A book for Christmas

Welcome to the season of spectacular sunrises. A time of the year when cold air from the Arctic battles warm air from the Azores with dramatic results. 

The four medical students who live in the flat near us in town have decorated their front window in readiness for Halloween. The pile of rugby balls has gone and been replaced by a wig wearing skeleton. The cigarette is a surprisingly artistic touch. It can safely be said that the lads are living life to the full. Their parties are surely 'epic'.

'The Font' picks up a book from the booksellers. It's been highly recommended. I think that it's going to be one of those 'yet another' coffee table type gardening books that is skimmed through and then put in a pile and forgotten.

In fact it's a remarkable tale of making a world class garden in Devon and then visiting, and falling deeply in love with, a Georgian house on a small island in the Orkneys. One of those " I'm meant to live here " moments. The serendipity of the tale is a joy. Serendipity is a little remarked on but important part of life. The chatelaine who waits for years until she's found the right buyer and then, contented the house is in safe hands, dies shortly after the sale is agreed. The battle of establishing a garden in a part of Scotland that's so windy no trees will grow . I'm not sure which chapter is more delightful. This book is alluring in its description of simple pleasures. If you're going to buy an escapist book this year then make it this one for the charm and warmth of the language.

Some of the pictures are heavy on candles and leave us wondering if the house in Orkney has electricity.

Last day of the tournament.

The days markedly shorter as we inch towards winter. Sunrise now comes at 7:20, sunset at 6:30. Last night there was a huge firework display on the beach by the golf course. Even from out here in the village it looked spectacular. It was the sort of display that says ' major golf tournament expensive '. I thought the pyrotechnics  might disturb the cormorants but they stood on their rocks in the bay drying their wings completely unperturbed by the bangs and flashes.This morning the sky towards the East is a dark roiling red. The deer, who head inland for the summer, have reappeared in the fields down towards the water. So far we've seen one group of three and a pair of extremely shy adolescents. 

Despite ' the red sky in the morning shepherds warning' start to the day the weather remains well behaved. The golfers can barely believe their luck.

In town a few lads are heading home after a night of serious partying. The stamina of teenagers is a thing of wonder.

Today is the day when the professional golfers take over the tournament. Helicopters have been busily bringing up the leading players from the airport in Edinburgh. Sensibly dressed golf enthusiasts are already out in force. Television masts sprout everywhere.

The lady at the strawberry farm thinks that she'll close up shop next weekend. The strawberries are getting smaller and smaller and filling the punnetts is becoming a chore. She isn't sure whether her last day will be Saturday or Sunday but from her attitude I guess it will be Saturday. The swallows which nest in the porch of her hut have long gone. The seasonal routines continue unchanged.

A pair of sneakers hanging from the telephone wires in the middle of town. There's a tree down by the dry cleaners covered in dozens of them. Disposing of sneakers like this must be one of those inexplicable teenage rites of passage.

This morning someone is practising this on the chapel organ  :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UW_R-1oSA8  Very autumnal.

Feng Shui :https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/pseudoscience-history/feng-shui-not-scientific-and-its-costing-us-lot-money

Education goes awry :https://www.theclimatebrink.com/p/texas-cant-hide-from-climate-change

Robotic care is preferred :https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XTYykIQChKxz5cElCoeKJOjaNylgNOMb/view

Golfers and dogs.

It's taken a month but the little BMW has been repaired and delivered back to us and the large Ford Kuga has been picked up by the rental car company . I can report that parking in the narrow little car is so much easier .

Down on the beach there's a man with one of those pull along shopping bags which contains a thermos flask and a small mountain of cellophane wrapped sandwiches. He's setting up one of those old fashioned tripod mounted box cameras. It seems to require a lot of adjustment and keeps him engrossed in whatever he's doing. We say ' Good morning' but our arrival doesn't even register. 

There is something Celtic about this mornings sunrise.

It poured for a full hour late last night. Today, the drenched first tee is looking refreshed and pristine for the tournaments golfers. There's already a long queue of players and officials outside the breakfast tent waiting for pancakes and bacon.

On the other side of the fairway the first of the days spectators are showing up. By lunchtime the street that runs parallel with the course will be solid with people lining the fence. Tomorrow tickets to view the proceedings will be £21. The polite young  steward - clearly a student -  who tells me this pauses and then adds the words " You'll get a 20% discount if you're a senior citizen ". The delicate  way this was phrased tells me he'll have a bright future ahead of him in the diplomatic corps.

 .

The pedestrian management  systems that have been put in place for the tournament channel the local dog owners and joggers into a detour that passes the 18th tee. This is where many of the faces we pass on our morning walk can be found having a 'wee blether'. 

Someone has a new black labrador puppy. This requires every other dog owner to stop, say hello and offer a chin tickle. I stand by my view that no town elsewhere on earth has a comparable mutt to human ratio. Places with this many dogs pretend to be grand but can't be.

A brief burst of Gaelic as it should be spoken :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nBV9IieqAg

Honest chimps:https://news.berkeley.edu/2026/09/30/chimps-plunder-less-pineapple-from-friends-and-expect-them-to-do-the-same/

Some music from Vilnius :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl5NfMm7kGY

'A' listers and a tycoon.

The weather forecast calls for heavy rain so imagine our surprise to wake to yet another day of bright skies, sunshine and a hint of warmth. The younger of the farm dogs meets us in the courtyard and follows us down to the sea. She then hares off at high speed in pursuit of some audacious seagulls. 

The local paper is enthusiastically following proceedings at the Dunhill golf tournament. If the front page is to be believed A-listers from across the globe are rushing  to the Old Course to take part. Page 3 gives itself over to a full timetable of who these 'A ' listers are and their tee-off times . Sean Fitzpatrick the New Zealand rugby captain is the first to go followed by Ruud Gullit ( a Dutch football player ) and Kevin Pieteresen ( who is described, for the edification of non-cricket playing Scots, as an English cricket star ).  The term 'A' lister is clearly open to a wide variety of interpretations.

The paper sadly informs us that Mr. Bill Murray, " the Ghostbusters actor and zaney American comedian noted for his movie star role as groundskeeper Carl in the comedy golf film Caddyshack " has had to withdraw due to ' unforeseen scheduling commitments '. His place is taken by Kelly Slater ( seemingly a surfing legend ) who will be followed by a man from Ireland who is simply described as a tycoon . Angus wonders when he last saw or heard the word ' tycoon '. It has an archaic sound to it.

The golfers may be up and about early but 500 yards away the world is calm . Students do not appear on the streets until as close to the start of nine o'clock lectures as it's humanly possible to get.

The kitchen shop next door to the bakers has closed. Workmen are busy  repurposing it for a new tenant. In the window there's what appears to be a pile of old rags. As I pass the rags move. Closer examination shows that it's the painters dog happily dozing in the warmth of the morning sunshine while his master applies a  new layer of undercoat.

In Tescos a seasonal Pringles display has appeared. A limited edition " Santa's secret flavour "is on offer. I can't immediately see what the secret flavour is and one of the women behind the cash till starts to look at me suspiciously as I examine the tube. I shall return tomorrow to find out more.

So starts another day in a small but not so quiet Scottish town on the North Sea. 

Paying attention:https://www.insidehook.com/mental-health/staring-painting-challenge-attention-span

What we share :https://www.nber.org/papers/w35789#fromrss

Too saucy for the nuns :https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/in-one-of-romes-most-famed-and-neglected-villas-centuries-old-risque-frescoes-painted-over-by-nuns-have-reappeared-180989585/

Unharvested.

This  moral dilemma makes it onto this mornings BBC breakfast news bulletin :https://tennesseelookout.com/2026/09/30/us-supreme-court-allows-execution-of-tennessee-woman-on-death-row-to-proceed/  I seem to remember that under medieval  English law a convict who survived a hanging ( presumably if the rope broke ) would be reprieved.

A patch of cabbages in the field between the last wee house and the sea remains unharvested. The farmers attention seems to have turned to other crops. For the last few days he's been busy spraying his parsnips and checking on the state of his Brussels. The cabbages certainly won't be left to waste. I guess the cheerful Tajiks will cut them in time for St Andrews Day. We haven't heard from either the farmer or his wife about how the 'depositing of the youngest'  trip south of the border went.

We stop at the local butchers for some pork chops. The towns butcher is excellent. After the wonderful market in Toulouse we thought the food here would be a step down but to our surprise the quality of  most things, with the exception of fresh fruit, is as good. The fish is miles better. Berries are wonderful but forget peaches, pineapples or anything that counts as 'exotic'. They arrive semi frozen and never quite ripen properly. We are still looking for a good greengrocer. Someone has suggested to 'The Font' that we try a Filipino shop in Stockbridge.

Outside the butchers a dog is sitting bolt upright in the drivers seat of a white van waiting for his master to return from Caffe Nero. The dog ignores passers by and stares dutifully straight ahead. He does this every morning.

The door plate at the R&A has been polished to perfection ahead of todays start of the tournament. There's not a thumb print to be seen.

Justin Timberlake and Tiger Woods have opened a new members only club next door to their indoor golf venue. Other outposts of their empire include New York , London. Palm Beach and St.Tropez . The inclusion of St Andrews amongst these  hot spots is, to put it mildly, a surprise. Annual membership is £2,400. I'll wager that at tournament time it will be packed solid with  'corporate' expense account types. Members of the 'other' club will not go near it.

Some thoughts on the closure of the Kennedy Centre for 2 years. What will Georgetown folk do for culture in those long winter nights ? :https://davidaaronovitch.substack.com/p/when-i-hear-the-word-culture

What a beautiful ( and newly discovered ) animal :https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilcayo#

Quantum computing ups its game :https://www.sciencealert.com/ibms-quantum-computer-completes-in-19-seconds-what-could-take-a-supercomputer-a-century

Good news:https://spectrum.ieee.org/alternatives-to-animal-testing

Familarisation.

That 'was it or wasn't it ?' terrorist attack at the air base in Gloucestershire leads the morning news broadcast. Before being arrested one of the men  had phoned 999 to alert the authorities to what was going on. This is an unexpected twist to the story. Police are being coy about what happened but it seems the Russians are employing local criminal gangs to cause opportunistic 'mischief'. 

The tournaments 'familiarisation' stages get underway at first light. Despite the early hour there's a small crowd of players waiting, with various degrees of patience, for their allotted tee off times. 

I was surprised by how many visitors showed up to see the golfers and the ' C ' list television celebrities yesterday. Today, despite some passing showers, it looks as if the numbers of onlookers will at least double . What will it be like when the tournament proper starts at the end of the week ?

Parking for most ... but not all .... is a nightmare. Two 'reserved for' signs outside the club house indicate that some have an elevated place in the earthly hierachy . Good weather is forecast. This means crowds. We may opt to stay well clear of town for the next five days. If we do come in it will be at six in the morning. 

The new Captain of the R&A is an Irish woman. The first woman captain in the clubs history. It's only taken them 250 years but they've finally moved into the modern era :https://www.irishgolfdesk.com/news-files/2026/9/25/claire-dowling-drives-in-as-first-woman-to-captain-the-royal-and-ancient  I'm sure some of the crustier members will view this as a sign of the coming apocalypse.

At the other  end of town the students move in herds from one class to the next. 

As a testament to the benefits of higher education a few of the brighter ones have now learnt how to use pedestrian crossings. Most still prefer the kamikaze approach to walking which involves wandering across the road diagonally or darting out from behind parked cars. Kudos to the three young ladies who stopped in the middle of North Street for a wee chat. They ignored the lights turning from red to green and then back again. Local drivers were not impressed but kept their thoughts unvoiced.

Wednesday morning Beethoven :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNFPILp1jy0

The weather mystery of the 1840's :https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/09/scientists-solve-1840s-space-weather-mystery/

Where Aristotle taught Alexander :https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-unearth-the-2400-year-old-school-where-aristotle-taught-alexander-to-be-great-180989581/

New Zealand. Some interesting insights :https://www.kvetch.au/p/new-zealand-introduction-part-1

Busy, busy, busy.

The tournament organizers are in luck. The weather forecast predicts blue skies and warm(ish) sunshine. The weather in Scotland in May and September is at its best. The good weather has got the dog owners out. On the beach we say 'Good morning' to the taciturn Chinese chef, the lady with the Pomeranian, Archies owner and the woman with the Briard.

The town is suddenly crowded. I'd forgotten just how many folks turn up for a golf tournament. The university end of the street is solid with teenagers while the other end is buzzing with 'B' and 'C' list celebrities . There are also a smattering of perma-tanned guys who have recently played a round or two with Donald.  There is little interaction between the groups. 

I'd have to say the place is looking at its best. The university gardeners are experts at ensuring the flower beds are in bloom at just the right time.

The tournament has a rather good poster.

It also uses a cardboard Westie as a backup advertising strategy. These have popped up in many shop windows. Neither of us know what Dunhill make. They used to be a tobacco company but have morphed into something else. Adverts for IWC watches and Genesis cars have popped up all around the Old Course. Maybe people actually opt to buy cars at golf tournaments. 

In the evening we pop into town for a pre-dinner libation. We're making maximum use of what daylight is left before the super short winter days arrive. The barman tells us the bar was crowded but the golfers have headed off to a six thirty corporate dinner. All the heaters are on at full blast and blankets have been laid out for patrons who are not used to the 'bite' of a late Scottish September evening. To avoid being scorched we sit as far away from the powerful heaters as it's possible to get. 'It'll be fair heaving when they come back at nine' says the barman with a tone of voice that suggests it will be chaos. Three American gentlemen show up and order beers. They're from Texas . ' What's the best Scotch ale you've got ?' they ask. One has flown into Edinburgh with Delta while the two others have flown American from Philadelphia. They all agree that first class on a 787 doesn't have much leg room. From their conversation we learn that they have sharply partisan views on the respective airlines.  A couple from North Carolina stand and look at the seventeenth tee and say 'Wow' over and over. After four years here this is a response that seems oddly commonplace. 

Oxygen and food :https://science20.com/mark_pierce/20260926/why_oxygen_not_time_is_what_makes_much_of_our_food_go_bad-300123

Back in the day we were on the menu :https://www.snexplores.org/article/human-evolution-hunted-prey-predator

A lucky detectorist :https://thedebrief.org/a-metal-detectorist-kept-finding-ancient-coins-in-a-german-field-then-he-hit-a-1900-year-old-jackpot/

More about El Nino :https://www.theclimatebrink.com/p/the-impacts-of-this-years-record