Off the beaten track.

The King is at Balmoral so a lot of the small quiet roads have been closed off by the Royal Protection Squad. We discuss a route across the hills with one of the ghillies at the hotel and set off early to Craigievar . When we get there twenty German motor cyclists are waiting in the courtyard for a tour of the interior. There's a brisk wind blowing and they have sensibly opted to keep their bike gear on. After inspecting the new harling and being suitably impressed with its quality, we leave. The National Trust have done an excellent job. They reharl every 15 years - which is an expensive undertaking. One of the reasons we left Scotland twenty years ago was the constant battle of keeping an old house harled and lime mortared against the elements.

Further down the road we take a detour towards an old church. A faded Church of Scotland sign poking out of the rosebay willowherb tells us we're going the right way. This place looks as though its been in use for millenia rather than centuries. There's a brief link to it here :https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/strathdon/kildrummykirkyard/index.html

The church is built like a house but with a bowed end wall. Neither of us has ever seen anything quite like it. At one end there's a belfry with a bell that's pulled by a long metal chain . This dangles down to the ground and clunks and clanks in the August wind.

The porch of the old chapel on the hill above has been around since long before the reformation.

It's full of medieval tombstones. Others are set in the remaining walls of the old medieval kirk. Others are used as paving slabs.

We're there for an hour. No one bothers us. In fact there's not another human to be seen. It goes without saying that there's not a single sign to tell us anything about the history of the place. There's a solitary Commonwealth war grave which is in black granite. I thought all war graves were in standard white limestone. Guess limestone would soon erode in this climate. We set off for lunch at the local inn - but it's full :https://kildrummyinn.co.uk/restaurant/  We'll try again in the Spring.

Into Ballater for lunch. Ballater has a good art gallery. It also is the dog capital of the Highlands. The sun makes our acquaintance - briefly.

This promise of sunshine is enough for people - and their companions - to go and sit outside.

The old station has been turned into an efficient coffee shop. Queen Victorias waiting room has been kept as a tourist attraction. The coffee shop ( indeed all hotels and restaurants this far north in Scotland ) is staffed by enthusiastic youngsters. What will happen when they return to university in a couple of weeks time ?

Putting the 'park' in Park Avenue :https://x.com/MarkLevineNYC/status/1828518023180775574

AI has its uses :https://gizmodo.com/ai-herculaneum-scrolls-computer-vision-transformers-2000481322

Written in difficult academic English but it seems social media isn't good for our children. In fact it's not good at all :https://www.afterbabel.com/p/the-case-for-causality-part-1