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I had decided to go for a walk along the Forth & Clyde canal in Glasgow today, just for a change.  It really is an interesting place.  Watched kayakers doing a white water course.  Photographed some swans and saw Glasgow’s architecture from a different viewpoint.  An interesting Monday.

I liked the colour of the sky and also that the cross at the top of the building was mirrored in the cross shape of the street lights.

I watched a few of these blokes in kayaks completing the white water course in Glasgow. It wasn’t until I saw one from behind I noticed the POLICE stencil on his life vest! Oops, sorry guys. I’ll delete the other shots 😉

A swan preening. Seen on the Forth & Clyde canal at Maryhill in Glasgow.

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It was decided that we go for a walk this Sunday morning and it was further decided that we go to Mugdock park.  Fine, it had been a long time since we’d been there and although it as a bit of a boring walk, there were certainly some photo opportunities, so off we went.  Got there to find there was an ‘event’ on.  Nothing surprising as there is usually an ‘event’ on almost every Sunday.  Of course the carparks were full.  Why don’t they make more carparks?  It’s not as if they don’t have the room.  The place is ginormous!  Anyway, we drove past the visitor centre and found a new, almost empty carpark on the far side of the park.  Had an interesting walk along to the castle.  On the way we passed what turned out to be the remains of WW2 anti-aircraft gun emplacements.  It’s amazing what you find out when you go for a walk.

On the way back, we found that the ‘event’ people were leaving the main carpark and a host of others were arriving, but as the carpark had overflowed on to the verge of the road, we now had potential two way traffic on a single track road.  It would seem that the idiots (not) coming and (not) going along this stretch had never been to Skye and therefore did not understand the queuing system or the concept of ‘passing places’, so resorted to getting out of their cars and shouting at each other, which was productive.  Hmm townies!  What can you do with them?  A good walk almost wasted.  It did give me an opportunity to use my extensive expletive collection and have a good laugh at the welly wearing idiots, though, so not entirely wasted.

Mugdock park.  Snow on the ground.  That is to say, a ‘snow’ brush was used on the ground to make pretend snow.  Then I used a tinted graduated filter on the sky to give it that creamy snow laden look.  I was quite impressed with the overall effect.

Looking over Glasgow from Mugdock Country Park.  A bracing walk on a Sunday morning.  Some of the sheepy mehs were surgically removed with SnapHeal Pro (what Lightroom’s spot removal should have been) and the foreground lightened and Clarified with a custom brush in Lightroom.  I liked the layers of the city in the background.  It reminded me of an early attempt at digital painting Jim Cochrane the art teacher showed me ages ago, in another lifetime.

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Dull, dull, dull.  It did look as if it wanted to brighten up for a short while, then it changed its mind and returned to dull.  Drizzly rain for a while too.  Went to Falkirk and had lunch (Stovies) in Tea Jenny’s.  Must take you there the next time you’re up Hazy.  You’d love the tea cozies!  Tea is weird good too.

The lichen, Cladonia fimbriata. Looks like little trumpets.

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We had agreed that if it was a decent day (No Snow, No High winds, No Driving rain) we would get the bus to Ayr. The morning ticked all the above boxes, so we set off for sun, sea and sandcastles on the beach at Ayr. By the time we got to Prestwick the sky had clouded over and it was looking decidedly rainy, which was a bit of a pity as we had left Glasgow basking under a blue sky. We woz robbed!

However, we made the best of it with lunch at Wotherspoons, and since I wasn’t driving I even had a beer with my lunch. Oh joy of joys! Then we went for the walk along the beach, but by then the rain was starting, so we did fore go the sandcastles. I did manage to get a nice wee shot of the pier. Is it a pier if it’s made of concrete? It is now.

Pier at Ayr on a cold, wet, windy day. Bracing. Yes, that’s the word. Bracing!

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It was a really dull day, but we took ourselves off to the Forth & Clyde for a walk and then lunch at The Stables.  I was photographing a big buzzard in a tree across the canal when from the corner of my eye I saw a crow in a steep dive straight towards it.  Foolishly I didn’t hammer off a half dozen frames hoping to capture the attack, but for once, I didn’t.  I just watched the episode play out.  The clever crow caught the buzzard completely napping and whacked the bigger bird on the head with its claws.  Amazingly, it got away with it.  Really funny.  I imagine the sight will stay with me for a long time, because I saw it and didn’t photograph it.

As far as I am concerned, these are the stupidest birds in the world.  If they were as bright as their colours, they would be a force to be reckoned with.  Seen and shot across the Forth & Clyde canal

Unfortunately Ms Goosander was slightly out of focus which is a great pity as she is a much prettier colour than Mr Goosander, shown here, in my opinion.  Seen on the Forth & Clyde canal.  A bit thank you to the bloke who stopped and told us where you can see them in a park in Glasgow.  Must add that to my must-see places.

As any handyman will tell you, you just can’t beat a big nail whacked with an even bigger hammer to fix any gate.

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I was late getting up this morning and when I did wake, it was to the sound of chainsaws.  It looks like the council has decided that one of the locals has allowed their leylandii to grow too tall, so it is time for a trim.  I must admit they did the job in double quick time.  Two blokes with chainsaws and another feeding the cut down pieces into a chipper.  Superb entertainment.  I tried to film it on my iPhone, but it chose that time to tell me I had insufficient space to record it.  Aren’t Apple products wonderful?  One thing is good on a Mac and that is Apple Script.  I can’t believe the ease with which difficult tasks can be accomplished with this.  Another brilliant piece of software is Hazel.  It cuts through complicated tasks with ease.  Nothing on a PC comes close.  Did nothing for the rest of the day.  Must get out tomorrow.

It looks like a really dangerous occupation, but this bloke made it look easy. I’ve seen others make quite a hash of much smaller trees and take a whole afternoon.

I thought it was time to do some monochrome still life shots. Well, I was too lazy to go out and get anything more interesting. This one fitted the bill for both reasons.

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Must have gotten the bug yesterday because I went out again today on the bone shaker (my fault for inflating the tyres too hard).  Not as cold out as yesterday, but still not summer.  Not as much sunshine either.  Tried the land of the green blobs, but although there were green shoots on the moss, there were no blobs to be seen.  Just too early I think.  No animals (wild or otherwise) to photograph.  Managed to startle a partridge, but that was it.

I liked the way the seedheads were lit up by the backlight.  The colour added to the overall feel of the image.

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This is one of those photos that looked better than it finally appeared.  Through the viewfinder it looked quite startling, but even after a bit of post processing it didn’t quite live up to its potential.  Still a contender on a dull day.

For the second time this year I got my bike out and went for a run, hoping for a shot or two of some wildlife.  No such luck, the deer and rabbits were hiding.  They were probably hiding from the cutting westerly wind that chilled me to the bone.  I was thankful I’d brought my cheapo buff.  It took some of the sting out of my ears.  The low afternoon light gave the opportunity to get some texture into the land as the snow has now nearly gone although there is still a lot of ice about.

The lighting conditions were changing really fast and I knew I didn’t have time to change lenses so I just hammered away a 10 shot panorama and hoped I’d got everything.  Then the battery died in the Oly, so it was game over anyway.  Glad I got it.
Processing was in Photoshop for a change and for once it did a better job than Autopano.  Just one slight hitch in Photoshop, but a big exposure difference in Autopano.  Usual post processing in Lightroom.

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These wee fungi really brighten up the forest floor. A sign that spring is on the way usually.

Just a lazy Saturday.  Going to a 40th birthday party at night and Scamp had “Nothing to wear”, so we went in to Glasgow to find something she could sport tonight.  Nothing worth a shot in ‘the toon’ so I managed an hour at St Mo’s in the late afternoon.  Still some ice around and a little bit of snow.  Lots of ducks and swans flitting between the holes in the ice.  So …

A Moonwalking Duck.  Actually he was just coming in for landing with gear down and full flaps.

Gorse bush caught in the afternoon light through the trees.  I liked the way the thorns were silhouetted against the out of focus highlights.  Don’t try to tell me they are bokeh, they are OOF-eries, that’s a term I remember from a Practical Photography article many, many years ago called Shooting an Oofery.  They will always be Ooferies to me.

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