Category: weather

Fog – 10 December 2024

Posted on by Zogman

This morning the sky was clear when I was making breakfast. It didn’t last!

An hour later everything was covered in a thick freezing fog. However, it did gradually thin down and I took out the A6500 with the kit lens and the Tamron too. I just went over to St Mo’s and did a circuit of the pond. It wasn’t all that successful. The fog kept coming and going, thickening and thinning. I did get a few photos, but even the thin fog wasn’t as clear as it had been a week ago.
It was also really cold. I must look out a pair of full finger gloves. The fingerless ones are fine when the weather is cool in winter, but my fingers freeze up on really cold, sub zero days like today. I might have a look for a pair tomorrow if I meet up with Alex.

It’s been a tradition that we go in to Glasgow to photograph the lights in George Square at Christmas. I must admit I do get bored with wandering around taking photos of the same lights as last year, especially when it’s cold. Even with my new down jacket and my insulated walking trousers, the cold will manage to find a way in.

Scamp and I were in Glasgow yesterday and we thought there were fewer than normal stands and food outlets. Maybe I’ll be able to convince Alex that St Enoch’s will be a better target for our cameras. It seems to have taken over from George Square.

Well, the tree is up. The decorations are in place and the Letter has been opened and read and the Snowman table cover is on the table. I think it must be nearly Christmas.

The PoD went to a shot of frosted Cow Parsley seed heads, complete with spider webs, I saw on my walk over to St Mo’s this cold morning.

Tomorrow, as I said, I’m hoping to meet Alex in the bus station in Glasgow. Where we go after that will hopefully be revealed tomorrow evening, all being well.

A day in the Toon – 9 December 2024

Posted on by Zogman

We took the bus in to Glasgow, just for a wander in the sunshine.

It wasn’t warm by any means. A cold day from start to finish, but the sunshine made it feel better. First stop was Nero for a coffee, then we split up. Scamp walked down to the shops and along to M&S. I went to the Apple shop to interrogate the experts. They don’t have a Genius Bar in the Glasgow centre shop now which is a shame. It was good being able to talk to the geniuses!
I did spend some time perusing the expensive pieces of glass, metal and plastic and I did have a conversation with one of the advisers who answered all my questions, so I achieved something.

I bumped into Scamp on my way down Buchanan Street and we walked back up in the general direction of the bus station. Bought ourselves a bargain pack of reading glasses each in Poundstretchers £3 for three pairs of glasses. Walked round the corner an found that we’d just missed the X3. Rather than wait in the cold, I suggested we cross the road and wander around JL for fifteen minutes and that’s what we did. Why freeze when we could use JL’s heating to keep us warm. The bus arrived in time and we headed home.

Scamp built up the tree and decorated it while we listened to Joni Mitchell which is a tradition in the house. I added two wee decorations to the tree and helped hang up the Christmas star Mairi had made for us.

Dinner was the usual pasta with what’s in the fridge and a tomato sauce. Then I launched Time Machine. Apple’s automatic backup device and it performed the first backup in about 5 years. I’d forgotten just how useful that bit of software was. I hope I don’t ever need it, but it’s there if I do and I’m sure it will work perfectly to reinstall the entire system.

PoD went to an asian couple taking selfies in Buchanan Street. It was too cold and the sun was too low to take anything more interesting. When the sun is as low as that it really blinds me.

The weather looks even colder tomorrow. Sub zero predicted for most of Scotland. I think we might be taking Shona out for lunch. It depends on whether Ben decides to go to school or not.

A lovely clear morning – 8 December 2024

Posted on by Zogman

So good to wake to a bright, clear winter’s morning. Makes such a difference from the dull, milky skies of late and the gale force winds too.

It was Scamp’s suggestion that we drive over to Colzium, just outside Kilsyth and go for a walk in the woodland. I agreed, and off we went. Instead of our usual clockwise walk, we ignored tradition and walked it anti-clockwise. I hadn’t realised just how tiring the climb up the side of the Colzium Burn was until we were about half way up. Then we both realised that it was going to get even tougher when we crossed over the burn by the bridge and covered the last stint. A stop at the top gave us both a chance to rest for a while and take in the view down the waterfalls that tumble down to cross through the park many metres below.

After taking some photos of the waterfall and the rapids, we walked along the far gentler path that would take us through the trees to the once private road that led to Colzium House, now a wedding venue. On the way we were passed by a girl leading, or trying to lead her Setter along the path and through the trees. They made it Flickr, but didn’t get PoD. That went to a photo of the waterfalls at the top of the climb.

We took our time and followed the road past the house and back along a different burn on a higher channel. The burns cross at one point, but one is carried through a pipe below the higher one. It’s a strange sight to see. One sailing sedately along while the other drops through a manmade waterfall, through a pipe on off on a totally different direction. You probably have to see it to understand what’s going on.

We drove home via Lidl where we stocked up on sweets, beer and a loaf. The loaf was to be lunch, toasted and covered in baked beans. Beans on Toast, in other words!

Once lunch was past, we brought the tree out of the loft and unrolled the Snowman table cover in the living room to allow it to warm up and stretch a bit after being in cold storage for eleven months.

Dinner tonight was ‘Rats’ for Scamp and a steak for me. Steak was overdone but the baked potatoes we had with our protein were great.

Watched yesterday’s ‘Strictly’ and the F1 GP. Strictly was instantly forgettable but the GP was full of thrills and spills.

Spoke to Jamie later in the evening and heard about his plans for Christmas. We also heard of the problems of pleasing all of the people all of the time when it came to Christmas food. I don’t believe it can be done. Please yourself, that would be my suggestion. Then at least one person will be happy!

No definite plans for tomorrow, but a trip to the skips wouldn’t be a bad idea!

A cold windy day – 7 December 2024

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We hadn’t planned anything for the day and it didn’t look like there was going to be any reason to go out.

Basically, that was the story of the day.

It was such a dull day too. I had no reason to go out to take a photo. Instead I decided it would be a tabletop shot today. I chose the Hebe cuttings she’d taken, with permission, from Jackie’s bush in her front garden in Skye. She had watered them today and a little bead of water was nestled in the bottom of some leaves. An ideal subject from a less than ideal day. After about a dozen shots I had one I was happy with. It was a 30second exposure which will give you an idea how low the light level was in the toilet today. The toilet has been a great place to photograph plants. Awkward to get the Manfrotto tripod into, but a great setup to shoot in. PoD done and dusted.

With a few hours left were taken up with building this year’s calendar. I’m only really about half way through the first attempt and there’s still a lot to do, but a start has been made.

A pizza for dinner, because we were going over to Brookfield in the evening for the final evening dance of the year. Quick change of clothes and a shower, then we were off into Storm Darragh. Again, we were just on the edge of the worst of the wind, and thankful for it.

Arrived in plenty of time and had a great night of dancing and what can only be called a “Carry On”. Spoke to folk at our table who I may, in the past, have described as slightly standoffish, but once I took the time to talk to them, they are just ‘folk’.

Drove home along a motorway that was busier than I’d anticipated, probably due to shows and pantomimes emptying into the motorways. After we left Glasgow everything calmed down and we got parked quite easily at home.

We watched the qualifying for the F1 GP of the year, and had a wee snifter each to keep our eyes open.

Wind is still quite strong and noisy, but it’s calming down, I think.

No plans yet for tomorrow.

Windy night and a windy morning – 6 December 2024

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We didn’t fancy going anywhere today which was lucky because I still had a fair amount of tidying up to do on the computer. It’s working, but things keep changing inside its silver box. I don’t know what’s going on, but it feels as if things are settling down. I hope that’s not Famous Last Words.

Leaving the computer aside, there were a few tasks in the garden needing seen to. Not a lot, but the sunflower that turned its back on us needed to be chopped down and the assorted miniature sunflowers around the edge of the raised bed had to go too. Not much else, but the place just looked a bit better after that. I passed my secateurs over to Scamp and she chopped down the dead stems of the geums.

After lunch which for Scamp was turkey sandwich and for me it was a sandwich with pastrami and mustard. It’s a long time since I’ve had pastrami. Anyway, after lunch I went for a walk in St Mo’s. It was only about 2.40pm when I went out, but you’d have believed it was about 5.40. I don’t think the sun shone at all to day.

There were thin pickings out around St Mo’s, but my favourite by far was a shot I took on the way there. It’s a bush called the Snowberry and you can see from the photo that it’s well named. It produces the white berries in the autumn but they don’t last long and seem to degrade quickly.

When I got home I worked on the photos for a while before starting to get ready to go out to Bombay Dreams for dinner with June and Ian. I was looking forward to one of their famous curries. We had noticed that the quality of their take-away meals had slipped a fair bit the last time we’d ordered one, but tonight the service was really slow and my pakora was only part cooked. Portions were smaller than they used to be, but many restaurants are doing that now to avoid bigger hikes in their prices. However, the restaurant was about a quarter full which is not what you expect to see on a Friday night. Waiters constantly asking if we wanted more drinks became annoying too. This was not the Bombay Dreams we used to visit fairly regularly a few years ago.

Worse was yet to come. We’d been told there would be a special karaoke event. It was awful. One bloke attempting to encourage the participants to come up and sing, by singing off-key himself, there was no attempt to segue into the next track, just stopping in mid track and changing the music. I could go on, but I won’t. A totally wasted night. I don’t think we’ll ever be back. What a shame.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to go dancing at night. The last Evening Dance of the year. Wind and rain forecast! No karaoke!

We start the battle again tomorrow – 4 December 2024

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My parting words yesterday were “… I will let the whole thing cool down until we start the battle again tomorrow …” and that’s basically what I did.

I have two SSDs which can run the iMac. One seems to be damaged, or mismanaged in some way, but the other, the older one, does work, although the operating system isn’t as up to date as the dodgy one. Before I went to bed last night I swapped the dodgy one for the less up to date one and it just worked.

It was a foggy morning and we drove up to Calders to get some compost and plastic pots to plant out some cuttings Scamp had ‘acquired’ from Jackie. She, Scamp, was booked to have her hair cut later in the morning , so on the way home we drove past Condorrat, where the hair dressers is, to ensure the four way traffic lights wouldn’t block the entrance to the hair dressers. They didn’t, thankfully. On the way past St Mo’s park the fog was turning to mist and rising very photogenically from the surface of the pond.

We parked at the house and I grabbed a camera and went for a walk in St Mo’s. Beautiful light and excellent shadows from the trees in the park. Plenty of subjects and when I’d done one circuit of the pond, I came upon a group of about a dozen Canada geese paddling in one of the channels that had been dug to increase the cover for the waterfowl. They took one look at me then turned a blind eye to me. I think they were pretending that if they didn’t look at me, I wasn’t there. I decided to do the same after I’d taken half a dozen photos, and walked on without looking in their direction.

Back home I uploaded the photos to the laptop, so at least I would have them saved somewhere on a computer and could retrieve them sometime.

Of course I couldn’t leave well alone and, started looking in detail at what was happening with the dodgy drive. None of it made sense and the more I looked the worse it became, and the more fankled I became.

The bright spot of the day was dinner which was Mince ’n’ Tatties. It gave me heartburn later, but that was a small price to pay for such a lovely meal. Thanks Scamp.

At night we went dancing in Kirsty’s class. Tonight was the last class of the year and hopefully the last time we’ll be on that tiny wee dance floor. Every dance tonight was a sequence dance, starting with the Sambarina which I hate. Then it was on to other dances. Some just silly wee dances, but some real sequence dances we knew. A lot of folk gave up on them but about six of us, three couples managed to finish them. Actually, if you ignore Sambarina, it was a good night.

Drove home and watched the penultimate episode of Shetland then we both went to bed to read for a while after another disappointing day.

Still no photos to show, but hopefully I’ll process some on the old drive tomorrow..

Tomorrow we may also go in to Glasgow.

Oops I did it again – 3 December 2024

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I blew up the computer again today. This time, knowingly.

First things first. Hazy got her belated birthday box today, delivered by Royal Mail a day late. That may be the last time we use this overprices but untrustworthy delivery company. Some poor bloke is intending to buy the Royal Mail. Good luck with that mate. Anyway, Hazy enjoyed her extended birthday! We had a good talk to her in the late afternoon.

It was a bright day for a change, but it looked cold outside in the morning so we just stayed inside looking out at it until lunch time when we were entertained by the local grey squirrel who was checking out all the local gardens, looking of anything it could eat.

After lunch I took the A7 out for a walk in St Mo’s and deliberately walked the long way round the house first to chase away the rat with the fluffy tail. I think also frightened the man at the corner of our block who was measuring up a neighbour’s garden for a new fence.

The good light had gone by the time I got to St Mo’s, but I did a walk round the pond to keep my step count up and took a few photos. I really need to get up and out early(ish) if I’m going to get any good light at all.

Scamp made a really delicious Fish Pie for dinner. Unlike Jackie’s fish pie with mashed potatoes on top, this one had sliced potatoes on top and a lighter sauce.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The PoD was intended to be Mr or Mrs Squirrel, but I blew up the computer again and it’s still struggling to get everything back into the big silver box, so the photos might not arrive until tomorrow. A bit like the Royal Mail.

I had decided to have one last try at installing the Paragon software, but for some reason the iMac wouldn’t restart after the installation. I’m guessing it’s because I’m running the show on an SSD and the software was designed to run on a ‘real’ computer. But because the internal hard drive of the iMac is junk, the SSD is a better choice.

The long term solution is a new iMac and although the prices can be eye watering, it’s my hobby, and I’m willing to pay for it. What I don’t want it to be is the constant struggle I’m having just now. At this moment the iMac is reinstalling the data from (yet) another SSD and will hopefully be finished in about an hour. Then I will let the whole thing cool down until we start the battle again tomorrow.

Hopefully we’ll get out tomorrow to get some potting compost and some pots for Scamp to take winter cuttings.

Dull! – 29 November 2024

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Scamp was out to the last FitSteps of the year. Stayed home and read more of The Black Loch.

When she returned from her exertions we filled a box with some of those plasticky things that look like white Cheesy Wotsits then put some bits of wood in and also some bolts and nuts to make the box look like it had something interesting inside before wrapping it up, taking it up to Tesco and posting it to someone as a little surprise. Probably not the surprise they were expecting. Just a little bit of fun!

In two weeks we’re hoping to last tea dance of the year and while we were in Tesco, Scamp tried to find me a Xmas jersey to wear at it. Most of them were awful, but I did find one I might pay money for. Only maybe though. I’ll see if the price will come down in the next few weeks.

With just enough light to see my way round St Mo’s, I took the A6500 and one lens for a walk. There wasn’t much of interest, except for a strange yellow glow in the sky from a very low sun. I clambered down a banking that led me down to the pond and got some shots from there of what looked like a bonfire being built in the pond. Surely not. After climbing back up, I was taking some photos of the reflections at the outfall from the pond when a gang of rowdy Mallards flew in and the shattered the peace. So I went home.

We watched another episode of Shetland and just when everything was looking a bit clearer, there was another twist in the story. I know we should have expected it, but there’s always a cliff hanger in these stories.

That was about it for today. Not a lot to report, really.

We might need an earlier rise tomorrow because the politburo at Brookfield need time to set up a Xmas Fayre.

 

A busy day – 28 November 2024

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Some days are filled with To Do lists and some are just made for lounging about. Unfortunately today’s was one of the former.

What with writing yesterday’s blog and posting it, then driving to the tea dance at Glenburn and back again, it felt like it was non-stop.

It started with a lazy look at Wordle and Spelling Bee. Wordle was easy, but I’ve still not completed SB. Then it was time to fill in the spaces of my memory of yesterday, typing it up and posting it. By then it was almost lunch time and a welcome wee piece ’n’ bacon and another slice on blackcurrant jam. Both delicious. Thanks for organising that, Scamp. That left me just enough time to wash my face, shave and get dressed for the Tea Dance. Then we were off with the thermometer in the car reading 0ºc. Brrrr!

By the time we reached Glasgow the temperature had risen to 2ºc and the heater was pushing out warm air as fast as its wee fans could heat it. Fairly easy drive to Glenburn although there was a lot of ‘tutting’ from Scamp when the boy racers were slaloming through the traffic on the M8, managing to shave off a decent 20 seconds from their journey time. You have to ask yourself; Is is worth the effort for 20 seconds max with the possibility of a bump and the polis being able to read your speed using the melted rubber on the tarmac as a guide and fifteen folk able to identify you with their dash cams. It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye.
But we all do it, don’t we? Or is that just me?

Apparently the there was a prize for the worst example of bad parking in the car park at Glenburn. Cars dumped everywhere. It must be something in the water today. Anyway, we didn’t miss anything, because Stewart was waiting to see how many latecomers like us would appear, blaming traffic, roadworks and diversions. Nobody believes any of those tales, but everyone tells them.

Waltz to start as usual, then the lethargic Rumba One followed by Rumba Two, which is almost exactly the same as R1 but slightly faster. We danced the usual list. A Foxtrot, a Quickstep, a (Real) Rumba, a Salsa and a Bachata. Interspersed with the ‘real’ dances were quite a few sequence dances. A good crowd at the table we were sitting at. David and Carol with occasional visitors Linda and Billy. Good patter flowing around the table as always.

We left just after 3pm to avoid the school rush and for once I decided to take the Kingston Bridge road rather than the M74/M73, and for once it was the right decision. Stopped at Asda for a bunch of flowers for Scamp, she deserved it for keeping me fairly close to the right steps at the right time.

By the time we got home it was dark. That’s what happens in Scotland in November. Dinner was a reheated paella from yesterday. Scamp sorted it as usual heated enough to kill off any nasties in the rice, but not enough to turn the whole dish into mush. Something else learned today.

It had to be a tabletop photo today due to lack of light. It’s a little orchid we picked up in a garden centre earlier in the year. All the flowers died away after a while and we thought it was dead. Then one day I was sure I could see a tiny green shoot appearing from the stem, so we took a bit more care of it after that and fed it some liquid orchid food. Then this week the flower opened. We were delighted.

I’m still struggling with the new watch, but things are coming together now. Much more complicated than the FitBit, but it works.

Scamp is intending going to the last FitSteps of the year, but nothing else planned. Rain forecast.

At The Fort – 26 November 2024

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We drove to The Fort today. Our main aim can’t be divulged yet, but it was partly successful.

Scamp messaged Hazy in the morning to see how here mouth was. The reply was that she “slept ok. Her face was a bit swollen, but not too sore.” We were both glad to hear that.

We drove home via Tesco to get some veg for dinner and a carton of milk. Such an exciting day. Then it was home for lunch. First I was reminded that we need the boiler serviced, so I phoned the local heating engineers and got an appointment for the middle of December. Another thing  to tick off the ToDo list.

After lunch Scamp was intending to phone Jackie, so I put my boots on and went over to St Mo’s on a cold but sunny day to get some photos with the 16-35mm lens on the A7iii. One of them became PoD. I liked the colour of the light and the low viewpoint that had me crawling along the boardwalk. I thought the council plan to cut channels into the reedbeds and the marshy areas was going to be a disaster, but after a couple of years they have become a haven for ducks and the occasional swan. Also they are sheltered from the wind and create great reflections. For once I say “well done” to the council.

By the time I got back, the telephone conversation had finished and it was time to chop up the veg to make Butternut Squash Soup which would be the main course of tonight’s dinner. Scamp made custard that went so well with the apple tart of a couple of days ago.

We watched the final of The Great British Bakeoff. I got the winner totally wrong, but I think Scamp backed the right horse.

A quick practise of the new Quickstep that we’re hoping to unveil on Thursday at a tea dance. Still a few rough edges to remove, but effectively it’s there.

We may go shopping tomorrow and hopefully there will be enough for a quorum at the British Legion for the last waltz of the year!