Audley End

We went to a garden show at Audley End.  The show was okay, but we would have liked more "show gardens".  The street food vans were better: I had a very meaty tasty duck wrap.  We didn't go in the house, but we did walk round the gardens.  There was a large kitchen garden with vegetables, and more espalier apple trees than you could shake a stick at.  But for me, the best bit was the woodland walk, with some great trees.

harvest

 My other half planted a few potatoes this year.  We have produce!

Not quite enough for full self-sufficiency, I suspect...

travelling back south

We got up at 7am, and, after breakfast at our Edinburgh hotel, we went into the city centre, where we visited three bookshops in a typical book-buying spree: Blackwell's (9 books), Till's (6 books), and McNaughtan's (5 books).  Our tastes are quite eclectic, and so we were intrigued, but nevertheless not tempted, by these:

We then drove down to Bishop Auckland, to attend Kynren.  This historical re-enactment event must be the north of England's best kept secret. Neither of us had ever heard of it (before Googling for things to visit on our travels), yet it was huge: several thousand in the outdoor audience.  It was amazing (we were fortunate with the weather), with a large cast of actors, horses, sheep and geese, telling the history of England from a northern perspective.  

The Kynren staging makes full use of the path, lake, and surroundings.

Their website says "There are plenty of award-winning toilet facilities around the site" and they are not joking! I have never seen such plentiful and excellent facilities anywhere else.  We had a great time, and even managed to get out of the huge car park relatively quickly once it was over.

We then continued our drive south, arriving in York at about half past midnight.  A long day: I clocked up 55 "heart points" and nearly 20,000 steps.  I slept well!

view from two hotel windows

The Inverness hotel overlooks nice greenery, but there is a big dual carriageway on the other side!

We went back to the Tesco's for breakfast, then into Inverness to go to Leakey's second hand bookshop, where we bought 11 books.  We then drove down to Edinburgh, stopping at Aviemore for lunch.

The view from the hotel window in Edinburgh was not as pretty as the one in Inverness:

But at least the advertised EV charger existed.

A rather weird design!

Another evening charge while we have dinner.

A long day ahead of us tomorrow as we head further south.

An unexpected gem

 We got a photo of the "new" Skye bridge this morning before we left our hotel in Kyle.

Then we left to drive up to Inverewe, to visit the gardens there.  On the way, we stopped at Acnasheen to charge the car, via the ChargePlace Scotland app. 

Not sure I'm keen on standing in a big puddle while I hook up an electric charger...

Then off to Inverewe.  Like at Dunvegan yesterday, most of the rhododendrons are over, but that allows the spectacular bark to be seen.

But there are still a few late bloomers.

The woodland walk includes a path down to the loch.

panoramic view of the loch

And there are marvellous trees.

Californian Redwood

After about an hour and a half walking round all the gardens, we had lunch in the garden cafe.  Then time to drive to Inverness.

Just before we got there, we stopped at what looked like a large layby with a Public Convenience.  But it turned out it was the small car park for Rogie Falls.  An information board showed two trails: a half-mile Salmon Trail down to the Falls themselves, and a somewhat longer and "strenuous" Riverside Trail.  It was still early, so we put on our boots and set out on the longer trail.

We took the blue trail

disappearing down the trail

This brought us down to a path along the river above the falls.

an unexpected gem

The path led us to the falls themselves.

We guessed from the name "Salmon Trail" that this is a salmon river, but assumed it was too late to see any.  But no! There was a lot of jumping going on, but we failed to get any photos of fish.  We continued on the trail, back to the car park, and then drove to Inverness.

We chose a hotel that was supposed to have an EV charger associated with it, but it was no longer there.  So we went to a local shopping centre, plugged into a Tesco charger, bought some items in Tesco's to be legitimate customers, then ate in a local diner while the relatively slow charger filled the car.

Off to Edinburgh tomorrow!

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.