A quiet town.

The view from the street outside the hotel can't have changed much in five hundred years. There is something rather special about York. Life in some cathedral towns outside London moves at its own pace. That's true here. History is woven into every nook and cranny. Come first light clerics can be seen hurrying around on their way to open up the Minster or prepare for Matins.

The hotel we've chosen does indeed have three columns in its downstairs vault. As to whether they're Roman or not I wouldn't like to say. To all but the most expert of eyes one column looks pretty much like another. However, the claim that it's the oldest British building in continuous use seems justifiable.  'The Font' loves the sound of the bells right outside the bedroom window. Angus thinks you might very soon tire of their quarter hourly chiming. 'Tire' may be an understatement. I shall render a judgement tomorrow after another night of atonal four bar snippets of 'Jesu love of my soul'. Thankfully the bells stop sometime after dinner.

The food last night was good. The wine list by contrast was a disappointment. The mark up on the bottles was at least four times, possible five. Outlandish. A 2019 Pauillac at an eye watering  £195 was the only Bordeaux on offer and not even a good one at that.  We opt for glasses of what might politely be described as a zesty Argentinian Malbec. 'The Font' makes do with one and I don't finish my second. We toy with the idea of drinking a bottle of champagne with dinner but decide against it as being the wrong solution to the problem.  Tonight we'll eat in the hotel.

In the Minster garden a bench with a life sized Paddington bear on itmust have been photographed a million times by the European school kids and Chinese tourists that throng the place in the summer. Today, we're alone apart from two or three groups of bored looking and uniformly blonde Swedish adolescents waiting for the Minster ticket office to open. The Swedish teenagers fool around. A verger tells them to be quiet and sheepishly they all say 'sorry' in unison. 'Sorry' has become one of those catch all words that every European knows. Inside the Minster there is one of those slightly embarrassing pre-opening announcements where visitors are reminded that this is a house of God and to behave accordingly. It is suggested that everyone say the Lords Prayer in their own language. To our surprise the young Swedes do. Who'd have expected to hear Helgat varde ditt namn being recited in 2026 ? The teens don't seem to suffer from the self consciousness of older folk.

Two workmen are touching up heraldic shields. York is the sort of small city where this sort of civic activity is not unusual. They work at an 'unhurried' pace and to a standard that hints they're happy to be stewards of the place.

Half an hour later , after we've had a reasonable coffee, the workmen have moved on and are touching up another shield.

A woman lifts her dog up onto the bench and plonks it unceremoniously next door to Paddington. She arranges the dogs fur and then proceeds to take a picture. All the time she keeps up a steady stream of conversation with the mutt. The poor thing sensing this strange ursine presence next to it needs some reassurance.

We thought we knew York but there are so many treasures we didn't know about or had passed on prior visits. This plaque in a church restored after being wrecked the Baedeker Raids refers to the church as 'she'. There is something rather other worldly about the concept of a building being so well integrated into a town that over a millennium or so it develops a persona all of its own. 

It is a little jewel box of a place unnoticed by tourists. Purists might argue with some aspects of the restoration , but not us. It works well and emits warmth and friendliness in that way some old buildings do. It also follows from this, and is equally true, that some buildings don't. It is undoubtedly a 'she'.

The old place battles with pigeons.

Later today we will head off in search of the DaVinci code window about which more tomorrow.

Late arrival.

The train usually runs on time. Today it didn't. We are now belatedly in York which is delightfully quiet.

Tomorrow we go to see an exhibition at the York Art Gallery and then will try to find the world oldest stained glass window depicting the end of the world. This is something we'd never heard about but it appeared in two completely unrelated and non-architectural books we've read in the last three months. People in the 1400's were convinced their times were 'tumultuous'. Tonight we stay in a hotel built in 1080 and incorporating columns from the Roman military camp. I have high hopes for the restaurants wine list.

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/

Blue skies

The students continue to enjoy the good weather. So do we. There is a big golf tournament on at the start of next month. Last year it poured down from start to finish. There can be little as dispiriting as watching a golf match in torrential rain. The organizers will be hoping that this year will be sunny,

Strange signs appearing around town. I'd never thought of gum as being an issue here.  The target audience may not be a local one. ' We bin our gum' doesn't sound like a very Scottish sentence construct. Outside Tesco's there are three young men with Ghost Buster style backpacks blasting away at ingrained Wrigleys.

We see a motor home with Canadian plates down by the harbour. How do you ship a motorhome from Canada to Europe ? There must surely be easier and cheaper ways of seeing Europe.

At 8:40 Starbucks is as busy as Grand Central with students trying to get their morning caffeine shot before the nine am lectures. Prior to 8:00 when we start our 10,000 morning steps the town is completely empty bar the usual dog owners out with their pooches. 

The fountain is working again. It is turned on mid-morning and turned off again at dusk. This seems a suitably Presbyterian solution to the running costs. It looks well restored and brings a touch of grandeur to that end of the shopping street. Civic involvement works. I notice the sponsors of the upcoming golf tournament have been sponsors of the restoration work.

The skies remain blue and parking, for the moment, easy.

We get the first leaflet reminding us that the British Open golf tournament will be held here in July next year. If you think 10,000 students flooding into a town of 15,000 is a big uplift imagine what it's like when 200,000 golfers make this their home for a week.

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