Trees on Pentland Hills

We had this rather ambitious plan today to check out one of the bird hides in the Pentland Hills Country Park. As soon as we had our lunch. Except that lunch became a one and a half hour epic exercise in cajoloing food down out little boy's mouth. Then we wasted another half an hour getting totally lost, and ended cutting our losses going to the only clearly signposted place in that area. Namely, Hillend Ski slopes. I must admit to being very impressed by how much improvements have been done since I last skied there. I had since stuck my nose up at the place in favour of exotic skiing locations with real snow. Of course, these days such skiing options are a lot less feasible, so I found myself trying to persuade our daughter that it's nowhere near as dangerous as it looks, and that those people falling onto their backsides are actually having the time of their lives. She remained somewhat unconvinced but I'll continue working on her to give this sport a shot.

So, no stunning orthonological pictures to show off today. Instead, an as-simple-as-I-can-get-away-with landscape of a bunch of trees.

Back home, I learned the sad news that Sir Patrick Moore has died at the age of 89. Coincidently, I had watched an episode of The Sky at Night just the previous night, for the first time in ages. I used to watch his programmes without fail, despite the almost vindictive times at which they were scheduled for a kid having to go to school the next day. The great man had a big influence on my interest in Astronomy and Physics and for all that, I am tremendously grateful.