STUDY NO. 1 - KILMARDINNY DUCKS

Given that taking photos is about doing what you can with what you have, gems can emerge from the most ordinary of situations!

Wee Ishbel and I feed the ducks on Kilmardinny Loch. Between chucking bits of bread to the geese, coots, mallards and swans, and using the small Sony digi, I took this photo. (The big camera is away for repair as She-Who-Shall-Be-Nameless dropped it).

It is 9:30 in the morning in early August. For the record, the original photo [below] is untouched.

Working with digital photographs is great fun a experimenting with Photoshop software is simply amazing! It is so-o-o sophisticated! However, the problem with Art is that it is totally unscientific! I couldn't possibly repeat this experiment!

Furthermore, these exercises raise more questions than they answer. Why are certain colours highlighted in the Arty Photo and others not? If these colours can be saved in a colour palette maybe there is something here worth following ... off-at-a-(another)-tangent!

FLOWER STOPS

Ish is now 7 months old and just loves to be out, out ... OUT! So putting the day 'On Hold' for an hour in the early evening is very pleasant when one can wait in the Botanic Gardens where it is full of people going home after a glorious, sunny day. Wee Ish just couldn't keep her eyes open after a day at Nursery and so missed the Herb Garden's offerings.

This mauve star-shaped flowering plant in the Herb Garden is a flower often used to garnish gourmet dishes in expensive restaurants. Lovely colour - don't know the species! (In our household, it is classified in the "Get a Life" category!)

A regular stop is to pause on the hill to our house and pay a visit to Adam-Next-Door's garden. This lovely Lavateria is a joy to the eye every time we emerge from our porch door.

£10 BET-TER OFF

Not a betting person, I just couldn't let this one go by ...

Aboard a Very Big Yacht chatting to MVBY (Man with Very Big Yacht) the conversation turned to things Norwegian. "Yes" says MVBY "Greig was a wonderful composer with many pieces, e.g. Anitra's Dance, Morning and, also, Farewell to Ashokan." Ouch! Edvard Greig wrote many fine works, but NOT Ashokan Farewell. "A-hem ... excuse me but ... er, Greig did not write Ashokan Farewell". "Yes, he did." "No, he didn't." "Did." "Didnay." "Betcha £10 he did!" Being on extremely firm ground here - The Handshake.

Guess who won?

It is here as a video with Jay Ungar, the American composer, speaking about how he came to write it.



Click below to hear an American blue grass band playing it. (More coming, i.e. Amy on the fiddle, when the technology learning curve levels off a bit!)

A SIGN OF HOPE

The news is good - life is returning for a very ill lady.