The beach frozen solid. Even the hardy oystercatchers are sheltering on the relative warmth of the golf course. There are three service boats at anchor in the estuary. When the boats stop working on the offshore windfarm and come into calmer waters you can be sure a gale is on the way. The line of cloud over the horizon tells me that we might have an hour , at most, before the rain and sleet arrive.
This mornings strong wind pushes us down the beach in one direction and pummels us as we turn and head back up the sand in the other. I'm guessing the average age of those out and about on the beach is fifty .... maybe sixty. Seems that early morning dog walking is best left to those in the empty nesting stage of life.
In town the old newsagents is now well and truly closed. All the stock has been taken away and the funereal black crepe now shrouds every window. There would have been a time when developers would have been lining up to bid on the place but the era of high interest rates has put a damper on things.
We stop off at the little Italian cafe for a reviving espresso. The place is already busy. It's that time of year when youngsters are visiting schools to see whether they want to apply. Student tour guides lead packs of glum looking teenagers through the streets. One tour guide has brought her group ( evenly split between equally jet lagged Japanese and Americans ) into the warmth for espresso shots. The youngsters all seem to have forgotten their shyness and are getting on like a house on fire. From the fact some are wearing tee shirts I'm guessing they're oblivious to the weather. The undergraduate intake here is split 60% female, 40% male. The content look on some of the American boys faces hints that this fact may play a major role in their decision on where to study. Surrounded by a sea of fresh faces 'The Font' observes that students, like policemen, seem to be getting younger every year. The cafes daily supply of cakes is literally flying off the shelves.
A local dog wanders over to show me a recently acquired stick. This is his pride and joy. He circles round me three times to make sure I'm aware of his immense good fortune.
10 comments:
Gail thinks the sunrise photo is stunning.
Nobby admires the stick.
That's a very fetching little fellow with the stick. The sunrise is sublime.
Your pictures of the coast are beautiful! The puppers ken the "dog people".
Dogs and sticks - the perfect partnership.
Hari OM
I, too am in admiration of today's photos... and appreciation of the Substack article. The fact is, all too often, things are taken out of context and 'mutated' in social media. YAM xx
My dog always carried a big Nyla bone with him and whenever someone stopped by the house, he would drop it at their feet with a big thud to show that he or she was his new best friend. Beautiful sunrise photos.
I agree students are getting younger, and being around them will keep you young at heart.
Ditto the comments about dogs and sticks. My first Lab. always brought a stick back from whatever walk we'd been on, we had quite a collection to burn after a week of atleast two walks a day!
The sunrise looks stunning
It's a lovely stick for a lovely dog. Big discussion over on College Confidential today as to whether it is "really" cold in St. Andrews - "But let’s be realistic - the historic average overnight low temperatures in the three coldest months of the year in St Andrews? 33F. That’s the average low, historically. Yes I know there’s wind and that makes a difference. But compared to Chicago? Not even close. Even Boston is meaningfully colder." Not quite sure about this based on the frozen solid beach.
"Red sky at morning, sailor take warning" as my mother used to say! BUUURRRRRRR!
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