Category: photography

Fishing, Pizzas and Ironing – 15 January 2021

Posted on by Zogman

I should make it clear that I didn’t do all of these things, but I was a participant.

Pizza for lunch. Hand made dough while Scamp ironed things. Too many things in my opinion, but at times she’s a perfectionist and demands her own standards. The pizza dough looked great. IMO the finished pizza wasn’t quite as great, however, Scamp disagreed as was her right. Too long in the oven or the oven too high, I’m not sure. My excuse is that it’s been a long time since I’ve made a pizza. Must try harder.

That’s Ironing and Pizza covered. The ‘Fishing’ is a bit of a red herring :-). What it really means is we “went for the messages”. We drove to M&S because we had a fairly long list of stuff to get and Scamp was coming down with the cold, but still wanted to get out the house for a while. Driving to M&S was the right solution today. The main items on the list by far was fish. Fish in its many varieties and colours. Fish on a Friday is traditional in some places, so it made sense. We got a few bits of veg too. Just a general shop really. We’ve got a Tesco delivery booked for Monday but sometimes you like to see what you’re buying, especially fruit and veg which Tesco are a bit hit and miss with. I think they throw some of the fruit into the basket from the other side of the shop.

So, Fishing, Pizzas and Ironing covered and explained. Another load of washing went into the new machine and came out drier than they did from the old one. I went for a walk in St Mo’s to get some more of the moss photos using a macro lens on my ancient Oly E-PL5. Solid and chunky. Hardly any plastic went into its construction, just glass and metal really. For such a tiny wee camera it weighs a ton. PoD was the little water drop jewel on a moss fruiting body. If you look on Flickr you’ll see its neighbour, the ‘Periscopes’.

Hazy: I finished Tales from the Folly, the short story collection we talked about. I’d managed to spin it out to one story a day, well, sometimes two a day. Mostly very good with the inevitable one or two duff ones. Good recommendation, thanks.
Now waiting for the price of “What Abigail Did …” to come down to a reasonable price, once it appears, that is. Now starting the last in the Slow Horses series. Another one I’ve been keeping on the back burner for a long time.

No plans for tomorrow. Weather looks cold and wet. I might paint something.

More snow – 8 January 2021

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Woke to another dusting of snow. A light dusting this time.

Fed the birds to keep them happy and tried to defrost the birdbath, not that any of the birds would have been suicidal enough to attempt a bath in this weather, but they might appreciate some liquid water to drink. Lunch was Scamp’s savoury slice which warmed us up on a decidedly cold day. After that and a cup of coffee we felt it was safe enough to go for a walk to the shops to get today’s dinner. Which was to be Neil’s Italian Chicken.

On the way back I took a detour round St Mo’s in search of some beautiful sunny weather and some snow. I found both. The paths were slippy and I didn’t have my YakTrax with me, so I was trying to be careful and managed not to fall or even to slip … very much. Got my photos and even made my first ever video with the Sony camera. It was of a crow rolling in the snow! I’m guessing it was getting the snow crystals into its feathers to help it dust off the mites that were harbouring there.

Back home we spoke to Hazy who was eager to find out all about yesterday’s mysterious visitor. I was forgetting that Neil D had already performed the “cotton bud down the throat” trick with the same gagging response we had.

When we came off the phone we found that the washing machine was stuck at the spin cycle. It was still displaying 12 minutes to go, but the Spin light was flashing. Also there was a fair amount of water in the machine. We managed to get it to drain some of the water out and Scamp removed the wet clothes and took them up to drip off in the shower. Useful things showers! I found the drain pipe and drained off the remaining water, then tried to remove the pump filter. It wouldn’t budge. This machine is about 20 years old and I’ve maybe once needed to remove this filter. Either it is baked in or there is something inside blocking it. My money is on the second one and if I’m right, it’s money, some coins, that are doing the blocking. The only way to get into the filter is to turn the machine on its side and remove it from the bottom. Now that’s easier said than done because if I recall correctly there is a big block of concrete that acts as ballast for the rotation of the drum and moving that is going to be a job for a JCB. Scamp said a firm NO to that course of action. We tried the machine again and Lo and Behold, it worked. Not at its best, but we did get all the washing spun dry(ish). How long it will work before the aforementioned blockage returns I don’t know. We spent a good half an hour looking at prices and reviews of washing machines, then had a shortened version of the dinner we’d proposed, namely fried chicken with potatoes and broccoli. Then G&Ts all round.

Watched The Serpent on TV. Weren’t impressed, couldn’t be bothered with all the jumping back and forward through time so junked it. A bit of a wasted day, but it was good to talk to Hazy and I enjoyed both of my walks. PoD was a shot looking through the woods in St Mo’s.

Tonight a temperature of -7ºc is predicted. It’s already down to -6.5ºc, so it looks like the prediction may come true. Thankfully it may rain on Saturday or Sunday. When is the last time I’ve made a statement like that? I don’t think we’ll be going far.

The ice is melting – 5 January 2021

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Time to get the boots and the YakTrax on and go for a walk.

Just a walk round St Mo’s, but the ice is still treacherous, even more so as there was a slight melt happening and the water was covering the ice. With care it was possible to get round and that’s what we did. Just one circuit. The ducks haven’t returned from their holiday in a warm place and it looked like the swans had become frozen to the ice that covered St Mo’s pond, but they were just pretending and got up and staggered around while we watched. The worst bit of the walk was the boardwalk, because the ice runs for the whole width of the path with no snow and therefore nowhere to get a better grip. However, again, the YakTrax proved their worth and we completed the walk intact.

I made a loaf after lunch because we needed bread or at least we would tomorrow. For speed and also because I couldn’t be bothered with the faff of hand kneading, I asked the mixer to do the hard work and it did produce a decent dough. Set it to prove and headed off to St Mo’s again for a second chance at some photos, although I reckoned I had one in the bag already.

I tried another of the daring camera on the ice shots, but the ice was melting and I could hear it creaking a bit under my boots. I could also smell the decomposing leaf mass under the ice, so it definitely wasn’t as stable as I’d have liked. Four shots and I was off onto dry land again.

Back home and an hour or so’s work and I had a mono PoD of a park bench and a colour shot of the view from the ice. The PoD came from the morning walk with Scamp and the colour shot was from the afternoon.

The bread had completed its first prove and I placed it carefully into a Banneton which is a round basket made from rattan to do the second prove. Rattan is a climbing palm that grows in Indonesia. There, you’ve learned something today. I don’t often use the banneton, but it was recommended for the long proving times necessary for sourdough bread. It certainly produced a very decorative spiral pattern on the dough which rose quite quickly in the warm living room and the bread baked beautifully. Too late for our dinner unfortunately, maybe just as well because I don’t think it would have gone too well with a fiery chicken curry. The ice cream afterwards did go well with it.

Spent an annoying hour trying unsuccessfully to get rid of some dust bunnies on my sensor. I think I ended up with more than I started off with.

Spoke to Canute tonight. We were supposed to phone him, but instead, he phoned us. Had a long talk about the ‘joys’ of grandchildren. Living with Covid and the effects it had on small retail shops. I’d forgotten that his school clothes business would now be Click ’n’ Collect. It must be so difficult for small businesses in these days of constant on – off closures. We wished him well on his operation at the end of the month.

Tonight the temperature is forecast to drop to -5ºc. We may not be going far tomorrow.

The end of the feast – 3 January 2021

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One step on the scales told me the feast was over.

Two kilograms heavier than the last time I stood on the scales catalogs the amount I’ve eaten and drunk in the last two or three weeks. It has to stop and it has to stop tonight. One more day of debauchery, then it’s back to sackcloth and ashes, or as my dad used to say “Auld claes and purrich.” I already have the ‘purrich’ (porridge) for breakfast every second day. Now it will have to be every day until that extra 2kg has been removed. Oh well, it was good while it lasted.

It was also a day with a return to rain instead of ice and snow and what a relief that was. I did go out for a walk without the Yak Trax and although there were patches of slippery ice, there were a lot more areas of black tarmac that gave a good grip to my boots. I walked round the back of St Mo’s and down to the shops, hoping to see some deer behind the school, but they were somewhere else today. Maybe joining yesterday’s ducks on a trip to a warm place. I did spot Mr Grey hunched in a tree looking as disgruntled as I was. I took his photo then left him to his lofty isolation.

I was heading to the shops for today’s dinner and also some lemons. Scamp had given me the makings of a bottle of Limoncello, but a couple of the lemons had turned musty in the week since the parcel had been opened. So, I was looking for three or four unwaxed lemons, a chicken and some potatoes, plus a carton of milk. It was a heavy bag to lug up the hill to the house, but at least I had managed to get a photo of Mr Grey that might make a PoD.

Back home I prepared the chicken as per Scamp’s instructions and that gave me enough time check the photos. None of them looked like a PoD, in fact very few of them realistically would make the cull. I had just enough time left to set up a tabletop of a Christmas Cactus upstairs in the photo room. It’s amazing how easy it is to produce a white backdrop with a drawing board on an old card table as a base. A piece of hardboard clamped to the card table frame with cheap plastic clips and an A1 sheet of cartridge paper to give the shadowless backdrop. Five minutes work if all the things are to hand.

Just in time I finished and went down to check the chicken and put the veg into a roasting tray beneath it. Scamp checked the chicken and said it was looking good and needed about another hour. Plenty time to take the shots. They looked fine. Heavy tripod, low ISO and deep depth of field. All photogs words that mean it was going to be a fine grained image with plenty of detail. Mr Grey would need to be ready for his closeup another day.

Soup as starter. Chicken was great. Beautifully cooked, even if I say so myself. One glass of wine each and no pudding. We watched the second half of Jools Holland’s Hootenanny with a 2016 performance of ‘Tilted’ by Christine and the Queens, followed by a 2021 duet with Jools and Rick Wakeman on nested grand pianos. Brilliant!

Spoke to JIC for a while after that.  We weren’t really expecting the call, but it was welcome as usual.  Good to hear that all is well down Cambridge way.

Christmas Rose (Schlumbergera buckleyi) made PoD.

Tomorrow, it’s Auld Claes and Purrich. Hopefully with a walk thrown in for good measure.

Another year over

Posted on by Zogman

… and a new one just begun.

It started cold and dry. Not a bad first morning for 2021. It shows promise.

Scamp was feeling the after effects of yesterday’s nascent cold. A couple of paracetamol had helped her get a good night’s sleep, but morning came too soon. For me, morning also came too soon, but my medication had been liquid and with Famous Grouse on the bottle. Self inflicted injury I call it.

The only solution was to get up and make breakfast for both of us. A look outside while opening the blinds downstairs confirmed my suspicions that nobody was intending going anywhere this morning. I think it was a case of “If I don’t need to, then I’m not going to.” Can’t say I blame them, that’s been my maxim for the past six years.

After breakfast and a shower, I think we both felt better. Time to face the day … after a cup of coffee, of course. I had a fair bit of computer work to do today. Every first of the month means changes need to be made to the photo catalog and storage. Every first of the year means a lot of backing up, a completely new catalog and storage. Everything has to be done in order or chaos will reign. Today everything seemed to work. Still does seem to have worked which makes me suspicious.

To keep my mind off the rest of the computer stuff I started my 2021 sudoku calendar. Just the same model as last year’s, the Times Sudoku, I was just getting stuck when I was reminded that I promised to make a loaf. That took my mind off numbers for a while. In preparation for making the first of JIC’s breads, I hand kneaded the dough for my half white, half brown bread. The kneading helped me tick off one of my ‘8 active hours’. With the dough doing its first prove, I tackled Friday’s sudoku, because, today was Friday. Like I said before, it’s hard to keep track of the days at this time of year.

After a lunch of scrambled egg and smoked trout which was an eye opener, maybe even more delicious than smoked salmon, I considered going out for a walk, but a foray into the wilds of the front garden didn’t encourage me. However, eventually I did coax myself into getting boots on and going out. I even wore my Yaktrax™ which I bought for about a tenner some years ago and are now costing about twice that. Basically a stretchy rubber overshoe that is covered with metal coils on the bottom. I’m so glad Scamp convinced me to wear them. I could walk where others feared to tread. The best bit was the lovely crunch they made biting into the ice. People just started at me walking on the ice paths while they tippy toed around looking for purchase. Got a PoD which turned out to be my favourite plant of all year. The Cow Parsley. Flowers in the summer enticing in the insects. Seedheads in the autumn and winter to feed the birds. Such graphical shapes the seedheads make. A photogs delight. I was using my old Oly E-M1 for a change. A near miss for the PoD was a shot of broken part-melted and refrozen ice on St Mo’s pond. Nearly but not quite. That one was taken with the old Teazer (TZ70) great camera. Battered and bruised but still working.

Back home baked the bread and threw a hissy fit when it stuck to the cake tin I was baking it in. Finally got it out and it tasted great. I won’t make that mistake again. Dinner for me was sirloin steak done in the new pan. Scamp had oven cooked trout done in tinfoil, not smoked this time. Pudding was a surprise she’d concocted while I was out and it was a mixture of flavours which I had to deconstruct in my head. Nearly got it right too!

Well, that was the first day of the year done. Photos are posted, changes are made to catalogs and photo storage. Bread was baked and it worked. Little bits of code rewritten to take account of the changes from leap year to ‘normal’ year. All pigs fed and ready to fly!

Tomorrow if the weather is good, we’re hoping to go for a walk wearing Yaktrax™ to astound the baffled.

Shopping, Snow and White Flamingos – 29 December 2020

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It had snowed during the night, not a lot, but a covering. Very crisp, very even, just not deep.

We stayed in during the morning waiting for the snow to melt away, it didn’t, in fact it’s still there just the same as it was this morning. We were having a piece on fried egg for lunch. If you don’t understand this description, imagine a slice of bread, buttered. Lay a fried egg on it and then, carefully, place another slice of buttered bread on top. There you have it, a piece on fried egg! Well, to get back to the story, Scamp took an egg from the egg box and attempted to crack it with a knife. Except, instead of making a nice wee crack in the shell, she sliced the egg in two! Neither of us had ever seen that trick done before. What a mess to clean up.

After lunch we went a walk to the shops. The paths looked treacherous, but weren’t too bad. Scamp had been smart enough to book a slot at M&S. I haven’t managed to master that bit of online trickery yet, so I went for a waltz round Home Bargains instead. Got a couple of things and met her outside. Then we walked home.

I only came home to keep her company and to pick up my lumberjack’s hat and a long lens to take some interesting photos of the birds on the ice at St Mo’s. The swans were practising their Flamingo routine, tucking their head under their wing. That became PoD. I was surprised there was so much ice still because the temperature was rising.

Walked round to the wee pond and the lighting was good, so I got some wide angle shots of it too.

On the way home I saw a powered paraglider off to the east. I was hoping the pilot would fly over the pond, but whoever it was flew away south after circling for a while over the town centre I would presume. It would have been a great view from that thing today as long as you were well wrapped up. The temperature may have been rising, but the sun was dipping down by the time I left St Mo’s and I think the temperature was hovering around zero by that time.

Back home Scamp gave me a run down on how to make a mince pie. Very simple, but simple things are never the easiest to make. I made a fair fist of it, although I think I was a bit too easy on the salt. Must be more generous with it next time, all being well. Watched Zog and the Flying Doctors tonight. Great film, absolutely fascinating to have a film made about me!

No plans for tomorrow. It may be Cod with Prawns and Fennel for dinner.

It was Monday – 28 December 2020

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It gets harder to work out what day it is just now.

It was dry this morning, but it was also cold. Because of that we didn’t move much until after lunchtime and judging by the line of frosted cars, most folk were thinking along those lines too. The temperature wasn’t rising very much to encourage anyone to go out, but we eventually decided we’d go out for a walk.

Since we didn’t know what the paths would be like, we limited ourselves to a walk round St Mo’s pond. Even then we had to be careful and constantly watch to see where was ice and where was asphalt. The rough paths under the trees were fine, but the lower lying paths were so treacherous we chose to walk on the grass rather than the asphalt. I’d taken the Tamron long lens with me on the adapter and it worked as well as it could in the low light that marks December. PoD turned out to be a coot picking its way carefully across the ice on the pond. So it’s not just us who are minding our feet! The boardwalk was icy, but walkable with care. The grit that’s bonded to the wooden boards seems to provide a decent grip as long as you’ve got boots on.

Back home I processed today’s pictures and posted them while Scamp read. Dinner was spaghetti, red spaghetti as it’s known in the house. A tomato base with something from the veg selection in the fridge flung in. Today it was a bit of fennel, a couple of shallots, a handful of cherry tomatoes and the same of mushrooms. Apart from the tomatoes which went in whole, everything chopped up fine and sweated down before adding half a tin of tomatoes. It’s a hit or a miss each week whether it’s “great”, “reasonable” or “in the bin and we’ll have a pizza.” Today was “reasonable”.  Scamp’s leftover trifle needed no such evaluation, it won the “Great!” complete with exclamation mark.

Watched Singing in the Rain which we’d recorded yesterday. Absolutely brilliant film with amazing dance routines. Scamp’s just finished watching Strictly’s Top 25 which was a pale version of ‘Singing’!

Looks like more sub-zero temperatures tonight and most of tomorrow. Scamp’s got a slot booked for M&S tomorrow afternoon. If the paths are bad we may drive down. If not, that will be our walk for the day.

We have snow – 27 December 2020

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Just a little scraping of snow, but it’s there.

It must have arrived during the night, but thankfully the tanker that brought it must have been almost empty, because there was so little there. We expected more to arrive during the day, but were disappointed, although there were some who rejoiced in the fact that the paths would be clear of the white stuff.

We didn’t do all that much today. I did finally put on my boots and take a camera with a couple of lenses out to St Mo’s in the afternoon. One of the lenses I took was my favourite wide angle Sigma 10-20mm. It works really well with the adapter. It focuses and responds to aperture adjustments. I realise this means nothing to most folk, but I’ve always liked this lens. It’s big and heavy and was expensive when I bought it, but it produces great images. Thanks to a fairly cheap adapter it still produces them. The Sony recognises its firmware and crops the frame to an APS-C size. It’s a pity it doesn’t fill the full frame, but there’s nothing I can do about that. I’m just delighted it still takes great photos. It was the lens that took PoD which was in the woods behind the pond at St Mo’s. Behind me was a clutter of broken Bucky bottles, beer cans and deodorant cans that allegedly some people sniff for a cheap high that has the benefit of making you a nicely perfumed corpse.

Back home, Scamp was making a trifle with pieces of Pandoro which is Italian Christmas cake. Very light and fluffy and usually dusted with icing sugar. Today it formed the base of a beautiful trifle. It was Turkey Casserole for dinner, but it wasn’t the best turkey in the flock I think. Nothing to do with the cooking, it appears from a few complaints that Tesco wasn’t the best place for turkeys this year. I suppose you could say it WAS the turkey!

Tonight we played Tin Pin Bowls, so called because all the component parts fitted neatly into a small tin. Scamp won, but I think she cheated. After her resounding win we made origami Christmas Trees, and then origami Penguins. Another of her impressive Christmas Prezzies. Great fun was had by both. The penguins actually looked fairly realistic, when viewed at the correct angle … and from a distance!

Tomorrow we may move on to more advanced origami and after a couple of bowling lessons I might manage to get a strike. It’s forecast for more snow.

Rain & Wind – 26 December 2020

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Boxing Day, and it rained all day from early in the morning until late at night with gale force winds thrown into the mix. Also, all of mainland Scotland moved into Level 4. Lockdown returns.

I made a loaf using the last of the yeast I bought online during the first lockdown. It’s lasted well and I was smart enough to buy some more from Tesco last month. For once I hand kneaded the dough in preparation for making the bread from JIC and Sim’s present. I must admit that although it took a long time to prove, it tastes very nice indeed.

I’d planned today’s PoD because I knew it would be very unlikely I’d get out to get an outdoors shot, but I changed it a little to add a little bit of interest. Originally I was going to do a monochrome shot of a red pepper that was more wrinkled than I am, but in the end I just couldn’t get enough detail into it. That’s why I co-opted the MiniMen to brighten it up. Smaller than minifigs and mostly men, so they became ‘MiniMen’. They are actually ’00’ gauge figures for model railway dioramas, but they walk and climb and stand in many incongruous situations for my photos. After 20 odd shots I had a winner, or to be more precise, I had something I could make into an acceptable PoD.

Besides baking and photography, I also did a bit of Indian cookery. I made some cauliflower pakora and to go with it, some onion bhajis. I won’t say it was my best effort and it did make the kitchen smell like a chip shop, but they seemed to go down well with Scamp. Also, they became ‘dinner’. We’ll maybe have the turkey tomorrow.

Oh yes, and although I didn’t manage to do the ascending and descending of the stairs, we did go through some dances tonight.  Jive, Salsa, Quickstep, Waltz and Sequence.  Well, we had to do something to begin to work off all that food and drink we’d consumed yesterday and it also helped fix a couple of the sequence dances in my head.

Tomorrow the weather looks to be becoming more wintry with snow and ice forecast. If it means we don’t get today’s rain and wind I’ll be happy. We might even get out for a seasonal walk.

Christmas Eve – 24 December 2020

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We looked out the window and nobody else had moved from their parking spaces, so why should we?

I’d planned a drive over to the Carron Reservoir for a walk today, but with the prospect of sub zero temperatures all day I changed my mind I didn’t mind driving up the Tak Ma Doon road with its single track sections and the blind 90º bends. But the thought of all the recent rain we’d had freezing made me think “Another day perhaps”. With discretion the better part of valour on this occasion, it was walking boots on and a wander down around Broadwood instead, with the possibility of dropping in at the shops on the way home.

That’s what we did and I did get a chance to try out the Tamron at its 300mm length to grab some waterfowl pictures. Some goosanders and coots posed for me and I gratefully took their offers. However I forgot to check the aperture and good though the Tamron is, it needs to be stopped down a few notches to produce its best work. Although the temperature didn’t rise much above zero, it didn’t feel that cold, although, as Scamp reminded me, that was probably due to the lack of wind.

Back home and it was soup for lunch then, after I’d checked the photos and declared them wanting, I went out again to St Mo’s. I gave in to temptation and carefully placed my Sony A7M2 on the ice of the wee pond, set the timer to 10 seconds and the focus spot on a wee bunch of weeds frozen in the ice, held my breath and pressed the shutter. Over £1000 worth of camera sitting on a thin sheet of ice produced the shot. Was it worth it? Only because the ice held! Don’t try this at home kids. If you like you can check it out on Flickr. PoD was from the same spot, but looking the opposite way. It’s an old hawthorn bush, bent out of shape by the wind howling in from the west. I loved the rim lighting effect from the moss on the trunk and that little hole that allows the sun to shine through. Instant PoD.

Back home for the second time today and a parcel was needing wrapped. I knew I would get in a fankle with sellotape and crinkly Xmas paper. I was right, I did, but the parcel is now wrapped. And wrapped to my satisfaction too.

Sirloin steak for dinner 3 minutes per side in the new pan and then rested for another 3 minutes. Scamp had a nice looking thick slice of lightly smoked salmon. Both accompanied by our favourite potato wedges with Italian rosemary salt. Honestly that was the best steak I’ve had, possibly ever. It came from Lidl. I thought Aldi did the best meat. Lidl are hot on their heels. Nothing to do with the pan this time or the (lack of) skill my cooking brings to the final result. It’s down to the quality of the meat.

That was about it for today. The day before Christmas. In the past it was about trying to keep children occupied and tiring them out before bedtime while one of us was wrapping up bikes and dolls and even a garage that I just managed to finish before midnight. Now it’s a frantic fight with sellotape and wrapping paper followed by a G&T watching a documentary about Central Station. How things change.

Tomorrow is Christmas with all that entails. It’s still fun though!  Hope all my readers have a relaxing day tomorrow.