Saturday, April 13, 2024

Green at the gills.

 

It rains ( heavily ) overnight but the morning dawns bright and fair. Just the sort of weather that is needed for the plants in the garden. Eight deer are eyeing the new hedge of flowering currants that has been planted to screen the oil tank but they scamper away as we set off down to the shore. On either side of us pheasants, partridge and quail explode out of the long grass. It still comes as a surprise that we are seven minutes from town and yet live in a spot that is so calm and unspoilt. The local wildlife seems to see humans as more of an irritant than a threat. 


The Kitchen Store has a special on butter knives. A pack of 4 for £17.95. I'm not sure we have any butter knives and I can't think of any situation in which we might use 4. 'The Font' thinks that there may be some inherited from a Swedish forbear somewhere in the garage. Neither of us feels sufficiently inspired to go down and look. Perhaps Millennials are becoming more formal in their eating habits ?


The cheese shop already open and busy.


A pop up souvenir shop is ready for the summer influx of visitors and school parties. Highland cattle and ginger bearded men with bagpipes seem to be this years ' must have ' items.


The fancy breakfast place is already filling up with golfers. A large group of Dublin lawyers make Irish accents very audible this morning. They have that enforced enthusiasm of men who wish they'd not had that last drink at one in the morning.


Back at the 'Last wee house before Denmark' the heather in the courtyard is attracting an army of bumble bees. 'The Font' who has been on a bee and butterfly conservation course at the Botanical Gardens ( £15 and bring your own packed lunch ) informs me that Scotland has more than 30 varieties of bumble bee. They survive the cold northerly winters by 'squatting' in field mouse burrows. From the number of people who attended the course it can safely be said that St Andrews is a town that takes the well being of its bees very seriously.

Saturday morning radio music :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1baWOAulmY

This has been getting rave reviews. Even the weekend FT ( which isn't big on Scottish culture ) praises it to high heaven. We have booked tickets for its arrival here in two weeks time :https://www.capitaltheatres.com/whats-on/all-shows/james-v-katherine/2262#scottishtour

Cheerful evolutionary biology :https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00999-5

The hidden third :https://engelsbergideas.com/notebook/mapping-pompeiis-undiscovered-country/


10 comments:

WFT Nobby said...

Highland cattle and ginger bearded men with bagpipes are the hardy perennials of Scotland's tourist gift shops!

Virginia said...

I am rather taken by the little guy Top left! But I think I could still resist. I wondered if the butter knives were more like pate knives! Our butter knives have a point so you can spear the butter if needed, but our pâté knives are rounded ended ….

Coppa's girl said...

The courtyard heather looks extremely healthy.
Years ago I bought a set of four butter knives from Ikea. They have round ended blades and have proved extremely useful over the years, not so much for spreading butter, but ideal for mixing "filler" for repairing cracks in the walls or small areas of regrouting. I inherited a set of antique bone handled "proper" butter knives which went to the Charity shop when I found they weren't dishwasher compatible!

Tara said...

Glad you are loving on the bees. We try to do the same, although our front yard looks unpleasant.

Pam in NH said...

Ooh, the heather is gorgeous. I'd love to see the garden.

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari Om
The play sounds intriguing, and it's even reaching Dunoon... I may be travelling in The Grey again by then though. Hmmmm maybe the Peebles one... Or I just wait for the Angus review! YAM xx

Stephanie said...

Thank you for sharing your splendid heather and Schubert. It may have been a no on the butter knives but surely The Font didn't miss the opportunity to purchase the dinosaur baking set pictured.

Lisa in France said...

The heather is amazing. We have bumble bees on our rosemary, although not in such great numbers. They appear every time the weather becomes warm, and I wondered where they were wintering in between visits. A google search on that question led me down a long rabbit hole of discussions, almost all from the UK, about how to care for "lost" bees - when to offer sugar water, etc. I was amazed.

Gemma's person said...

I now have "heather envy". Very nice .

Diaday said...

My mom loved china dishes and had 5 complete sets. I now have the 5 complete sets and my daughters have told me which ones they would like to have. They've been out of the house for 10+ years but the dishes are still with me. Now that one of them has her own house, she did mention that she would take the dishes in the next few months. There is hope!