Canadian smoke.

The weather has been heavenly. Cloudless and warm. As we approach the town we're surprised to find that there's a sea mist rolling in. Even more surprising is that it's rolling in from the landward side. Turns out that it's not sea mist at all but smoke bearing air that the jet stream has driven north from the wild fires in Canada. We sometimes get sand from the Sahara but neither of us can ever remember seeing smoke from the other side of the Atlantic.

Friday afternoon saw a mass of students returning and they all seemed to be in party mood. 99% of them must now be back. The shopkeepers are happy. The university brings £500 million into the local economy which is why you will find that  any complaints about the students youthful high jinks are done sotto voce. There are those who think the university should expand but the powers that be sensibly think 8,000 undergrads and 2,000 post grads is as much as the towns medieval infrastructure can cope with. Student accommodation is already some of the most expensive in the UK.

The start of a new semester brings with it supermarket shelves stocked with exotic things aimed at young, international, palates. We buy some pomegranates. These used to be cheap in France but are an eyebrow raising £2.50 each here. We shall squeeze them and mix the juice with champagne for a pre-dinner zinger.

The price of petrol up again. We detour into the garage to top up the tank.

The life guard hut is sitting empty on the beach. It can't be long before it's taken down for the winter . We, and the local dog owners, have the beach to ourselves. The students tend not to be early risers. 

Over the estuary two of those large twin engined helicopters used by Special Forces are doing touch and goes. The sound of their rotor blades causes the sand beneath our feet to tremble. The fighter jets have also been busy screaming off towards some Russian threat out towards Norway. Our daily reminder that the Arctic has suddenly become a 'turbulent' place.

For the grand price of £1.07 each we bought some house plants from Tesco. They have survived  outside in pots for the last five months and have outlived just about everything else in the garden . A policy of benign but total neglect has benefitted them enormously.

The local bird watcher informs us that the Barnacle Geese heading south from Svalbard are taking a migratory route down the west coast into England rather than the east coast route that passes over the village. This , he says, is not unusual.

Childrens books here always use Scottish names. 

Assisted suicide was narrowly rejected by parliament this week. The mood was supportive but there was a feeling the safeguards needed strengthening. Canada gave  reason for thought:

https://www.dordt.edu/in-all-things/the-cautionary-tale-of-euthanasia-in-canada

Modern music :https://salemlola.substack.com/p/echoes-and-inventions-a-modest-listeners

China ... again :https://www.feelingthestones.com/p/off-the-beaten-track-the-three-gorges

A source on forgotten writers :https://libcom.org/article/roussenq-paul-1885-1949

An insight into what the Iranians are thinking ? :https://x.com/SohrabAhmari/status/2097125217256587348

16 years on.

Life out here  has settled into a quiet autumn rhythm. Most of the harvest is in but the spare part for the all singing all dancing cabbage picking/packaging machine is still missing. How long can it take to manufacture a replacement ? It goes without saying that the farmer is not happy. In the garden the salvias and the rose hips share the same cheerful red. Nature is still providing splashes of colour as everything else in the garden dies back. 

This morning there are four bees on the lavender beds. The lavender is getting long and stringy and in need of cutting back but we'll  wait until the last of the bees go before starting work. I thought the swallows had all left for Mauritania some time ago but there's twenty or so doing daredevil aerobatics over the potato sheds. The last of the birds to leave always provide us with this Cirque de soleil farewell. We stand and watch them as they dart around us. I'm convinced they love an audience and do this on purpose.

The arrival of 10,000 fresh faces into a small town with a population of 15,000 makes finding a table in a restaurant impossible. We try the new Mediterranean and the old standby Indian but both are already 'reservation only' by seven thirty. The fresh faces are also heading off in the other direction. The farmers eldest son headed back down to Edinburgh yesterday and daughter heads off to law school today. The youngest has two more weeks at home before Cambridge beckons. It only seems like yesterday that the World Cup was the pivotal point in life.

A quick detour to the bookstore. One of the staff is unpacking boxes and plonking their contents in piles on the floor. 

Three new recommendations to pick up. The 'American Overthrow' title has already sold out. They've saved the last copy for me. More are on order. The Sunak book sounds very worthy but you need to be in the right mood to face 550 pages on recent British politics. I know nothing about 'The City Without Jews' other than it's well written.

Written in the blog on this day 16 years ago a memory of a local farm lad. I wonder if the Royalton still exists on 44th Street and if it's lost its late 90's chic ? How time flies. The last line was true then and holds as true today :https://wilfanddigby.blogspot.com/2010/09/evil-mens-footprints.

Small chapels and repenting Freshers.

We drive into the depth of the countryside to see one of Scotlands last remaining cottage chapels. It's located in a non-descript farming village that is now turning into a dormitory town for Edinburgh. The place has a huge modern medical centre, an equally huge ( but ageing )  old folks home, a variety of modern housing schemes and an unattractive 70's era SPAR supermarket.

The cottage chapel is exactly what it says on the can. A chapel in a cottage. A polite retiree tries to explain the history of the place but I find my mind wandering. Perhaps it's the warmth of the afternoon sun streaming through the windows. 

'The Font' is given a leaflet which provides us with the background, and more, of the chapels Episcopalian history. It is written in a very 'worthy' style.

The chapel is very small, very plain ( if you can call a red ceiling and purple carpeted floor plain )  but has a core of devoted parishoners who meet every other Wednesday for Evensong. The pews have been removed and replaced by a dozen upright and well padded Ercol chairs. This says all you need to know about the age and the size of the congregation. How long will the place survive ? It's a miracle it's lasted this long.

After our foray into the wilderness we stop off at the hotel by the Old Course for a drink. Around six  groups of youngsters start to wander by. 

The reason soon becomes clear. It's the end of mass. The Catholic Church has opened up again for the new Semester. We're at that stage where the youngsters have started to enjoy enough freedom to warrant asking for forgiveness. 

An American Congressman is in town. He hosts a small dinner ( under Chatham House rules ) where he  comes out with the interesting statement that " in America it's moderate voters who are aware of international affairs whereas with most of my voters it's much less so ". No prizes for guessing which party he represents.

Who is the star in this ad ?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVlhHhoC3Ks

Intriguing :https://www.sciencealert.com/a-neuroscientist-says-your-brain-may-not-actually-make-decisions

A month of birthdays :https://www.popsci.com/science/why-september-9-most-common-birthday/

I enjoyed this :https://davidaaronovitch.substack.com/p/a-muslim-a-christian-and-a-jew-walk

Haakon, the new King, looks exhausted :https://youtu.be/gW1jsHSDMEY?t=13870

The pecking order.

The first coach tour out of Edinburgh disgorges its occupants outside the cathedral. They make their way to the cafe which used to have a sign in the window saying " Where William met Kate - allegedly". Now it's been replaced with the message " Where William met Kate - for coffee ". There must be some semantic difference between the two but if there is it escapes me. 

The hugely expensive apartments in the building that Donald Trump failed to buy have suddenly emptied out after being packed solid over Labor Day. Three of them have lights on, all the others are dark. The Gulfstream with tangerine paintwork that was parked at the local airport has gone. We think it carried some of the 'fancy'  wedding party. 'The Font' wonders if the gentleman dressed in Highland chieftain costume was on board or if he flew back home 'commercial'.

The Freshers are at that 'enthusiastic' stage of life. A group of them are up at dawn and heading off to chapel to practise for morning prayers.

The newcomers are still enjoying the safety that groups provide. When classes start on Monday the communal group psychology will evaporate amid a solitary mad dash to find the right lecture theatre for a nine am start. Second years suddenly start to feel their age.... and their higher position in the pecking order.

In the morning :https://www.popsci.com/science/when-best-to-drink-coffee/

Time:https://www.noemamag.com/your-perception-of-time-is-in-fact-warped/

The afternoon nap :https://theconversation.com/why-do-i-crash-at-3pm-the-science-behind-the-afternoon-slump-290267

An ignored opportunity to deal with ocean plastics :https://worksinprogress.co/issue/all-the-microbes-you-cant-have/

A quiet evening.

Town is swamped with parents dropping off their offspring. Home Counties mothers  park on double yellow lines, tailgates up and warning lights flashing, as improbable amounts of luggage are slowly unloaded. In medieval streets this becomes parking mayhem. 

This is the week when the trickle of returning students turns into a flood. The aisles in the only hardware store by the cathedral are solid with fathers buying microwaves for fourth year daughters. Why is it that white goods that worked when packed in May don't work when unpacked in September ? Freshers, who arrived a week earlier than the others, continue to wander the streets in the safety of groups. For many - perhaps most - this is the first experience of being away from parents and siblings. They have intense, furrowed brow, conversations with each other using words like matriculation and module. Little in life can match the intensity of an eighteen year old discussing course requirements. 

The students have now been joined by television engineers beginning to set up scaffolding for next months Dunhill Golf Tournament. American golfers en route to the Irish Open add to the chaos. Three gentlemen from Ohio are seen wearing identical ' Pray for President Trump 2026 ' hats. I'm not sure these will make getting last minute table reservations around here any easier. Faced with all this feverish activity we decide to head to Glasgow for a quiet Monday evening.

There's time for a pre-dinner drink in one of our favourite watering holes. The place is usually empty but has been written up in a Spanish places you must visit before you die magazine and is full of brightly dressed Madrileno couples drinking martinis. The local Glaswegians seem inured to this cultural invasion.

It's literally a minutes walk from the bar to the restaurant during which time the drizzle turns into a downpour. We usually order from the a la Carte menu but opt for the tasting menu. This turns out to  feature the best cooked Monkfish tail we've ever tasted. The Kanzuri sauce it comes with could be seriously addictive. There are 22 diners this evening which is just enough to make the place feel 'buzzy'. The service manages to be friendly and perfectly timed which is an unusually agreeable ( and rare ) combination.

We stay in the uber chic and very dark modern hotel . Angus finds the shower tray slippery and the lighting too dark for shaving. On top of this the television doesn't work and the bedside lamp emits a strange high pitched hum. I unscrew the bulb  and the problem disappears but the black walled darkness becomes deeper. We shall go back to staying in 1 Devonshire Gardens when next in Glasgow. First thing in the morning there's a quick detour to an art gallery that we used to buy from forty years ago. We mistakenly thought Covid had killed it along with the other galleries that used to cluster here.  The quiet subtlety of this etching catches our eye.

This horse sculpture was done by the artist who did the Kelpies in Falkirk and has a price to match. 'The Font' isn't convinced about the proportions. Now we've downsized from a house of  800 square metres to one a quarter of that size acquisitions have to be made more 'judiciously'.

A fun copper hare from an Edinburgh artist.

Dog paintings usually, but not always, attract our attention.

There's just enough time for an espresso and croissant ( it gets a score of 8/10 which as good as you'll get in Scoptland ) at the cafe next to the station. The Intercity to Dundee gets us there on time and the connector to St Andrews arrives early. We have to wait on the platform for less than two minutes. From the front door of the gallery to the station car park takes an hour and a half. The rail journey from Dundee to Glasgow has to be one of the most scenic and unexplored in the country. It is also pleasantly empty.

Bizarre story of the week :https://spacedaily.com/k-humpback-whales-are-interrupting-orca-hunts-to-rescue-completely-different-species-swimming-underneath-a-doomed-seal-and-lifting-it-out-of-the-water-on-their-chest-or-forming-a-wall-between-the-kill/

Squid:https://www.sciencealert.com/squid-are-taking-over-the-ocean-and-not-for-the-reason-you-might-think

Judgements :https://psyche.co/ideas/why-you-should-try-living-without-free-will-for-two-weeks

Pre-commemoration :https://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-untold-pre-history-of-9-11

Yesterdays KyivPost :https://www.kyivpost.com/opinion/83925

Mirth.

 The weather starts off a bit 'iffy' but soon the sun is out and it's warm.

This years intake of freshers are gathering early for their first pier walk. This is a time honoured tradition and like all good traditions it survives because it serves a useful purpose. In this case it's a great way to meet new people.

A large turnout this year. Of the 2000 or so freshmen I'd estimate that 80% have shown up. In fact there's so many a queue soon forms that stretches all the way back from the pier to the castle. Four large buses carrying Spanish tourists arrive as the proceedings are about to start. The tourists take photos and wonder what sort of ceremony this can be. Is it a cult ?

Boys walk slowly towards the harbour in the hope the girls will talk to them. The  lads are, for the most part disappointed, but this doesn't stop them from trying.

Parents are, as is so often the case, more visibly excited than their offspring . They cheer and clap whereas their teenagers maintain an air of aloof detachment as if this is something they do every day. We are asked to  take pictures of a Singaporean grandfather and his wife who are here to watch their grandson walk to the end of the pier. " I didn't believe I'd ever see this " he says mopping his eyes with a handkerchief . His wife exudes the sort of ' no words can describe it'  happiness that God reserves for grandmothers.  Three American ladies introduce themselves and inform us their sons are starting off here. "We're so proud " they say in perfect unison. We tell them the boys must be 'smart cookies' which is true but I'm not sure that it's politically correct to say that these days. Demand from the US is up 15% this year ( although numbers for international students remain capped at last years levels ) and we tell the mothers their sons are among the smartest cohort ever . They take this at face value and wander off to tell their husbands this good ( if statistically dubious )  news.

When the youngsters reach the end of the pier there's a ladder you have to climb up  to a higher level . Some of the young women are finding that the combination of ladder and strong breezes requires the help of 'gallant' young men to pull them up. This takes time. Mirth is in the air. Much ice is broken.

The guests at the fancy American wedding are still around. In the afternoon we see them wearing dinner jackets and black ties heading into the town kirk for a private concert. We spot the lunatic uncle ( every family has one ) who is still dressed for a walk on role in Outlander. The women are in stylishly impractical heels. The men are all sockless and wearing velvet slippers. Is black tie without socks a thing ? When I say 'all' the men are sockless this does not include the English side of the family who are sensibly shod for the Scottish weather.

Life dilemmas :https://sketchplanations.substack.com/p/the-ordering-problem

Growth :https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2026/08/31/fits-and-starts/

Age :https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2026/09/an-aging-world.html

Old traditions.

I don't think I've ever seen the town so busy. On Saturday afternoon a mixture of Labor Day golfers arriving from Edinburgh airport in their rental cars meet parents dropping off their teenagers at their dorms. Add in the European tourists in their motor homes and a traffic jam of Biblical proportions ensues.  We're supposed to go to hear a former Prime Minister read excerpts from his new book but finding a parking place proves difficult. We head home and enjoy a glass of 2019 Chateau L'Evangile in the garden as the sun sets. This is probably the last night for six months a while that it will still be warm enough to do so. The day ends with South Africa beating New Zealand in a edge of seat rugby match.

A group of lady golfers from Calgary are watched by some Italian tourists and a few student girls. The Canadians golfers are a cheerful bunch. There are more Canadian flags flying around town around this year than last. In these undemonstrative parts that may quietly say something.

As of tomorrow morning Chapel will be open for morning prayers. Male students for some reason almost never seem to appear before ten. However, the smarter boys will soon discover that morning prayers attracts lots of  girls who might actually talk to them. By the end of the week it will be standing room only. Doubly so when free biscuits and coffee are being offered. 

'In the beginning' a suitable text for the first Sunday of Freshers week. After the sermon the newbies will put on their red woolen gowns and process down to the end of the pier and back. This is probably the most filmed of the old traditions. A couple of thousand students will be watched by a cohort of dedicated  parents :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF8Xs2W7BLM  . If nothing else these old traditions serve as excellent boy meet girl ice breakers. Perhaps that's why they've survived for so long . Wiser parents will not outstay their welcome and will quickly be on the road south.

In the basement I find an old map of Scotland showing the German Sea. After the Battle of Jutland in 1916 anti-German sentiment became so strong the name was changed to the North Sea and so it has remained. Some name changes are popular and last. Others don't stand the test of time .

Wendell Berry :https://writingteacher.substack.com/p/what-wendell-berry-taught-me-about

Morningside Heights. Who knew it was so important or had such a history ? :https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9780231534819_A34803096/preview-9780231534819_A34803096.pdf

Spotting celebrities . Very LA :https://thebrokenelbow.substack.com/p/living-in-la-and-spotting-celebrities

There is a certain sort of man who thrives on this sort of social media :https://operationalartofwar.substack.com/p/a-us-invasion-of-canada

Our local professor strikes a  worried tone :https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/weekend-update-201-it-will-be-a-brutal