Category: photography

Editing blogs – 30 July 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was out this morning to have a blether and a coffee with her sister.

I stayed at home to edit and publish a week’s blog posts. They were shorter than normal posts, but I still had to go through the rigmarole of writing it in Day One (that’s what I’m doing now). Then logging in to my webspace and dumping the text in the correct place, before I sourced the photo that went with the text and posted it in the right place. After that I’d only another seven or eight to do. It gets a bit tedious, but it’s not all doom and gloom. I can look back a year and see what I was talking about then. I can search the blog for bits and pieces of my life that I’ve forgotten about. Occasionally I do feel I should just chuck it in, but as Scamp keeps reminding me, I’d regret it. But there should be an easier way to synchronise the writing with the posting.

I had just finished the last posting when Scamp returned from her extended blether with June. Both of them had lots to say and stories to tell, and you know what gossips, sisters are.

After lunch we drove to The Fort for Scamp to return a pair of sandals that looked good, felt good but not really good enough to splash the cash on. Luckily she’d only worn them inside.

Later in the afternoon I took the A7 with a macro lens and the Tamron zoom for a walk in St Mo’s. The Tamron got a bit of use, but the handy wee 50mm macro won the day, capturing not only the PoD of a snail snuggled into the leaves of an unknown plant, but also a closeup of a wee black fly that Google Images could not agree on the name for.

I watered the garden and the bloke next door’s too. We take turn about at watering the front gardens. Everything looked and felt dry. Such a strange thing about Scotland. Scamp may water the back garden tomorrow.

I’m hoping to meet my brother tomorrow and then we’ll drive over to Chatelherault for a walk and a blether.

 

Getting things done – 29 July 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Another bright morning and the grass, front and back was needing cut. My job was moving the flower pots, about ten of them, out onto the path while Scamp did the actual cutting, then moving them back again. I helped with cleaning the mower once the difficult stuff was done, but Scamp has her own method for this and it’s not a good idea to try to do it any other way.

Lunch was next, and it was so memorable, I haven’t a clue what it was! Oh yes, it was a piece ’n’ ham that came all the way from Sedbergh.

I walked over to St Mo’s again in the hope that there would be some activity round the ponds, but there was none and I came home almost empty handed, although I did find a wee purple vetch flower willing to pose for me and it became PoD.

I actually spent most of the afternoon writing up a week’s blog posts ready for posting tomorrow. It was a bit of a slog, but it’s almost done now.

An early bed because my two weeks long struggle with The Ministry of Time is over. I finished it tonight. An interesting concept, but too much padding. I’m not sure I’d recommend it to anyone.

Tomorrow Scamp is meeting June for coffee and a blether and I’m intending to post the blog.

Back in the old routine – 28 July 2024

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This morning we did the Tesco run. After lunch I went for a walk in St Mo’s and it felt like we’d never been away. PoD was a damselfly with a bit of sparkle in its wings.

Dinner was Bacon, Cabbage and Potatoes. One of those fallback meals which remind you that you’re home.

Spoke to Jamie later in the day and found we didn’t have much to say. Everything was alright at their end an it was the same at our end. Just like it says at the top of this blog.

Back in the old routine.

Preparation – 19 July 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Today was preparation day for tomorrow’s drive to Dent in Cumbria.

Effectively this meant clearing a space in our rooms and then filling that space with clothes, shoes and lots of other stuff.

  • Packing
  • Dull day
  • Feeling down as usual before a trip
  • Walked over to St Mo’s to try to lose the Black Monkey
  • Checked out the tyres at Dicksons and they’re ok
  • The rest is just waiting!

PoD was a Black Headed Gull sitting on a concrete post.

Hopefully everything will go fine tomorrow.

 

Finding space – 18 July 2024

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It started in the morning when Scamp said that the blog wasn’t loading. An hour and a few quid later it was fixed.

<Technospeak>
Long story short, the problem with the blog appeared to be a lack of storage space on the Namecheap server. When I tried last night to install a WordPress update. It stalled and glitched upgrade, but more than that, it appeared to damage something. After an hour on a help-chat line I upgraded my 20GB of storage to 50GB. That should keep the wheels turning for a while.
That took care of the morning, but of course, I was now on a different server with a different address and I had to change the host name in all my email addresses. Not an onerous task.
</Technospeak>

Once I was back in again and the emails were working, Scamp suggested a walk to the shops would be good, so that’s what we did. As has almost been traditional after a walk to the shops, I carried the bag halfway home and Scamp carried it the rest while I went for a walk around St Mo’s. After about four years using the Sony A7 camera series I’d found another tweak that while not exactly guaranteeing a sharp, in focus shot every time, at least gives you a fighting chance. No need to explain it to you, but let’s just say it works. That’s what I was using today to get the PoD of a Crane Fly or a Jenny Long Legs to give it its proper Scottish name!

Back home Scamp made a prawn stir fry and it was really delicious. Meanwhile I bagged the stew and let it rest in the fridge.

It wasn’t the brightest of days. Still clammy but with a bit of a breeze, which made it more pleasant.  Maybe a couple of notches down from the unpleasant heat we’ve been having recently.

After the blog problem from the morning, I’ve been feeling washed out today and I’m hoping to get to bed before midnight. I expect you understood most of that jargon Hazy and I’m equally sure you passed it by Jamie.

Scamp is intending to go to FitSteps tomorrow while I stay home and do some tidying up.

 

Cooking, Grass Cutting and Rumba – 17 July 2024

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We spoke to Hazy in the morning. She told us she’d had her hair cut but we wouldn’t see it until Saturday when she and Neil are coming up. She’s like that, Hazel! I still remember being in the car with her, going to the church on her wedding day and her making poor Neil wait! Bride’s perogative, I believe. I have a long memory Hazy!

I did some shopping after we’d finished our call and took my “I’m away for the Messages” bag. Just my meds, some fruit for Scamp and a loaf.

After lunch I started to clear the top of the sofa in my room. It hasn’t seen the light of day for months now, probably since about March. So, it really did need a good clear out. A lot of stuff went in the bin because tomorrow is bin day and theres no going back after the bin is tipped into the bin men’s lorry. The sofa looks so bare now, but tomorrow it will be filled again with other stuff.

While I was doing that, Scamp was doing ‘grass hoovering’ in the front and back gardens. It looks a lot tidier now, but we’re due rain overnight and that will just encourage more growth. It’s a never ending cycle.

Later in the afternoon I made some stew for next week’s dinner. Not made on the hob this time, mainly done in the Le Creuset which allows the oven to do most of the work.

With the stew happily bubbling away, I went for a walk in St Mo’s and got the PoD. It was warm and still a bit close feeling today. The photo’s another one of a geranium this time with  with a little fly as a photobomber. I think every photo I took today had an insect of one variety or another in it, hogging the limelight.

We went dancing tonight and learned the first part of Kirsty’s new Rumba routine. As with all the best routines, it started off simply and then progressed to the more complicated bits. Next week she’ll be adding in even more intricate figures like the Hockey Stick and the Fan, but by then we’ll have forgotten what we learned tonight!

No real plans for tomorrow other than finishing the stew.

Driving again – 16 July 2024

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After yesterday’s driving extravaganza the last thing I wanted to do was drive today.

So I got in the car about 10am and drove to Falkirk. To the Ironworks Business Park. Nobody was about, so I phoned the bloke I spoke to yesterday. He said I was at the right place and he’d be with me in 10 minutes. He was as good as his word and he apologised for not speaking properly but he’d been to the dentist and one side of his jaw wasn’t behaving properly. Know that feeling? I do too!

I was there to get some coffee and he took my order and gave me a large discount for having come all the way from Cumbersheugh. I even got a free bag to carry the coffee home. I’ve since tested the coffee and found it just as good as I thought it would be.

Drove home and had a piece ’n’ banana for my lunch and Scamp copied me! I was just making the sandwich when I saw a magpie sitting on a branch of the rowan tree in the back garden. Usually I chase them off, but this one looked a bit sad, so instead I grabbed my camera with the zoom lens and got half a dozen shots through the back window. It’s always good to have a few in the bag.

I’d been worrying about the front tyres on my car, so I drove down to Jim Dickson’s garage in the village where ‘Young’ Jim pronounced them good for a few hundred miles yet. That set my mind at rest.

Back home I took the A6500 and the 70-180mm and went for a walk in the sunshine to St Mo’s. I got a few shots of insects and plants, but nothing outstanding. It was quite a muggy afternoon with hardly a breath of wind.

Dinner was pasta and tomato sauce with a whole bunch of basil leaves that I’ve been growing on the window sill. It was quite delicious, even if say so myself.

It’s just passed 9.30pm as I’m writing this and there is a lovely sunset building. After such an overcast, close afternoon it’s good to see a bit of sunshine.

No plans for tomorrow, but I might make a start on some stew.

Sunshine! – 12 July 2024

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Today we had sunshine from first thing in the morning until early evening.

It was a bit of a surprise. We hadn’t expected such a warm, bright day. If past experience is anything to go by, it will all turn to rain tomorrow. However, we made the best of today.

While I was making breakfast, I watched a young blackbird having a bath in the bird bath tucked away among the vegetation at the back fence. It seemed to be really enjoying itself. Despite the rain, it’s been pretty dry so far this month. I think the rainwater has been sucked away into the grass.

Later in the morning we drove to Tesco where Scamp pointed at the bags of compost and I lifted one down from the top of the pile. How good it was that Tesco piled these bags in the foyer of the store, where they don’t get wet and don’t weigh twice or three times their dry weight. Such a simple thing you’d think, but hardly any of the garden centres think of it and we’re left to manhandle sodden bags of compost. We also got two pots. One to keep as a spare and one to transplant the Berberis plant into. It seems to be struggling where it is in an impractical pot with a wide opening at the top and a narrow base, leading the plant to be blown over in the gusty weather we’ve been having. After the gardening essentials were in the trolley, the rest was just shopping!

After lunch I drove to Fannyside and took a few photos of the sheep and cattle, but the PoD went to a fence post with Cladonia lichen covering the top and with a layer of spider webs over that. I saw a wee bird that might have been a Stonechat, but the new lens was just to short to get a decent shot of it, but a longer lens would cost more and weigh twice as much as the Tamron. So the Stonechat will have to come to me next time if it wants its photo taken.

Back home Scamp was enjoying the sunshine in the back garden and I joined her for a while, almost, but not quite finishing my book from Fred. I’m spinning it out, because it’s difficult to keep track of all the people in the story and they keep changing their names. I also don’t really want to get to the end, because I’m enjoying it so much.

Later we thought we should water the garden. Scamp did it, front and back while I made the dinner. I say “I made the dinner”, but to be honest, the oven made it. There was very little prep and very little skill in the Chicken and Pea Tray Bake. It was a bit salty, but definitely delicious.

We’re hoping to go dance class in Brookfield tomorrow, but don’t have any more plans.

Dancin’ – 11 July 2024

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Today we drove to Glenburn for the first tea dance for a while, or what felt like a while to me.

Not a great turn out for the dance, but some folk will be on holiday and some will be on child-minding duty, I suppose. Not everyone lives such a free and easy life as we do!
There were a couple of strangers in the camp. One couple were apparently semi-professionals and boy did it show in their styling. Very much the lady with her head back and the man holding poses on his tiptoes before plunging into a ‘running step’ along the diagonal of the dance floor, while the majority of us were quickstepping carefully, keeping to Line of Dance.

For the first time in ages we stayed for the full tea dance. Usually we leave early to avoid schools coming out and the long queues of folk driving home after work. Schools aren’t in until the middle of August and a lot of folk are on holiday despite it not feeling like summer this year. We could actually have stayed on the M8 and driven over the Kingston Bridge today and been home even earlier than we did. Traffic had been light going to Glenburn and it was equally light coming back.

I didn’t bother going out for a walk when we got home, instead I just photographed some flowers in the garden. Winner, and PoD was a shot of Switch Ophelia which is a form of Hydrangea. Flowers start as pale green, then creamy white and finally pink. Beautiful flowers and, as you can probably see it attracts red spider mites too!

No plans at present for tomorrow. Weather looks ok, today was nice and warm, but no sun until after 8pm.

Strawbs – 10 July 2024

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Another dull day with white cloud and no sign of the sun. Hmm.

This morning when I was making breakfast, I had a few strawberries because they looked nice. So nice in fact that I photographed them some with the new lens on the A7 and some with the A6500 on a macro lens and also with the new ‘kit lens’. One of the shots taken with the A7 and the new lens got PoD. PoD at not long after 9am must be a record.

Later in the morning after the traditional Wordle and Spelling Bee had been conquered we drove over to The Fort. Scamp was going to try to make a cover for the piano with A4 neoprene copy foam pads. It seemed like a good idea and it didn’t cost the earth. The only place she could think off to get them was Hobbycraft. With them in the bag, she was off to get some toothpaste and other stuff of that ilk, but on the way she spotted a pair of sandals in Clarks. She tried them on and lo and behold, they fitted, just like Cinderella’s, except they were the wrong colour. They had sandals the colour she wanted, but not in her size, so she ordered them right away and they should be delivered and a few days. While she was stocking up on everything Boots had to offer, I browsed the books in Waterstones, but found nothing of interest.

It was time for lunch when we met up again. Lunch in Costa. Not my favourite place to eat, but there was more of a range there than there was at home, so I agreed. Mozzarella with Tomato for me and Shawarma with chicken for Scamp. The shawarma was spicy, but not too hot. I must try it sometime.

With the weather cooling and still that feeling that it might rain, plus the PoD was in the bag, the afternoon was spent indoors. We spent an hour and more going through a skip full of old photos Scamp had found on an old SD card going back to 2016. Lots of memories, lots of places, lots of faces we remembered.

Dinner was Mac ’n’ Cheese. Probably not the most sensible thing for me after a cheesy lunch. I realise now I shouldn’t have eaten it all. I’ll suffer for it tomorrow.

Tomorrow we may be going dancing. I believe some dance practise will be needed in the morning.