Merry Christmas. Waxwings, clouds and ( possibly ) an Archbishop.

A Merry Christmas to one and all from the last wee house before Denmark.

A family of waxwings feasting happily - and noisily -  on the rowan tree at the end of the garden. Most trees can't survive in this wind battered spot but the rowan clings on and offers up a mass of bright red berries for passing birds. What lively and exotic creatures the waxwings are. There's something about their tufts that makes them comical. They are rare , but welcome, visitors to our garden.

Above the beach nacreous clouds. Like the waxwings another unexpected Christmas day gift. They form in polar air at 100,000 feet. Sometimes, just sometimes, the rays of the rising sun catch them and they give a display of colour that puts rainbows to shame. When we lived  further up the coast I saw them once in twenty years.  Now  I've glimpsed them three times in the last two weeks - but never with the intensity and spread of this mornings display.

The lens in the i-Phone struggles to capture this remarkable  sight. I'm not sure what sort of camera lens could. For a full five minutes they glow in the sky like heavenly mother of pearl.

'The Font' thinks the air in the stratosphere must be really cold for the clouds to be visible like this. I'm guessing we're talking a multiple of polar cold at those altitudes. As we watch three large aircraft heading towards  Paris or Frankfurt weave their vapour trails in the sky. It's not often you see aircraft heading south. They've probably been diverted due to turbulence over Iceland or Ireland.

We walk back from the beach to the car cutting up the street with a cluster of Bed and breakfasts . These are popular with golfers on a budget. Many are closed but others have their lights glowing and garlands festooning their front doors. 

Slowly but surely these small hotels are being replaced by large 'golfer friendly' rental homes that go for £5k or £6k a week. Maybe double that in summer. That pretty much guarantees a healthy yield after costs . It may also explain why the family owned properties are being replaced by AirBnB's. With a weekly rental all you need is a ( charged for ) deep clean in between tenants.

One of those men with a clerical voice straight out of central casting  on the car radio this morning. I think he might have been the Archbishop of Canterbury. He's talking about one of the oldest English carols ( and a song that was considered racy by the Pilgrim Fathers ). The Archbishop  ( or whoever it was ) reminds us a  baby born in a stables can change the world. This, he says,  is the truly earth shattering  thing about Christmas. He also thinks the verse of the carol " Fear not  said he for mighty dread  had seized their troubled mind. Glad tidings of great joy I bring to you and all mankind " could have been written for our times  :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GHRNhcqse8

And here's the full story of the Longfellow poem from last week :https://technofog.substack.com/p/i-heard-the-bells-on-christmas-day