Stevan

Wandered from South to North, IT to the Humanities, UHI degree. Lower left political compass. Off-grid for practical reasons. A scatterling of Africa.
Himself to herself https://mastodon.scot/@HelenLockhart
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇪🇺 Yes.
#Highlands #Photography #Culture #FreeSoftware #OffGrid #Scotland
Also an automated twice-daily weather conditions, forecast & summary for Clachtoll at Assynt Weather (npub1u6c…gvv4)
Posts auto-delete after 3 months

Blog: https://blog.vasten.co.uk/
Assynt Place Names: https://assyntplacenames.vasten.co.uk/
Tags for a better fediverse: [#NoBots](https://mastodon.scot/tags/NoBots )

Public Key

npub1yjgv8mvp2lznnkyy5r75l72epfg3lqux0r9y0kxd9dz9rcdt9kkq2g03pl

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqszfyxrakq403femzz2pl20l9vs55glswr83jj8mrxjk3z3ux4jmtqprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmntqyqqa50zvm

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

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npub1yjgv8mvp2lznnkyy5r75l72epfg3lqux0r9y0kxd9dz9rcdt9kkq2g03pl

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Published at

2026-07-20T04:56:21+02:00

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Event JSON

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Last Notes

2026-04-04 11:37:25 CEST

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There seem to be quite a few Fediversians with MG4s. Here's my blog posts, chiming with yours - https://blog.vasten.co.uk/index.php?category/EVs
@npub1jmc…ugn3 also has an MG4, and I think someone else in Aus, but I can't recall who.

2026-03-20 08:03:11 CET

Email from VPS provider: "...the global memory shortage has been driving up hardware costs across the entire hosting industry. RAM and SSDs are more expensive than ever, as AI corporations are consuming a large portion of production capacity... we must pass on parts of these increased costs."
That's bad enough, but they've paid for literally the world's supply of memory and disk with money that does not actually exist, while we have to pay for what we already have with money that does exist.

2026-03-19 10:46:41 CET

It's time for your morning Herdie.
#SheepOfMastodon
#Assynt
#MorningWalk
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/116/255/198/665/808/697/original/9b151c79bb6721fb.jpg

2026-03-18 15:18:03 CET

Things that make you go "oh-ohhhh". Just had a call cancelling herself's dentist appointment, along with the weird information that they'll let us know when next they can make any appointments at all.
Not good news, as I was going to phone tomorrow to get a split tooth sorted. Also somehow sinister sounding.
Don't really want to find another dentist, or fewer patients here will give them an excuse to close the NHS dental service locally.

2026-03-13 09:20:22 CET

The timetable for fibre in our area is now 2030, but that's followed by "the timetable may change." Based on evidence of ScotGov's & BT's interest in our area, that means the timetable will be elongated, not compressed.
You'd imagine rural areas like ours would have some sort of priority for the £400m allocated to this, given the economic benefits of good infrastructure, but profit beats the common good.
Before someone says "contact your MSP/MP", years of doing that have achieved nothing.

2026-02-17 19:50:48 CET

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4. And now we have adverts for systems infinitely more opaque than was possibly with Access which, according to the adverts, one need only trust. The copilot slop will surely always be accurate and show correct data.
I wonder how many companies are going to go to the wall blinking in the light of reality before this nonsense goes full circle.

2026-02-17 19:48:45 CET

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3. Some years later, I worked at a different company. An accounting wunderkind was brought in who promptly wanted to work around the accounting systems by building his own Access database. I warned the CFO about the dangers of this, and was told I should control ,y obvious jealousy of the wunderkind.
Then the auditors came in.
And once again, we came within days of closing down, being declared insolvent, saved only by the accountants working round the clock.
4/...

2026-02-17 19:45:56 CET

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2. Well, someone wrote an Access application that soon was so "useful", it became indispensable. And when it inevitably started spitting out nonsense, it started impacting on a company in a regulated industry for whom I worked. We came within 24 hours of being closed down, and only because several people worked pretty much round the clock to resolve the problems of this poorly understood and undocumented application.
3/...

2026-02-17 19:43:25 CET

Let me tell you a story.
We've got the telly on, and there's just been a staggeringly unlikely ad for Microsoft copilot slop generator.
But my story is about the 1990s and the 2000s. Do you remember how MS Access was punted as an easy database application (it was), but it had so many come-ons that encouraged users to over-extend themselves. Rather than depend on reliable corporate systems, just bung the data into this application to solve all known problems.
2/...

2026-02-12 16:50:25 CET

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Don't worry about it. I myself have, of my own free will, been 39 for the last 25 years. You'll have plenty of time to get your head around things. 😁

2026-02-09 14:24:08 CET

I had time to kill in Lochinver today, as the car was charging on the slow charger. Highland Council clearly only see their monopoly charge network as sources of profit, but can't bring themselves to fix broken units. The Lochinver fast charger has been broken for 3 months. We also know that Scourie, Lairg, Tongue & Tain chargers are out of action. Service? They've heard of it & rejected the notion.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, it gave me a chance for a little photo excursion. Here's Lochinver.
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/116/040/885/252/800/820/original/fd03a819e4b82c05.jpg

2026-02-02 10:34:30 CET

Medical appointment this morning, and the car went into tortoise mode 🐢. No idea why. First time this has happened. Still, I got in, though the car stopped a few times on the steeper hills

2026-01-30 09:45:58 CET

Yuk. The app for the car (rate of charge, duration etc, among other things, so quite useful) now refuses to run if it claims to detect "a VPN". That "vpn" is Tracker Control, or even the duckduckgo app protection, used to stop scummy apps selling my soul. A recent update must have enabled this very useful (to somebody, not the user) feature. I wonder how many other apps will follow suit.
MG iSmart - in the sense that "smart" can be "hurt", I suppose.

2026-01-29 12:25:22 CET

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Hope it clears quickly.

2026-01-19 22:25:13 CET

More #Aurora pics, a few moments ago
The lights of Stornoway can be seen across the Minch in one pic (as well as my finger over the lens)
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/923/857/621/859/936/original/28ddb3ff20b89410.jpg
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/923/857/623/404/132/original/2037a5090b076216.jpg
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/923/857/621/663/657/original/cd3b1204613286f8.jpg

2025-12-20 11:22:46 CET

#TechiePost
That's a bit weird, but I'll post it here in case it helps anyone.
Running KDE Plasma under wayland. I recently added a bottom launcher panel. Some programs now failed to show a menu bar.
The problem is the Global Menu widget, which somehow got installed on that panel (I don't recall adding it, as I don't like a menu in the panel) The widget does not support wayland.
Removed the widget and all is well.

2025-12-19 09:32:58 CET

Chuckling over this that herself found on Instagram, from Suzie Dent the lexicographer
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/745/291/576/553/735/original/8566e38422d2bf75.png

2025-12-14 10:06:31 CET

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Not necessarily most memorable, but right up there, we were walking in the hills when we heard a cheeping noise. It was a baby otter, all alone, abandoned by her mother. The experts thought the mother was new, & hadn't counted her pups properly while moving them from the natal holt.
Under instruction from the otter sanctuary & our countryside ranger, we went back to lift her, & she spent the night in our kitchen before we took her to the sanctuary. She was released a year later.
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/717/102/458/085/261/original/61c3b87c29f7d9c4.jpg
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/717/102/461/795/543/original/28e12dbbd79ca5cf.jpg
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/717/102/463/855/239/original/614d5e1f0386301e.jpg
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/717/104/782/173/011/original/254fe124faac5c66.jpg

2025-12-13 18:11:51 CET

An unexpected head-down day strengthening the defences of herself's website after some lowlife used it to test stolen credit card details by creating new accounts & trying to buy stuff. No real harm to the site, we think, other than potentially reputation. Must say the person from the credit card processor Helen contacted (only 2 small transactions worked) was very knowledgeable, helpful reassuring. It could have been a lot worse.
Now to see if the additional defences help.

2025-12-11 14:11:54 CET

Right, off to the dentist to get a cracked root extracted. That will be after I try to convince him that he really doesn't want to do it - nothing to do with me quaking in my boots, you understand.

2025-12-11 11:59:11 CET

Wow, it's frustrating looking at the feed from @npub1agz…k395 how other areas are getting improvements to their fibre connections, when here there are no plans to lay fibre at all, in spite of public money for this being gifted to the incumbent monopoly (used in areas more profitable for them), against a background of having just been in South Africa, and seeing the most rural of places with fibre to the premises.

2025-12-06 19:31:36 CET

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Not sure if you follow @npub1d7n…yxsc who also seems to have upgraded his FreeBSDs recently.
I imagine you do. I hear all FreeBSD people know all other FreeBSD people in this and other universes.

2025-12-05 22:21:04 CET

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WITHOUT marmite

2025-11-22 11:14:41 CET

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Optics?

2025-11-15 16:36:13 CET

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One final thing from the museum. They tell it like it is. Rather than just saying "Don't sit on this relic from the past" they up the stakes.
The sign reads " Everyone who ever sat on this chair is now dead. Play it safe and remain standing."
#TLHHTraveling
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/554/443/488/477/704/original/7a6d15609883d153.jpg

2025-11-15 16:32:24 CET

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3. It was possible to note the sense of injustice still lingering in the way people were forced to live - white folk in one area and people of colour almost outside the main town, and subject to curfews at night, but she felt that this did not prevent mutual getting along that I thought had been eradicated by the evils of apartheid.
She gave an uplifting story, and her generosity of telling a personal story was appreciated.
#tlhhTraveling

2025-11-15 16:29:30 CET

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2. being as a result of shipwrecked sailors staying and making lives for themselves. She felt that the shipwrecks were therefore everyone's story.
She also was clear that, even through apartheid, relationships among all groups, though under the law of the land, continued in spite of the supremacist underpinnings that led to attitudes we have observed on this trip (but not in Bredasdorp.) She herseld, she said, had white friends, growing up.
3/...
#TLHHTraveling

2025-11-15 16:25:50 CET

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The museum is worth a visit. I spoke to one of the curators afterwards, trying to feel my way towards asking whether the essentially European, therefore white, aspects of the shipwrecks, representing various colonial or mercantile powers, left out the original inhabitants of the area.
She felt that the wrecks themselves influenced so much in the area, from leaving names (Arniston is named after the ship that went down there) to founding families in some areas...
2/...
#TLHH Traveling
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/554/395/841/858/652/original/77c92c4212e9907f.jpg

2025-11-15 16:22:15 CET

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This area is where the Birkenhead went down, the first time the "women and children first" rule was put into force, and so resulting in the deaths of almost all the men on board, but few women & children. "Remember the Birkenhead" became the cry after this incident.
Nearby, for some reason, a Lion Rampant hung from the ceiling.
#TLHHTraveling
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/554/383/096/359/047/original/71aa2c45f6e88ec1.jpg

2025-11-15 16:19:04 CET

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There's a sign at the door suggesting pausing a moment to consider all those who died in the shipwreck items on display.
This, though, is a reminder both of how long the voyages were, and the dangers of the voyages, a christening font on a ship
#TLHHTraveling
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/554/374/545/306/225/original/a63d2c381a6d491f.jpg

2025-11-15 16:16:55 CET

We found the Shipwreck Museum at Bredasdorp. Obvious really, as it's 25km from the sea. But to be fair, it's the closest location to mark all the shipwrecks that have occurred off the tip of the continent, Cape Agulhas. Some aspects of the museum reminded me of the Stromness museum in Orkney. The staff are so knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and there is a lot to see.
For some reason, this display was all about, well, not P&O but po. All receptacles for bodily functions on board
#TLHHTraveling
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/554/357/545/941/214/original/ceb8f9aebdb69206.jpg

2025-11-09 06:55:43 CET

There's a shop here in Eswatini called "Yebo!". Among the arty items for sale are various forms of posters. I think herself posted a pic of the bag she bought, saying "Meerkats Against Misogyny"
Here are some others
#TLHHTraveling
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/518/189/948/902/344/original/3274fb03a22cf079.jpg
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/518/189/978/333/646/original/82aabc81307f1975.jpg

2025-11-09 05:56:36 CET

Times Phew Roman
#PungentMoviesOrFonts
#HashtagGames

2025-10-28 13:16:59 CET

This is sugar cane country, apart from other things. This is how it's harvested. probably a good thing, to get rid of razor-sharp leaves, snakes and other things not conducive to a longer life.
Is this horrifyingly bad for the environment? Yes, but the problem starts way earlier, in monoculture and the amount of water required for these crops.
We're on holiday and have no right to hold opinions on this, especially coming from a place where they horrifically farm salmon
#TLHHTravelling
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/451/720/073/552/420/original/65b7d5385f87f1f5.jpg

2025-09-24 10:07:51 CEST

It's this kind of day in #Assynt
It seems just a few days back that I was observing a distinct greening after the long winter period. Now we're seeing the green retreat, as it should.
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/258/238/384/006/530/original/90ff10ea38384d35.jpg

2025-09-22 10:25:15 CEST

Even the weather and sea gods have moody Mondays.
#Assynt
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/246/984/342/180/392/original/43e62ae894122b1f.jpg

2025-09-21 21:52:51 CEST

The variety in the weather at this time of the year; this snap taken this evening.
#Assynt
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/244/027/256/584/517/original/c9b17f3b871823d8.jpg

2025-08-23 08:49:38 CEST

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Here's a cropped section of the full version of one of yesterday's pics. It looks like some left-over mortar in there, so there may well be lime mortar deep within those cracks
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/076/742/494/121/596/original/e04aa688792f3e83.jpeg

2025-08-23 08:46:19 CEST

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I've done a quick search, and a word used is "masonry". That implies some fixing, so maybe it was mortared.
If we get a chance later this afternoon I'll go and have a closer look
https://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/media/ogwo5loi/the-historic-harbours-trail-leaflet-accessible.pdf

2025-08-23 08:42:48 CEST

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I believe it's drywall, but I may be wrong. The stones are very closely interlocked.

2025-08-22 18:35:07 CEST

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This boat caught my attention in Portsoy harbour as it looks to have classically Scottish working boat lines. Two wells, covered no doubt against seagulls and a mast that can be easily lowered.
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/073/377/912/698/938/original/82d8423df3cbc6de.jpg

2025-08-22 18:32:40 CEST

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A working harbour and and a working harbour's smell. In Portsoy this afternoon
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/073/370/783/083/916/original/4eb6f0a6c0237a1e.jpg

2025-08-22 18:31:12 CEST

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Two views of the stonework on the old harbour at Portsoy, dating back to the 16th century. Astounding vertical construction of the stones, but for some reason, and it's bound to be a good one, some sections have horizontal stonework.
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/073/362/008/910/308/original/1b13ee390776f7f2.jpg
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/073/362/007/333/176/original/a6c301b9e5be52c7.jpg

2025-08-22 18:29:00 CEST

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Big fren and Little fren, in Portsoy harbour this afternoon
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/073/354/694/737/353/original/75f49f7c1c98a34b.jpg

2025-08-22 18:27:17 CEST

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The new harbour at Portsoy, very much a working one. What is it that's so attractive about harbours?
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/073/349/451/516/504/original/86fe22a665a3400f.jpg

2025-08-22 18:25:48 CEST

A post-setup stroll around Portsoy a little while ago. Here's their wonderful dolphin artwork.
I'll have to be careful what I say about this area, as it's the cultural home of @npub1c8d…kxzf of this parish. And @npub1ne6…hhrn isn't far away? Fit like, ye twa?
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/073/336/453/931/762/original/8dccc30e2f2de35a.jpg

2025-08-22 16:07:16 CEST

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Sounds intriguing. Every best wish.

2025-08-19 10:14:44 CEST

And just a small section of our bit of the planet, on this #MorningWalk
Not sure what aspect of these lines in the land-and-seascape caught my attention
#Assynt
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/054/424/674/333/008/original/f6b19ea6003cc0f9.jpg

2025-08-18 08:53:15 CEST

Though absent long,
These forms of beauty have not been to me,
As is a landscape to a blind man's eye:
But oft, in lonely rooms, and mid the din
Of towns and cities, I have owed to them,
In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart,
And passing even into my purer mind
With tranquil restoration
https://romantic-circles.org/sites/default/files/RCOldSite/www/rchs/reader/tabbey.html
#JunkDrawerASongOrPoem
#HashtagGames

2025-08-17 15:22:55 CEST

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22. It's water lily time on Lexie's Loch. There's a good shallow spot for water lilies near the foot of the loch, the source of the burn that runs past The Last Homely House
23/n
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/044/312/021/351/002/original/686c14afcb63472f.jpg

2025-08-17 15:21:13 CEST

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21. Now we're close to Lexie's Loch and in front is The Bog of Eternal Stench*. It always pongs in this spot, and when we had the terriers, they'd squelch their way through alarmingly. Fortunately this was also one of the favourite paddle spots, so they'd cross then head straight down to the water.
22/n
* - again, watch Labyrinth.
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/044/302/908/280/291/original/be5975ed2c585196.jpg

2025-08-17 15:18:54 CEST

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20. A bad pic, but you can see why gardening or farming in Assynt is a challenge. The glaciers went through, and Nature said "Righto lads, you've had your fun. Now's the time to make some soil. Grind up that rock down there." They gave it a go, and then said "You know, this rock is hard. Let's sod off. No-one will know."
Of course, geologists may put that slightly differently.
21/n
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/044/290/502/347/923/original/d81e24da39a952bc.jpg

2025-08-17 15:15:46 CEST

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19. There's so much along here, like these weird structures. They're about a metre by a metre, and we know of 3 or 4 other places around the loch where they have been built. We've spoken to archaeologists about them, though, among all the -ologies, archaeology is right up there in their ability not to say "No idea, son." Some are built into a section of living rock, some part of a wall, and some standalone.
20/n
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/044/278/756/724/307/original/cfa78440b08874b6.jpg

2025-08-17 15:12:46 CEST

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18. We're heading home now, but turn to snap the head of the loch. It's quiet here, whereas previously we've heard the echoes of boats and the foghorn at Stoer Head lighthouse. But there's something special about this spot.
19/n
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/044/269/608/456/643/original/6d965b54374c4100.jpg

2025-08-17 15:10:21 CEST

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17. Finally we are at the high point of the walk, and we can look down on Lexie's Loch. Somewhere down there is The Last Homely House too.
This is the spot where, years ago, Helen's Yorkie, Peggy, came running back to me communicating well enough for me to follow her, and there was a fawn lying on the ground, waiting for its mother's return. Peggy was clever like that.
18/n
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/044/257/933/193/515/original/f5ad99ee23db4804.jpg

2025-08-17 15:04:18 CEST

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15. Good choice. From here we can catch a glimpse of Quinag - do you see her peaking in the distance? That's the line of Clachtoll Peat Road down there.
Hang on, let's zoom in a little....
16/n
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/044/236/533/773/195/original/001bf57e4981767b.jpg

2025-08-17 14:59:03 CEST

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13. #SundayWalk, continuing. Walking past Water Loch, along the ridge which divides it from Lexie's Loch, we get a glimpse of the Loch around which we're inscribing a large oval.
14/n
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/044/218/486/615/910/original/b6d18ed952246d57.jpg

2025-08-17 14:51:22 CEST

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12. We're high up now, high enough to smell the haar that's trying to make its way inland from the north, though we were never in it. Here's Water Loch, so called because it's the water supply for our area. More correctly it's Loch Poll an Droighinn, the loch of the boggy place of blackthorn
We've seen otters in this loch
13/n
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/044/184/011/813/608/original/f1cac79b42dd3463.jpg

2025-08-17 14:48:34 CEST

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11. We get reminders of the glacial past of our area. This rock seems to have been carefully placed on a series of bearers. I once worked out the mass of this erratic for an article I was writing. I must have been bored.
It also looks like Douglas Adams' "Deep Thought" who came up with the answer "42". No? Oh, OK then.
Anyway, it has a nice view.
12/n
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/044/172/529/164/803/original/9f0d10fcf361d6a9.jpg

2025-08-17 14:45:23 CEST

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10. And now we have to start remembering the way, as it's such a long time since we've done this walk. But I knew where to pick up the waypoint we call Beagle Rock, just visible here in the U-shaped gap in the terrain. Can you see it?
11/n
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/044/161/530/260/919/original/60d8e7450e08b8be.jpg

2025-08-17 14:42:58 CEST

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9. From this point in the #SundayWalk we can look to the right and get a view of the iconic hills of Assynt, though sadly not including the best mountain in Assynt, and the second best on the planet, Quinag. She was hidden in the mist and, perhaps like folk who like her, is way over to the left of this image.
10/n
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/044/153/001/648/172/original/dc4a659868a5b864.jpg

2025-08-17 14:40:45 CEST

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8. Once, more we turn around, as again, at this point we've headed up perhaps the steepest part of the walk, steep enough to have to zigzag up. And there's Clachtoll, widely acknowledged to be the Centre of the (known) Universe, laid out before us.
9/n
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/044/143/182/513/497/original/1bf3e98c332a0fd5.jpg

2025-08-17 14:37:56 CEST

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7. Some years back, I found a barn owl resting in a crack in the rockface behind The Old Soldier's House. So imagine our joy when an owl burst out of the rock face not that far from where I'd seen it years back.
Just in case this was really Jareth*, we kept our distance, in case through dangers untold we had to fight our way to the goblin city
* - What? You haven't seen Labyrinth? Say it's not so.
#Birds
#Owls
8/n
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/044/138/129/477/414/original/ef24d88c3a7b2711.jpg

2025-08-17 14:34:16 CEST

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6. Some years back, we discovered The Old Soldier's well. Even now it's at least a metre deep, though the water is almost up to the brim. This is a bout 100m or so from the house, so not too inconvenient. It's quite well built and the stonework extends downwards, as expected from a well
7/n
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/044/118/567/849/457/original/c737153b030655f1.jpg

2025-08-17 14:31:43 CEST

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5. And so up to The Old Soldier's House. This is a place that ought to be spooky but is really peaceful. My Westie used to love it here, and want to linger. It has been unoccupied since 1945
6/n
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/044/109/530/897/683/original/50c4a510276af1f3.jpg

2025-08-17 14:29:41 CEST

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4. On with the #SundayWalk, and as we've been climbing steadily, we turn around to get some breath back, to get a rather good view of the split rocks of Clachtoll.
5/n
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/044/102/785/142/242/original/2edf9f162330fba3.jpg

2025-08-17 14:28:01 CEST

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3. Soon we passed an old house. We think this house must have been destroyed by fire - notice that huge crack across the lintel.
I was fortunate enough to have been given some stories about this place from some elderly folk, now no longer with us, most notably one about the tradition of seeing death lights.
4/n
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/044/095/245/064/286/original/e5da3f081c698e97.jpg

2025-08-17 14:26:00 CEST

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2. It's the time of the year for ling heather, and the entire walk smelt of honey. It's such a wonderful time, when you can catch an inkling of what it must be like for a bee. The heather is so prolific this year, though remarkably hard to photograph
3/n
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/044/085/731/359/699/original/c10ee9fe9cd43f3f.jpg

2025-08-17 14:23:30 CEST

#SundayWalk A photo 🧵
It's years since we did a walk we used to do a lot, a circumnavigation of Lexie's Loch. This is a walk that simply means turning left instead of going straight as we leave our gate, and head up into the hills.
Soon, a glimpse of Lexie's Loch can be seen, more correctly Loch Leathad a Bhaile Fhogair, the loch of the autumn settlement.
2/n
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/044/077/238/712/397/original/dfcc0325a55277a5.jpg

2025-08-11 10:41:19 CEST

Something weird, and rather sinister looking, washed up near the beach after the windy week. It seems militaristic rather than a flotation buoy or otherwise. Also, no seaweed growing on it.
#MorningWalk
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/009/223/323/831/703/original/3398a8382a5c3c2b.jpg
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/009/223/318/270/221/original/6908118769ef69a7.jpg

2025-08-08 12:16:09 CEST

Alpine fundis - I'm missing something obvious as I'm trying to get into alpine on a Pi.
I've installed iwd, which needs dbus. Both have also installed the required openrc service. I have added these as boot services using
rc-update add <service> <runlevel>
Also tried the default runlevel.
But rc-status -s doesn't list them, & they never start automatically. They do work when I start then manually.
I can't find any reason for them not to appear in rc-status, unless they are running.
Any ideas?

2025-07-30 10:15:38 CEST

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Oh yes, except of course for that absolutely genuine and impossible to knock off Rolex I bought from that bloke in the car park for just £100. It hardly leaves any green streaks on my arm any more. 😂

2025-07-30 09:03:22 CEST

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I noticed this some years back here in Scotland when I had an operation. All the staff wore crocs.
But re Sunanda's original comment, perhaps the popularity isn't for the overpriced branded Crocs, but the cheap and easily-available knock-offs. It's possible the affordability of the manufacturing process, rather than after the marketeers have got to them, that makes them popular.
#JustaThought

2025-07-27 14:22:18 CEST

#SilentSunday
#Birds
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/114/925/166/319/658/165/original/57a6e3d95104c55e.jpg

2025-07-25 18:15:03 CEST

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Enjoying this discussion as, while I'll never take photos anything like as good as either of you do, I do love my Lumix (G97 at present, also GX7 and GX8 in the past). Herself has a Olympus E-M10 reminding her of her original OM1 she still has, 45 years later.
MFT has so much going for it.

2025-07-24 17:12:27 CEST

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It's quite likely they think their leadership's hidden-but-always-there Reform agenda by another name won them the last election, rather than Tory turmoil losing it.

2025-07-10 08:49:32 CEST

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I wonder if they'll eventually drop the app here. They've been pushing smart speakers as though someone high up has shares in a smart speaker business.

2025-07-02 19:43:34 CEST

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Did your dad enjoy it? Were you surprised? 😃

2025-07-02 14:46:12 CEST

I feel old. I've just bought a quarter terrabyte SD card for £28, delivered.
I'm old enough to remember running a 400-desk company on Novell Netware with 2x 640 MEGAbyte drives, and they cost £10k each.
Every time I casually click the shutter on my camera, I use more data than each user's quota for those days. Every time I take a 2 minute video, I use more data than those entire disks. And those disks took 24 hours each to compsurf.

2025-07-01 12:19:43 CEST

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Sometimes. Only sometimes.
Just at random, here's the weather summary for Feb last year. Look at those wind highs. And that's not looking for the big numbers.
https://weather.vasten.co.uk/NOAA/NOAA-2024-02.txt
(edit for giving the wrong url)

2025-07-01 11:10:23 CEST

The bay and the beach, on this lovely day in #Assynt
#MorningWalk
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/114/777/192/746/714/569/original/ff91dc8b86223a8c.jpg

2025-07-01 11:08:37 CEST

But what is this?
At the turning point of our daily walk, I saw a bird with unusual wings fly unsteadily into the wind, then settle on the rocks way below near the sea. It then disappeared, incredibly well camouflaged.
The flight gave me an inkling of what it might be, but the photo, I think, confirms that this may well be a young cuckoo.
Can you even spot it on the rocks?
#Birds
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/114/777/184/923/409/691/original/d3b591045dfbbf47.jpg

2025-05-31 09:11:38 CEST

Wonderful the way an order from Aliexpress can get from the factory to Britain in 5 days, while the British delivery company (Evri) has had the parcel for 7 days and it's nowhere to be seen, but could be in Inverness.
Aliexpress has already credited compensation to my account, but oh, why do they choose Evri.
And while I'm grumpy-old-manning as well as I am, why didn't they call the delivery company Nevah, or perhaps MaeBee, as it's more accurate.
#GoodMoaning

2024-12-26 17:19:12 CET

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2. Also the big (2metre) wall at Inchnadamph/Kirkton, the result of a disagreement between the Kirk and the Sutherland "masters". It's still possible to see "K" on one side (not for Kirstie!) and "S" on the other. That must have been incredible labour. The kirk refused to be cleared from that area, when the people had been cleared, and the minister only moved to Torbreck 100 years later.

2024-12-26 17:17:08 CET

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Yes, and some of their stories. One local one is that someone wanted a wall built, so a group of local men banded together and built it. He then refused to pay, so they gathered one night and dismantled it, then put it up again, some distance away. There is still a bizarre wall on our daily walk that looks to have been quickly built (many holes) which is supposedly the result!
2/...

2024-12-26 17:07:42 CET

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I really think they don't fit a nicely defined structure, so they're often overlooked. They're the archetypal "enigmatic structure" description, so beloved when science is unable to say "we have no idea." As such, I've had several archaeologists do the "Oh look, a squirrel" get-out, which is fair enough.
Also, Canmore in our area is a little lacking. Some years back, a local project found dozens of previously undocumented neolithic monuments, for example.

2024-12-26 16:55:13 CET

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No, no-one I have spoken to has any clue whatsoever. I think you are right in concluding it was agricultural, but occasionally I wonder if they are really, really old, given the number of Neolithic monuments we have in the area.
The oldest person I know locally, who knew this area well as a lad, has no clue, though. BUT, it is in the direction people might have taken towards Quinag for summer grazing. Against that, it's far too close to Clachtoll and Stoer to be relate to that.

2024-12-26 16:43:19 CET

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That is intruiguing, as sizes may well vary. I attended an academic conference a while back at which a paper on Rapa Nui was delivered. They had found evidence of merely several stones being used to shelter plants, in addition to the mouths of caves.
The next time we're up there I'll check the bottoms to see if they might have been amenable to cultivation.

2024-12-26 16:40:54 CET

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I had wondered if it could be for drying peat, but there is a possibility that they were grain dryers. I know of one other 5 miles away. But that is on its own - more than one should not be necessary. Also, of it was for food, it would be closer to "home", as the risk of animals, foxes, deer etc, getting to the food is high.

2024-12-26 16:34:38 CET

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I don't believe so, as they are only a mile or so away from the nearby settlements of Clachtoll and Stoer. Not wood - there isn't any - but the old peat diggings were just across the ridges. But they would be nearer the diggings if it related to that.
Very happy to hear any other theories. But it feels like a practical thing. Kristie's idea of a polycrub may work, but the locations make it problematic - away from cultivated areas )other than the original pic.

2024-12-26 16:03:54 CET

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Here are some of the other types. They occur on both banks of Lexie's Loch, and in various places, like at the foot of a cliff. in a narrow defile, and on open. sloping ground.
I'm sort of happy for these things to remain a mystery, a useful reminder that we're not as smart as we think we are.
But, having said that, I'll not let it go!
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/113/719/712/270/327/100/original/1fc6786ee5b19202.jpg
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/113/719/712/271/008/470/original/c49814aebd21bb9c.jpg
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/113/719/712/289/810/161/original/c745a2b18a0bd6fc.jpg
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/113/719/712/306/864/359/original/3fe03fd4aa6caf71.jpg

2024-12-26 11:57:00 CET

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5. Along the wall, there is this enigmatic square section, built of stone, perhaps a metre square. There are quite a number of these strange squares around Lexie's Loch, and I haven't found any plausible guess as to what they may have been. Some back onto the living rock. A few are free-standing. Some, like this one, are part of the stone wall.
@npub14jp…jhhl - any ideas?
6/...
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/113/718/751/416/282/701/original/a887813eb1de7952.jpg

2024-12-26 11:51:40 CET

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3. On the way home, we detoured slightly to a favourite spot, that somehow has a wonderful feel to it. From the Lexie's Loch side, you approach through this gap in two mounds, the remnants of a low stone wall still there. It reminds me of the approach to Dunadd, somehow passing through is significant.
4/...
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/113/718/732/925/466/092/original/e12752a2630721ba.jpg

2024-12-26 11:48:59 CET

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2. A day to be grateful. When we first moved here permanently, I used to walk along those ridges deep in thought, wondering how we would make a living, what we would do. As it turned out, somehow we always had enough, and we have thrived in a way "comfortable" conventional corporate life never allowed.
Yes, a day to be grateful.
3/...
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/113/718/718/463/508/101/original/f1a46dbde3953a65.jpg

2024-12-26 11:43:57 CET

A walk up to Lexie's Loch this morning. It's ages since we were last here, although this was our preferred daily walk for many years.
The bog myrtle stems look almost purple.
2/...
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/113/718/705/122/903/191/original/dfeced9908554db0.jpg

2024-11-23 12:22:48 CET

Thankful for the ability to mute words on Mastodon, as I have zero interest in going back to a platform that is just as rife for going the way the birdsite went, and is subject to the same hegemonic culture, in spite of some claims made on its behalf.
But it's getting good PR. This article, from a Highland perspective, suggests it's trying to be the birdsite, but that game has been lost. Why play with the same stacked rules again?
https://www.northern-times.co.uk/news/politicians-activists-and-content-creators-from-the-highlan-367026/

2024-10-11 22:48:28 CEST

Just been hit by lightning. Again.
This is not a good thing when you're reliant on your own #offgrid power.
Everything came back up except for
A fried ADSL router
A fried network switch
A fried solar hot water controller & sensors
Two sets of fried nerves.
We have spares for everything except the solar hot water controller and the nerves.
We also have another spare router labelled in large friendly letters "ONLY USE THIS AS A LAST RESORT"

2024-09-24 10:52:59 CEST

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Thanks. Bookmarked

2024-09-24 10:27:58 CEST

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They've gone downhill really fast. No idea even how to phone them, unless it's a sales call. They have at least responded, so I'll see what reply I get in the next half hour.
I'll be coming back here in a while to ask for recommendations for domain registrars, though.

2024-09-24 10:25:05 CEST

Oh great. Krystal hosting, through whom I keep my domains, has just unilaterally killed my DNS records, saying I don't have a hosting account with them. They've doubled their prices recently and are now just trouble.
Not sure how to resolve (no pun intended) this one. No email, no access to websites, xmpp, etc.
They seem to have an alternative way of managing DNS records, but haven't enabled it. It's all pretty pathetic.
Guess what I'll be doing today.