Peaches

The usually cheerful and always helpful postman is feeling glum. It's his fiftieth birthday and he wonders where the time has gone. The last birthday he can remember celebrating was his thirtieth and he can't for the life of him work out what's happened in the interim. The arrival of children will do that. This morning his right knee  is achy. I congratulate him and put his  pains down to the ( hopefully transitory ) wet and windy  weather. Postmen have started to wear shorts. This is another of those American trends that works well in sun drenched places but may be the cause of early onset arthritis in colder climes. 

South of the border the farmers are complaining about the lack of rain. With the grass parched by the heat they're having to feed their livestock reserves of winter forage. On the radio one farmer bemoans the lack of rain and informs listeners that this is the driest summer since records began. I might be wrong but I'm sure there's a farmer on every year saying the same thing. The same held true with French farmers . Up here these worries seem far away. It continues to rain as if it's going out of fashion. It's also cold. A high of 19C forecast for today.  

In town the builders are busy doing last minute painting inside the new restaurant that opens tonight.  In the space of the last 24 hours one of those plastic rose arches has been put up outside the front door. We shall give the place a day or two to settle down before trying it.

Peaches have appeared in the supermarket. In Italy we lived on them. They were often freshly picked and arrived on the table still warm from the sunshine. Here they are small affairs that need to be treated carefully. Leave them too long and they turn to mush, eat them too soon and they're hard and stringy. The secret is putting them in the conservatory at night where the combination of temperature and humidity seem to stir something in their semi-frozen deep chilled ( Spanish ) DNA that reminds them of home and makes them ripen. Peaches, like strawberries, do not transport easily. It's probably something to do with their high structural water content. These ones 'The Font' will cook with olive oil and pork.

The Zurbaran catalogue has been delivered the bookstore. We pick it up on our way back to the car.

A quick skim through shows it to be well written and superbly illustrated. Perhaps we'll try to get down to see the exhibition in London ?

Thoughts on Denmark . I'm not sure the winter weather is a positive :https://www.edwest.co.uk/p/probably-the-best-country-in-the

Tourists, jabbering quail and costume continuity.

We watch Richard E Grant's 'Very Modern Odyssey' on Channel 4. The actor  follows the path Odysseus took on his travels around the Mediterranean. Every so often Mr. Grant positions himself against a suitable backdrop and intones a portion of the Homeric poem in grave tones. Sometimes he does this dressed as an ancient Trojan. Much of the first episode is shot in Malta which seems to have transmuted into an altogether more stylish place than I remember from my brief school trip there sixty years ago. When he's not dressed as a Trojan warrior the actor appears in each scene wearing the same leather jacket and knotted woolen neck scarf. This must have been stifling in the summer heat. The producer presumably thinks this provides a form of continuity but leaves me wondering if the poor man is suffering from a throat ailment. We shall watch next weeks episode to see if the 'shouty' pace eases off a little. The visit to the Megalithic temples on Malta with the heavily accented professor justified the investment of an hour of our time :https://heritagemalta.mt/explore/hagar-qim-and-mnajdra-archaeological-park/

August brings with it the tourists. It also brings unsettled weather. At this time of the year the Atlantic weather patterns do unpredictable things. It has bucketed down overnight. The grey skies do nothing to deter local dog walkers or the super charged organizers of the summer school for kids. This operates on the " get 'em up early and into bed late " approach to managing lively teens. In between the youngsters do hearty things non-stop until they're ready to drop. This is a wise strategy with this age demographic.

The gannets are still doing their thing offshore. This morning our attention is drawn to the sounds emanating from the farmers  cabbage patch. The quail chicks are darting in and out of the rows of cabbages chasing each other. They make that high pitched warbling jabber as they play. This puts a smile on our faces. The chicks seem to have avoided the attention of the local sparrow hawk.

Back in the village we come face to face with a group of lycra clad cyclists. They're all Americans travelling with the 5 star 'Off the beaten track' cycling company. The group are about to sit down for breakfast at a table set up on the grass by the potato barns.  Bacon, large sausages and baked beans are laid out in stainless steel dishes. These are being warmed by small night lights which make for a very luxurious breakfast buffet touch. We wonder if  Americans eat baked beans for breakfast. Europeans would have been happy with a half decent croissant .The cyclists rave about Edinburgh. " It's so so Continental and just like Paris but without having to deal with the French " observes one lady with a gloriously Upper East side accent. This, 'The Font' observes, is an unusual perspective....on many levels.

An English view on America :https://www.commonreader.co.uk/p/the-ordinary-sublime-of-the-american

A hopeful take on Iran:https://www.turkiyetoday.com/opinion/peace-dividends-what-a-reopened-iran-means-for-turkiye-and-the-region-3224503

Archaeology :https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/archaeology/a73323885/silver-amulet-skeleton-discovered-christianity-history/

Into the unknown with weight loss drugs :https://www.sciencefocus.com/wellbeing/weight-loss-drugs-mental-health

Youthful inhibitions

The gannets are out in force. They follow each other along the coast in ruler straight lines - a dozen or so birds at a time. These flocks keep on coming one after the other from their nest 20 miles away on a small barren volcanic outcrop in the middle of the Forth. The gannets have had a rough year with avian flu so it's good to see so many of them together. The village twitchers think the birds numbers are down 30% due to the disease. As the gannets pass the old life boat station they suddenly rear up to a height of thirty or so feet , turn and then plummet, wings sharply folded, down into the sea. There must be a huge shoal of fish here to attract so many of them. How do they pass the news on ? How do they avoid each other ? The sight of so many birds doing these impossible synchronized manoeuvres holds us spell bound. Heads lowered to dive they send plumes of water flying in every direction.  Watching them we're almost happy enough to clap but don't , settling instead for a low murmur of appreciation.

'God bless the just'. A suitably Presbyterian door lintel on the cottage that used to be the weigh house.

£19 for a bunch of local wildflowers tells me that the Edinburgh folk have arrived to spend the whole of August in their summer homes. True enough the farm shops car park is full of little Porsche SUV's and those Range Rover Velars that are so popular in the Georgian terraces of Stockbridge.

The sheep in the field down by the sea are living their best life. They're hunkered down in the shelter of the long grass. A heron is standing to one side of the field watching them. Why it's doing this is a mystery. It ignores us as we wander by. In fact it has an almost imperious arrogance although being a heron this can be forgiven.

The bakers still promoting a strawberry 'fayre'.

The strawberries from the automatic farm dispenser are already selling out fast. Another sign the summer home folk are here. The incomers descend on the shops and cafes like a swarm of super energized locusts. Hermes headscarves and town shoes are much in evidence.  Early rising to beat the rush is a necessity.

The news this morning again dominated by the failed plans to sell off the World Cup to private investors. This has generated the closest thing to towering rage you could get across the European media. Part of this anger may be due to the involvement of the Kushner family, part to the money grabbing vulgarity of Infantino himself. Other, perhaps more pressing,  global injustices generate less rage.

Simple drawings can be good :https://substack.com/@cleoidus

This is how English is used by a younger generation. The line ' terminally-online geeks who need to touch grass ' is a construct I could never have dreamt of :https://substack.com/home/post/p-209281038

The trials of a gardener :https://robdoingrob.substack.com/p/chaos-in-the-garden-the-battle-between

The BBC on communicating in 12026 :https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20200731-how-to-build-a-nuclear-warning-for-10000-years-time

Cheap food was never normal :https://lenispooner.substack.com/p/cheap-food-era-ending-canada

Figure 3 is worth looking at :https://www.piie.com/research/piie-charts/2025/trumps-tariff-revenue-tracker-how-much-us-collecting-which-imports-are

A software glitch.

I do not know what's going on with blogger today. I've tried to fix it but nothing can be done and some , but not all, of the text is backed in white. The links don't seem to work and then hey presto they do. Hopefully, tomorrow the glitch will have disappeared. I'll come back to it later in the day and see if the glitch has gone. It may be something to do with posting from the i-Pad rather than the desktop.

The good news is that something wonderful and delicate and unexpected ( and tall ) appearing in the rock garden in the courtyard.

The smoked fish guy is running late and is just setting out his stall at the monthly market. He's recently started to do fish pates and gives 'The Font' some mackerel and salmon to try. He makes the best roast salmon we've ever tasted.

Later this week a new restaurant is opening up where Brewdog used to be before it went bankrupt. There seems to be a Greek flavour to the menu which may test the taste buds of the more conservative locals. Main courses are kept below £30 which is now considered to be 'cheap'. We peer through the open door and see that the builders are in doing some last minute 'snagging'. They don't seem happy to be working on a Sunday.

The cheese monger has missed a letter 'C' from their bill board. When it comes to cheese 'exciting' an 'exiting' are very different concepts.

The workmen installing new refrigeration units in Tesco are coming to the end of their work. The store opens again next week. While they've been closed Sainsburys at the other end of the street has done their level best to keep up with the heightened demand but with limited success. At the end of the day the shelves are a bare as a supermarket in Hoxas Albania.

Saturday night. The Manhattanites have asked me to call them. It's a year since we've last spoken and I'm not sure whether the familiarity will still be there. Oddly, it is. They've interrupted their weekend because they're unsure how the war in Iran is going. Some of them are firm adherents of the 'one last push will do it' school of thought. A minority (?) have drifted into a form of inarticulate despair. One man, in his late 30's and an unlikely candidate for introspection, asks if its inevitable that things get worse. This is an unusual question to be asking while sitting beside a pool in the Hamptons .They wonder if Iran, after six months of bombing, will come to the table. They also wonder if the mischief makers in Moscow and Beijing can resist the temptation to get involved. All are puzzled why Washington thinks Russia and China are well disposed to them. This coming week will tell us a lot. Of course not so long ago America had a State Department that had an institutional memory that understood consequences. In todays world that is a very passe concept. In the meantime the threats keep on being issued but there's no follow through. Expect back tracking while the meaning of that old phrase 'bitten off more than you can chew' sinks in.

Saw this French take about what governments know :https://x.com/Elsa_Trujillo_/status/2082847935935455708

British politicians and clothes :https://edconway.substack.com/p/what-andy-burnhams-80-t-shirt-really

The secret to consultancy :https://www.siliconcontinent.com/p/what-do-consultants-get-paid-for

Scamming authors was something I'd only recentl heard about. Apparently it's a big thing - which may something about egos. This response was humorous :https://besskalb.substack.com/p/how-to-torment-a-scammer

A take on the Odyssey. I enjoyed the movie but didn't really clock it was supposed to be the Odyssey :https://emily613.substack.com/p/if-you-can-bear-to-hear-the-truth

A blog by the woman who recently wrote the good book on Weimar :https://www.katjahoyer.uk/p/poor-west-germany

Gilet weather.

In the village the partridge chicks are out for a walk with their mother. We follow along behind them in the car. The partridge chicks are slow walkers bit not as slow as the quail chicks. Guided by their mother they soon fly off with a flap of their wings into the safety of the wheat field.  Village life has a measured unhurried rhythm all of its own. It's sunny but decidedly chilly this morning. Gilet weather is here. The nippy air is a useful  reminder that it's the time of the year to have the boiler serviced. By the end of the month we'll be discussing turning on the heating. We wave at the farmers eldest lad who is heading off in his fathers Range Rover to check on the potato fields down by the shore. He's chosen to go across the field rather than round the edge.  In a months time he will be getting ready to head down to Edinburgh to pick up on his studies. His younger brother will be starting at Cambridge. In the interim they'll be busy helping with the harvest. 

On our way into town we detour to fill up with petrol. The dour woman at the garage cash desk informs me that the price per gallon is the highest it's been in nearly four years. It would seem that little 'problem' in the Gulf is finally having an impact. Her comment is surprising. I've paid £1.61 a litre which is what I I'd paid ( or at least thought I'd paid ) last week. This morning , unusually, there's been a short wait for a pump to become available. There's a queue of English visitors prudently filling up their tanks ahead of the long journey south down the motorway.

Serious golfers out on the Old Course. Each of them has their own caddie which is a pretty good sign of wanting to optimize their time on the sacred turf. In between holes each of the players check their phones for messages.

Down by the starters hut 'catch the moment' photos are being taken. There is some back slapping but not as much as we saw yesterday.

At the university end of town its quiet. In five weeks time it will be chaotic with youngsters setting out on a lifetimes journey.

For the moment we, and a young gull, have the place to ourselves. A couple of golfers wander by . One of them  turns to his pal and says " I wonder what this place is ? ". In this wee town golf and academia rub shoulders but are literally a world apart.

The picture at the top of the article is amazing ... in the literal sense of the word :https://www.popsci.com/environment/monkeys-have-pets-evolution/

How plants feel :https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/p/how-ai-is-revealing-the-hidden-intelligence

Unknown relations :https://www.yahoo.com/news/science/articles/everyone-alive-may-carry-dna-180000619.html

90 years old and playing at St Andrews :https://x.com/garyplayer/status/2079560750696219065

A reflective 'if only' :https://miniphilosophy.substack.com/p/the-boy-i-wish-id-talked-to

Choron sauce and a wowzer of an introduction.

The last day of July. The farmers brassicas are swelling by the day. The recent rain has done them no end of good. It's bright and sunny but there's a hint of autumn in the breeze blowing towards us from the sea. We've recently taken to carrying jackets in the back of the car just in case the weather changes. This practicality is a sure sign the seasons are about to change.

Yesterday we went to Edinburgh to hear a piece of music by an American composer :https://youtu.be/FCW_DaWth2M?t=22 . We'd never heard of the composer before but Edinburgh in festival time has a wealth of unexpected cultural riches just waiting to be mined. This is a last minute decision that takes spur of the moment' to manic levels. We park the car and scramble over the bridge onto the platform as the train appears in the distance.

 

The train is quiet and on time. As it rolls in a lady in a white dress appears on the platform to tell us that next week the train company will be opening  a new lounge in what used to be the waiting room for the overnight sleeper to London. " Do come along. We'd love to see you " she says as if we're long lost friends. She will go far in her marketing career.

As we cross the Forth Bridge a large cruise liner is coming into anchor. It's too tall to get under the bridges so moors out in mid-stream. Tenders are already heading out in readiness to pick up passengers wanting to visit Edinburgh. I wouldn't want to do this in winter when the seas are uncongenial.

Edinburgh is super busy in the run up to the Festival. We go to the concert ( which was good ) and then head to the coffee shop in the Balmoral for lunch. The service is friendly and efficient and the food reasonable. For a hotel brasserie it's also affordable. Angus has gnocchi served with a most un-Italian Choron sauce which he doesn't think he's ever had before but is told he has.

Across the aisle from us on the train we overhear a couple from Oregon (travelling to St Andrews to see if it would be suitable for their daughter) strike up a conversation with a couple from Seattle ( also travelling to St Andrews to see if it would suit their son ). One of the women introduces her husband with the unforgettable line " This is Arthur. He's an audiologist. He started off working on ears in Boise and things kinda took off from there ". As introductions go this is a gem. There are so many questions I'd like to ask Arthur.

Back in town ( the train on the return leg was an hour late and full ) the young gulls continue to look plaintive.

Vanilla :https://www.dw.com/en/how-vanillas-history-is-not-so-vanilla/a-78035296

A Norwegian take on using olive oil :https://www.sciencenorway.no/food-and-health/how-to-use-olive-oil-correctly/2693363

Things you didn't know about Australia :https://ozhistoryandpolitics.substack.com/p/40-interesting-facts-about-australian

Refrigeration :https://warontherocks.com/cogs-of-war/the-king-of-cool-mobile-refrigeration-and-the-remaking-of-global-logistics

An honest appraisal.

A pair of Typhoons sweep low over the coast as we're heading out of the courtyard for our morning walk. The Russian Air Force must be up to something out in the North Sea. Once or twice a month they send a group of bombers from Murmansk on a trip around the top of Norway and down towards the Shetlands. Usually the RAF sends off four of the jets to deal with incursions so I'd guess the Russians can't be cocking much of a snook at us this morning. The local crow population scatters, bad temperedly, in all directions at the sound of the afterburners as the planes climb and turn sharply to the north.

In town the fountain is working again. It must be 50 years ago ( at least ) that it last gurgled away.

Even on a grey morning it is, as my grandfather might have said, a grand sight.

The weather is set to improve later this morning. Down on the beach the lifeguards are getting ready for a busy day. The lifeguards are at that age when everything is done at a fast ' why walk when you can run ?' pace.

Near the wee house in town is a 'lively' student flat that's occupied by four third year students. One of the inhabitants is an Edinburgh lad who, when not playing rugby or golf or charming girls, supposedly works on his Physics degree.  He's got a summer job as a caddie. Today he's out at first light on the Jubilee Course with a group of serious hedge fund managers from Miami. The Floridians smoke cigars ( second time in two days we've seen folks smoking before eight am which we think is unusual ) and studiedly ignore his advice about which clubs to use or where to play the ball. He wanders over to the fence for a wee blether. He's got the monthly rent to pay but doesn't hold out much hope that the tip from this group will be generous. With a 20 year olds no nonsense concision of language he describes them as 'total hackers'. This causes us to laugh out loud. I'd wager they have a very different and rather more elevated view of their golfing skills. We wish the lad well and shout out to the golfers that they are very lucky to have such an expert guide. Perhaps this recommendation will help with the gratuity and the rent ?

Were the 1930's hotter ?:https://www.theclimatebrink.com/p/raw-data-wrong-answers

Thoughts on the English :https://www.edwest.co.uk/p/the-lords-of-the-north

Pope Clements Cafe and Steubenvilles first high class restaurant ? I'd love to know the real story behind this unusual architectural conversion :https://www.collegeofstjoseph.com/reclaim