The Stars and the Gardens

What a place for a Saturday afternoon!

A place where you can sit in the warmth of a high glass house with a landscape of subtropical plants, the tall trees rising to the sky, the flowered vines hanging down to brush your head.

Where you can hear the sound of a cascading waterfall and look down into a pool with Koi carp.

And there is the cactus house as well, with its rocky corners and sandy floors, and all shapes and sizes of succulents.

The Floral Hall in Inverness is one of the treasures of the city. Even the journey there is a pleasure, walking along the west bank of the River Ness, past Eden Court and the Ness Islands.

And on Saturday afternoon (8 November), groups of visitors gathered in comfortable corners to hear about the travels of Aristotle in Asia Minor and Elizabeth Woodcock in Patagonia; to unravel the mysteries of exploding stars in the heavens and the tiny primula scotica by your feet near the Orkney sea-cliffs; to learn about the gardens of the East and the Messier list of galaxies and nebulae; and to check out with Trina Dinnis The Mathematics of Why I Don't Have a Boyfriend.

And for the more practical, there was the opportunity to put into practice The Physics of the Hula Hoop with a variety of shapes and sizes from Trina's collection.

And you don't need to wait long before going back. The Floral Hall is open every day of the week, with very reasonable admission charges – adults £2, senior citizens £1.50, and under-18s free. This is your opportunity to bring some tropical colour into a Scottish winter!

The colour of the flowers the sound of the fountains, the song of the birds ... Elizabeth Woodcock describes The Gardens of the East

Layers of hydrogen and helium and the cosmic fires which synthesise elements – Maarten de Vries speaks of exploding stars