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Today started with rain.  Torrential rain, not just ordinary rain, but real thunderstorm stuff, luckily without the actual thunder.  The upside of this was that the rain washed all the seagull crap from my car – I wasn’t looking forward to washing that off myself, so thank you rain.  Got an invite to a retiral night for teachers at my old school who had seen the light at the end of the tunnel and recognised it as sunlight or who had moved on to pastures new.  I was quite glad that I’d been invited.  I know I’ve really enjoyed this last year, and will happily tell them that.  I went in to school to hand in my acceptance, but there seems to be a lot of long faces there and a realisation that this is not what they signed up for.

Had lunch at Milano and spoke to an ex-pupil of mine who works there part time.  Found that she had recently graduated and was now looking forward to the ‘World of Work’ as it is euphemistically known.  Scamp and I have often said that we wouldn’t like to be young now, with all the difficulties that includes.  She, the ex-pupil seemed so happy and I could imagine how she saw her opportunities opening up before her.  Good luck to her, I’m sure she’ll need it.

Drove around looking for a subject for PoD and found it after I’d left the school.  It’s a statue of a stag made from what looks like steel reinforcing bars and stands at the front of a local powder coating company’s offices.  It took a while to get a decent angle on the sculpture, but with the help of the excellent Snapheal Pro, I managed to get rid of bits of building and fence that were obstructing the view.  Snapheal Pro is worlds away from the clumsy healing brush in Lightroom 5.  Come on Adobe, get your act together and improve this.

Dancing at night, but no drag of a drive in via the M8.  This time we travelled in comfort by train and subway.  The only what to travel!  Well done Scamp for suggesting it.  Well worth the extra expense.

Dragged myself to the gym and swim today.  Maybe the exercise began to get those endorphins moving again, but I came away feeling a bit better.  After lunch and sliding into torpor again, Scamp suggested we go out a coffee.  That did the trick.  I felt so much better after that.  Perhaps the caffeine works better than the endorphins.  While we were out, I took some photos of an old stone walled barn for a painting.  Unfortunately, the roof of the barn has fallen in, but I think I still have some prints dating back to the days of film in which the barn roof is intact.  If not, I’ll just have to imagine it.

After we came home, I went out for a walk around, yes you guessed it, St Mo’s.  It’s great having this little bit of wilderness on my doorstep, so to speak.  Anyway, today the light was the subject. Yes, I saw a deer and also some damsels and dragonflies, but the light itself was just great today.  I tried to get some photos of grass stems by the wee pond and oh, the sparkle from the water was a sight to behold.  I hate the word ‘Bokeh‘, which really just refers to out of focus light in the background of a picture.  In the olden days we used to call it an ‘Oofery‘.  It means the same thing without resorting to a foreign language.  Well, I soon decided it was the Oofery or the Bokeh (you choose which one is most apt) which was the most interesting part of the picture and proceeded to shoot some more vegitation with the sparkling light behind it.  After that I went in search of other subjects that would look good in this good light.  The cloud had lifted.  All it took was a bit of exercise and a cup of coffee.  Scamp’s good at these things.  I should listen to her more often … perhaps.

Oh, did I mention It’s all about the light?

It was a decent morning and we had decided to go for a drive along Loch Lomond side as JIC hadn’t been there for years and Sim had never been to the ‘Bonnie, Bonnie Banks’.  Unfortunately, as we got within about a mile of the roundabout at the south end of the loch, we hit a looooong traffic jam.  The traffic heading up the lochside was at a standstill.  A swift change of direction was necessary, so we moved into the almost empty outside lane and turned right at the roundabout heading for Balloch, intending to drive to Balmaha.  I always thought ‘Balmaha’ sounded really exotic, conjuring up images of swaying palm trees, but it’s really just a wee lochside village with cars parked everywhere.  Anyway, before we got to the Balmaha turn off, I spotted the turning for Balloch Castle and remembered Scamp and I going there a few years ago.  Drove in and got parked quite easily.   Went for a walk and heard music.  At first we thought it was coming from Duck Bay Marina across the loch, then realised it was coming from the lochside down below us.  Scamp talked to a lady and found out it was a Dragon Boat race and got direction from her, so we headed off and watched a couple of races.  It was a charity event with teams in fancy dress.  Managed to get a few photos of the boats.  Also got some shaky shots of the two seaplanes taking off on short pleasure trips from the loch.

Scamp was feeling hungry, and once you’ve seen a couple of the races, unless you’re involved, it gets a bit boring so we went in search of food.  Scamp said the best place was Lomond Shores and that is where we went along with hundreds of others.   On the way, we could see that the queue was still at the roundabout,  so we had made the right decision taking the diversion!  Lunch was in the cafe at Jenners and was quite decent.  After lunch we split up and wandered round the shops for a while then drove home after JIC found £15 just lying on the ground.  Lucky boy.  I thought that the queue at the roundabout would have dissipated by the time we were going home, but no, it had grown to well over 2 miles long by then.  Some people were going to have a dismal Saturday afternoon.

Later in the afternoon, we drove the other two into Glasgow so they could meet up with old friends.  Scamp and I walked around the Merchant City Festival in town and took in the sights and sounds for a while before returning home again.

For once it was not up and out early. In fact it was more lie in bed until you know you’ve got to do something before you get bed sores. I’d promised I’d clear out the back bedroom (my painting room) so Scamp’s sister and her husband have somewhere to sleep tomorrow when they return from their cruise. After that, I was exhausted so I got the bus in to Glasgow. Half an hour between buses and then forty five minutes for a twenty minute journey, and the pinheads in the government wonder why people don’t use public transport. When was the last time they actually sat on a bus? However, I shouldn’t complain too much because I don’t have to pay for the privilege

Glasgow was jumping today. It was looking its best, though and the sun made it look much more vibrant than usual. I took a wander down Bucky Street past St Enoch’s to the Clyde, but apart from taking a shot of a Brian May lookalike playing loud guitar with lots of reverb and little else. Then as a complete contrast my next few shots were of a couple of Polish guys playing some smooth jazz. There wasn’t much to see down by the Clyde. Lots going on, but nothing that moved me to press the shutter button. I walked back up along Queen Street where I usually can find something interesting at the GOMA, but nothing worthwhile today. Loads of people but no interesting shots.

Got the bus home. Luckily the fast bus which only took just over 20 mins. Scamp was sitting in the garden when I got home, admiring yesterday’s work. I decided to join her and sat for a few hours taking in some rays. Of course, I also managed to take some shots of the flowers we bought yesterday. The gazania really shone in today’s sunshine. It had to be the star.