Over the Bridge to Skye

After a great time at the Glasgow Worldcon, yesterday we drove up to Kyle of Lochalsh, and today spent the day driving round Skye.  The last time we were here (about 40 years ago!) we had to take the ferry; now there is a bridge, making Skye more accessible, and more crowded.

view this morning from our hotel window

We visited Dunvegan Castle and gardens.  The castle has a fairly standard historic interior.  The formal gardens are interesting, and there was also a pipe band playing. And the woodland walks are beautiful.

Dunvegan Castle

A very well covered pergola

mossy roots

Too late for the rhododendrons to be in flower, but that just makes the twisty shapes more visible

Waterfall, fed from all the water falling from the sky...

We then had lunch in Dunvegan village, and spent the afternoon driving further north around the coast on single track roads, down to Portree for dinner, then back to Kyle for a second night in the hotel.

Off to Inverewe and more gardens tomorrow.

view from a hotel window

We have finished our relaxed journey north, and arrived at our hotel (chosen mainly because it has an EV charging point) by the SEC Centre, ready for the Glasgow 2024 Worldcon official start tomorrow.  We did register this evening, to save some time: it's just a convenient short walk away across a footbridge over the Clyde.

When we arrived, we found our room has a good view of the Armadillo (now its official name!), where some of the con events will be held.  The main convention space is in a less visually interesting, but much larger, building behind it.

The Armadillo by daylight

Later on, after dark, we found the view is somewhat different, due to the interesting alien lighting in the adjacent OVO Hydro building.

Excited for the start of the convention tomorrow!

Tatton Park

We drove further north from Belvoir Castle up to near Knutsford to stay with a friend.  We had a great afternoon walking around Tatton Park.

A fallen, but not dead, tree: that "tree" in the centre foreground is actually a side branch growing from the downed trunk.

There are both Red and Fallow deer in the park; we saw both.  I learned that the males and females are called by different terms depending on the species: Red deer are called stags and hinds, whereas Fallow/Roe deer are called bucks and does. ("Doe, a deer, a female [fallow] deer.")

We were careful not to get close enough to disturb the deer as we walked around: we kept further away than the recommended 50m distance.

Belvoir Castle

We are slowly making our way up the country to the Glasgow Worldcon via interesting places.  Today, we stopped at Belvoir Castle.

Belvoir Castle

We looked around the castle, which had castly things in it.  Then we went for a walk around the grounds.

The woodland walk was excellent, with many weird, wonderful, and magnificent trees.

weird : lots and lots of branches

wonderful

magnificent

There were also several buildings constructed of wood, or cut into the rock.  

Root and Moss House

Closer to the castle, on the edge of the woodland, there were some stunning hydrangeas.

they were a much more vivid blue in reality

And closer still were the more formal gardens.

green formality

a lovely rose garden, but just past its best

We then drove to a nearby Premier Inn hotel for the night, chosen mainly because it is part of a chain that has EV chargers.  It also had a Brewers Fayre eatery attached, where we had dinner.  The menu had a nice looking mixed grill, but it was clearly too big for one person.  So we shared it, and had a good, filling meal each.  Then we shared an apple crumble for dessert, which also gave us a good-sized portion each.  The result was a really nice substantial meal for two, for less than £25! 

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CXLI

While the birthday presents were accumulating, other books not slated to be birthday presents were also accumulating.  Here's that batch:

No, the 43 Visions for Complexity book isn't upside-down.  It just has the title on the spine running upwards, rather than downwards.  I know this is more traditional in other languages, but it makes the bookshelf annoyingly inconsistent when it's done in English-language books.

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CXL

 The latest batch, comprising his'n'hers birthday presents.

installed

The telescope dome has now been finished: electrics installed, and the base of the wall sealed.  And so, we have now been able to install the telescope itself.

telescope bolted to plinth

Now we just have to wait for a clear night to calibrate it (tell it where the north pole is), and then more clear nights for observing.