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.

view from a hotel window

I arrived in Copenhagen today for the Artificial Life conference.  A short flight from Stansted, then an easy metro trip to the hotel, which is close to the conference venue.  Everything is new, clean, and quite green:

view from my hotel window

The room itself is interesting.  It has a bathroom, kitchenette, oodles of storage space, a small dining table, and a sofa.  But ... no bed?

dining table and sofa -- but where's the bed?

The clue is in the black zigzag line.  A little investigation, and manipulation, revealed:

hmm

Well, that's a first. Let's see how I cope ascending, and, more importantly, descending...

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CXXXIX

The latest batch:

Erice back streets

Today was the workshop excursion.  It has been hot here all week so far up high in Erice, so I was not looking forward to an even hotter time down at sea level.  Then there was an Italian Severe Weather Warning alert.  Hmm.  So colleagues and I decided to spend the time talking shop in a nice café instead.  It was the right decision: apparently, a temperature of 42 degrees was recorded by the excursion bus!

Later, some of us went wandering to find a different restaurant for our evening meal, and ended exploring some of the picturesque backstreets.

narrow, and hot

steep and narrow, and hot

The workshop has been just as good as last time.  Final day tomorrow, with more great talks and discussions scheduled.

And a third one is planned for 2026.