Occasional musings on meteorology and other bits of Earth science
The days around the solstice are an all-too-brief time of year when the days go on for ever, the bees buzz, and the hedges are full of the fragrance of roses and elderflower. A time of year when you can have a swift half at the Eagle and Child in the middle of the afternoonContinue reading Ascent of Cwm Hill
Having saved up holiday money through the pandemic, we splurged it on a fortnight divided between Egypt and Jordan. Mostly this was a cultural and historic sort of trip, but two days in Jordan’s Wadi Rum area allowed me to sneak in a little bit of geology as well. We were given a quick tourContinue reading In the desert
One of our Christmas guests expressed the wish to go on a walk on boxing day, so i dragged him off into the countryside. We took a route across Doon Hill and Brunt Hill, and, feeling that we were still going well, headed off down a common feature of the landscape in southeast Scotland: aContinue reading Valleys and cobbles
For this year’s holiday we booked a week in a comfy hotel in Gairloch, out on the distant northwest coast of Scotland. It really is distant, too: it takes as long to get there from Edinburgh as it does to get to North Wales. I was quite excited about the trip, partly because the areaContinue reading Geology tourism: the distant north west.
I escaped from my house for a week’s holiday. It felt rather odd, even though I was only in a cottage in the village of Butterstone, near Dunkeld. The village is just on the northwest side of the Highland Boundary Fault zone: the rocks to the south and east are Devonian sandstones similar to thoseContinue reading Conlan Hill (and its neighbour)
Brunt hill lurks behind Doon Hill, and is another example of a classic lump where you can cycle almost all the way to the summit. The true summit is actually in a fenced-off area with “keep out” notices, but the view is worth the effort of riding to a point as close to the summitContinue reading Cycleable classic lump
I have done “classic lump” posts about hills from various corners of Britain, and a few abroad. Now, with the pandemic, and the resulting lockdown, I am stuck with places I can reach on my permitted exercise. The nearest classic lump to Dunbar is Doon Hill, which has that splendid “classic lump” feature: a carContinue reading Up and Doon
I don’t have a lot of choice as to where to go for the exercise permitted to me by the government. The obvious choice is to go east along Dunbar beach (see previous post). But by sneaking through a few streets and past the swimming pool I can go west along the beach instead. IContinue reading Inside a local volcano
Like everyone else, I am stuck in my house on account of the COVID-19 outbreak, only going out for essentials and my one allowed walk per day. Fortunately, I have easy access to the beach, where I can get in a long walk without meeting too many people. It is actually an easier walk thanContinue reading Social distancing geology walk
I don’t seem to find time for this blog unless I am on strike; the last two posts come from the strike of late 2019 and this one is written on the first day of the strike in February/March 2020. (Previous strike posts here, here and here.) I think I have said enough about theContinue reading Writing on the wall
