The Northern lights - NOT a book review but the real thing...

I was very lucky to be able to observe the recent solar storm interacting with the earths magnetic field (see I live with an astromoner), commonly known as the Aurora or northern lights which was visible over much of the north of Great Britain this week. What a beautiful experience - seen with the naked eye yards from my home - great long curtains of luminescent green light dancing across the sky above Amble.

We are lucky to have reasonably dark skies where we live and the Northern lights have been visible a few times since we have lived here but we have never managed to see such a wonderful display as this before.

We saw our new year in standing down the lane wrapped up in big jumpers and many coats - with a glass of fizz in hand and the fireworks over Amble popping and a faint Aurora in the far sky, it felt rather splendid but nothing as awe inspiring as the display on Sunday night - the photos are by my friend Caroline - excellent considering she was out in the dark with no warning at all other then a quick text from me - ' v good aurora get out now' Thanks to Caroline for sharing them .

What beauty can nature deliver!!!

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Scotland part 2

The second half of the week continued in much the same vein. We had one rainy afternoon which was actually quite nice to be holed up in the house with the rain lashing the windows. It probably wasn't quite so nice for the two visitors that came on their bikes but they're tough cookies - and its only water- but I did feel sorry for them having to cycle six miles back down the track in the wind and rain, but given Scotland, it wasn't as bad as it could be. The big quest for the 2nd half of the week was to find some deer antiers! The chap that owned the house dropped in to visit - he was a very friendly fella and was chatting about how this was the time of year when all the Stags lost their antlers (he collected them and sold them) so after that we were on the serious lookout. It's always been Fred's mission to find some dropped antlers.... The Monro baggers continued with the mission to bag the remaining three Monros... there is discussion as whet...

Vigo

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Funchal

So after three days at sea we finally hit Funchal in Madeira. An escape from the ship, and I have to say it was very pleasant indeed. First of all the weather is really splendid. Especially when you know that everybody else in the UK is suffering grim storms and vile winds.. Over here it is between 22 and 25 degrees is really quite warm. Funchal is a pretty city. It's built on a hill it with lots of lovely white houses with stunning red roofs. In order to get the best of it we walked along the sea front until we got to the cable car and we took it up the hill. It was a really good ride much longer than we imagined and it's quite weird because it goes right through the town - completely over everybody's house... So not only do you get a lovely vista of the bay but you can view the beautiful rooftops and get to look in everybody's gardens and to look at their picnic sets.. clean washing nice plants... scratty b...

Planet Ruby Starrs

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