Observations

Driving into town we see a remarkable rainbow. We see a lot of rainbows but this one is a classic. The smoke from the Canadian wild fires has returned and is refracting the light in unusual ways.

One solitary and rather dopey looking bee on a garden chair . I'll delay trimming the lavender until I'm sure they've all definitely gone for good.

Pumpkins appear in Starbucks. Presumably identical plastic pumpkins have appeared in every Starbucks in every corner of the globe ?

We're off to York for a few days. Someone at Stanford recommended this as something light to read on the train.

The stand is now going up for the Dunhill golf tournament. The inhabitants of the super expensive apartments will (once again) have their views blocked.

Having seen this mornings rainbow I can believe this :https://www.theclimatebrink.com/p/the-atmosphere-just-set-a-water-vapor

AI is in the news a lot :https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/can-ai-productivity-grow-fast-enough-to-justify-big-techs-spending/

Second day surprises

The BBC breakfast news leads with the death of the PM's father. After that there's a slightly confusing story about mail in ballots , the mid-term elections and the Supreme Court. I wonder how many listeners will follow the ins and outs of Americas constitutional intricacies.  Further advances by Houthi forces and the news the American  Presidents son had his wedding  'after party' paid for by a Russian oligarch end the bulletin. We wonder what a wedding 'after party' is and how much one could possibly cost. From the way it's reported I'd guess we're talking big money and minimal good taste. The days of the bride and groom slipping quietly away from the festivities seem to be a thing of the past.

The farmers youngest son is out ploughing the potato field. Local seagulls feast in the freshly turned soil. Two weeks today and he's off to Cambridge. The farmers wife seems (much) more excited about this than he is. The insouciance of an eighteen year old is a marvelous thing.

Driving into town we pass the garage. The price of petrol has risen sharply with diesel now at £2:02 a litre. A few days ago it was £1:89.

At first light a trailer was towed along  the dirt track that leads down to the heron pond. It's been parked in a corner of the cabbage field.  I'm assuming this means that the spare part for the hugely expensive cabbage cutter has arrived from the Netherlands and that harvesting is about to begin. If so we can expect to see the cheerful crew of Tajik and Somali seasonal crews starting work sometime later in the day.

Day two of the new semester and classes. The freshers still mill around in groups. Some of them are discovering that the lecture theatre they went to at nine yesterday morning isn't the one they're supposed to be in at nine today. A frisson of nervousness can be sensed in the air. By the end of the week they'll be on top of things and day two timetable surprises will be forgotten.

The enthusiasm of a new semester means that youngsters are out trying things they've never tried before. There is the unusual sight of a group of paddle boarders testing their balancing skills in the shallow waters by the Aquarium. On the other beach the rowing teams are out enjoying the sunshine.

The last of the poppies are wind burnt and long past their best. A hardy few survive.  In this mornings sunrise they look rather grand.

European find this whole measles thing hard to comprehend. Who is telling the truth ? :https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2026/09/03/zero-that-is-the-official-american-measles-death-toll-for-2026-here-is-what-rfk-jr-s-cdc-leaves-out/

Human or machine ? :https://physics.aps.org/articles/v19/126

Marriage as a minority pastime:https://theconversation.com/why-do-people-get-married-these-days-290978

English education is getting better - Scottish is going in the other direction :https://alexanderhthompson.substack.com/p/its-the-screens-stupid

Sublime.

The sun is warm, the skies blue, the breeze gentle. The busy pavement cafes are more St Tropez than Fife. Students paddle on the shore, others sunbathe on the castle lawn, young couples reunited after a summer apart dreamily hold hands. The weather isn't so much wonderful as sublime. Golfers can't believe their good fortune. We pass groups of formally dressed American parents standing outside chapel joking about how cold and wet they thought Scottish weather would be. 'The Font' observes that all the men ( and their student sons ) wear identical blue blazers, the women ( and their daughters ) pastel dresses. The 1970's era WASP is alive and well and overstaying their offsprings start of semester welcome. Every year the weather welcomes the students with this beguiling continental sunshine. The more innocent think this is the norm. Give it three weeks and things will change. Those 'layers' that they were told to pack will soon be needed as protection against the nip of the  wind.

Halloween biscuits for sale in the farm shop.

Sleeping Beauty is this years pantomime. Tickets are now available from the box office. Every year Christmas marketing seems to start just that little bit earlier than it did the year before. Or, is that yet another sign that I've become my father ?

This morning a group of students are gathering on the beach for a start of day lecture. I'd warrant a guess that this is a Marine Biology 101 class scheduled around the days tides.  Some of them seem shocked at being up so early. Life for these eighteen year olds has changed into top gear and they're in the driving seat.

A novel cure for stress :https://theprint.in/feature/orangutans-indian-classical-music-odisha-zoo-stress-anxiety/3039228/

Another of those things I'd never thought about :https://www.washington.edu/news/2026/09/10/fossil-feathers-preserved-inside-dinosaur-poop-could-help-explain-why-some-birds-survived-the-dinosaur-mass-extinction/

An unusual holiday let :https://www.thebridgehouse.com/

A breakfast chuckle.

Last week he wanted to hand the Falklands to Argentina. This week his attention has shifted to Ulster. The radio drily observes that someone wants to dismember the United Kingdom.  Guess this is the sort of shock a Canadian feels every day. An Ulster DUP politician interviewed  on the radio says this is the first time an orange man has ever proposed Irish unification. That's quite a funny take on a serious matter. It makes me chuckle over breakfast . 

The new semester starts tomorrow morning. Today it's quiet. Nature - and the students - seem to be taking a long deep breath before things kick off in earnest. With the parents gone last night was party central. By six the bars were humming. By nine they were wild. In fact that's an understatement -  they were WILD. The fancy cocktail bar was standing room only. A good time was had by all.  Somethings, thankfully, never change.

We stop to watch the sunrise. A woman walking her Spaniel says 'Good Morning' then hurries on. 

The rowans covered in berries. A sign that a cold winter lies ahead ?

Three ladies are enjoying an early morning dip in the pool below the castle. They're having the time of their lives. We can hear their laughter from down by the cathedral which is quarter of a mile away. The happy swimmers are only here during term time so we  think they must be cleaning ladies working in one of the halls of residence.

A heron stands on the mud flats looking out for whatever it is herons look out for.

It doesn't move as we get closer so perhaps it, like everything else on this sunny morning, is asleep ?

A cheerful Scottish interlude in the Last Night of the Proms :https://youtu.be/SpXJj2Ra8KM?t=2915

Not something that usually interests me but this small miracle is on display at the Renwick Gallery in DC. An alternative to the Bayeux in London ? :https://substack.com/@theseriesny/note/c-333432198

For the billionaires garden :https://hamishmackie.com/sculptures/highland-cow-life-size-2025/

Set reading in our polite AI course for local retirees :https://darioamodei.com/post/we-must-pace-the-frontier

Criminologists take note :https://www.zmescience.com/other/offbeat-other/identical-twins-genetic-alibi/

Canada :https://kevinboucher32.substack.com/p/canada-isnt-turning-to-china-its

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