I introduced the Crow Craigies Climbing Party last year, when I described our trip to Bonar Bridge. This year took us to a cottage at Corrour, at the east end of Loch Ossian—a ten-mile drive down a rough track from the bridge over the Spean at Luiblea, through Strath Ossian. (There’s a locked gate halfway … Continue reading CCCP 2017: Corrour
Quotation Marks
The quotation mark has its origin in Europe in the centuries before printing, when documents were copied by hand. It started out as something called a diple. That word comes from Greek diplous, “double”, and a diple was, at its simplest, a line bent in half to form an arrowhead, like this: >. Diples were … Continue reading Quotation Marks
Sidlaws: Tealing Hill to Hayston Hill
Laidloon Hill (NO 393420, 312m) Broom Hill (NO 383421, c290m) Gallow Hill (NO 391413, 378m) Tealing Hill (NO 407402, c260m) Ironside Hill (NO 399411, 354m) Finlarg Hill (NO 406419, 336m) Unnamed Point 315 (NO 411431, c350m) Kincaldrum Hill (NO 414436, 309m) Hayston Hill (NO 408449, c235m) 17.7 kilometres 580m of ascent It’s distinctly possible that … Continue reading Sidlaws: Tealing Hill to Hayston Hill
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Harris … and Lewis
Back to South Harris again this year, still enchanted by its rugged landscape and hallucinatory beaches. We caught the ferry from Uig in Skye again—always nice to travel through Skye’s mad scenery, even on a hazy day. This time we were staying in a rather swish self-catering place, perched on a hillside above the beach … Continue reading Harris … and Lewis
Kim Stanley Robinson: New York 2140
We’ve got good tech, we’ve got a nice planet, but we’re fucking it up by way of stupid laws. I’ve written about Kim Stanley Robinson before, when I reviewed his Green Earth. I mentioned his environmentalist and anti-capitalist concerns, his lyrical descriptions of landscape, his long passages where nothing much happens except characters talking to … Continue reading Kim Stanley Robinson: New York 2140
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Hasegawa 1/48 Hawker Hurricane IIC: Part 2
Go to the first post in this build log I left you last time when I had applied the primer coat successfully. Next, I sprayed on the Temperate Land Scheme colours, using LifeColor paints. First, I applied Medium Sea Grey to the under surfaces, then masked that area off, applied Dark Earth to the upper … Continue reading Hasegawa 1/48 Hawker Hurricane IIC: Part 2
Sidlaws: Blacklaw Hill & White Hill from Little Ballo
Unnamed Point 273 (NO 276349, 273m)Blacklaw Hill (NO 288344, 284m)White Hill (NO 274338, 233m) 10.5 kilometres240 metres of ascent You’ll perhaps recall my previous expedition to Blacklaw Hill—I went in from the north, which turned out to be a minor assault course, and went out to the east, which took me into the unnerving neatness … Continue reading Sidlaws: Blacklaw Hill & White Hill from Little Ballo
Liguria
There is something majestic in the bad taste of Italy; it is not the bad taste of a country which knows no better; it has not the nervous vulgarity of England or the blinded vulgarity of Germany. It observes beauty and chooses to pass it by. But it attains to beauty’s confidence. E.M. Forster, Where … Continue reading Liguria
Elizabeth Allan: Burn On The Hill
Ronnie was a short-legged hunchback and a social misfit; his navigation was pathetic and he was not competent even with a railway timetable. He never carried more than a sandwich, and often not even that, and was entirely dependent on the spontaneous goodwill and hospitality of keepers and shepherds. He only at any time had … Continue reading Elizabeth Allan: Burn On The Hill
Perihelion: Part 2
pɛrɪˈhiːlɪən perihelion: that point in the orbit of a planet, comet or other body at which it is closest to the sun Well, time flies. Back on January 4, when the Earth was at its closest to the sun, I started off to write about words relating to perihelion, and got side-tracked into writing about … Continue reading Perihelion: Part 2
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