Category: Software

Out on the Ice – 9 January 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was off in the morning to meet Shona and June for coffee and a blether. I stayed at home.

Well, I’d things to do and the first one was trying to locate Katy. I’ve photographed her before a few years ago before she changed her name to Katy. It took a bit of searching to locate her, but I finally found her back in 2017, skating on a frozen pond. That was my intention for today too. I though I could get a few shots of her skating on a slightly smaller pond, a frozen bird bath to be precise, but first I had to find her. Like most of my ‘weemen’. Which for the sake of political correctness can be pronounced ’wee men’ or the Glaswegian ’weemen’ which translates as ’women’ in English. I was sure she lived on the window ledge in the bedroom, but she was nowhere to the seen there. Some weemen live in various stages of disassembly in a big cereal box and a smaller subset of ‘favourites’ can be found in a smaller Lock & Lock box, but Katy was not in any of those places. After Scamp had left, I finally tracked her down to a turned square wooden dish I’d made many, many moons ago, when I had skills.

After dusting her down and ensuring she still had her skates with her I set up a tripod in the back garden next to the ‘skating rink’ cum bird bath. I just couldn’t get the shot I wanted despite using two cameras and umpteen lenses. I finally settle for a hand-held A7m3 camera with 50mm macro lens and got a few shots with of her standing on the ice, looking like the star she is.

It was a cold day, but the temperature must have been just above zero, because by the end of the photo session, pools or water were appearing on the ice. Poor wee soul looked frozen out there on the ice. Back inside in the warm, she got a place on the bookcase while I checked the quality of the photos and they passed muster.

By then Scamp had returned from the coffee and blether group and it was lunch time. Yesterday’s rolls warmed up to hold some slices of bacon for me and an egg for Scamp.

The next task I had set myself was to try to mail-merge a spreadsheet of photo info using Microsoft 365 on the Mac. I had cancelled my subscription a few days ago, but had a few days grace left on it. I tried everything I could think of to get MS Word to work with MS Excel, but they kept finding errors. Eventually I borrowed Scamp’s HP PC and using the same apps and the same data set, at the first attempt got exactly what I wanted. Just to be awkward, I tried to do the same thing on my old slow Toshiba PC laptop and after a lot of huffing and puffing (from the laptop, this time!), it too came up with the goods. I went online to find a solution to the problem. I didn’t find it, but I did find a lot of people with exactly the same problem. All of them trying to get Word and Excel to work together on a Mac. In one case, 695 folk had the same problem as me and Microsoft were no help to them at all. And they wanted me to pay £80 a year for their faulty software? The sheets are printed out now, so if I need a “Where was it took in 2024”, I’ll know to use my old Windoze 7 Tosh laptop with MS Office 2017.

That was today’s two tasks completed so I de-stressed over Fish Fingers, Egg and Chips for dinner, followed by the last piece of Scamp’s Apple Pie.

Tomorrow we may need more shopping to cook for visitors on Friday.

Photos – 27 February 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Photos old and new

Actually I hadn’t taken any of the photos I’m talking about.

The first photos are ones that date back to around 1980, we think, and are of Jamie and Hazy, probably in school. The original has sat on the top of the bookcase in the living room for as long as there has been a bookcase there. Unfortunately it faces the front window and gets the full force of the sun in summer. That’s what has faded it over the years. I’ve scanned it and tried a few times to bring back the colour, but without success. When we came back from holiday I remembered that Photoshop now has a beta version of software that they claim can use AI to restore the colour and repair the scratches on old photos. I tried it on a fresh scan of the old photo and it did quite a good job. After that I dunked it in Lightroom, back into Photoshop, into ON1 and finally back into Lightroom until Scamp and I were satisfied with the result. I’ve now printed it and cropped it to fit the frame. Scamp has cleaned the glass and the frame and the photo is now back on display again. The photo restoration took about four hours, but it was worth it.

I thought I deserved a walk in St Mo’s after that, intending to capture another shot of the ladybirds. Instead it was a photo of a tiny little snail, about 4mm diameter clinging to a tree trunk that made PoD. I have no idea why they climb trees, maybe it’s because they are there!

The second set of photos you’ve already seen Hazy. They were taken by the photographer in the hotel. Good photos too. Separated by about 43 years and light years of technology!

That was about it for Monday. Watched another confusing Death In Paradise and envied you and Sim, Jamie!

Tomorrow I’m going to try to get an appointment with the doc.

Sunday is Washing Day – 26 February 2023

Posted on by Zogman

There were two full cases of washing to be done, so we got on with it.

I say ‘We’, but Scamp was the organised one and she got things sorted into stuff to deal with right away and stuff that could wait for a few days.

With that done we settled down to a normal Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg tearing into politicians of all parties while we had lunch.

Scamp decided to do some ironing and I decided to take the macro lens over to St Mo’s to see what it’s one eye would see. It saw a few Cladonia lichen, but they seemed to be a bit dried up. Probably needed a shower to brighten them up. It saw some ‘Green Blobs’ or more correctly the fruiting bodies of moss. It was the Green Blobs that got PoD after a bit of jiggery pokery in Lightroom and Photoshop. I liked it anyway. It was good to get some direct light to brighten things up.

Back home we re-heated yesterday’s curries and had them for dinner. As a starter we had a glass of champagne in new glasses. The bubbles were from Jackie, Murdo and Mairi. The glasses were a present from Annette. Pudding was Sticky Toffee Pudding with ice cream.

Watched a couple of silly programs on the tv tonight and went to bed before midnight – just before midnight for me!

Happy New Year – 1 January 2023

Posted on by Zogman

A new day, a new year, but the weather remains the same.

New Year’s Day is one of those days that promises a lot and delivers very little. It sounds as if it’s one big party from start to finish, but for most folk it’s not. It’s a day off work for those lucky enough to be employed, but a day off work in the dullest time of the year isn’t a bundle of fun, really. Christmas is all bright lights and having fun, but NYD is a bit of a let down, I’ve always felt. Maybe it’s just me.

We went for a very quick walk round St Mo’s pond. Scamp wanted to try out the GPS on her new watch and yes! It worked!! It also gave us an excuse to be out in the fresh air. Bumped into Susan Greenshields in the park with her two dogs. We said hello and repeated the HappyNewYear speech everyone does on the 1st, as usual without a happy smile on our faces. It was a rushed conversation because we’d just been sent the Zoom link by Hazy who was hosting today again.

Back home it was boots off, jackets off and get the laptop set up. Scamp doing the ‘techy’ things today. Actually this was the high point of the day. Just like being there. Everyone talking over each other and it was good to see that both Neil and Jamie were looking a lot better than on Christmas Day when both were definitely not at their best. I think we used up almost all the allotted time on Zoom and I felt better after that. Just talking to folk is great sometimes, but talking to them and seeing them is even better.

Dinner tonight was Forestier Paté for starter then Potatoes, Brussel Sprouts and a choice of Salmon Fillet or Ribeye Steak for the main, finishing with Panna Cotta which I managed to make in the morning. It was a bit rubbery I thought, but Scamp said it was fine. Two more in the fridge for tomorrow.

I spent most of the rest of the day wrestling with Lightroom while Scamp read. Most of the swearing has abated now and I think Lightroom and I have declared a truce. Battle may resume tomorrow if it doesn’t play nice. However, we now have a photo calendar on the wall using Hazy’s wonderful idea of using a clipboard. Hopefully calendars will be printed this week … or maybe next.

PoD was a grab shot of a bloke walking his dog down that lane. The path that keeps giving.

Thank you, H, J, N & S for the Zoom meeting, it brightened our day.

Tomorrow looks better than today, but I’m not sure yet if it’s just a weather fairies’ ruse! Only time will tell.

Standing water – 30 December 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was going to have coffee with Shona today.

I drove Scamp up to Costa in the town centre. What should have been a quick journey turned out to be a bit fraught. I thought I’d be smart and take the shortcut through Condorrat. Alas the sign saying No Road On Right had fallen down. I hadn’t noticed it at the time, but once on to the closed road there was nowhere to go but back again. Still stuck on the idea that this was a shortcut, I carried on round the Condorrat ring road. Then I was stuck in a queue because the road was flooded almost right across the road and cars were taking turns to drive through it. We did eventually get through the flooded stretch, but it was deeper than I’d first thought.

I came home the normal way and went to get my meds, then went next door to Tesco and got some fish because I was making a fish risotto for dinner. I also got a vanilla pod to use for Sunday’s dessert. Almost six quid for one vanilla pod? Somebody’s having a joke here. The reason the road was flooded this morning was because it had rained incessantly through the night, but when I came out of Tesco the sky was clear and the sun was shining. Where did all the rain go? Not a cloud to be seen!

I drove home, dumped the stuff and grabbed my camera bag and went over to St Mo’s. Of course, as soon as I left the house the sun disappeared and the first spots of rain appeared. Undeterred I carried on and got some photos of the flooded pond. Not the most interesting photos and by this time the white cloud had covered the sky, so there was no texture from that either. Still, I had a photo or five and an hour ago I didn’t think I was going to get any.

I walked home and just as I got in, my phone rang. Scamp’s bus from the town centre hadn’t appeared. I drove up to the town centre and picked her up. I made sure I came home the long, but unfolded way.

After lunch which was yesterday’s soup with croutons, or fried bread if you prefer, I settled down to write to Peter Hayward who I used to work beside. I’d only just got started when two cards dropped through the letter box. One for Scamp and one for me from Peter. After reading it I felt even worse for not writing sooner. But the letter was finished and in with the belated Christmas card then I walked over and found I’d just missed today’s collection. Never mind, it wouldn’t have been going anywhere until Monday or Tuesday anyway. After dropping it in the post box I felt a lot happier.

Back home again I started the dinner. It was Leek and Haddock with Cabbage. The cabbage wasn’t really meant to go in the risotto, but it was languishing in the chiller drawer of the fridge and it seemed a shame no to use it. Apparently that was a really good risotto. I don’t know what I did differently, but I too liked it.

The photo you see here as PoD has a more interesting sky than when the shot was taken. I don’t consider that cheating because I took the photo of the sky months ago and just got an app to insert it, and its reflection into the picture. By the way, its title was Porcupine, because that’s what I thought of when I first saw this big clump of reeds!

Tomorrow there’s talk that it may, just may, be dry. If that’s the case we might go for a walk. Drumpellier has been mentioned.

The shortest day – 21 December 2022

Posted on by Zogman

After today, hopefully things will begin to get a bit lighter.

Scamp began today vacuum packing the fish she bought in Waitrose earlier in the week. She got one done, but after that the machine stopped. The vacuum worked, but it wouldn’t seal the pocket. We both tried it to no avail. It seems like the heater that does the sealing has given up the ghost. We use the machine quite a lot. Maybe not as much as we used to, but it comes in useful, especially for meat and fish. We had a look for a replacement. Amazon, of course, had them, but they were suspiciously cheap. Lakeland had them too but they were a bit more expensive. Currys advertised them, but they had none in stock, as usual. It looked like a trip to Stirling was in order.

We drove there through heavy rain showers, finally got parked in an extension to the car park. It seemed that everyone else had come to the Dobbies/Lakeland/Cotswold mini retail park. Scamp had a wander round Dobbies while I was off taking photos of the Wallace Monument looking grey and intimidating, standing on its hill with a grey sky above. When she returned said the queue for the restaurant was the longest she’d seen in the shop. That was why the car park was so busy. Everyone was here for their Christmas dinner!

Lakeland had two different models of vacuum sealer. We chose the heavier and larger of the two it just looked a bit more solid than it’s smaller sibling. I humphed it into the boot of the blue car and we drove off home. I was going to stop for photo paper in Currys, but it’s such a circuitous route to get to it, I couldn’t be bothered. Instead I thought I’d stop at Tesco in Cumbersheugh to see if they had any, but the queue to get in to park wound round the carpark, out past the petrol station round a roundabout and up to the main road. Maybe another day would be better. I can’t believe folk are queueing up to go to Tesco for their Christmas dinner!

I’d used an old Panasonic TZ90 to take the photos of the Wallace monument and the camera had made expensive sounding grinding noises, but the photos were there, although they weren’t the best shots I’d ever taken. However once they’d been dunked in a bath of Lightroom suds they were a bit cleaner and another bucket of ON1 Photo RAW gave a bit of colour to them. To finish them off, I went outside to catch the beginning of a sunset with the A7iii and pasted it on to cover the grey sky and it began to all come together, as you can see at the top of the page.

Once the new toy had been unpacked and inspected, the instruction book read and digested we each had a go at sealing up some fish. It seemed a bit quieter than the old one, but it is a lot younger. It seems to do the job it was intended for. So we’re happy.

It’s been a wild windy and wet day. We’re hoping for a brighter, day tomorrow with a bit less rain

No’ Dancin’ – 3 December 2022

Posted on by Zogman

We were supposed to go to the dance class this morning, but I’d had an upset night with pains in my stomach, probably from eating too much too late yesterday. Also yesterday evening Crawford and I had been sampling some whisky, so I decided it would be safer not to drive this morning, just in case..

We had a fairly lazy morning and I ended up patching together the Lightroom catalog. That patching up actually lasted for most of the afternoon too. Sixty one images to find, edit and turn into the ones in the Flickr and Blog posts. It all takes time, but now it’s done. Tonight, before I go to bed I’m going to back-up the catalog!

Scamp ventured out in the afternoon to walk to the shops for some messages, but I wasn’t past the door today. Still not feeling quite right. Not ill or anything, just not feeling great.

As well as patching up the Lightroom cat, I also wrote yesterday’s blog because there simply wasn’t time to do it yesterday. I hate having to write catch-up blog posts, but like the editing of the photos, it all takes time and now it too is done.

Didn’t go out, didn’t go dancing, just stayed in the house and moped all day. Well, actually I did go out. I went out to the front garden and photographed one of Scamp’s roses, “Simply the Best”. It’s well named. This is its second flowering this year and it looked great with the raindrops on the petals.

So I did go out, but only just! Tomorrow will be better. Hopefully we’ll both go out together for a walk.

Happy Birthday Hazy – 2 December 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Happy Birthday Hazy. Hope your day was less frantic than ours.

Today was always going to be a busy day, but cramming too much into one day is never a good thing.

The day started well for me. I measured out the ingredients to make a loaf and got the mixer to do the hard work, then left it to do its first rise. Also, I was getting things organised in my head for repairing the damage I’d inflicted on my Lightrooom catalog yesterday. One simple bit of digital housework led to a scrambled catalog. The Lightroom catalog holds the records of everything you do to every photo. Every adjustment however small is recorded and can be played back and altered later … until you screw it up. After that, Lightroom is no longer your friend. I left it last night and by this morning I’d worked out how to fix it.

Scamp meantime had gone off early, 9.15am early, to get her hair cut. She arrived back about an hour later with a new cut that she didn’t like. She rarely likes the cut she gets, but it’s nothing to do with the hairdresser, it just her resisting change, I think. She came home for a fleeting visit, had a cup of coffee and was out again to go to FitSteps class wearing her new dance trainers that make spinning easier!

<Technospeak>
After Scamp left, I started work on the repair. It involved moving the damaged files to a temporary drive, erasing everything on the old drive then putting everything back again, in the right order. Simple. Except, somewhere along the line I forgot to move the catalog on to the temporary drive and when I formatted the original drive, my catalog was destroyed. Only after I had put everything in place did I discover that the catalog couldn’t be found. What a numpty. As usual, I had a backup on the system that gave me nine months worth of catalog data, but October and November were gone into the ether.
</Technospeak>

I wasn’t a happy bunny when Scamp came home, but things brightened up again when Hazy organised a Zoom call. We had about an hour’s worth of relaxed conversation and heard about the further complications of Neil’s op and what it feels like to have your own house. We were both pleased that she liked her birthday present.

Back to work, My bread needed to be ‘knocked back’ that means you knock all the air out of it and put it into a wicker basket to let it do its second rise before it goes into the oven. Going in to the oven at that moment was Scamp’s Chicken and Mushroom Pithivier. A posh name for a Chicken and Mushroom Pie. I’d drawn a circle or exactly 35mm diameter and another of 30mm diameter on greaseproof paper using an old pair of compasses to act as a template for cutting the pastry. It looked good as it went in to the oven, nothing to do with my drawing, but everything to do with Scamp’s skill. When it came out, the bread was ready to go in for its 20min bake and it looked good when it came out, as did Scamp’s Pithivier.

A bit of a break before we cleared the dining table and dressed it up for tonight’s dinner with Crawford and Nancy. The menu was Sweet Potato and Peppers Soup, Chicken and Mushroom Pithivier with potatoes and broccoli followed by Dutch Apple Cake with Custard or Cream.

C&N arrived a bit later than expected, but we had a good night. Lots of catching up and lots of laughter. Maybe a bit too much to drink and certainly far too much to eat.

Just after midnight we waved them off on their journey home and settled down to calm down.

PoD was a Fuchsia in the back garden flowering long after it should have shut down for the winter.

Tomorrow (today) we’re intending to go to Brookfield for our Saturday dance class.

Out to lunch – 24 November 2022

Posted on by Zogman

This going out to lunch is becoming a bit of a habit, I hear you say. We would disagree.

Today after we’d solved Wordle and Spelling Bee we got a bit better dressed and drove over to Motherwell. When we parked at Alex and Carol’s house, Alex told me to park the car and we’d take his daughter’s car to Gouldings for lunch.

It was very, very busy at the restaurant. Usually they hand out a buzzer to tell you when your table is ready. Today that wasn’t going to work. Today we had to queue. Actually it didn’t take that long for the queue to go down and we were seated at table 40 out of 41. Take 41 tables and multiply it by 3 to get an average of 123 people all eating or drinking or just talking at the same time with the kitchen and servers keeping things going smoothly and you see just how efficiently this restaurant works. I’m not going to list what everyone at our table had for today’s lunch, but I’d say that we were eating, drinking (non alcoholic) and talking for a couple of hours and it was really good.

Scamp hadn’t met Alex or Carol for close to twenty years. In that time three children had arrived in their family and two of our ‘children’ had been married. There was a lot for the ladies to catch up with. Alex and I had already talked these things through over the past year and a bit.

We had a walk round Xmas which had been delivered to the nursery, almost replacing the plants that are usually sold there. After the walk through and the disbelieve at the number of light-up reindeer that can be crammed into a given space. Although according to the signs in Xmas, you can run 1,000 LED lights for thirty days for 55p. That’s what they say, but how would they go about proving it? And why?

Alex drove back to Motherwell and we said our goodbyes and then drove home. It was a much brighter day than we’d expected with a sunset beginning at about 3pm. Thankfully I’d grabbed a few shots this morning in the garden and I managed to create a PoD from one of them. It wasn’t what I intended, but it made a decent abstract after being dunked in three pieces of software. Sometimes Ansel Adams quote about ‘Taking’ a photograph and ‘Making’ a photograph rings true.  Just in case you’re interested, it’s a macro of part of a Curly Kale leaf.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending going to FitSteps and I’m hoping to stay home and drink tea!

Entertained by Margie – 28 September 2022

Posted on by Zogman

This afternoon we went to visit Margie.

Margie is one of Scamps friends. She is a ray of sunshine on a dull day, and today was a dull day. As usual our conversation ranged over may subjects, taking in, on the way: The difference between a Carry-out and a Take-away, what a Boogie is and how you’d draw one and the horrors of hospital food, especially Gravel Hotpot. No, not Gravy, Gravel, apparently that’s what it looked like! Three hours gone in a flash. What an entertainer. She’d have made an excellent stand-up comedian when she was younger.

We drove home and we should have stopped at the shops to get some spinach to add body to the pesto I was going to make for dinner. If we had, I might have remembered to get some pine nuts, because there were none in the cupboard. But we didn’t and the pesto tasted fine with the spaghetti without the spinach and the pine nuts.

I spent most of the evening wrestling with, and swearing at, the Samsung website. Badly written and riddled with error codes. I eventually gave up when it crashed just as I was about to buy my new Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus phone after struggling, and failing to get the 0% finance deal for some undisclosed reason. Your code worked perfectly, Jamie, as did trading in Scamp’s old unused Huawei phone for a healthy discount. I tried talking to ‘helpers’ on Chat, but they were as useless as the website. I think it might have been an omen. Keep the phone you’ve got. You don’t need a new one.

Today’s PoD was a grab shot of some carnations sitting on the kitchen window ledge. It was dull and gloomy by the time I was taking the photos and the final result was a grainy as a sand dune, but thankfully ON1 came to the rescue and removed all the digital noise without altering the flowers too much. At least something worked today.

Off in to Glasgow tomorrow to meet Alex, hopefully and talk some technospeak with him.