Limos , sausage rolls and fashionable kilts.

 

Signs and protective railings going up around town. The ducks are nesting. We tiptoe by.

Three lads emerge from Greggs with double orders of sausage rolls. Eating a sausage roll for breakfast is something best left to sixteen year old digestions. One of the boys has a Saltire woven into his kilt. You'd expect someone wearing a kilt to be Scottish so is this cultural adornment 'overkill' ? I've never seen anything like it before. Angus does not approve.

Lots of tour groups. As in scores of them. This is the busiest the town has been all year.  We can only imagine these are wannabe students ( and their parents ) preparing to apply for admission to the university in September 2025. 

Last night the restaurant we went to was solid with German couples dressed a tad too fashionably for these northern climes. The youngsters at the expensive school down by the cathedral have finished their final exams are now being collected by their parents and driven home. The school seems to be very popular with Germans wanting to send their children somewhere safe to learn English.

The local garden centre has taken delivery of an unusual brass garden ornament. Will it sell ? Who would buy it ? Where would you put it ?

We go to Starbucks for a morning espresso. While we're sitting at the table outside a large black electric limousine from one of the local 5 start hotels arrives. An immaculately dressed golfer gets out of the back, heads inside, orders a coffee and then re-emerges ( clutching his large Americano ) and tells the driver to take him to the Old Course. People watching in a small town like this is a delight. You have students, locals, academics, foreign visitors and ( in summer ) the 1%. Life is never dull.

The crows that hog our bird feeder are certainly this smart :https://www.popsci.com/science/crows-can-count/

Is this all about high temperatures and air conditioner use ? :https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/texas-power-demand-break-may-record-heat-wave-friday-2024-05-23/

Well, I never :https://news.mit.edu/2024/mit-astronomers-observe-elusive-stellar-light-surrounding-ancient-quasars-0506