Category: St Mo’s

Tree Climbing Snails and Rain – 26 September 2016

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26-sept
The plans to go swimming this morning didn’t come to fruition.  Perhaps tomorrow.  I did go to the physio and he was quite impressed with the improvement in my shoulder.  He did however still bend me, shake me and stick the inevitable pins in me to see if he could make me jump.

The day had started out with heavy leaden skies, well, they would be heavy if they were made from lead.  However, when I drove down to the leisure centre, the cloud was clearing and there was a touch of blue sky there.  It didn’t last.  While the physio was pinning me down to the table with his acupuncture needles, I could hear the rain battering on the window. The day was going downhill.

It stayed in that downhill frame of mind for most of the afternoon but by about 4 o’clock I was ready to grab the last little bit of sunshine, because there was some, to get a photo or two.  Actually I got four I was pleased with.  Clockwise from top right:

  1. It’s those tree climbing snails again.  Now the slugs are at it too  Are the snails teaching them?  I still don’t know why they do it other than the human answer – because they’re there.  The best answer I’ve read is that they eat fungus or lichen from the bark of the tree.  The stupidest answer is that they want to get away from the heat of the forest floor – Naw!  It’s Scotland!  We don’t get heat in the forest floor … or anywhere else in late September.
  2. I saw this flower blooming away happily in the midst of nothingness.  Not another flowering shrub or weed for miles around and thought it looked a bit lonely, so I took its picture.
  3. Mr Grey looking hunched over and grumpy.  Well, you would be too if you were stuck in the rain in the middle of a pond in Cumbersheugh with a manic photographer constantly chasing you.  Poor old Mr Grey.
  4. I took this shot because I like cowparsley, not to eat, but to photograph.  It wasn’t until I was looking at the pics on the computer and pixel-peeping (viewing the shots at full magnification to see which is sharpest – not to be confused with Chimping which is a completely different affliction) that I noticed the tiny wee snail on the bottom right of the seedhead. I know it’s really hard to see, but click on the composite and it will take you automagically to my Flickr site where you can see the bigger picture.

As you will see from Mr Grey’s picture, it had started raining while I was out.  It was inevitable because as I was walking over to St Mo’s I’d just been complimenting myself on grabbing an hour in the sun taking photos.  Blue sky and sunshine.  I should have known the rain wasn’t far away.

Wild windy, rainy, sunshiny day forecast tomorrow, then Wednesday will be dreadful.

Wallflower – 14 September 2016

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14-sept

Sitting it out at Salsa because there are too many men in the second class which is an unusual state of affairs. It’s not a problem really as the sweat is running off me as we’ve just completed our second advanced class of the week. I did think of joining Colin’s class, but I’m never sure what it is he’s teaching. Sometimes it’s definitely salsa, sometimes it’s more like bachata, sometimes it’s almost certainly quickstep or tango or something else ballroom and there are times when it’s something entirely different. It’s difficult to see where they blend together. I did do his warm-up which is always a challenge, just keeping up. Tonight was no exception. That probably explains why I’ve reached melting point.

We had intended going to Kirkcaldy on the bus, but lethargy got in the way.  It’s been postponed until another day, a sunny day, because sunny it was not today. After we had dithered around for a while, we decided to go for lunch instead and then went for garden stuff at B&Q.

I had a go at a couple of  small watercolours and finished off an acrylic that’s been languishing against the wall for too long. I may frame it up and see if I’m happy with it. I’ve decided that even for sketching and wash, it’s far, far better to use watercolour paper, even cheap stuff.

I did manage a quick visit to St Mo’s later in the afternoon and was thinking that with the warm, damp weather we should be getting to the season for toadstools and mushrooms when I chanced upon a neat little creamy white umbrella, right in front of me. To get the shot, I wanted a low point of view (POV). That meant I couldn’t check focus through the viewfinder, but one of the Oly designers had considered this eventuality and made the back screen articulate so you can turn it horizontal. Even better, you can set the touch screen to activate the shutter. So clever.

As I mentioned, it was a dull, damp day. I’m hoping tomorrow will be better.

Sunny Sunday – 11 September 2016

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11-septWe went to Glasgow today. Since the buses run to their own timetable on Sundays, we drove in. It was a lovely morning and Scamp thought we might manage to have a coffee outside, but by the time we’d finished shopping, the wind was becoming a bit gusty and we settled for a coffee inside.

Dinner for me was a repeat of yesterday’s, Lamb, Chorizo and Puy Lentil Casserole, but this time made at home. It turned out as good as the Loch Leven Larder’s, if not better. Who am I kidding? Of course it was better! Slow cooked for six hours, it was great. Plenty left over for tomorrow’s dinner and maybe some for lunch later in the week.

I went for a walk to St Mo’s in the late afternoon and got a few shots, but the light was poor by that time and that resulted in a lot of digital noise which you can remove quite easily with Lightroom, but the price you pay is a loss of definition, so it’s a double edged sword. I did see a strange pink blossom at completely the wrong time of year. There were thorns on the stems and on the back of the leaves which look like bramble leaves. The plant seemed to be behaving like a bramble by climbing round other tree branches. Couldn’t believe this was flowering in September in Scotland!

No plans for tomorrow, because like most Mondays it’s eaten up with Gems in the afternoon and salsa at night. Might get some painting done. If not on canvas, then at least on the outside window ledges.

A much more sedate day – 28 August 2016

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28 AugAfter yesterday’s frantic here and there, non-stop, things to do, today was a little respite. After a relaxing morning we watched the Belgian GP from Spa. Plenty of action in the first half, then the new Sky Sports channel seemed to get stuck and we had to go back to the C4 version with laconic David Coultard and the over-excited Ben Edwards to tell us just how exciting it was.

The rest of the afternoon was spent tweaking the gallery feature on the new theme of my blog. What Scamp christened The Summer Look. After getting frustrated with some things working and others not, I took myself off to St Mo’s for a look around. Scamp had meantime driven in to Glasgow to pick up her sister. I didn’t find any deer today and only got decent photos of some insects. Couldn’t get the camera to focus at first, and then realised that it was set on single point focus which is notoriously difficult to fix focus with, but once focus is set, it is really accurate. When I switched to a wider field of view, focusing worked a lot quicker. Hoping for some exercise tomorrow, either in the gym or on the bike, we’ll see which one wins. Like Scamp always says, it all depends on the weather.

Coffee, Dragons and Vitamin D – 25 August 2016

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E8251411- flickr--238On a cloudy day, I went for a coffee with Fred in the morning and we set the world to rights again.

Met Scamp afterwards and sorted out our winter, week-long Vitamin D supplement, sometimes known as a week-in-the-sun. For once the process of booking was much easier than it could have been, and has been in the past.

After that, the sun came out, and I took a walk as usual around St Mo’s. Still a few dragons flying around. None of them breathed fire, but I managed to get a shot of one, despite having completely the wrong settings on the camera. I don’t know what I did, but I was using ISO 100 with an aperture setting of f10 which produced a shutter speed of 1/40th. Luckily I set the camera down on the boardwalk to take a low level shot and this meant I had a really steady support, otherwise the shot would have been as shaky as the other 7 I took today. That’s what happens when you assume you have the normal settings and don’t check the info on the screen. Numpty. Still, it’s a good shot.

Physio to look forward to tomorrow :-/ Then maybe lunch out would be good. We’ll see tomorrow.

Birds and the Bees (and a Spider) – 22 August 2016

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22 augToday I did some gardening.

This is an example of forward thinking by Scamp:

  1. The weather forecast for tomorrow is rain, a few dry spells and then more rain, followed by rain.
  2. We have a bag of stone chips that we are going to put down beside the new tall fence to complete this area.  The stones when they are washed are basically a golden yellow, but with other colours through them, quite pretty.  In the bag they still retain the abrasive mix that they are tumbled with and are a claggy yellow ochre.

If you add these two things in the correct order, Scamp postulates that it would be good to lay the chips down today and then tomorrow’s rain will wash the claggy yellow ochre coating off them and reveal their true colour.  That’s why it was boots on, riggers gloves on and get yourself mucky laying down the chips.  Fine.  If only it ended there.  Scamp said: “Could we pot up this Hebe using the compost from the potatoes we lifted a week or so ago?”  Followed by: “We really need to prune the rose round the back door.” and “Maybe if we ….”  Oh, if you can’t beat them, then join them.  I volunteered to repot a wee rose that was being completely swamped by some wee blue bell-shaped flowers, that might be Campanula.  That’s as far as I went though.  This gardening can be quite addictive I’m told.  I’ll take their word for it, thanks.

Grabbed an hour and a camera and a new album from the latest John Connolly book and took them for a walk to St Mo’s.  I met a heron as I was walking over.  I’m not sure if it was Mr Grey or not.  It seemed a bit small for him, but I’ve only once seen him out of the water, so it could be.  He posed for some photos, then disappeared in a great flapping of wings.  The rest of the photos were bees and hover flies.  Hence the title of today’s epistle.  Birds and Bees and a Spider.  The John Connolly album was interesting as it always is.  Very atmospheric and all by artists I’d never heard of.

With Hazy’s help, we got Netflix to work tonight and after salsa class, settled down and watched A Royal Night Out.  Harmless fun.  Better than watching the highlights of this year’s Olympic Games.  Princess Margaret is a hoot!

Rain forecast all day tomorrow.  Hope it washes the stone chips clean again.

Kizomba – 21 August 2016

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21AugWent to Kizomba this afternoon, before the Sunday Social.  It was good.  Not the best, but better, much better than the last two numpties who pretended to teach it.  Unfortunately, the earlier than normal trip into Glasgow really shortened the day.  To ensure that we got parked and into the Garage in time, we had to leave home by 2.30.  That didn’t leave much time for going anywhere or doing anything other than dancing, so in that respect, it was a bit of a wasted day.  I had an hour when we got back to go over to St Mo’s and get some photos.  The results are above.

Another Dull Day – 11 August 2016

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAMet Fred for coffee in the middle of the day.  Came home.  Went for a walk.  Photographed a two headed swan at St Mo’s.  Came home.  Had mince and tatties with carrots and ‘roop for dinner. That was the highlight of the day by a million miles!  It rained all day.  Heavens, it can only get better now, surely.  Can’t stand the possibility of watching another night of boring olympics badly filmed and with commentary by over excited numpties who would give morons a bad name.  I think I may go and watch paint dry.

Flooers, Painting and Salsa – 1 August 2016

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1 AugYesterday you were subjected to a lengthy story about my problems with computer technology. Today I tackled another lengthy computer technology problem, but before you switch off, I’m just mentioning it for my record, because you will remember that this blog is as much for me as it is for you. With that in mind, all I’m going to say is that making a bootable USB drive is a minefield and I’m going to leave it at that. I may leave the USB drive at that too.

It was another lovely day and, I wasted some of it staying inside when I should have been out walking or cycling. I did get a painting started and it’s beginning to look ok. Maybe better than ok. I’ll know better when I finish it.

I got some more beastie pictures at St Mo’s. I also got some flower shots. I like what the ‘cooncil’ have done with the wild flower area. Maybe they will think about looking after it this time and not allowing it go to thistles and grass like they did with the other areas in the past few years. They’ve also pulled out the plug with an exceptional effort at producing an adventure playground that weans actually want to play in. It looks brilliant NLC. Pity you couldn’t have made a better job of grassing the hilly parts.

Salsa tonight was difficult. Two weeks off and I’d forgotten every move I’ve learned this year. The old moves, I can remember, the new ones are still ‘new’ every week. It’s the Goldfish Syndrome. I really must make a commitment to learning a new move every second week at least.

I was thinking about yesterday’s landscape shot. It was the way the lighting illuminated the textures and the way the highlights and shadows created a three dimensional feel of the hills that I liked. I saw it again tonight as I was driving home from Glasgow. The glancing rays from the setting sun created that 3D feel again. I didn’t have a camera, but I knew it wouldn’t last long enough for me to get off the motorway and grab a shot even if I’d had a camera. It was good enough just to see it.

Painting and cycling are on the agenda for tomorrow with a bit of luck.

The phone was there all the time – 27 July 2016

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27 JulyScamp phoned up about the replacement phone for the one with the broken seal. For once she got a Scottish voice. She started to explain the saga when the guy broke into the stream of consciousness and asked “Samsung?” When she agreed, it was a Samsung, he told her that it happens all the time. Allegedly Samsung do open the boxes to make sure that the Samsung phone in the box is up to scratch (and has no actual scratches). It’s their version of Quality Control. Why then don’t they seal the boxes back up? Dunno, neither did he. He did however assure her that the phone was legal and ok to use. Why couldn’t the other three duffers have told her so in the first place, causing her untold stress and a needless 48 hour wait before she got the phone working? Vodafone. I think that’s the answer. The company that doesn’t know its arse from its elbow. I’m going to take the assistant at Vodafone Glasgow’s advice and go with Tesco next time. In fact, I may take Fred P’s advice and buy a phone and just do Pay as You Go next time. For all the call time I use and the minimal amount of text I send, I could survive on PaYG, with a decent amount of download time.

That started the day off a lot better than yesterday. The sun came out too for a while, so we went to sunny Falkirk to get some fish for the tea. Seabass en Papillote, just like I made for us and Hazy last week. I hope I spelt it right, but I can’t be bothered looking it up!

Went on an expedition to St Mo’s later to get some photos. Found lots of hoverflies. Always like taking their photos. There are such a variety of them around at this time of year. Also lots of Soldier Beetles AKA Bonking Beetles for obvious reasons!

Finally I tried getting Annette’s Nexus 7 to work again using yet another hopeful sounding ‘solution’ from an ‘expert’ on the net. It didn’t work, but it did kill it completely this time. Now it won’t charge either. I think I may have eventually ‘bricked’ it. Good riddance.

Hopefully another dry day tomorrow when we can go out and I can get a couple of landscapes photographed if not painted. We’ll see, it’s all in the lap of the weather fairies.