Category: photography

Rain again – 13 July 2023

Posted on by Zogman

This wasn’t a day for doing a lot, although we did prune some roses and deadhead a few more.

For most of the morning we watched the rain showers roll in from the west, dump some rain and then fly off to the east, only to be joined by more rain clouds arriving from the west. I really do believe the Scottish rivers and lochs, that were predicting drought conditions a month ago, are no full to overflowing!

Eventually we dragged ourselves out for a walk to the new(ish) retail park to do some shopping during a dry spell. I carried the bag half way home and then Scamp took over while I went for a walk in St Mo’s. There wasn’t much insect life around. Lots of soldier beetles making more soldier beetles, but very little of photographic interest. I had taken only the A6000 and came home with 30 images which were whittled down to 9 keepers, and even those were only just worth keeping. To supplement the 9 I took some shots in the garden using the A7iii. That gave 8 images from which 7 were keepers. Today’s PoD came from those last 7. It’s Scamp’s Roxanne geranium which seems to have taken over a large pot in the garden, sprawling over on to the grass. It’s lovely!

We watched the final of Glow Up. If you haven’t seen it, is is the most outlandish collection of potential Make Up Artists (MUAs) all vying to outdo each other with the most outlandish make up ‘creations’. Worth looking for on iPlayer.

No more rain after the morning’s heavy showers, but the weather fairies all agree we’re due for more tomorrow, and the next day. Hope June and Shona don’t get caught in any of them on their three day holiday.

No plans for tomorrow yet for the reasons given in the previous paragraph. It all depends on the weather.

More rain – 11 July 2023

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Another wet morning, but then the sun shone for a while.

I think it must have rained all night. Certainly, any time I woke during the night I could hear the rain thumping down. That rain lasted all morning, after which the sun did shine for a while, sometimes through the rain and sometimes it seemed to attempt to dry the pavements.

After lunch, Hazy phoned and we had a long discussion about holiday homes with family, not our immediate family, but Neil’s. I liked the idea that Neil’s school finishes a week before the rest of the English schools. Is that really only to allow them to avoid the higher priced school holidays or is there a less sensible reason. Whatever it is, more power to their elbow. Good to know that Penny is getting better and we did learn some interesting techniques for getting cats to swallow medication!

After we’d finished talking, and after I was sure that it was safe for me to take a camera over to St Mo’s, I dressed for the weather and went for a walk. I took the A6000 which isn’t particularly water resistant and not at all waterproof, so the weather check was necessary. I was hoping to get some dragonfly photos. There were a couple of them buzzing each other over the ponds, but neither of them wanted to settle for a portrait session. What I did find were some hoverflies and damselflies and a beautiful Clouded Border moth. White with dark chocolate brown spots on the wings. At first I thought it was dead, but now I’m not so sure. I’m pretty sure it was just resting, almost hidden in the grass. It’s a night flying moth apparently so probably best not to disturb it in daytime. The moth got PoD.

There were a few spots of rain while I was out, but they didn’t come to anything and, in fact, it’s stayed dry all the rest of the day. Probably that will be enough to bring on another deluge!

Dinner tonight was an old favourite, potatoes, cabbage and bacon. Scamp, of course had no bacon. It’s an odd mixture which I remember my mum making and I hated it then. I’ve changed my opinion on this old fashioned food now.

Scamp is booked for lunch with Annette tomorrow and I intend to tidy up some loose ends.

 

Sunny – 9 July 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Not only sunny, but warm and dry too.

I went out in the morning to grab a photo of honeysuckle flower. Not far away, just literally a five minute walk. I’d photographed the flower yesterday, but wasn’t happy with the result. This one was better, but still not what I wanted.

We did a bit of gentle gardening later in in the morning. Nothing severe, just a bit of pruning of the branches the rowan tree. Branches that had wind damage or maybe damage from the hot weather when we were sailing the Adriatic. To keep balance, since we’d removed some things from the garden, we paid back by feeding the rest of the plants in the garden. Scamp did the feeding of the roses, the rhododendrons and the Azalea. I had the messier job. Of feeding the vegetables and the rest of the plants with seaweed feed. It is like strong tea once it’s been diluted, but take my word for it, it doesn’t smell anything like tea.

We walked down to the shops in the afternoon for a chicken and some odds and ends. When we got back, Scamp was determined to get the grass cut. I was determined to go out and get a photo for PoD. It was warm enough to walk without a jacket or even a jersey. On the way to St Mo’s, I had one last try for the photo of the honeysuckle and that’s what you see here. It didn’t make PoD, but that’s because I saw an, apparently abandoned, bike in the BMX track in St Mo’s. Actually it wasn’t abandoned. What you don’t see is the owner’s mum walking up the hill to retrieve the bike!
Yesterday’s PoD was a shot of a little shelter for a spider’s babies. Today I noticed the shelter was completely closed up, protecting the beasties from wind, rain and predators.

Roast chicken for dinner with roast potatoes and roast veg. A roasting day, finished off with a choux bun!

Spoke to Jamie today and hear that Simonne might be visiting a factory near us later in the month. Oh No! That means I will have to clear up the back bedroom. I’d better start on it tomorrow!

No plans for tomorrow.

 

A dull day … – 7 July 2023

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… but a brightener to start with.

The day began with an email from Hazy wondering what the poor peacocks had done to offend me. A typo on my part was the reason. In yesterday’s blog I was discussing peacocks and especially the white one Alex and I saw at Pittencrieff Park in Dunfermline. A slip of the finger had exchanged the ‘W’ in the peacock colour with an ’S’. Oops! I do hope I haven’t upset anyone with a bit of rude language and thank you again, my eagle-eyed daughter for your proof-reading!

It was a dull day, but warm. Not a pleasant warmth, more a muggy feel to the air. Not really a day for going anywhere, and anyway, I think I am photographed out. I took far fewer than normal on our trip to Dunfermline yesterday. I think it was the overkill of the 1,000 odd I took over two weeks on holiday. Maybe that’s what I need, another holiday. That’s not likely as one of the first tasks today was to put the cases away in the loft space until our next holiday whenever that will be. Scamp had washing to do and there were always things to do in the garden. I finally planted the last three leeks that had been languishing in their wee pots for almost a month. I’m sure they will grow better in the raised bed, even if it is falling apart.

I had another email returned from Gmail. Apparently they demand that I must ”authenticate with at least one of SPF or DKIM.”. I’ve had a look at both of these collections of letters and maybe, just maybe I have a plan. It will not be a cunning plan or a simple fix, but it might pacify Mr Google.

I didn’t do much today. Read another few chapters in ‘Unhappenings’. Such a weird book. I fell out with Scamp about nothing. Eventually apologised and and we sat down to look through her holiday photos. She calls them ‘snaps’, but they are so much more than that. They are photos.

Next I took my time to set up today’s photo. The chilli plant was sitting on the draining board in the kitchen and after I’d cleaned the windows inside and out, I set up my tripod in the kitchen and took my time to compose properly. In the end I was happy with the result and the process grounded me, I think.

Dinner tonight was Kedgeree. Scamp made it, I wouldn’t know where to start. She wasn’t happy with it, I thought it was a bit dry, but with a spoonful of cream improved it greatly.

No plans for tomorrow. It looks like we’ll be under a raincloud all day.

I haven’t proof-read this blog. Any errors are mine as they say in the epilogue of books these days.

A new month – 1 July 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Finally I’ve cleared the backlog of blog posts and Flickr submissions. It took a bit longer than I expected, but even as I was downloading today’s photos, I found more on the A6000 that I had missed so I’m now up to about 1300 photos for June. That’s a personal record, I think. It’s partly down to the new phone. The results I get from it are almost indistinguishable from those on my A6000. Not quite as good as the A7iii, but it gets close when I use the RAW mode on the phone camera. Quite amazing. Truly now, the best camera is the one in your pocket.

I spent most of the morning and part of the afternoon clearing up loose ends of blogs. If any of you out there notice any mistakes, please don’t tell me, because I’m not going to do anything about them. Not long after midday I posted the final backlog blog.
Meanwhile, Scamp was doing the ironing and by the time she was finished, I was just finishing, so we could have lunch. Both of us settled for banana on toast.

After lunch Scamp decided she needed another garden tub to house her two new plants, so we walked down to the shops, got some messages and other essentials like jam doughnuts and then picked us a reasonably sized tub that Scamp threatened to wear on her head on the way home to protect herself from the rain. Thankfully the rain dried up once we left the shop. I could have gone for a walk in St Mo’s and probably I should have, but instead I came home with Scamp and did my file shifting that I usually do at the end of the month.

It had been windy since early morning and photography in the wind is difficult, so I chose to take some shots in the back garden where there is a bit of shelter from our high fence. PoD turned out to be the seed pods of the long gone Shooting Star flowers that bloomed in May. There wasn’t much more to tempt me today. Maybe I should have gone over to St Mo’s or encouraged Scamp to wear that flower pot hat and got a shot from one of those two situations … or maybe best not!

No plans for tomorrow.

 

The Lawnmower Man – 5 June 2023

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Scamp was out this morning to meet June for coffee. I thought I’d cut the grass.

It’s a long job, cutting the grass. Not as bad as some folk who have enormous lawns that need a petrol driven mower, but who secretly hanker for a ride-on mower! Ours is just a wee pocket hankie by comparison, but there’s a bit of preparation needed before you get started, pots to shift and then shift back once the first cut is taken. Squirting WD40 into the squeaky rear wheel, that screeching was putting my teeth on edge.

After I’d done our wee square, I thought it would be the right thing to do to cut Bobby Flavel’s grass too. I know my method is very rough and ready compared to Bobby’s straight lines, but at least it’s done and tidy. I hope you were sitting up there watching me struggle with the mower at the end of its lead, Bobby, just managing to get the furthest edge cut. Angela was the first person to cut Bobby’s grass after he passed away and we all agreed that we should take it in turns to cut his grass. For that reason and also because she doesn’t have much free time to mow her own grass, I cut Angela’s pocket hankie too. My good deeds for the day.

If the preparations before starting are a pain, the cleaning of that mower are even more of a drag. However, Scamp maintains it well and I think my cleaning routine was almost as good as her’s. I gave the blade a squirt of WD40 and then gave the squeaky wheel the grease it wanted. Done!

I’d just finished when Scamp arrived home. Piece ’n’ Cheese for her lunch and a slice of buttered bread covered in the remains of yesterday’s stew for mine. By then the sun had made an appearance and after some dithering, I took the A7 and the big heavy macro lens out to St Mo’s looking for damselflies, only to find that the dragonflies had taken over the ponds. There were dozens of them fighting and gatecrashing each other’s parties. Just like the unruly teenagers we get in the same neck of the woods with their ghetto blasters later in the summer. At least the dragonflies were just “doing the what comes naturally” and weren’t hyped up on Buckfast!

I couldn’t get as close as I wanted to the dragonflies, so I got as good a shot as was possible and enlarged it in ON1 software at home and produces what you see here. It’s a four spot chaser.

On the way home I had to check out the work being done by the council road repairers. They’d closed off part of our street to repair a section of the road. It has been crumbling away for years and a month or so ago they patched the bits that were easy to do. This, though, was a major bit of work with the tarmac being scraped back to the hardcore base and fresh tarmac replacing it. It was supposed to take two days, but it looks like it’s finished tonight.

Another end of day seat in the sun with Scamp. Both of us reading with a glass of something to keep us from drying out in this sunshine!

No plans for tomorrow, at least not at present.

 

A busy day – 2 June 2023

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Dentist and Optician on the same day, and what a glorious day.

In the morning, Scamp was going to the Dentist hoping she could repair a broken tooth. She could, but it would take some time to complete and cost a bit of money, but that’s always the way, isn’t it? The main thing is that she trusts this dentist. She, the dentist, managed to protect the broken tooth with a temporary support, but it will be about six weeks before she can start the work.

After lunch we drove over to Larky where Scamp had an appointment with the optician. I dropped her off and continued my journey to Millheugh which is really just an extension of Larkhall now, but in the past it was a fishing village on the banks of the Avon Water. It’s a bit untidy and sad looking now, but back in the day Millheugh a working salmon fishery.
I wasn’t looking for salmon today, I wanted to photograph the gully and the bridge which my mum always called the Cauves Know, but others called it the Clove Mill. Two similar sounding names for the same place. I managed to splash about and get a few shots of the narrow Powforth Glen and the waterfall that runs down under the bridge and into the Avon. My favourite made PoD. Then it was time to walk back round to the car. If the water had been just a wee bit lower today I could have walked straight across to the car, but the rocks would have been even slimier then and I’m sure I’d have fallen in.

Picked up Scamp and we drove home in sunshine! She doesn’t need new glasses and according to the optician, she has 20/20 vision now just about a year and a half after her double cataract operation. We sat out in the garden before Scamp made dinner which was Crispy Sea Bass with Lentils. Lovely summer dinner.

We watered the garden with watering cans tonight because quite a lot of the pots were drying out. I’d meant to get a new adapter for the kitchen tap today, but I forgot, so it was watering cans tonight. Hopefully I’ll be able to get the adapter tomorrow.

Ah, tomorrow. It should have been a chance to draw a line under the New Joy’s Waltz, but there weren’t enough couples to get a quorum, so no dancing tomorrow. Not sure what we’re doing, but it looks like it will be warm and dry … again.

Dancin’ with strangers – 1 June 2023

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Today we drove over to Glenburn community centre for the tea dance and there were two strangers there!

We did have a quick practise in the morning just to make sure we could actually do the devious “Outside Spin” where I have to must my right knee to push Scamp round. That could be a dangerous manoeuvre at the best of times, but in a living room and on a carpet it’s a recipe for disaster, except, it seemed to work.

I had hoped that the roadworks that had caused a lot of congestion a fortnight ago would be gone by today, but they were if anything, worse today. We really need to find a way round them. I might have found that way. We need to turn left at the busy roundabout then turn right at the end of that road. This will bring us out past the roadworks. I know this means nothing to you, but hopefully I’ll read this in a fortnight or so’s time and see how clever I was to put this reminder in. Coming from Glenburn to the M77 will be the reverse of going in true Haynes manual fashion. If that too means nothing to you, you’ve never stripped down the front wheel bearing of a Reliant Regal using Haynes Manual.

So, after arriving a good twenty minutes late, we tried a bit of Social Foxtrot and even a Quickstep with ad-lib additions by me which worked some of the time. I’d like to say ‘most’ of the time, but Scamp will read this and say “Oh no they didn’t.” There was a very small class today, only seven couples I think and one of the couples wasn’t from our class. Two asian dancers were in a category above the most of the usual couples and stratospherically higher than us … except when it came to Sequence Dances. That’s where our stepping is just so much better. Dancing in a circle and being able to follow the couple in front (unless it’s John). Never follow John I was told. He never sticks to the sequence and puts everyone who follows him off. I actually felt sorry for the asian couple. Everybody seemed to avoid them. “Who do they think they are? Coming to OUR tea dance?” Scamp went and talked to them, of course, and I was proud of her for doing so.

As usual we left early to avoid the extra busy traffic, but again the roadworks on the other side of the dual carriageway caused problems and we took about an hour to get home.

Back home, I went for a walk round St Mo’s and down to the Shops. Well, it is Thursday with all that entails. I was looking for damselflies beside the pond in St Mo’s, but there were none to be found, just a single dragonfly that was scudding around the pond at high speed looking for a mate, no doubt. Too fast for the kit lens I had on the A7. Instead PoD was a close up shot of a Marsh Horsetail. The Buttercup of the wetlands. Impossible to get rid off, according to my brother. It was sitting in a little bit of sunshine and looked translucent in the light.

Watched the final of Masterchef tonight and thought the person who won was an excellent choice. No spoilers here.

Tomorrow might be a busy day for Scamp. Dentist in the morning and optician in the afternoon is what is planned, hopefully it will work out for her. I have plans for things to photograph in Larky.

Glasgow – 31 May 2023

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Met Alex today for a walk around Glasgow.

We should have been going to Dunfermline, but he called off from that yesterday and suggested Glasgow instead.

It was a rambling walk up Sauchiehall Street and on to Charing Cross, then further on to Park Circus. Lots of photos taken by both of us. I don’t know how many Alex took, but I took 69 shots and rejected a fair amount of them. PoD was a perspective shot of The Beresford which is now divided into private flats after a chequered history of casino, student accommodation, and billet for servicemen during the Second World War.

Lunch was on Alex and in what used to be called the Willow Tearooms. Very posh. I had an open sandwich with smoked salmon. Alex had an Ayrshire Ham and cheese toastie. The american girl who served us couldn’t understand me when I asked for a pot of Ceylon tea. Alex had to repeat it quite slowly as you would for a child. A … pot … of … Ceylon … Orange … Pekoe … Tea. Lovely food, terrible service.

We walked back down to the the Glasgow Concert Hall to find the steps thronging with posh frocks and tight suits. We still haven’t worked out what was going on, but there was a power outage at the time and maybe the fire alarms had sounded, but a lot of kids seemed to be clutching diplomas of some sort. Scamp thinks it might have been a graduation ceremony for one of the posh schools. Maybe she’s right. She usually is.

We said our goodbyes and he walked back to the bus station while I walked down to find the doors to Buchanan Galleries locked with guards only allowing people out, but not in. Possibly something to do with the power outage. I did manage to get in to the Galleries by another route, but the lifts were off in the multistorey carpark and I was on level 6!!

Drove home through chaotic traffic and posh frocks and suits crossing the road without thinking that the cars have right of way sometimes. Glad to get home to fish fingers and spaghetti for dinner.

Today’s final prompt asked for A Coin.
I decided three was better than one and that’s why there are three coins here. All are UK currency. A 10p on the right, a 20p coin in the middle and a little copper 1p on the left. Add them up:
10p + 20p + 1p = 31p on the 31st.
The end of this EDiM.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this challenge. Some difficult prompts and some easier ones, but no downright EASY ones. That would be no fun at all.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to dance the afternoon away at Glenburn.

Water, water, everywhere – 28 May 2023

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We’d been promising ourselves for over a week that we’d water the garden. Today we did … and a little bit more besides.

Spoke to Hazy before we got started and we were pleased to hear that Penny was no worse for her op and was making good progress, despite having a blue lampshade on her head. Heard too about their progress with getting a new boiler installed.  I asked her about a book I’m reading The Left-Handed Booksellers of London and she laughed, because she’s presently re-reading it! How strange is that?!

The hose was unrolled and the tap adapter fitted in place, but this was a fairly new tap and the adapter didn’t fit very securely, but it would do, or so I thought. Scamp started on the front garden while I kept an eye on the adapter. I went to check that the pressure was suiting Scamp when I heard the splash. The adapter had worked loose, but was still connected to the tap and sending a fountain of water over the kitchen window. I turned the tap off and fixed the adapter again, this time tightening it was a pair of mole grip pliers and turned the water on again. This time it seemed more secure so I removed everything from the kitchen sink area and wiped the window and the sill down. I was just about to tell Scamp to keep the water flowing when she was finished and to tell me, because the back pressure would blow the connection again, when the same thing happened again. She hadn’t turned the water off, but a kink in the hose had done the same thing and stopped the water flowing and the back pressure had washed the windows again. A few expletives later we were back in business with a reduced water pressure this time.
I watered the back garden and as Scamp said, you could almost hear the plants sighing after their fairly lengthy drink.

With the watering done and the kitchen back to normal again we had lunch and I went out for a walk with a different lens combination: Wide angle, 50mm macro and LensBaby 50mm and +1 diopter CU lens.  That should cover all eventualities!  I was looking for a little bluebell I’d seen yesterday and I reckoned the LensBaby and CU lens combo would give me the effect I was looking for.  However, despite having the correct tools for the job, the light just wasn’t right. I took some photos, of course, but they just weren’t what I’d intended. Then I saw the bright yellow splash of colour. At first I thought it was a Brimstone Butterfly before I got close enough to see that it was a moth, not a butterfly. Later research discovered it’s true identity. It was a Brimstone Moth. I’d never heard of such a thing before, but Google Image Search confirmed it. That was PoD sorted.

Plodded home, happy for once that I’d seen something new in St Mo’s woods.  Scamp was reading in the back garden when I got back with a glass of wine, so I thought a bottle of beer for me was in order.  Later Scamp went to prepare dinner which was Caprese Salad for starter followed by Prawn Salad as a main and Apple Pie for dessert.  Thoroughly enjoyable and while we were eating, Tubular Bells was playing in the background. Isn’t it strange to think that Tubular Bells is 50 years old this year!!

We’d just finished when Jamie phoned to tell us about the Open Gardens project they are taking part in this year and that Their boiler might, just might be being fitted quicker than they’d thought.  Keeping our fingers crossed for you both.

Today’s prompt was A Tin Opener.

The only one we had in the kitchen drawer was a clumsy plastic scissor action tin opener, then my wife suggested. this one.
It was sold to us a long time ago as a Baby Can Opener. it’s only 50mm (2″) long which probably accounts for the name.

We did a lot of Youth Hostelling in our younger days and this tool was ideal. It took up very little space in a rucksack and could open tins and bottles, plus it was much cleaner and sharper than the “Bonzer” can openers the hostels supplied. They had been clean once, I believe, but one look at their fearsome blade was enough for me to reach for our Baby can opener instead.

Since it is such a tiny little tool I thought I’d be generous and sketch it open and closed!

We watched an interesting and crash happy Monaco GP.  Wildest Monaco GP we’ve seen for years.  It even rained, which is strange.

Tomorrow we may go in to Glasgow.