Category: Rain

Just walkin’ in the rain – 3 April 2024

Posted on by Zogman

We did stuff today, both of us doing different stuff for a change.

We were both sitting around for most of the morning, doing Wordle and complaining about the stupid pangrams on Spelling Bee, then Scamp made the statement that was in both our heads. She said she didn’t know if she wanted to go to the Tea Dance in Motherwell. I asked her why and she gave the same reason that was in my head. The woman who runs the dance has already admitted that she’s not a teacher and that she isn’t registered. She charges more for the dance than our dance teachers charge for theirs and a lot more than Kirsty charges for an hour long dance class. Also, if she’s not certified, does she have insurance? That hasn’t been made clear. We agreed that we’d give up on that Tea Dance and support Stewart & Jane’s, as we’ve been doing, instead. Also, Scamp was waiting for a dress to be delivered and it looked like it would be coming in the afternoon. Another reason, if it was needed to cancel the Motherwell dance.

The decision made and the air in the room cleared a little. That left the afternoon free. After lunch we started doing some cleaning up. Mine was computer based. I cleared out the old catalog that had become borked and replaced it with the one I’d downloaded with Carbon Copier from my ‘Snapshots’. It only covered March, but it worked and that meant I now had January to March in the catalog. Then I added in the first two days of April and that meant the catalog was up to date. I know that means nothing to anyone but me but it’s a reminder to me of how to repair a catalog if/when I need to do that. Relieved!

While I was doing virtual cleaning, Scamp was upstairs tackling the bookcase in our room, clearing it out shelf by shelf and keeping the articles in different named big Tesco bags. When she’s finished, it means we’ll be able to move the bookcase when we start painting the room. The first step on the upstairs redecorating. As I write, the bookcase is empty and the bags are filling up the upstairs small bedroom.

Although Scamp’s work had been mainly physical, mine, being computer based, meant a lot of sitting down, waiting for complete their transition between disk drives. By the time I’d finished I was getting grouchy and sore from sitting around for so long, so despite the fact that it was still raining – did I mention it’s been raining all day? – I put on my big Belky jacket and took the A6500 out for a walk in the rain. I did get a few shots, but really photography was a secondary consideration today. I just wanted to get out of the house for a while. I came home wet, but happier. Walking in the rain is good for the soul, as long as you’ve got dry clothes to change into! PoD was a photo looking across the pond in the rain with Alder seedheads in the foreground, one with an orange water drop! What created it I do not know.

Kirsty’s class was a bit of a shambles for me tonight. The dance floor really is too small and people kept getting in others way and that was with just three couples. I really need to do more practise in Foxtrot.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending going into Glasgow by herself on a secret mission. I think I’m might go out somewhere too if I can find a dry hour or two.

Downpours and Landscapes – 28 March 2024

Posted on by Zogman

The downpours came first and the Landscapes survived them.

It was a dull start to the day, but about an hour after we woke the rain started lightly at first but soon it became heavier and heavier until it was thumping down so heavily, it was creating a mist when it hit the pavement. It didn’t last all that long, but it was longer than a usual downpour, but it did stop eventually. As we watched the weather forecast on TV where they claimed that the clouds would roll away we were a bit disbelieving. However, an hour later the clouds broke and the sun shone and I went out with a camera.

I’d bought a plant last week from Amazon and it was delivered yesterday, unfortunately in two pieces. I think the roots were meant to be connected to the stem and the leaves, but that was not the case. I found out the company who were selling the plant through Amazon were five miles or so down the M73. I phoned them and then emailed a photo of the decapitated plant as requested by the lady I spoke to. She replied asking if I wanted a replacement or my money back. I opted for the replacement and that was where I was heading with the intention of collecting the plant and then driving to Fannyside to grab some landscape photos.

After collecting a healthy looking plant and some apologies from the garden centre I headed over to Fannyside, only to find that some electricity blokes had parked their 4×4 in MY parking space while they repaired some overhead cables. Disgruntled, I drove past through some deep puddles and found an alternative view of a fairly new house that stands at the top of a steep hill, accessed by a rutted gravel path with grass tufts down the middle, where the tyres don’t go. The house is pure white against a dark sky. Stopped on the single track road, grabbed five photos at various settings and drove on before an irate farmer in a tractor saw me blocking the road. Prepared myself for the rattling climb up the hill and past the house, but the road had been repaired with a layer of tarmac! In retrospect, it has lost a lot of its character, but it is so much easier to drive up.

After cresting the hill, it was an easy downhill drive through the wee village of Arns and I only had one car in far distance in front of me. Then I noticed the plumes of what looked like smoke coming from both sides of the car in front. Then it happened again. It wasn’t smoke, it was a deep, long puddle, caused by that downpour in the morning. I took a more cautious approach, dropped down a gear, but still managed to make a decent bow wave through the puddle. It wasn’t as dramatic as the one Jamie saw last month, but it was deep enough. Got home without further incident and one the White House photos made PoD.

Dinner tonight was a Charlie Bigham’s Thai Green Curry. Delicious! Scamp was not so complimentary about it, so I don’t think we’ll have that again. Pity.

Some shopping to do tomorrow.

Windy Willie – 21 January 2024

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It sounds very much like Windy Willie is running around the house!

Since about 6pm the wind speed has been rising. According to the BBC the winds will peak at 65mph around about 11pm and then start to reduce gradually until tomorrow evening.

Earlier in the day we had torrential rain blown along on simple gale force winds. I’d decided early on that I wasn’t going to go outside looking for photos. Instead I took a photo of of a tray of tomatoes fresh out of an hour in the oven. They were destined to be made into tomato soup, and that was to be the starter for tonight’s dinner. Actually they looked quite good in the photo and with a bit of delicate adjustment the photo became PoD.

The tomato soup itself was a winner. One bowl tonight as a starter for the main course of Trout Fillets with Baby Potatoes and Marrowfat Peas. I’m not a great ‘fish person’, especially oily fish like salmon, but the trout tasted just like fresh caught trout tastes. I think it may have been rainbow trout rather than sea trout. Scamp is an expert fish cook and she cooked the trout perfectly. Crispy skin that I enjoyed just as much as the fish itself. No pudding tonight, just a cup of coffee each, laced with Kahlúa.

Spoke to Jamie who sounded much more like himself tonight. It seems that they may manage to recoup some of the money they lost on the repairs that are needed to the house. He also seemed a lot more settled at work. He sent us a few photos and videos of the work that has already been done to the roof and it does look a lot more secure than it did a couple of weeks ago. Still a lot to do, but work is progressing.

I really don’t know what the weather will be like tomorrow. Hopefully it will stick to the guidelines and behave itself.

Another wet day – 2 January 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Another day when it never really stopped raining.

It wasn’t a day for doing much. I didn’t go out to take any photos, because it was raining and there seemed to be little point in getting wet when I didn’t have a subject in mind.

Instead, I took a tabletop shot. My subject today was a Sarracenia plant. It’s a carnivorous pitcher plant and quite a small one. It feeds on insects that fall into the liquid at the bottom of the funnel shaped ‘leaves’. I had a bigger variety last year that was happy to grow outside, even in winter. It survived temperatures down to -10ºc. Unfortunately the drought in June 2023 was too much for this bog plant. I’m being more careful with this slightly more delicate one.

As usual, the actual photos took about half an hour to take and a couple of hours to process. But I was fairly happy with the result.

Dinner tonight was Potato, Cabbage and Bacon. An old favourite with both of us, of course, Scamp doesn’t eat the bacon. We watched Sing 2 The second in what might become a series of comedy digital cartoons. Not much of a story line, really, but made up for it with the excellent dialogue. I laughed and so did Scamp, so it was a winner.

After dinner I struggled for a good two hours trying to get Word and Excel to speak to each other, but eventually gave up. I think I’ll cancel my free 30 day subscription before it runs out. Even worse, It looks like my old Toshiba laptop may be on its last legs. I got a message tonight ti say that there was a problem with the cooling system and to shut down immediately. Immediately is not a word the Tosh understands. Immediately usually means an arthritic ten minute wait. I’ll leave it to cool down gently tonight and see what can be done about it tomorrow.

No real plans for tomorrow. Scamp is booked for coffee in the morning with Isobel. I’ve got a visit to the nurse in the afternoon to see how my BP is doing now that I’ve reduced my meds a bit. I’ve a set of results ready to bamboozle her with my Excel skills!

Glasgow in the rain – 28 December 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Based on Annie Lennox songs, it wasn’t so much “September in the rain”, more like “Here comes the rain again”!

I took the bus in to Glasgow this morning to meet Alex and to get some shots of the lights in George Square and maybe St Enoch’s Square. I did think of driving in, but Scamp might need the car and besides, I’d still got half of Kevin Bridges monologue to listen to, so I would be entertained on the way.

We met at Buchanan bus station and walked down to our usual starting point at Cafe Nero near the Royal Concert Hall. A cup of coffee each and we planned our day. It was all all covered by the square mile of Glasgow city centre. We’d been here before and there was no point in heading out of town on such a dull, wet day. Best to stay central and be able to nip into a shop if it got too wet.

First stop was Princes Square just in time to shelter us from the first deluge. A few shots of the escalators, still done up in their Christmas regalia and a walk round the painting gallery and by the time we walked out the rain was gone and the sky was back to grey again. I had thought of sheltering in the Apple shop which would have been nearer, but I could just hear Alex’s cries of “How much?!”

St Enoch’s was a bit of a let down. Not enough stalls, not enough fairground rides and because of that, not enough folk to become models for us. It was time for lunch and as usual that would be in Paesano.

Paesano, is the pizza shop for folk who like pizza. It was rammed, as I knew it would be, but there is almost always a table for two. For four or six or eight, you’ll have to wait, but two can usually be squeezed in. Alex is settling in to the rhythm of the place and has his two favourites. Either a number 3 (with anchovies, olives and capers) or a number 5 (cooked ham and mushrooms) both with tomato sugo but no cheese. I’d also go with a number 3 or a number 5 (but with sugo and cheese), but I’d add a number 7 (with Fennel sausage). In reality I’d have any of them, bur realistically, not all at the same time! When we left, the queue was out the door and along the street. We must have just hit the sweet spot!

George Square as getting busy when we walked up to it and we did get a few shots. Mostly we both seemed to be concentrating on the roundabout with the traditionally painted horses on spiral poles and the stalls selling vastly overpriced sparkly fairies for hanging on the tree. No use to Alex as his tree had come down yesterday to prevent his grandson, Olly, from doing any more damage to it. I did find more interesting material in the Chair-O-Planes, especially the close-ups of the uncomfortable looking shiny chrome seats reflecting the coloured lights.

By late afternoon, the light was failing and for a ‘golden hour’ there was enough light to shoot by, but not enough to dilute the colours. After that hour, it became too dark and we resorted to taking photos of the reflections of the decorations in the puddles of rain water outside the fenced off square. My PoD was one of those reflections. It looked good on the big 21” screen, but on the laptop it looked a bit dull and disappointing. It still held its place of PoD.

We walked back to the bus station and said our goodbyes, agreeing to meet again next year. Which hopefully will be in two weeks or so!Another hour of Mr Bridges life story carried me home, again in the rain.

I didn’t really need any dinner, but Scamp’s “Just Soup” was too much to resist. We watched the first semi-final of Celebrity University Challenge later in the evening while Scamp watched Antique’s Roadshow while processed some of the 200 odd photos I’d take today.

Tomorrow looks like a bright sunny day for a change. A glimmer of light in the darkness. Let’s hope it works out that way.

Testing, Testing – 19 September 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Testing yesterday’s purchase and the other acquisition.

I drove over to Alex’s to borrow his K mount adapter so I could test the ‘new’ lens. New, is a bit of a misnomer as it’s at least second hand and maybe has passed through a great many more hands since it was really New. Last night I’d found a tiny bit of mould in one of the internal elements. Nothing that would have a detrimental effect on any of the shots I was hoping to take with this piece of ‘Old Glass’. I also found a few fine scratches on the rear element, but again, they wouldn’t make any difference to the photos. Sat and talked about family and stuff with Alex and Carol and I’m sure the two cats were listening too. Pretty wee things that reminded me of Tibby.

After an hour or so I drove home and took a detour in the direction of Lenzie to a wee draw in by the side of the road to get some test photos taken of a bit of farm land that looked like a promising photo opportunity. As it happened, the light wasn’t quite as good as I thought, but it did give me a chance to test out the Pentax 50mm f2 lens I’d splashed out some money on yesterday. I was surprised at the quality of what is really a kit lens, and not really all that well rated. Last night I was having ‘buyers remorse’, but today I was delighted. It’s circa 1995 vintage, so it’s manual focus, but I knew that and it’s also very compact, especially when it’s bolted onto the Sony A7. One of the Pentax’s shots became PoD. The storm clouds you can see from the PoD followed me home and didn’t drop any rain until I was safely in the house. Sitting in the living room I took a few shots of the raindrops on the leaves of Alec’s Red and they looked good too.

Scamp had roasted a chicken for dinner with roast potatoes and cabbage to go with it. It truly was the best chicken I’ve eaten for a long time. The pudding was rhubarb and apple crumble using our own rhubarb and apples. It too was delicious. Then it was time for the test. It was time to pack the dishwasher, slide in the washer tablet, choose the program and press the start button. Like new parents we watched the counter light up and listened to the water trickling into the reservoir, then it was off and running. We could leave it to do what it was bought for. An hour and a bit later it had washed all the dishes and they were drying. A sigh or relief all round!

We had a longer practise session than I’d intended tonight, but there were rough corners to rub off the new waltz and it’s dance night tomorrow, so Kirsty will be looking for mistakes, I’m sure. Finally I got a grip on things and worked out where I was and what came next. I think most of it was muscle memory, but internal clues helped too. Not least in the help category were Scamp’s whispered prompts. We might need a reminder tomorrow, but I think we’re good to go.

No plans for tomorrow. The weather fairies are warning of heavy rain and strong winds tonight and tomorrow morning.

What a glorious day! – 17 September 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Yes, that was meant to be sarcastic. The rain started this morning, an extension of yesterday’s deluge and forgot to stop, it seemed.

The furthest I went was a drive to the shops, not even a walk. There wouldn’t have been any joy in a walk and no point from a photographic point of view.

Toast and beans for lunch and dinner was an oven baked fish risotto, the drive to the shops was to get the fish. The good thing is that the oven does all the work, as I’ve said before.

We watched what turned out to be a quite exciting Singapore GP and that was NOT meant to be sarcastic. The race kept us in suspense right up to the end, a tension only released when George Russell crashed out on the last lap. Oh dear, what a shame (back to sarcasm!)

Jamie phoned just as the race finished and we talked about their holiday in Wales. Hope they have some decent weather for that.

I did manage to get a PoD. It was taken in the rain and is a Fuchsia, a purple and white one tucked away in a corner of the garden.

Hopefully our dishwasher will be delivered tomorrow. But the message from Currys is that it will be delivered and fitted between 6.35 and 9.05AM tomorrow. I can’t remember when we last had to be up at 6.35am. Probably the last time we went on a cruise, many months ago!

Other than overseeing the installation, we have no plans for tomorrow, although the weather looks better than today.

Rain stopped play – 10 September 2023

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Cloudy morning today, but the sun did manage to get through after a while. A coffee first then I could start work.

Today I was making Focaccia as the starter for tonight’s dinner and also a variation on Bread & Butter Pudding for dessert. Scamp had the much easier main course to make which was Sea Bass with Tomatoes and Potatoes. Focaccia is a sloppy dough with loads of olive oil to make it slippy and also sloppy. The first time I made it I kneaded it by hand and I remember chasing this messy dough all over the work surface. Yes, I did learn how to control a very wet dough, but vowed that the next time I’d let Mr Kenwood’s Chef do the hard work. So it was that I added all the ingredients into the bowl and let the dough hook go to work. About twenty minutes later I had a sort of dough and decide I could make it a bit wetter. Bad move. That meant the dough was too wet and I’d to add more flour. Eventually, I had the dough I wanted and I slopped it into a plastic tub to rise.

After lunch and after we’d watched Laura Kuenssberg tearing apart a new politician, it was time to check if the dough had “doubled in size”. Not quite, so I gave it another half hour to be sure and the sun was shining. That was the half hour it needed. It was ready to be slopped out on the work surface again, chopped into two big slippery pieces and stretched out in two baking trays to rest and stretch and grow bigger again with more olive oil in and around it. Another hour later, the sun was still shining and the dough was ready to be prepared for baking. I turned the oven on and poked my finger into the focaccia making big deep holes in it and then adding even more olive oil plus some rosemary, sun dried tomatoes and some sea salt. Then they went into the oven for 20mins. When they came out they looked fine, so guess what I added. Yes, more olive oil and then left them to rest and drink in all its green oily goodness.

I was watching the weather that wasn’t looking quite so sunny but I reckoned I could still get an hour in St Mo’s for some photos. A few minutes later, it was the sound that alerted me. The rain was coming down in torrents and Scamp’s washing was almost dry. Managed to save most of it, but the walk in St Mo’s wasn’t going to happen today. Instead I decided to photograph the rain. That will explain the title of today’s blog.

Later buttered four croissants, spread jam on them and set them aside. Next I beat up three eggs, some vanilla essence and some sugar then nearly boiled some milk and cream before chucking it into the bowl with the eggy mixture, arranged the croissants, tastefully, in a heatproof bowl and poured the creamy-eggy mess on top. Drizzled some sugar on top and stuck it in the oven to do its thing. I’d only made custard!! A bit lumpy in places and a bit thin in places, but custard, none the less! I was impressed. Plonked some rasps on top and there we had dessert.

Scamp only had to fry a fish or two, boil a few potatoes and chuck in some tomatoes. I had created a dessert with my own bare hands!

Focaccia was lovely and sticky. Scamp said it was missing something and I have to agree, I just don’t know what that ‘something’ was.

Spoke to Jamie and heard about swimming in the sea and thankfully the bat survey may now have passed muster with those who know about such things. I bet that’s a weight of their minds.

Tomorrow we may go in to Glasgow on the bus or the train. Oh, yes, and it’s still raining!

 

 

Rain again – 14 July 2023

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Another day of cloudy skies and rain.

It’s almost back to bullet points because neither of us got much done today. Scamp did some washing and hung it out in a dry spell, just as it started to smirr. We decided the breeze would dry the clothes more than the rain would wet them and they stayed like that for about half an hour. That’s when the thunder started and the first big drops hit the window. Then it was a mad rush to bring them in before they got soaked. Surprisingly, our Scamp’s calculations about the wind versus the rain were correct and the clothes were drier than they might have been.

I drove up to Tesco to get lunch. We just can’t get decent Scottish well fired rolls in the new shops, so we have to drive to Tesco for rolls and we might as well get the rest of the messages at the same time. A roll ’n’ flat sausage, well, two rolls actually. One is never enough! After that, Scamp was reading and I was trying to get my head around Adaptive Presets in Lightroom. Sounds boring, but it’s so much more than that. I scrubbed through a 16min video by some bloke explaining a technique that could have been covered two minutes. In fact after all 14 minutes of waffle, he DID explain it all in two minutes at the end. After all that it didn’t actually do anything amazing.

Later in the afternoon I gave up on the idea of a walk today. The rain just wouldn’t let up. Instead, I cut the remains of what might be our last Schoolgirl rose for the year and took some photos of it with the A6000 on a tripod. That’s what you see here and that is the PoD.
This morning I did get a nice surprise on Flickr. My landscape shot across Fannyside Moor which is more of a painting than a photograph, to be honest, got into Explore. Explore is an award in Flickr. Nobody knows who awards it and you are never told why. Some say it’s simply a random selection made by a computer. I tend to believe that. Still an award is an award.

Early rise tomorrow because the dance class starts at 9.30am instead of 10am.

 

 

More rain – 11 July 2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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