Thursday, June 07, 2018

Mucky world




It's a very mucky world. I've decided to capture aspects of it as I wander through the land. Lost. Things rust and decay. Things are abandoned. There to be overlooked or tripped over. There's a strong sense of nobody caring, particularly me. Maybe it's all nobody's job. Perhaps costs are being cut. Ongoing austerity is an excuse to be untidy, to be mucky. So we see muck but mostly we don't because we are desensitized and it's just how things are. Sooner or later everything gets set aside, becomes overgrown and awaits the arrival of the next large meteorite to provide cosmic retribution and cleansing. Then the next new civilisation can start all over again.


Wednesday, June 06, 2018

Dundee Daily Photo


Dundee: Scotland's sunniest city and the only one boasting a V&A monster and Captain Scott's Discovery set side by side by the Tay. A city of smashed avocados, decent coffee, tattooed barbers, Beano figures, strange street dragons, conflicting football teams, out of place penguins, graffiti and the Kingsway. I'm there probably once a week and after making some adjustments for  my inner compass to function properly I'm now getting the hang of it. It'll be fine once the construction work settles and we no longer need to peer through fences or be blinded by hi-vis and deafened by hi-abs unloading materials in the street. Good times are coming.


Tuesday, June 05, 2018

Hidden past



I'm glad that some of Dundee city centre's past is on display despite the grime and clumsy modernization. Doorways signs and business names remain intact after who knows how many years of closure. The businesses are long gone, forgotten by all and part of an ancient history story that's faded away and too tired out to recount, but the marks and trade names are still visible, just.

Sunday, June 03, 2018

Rare live appearance


Thanks to Malcolm for this photo taken last Thursday at OOTB in Edinburgh. I am playing the house guitar but wearing my own glasses. Ali is singing and also helping me interpret the actual content. 

Saturday, June 02, 2018

List

Pic by Andrew F at BOO.
Extracted from an organic to do list with absolutely no actual/possible song titles hidden therein:

shim sunburst strat neck pocket*
fix pussy cat telecaster electrics
lubricate car roof and motors
fix plastic bit on conservatory roof
progress car radio done
shed empty at Kinghorn
visit the dump / bottlebank
paint well top done
do some more cement work / pointing
tidy work space
work more with audio interface
work on short stories
cat litter
chop kindling up
back step
wire brush / wash weatherboarding
purge wardrobe
purge old records / work docs etc.
cement work at back door
use less fewer capitals
eBay cardboard
avoid distractions
Air BnB Bilbao 

*replace centre pickup screws and also shim P Bass neck pocket.

Friday, June 01, 2018

Things I didn't say


For people of a certain age 
Nostalgia hooks like crack cocaine
Somewhere between divine and profane
An antidote and poison

I'm sick of blood poured on the tracks
Of friendly warnings "don't look back"
"You'll give yourself a heart attack"
As if I'm even bothered

Health warning mantras for those who know
Ignore them and the prostate goes
There's love and cancer up the road
And a series on iPlayer

The past is littered with the past
I lost it once but lived it fast
Now we're the bus pass underclass
The pensioned shuffling strangers

Tomorrow is a better day
Specsavers see through fakes and haze
You're aches and pains will melt away
On some brave new hejira.

For people of a certain age
Nostalgia hooks like crack cocaine
The worries they just melt away
I'm better now I'm older.

Thursday, May 31, 2018

The fabric of our lives




Some things change, some stay the same. There you go. The fabric of our lives. Familiar, recognizable, solid, steady, fluid, different, damaged, cared for, washed out, washed in, comfortable, torn, lived in, loved.

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Hands


Some hands are tender hands, some hands are dirty hands, some hands are soft hands, some hands are loving hands, some hands serve and soothe, some hands fix, some hands make fists, some hands aren't hands at all and end up like this. Dangerous.

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Highland fence posts







OK. So I suppose you could say that these images would be best suited to a life lived on Instagram under some niche heading where they might attract attention or arouse interest. I'm too lazy for that so they are only going to have an on-line life here where everything is relatively easy. As I was exploring the lower slopes of Glen Orchy at the weekend  I was quite taken by these old fence posts. Each one differently rotten, rugged and weathered out of shape, moss covered and rusty wire, hairy splinters, decay and destruction but still somehow standing, faithfully obeying their last order to mark a line or a boundary, to keep in some sheep or to prevent chickens from running all across the yard. They are the forgotten markers of once worthwhile industry and endeavour and remain almost upright in place, stubborn and redundant, trapped out in all weathers, mutating and growing as they fade and splinter away back into the highland soil.

Monday, May 28, 2018

A bag and two kittens




Bank holiday Monday, returning from a break in the Highlands, all sun and blue skies and parade of caravans and motor homes. Stopped off for supplies on the way back and then to the cattery to collect our two incarcerated beasts, these two cute kittens were playing in their pen outside. The farm shop near Stirling is called the Smiddy, staff there are pretty PAF (posh as fuck) but nice. A few just walked around doing nothing, interns maybe. All the Doune and Bridge of Allan set probably hang out there for their artisan foods and neat and niche local produce. Nice lunch though and, despite my rude observation, nice staff and ambience, maybe I'm slowly turning over into the dark side.

Thursday, May 24, 2018

Sunny Bunny #2


This is completely meaningless. Like most things. Amusing for all of three seconds but completely recyclable. So that's fine.

Sunny Bunnys

Another nice day out, so I made six sunny bunnys. You're welcome. (No actual rabbits were injured or damaged during the construction of this piece of work.)

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Plum tree planting


Work to create the great plum harvest (and chutney brewing) festival of 2028 has just begun. It's good to invest in the future, even though it's likely to be someone else's and as I know very little of the early life of plum trees and the behaviours they might exhibit. At the moment anything seems possible. 

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Peace breaks out


Every other post seems to feature a cat photo these days, I'm clearly turning into the sort of person my parents warned me about.  They weren't too keen on cats and a number of other activities I've tried in my sixty odd years, they're gone now so it's ancient history. Here's Twink and Clint completely ignoring one another in the garden the other day. Normally some unheralded/unexpected cat presence around here results in fur flying, loud howls and one cat being chased up a tree by another. There's a lot of scampering, hissing and hissy fits. Nice when they actually seem to get on for a bit because that's rare with cats, they (local ones, maybe not typical) are pretty awkward socially and like their own space. As do their eccentric owners perhaps? (I know fine that you can never truly own a cat).

Monday, May 21, 2018

Non glamorous vehicles


Number 1 in an unlikely and irregular series of photos I probably wont cherish or Istagram or do anything with, ever. So here's a big red Porsche tractor I was able to stand next to yesterday. 

Saturday, May 19, 2018

Signs of summer



None of this anything to do with either cup finals or royal (deliberate small r) weddings.

Friday, May 18, 2018

Daily Tesco cat v existential angst


The wonders of modern life: easy to take a photo of a cat in a supermarket entrance and then just paste it all across the internet's various trading posts using slightly different filters and crops and amusing if not particularly clever captions so that you can fill up space and  so burn up your precious time. Will there be any true or meaningful interaction, any likes, useful outcomes or comments? Doubtful but you will do it anyway. The endless optimism and desire for some common and pointless expression brought home by the black, bottomless and busy void we've moved into despite the fact that it was created for a range of much more worthwhile activities which we've all now completely lost sight of. What were they again?

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Dunbar daily photo






Yesterday was a lovely sunny day and I happened to be in Dunbar getting my car's stereo fixed.  Took the opportunity to go for a wander down by the shore and harbour, very quiet and colourful. That's about it.

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Return of the cat


Twink the cat is a semi-regular visitor to our garden. He's generally rewarded with two tins of cat food when he arrives, usually for in time for the night shift at about 2300. Today he turned up early for some  breakfast, lunch and tea and took up position in the barbecue for some reason.

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Tiny oranges


These tiny oranges (well one example is shown here) were grown on our (tiny) indoor orange tree. You can't really eat them because you just might die, so say the experts. You can only look at them and marvel at their quite nice warm colours and juicy texture. You can also breathe in a rather pleasant orange aroma, faint, elusive but orangey. All that was yesterday, they deteriorated overnight and now they are in the compost bin. They remain a pleasant, pungent memory however...however badly you might write about them or remember them.