The new ship

Another minor frost last night and a rather dull start to the day. This morning the Oban u3a held their first Coffee Morning & talk of the year at the Corran Halls. A very big turnout. The talk was by Dr Ray Leakey, a scientist at the nearby Marine Laboratory (SAMS) and told us about the design, construction and purpose of the new RRS Sir David Attenborough, the polar research ship launched in 2018. A wonderful and informative talk - Dr Leakey was lead scientist for the design and construction of the vessel - which included a time-lapse rendering of the construction which took about five minutes which was quite astonishing! He explained how valuable the research will be to the understanding of climate change.

On the way back we passed our local specimen of the Giant Redwood, Sequoiadendron giganteum - my Blip today.

After lunch I walked down the road to get a lift to the afternoon's u3a event - the Poetry Reading Group. A few spots of rain - about three - fell,  but the clouds soon drifted away. A good turnout here too, eleven, I think, all sitting round in a member's lounge. The subject was 'New Things' and we all had poems to read out. I chose 'The Old Year and the New', by Nadja. As usual, I lowered the tone by reading three of my limericks!

Quote of the Day (re climate change): 'People who are going to be around in 10 years’ time, in 20 years’ time, will blame us profoundly if we don’t do anything about it.' - Sir David Attenborough.