We wake to find a Mercedes with German registration plates parked in the field outside the house. Three small children accompanied by their parents can be seen heading down the track to the shore. Shrieks tell us when they've made it into the water. How in heavens name did they manage to find this secluded spot ? 'The Font' points out that this is the time of year when academics with young families 'swap' houses with foreign colleagues. For a couple of months the village becomes decidedly cosmopolitan with an influx of French and German home swapping 'incomers' - all of whom speak perfect English. The visiting incomers also barbecue ( as and when the weather allows ) and park their cars 'creatively' around the village green.
In town the tour groups are out in force. The visitors leave Edinburgh at six and head up the motorway to be here in time for a 'complimentary' continental breakfast in one of the hotels on the sea front. Having detoured via the washrooms by the golf course they are now making their way, determinedly, to the cathedral ruins. This morning Spanish visitors are in the majority. In the 1100's the huge cathedral, standing on a sheer rock outcrop surrounded by sea, must have been one of Europes most magical buildings. It was said to have had a copper roof that sailors could see glowing from far out at sea. This seems to me improbable. After six months of Scottish weather verdigris would have turned any copper roof green. Having seen the cathedral and the castle the Spanish tourists will board their coach and head off North to the Highlands.
So starts a quiet Thursday morning in a small town waiting for the summer influx of golfers to move into high gear. There is a lot of sprucing up activity around the lecture halls which suggests that the first of the summer schools is about to begin.
Sunny morning music :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9ilV7HHU0U
The benefits of civilisation :https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/05/flesh-eating-worms-disease-containment-america-panama/611026/
5 comments:
Hari Om
This very morning I have been watching a VTOL Crow. It was one of those which has learned to copy the Gulls in dropping shellfish from a height to crack them open... Civilization is about learning and use of tools and techniques, isn't it? Just pondering from my isolation... YAM xx
An absolutely fascinating article about the screw worm eradication program. I had no idea. It's also rather descriptive, so I might advise other gentle readers to perhaps not peruse it before breakfast. I've not been back to Scotland for years (thanks covid) and had some serious pangs wishing I were there this morning. Putting the trip back into the roster.
Thank you for the Monteverdi to begin my morning while waiting for the early coastal fog to burn away.
I agree with Camille. I'm rather jealous of the Spanish tourists. I've only been to St. Andrews, Edinburgh and Glasgow and never further north. I had envisioned we would be able to do that with our son studying in Glasgow, but the year has flown by and it looks like he may be heading towards London in September. Maybe we can combine a packing-up-Glasgow and seeing-a-bit-of-the-Highlands trip in August.
Looks like a wonderful place a to spend a couple of months in the summer, and not be on the bus ride of life.
Post a Comment