Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Five pounds each !

 

The roulette wheel of Scottish weather spins from dire to delightful. Blue skies,the gentlest of breezes and - surprisingly for February - some warmth in the sun. This morning the field in front of the house is full of skittish curlews. There must be forty, possibly fifty, of them. As soon as we head out of the courtyard they fly off to the long grass down by the rocks.


It's school half term. Yesterday, the town was packed full of young families enjoying themselves. The queue outside the ice cream parlour stretched a good hundred yards down the street. The builders are up early and are busy putting the finishing 'snagging' touches to the new cocktail bar that's starting up behind the old post office. It opens this afternoon and will stay open until midnight for the expected Valentines Day crowd. One of the builders, a man who installed our kitchen, informs us that 'They'll be serving oysters. Five pounds each ! '. 


The rangers are also busy and have started work on repairing the damage to the dunes. One set of workmen are doing their best to stabilize the large wooden posts that hold the dune defences in place. Two others, with a fork lift truck, are recovering as much of the old fencing as they can. They seem quite cheerful.


In the other direction half a dozen tractor trailers are charging backwards and forwards to two dredgers parked far out on the waterline. The trailers are loaded with sand and then head off towards the dunes. This process is repeated over and over and over. Seems that the repairs to the dunes can't wait.  It goes without saying that every dog on the beach views the charging tractors as objects of interest that simply must be greeted .... or in the case of two Norfolk terriers .... challenged.


Today the beach is host to thousands of oyster catchers. They stretch, ten deep,  for a good three miles along the sand. There must be something wonderful in the sea today. It's hugely reassuring to see the local bird life in such huge numbers. Let's hope that this is a signal that avian flu is disappearing.





The music makes this a winner :https://youtu.be/BjLzH8qj0gQ


10 comments:

WFT Nobby said...

If I was a workmen whose job involved dealing with the impact of stormy weather on Scotland's east coast, I'd certainly be feeling cheerful about my future employment prospects.
Cheers, Gail.
PS Nobby always like to read about terriers being terriers.

Coppa's girl said...

Sacré bleu indeed! I read somewhere not long ago about the threat to camembert and brie cheeses.
The shifting dunes will provide endless employment for the workmen, that's the problem with sand - it always shifts, it's so unstable. Stormy seas and high winds justadd to the collapse.

Anonymous said...

I feel fixing the dunes is a bit Cnut-ish, but that golf course is so important to St Andrews I guess they have to try.

I wish I shared your HPN1 optimism

https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/13/bird-flu-uk-seabird-numbers-h5n1-great-skua-gannets

Lisa in France said...

It's nice that the rangers had blue skies for their work. The piece on aging and memory was interesting.

jabblog said...

Beautiful skies in your part of the world this morning.
The article on memory and ageing was interesting.

Sharon said...

Bird Flu has arrived in the Canada Geese in my area of Ontario. I enjoyed the article on Memory and Brain function and read the Trump article as well.

Lizzie said...

The news about camembert and brie molds is depressing. I'll probably outlive my favorite cheeses.

Jake of Florida said...

The VW commercial brought back memories. First job after college was working for a Dutch student travel organization that hired a graduate Dutch lawyer or other candidate and a young American woman for a year to sign up college girls for summer European travel in VW buses with Dutch college guides. Imagine!!! The reward for light pay was a round-trip to Europe on a Dutch ship, the Grote Beer. Fond memories.

rottrover said...

It still looks cold there, but that beach looks dog-ready! Thanks for sharing the VW commercial. Many memories for me as well.

Diaday said...

My parents brought a Volkswagen back to the States after my Dad's Army assignment in Germany in the late 50s. Those early VWs look like theirs.