Category: weather

An unusual day – 6 August 2015

Posted on by Zogman

An unusual day that started like so many this summer with low cloud and dull, dull, dull. Then a change happened. It got lighter and lighter, then the sky turned an unusual colour, a sort of blue colour. Strangest of all, this great shining white ball appeared and hung in the sky and it felt warm – all afternoon! Got out for a walk along the Luggie. Not much to see. I had hoped for a sight of some dragonflies or at least damselflies at the little pond near the road bridge, but none were to be found, in fact there was no life in the pond or its environs. I did get some shots of some interesting seed pods. Hmm, interesting seed pods, eh? Well, that’s what photography is all about. It’s not all beautiful vistas with sun glinting off the waves, or mountain peaks against a dark and ominous sky. Sometimes its the little things, or in this case the contrast between the hard, sharp seed pods and the soft greens surrounding them. In other words, it’s what you make it and working with what you’ve got. Today, walking along the Luggie in the sunshine, seed pods was what I got.

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This was my first shot today and it’s pretty much as it came out of the camera.  Slight adjustment to the levels and a bit of cropping, but like I say, just a plain shot.  I liked the composition in thirds and the slightly out of focus seed pods in the background.

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This one was more difficult.  Cropped and levels in Lightroom, then a bit of editing in Photoshop to remove a distracting out of focus seed head that didn’t improve the composition.  Finally a bit of brush work back in Lightroom.  I liked the finished article.

Hoping for more sun tomorrow. We can always hope.

Rain, Rain, go away – 5 August 2015

Posted on by Zogman

Woke to more drizzle and rain this morning. Will it ever stop? After a breakfast that rivalled the epic Hilton Breakfast, we said goodbye to the Marine Hotel Troon, but I imagine we will be back again, if only for the excellent food. Drove in to Prestwick which looked every bit the run-down Scottish seaside town. The weather helped set the tone with drizzle soon turning to full blown rain. We watched some youngsters setting out in wee yachts or dinghies or some such small boat with a sail. They looked well prepared with wetsuits and buoyancy aids, but it still didn’t DSC_3193- blog--217--217look like fun. Got a few shots of a woman walking her dogs along the sand. The drizzle helped blur the background and also gave a high key look to the photo. After that we drove down to the other end of Prestwick and I saw a shot, but didn’t have the heart to take it. A family – maw, paw, grandpa and the weans – sitting DSC_3201- blog--217--217outside a beachfront cafe in the rain with ice-cream cones trying to look like they were having fun. It put me in mind of the title of yesterday’s post. It looked so sad, I couldn’t bring myself to take the shot.

Left the sad, wet, west coast behind and drove down the A 77M to Glasgow where Scamp thought it would be a good idea to break our journey at Silverburn for a coffee. I’m not the biggest fan of Silverburn. For those who don’t know, it’s a out of town retail park, but a posh looking one. Inside it’s all phone shops, sports shops and fashion outlets. No bookshop! What are they thinking of. It’s always busy, so this only goes to show that the phone buying, sport buying, fashion buying public can’t read. Its only saving grace is Wagamama, but that’s not where we were heading. We went instead to Patisserie Valerie. We’d been to one of this chain recently, but this was a different experience entirely. We were served quite quickly, but after that things ground to a halt. Bear in mind that we only wanted two coffees and two apple danish. That order took about 15mins to prepare. In that time, two customers complained about their food either not being hot enough or not being edible! A third customer was cutting up some filled croissant with a look of disgust on her face. PV in Exchange Square may be an epicurean delight, but this one is a disaster. I thought the ping was the sound of a bell to tell the server that the meals were at the pass – then I realised it was the sound of the microwave! Avoid. After that, it was just the usual drag of a drive through Glasgow. Holiday over for another wee while, and it was still raining.

Will it ever stop?

Down on the beach with our coats on – 4 August 2015

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp booked us a day at the seaside today, at the Marine Hotel in Troon, in fact. It’s been a wild day with gale force winds on the west coast. Not very much rain, but not much ‘summer’ around. We didn’t really manage to get to the beach today. The nearest we got was to have a swim in the hotel pool, and from our upgraded room, we can just about see the beach. Much more comfortable to swim in the pool and stay in the room looking out at the ‘glofers‘ (my word) wandering around the glofcourse (my word again) with their little bags of glof bats. Some of them seemed to be pushing prams with their glofbats in them. Is this really a game, or is it just a challenge to the elements?

Really excellent dinner in the conservatory with a great view of Ailsa Craig and Arran. Back home tomorrow,DSC_3187- blog--217--216 but we are determined to make the most of our days of luxury!

It’s all about timing – 31 July 2015

Posted on by Zogman

On this last day of July, we had planned to go to Glasgow on the bus. Since the X3, the only bus that runs through our estate (you don’t call them schemes any more – that has totally the wrong connotations) takes about three days to drag its sorry wheels into town, we decided instead to get one of the other X buses, any one in fact. This meant we had to get the bus from the Town Centre also known as Castle Greyskull. This is where it gets complicated and all the timing starts. Scamp’s car needed petrol, so I opted to run her to work and get petrol on the way back. Then drive to the gym for my Gym ‘n’ Swim in my own car. Get back, hopefully have a cup of tea, then get the bus up the toonie, meet Scamp and travel in to Glasgow. For once, given our poor history of making these plans stick, it worked and we raced into town in about 20 minutes rather than the three days on the X3.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIn town, we wandered around the almost deserted Merchant City Festival site, waiting for the Car Men comic opera singers. This ‘festival’ is not a patch on what was there last year. Fewer stalls and almost no attractions. Last year there were street performers mingling with the punters, this year it’s just minging. Scamp thinks it’s because last year was Commonwealth Games year in Glasgow and there was a bigger push and also more cash flung at it. She could be right. There is also the added factor of the winter weather this summer. That probably puts a lot of folk off. The Car Men were quite funny, although their set went on for a while. Scamp seemed to enjoy it which was surprising as it was comedy and she doesn’t usually do comedy.

Lunch in Charcoals Cafe was not up to their usual high standard. Chicken Bhuna lacked salt and taste. The sauce seemed to comprise entirely of liquidized carrots without peppers or onions. No wonder then that we were the only customers. Must do better. Later we had coffee and shared a cake in Patisserie Valerie and that was up to their usual high standard.

The day that the rains came down – 27 July 2015

Posted on by Zogman

Sometimes after a particularly busy weekend, like this one was, we just want to relax on a Monday.  Today that relaxation was somewhat forced upon us.  From when I woke at 7.45am until now at around 10.00pm it has rained non-stop.  What’s worse, is that we have the same to look forward to tomorrow apparently and little let up on Wednesday.  On Thursday the rain will halt for a while to allow the entrance of northerly gales.  Oh what fun, and this is summer?  Personally I blame the Tories and Nicola Sturgeon.  Probably Alex Salmond is in the mix somewhere too, because there isn’t a pie he hasn’t got his finger in.  I’m hoping against hope that we’ll get an Indian Summer.  Some lovely balmy breezes in late September and early October.  We’ll probably need them to melt the snow.

The only photos I got today were these ones of sparrow scuds (young birds) waiting impatiently to be fed.

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The Hottest Day of the year – 30 June 2015

Posted on by Zogman

Today was hot.  Not pleasantly hot, but sticky, clammy, close hot with the threat of rain in the air.  Not a  day for doing the washing, but needs must etc.  So, I although I was up late this morning, I did get the washing OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAinto the washing machine and out on the line.  When Scamp came in she stated her intention to attack the field of grass in the front garden.  Being a non-gardener myself, I took the easier option and went out for a run on my bike.  As I’ve said, today was hot, so it was cycling top and cycling shorts for today’s run.  I went to the usual places and found very few damselflies and no dragonflies, so I started to look for the easier options of spiders.  It was while looking for the spiders I came upon a lacewing dangling from a leaf.  It took a bit of messing around before OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI found the right extension tube configuration for the image, but the result looked interesting.  Too many flies and midges to allow for any more photography here, so I headed home.  Just at the Barrs pond, I found lots of mating damselflies, but unfortunately they were all too far away.  Tried for a few, but without much luck.  The lacewing was the star performer of the day.

Today was hot.  I think I’ve said that before, but it’s worth repeating.  I am in Scotland after all.  Tomorrow is to be hotter.  Is that even possible?  There is the caveat that there will probably be thundershowers, but we’ve survived that in Venice, so it should be a dawdle in Scotland.