Carols booked into the Roulotte Retreat in the borders for a few nights. It's a bunch of gypsy caravans in a meadow. It's quite idilic, but not that great for kids, saying that, Daisy loved the chickens wondering around.
I popped down for a night as I was having to work. Click on the image to see some pics.
Jim.
A visit to East Links Family Fun Park always cheers me up, mixing with the general public reminds me that we are doing really really really really well.
Click on the image to see some pics of the trip.
Jim.
During our camping trip, I said to Carol that it was some sort of game theory she was playing with me, as the camping was precursor to our St Andrews trip, and knowing that I don't like holidays, the camping trip would make me want to go St Andrews, guess what, it worked.
Carol and I last stayed in St Andrews in 2008. So I was looking forward to going back. We visited the Secret Bunker as we did in 2008, though not the best idea given we were in an enclosed space with other people during a respiratory pandemic. The weather was good too, so walk around, spent a fortune on food and got sun burnt, visited the aquarium, went to the beach, chilled out...usual holiday stuff.
Click on the image to see some pics of the trip.
Jim.
I couldn't stand camping as a child. Still don't like it now.
We camped by Loch Lomond, in a tent and got eaten by midges.
Click on the image to see some pics of the trip.
Jim.
During the summer, especially in Scotland, astronomy is almost impossible, unless you don't like sleep. So it's a rare treat to get an eclipse. Todays was very partial, about 30%, but still very cool.
Click on the image across to see a bigger version of the photo.
Jim.
Each year I've been taking a photo of Henry in his Brazil shirt. Crazy to see how he's changed.
Click on the image across to see a bigger version of the pic
Jim.
Carol hit the big FIVE OH! Yup, she's 50. Even though stupid lockdown got in the way, she had a lovely day and was over the moon with all her birthday video greetings. I was expecting she would cry, but as Scotty said in Star Trek 6 'she never shed a bloody tear'.
Click on the image across to see pics of the day.
Jim.
I'm finding astrophotography amazing and extremely frustrating at the same time. The image across is the Whirlpool galaxy, you can find it near the top of the plough handle. I was pretty happy with this image I captured with my cheapo kids telescope, but trying to photograph it the next night with the same conditions and same gear, no chance, eveything went wrong, couldn't focus, gear didn't work and I couldn't for the life of me find the galaxy!
When the 'vibe' is good, things go well and you get good images, when things go wrong, everything goes wrong and you get nothing. There's definately a massive amount of luck involved.
Jim.
Henry turned 9 today. He got lots of cool stuff. In fact what was interesting was that the stuff he got was very sciencey, so maybe he's gearing up for being a scientist, which is pretty cool. He's into geodes and stones, so I'm advising him to get into finding diamonds and make us rich!
Click on the image to see photos from his last birthday of being a single number.
Jim.
Travel back in time with the shed