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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RubyStarrs in Paris...

Finally we have made it to Paris. It was a bit of a long travel day - we decided to come by train so we could experience the full glory of British Rail or whatever it's called now which actually delivered perfectly on time... and then the Eurostar which was incredibly disappointing! All that beautiful St. Pancreas Station and the Eurostar is sited in the dungeon... overcrowded, dark, lousy facilitated space... and then the train was an hour late it felt like a long time before we got any fresh air - but eventually we wound up in gay Paree... We navigated the metro and found our airbnb gaff. A mere 70 steps to the fourth floor on a rather lovely winding wooden staircase to a very nice roof top flat which is comfortable and gives a view across a lovely Courtyard with some obviously much posher flats. It's located really centrally about two minutes away from the Opera Garnier so a very good location for getting everywhere...

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Another Day in Norway where our Trusty Traveller finds Tromsø, Trolls and Totally misses Aurora....

Tromsø - the most northern city on the planet... Its quite a pretty little town with lots of wood fronted shops, but of course like everywhere like this, it is just one big tourist hive and every shop is selling 'indigenous' gifts- didthe Sami make aurora themed mugs and fridge magnets? Nearest I'll get a polar bear (i hope) Although I have to say I did like the big stuffed polar bear and black bear and I am presuming that these are either not real (unlikely) or culled as they sometimes have to be. But most of the stuff is just northern lights tat or Troll tat. Peer Gynt.. famous worldover To be fair the best bit of Tromsø for me was the Troll Museum! We went to the art gallery which was quite interesting (see instagram account) but not astounding, but I always like to look at the local art. We had a mooch around town in the snow and then we went to find the Trolls. This museum was absolutely crazy daft... it was totally dedi

Planet Ruby Starrs

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