Racing towards springtime.

The six am BBC news broadcast reminds us what a blessing it is to live in an unexciting part of the world. Events in Ukraine, Iran and Mexico head the list with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor relegated to fourth place. It seems his security team found him overbearingly arrogant and gave him a code name that was brief and to the point. The BBC deals with this in best maiden aunt fashion by informing listeners that the word begins with the letter 'C'. This is rather racy for the BBC. The US ambassador to Israel has also generated  a little heat by suggesting the boundaries of the middle east could be redrawn. Ramadan wasn't, perhaps, the most diplomatic time for him to voice these views.

We are off to Portugal tomorrow. Here in St Andrews, after a month of unrelenting gales, the weather has become bright and sunny. Over the next week it will, quite possibly, be milder  here than in Lisbon.  Angus is surprised that check-in time at the fancy hotel is 4 in the afternoon. I thought 3 was pretty much standard. Hotel prices seem to get ever higher and the standard of service ever lower.

Three lads are sitting at an outside table having their morning caffeine infusion and discussing Scotlands win ( their second ) in the six nations rugby tournament. After the long winter it is good to see the streets filling up again.  If you overlook the fact that the lads are all wearing hoodies to ward off the cold wind this could ( almost ) be a Parisian street scene. 'The Font' also wonders how many Parisians start their day with a bacon roll.

The whippet with the red coat is off for its morning walk. Whippets seem popular as pets in these parts. Last week we saw one whippet wearing no fewer that three  coats. They must feel - and suffer - from the North Sea cold. 

Apart from Australians ( and possibly Kiwis ) how many overseas students will know what Marmite is ?

Awareness update :https://x.com/ProfessorPape/status/2025214568050446627

Drving from Lagos to Calabar :https://www.1914reader.com/p/guest-post-a-meditation-on-the-road

A political funeral :https://apnews.com/article/zambia-burial-dispute-rival-presidents-bewitched-e8ee0535aaf63f966c2087f52953d0dc

Oman has changed :https://x.com/WillManidis/status/2024489454023405861

Evolving killer mushrooms come to California :https://www.sciencealert.com/californias-death-cap-mushrooms-are-making-new-compounds-scientists-discover

Released 30 years ago this week :https://youtu.be/aGSKrC7dGcY?t=25

The Gulls are back in town.

Seven dead puffins on the beach this morning. They were caught by the recent storms and have become exhausted and drowned. The storms have been an absolute  disaster for the local bird life :https://insideecology.com/2026/02/20/mass-death-of-seabirds-across-uk-and-europe-following-winter-storms-underlines-fragility-of-populations/  The farmers son will be along soon to bury them.

The Gulls don't venture far from shore and haven't suffered in the storms. In fact they're back to patrolling the town as if it's their own. A large specimen looks disapprovingly at us from a pile of lobster creels by the harbour. From the noise they're making it can be assumed that the seasons are changing.

At the old abbey down by the river  there are more aconites coming into bloom. According to the church elder this is set to be a bumper year for wild flowers. He says he hasn't seen the snowdrops grow rampant like this since he was a wee bairn in 1945.  Scottish village conversation is punctuated with gloriously imprecise 'factoids' like this. 

The locals claim the tree at the abbey  is 800 years old. The National Trust takes a more 'detached' view of its date.

Voting finishes today in the elections for the new university Chancellor. We'll know the results tomorrow. Our betting is that this candidate will prove to be the winner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4VP9J95y6M&t=4s  The campaign was conducted with old fashioned ( might you consider voting for me ?) courtesy and all of the candidates were worthy of the job.

The lady who cuts 'The Fonts' hair has had one of the two Cordyline plants at the front door of her studio stolen. She blames the students. In a small university town things that go  'missing' on a Saturday night often re-appear on a Sunday. Sobriety does that.

We see a poster advertising a spoof Nobel Peace Prize ceremony that's being run by some Scandinavian students.  Until recently the Peace Prize was a dourly unexciting affair that would be hard to parody. Times have changed.

There is a warmth to this piece of writing. Watching the Olympics in Ukraine :https://snyder.substack.com/p/watching-the-olympics-in-ukraine

Animal conversations:https://www.popsci.com/environment/parrots-complex-language-conversations/

Difficult conversations :https://miniphilosophy.substack.com/p/conversations-like-sex-are-better

For a foreigner this was the clearest explanation I've seen :https://www.apricitas.io/p/the-supreme-court-ruled-against-trumps

One of those subjects that I need to spend a lot more time trying to understand.The US and China view AI in totally different ways :https://afraw.substack.com/p/an-ai-maxi-new-year  Long but worth the read. The AI New Year movie ( with the Pet Shop Boys background ) is worth watching :https://x.com/FrankYan2/status/2023257752017981446/video/1

Illicit quad bike use.

Students aren't usually seen around town until ten but there are lots of youngsters around this morning heading towards the library. There's a sense of determination in the air that gives us the feeling that mid-term exams are about to take place. Of course now that exams are on the horizon and everyone's in the library the weather has markedly improved. Student time management has always seen long periods of indolence interspersed with brief bursts of manic activity.

A sign outside the candle shop would seem to support this 'exam' hypothesis.

Only one story in the newspapers.

When I say there's only one story in the papers I mean all the papers. The same photo is used on the cover of all of them. Has a single 'lucky' snap ever been so widely used ?

Elsewhere, the news broadcast has a story about American tariffs and three dissenting Supreme Court Justices. It seems not everyone is happy with this 'foolish and unpatriotic'  ruling. A final segment on the breakfast broadcast discusses whether the arrival of Ramadan will delay the drift to war in Iran. 

Here in the village preparations are underway for a car boot sale to raise money to have the bench by the notice board repaired and revarnished. The farmers sixteen year old has been seen driving his quad bike along the lane towards the potato barns at 'excessive' speed. A number of the older villagers have told his mother that it's not so much his speed as the fact he's been driving on the wrong side of the road that bothers them. " What can you do with them at that age ?" she says when she sees us. Good question and one that has faced the parents of all sixteen year olds and to this day remains unanswered.... or unanswerable. In four months he and his brother will be off to the World Cup with a group of their friends. This thought is still troubling his mother.

Crime :https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/crime-as-proxy-for-disorder

Wouldn't want to bump into this on a dark night :https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/this-giant-carnivore-ran-on-hooves-scientists-are-investigating-its-massive-skull-and-crushing-teeth-to-decipher-the-beasts-true-nature-180988212/

Myopia :https://www.the-scientist.com/a-clearer-look-at-the-rise-of-myopia-74094

This works in India but would it work in other cultures ? :https://restofworld.org/2026/ai-deepfakes-grief-celebrations-india/

Dominating the news.

The morning radio bulletin abuzz with the Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor story. Listeners are told that there may now be a period of quiet while the police conduct their investigations. This will disappoint those tumbril drivers who are proponents of instant 'justice'. There is a sense that this is the biggest constitutional crisis since the abdication of Edward VIII and quite possibly since the unpleasantness with Charles 1st. One Edinburgh based commentator wonders if the closest example isn't the arrest of Mary Queen of Scots by Elizabeth . Arcana rules ! Days of deference are long gone and the monarchy must now struggle to adjust to a world of social media instant judgements. The rule of law applies equally to all in the UK which may not be the case everywhere. Mounting tensions with Iran are squeezed in at the end of the broadcast almost as an after thought although the American President has demanded the use of British bases rather than requesting it. This brusqueness is not a diplomatic norm and may be a story for later in the week.

Here in the village all this seems far away. Aconites are bursting into bloom. First the snowdrops, then the aconites and soon the daffodils. 

We buy prawns and lemon sole from the fish mongers. Scottish fish, meat and vegetables perhaps unsurprisingly score 10/10. France was close behind with an 8.5/10. However, finding good fresh fruit this far north is difficult. France got a  score of 10 but Scotland ( strawberries , apples and raspberries excluded ) gets a 2. Everything has to be frozen or chilled to get here. We dream of fresh peaches. 

The fishmonger has fried egg flavoured crisps. These do not appeal. Perhaps it's the time too early in the day ?

The farmshop has carrots. The mud that cakes them is still damp.

Things, or at least some of them, are getting better :https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/record-low-crime-rates-are-real-not

Giraffes :https://www.zmescience.com/ecology/animals-ecology/giraffe-blood-pressure/

Smart pills - literally :https://spectrum.ieee.org/ingestible-electronics

The secret of career success :https://notnottalmud.substack.com/p/the-lottery-of-career-success-or

Wizardry.

'This is a surprise ' says 'The Font' as we struggle through a ferocious sleet laden squall on our way back from the shore. What started off as a bright sunny morning has, in an act of Scottish meteorological wizardry, turned into an Arctic storm. Ten minutes later the weather has segued from 'unpleasant' into something merely 'uncomfortable'. We are drenched.

By the time we've changed into dry clothes and made it onto the town beach things are looking brighter. The Pomeranian lady is in good spirits and Archies owner is thinking of heading off again to Seoul to see her daughter who is in her second year at a university there. Archie remains contentedly at home . He's at that stage where he's more than happy for the younger dog to be out and about in all weathers while he dozes by the AGA.

Three coach loads of Italian tourists being deposited outside the cathedral. Coach tours are usually staid affairs. A guide with an umbrella leads a long line of indifferent sight seers along the pavement towards the university. Germans walk silently in single file, the French move in clusters. With Italian groups it's more like a performance of Tosca. People spill onto the road, some go in the wrong direction and have to be called back, others take photos. Some sprint. Some stand still. All the while they maintain a cheerful, high level buzz of conversation.

The Hebridean sheep seem completely oblivious to the weather.

The Epstein files continue to provide the newspapers with headlines. The Scottish Daily Mail front page says four police forces are now investigating Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. On the bottom row another paper says he's being investigated by three of them. It is surprising how many people still come into the supermarket to pick up a copy of a newspaper.

Gut Punch classic Kimchi in the supermarket. What a name. This it turns out is made in Scotland. How improbable is that ? This must be a sign of peak globalisation. Who would ever have thought that Scotland would have its own Kimchi maker ?

Vivaldi for a quiet February morning :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDnr308PMKw

A good reason to move from London to live on the wind swept coast :https://www.sciencealert.com/the-link-between-air-pollution-and-alzheimers-is-now-clearer-than-ever

Lions ? :https://connectsci.au/news/news-parent/7864/Japan-s-ancient-big-cats-weren-t-tigers-so-what?searchresult=1

Leading edge manufacturing :https://www.zmescience.com/science/iter-godzilla-robot-fusion-assembly-challenge/

300 days away from family :https://nationalsecurityjournal.org/300-day-u-s-navy-gamble-nuclear-aircraft-carrier-uss-gerald-r-fords-record-deployment-summed-up-in-2-words/

Spring has sprung ?

Better weather has brought out the snowdrops. The woods around the village now  carpeted in them. Give it a few more days and the daffodils will join in. We seem to have moved from the depths of a long ,cold and dark winter into an early and balmy spring. Faced with glorious sunshine we briefly consider cancelling next weeks trip to Lisbon but decide against it. Cancelling hotels and flights is just as much of a chore as booking them. Getting your money back is even more of a challenge.

Three larks hover over the grass by the shore. Earlier in the week there was just the  one. We marvel at the way in which such small birds manage to make so much noise. From the bluff we can see all the way down the estuary to the spires of the cathedral. The pack of eleven deer that call the fields around us home have split into two. There's a larger group of eight and a smaller one of three adolescents. The group of three are down by the water grazing contentedly on seaweed.

At the dentist I'm offered a variety of stress reduction options. This offer seems a little OTT for a scaling. The dentists waiting room is decorated in those tasteful shades of grey beloved by all branches of health care. I'm not sure about the black chairs and sofa.  They have a funereal air.

There's a professor of modern political theory in the waiting room. While we wait we chat. He's reading a report from the Munich Security Conference and observes that all members of the Trump administration get standing ovations when they speak. This, it seems, is neither genuine nor spontaneous. The things you learn in dental waiting rooms.  I'd have to say that 'inducing' others to stand is really rather clever psychology.

Dentist over we go to the cafe on the beach for a bacon roll. The warm weather has brought out families and dogs. The place is already a zoo and the day's barely started.

Resilient cows :https://www.zmescience.com/ecology/animals-ecology/how-five-abandoned-cows-conquered-a-remote-volcanic-island/

Wuthering Heights. The critics have panned it but the audiences love it :https://jonathanbate.substack.com/p/wuthering-heights

Cosmic rays :https://www.space.com/science/particle-physics/scientists-hunt-for-origins-of-the-mysterious-sun-goddess-particle

Dogs and dentists :https://www.statnews.com/2026/01/28/dental-anxiety-eased-by-therapy-dogs/

Taping pylons and Shanghai laughter.

At first light a village spaniel comes towards us. He's nonchalantly bounding along the top of the stone field walls. This gives him a great view of the yellowhammers flitting in and out of the brambles but must be sore on his paws. The dog looks at me as if to say ' Bet you ain't seen skill like this before '. He leaps down for a quick tickle before leaping back up again.

A man in an orange safety jacket and white hard hat has shown up to check the wooden power pylons. The man is a subcontractor to the electricity company and starts work at first light and finishes when it gets dark. He taps each wooden pole with a hammer to determine whether it needs to be replaced. Healthy ones make a reassuring 'clunk'. Rotten ones emit a dull atonal 'thwump'. You'd think there might be a 21st century technology to do this but apparently not. The village poles were put up in July 1955 and are as good as new but some of the 1990's era poles will need to be replaced. They used imported timber . This information is imparted in a tone of voice that hints that there was ill advised ' foreign wood substitution ' by the power company thirty years ago.  I observe that the poles were going up when I was born . " You're like them - good for another fifty years at least " the man replies. We both laugh in that affable way only complete strangers can .

Down on the beach three Chinese tourists ask us to take their photo. They speak English with a cut glass accent that wouldn't be out of place in Buckingham Palace. Mother and father ( and aunt ) are here from Shanghai  to visit their daughter who is in her first year studying medicine . Apropos of nothing the aunt tells me she's a mechanical engineer at a 'very good company' in Nanjing.  I take their photos against the backdrop of the sunrise . All three  say " Very quaint. Very quaint " in unison. This may be a reference to the town or equally possibly a judgement on the photographer. I come away from this interaction surprised by a) their accents b) how stylishly dressed they are and c) the fact they're using Google phones rather than an Apple. All of them have identical shocking pink cases on their phones which could count as surprise d) if I'd thought of it at the time.

The Chinese opt not to walk on the beach. Having photographed the sunrise they head back towards a chauffeur driven BMW 7 series  that will take them back to the Fairmont. The hotel cars here have their names emblazoned on the doors in what is a rather  Edwardian touch. You used to see this done in London and New York but door emblazoning seems to have fallen out of fashion. Perhaps it's a crime thing ? Why draw attention to the fact the passengers are in a fancy hotel ?

Passing the library a man is dutifully shuttling backwards and forwards with trays of fresh sandwiches. The students favourites are BLT's and tuna and sweetcorn .

So starts a quiet Tuesday morning in a small coastal town where nothing ever happens. I've got an 8:30 appointment with the dental hygienist. Last time I was there she chipped one of my front teeth which now has a super sharp edge to it. An 8:30 appointment seemed a good idea at the time but I'm now wondering if I shouldn't have gone for a later slot when the hygienist has fully woken up.

A walker talks in a way that is rather beautiful and reflective :https://walkingtheworld.substack.com/p/four-years-of-walking-the-world

Cats eyes :https://www.popsci.com/environment/why-cat-eyes-glow/

Todays dose of psychology :https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/social-instincts/202602/3-unique-ways-smart-people-think

A falling out :https://nationalinterest.org/blog/middle-east-watch/saudi-arabia-vs-the-uae-the-other-gulf-crisis

British thinking on Japan :https://www.chathamhouse.org/2026/02/why-resurgent-japan-good-asia