Salvation Army Furniture Sale

Seem a shame not to use pics that turned out, so here is Partick’s big Salvation Army shop near the end of November, some years ago.

I didn’t even know the place was there, and probably still wouldn’t, but for noticing the long queue stretching back along the road AFTER what should have been closing time.

I wondered why so many were queuing up, and discovered there was a special furniture sale due to start – obviously, the best bargains were going to go to the early buyers.

The pics were taken after 6 pm, and the doors are locked.

I’ve just stuck the two pics I took as a reminder together.

A regular event apparently (too far for me – delivery is far too expensive nowadays) – but I’ve never been there on the right day to see it again.

Remember when someone was too keen to get to the Forge Market

They made their own entrance

Passing the same spot a little over a week later – things had changed.

Eventually, all of the brick wall disappeared, and the grassy area was levelled

But for some reason, the low metal fence they installed didn’t get a gate, and visitors STILL have to walk around to the various entrances off to the right, or jump over it.

I missed a few clues to a failure

I think this has become a regular event – my weather station sensors ‘freeze’ when the weather freezes.

Only the sensors for external temp and RH, while the rain, wind speed and direction, plus the radio link keep on working.

Because it’s only that pair that stop, while everything else carries on, this fools me into thinking everything’s working normally, and their odd readings are correct (caused by the weather), and I only realise the issue when I see the readings have stopped varying.

Then again, there are other clues, maybe.

In reality, when the elevated temperature sensor reads +3℃ or less, then there may be ground frost.

Then there’s the arrival of road gritters.

And this, virtually on my doorstep.

The day after, I found frozen containers of water outside as well.

Like it or not, I have to admit summer is over.

And I think I’ll have to schedule a battery change BEFORE the weather freezes.

It’s no fun having to handle the metal poles and fittings that carry the sensors, up a ladder, with freezing hands.

So, what killed the church’s LEDs?

It’s not really been all that long since I first noticed, then photographed, the tree hugging LEDs in front of a nearby church.

In fact, that first pic comes from January of this year.

A few months ago, I notice one string of LEDs had failed, which I thought was unfortunate.

Then, a few weeks ago, I noticed a second string had failed.

It’s taken a few days to get back for a pic, and it didn’t come out so well, although it did have my basic setting for pics like these, or it would have been really bad.

I’m not sure what was going on. Usually this road is very quiet most nights, but for some reason it had a near constant flow of traffic, so I couldn’t really play with the exposure. This usually happens if there are road works, and traffic is diverted along here.

It wasn’t helped by the fact that there are currently road works in place here, just to the right, causing the traffic to back up and stand in front of the church, something that normally just doesn’t happen here.

I grabbed a few quick shots in the gaps, and one wasn’t too bad.

I nipped in closer during a longer gap, but the pic was worse (in some ways), not better.

I’m not sure why the original shots appeared to render in warm white, while the latest catch looks like cold white. Ageing of the LEDs?

I didn’t notice it at the time, and I think it still looks like the yellower warm white to the eye, but the camera sees something different.

The illumination of the church facade is not only from the LEDs, but also from a small floodlight, mounted just behind it.

I may go back for another try, if the road gets quiet and the road works are finished, but that looks like it may be a few weeks away – new traffic lights, pedestrian crossings, and footpath areas are being installed. On a near deserted stretch of road (which was once horribly busy).

Why did those LEDs die?

The failure occurred in less than a year, which is early for properly driven LEDs – we don’t know how these are being driven, and they ARE quite bright.

However, they may have been killed, with two options.

Obviously, they’re having a hard time, mounted outdoors in wet and windy soggy Scotland, where most forms of waterproofing are doomed to failure.

The other unknown is how well/carefully they were installed, with the possibility that someone just stapled them to the trees, taking little or no care to avoid any sort of damage or stress to the strings, and allowing a path for water to get in.

ICE Warning (Relax, NOT the American kind)

I wasn’t laughing when I realised this safety sign would not be popular with 🤡Trump🤡 and his wannabe Gestapo thugs, as they terrorise generally innocent vulnerable immigrants.

It’s been featured before, but not almost on the day it turned BLUE.

I always wonder if it works, presumably activated by one of those bimetallic coils.

Present day kids will think it’s MAGIC, as it doesn’t need a battery, or an Internet connection to work.

😇

Now I know it (still) does, as it showed what a lovely evening it was for a walk in the frost.

I’m finding it hard to believe it’s now 5 years since I first featured it

Better late than never

Took the pic, then put it in a ‘safe’ place.

I used to see this one so often, it began to become virtually invisible – probably why I never got around to the pic.

And I do quite like it too, being a two number two character combination, which I think just looks ‘neat and tidy’.

It’s not often I can give good news about a poor number languishing on a stinky diesel SUV, but I’m pleased to be able to see that, for the moment at least, this neat number resides on a blue 2017 Bentley Continental GT. Much better.

There’s a lack of interesting/fun stuff around here now

Is it just me (because I seem to be losing access to such things), or are things slowly losing their appeal (not sure of the word I really want here – this will have to do)?

Ever since Glasgow ended its fireworks display, which was a massively well attended event, and the George Square Christmas Lights went from being mobbed to being ticket only for a lucky few, not forgetting the LONG closure of the People’s Palace (and Fossil Grove), I don’t even seem to come across anything that’s just a chance bit of fun.

I can’t even go for a walk any more, to wander around old potentially historic industrial revolution sites, as certain people decided that having such places cleared away and landscaped was a vote winning option.

This thought came to mind when I came across the pic set I had from a some years ago, when I happened to come across Clanadonia doing their thing in Buchanan Street, at this time, a few years ago.

Maybe I’m walking along the wrong streets at the wrong time these days, but I just don’t seem to trip over the same sort of thing.

I wonder if they’re not coming because they have to compete with buskers who seem to have discovered 5 MW USB powered amplifiers, and sometimes seem to line the street as they compete?

Anyway, this was the scene a few years ago.

And NO amps needed!

Not sure what the kid’s armed with, but it looks good.

The day someone was TOO keen to get to the Forge Market

I’m always being surprised by pics I took and should have posted quickly (as the content was current), but somehow managed to forget.

This was some 10 years ago, when I came across the shattered wall at the corner of the Forge Market site one night.

This one was not so much forgotten, as puzzled over.

This was a pic of the remains, and has some pieces that are clearly not wall.

I think I was wondering about the bits, which I couldn’t recognise at the time, and ended up being diverted to other things.

The bits are from the car that demolished the wall, and probably parts of the front lighting module, but just didn’t register at the time.

One of my few flash pics in the digital era – the camera wouldn’t focus otherwise.

Note also the available light pics are good old sodium yellow, from the street lights.

And the cool white of the flash. The lower part of the first pic is almost a white light pic, as I waited for the scene to be lit by the headlights of a car turning the corner.

Seems I stood back, for a wider view. Full sodium this time.

No tyre tracks in the grass, so I guess they never made to the market.

Night at the high flats

Turned a corner to find I was looking at this view of the high flats at Sandhyills, some way off into the distance.

Fortunately, I’m getting back to being fairly close to my preferred setting for low light and dark night shots, and this catch helped confirm I’m not far off from what I now like.

It’s a pity simply picking high ISO when it gets dark isn’t the cure all some might think it to be, but as my recent games with that option showed, it’s definitely NOT the way to go if you want decent looking night pics.

As usual, this is a hand held view – I want night pics, but don’t usually have the option of carrying a tripod.

I’m always puzzled by the number of windows with no lights.

Are the occupants sitting in the dark, spying on the rest of us?

The other mystery is – what’s happened to the blue cast that used to come with many of my night pics shot when it was really dark, especially when there wasn’t a lot of other light around?

That colour is basically ‘as shot’, with no messing around to get rid of odd colours that weren’t there when I took the shot.

The only point worthy of note would seem to the white light spill into the sky we have now, from white LED street lighting – no more sodium yellow.

I wonder if the blue hassle I used to have was some sort of side effect of that monochromatic yellow, and some quirk of digital camera sensors.

But, I haven’t been able to dig up anything related to that.

Whatever happened to automatic bollards?

When these rising bollard were invented a few years ago, they seemed to become popular quite quickly, but have, more recently, been noted to have disappeared from many locations where they appeared.

They’re quite powerful, as seen on many funny videos, where moron are amused by sitting on them when they are lowered, and lifted with them when they rise. They can lift vehicles too, with the result often being a broken sump and lots of hot oil being spread around.

I used to come across quite a few installed as access control to restricted areas, but I don’t think I could find one still in place today, either having their control removed after being lowered, or removed completely.

Maybe the owners removed them when the ‘stars’ of online videos featuring them refused to share a cut in their fees!

Went out for ONE – came back with a collection (of Christmas trees)

Stepped out for a quick walk last night and thought I was seeing things

A Christmas tree in a garden along the street!

Couldn’t get a pic, or I would have had one, which would have been a pity, because…

When I got back home, I grabbed a camera and decided to take the long road back to that garden – and discovered it was not alone.

Went out for this one, which turned into THREE at the one house.

For those with sensitive eyes

For those whose eye are still bleeding from my recent high ISO games, you’ll be glad to know I’ve hit the ‘NORMAL’ button, and night pics are going to be taken normally, with the usual qualifier that they’ll be handheld.

Before I got there and took that pic, I had collected all of these.

Light spill

These first pics of the season, taken without any planning, seem to confirm a trend I think I’ve noticed.

The arrival, and now the overall general adoption, of LED lighting seems to have killed off much of the light spillage from the old days when dark backgrounds caught enough spilled light to have details recovered.

Nowadays, most attempt to carry out the same trick only serve to confirm that dark backgrounds are dark, and have little or no shadow detail to be recovered.

There isn’t even reflected sky light, as I’ve found after taking pics of familiar night scenes, and finding I can no longer raise house roofs, and make them visible in the pic.

Now?

Now I have to wait for the moon to come out 🌜