Autumnal Star Weekend

setting sun on hill opposite NineBanks Hostel

I feel autumn is on us, I drove to Ninebanks youth hostel this weekend and the trees were really quite stunning as I motored through the forest - on Friday afternoon the low sun just touched the leaves with a hint of orange and a very deep russet - there is still quite a bit of green there so the effect was very pretty and a very pleasant visual start to a great weekend. So spirits lifted after a hard computer based day at college (interesting, enjoyable but tiring) I headed to meet the willing delegates for the star weekend Yuri Cosmos aka Dr Fred and I arrange twice a year.

The autumn event is always busy, and there were mostly familiar faces, and some people we hadn't seen for a long time. I set about sorting people into the right rooms and getting dinner on - As now officially - its on my CV - Artist in Residence / Glamorous Assistant its my job to take care of hospitality and entertainment ha ha .... basically cakes and cooking in general with the odd quiz thrown in and invitations to view my latest creation - this time photos of Wor Geordie - our snowdog.. I didn't even need a quiz this time as a long term guest had made a interesting cryptic one up.

The problem with these weekends is you can book one of the most scenic venues, cook nice food, have excellent lectures on tap, get interested knowledgeable and curious attendees - but you can't guarantee the the weather.... we have been very lucky the last 4 or so sessions with glorious dark clear skies for the lunar eclipse, the transit of mars and just general star gazing - even in a foot of snow but this weekend it just didn't happen...

Cloudy skies both evenings - but this didn't dampen spirits and with a good quiz to baffle and laugh over and a few glasses of wine, Dr Fred on hand to answer deep space questions and give us a sneak preview of his musical / space travel presentation we were well entertained. Its a good crowd, up for an interesting - sometimes mentally challenging couple of days, with lots of cake thrown in to keep sugar levels high. Ninebanks has a comfortable feel and is a great location and on Saturday afternoon everyone headed out for tramp across the hills and dale for several lungfuls of atmosphere.. the clouds of course lifted in the day time!!! Dr Fred and I took off for a short local walk - very pretty ruined church - more stone to draw.. and an interesting common occurrence in this part of the world tens of tiny dead moles strung up on the fence... swaying in the breeze - A warning to other moles? anyone know why they do this?

moles hanging out to dry.....

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

We left the ship to explore Vigo. Its a much larger place then we expected... although tbh I hadn't given ut a lot of thought. Its a real mish mash of old and new and having got a map from tourist info we decided to follow the walking trail to the Monte Castro... the highest point of the town. Most of the town was pretty much as everywhere else... lots of traffic... lots of people... one or two interesting buildings and a lot of shopping. We headed to the art gallery - this has been a year of gallery visits so we we seen o reason to change now. The Museo de Marco is housed in the towns ex prison building and its very grand. In fact, I think that on this occaision the building might have been more interesting than the art.... Although the visiting exhibition by Susanne S D Themlitz was strangely compelling. It was a huge varied collection of eclectic items... found, salavaged, manipulated and arranged in lots of ways - weirdly inspiring - and mostly enjoyable to look at...

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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