Category: Water

Short Changed – 17 September 2022

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Out early today for a short class at Brookfield.

Although it was a wrench, getting up at about 8.30am on a Saturday, it was worth it to drive out to Brookfield on a fairly quiet M8. We arrived about then minutes early on a bright sunny morning to find that everyone was there before us.

A Square Tango was the warm-up. Scamp tells me she learned it at school. We didn’t have any of that foreign muck in Larky. We danced real dances like the Military Two Step and, well, that was it, as far as I can remember. When we were sufficiently warmed up, we started on the Foxtrot. Scamp and I have been practising it all week in the rearranged living room. I’m glad to say that all that effort was not in vain. We gave a good account of ourselves on the Brookfield dance floor. We even added the Continuous Hover Cross and a Telemark Turn (don’t ask, I haven’t a clue what it is) to the end of our routine. We were feeling quite pleased with ourselves.

Then Stewart added a Barmoral Blues to the sequence dances. It has become my most hated dance of all time. I don’t know why, but it’s something to do with the individual pieces not gelling properly. It’s as if it’s been designed by a committee, each person with their favourite figure and each one determined to fit it into the sequence somewhere … anywhere! It just doesn’t work for me, and I’m not alone for once. It seems that Jane is not a fan or it either. Scamp just says “It’s alright.” A couple more sequence dances and we were done. A hard won hour, but for once, I felt a bit left down with just an hour’s class after we’d been practising all week. It almost felt like we were back in Michael’s class. Almost, but not quite.

We drove home and discussed what to do with the rest of the day over tea and toast. Scamp suggested soup for dinner, Just Soup. I agreed. We needed veg to make it and I offered to drive to Stirling, have coffee and a bite to eat there and go shopping in Waitrose. There being no better offers, that’s what we did.

On the way back, I took a detour out to Haggs and while Scamp read her magazine, I went along the canal and took some photos of the cloud reflections on the Forth & Clyde canal. One of them made PoD.

Scamp made the Just Soup and it was excellent. It will be even better tomorrow, once it’s matured. After dinner we watched the film Paddington. Just good fun entertainment where the goodies won and the evil baddie was vanquished.

No plans for tomorrow as yet, but it’s getting colder now. We even had the heating on tonight and to hell with the expense!

 

 

A day of mixed weather – 24 July 2022

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Sometimes sunny, sometimes cloudy, but always with rain of some description.

Heavy rain, light rain, sometimes just drizzle or a Scottish smirr, but there was always water of some description falling from the sky today.

We voted with our feet in the morning and our feet were up on the coffee table, although I did clear the junk off my IKEA Poang chair and had a relaxing half hour or so on it. It’s a great chair for reading in, but not so good for using with a laptop. I suppose it was designed before laptops were a thing. Allegedly it was designed around 1978.

Eventually had to get up to help prepare lunch and then the laptop came out of hiding and I was lost in Flickr for an hour at least. It did seem to stop raining for a while after that, but it was only a ruse by the rainclouds. As soon as we went outside the rain started again.

<Technospeak>
It was about 4 o’ clock before I decided to put on my new Columbia trainers and take an unusual combination of Sony A7iii + adapter + Sigma 10-20mm lens out for a walk in St Mo’s. I restricted myself to one circuit of the pond and had to get all my photos in that time and only with my Heath Robinson contraption. It’s really a very capable lens. It originally fitted my old Nikon D70, but when I upgraded to a D7000 the lens wouldn’t work with the more demanding electronic connections, so it was relegated to a cupboard. When I was selling all my Nikon gear to fund my move to full frame Sony hardware, I couldn’t bear to part with the old 10-20mm and found an adapter that would allow its use on the A7 series. It still takes great pictures, but is now manual focus only. The other problem is that it’s an APS-C lens which doesn’t quite cover the sensor of a full frame camera, so some cropping is inevitable. I could allow the camera to do it for itself, but where’s the fun in that when you can spend an hour doing it yourself!
</Technospeak>

The old lens took today’s PoD which is a view of St Mo’s pond with its duckweed carpet, viewed from the pond outfall. I just liked all the different green hues in the picture.

Dinner tonight was yesterday’s pakora and curries reheated and with some flatbreads for good measure. It’s now making itself known to me again, so some Gaviscon may be necessary tonight!

Watched the French GP with more than its fair share of thrills and spills. Good to see Hamilton making it to the podium. Not so happy to see George Russell sneaking 3rd place from Perez.

Spoke to Jamie in the evening and heard how they survived the heatwave on Monday and Tuesday. Heard too about the tomatoes in the garden ripening while Scamp’s are still green.

I think it may still be raining outside and we’re forecast for more tomorrow. Maybe the garden still needs a little more.

Hospitals, Doctors and a Horse Shoe – 13 June 2022

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All are here, but not in that order.

An easy start to the day. Wordle completed (Scamp got 4, I got 5). Sudoku completed and an early lunch was a piece ’n’ banana, delicious. Then we were off!

I drove Scamp over to Hairmyres this afternoon to get her eyes checked, the optician had spotted an irregularity in a scan she had in Larkhall, a month or so ago and she was referred for a further scan at Monklands a few weeks ago. Then Monklands referred her for yet another scan at Hairmyres. Turns out there is a thinning of her retina in her left eye which is something to do with her extreme shortsightedness, but there’s nothing that needs to be done about it just now.

While Scamp was at the outpatients, I took myself off for a walk round Calderglen park in East Kibride and got some photos. There’s a neat wee horseshoe shaped waterfall not far from the car park and I though it might make a decent slow shutter shot. Of course I’d left the tripod in the car and I’d also forgotten the ND filters, so it was hand held at 1/5th sec. Using the silent shutter feature I shot off 15 frames rapid, then blended them in Photoshop tonight. Quite impressed with the result, except that the image was a 2.72GB file! It was impressive, but not THAT impressive. However, it was good enough to get PoD.

When I was walking back to the car, Scamp phoned to say that she was finished and was having a coffee. I drove to meet her and had one too. When we got back to the house it was my turn to go to see the doc. I had been to see the triage nurse week before last because I’ve had a nasty looking rash on my leg. She said it might be dermatitis but thought there was a wee fungal infection there too. She gave me a couple of meds that seem to be working, but asked how my general health was and I told her ok, but I have an off and on problem with my waterworks. She sorted me out with an appointment with one of the docs for today. He suspected it might have something to do with my prostate, but after a ‘digital’ (nothing to do with computers!!) examination, gave me the all clear. After I’d wiped the tears from my eyes I thanked him and made my exit!

I think that was enough excitement for one day. We’re now looking more closely at the arrangements that will be needed for our holiday. It appears we will need a negative Lateral Flow test no more than 24 hours from when we depart. We also need to have proof of all the vaccinations we’ve had. I think we’re ok with that, but we’ll check with the dance teachers on Saturday as they’re at present in Cyprus and have up to date details. Just to check if the NHS Scotland app is enough evidence, or do we need a printout. We might have a word with you too, Jamie and Simonne as you’re not long back from Germany.

Maybe going looking for a new phone tomorrow in Glasgow. Hopefully a brighter day than today.

Boots – 23 May 2022

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Today we climbed Quiraing. Not mountain climbed it, in the car, of course! Are you mad!

We drove up to see then fantastic new car park and it really was a totally different place from the one we used to know. No big boulders poking out of the hard packed earth. No mad foreigners (that includes english) parking anywhere they felt like it, which sometimes meant actually on the road. No, there is now a purpose built car park with plenty of room for everyone from normal folk to those who drive camper vans. There is a down side, of course. It’s no longer free. That didn’t seem to bother the folk who were filling up all those spaces. We didn’t stop. I’ve photographed the view from the top of Quiraing more times than I care to remember and it in all sorts of weather. No, today we were just being nosey!

We drove on to Uig and stopped at a viewpoint at the top. Just hard packed earth, but free. The whole of Uig bay was laid out below us. I took a few shots that I’d later merge into a panorama or two, then we faced the drop down into Uig proper and the tortuous hairpin in the middle of the drive. Came through unscathed and continued on to Portree. There’s nothing much to see in Uig apart from the ferry terminal to Lewis, or is it Harris? I can never remember.

We were heading to Elgol and its strange eroded rock face at the north end of what is laughingly called a beach. It’s really just a jumble of boulders from ones the size of your fist to massive ones the size of a small car. On a good day there are great views of the Cuillins. But not today. The weather was fine, in fact it was nearly perfect with white clouds in a blue sky, but unfortunately, just before we reached Sligachan, I discovered I’d not brought my walking boots. The thought of climbing over those boulders in my shoes didn’t inspire me, so we stopped and I took a few shots of the Cuillins from the almost diametrically opposite direction. Mountins continuously being covered and uncovered with cloud and with rain showers washing across them. It wasn’t Elgol, but it would do. We turned and drove back to Portree, bought some expensive petrol (£1.71 per litre) and went to Jans Vans for lunch, a hard brush for Scamp and a chilli plant for me.

From there we drove up to Staffin and went down to the beach with its grey/black sand. That’s where today’s PoD came from. It’s a time exposure looking towards Flodigarry, using a 10 stop ND filter. I just knew you wanted to know that Jamie. Scamp hung around for a while, but then went back to sit in the car.

With a few shots in the bag and one I was sure would be PoD, I drove back to the house and we got ready for tonight’s family meal in Columba. There were eight of us being fed on Chicken or Pork or Veggie Haggis with potatoes and broccoli as side dishes. Lots of talk at the table and Scamp was interrogating Allan about the correct way to cook Jackfruit. I was impressed how much information he passed on, explaining the good and bad points of this strange vegetable that we’ve only recently discovered. A good night, even if Mairi wasn’t feeling like joining us.

We drove back to the house because June and Ian had some more preparations before they leave for home tomorrow.

It was a well filled day. Tomorrow we’re hoping to get to Elgol with boots!

Washout – 20 May 2022

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We’d gone out with the intention of driving down to Elgol. That didn’t happen.

We did drive down to the Co-op in Portree for something for tonight’s dinner for us, a couple of litres of milk and a bottle of gin for June. Then we took the road south although it was raining and kept going south into the teeth of a gale and driving rain until I pulled in at a parking place. The place where we’d stopped to photograph the waterfall on Wednesday. There we turned around and drove back to Jan’s Vans for lunch. It was pointless to drive on to Elgol in such weather. Sure, we might have arrived there to wall to wall sunshine. That’s quite possible on Skye. It’s also possible that there would be nowhere to park and the clouds would still be dumping rain on us. No, this was the sensible solution.

After lunch we drove back up the East road to the house. Shared out the messages with June and Ian and had a coffee in our own half of the house. All the while it was raining. But after an hour or so it began to tail off and I thought I might just get out for some photos. That happened when the sun did shine and the clouds did lift.

I drove down to Staffin shore, the beach with lovely light coloured sand. Unfortunately, today you could hardly see the sand, there were so many folk down there. Walking groups, family groups, people with dugs and just ‘folk’. Of course, they ubiquitous Camper Vans were there in their dozens too. Big bloody white boxes with a wheel at each corner. I gave up and drove down to the Slip where there were only two cars and a Manitou digger, forklift, jack of all trades. It looks brand new, so can’t belong to anyone on Skye. I got a few photos, but nothing spectacular. And, of course then the Camper Vans started arriving, so I left.

I drove up past the house, up to Loch Langaig near Flodigarry. It’s a big loch set among a horseshoe of hills. Lovely wee clean burn runs out of it and that’s what I was intending to photograph. I managed a few shots that I quite liked and decided to change lenses. When you’re in the hills, you should keep and eye on the clouds. The direction they’re coming from and how fast they’re moving. If I’d done that I might have noticed they were breaking over the hill tops and I might have got back to the car without getting soaked. I didn’t notice. I did get soaked.

But, I did get the photo. A low level view of the burn running off the loch and that became PoD. Best photographing day I’ve had since we arrived.

It’s unlikely I’ll have very much time for photography tomorrow. Lots of dressing up to do and lots of running around like a headless chicken. Isn’t that what weddings are all about?

Posted today – 24 April 2022

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Hopefully this blog will be posted the same day it was written. That will make it the first since April 13th. Here goes!

I spent most of the morning and some the afternoon writing the last few blog posts, posting them and also posting photos on Flickr. I always start off with good intentions on days when we’re on holiday, but I never quite manage to stick to those intentions. After all, I’m on holiday and blog writing, which can sometimes be good fun to do, can also be a terrible drag. Anyway, the backlog is gone for now.

After lunch we went for a walk round Broadwood stadium, the long way round. Over to the boardwalk and over that wibbly, wobbly way to dry land. Who in their right mind makes a boardwalk from plastic. Halfway along the boardwalk it feels like it’s ready to tip you into the loch it crosses. Typical NLC cost cutting. Some day it’s just going to collapse and then an investigation will begin and ‘Lessons will be learned’. After that they will replace it with another cheapo plastic boardwalk until the same thing happens again.
Well, we survived the boardwalk today, but it’s in a far worse state than it was in the last time we crossed it. We walked on over the dam then up past the exercise machines stopping on the dam to take a photo of a herring gull at the outfall from the loch. I never knew there were herrings in Broadwood Loch. We also got a good laugh at a Crested Grebe with its bad hair do. Unfortunately, the Sony 55-210mm lens wasn’t in a focusing mood today, so I don’t have a record of it.

We were sorted for dinner, so didn’t need to stop at the shops on the way home and I reckoned I had at least one decent shot from the birdwatching at the dam, so I didn’t need a walk over to St Mo’s.

Scamp watered the back garden using a watering can. I preferred to use the hose and watered the front garden. It will be so much easier if we get an outside tap fitted, but the tap adaptor worked for today. Also, as Carlyn, next door had watered our plants while we were away down south, I watered her’s today.

Dinner was steak for me and salmon for Scamp with a side of salad in the style of Simonne, but really nothing like as good as hers. I must practise that culinary skill.

Spoke to Jamie and heard about his plans for the coming week, jetting off to the US again to cause more mayhem by pouring oil on troubled waters. Good luck with pleasing all of the people all of the time, Jamie.

PoD was the herring-less gull.

Tomorrow I may plant my sort-of cow parsley, some in pots and some in the ground. I also need to get my hair cut soon as May is approaching fast. At least my kilt fits, I tried it on yesterday.

Off to Falkirk – 13 April 2022

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Doing patient transfer.

This afternoon we were taking Shona to Forth Valley Hospital for a checkup on the broken bone in her arm.

Once we dropped Shona off at the hospital we went for a coffee at Torwood Garden Centre. I’d taken the little Sony A6000 with its pop-up kit lens mainly because it fitted neatly in my jacket pocket. Got out of the car in the car park and saw the pastoral scene that made PoD. The fact that it was the only picture of the day is a coincidence.

We had a look round the flowers and shrubs in the garden centre and Scamp had her eye on some Violas or Pansies to fill the trough that hangs on the fence at home, but first we went for tea and a cake.

I didn’t feel right. I couldn’t put my finger on it at first, but eventually I decided it felt like a UTI. I’d had one before about four years ago and as the saying goes, “Once you’ve had it, you won’t forget it.” After several visits to the toilets, I was certain that was the problem. I imagined a cup of tea or maybe two would help the situation and for once I was bang on right. We’d just finish our tea when Shona phoned to say she was ready to go home. Scamp got the pansies and I managed to drop them on the way to the till. Not my fault this time, the handle of the tray had broken and like a piece ’n’ jam, they fell face down. Scamp went and chose another tray, we paid and left before anything else could happen.

Picked Shona up and drove home. After drinking about a litre of water I felt a lot better. Dinner tonight was new Jersey Royal potatoes with bacon and a burger for me and with an omelette for Scamp. You really can’t beat the taste of new potatoes.

A lot of organising was going on tonight, but I think we’re both happy with the result now.

Tomorrow will be a long day, so probably an early bed would help.

Strathaven – 29 March 2022

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We went to Larky, but Millheugh was shut, locked and bolted.

Scamp was out in the morning to meet Shona for coffee and I was feeling a bit down. The sun had forgotten to get up today and it was grey skies all around. Then I told myself to get up off my backside, put my old boots on and get out into the garden and start by chopping down the kale.

The kale is past its best now and is beginning to shoot. It really needs to be cropped, chopped and frozen if we aren’t to lose it. That was the easy bit. The little leeks were next to go from the raised bed. For some reason they just never took off like they should have done. Maybe they weren’t fed enough, or the compost was exhausted, but it seemed to feed the kale without any problem. Whatever the reason, they were coming out today and going into the soup later. That almost cleared out the bed, but there was a little bunch of aqilegia that I’d sheughed in (dug a hole and shoved it in to be reclaimed later) last year some time. I dug it out, split it into two plants and repotted it.

I spread some of Scamp’s cure-all fertiliser, Fish, Blood and Bone over the bed and started to fork it in. That’s when I discovered that at least one edge board of the raised bet has rotted right through. It will have to be replaced, but I don’t think the rot has stopped there.

It was round about then, Scamp returned with a bag of rolls for lunch. Bacon roll for lunch for me. Roll ’n’ Cheese for Scamp. After lunch we got ready and drove to Larky to donate Scamp’s now redundant reading glasses to the opticians to go to folk who need them. I went to B&M to get some superglue to fix my old Flying Tiger specs. Then we drove down to Millheugh where the big grassy bank beside the Avon Water has been barricaded because of unexplained dangers I get the impression they barricades and signs aren’t all that official. No explanations why you can’t fish there either. That’s Larky for you. It’s a different world, beyond the law.

Since Millheugh was closed and the weather was improving, I thought we might drive to Stonehouse. Got there, but there wasn’t anything interesting to photograph, so we travelled on to Strathaven. Parked in the bit car park on the Park and went for a walk through what used to be a great park, and actually, it’s looking quite good again. Some work being done on sprucing up the flower beds. A brilliant mural on the gable end of the toilets. Obviously aimed at children with bright colours and things to find in the painting. I may post it on Flickr.

I was photographing the trees growing beside the Powmillon Burn when a man, about my age commented on the blossom on a fruit tree we’d just passed. He gave me directions to a place to photograph behind Strathaven Castle. We couldn’t go today, but I said I’d go back on a day with better lighting, and I meant it. Then the strangest thing happened, he told us that he’d been diagnosed with dementia. It’s one of those times when you don’t know what to reply. He said he had had the test but was quite dismissive about it. Neither of us thought he really believed it was true. I was right about his age. He was a year older than me. Also, he went to Larkhall Academy. In those days, children who went to Strathaven Academy would leave school after third year. Only a few came to Larkhall for fourth to sixth year. I would almost certainly have been there when he came to the Academy.

We drove home by a twisted, circuitous route that brought us back via Millheugh, then it was a straight road through Larky to the motorway and home. I made soup as I’d intended with the leeks and some kale with carrots, turnip and some lentils. It was really good. I was impressed, even if it was 7pm before we got to eat it with a roll each.

PoD was a shot of East Church House, now a hotel beside the Powmillon Burn.

Tomorrow we have no plans.

One out, one in – 15 March 2022

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DPD were working overtime today.

My Sony A7ii was being collected this morning to go to MPB in Brighton. Later in the day I was expecting a box of coffee and tea from The Bean Shop in Perth. One out, one in.

The DPD man came to collect my camera right on time and off it went with a sticker on it that had the same number as the sticker that’s fixed with a magnet to the fridge door. One down. Not long after I got the message to say that my driver would deliver my parcel just after midday. Sure enough, the bloke knocked the door and photographed me lifting the parcel from the mat. I will drink tea and coffee today!

That left the rest of the day free. It’s a while since we’ve been out for a walk together. Scamp sometimes walks down to the shops herself and I often walk round St Mo’s myself. I suggested to her that maybe we should both go out together today. Just a walk round Broadwood Loch. She agreed and we walked down towards the loch, but she wasn’t interested in doing the round trip, so we chose the shorter version, over the plastic boardwalk and down round the new water management drainage ditch (first time we’ve been round that) and then round the exercise machines before stopping at the shops for oranges and milk. I did think of going for a circuit of St Mo’s pond, but decided just to go home as I’d a few shots that looked interesting.

Dinner tonight was Creamy Chicken, Mushrooms and Rice. Another Scamp favourite. She thought it needed salt and pepper. I agreed on the salt. It was actually fine without it, but the salt just gave it a bit more taste.

Heard the news from Nick the Chick that we have to wear face masks in shops and on public transport until the beginning of April. A bit disappointing, but that’s just the way her head works. Belts & Braces are her style and you have to believe she’s doing it for the good of our health, rather than to look good to the great unwashed as some other politicians do.

We had a quick practise at the new waltz and I think I can tentatively say that I can complete the first section without too many mistakes. I’m not sure I’ll be able to say that again tomorrow, but maybe the dancing gods will look down and smile at my attempts.

PoD turned out to be a shot I took with the A6000 from the boardwalk. Actually, it’s gone through a fair number of changes since it landed on Lightroom this afternoon. A lot of changes, but for the better.

It’s my turn to go for coffee tomorrow. Meeting John and Val at Costa in the morning. The rest of the day is our own.

 

Dancing’ – 10 March 2022

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Today we were back dancing in Paisley.

I expected them to, at least, have some bunting out and maybe even some Scottish flags to celebrate the return of Sheila. What did we get? We got told off for “just waltzing in at any time”. Admittedly it was said tongue in cheek, but where were the balloons and streamers?

In the morning we spoke to Hazy for a while and found out how painful it is to to have a pain reducing patch ripped off, removing some skin in the process. Apparently Neil will be able to walk again once he’s out of traction.

After speaking to Hazy, I reckoned I had enough time to go on a frog hunt in St Mo’s. It is usually about the first or second week in March they arrive for a few all night parties with a bit of hanky panky, leaving great rafts of spawn clogging up the shallows of the ponds. Today was one of those days, and the frogs and a few toads too were congregating happily splashing through the water and playing leapfrog, at least that’s what it looked like. I got a few photos of the celebrations, some of which will be posted on Frog Porn later tonight. One particularly smug looking individual made it to PoD.

I’d just enough time after getting the photos to get home for a quick bite to eat before we were off to Paisley to the first Tea Dance in ages. It was a fairly reduced affair with a lot of the regulars having called off due to a resurgence of Covid. That left a bit more room for us to stagger around making more mistakes than we were getting right. I think a lot more practise needs to be done before the next one. Having said that, we did get up for almost every dance we knew how to do and even some of the old hands were having difficulty getting their old feet to find the proper steps in the correct order. Next time we’ll be better.

We left early, and again found that the traffic was much lighter with that 30minute difference. Of course everything snarled as we neared the Kingston Bridge, but that’s just inevitable. It would have been much worse if we had waited until the end of the dance.

No plans really for tomorrow apart from, perhaps, a visit to Larky later.