Pulling strings.

The ladies of the village are up and about early. A group of them are sitting, deep in conversation,  at the wooden picnic table outside the potato barns. We wave and shout out 'Good Morning'. The farmers wife  stands up and walks over to inform us that ' The BBC Radio is coming to the village hall at nine to interview us about the pea harvest. I hope we're up to the task '.  ' The Font' tells them that the BBC would have to go a long way to find anyone half as knowledgeable about pea growing. This improbable compliment seems to be what was needed. They all laugh and promise to give us their autographs.

The Walker Cup has rolled into town. A more patrician golfing tournament it would be hard to imagine. The grandfather of George Herbert Walker Bush organized the 'amateur' tournament in the 1920's and it's been going strong ever since. You know its patrician because town is suddenly full of American men in blazers and chinos and women wearing a single row of pearls. Think of Kennebunkport on July 4th and you're halfway there. On the spot of five o'clock a Royal Air Force jet fighter comes hurtling over the 1st tee at three hundred feet  and then pulls up and shoots vertically into the air. To get a Eurofighter to open your golf competition signals that strings have been pulled. To get a Eurofighter to fly that low over St Andrews with its afterburners on  signals that the strings that  were pulled were  very important ones indeed. Tourists stand and gawp. I see a middle age couple frozen  half way across the street with their mouths wide open as they watch the  fighter thunder its way skyward. Parents delivering their offspring for Freshers Week are left to ponder what sort of place their little darlings have come to.

Thank you to Kim at Golden Pines for reminding us that 'Scotties by the Sea' has started. https://scottiesbythesea.com/

We pause to admire the one outside the old library and then , a little later, watch as a man whips off an orange cover to reveal the 'Battle of Bannockburn' design that's in pride of place  outside the Pizza restaurant. The man with the orange blanket informs us that there are 19 artist decorated Scotties around town. They will be auctioned off for the childrens cancer hospice in a month or so.

I'm not so sure about the design on the Scottie outside the picture house....

.... but the one down by the beach has a certain sea meets the sand elegance. 

Our task for the coming week will be to track down the others.

So starts a Saturday morning in a town teeming with super polite  golfers and wide eyed 18 year olds writing a new chapter in their lives. The sun shines down on both.