Emptying out.

The potato plants in the field by the gate have shot up in the summer sunshine. They are now all of two feet high and home to a dozen or so larks who rise, singing lustily, into the sky as we head down the farm track to the shore. Relative to their body size larks make a remarkable amount of noise. The bumper brood of  goldfinches are also out in force again this morning. The young ones launch themselves from the stone field walls and scatter, inelegantly, in all directions as we drift into sight. They flutter fifteen yards before tumbling exhausted into the safety of the stalks of the barley field. Anxious mothers chivvy these small un-aerodynamic bundles of feathers along. For these chicks a day or two of intense flying instruction awaits. By tomorrow night they'll be proficient. The sound of the morning bird song always surprises us.

Graduation week is finally over. Friday afternoon saw the last of the ceremonies and the last of this years processions of new graduands. The piper and the mace carriers lead them out of the exam hall and down the street to the marquees where they are greeted by proud families. These are amongst those rarest of occasions when literally everyone is smiling.

A small mountain of champagne bottles piled up on the pavement outside chapel tells us that last nights  celebrations went on for some time. Tonight is the night of the Graduation Ball. This is usually, to the shock and surprise of the more elderly and Presbyterian townsfolk,  a 'Dionysian' affair.

For the last week the weather has been well behaved. Dry but blustery by day, rainy at night.

The youngsters as always have enjoyed themselves. Some even manage to follow the procession down the road in a straight line.

This morning the last of the parents are heading home and the town is now emptying out. Tonights party goers will linger for a few more days and then hand over their flats in town to a new generation of students. Soon, very soon, those leaving will be starting work and new chapters will start to be written.

Someone has left a cigarette smouldering in a trash can outside the library. An observant passer by has reported some smoke and the fire brigade are out to deal with it. They, thankfully, resist the temptation to sound their sirens. They pour some sand on the sparks and leave.

Here's some music for an American holiday :https://youtu.be/hc-v8CFJzu4?t=38

The hidden side to tattoos :https://www.sciencealert.com/were-only-just-beginning-to-understand-how-tattoos-affect-the-immune-system

It's going to be hot in America :https://www.theclimatebrink.com/p/how-climate-change-influences-extreme

The book of Kells :https://x.com/patrickc/status/2072431833699267047

The courtesies that set Scotland ( or at least this corner of it ) apart :https://youtu.be/qj6tZS-Tv10?t=7032

Dreaming while awake :https://www.zmescience.com/medicine/mind-and-brain/you-can-dream-awake/

Happiness is egalitarian.

The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh mingling with other parents at the graduation of their daughter. Happiness is egalitarian. For a Singaporean mother the sudden recognition of who she's chatting to takes the excitement of her sons graduation to a whole new level.

Some speeches can be both brief and profound. This  minimalist example is a joy  :https://youtu.be/II2BLQoLw0I?t=5489  ( Go to 1hr:32 min mark if the links not working ) 

Out here on the coast the farmers brassicas are swelling nicely. Rain at night and sun during the day are the perfect recipe for growth.

The supermarket has strawberries from England, Spain and Scotland. Strawberries do not enjoy long journeys or being chilled so there is only one option. At this time of the year we live on strawberries.

Down on the shore some drug dealers ( presumably ?) have torched a stolen car. This is a highly unusual event for for St Andrews and the lady in the supermarket ( news travels quickly ) is of the opinion that civilisation as we know it is crumbling.

The final day of graduation ceremonies. Tonight the graduating students have their party. We warn old friends staying in the house in town that sleep may be difficult.

Pre-schoolers minds are a  marvel. They see - and absorb - everything :https://x.com/YaronMeirovitch/status/2072068359164731869

An exhibition to visit :https://www.fondationlouisvuitton.fr/fr/evenements/calder-rever-en-equilibre

Americas population :https://danielfetz.io/p/how-many-people-have-ever-lived-in-the-united-states

Science accelerates :https://www.quantamagazine.org/for-the-first-time-a-cell-built-from-scratch-grows-and-divides-20260701/

Provocative ahead of July 4th :https://responsiblestatecraft.org/america-independence-british-empire/

Monitored

Some rain overnight but it's bright and sunny by the time we head out of the courtyard. The farmers 20 year old is off to check on the barley crop but stops for a wee blether. His trip to America was exciting and 'grand'. People were friendly, the afternoons chronically hot, the beers 'dynamically' priced ( ie expensive ) and the Harvard campus a great place to meet girls other football fans. They spent much of their time in just kilt and shoes playing the pipes and trying to keep cool. Bostonians seemed to think pipes were an Irish thing and were surprised to discover 'Scotch' folk played them. Nothing but nothing starts up a conversation like a kilt wearing piper. The train to the stadium cost an eye watering $80 which was four times more than usual. It was always packed to the gunnels and boarding was a 'jovial farce'. Good natured policemen joked with them. Unbidden, waitresses piled extra fries on their plates ( 'you boys look like you need feeding up ' ) and bar staff ( despite their smooth faces ) accepted their ID's with only a hint of incredulity. The hotel receptionist gave them 'upgrades' to rooms on a higher floor which they thought was 'fantastic'. They had 55" tv screens to watch the football on. They went to a baseball game. Almost everywhere (the touristy Cheers bar in Boston excepted ) rounds of drinks were offered and accepted. The six village lads experienced nothing other than unfettered kindness which is, when you think about it, the most reassuring thing anyone can say about America ( and the world ) today. They can hardly wait to go back.

Breakfast time. On our way down to the beach we pass one of the golf club caddies sitting on a bench eating his bacon roll. He seems unaware that every mouthful is being carefully monitored by a crowd of hungry crows and gulls.

Peonies in the window of the house that always sports a vase of fresh flowers . People heading off to one of the graduation ceremonies stop to peer inside.

The hotels and restaurants continue to be booked solid with families visiting for graduation. A line of taxis with Edinburgh registration decals suggests that some folks are having to commute up from the big city. 

Visiting golfers out for an afternoon walk are surprised to discover there's more to the town than the golf course.

Tourist buses en  route to the highlands continue to disgorge their passengers into the town. What do they make of it ? Do the day trippers think the place is always full of youngsters in kilts and that bagpipers can always be found on every street corner ?

An honorary doctorate speech for the students with ( at the 1 hour 33 minute mark )  an accent to die for :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=setHE3kdNd4

The Italian countryside :https://www.lelappe.com/

More easily said than done ? :https://worksinprogress.co/issue/why-we-should-vaccinate-wild-animals/

Unusual advice :https://pradyuprasad.com/writings/how-to-ask-for-help/

Fun times.

July. We're into the second half of the year. I won't ask where the times gone but you have to wonder how it can move by so quickly.

There are two graduation ceremonies every day this week. The first is at ten thirty in the morning the second at two thirty in the afternoon. From breakfast time onwards excited mothers can be found posing outside chapel with their offspring. That unmistakable ' this is for the family album ' smile is much in evidence. Younger siblings dragged off from city and friends for this family event stand around looking extremely bored.  The Turkish barbers open early and are super busy. Those who forgot to book a short back and sides for the great day beg plaintively for a haircut. Prices are adjusted accordingly. All of the world suddenly and briefly appears in this small Presbyterian town. Dourness gives way to broad smiles. This morning a group of fifty or so unsuspecting Hungarian teenagers on a school tour get out of their bus and are surprised to find themselves in this maelstrom of activity. They look bemused. What must they make of it ?

By eight in the morning, photos taken, parents and offspring are left wondering what to do for the next two hours before the first ceremony starts. Starbucks becomes a zoo. The cafe by the old Post Office a throng of mothers in hats bought for the great event. The 'trendy' place by the cinema besieged. Fathers worry about the two hour parking limit. Traffic wardens circle looking for easy pickings.

Flower stalls have sprung up to cater for the big day. A large one has appeared on the street outside the supermarket . It's soon stripped almost bare. Bouquet giving has become a serious business.

The florist we go to for our Christmas wreath has a table of blooms waiting for collection. At this time of the year they can easily sell 200 a day. Local peonies are a big thing . In previous years bouquets were a female only gift. This year the boys are also getting them.

After each ceremony the  bells peel and the new graduates are piped down the street to the chapel. Here they are greeted by family and friends. Family tend to be decorous in their greeting. Friends less so - some much less so. Large lunged members of the rugby club greet each other with raucous delight. Yesterday we saw more fathers weeping with joy than mothers. Scots men are thought to be unemotional but there are occasions when this isn't true. A number of American fathers also seem to have been overwhelmed by the happiness in the air. In large cities this would go unnoticed. In a small town like this it doesn't. The organizers ensure that each ceremony is small and formal enough to make it feel 'special'. I'd like to be critical but it would seem that they get the tone just right. At five champagne corks 'pop' and the Principal in her John Knox outfit circulates and shakes everyones hand.

This weeks reading started with Regime Change. Once picked up I ( almost ) couldn't put it down. 'The Font' also finds it spell binding. I'd thought the most stupid bizarre political move this century was the Brits with Brexit. Having read this I'm coming to the view that I might be wrong on that score. On balance the authors manage to write with a disciplined and dispassionate neutrality. At no time are they disobliging towards any of the figures who appear in their book.

This book on China was excellent and managed to find the balance between historic complexity and easy reading. This is no small literary task.

Earlier today I picked up a copy of J D Vance's Communion from the bookstore. They had ordered one copy which had been put on the 'Religion' sections shelves. The bookstore employee shares a dry joke about being unsure whether to look for it under politics, self help or religion. ' Lucky I tried religion first' he says. I laugh politely.

Tipping culture in Canada is very surprising to Europeans :https://canadianreturnee.substack.com/p/what-canada-could-learn-from-abroad

No more land lines in Finland :https://yle.fi/a/74-20233910

Flying in Bangladesh :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzF5DmnXhC0

Oh dear :https://www.edwest.co.uk/p/the-triumph-of-brand-scotland

Oh dear #2. Definitely not a link for the farmers wife  :https://nypost.com/2026/06/19/us-news/boston-gals-predict-baby-boom-in-9-months-after-partying-with-charming-scots-during-world-cup/

New neighbours.

Goldfinches everywhere. There seem to be almost as many of them as there are sparrows. This would indicate it's 1) a bad year for sparrows or 2) a bumper year for goldfinches. I'd opt for the latter.

Taking the Greyhound bus from Orlando to Boston wasn't the village boys brightest idea. It took the better part of 48 hours and, in conjunction with a busy Jet Blue flight, has left them exhausted and somewhat sullen and uncommunicative . They are both exceedingly well sun tanned. We will doubtless hear more of their experiences when body and soul come together again. After more than 72 hours without sleep even an 18 year old will tire.

We head into town on our morning walk . It's dry but there's a bank of cloud rolling in from the North Sea that's being driven along by a brisk chill wind.

Where the path drops down towards the small sandy bay everything looks as it usually does. A month ago the verges were carpeted in primroses and bluebells. Now the poppies are taking over. 

It's only when the path turns to the left that we see we have new neighbours.

The farmer has brought the cows down to the wild flower meadows to summer on the shore. They drink from the fresh water stream and can wander freely along the beach. There's a fence by the fancy golf course in one direction and in the other they're stopped by the line of the wee river. Few people are around to interrupt their idyll. The farmer stops by every so often not so much to check on them as to have a wee chat .

To say they are happy fails to grasp the joy of cows in a field of lush wild flowers as high as they are. This is life as it should be. Who would disagree ? They are too busy grazing to even notice us. We say hello then squeeze past  and head on into town.

This is a sight that hasn't changed in a 1,000 years. Maybe longer. It somehow seems very natural.

Now that's what I'd call an office :https://x.com/tylersyck/status/2071297909727871167

Rediscovered wonder :https://thedebrief.org/lost-for-centuries-one-of-the-seven-wonders-of-the-ancient-world-has-been-rediscovered-and-is-now-rising-from-the-mediterranean-sea/

Another Revolutionary thread :https://substack.com/home/post/p-203590992

How to care for your hedgehog(s). We had lots of them in the garden in France and fewer here. Foxes may be the reason :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6jqqpLPklc

Another view on aircon :https://archive.is/lP1i5

The most wonderful time of the year.

The summer school for teenagers has started in the dorm that looks like Hogwarts. Since sunrise the town has been busy with a flow of minibuses bringing up excited youngsters from the airport in Edinburgh. As each group arrives at the front door a piper springs into action.  Some groups get greeted with a burst of Scotland the Brave, others the Rowan Tree. A few get Amazing Grace. The piper is good. I'd assume he's paid well to be up and about at such an unearthly hour. We like the summer school. It's full of wide eyed teens and enthusiastic ( and not much older ) counsellors who understand that the secret to keeping three hundred 16 year olds happy is to make sure they're busy every moment of the day. Soon the new arrivals will be down on the shore by the castle for a character forming dip in the 'witches pool' aka 'The North Sea'. The girls will spend the first week  ignoring the ' immature ' boys and the boys will spend their first week trying to be noticed by the ' suave and sophisticated ' girls. By week two they'll be talking happily to each other about the barbaric idiocy of having a curfew time of 10 pm.

On the Old course an American couple are out for a pre-breakfast stroll with their twins. The children are at that just starting to walk stage. The parents stop, lift their two youngsters out of the stroller and unconcernedly let them crawl across the first green. Golfers play on around them. The father and mother seem completely  oblivious to the risks posed by fast moving golf balls. Two large gulls look on.

A group off the Delta flight from Atlanta have arrived to find their rooms in the hotel aren't ready. They wander over to look at the Martyrs Monument and then shuffle off towards Starbucks. The ferocious jet stream that got us back from Montreal in five hours is getting flights from the US into Edinburgh an hour or two ahead of schedule.  

The farmer has headed off in the Range Rover to pick up his two sons from the Jet Blue flight from Boston. They will have to get used to watching the World Cup matches being projected onto the bed sheet in the village hall.

Today sees the first of the graduation ceremonies. The town is full of polite parents accompanied by young people dressed rather more smartly than they would have been when they were here as undergraduates. The presence of mothers will have this effect. The next five nights will be party central. Marquees are sprouting everywhere as restaurants try to cope with the surge in bookings :https://youtu.be/NiqPTX63K40?t=50

Apes and humans :https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1133034

Moving fast when you have to :https://www.clinicaltrialsabundance.blog/p/why-were-covid-vaccine-trials-so-fast

Would ( could ) you live here ? :https://x.com/zoeloveshouses/status/2070625904317927565

The world is changing and this is an interesting insight :https://kulturaliberalna.pl/2026/06/23/polska-nie-jest-gotowa-na-podmiotowa-ukraine/

Europeans and air conditioning :https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/europes-resistance-to-ac-is-driving

An Australian view of the world :https://strategicanalysis.org/hedging-against-america-ordering-in-a-time-of-disorder/

Demonic bar stools.

The tide has scoured the sand and left it with a woven harlequin pattern look. We've never seen this before. It stretches all the way down the beach for a good 2 miles. After four years we've discovered that each and every day the beach has a new story to tell. Interpreting what all this ebbing and eddying means can be difficult.

Our daily routine has now recovered from the quick trip to Canada. The hotel in Montreal had great bar staff but the design of the bar itself was a strange mix of the impersonal and the bland. It could have been a 1980's era TWA airport business lounge. In one dark corner of the bar a small forest of rubber plants struggled to find light. The bar stools were lower than you'd think bar stools might possibly be. A picture or two might have cheered the place up. 'The Font' points out that the bar might look better in the wee hours when it's full of party animals. 

By contrast the globally iconic hotel in Quebec could not be mistaken for an airport departure lounge. The bedroom had an electric fire with a faux log feature that couldn't be turned off. When was the last time you saw one of those ? Despite repeated attempts at modernisation the room had an inexpungable air of the 1950's about it. And no, that isn't a can of lager on the floor, it's a can of shaving foam.

The Canadians make maple syrup flavoured crisps. Based on this alone Angus could quite easily live in Canada. There is a book to be written about the contents of hotel mini-bars. This one was unmistakably Quebecois.

In a downtown shop window an expensive Louis Vuitton window display. I rarely look at window displays but this one is where commerce meets art with a bit of whimsy thrown into the mix. It must have cost a small fortune.

There is a non-French element to Quebec culture...

... and it ain't English.

Fun football :https://x.com/all_nations2/status/2070396020509561328

Why would anyone want to be a politician ?:https://petebuttigieg.substack.com/p/a-terrible-thing-happened-to-my-family

The mechanical watch :https://ciechanow.ski/mechanical-watch/

Gen Z jobs :https://www.robingreenfield.org/findaforager/

Is this a surprise ? :https://gothamist.com/news/chinese-immigrants-overtake-dominicans-as-nycs-largest-foreign-born-group

It came from England :https://www.worksinprogress.news/p/how-smashing-the-nimbys-created-modern