On the road to Perth on Friday; near Kendal in the Lake District. Couldn’t really aim the camera, for obvious reasons. Every bend in the road in Scotland brings a new view like this…
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I’m in Lisbon for the joint ECVP/ESVP Congress on Veterinary pathology. Amazingly lovely scenery!
I thought as I’m a cool cosmopolitan guy I’d have a try on one of these new-fangled electric scooters. You’ll be pleased to hear I took to it like a fish out of water.
Also, we appear to be staying in Trump Tower.
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My neighbours seem to feel that it’s necessary to burn down the continent again. (View from my spare bedroom.)
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Walked home along the Thames on Sunday evening. This is the view of the river above the Richmond Lock & Weir
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We had a lovely walk around Devonport, a part of Plymouth not subject to the Luftwaffe-inspired reconstruction, and also a rare part of the city not sewn up by historical freebooter and all-round asshole Francis Drake.
My partner showed me the old Devonport town hall, inspired by the Parthenon, and Oddfellows Hall, built during the Egyptian craze. They’re both 200 years old and a fascinating surprise to be found around the corner in a residential part of the town.
Also in the background is the Devonport Column, inspired by Trajan’s column, to celebrate the changing of the town name from Plymouth Dock to Devonport (although it merged with Plymouth a century later). They were all designed by the same architect, John Foulston. Here’s a picture of how it looked in the 19th century in our book on Victorian Plymouth.
Oddfellow’s hall has been, over the centuries, a place of learning, administration and a library, filled with ancient and varied texts. This week, there’s a meat raffle, karaoke and bingo (please excuse the spelling; it is no longer a place of learning).
From there we walked down to Mountwise, overlooking the channel to the Dark Lands. There we found a memorial to Robert Falcon Scott, born and raised just a few streets from our current house.
His stoic and very British failure has certainly won the PR battle against Amundsen’s victory, and in some ways I find that fair. Scott wasn’t entirely the fool I thought he was, but was under much more pressure from his sponsors to do more than just win the race to the pole. In contrast, Amundsen was far more ruthless and duplicitous in his victory than I expected. Scott bravely facing his death on the ice made for a much more compelling story even in Amundsen’s lifetime.
The monument is surrounded by some of the last words Scott wrote, and help to show why his story has endured.
‘Had we lived, I should have such a tale of hardihood, endurance and courage of my companions which would have stirred the hearts of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale.’
The very last words he wrote, at least as I recall, are not at the monument (‘it seems a pity, but I do not think I can write any more.’)
A really lovely walk, and I hope it helps to show there’s more to Plymouth than codpieces, bowls, and Francis Effing Drake.
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It’s actually a bit more complex than that. 
The Luftwaffe bombed HM Dockyard Devonport very heavily, and some of that spilled into the surrounding streets—but the civilian rebuilding money mostly went to Plymouth proper, and the Dockyard was expanded by subsuming some of the most damaged areas.
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Durlach, houses, tramline, Turmberg with vinyards and optimally cropped view 
from the house. Impressions of where I now live again
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The Space Marine got relegated to the back! I’m visiting Nottingham and am literally over the road from the home of Games Workshop.
Seemed a shame to not get a selfie
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We’re currently in Sicily. It’s the off season so no other tourists and it’s unknowable wether places are closed permanently or just now. We have a very nice sunset view from our balcony and wonder of wonders the table works for a card game or two😎 We’ve seen the Etna from afar already (obviously we plan to get closer), we’ve driven through areas burned in this summer’s fires and we made plans for a boat tour to visit Stromboli. Lemon granita is the best granita. And despite 6:30pm sunsets, restaurants open for dinner no earlier than 8pm. temperatures are between 20 and 26°C and people here have a rough grasp of English. certainly better than we have of Italian. We can manage ordering food and drink😎 We took the shortcut to the mountain to visit the Saracen Tower and didn’t regret it… but only because one of us can drive and it’s not me.
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I first thought the second picture was a fire or explosion. (Which I guess it is, but less terrestrial.)
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It is. They all are. We’re having a little problem with bushfires here at the moment.
The first photo is the light of a fire at Moparrabah, Willi Willi, and Temagog, seen from the street outside my house on Monday night. The second is a fire in Hat Head National Park, seen from Crescent Head (near where some of the idyllic pictures I have posted before were taken). The third is that fire in the HHPN, taken from the streets in the village of Hat Head.
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I hope you’re staying safe - that looks terrifying!
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I’m pretty safe, thanks for your concern. But we have been worried about my brother: the maps at the Rural Fire Service website show his house being inside the firegrounds of the Willi Willi fire, but the maps are not precise and in fact the place was saved. Also, friends have been burned out, and a well-known local killed. The whole community seems pretty subdued.
We have rain predicted for Thursday or Friday, and maybe enough to put the fires out.
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In contrast to Australia, we’ve been having too much rain. Luckily it stopped for long enough to take a trip up to Brimham Rocks today.
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I have to revise my opinion. Pistachio granita is the best granita.
Also we passed several minor forest fires very close to the autostrada the other day. but the local firefighters were luckily able to put them out within a day.
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That’s an amazing photo of a fly agaric mushroom!
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Thanks! There were a bunch of them looking very bright against the rocks
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The wind has reversed, and has been blowing easterly all day. The Willi Willi Road fire encompassed 29 272 Ha as of the last update 10 hours ago, and the Rural Fire Service “Fires Near Me” shows it as having advanced in my brother’s area.
We have rain predicted for Thursday afternoon and evening, say, 66 hours from now. It’s going to be an anxious few days.
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