Living as we do in Edinburgh the incentives to go travelling in August all but disappear as the city hosts what is usually described as the largest arts festival in the world. Last night we had the opening free event of Deep Time. Thousands of us gathered in the streets below the castle to watch a 20 minute history of the geology of Scotland being projected onto the rock face and the cut stone ramparts of the castle. This was a sound and light show to rival many that I have seen, quite outstanding sound quality and wonderful graphics as the laser lights lit up, dissolved, crumbled the volcanic plug that is the castle rock. Do look at the BBC website which shows you the images coming to life on this hugely defensible crag. The man we all celebrate is James Hutton, father of geology whose face emerged from the rock rather like the faces of the founding fathers in the USA at the Mount Rushmore National Memorial.