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The Callanish (or Calanais) Standing Stones, on the Isle of Lewis. New Year's Day 2020.

I've had fun in the last year or so playing with spherical cameras (often known as 360-degree cameras) and I've posted a few on here. But they've always had a problem: you really need a plugin to view them, which is untidy. This one of the Sacré-Coeur, for example, relies on a plugin from the Ricoh site.

So I've been delighted to discover Matthew Petroff's Panellum, a panorama viewer created using just HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and WebGL, which means it runs in most modern browsers natively.

Here's an example from Pittenweem, a favourite spot I discovered on my campervan trip over Christmas, just north of Edinburgh.

You can drag the image around to look in different directions, and you can zoom in and out by scrolling, or using Shift & Ctrl keys.

On my early experiments, it seems to work very well, even on my fairly elderly laptop. It even has a full-screen button...

So you may be seeing a few more of these here in the near future!

[caption id="attachment_9187" align="alignnone" width="900"] None shall pass[/caption]

I visited the stone circle at Callanish this morning. Wonderful spot.

Not a peaceful spot today, though: the photo doesn't show you the 40mph winds whipping across the island!

Here's an alternative view.

This put me in mind of the splendid 1976 TV drama Children of the Stones, filmed in Avebury, Wiltshire, which also has some dramatic standing stones, encircling half the village. One of the themes of the plot is the rumour that the stones sometimes turn into people and come back to life. I love the Avebury stones, but these ones looked more as if they might do that, given a little encouragement.

I didn't watch Children of the Stones in 1976, which is probably just as well, since it has been described as "the scariest programme ever made for children". It's fun to watch as an adult, though, and is a great example of how you can tell a compelling story with a very low budget and some spooky music! Also, for people of my vintage, it has the added interest of featuring Gareth Thomas, better known as Blake, from Blake's Seven.

More information on Wikipedia about the TV series, and about the Callanish Stones.

I have a feeling this fine vessel could tell a few tales of adventure!

I'm on the Isle of Lewis, where, in order to take a good photo, you can almost wind down the window and click in a random direction.

You do, currently, have only six-and-a-half hours between sunrise and sunset in which to do it, though!

I walked through here yesterday, went into the village store, and somebody invited me to a ceilidh! (Which turned out to be great fun.) Such friendly people here, as well as beautiful views.

Loch Ness, last night

[caption id="attachment_9142" align="alignnone" width="800"] Trinity College, Cambridge[/caption]

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a work-related conference in Bern, Switzerland, and was fortunate enough to have a couple of days' walking in the mountains at Saas Fee beforehand. (Thank you, Peter!)

I had skiied there before, but never visited at this time of year. It really is a very pretty spot.

Better views than the average working week, I think.