Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 61

Rocks

This is Kenmore Stone Circle, dating from the Bronze Age.  Human remains were found underneath the central stone. One of us said, “This is what Stonehenge would look like if England had leprechauns.”

Immigrant

This painted lady flew all the way from Africa to perch in a blackberry bush and say hello.

Behold the Mighty Leviathan!

This is the Leviathan, at 72 inches the largest telescope in the world from 1845 to 1917, over seventy years.  She was built by William Parsons, the third earl of Rosse, on his substantial estate at Birr Castle.  He subsequently used Leviathan to investigate nebulas, which he discovered were not vague blobby things in the sky, but objects with structure, such as the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51).   Birr Castle was about all you want in a family home (which it still is).  Pictures and portraits, musi...

Rhymes with “Rainy”

This is Castle Dunsany, home to the second oldest peerage in Ireland and to Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, the soldier, poet, playwright, and fantasist who published under the name Lord Dunsany. Castle Dunsany is not normally open to the public, but we were privileged enough to rate a tour from the voluble and charming Lady Dunsany, widow of the 20th baron and mother to the 21st.  She began by showing us the field where 29 members of the Dunsany family were executed by Cromwell, apparentl...

NewStone

Here is Newgrange, a 5200-year-old tumulus constructed during the New Stone Age.  It is younger than Carnac, just a little older than the oldest bits of Stonehenge, and much older than the Pyramids. The huge megaliths that make up most of the structure, and which corbel 20 meters upward in the burial chamber, were brought up the river Boyne from 20km away.  The white quartz facing was brought from 50km away, and if there were sunlight— here it is raining heavily— it would just blaze. Only the...

From the Peat

Today I met the bog bodies.  I don’t know about you, but I always think these guys look depressed.

riverrun

riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs. In short, I am in Ireland.

 

The Acropolis Where the Parthenon Is

I’ll be leaving in a few hours for Ireland, where I’ll be spending ten days or so traveling around the country in a busload full of Rick Wilber’s friends (some of whom happen to be my friends as well).  After which I’ll be attending the Dublin Worldcon. I’m so beaten to splinters by the harrowing business of getting ready for the trip that I’m incapable of being amusing, by which I mean that the most interesting thing I could think of offering was to remark on how Iceland and Ireland have onl...

Before and After

So here’s the class photo from Taos Toolbox 2019, featuring special guest George R.R. Martin. And here we are after the accident.

Mink on the Brink

So it was our last night in Iceland, and we were having a last Icelandic supper in the excellent Harbor Restaurant, right on the waterfront and a short (rainy) walk from our hotel.  Last chance for arctic char!  Last chance for reindeer!  So many decisions. . . The place was so slammed that it took a long time to get our meals, and when they arrived we got the mains before the starters.  So we had a lot of time to gaze out the window, and at one point I stared through the glass and said, “Hey...