Category: weather

Rain and Sunsets – 15 October 2016

Posted on by Zogman

15-oct

The weather fairies were predicting a good day for tomorrow, with blue skies all around, but for today they were predicting blue as in the colour of water everywhere.  I don’t know about tomorrow, but they were dead right about today.  Scamp’s phone predicted that it would dry up around 4pm and it did.

Needless to say, there was very little chance of photos during the bulk of the day and no chance of any sketches, even with permanent markers.

We went to Stirling, because:

  1. It’s fairly near – This wasn’t a day for driving far.
  2. It’s cheap to park if you know where to go – £1.40 a day v £2 an hour in Glasgow.
  3. It’s still got a good curry shop.

Sorted then.  Had a curry in the Indian Cottage and a quick wander round the shops.  Coffee in Cafe Nero and then a browse through the gallery in Port Street then got tomorrow’s dinner in Waitrose on the way back to the car.  It wasn’t a brilliant day, but the curries were tasty and mine was super hot with loads of fresh green chillies.

Although the clouds were lifting and the rain was becoming more hit and miss, there still wasn’t a case for getting the sketchbook or the camera out of the bag.  It would have been a bit dangerous and maybe even illegal to do a sketch while I was driving anyway.  Just another of the restrictions being put in place by the Scottish government.  Can’t drink and drive and now you can’t draw and drive.  Whatever next?  They’ll be telling us we can’t use our phones while we’re driving!  Only joking, they’d never be able to police that, would they?

I started to get twitchy once we got home.  The rain was off, the clouds were lifting and there was a wee bit of light getting through, so I grabbed my jacket and ‘the big dog’, the Nikon and headed out.  I didn’t really want to go to St Mo’s because I knew the light direction wouldn’t make for a good sunset shot, so instead I took the longer walk to Broadwood Loch.  It’s not really a loch, it’s a big pond – manmade by ‘the cooncil’ who flooded a boggy chunk of land they couldn’t sell to house builders or to the industrial sector.  That’s all they did really.  They built a turf dam at one end and let the water level rise.  Initially there was talk of a sailing club and game fishing, but as usual, these ideas were shelved by ‘the cooncil’ as it would cost too much outside the limits of Motherwell, so we must consider ourselves lucky to have a path round the pond and some distance markers.  Compare and contrast with Strathclyde Loch with its Olympic rowing lanes, its sailing club, cycle track, multiple carparks … need I go on?  It couldn’t have anything to do with its close proximity to Motherwell, the centre of North Lanarkshire.  I digress – as usual.  I got a few decent sunset shots using the 10 – 20mm Sigma lens which is simply ideal for this type of shot.  I had something in the bag at last.

img_3445-flickrToday is ‘hump day’ for Inktober, 15 days in.  Pass this and you’re on the home stretch.  I chose one of my old shoes for today’s sketch and since a lot of people are photographing their pens with their sketches, I thought I’d do the same.  Today’s drawing was completed on 110gsm Fabriano Sketch using a 0.3 Micron.

Lets hope the weather fairies are as correct in their prediction for tomorrow as they were today.

Sketching in Town – 14 October 2016

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We took the bus in to the town today and then went our different ways for an hour and a half.  Me to do my sketch of the day and Scamp to wander round the shops.  Yesterday I had a bit of a hiding place, ensconced beside a wall in img_3442-flickr-1the church yard of the old church, you could even say I was hiding, but today was drawing in the middle of Glasgow.  No walls, no church yards to hide behind, just me, a sketch book and about half a dozen pens.  I got some strange looks, but nobody stopped to ask what I was doing, which was a great relief.  I suppose I did have one hiding place, one wall, the wall and hiding place of Inktober which I guess I could use as an explanation for sketching in the open air in Glasgow.  Either that or a daft auld bastard with too much time on his hands.  Yes, that would work too.  Sketch wasn’t as good as I had hoped it would be, but I’ll keep trying.  Another sketching day beckons tomorrow.

Today’s photo is of a wee lane just off Queen Street.  I think it unlikely that Nicola had ever seen this lane, let alone stayed in it.  Such is the hyperbole in Glasgow at the moment.  I’ve taken this shot before, but this is a different crop to remove the two windows above this one and exaggerate the squalor of Queen Nicola’s Lane.

Lunch, when we met up again, was at Paesano Pizza in Miller Street again.  Excellent pizzas.  When we left there, the rain was on.  Up until then it had been dry and fairly bright.  Like I said at the start, we’d travelled on the bus today and on the road home I was pleased that we had.  Traffic was backed up and hardly moving as we crossed the bridge where I would have been exiting the M80.  I’d have been caught up in at least three miles of standing traffic.  Not a good way to end the day.  In addition, I had the opportunity to have a glass of wine with my pizza.  You can’t risk that if you’re driving these days.

Altogether a worthwhile day.

Another day waiting for the aerial man – 12 October 2016

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The bloke who was going to take down that bloody aerial failed to turn up today.  Different bloke from the last time, different day, same result.  Now he says he’ll be here tomorrow.  Do we believe him?

Went out early for some photos in the sunshine in St Mo’s.  Got one of Mr Grey preening.  Unless he’s lost a lot of weight, I don’t think this is the real Mr Grey, more likely it’s a body double.  The real Mr Grey has probably flown south for the winter and he’s arranged this substitute to make it look as if he’s still here.  The body double probably even collects the real Mr Grey’s Giro.  Yes, I know that we don’t do Giros any more, but unemployed bird still use them, because they don’t do internet banking.  Anyway, the green leaves were growing from a storm felled tree.  There must have been enough continuity between trunk and roots to keep the transfer of sugars and starches.  The landscape is from St Mo’s and is of clouds breaking over the Meikle Bin above and beyond Kilsyth.  The wee spider was climbing a tree and if you look closely at the Flickr version, you will notice that he’s got his safety rope securely fixed to a branch.  Even spiders have to be careful these days.

img_3438-flickrI’ve been following “The Constant Doodler” and today’s Inktober sketch is my first attempt at his signature One Line drawing where his pen never leaves the paper until the drawing is finished.  It’s much more difficult than it looks.  Try it sometime and you’ll discover just how much planning is required before you start.

Other than that, it was another dull day after the promise of the morning’s weather.  There was a bit of rain in the evening and more if forecast tomorrow.  Maybe that will give the aerial man another excuse to avoid the demolition of the bloody aerial.  But then you never know.  Maybe tomorrow we’ll be celebrating the removal of this piece of roof architecture.

Clingfilm – 11 October 2016

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11-oct-3

A strange title, but hopefully all will become clear – like the clingfilm 😉

Lazy start to the day, but that usually happens on a Tuesday after a busy Monday with two hours of dancing and an hour of driving, then preparing the photos, posting them and then blog writing.  I’m not moaning about, just explaining why we almost broke our self imposed rule of Up By Ten.  The light seemed to be improving in the morning and I grabbed a few shots of the Gazanias in the hanging basket with their covering of raindrops from the showers during the night.

What to do with the rest of the day?  We couldn’t decide where to go, because we had decided we’d go out.  Dinner was sorted and we needed nothing extra for that.  It was finally settled when Scamp said we didn’t have any cling film and that called for a visit to Lakeland.  Scamp also wanted to get some flowers to plant in my raised bed for some winter colour.  We could achieve both aims with a visit to Lakeland and Dobbies just outside Stirling.  What exciting lives we lead when our day revolves around Clingfilm and Pansies!

We came back from Stirling over the Tak ma Doon road.  Usually it’s a scenic road with plenty of opportunities for big-sky landscapes.  Today heavy clouds had rolled in and everywhere was dull.  Oh well, I still had the pics of the Gazanias to fall back on.  Just to make sure, I went out to bother the wildlife in St Mo’s when we got back.  Just missed Mr Grey, but he saw me and was off like as shot.  More snails up trees.  It seems that they favour Ash trees.  Disturbed a couple of deer and this time I got a shot I liked. One young doe ran when she saw me, then turned and watched to make sure I wasn’t following, giving me the chance I needed to take the shot.  I don’t know what kind of fly was on the tree in the other shot.  It looked a bit like a mosquito, but on closer examination, the head looks more like a Jenny Long Legs (Crane Fly).  Don’t know.

Today’s Inktober (Number 11) is of Monday’s Daily Sudoku which was completed yesterday (Monday) and was img_3436-flickrlying on the coffee table in front of me, so, like the hand yesterday, it wasn’t going to go anywhere.  Fred P can do quick portraits or caricatures of people sitting near him in Costa and they always look like the subject.  I just can’t draw fast enough to grab a likeness.  It’s all about confidence I think.  Anyway, I’m happy enough with today’s quick sketch.  Made some more fruit scones tonight.  I did think of sketching one of them, but they move off the plate too quickly.

Don’t know what’s happening tomorrow because we’ve got clingfilm now, so possibly no need to go out.  Jamie G our Salsa teacher is off on business tomorrow, and we don’t know who will be taking the class.  It’s not worth driving for an hour through Glasgow’s Wednesday evening traffic only to find it’s a, how shall I put this, less entertaining teacher.  Maybe we’ll stay in and watch a film instead!

Down The Green – 9 October 2016

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9-octIt being a lovely morning we got up and out fairly early and headed down Glasgow Green for a walk in the sunshine. Hunners of cyclists were also taking advantage of another unexpected sunny morning. Watched and listened in to some apprentice rowers getting loud and possibly expert instruction from the overhanging platform while their more proficient compatriots sailed gracefully past.  Thought we would go to the Wintergarden of the People’s Palace for our usual Sunday lunch, but it was closed for repair of the roof.  It’s been closed since July when a pane of glass crashed down from the roof.  Luckily nobody was hurt.  Unluckily Glasgow Council moved with their usual inefficiency and three months later, we seem to be no further forward.  No press release to inform the public about their progress.  A notice at the entrance says unhelpfully that the Wintergarden will be closed for the foreseeable future.  So much for the information age.

Today’s photos were taken around Glasgow Green, but don’t bother clicking on them as Flickr has decided that they aren’t photos at all and refused to load them.  It also tells me that the photos I uploaded yesterday aren’t photos either.  I don’t know what was happening in September with Flickr, because there wasn’t any outage that month.  I think every other month this year has seen at least one ‘down day’.  It usually happens at a weekend when there’s nobody available to fix it.  Yahoo, who own Flickr, don’t seem interested in maintaining it, but they still pester me to go to a Pro account.  I don’t think so.

Scamp and I planted allium bulbs today.  Two big pots of them.  It’ll be interesting to see how they fare.  One gigantic bulb in each pot, surrounded by five slightly smaller ones, surrounded by five even smaller ones.

Dinner tonight was Tuna steak for Scamp and Hogget for me.  Hogget was interesting.  A bit like lamb and also a bit like liver.  Tougher than I’d have expected, but that might just have been my cooking.

Another of those beautiful mornings that faded to cloudy skies in the afternoon.  Getting a lot colder too.  Scamp got some pictures of a squirrel this morning trying to steal some nuts from the bird feeder.  It sat for ages on top of one of  the high fence posts.  Quite comical.

Robin – 6 October 2016

Posted on by Zogman

Went out for lunch today at Vecchia Bologna today. It seems that the restaurant has dropped the Vecchia part. It’s now just Restaurant Bologna. Vecchia must be too old fashioned 😉 Lunch was the usual excellent quality. I had the pate and Spaghetti del Chef. Scamp had mussels and the spaghetti. Scamp drove today, which was great because I could watch what was passing the side window instead of being totally focused on the car in front. Saw some more of these hay bales disguised as figures. Today’s was on the Carse of Stirling and they were made into a cow and a wee man. It looks like they are all made by Young Farmers. Unfortunately, I forgot I wasn’t driving and didn’t take a photo.

Today’s photo was taken much earlier in the morning when I spotted this wee robin queueing for its breakfast. I’d taken a few photos when he turned and caught the light, showing off the texture of its feathers.

Today I tore up the oil painting I’d done the other day. It just didn’t work tonally, on a colour basis or in terms of composition. So, basically it was crap. It had to go. However, it had performed its function of getting that landscape out of my head.

Which brings me to today’s sketch which is in absolute contrast to yesterday’s. Today’s was a detailed sketch with no attempt to record the image in my head and reproduce it on paper which is what blind drawing is all about. I’d originally intended to draw part of Doune Castle for today’s Inktober, but decided on something a bit simpler. Doune Castle is still on the list of things to sketch. I like buildings. N D’Ag posted an interesting YouTube video on Facebook on how to draw two point perspective and I may try that out some time.

I was a bit better organised today and got most of the heavy lifting completed early, which means I may go to be on the same day I got up … maybe.

Weather was lovely today with lots of bright sunshine. Looks like more of the same tomorrow with a little more cloud, just a little.

Autumn – 5 October 2016

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Earlier in the week there was mist in the morning and today I noticed that the leaves were turning, but I stuck to my pledge not to photograph the sugar colours and I stuck to my self imposed ban. As you can see, it was flowers that took the brunt of my photography today. It was a nice bright day with good directional light in the afternoon.

Those photos accounted for an hour in the late afternoon the rest of the time was spent farting about on computers. There’s probably a perfectly good verb for wasting your precious time trying to get the electronics inside the CPU and its various siblings to to do your bidding, but ‘farting about’ is an adequate substitute in my opinion. The less said about the detail, the better.

<Rant1>
Drove through horrendous traffic in to Glasgow tonight to get to the STUC building in reasonable time. Nearly knocked a bloke off his bike.

  • Doesn’t he realise that I own the road?
  • Doesn’t he know that I’ve got right of way simply because I could knock him down and kill him with my tonne of pretty coloured steel?
  • Doesn’t he know that the person on the roundabout has right-of-way?
  • Does he want to have “But I’m a cyclist, give me room” chiseled on his tombstone?
    </Rant1>

 

<Rant2>

After losing my temper with the world, the cyclist and Scamp we made it in to the STUC building for salsa class in time, only to find almost the whole building was taken over by an LGBTI group. What the hell does the ‘I’ mean? Isnae sure? It looks like it’s like Countdown:
Consonant, consonant, consonant, consonant, oh, better have a vowel. Rearrange them into a well known phrase or saying. Failing that, decide on a use for the acronym.

</Rant2>

Now mentally knackered after navigating through the traffic and physically knackered after two hours of salsa I’m writing the blog at 11.15pm because the person who runs the salsa class decided undemocratically to make all the classes start half an hour later. Some people are great at business, but are just not people-people, if that makes sense. After you ask folk if a change is ok with them and they tell you that “No, it isn’t”, then that’s the time to have a rethink, not just carry on regardless. That was probably rant 3.

img_3426-flickrI did manage to get a quick sketch done for Inktober 2016. It was a bit of a crash at the last minute, but it was completed. A partly blind drawing, that is you don’t look at the paper when you’re drawing, you just concentrate on the subject. I did correct myself once or twice, but for the most part it was blind drawing. It probably looks like that, but Inktober is not about skill and ability, it’s about putting pen to paper, daily.

Looking for a relaxing day tomorrow. May let the train take the strain. Hoping for even more late sunshine.

A Brighter Day – 4 October 2016

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Not just brighter with sunshine, although it was a sunny day, but brighter on the computer front and in my general demeanour, as a result.

I stapled a prepped sheet of watercolour paper to my painting board, built up my easel and started getting a landscape out of my head and on to the paper through the medium of oils. It was partly successful in that, although the landscape wasn’t the best I’ve done, it was a refreshing experience working in oils again. I’m going to try the same landscape again soon in a different medium, perhaps pastel. It’s years since I last painted in pastel, probably not since I was doing my Higher Art about 25 years ago! I’ve dug the pastels out and found some pastel paper, so there’s no excuse not to get started.

Today’s photos come from a walk through St Mo’s today. The toadstool made me think of a poem by Elizabeth Fleming which might ring a few bells with two or three of my readers, although it was a long time ago, even further away than when I last used pastels! I was amazed at the detail that appeared in the little seedpods and of course the Blue Trumpets always look so unearthly. They always make me think of the moon landscape in the Clangers. Google it if you don’t know what I’m talking about. Oh yes, and there’s a shot of Mr Grey on Flickr too. The sketch is for Inktober – Google it.

Settled down to the fact that I’ve lost all the rules I made up in the Hazel app, and realised that most of them were redundant now. I’ve re-written the ones I use the most and will write more as I feel the need. I’ll also back the bloody things up this time. Lesson Learned!

That’s about it for today. A beautiful bright day, if a trifle cold. A cold trifle would be nice too!

From the sublime to the ridiculous – 1 October 2016

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Yesterday we had a lovely day.  Today we set out to go to Perth for tea and coffee.  Yes, I know it’s pretentious to go halfway across the country to get something as simple and everyday as tea or coffee – heavens, you can get them in Tesco.  Yes, you can, but I like the taste of loose tea and fresh ground coffee and am quite happy to be called pretentious, after all it’s my money that buys the coffee beans and the leaf tea.  My choice, my money, my caffeine fix.

When we got to Cumbersheugh bus station, I suggested that we take the bus to Dundee instead.  That turned out to be my undoing.  The trip was good on a comfortable bus, but Dundee should have a big sign saying “Under Construction”.  The entire waterfront area is a building site and a sight too.  I really hope the V&A gallery, museum, atrocity looks good when it’s finished, because it really is an eyesore that this city does not deserve.  The result was that we visited Braithwaites for the aforementioned tea and coffee and got the next bus south.  We’d intended going back to Perth, then Scamp suggested Stirling as there were a few more buses we could get from there to Castle Greyskull.  Mistake 2.  A mother and daughter got on at Perth and talked incessantly for the hour it took to get to Stirling.  When I say talked, I really mean shouted at each other.  If I hear one more time that they had a tape of Pete’s Dragon with Ewoks Adventure immediately afterwards, I’ll go insane.  That tape must have been talked about for about half the journey.  If people must hold a conversation, then let them keep it between themselves.

Unfortunately for the driver, they were going all the way to Glasgow.  Luckily for us we got off at Stirling.  We went for a coffee then parted company to spend some money.  Scamp wanted a new pair of shoes and I wanted a new pair of trainers.  We both achieved our stated goals and headed for the bus again the fourth of the day.  Scamp suggested we get the X39.  Mistake 3.  When I drive from Stirling to home, it usually takes less than 20 min.  This journey on a rattletrap rustbucket  bus took over an hour and a quarter.  We visited every possible village and town between Stirling and Cumbersheugh.

You see the the worst things about public transport are the public and the transport.  If you get less moronic public and real transport that was built this century then the journey will be much more pleasant and more normal folk will use it.

I’m driving tomorrow.

Weather was beautiful today and I’ll remember the Lego men made from hay bales, even if I couldn’t stop to photograph them.

Inktober 2016 - 1Almost forgot this is day one of Inktober 2016.  Must get more organised and spend a bit more time on the sketches.  Luckily the first official topic was “Fast” and this was a fast sketch.  Inktober is a great way to force yourself to put pen to paper in a graphical way.  Click on the image to view the full monsterpiece!  I wouldn’t have remembered if it wasn’t for reading the ‘A Year Ago Today’ link.  You have read it, haven’t you?  It’s at the bottom of the right hand column and is quite the little eye opener for me.

A day in “The Toon” – 30 September 2016

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It’s been a while since we just went for a wander round Glasgow, a flânerie, just stravaigin, so today we remedied that.

Up (fairly) early and out into the rain to get the bus to Glasgow.  Planned the day in Cafe Nero and then headed down Bucky Street.  Did a wee detour into the recently reconditioned Apple shop to see what this new OS Sierra looked like.  Decide it was alright, but nothing much to write home about.  Maybe you need to get down to the nitti-gritti of it to appreciate just what wonders it offers, but there’s not much chance of that any time soon, so we left.

By the time we got down to St Enoch’s square the sun was coming out and lighting up the new entrances to the underground.  Needless to say I managed to get some shots there.  After that, it was a bit of shopping for both of us separately for once.  All the shopping was making us hungry and I’d just the place. We went to a fairly new pizza place, Paseano Pizza.  It was judged a success by both of us.  The pizzas were good, if a little soft underneath, and the alleged 175ml of wine was generously poured.  That in itself helped us say “We’ll be back.”

Wandered up to Sausage Roll Street and I visited Waterstones while Scamp risked the tortuous labyrinth that is Watt Bros.  We’d considered having another wee drink to seal the day, but then decided that we should just head for home.

Overall, a very satisfying and relaxing day in “The Toon.”  Ye cannie beat it, honest, ye jist cannie.  It was a lovely day.  Heavy showers but lots of sunshine to make you forget the wet bits.  Good company as always.

As always, the photos look much better and larger on Flickr.  Click on the mosaic or here to be transported there.

Oh yes, I’ve removed the August gallery and replaced it with the much more interesting Skye September gallery.  Do go and have a wee look.

Tomorrow we may do the same in another town, and then again we might not.  That’s us, rebels without a clue!