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Raining all day, but Scamp took us to Veccia Bologna for lunch.  Very windy on the way home.  Managed out for an hour when we came back and got some photos of the swans at St Mo’s.

I know, it’s a kind of classic swan pose, but have you ever tried telling a swan how to pose?  I was happy enough with this shot with its water drops on the swan’s head.

This is the angry swan pose.  I don’t know what I did to anger him, but It seemed like a good idea to take the easy way out and beat a hasty retreat.

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I had hoped for a day out on my bike today, but it was cold and windy.  Not a good combination for a fair weather cyclist.  However, the day was not all lost.  I formatted my old HP netbook and reinstalled the system.  I did toy for a while with installing Linux, but finally decide it was a step too far.  One step at a time.

It looks like St Mo’s swans have settled on the island as their nesting place this year.  It suits me as it means I can still walk around the pond and not disturb them.  Good luck Mr & Mrs Swan.

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It was a bright sunny day here in central Scotland.  Went in to town to get stuff for next week.  Came home to a letter from the tax man giving me a ridiculous tax code.  While I’m writing this I’m hanging on the phone waiting for one of their advisors who “will be with me as soon as possible”.  So far it’s been 35 minutes and counting.

Saw this bloke on Buchanan Street playing slide guitar. His sign said this was the first day of his change of job. Hope he makes a success of it.

It looked like these skaters outside the GOMA were performing for a jury of their peers. There was no applause, but then they weren’t that good.

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What a disappointment.  Yesterday’s light show wasn’t a UFO after all.  It was all over the Interweb today that the Northern Lights were visible as far south as the midlands of England last night, so that explains the lights in the sky.  So it looks like a visitation by wee green men will not be happening to us soon.  We did get a shockingly large dump of snow on the doorstep this morning ‘though.  We could have done without that.  On the plus side, it gave me a chance to photograph something other than burds!

It would appear that during the night, the snow truck dumped it’s load again on us.  When I got up this morning, around 7.30, the world had turned white.  By the time I got out, the sun had removed the top layer, but it was still white below that.  Not quite “deep and crisp and even”, but white enough to make for an interesting photo.
Today’s shot was taken from, as near as I could remember, the same place as yesterday’s.

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I never believe the weather forecast from the BBC, but today they got it right.  I woke up to a blizzard blowing across the street.  Then, the sun came out and it was a lovely spring day.  Then it was blowing a blizzard again.  Welcome to Scotland.

Coming home from Glasgow tonight, we both noticed a really bright light to the north, over the Campsies.  Not a direct light, but more a bright glow in the sky.  I wondered if it was the northern lights which we do occasionally see.  As we dipped down a cutting on the motorway, it was lost from sight, then a bright flash appeared in the sky.  I thought it travelled north to south, Scamp thought it travelled towards us, more east/west.  Half the sky was clear half was clouded.  Don’t know what it was.  By the time we got to Cumbernauld the glow in the north was gone.  UFOs, that’s what they were.  Stands to reason.

Broom / Gorse flower with a little bit of rain on it.

Over at St Mo’s the weather was almost springlike today.

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After a lovely morning and early afternoon, I decided on a short walk around St Mo’s hoping for some shots of the deer.  No such luck, both on the weather and the deer.  The clouds opened when I was at the furthest point from home and I got hammered by what Dylan called “the wild and ripping hail” and was forced to shelter under some trees.  However, on the way home I startled a couple of mallards and managed three shots of them, but I forgot to switch off the anti-shake so my shots came out less sharp than they could – at least that’s my story.

Two mallards lifting off.

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A dull day. A Saturday. Not very inspiring. I did a bit of painting in the morning and we went to a local Italian restaurant for lunch. That was the highlight of the day. I think I’m going to downgrade my Nexus 7 to KitKat I’m fed up with the sticky Lollipop.

When you look at this, what do you see? A whole bunch of colours all mixed up. That’s what a painting is. Unfortunately, to be a successful painting, the colours all have to be mixed up according to a set of rules which are, at the same time, arbitrary, creative and structured. That, I think is where I’m falling down with this painting business. I can do the mixing of the colours. I can do the arbitrary part and I can also understand the structured part. At times, I even manage creativity. The difficulty is in getting all three to work on the canvas at the same time. It’s like Eric Morecambe said “I am playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order.”

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Up early and switched off the slow cooker which had been cooking the venison all night.  Made the panacotta and then made two different doughs for the bread.  After that, I had had enough so I took myself off into ‘The Toon’ for a walk and to get some paint and some help on choosing a 10″ tablet.  Didn’t get the advice on the tablet, but did get the paint.  Back home to help with final preparations for tonight’s dinner.

Early morning shot of a bluetit taken while making pudding for tonight’s dinner.  Really sharp for the lens being wide open.

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Cars roll by a hundred miles an hour

I was thinking while I was standing by the dual carriageway waiting for the bus that the traffic was speeding past at too high a speed.  I then realised that I too travel at that speed on that stretch and I’m below the speed limit.  Maybe that’s why I took this shot of traffic on the motorway.  Title comes from “To B without a hitch” by Bridget St John.

Up and out early in the day to walk along beside the Kelvin Burn from Auchinstarry to Twechar.  Cold walk with little to recommend it.  Saw a buzzard on a pole in the distance and am amazed that the Tamron long zoom managed to capture it in some detail.  Lots of water around, probably from snow melt from the Campsies.  Wild day with wind, hail, snow and rain.  Sometimes all at the same time.  Also some sun too.

Leaf impaled on a thorn branch.  I liked the colours and the effects of the backlight.

H is for Hawk was a dreadful book, no matter what Costa thought.  B is for Buzzard is my choice, and wildlife of the day.  Just a crop from the centre of the image.

High water on Dumbreck marshes, but a wee touch of blue sky for a change.  Most of the water came from melting snow on the Campsie Fells I think.

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A lot of different lichen here.  Most proliferous being  Cladonia fimbriata, but many others too.

The day started out well, weather-wise, but by the time we were going out, the sun had gone and had been replaced with grey.  However …

We went to Stirling and booked our summer cruise holiday.  Yes!

Came out of the travel agent and back to reality.  Grey and raining, but we still had sunshine in out heads 🙂

Wallace monument through a slight mist looking very grey today. There being so little colour in the scene, it seemed to make sense to turn it completely into mono.

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As usual, all is not as it seem.  I made a Fog preset in Lightroom. Then, with a large brush and heavy feathering, I passed it carefully over the bottom area of the shot, once it had been reduced to mono.  It needs some tweaking, but it looks promising.