HO scale overhead street lighting - aesthetic considerations

This is the current state of affairs re overhead street light. I feel that's a bit messy so applied some red paint.

I like this red colour and wondered what would happen if I made a shape out of red card to disguise the wires, the resistor and the lumps of solder. Would it tidy things up?

The answer is "no". The card looks crude and out of scale. I think I'll stick with the red paint.

You might wonder why I don't paint the wire black or gray or some colour that it would be in real life. But, as I have repeatedly stated in this blog, my touchstone is the aesthetic appearance of the layout not verisimilitude.

And, actually, I think red looks great. Possibly because in the distance one sees a red roof and a red shop frontage.

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Currently listening to:

Rachmaninoff died in 1943 so I'm not sure when the recording was made - but it sounds ancient.

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Last night's dinner:

We had a guest and I forgot to take a photograph.

Mashed potato, broccoli, steak pie and carrots.

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Currently reading:

I wonder if I should take Kim to my philosophy class tonight? Definitely going by bike.

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Miscellany:

I'm very lucky to have three vibrant Roman Catholic Churches within a few minutes cycle ride of my home: St Paul's, Whiteinch - my usual; St Simon's, Partick and St Peter's, Partick.

St Peter's, this morning.

I hope that padlock does its job; there has been an epidemic of cycle thefts in the West End of Glasgow, recently.

More Citroen DSs

Continued fashioning the net that will form the dome of the church. Cut apertures which will be backed with translucent coloured windows to give a stain glass effect.

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Currently listening to:

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Last night's dinner:

Spouse-made vegetable soup

Bread

Smoked salmon, prawn mayonnaise, tomatoes and a boiled egg

Choc roll sitting in double cream

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Currently reading:

Freud continues to be hilarious and I've been dipping into chapter 3 of Kim in preparation for tomorrow night's lecture at the University. Seem to be following it.

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Miscellany:

We took my great-nephew for a cycle to the new Glasgow Transport Museum.

In the car park I noticed that they have a re-charging "pump" for electric cars.

And some Citroen enthusiasts were displaying their pride and joys on the concourse.

This car came was shipped from Australia a few years ago for £4,000 and the chap spent £9,000 restoring it. Worth about £15,000 now. Parts still readily available.

Rounded things off with a "99"

Harold Hare strikes again

Turned my attention to building a body, as it were, for my church facade.

Basically, I want some kind of dome to go behind the facade.

I searched the house for a pair of compasses. I seemed to remember from my school days that one could use compasses to draw the  necessary mathematical net from which I could fold the dome.

Searched everywhere and just when I was about to give up found a plastic octagonal template - couldn't believe my luck and had never seen it before.

It was a bit small so I drew around it and then used my printer to enlarge that drawing by 125%.

Transferred that enlarged octagon to an A3 sheet of card and after adding a trapezium (I think) to each side had my net of a dome.

Strictly speaking, a truncated octagonal pyramid.

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Currently listening to:

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Last night's dinner:

Potato Dauphinoise, haggis and trout.

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Currently reading:

Freud says that his five year old daughter Nicola used to read Harold Hare's Own comic. But whereas I used to have mine delivered with the mid-week evening paper, she used to cross a busy London street on her own while also collecting her father's copy of the Financial Times.

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Miscellany:

Set out this afternoon to find the new cycle bridge that crosses the approaches to Glasgow's Kingston Bridge - one of the busiest river crossings in Europe (someone told me).

The brand new cycle bridge

The view from the cycle path over the Kingston Bridge

On the way home spotted this beautiful Citroen DS19.

Then I passed this disused factory and stopped to look in it. Last week, a rock group had been rehearsing in it and I was hoping to see them again and take a photograph for this blog.

Disused factory.

Instead, I found a chap about my own age practising tennis.

When elephants fight, it is the grass which suffers.

Adjusted the wiring arrangement on my trial overhead streetlight ie shortened the wires to remove the unsightly droop. This process involved some cutting, splicing and re-soldering.

Yesterday's unsightly droop.

Today

I still think the arrangement looks a bit stupid. So I shortened the height of the supporting posts.

The next task will be to paint the uprights and the cross wires so as to integrate the structure. Not sure what colour to choose.

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Currently listening to:

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Last night's dinner:

Had a variety of guests around last night. Among other dishes there were 5 whole trout.

I offered to take the heads off but was informed that the "cheeks" were the tastiest part of a trout!

Today's lunch:

Fried eggs on potato scones plus salad.

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Currently reading:

Not quite "from the sublime to the ridiculous" but certainly there's some kind of contrast between:

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Africa - the magazine of St Patrick's Missionary Society

An excellent article on Sudan and its neighbour "The Republic of South Sudan", the world's newest nation. I knew about the recent civil war in that region which led to the creation of South Sudan. What I didn't know was that there had been a long, long civil war before that, lasting from 1955 - 1972. And, as we all know, it is the ordinary man on the street who suffers in these conflicts. Hence the author's reference to the African proverb, "When elephants fight, it is the grass which suffers".

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Miscellany:

This morning, cycled to midday Mass at St Simon's, Partick.

Arrived 10 minutes early.

Traditionally, St Simon's has served the Polish community of Glasgow and one is reminded of that when one looks at the noticeboards which greet one in the foyer.

There was a poster about the Polish Saint Faustina whose Divine Mercy prayer meetings used to be a big part of my life.

Frankly, the motto of the Divine Mercy movement, "Jesus I trust in You", is almost all that one needs to adhere to in order to be a Christian. That and, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Did a detour to deliver a note to someone and passed this townhouse nearby

There was a little armchair in position in the porch.