Ethel.

A Republican Congressman interviewed on the radio tells us that the American President is 'uncommonly shrewd'. This is an unexpected take but sounds remarkably lucid. He then goes on to say' We are winning very big everywhere ' which is less eloquent. I'd like to say that listening to this all encompassing statement I feel my cares about the world ebb away like dew in the morning sun, but I don't. 

The sheep in the field by the mouth of the estuary are enjoying life. The grass is long and the weather mild. They'll stay here for another six or seven weeks before moving to more sheltered grazing well away from the coastal gales. The practical men who look after the golf links have names for all the sheep. Can you guess which one they call Ethel ? This  discovery makes us laugh aloud.

Each passing day brings more signs that the new semester is about to kick off. This morning the gardeners are busy watering the grass and trimming the flower borders outside chapel . They're whistling. When was the last time you heard people whistling ?

The hydrangeas outside the Classics department look as if they've enjoyed a long sunny summer.

It's the start of the American Labor Day holiday . The town has a 51st State feel to it. Helicopters clatter above us bringing the 1% from their Gulfstreams parked in Edinburgh to the 5 star hotels. By the club house teams of excited golfers are lined up ready for the off. We chat to the two third year medics who live next door to the wee house in town. They've got summer jobs as caddies and are  sharing their secrets of how to play the treacherous fairways with a group of  hedge fund managers from Stamford, Connecticut.  The hedgies seem keen to listen and the lads are hopeful they will be good tippers. They have adopted a caddying style that combines the deferential with the cheeky. The start of a new term brings with it all sorts of unexpected costs. One of them tells us 'freshers week' has really, really cool parties. We nod knowingly at this although neither of us has any idea what a 20 year old medic might think constitutes a cool party. It certainly won't be a bowl of fruit punch and a party hat.

I pop to the bookstore to pick up a new title ( that's been highly recommended ) and then stop for a coffee at the fancy new hotel near the aquarium. It's not warm but it's warm enough to sit outside and watch the world go by. The bar man is an early returning Classics student who doesn't complain when asked to bring my coffee outside. This willingness is a rarity in the local hospitality industry which thinks a warm welcome is 'What do you want ?'. 

Things I didn't know :https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/calf-muscles-heart

A pessimists rational for moving to Australia :https://www.sciencealert.com/no-place-on-earth-is-safe-if-all-hell-breaks-loose-but-one-place-is-safer-than-the-rest

German bureaucracy :https://x.com/Bundeskanz50246/status/2091791181533311472?s=20

Highland mystery :https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/human-skeleton-found-inside-mysterious-stone-structure-in-scotland-archaeologists-still-dont-know-why-it-was-buried-there-180989391/

Dolly at the Palace :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvaBKRaEGs4&list=RDYZ76DYvA6m4&index=12

A change of scenery

Dolly Parton dies, the Ontario Premier gives as good as he gets and heavy rain with flash flooding is forecast in England. The BBC announcer informs us that some American commentators think the US is ratcheting up the rhetoric on Canada to divert attention from the lack of progress on Iran.

Elder sister arrives, unannounced and uninvited, in the kitchen. Her younger sister, imprisoned in the farmhouse garden, can be heard howling in the distance. Our visitor gives us a tried and tested ' I know I shouldn't be here but if you could spare a biscuit I'd be eternally grateful ' look. She gets half a ginger hobnob. This sets the tail wagging.

More geese heading along the coast.They pass by in a never ending conveyor belt. The geese fly down from the Arctic in search of warmth. Some will over winter here, others further south in Northumberland.  Their honking is one of lifes transient pleasures. The telegraph wires are empty this morning. A sign that the well fed and rested swallows have finally set off on their long journey to Africa. 

The bee numbers continue to fall but a hardy cohort  still beaver away in the lavender. By the end of the month they too will have gone. In Scotland September is a time of the year when all the stage scenery changes.

No action in the cabbage field. The replacement part still hasn't been despatched.

Two paragliders take off from the sand and head towards town. Look carefully and you can just see them. They are soon up at a thousand feet. There's Russian activity out towards Norway so four jet fighters come hurtling across the sky on their way to deal with whatever's going on. 'The Font' wonders if the paragliders have logged their flight path with air traffic control .

Our old Fermob table and chairs from France have been repainted.  I can't remember the original colour being that strident. They get their first christening in a surprise shower.

Timely. Heard this at the Fox theatre in Atlanta 50 years ago :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixrje2rXLMA

Rediscovered :https://e360.yale.edu/digest/spinach-pipefish-rediscovered

Unloved wild dogs :https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/africa-wild-dogs-most-hated-carnivores-continent-heres-how-conservationists-saving-them-anyway-180989287/

History can be strangely prescient  :https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/benedict-arnolds-invasion-of-canada/

The criticised house.

Sunrise. Two of the villages rather polite ( and usually apolitical ) seventy year olds are heading off in their little red Volvo. He a retired professor of economics, she a designer of fabrics for Harrods. They've prepared a packed lunch and will be joining  a protest against the building of a data centre in a village on the road to Edinburgh. Scotland is an ideal location for these things. It has lots of wind power and no shortage of water to fuel and cool the servers. This combination has attracted droves of resource hungry AI companies. What is only now becoming apparent ( and generating unhappiness ) is the size of these things. The one they're protesting against will cover 60 hectares and be 12 metres high. That will dwarf the wee place.

We tread carefully around an army of small snails heading across the garden path towards the safety of the flower borders. A light sprinkling of rain in the wee hours seems to have brought them out in force.

Dubai chocolate is hard to find in Scotland. Marks and Spencer produce something with pistachio cream but it's a very distant relation to the real thing. We shall go to Glasgow next week to see what's on offer there.

The gardens at one of the local 'houses' are being opened to the public. You wouldn't know this if you missed the sheet of paper with an arrow and the words ' Garden open today' posted at the 'Y' junction by the falconry centre. This is a very minimalist and Presbyterian form of advertising that hints that the organizers would be happy if no one showed up. 

The building is controversial. The owner has taken an old tower house and brought it kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

The ochre lime wash on the harling is well done and the moon gate under the arch a thoughtful touch.

Two pavillions with rills have a 'French' air although on closer inspection it's clear that they are new.

We're both less sure about the large Celtic cross that's been laid out before the front door. It's certainly a statement but is possibly just a tad too religious for most tastes. On a stormy winters night with the lightning flashing it would have a Boris Karloff feel to it. Perhaps it's just too large ?

The place is huge fun and having owned a huge old Scottish castle we wholly approve of anyone that battles with the eye watering costs of keeping the structure water tight in a cold and windy climate.

The weather perfect. It's almost too hot. After a day of blue skies and architectural criticism it's time to end the day with a bottle of Sancerre rose which (despite being a 2022) is still lively and provides some gentle companionship as the sun sets. We stand by the garden wall looking out over the sea as the Orkney bound cruise liners twinkle like gin palaces in the gloaming.

The secret to visiting Scotland is avoid early and mid-August and aim to come here either in May or September when the weather patterns in the North Atlantic are docile if not dormant. Whether next years  El Nino changes that advice remains to be seen. 

Strange story of the week. Mushroom visions:https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/tiny-people-mushroom

Norwegian research:https://www.sciencenorway.no/language-marine-animals-whales/linguist-maybe-well-be-able-to-talk-to-whales-within-20-years/2700360

Addictive foods :https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/health-and-nutrition/junk-food-addiction

As ye sow so shall ye reap. Letter from Ukraine. Interesting to see which countries didn't attend the independence day celebrations :https://michaeljudge.substack.com/p/sergey-maidukov-habits-of-war

Still relevant 3 years on. Tom Hanks speaks wonderfully at Harvard ( and note the man in the top hat behind ) :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz32lq_iZfI

Influencers and the North Sea.

The summer doldrums and the media are desperate for news. This morning the saga of Harry and Meghan dominates the six am radio broadcast. There now seems to be some uncertainty as to whether they're coming home for good or just for a year. Why they want to leave California still hasn't been explained. It also seems that Meghans return to acting might not now be taking place. After sating our interest in the junior royals the news reader moves onto Trumps trade war with Canada and more Russian attacks on Kyiv.

The cabbage harvest was in full swing until the new - and hugely expensive - machine developed a fault. Further work has been suspended until a 'part' arrives. There is some uncertainty as to when this might be. It has to come from the Netherlands  which means clearing customs.

Three middle aged gentlemen swimmers can be seen in the fresh water pool below the castle. We meet the retired pilot out walking his dog. He tells us that taking a dip in the pool has become a big 'thing' on Instagram. A couple of years ago the number of swimmers willing to brave the North Sea could be counted on one hand. Now, in the summer at least, there are scores every day. This says a lot about influencers and the power of Instagram.

There's a couple walking a Westie along the pier. They're watching a  man in a Zodiac shouting to a mate on the sand. In these parts that counts as excitement. From the cloud patterns I'll wager we're in for one of those highly changeable Scottish days when we get all four seasons in quick succession.

Twenty minutes later , our ten thousand steps done, we return towards the car. There's a group of youngsters lifting a canoe onto the beach. This seems to be a more complex manoeuvre than you might imagine.

They join a dozen or so boats that have been taken onto the sand by the rowing coach and his team. It would seem that eager student rowers are already returning in readiness for the new semesters team trials. A marquee has been put up to enable the officials to keep out of the sun. This might best be described as a triumph of hope over the local climate.

On the other side of the harbour a small fleet of foreign camper vans are parked up against the old abbey walls. In the evening the passengers sit out on deck chairs, cook and chat affably to each other in a mix of languages. I'd like to think the pilgrims who came here in the middle ages would recognize their successors.

Elvis doesn't cut it any longer :https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/economic-growth-makes-graceland-less-impressive/

I'd never seen the chart in this piece :https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/debt-and-tax-cuts

Friday night is no longer a 'thing' :https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/23780231261478215

A unique sound.

Out here in the village the local farmer has started harvesting the cabbages. A team of a dozen or so hard working Somalis and Turkmens operate a huge machine that cuts , prepares, grades and then weighs and prices them. A fleet of tractors then haul the cabbages to the back of enormous flat bedded trucks which, when fully stacked and laden, head off to the storage barns. The whole process is surprisingly automated, highly efficient and should, weather willing, be completed by Wednesday. This Stakhanovite drama provides great amusement for the walkers on the coastal foot path who stand and stare. The farmer must be a good employer because many of the same crew return year after year.

In town the good weather has brought with it hosts of happy golfers. They clog the pavements. This bunch, seen outside Starbucks,  are hurrying to the Old Course for a seven am start time. The jiggle and clanking of their clubs gives golf towns a sound that is unique.

Down by the fourth tee the sheep ignore a group of hearty American gentlemen players who shout 'Fore!' with surprising - and possibly uncalled for - gusto. This is golf as theatre.

The beach is pretty much empty bar two huge dogs who are being taken for a walk. St Bernards or possibly Newfoundlands. 

They are being kept on a lead which is just as well as there's a horse and trap whistling along the sand.

It's quickly followed by two more. 

So starts a quiet Sunday morning in a small town on the North Sea. Soon September will arrive and with it 10,000 fresh faced youngsters. 

Required reading for anyone visiting the UK :https://englishmanmike.substack.com/p/the-british-etiquette-rules-nobody

Great photos :https://substack.com/@alldaycake

Scottish cannibals :https://theconversation.com/the-enduring-mystery-of-scotlands-medieval-cannibals-289249

Life without a smart phone :https://ktklp.substack.com/p/do-you-really-want-a-slow-life

Dinna fash!

Canada and the lack of a trade deal the first item on the news morning. This is followed by reports of growing tensions between Israel and Turkey.  A professor at the LSE explains how the term 'Ottoman slap' has been repurposed from the world of wrestling into geopolitics. It is, he says, a term we are likely to hear much more frequently ahead of the Israeli elections.

First light. Two middle aged teachers and a group of twenty or so ruddy cheeked teenagers come down the lane and past the doocot. They're on a school geology trip and are looking for the rock spindles. We're surprised that school field trips still take place. They seem like an echo of a more innocent time. Even more surprisingly all the youngsters are cheerful and well behaved. Perhaps this is because they're still trying to wake up ? What sort of monster would get his pupils up and about by seven am ? How many teenagers know that seven am even exists ? I'm guessing they've been promised bacon rolls in town.

The last wheat field has been harvested and the hay bailed and ready to be collected and stowed in the barn.The end of the summer comes quickly in these northerly parts.

All that the remains are the brassicas. The recent rain has done them a power of good and their growth seems to have been turbocharged. Work on bringing them in will start today.

There are sixty or so swallows sitting in a line on the telephone wires. It's not often you see them do this. Perhaps they're gathering before heading on their long journey down to Africa.

The farmers daughter has returned from Jackson Hole. She plans to head back there for Christmas although her father is less keen ( much less keen ) on this idea. There is vague talk of the American boys parents and siblings coming over to visit. The farmers youngest lad starts at Cambridge on the 1st of October. He would be happy flying from Edinburgh to Stansted and making his own way to Kings from there. His mother has very different ideas and is insisting he will be taken down by his father in the Range Rover. She is currently being driven insane by his ' Dinna fash ! It's still five weeks away ' attitude. When you're 18 it's all an adventure.

Dogs and speech:https://projects.research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/en/horizon-magazine/what-dogs-can-teach-us-about-origins-speech

Just re-opened :https://isleofgighahotel.com/

The life of a reporter in a heatwave :https://mattchorley.substack.com/p/are-you-a-hot-farmer?r=42s6f3

A forgotten tragedy :https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-american-airplane-crashed-into-school-1944-english-village-lost-almost-all-of-its-youngest-children-why-has-wwii-worst-civilian-aviation-accident-been-forgotten-180989341/

Pernickety guardians.

Good morning to the passengers on the Norwegian Star cruise liner who at this very moment are sailing very slowly past the village. We know it's the Norwegian Star because the ship is in close enough for us to read the name on her side. However, the ship is just too far away for us to tell whether people are out on their balconies waving. They will find this mornings weather 'bracing'. Further out there are two more ships  - one owned by Viking and the other by Ambassador Lines. People really will pay for cooler weather.

The second episode of David Olusogas latest series of  ' A house through time ' is broadcast on the BBC. He presents so compellingly that watching it is a joy. This is the first house to feature north of the border and we've already been served up rich dishes of treason and immorality. The programme is a jaunty insight into an Edinburgh that is ' all lace and nae knickers '. I notice he pronounces both 'Wynd' and 'Calton' in an English way . 

12 degrees this morning. We're refusing to turn on the heating until the new month starts. This self denial is becoming more difficult with every passing day. There's no hiding the fact that autumn is now approaching not so much at an amble but at a sprint. Later this morning we'll dig out the winter duvets and take the light silk summer ones to the dry cleaners.

The gutter men show up early at 7:00. I only called them yesterday. They look after the house in town that we let to the Texans which means we are considered 'regulars' and are treated accordingly. You see many houses where the majority of the roof is made of pantiles but the first couple of feet next to the gutters are laid with grey slate. I'd always assumed this was because the pantiles had eroded away after centuries of heavy rain and been replaced with something harder wearing. The gutter man tells me that the real reason slates were laid was because the rats found them too slippery to clamber up. 

At the start of the week there were hundreds of bees covering the lavender beds. The stems were literally weighed down with them. The bees are still there but their numbers have fallen. They work frenetically as if charged by a sense of what's to come. I count a dozen resting on the garden furniture and on the grass around the lavender bushes four or five that have died. Something in the first of the cold nights seems to tell them their time here is done. One minute they're hard at work, then they tire, find a sunny spot where they spend half an hour in a trance and then it's over. The regularity and gentleness of this drawing down of the curtain is remarkable. I'll plant more of the late flowering lavender for them next year. Bees are natures Friar Tuck - always jovial, always busy.

Oddly, the Cabbage Whites remain - and in huge numbers. It has been a bumper year for Cabbage Whites. They seem oblivious to the turn in the seasons.

English villages :https://www.architectureandtradition.com/p/how-did-the-english-build-such-beautiful

Some Irish comedians  thoughts on seagulls :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04HSlQs6Ihs

Small farmers can't compete. A Canadian view :https://lenispooner.substack.com/p/why-local-food-costs-more-canada-small-farms

How many dimensions do we live in ? :https://medium.com/@abdplaysofficial/how-many-dimensions-do-we-actually-live-in-06f19711f0a0

The importance of balance :https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2026-08-18/why-balance-predicts-lifespan-longevity