Bob Gooday
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bobgooday.bsky.social
Bob Gooday
@bobgooday.bsky.social
760 followers 580 following 290 posts
Geological Analyst for National Museums Scotland. Minerals, microscopes, maps, mountains, music.
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bobgooday.bsky.social
"An extraordinary discovery? At this time of year, in this part of the country, localised entirely within a famous Neolithic site?"
"Yes!"
"May I see it?"
"...No."
Archaeologists are to resume digging at the Ness of Brodgar on Orkney after 3D radar technology led to and "extraordinary discovery". The dig team at the Ness, one of the most important Neolithic sites in the British Isles, are not revealing what they believe the find to be until more work is done.
November 27, 2025 at 1:21 PM
bobgooday.bsky.social
I collected this specimen of the Arran granite intruding the Dalradian schists ten years ago, and finally got round to cutting it. Really happy with how it’s come out. Half going to National Museum, half to Arran Geopark.
Two symmetrical slabs of rock showing a dark grey host intruded by a coarse pale brown granite.
November 12, 2025 at 3:51 PM
bobgooday.bsky.social
A pilgrimage I have not made for many years – Hutton’s Unconformity at Lochranza, Arran. The site where Hutton could finally prove the earth was unimaginably ancient. A place of deep history in every way.
The rocky and grassy beach with the Firth of Clyde in the background. In the foreground a red slab of rock is engraved with “Hutton’s Unconformity”. Hutton’s Unconformity at high tide. In the foreground are the steeply dipping Dalradian Schists. Lying above, at a much shallower angle, are the sandstones and caliches of the Carboniferous Kinnesswood Formation. The unconformity itself is somewhere between them.
November 10, 2025 at 4:16 PM
bobgooday.bsky.social
I am the only person staying in a closed-for-the-winter field centre, next to a graveyard, in the darkest village in Britain. And this is the book I have chosen for my evening entertainment. How delightfully gothic.
A copy of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House sitting on a table next to a cup of tea. The cover depicts a reflection of a silhouette of a person in a shallow pool, arms outstretched and upside down from the observer’s point of view. Creepy!
November 9, 2025 at 9:03 PM
bobgooday.bsky.social
A blessed Samhain all. I have prepared sweets for around 50 kids. I am expecting maybe four.
An array of four seasonal squashes and root vegetables. Three have spooky faces carved into them and have candles inside.
October 31, 2025 at 6:50 PM
bobgooday.bsky.social
This is great, BUT the year we burned the most coal was 2024 and it's still going up.
Chart from Our World in Data showing coal production steadily increasing, largely led by China.
October 7, 2025 at 9:35 AM
bobgooday.bsky.social
nice try...
xkcd comic number 2827. Speech bubble: Did you know the mighty redwood is actually the same species as broccoli and kale? It's just a different cultivar. Wow! Caption: Every year or two, botanists add another plant to Brassica oleracea and see if anyone calls them on it.
October 6, 2025 at 10:37 AM
bobgooday.bsky.social
Got @volcanologist.bsky.social’s new book in the post. Can’t wait to read the whole thing, but will be starting with chapter 4 as a matter of urgency.
A hardcover book called Volcanoes 10 things you should know – unearth the fascinating fundamentals of volcanoes, by Dr Rebecca Williams. It has a deep red cover with an image of an erupting volcano in embossed gold. Chapter four. How not to die in a volcanic eruption.
October 2, 2025 at 5:33 PM
bobgooday.bsky.social
New series: guess the slightly silly mindat entry. @mindat.bsky.social
Colour: Emerald-green, grass-green, leek green, siskin green, apple green. Lustre: Sub-adamantine, Vitreous, Waxy, Pearly Hardness: 2 - 2.5
October 1, 2025 at 10:40 AM
bobgooday.bsky.social
I find it pretty annoying and cringe when people post photos of the beautiful places they’re working captioned “office for the week”.
with that said: office for the week.
A grassy and rocky landscape with a geologist walking towards the camera. In the background is a white sandy beach and blue bay. A white sandy beach with turquoise water surrounded by orange and grey rocks.
September 4, 2025 at 7:56 AM
bobgooday.bsky.social
This is definitely an intentional gag in the North-West Highlands field guide, right?
A passage about the Stac Fada member. The sentence about the sequence possibly being repeated is repeated.
September 2, 2025 at 6:27 AM
bobgooday.bsky.social
The timelines they are a-ligning. Pretty sure it's the same cat. Atlantic Ocean notwithstanding.
A screenshot of two consecutive skeets. The upper one shows the ginger cat wandering around OP's house. The second one shows Adonis the ginger cat sniffing neighbours' shoes outside his own house.
August 18, 2025 at 7:57 PM
bobgooday.bsky.social
Arthur’s Seat currently ablaze.
A hill in a city with a large wildfire raging through the vegetation. Red-roofed primary school in foreground.
August 10, 2025 at 3:36 PM
bobgooday.bsky.social
Cecil.
A ginger cat sitting in a claw foot bath.
August 8, 2025 at 9:21 PM
bobgooday.bsky.social
Day three of the final England-India test at the Oval. Nightwatchman half-century, obscenely good curry. 10/10
A photo of a cricket match from the stands. A takeaway box of lamb curry and rice with a samosa.
August 2, 2025 at 12:31 PM
bobgooday.bsky.social
My concentration face suggests I take my bluegrass duo and Blues Brothers tribute band more seriously than is perhaps necessary.
Two men performing on a stage in a festival marquee. One is playing acoustic guitar and the other is playing mandolin. Both have baseball caps and moustaches. A close up of a guitarist and bass player performing with an out of shot band. They are wearing open shirts, sunglasses and cowboy hats.
July 28, 2025 at 10:24 AM
bobgooday.bsky.social
Looking forward to some of this either way.
A tweet from Hugh Brechin from 2022 which reads “it’s a great bit that Keir Starmer, a man who genuinely loves football, manages whenever he posts about it to come across like he had never heard of it before reading the Wikipedia page this morning”.
July 27, 2025 at 6:44 PM
bobgooday.bsky.social
said axolotl. gary.
A pink axolotl with pink gills and beady black eyes sitting on top of a log in an aquarium surrounded by plants.
July 6, 2025 at 7:30 AM
bobgooday.bsky.social
Trench (where a wall was) now filled with reclaimed pine. Took all day to match the precise wonkiness of the gaps. 🪚
A grubby uncovered wooden floor in a renovation house, with a large channel running parallel to the boards. The same image, but the channel is now filled with small lengths of newer looking wood.
June 28, 2025 at 8:14 PM
bobgooday.bsky.social
Maybe not the biggest issue in the world, but yesterday’s crossword kicked the shit out of me. Over an hour for a Thursday puzzle!
(the sticking point, as always, was weird yank nonsense)
A screenshot from NYT puzzle app. Congratulations! You finished a Thursday puzzle in 1:03:17. 121 day streak. 33:30 slower than your average.
June 27, 2025 at 10:36 AM
bobgooday.bsky.social
Anderson’s theory of faulting delightfully displayed in the plaster behind the kitchen wallpaper. Tectonic activity pre-dates the yellow line, which pre-dates the hideous eighties wallpaper, so we’re all good. #stratigraphy
Picture of a wall that has had the wallpaper stripped off with a ladder against it. Two cracks with an angle of around thirty degrees cut through the old plaster. The wall is pink below a yellow line at picture rail height, and beige above.
June 14, 2025 at 5:50 PM
bobgooday.bsky.social
Poor lad is gutted he missed a minor detail.
Pallot told the court: “It’s said there is no such thing as the perfect crime. There’s no such thing as the perfect fake either. We could have done better. We’re not good forgets. We didn’t make the wood retract.”
June 13, 2025 at 8:43 AM
bobgooday.bsky.social
Ton up. Might take a day off from the NYT crossword tomorrow. If only to show I can stop any time I like.
Screenshot from the NYT crossword app. Congratulations, you finished a Thursday puzzle in 27:15. 100 day streak. 2:03 faster than your average.
June 5, 2025 at 8:08 AM
bobgooday.bsky.social
Ben Vorlich (the Loch Lomond one) last Sunday.
A woman standing on top of a mountain between a cairn and trig point. She is looking out over Loch Lomond below and Ben Lomond in the distance.
May 26, 2025 at 10:16 AM
bobgooday.bsky.social
Celebrating Easter in a way I’m sure Jesus would approve of, if his first century mind could comprehend any of it. Cheers.
A can of beer next to a glass full of a very dark drink on a kitchen counter. The beer is a Vault City crème egg imperial stout. It is 14% abv. I’ll level with you, it’s more conceptually impressive than actually nice.
April 20, 2025 at 5:51 PM