iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 1h

Ombré from red at the centre to yellow at the edges. Peach flesh illustrating the shaping of the fruit’s pit that it was attached to previously. In which case, it is the reverse. #SundayPixTip

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 16h

#aofoto Have a look: beyond the grey flag paving;past the gravel stripe; beneath the stretched over metal frame plastic canopy, and below plain concrete panels (with two preformed holes near the top). You may then glimpse four rural, coastal and urban scenes (l to r) in the bitumen brush strokes.

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Your work is legit, whatever medium you use for each piece. You are making the creative choices and applying your skills to create. I spotted this, today, a (presumably) unintentional piece of public art. Bitumen on raw concrete leaves me seeing smog obscured landscapes.

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

A contemporary stained glass window at An Tobar gallery, Tobermory. Arched, with 2 panels either side of a middle bar. They panels almost mirror each other. With the upper body of a human figure in each, arms stretched out like swimmers. A red heart split either side of the bar. #WindowsWednesday

Each figure is dressed in red with white patches giving texture. One has dark hair, the other light (possibly grey) hair, flowing as if in water. The main background is a rich blueish purple, with flowing black lines, like fine seaweed fronds. These fronds are scribbled over the heart halves. There are star like white spots in the upper sections, with a number of old fashioned key shapes spread around.
It is incredibly atmospheric.
Apologies, I don’t have a note of the artist’s name to share here.

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I recognised the green roofed pagoda, from when I was there in 2015.

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekNForNeon The neon signage for restaurant Sushi Samba, Heron Tower, London. A very large, red neon circle, across the middle “SUSHI SAMBA” with smaller font “HERON TOWER” below.

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

A flock of sheep dodging the light rain under the cover trees. 15 of them, mostly white and a couple of black ones. Some standing, most of them laying on the ground. The trees are birch, on the whole. #SundayPixAnimals #SundayPix

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

A still from a 10 seconds video of a pair of miniature Shetland ponies mutually grooming. There’s a local prize winning stud that keeps numerous miniature Shetlands in paddocks up the brae. This year’s foals were remarkably cute tiny wee things. #SundayPixAnimals #SundayPix #MiniatureShetlandPonies

Slightly off centre to the right in the foreground, stand two miniature Shetland ponies. They coats are dark chocolate brown. Shaped like a yin yang symbol, they are grooming each other, simultaneously. One pony has its rump to us, the other its head. The grooming is licking / cleaning the top of the others rump / bottom of the back.
Five sheep can be seen on the upward slope of the field behind the ponies. There is dried out, browned bracken in the foreground, between the viewer and the ponies. A wire-strands fence separates the ponies from the sheep. One of the fence posts is visible on the left edge of the image.
I can post the video later, if anyone wants me to.

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

A sneak peak of the cover artwork for the new Pet Shop Boys album, scheduled for release next week. Inspired by a post yesterday by @rufustsuperfly.bsky.social

A colour photograph from the Dead Parrot sketch by the Monty Python mob. It features Michael Palin (on the left) and John Cleese (on the right) with a Norwegian Blue pining for the fjords (centre stage). The comedy sketch is played in the interior of a shop set with virtually empty shelving. Is that a symptom of a lack of money available to the Flying Circus crew in the 1970’s?
Some of these facts may be correct.

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekMForMachinery Overexposed square (originally my IG post?) image of a yellow combine harvester, probably gathering barley. The big crop around here, for the distillery industry. The sky is burnt out white. Working on a slope, it looks like it might tip over at any moment.

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

8 seconds of explosive goldfinch joy.

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

It’s a braw, bricht, moonlicht nicht the nicht.

A dark photo that looks black and white, because it is an interior shot illuminated by the moon (just past being full).
There’s a small spot of light off to the left. The window frame is visible due to the moon light coming through. Reflected light shows where the cutting board and guillotine (used by my photographer OH) lay on a desk. Outside the moonshine lights up a wedge of clear sky bordered by a dark frame of trees.

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

A local photography collective have an exhibition on, part of an arts festival in Moray, at Logie Steadings near Forres. I mention as it includes 8 photographs by my better half. Her website www.mairimacaulayphotography.co.uk

A pair of Mairi’s photographs. The pictures are partially obscured by window reflections on the glass in the frames of the mounted prints.
Each is of rock weathered and worn by the waters of the river at a location called ‘Randolph’s Leap’ close to Logie. The sharpness of detail in the rocks are set against the (long exposure) smoothed flow of the river.

This shows the eight prints as they are hung on the wall. They are configured in an approximate diamond shape thus:
a landscape oriented set on the horizontal middle line to the left, mirroring a similar image on the right;
inset on both sides there are above and below the mid-line a pair of landscape oriented prints, and
in the vertical mid-line there are two prints, a portrait oriented image above and a landscape oriented below.
They are all of rocks and river water.
My powers of description fail the beauty of Mairi’s photography.

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Thanks to last week’s #FireHydrantFriday I now know where to find the nearest hydrant to my home. I really appreciate being brought to notice this by you lot.

Landscape orientation photograph of a cast iron fire hydrant cover plate. It sits in a tarmac pavement. The cover was once painted yellow, although only fragments of colour remain. It is otherwise rust coloured, with a yellowing birch (probably) leaf laying just off centre, across the left leg of the capital H.
Cast into the design it says ‘BRICKHOUSE’ at the top, ‘FH’ centred in the middle. Below that a British Standards Kitemark and ‘8050 R’, with ‘DUCTILE’ on the foot of the plate.
The pattern is (mostly) 4 or 5 offset rows of the letter ‘G’ in (to my mind) a very rigid font. Also, there are deformed ‘S’ in a font similar to the typical two-headed Allen Key shape. And I have just realised that the G’s and S’s are in diagonal lines, rising left to right.
Anyway, if there’s a fire nearby I can now direct the Fire Service to the nearest hydrant. Bluesky saves the day!

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Quote post this with a picture of the aircraft you’ll accept as a bribe.

A painting of a sky blue RAF jet fighter zooming against an orange backdrop. Done in such a way as to give the impression of hugely high speed, ya bam!
It was painted by my brother, Campbell, over 25 years ago. I think it is supposed to be a Harrier VTOL jet, but he was the expert and I am not.

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

#FireHydrantFriday Shortly after feeding my apple to a pony (with the owner’s consent) I spotted this. It’s on the single track hill road between Beauly and Muir of Ord.

A black large H printed on a yellow oblong sign. The sign is screwed on to a cement frame (for want of a better word). The frame is damaged around the upper left corner, and the reinforcing metal bars are exposed and rusting.
This sign is planted in the grass covered banking at the side of the road. It overlooks whin bushes in the foreground, and views towards the Black Isle and the Beauly Firth.

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

#FireHydrantFriday A pressed metal plate attached to a cement frame, somewhat obscured by vegetation. This is my third and final post on this # today. Have I flooded the market?

I spotted this hydrant marker by the side of the road. It is located in a scrubby, woodland setting, with trees and bushes behind, weeds growing around it, dried up leaves and twigs. There’s two strands of fence wire running across the base and grey, corrugated paper sitting in the bottom left corner.
There cement frame has been painted yellow, although it is weathered and fairly patchy. Moss covers the top right corner of the frame.
Screwed or bolted in place is the sign itself, dominated by a large black H. Within the top half of the H is the number 4, and in the bottom half again the number 4 but this is on a (presumably) replaceable metal insert.

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

#FireHydrantFriday Another rusty cast iron cover marked FH (crudely spray painted in light blue paint), set in a tarmac pavement.

A rusty hydrant lid, sits in the similarly rusty edge of the box it covers. This is oblong, with cut-off corners at the bottom (perhaps these hide hinged elements?). The large letters FH are top and centred. Towards the middle of the cover is a keyhole shaped space, probably for a tool for opening the thing. Top and bottom there are two slits for crowbars access, I’m guessing.
On the left side of the keyhole the cast design includes the letters PAM, with what looks like a British Standards kite mark below and an arched bridge (as if looking side on at a simplified representation of the Rialto Bridge in Venice). Right of the keyhole the design reads HCB-40. Below the keyhole it reads WARRIOR.

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

#FireHydrantFriday A cast iron cover marked FH, set into a tarmac pavement.

The rusty cover (and box it sits inside) are surrounded by speckled grey tarmac. Besides the dominant identification letters FH, the cast includes “EN124-D400” immediately below the FH. Below that, the other side of a keyhole space (for a lifting device) is “ISD 1083”. Towards the bottom right corner is “G1-100”. Included in the cast design are two keyholes (the other sitting above the FH), two openings placed at either end (probably for crowbar access) and lines of solid arrowhead shapes (alternating upwards and downwards across each line) in eight lines. The number of arrowhead shapes in each line varies according to the other features in that part of the hydrant lid.

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

We sailed from Plockton to Mallaig, today. Saw minke whales, dolphins, sea eagle skimming across the waves and plenty of other wildlife. Went through the Glenelg Narrows at 12.1 knots. Fabulous stuff. Topped by a nice wee chat with superlative northern (England) actor Lorraine Ashbourne.

A portrait image of the Isle of Eigg. An Sgurr to the left. Sitting in a band of clear light, low in a fairly calm sea. Covered by layers of cloud in the sky above.

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

#SundayPixStretch A series of framed photographs stretched along an exhibition space wall. My better half’s images of wind turbines in the Highland landscape. These are part of a show by several photographers on a broad theme of what is landscape. It is at Eden Court Theatre, Inverness.

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

#SundayPix #SundayPixHappy A small copper butterfly sitting on a blue globe thistle, with a blurry hover fly. The butterfly is pretty much centre of the colour image. It’s mainly orange wings with black outer edges and spots on the wings, plus reverse mainly black tail with spotted orange edges.

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Post a picture that could be an album cover… My 📸

A slice of toast, cut into two halves. The bottom half has two bites out of the left hand side. The bread is white, sliced. Toasted to a golden brown. The left third of the image is in shade, and the other 2/3rds in sunlight. There is a line of crumbs (from the cutting in half) below the top half.
The toast is buttered. And it is on a circular, ceramic plate, which is near white with light blue flecks and edged in black.
The LP is a collection of A and B sides, by a band that is now toast.

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I zoomed in and was shocked to find Pluto the Dog (foreground) plus Porky the Pig (background) trapped in the street lamps. What kind of monstrous story is hidden in this painting? A cartoon Phantom Zone (from Superman)? The horror!

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

#SundayPixSunset 30 seconds video of sunset, taken from a train. It’s probably shot travelling north towards Inverness. The bottom half of the landscape frame is in darkness. The middle line is a fuzzy orange glow. The top half is ombre, with orange fading to blue. Trees & pylons flash by.

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

A common carder bee gets busy with its tongue, lapping up nectar on a multiple blossom flower ball atop a leek’s scape. It is a 13 seconds video of the small bee wearing its amber coloured fur coat.

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I borrowed this book from the library. This morning a thought has crossed my mind. I have not noticed any references to Pat Barker’s trilogy during the recent responses to Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. That seems like an omission of an important, contemporary take on these stories.

A colour photo of the cover of The Voyage Home by Pat Barker. It is a Penguin paperback edition.
The cover artwork, by Sarah Young, shows two female figures in the foreground. They are Cassandra “war-wife of Agamemnon” and “her watchful maid” Rita’s. Ahead of them is what looks like the shadow of Medusa with her hair rising in all directions. The two women are on a ship, bringing Agamemnon back from Troy to Greece, named Medusa with that figurehead.
The ship looks forward through a sea channel edged by hills, columns of rain, great beacons aflame, glowering purple clouds - classical Greek architecture of the city at the head of the view, their destination.
This is the third book in the trilogy. I read the first, The Silence of the Girls, earlier this summer.
Unfortunately, book two (The Women of Troy) in the library’s collection remains stuck on a beach, or somewhere, like Odysseus’s ships.
Anyway, read these books, and go see the film.

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calumsmac.bsky.social @calumsmac.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Get the Move on Call the fire brigade I’m stuck!

A tall, large, yellow blossom, of the sunflower family, poking through upright fence panels. The fence panels are covered by lichen. There are more flowers above the fence’s height and mostly blue sky beyond them.

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