Category: photography

Crowned – 7 July 2022

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Queen for a day perhaps.

Scamp was out to the dentist today, not in the morning as I’d mistakenly reported yesterday, but in the afternoon. That left the morning free to speak to Hazy for half an hour or so. Things seem to be plodding along down south, but slower than they’d like. Dozy deacons were part of the problem and over lengthy exam answers were another. But one of the was the diet that Tilly (one cats) was on seems to be a success and she has reached her target weight. It was when we were talking to Hazy that I realised Scamp’s dentist appointment wasn’t for another four hours! Oops.

After we said our goodbyes, Scamp and I walked down to the shops to get some messages. Just something for lunch and a loaf to put it on because there was no bread in the house, at least, no bread that was eatable. On the way back we got some solar lights for the back garden. They don’t provide much useable light, but they do look pretty at night.

After lunch, Scamp steeled herself and walked over to the dentist to get her new crown fitted. It’s been a protracted issue this tooth. It all started back in December when she needed a filling, but because of Covid it wasn’t done then the dentist retired and she had to wait until another one was appointed. Oh, I could go on and on, but so did the wait and the bill got bigger and bigger, as did the cavity, until the new dentist said the only way to fix it was with a crown and that was the crown that was fitted today. Thankfully it worked and to look at it you’d never guess it wasn’t a real one.

While she was being crowned, I was out walking in St Mo’s better armed today to capture some insect photos. It was a lovely warm summer’s day.  Not at all like yesterday with its gale force winds. I took the big heavy macro lens and got a few ‘keepers’, but a lot more ‘chuckers’. My favourite was a little fly feeding on some pink blossom. It was the contrast between the dark flower and the pale pink of the flowers that swung it for me. That was PoD.

Back home it was warm enough to sit in the garden and make plans for alterations to the planting that might go ahead next year, all being well. Sitting making plans with a bottle Birra Moretti for me and a glass of Yellow Tail Merlot for Scamp is as good a way as any to spend an afternoon. Dinner was a very nice Prawn and Pea Risotto.

We watered the garden after dinner. It really needed it and I think the plants will look a lot better tomorrow.

The Boris Saga continues. Today he resigned as leader of the Tory party, but intends to stay on as a caretaker PM. Why doesn’t he just go? Nobody wants or trusts him anymore. It’s quite sad really.

We might go out for lunch tomorrow, but that’s as far as plans go.

 

Windy Willie – 6 July 2022

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Windy Willie was out and about today, gusting around the houses and making the trees sway. Thankfully he’s now away to annoy some other people, but he was a nuisance for a while for photographers trying to capture images of insects on flowers.

Unbelievably, despite the occasionally torrential rain we’ve had recently, the back garden was suffering a drought. Because of the wind, using the hose wasn’t practical, so Scamp and I were carting full watering cans around the garden to refresh the poor plants. I think the potatoes were the worst and that wasn’t obvious until we emptied on of the ‘tattie bags’ and found the soil was bone dry right down to the bottom. The bag produced enough potatoes for dinner tonight, but a lot of them were the size of buttons. That’s what gave us the idea to just water the whole garden.

After lunch I thought it was time I shifted my backside from the couch and went for a walk. Unusually, Scamp agreed to come with me. I know that she doesn’t really enjoy a walk round St Mo’s, so I suggested we walk down to Broadwood and walk over the dam and up past the exercise machines. That got her approval. Out of the wind, it was quite pleasant with temperature in the mid teens. In the wind it was a different story. On the final leg of the walk, Scamp suggested she would go home and I could do a circuit of St Mo’s. That sounded like a good idea. The best of both worlds.

My first circuit didn’t raise any interesting insects or, indeed anything. On the second round, there was more insect life on the hogweed and cow parsley. That’s where today’s PoD came from. It’s just a wee hover fly, but it was in focus and it was sharp, mainly because I was sheltered by a few trees which stopped the flower heads from bouncing around. Also, I was using the kit lens, not a dedicated macro lens, which meant I wasn’t going as close as I’d have liked and this helped the sharpness of the photo. It wasn’t the most productive day with 34 photos taken and 28 of those rejected for various reasons.

Dinner tonight for Scamp was Omelette with Cabbage and New Potatoes, for me it was Wild Boar Burger with Cabbage and New Potatoes. The potatoes were really very good. I only wish I’d earthed them up earlier and, of course, taken more care with the watering.

Boris still bumbles on despite having almost no support from his colleagues. He’s a bit like the visitor who doesn’t know when to leave the party and has to be ushered out the door. Maybe he needs the money!

Tomorrow Scamp is out in the morning to the dentist, hoping to get the long running saga of the broken tooth finally sorted.

Culture Vultures – 5 July 2022

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A day in the Toon with my brother.

Today I took the train in to Glasgow thanks to a lift from Scamp. In Glasgow I met my brother and we went on the bus to Kelvingrove Art Gallery. There’s also a museum there, but I was more interested in the art gallery today. Of course I also wanted to take a few photos and have a blether with Alex.

By the time we got there, the daily organ recital was about to start and this gave us the chance to do a bit of people watching and of course, and of course, with watching comes photographing. I was amazed at, not just the dexterity of the organist, but also the jive he was doing with his feet on the pedals, all thanks to two live feeds showing his hands and feet on two tv screens.

When the recital was over we went for a quick bite to eat and a natter then went to see a retrospective of artist John Byrne’s work. The size of the paintings and the quantity were astounding. Little things, too stuck I’m my mind, like the letter he wrote to René Magritte, addressed to Magritte, Belgium. And it not only got there, but also generated a reply by the Belgian artist. There was so much to look at, we stayed for an hour or so before going back upstairs to take more photos.

Alex wanted to photograph the famous laughing and crying heads that hang from the roof in one of the rooms. I went looking for a couple of paintings I liked. Unfortunately, one was out on loan to Auckland in New Zealand and one simply wasn’t there, but there was no one to tell me where it had disappeared to. What I did find was a restored Van Gough painting of Alexander Reid from Glasgow. Then another favourite, Roses by Samuel Peploe. A bit of culture does you no harm.

Eventually we met up again and had one more cup of coffee just as the cafe was closing. After that we left to catch the bus back in to Glasgow where Alex went to one side of the bus station and I went to the other to get home the cheap (free) way. A good day in town.

When I got home Scamp was sitting in the garden enjoying the last of the day’s sunshine as the clouds started to roll in, but we did manage a glass of beer each and discuss our different days. She had done some washing and if you’ve waded through the foregoing, you know what I did.

PoD was a close up of the elaborate door handles from Kelvingrove.

No plans for tomorrow. It looks like rain. I don’t know if Boris has made plans for tomorrow. Since his Health secretary and his Chancellor resigned this afternoon, he may be looking for a competent removals firm!

An injured dog – 3 July 2022

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This morning, Scamp suggested a walk along the Forth & Clyde Canal. I agreed.

We drove to Auchinstarry and got what was probably the last space in the car park. I’d decided to bring two cameras with me, one with a macro lens and one with a medium long zoom, to reduce the need to change lenses out in the wild. That meant I needed the new rucksack. Actually, it worked out quite well, because although there were patches of blue sky, there were also a lot of heavy looking rain clouds. Having the rucksack meant I could carry my rain jacket but be free to walk with just a jersey and trousers. Boots, of course were mandatory for both of us and of course, Scamp chose to wear her rain jacket, just to make sure it wouldn’t rain.

Lots of folk walking dogs or walking in family groups and loads of cyclists. I couldn’t blame them, it was a lovely morning. I’d only seen a couple of hover flies in St Mo’s during the last few weeks, but there were literally clouds of them along the canal. I think the reason for that is the cow parsley and hogweed flowers are out along the side of the towpath and those flowers are very attractive to hover flies. I’d put the 50mm macro lens on the A7, but it was having a hard time focusing on the insects because there was a stiff breeze which made the big flower head bob about a lot. I wished I’d packed the long, heavy 105mm macro instead. But I carried on regardless and did manage a couple of shots that were sharp enough to keep.

We walked as far as Twechar where we left the canal tow path and crossed the road on to the old railway line and walked it. There are some lovely landscape shots to be had there and I decided I’d remove the macro lens and stick on the kit lens instead. I was half way through the transfer when a cyclist appeared heading the way we’d come. He said he thought I’d an injured dog when he saw the brown and dull green rucksack. Scamp told him “No, it’s just a man who always needs to change things!” He laughed and said that was perfectly all right! I apologised and we went our separate ways after I’d taken a few landscape photos.

For the last four or five years a great amount of work has been going on to improve the flow or the Garrel Burn. It’s finally finished and although the path I used to walk has not seen a great improvement, it would appear that the burn now meanders rather than flows through the wetland. We walked part of it on our way back to the car. Maybe next time we’ll take the Wibbly Wobbly Way and see what improvements there are.

We went home via Lidl to get a chicken for dinner and came home with about £50 worth of chicken, bread, cherries, kitchen scales and a bottle of gin. How I wish we had a Lidl rather than a manky Aldi in Cumbersheugh.

We watched an action packed British F1 GP with dangerous looking crashes and the lead changing hands with every second that passed. Glad to see that Max isn’t having things all his own way.

Spoke to Jamie and heard how the roof problem is still on hold until the bats survey is complete. Glad we don’t have bats in our belfry. Also got advice on completing the mandatory LF test for boarding the ship. Thanks for that Jamie.

PoD was a picture of an, as yet unknown bright pink plant growing by the side of the railway path. If anyone recognises it, an ID would be appreciated.

Tomorrow we have no plans.

 

 

Showers – 28 June 2022

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It rained today, not all day, but occasional heavy showers all day.

We spent the morning looking for a pair of glasses. My glasses. My good glasses, not the cheapo readers I use most of the time, the ones I’m wearing now. No, they were the much more expensive ones I got from the opticians and the ones that, I now realise, don’t give me eye strain. We searched high and low for them, literally. We searched up on the top of cupboards and down under the settee in the living room. We looked in the kitchen, in the toilet, in the bathroom and worst of all in ‘my’ room where strange things are buried under more strange things. Eventually we gave up and had a cup of coffee each and didn’t speak about where they could be or where we hadn’t looked yet. For about half an hour we tried to put the glasses out of our heads instead of on our heads. Finally I frisked the bed for the second, or was that the third time? There, in the middle of the bed I felt a bump that shouldn’t be there. That bump was my glasses. They had been playing ‘hide and seek’ with me, and had chosen a smart hiding place, where I’d left them after I was finished reading in bed this morning. It only took us about three hours to find them. The good thing about the search was that it vastly increased my step count for the day. So, if I found my glasses, why am I wearing readers? Because the ‘lost’ pair had been bad and have been shut in the bedroom all day as a punishment. Furthermore, they have been warned that if they try that ‘hide and seek’ game again, they will be banished to ‘my’ room with all the terrors it contains!

After a lovely lunch of fried potatoes and the leftover chicken goujons from Sunday, Scamp declared that rather than go for a walk round St Mo’s, she’d rather do the ironing. I chose St Mo’s and took the Sony with its big, heavy macro lens, hoping for some wet weather shots taken in the sun during one of the dry spells. The dry spells occurred, but the sun was absent today. Instead I found a Ringlet butterfly, some more spider nests and best of all, a Plume Moth. So small and insignificant you’d pass it by, but if you look closely at this insect you will see its wings are far to narrow to carry it aloft. The reason is that when it lands, it doesn’t fold its wings along its body as most moths do, it rolls them up neatly and holds them out at its side, making a sort of cross shape.

Two of the great things about the Sony A7iii are Silent Shooting and Continuous Shooting. I won’t make Jamie yawn by explaining what they mean, although you can probably guess, I’ll just say that it means you can take lots of pictures in a very short time if you keep the shutter pressed. I managed to take about 200 shots of the Plume Moth in about two minutes. That meant I had 200 shots to look through when I got home.

After I’d done the first cull and got rid of about 150 of them, I started making tonight’s dinner which was Carrot and Lentil Curry. An old favourite and although it wasn’t as good as Scamp’s version, it filled a wee space.

PoD went to the Plume Moth.

Almost felt sorry for Serena Williams getting beat in the first round at Wimbledon. That must be a tough fall from grace.

No plans for tomorrow yet. Weather looks similar to today with perhaps less rain.

 

 

Hospitals, Doctors and a Horse Shoe – 13 June 2022

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All are here, but not in that order.

An easy start to the day. Wordle completed (Scamp got 4, I got 5). Sudoku completed and an early lunch was a piece ’n’ banana, delicious. Then we were off!

I drove Scamp over to Hairmyres this afternoon to get her eyes checked, the optician had spotted an irregularity in a scan she had in Larkhall, a month or so ago and she was referred for a further scan at Monklands a few weeks ago. Then Monklands referred her for yet another scan at Hairmyres. Turns out there is a thinning of her retina in her left eye which is something to do with her extreme shortsightedness, but there’s nothing that needs to be done about it just now.

While Scamp was at the outpatients, I took myself off for a walk round Calderglen park in East Kibride and got some photos. There’s a neat wee horseshoe shaped waterfall not far from the car park and I though it might make a decent slow shutter shot. Of course I’d left the tripod in the car and I’d also forgotten the ND filters, so it was hand held at 1/5th sec. Using the silent shutter feature I shot off 15 frames rapid, then blended them in Photoshop tonight. Quite impressed with the result, except that the image was a 2.72GB file! It was impressive, but not THAT impressive. However, it was good enough to get PoD.

When I was walking back to the car, Scamp phoned to say that she was finished and was having a coffee. I drove to meet her and had one too. When we got back to the house it was my turn to go to see the doc. I had been to see the triage nurse week before last because I’ve had a nasty looking rash on my leg. She said it might be dermatitis but thought there was a wee fungal infection there too. She gave me a couple of meds that seem to be working, but asked how my general health was and I told her ok, but I have an off and on problem with my waterworks. She sorted me out with an appointment with one of the docs for today. He suspected it might have something to do with my prostate, but after a ‘digital’ (nothing to do with computers!!) examination, gave me the all clear. After I’d wiped the tears from my eyes I thanked him and made my exit!

I think that was enough excitement for one day. We’re now looking more closely at the arrangements that will be needed for our holiday. It appears we will need a negative Lateral Flow test no more than 24 hours from when we depart. We also need to have proof of all the vaccinations we’ve had. I think we’re ok with that, but we’ll check with the dance teachers on Saturday as they’re at present in Cyprus and have up to date details. Just to check if the NHS Scotland app is enough evidence, or do we need a printout. We might have a word with you too, Jamie and Simonne as you’re not long back from Germany.

Maybe going looking for a new phone tomorrow in Glasgow. Hopefully a brighter day than today.

More rain, more wind – 12 June 2022

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Is this really ‘Flaming’ June, I ask?

One of those days for relaxing and looking out at the weather, but you can’t always be sitting on your bum. You sometimes have to force yourself to go out and do things, to move is enough some times. Today, Scamp was cutting flowers and tidying up in the garden. My part in it was staking the Honey Bells that are all in full flower and providing a great feeding ground for the bees. Unfortunately the wind is bending their stems into weird shapes. This makes the flower heads bob about even more and causes the bees problems as they are coming in to land. A few bamboo canes and some garden twine gave them the support to keep the stems vertical while still allowing a bit of movement.

After lunch I was mooching around the house again and needed to get out and find a photo. I drove up to Fannyside and found my parking space empty this time. I had a walk up the road towards a farm. I’d brought two cameras with me. The A6000 had a Sigma 10-20mm very wide angle lens and the A7iii had the massive Sigma 105mm macro. Two Sigma lenses separated by about 15 years. Both exceptional in their own fields. However, it was the 105mm that got both of todays ‘keeper’ shots, and PoD went to a landscape shot of some stunted trees with the Campsie Fells in the background.

Dinner tonight was a lightly smoked salmon fillet with broccoli and crushed baby potatoes and chives. Light and lovely. This from a man who says he doesn’t really like salmon!

We watched the Azerbaijan GP. It was a race full of failures for the Ferrari powered cars, I lost count of how many failed to finish. Not a good day for the leaping horses!

Spoke to Jamie in the evening and heard more about bat surveys, and their cost. Scamp and I were really impressed by Simonne’s photos from the garden. Some beautiful flowers there, well done the pair of you.

The winds died down in the evening as they have done for the past week, let’s hope they don’t return tomorrow.

I’m taking Scamp to hospital tomorrow to discuss a little problem with her eyes. Apparently it’s been there for a long time, but the cataract surgery has brought it to the optician’s attention. I’ve got a doc’s appointment for a check up in the late afternoon. Twice in a fortnight! I’m getting my money’s worth from the NHS now.

Another Wedding – 28 May 2022

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Just back from one, and off to another.

A bit less of a drive to this one, thankfully, but equally scenic. We followed the sat nav to Hamilton and on to the church in deepest Fairhill. I think I’d have struggled to find it without electronic assistance. After the service we drove through the labyrinth that is East Kilbride, missed my turning twice, but then on to the motorway down to the Fenwick Hotel, dumped our luggage there and got a taxi to the very posh Rowallan Castle in Ayrshire.

There are two castles in the grounds. We were heading for the ‘new’ castle which dates from around the turn of last century while the smaller ‘old’ castle dates from the 12th century. Still the ‘new’ castle looked the part with a grand entrance stairway, a library with a secret door and another door leading to a balcony where the great and the good could look down on the peasants below.

Lots of canapés being served and also plenty of alcoholic beverages freely available. We wandered around taking photographs of anyone and everyone we saw, hoping there would be more than a handful of folk who’s faces we’d know. PoD was a low viewpoint shot of a wee daisy growing through a crack in the paving stones with a kiltie disappearing into the distance.

Soon we were called to the ballroom where the tables were set. All the tables were named after places Laura and Ross had visited. We were on table Prague. Most of the folk at the table were friendly with the odd one or two who were just a bit stand-offish. We ignored them as they ignored us.

Speeches were the usual mix of rushed in-jokes and muttered wedding banality. The exception was John, father of the bride who, although he stumbled a bit at the start, showed his teacher’s training with a clear and measured delivery thereafter.

The meal was lovely. A fixed menu Chicken Liver Paté with Tomato Chutney to start. Main was Supreme of Chicken with Fondant Potatoes and a hot Pink Peppercorn sauce. Sticky Toffee Pudding with Baileys Ice Cream was the dessert. No coffee, but there was a free Cocktail Hour after the meal. I had a Bramble and Scamp had a Passionfruit Mojito. Both freshly made and quite delicious, but totally different from each other.

While we were comparing and contrasting the cocktails, the staff were hard at work changing the room where the meal had been served back into a ballroom, if a quite small ballroom, given the size of the castle. The band were loud, I mean LOUD. Too loud for the size of the room in my opinion. Maybe I’m just showing my age! After the couple’s first dance which was one of those embarrassing holding-hands ring around the roses dances that never really morphed into something like a real dance, the band really got going and it felt like a mosh pit rather than a ballroom. The less said about that the better. I prefer music you can hear, not the kind that you feel as a vibration in your chest. The young folk seemed to like it, but there wasn’t much for the over-30s to enjoy. John seemed to be ensconced in the library most of the time talking to folk, although we did stand together on an outside area watching a hare running across the greens of the golf course as the sun went down.

We had a taxi booked for midnight when it appeared that the band would finish playing. It didn’t appear. I phoned the hotel to see if there was anything they could do. Twice I phoned and it was just after 12.30 when a taxi appeared with the excuse that the IT in the taxi office had collapsed and all the bookings had been lost. In other words the drawing pin that held the big bit of paper with the bookings to the wall had come out and nobody could find it. However, we were past caring. We got into the taxi got to the hotel and fell into our beds.

Tomorrow would be another day. Hopefully a quieter, less hectic day.

Elgol – 24 May 2022

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Today we finally made it to Elgol.

That strange place where the road leads to the sea and stops there. When the light is right and the Cuillins are lit by it it’s magical. Also when the light is poor, it’s mystical, seeing the mountains appear and disappear as the clouds break. Whatever the weather, you can turn your back on the crammed car parks, the pop-up coffee booths, the stalls selling trips out on RIBs to the islands and be somewhere else. Unfortunately there are masses of people arrive here, stop and say “Is that IT?” “Is this why we drove for miles and miles along a single track road in the rain, to see some mountains and some sea?” YES! “There’s not even a decent chip shop” NO! That’s part of its charm. Have I given you the impression that, I like Elgol?

It is a long drive from Staffin. All the way south to Broadford on the ‘main’ road. Then onto the single track road out to the west to Elgol. It’s around 55 miles and takes about one and a half hours. Going back it’s another 55 miles and another hour and a half because there is no alternative route. We stopped for petrol in Portree on the way down and drove down to just past Broadford where we stopped at Loch Cill Chriosd. A lovely quiet spot with beautiful views on a good day and today was a good day. There’s an old ruin of a church there, the Church of Kilchrist, but I was more interested in the landscape round the loch which is almost covered with rushes. On a day with little wind, the loch produces beautiful reflections. It was almost perfectly still today, although there was a shower of rain. Photos taken we pressed on to Elgol.

It was really busy. Cars and vans of the camper variety parked everywhere and anywhere. Scamp saw a likely place to park up near the village hall. There was one space left. Luckily we only had one car. She took some photos and then went to the village hall which had a tea shop beside it. I’d remembered my boots this time, so I headed down to the ‘beach’. As I’ve said before ‘beach’ is a misnomer. There’s no way you could erect your deck chair on this beach with rocks that are graded from fist sized stones to man sized boulders (or should that be ‘person sized?). However, those boulders didn’t stop a bridal party in suits and sticky-out white dress tying the knot beside the big eroded cliff! I was a bit peeved at first because that was one of the spots I wanted to photograph, but they were there first and I was only a nuisance photog who would have to be photoshopped out of their photos later.

The weather was jsut perfect and I got the photos I wanted with the equipment I wanted to use. I’d brought my old 10-20mm Sigma ultra-wide lens, fitted on the A6000 camera. It’s a really good lens that only works in manual these days, but I don’t mind that because it produces such good results. I’d brought the A7iii and kit lens as well, but having both meant I didn’t have to swap lenses. Someone had been thoughtful enough to sail a three masted sailing ship into position below one of the mountains as an extra little interest point.
After a while I’d taken all the photos I wanted and headed back up the steep hill to the tea shop where I thought Scamp would be waiting, but she was off on her own climbing a hill to another viewpoint, but had seen me and come back down again. I know now that we should have walked back up to the viewpoint, but honestly I was knackered with climbing that hill. A cup of tea helped and then we drove back those 55 miles to the house.

Earlier in the day we’d said goodbye to June and Ian who were off in the morning with Jackie to catch the bus that would take them down to Glasgow. I didn’t really envy them the trip, with their first, and only, stop in Fort William. Then the next half of the journey to Glasgow itself, then another bus to Cumbersheugh. In another way I did envy them the ability to just sit there in relative comfort instead of having to drive down the road. That’s what we’d have to do tomorrow.

We’d been invited to Jackie and Murdo’s for dinner. It was a reasonably comfortable night, so we just walked down to Burnside. I was cautious with my alcohol intake because I knew I was driving us home the next day. Scamp got the offer of a dress for the next wedding from Jackie, an offer she couldn’t or wouldn’t refuse, so we carried that back to the house later. We’d still a few things to pack, so with that done we went to bed, because tomorrow was going to be a long day.

PoD just had to be Elgol!

The only plan for tomorrow was to stop at Columba for a slice or two of the wedding cake, then drive, drive, drive.

Washout – 20 May 2022

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We’d gone out with the intention of driving down to Elgol. That didn’t happen.

We did drive down to the Co-op in Portree for something for tonight’s dinner for us, a couple of litres of milk and a bottle of gin for June. Then we took the road south although it was raining and kept going south into the teeth of a gale and driving rain until I pulled in at a parking place. The place where we’d stopped to photograph the waterfall on Wednesday. There we turned around and drove back to Jan’s Vans for lunch. It was pointless to drive on to Elgol in such weather. Sure, we might have arrived there to wall to wall sunshine. That’s quite possible on Skye. It’s also possible that there would be nowhere to park and the clouds would still be dumping rain on us. No, this was the sensible solution.

After lunch we drove back up the East road to the house. Shared out the messages with June and Ian and had a coffee in our own half of the house. All the while it was raining. But after an hour or so it began to tail off and I thought I might just get out for some photos. That happened when the sun did shine and the clouds did lift.

I drove down to Staffin shore, the beach with lovely light coloured sand. Unfortunately, today you could hardly see the sand, there were so many folk down there. Walking groups, family groups, people with dugs and just ‘folk’. Of course, they ubiquitous Camper Vans were there in their dozens too. Big bloody white boxes with a wheel at each corner. I gave up and drove down to the Slip where there were only two cars and a Manitou digger, forklift, jack of all trades. It looks brand new, so can’t belong to anyone on Skye. I got a few photos, but nothing spectacular. And, of course then the Camper Vans started arriving, so I left.

I drove up past the house, up to Loch Langaig near Flodigarry. It’s a big loch set among a horseshoe of hills. Lovely wee clean burn runs out of it and that’s what I was intending to photograph. I managed a few shots that I quite liked and decided to change lenses. When you’re in the hills, you should keep and eye on the clouds. The direction they’re coming from and how fast they’re moving. If I’d done that I might have noticed they were breaking over the hill tops and I might have got back to the car without getting soaked. I didn’t notice. I did get soaked.

But, I did get the photo. A low level view of the burn running off the loch and that became PoD. Best photographing day I’ve had since we arrived.

It’s unlikely I’ll have very much time for photography tomorrow. Lots of dressing up to do and lots of running around like a headless chicken. Isn’t that what weddings are all about?