It's getting dark by eight thirty now. The high summer days of endless light well and truly over. We try sitting in the garden as the sun sets but it's just that wee bit too cold for comfort. Not even a glass of a good St.Joseph can dispel the unforgiving 'nip' in the air. From a distance the towers of St.Andrews look a little like a sterner version of San Gimignano. There's been an Asian golf tournament at the fancy hotel down the coast. They end the event with 'gala dinner' and a fire work display. The problem with fire work displays is that if you want to have an impact you have to go BIG . The organizers of this event didn't.
The centre of town this morning decidedly quiet. The tourists have gone, the golfers are setting themselves up with cholesterol heavy breakfasts in the 5 star hotels and the students rarely, if ever, make an appearance before ten. The municipal flower planters are enjoying a late season burst of glory.
The sea gull parents seem to have arrived at the stage where their offspring can be left to their own devices. A solitary youngster is hanging around the trash cans outside the supermarket in the hope of finding a discarded fish supper. It stops to watch the university cleaning ladies get off the bus from Dundee.
On the way back to the house a chance to see what the in situ carvers were up to yesterday. The names chiselled into the paving slabs outside the exam hall done with conservative good taste. A covid era salute to those who weren't able to have a graduation ceremony or had their studies interrupted.
Back here in the village there's time for a walk down the path to the shore before I head off to Edinburgh. There's a large group of seabirds pausing to rest on the rocks down by the shore. Further down the coast nine cormorants can just be seen on the furthest rocks where the coast makes a sharp right angled turn. The cormorants know that the best fish are to be found where the fresh water from the burn meets the deep waters of the estuary. Clever things.
Up here by the wee house another group of geese wheel in over the coast and head straight for the recently harvested wheat field . Migration season is about to kick off. The man with the black Labrador stops to remind me that the village will be having its summer harvest drinks party on Sunday afternoon. ' You do remember you promised us a case of wine ?' he says before adding ' Was it just the one ?'.
5 comments:
It was always going to be only a matter of time before the local villagers learned to make use of Angus's reputation for generosity and fine wine!
'Just the one?' What cheek!
Hari OM
Not sure about the 'non-grad' inscriptions; more like donors. This is from the Uni website...
"IMPORTANT
There are no more flagstones available at the present time, please contact annualgiving@st-andrews.ac.uk to register your interest."
I agree with Gail - before long, we will have more characters described to us as we grew to know and love in France Profonde! YAM xx
Yamini, as the parent of a St Andrews alumna, I agree you're right about the flagstones being from donors. The inscriptions pre-date Covid, and were being done when my offspring graduated about 10 years ago. I remember an email from the University asking if we wanted to fund one (answer from this Scot who felt she'd paid quite enough already - no thank you) Nice fund-raising idea tho for those with money to splash, that's obviously run out of space!
Is the word out now that you've had your first "reception?"
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