Red Sky At Night. A Photographers Delight. Female Company.

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July just passed has been a very unsettled month across Scotland with rain, unusually strong winds,  grey overcast skies, occasional thunderstorms and unpredictable daytime conditions. To make up for that however some of the evenings have been amazing with spectacular light conditions, weird sunsets and clouds forming into incredible shapes. With several weekends in a row being a washout of wind and rain I've been joining a friend some evenings, as she's always out anyway at dusk walking her dog before some TV catch up after dark, usually crime dramas. She's also a big computer game fan and I've her to thank for introducing me to that world.

So... for half a dozen nights throughout July I've enjoyed her company outdoors and we go to various small hills on our side of the City of Glasgow to catch the light show. It's only a ten minute drive in the car to reach them and it's always worthwhile to meet up as she mentioned recently she was bored with her usual haunts dog-walking of an evening.
  (Looks like a duck- floats like a duck... must be a duck.... cloud.)

I've also acquired a small handy pocket book " How to influence the weather." and I've been studying it intensely over the past few months. It came into my possession by mysterious means as I was exploring a part of the city out east I was unfamiliar with and stumbled on a quiet back street with this strange looking shop halfway down it.
 "Snowflakes, rainbows, clouds and storms." was printed over the dark doorway so I wandered in.
Behind the counter a tiny chap with very pointed teeth smiled a welcome. He was under five feet tall and only his head and shoulders reached above the collection of items on the counter top.
"Welcome friend." He said. "Is it hydroponics you are after?"
"No." says I " I've been searching for thin sheets of coloured plastic to put in front of my camera to change the light. I remember seeing them years ago for school projects. They are very thin square sheets and come in yellow, red, blue, orange... all different tints."
"Like tinted filters? says he, catching on.
"Yes, exactly!" says I "Only a tenth of the price of normal camera equipment, which probably won't fit my camera anyway."
He went into the back shop which was like a tropical jungle in appearance, full of strange looking exotic plants, tree frog noises coming out a speaker, fertilizer grow bags, plastic tanks and specialized water sprinklers. Must be for people that keep reptiles, fish or amphibians at home in tanks I found myself thinking.
" Do you sell lizards or monkeys? " I inquired hopefully as I like little lizards.... and monkeys.
"No. But I have a small collection of books that may interest you." he offered, guiding me over to a modest bookcase in one corner...... which is how I ended up with  'How to influence the weather'... and also acquired several tinted thin squares of different coloured material.

Happy with my purchase I flashed a smile of my own as I handed over some cash and he was pleased to see I'd filed my teeth down to sharp points as well. I did this during my teenage years to attract girls. It didn't really seem to work back then though........ except with the darker variety of goths.
I went back a few weeks later to see what else was on offer but the shop had disappeared and was no longer there. Very strange indeed.

Anyway, back on the hilltops above the city with my friend and her peeing little pooch I presented my book for her inspection. Let's call her Tink... or Belle... take your pick.
"What's this?" she asked, flicking through the pages.
"It tells you how to influence the weather patterns." I explained, grabbing it back. It's full of magic symbols, astral designs, incantations, tricks and chants to help improve the surrounding conditions."

"We could certainly do with that." says she. "What do you think Snapper? " Snapper being her dog.
A tail wag and a bark might have been either agreement or something else. It's not that easy to tell with dogs.
"Let's try cloud shapes first." I suggested. " What do you fancy?"
"How about a nice wee bear to start with ?" She waited expectantly on the hillside, shooing a few evening flies away from her face with her hands. "Go on, impress me."
"Ah, that's page number 22 that is. The classic Teddy Bear cloud." I flicked to the appropriate design blueprint and began mumbling a chant under my breath.

"How's that?" I inquired a few seconds later.
"Hey! That's not bad. Look Snapper.....A wee bear just like you. I'm impressed." She congratulated me with an exaggerated pat on the back. The dog looked up but not having advanced facial recognition skills that most humans possess didn't appear to see anything unusual in the clouds.
"This book is supposed to have been written by former members of the Magic Circle." I informed her, reading the inner sleeve notes but not letting her see it. "It spills the beans completely on many of their top secrets."
I proceeded to chant again- very softly to myself and pictured the next image in my head.
"What exactly is it you're mumbling?" She asked, being her usual noisy self, trying to see the page for cloud bear shapes I was reading from.
"It's a magic chant." I told her. "only for skilled practitioners of the art to know and learn." I started mumbling again softly, building up the tempo under my breath.
She started listening hard. "Please tell me that's not  'izzy wizzy let's get bizzy?' " she finally asked, voice triumphant yet disappointed at solving a minor puzzle in such a rubbish way.
"Don't be daft." I put the book away in my pocket hastily. " That's just for children. This is serious stuff we are dealing with here."
She crossed her arms in satisfaction. "It is... isn't it? I'm right!"

"Aw, you've gone and ruined it now. It's got six legs!" I groaned, sulking as the shape appeared above our heads. " A real bear never has six legs. You've distorted the spell with your extra line."
"It's still a bear." She soothed. "Try another one. I'll shut up." A glance down at the dog. "What a drama queen, isn't he Snapper?"

"Behold! Polar bear in the arctic climbing out onto an ice flow!" I declared after ten minutes of mumbling intensity and thought projection as per the instructions. " How's that for genuine magic!"
She'd been listening very closely right beside me, despite pushing her away several times to keep her distance.
"That one was just 'Hey Presto' muttered over and over again wasn't it? You've wasted your money there alright. Seen you coming pal."
"No.They did not. Look, it obviously works, doesn't it? "
She yawned. "I.m bored now. Try something else."
"You young folk are really hard to please." I complained bitterly. "Joni Mitchell never had it this good in her life staring up at the sky and she wrote a famous song about cloud formations."
"Who? "
A small sigh.  "Sixties singer/ songwriter. Before your time. I keep forgetting."
She brightened up.
"That comes with the birth certificate living fossil. Eat loads of blueberries. Dementia super-fruit they are. You can sprinkle them over your cornflakes." 

"Cartoon character? Any guesses which one?" I asked, ignoring her.
It was her turn to sigh. "Nope. Walt Disney is soo old school now anyway."
It's bloody Dumbo you bimbo! Surely you must see it? The long elephant trunk?
" I know who Dumbo is. Where's the big flapping ears then?
I stared at her in exasperation.

Back to the book for other ideas. "How about a dog then? "
"Yeah." She conceded. "That's not bad but let's just put the book away and watch the sun setting without the wand."
So we did.

Clouds swirling above Drumchapel. Glasgow.

Sunset tinting the upper levels with orange.

The Kingdom.

Drifting lumps of shimmering matter.

Trouble brewing above on a different outing. The prelude to a lightning storm we soon discovered.

Clouds changing shape before thunder and sheet lightning caught us on a hillside. Luckily, there was thick woodland below to shelter in and a handy concrete overhang. A joy to watch natural fireworks dancing across the sky, safe and dry.

Another obvious sign of changing weather before the deluge to come.

The beast above.

Sunset song after storm.

Keeping with the arty theme here's one of the best things I've seen on You Tube. Stunning, bizarre, and gets better as it unfolds.

Adventures in Micro Worlds. Fractals. Mathematics is the language of Nature.

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Ever wondered why the world around you seems so perfect at times? Not the mess and chaos that human populations manage to create everywhere they go but the perfection that often exists in nature, especially when you zoom down to micro levels and you see precise patterns replicated in fine detail to a scale that you can hardly see with the naked eye. The big news is they continue past that until they become invisible- and still continue replicating..... "to Infinity... and beyond" as it were. I was very impressed last month to discover this tiny flower with a perfect cross (or branding iron) sticking out.

Common Blue Butterfly. This is a post I've been working on for several weeks now in my head- in fact it's been several years finding out all the details until they fell together, like a jigsaw puzzle making a complete picture I could understand... to my own limited non intellectual satisfaction that is- as I'm pretty thick at times... but I try my best to keep up.

Years ago, when they still had high street video shops, I purchased a very unusual film called Pi, a black and white low budget affair by Darren Aronofsky and his first as a director. Although made with a tiny cast and very little money the ideas in it were astonishing to me- that everything in nature and the universe can be explained by the laws of physics and mathematics. I always hated maths at school as I had no aptitude for it, and still don't ...but in old age I'm grudgingly accepting it as fact. "Mathematics is the language of nature." Everything has a code and over time we are learning to read more of that code and understand it... well... some of the world's brightest scientists and mathematicians are... while the rest of us just look on in amazement. "Gobsmacked" seems an apt word here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi_(film)
It doesn't happen very often but occasionally you see or learn something that changes your perception of the world around you so that you see it differently with fresh eyes and this makes a lasting impression. The ideas put forward in Pi certainly did that for me. 1998 it came out and I still remember it vividly.

It sometimes pays to see the fine detail of objects in front of you. (Not so subtle hint to click full screen here.)

Which brings us to The Last of Us and Bioshock Infinite. Two computer games that made a huge impression on me. The first for it's great story-line, believable characters and incredible lifelike graphics of people, plants, natural features and urban wastelands - The second, Bioshock, for it's imagined worlds, it's bold introduction of quantum physics theories and discoveries placed into a game setting... and again it's great believable characters and heightened graphics. Not being a gamer it was the details of the computer generated artwork and the ideas that mesmerized me most. Similar to the elaborate album covers of certain bands when I was growing up that accompanied the 1960s revolution when a grey drab world suddenly exploded into vibrant psychedelic colour as I've always taken an interest in art and illustration...and although not having much talent in that department myself I can appreciate the worlds created and see it as the great new frontier it is. How could they make the background visuals so  precise and finely detailed in modern games I wondered?

Part of the answer lies in the discovery of "Fractals." They exists in all of us, throughout nature, throughout the entire universe... and are some of the building blocks of life itself... even when they are invisible and all around us. The language of nature... now being understood and used in computer games for the last 20 years, inside smart phones, and loads of other practical applications. Over to an expert to explain things better. This is worth watching and if you don't know about fractals already it should change your understanding of everything around you.



Heady stuff but easier to understand than quantum physics :o)

Dragonfly wings sparkling in the sun.

Patterns in nature working to order.

Hoverfly on flower.

Sticky Raindrops.

Pink sunset.

Beauty or a wee beast?

Obviously very attractive and desirable to some.

Still at it. A busy flower.... and so it goes... replicating down through smaller and smaller worlds into infinity... and then beyond ? Always wondered why Buzz Lightyear said that. A quantum physics in joke perhaps?

Fire clouds over Glasgow.

Red July sky thick with flying insects.

Wasp and Bumble Bee share a flower.

Large wasp with pollen grains on body.

Patterns in nature. Insect chewed leaf. Is this pattern purely random or a fixed course set by internal design? Do we also live by set design as well without realizing it? Are there further mysteries to come...further codes already there to be unraveled and eventually understood? You Betcha.

Water beasties. Tiny and even smaller... and hidden things you cannot see.. even with a very powerful microscope?

 Not being religious I just find it fascinating, beautiful and serene. Hope we don't destroy it all... or  end up living inside someone's virtual dream.

Speaking of dream world scenarios, games are getting so realistic I can see them replacing conventional films, actors and actresses to a large degree, especially if it's cheaper to produce films via computer animation. I could happily watch a film version of  The Last of Us or Bioshock with most of the shoot em up repetitive action and game strategy cut out. You can almost do that already on You Tube and the resulting film is better than most of the rubbish on television presently. Think I'm joking?
I like the details of old period London in the second game in here and the landscapes of Witcher 3. Worth a watch full screen in HD. Some of these new game world's are so lifelike in a few years time you might be hard pressed to tell if you are watching reality or a created fantasy as each year they merge closer togeher. And that will bring it's own set of problems. They are already gearing up to test for athletes in the current Olympics that have been genetically enhanced to make them stronger and faster with longer stamina so it's a strange new world we are living in indeed.

White Cart Water. Kayaking under the shopping streets of Paisley.

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A kayak trip with a difference this time. It was Alan's choice of river and a very urban one that filled me with equal measures of dread and excitement. We would paddle at high tide up the White Cart Water from it's mouth/entrance on the River Clyde, under the swing bridge at Renfrew, seen here, then up through neglected seldom used river banks into the very heart of Paisley. As a youngster this large Renfrewshire town was close enough to where we stayed to become our regular Saturday destination for shops, cinema, and other entertainment. It has a long history of weaving, thread making and cotton mills, and of course established (but didn't invent) the famous swirling Paisley pattern teardrop design around the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paisley_(design) Interesting info here about the town's influence on 1960s culture/film/music, the summer of love, the Beatles and Prince, who of course named his studios/base- Paisley Park.

In places this river is wide and deep, certainly at high tide but I'm sure in the past it would have been dredged to make it even deeper for river traffic as one of the highlights was the number of abandoned jetties and docks, some leading to individual grand mansions long since demolished while others hinted at a busy past and thriving town docks supporting this former textile metropolis.

Alan examining wooden frames attached to dock walls, presumably to prevent ship sides from getting caught by the rising tide under the masonry blocks sticking out. With these added any craft would just slide up the walls intact without catching anything.

Paisley's forgotten docklands, hinting at a time , maybe even surviving, if limping painfully, into the late sixties, going back to an age when river traffic still carried most of the trade manufactured in the Scottish river towns before being shipped overseas. Speaks volumes when this once mighty highway and major artery of commerce is now carefully sealed off by railings, thick vegetation and security fences, turning it into a secluded sunken backwater and now very much a forgotten industrial legacy. I would not be surprised if far more people have climbed Mount Everest in the last 20 years than have paddled up the White Cart Water then entered under the flooded tunnels below Paisley's shopping streets by kayak. True adventure is where you find it and that can be surprisingly close to home.

.....and may even involve exploring a 'Land of Giants'. An urban jungle of Giant Hogweed growing over 12 foot high. Invasive species like this one, Indian Balsam and Japanese Knotweed now cover most urban riverbanks in a dense layer of poisonous greenery- as dangerous as any exotic foreign jungle to touch.

Also of concern was the smell, a noticeable odour of chemically treated pong which lasted all the way upriver from the Clyde into the heart of Paisley and a tidal scummy film that coated everything emerging from it, (dripping leaves, river banks, dozens of newly exposed old car tyres and junk etc) as the tide ebbed away. Although our kayaks are very stable in normal conditions  "The kayaker must not capsize." was  uppermost in our thoughts throughout as neither of us wanted to swallow a mouthful of White Cart sludge. This is paddling under the M8 motorway where some locals still keep a few boats on the river. As busy as it gets nowadays.
http://www.scotcities.com/railways/ferries.htm
Some beautiful images in here of The River Clyde and its tributaries during the great days of sail and  steam transport. Well worth a look at a time when docks like these stretched along the river for miles in every direction, holding hundreds of individual craft of every shape and size imaginable.

Further up, the now winding and shallower river had a pastoral feel for a while with green empty banks, plenty of wildlife and some real surprises in store. This is a heron, flying upriver, and a pair of swans.

A wild otter was also spotted as this river held plenty of jumping fish in it. The wildlife didn't seem to mind the smell one bit and the fact that they could survive here shows the river quality must be improving. Still wouldn't like to fall in though.... hospital and stomach pump at the ready- nurse the screens  :o)

Originally thought these were Goosander or Merganser chicks but they are Mallard chicks as I had a half glimpse of the mother with her distinctive eye stripe that the chicks also boast.  

We had a quick stop here for lunch, being careful not to touch any food or drink with our hands.

Ha Ha.......Couldn't resist putting black dot eyes on this one.The white patches are the real eyeballs.  "Are you looking at me?" "This is my river pal!" "Beat it!" A large red dragonfly on a nearby boulder.

The main highlight of this trip however was the intention to kayak under the beating heart of Paisley itself where the river pours under the city centre and train station via several tunnels and bridges. Would we be able to reach the other side and paddle up to the famous waterfalls via this subterranean highway? It was a notion my juvenile mind obsessed over when I first noticed the river pouring under the shopping streets of Paisley via a dark opening as it disappeared on a voyage unknown through this alluring, sometimes turbulent, underworld. The unusual, the strange, the bizarre, the mysterious- has always drawn me in and this was no exception now. At last - an answer.

We had a good go at it.

It was surprisingly shallow and fast moving under here, a bad combination as we kept hitting submerged rocks with our paddles. (Think a storm drain in L.A.) A couple of days of rain had increased the flow but with the tide slightly on the ebb when we got here our attempts to get through were thwarted. I'm not saying it's impossible to go further upstream if more committed than us but the thought of falling in ( now a real possibility thanks to shallow obstacle strewn fast water, limited light for seeing the best route ahead, and strength of flow compared to our slow easily ripped apart inflatables) meant we didn't push it too hard.  

We did explore every option though and gave it our best shot to reach the other side and see sunlight again near Paisley's cathedral where the river resurfaces above ground once more. It's only a short stretch after that, less than a few hundred yards in the open, before you arrive at the waterfalls next to the old mills and a real halt to upstream paddling. I soon found out that photography and river current combined can be unsettling as whenever I took a shot here I found myself going backwards rapidly in the darkness over unseen obstacles in the river bed until I started paddling again. Not good given the number of rocks a foot below the waterline ready to trip you up into the murk and the tendency to immediately turn sideways pushed by the strong current when not paddling hard every second. 

A major experience for us both though and one we were delighted with.

Paddling downstream again.

At the junction of the White Cart and Black Cart, just upstream from where they enter the River Clyde at Renfrew we found this interesting guy who was monitoring the health of the river among other things. Alan is hanging on here as the out-flowing current was strong with the tide now receding rapidly and I was having to paddle flat out just to remain still. A weird sensation like running beside someone standing on an airport pedestrian travelator/treadmill that did weird things to your head. i.e...although moored in mid river and static the boat appeared to be moving upstream at pace while I was paddling beside it flat out, always struggling to keep up and chat - a very strange and surreal feeling. The Black Cart Water appeared too shallow for worthwhile paddling , except for maybe highest tide conditions but it runs right beside Glasgow Airport and low flying aircraft noise.

A plane landing over our heads.

And gliding over the moored boat.

What a fantastic trip... as long as you don't fall in. Around 4 hours paddling at an easy relaxed pace starting at highest tide. As the water in the river drops lower mud covered banks become a problem here when getting back out and it's best to pick your spot for an easy exit to avoid thick clinging footsteps ankle or knee deep in dirty smelly gunge at low tide. We entered and got out near the Renfrew Swing bridge but other access points around the nearby River Clyde ( like the Renfrew Ferry Slipway) are available. A five star adventure.
Fellow blogger and intrepid kayaker- Jinja Coo- is the only other person I could find online who has posted about kayaking up this neglected river and even has night time posts paddling around the upper Clyde into the heart of the City of Glasgow itself. Very helpful info as there's not much available on Scotland's urban river networks.

Meanwhile-remember the urban river mantra for kayakers- keep safe... and never capsize!  but if you do.... spit don't swallow :o) The high tide tree and low hanging leaf material covered by max tide in the above photo show what your insides will probably look like with urban river water inside your stomach. An option best avoided methinks.