Spick and span

This morning the BBC news broadcast leads with the war in the Gulf ( it seems even less sure whether it's on again or off ) and the news that yet another AI company is filing for a $1 trillion IPO. We use Claude a little bit but if the price we pay is anything to go by it's not nearly enough to justify all these valuations.

It's a still wind free morning and the garden is alive with bees and butterflies. The orange pompom buddleias are covered with them. I always think of buddleias as sturdy weeds that grow beside railway tracks. They may look humdrum but they thrive out here in the coastal winds and our decision to plant a shelter belt of them has proved to be a good low maintenance idea. Is there anything as magical as a garden full of hundreds of bees buzzing and butterflies dancing ?

' Brown dog' stands on the bonnet of the lilac Mazda Miata that belongs to the woman who lives in the house by the village green. From his vantage point he can guard his family while overseeing the herd of young cows. He is a true multi-tasker and watches us pass by in magisterial silence. 

There is no sign of the farmers wife this morning. It can safely be assumed that she is celebrating the departure of her two little angels with a long lie in.

In winter you are lucky if a workman stirs much before ten am. In high summer the workmen can be seen beavering away from seven . There is a  mad rush to get the place looking spick and span for graduation and the summer golf tournaments that stretch into August. Gutters are being cleaned.

Most painters would just paint the railings. University workmen put out bollards and tape off the area.

The walls down by the Principals House are being regrouted. After the grouting has been mixed and applied the walls are covered in large sheets of wet hessian. This seems a very reassuringly old fashioned way of doing things. The whole area has been carefully cordoned off to avoid any grout related incidents.

More Indians live in Canada than the UK ? :https://x.com/stats_feed/status/2063526120486543802

Not sure I buy this :https://x.com/idyllicmusing/status/2062994923801243845?s=46

Flags :https://www.worksinprogress.news/p/good-design-is-ruining-american-flags

In the age of AI should your child become a lawyer ? :https://artificialauthority.ai/p/the-lump-of-law-fallacy

The power cut.

We rarely have power cuts but this morning we do. Thankfully, it's a bright and sunny ( and warmish ) start to the day but one without hot water or coffee. Within 20 minutes a utility company 4x4 is driving slowly down the farm track checking the overhead cables. The driver is a cheerful soul who lowers his window and says " I've nae idea what the problem is but we'll find out soon enough ".

The outage cannot have made the departure of the farmer and his wife to the airport with their offspring any easier. There's no sign of the mud spattered Discovery at their house so they must have set off super early. Male teenagers being male teenagers they were probably ready for the off at first light. To their mothers horror the boys baggage is minimalist - a spare kilt, jeans, sneakers and tee shirts. It is unlikely they will need anything smarter. Anyway is there anything more formal than a kilt ? The Hyatt in Cambridge has been chosen for its accessibility to Gillette Stadium where Scotlands first two matches are being played. The hotel is ( or was when we last visited a decade or so ago )  a rather genteel Harvardy type  place. We wonder if the staff are going to be ready for what's about to hit them.

The bees are out in force covering the buddleias. We can hear them from inside the house.

The young cows on the village green have come to associate humans with food. They watch us pass along the road with an accusatorial air. Their disappointment is obvious.

A young farmers wife has taken her seven dogs a walk on the beach. Loading them into the back of the truck isn't plain sailing. Four go in, one comes out, then three go in and the rest come out. These must be an easier way of doing things. It goes without saying the dogs are having a whale of a time.

The rams remain unhappily separated from the yewes.

The bollards outside the graduation hall have been freshly painted with black gloss  and the troughs filled with begonias. The redecoration of the town is in full swing. It's three weeks to graduation season and everything is being made to look its absolute best.

Parents who haven't made reservations for graduation lunch had better hurry up. Places are fast disappearing.  For a week Champagne consumption goes through the roof.

The migration is underway. This gentleman from Papa Westray is already en route  :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj0YZKfwrHE

Hidden gems. You can ( more easily ) get planning permission for a sky scraper in London if you include a roof deck that's open to the public . Here's some of them :https://diamondgeezer.blogspot.com/2026/05/londons-free-roof-terraces.html?m=1  This could be my favourite :https://diamondgeezer.blogspot.com/2019/02/120-fenchurch-street.html

A very British Library podcast :https://www.blplayer.co.uk/eventlink/1082/GuUq7UXv

Florida is thinking of getting rid of property taxes which is probably a bad idea if you ever need to call the Police :https://www.governing.com/urban/could-florida-really-eliminate-property-taxes

Why fly the fish in from Japan ? :https://www.wildizakaya.co.uk/

Moby Dick without reading it :https://www.deezlinks.com/p/the-74-most-incredible-lines-in-moby

An early wedding and an old Austin

Tomorrow the farmers offspring head down to Edinburgh for the Jet Blue flight to Boston.  The farmers wife, who has been in two minds about them going to the World Cup, is now at a stage where she can't wait for them to get on the plane. In fact she's at a stage where filicide seems like an attractive option. The boys have faithfully promised to call home twice a day . I'd reckon that's a promise that won't survive contact with the first match of the tournament. This morning the lads are out helping their father spray his brassicas. It seems brassicas are very prone to disease.

The young university faculty who populate the village have four full teaching free months before the next semester starts . Much of this time will be spent in the village hall where a large freshly ironed Emperor sized sheet has been hung from the rafters by the kitchen door. It will provide a screen for the New Zealand mans television projector. The first match will be shown here on Thursday.  There is already much discussion about the US and Iran facing each other in a play off in  LA on July 3rd. Being a dormitory for St Andrews the village has a young 30 something demographic and a surprisingly large number of toddlers. Low cost entertainment is always welcome.

The beach quiet. Black winged gulls ignore us as we pass by. It's colder than it has been and we're back to wearing an extra layer. On the way to Starbucks in the car we pass an early morning wedding. Graduates can marry in chapel. Many do. An American couple have opted for a 1937 Austin as a wedding car. The car is tiny and the brides dress voluminous. The groom is thankfully lean enough to squeeze in beside her on the back seat. Tourists getting off the early morning tour bus from Edinburgh clap. Some go 'oooh' with delight. Weddings on a sunny morning make people do that.

The baker is selling Ecclefechan Tarts. Until today I've never seen an Ecclefechan Tart on sale anywhere.

A group of Spaniards are heading out of chapel en route to the cathedral. They seem remarkably well ordered. They've gate crashed the back of the wedding and seem to have rather enjoyed themselves. The university ushers in their long black tail coats have sensibly allowed them to stay there. The wedding will be the core of countless holiday stories in Madrid and Bilbao.

Down by the first tee there is a particularly well behaved crowd. They applaud the good drives and shout gentle encouragement to those who have sliced their shots. Todays onlookers are I'd reckon  60% American, 25% Chinese, 10% European ( ie Spanish ) and 5% local. The price of a standard room in the big 5 star hotel is now heading towards the peak summer £1,000 a night level. The New York restaurant that's set up for the summer in the basement of the hotel on the 18th tee is booked solid from now through early September. Making money here in the summer is easy. It's the other eight months of the year that are a problem.

Life in a small university town, out of term time, is calm and quiet. Perhaps there will be some excitement next week ?

The most remote hotel in Scotland ? :https://wildland.scot/properties/hope/

A beautiful Manet to enjoy on a sunny June morning :https://www.wikiart.org/en/edouard-manet/pinks-and-clematis-in-a-crystal-vase

How to live in France  :https://kimberlyannwheeler.substack.com/p/things-the-french-find-completely

Some new and rather enjoyable thoughts on the universe . Best read on the porch with a cup of coffee and no distractions :https://scottsumner.substack.com/p/the-world-is-bigger-than-you-can

D-Day humour. Thank you Canada.: https://x.com/jdmstewart1/status/2063251062778114264

Grumpy rams.

The six am BBC news bulletin leads with comments by the American VP who thinks the Brits are ' in civilizational decline '. He goes on to say we have a ' politics of self hatred '. Quite why the UKs domestic political scene should be of such obsessive  interest to a foreign politician is something of a mystery. Perhaps things are going so swimmingly at home he has a lot of spare time on his hands ? The Prime Minister has replied along the lines of  ' Thank you for your comments. They will receive the attention they deserve'.

All the female sheep have been moved back to the farm on the hill leaving fourteen grumpy males in the field by the shore. The rams do not look happy with this change in their domestic arrangements.

The sun highlights some of the gargoyles on the old science building. The one in the middle is enough to give you nightmares. Minimalist modern buildings lack these architectural 'flummeries' which, nightmares aside, is probably a loss.

The colour in this photo don't do justice to the cornflowers that have started to bloom at the edge of the sheep field. The blue is quite remarkable.

I'm not sure whether these purple poppies are natural or have escaped from someones garden. They're in the golf course wild flower meadow so the green keepers must think they're kosher. The place is alive with butterflies. It seems to be a bumper year for Red Admirals. 

'Flourish and Joy' on the uninspiring  fresh flower stand at the local garage. This may be some sort of wry humour. I'm still unsure what's going on with Iran so every week I drive to the garage and top up the tank. Prices have now nudged up to  £1.61 a litre.  Overnight , as a backup, the little BMW's hybrid engine is recharged. This gives us 30+ miles of range. For some technical reason to do with being so remote we can't get the cheap overnight electricity tariff . This would reduce the charging costs by 80%. There seems to be little difference between the cost of plugging into the grid and using petrol.

Baskets for the garden :https://studioamos.co.uk/baskets

Norwegian advice on storing olive oil :https://www.sciencenorway.no/food-food-and-health/why-you-should-store-olive-oil-in-the-fridge/2672135

Englands oldest ally:https://bowofodysseus.substack.com/p/the-original-special-relationship

'That' development in Albania :https://tomselliott.substack.com/p/what-is-jared-kushner-actually-building

Some Saturday morning music :https://youtu.be/0u0M4CMq7uI?list=PLcSkPXginhQfNhQa4hYJKiYn7hQMZ66q8&t=47

It pours

The farmers two sons head off to the World Cup in Boston on Monday. The eldest is starting to grow a moustache. This may be part of a plan to make him look old enough to buy alcohol. If so it's unlikely to succeed. Not all moustaches are born equal. The farmers daughter has returned from Oxford but there's no sign of the 6' 8" tall boyfriend from Jackson Hole. Perhaps one bout of exposure to a Scottish farming family has made him think twice about 'foreign' girls ?

Any doubts about the existence of climate change are dispelled by the arrival of a tropical thunderstorm. Hail mixed in with heavy rain and lighting turn Thursday afternoon into a replay of the Monsoon season in Chennai. The hail beats down with a ferocity that causes it to bounce back a good six inches from the pavement. You expect Scotland to be rainy. You don't expect the weather to be 'exciting'. Within seconds of the first thunder clap the streets and golf courses have cleared . 

Half an hour later the storm has passed. All agree that it has been 'remarkable'.  The bar by the fountain has filled with a mix of German tourists and American golfers seeking shelter. Not  all of them are keen to leave. Some have discovered the restorative cumulative effect of a whisky chaser with a pint of beer.  I note that the old golf shoes on the window ledge have been 'refreshed' for the summer season with new plastic flowers.

With the storm gone a workman starts work on a memorial plaque to some little known local signatory of the American Declaration of Independence. The memorial to Benjamin Franklin ( boy did he get around ) has been re-painted and this one is about to enjoy the same treatment. Someone is clearly expecting there to be an influx of visitors here for July 4th.

Wedding season kicking in. A young couple standing holding hands while studying a poem that's displayed on the front of the library. The young man reads out the first 'What's my future ?' verse aloud to the young lady . This is a rather charmingly romantic gesture. They then kiss in that oblivious to the world way only early twenty somethings can.  The world might be a better place if more public buildings displayed poetry on their walls. 

For a few unlucky souls 'resits' have begun. They can be seen standing forlornly outside the small exam hall.

The lupins in front of chapel have survived the hail rather better than I'd imagined possible.

And so it begins :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4prMqzE9U2A

Travelling in Syria :https://sophisms.substack.com/p/the-road-to-and-from-damascus

The cousins go to Windsor :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdMOmd5_tKU

Istanbul is much bigger than you'd think :https://www.dailysabah.com/turkey/istanbul/istanbuls-population-drops-for-1st-time-turkey-sees-growth

Summer is officially here.

Look carefully just above the garden wall and you can see yet another cruise liner heading North towards Orkney. Four of them have sailed by this morning -  one large gin palace sized ship from Carnival, one equally large one from Princess and two smaller Dutch boats from companies we've never heard of. The sea is calm but it's cloudy and there's a bit of a wind blowing from the West. Rain is forecast. The ships linger in the bay. Seems that the large wind farm off the coast has become a cruise destination in its own right.

The Life Guards cabin has been rebuilt. It goes up at the start of June and comes down at the end of September. The cabins arrival tells us summer is officially here. The weather doesn't seem to have go the memo.

Lots of affable golfers out this morning. The first day we've seen the first tee really busy. This lucky group are accompanied by four of the most senior Caddies. They are all getting along splendidly.

The Caddies advise on which clubs to use and how to adjust play for the wind and the state of the grass. The golfers seem overjoyed. One player manages a hole in three which is cause for much back slapping. Men with cameras sporting zoom lenses have reappeared. We saw them for the first time last year. Having a professional photographer record your round on the sacred turf has become de rigeur for corporate types.  We pass a gentleman from New York pacing backwards and forwards. He's on his i-Phone and having a loud animated conversation with someone about fiduciary duty. It must be just gone two in the morning in Manhattan so I'm guessing this is one of those ' I don't care what time it is just get it sorted ' type conversations.

The university gardeners have been busy replanting all the flower beds in time for the graduation ceremonies that kick off in three weeks time. Begonias feature heavily in the planting mix. This is fine if you like Begonias.

Name the instrument :https://youtu.be/XncSYIc0HtY?list=RDXncSYIc0HtY&t=1

How lucky we are to live in an unexciting corner of the world. I'd been told about this but didn't understand how widely it's observed :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9RqpvRZ4ag

5,000 years later and there's still signs of life :https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-find-signs-of-active-life-in-tzi-the-iceman

Puffin counting :https://www.welshwildlife.org/news/another-record-breaking-year-skomer-what-it-takes-count-52019-puffins

Could this be Americas Eiffel Tower ? :https://x.com/ABC/status/2062226870737772602

You take your excitement where you can find it.

Eight o'clock on Tuesday night and a large cruise liner appears out at sea. Seen from the garden it seems to be oddly tall but not very long :https://www.oceaniacruises.com/ships/marina. Until recently cruise ships rarely if ever ventured this far North but last year we noticed a marked uptick in the number of liners en route to Dublin and the Orkneys. This year there  seems to be even more of them. Guess the cruise lines are rescheduling away from the Eastern Mediterranean. We, and a group of villagers, stand on the farm track and watch the ship sail twinkling majestically by. You take your excitement where you can find it.

Wednesday morning. I find a parking space for the little BMW by the bookstore. Within 30 seconds a ferocious looking gull lands on the wee cars roof . I think of shooing it away but it gives me a look that says it's not to be toyed with.

Student bikes still chained to the railings of the house by the cinema.  The bike that had been left outside the wee house in town has finally been collected by a bored looking man in blue overalls who hoists into the back of his van.

A German couple forget which side of the road to drive on. They find themselves  heading towards the oncoming traffic. The driver swerves and hits a  bollard. The rental car company has a tow truck there in half an hour. A group of American golfers at the cafe where Prince William met Kate ( allegedly ) find this to be the 'darndest' thing they ever did see. Neither of us has ever heard anyone use the word 'darndest' before. It is presumably archaic. Since Monday the number of American visitors in town has grown. In fact it's not so much grown as exploded. June must mark the start of vacation season.

At last David Mellor has got its espresso cups back in stock. The brightly coloured coffee cups came with us from France but the espresso cups went AWOL during the move. Replacements arrive ( four years late ) in the morning post.

A gull creates an artistic shadow as it lands on the pavement outside the expensive lobster roll restaurant.

Life in the absence of the students, as you might be able to tell,  is so, so quiet.

Singing whales :https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-cold-wars-accidental-whale-observatory/

A craving for company :https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/mind/2026/why-we-crave-social-interaction

Not all book festivals are created equal :https://snyder.substack.com/p/waiting-for-the-missiles-to-pass

This lady doesn't seem to have enjoyed Scotland :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQlgN9w0BsU