Enforced jolliness.

The local farmers are up early. By the time we set foot out of the front door there are four tractors working away in  the fields down by the sea. With their red wheel rims and blue metal work they look quite jolly. The six month wet spell seems , finally, to be ending with the sodden ground finally being dried out by the wind. The football pitch sized lake outside 'The Fonts' cabin has all but disappeared.  All of the local farmers seed potatoes used to go to Ireland but thanks to Brexit the Irish can no longer source them from outside the EU. Now the local potatoes all go to the big processing plant in Dundee where they're turned into crisps. The Irish consume 94 kilos of potatoes per head but this year, in the absence of Scottish imports,  they may face a potato shortage. Brexit is the idiocy that keeps on giving.

A long chat with the super smart Los Angelinos. It's 9 pm LA time which is late for them and at 5 am early for me. We talk about Ukraine, Marjorie Taylor Green ( remarkable - perhaps the  politest - word to describe her )  and Trumps court case. One of the Los Angelinos says the ex-Presidents New York  lawyer is very, very good.  The LA folk also tell me  that China is stockpiling everything it can get its hands on - copper, oil and iron ore. This is the behaviour of a country that is about to do something big - they take the view that they're planning a major devaluation. Those Chinese EV's are going to get even cheaper.

Into town for a walk on the beach. Through a doorway we can see the library and its garden - the place already busy with students. I'll wager that most of them have never been up this early in their lives.  There's been no news about yesterdays visit by the Coastguard helicopter so it must have been an exercise.  

Further down the road spear tips are jutting over the wall. 

Who remembers Rupert the Bear ? A Daily Express Annual in a charity shop window for the princely sum of £4. Must be sixty years since I last picked up one of these books. What a simpler world it was then. Todays children would likely find the little Bears amusing 'japes' to be exceedingly dull. 

'The Font' is greatly taken with Booja Booja vegan chocolates. We stop off to buy a couple of boxes.  They're made in the UK so the man in the chocolate shop is sure of a steady supply. By contrast imported chocolate is subject to all sorts of customs delays which he says make his life 'complicated'. He's just taken delivery of a delayed consignment of Lindt Easter bunnies that he's going to have to ship back to the wholesaler. 

Baldwin the magical dog will be appearing at the theatre for one night in the summer. Who could resist ?

The first stage of work on the Royal and Ancient clubhouse is now nearing completion.  There are lights on inside which must surely mean that the decorators are busy updating the interior. It needs it.

Despite a sudden shower a small crowd of students are congregating outside the exam halls in readiness for the start of exams. There is an enforced jolliness to them of ' the condemned man whistled on his way to the guillotine ' variety.

Primroses :https://www.wildway.info/p/primula-vulgaris-primrose-wildflowers

A Glasgow flat for sale. Note the grand piano in the bedroom :https://www.onthemarket.com/details/13881367/

Ghana :https://articlesofinterest.substack.com/p/ghana-go-home

Worth a read :https://www.forkingpaths.co/p/big-gods-and-the-origin-of-human