Notices by Ben Thompson 🐕 (jbenjamint@mastodon.scot)

@Infoseepage zero Counts in the UK. Plenty of Countesses though!

@inthehands @alessandro I think the spike upwards before the fall is due to high demand at a time of supply chain disruption during COVID.

Same thing happened in the bike industry which I know better. Lots of disposable income (no one going on holiday), huge boom in demand (including used vehicles) at the time of supply disruptions, huge crash once supply caught up.

@Infoseepage one of the local undertakers in Fort William is an acquaintance. I will ask!

@Infoseepage I don't believe they used the gate in the old way. I've never seen it used like that but not to say it doesn't still happen.

I don't think the churchyard is still in use at all. Fort William has a real shortage of lairs - several years ago I was slightly involved in the town's search for a new graveyard!

@Infoseepage I was last in the church about 18 months ago. The funeral of a good friend's dad.

During the service, Flòraidh Stevenson sang Bràighe Loch Iall (the braes of Loch Eil).

Hard to listen to this (Rachel Walker here) without a tear.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HgglNmjHgwc

@Infoseepage are you taking the ferry out to any of the Small isles? Highly recommended.

101 in "How not to drive on singletrack roads."

I realise this is incredibly gammon of me, but how do folk not get it?

#Scotland

@simon_brooke @marjolica @Wen @jbenjamint area of our regular Norway visit, a couple of hours north of Oslo. This is taken at 900m this April. The peak on the right is 1341m, 3m less than Ben Nevis. Not without grazing pressure either!

The Highlands feels ruined after a couple of weeks walking in this environment.

@Infoseepage here's another Lismore castle that we visited two years ago - Coeffin.

Lismore itself is well worth a visit if you've not been. Must have been a very important place at one time.

@Infoseepage the second photo location looks too far west and too close to the sea, from my reckoning.

Can you post a wider angle shot?

@Infoseepage I've walked down to it in the past. It's definitely not the first one - that's too far east and too high up. Possibly the second one but I remember the small outcrop it's on top of being really small, not much bigger than the building itself. If you can see a long dyke coming down from west of the castle, that's a good aid - it points right at it.

@Infoseepage brilliant thread! Thanks.

Never been to Duart Castle but sailed past many times on the ferry. Inspired to stop by one time now.

First fruits of the year.

@mhoye every time the lidar picks up a person nearby, a polite British-accented "good day".

Drivers should be encouraged to tip their hats at the same time.

Please tell me this is actually true.

Today's swim spot.

#Lochaber

The view the other way.

#blossom #Lochaber

Eigg and Rum, on the horizon, looking like one distant island.

#Lochaber #ScottishHighlands

Ben Nevis from a higher viewpoint today.

#ScottishHighlands

First flower in the garden for 2024 (that's not a daffodil).