CHIAROSCURO

Scotland in March can have clear days which are lengthening but it can be very cold. However, these 'shoulder months' of the year are good when it comes to the nature of the daylight and shadows (especially at this latitude) so I made a point of walking around the garden and down to the lochside (Loch Lomond) with the camera thinking light and dark i.e. chiaroscuro.

This photo is "as is". It is Ross Priory about 4:45 pm.

The light is going but I just had to take a photo of Ben Lomond in the distance, still with snow on top.

This is an arty shot of snowdrops beyond the garden gate.

The first rhododendron is now flowering. These huge trees were planted 100 to 150 years ago and there are flowers most months of the year.

Twilight. The light is going. The sky was getting pinker with the sun going down. The golfers were heading in for the bar and I was heading in to join an evening of music after some food and wine.

I will leave the last word ... image ... to Rembrandt, the master of chiaroscuro in painting.

LA SOIRÉE BON ACCORDION

It was late before I got home last night from a soirée out at Ross Priory (Strathclyde University's country residence on the shore of Loch Lomond). Every month throughout the winter they are held and I do enjoy meeting and greeting old colleagues of Iain's and their wives many of whom I know from my days of Strathclyde University Overseas Wives Group.


Various folk gather for a a meal and then an evening of music. This month it was a Serbian accordion player, Djordje Gajic. He started off with Bach's Toccata in D minor (phew!) and played for an hour after our meal. Certainly a handsome fella who could fairly produce a big sound from the bellows of that instrument (especially in the left hand)!

I arrived early in order to spend some time in the garden. The gardeners are clearing some diseased trees (and I think the results are for the better which is not what I would normally say)! On entering the Lady Curran walled garden I came across this barrow outside the glasshouse.

Being the end of the day the light was not great but just for fun here is a cut-out of some glasshouse foliage. I would love to have fabric with all these colours incorporated.

THE POSTMAN'S BURDEN

What's with all this junk mail that comes through our letterboxes these day?! Today the postman delivered one journal and one letter and 6 items of Junk Mail!

As someone who does most correspondence by email or over the internet I note that we get very few envelopes dropping through the post box. Indeed, I am seldom in the post office myself to mail things.

I have tried putting my name on an I Do Not Wish to Receive Junk Mail list but nothing has happened. Maybe I am not going about it in the right way. Does the Royal Mail make a lot of money with these flyers that the postman has to lug up and down the streets?

That being said I have no complaint with mail delivery by the Royal Mail. On the whole (icy winter weather would be an exception) the mail that I post gets to where it should and vice-versa. These days I am particularly impressed with stuff we order off Amazon. I get notification emails if there are delays and notification when things have been put in the post. (I try to patronize local shops but it is not always a success!)

M-M-M-M SMELL THE FLOWERS!

Spring flowers are hastened in this city because of our wonderful (undervalued) city parks department. They call Glasgow that "dear green place" and it is true. There are lots of parks and today I paid a visit to the Botanic Gardens on Great Western Road.

The sun was out, I took along my camera with the express purpose of heading to the glass houses (Victorian both in architecture and planting from all those years ago).

The good folks in the gardens had great benches of hyacinths along with daffodils, crocuses and fuschias. Here are white hyacinths looking arty i.e. this is my attempt to make some sort of artwork as if I were producing say a greeting card. It is my way of fiddling around with Photoshop; it's the only way to learn, I reckon!

More arty stuff using Photoshop's cut-out in the filter gallery. The original photo had too much back light on the white fuschia but looked OK using this filter. It just shows that you never know when clicking the digi; what looks good often is not and vice-versa!

This is the original thing, unadulterated. These white crocuses were in abundance. I tried to catch the sunlight coming through the window.