Category: Uncategorized

Lazy start to the day waiting for the sun to raise the temperature.  Scamp had asked that we go to Cramond and it was a good choice.  After driving through some rain showers, we arrived in sunshine.  We walked up the footpath beside the River Almond as far as the road bridge, about 1.5miles.  Watched a couple of nice trout taking flies in the Almond just below the bridge.  We saw loads of Mallards, a Cormorant and a Goosander.  Walked back and had an great wee lunch at the Cramond Falls Cafe.  By the time we reached Cramond village it was getting a bit breezy and the temperature was dropping, but that didn’t stop us both having ice cream from a traditional ice cream van.  Managed to get home in sunshine before the poor folk who have to work were returning home!

Cramond is a lovely old-fashioned and quite posh place, but my, oh, my the authorities really need to do something about the state of the toilets.  They must have been renovated somewhere around the 1950s.

A smooth as silk.  The waterfall on the Almond.  I tried all different shutter speeds, but this one 1/5th sec @ f36 gave the effect I was looking for.

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Now wash your hands.  You are joking aren’t you.

Took a walk along to Dumbreck marshes today just as the rain came on.  Not a lot to see there in the rain.  However, I did see the first swallows this year.  A bit late, but better late than never.

Pretty wee white flower being battered by the torrential rain today.

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Not just a lazy afternoon, a lazy day.  Cold wind, but bright sunshine in the afternoon.  Still didn’t entice me very far.  Grabbed a few shots of the flowers in the garden because they don’t last long at this time of year.

Flowers on a Forest Flame, not really noted for the colour of its flowers as it’s the foliage that generally catches the eye with this plant.

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As predicted by the weather forecasters, the weather changed today.  Not the snow we were told we might get, but rain and high winds.  A ten degree temperature drop too from yesterday.  We decided to go to Silverburn because we hadn’t been there for ages.  The M8 thought differently.  Got as far as Stow College when it all snarled up … again.  Turned around and went back into the city.

Scamp got some fancy clips for her bracelet.  I got some Burn Umber paint.  We went for lunch in Charcoals Cafe and it was delicious as usual.

Went in to Marks to get a new pair of jeans and saw that they now employ people to press the jeans by sitting on them!  See below for details.

Walked around St Mo’s when I got back as the sun had come out by then.  Some eejit had set fire to a bundle of logs in the middle of the woods.  However, you have to question the sense of the NLC workies who cut down the trees, cut them into logs and then stack them in the middle of the woods.  Do they expect the woods fairies to spirit them away?  Who are the bigger eejits?

Anyway, here are some foties:

Isn’t it thoughtful of M&S to employ folk to sit on the jeans to press them?

We were passing it yesterday and it really glowed against the blue sky. Glasgow has some stunning architecture when you take the time to look at it.

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Just a lone duck on the pond.

I like the idea of the green shoot breaking through the leaf litter.  Another sign of spring.

Up and out around 7.00am and caught the best light of the day I think.  Walked along the old railway from Auchinstarry.  Lunch at Cotton House.  It seems like we are eating out every day!  There will need to a tightening of belts soon.  Managed an hour cycling tonight just because the weather is going to be worse tomorrow according to the weather people.  Possible snow forecast and temp going down from 17º to 7º!

This guy kept moving a few yards downstream every time I came near.  I managed to get two clear shots.  This was the best.

I saw these growing wild tonight.  They looked great in the low light.

This was a case of right time, right place, wrong lens.  I’d taken the 70-300 and the 10-20 with me and this needed somewhere about a 40mm which was at home.  I tried 20mm, but it was way too wide and 70mm was too tight.  Only thing to do was to take a bunch of shots with the 70 end of the long lens and stitch them later.  For once Autopano let me down.  Too clunky, lots of jpeg artifacts.  I was forced to use Photoshop and it worked great.  The big problem was a big file, around 2GB!  Even once I’d resized it, it was still massive, but workable.  The mist was real, but I used a little bit of my patented fog brush in Lightroom to accentuate it.

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The great thing about satnavs is that they will get you out of a hole.  The bad thing about them is that they have a CPU, not a brain.  I was driving to get coffee beans and Thomsons over on the south side of Glasgow following my satnav.  I got as far as Stow college on the motorway and the CITRAC signs lit up with notification of an accident and all three lanes stopped.  I crawled along and came off at the first turn off then relied on the satnav to get me out of a jam, a traffic jam.  Well, it did the job, it got me to my destination, but it took the most circuitous route possible.  Coming back, it tried to do the same route, but it couldn’t see the sign at the roundabout pointing the way to the motorway heading home – I did.  Once it had recalculated it showed me the way home.  Great tools, but no brains.

Coffee.  It’s one of my guilty pleasures.  So much so that I got two coffee related prezzies yesterday.  A coffee grinder and a coffee freddo maker.  Unfortunately I ground up all my coffee beans to make the freddo – which tasted great by the way.  I’m going to have it over ice at the weekend!  Anyway, I needed more coffee beans and as I usually get them from the Bean Shop in Perth, I needed a supplier a bit nearer to home.  Then I remembered seeing that Thompsons coffee roasters had a shop on the south side of Glasgow.  It’s a blast from the past.  Many, many moons ago Thomsons had a shop in Glasgow city centre.  Now its in an industrial unit, but the good news is the coffee is just as good as it was, way back then.

The steps of the concert hall and Glasgow City Council is considering (read “have decided to”) knocking down these steps to extend the ‘retail opportunities’ of the area.  Don’t these witless wonders realise that they are supposed to serve the people, not themselves?

Busker basking in the sun on Bucky Street today.

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Happy Birthday to me.

Lazy morning with breakfast in bed, then just dottering around, enjoying the sunshine that Scamp had ordered for me.  Lunch at Vecchia Bologna in Bridge of Allan.  Came home and Scamp wanted to do some gardening.  Unfortunately, I have a serious allergy to this form of work, so I went for a run on my bike.  Light was not so good by this time, so wandered around my favourite tip and got some fairly average shots.  fm A good day.

I must make a note to watch this tree to see exactly what kind of blossom this tuft turns into.

The last remaining active volcano in Central Scotland.
Actually a pit bing near Kirkintilloch, but viewed from this angle …

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Apparently the commonest ladybird in the UK, but an indicator of spring.  Saw it today when it went for a walk.

Up early and back on the Samsung –  Almost said Nissan Note there.  Maybe wishful thinking.  Anyway, back investigating the secrets of the Galaxy Note.  Lots to find out here, especially in the drawing apps.  After lunch I dragged myself away, mainly because the battery was quite low.  Went for a walk in the sun at St Mo’s.  Startled a couple of deer, but that was just about it.

Remains of a teacup caught up in the roots of a tree.  I’ve photographed it before, but it still fascinates me.

One of today’s deer.

The green bristles are the needle leaves of a larch.

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When we woke this morning, it was to another foggy day.  Hopeful that it would burn off, we headed for Helensburgh.  Almost reached Balloch traffic-free when we were reduced to a crawl by a long queue of traffic.  It stayed that way for about two miles, then like the fog, it cleared with no sign that it had ever been there.  Crossed over the hill to Helensburgh and there was the fog again, lying across the Clyde – but no queue this time.  Went for a walk along the front at Helensburgh (if you’re reading this, J you’ll be groaning by now).  Helensburgh is getting really run-down, like so many Scottish seaside towns now.  Near the pier the esplanade has been upgraded with lovely curves of granite blocks and landscaped grassy areas.  Once you are past this part, it’s broken concrete with a sheer drop of about 4m to the rocks below.  No handrail, no sea wall.  If this were in industrial premises, H&S would shut it down.  By this time the fog had cleared to a rolling wall of grey in the middle of the estuary.  Quite photogenic.  Quick lunch at Costa and then home.

I had decided to bite the bullet and buy a Samsung Galaxy Note, so we dropped in at JL and I made the purchase.  Real one this time, not a JL Second.  After playing with it for a while when I got it home, I began to wonder if it was really worth the money.  Then I re-discovered Autodesk Sketchbook.  It was 12.30am before I noticed the time again … and so to bed!

Blackbird basking in the early evening sun.

This was the view looking up river through the mist from Helensburgh today.  My wife gave me the title – Fifty Shades of Grey.  It seemed fitting, although I don’t know where she got it from 😉

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