Lunacy !

 

Two of the Jack Russells are out on patrol bright and early. The eldest is at an age where she prefers to linger by the AGA on chilly mornings.

The younger dogs greet us enthusiastically but finding us devoid of biscuits are soon off in pursuit of excitement. A large flock of pigeons feeding in the barley field have to be chased. This is done noisily and inefficiently. 

The Volvo's thermometer says it's minus 8 . I'm usually somewhat sceptical about what the cars ageing electronics tell us but it could be correct as there's a thick frost and the tops of the hills on the far side of the bay are coated in snow . This blast of Antarctic air isn't enough to deter a group of students from enjoying the perfect surfing conditions in the bay.

There are twenty or so cavorting in the waves when we arrive for our morning walk. By the time we retrace our steps this has risen to forty. Yet more arrive and soon the car park is full . Kayakers and canoeists also start to show up. Lunacy !

The local dog walkers, prevented from going onto the beach by the high tide and waves, watch the students from the safety of the grass bank. We all agree that the youngsters inhabit a different planet.

So starts a decidedly nippy Wednesday morning in a small university town on the North Sea. The new car is supposed to be delivered this week but the BMW dealer is adopting a ' If I don't answer their e-mails all will be well ' approach to their customers. After six months neither of us can remember much about the new car, our enthusiasm has disappeared and if given the chance we would go and buy a Kia. So much for that premium German experience.

What will they do next ? :https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c30p16gn3pvo

Music bars :https://dirt.fyi/article/2024/11/louder-in-japan

Substack :https://read.substack.com/p/4-million

A calm sea.

Another clear, magical night. There are more shooting stars.  What a contrast with the storms and driving rain of last year when the sky was hidden by layer on layer of cloud. Coming on midnight the moon lights up the small hillock where they've discovered the neolithic tombs. How peaceful it looks. Out at sea they're hard at work expanding the wind farm. When the weathers good and the sea is calm like this  they're hard at it 24 hours a day.

We pass the fish and chip shop that had the 'glowing' review in the local paper. Caramel filled Churros are on the menu . After a half battered pizza what better way to end a meal ? They also have a dog menu . 60% of the proceeds go to the SSPCA. We wonder what goes into a Puppuccino.

Building works down by the golf course. There are always building works down by the golf course. A rather substantial wooden fence is being put up. One of our neighbours in the village has heard that it's something to do with upgrading the drainage system. They heard this at their bridge club so hastily add that they can't vouch for the accuracy of the information.

Christmas entertainment season is upon us. This production , I bet, will only run north of the border.

In the souvenir shop window a Mel Gibson look alike with painted face has joined the plastic pipers in the all Scottish window display. We are once again reminded of the power of globalization. There is probably a small family injection molding business in Chengdu shipping these things far and wide.

A couple of weeks and the winter exam season kicks into gear. Foot traffic to the library seems to have picked up substantially. Starbucks, usually quiet, now has a serious early morning student clientele. We drive home through town at 20 mph. This is a prudent speed to avoid Kamikaze teenagers who are too engrossed in their phones to check  before they fling themselves across the road.

Battered mince pies.

Last night a completely cloudless sky, a virtuoso display of shooting stars and the moons reflection in the sea stretching like a broad band of silk all the way to Norway. High in the sky Saturn was out burning as bright as a car headlight.  Winter night shows are one of the joys of living in a place where there's no light pollution. Clear skies bring with them arctic temperatures. The Volvo dashboard tells us its minus seven this morning although the Volvos electronics have always been a little suspect. 

The local paper informs us that one of the towns fish and chip shops is offering a seasonal menu. Battered turkey with chips followed by battered mince pie. For those who aren't keen on mince pies  a deep-fried Mars bar is available. I'll put money on the fact that long queues will form to sample these culinary delights. The village in France is only 1,000 miles away but in culinary terms it's so, so much further.

A solitary heron is standing in the harbour mudflats. It ignores a flotilla of gulls who paddle noisily by.

The gulls seem to be in their element. The young have shed their adolescent plumage and are now strutting around as if they've always owned the place. In this regard human and gull teenagers are similar.

The parking bays still suspended. The work laying the high speed fibre optic cable to the hedge fund managers house seems to be on pause. I stop to admire a rather grown up junction box that has appeared in a trench.

On our way back to the car the sun has risen and the day starts off with eye achingly clear blue skies that , this far North in mid-November , are nothing short of miraculous. Two students are down in the salt water swimming pool. They seem oblivious to the cold. 'The Font' makes some comment about young love. Angus thinks it more likely that the male is waiting for the right moment to come up with a suggestion for how they might  fend off hypothermia. There is always a logic to 19 year old thinking.

Before dinner yesterday, with a glass of Margaux in hand, we watch the first  episode in the final series of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall on BBC. Mark Rylance is brilliant as Thomas Cromwell. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0k30wk0

Tchaikovsky on the radio this morning :https://youtu.be/KhbuNZ8p3hg?t=156

This insight seems sensible :https://x.com/Jabaluck/status/1856139470011310348

" Mene, Mene,Tekel, Parsin " - Writing on the wall :https://www.christianitytoday.com/2024/11/andrew-wilson-spirited-life-daniel-writing-on-wall-babylon/

Succinct

For the first time in over a week America's once and future President has to share the front page with a story that's not about him. The resignation of the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury brings home grown news back into focus.  The C of E is an institution that has evolved over millennia but has struggled to respond to social media that judges in hours. Information age iconoclasm is quick, nuance free and unforgiving.

Something about the cold air that supercharges the russet tones in this mornings sunrise. Even hardened dog owners stop in their tracks and watch the swirl of colours rise over the skyline of the old town. If the phrase ' Red sky in the morning, Shepherds warning' has any truth to it then we're in for a day of exciting weather.

Down to the fishmongers for some freshly landed prawns. We also pick up some lemon sole and a salmon tail. No Monkfish today.

The supermarket is either still setting up its Christmas display or is taking minimalism to entirely new levels.

The wreath that was laid on the flagstones outside the chapel has been carefully picked up and hung on the  railings. After a week it is still beautiful but has lost that first bloom of youth and is starting to 'curl'. A father walking his young daughter stops to look at it and tells her ' It's from a time when people were burnt for their religion '. This is perhaps an overly succinct way of describing Scottish history. Thank God our Taliban moments are long gone. 

We've probably walked by these old railings ten thousand times but never noticed that they're decorated with small circle encased Saltires. There was a time when civic architecture was a marvelous, built to last, thing.

So starts a quiet ( and decidedly chilly ) Sunday morning in a small Scottish town where weather, history and happenstance join seamlessly - and mostly happily - together.

Go for broke. The UK's former ambassador to the US shares his thoughts on last weeks events.... or at least some of them. The guy, as you might expect,  is a smart cookie. He had to be recalled when one of his more critical  dispatches 'leaked' :https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/podcast/inside-briefing/donald-trumps-team-calls

Chocolate and cinnamon :https://floramanson.substack.com/p/recipe-chocolate-and-cinnamon-pavlova

A calming car radio start to the day :https://youtu.be/XtIw5AkUEsE

Art work by the staff at The Met. Open until the start of the New Year :https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/art-work-artists-working-at-the-met-2024

Music to make you smile

It's turned colder. Much colder. This morning the windscreen on the Volvo covered with a layer of something that wants to be frost but hasn't quite managed it. The wipers deal with it quickly. There's a weather warning out for snow on higher ground. Out here on the coast it's calm , the skies are clear and the sunrise has that rich golden colour only seen in the far North. Snow, for those of us who live right on the coastal fringes, is a rare thing. It may , however, be time to invest in a bag or two of salt just in case. The Filipino cabbage pickers show up at first light. Today they're turning their attention to the field on the waters edge. What a marketing point that could be - Cabbages grown on Scotlands coastal fringes. 

A thousand crows busy gleaning the barley field. The crows have been here for two weeks now and seem to have opted to make this their winter home. When they all take to the air it's like the first shots of a Hitchcock movie. The braver of the crows venture down to the waters edge where they peck at the seaweed and coexist, more or less peacefully, with the curlews and cormorants . The curlews are back in greater numbers than last year. Avian flu has not defeated them. The cormorants also seem to be doing well although they rarely stray from the rocks far out in the water which makes any finer judgement on their numbers difficult.

Snatches of a tune issuing from the music centre. Some eager medical students practising before a lunchtime concert. It's not every day you hear a brass band and its most certainly not every day you hear a snippet of this :https://youtu.be/3cXJJlf3l-s?t=20 . A very Yorkshire sound and one which makes us smile. Student towns offer an eclectic choice of music. Victoriana like this is strangely unexpected and out of time. 

The baker now well and truly in the Christmas groove. The reindeer biscuits are displayed at toddler eye height.

A walk back through the university medical buildings to the car. Some views haven't changed at all in 150 years. It looks peaceful but there are Russian aircraft heading down from Norway to Scotland and the boys in blue are out in squadron force. The sound of the students musicians soon lost in the roar of after burners.

What's next and what's possible  :https://frompovertytoprogress.substack.com/p/priorities-for-the-second-trump-administration

1960's dreaming :https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/visions-of-nuclear-powered-cars-captivated-cold-war-america-but-the-technology-never-really-worked-180985437/

Birds :https://birdhistory.substack.com/p/happy-bird-day

Home and frost is on the way.

 

Snow is headed towards Scotland but here in London it's mild and balmy. We've set off from St Andrews wrapped up in coats and jumpers but these are soon discarded. Sloane Square is busy with shoppers and a smattering of tourists enjoying the sunshine.

The breakfast news broadcast on the television dominated by events in America. The names Matt and Tulsi and Elon banded around as if they're old friends. Seems like there's nothing else happening in the world. I have to turn to page 3 of the paper to find anything Brit related. On the radio some Senator describes the new Trump agenda as ' the Manhattan project of our time' . I wonder if this phrase is meant literally or is actually sarcasm hiding in plain sight. 

A shop selling Australian plates is a surprise. Whoever knew Australian plates were a thing ? I try to work out the economics of shipping ceramics from Australia to London. The prices must be astronomically high to justify having an outlet in the W1 postcode.

'The Ivy' is setting up Christmas snowmen on the pavement by their front door. These are identical to the ones outside the Marylebone branch. I'm unimpressed but two young Japanese ladies are taking each others photo in front of them. Perhaps the snowmen will look better when the cold arrives. As it will.

We used to live on this Square in Chelsea. It was five flights of stairs from basement to the roof. Not the most practical of layouts. The houses at the end were flattened by a V-1 in 1944. They were rebuilt wider and  lower. This ruins the proportions of the Square which now looks like a wide street with a garden in the middle. We like London. It's civilized and international and safe but it has a 24/7 pulse that has advantages ... and disadvantages. Ideal for 30 and 40 somethings with boundless energy. Scotland with its intimacy and gentler pace of life is just fine for us.

We also lived on the next street down. It was fashionable then and is even more fashionable now.  Parking was a nightmare and the houses were too small. In the intervening years the colour scheme on the street has become brighter although not necessarily more tasteful. Our house had been owned by a famous Swedish actress who built an over-sized conservatory that swallowed up the garden. In one corner she had installed a jacuzzi with golf swan head tap fittings. I wonder if it is still there ?

Heathrow is quiet. Heathrow is never quiet. One of those conical  low maintenance Christmas trees glimmers away by the departure gate. It's a desultory thing devoid of charm. Thankfully, seasonal music hasn't yet started to play. By the end of the month it will be chaos.

The British Airways flight on our way down was on a brand new plane. Heading home we have one that is somewhat older ... and smaller. Edinburgh airport has opted to close for 45 minutes to test a new radar system. How Presbyterian of them to do this in the middle of the day. You would have thought they might do their testing at night when the airports closed and the inconvenience would be minimal. That of course is not the way people in authority think. The pilot promises to get us there on time and does. I would have thought it physically impossible to get from a gate in Heathrow to a gate in Edinburgh in 45 minutes, but it is.

As we cross the Forth the sun is setting. Peak winter is pretty much here. By the time we get to Leuchars it is sepulchraly dark.

What a surprise ! :https://www.livescience.com/animals/dogs/smarter-dogs-have-smaller-brains-surprising-study-reveals

An exhibition in Edinburgh :https://theconversation.com/stitched-from-high-born-women-to-crofters-daughters-exhibition-showcases-two-centuries-of-scotlands-finest-embroidered-art-242425

Perspective :https://lawliberty.org/politics-in-flux/

Brutal Chopin :https://youtu.be/Gy5UHK4EeM8?t=27

A brand new plane.

 

We're up and out early on our way to London. Quite the sunrise over the potato barns to speed us on our way. The sky has that 'snow is on the way' look to it. We park at the station, catch the train south to Edinburgh ( which runs on time ) and enjoy a brand new British Airways A-320 on the flight to Heathrow. Why is it new cars and new planes have such a distinctive and welcoming smell ? Talking of new cars there's still no news from the garage about when our miracle of German engineering is due to be delivered.

London girding up for Christmas. A miniature Eiffel Tower rising on the Kings Road. Large chickens seem to be a feature of the design. A team are slowly covering it in fresh foliage.

Something equally spectacular, and floral, going up on a wall further down the road. Let's hope it's strong enough to withstand the winter winds.

Even the pubs are getting into the spirit of things. Quite how the Christmas tree and tipsy customers will interact remains to be seen.

London is quiet but it's conference season and all the hotels are full. We're told that our room won't be ready at the three o'clock check in time. The young man behind the front desk thinks six might be more likely.  Seems they've been booked solid and a large number of guests have checked out, late.  Housekeeping hasn't been able to keep up with the rush. We express our displeasure and miraculously, a room is found.

Another of those questions I'd never thought to ask:  https://www.upworthy.com/why-didn-t-people-smile-in-old-photographs-it-wasn-t-just-about-the-long-exposure-times

Neither of us had heard of this movie but it's visually superb :https://youtu.be/iZwykQK9aZo?t=1