Hats
A calm April day in Inveraray
Aside from being miserably wet and windy - the worst kind of April, it’s been a busy month for wearing my other, non-photography, hats.
From a charity perspective, there have been funding applications and planning applications to complete. Drawings to submit to the relevant authorities. New signage to design and install. New donation channels to test and launch. Volunteer planting parties to organise and manage. Year-end financial reports to prepare and present. Retirement it seems, is very much like work, but without the salary.
At home, I’ve disappeared even further down the rabbit hole of solar panels and home battery storage, quite literally preparing the ground with a stone base and a blank canvas for the electricians. I’ve watched hours of videos to work out what good should eventually look like. I’ve scoured spec sheets to make sure the design we’ve opted for will actually work, and made a nuisance of myself by pointing out a few design errors made by the contractor. The jury’s out on the confidence front to be honest.
Never one to miss an opportunity for retail spending, I’ve also bought cables, connectors and faceplates so I can piggy-back on the inevitable disruption and install some wired network connections to my struggling Mac and Apple TV. Those massive raw image files are simply taking too long to move around wirelessly.
I’m also discovering that Apple HomeKit isn’t especially well suited to the frequent power cuts of our stormy west coast. My wireless network struggles to reconnect to various smart devices, and the house turns into something of a funfair when the power finally comes back on. Lights flash. The bell rings. Devices beep. Nothing can be turned off remotely until it all settles down again. Not so much fun, or indeed fair, at 2am.
Finally, though, it’s photography time.
The van is prepped and the campsites are booked for a few nights in the glorious Torridon landscape. The forecast doesn’t look particularly promising for awnings, so it may yet be cramped nights and bobble hats in the Bongo rather than idyllic van-life evenings beside a campfire. If things get too bad, we’ll simply up sticks and head east. Whatever happens, I need to get some shots in the bag. It’s been a while.
