It’s not often that something stops me turfing but last night something did and that something was cloud spotting. I had originally intended to silly o’clock kick scoot down to Dalkeith Country Park to grab all the zones there and blog a wee blog about the mini turf adventure but noticed a bright glow in the sky that seemed out of place, away to the north. Could not actually see anything clearly from the house due to trees so scooted along the cycleway to the high ground at zone BroomieGolf. Encountering four young foxes, I might add, at the same location I’ve seen them the past four years. There must be a den nearby.
At the zone, while not the best of views, the cause of the glow was unmistakable, Polar mesospheric clouds, more commonly known as noctilucent or “night shining” clouds. These clouds are very rare and form 47 to 53 miles up near the boundary of the mesosphere and thermosphere, a region known as the mesopause. As these clouds are so rare and me an avid cloud spotter, I needed a better view for a photo, so scooted down to Melville Golf Course, taking the zone there on the passing and finding a clear view of the north sky beside the 3rd green.
I had to hang about for some time, this was around 1.00 am I should add, until a low cloud bank cleared enough for some photography. Found the best way to steady the mobile phone was to sit down and rest the camera on my knees. Must have been a strange sight me sitting by the 3th green in the middle of the night, beside a giant kick scooter and taking photographs of clouds.
Now, come to think of it there was another something got in the way of turfing this weekend, a family wedding in Dundee. Oh, woe is me, a whole day in Dundee lost, over 180 zones there for the taking, yes, that’s 180 zones and I cannot get any of them. All of Saturday spent travelling, making polite chit chat with non-turfers at the wedding, being deafened by 90 dB loud music and generally wishing I was somewhere else. Hmm, I hope niece Lisa does not read this. Naw, she won’t, probably not. But just in case, enjoyed myself immensely, Lisa. Food was good though.
However, there must be a turf angel in Dundee that witnessed my dismay. There was to be a gathering at a pub on the Saturday lunchtime but we managed to get out of that and spend the morning turfing around Dundee. I even managed to get a turfer unique before the Round reset at 11.00am, zone McManusZone, held by turfer bobvic67. Dipped out on another two turfer uniques, Herena13 and thewalkingman, when I let ChoccyMuffin take them first, thinking I’d get them with an assist. An error on my part. Annoying but now better informed. Had a nice coffee and scone at the Dundee Cycle Hub Cafe then grabbed a total of 23 zones between the city centre and the airport, close to where we were staying. Back again soon.
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