A Cramond Day

Gosh, I could have stayed in bed another hour or so this morning! But I forced myself up and out to the pool by 8.30. I do love that moment when you dive in! Well, not a dive, more a fall forward off the steps for me. I tried hard to go a bit faster today.

After breakfast, thoughts of popping in to see the BP portrait awards were discarded when I saw blue skies and fluffy white clouds. No! This was not an indoor day. This was a beach day...

But of course, as I went there, on the bus, top front seat, the blue skies scurried off to be replaced by ominous grey blanket. There was no turning back though.

Shots I missed today:

1. I heard them. Two swans, honking and flapping and splashing along, just above the water, flying up the river. What a shot that would have been, had I been in the right spot!

2. Someone walking along the causeway with SIX dogs! Might have been like this one, only grey skies.

I had just been there, nobody else around, of course. As soon as I left, folk and dogs flock to it. I rushed back and took photos as the lady and the dogs came nearer.

As she came nearer I shouted to her,
'You've got a handful there!' meaning her six dogs.

Unfortunately at the same time, she chose to bend down and pick up some dog poo. She didn't answer me, so maybe she thought I was being crude/rude. I'm hoping she didn't actually hear me.

She was a dog walker, they weren't all hers. One of them, a cocker spaniel who lagged behind a bit, was called Jacob.

Walked up the river and spent ages taking shots of the gushing water over rocks. Tried lots of long exposures, then I pumped up the ISO and the speed and took fast ones. I really liked freezing the splashes. Might try that again when there's a bit of sunlight. It's certainly quicker than LEs, especially with the Big Stopper filter, where I was doing 2 minute exposures.

Came back to the harbour and saw, away ahead, a man and his wee boy throwing bread for the gulls. Of course, I did not remember to bring any bread, so this was a bonus.

I fair rushed to get there. But they were throwing the bread down instead of up. Crowds of gulls and ducks and the two swans were on the beach below. I didn't feel I could make a request. I did observe the 'gull carousel' that Chamaeleo described here.

Came home and the internet wasn't working, so I've spent half an hour on the phone. There are so many people from foreign parts (and even in the UK) in these call centres, they're sometimes hard to understand. She was talking about 'changing the wee'. She kept saying this. I then figured out she meant 'change the 'v' to a capital wee V!'

Diet going well. I lost 2g over the weekend. Doesn't sound much, but I did go off the wagon big time on two occasions.