It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day – 1 January 2016

combo bA late start after a late night yesterday.  Typical of New Year’s Day.

Kippers for lunch that kept reminding me of their presence all day after that, despite a couple of cups of peppermint tea.

Went for a walk round St Mo’s with Scamp. Tried to feed the ducks, but it was the gulls and the swans that got most of it. I’m not sure Scamp enjoyed the walk, but she didn’t complain too much.

After the walk, I made Carrot and Cardamom soup from my new Nigel Slater book, thanks Hazy and ND’A. Then made bread for dinner tonight. Both of them were very tasty. Steak for dinner with brussels, cauliflower and roast potatoes. For Scamp’s dinner, substitute salmon for the steak. Coffee afterwards was the Christmas coffee blend Jic and Sim brought me. Very nice, better in my opinion than the Guatemalan, although I will of course have to compare them again in the next few days. Thanks to you two too. So, it was a family New Year’s meal, with everyone represented. Just as it should be.

An Uplifting Day – 27 December 2015

combo bWe woke to sunshine.  Real, unabated sunshine with drying streets too.  Scamp needed to go shopping, so we had to risk driving out to Tesco with no hope of getting a parking space when we got back.  When we got back after an altercation with a total prick in the carpark. – As an aside, I’d like to say that one of the great benefits of having your own little slice of webspace it that you can say what you really feel without fear of having it redacted by some pinhead admin.  I am the admin so I’ll say what I like. –   Anyway, the prick took umbrage at me bumping a car’s wing mirror (not even his car) with my trolley.  After emptying my trolley, I just gave him a smile as I walked as slowly as I could in front of his car.  One of the great benefits of being old is that you can do things like that.  If the aforementioned prick wants to scream and shout at you, all you do is grab your chest and stagger around a bit and watch the colour drain from his face.  Then you smile again, stick your tongue out and walk away.  It’s a brilliant windup.  Yes, I know ‘boy’, ‘crying’, ‘wolf’ etc. Until then it’s still great fun and to be recommended for dealing with angry pricks.

Got back to find that there was a wedding stretch limo reversing tentatively up the hill near our house.  To accommodate it, I had to park miles from the house and carry the bags down the hill.  Is that what they call ‘Karma’?

After a cup of coffee I went for a walk to St Mo’s armed with the Nikon and 70-300 and also the old E-PL1 with 9mm.  Got a few shots, but for once the 9mm failed to perform.  Don’t know the reason why.  It might have been too slow a shutter speed because there was a considerable blur in the images, but this is the first time I’ve used that camera/lens combination.  Maybe I’ve gotten so used to the remarkable E-PL5 that I’d forgotten how limiting the ‘1’ is.  Must do some more tests before I can make a reasoned judgement.

After that we were waiting for JIC and Sim to arrive from ‘darn sarf’.  They made really good time and were great company tonight.  Let’s hope the weather holds out for tomorrow, because it’s been a great day today, weatherwise and a very entertaining one too.

Don’t cross your legs – 24 December 2015

DSC_4649- blog--358Scamp thought I wanted to go in to Glasgow today and I thought she wanted to go in. It wasn’t until we were walking down Bucky Street that the crossed wires became untangled. We had travelled in on the bus and had just been to John Lewis where I showed Scamp the toy I’d like in my Christmas stocking, an Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II. Apparently Santa may not have any left as a lot of boys and girls have asked for that self same thing. Oh well, never mind, I’ll just have to wait until it turns up on MBP, second hand.

Went and had coffee in Cafe Nero at St Enoch’s, then headed back up to Sauchiehall Street. Blacks were having a closing down sale and I managed to snag myself a new Berghaus jacket. Maybe not as good as an Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II, but a lot more practical.

Just missed the bus home, but that’s about par for the course at the bus station and got talking to a wee visually impaired man who told me you should never sit with your legs crossed because it restricts your circulation. You won’t feel it at the time, he said, but it will get you later. I don’t know where he got that information from, but he was quite adamant about it.

Weather was mixed. Beautiful bright sun one minute, torrential rain and hail the next. Scamp says we have to blame Storm Eva for that. When I got home I slapped some paint on a canvas while I waited out the hail storm that was battering the window and then went out for a walk around St Mo’s. It didn’t rain, but the sun didn’t shine either. Managed one shot of a confused wee green shoot that thinks it’s spring. I think there are more cold winds, hail showers and possibly sunny intervals between now and then. Keep your fingers crossed ….. but not your legs!

I saw the sun today – 20 December 2015

combo bToday we woke to sunshine.  Real sunshine from a blue sky with little pink clouds.  After half an hour, the pink clouds had turned gold as the sun rose a bit higher in the sky.  Amazing.  It didn’t last of course.  An hour later the rain was torrential – but the sun was still shining!  It wasn’t a sun shower though, the rain went of for a full 15minutes without relenting and the sun still shone.  Then, just as the sun disappeared behind the grey clouds we’ve become accostomed to, the rain stopped.  Strange weather.  At least the rain stayed off for most of the day after that although the clouds stayed, always threatening more of the wet stuff.

Since Scamp had done most of the cooking yesterday for J&M, I though it was only fitting for me to ‘recycle the dishes’ as they used to say in the Fairy advert (other washing up liquids are available).  Most of the heavy lifting had been done last night by the dishwasher, it was just the garlic encrusted pans and trays and the bowl that had contained the marinade (garlic) that formed the bigger part of today’s work.  It didn’t take that long really and I felt better for doing it.

After lunch I made the decision to risk getting soaked in the hope of getting some photos over by St Mo’s.  I was just walking over to the pond when heard a loud croaking above me, and there was my old friend Mr Grey, flying in for his own lunch.  I stalked him for a few shots from the relative cover of the Scots Pine wood, but I really wanted to get some photos of him taking off and soon I got my chance.  I thought I’d got some decent shots, so set off to annoy the deer.  The deer must have heard me coming because they were all hiding.  I did find some deer hair on the ground.  I remember deer hair from using it to tie fishing flies – many moons ago.  No blood, so are the deer moulting, casting, whatever it’s called when they lose their winter coats in this strange warm, dull, damp climate we live in now.

Daylight was fading so it was time to head for home.  At the wee pond, there was Mr Grey again, so I got a few more shots of him flying off to the middle of the big pond where he knew he would be safe from my depredations.

Such a (Mr) Grey day.

Cold and Frosty – 13 December 2015

combo bOut just after 10.00 this morning to make the most of the bright light, blue sky and ground frost.  Just a quick trip to St Mo’s to see if there were any deer around (there were) and if there were any photo opportunities to be had (there were).

I had hoped that Mr Grey would be out near the shore fishing for food, but as I was walking across the road, he was flying above me in the opposite direction.  I did get a shot of two one-footed coots on the icy pond.  I guess it doesn’t hurt so much if you only stand on one foot, because only one foot freezes at a time.  I walked down through the deciduous woods without a sign of any deer, then when I was almost at the small pond, two of them ran across my path about 100metres away.  I walked on a bit and startled another group of five or six younger animals who sped away fast.  I didn’t attempt to photograph them, it was just good to see them run.

Walked on over the hill at the road and got a few more shots of frozen leaves and dried thistles.  The stuff most photogs like me take.  My kind of photos, Scamp calls them.  I liked the light on the pine trees beside the path from the boardwalk and got some good directional light on them.  After that, it was back home for tea and toast.

Didn’t do much else other than make some bread and cook the venison I got yesterday for my dinner.

At night it was the Salsa Christmas Ball.  I think we both had a ball, despite the floor being sticky with something unmentionable and there being very little room to dance when it seemed that everyone was on the floor at the same time.  Because neither of us had work in the morning, we could stay as long as we liked.  We liked midnight as a time to stay until.  By then I’d danced with seven girls which must be a record for me.  Still to see the Photo Booth photos, but I’m sure they will be hilarious.  Great time with great people.

The day that the rains came down – 29 November 2015

ComboThis was yet another day of torrential rain.  We are certainly making up for the Indian summer we enjoyed in September.  Or, maybe it’s just the monsoon season!

Just before lunchtime, the clouds parted, the sun shone and the rain dried up.  I put a pair of wellies on and went for a wade around St Mo’s.  There wasn’t much wildlife in evidence, but the bright directional sun did light up a few things.  The usual clichés like raindrops on oak leaves and see through birch leaves.  The snow on the Meikle Bin gave an interesting landscape shot that looked better in mono than in colour.

After lunch we watched the Andy Murray building the foundations for his startling win which would seal the Davis Cup win for Great Britain.  We should have been watching the final Grand Prix race of the year, but BBC switched the sports round at the last minute and it was only Scamp’s skill with the Tivo box that saved the day … again.  Pity it was such a boring race.

Not long after I got back from my walk, the rain returned with the wind for a while.  The wind is predicted to reduce during the night, but unfortunately the temperature will reduce too and leave us with the prospect of ice and snow tomorrow.  That may make life interesting for Jackie who is staying with us for the next few days and travelling to Embra by train.

I want to go back to Tenerife – 23 November 2015

comboToo much ‘footering‘ today. There’s a good Scottish word for you ‘Footering‘. Just messing around without getting anything done, that’s footering. I had hoped for some dry weather in the morning so I could get out and get some photos, but from early morning it was drizzly rain.
Eventually I got myself organised and went out for a walk with the Oly to St Mo’s in the rain.

I’d seen the armchair yesterday and set it as my target today. Strangely, the weather was ideal for what I wanted to do with the chair. I wanted it to look grungy and it does.

I came upon Mr Grey hunting in the pool and started stalking him. Unfortunately he was watching me all the time. I got a few shots of him, but wasn’t happy with them at all. It was only when he flew off I got a decent shot of him.

I went to the gym and the pool in the afternoon. It looks like the gym will be out of commission for the month of December and that’s only a week away, so for a month it will be swim only and the pool will therefore be mobbed. Let’s hope it’s worth it in the end.

Salsa tonight was Sacr and was brilliant. It looks like we will be getting him for the next two weeks too. I’m looking forward to it.

A Lesson Learned – 22 November 2015

DSC_4359- blog--326Learning from the lessons of yesterday, we were up and out fairly early today to make the most of the good light. Drove to Colzium House in Kilsyth and went for a walk around the gardens. It was pretty cold and we were both well wrapped up. Heavy jacket, scarf and fingerless gloves (thanks Hazy – I kept meaning to tell you how useful they were). I think we both enjoyed the walk and it was good to see some of the autumn colours still showing through, although the trees are looking quite bare now.

Home via Lidl to pick up some veg for the dinner, then I started to unhook the old dishwasher from the water supply and the drain. That took minutes to do, but wrestling it out of the tight space it was in took a lot longer. I couldn’t work out what was holding it in place. Surely the joiners hadn’t screwed it in to the side panels when they were fitting it in with the new (ten year old) kitchen. No, it was nothing like that. It was a strip of the vinyl flooring that had become caught on the underside of the dishwasher and was locking it in place. Anyway, it’s out now and waiting to be taken away on Tuesday.

Later I went for a walk around St Mo’s to get some shots in the last little bit of good daylight. Nothing very interesting to see although I did manage to startle a couple of deer, but they were too quick for me. Caught sight of Mr Grey and grabbed a few frames of him to add to my collection.

The rest of the night was spent getting Flickr up to date. It is now. Weather station shows -0.3ºc tonight. Winter is here.

A dull day, but a lot done – 30 October 2015

DSC_4329-Edit- blog--303For the second day, I only have one photo to show for the past nine hours. Up at about 7.00 hungry for food after yesterday’s stomach upset emptied me out. Porridge and tea helped to fill the gap. Then it was off to the doc’s to get my flu jag. I’d been planning to make apricot croissants for Scamp because they are her favourite in Cafe Nero. Simplicity itself to make. Just ready made croissants (although I could have used puff pastry), a tin of apricots and a packet of ready-made custard. They worked perfectly first time. That must be a first for me.

I finally managed to work out how to connect the DVD recorder to the Virgin Tivo box so that I can download a set of programs to disk. Quality isn’t great and they will have to be recorded in real-time which is a bit of a pain, but it can be done on what would be down-time for the Tivo.

Went to Cotton House for lunch and then when we came back, I grabbed a half hour in St Mo’s to get today’s only decent shot.

Almost ready to go out to see Randy Newman at the Concert Hall tonight. Looking forward to it.

Good news and bad news – 20 October 2015

comboI waited in all day, well, until about 3.00pm.  DPD were due to deliver my new phone between 4.00 and 5.00 and they are always on time.  I realise they are not the best company to work for, but for once there is a delivery company you can rely on.  I know this is probably means that my next delivery will be late, but so far they have been faultless.  Anyway, I went out for a walk about 3.00 knowing that I could be back for the delivery.  It had been a beautiful morning with lovely golden light.  By the afternoon, it had deteriorated into cloudier skies and a temperature that was dropping.

The delivery arrived on time, but unfortunately, Vodafone had omitted to supply a sim card for the new phone.  The person I spoke to in customer services knew that I have an iPhone 4 at present and it has a micro sim card.  I presume he also knew an iPhone 5 needs a nano sim, but didn’t bother to send the nano sim with the phone.  Instead of emailing this time, I phoned and navigated the telephone menu under the flag of ‘thinking of leaving Vodafone‘.  Phone it up for a laugh.  The lady on the recording changes to a sad voice when enunciating that option 😉  Got a very pleasant man who said he’s send me a new nano sim by first class and should arrive tomorrow.  It was only later when I was talking to my son, I found out that you can just take the sim in to a Vodafone shop and they will cut the sim down for you.  Why could nobody tell me that?  Vodafone, you are losing me fast.

The photos were a bit more interesting today, because the light was better.  Have I said that “It’s all about the light”.