Category: Rain

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

Posted on by Zogman

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

Posted on by Zogman

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.

 

Rain, Sun and Wind – 2 July 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Three words to sum up today as far as weather goes. There was rain. Sometimes heavy sometimes light, but always there on the horizon. Then there were occasions sunbursts, sometimes while the rain was falling, but welcome when they appeared. Lastly there was wind for the third day recently. Gusty wind blowing in from the west. Very unseasonable weather after a Flaming June.

Scamp was out planting her new flowers. They are a white Salvia and a white Penstemon. Both in the new pot she bought (but didn’t wear) yesterday. They are now ensconced in the front garden to strengthen the barrier and hopefully prevent the Scottish Terrier from round the corner from crapping in our front grass. If that doesn’t work, then we’ll have to resort to digging pits with sharpened spikes at the bottom, between the pots or the ‘nuclear option’ – Land Mines. Anyway, for now the flower pots are doing a good job of keeping Hamish at bay. In the afternoon I swear I saw Scamp out in the front garden watering the plants while the rain was tipping it down. I now have seriously concerns about her sanity.

Later in the afternoon I put my boots on and went for a walk in St Mo’s, hoping to get some photos of some yellow Flag Irises, but was disappointed to find that they were long gone. That spell of hot weather had forced the flowering of these elegant plants way ahead of their usual blooming time. What I did find was a couple of Batman hoverflies, so called because they have what looks like the Batman symbol on their thorax. Then a Five Spot Burnet moth feeding on its favourite knapweed flower. After some discussion with myself, the Burnet moth got PoD.

Watched a crazy Austrian GP with almost half the field succumbing to five second penalties for exceeding ’Track Limits’. For once, Charles Leclerc didn’t find the wall!

We don’t have any plans for tomorrow.

 

The day the rains came in Dubrovnik – 15 June 2023

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… and forgot to stop!

Things we’ll remember:

  • Waking to rain on the balcony.
  • Heavy rain, light rain, but constant rain.
  • Breakfast in “Smash ’n’ Grab”.
  • Constant messages from the Cruise Director.
  • Warnings to those going home to stay in your cabins until called.
  • Went for a walk in the afternoon.
  • Almost cut my hair – or got it cut.
  • Saw the ‘battleship’ and the armoured car.
  • No cats in the armoured car.
  • Watched the rain forming rivers on the windows of “Indigo”.
  • Tapas for dinner – excellent.
  • Show was “Movies”
  • Aka the professional male dancer’s flies burst open during his routine!
  • Nearly dropped his partner when the ship moved for him!
  • Brambles for two – very nice!

 

A mixed up day – 9 May 2023

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One of those days when one thing changed everything.

We were supposed to be going to lunch with Shona, but after a flurry of emails between her and us about a problem getting Ben to go to school meant that we had to reschedule to next week. It was disappointing for all of us, but I think it was the best thing to do in the circumstances. We’ll hope that Ben is more amenable next week.

That left us with a day to fill. I’d called off a photo walk with Alex on Wednesday because I’d planned to go into Glasgow to look for a suit. Maybe if we went to Glasgow today instead, I could speak nice to Alex and we could get that photo walk on Wednesday after all.

So that’s what we did. Scamp confirmed a date with Shona for lunch next week, I sent Alex a text explaining that a slot had opened on Wednesday for a walk and a blether. I’d one more call to make and that was to the electrician who fixed our dodgy wiring a couple of months ago and got him to give me a call with a suitable date to come and fit a new distribution board. All done we headed over to Glasgow.

We went to Slaters, as more than half of Glasgow do when they need a new suit. Service was as smart as ever and we left a few quid lighter but with a suit, a shirt and two ties. Scamp had her eye on something in M&S and while she went there, I walked up to leave the suit bag in the car at Buchanan Galleries carpark. As I was walking across the JL bridge I looked out over Glasgow as I usually do and the rain was bucketing down, but the sky was brightening, highlighting the rain against the dark of Queen Street Station. That made a PoD photo, for sure.

If you read yesterday’s blog you might remember that I found a cut in the tread of my boots and I said “I wouldn’t think it’s repairable, although someone on YouTube will know different”. Well, someone did and I’ve possibly found a solution. It’s a tube of repair glue stuff that might stop the leak for a while. Thankfully Tiso on Buchanan Street had it in stock, so I bought a tube. Now I need a wee drop of Isopropyl alcohol to clean the tear. I bought a bottle of Surgical Spirit today that might do the job, but now that I think about it, I’m sure the liquid I use to clean the camera sensor it indeed Isopropyl alcohol. I’ll check tomorrow.

Just as I was leaving Tiso, Scamp phoned to ask where I was, we met up and went to Paesano for lunch. We were served by a grumpy looking waitress who was maybe just having as bad a day as Shona.

Scamp had bought rather a pretty dress in M&S for a lot less than my outfit cost. But in my defence, it must be nearly nine years since I bought a suit.

The photo of ‘Raintown’ did indeed make PoD and it was also my 10,000th photo on Flickr!

Today’s prompt was for “A Rock or A Stone”.
I thought long and hard about this prompt considering and rejecting an actual rock (boring), Edinburgh Rock (porous soft multicoloured sweets), Edinburgh Castle Rock (the rock the actual castle stands on) and the Bass Rock which is a gannet sanctuary in the Firth of Forth. I finally settled on a stick (or a stalk) of seaside rock.
Probably a British tradition, it’s a hard, slightly porous candy stick with letters formed into it that run all the way along its length. Traditionally white with pink writing inside a shiny pink shell. Delicious and deadly for teeth!

Tomorrow with the agreement made that we intend going for a photo walk, I’m hoping to meet Alex in Glasgow.