Brave sheep

 

The letters page in the London Review of Books throws up this intriguing letter.

The sheep in the field by the sea are getting braver with each passing day. The dog attack earlier in the year seems to have been forgotten. The lambs are now grazing right up to the fence and seem unaware of passers by.

We stop off for a coffee at the little cafe by the harbour. The owner is there and makes us bacon rolls. " Don't tell anyone but you've got extra bacon " she says in a tone of voice that indicates we've become regulars. To begin with we're the only customers but within five minutes three American couples accompanied by teenage children arrive. The little cafe seems to have moved from being undiscovered to being on a TikTok 'things to do when in St Andrews' list. One American family ask for double fried egg in their bacon rolls which occasions some surprise and a look not unlike this :https://x.com/dublinbypub/status/1963868680019730493

We pick up some tomatoes at the farm shop and some lemon sole at the fishmongers.

Back in the village a sun blest corner of a cottage garden reminds us of France.

It is time to adjust the 'in town' driving to style to accommodate kamikaze teens who stare at their phones and wander oblivious and uncomprehending into the path of oncoming traffic. Angus can once again mutter grumpily under his breath. There's nothing like a good ' what in heavens name do they think they're doing ?' grumble to get the day off on a good footing.

More revelers in the water and a choir rehearsal in chapel sure signs the holidays are over and things are about to kick off :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxcoFe3_rM4

More on coffee:https://www.the-scientist.com/how-does-caffeine-wake-people-up-73355

Yesterdays missing parrot link :https://birdhistory.substack.com/p/parrots-gone-wild

China and C-A-T-S :https://x.com/GlennLuk/status/1962258662744826274

Student housing :https://joshuatravisbrown.substack.com/p/behind-closed-doors-the-inequalities

Dearth

Should we turn the heating on or not ? This morning we decide we can do without it for a few more days . It's a close run thing. Tomorrow, the same question will be asked and the answer my well be different. As an interim solution the light weight duvet will be brought out of hibernation. In France this conversation would take place a whole month later.

The farmer informs us his wheat yields are down 7% from last years levels.  " It was the dearth of rain " that was the root of the problem. He rolls the 'r' in dearth so it sounds truly apocalyptic. We commiserate but leave him to sort out his expensive new potato harvester which has developed another 'teething' problem.

This is probably the best time of year to be in St Andrews. The town is filling up with first year students and their families. New faculty members can also be spotted. The men wear jackets with leather patches on the elbows and the women sensibly heeled shoes to cushion their feet from the cobble stones.  It's a time of new beginnings and bubbly enthusiasm. The real peak will be next weekend when the remaining 8,000 youngsters decant into town. In Starbucks we overhear two girls talking about their respective boyfriends. " I've told him repeatedly how the spin cycle works but he still hasn't done the laundry ."  GLWT!  Overhearing student conversations ensures a happy plus ca change start to the day.

Archie the arthritic labrador and his owner are down on the beach. He trots along behind while the younger dog races ahead chasing the curlews. We wave to them  across the sand.

Hints of autumn everywhere but a few bursts of summer colour in the hedgerows tells us not everyone got the message.

The hardware store now displaying a depleted range of summer products. Fish nets seem to have been a slow moving item this year.

Only one West Highland Terrier left. How long will it be before the box it comes in deteriorates in the winter weather ?

The Bulgarian strawberry lady says she expects to keep on harvesting the crop for another month.

Life here is following its reassuring old routines.

Parrots should be thanked for the establishment of the National Institute of Health :https://www.tpr.org/economy-and-labor/2024-12-02/texas-leads-the-country-in-net-migration?stream=top

Westerns :https://www.woman-of-letters.com/p/i-love-the-myth-of-the-good-man-with?hide_intro_popup=true

THE in place in Paris according to a villager who teaches in the French department:https://mokochaya.com/

French power :https://www.worksinprogress.news/p/liberte-egalite-radioactivite

On the news this morning :https://x.com/PeterTwinklage/status/1963621013226246306

Younger faces.

A frustrated whimpering from the garden gate indicates we have a visitor.

Puppy is all fired up and ready to get the day started. She accompanies us to the heron pond where she sees a rabbit. We last see her heading at speed in one direction while the rabbit heads, at speed, in another.

What, from a distance, looks like a gathering of hardy Baptists turns out to be a large group of students out paddle boarding. What better way to make new friends than braving the North Sea before breakfast ? Inhibitions soon disappear as the frigid water shocks the system. Even from a distance we can hear the sound of laughter. With each passing day the faces on the street get younger and younger. The towns age profile is rapidly heading towards a number somewhere in the low twenties. A few weeks ago it was a multiple of that. Some routines stand the test of time and running along this particular  beach is on every newbies bucket list :https://youtu.be/bgO0XA3LkYM?t=60

No one waiting to tee off on the Old Course this morning. This is most unusual. A good murder mystery could be written around the concept of the missing golfers and the empty fairway. Have they slept in ? Maybe they're coming by cab and are delayed ?

Burgers and a glass of Veuve Cliquot being advertised outside a bar. We initially think this is designed for students but few students would pay $40 for a burger or choose Champagne by name. We think the target audience is more likely to be fathers enjoying a few hours of peace and quiet while the rest of the family are doing 'essential' pre-semester shopping.

The houses on the cliff tops are passed on in families from generation to generation. The last time I saw one on the market was well over twenty years ago. The views onto the sea must be spectacular. This one has a Chinoiserie portico that we rather admire for is understated good taste.

Ocean plastics :https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1096625

Volcanoes and 'events' :https://www.zmescience.com/science/history-articles/volcano-eruptions-climate-revolutions/

Pyramid security :https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-in-ancient-egypt-did-pyramids-really-have-booby-traps-why-was-treasure-hidden-inside-262319

Before the universe existed there were .... :https://startswithabang.substack.com/p/new-theory-could-early-supermassive

Surprising ? :https://www.tpr.org/economy-and-labor/2024-12-02/texas-leads-the-country-in-net-migration?stream=top

Reintroduction to cycling.

Clouds to the north of us and clouds to the south but here it's bright and sunny.

Some very alien looking flowers coming into bloom in the long grass down by  the shore. Cabbage whites flit around enjoying the warmth of the new day. 

The starlings sitting happily on the telephone wires look like notes on a stave. All our local birds seem to have had a bumper year. After the ravages of avian flu this is strangely reassuring. We see the first of this years deer - a small wee thing barely visible between mother and father.

Some bright spark at the university has organized cycle tours of the town for parents of incoming undergraduates. We are confronted by a group of doughty Americans trying to master their balance while coordinating their steering. Pavements are their preferred habitat. Once underway nothing can  stop them. They are a cheerful but teetering bunch.  Perhaps they'll get more adept as the day goes on ? 20% of this years intake will be from the US which explains why the bike tours are almost always populated by Californian 50 somethings. A man in a check shirt informs us " I haven't been on a bike in thirty years ". 

Restaurants and bars are getting busy again.

" Look out! The slope is steep and the road is slippery." Perhaps not the most cheerful topic for the first chapel service of the new semester for the assembled freshers but certainly a suitably Presbyterian one.

A new French hotel. Why don't we build more hotels on top of offices ?  :https://www.maisonhelermetz.com/

Some thoughts on an early to bed lifestyle ....:https://www.derekthompson.org/p/a-secret-to-a-long-healthy-life-do

Progress :https://arctotherium.substack.com/p/progress-studies-and-feminization

Signs of returning life.

I had hoped the idea of heading to the far tip of Norway to see the Northern Lights might have been forgotten. If ever there's a time to flee the cold and go somewhere sunny like Florida then surely it's November ? Not a bit of it. Restaurant reservations have been made and a cabin booked on the boat. Cheerful Norwegian restaurant managers with annoyingly perfect English phone up to suggest that we dine early. " It will be very dark and very cold so you might want to think of eating at six rather than seven thirty ". The word 'very' seems to be a constant in these conversations. I'm guessing that above the arctic circle in winter dinner is a relaxed and lengthy affair. The wine lists promise to be somewhere between good and interesting although, as you might expect in such remote locations,  expensive.

I speak to an old friend who is a diplomat in New Delhi. He's just back from a hectic couple of days in Beijing where little of substance was agreed but the vibe was good. He is quietly 'surprised' that American alliances so carefully nurtured over decades can be discarded so quickly. 

Young folks continue to gently drift back into town. Between ten and five the coffee shops are getting busier with twenty year olds getting reacquainted after the long summer. On the radio a professor observes that Elon Musk is a polymath matched only in American history by Benjamin Franklin. " Of course they have different views of democracy " she adds perhaps a tad too quickly. https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/item/benjamin-franklin-on-st-andrews-links/1001370

The weather continues to be kind. It's even warm enough for visiting golfers to sit and breakfast in the sun. It's that time of the year when everyone can still enjoy the street cafes and pretend we live in France.

The pavement cafe by the Shawarma House is doing a brisk trade although the Scottish climate seems to have taken a toll on their umbrellas. They look very fin de saison.

The wild roses by the cathedral have now (largely ) stopped flowering and have moved onto the rose hip stage. There are a few bees about but not in the numbers that were here a month ago. Over the last few days there has been a sharp fall off in the daily influx of tourist buses from Edinburgh so the abbey precincts are oddly quiet. In fact we're the only souls around.

'The Font' heads off to meet the cleaners who are doing a deep sprucing up of the wee house in town before the new tenants arrive on Thursday. I'm dispatched to pick up some pillows from the bedding store which is open but there's no sign of  any staff. While I wait for someone to appear I examine the shelves. Stylishly minimalist Christmas tree lights and decorations are on sale. Only 15 shopping weeks to Christmas !

Tuesday morning jive. Rather alarmingly I can remember listening to this as a seven  year old :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3zJZ2d4cis

#10 was interesting :https://openthebooks.substack.com/p/bloated-opaque-and-undisciplined

Danish research :https://www.sciencealert.com/hidden-rhythms-between-your-stomach-and-brain-could-shape-your-mood

Random shopping. A bird bath with a camera :https://uk.birdfy.com/products/birdfy-bath-pro  and a  water bowl for dogs :https://elfinfountain.com/en-gb/products/elfin-fountain

Welcome to September.

Welcome to September. There's a wonderful sunrise but the air is decidedly nippy this morning. We discuss putting the heating on but decide to tough it out for another couple of weeks.

The owner of the little medieval house round the corner is an advocate for bees. Her garden has self seeded onto the pavement and she is determined to let it continue to spread unhindered. A hand written sign on an old slate roof tile makes it clear that weedkiller is not welcome here. One of the joys of college towns is that there are lots of people like this who make their views known. Council employees might view things differently.

The four ladies who work in the university administration office are back at work and have restarted their early morning dip routine. The sound of their laughter drifts up the cliff face towards us.

Foreign motor homes line the old abbey walls. Germans and Danes are in the majority today. Spanish and Italian registered vehicles are nowhere to be seen.

The sheep outside the farmhouse are enjoying some fresh cabbage leaves.

We are surprised to see a small army of detectorists beavering away in the field that runs up towards the farmers windmill. The archaeologists found a 10,000 year old village in a field further down the coast https://archaeology.org/news/2025/08/27/scottish-field-encapsulates-10000-years-of-local-history/ and they think another may have existed just inland from here. This would explain why we have an ancient burial site outside the courtyard. There must be the better part of a hundred enthusiastic folk with metal detectors scattered across the field .

Something very Irish and seasonal on the radio this morning :https://youtu.be/gKS7o7px9g4?list=RDgKS7o7px9g4&t=15

History and horses :https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/a-single-mutation-made-horses-rideable-and-changed-human-history/

Americas empire :https://www.maximum-progress.com/p/should-we-have-kept-the-american

Prediction markets. Only 53% ? :https://kalshi.com/markets/kxpresparty/party-winning-presidency

The first sightings.

The first and still rare sightings of parents bringing their teenagers up for freshers week. Large shiny SUV's that usually do the shopping run in affluent London suburbs dot the hotel car parks. Mothers and daughters can be seen shopping for bed linen and knickknacks in White and Co. Fathers express 'How much did you say ?' disbelief at the price of cotton sheets and wonder why the spare ones at home wouldn't have done. Potted plants - that will never be watered - are unloaded from the back of cars and carried into dorm rooms. The youngsters seem excited, the mothers worried and disbelieving that their 'angel' is leaving home. Fathers tend to wander in the direction of the golf course and the solace of the watering holes that can be found there. Tonight there will be 'farewell' dinners in the restaurants. More and more of these will occur over the coming week. Wiser souls know the best way to drop off a first year is to get it over and done with quickly. Others still have to learn that lesson.

Out here on the coast the rose bay willow herb is dying back but something prosaically exotic is flowering under the wild brambles.

The weather remains well behaved. Dry and sunny during the day but rainy enough at night to refresh the turf on the golf course. Barely six and the faithful are already queueing up for their tee of times. 

Much of the population of Iowa seems to be visiting today.

Strange times :https://minnalander.substack.com/p/should-finland-and-sweden-reunite

Nothing new under the sun. Devotees of Taylor Swift and medieval saints have much in common :https://www.mixedfeelings.earth/p/the-medieval-origins-of-fandom-fan-culture?hide_intro_popup=true

Good to see a pipe band from Zimbabwe at the piping championships :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gyjd2ijmFo

C-A-T-S :https://elizabrooke.substack.com/p/a-few-good-cats