near the road. That covers a good few acres, so it might be some time before I find it again.

My dinner was two lamb rump steaks from Waitrose. If you get the chance, they are really worth buying. Two fairly small steaks, about the size of your hand, but they taste delicious. There, that’s my advert for Waitrose done!

As you will realise, this blog post was written a few days after the beginning of February. Stick with it, I’ll hopefully get it sorted out soon.

The Continuation – 30 January 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Now that I’ve whetted you appetite, here is the continuation and the explanation …

After I’d visited the skips and disposed of the unwanted goods, I drove up to Torwood Garden centre and spoke to one of the ladies who work there and asked her a strange question:

“Do you still have those ceramic chickens?”

She didn’t think they did still have them, but passed me over to a manager who said “Yes, we do still have them”.
The garden centre has been having a make-over since Christmas and everything seems to be a bit shambolic, but she took me to where about a dozen ceramic chickens were standing on a couple of wooden shelves. I chose one and paid for it right away. I don’t know what the sales ladies thought I was going to do with it! What I did do was wrap it up in some bubble wrap and tuck it into a box in the boot of the car, ready to be revealed on the 30th, today.

The Explanation:

Today, the 30th of January, is our unofficial anniversary. I won’t give away the date, but it’s quite a while ago! I wanted to surprise Scamp with a ceramic chicken. She had fallen for a comical black chicken during the summer and seemed so pleased with it in its place in the garden. The new one was a white chicken and looked just as cute as the first one. Today I presented her with a green compost bag and inside was the white chicken. I do believe she was quite delighted with the prezzy. She handed me a poly bag and inside it was two pairs of socks. Not just any old socks, but Merino wool socks of different colours, so I can wear different socks on each foot! Thank you Scamp.

To celebrate our special day, we got the bus to Glasgow, walked down to Central Station and caught a train to Mount Florida. We walked along Battlefield Road and reached the Battlefield Rest where we’d booked lunch.

For a starter, Scamp had Mussels in a Rich Tomato Sauce. I had Tomato and Black Olive Focaccia with a traditional Caprese salad.

For a main Scamp had Smokie Crepe stuffed with smoked haddock, salmon, and creamed cabbage, topped with tomato sauce and cheese. I had tomato risotto with Nduja, chicken and chorizo.

A generous glass of Malbec each to help wash it all down and to finish, coffee and a small glass of Jura for me and for Scamp it was Kahlua and a latte!

Phew! That was a lunch to remember!

We got the train back to Glasgow and had a quick wander round John Lewis looking for a new table cover. Too awkward to get it home on the bus, so we may go back soon to get one.

PoD was a view down one of the alleys that lead off Buchanan Street. That was about it for the day. Wasn’t it enough? We thought so. A very good day.

The diet probably starts tomorrow!!

Tidying up – 29 January 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Today’s task was to take some stuff to the council tip.

I had quite a lot of unwanted odds and ends, things I knew I wouldn’t need again. Scamp had a similar collection and I managed to fill the boot of the blue car with them all and drove up to the council tip. There were cardboard boxes, an old Black & Decker drill that wouldn’t hold a charge in either of its batteries and an old briefcase I didn’t see myself using ever again. Then there were the bags. Black bags, white bags and multicoloured bags all holding articles that had outlived their usefulness. They all went for a drive and then went into those big skips. As I was driving out of the council tip, I was wondering how much we’d spent on all that unwanted scrap over the years and then decided I didn’t want to know!

 

To Be Continued!

Going for the messages – 28 January 2026

Posted on by Zogman

It was a lovely bright morning and it seemed a shame to waste it sitting in the house.

So, after some discussion, we decided to drive to Stirling to get some messages in Waitrose and have a walk through the town. In the end, and with a very full car boot we decided to have a coffee in Waitrose rather than walk down to Nero. The coffee wasn’t the best, but Scamp was happy with her latte and an iced bun staved off the hunger pangs for a while.

Instead of driving straight home, we turned off the motorway and parked near Haggs. From there we had a walk along the Forth and Clyde canal. The weather held up and with a few fluffy clouds in the sky and an almost perfectly flat calm on the canal we walked along the canal, heading east. Beautiful reflections on the still water gave me plenty of opportunity for photos. Even when we passed one of the locks, the water stayed still and allowed more photo opportunities.

Not far past the canal lock we turned and walked back to the car. We saw a couple of swans following the twists and turns of the canal, presumably looking for a good place to land. Unfortunately I just missed them! Maybe next time.

Back home and after we’d emptied the car, Scamp went out to plant two new pot plants, pink at the front and purple in the back. Both Primulas. Not happy with that, she did a bit of pruning and also stayed out in the sunshine just tidying up the back garden.

Dinner was a shared pizza from Waitrose. Then after I’d downloaded today’s photos and posted a couple, we watched another Landscape Artist of the Year. I don’t know where they find these ‘artists’, but today’s lot were some of the worst we’ve seen. Hopefully they will improve soon.

A week or so, Scamp asked Hazel to ask Neil if his mum knew where she, Scamp, could get Panch Phoron, a Bengali five spice mix. Today a parcel dropped through our letterbox and inside was a packet of Punch Pooran which is the same mix with a slightly different name. Attached was a message from Neil’s mum saying “Happy Cooking”. Isn’t it great when a plan comes together!

PoD went to a view looking east along the Forth and Clyde canal.

No great plans for tomorrow. Scamp says she might do some ironing. I may take a load of odds and ends to the council skips.

Posted at last – 27 January 2026

Posted on by Zogman

I only had one thing to do today and I almost managed it.

I was parcelling up my annual calendar to go to Jamie and Hazel, unfortunately, as I was walking to the Post Office, I realised I’d forgotten to write a note to go with it. I’m sure it won’t matter, it’s the contents that are more important.

That was about as far as I got today, I didn’t even go for a walk round St Mo’s, because it was bitterly cold. I took my hand warmers that Alex had told me about and they worked really well again, keeping my fingers toasty! While I was away, Scamp did some washing and that was about it.

I’d intended to take some stuff to the local tip, but after walking to Condorrat I didn’t really feel like going out again. According to the weather fairies, the weather is to be a bit clearer tomorrow, but there is a chance of snow for us later in the week. How much snow and how long it will last has not been disclosed yet. We had a fairly heavy snowfall last year at almost exactly the same time in January. I remember driving to East Kilbride with Scamp when I went to have my second appointment with Mr Sharmer (Sharmer the Charmer).

PoD was an inside shot again. It’s my old Olympus E-PL5. Battered and bruised, it still works almost perfectly. “Black on Black” was the title.

Hopefully we’ll get out for a walk, or maybe a trip into Glasgow tomorrow. Just to get out of the house for a change of scenery.