Category: photography

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

Posted on by Zogman

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

Posted on by Zogman

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

Posted on by Zogman

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.

Friday lunch – 17 November 2023

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Today we were booked for lunch with June and Ian.

First, Scamp was off to FitSteps class and because the sun was shinning after a cloudy, dull, dodgy looking start, I went over to St Mo’s to get some photos.  There were some nice beech trees glowing away in the sunshine and they are always worth a few shots. With a couple in the bag  after my first circuit of the pond, I turned and went back the same way.  It’s amazing how different scenery looks from the other direction and so it was today.  The trees I saw going were so much better with the sun coming from a slightly different angle. Also some cow parsley seedheads were catching the sun and I hadn’t noticed them on the outward walk.  Best of all was a little vetch plant that had managed to trap a waterdrop in one of its tendrils.  That was going to be PoD.

As I was walking back, I realised that time was getting on and checking my watch I found that it was just after midday.  Scamp would be home soon and I needed to make tracks.  I was going to send her a message when I realised I didn’t have my phone.  I was pretty sure it was in the house, pretty sure but not definitely.  So I upped the pace and found the offending article where I’d left it next to the computer.  Not lost, not stolen, just strayed.

When Scamp came in we headed over to Condorrat to have lunch and a blether with June and Ian. Friday lunches had become a monthly occurance for us four last year. Usually the Red Deer was our go-to place, but today we were trying out Brodens again. We had been there two weeks ago and it passed muster. I’d was sure it would be the same today, and I was right.  Lots of folk in the restaurant, well, lots more than there was last time, but the food was just as good, as was the Guinness! I think the other two were quite happy with their food today and I’m sure we’ll be back again. Steak Pie for June and Ian, Fish ‘n’ Chips for Scamp and Gammon Steak for me.  What’s not to like?! We were there for a couple of hours and then Ian booked a taxi for June and him while we walked home.

The water drop got PoD, but another two kept it company in Flickr.

I actually watched and enjoyed a Masterchef tonight. That’s not something I say very often.

Only two couples wanted to go to dance class tomorrow (Saturday), Millie & Ronnie and us.  Scamp got the message about 9.30 tonight to say that the class was cancelled due to lack of numbers. I was quite happy with that.  If there had been a class, there would have been nowhere for me to hide!  Scamp was disappointed and I feel sorry for her.  We are regulars at the class and although I accept Stewart’s reason, I don’t think it would have hurt them to have run an hour long class for the four of us.

So, no dancing tomorrow, but Scamp wants to do some shopping and I’m looking for somewhere that sells single CO2 detectors.

A rather full day – 16 November 2023

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Lots of things to do and a tea dance in the middle.

Out in the morning. Dropped Scamp at Tesco then carried on to B&Q hoping to get a replacement for the CO2 alarm that packed in yesterday. Unfortunately, the only CO2 alarms they had were in double packets and I only needed one. They did have a single packet of CO2 alarms, but they were the same price as the double packet. Well, I didn’t expect anything better from B&Q. Drove back to Tesco and picked up Scamp and drove her home.

It was a bright autumn day and I was determined to get some decent shots with the new lens on the first decent day. I knew I only had an hour at the most to grab some images before driving to Glenburn for yet more dancing, so I couldn’t go far. So it was over to St Mo’s again to see if the colours would jump off the page for me, and thankfully they did.

The new lens didn’t let me down. Focus is quick and accurate. I’d little need today to resort to manual focus, but I’m getting used to the oddly placed focus ring and the A6500 did seem to lock on quite quickly. I still wasn’t sure about the edge sharpness or the corner detail, but a quick look when I got home was enough to assure me that Sigma had everything sorted. Time to put the dance shoes on.

It was a packed room today, but strangely, the floor wasn’t all that busy. We started with a Waltz Nioli and after a few mistakes I found my feet and rhythm and we had it beat. That might serve us well next week when Kirsty has promised a quick couple of tracks of that waltz to keep it in our heads and in our muscle memory. Next was Cha-Cha and we danced our version with very few errors. We were promised two Foxtrots next and I suggested we wait and dance the second one. But the second one turned into a Social Foxtrot, so disappointed, we danced that instead. That was almost the end of the ballroom dances and Stewart decided there weren’t enough folk dancing ballroom on the floor and announced that it would be sequence dances for the second half of the afternoon. A strange and poor decision in our eyes.

We danced a few of the sequence dances after the tea break, but I’d much prefer to attempt the ballroom dances. One of the reasons we come to tea dances is to practise what we’ve learned over the last week or two and although it’s not the real reason for the fortnightly dances, it’s a major part of them and just walking round in a circle to music isn’t going to entice folk to come back. Practising and learning from others you see dancing will make folk want to improve. Sequence dances have their place, but variety is the key.

We left a little later than our usual 3pm, but still managed to miss most of the traffic and get back fairly quickly. Simonne was on a sales visit to a few of the universities and pharmaceutical establishments in Scotland and was coming to us for dinner. After discussing whether we’d eat at home or book a table somewhere, Scamp chose to cook dinner. She arrived around 6pm and we had Chicken Thighs, Cauliflower Florets and Green Lentils. It was a tray bake and it worked really well. Dessert was Lemon Meringue Pie, also lovely. Afterwards we sat and talked about replacing the roof of their house and the problems that brought as well as catching up with what else they had been doing in their lives. A good night.

PoD turned out to be a path through the trees in St Mo’s.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending going to FitSteps in the morning. Then we’re hoping to have lunch with June and Ian.