A rarity.

Tuesday morning. A flock of geese fly noisily low overhead then land in the field outside the window. They rest for an hour then, having gorged themselves on grain, head off again.  The geese are just as noisy on take off as on landing. Some village routines haven't changed in a thousand years ...if ever. We meet the farmers wife who proudly tells us that all their peas were harvested and shipped off to the processors in Dundee in the space of fifteen hours. They started at two thirty in the morning and were back home for dinner. Until recently the farm hired in staff to do the picking but with Brexit the process of finding seasonal farm workers has got more difficult. They've invested £430,000 in a new machine which has condensed a weeks work into a single day. She says that local farms produce 10% of the Scottish pea crop. 

In town Angus takes two vases down to the florists. We are hosting a 'reception' this evening for a visiting professor and time is at a premium. Floral arrangements are 'outsourced'. 

The florists shop facade is like every other shopfront in town. Inside it's a different story. A flight of stairs takes you down into old medieval cellars.  A remnant of the cathedral outbuildings that stood here six hundred years ago. The cellars are a perfect cool and dry place to keep fresh flowers.

Returning home a young man and a woman can be seen hard at work outside the examination hall. They're carving the names of students into the limestone paving blocks. Some of the graduates who were here in the pandemic years  haven't been able to get back to receive their diplomas. This is a way of remembering them. The work is slow and exacting and I'm guessing exceedingly hard on the back. I don't want to disturb them but later I'll go over and take a photo of what they've been doing. Angus wonders if these stone carvers do this all year or just part time. How big is the market for in situ carving ?

A monk is walking through town. Seven hundred years ago the town would have been full of them. Now such sights are a rarity.

So starts a busy day in a small coastal town where change comes slowly.

Daily reads. Article #1 :https://areomagazine.com/2023/08/23/why-do-we-get-sick-the-new-science-of-evolutionary-medicine/

Article #2 . Hay fever sufferers will relate :https://www.nber.org/papers/w31593