No trace of any heatwaves in Mull at the moment. Here's the Scottish Highlands mountain weather forecast for the end of the week 😂 #ScottishSummer #MonTheSnaw

https://www.mwis.org.uk

The dinghy is mine, built by my grandfather in 1927. The wee yacht is the "Little Kingfisher" built in 1926. Found info on her here:

http://www.harrisonbutlerassociation.com/PhotoArchive/LittleKingfisher/Article0006.html

The two boats in this picture are 99 (left) and 100 (right) years old. This isn't a vintage boat gathering - just two good wooden boats meeting up by chance off Mull today... 😊 😊 😊

#Mull #WoodenBoat

Some beautiful fluorescence under 365nm UV light in these Gibbula cinereria (top; aka Grey Topshells), Trivia monacha (centre; aka European cowrie) and Trivia arctica (bottom; aka Arctic cowrie) found on a beach in Iona today . What are these creatures doing with fluorescence in their daily lives? 🤔 #Seashells #Mollusca #Mull #Iona
@dantheclamman

Ps this phenomenon was first discovered by Alex Comfort ( #JoyOfSex ) in the 1940s...

Some of the lovely people (+ doggo) having a lovely time at today's #PebblePicnic event on Iona. As usual, people managed to find things I've never seen before. Today's winner in "most geologically interesting" category : wee anorthosite pebble, with tiny blebs of sulfide minerals and copper staining. 🤓

This is an interesting and spectacular account of unusual salt stalactites and stalagmites in an cave in Western Australia (#OpenAccess):

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2026.110444

I particularly like the occurrence of the amazingly rare 🤩 calcium iodate🤩 mineral lautarite in these mineral assemblages 🕺 💃

#Geology #Mineralogy #Caves #Speleothems

Took part in my 1st botanical survey yesterday, on the Ardmeanach plateau in W Mull: one of only two places in the British Isles where the tiny red-stemmed Iceland Purslane (Koenigia icelandica) is found.

It's hanging on despite heating climate, and this year's numbers seem better than last years, although still down a lot from the late C20th. Here's the 🤩 wee wonder🤩 , with the nearly-as-rare Hairy Stonecrop, and the more common Knotted Pearlwort.

#Botany #Mull #ArcticAlpine #Iceland

Exasperated by damp fuel problems with my petrol outboard, I recently I acquired a Remigo electric outboard for my 14ft wooden dinghy, built by my grandfather in 1927. It's great - 13kg, perfect starting, quiet, no servicing, and the range is amazingly good. 20km+ in good conditions is not a problem, as long as you run below 50% power.

I will be selling my Suzuki 6HP 4-stroke, and getting a solar charger for the outboard. The future is electric...

#ElectricOutboard

#InternationalRockDay Here's a beautifully clean, sand-blasted and sculpted, spangled and sparkly schist outcrop at Trasana, on the south coast of Mull, widely regarded locally as the most beautiful rock in the world 🤩🥰 #Mull #Moine #Metamorphic

#ThinSectionThursday I've shown an image from this rock before, but here's a different view...
In Archaean times, ultra-hot komatiite lavas were often erupted at Earth's surface. They often show fabulous "spinifex" textures with skeletal/dendritic crystals typical of very rapid growth, like this 2.7 billion year old one from Munro Township, Ontario. Field of view about 2mm wide. Specimen in the #Hunterian museum, University of Glasgow. See Alt-txt for more. 🤩 #Geology #Microscopy

More rain and dismal murk in Mull today. Also lots of seaweed washed up on the beach. I had a notion about some of the red seaweeds, so brought some home for a wee test: behold the gorgeous orange fluorescence under 365nm UV light 🤩😊 #Ultraviolet #RedAlgae #Mull

I wonder what the algae might get from being fluorescent? 🤔

#FensterFreitag Here is the superbly-windowed granite cave on the west coast of Loch na Lathaich in the Ross of Mull.

#Uamh #Mull #Cave #Window

Here’s a little video as proof.
Great reed warbler or in Swedish: trastsångare

I love their quirky song! 💚

#ThinSectionThursday A bright little radioactive monazite crystal which has been cheerfully irradiating the surrounding brown biotite. Each of the dark spots in the biotite indicates a "shell" of radiation damage (mainly by heavy, short-range alpha particles) around a radioactive mineral grain. Proterozoic paragneiss from Uusikaupunki, Finland, in the Hunterian Museum collections at University of Glasgow.

FOV 2mm wide. More info in Alt text.

#Geology #Radioactivity #PleochroicHaloes

#ThinSectionThursday I've been thinking about lovely Lewisian rocks from the island of Iona today.

So here's a very weird Iona rock I collected a few years ago: marble with a large diopside crystal, showing intense stripy strain/shock lamellae in crossed polar light. something dramatic has happened to this rock (and to others nearby), but we don't know what, or when. So many mysteries....

Field of view 2mm wide. More info in Alt txt.

#Geology #Lewisian #Iona

Intersex pride.

I saw a post by @SecondUniverse , and thought it might be nice to share this.

Here's my lovely dog Spud, photographed in 2017 (still around, but a bit creaky now!)

Spud was found to be intersex when being neutered: a bit "unusual" externally, and found to have both testicles and womb/ovaries. The young vet surgeon had seen a couple of other examples in dogs in her career. It's not that rare.

Spud is a wonderdog and intersex. 🤩 🥰 People need to know this is normal.

#Pride

This is a superb article by @emilymbender 👏

https://medium.com/@emilymenonbender/stochastic-parrots-frequently-unasked-questions-49c2e7d22d11

Today I was given this fabulous rock specimen from the Lewisian Complex in Iona.

We have a grey banded garnet-gneiss on the left side of the image. This banding is truncated by the dark rock on the right, indicating that the dark rock must have been intruded after the banding had formed.

Then both rocks have been heated, and the grey banded rock has partially melted, forming a granitic melt which has then intruded into the dark rock.

More in Alt txt.

#Iona #Lewisian #GranuliteFacies

I hate to say I’m desperate, but I haven’t had work in *months*. If anyone’s looking for a #freelance senior #wordpress #developer, please keep me in mind. I do full, custom theme builds, specialize in #accessibility and #semantic code, and am a great communicator about time estimates and budgets! My full portfolio is www.amberweinberg.com

If you don’t have any work, I would appreciate a boost 😊

#frontend #frontendDeveloper #development #WPJobs #needwork #hireme #hire #getfedihired

How to advertise a fossil - 1851 style 😊 🤩

#Geology #Advertising #Paleontology #Fossil