Category: photography

Driving and dancing – 5 August 2023

Posted on by Zogman

That’s all we seemed to do today.

Drove to Brookfield in the morning. It was a small group of only four couples, quite normal on a day with a dance in the evening. The floor in the room is still not quite right after a kids party with a bouncy castle inside about a month ago. My guess is that the bouncy castle scraped the floor and someone decide that polish or oil would repair the damage. It really won’t be properly fixed until footfall wears that skin off. So we had a shortened room again and also a shortened class time because the bowling club who use the hall were having an afternoon and needed time to set up. So a small class, a shortened floor space and fifteen minutes less time to dance.

We started with a sequence dance then went into the class proper with the new unnamed cha-cha routine which Scamp suggests should be the “Slippy Cha-Cha”! She should suggest it to the teachers. That was ok, but not wonderful, but much better than my attempt at Joy’s Waltz. Given that we hadn’t practised it since May, that wasn’t really surprising, and also, Jane did her usual and added in an extra feature, a Curved Feather. Were do they get these names from? Although they are much better than Michael’s dancing by numbers. At least Curved Feather give you a clue what shape you’re (supposed to be) making on the floor. I could hardly remember the start steps of the original waltz and had to rely on Scamp’s encyclopaedic knowledge of the dances. Even she was struggling with this one for a while. One more track of sequence and we handed the floor over to the eagerly waiting bowlers. They were like a well drilled army. Pulling out the tables and assembling them under the eagle eye of Mrs Sergeant Major who was in charge of the operation. We left them to it.

I made a bad decision on the way home and tried the route through the Clyde Tunnel, only to find, as many others did that there was NO THROUGH ROAD. Barriers and diversions everywhere. I eventually gave up and took the easy way out by driving back west along the M8 then the M77, took the first exit and joined the M77 again heading east this time. After that I just followed the car in front over the Kingston Bridge and home.

A roll ’n’ corned beef and another roll ’n’ fresh made bramble jam was lunch for us with Scamp substituting tomato for corned beef. While Scamp read, I took the A6500 out for a walk in St Mo’s and got PoD on the way home. It was a bunch of wild geranium flowers against the sky that caught my eye and my ultra-wide lens. Once the image had been dunked in Lightroom it looked quite the part!

Dinner was Chicken Milanese, then we sat and read for a short while before we got ready and headed off to the dance. Weather was the usual Scottish. Bright sunshine then immediately after that, torrential rain that changed back to sunshine again then the cycle repeated. I think the blue car now knows the way to Brookfield itself. Twice in one day is maybe too much, but there were extenuating circumstances today as there is no class next week because the hall will be being used for a village fete. Maybe the feet treading on the slippy floor will wear off the shine!

Sitting with Peter and Gillian, Naimat and Audrey and another couple whose names evade me as ours probably did to them. Good banter with Peter and Naimat, while Audrey, Gillian and Scamp did their best to add some decorum to the evening.
We danced all but one of the sequence dances and as many as we could, of the ballroom and latin dances. We really need to do more practise. We didn’t need to practise the salsa dances, they just came from muscle memory. We even got praise from Jane afterwards!

We stayed to the end and did a bit of cleaning up round our table then say our goodnights and drove home straight down the M8 to the M80 this time. No getting tangled up in Cycling World Championships that cause the earlier debacle. Even got parked right outside the house! A very good night.

Tomorrow we might go visit the cycling in Glasgow, but we’re hoping to get the train there. No road blocks on the railway we hope!

Coffee with Isobel – 2 August 2023

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We were out this morning to Costa to meet Isobel.

For once, I have to admit that the coffee I had tasted like real coffee. Usually it tastes of nothing, but on bad days it tastes and looks like dirty water. In answer to your unasked question, Yes I do know what dirty water tastes like. We sat for a while listening to Isobel’s account of her granddaughter, Teal’s graduation. She, Teal, is following in her mother’s footsteps into education, but into primary teaching, not secondary. Good luck to her, I hope she enjoys it. She showed us her photo book like any proud grandparent would.

Scamp showed her some of our photos from the cruise and elaborated on them with some stories. A usual with Isobel, she told stories too. That’s what makes her interesting to listen to. You think at first she’s making them up, then you realise she isn’t. Sharp as a tack is Isobel. She too had been dancing in the Tower Ballroom some years ago, but we all agreed that the dance floor was quite the best we’d seen and she would have seen a lot more than we had.

After an hour or so, she left to do her shopping and we drove home for lunch with rain threatening all the time. Scamp was making jam from brambles juice that had been in the freezer for about three years. When she was making it, we noticed that the jam thermometer we were using, which used to belong to my cousin in Ayrshire, seemed to have lost its red pigment and only a pale orange line remained. I think we might need to get a new one. However it was accurate enough to to get the jam to the right temperature. The jam is probably cooled by now and ready for its lids to go on. She got three jars worth of jam from the fruit juice.

I took a walk later in St Mo’s and brought back an assortment of photos, but none of them beat a shot I’d taken in the early afternoon of a Calla Lily which was sitting on a table in front of the TV. The unpowered TV provided a decent black background for the photo and a bit of jiggery pokery with Lightroom brought a black background that emphasised the colours of the lily. That was PoD, although it did look a bit like a multicoloured cormorant!  Scamp and I agreed on its similarity to a duck!

Dinner tonight was an old favourite.  Cabbage, Potatoes and Bacon.  It doesn’t sound very appetising, but it tastes great.  Scamp is the master at making it.

No plans for tomorrow, the weather looks like it might be dry, so we may get out somewhere.

One in – One out – 31 July 2023

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That was the rule we made. If one thing comes in, another one must go.

<Technospeak>
Last week the A6500 came in and today the A6000 had to go on a visit to Norwich to find a new owner. The A6000 was a decent camera, still is, but the a6500 was a big step up. The viewfinder is definitely clearer and the IBIS anti-shake is a boon with a small, fairly light camera. I’d had the A6000 for a couple of years and the one thing it taught me was that it was possible to go on holiday with one small camera and two lenses and not feel restricted. That combination weighed almost as much as my big A7iii alone. Admittedly the A6000 couldn’t produce the same quality as the A7iii, but for its size it punched above its weight, if you excuse the pun. I hope it teaches someone else that good things can come in small packages.
</Technospeak>

Spoke to Hazy after I came out of the shower this morning and we heard all about the preparations for the Welsh holiday with the family. Good to hear that Neil is coming out of ‘teacher mode’ and getting some ‘me time’, visiting galleries and wandering round London.

I drove up to Tesco in the town centre hoping to get a large sized plastic posting envelope. They didn’t have any plastic envelopes, just thin bubble wrap ones with a paper cover, you know the ones I mean. I went back to Tesco Craigmarloch and found a packet of them there. Sometimes the smaller stored trump the big ones. I wrecked the first bag trying to get the almost cubic box into it neatly. With Scamp’s help I did manage to get it in to the second bag and using her wrapping skills it was a neat package. That’s when she said “I thought you’d just use this one”, holding the brown cardboard box the A6500 came in. Of course! If the big box could hold the A6500, it would hold the slightly smaller A6000! Why didn’t I think of that. So the neatly wrapped up box went into the big box with its ‘sausage balloon’ cushions to keep it safe. I stuck down the labels and took it to the post office in Condorrat were it was scanned and went straight into the waiting post van with the other parcels, most of which were going to Amazon!

I walked back in the rain to St Mo’s and got PoD which was a Purple Vetch flower, a wild flower. Lots of it flowering beside the path. I also got a photo of a bent down grass stem, beaded with water. That was the extent of today’s photography.

Dinner tonight was Pasta Carbonara and was one of the best I’ve made for a while. Don’t know why, it just was.

Tomorrow Scamp is out for lunch with one of her ex workmates. If it’s good weather I may take some photos. If not I’ll do a bit of ‘open heart surgery’ on the iMac.

Lazy – 28 July 2023

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Today was the exact opposite of yesterday, thankfully.

Scamp was up and cleaning the pots and trays from last night’s dinner. I helped out and stacked away the plates. Then Scamp was off to FitSteps. The first class in more than a month. While she was away I scrubbed out the remaining pots and trays and then got on with yesterday’s blog which you regular readers will know happens a lot, especially after a late night.

After her exercise and my blogging we had pizza for lunch then some more reorganising, but gentle reorganising. I managed to find some of the stuff I stashed away yesterday. Some of it is still there and will be returned to the living room when I need it in an attempt to reduce the clutter.

All that done, the idea for today was to relax and I think we deserved it after yesterday’s cooking and baking. Dinner tonight ended up being Fish Fingers, Egg and Spaghetti with a couple of fried potatoes on the side. A bit different from last night.

PoD was a shot of a bunch of pansies growing in the back garden. I managed to get just one of them in sharp focus. Unfortunately that was simply luck. I’d like to say I did it on purpose, but it wasn’t! Maybe it’s just me, but I always think pansies and violas have human-like faces. These ones look fierce.

Hoping for a similarly lazy day with a bit of dancing thrown in.

A walk around Glasgow – 26 July 2023

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Today I was meeting Alex for a walk around Glasgow and Scamp was off meeting the rest of the Witches for coffee.

I took the bus in to Glasgow today. Scamp had suggested I drive to the station and get the train, but a leisurely trip on the bus with a lady telling me the story of the Sinister Booksellers of Bath via my headphones was ideal for today. I was brave and only took the new A6500 with a couple of spare lenses. No big heavy A7iii with its collection of heavyweight glass today.

We started a long rambling walk by going down to Cathedral Street to see the new murals that had appeared and the College of Building & Printing which is currently being demolished. On the way back in the general direction of the bus station we passed the metalwork that guards the Buchanan Galleries carpark. The shapes in the artwork always intrigue me and one shot of it made PoD. We walked up Sauchiehall Street to Charing Cross without seeing much worth photographing, but a visit to the Mitchell Library just over the M8 motorway gave us some interesting views up and down the staircase. It also gave us a new place for lunch in the airy ground floor. From there we walked on to take a look at the Sikh Gurdwara where I ran out of space on my card. Something that hasn’t happened to me for ages. Luckily I’d packed a spare.

We walked further on, but the light just wasn’t there today, so instead we turned and walked back into the city centre. A cup of coffee later and we were heading for the bus home. Our long rambling walk had taken about four hours and accrued just over 14,000 steps.

Back home Scamp and after dinner I started the preparations for tomorrows meal. I was in charge of cooking the 600g of stew. Browned in the Le Creuset and then transferred to the Instant Pot to slow cook for three hours. I’ll let it cool overnight and do the rest of the cooking tomorrow.

We’re expecting our visitor to arrive tomorrow afternoon, so the morning will probably be busy.

Lunch at the Bothy – 24 July 2023

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After Wordle and Spelling Bee were done, the day was our own.

But first, even before Wordle, there was a big cardboard box to open, and inside as … another big cardboard box. Inside that was the usual amount of bumf you get when you buy something fairly expensive. “READ ME FIRST” was on the first page, so that was put to the side to read later. Next the inevitable expanded polystyrene to unpack and crumble into the carpet, then more bumf to read at a later date and finally the food processor was revealed in all its shiny plastic glory. Oh yes, and we got a recipe book, not an app to download and install on our phone, but an honest to goodness recipe book and a hard back one to boot! We might read that later, mainly because it didn’t scream at us “READ ME FIRST”!

While Scamp went into the kitchen to wash all the bowls and the lethal looking cutters and slicers, I read through some of the paperwork and some of the recipes. It’s amazing the variety of breads, cakes and soups you can make in one of these clever devices. I may even attempt some of them sometime.

Satisfied that all the washable bits had been washed and dried and after reading the recipe book and completing Wordle and Spelling Bee, Scamp suggested we go out to lunch as we’d planned at The Bothy just outside Stirling. As usual these days we were handed a buzzer and told to browse round the shop. Not long afterwards our buzzer buzzed. I did quite fancy the Mushroom and Bacon Carbonara on the ‘specials’ board, but inevitably I ordered the Sri Lankan Lamb Curry and Scamp had Mac ’n’ Cheese as I suspected. Two coffees to wash it down and two ginormous Cream Donuts to take home in a box.

Scamp was looking for another rose, but not for us this time and she wanted a pot to replant “Harley” the Harlequin Berberis we thought we’d lost in the June heatwave. It’s not quite recovered its variegation yet, but maybe once it’s repotted it will regain its colour. We drove round the outskirts of Stirling to Dobbies, but they had none of the rose variety she was looking for. We did get a heather plant to replace one that had died in June, a pop-up bin for the garden and a packet of basil seeds for me to plant.

I thought there was just a chance that we’d find the rose in Calders in Cumbersheugh, so we went there on our way home. Scamp knows one of the gardeners and she asked him if he had any and thankfully he had. A bit of local knowledge goes a long way, and it’s a true saying “It’s now what you know, but who you know. A quick visit to Tesco on the way home and we were done, or nearly.

I hadn’t a photo of the day so far, so back home I got my boots out and took the A6500 out with the big clumsy 105mm macro lens and in about an hour I took 130 photos. Most were rubbish, but I did capture a male Common Darter dragonfly. I’ve been keeping a careful eye on the battery performance of the new camera and it’s actually almost within the parameters that are advertised for it, so not such a big problem as I initially thought.

That was a good day. Weather wasn’t all that good, but it stayed dry all day. Scamp’s off to get her nails done again. I’m hoping to do an Auld Guys coffee morning tomorrow with Val and Fred.

Shifting Sheep – 23 July 2023

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Well, not exactly shifting sheep, but they played their part later in the day.

After a fair bit of soul searching I eventually decided to take the new camera out to take photos. Not to do some testing this time, just go out somewhere and take photos. Fannyside was my destination. It’s quiet, has the potential for wonderful landscapes and I can walk and talk to myself without bothering anyone.  It did very well, even if it wasn’t a test!

Scamp was making a cherry pie today with the remainder of the cherries we’d been eating for past few days. Yesterday she removed the stones and today she was going to make the pie. The only thing in the recipe she didn’t have was cherry jam and as I would be passing Tesco on my way to Fannyside, I volunteered to buy a jar. Who knew there were so many flavours of jam but, it appeared, only one kind of cherry jam. With the purchase in the boot of the car, I set off to Fannyside.

It was a lovely bright breezy Fannyside today. Lots of blue sky and fluffy clouds. I walked up the road almost to the farm and got a collection of photos. Some with the ultra-wide angle lens, some with the standard lens and a few with the telephoto. Of the three, the ultra-wide is the best one and it has the widest range. I’ve hardly used the telephoto zoom and when I have, I’ve been disappointed with the results. Not so today. A panorama made with the tele was far and away the best shot, but it felt a bit empty.

Back home Scamp had made the short crust pastry for the pie, but was wondering how long her old Magimix food processor would last. The lid has been cracked for a while, and every time she clips it on to the body of the machine, that crack get bigger. She had started looking for replacement lids, then began thinking about maybe replacing it entirely. We searched the internet to get an idea of the variety of food processors available these days. We reckon the old one must be around 30 years old, and things have changed. I eventually convinced her to go to JL to see and touch the machines. That’s quite an important thing to us ‘oldies’. We like to actually see what we’re buying. Ok, sometime we look in a shop, see what the thing looks like then end up buying it off Amazon because it’s cheaper there. John Lewis had a fair amount of food processors on display and among them was one Scamp had her eye on. It wasn’t the one she’d initially set out to get, but it ticked all her boxes and was a fair bit smaller than the one we had. Having carried it up the two flights of stairs to the car, I can verify that it’s a heavy piece of kit too!

Back home she ignored it because the pie needed to go in to the oven. While she was engaged in this task, I processed today’s photos, all 92 of them! The landscape panorama was a potential PoD, but it looked so bare. I’d taken some photos of the wild looking sheep in a different field at Fannyside and back home I pasted the sheep into the panorama and that breathed a bit of life into what was an otherwise dull landscape! PoD sorted.

Dinner was Salmon with broccoli and potatoes, followed by that lovely cherry pie. Half of it was consumed tonight and that leaves another half for tomorrow.

Spoke to Jamie tonight and heard about his part in a marathon race. His leg was a five mile run while others were running a variety of distances. I liked the idea of a marathon relay!

Tomorrow we may go for a drive somewhere nice for lunch.

Another box arrives – 21 July 2023

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Scamp was out early to go to the dentist to get phase two of her tooth replacement completed. This one involved two injections and a reshaping of the old tooth to take the new ceramic crown. Also she had x-rays taken and an impression made. The procedure lasted just under an hour and a sorry looking Scamp arrived home with that numb mouth we’ve all suffered at some time.

Meanwhile there was a knock at the door just after 9pm and there stood a man holding a big cardboard box with my name on it. It was a new camera, well, it was a second-hand camera really. I rarely buy new now. It was a Sony A6500 first announced in 2016, so it is old, but not ancient. It will replace the A6000 I’ve had for a few years. I’m selling the A6000 to offset the price of the new kit. I had a look over the new camera and it does all the things I want it to and a few other things as well. I think it’s a keeper, but I’ve only had a few hours in a busy day to play test it. Over the weekend I’m hoping to find a dry hour or so in the midst of all the rain that’s predicted to test it out more fully.

 

When Scamp returned and after her mouth had thawed out, I though it might be a good idea to walk down to Broadwood Farm for lunch. I’d had their carvery a couple of times and fish ’n’ chips the last time. Both were perfectly fine and good value for what we paid. The fact that I could also have a pint of Tennents had no bearing on the matter at all. Anyway, today I had one of their pizzas. I think they made a mistake with the pizza. I think they baked the cardboard box and threw away the pizza. It was totally tasteless and running with oil from the pepperoni. Never again.

After we walked back Scamp wanted to cut the grass front and back. I moved all the pots from the front of the front garden to allow her to run the mower down the edge of the tarmac path, then I replaced them. Once she’d finished mowing the front and was emptying the mower, I strimmed around the other three sided of the front grass. Then I strimmed round the pots in the back garden. I don’t mind the strimming, it is hard on my back, but I hate cleaning the mower afterwards.. The actual cutting of the grass takes about 10 – 15 minutes. Cleaning the mower afterwards can take half an hour. There must be a better way to do this.

By then I was thinking I might take the new camera over and introduce it to St Mo’s. It performed quite well, although the battery power diminished very quickly. Admittedly I’d been adjusting settings quite a lot that mean the rear screen is on a lot and that uses a fair bit of power. It’s something I’ll check in the coming week. PoD was a cluster of caterpillars high up in a tree. I think they are the caterpillars of the Buff Tip Moth, but I’m not sure.

The weather predictions for the weekend don’t look great. Lots of rain for most of the UK. I think our first lot is due tonight, so it might be a wet drive to dance class tomorrow. Other than that, no real plans.

Off to Hamilton – 20 July 2023

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… but not to “buy the wean a bell.” That cryptic message will be lost on almost everyone, but I’m not explaining it further!

After a lazy morning on what was a beautiful, almost totally dry day, we eventually went out and walked down to the shops. Scamp wanted something to take to John & Marion tonight, and also wanted a hanging basket for the back garden. We accomplished both in double quick time and walked back home.

A knock on the door heralded the arrival of the parcel Scamp was expecting earlier in the week. It was a surprise present for two of our friends, but we were both underwhelmed by it. It wasn’t quite what she was hoping for and her disappointment was obvious.

Later I took a walk over to St Mo’s to see what was worth photographing while Scamp started the ironing. It was St Mo’s that the PoD came from (not the ironing!). It is one of two real ‘keepers’ from a batch of about 50 I’d taken with the big camera on silent motor drive. A great way of filling up the SD card, but a trick that rarely seems to result in any good photos. Luckily for me today was one of those days when it worked. The ‘Marmalade’ hoverfly was the PoD. It was almost beaten by the result of another ‘blitz’ shot. This one was a lone soldier beetle testing the strength of a single strand of a spider web. Both are on Flickr.

By the time I got back from my St Mo’s Safari I just had time for a wash and brush up before we headed off to Hamilton for dinner with John & Marion. It’s ages since we’ve been there. We’ve both had such a busy year this year. Big birthdays for both Scamp and Marion. Retirement celebration for Marion and a Golden Wedding anniversary for us. Of course, she’s not really retired until the schools go back in August!

Back home late and for some reason there was a parking space just waiting for us back home. That was nice of someone to do that for us.

Tomorrow Scamp has the dentist first thing in the morning. Best time for it, I suppose. I’m waiting in, hopefully not in vain, for yet another parcel.

A surprise parcel – 19 July 2023

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A warm sunny morning, at least it was in the house with the sun streaming in the window.

The postman arrived just before lunchtime with a parcel. Scamp was expecting a parcel today, and was sure it was for her, then she noticed it had my name on it! It was a camera bag from Alex. I’d completely forgotten he said he had a spare bag that wasn’t big enough for his needs and it was too late to send it back. It was an ideal size for my A6000 and space for an extra lens. I phoned him to say thanks and we had a good talk about what we’d been doing. I also sent him a link to a website where you can book a Glasgow walk for free with an option to make a donation to the RNLI. We agreed it was worth looking into.

I’d noticed today how dusty and rough the inside window sill had become, so while Scamp was off up to the town centre I sanded down the sill and gave it a first coat of varnish. Waited for it drying which was almost instantaneously given the heat coming in from the sun and gave it a second coat. In all, the sill had three thin coats of varnish and looks much better now. I wonder who invented the disposable vinyl gloves. Whoever they were, they must have had the idea after they’d been painting window sills. I finished the job with clean hands. A first for me!

Scamp had had her nails done for going away on the cruise and now she wanted to get the remaining coating removed. The lady who did her nails said it was fairly easy to get them done and she has now booked a session to get the coating removed and redone.

When she returned I grabbed my camera and went out for a run to find some scenery worth shooting, but first I dropped in at Colin’s house to find out how his wife was keeping. She’d been in hospital after she’d come home from holiday and had an emergency operation. She looked a bit tired, but that’s to be expected. I remember Scamp looking a bit like that after her op. Good to see her up and about, albeit with a stick, but we’re all getting to an age when we need some extra support sometimes.

We stayed for a while just blethering in the sun. I hadn’t realised what a lovely little sun trap they had in their patio. Colin wouldn’t allow me to go without some veg so I came home with four courgettes and a cucumber from his garden.

I did get a chance to get my landscape photo, but PoD went to a bunch of Hydrangea flowers. Scamp’s Hydrangea Paniculata ‘Switch Ophelia’. A variety of hydrangea that changes colour throughout the summer. We feared the hot weather might have killed it, but here it is flowering happily after a fair bit of hydration.

Busy day tomorrow. Things to do and places to go, hopefully.