five

tv masts.

Advent Blip - Day 5

Better Big...

These twinkling red masts are visible from all over the Forth Valley and I thought they looked quite Christmassy in a red fairy light, 20 mile distant kind of way.

They're the tall masts that serve up analogue television and radio to a huge chunk the Central Belt of Scotland from a the top a "Black Hill" near Airdrie. One of them will also be pumping out Digital TV to the area when the Digital Switch Over kicks in in 2011.

The tallest masts are listed as the highest structures in Scotland.

It was a bit of a challenge getting this shot in this evening, not least the climbing a muddy hill in the rain without a torch (battery flat). Standing with tripod perched in the pitch black was a bit freaky in itself but when the battery went on the camera that led to a touch of mild panic. I had a spare and dug this out of the bag, opened the cover and fiddled to find the release. I thought nothing of popping the flat battery between my teeth whilst I manoeuvred the fresh one into the camera. Bad move. As my tongue touched the metal terminals and zapped electricity through it, I dropped it on to the ground and it disappeared into the wet grass. It took a minute or so to uncover it using my mobile phone as a light, and my tongue is still numb. The irony in this was the spot where I took the picture is called "The Pleasure Grounds". HA!

Lesson learned.

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Proximity to Christmas indicator backup: The sprouting of thousands upon thousands of twinkly LED lights that have appeared dangling from the eaves of almost every house in the street today.

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