Grant Hutchison's Blog, page 17

Kylerhea, Skye

With Covid lockdown lifted (at least for now) but international travel still looking like a Very Bad Idea for the rest of the year, the Boon Companion and I are back to travelling around Scotland. Our most recent trip was to Kylerhea, at the eastern end of the Isle of Skye. It’s not a particularly … Continue reading Kylerhea, Skye →

George Alec Effinger: The Mar��d Audran Trilogy

All in all, my life had changed so much that my days of poverty and insecurity seemed like a thirty-year nightmare. Today I’m well fed, well dressed, and well liked by the right people, and all it’s cost me is what you might expect: my self-respect and the approval of most of my friends. George … Continue reading George Alec Effinger: The Mar��d Audran Trilogy →

Revell 1/72 Junkers F13W: Two Builds – Part 1

So here I have two slightly different editions of the same kit, because I intend to build models of two distinctly different versions of the same airframe—specifically, Junkers Construction Number 650, which went into service as a float-plane in May 1923. (The “W” in “Junkers F13W” stands for Wasser, which is German for “water”, designating … Continue reading Revell 1/72 Junkers F13W: Two Builds – Part 1 →

Alba: Part 2

In my previous post about this word, I described how the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland, Alba, originated in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European albho-, meaning "white". In Proto-Celtic, this evolved into another word something like albiyu. This word seems to have meant something like "bright place" or "high place", and in the later Celtic languages Brittonic and Goidelic (spoken on the islands of Britain and Ireland, respectively) it produced place-names that ended up as Alba, Albion and Albany. Likewise in the Germanic languages, albho- gave rise to a "high place" word that gives us the name of the Alps mountain range.

We Are Stardust

A few months ago I ran into the periodic table above, detailing the cosmological origins of the chemical elements. And it occurred to me that I could quantify Joni Mitchell's claim that "we are stardust". How much of the human body is actually produced by the stars? But before I get to that, I should probably explain a little about the various categories indicated by the colours in the chart above.

Glen Doll: Craig Mellon to Cairn Damff

Craig Mellon (NO 262773, 866m)Cairn Broadlands (NO 270777, 852m)Craig Damff (NO 247777, 846m) 15.5 kilometres800 metres of ascent Craig Mellon and Cairn Broadlands dominate the view up Glen Clova as you approach the road-head—neatly paired humps with Glen Doll on the left and upper Glen Clova on the right. The broad slope between the two … Continue reading Glen Doll: Craig Mellon to Cairn Damff →

Eduard 1/48 Westland Lysander (Special Duties In France): Part 4

By the end of my previous post in this build log, I’d managed to get the aeroplane mostly assembled and primed. The next task was an all-over coat of Tamiya gloss black (softened with a little white and blue), ready for decals and weathering. Once that was in place, I was able to add the … Continue reading Eduard 1/48 Westland Lysander (Special Duties In France): Part 4 →

Eduard 1/48 Westland Lysander (Special Duties In France): Part 4

By the end of my previous post in this build log, I’d managed to get the aeroplane mostly assembled and primed. The next task was an all-over coat of Tamiya gloss black (softened with a little white and blue), ready for decals and weathering. Once that was in place, I was able to add the … Continue reading Eduard 1/48 Westland Lysander (Special Duties In France): Part 4 →

Lockdown Walks: Three Brochs

An exploration of three lowland broch sites near Dundee

Lockdown Walks: Three Brochs

An exploration of three lowland broch sites near Dundee