Category: Uncategorized

testing 1 – 2

I had been meaning to visit two exhibitions in Edinburgh (notice I gave it the Sunday name for a change!) and today I’d chosen to go see the David Bailey *Stardust *exhibition. We’ve become used to getting off the train at Haymarket rather than travelling in to Waverley and that’s what I did today. I also wanted to go and get tea at my favourite tea shop in Edinburgh. The guy in the shop doesn’t deal in these new fangled metric measurements, he still uses pounds and ounces. He’s also got an opinion on everything and a story to go with that opinion. It’s an experience visiting his shop and always a pleasant one. I can’t remember what today’s story was about, but it started with me commenting on his choice of shirt which was much like my own favourite. It ended with him telling me that although the shop sign said OPEN, he didn’t start serving until 11.00. I apologised but he told me that it didn’t matter as I had money in my pocket! After getting my tea and a bit of convivial conversation, I walked up and on to the Grassmarket and there was still no sign of grass being sold, but there were beautiful golden colours in the trees. From there, I walked to Greyfriars Church and had a walk round the churchyard. I was tempted to take some photos there as the light and colours from the trees were good but I’m always a bit uneasy taking photos in a graveyard, so I kept the camera in the bag. Then on to the Playfair Steps to take me down to the exhibition, remember the exhibition? The first room in Stardust was wonderful. All monochrome shots. Some small, some big, some gigantic. My favourites were Henri Cartier-Bresson and Man Ray. The HC-B was especially cleverly shot with the secretive man shielding half of his face with his camera. The luminosity of Man Ray’s eye was fascinating. I wasn’t so taken with the large colour shots, but the technical quality of the large fashion images was fantastic. About his paintings, the least said the better. Stick to the camera David. Speaking about cameras, in one of the display tables was DB’s Asahi Pentax SLR. Lovely piece of equipment but well used. Quick jaunt to John Lewis to see if there was anything going cheap – there wasn’t (no surprise there). Cup of coffee and a panini in Nero and it was time to get the train home. An enjoyable day getting a bit of culture – what else in Edinburgh? Next time I’m hoping to take in an M C Escher exhibition all being well. See me? See culture?

It’s a long time since we’d been to Glasgow Green on a Sunday morning, so today we up and went for a walk. Yesterday was Proms in the Park and the fencing was still there from the event, but to be honest, there’s always some sort of event with the staging or fencing for it in the park. It was a beautiful morning. Blue skies and a warm breeze, 18ºc on the thermometer in the car. Lots of people rowing on the Clyde. We spent a while standing on the suspension bridge watching them going up and down stream. While we were there, who should I see but Mike McGivern, the ghost teacher from school. It was a great privilege to see the man in the flesh, so to speak. He has become a mythical person to me. I wonder who’s life he’s making a misery of now. I’m sure he hasn’t retired, he makes too much money as a ghost teacher. I think he clocked me, but I didn’t speak to him. What could I say? You can’t swear on a Sunday, so that would have severely limited my conversation!

After the usual lunch of Roll ‘n’ Sausage in the Wintergarden of the People’s Palace with toast and jam for Scamp, we headed home. We had just closed the front door when the rain started. It continued to rain for the rest of the day, on and off. I think we had the best of the day.

I’m really beginning to enjoy these early morning walks.  Today was a bit later because I didn’t waken up until about 7.20, so I wasn’t out until about 7.30.  It’s nice to think that just over a year ago, I’d be driving to work at this time in the day, and not in a happy frame of mind either.  Two and a bit years ago, I’d still have been driving to work, but I’d have been a lot happier.  That’s what happens when your school is taken over and you just know that everything is going to the dogs.  I couldn’t have worked for the despot who took over the running of the school and I consider myself very lucky to have made my exit before his dictatorship began for real.

I don’t think anyone believes me when I say that I’m superbly happy now that I’ve retired.  It’s great being able to do what you want, when you want, and if you don’t fancy doing anything, there’s nothing and nobody forcing you to do it.  So, with a smile on my face, I headed off to St Mo’s to see what I’d find.  Again, there was no sign of the mist that was there on Monday, but the light was so much better than Tuesday.

I wasn’t sure which of the cow parsley shots looked best, the mono or colour version, so I put in both.  The backlit trees were taken with the 9mm wonder lens.  Snails seemed to be the topic of the day.  There were snails everywhere today.  Big ones, small ones and tiny wee ones too.  Not slugs, but real, honest to goodness, shell carrying snails. The walk took about an hour, but I got a lot of shots and was happy with the results from both cameras.

Larger versions of today’s pics are available for viewing on my Flickr account.  All photos copyright of Donald Campbell and are digitally watermarked and therefore are not available for use by anyone except me.  If you wish to use them, please contact me in the first instance by using the comment section on this page.

I gave in and did the decent thing. We went to IKEA to look for Billy. We had a bit of a problem getting Billy into the car, but between Scamp and I we managed it.  Then I spent the afternoon with Billy, fitting his plugs, screwing in his cams (Ooh!) and finally managing to get him vertical and ensconced in his new room. After that it was down to Scamp to decide where the shelf supports would go, because as you probably knew, Billy is a bookcase. Picked up a wee LED desk lamp, a shopping bag and a picture frame too. Scamp got Billy and some storage boxes. It doesn’t take much to keep us happy.

Up at 7.00 and out for 7.15. Walked over to St Mo’s to catch the early morning mists on the pond. Hoped to see some deer, but there were none. Loads of spiderwebs, though. It set me thinking just how many spiders there are in a small patch of rough ground like that. Lovely image of a jenny-long-legs covered in dew. It might have been dead, or just awakening from the cold of the night.

The rest of the day was consumed with gym & swim and a spot of reading, the excellent Urban Watercolor Sketching by Felix Scheinberger. It’s an interesting and slightly off the wall art book that gives no ground to sentimental landscape painting, as hinted at by the book’s title. It has certainly given me the urge to get out and paint.

If the weather allows, I would do the early rise walk again to get some more autumnal shots.

Since we were going out for dinner to friends in Hamilton tonight, we were set for a light lunch out today, so we had agreed to go to Falkirk. Not the most interesting place in the world, but it does have the best tea shop in the world. Tea Jenny’s. So that’s where we went. Roll on scrambled egg for Scamp and roll on flat sausage for me. Vanilla slice as cake for me and a massive, and I mean MASSIVE

meringue for Scamp. A bit of shopping and then home. Scamp wanted to play with her new edging tool and I wanted a run out on the bike with the new 9mm toy.

When you cycle near to a railway track, you get used to the sounds of the trains passing a few feet away from you. Today I heard a really rattly sounding train approaching from the Glasgow side. I was totally amazed to see a black steam engine pulling one maroon carriage at a fair lick of speed. I just managed to get one shot of it in the distance. I’m guessing it was taking the carriage from somewhere to Bo’ness to the privately owned steam train railway there. I can’t remember when I saw a steam train running at full tilt on national track.

I made the 9mm work for its money by trying some landscapes. If you use an downward angle, you can create a hill from the horizon and, as you would expect, a valley if you point the camera down up. The fish eye effect creates some great skyscapes.

Home, shower and out to dinner. A good day and a steam train too!

Went in to town early on the train – the only way to travel into Glasgow. In fact, it may indeed be the only way to travel anywhere as it looks like the X3, our only bus is being taken away. Perhaps it will be replaced by a whole fleet of X buses, but it’s unlikely. Use more public transport they say. We can only do that if there is actually public transport to use.
Anyway, went in to town on the train. Browsed John Lewis, but they weren’t offering any Mac Book Pros for a fiver. Wandered into Jessops, but they didn’t have the Oly 9mm f8 body cap lens for a tenner off. Wait a minute! They do have it, and it’s a tenner off! Got my hands on it and gave it a really good testing. Went for a coffee and confirmed my suspicions that that they had only been experimenting with the 15mm f8 lens. This was the real thing with real GLASS lenses, not the plastic junk in the 15mm. Decision made. Get it before they sell it to someone less worthy than me. Rest of the morning was wandering around town amazed at the effects I was getting with this minuscule wonder. It’s a real eye opener. Sure there’s curved verticals (and horizontals if you try really hard) and there’s a heap of CAs, but that’s all part of the charm of a ‘fish eye’ lens. Returned on the train, still having trouble believing just how good this lens is.

Oh, yes, and I got my hair cut too!

Moral of the story: The early bird gets the worm

Today we had booked a table for lunch at The Cotton House. It was Scamp’s suggestion. The last twice we went for lunch without a reservation, they were full and we left hungry with me in a bad temper – such an unusual state for me 😉 Today was different. We had a good lunch as usual in TCH. China tea to finish the meal. It’s probably the only place where I would have this tea. To be recommended – The Cotton House and the tea.

Previously, I’d been out fairly early to St Mo’s to get some pics of dragonflies. I saw a dragonfly egg laying. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. It was good to go out early rather than at the end of the afternoon. Light was good then and with the sun a bit lower in the sky, it was easier to get good shadows and textures. It’s all about the light.
Today’s picture is of a dragonfly’s wing. So often I feel that I must show the entire insect, but just stop and look at the detail in that wing and wonder at the refinements that have taken place in the 325 million years they have flown over this earth.

Earlier still I got a text from Scamp asking if our water was running normally. It appears that the main water pipe to Abronhill had fractured and the water supply to half of Cumbernauld was either undrinkable or nonexistent. Ours was ok, but the burst had caused a landslide that affected the railway to Falkirk and Forrest Road was closed. Luckily it had happened early in the month before the ‘Abronhillers’ have their monthly bath.

After lunch, yes I know that this is a bit disjointed, but that’s the way it goes – it’s my blog not yours, so to get back to today …
After lunch, I went to Dobbies and got some Cyclamen and an edging tool for Scamp. As the family gardener, she was delighted.

A mixed up day for me as much as for you.