Occasional musings on meteorology and other bits of Earth science
As soon as I returned from the Arran field trip, I went away for a weekend’s walking in the Lake District; staying at the top end of Borrowdale. As my walking companion was not up to a big summit we caught the bus down the valley to Grange and walked back, arriving not very longContinue reading Where pencils came from
I’m on the Arran field course again, but this year I am staying for the entire week. That meant that, after a busy five days I had a day with some time off while the students wrote up their work. Time for a classic lump ascent, and the nearest target was Torr Meadhonach. I hadContinue reading A classic lump on Arran
While there was still a bit of summer left, I took a couple of days off work for a short holiday down in the Scottish Borders. While there, I made an even shorter pilgrimage to a geologically famous spot: Dob’s Linn, in the Moffat fells. This spot is famous because the internationally agreed defining pointContinue reading A geological pilgrimage
There is something a bit sad about this time of year. The soft fruit and the peas are more-or-less over, the nights are drawing in, and the new academic semester is approaching like an express train through a tunnel. One thing that I do look forward to every autumn, though, is the arrival of theContinue reading Hard graft
My classic lump from this year’s holiday in Tenerife was Montaña Sámara. At 1937m above sea level it sounds quite impressive, until you note that the nearby car park is at 1875m, leaving only about 62m of ascent and half a kilometre of walking (one way). Like Montaña Chayofita, this hill is a cinder cone:Continue reading Another day, another volcano
If you had to describe the Trossachs to a visitor who had never been there, but was familiar with England’s national parks, you might start by saying that it had the scenery of the Lake District, with the proximity to a major city of the Peak District. The geology is not really like that ofContinue reading A’another classic lump
Ahhhh. The east coast of Scotland, on a beautiful sunny spring day. Time for folks inland to bask in the sunshine and those right on the coast to experience their very favourite weather phenomenon: the sea fog, or haar. A glance at the Met Office chart for 06:00 today suggests a high risk of aContinue reading Haar
Today is the last day of the current wave of strikes; tomorrow I have to go back into work as usual. The dispute is, unfortunately, far from over, and I anticipate further industrial action during the exam marking period. To mark the last day of strikes, my colleagues ran a “teach-out”; this seems to meanContinue reading Ripples
When I posted two weeks ago about being on strike, I had rather assumed that the dispute would have moved forward enough by this stage for us to be back at work. Sadly, that is not the case. Progress has been made: our employers have stopped saying that the whole thing is a done dealContinue reading Still on strike
Well, that was an unusual day at work. Or, rather, not at work; I have spent the day on strike. Now, I have mentioned strikes in this blog before, noting that our strikes are usually just a day or two over below-inflation pay rises, and that little usually comes of them. This strike is different,Continue reading Out, (yet again) brothers and sisters!
