The Stanford mother.

 

The weather, in these last few days before school starts again, is warm and sunny. As we head out of the front door we meet an American lady who stops and introduces herself and her teenage daughter. They've bought a house further down the street and are getting it ready for the new term. I assume the daughter will be studying here but it turns out that the daughter is going to Stanford and it's the recently divorced mother who has decided to spend the next four years here doing a Masters. ' All the family have grown up and I've always wanted to do a Fine Arts course'. They ask if we know a good place to buy bath towels. The daughter exudes the excited happiness of a late teen ... so does her mother.

This morning the fair ground rides are being disassembled. The departure of the 'Market' will be the cause of great sorrow amongst the towns ten year olds but a source of delight to everyone else. We are pleased to find that the civilized  pavement cafe has reopened. Two English girls are already sitting outside enjoying the sunshine and discussing the syllabus for their Mandarin Chinese course. The small town will soon see a flood of youngsters coming back.  A raucous  fair ground persona one week , a hallowed seat of learning the next.

The church is playing religious music over the speaker system. This we assume is to cover the cussing of the fair ground disassemblers. We enjoy our morning coffee to the sound of a spirited full choir with orchestra rendition of  'Nearer my God to thee' .

The wild flowers on the golf course go from strength to strength. This morning they are spectacular.

All the building work is finished at The last wee house before Denmark with the exception of the conservatory. The electronic sensors that open the roof louvres have been delayed on their way from Germany. This in turn means that the building inspector can't sign off on the works. We had hoped to move in tomorrow but this may have to wait until the parts clear the customs backlog. Brexit is the gift that keeps on giving.