The Golden Larches

Left Edinburgh on a dull, damp morning but arrived home in sunshine. We stopped for coffee at one of our regular places, the Golden Larches at Balquhidder Station. Apparently this used to be the local post office.

Over the road the entrance tunnel to the old station can still be seen - it's behind the postie's van. Balquhidder was a junction on the old Callander and Oban Line; it was closed in 1965. There's a nice photographic history of the line in the conservatory.

I forgot to say something about the 'Evening with Chris Hadfield' last night in Edinburgh's Usher Hall, so I'm adding it on. The astonishing story of a Canadian boy who dreamed of being an astronaut when Canada had no space programme, who joined the Air Force as a cadet and learned to fly, who became the Number One test pilot in both the Air Force and the Navy and who was eventually picked from some 5,000+ candidates to be an astronaut. He was a wonderful speaker - funny, modest, obviously quite a thinker and philosopher, brilliant with his audience, in short, an amazing guy. He left the earth on three occasions and eventually took charge of the Space Station. He projected numerous pictures - his own - of the earth from space and had quite a lot to say about the way we mistreat our planet. His several thousand orbits gave him an overall view of the Earth as an entity and I think made him feel that the squabbles between nations were so petty in world terms. He spoke warmly of Scotland and showed a picture he had taken of the area around the Firth of Forth which included the bridges. 

He moved on to questions from the audience - including a girl shouting from the top row of the 'Gods' which was very amusing - and allowed one lad to come down to the stage and 'borrow' his space watch which had worn on all of his space flights. He ended with a rendition of his version of David Bowie's 'Space Oddity' - not only is he an amusing raconteur, a deep thinker and a sensitive human being, but he's also a very competent guitar player with a great voice. So as you can see I was most impressed - if you ever get the chance to hear him, please take it!