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.....

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...

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 backyards.... We got off th

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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