Planet Ruby Starrs

This is a warm-up post... I'm slowly but surely packing for a very different kind of experience to anything I have had before.  Next week Dr Fred and I are going on a two-week cruise across the Bay of Biscay and down to Morocco and back.. all this is courtesy of Dr Fred - well sort of - Dr Fred's up and coming exploits are soon to include being the stargazer extraordinaire for some of the Fred Olsen cruises.  This is all down to being part of the Go Stargazing team https://gostargazing.co.uk/ who have recently made a comittment to providing on board astronomers for a large number of cruises over the next year.  Dr Fred is doing the inaugural Go Stargazing cruise leaving Southampton next week and heading for Morocco via Madeira and home via Portugal. What's rather fabulous for me is that he's allowed to take a companion with him and although he has been threatening that unless I behave myself he'll find somebody else he does realize that if he doesn't...

 Another Landmark Trust tick - this time Ascog House on the Isle of Bute - stunning as always... a very comfortable warm accommodation for the usual 8 suspects. This time we had a wee tower house for Dr Fred and myself - a lovely bedroom up the stairs with a big window and a bathroom al to ourselves - having said that all the other bedrooms in the big house were large and serviced by two bathrooms so there was no hardship for any visitors!   The grounds of the house were very extensive with ponds and secret passages - hidden paths and we even spotted a deer late afternoon - there were lots of old features - ornate staircases and a lovely hidden door which I did a quick sketch of. Bute provided quite a lot of entertainment as well - the weather was kind and we did a a muddy wander down the south of the Island taking in St Blanes Monastery and Kilcannon Bay.  The views were spectacular and it was fabulous to be out in the fresh (and it was fresh on the tops) air and we...