Tuesday, 9 December 2008

PHONY-NESS

When is a phone not a phone? When it's a camera!

Mairi gave me a new mobile phone - a Nokia 6300. While I am ready, off-the-mark with the internet technology, i.e. email when it first came out (when was that?) and spending far to many hours surfing the web, I have never taken to mobile phones or should I say, mobile phone technology.

However, put a camera into it and I'm away laughing and dancing! I just love using a digital camera and once I decided to treat my new phone as a camera with a phone facility I got on a lot better.

These photos are my first test drive: Saturday shopping in Glasogw. My goodness but the streets are lively. By that I don't mean packed out with shoppers (in this climate of Credit Crunch) but alive with sounds of drummers and one (obligatory?) piper.

I am very impressed with the quality of the photo! Simply amazing technology, to my way of thinking! Yes, I had the setting at High Res. which meant I could only take a few photos. I have now learned where the Preference setting is located and have re-set it to Low Res. as the most I will ever do is put them on my blog.

Not one, but two, groups of drummers on Buchanan Street! Just look at these 60 year olds giving it lalldy! Ooops, the piper must be one of their sons or a camp follower.

Now this photo (above) is fuzzy. I have not mastered the art of holding the camera steady. I guess the trick is to tuck your elbow into your hip all the time trying to click using one hand.

The sound of a corp of drummers is very magnetic, i.e. one just has to change one's direction of travel (for me, it was heading to Princes Square) and go and see - I was going to say, 'listen' but you could hear them a mile away !

Glaswegians are very generous and this shot gives a typical gesture seen out on the street.

Lastly this was my first attempt at using the camera facility in the phone. I felt so self-conscious that the only photos I took were waist high! This is the entrance to a doorway in one of the many stone buildings of Victorian architecture in the city centre. Again the clarity of the test photo is astonishing for such a little, hand-held, size of kit!

Monday, 8 December 2008

WINTER MAGIC


"There’s a certain slant of light,
On winter afternoons....

When it comes, the landscape listens,
Shadows hold their breath...."

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

The opening lines of “There’s a Certain Slant of Light” speak of the declination of southern sunlight one always sees on bright winter afternoons. This is Iain's photo of Brian coming up behind him as they walked up Ben Uamh Beag, north-east of Callandar, on Sunday. An excellent photo - they had a great day!

Sunday, 7 December 2008

CHRISTMAS PREPARATIONS - BAKING

And so to the work of Christmas. Thankfully, time is something I have plenty of and therefore can set aside a morning, especially if it is raining !... to get the loaf pans out and start the yeast fermenting.



Inspired by this gal's blog, I found I had all the ingredients in the cupboard plus some booze that needed using up ... and started soaking the dried fruit for a Christmas cake. Not one of my best items when it comes to baking but thought I would try again. One reason was that the Marks and Spencer cake (smallish) that I bought recently was not as good as I had expected. Maybe my taste has changed?


Monday, 1 December 2008

GRANDMA'S PETS

Ishie and Alastair and I were out today in the winter sunshine. It was clear and cold but good to see that shiny ball of fire in the sky. Here are the up-to-date photos.

Ishie, 23 months, with her hair in bunches.


Alastair, 10 months, pushing the stools in a circuit from the dining area, under the counter, into the kitchen and back again.