What a year we have all had, I’m sure you would agree. From what I could read or see on TV reports, things in other parts of the world weren’t much different to what happened here in the UK.
I had planned to do a great deal of travelling again in 2020, I had trips to Spain, Germany, Austria, Turkey and Azerbaijan all cancelled and I was forced to stay at home.
At the start of our lockdown in March, I began to have a daily walk in my local area, discovering parts I never realised were there. During these walks I decided to have a stab at a little project I had been planning to do, a few years ago I came across a little package with a collection of photographs of Clarkston, my home town, dating from around 1900-1910, so armed with my camera, I tried to take photographs of the same scenes today whilst out and about, this project grew to cover a few neighbouring areas and I ended up with almost 40 little videos, I’ve added a shortened YouTube version of the combined Clarkston ones.
From the legend supplied with the original photographs describing where each was taken, it made it relatively easy to find them, and the lack of traffic due to the lockdown meant that I could try to replicate the scenes, over 100 years after the originals were taken. I then turned them into short video clips that I uploaded to a local Facebook page, they were popular enough that I started to get requests for shots of other parts of the town, this then expanded into other nearby neighbourhoods. This was an interesting project that certainly kept me occupied during the early part of lockdown period.
Once the weather improved, I spent some time tidying the garden, doing jobs I had put off for years, once I had started, I really got to enjoy it and the place looks a bit better now. One thing which became apparent during my gardening endeavours was the fact that my garden shed was in a poor state of repair and really needed replacing.
I placed an order for a slightly larger one from a local supplier and started clearing out the ‘Glory Hole’ the old one had become, fortunately I was able to off-load the junk and cleared the site awaiting the arrival if a shiny new shed.
I was determined that the new one would not become a dumping ground and that I would fit it out as a small workshop. With help from Graeme, we insulated the walls and roof, lined and painted the interior and fitted a couple of benches, where I installed tools I had for years but was unable to use to their best due to limited space. I then became the local version of the ‘Repair Shop’ (a TV show on BBC), repairing bicycles, power tools, kitchen appliances and vacuum cleaners for my neighbours, and using my tools to build bits for the garden from timber reclaimed from the old shed.
The start of the wintery weather saw me start a new hobby, I decided to purchaser a CNC Router, which enabled me to combine my CAD skills with machining experience to produce parts whilst indoors, despite my previous experience it was a steep learning curve, but one I thoroughly enjoyed, it has been great fun making Doggie Fridge Magnets, Fairy Door, little gifts and ornaments for friends and family.
Once I felt I had mastered working carving wood, I decided to try my hand at working with acrylic to make some 3D effect LED lamps, I managed to source a good supply of material from a company in Ibrox (from their scrap bin) and eBay was able to supply the bases. Because it was around Christmas time, trees were top of the list followed by night lights for children.
A new addition to the lamps are 3 camera based ones, which I really like.
The Lumix one I created for my neighbour’s son Max, a talented filmmaker and photographer, his new YouTube channel is very impressive with some spectacular videos taken around Scotland, feel free to check it out.
Jim's travels 