HAMMY TRIP 4 Dunkeld, Hermitage, Birks of Aberfeldy, Glen Lyon, Bridge of Balgie

After multiple checking and rechecking of weather for Dunkeld.  Wednesday one big sun.  So promising!

Half nervous about the Ryder Cup - golf tournament between Europe and USA - only a short distance from our road - these worries were unfound, even though we saw the "delay-warnings".

Two nights and three days and good memories.
Night one a forest on the left and stretching before us the valley - grazing sheep and the high hills and more forests.  We have the parking spot with a view all to ourselves.  We get here late, so quickly start to move over our food and toiletries to the front seat - and rucksacks to the raised area above our feet.  It's cold and drizzling! - Gordon said he wasn't shivering, I couldn't say the same.  Couldn't wait to get into the sleeping bag and under the duvet while being dressed in a few layers of pajama-like clothing.  Later in the night I had to open the door to let in cool air to relieve feeling too hot!

Night 2 - We have driven 22 miles through Scotland's longest glen - Glen Lyon and became more and   more remote - which is exhilarating.  The very last bit we were forced to turn around due to deep potholes.  They are arranged in the same spot on either side of the single lane - which leaves no option but to go through the potholes.  Gordon makes a 3 point u-turn while I have to guide him to just before the ditch.  Tonight it's relatively mild - we are far from the madding crowd - nobody, no cars, no sign of people.  Gordon wait for me while I walk ahead feeling the remoteness, the cool wind and praying for the Cafe, students, team and the call of God to them to come to Him.
At night buffeting winds - one downpour of bucketing rain.  Next to the River Lyon on the other side a waterfall we could here.  Boulders which made good seats.

This time we made more use of picnic tables - which is so comfortable to eat at.  (Hermitage and Bridge of Balgie).

Saw 3 - maybe 4 RED squirrels.  Loved the start of autumn, but not at it's peak yet.  But beu

Walks:
Dunkeld with a printed guide.  Eating at the Fountain.
Short Walk around Stanley Hill and back the Tay River - fly fishing.
The Hermitage (Salmon - all 4 of them) - walking together.
The Birks of Aberfeldy - breakfast under the maple tree.  Mushrooms!
The wild part of Glen Lyon.  Never checked the mileage so we just drove on and on.
What if heart attack;  don't panic just stay and pray with me.
The Bridge of Balgi - walk together through Beech Groves

The Drive........through Glen Lyon.
Never tire of Highland Cattle especially back-lit by the morning light and seeing the antics of the
teddy-looking calves butting each other.

Tree-tunnels and splashes of colours.  Autumn leaves on wet boulders in a stream - or is it a burn?  Seated with Gordon in the sun - the sun - the sun and the fire of the acer tree having all the shine to itself as it's ablaze among many other trees still green.  The salmon leaping!  Watching our step on wet rocks.  Steps that keep going up.  Teasing young people with rucksacks to walk faster.  Listening to popular opera on full blast in a lone Glen.  Turning off the music and listening to the silence.  Seeing the odd fireplace where somebody sat around out far from nowhere, wishing we had our own firewood.  Seeing the big buzzard on a primitive telephone line - and seeing the same one, unless there were a few, several time.  Gordon would grab the binoculars and while I try to take photos.

We  are in big tree country - how to take photos:  back to trunk and look up backwards?  Well the result does give the FEEL of height.

Practicalities.
We were less cluttered.
The short lead of the cigarette holder car-kettle - frustration.
Wonderful to download a very big digital camera card in no time.
Wonderful to be able to charge camera battery, ipod and telephone with great ease.
Wonderful to listen to ipod sermons on our speakers plugged into the car.

Food:  enjoyed the cup of soups more than the coffee - but cups of steaming coffee is always double appreciated in the outdoors.  We never ate out, not even a cup of coffee.  We preferred out 3 icecreams for £1 - Danish tarts and sharing Crunchies. For the rest we had cous-cous and home-prepared skinless chicken.  We slices sweet chillie and half a cucumber with bread spread cheese and or mozerralla, tinned mackerel.  Had late breakfasts and mid afternoon meals - so that we were never never hungry when we went to bed and neither did we have to first cook and then get ready for bed.   We wipe our dishes with paper towel (very very cheap serviettes) and stuff them into a plastic bag.  At the first opportunity we wash them - discreetly - in a rest room.  It works so well for us!

Remember next time to use proper hiking shoes.

Toiletries - we used pretty much what we have in the beginning - so not much change there.  Must replace the Listerine, but no lists will leave the empty one as a reminder.
Fave toiletry moments, before bed take our time to take off our socks (either stuff them in the washing bag or peg them inside out on the car-window blowing in the wind) - then go through a few FOOT-wipes, put on clean socks and get into bed clean everything.  If there is sunlight - while we are at the "bedding-stage" - love to hang the duvet out in the sun - love to put it back into Hammy - warm and fresh.

We were greatly blessed by reading Ezra 3 and 4 together:  I read the summary notes and Gordon looks up the verses.

No signals anywhere until we got to Killin, where we had a little visit with Mammie in South Africa.

That moment of decision with no help from the information centre....finally the mountain forecast which predicts unlikely rain during the day - great, but mist.  We're 90 minutes from home.  Our bed entices us, maybe even the TV!

We were home just after 7 pm - Gordon packed everything out of the Hammy through the front door of the entrance of our flat and I took them from there up the stairs.  We packed away the food - and just relaxed at home - immediately starting to download the photos to relive all the fun again!

Before we pulled off we asked the Lord and arriving home our thanks.  Yes the Lord is good and his steadfast and unfailing love lasts forever!

Something more about The Hermitage

A feisty River Braan flowing through the Hermitage.

Just before the supertall tree I wished to see was this fine Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), itself an impressive enough sight with its towering, ramrod-straight stem.

The tallest Douglas firs in the world are found in their native range in North America. They are about the 100-metre mark! 
The only other species of tree with individuals taller than 100 m is Sequoia sempervirens - the California or coast redwood. 
The world’s tallest known living organism is a coast redwood called Hyperion – it was discovered in 2006 and has been measured at a whopping 115.6 m (379.3)!

What visitors find is a network of waymarked paths, most of which lie on the north side of the valley of the fast flowing River Braan, in an area that extends for about three quarters of a mile back from the car parks, complete with a series of features which add further interest to an already fascinating place.

Although the Hermitage looks, at first sight, like it might have developed naturally, it is actually a planned landscape. In the mid 1700s the main residence of the Dukes of Atholl was, and remains, at Blair Castle, some 17 miles north west of the Hermitage. But the family also maintained a winter retreat at Dunkeld House, which stood on the north bank of the River Tay almost opposite the steep sided valley of the River Braan.

The gardens of Dunkeld House were initially fairly restrained, but in the 1730s James, 2nd Duke of Argyll, significantly extended the landscaping around the house and introduced a series of new features including terraces and a Chinese temple. He also planted large numbers of trees.



The Hermitage Douglas Fir

This was a stone viewing pavilion which projected out over the edge of the gorge giving visitors a spectacular view of the most turbulent section of the River Braan, the Black Linn Falls. The Hermitage quickly became a "must see" on the itinerary of early tourists to Scotland, and was visited by the poet William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy, the painter John Turner, and the composer Felix Mendelssohn.

In the 1760s the poet James Macpherson captured the imagination of an entire generation, in Scotland and beyond, when he published a series of "discovered" ancient poems said to have been originally written in Gaelic by Ossian, son of Fingal. The elements of the Hermitage were quickly rebranded to exploit the mythology of Ossian. The Hermitage itself became known as Ossian's Hall. A group of angular stones above a steep section of the valley became known as Ossian's Seat. And in 1785 an artificial cave was added towards the far end of the walk through the valley, which, inevitably, became known as Ossian's Cave. The dramatic stone footbridge over the River Braan near Ossian's Hall and between the Black Linn Falls and the Black Linn Pool avoided the trend, and was called Hermitage Bridge.

 you quickly find yourself heading deep into mature woodland. The paths continue to the side of the Black Linn Pool. On the far side of the pool is the Hermitage Douglas, a Douglas Fir which in 2009 was measured as standing 61.3m or 201.1ft tall, which made it Scotland's (and the UK's) fourth tallest tree.

Pressing on, you come to the Hermitage Bridge, which gives excellent views of the turbulent river below, and then to Ossian's Hall. The original building was blown up by as a protest against tolls on the Dunkeld Bridge in 1869. The replacement you see today dates back to 1951 and is rather simpler than the original building. The interior nonetheless retains classical themes and is decorated in a striking red with mirrored panels. The hall's main attraction remains the view from the balcony beyond the glass doors at its far end, over the spectacular Black Linn Falls.

Further on the path brings you to the slight scramble needed to explore Ossian's Seat and, nearby, to Ossian's Cave. The Hermitage is deservedly as popular with modern visitors as it was with our Victorian ancestors, and is certainly well worth exploring. The "Ossian" connection is contrived, but this does not prevent the place having real charm, character and beauty. And, if you have it to yourself first thing on a Summer morning, a slightly spooky atmosphere that has you looking over your shoulder from time to time…

How do you read Popular Science

My one point here is about the reading of popular science by lay people.  Most of us know next to nothing about ,say,  the field of genetics. So we read our latest pop-sci book, pretty much ignorantly.  What is our reference point as we read?  How do we discern what to take on board and what to ditch?  How are we influenced by what may be guess-work but wrapped in gripping brilliant journalism?

So.....here am I, knowing next to nothing about genes. The title grabs me and I start to read with no reference point of a reasonable knowledge about genetics.  But, no worries, I read on.  You know, as most would read the page-turner, The Da Vinci Code, for example.  Sure I have my views.  Sure I'm not on offer as a candidate for getting brainwashed.  But I get a kick out of reading modern journalism. Yes, yes,  I'm aware I am adopting new opinions here and there.  Oooooops  - I hear that I've  missed a prominent review on my book, but this is leisure reading, not research.  Neither do my friends really know too much about genetics.  Even so, the content leaves a big or small mark on my thinking about life.  I may even throw in a line or two  about genetics and racism in conversation next time.

Ahh, I say, but don't forget,  the book is written by a science writer and he has based his thesis arguing about...and I go on to paraphrase what I think I remember...."economic success can, at least in part, be attributed to racial differences with a genetic foundation." 

I am really getting into the book and I may happen to feel a bit uneasy - but hey! - I'm not the scientist around here.  And this guy knows what he is writing about.

To add to the muddle I'm getting into  - I haven't spotted in the media that 150 SCIENTISTS  in the field of genetics are incensed and they have now signed a letter criticising Mr Wade for his latest book A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History, published in the US by Penguin Press.

My one point for this blog is a caution of reading popular science as a lay person who cannot discern between true science and guess-work - without a solid life philosophy.   

It's common knowledge that all scientists are not in agreement. 

What is your reference point when you read popular science as a lay person?  Is it your accumulated opinions up to now, common sense, personal preferences?

Personally. as a Christian I'm profoundly thankful that God, in His grace, reveals Himself to all peoples in His Word.  I believe He has given the human race enough knowledge of Himself, of our origins, of ourselves, to have peace with Him through Jesus and also how to live our earthly lives. 
My Christian reference point is that God loved the whole world so much He sent His Son and that spiritual life is offered to all to receive God's forgiveness by faith in Jesus.  Racism?  That's a word and a reality I grew up with in South Africa. I'm convinced with my whole heart that there are only 2 groups of people of  all skin colours: 

1. those in the kingdom of darkness 
2. and those who have been transferred to the kingdom of light.

If you are interested in the Independent article,  please click here.

A Quote from The Independent UK

A quote from The Independent (UK)
They claim that Mr Wade, a former science editor on the New York Time, has “misappropriated” research from their field to support his arguments about inheritable differences among human societies – epitomised in a biological basis for race.
“Wade juxtaposes an incomplete and inaccurate account of our research on human genetic differences with speculation that recent natural selection has led to worldwide differences in IQ test results, political institutions and economic development,” the letter says.“We reject Wade’s implication that our findings substantiate his guesswork. They do not. We are in full agreement that there is no support from the field of population genetics for Wade’s conjectures,” it says.In his book, Mr Wade attacks the “longstanding orthodoxy” among social scientists that human races are a social construct with little or no basis in biology and genetics, along with the idea that human evolution effectively stopped long ago in the distant past.
He states that the latest research on the human genome establishes beyond doubt that there is indeed a biological basis for race, and that the human population can be broadly divided into three main racial types: sub-Saharan Africans, Caucasians and East Asians.
In addition to obvious physical differences – notably skin colour – natural selection on the main continents has resulted in marked differences in some aspects of brain function, which has in turn influenced the kind of economic success enjoyed by some countries, and missed out by others.Britain, and specifically the English, pioneered the Industrial Revolution in the 18th Century because since the Middle Ages the rich had more surviving children than the poor and this meant that the values of the upper middle classes – nonviolence, literacy, thrift and patience – spread as genetic traits within the population, according to Wade, an old Etonian.Europe benefited early on from industrialisation because their people were more genetically predisposed to being open and tolerant, unlike the Chinese, while the Ashkenazi Jews have the highest average IQ because the more intelligent among them were richer and therefore able to afford more children, he says.“Conventionally, these social differences are attributed solely to culture. But if that’s so, why is it apparently so hard for tribal societies like Iraq and Afghanistan to change their culture and operate like modern states?” he writes.“The explanation could be that tribal behaviour as a genetic basis. Human social structures change so slowly and with such difficulty as to suggest an evolutionary influence at work.”
Mark Stoneking, an evolutionary geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig in Germany, who signed the letter to the New York Times, said that Mr Wade is wrong to say that modern genomics shows there is a biological basis for race.“How to define the concept of race biologically is not easy, but to me one prediction is that not only should one be able to define discrete clusters of people that correspond to races, there should be distinct boundaries between them,” Dr Stoneking said.“And if you look at patterns of genetic variation in human populations, you find they are distributed along geographic ‘clines’ with no distinct boundaries,” he said.“It's like a rainbow. Sure, I can identify parts of a rainbow that are different –red, yellow, blue, and so forth – but there are no sharp boundaries between them; a rainbow is a gradient of colours.”
Jerry Coyne, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Chicago, said that Mr Wade should be deeply embarrassed because his propensity to “make up” stories.
“For Wade to write a whole book resting on this speculative house of cards – the idea that genes and natural selection are everything in explaining culture – is simply bad popular science,” Professor Coyne said.
Mr Wade, meanwhile, has issued a statement saying that the protest letter is driven by politics rather than science and that most of the signatories have not read his book but are responding to “a slanted summary devised by the organisers”.
“As no reader of the letter could possibly guess, A Troublesome Inheritance argues that opposition to racism should be based on principle, not on anti-evolutionary myth that there is not biological basis to race,” Mr Wade said.

Popular Science, the lay person and the Christian's reference point,

My one point here is about the reading of popular science by lay people.  Most of us know next to nothing about ,say, about the field of genetics. So we read, pretty much ignorantly.  What is our reference point as we read, how do we discern what to take on board and what to ditch?  How are we influenced by what may be guess-work but wrapped in gripping brilliant journalism?

So.....here am I, knowing next to nothing about genes. The title grabs me and I start to read with no reference point of a reasonable knowledge about genetics.  But, no worries, I read on.  You know, as most would read the page-turner,  The Da Vinci Code, for example.  Sure I have my views.  Sure I'm not on offer as a candidate for getting brainwashed.  But I get a kick out of reading modern journalism. Yes, yes,  I'm aware I am adopting new opinions here and there.  Oooooops  - I hear that I've  missed  a few reviews, but this is leisure reading, not research.  My friends don't really know what's going on either.  Yet, the content leaves a big or small mark on my thinking about life.  I may even throw in a line or two  about genetics and racism in conversation next time.

Ahh, but don't forget,  the book is written by a science writer and he has based his thesis arguing that .........in this example ......economic success can, at least in part, be attributed to racial differences with a genetic foundation. 

I am really getting into the book and I may happen to feel a bit uneasy - but hey! - I'm not the scientist around here.  And this guy knows what he is writing about.

To add to the muddle I'm getting into  - I haven't spotted in the media that 150 SCIENTISTS  in the field of genetics are incensed and they have now signed a letter criticising Mr Wade for his latest book A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History, published in the US by Penguin Press.

My one point for this blog is a caution of reading popular science as a lay person who cannot discern between true science and guess-work - without a solid life philosophy.   It's common knowledge that all scientists are not in agreement. 

What is your reference point when you read popular science as a lay person?  Is it your accumulated opinions up to now, common sense, personal preferences?

As a Christian I'm profoundly thankful that God, in His grace, reveals Himself to people  in His Word.  I believe He has given the human race enough knowledge of Himself, of our origins, of ourselves, to have peace with Him through Jesus and also how to live our earthly lives. My Christian reference point is that God loved the whole world so much He sent His Son and that spiritual life is offered to all to receive God's forgiveness by faith in Jesus.  Racism?  That's a word and a reality I grew up with in South Africa. I'm convinced with my whole heart that there are only 2 groups of people of  all skin colours:

1. those in the kingdom of darkness 
2. and those who have been transferred to the kingdom of light.

If you are interested in the Independent article, either google it or click on this link.

Church without God - tragically, not only for atheists.

It  could be interesting to compare the atheists’ “church without God “ - on the one hand with churches with suffocating or empty man-made rules/regulations who claim that God is their King, but He isn’t really that to the attendees.

 27 Jul 2014 - America

Step inside where people are swaying along to music, listening to talks and discussing ways to help their local community, it sounds very much like a church, too. 

There is, however, one rather fundamental missing ingredient - this is a church without God.

Started in London in January 2013 by a pair of British stand-up comedians, Sunday Assembly offers a church experience but without the ‘God part’.  

In America…for Kris Tyrell, a 28-year-old atheist who was raised as a Catholic but brings up her six-year-old daughter, Kai, outside any faith, the Sunday Assembly provides a welcome opportunity to belong to something without having to believe and to positively embrace a life without God.

“The idea is why not steal all the good bits about church – the music, the fellowship, the community work – and lose the God stuff,” he says. 

“Not having a church doesn’t mean I don’t have a moral code,” says Landry Butler, a 46-year-old graphic designer who co-founded the Nashville branch. “I want to get away from this idea that ‘you have to have God to be good’. You don’t.”

 “Sunday Assembly is all about coming together to celebrate the one life we know we have,” she shares the snappy motto,  ‘Live better, Help Often, and Wonder More’.”

The Sunday Assembly model includes music, active participation, short talks, humour and pop music.” Sometimes there is a long moment’s silence, at which the congregation is invited to “turn down their inner volume knob” and be grateful to this impersonal universe that you have a place, and people in it that love you.”

But mostly the emphasis is upbeat and life-affirming.  One member talks about coping with depression; then a life-coach talks about the importance of self-knowledge.

It all ends with a quotation from Albert Einstein – “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving” – before coffee and doughnuts are served, followed by lunch at a local Southern barbecue restaurant.